Yes, I know it is rather short, however:

Chapter 12 - Ascertain, Act, and Accessorize

(EPOV)

Director Galloway was walking with an agitated pace. Epps watched him warily as he approached the parked auto-bots. He began ranting, oh brilliant, Mikaela glanced up and seemed to murmur something before walking over to Galloway.

The irritating little weasel man looked just about ready to hit Optimus' hood. Epps honestly wanted to see him try.

"I wouldn't do that," Mikaela said calmly, standing nonchalantly beside him as Galloway raised his hands.

The weasel jumped and turned to face her angrily.

"Hear me out," she gave him a half grin, wiping grease from her hands. "You do realize they're sleeping right now."

Oh she wasn't... Epps forced down a threatening grin. They totally weren't sleeping, standard procedure, incoming humans and the bots hid.

"What do you mean sleeping!? They're machines!" The man shouted.

"Only in the loosest sense of the term," Mikaela said mildly, looking at the row of Auto-bots with a half smile. "Their stamina is rather incredible but even they need to rest."

She winked at Optimus out of line of sight from the weasel.

Epps bit his lip, hard. She totally was. She was baiting the weasel and he didn't even realize it. Damn she was good. He quickly signalled everyone nearby to listen carefully.

"How are they not machines?" the weasel demanded, "they're cars! You fix them just the same as you do the trucks over there!"

"Well, it's a bit more complex than that," Mikaela shrugged, "and really they chose those forms. The parts change according to form, and as for repairing them, humans have heart and lung transplants everyday. It's the same thing, really, specialized training and all that, although I think I'll stick with cars, I can get grease out of my clothes, but blood is an entirely different story." She gestured back toward her workspace.

"How about you tell me whatever it is you're supposed to say, and I'll pass it on. I really don't suggest trying to wake them up. They are trained soldiers after all, you wouldn't try to wake one of these soldiers up rudely, would you? It's really one of those things best done at a distance." she gestured idly around the hangar. Will, Robert and perhaps a dozen soldiers stood straighter, walking about and looking particularly threatening today with their guns on.

"Er... perhaps you're right..." the weasel frowned. He followed Mikaela back to the jeep she was working on and proceeded to inform her of this that and the other thing while she nodded and took the occasional note. Every now and then she corrected him gently on procedures and terminology.

Epps watched her with interest, she was doing an oil change, something that very obviously didn't tax her attention, but she looked like she was concentrating rather strongly on it.

Galloway was looking incredibly comfortable with her apparent inattention, relaxed and making mistakes.

Friggin. Awesome.

The man left quickly, and as the sound of the helicopter faded rapidly away Optimus transformed beside Ratchet and Ironhide.

"You heard it all?" Mikaela asked calmly, looking up at him.

Optimus nodded.

"Thank you," he rumbled.

"Man, you should'a told him to shove it," Epps said with a broad grin.

"You weren't listening hard enough," Mikaela said patiently, then shot men and 'bots an absolutely evil grin. "I politely told him to shove it every three sentences, and implied that he's an incompetent fool... I lost count."

There was a moment of silence.

"Twenty," Optimus chuckled darkly, suddenly crossing his arms while Ironhide laughed.

Mikaela took the grinning fist bump from Epps and went back to servicing the jeep.

"Friggen weasel," Epps growled softly.

(MPOV)

"Now Epps, it's not nice to call people names," I stated placidly.

"No way you heard that," Will laughed at me.

"I did," Optimus rumbled quietly.

"You gonna rat me out?" Epps grinned up at the mech.

"To whom? Your leader is standing beside you, and I believe I shall be 'asleep' as much as Kae allows me to get away with." Optimus snorted, I could hear his amusement and glanced up at him, letting the laughter show in my eyes.

"Which means I get to play with the weasel, right?" I grinned at him.

"Kae, it is impolite to call people derogatory names," Optimus rumbled benignly down to me. It was all I could do to keep a straight face.

"And a bit insane actually, to make it a mission to bait Galloway," Will added with a small frown.

"What's he going to do?" I asked with a laugh, "I'm exiled to a top secret base with ten billion years of Cybertronian learning crammed into my brain. And the All-spark, there's definitely a mind attached to it. Which means I'm either becoming schizophrenic or overloaded with information, neither of which are particularly sane prognoses."

"He..." Epps started, he crossed his arms with a frown.

"He could have you declared a public danger?" Will mused.

"Which means I'd be lost in the paperwork and forgotten here, if not added to your protection detail," I snorted, I made it obvious as I looked around the work bay, out at the coastal base and at Optimus. "There are way worse places to be forgotten."

"Unless you're declared insane-" Epps frowned.

"Which is entirely possible anyway," Ratchet grumbled.

"Ratchet," Optimus rumbled, I glanced up with a small frown at the almost un-heard warning tone. Optimus looked down at me, I resisted the urge to cant my head to the side, listening to the tone that sounded rather like worry.

"I am going insane then," I stated calmly.

"I said it was possible, not inevitable," Ratchet growled.

"Are you a betting bot?" I asked curiously. Ironhide strode over immediately.

"Stakes!" he drawled gleefully as the soldiers stared.

"You are not going insane!" Optimus rumbled sternly, glaring at me. The hangar stood in shocked silence. I glanced around and realized why, the soldiers were standing to attention, watching him warily. His unit was eyeing him somewhat sadly...

