ROH Chapter 9

Author's note: Sorry it's been so long since the last update, things have been a bit radical lately. I will say that the next chapter IS already in progress and will be out to you ASAP. In the meantime this one is a little longer than usual so enjoy. :-)

Daniel took his hand down from the cross, and slowly walked away. He couldn't think of a better way to say goodbye to his friend, but he'd done the best that he knew how. Daniel looked around the scrap yard as if looking for something. That was when he realized that he'd just buried the only running vehicle that he had.

To the complete surprise of all the Autobots present, Barricade stepped forward and transformed into his alt mode. Without a word, he opened the driver side door, and sat there, waiting. Daniel walked over and got in. The return trip to Hoover Dam was made in silence. Neither spoke a word, since both were occupied with their thoughts.

Barricade remembered the events he'd witnessed when he first came online in the human's shop. He had to give the human credit for a major set of bearings. After all, he couldn't think of too many full sized mechs that would be willing to take on that many frontline Autobots while armed with only a simple improvised melee weapon. But while that in itself was surprising enough on its own. There was also the fact that he had actually proven fairly successful at it. Barricade still could not get the image of the renowned, but prone Autobot Weapon Specialist asking for repairs out of his processor. Every time he thought about that scene, he wanted to laugh until his armor came off.

The mighty Ironhide, laid low by a mere human a fraction of his size. Barricade thought to himself. Then he remembered just what it had felt like when Ratchet had hit him with a thrown object. The sheer intensity of the pure rage that he'd felt boiling across their bond.

I wonder if that's how angry Slag and Frag get when they fight. It would seem to make sense with the amount of damage they take and then just ignore when they're in battle. At least that female knew what to do; otherwise, he would have attacked Hatchet with his bare hands. Maybe I can find a way to ask him about that later. Barricade thought.

Daniel was almost completely unaware of the return trip to Hoover Dam; he was almost lost in a world of memories. Daniel wasn't thinking about his friend because he was grieving, well he was, but in a way that was all his own. Because of the neurological damage, Daniel wasn't able to feel the full range of normal emotions. So he spent his time remembering Chinook. Then, every now and again, he might feel a brief flash of something that might have been true grief, and he would reach for it, only to have it slip away as if it had never been. Daniel truly regretted that the old hybrid was dead, but even more he regretted that he didn't really feel anything in regards to that loss. That angered him.

It angered him, because Daniel felt; he truly believed that his friend deserved better from him than what he was currently getting. It wasn't that he didn't care about the hybrid, because that couldn't be farther from the truth. Daniel knew that in the next few weeks he would wake up many times thinking that he'd somehow forgotten to check on his friend only to realize that Chinook was gone. That was part of the reason he'd buried his wrecker with the old hybrid. Daniel knew that he would never be able to get in that wrecker again without checking to see if Chinook was in it and ready to go. He knew that on those occasions there would be that same blank void that he was feeling now. That hollow emptiness, which would not allow him to hold on to anything.

Daniel would have given anything he owned to be able to feel the grief that he often saw others express. Daniel had been to the funerals of both family and friends. He'd seen people fall to their knees screaming their pain and anguish to the entire universe as they pulled at their hair, or beat their fists against the ground. They had no clue just how lucky they were to be able to feel that pain and loss. To watch a loved one die, and feel absolutely nothing one way or the other, that was the curse of Daniel's brain damage. It was as if the deceased had no meaning to him anymore. He would find himself missing their presence in his life, much the same way a person with long hair suddenly getting it cut short misses the feeling that is no longer there. It was that inability to feel the losses that really angered Daniel, and he knew that there was nothing he could do about it.

Barricade rolled to a stop in what was now the med bay and opened the driver side door. Daniel got out and promptly lit a smoke. Daniel didn't even look back as the former Decepticon transformed, nor did he think to thank him for the ride. Daniel was headed to his workbench to pick up where he had left off.

Ratchet, Jazz and Prime entered the med bay to find Barricade watching Daniel curiously. Barricade noticed the questioning look that the medic gave him and responded through a com link.

"He really is glitched. He doesn't feel that loss at all. I can tell that he WANTS to feel something, but the ability just isn't there. That bothers him more than anything right now." Barricade sent.

"Humpf! Why would you even care? He's just another squishy to you isn't he?" The medic shot back irritably.

Barricade rounded on the medical officer and would have attacked him right then, were it not for the fact that he'd given his word.

"My reasons for caring are my own! But if you really need a reason, I'll give you two. One. He saved my live twice over. Two. Whether I like it or not he is now my spark brother. You saw what he did back there. He created a monument that will outlast several of his lifetimes, and for what? So he could honor the memory of his friend. How many memorials have you built to honor a fallen friend? What items of value have you sacrificed in order to honor someone's memory? I'll tell you how many Autobot. None. That alone has earned him my respect. Now I am asking you, as Chief medical Officer of the Autobots, if there is anything you can do about it." Barricade replied angrily.