"Okay that's half true," I stated calmly, purposely breaking the tension, "I'm already a bit insane, so I'm not going insane, I'm descending further. C'mon Optimus! Don't be a spoilsport," I grinned up at him unrepentantly. "Lemme enjoy my descent into imminent insanity!"

I grinned as Optimus' optics widened slightly in shock. Out of the corner of my eye, Ratchet was very busily looking anywhere but at me as Ironhide obviously struggled not to laugh. Optimus looked at his senior officers with a frown.

"I think we're going to have to call that one hers," Ironhide finally snorted gleefully. I grinned up at the weapons master.

"Of course now we're going to have to watch her carefully," Ratchet added mildly, looking at me with laughter in his optics. "She has a bizarre propensity for picking on people well over forty times her size."

"In fairness," I smirked at him. "You can't tell me to pick on someone my own size." I promptly walked over and sat on Optimus' foot, knowing it would re-iterate the size difference. "Who would I have to pick on around here?" I asked in a winsome tone, looking around with absolute innocence plastered onto my face. Ironhide snorted and burst out into a full peal of laughter. I glanced up at Optimus as he vented a mildly irritated sigh. I stood and toed my boots off, rapidly scaling his leg to his hip, and jumping into the hand he offered.

He lifted me to his face.

"I do not wish you injured," he rumbled quietly.

"Optimus, I have equal value alive as dead." I stated calmly. "I know you may not understand it, but there is a certain serenity in knowing the value of one's life. The fact that you want me kept alive is gratifying, Optimus." I told him gently. "I am grateful, but that isn't going to stop me from making light of my own mortality."

I couldn't resist canting my head to the side slightly, listening to the hum of the gentle Mech's spark as what sounded rather like understanding resonated from him.

"You are wrong, you are better alive, than dead," he rumbled calmly. I couldn't help but smile at him.

(WPOV)

Will searched around for a while. Kae's necklace was pretty, but you could see her glaring at it from time to time.

Half the base thought she was glaring at the cube splinter that had attached itself to her.

But Will had a wife, and Mikaela's necklace was made of glass.

He followed his gut and finally found what he was looking for, a tiny, waterproof match-case that could be strung on a chain. Personally, he found stuff you could put on a string handy. Sarah did too, so he palmed the little container and wandered over to Kae.

She was glaring at her chest again.

"Hey Kae," Will greeted her, a few feet away. Somehow that just seemed... appropriate at the moment.

"Will," she smiled at him.

"No offence, but you're freaking the men out glaring at your chest all the time," Will told her cheerfully. "We've got a bet on now, are you glaring that your necklace is glass or at the splinter?"

Mikaela stared at him in surprise for a moment.

"Oh, could you pass my apologies on to the lot of them?" she asked gently. "I'm sorry, but you're right, mostly it's because my necklace is glass. I don't want to break it, but it's the only thing I've got to hide the splinter in."

"Right, got this for you then," Will grinned at her, handing over the matchcase.

"Oh right on!" Mikaela grinned, immediately taking her necklace off. She pulled out the concealed metal tube inside of it and unscrewed it.

Will watched curiously as she delicately shook a piece of metal, about the size of his little finger out of the tube and into her palm.

Then she winced.

For good reason, there was a massive flash of blue light. It enveloped her for a moment before disappearing again.

"Would you stop that already? I'm already having one hell of a time coping with your first information dump," she told her hand irritably. She slipped the splinter into the matchcase and strung it around her neck, her glass necklace delicately tucked into a shelf in her workspace.

"It did what now?" Will asked in a shocked voice.

"Oh every time I touch the splinter directly I wind up getting zapped, and then these bloody symbols just start going insane," Mikaela stated, waving her hand in front of her face irritably. "I'm sorry that I have absolutely no idea how to say that without sounding batshit crazy."

"Well, you just managed it," Will snorted. "At this point, pretty much gotta take for granted that there's some seriously weird shit happening to you."

"Nice to hear somebody else say that," Mikaela murmured with a small smile.

The next moment, Bumblebee was tearing into the hangar, transforming and immediately crawling over to Kae.

Will heard him trill a few sounds, along with a couple of clicks.

But the real shock was when Kae answered in the same.

Because the both of them were now looking shocked.

Bumblebee was trilling and clicking excitedly the next second, making Mikaela laugh.

"Uh..." Will muttered.

"Oh, sorry, Bumblebee picked up a static EM burst from my co-ordinates, he was asking if I'm alright." Mikaela smiled at him.

"Okay, but what was the second bit?" Will asked curiously. Bumblebee was beaming at him now.

"Big sister... said... an entire sentence!" Bumblebee played the soundbytes cheerfully. "She hasn't... done that before!"

Mikaela looked down at her chest again.

"Okay that burst I can live with," she murmured with a smile.

Will shook his head with a snort.

"Weird shit Kae, weird shit," he muttered to himself.

"Better me than you though, right?" Mikaela snorted. Will jumped.

"No way you heard that!" Will demanded with a snort.

"Duh," Mikaela told him with a smirk. "I have damn good hearing for one, and it hasn't been damaged by listening to bombs."

Okay that was true.

Will shrugged, nodded to the scout and the girl and wandered back to his tasks.