"I'm not certain, but I think that your nanites may eventually repair the damage in time. Especially since they seem to be repairing the rest of his injuries at a highly accelerated rate." Ratchet answered in a surprisingly calm tone.

Barricade was about to say something else when the blast of a high-powered plasma cannon filled the med bay. Instantly all optics and several pairs of eyes turned to look over at Daniel, who stepped back away from the workbench and slowly turned around blinking rapidly.

"Ok. Someone wanna hand me a Java, since I can't see shit except for a damned big assed glow in front of my face." Daniel said calmly.

Five separate scanners focused on the salvage operator at the same time. Five separate scanners found him to be uninjured. Four sets of optics blinked in surprise. One vocal processor produced a snicker. Four sets of optics focused on the source. It was Barricade who had laughed. Then he was joined by Daniel who was also laughing. The four Autobots looked back and forth between the two trying to figure out what was so funny.

"Ker fucking boom." Daniel said still laughing. "Hey, did I hit it?"

"Hit what?" Barricade asked in surprise.

"Whatever the fuck was in front of that BFG." Daniel said with a snicker.

Five sets of optics looked up at the large scorch mark on the ceiling of the med bay.

"You hit the roof." Barricade answered.

"In that case, is it coming down?" Daniel asked with a slight tone of concern.

"No, it isn't. Why? Do you want it to?" Ratchet demanded angrily.

"Well, I figure if I'm gonna shoot at something, I might as well kill it or blow it to hell. So it looks like I'm gonna have to up the power on that thing. Note to self, wear eye goggles next time. Hey is somebody gonna hand me a Java or at least gimme some directions?" Daniel asked.

"Two point three feet behind you and five feet to your current left." Ratchet replied.

"Hmm. Ok. No problem. Thanks for nothing, Bones." Daniel answered as he tried to follow the instructions while totally blinded by the glare from the plasma cannon. Daniel managed to find the can of Java only to realize that it was an empty can as soon as he picked it up. "Oh yeah. Really funny Ratchet." Daniel said irritably.

The medic laughed in reply. "You need to slow down on that caffeine anyway." He said with a snicker.

Daniel was about to reply with a scathing retort when he felt something pressed into his hand. It turned out to be an unopened can of Java.

"Who do I thank for this?" he asked with a genuine smile.

"Consider it a little bit of thanks for getting me involved in this." Maigan answered.

"No problem, Kiddo. I figured you'd get a bang out of it." Daniel replied as he shot a glare in the general direction of the medic's voice.

Twelve minutes, two Java's, and one cigarette later Daniel's vision had returned. He'd gone back to tinkering with the plasma cannon, and had managed not to fire it off a second time.

Ratchet was thinking about the nanites in Daniel's body. Something about them kept nagging at the medic, and it had to do with those nanites. Then it hit him. If the nanites were able to repair one human, why not others?

Ratchet's optics suddenly flew wide open in shock as he realized the implications of his thoughts. "Figueroa!" He bellowed as he ran to grab a sample of Bonecrusher's nanites.

"What the hell bit him in the ass?" Daniel asked as the medic's heavy tread shook his workstation.

"Figueroa was one of the men with Capt. Lennox's team during the battle in Mission city. He lost both of his legs during the attack and has been fighting for his life since then." Agent Bannacheck answered.

"In that case let's hope that whatever Bones has in mind works." Daniel replied turning back to his little project.

Just then, the plasma cannon went off again. This time a pile of armor plating on the far side of the med bay took the blast. The salvage operator had had the good sense to close his eyes this time, so he wasn't blinded by the blast.

That was when a very large black hand reached down and grabbed the plasma cannon.

"Who the pit gave this glitched out slagger a fragging plasma cannon?" Iron Hide demanded.

Daniel turned around to face the black weapons specialist.

"Damnit Tackleberry! Go find your own damn toy and give mine back!" Daniel demanded angrily as he turned around.

"No! You shouldn't be playing with this slagging thing to begin with. We've been ordered NOT to let you have access to any fire arms, and I'm sure that it includes Cybertronian versions!" The black mech retorted.

"Yeah? Well, nobody fuckin told me that, so you can just give it back!" Daniel growled as he snatched up his crowbar and stormed towards the black mech.

It was perfectly clear that all hell was about to break loose when a pair of very large black hands reached out and took not only Daniel's weapon of choice, but also the plasma cannon that he had been working on.

"Optimus! Ya can't be thinkin of givin that back to him!" Ironhide protested loudly.

"No kiddin! He's bad enough with a crow bar, now he wants to play with one of their space guns? No way man!" Sgt. Epps added.

Daniel didn't bother to ask when they had gotten back from wherever it was they'd gone. He was too busy trying to think of a way to get his new toy back from someone that he seriously doubted would be intimidated into doing so. That left reasoning as a last resort, and possibly outright pestering if it came to it.

"Gimme back my cannon, Big Rig." Daniel calmly demanded.

"No. You have fired this too many times already. I will not have you endangering yourself or anyone else in this facility while playing with technology that is obviously too advanced for you." Optimus replied in a fatherly tone, while trying not to be too condescending.

"Look Big Rig. The first time was to set the trigger. The second time was to make sure that I would be able to adjust the intensity of the shot. If you'll take a look, you'll see a set of controls on the bottom of that thing along with a pair of sights to aim that sucker. Now, that I have all that set, all I need is a Hummer to mount it on." Daniel informed the Autobot leader.

Optimus turned the now deceased Blackout's plasma cannon over to examine it. Sure enough, there was now a pair of controls that could be used by human hands. Only one thing confused him though, and he voiced his curiosity.

"Why would you place the aiming sights on the bottom of the cannon? Wouldn't that make it a little tough to be accurate?" He asked looking down at the salvage operator.

Daniel nodded his head. "It might, but it will also make sure that who ever is firing that thing will be able to avoid hitting whatever vehicle it's mounted on." Daniel explained reasonably. "Now I just need a hummer to put it on." He added with a grin.

"Unh uh! Ain't no way you stickin that on no Hum V! We don't use those things, so you got to go with an LRV." Sgt. Epps told Daniel plainly.

"What the fuck is an LRV?" Daniel demanded turning to Epps.

"LRV stands for Light Reconnaissance Vehicle. Think military issue dune buggy!" Sgt. Epps explained with some obvious enthusiasm.

Daniel grinned like a maniac. "Small, fast, maneuverable, and now packing enough fire power to take on an armored tank column! I LIKEEEEE it!" He said nodding his head with that crazed grin still plastered on his face.

Daniel turned back to Optimus intending to ask to have the cannon back but found that Ironhide was examining it intently with a look of intense curiosity on his features.

"Humpf! For someone who's never seen a plasma cannon before, this is slagging good work! I'm just glad that Blackout never made these modifications to it." The black mech admitted grudgingly.

"Not too shabby for someone who's never seen this kind of technology before huh?" Daniel asked him grinning smugly.

"That's what YOU think! Look at the mounts you had this on, they're twisted so bad, you'll never be able to use 'em again! Just because they fire energy plasma doesn't mean they don't have a slagging recoil!" Ironhide began to lecture.

Just then, the weapons specialist stiffened, and his optics went as wide as they could go.

Daniel wasn't the only human present to notice this reaction, as each of the Autobots were acting in a similar, yet different manner. Almost everyone was about to start asking questions, when Optimus spoke.

"Agent Simmons, can you get the Secretary of Defense John Keller in here for me please? We have an urgent matter that we need to discuss with him. It seems that reinforcements are on the way." The Autobot leader asked in a grave tone.

Not liking the tone with which Optimus had made the request, Simmons knew that it was serious. He made a quick call from his cell phone and hung up.

"He'll be here shortly. It seems he's in a meeting, but he'll get down here as soon as he can." Simmons informed Optimus.

Just then, Capt. Lennox pulled in driving a beach bum's dream machine. Solid black, with beefed up off road suspension, and a high power four wheel drive power train; the military issue LRV was the ultimate dune buggy!

"Hey, Daniel! See if you can really find a way to mount that thing on this for me." Capt. Lennox asked with a smile.

Daniel took one look at the dune buggy and his eyes lit up as he walked over to examine it. Someone had installed a Porsche engine from a 911 Turbo in it, and that coupled with the four wheel drive transmission made sure that it could get almost anywhere in a serious hurry.

"Hey Buzz! Can you put this thing over by my work bench so's I can make some modifications to it?" Daniel asked the black and yellow scout with a grin.

Bumble Bee didn't say a word, but picked up the LRV and placed it where Daniel could work on it by way of answer.

"Thanks!" Daniel said simply as he started grabbing steel plates, and bars to weld a platform to mount the plasma cannon on.

Ironhide watched with interest as Daniel simply grabbed materials and went at it. He wasn't really measuring things but was instead eyeballing his measurements. Ironhide was surprised to see that he was fairly accurate, and only had to re cut a piece every now and then.

The LRV already had a mount for a .50 cal machine gun, and Daniel used that as a base to begin installing the plasma cannon. He started by adding a lot extra supports to the mounting brackets. Then he began installing the cannon itself. In less than thirty minutes, he was ready to install a small tank of energon to power the cannon.

"Humpf, not bad! You've set that thing up so that it will actually provide some cover for whoever is using it. Just make sure that they never crank it up beyond ten percent if they're firing to the side, or they'll flip that little contraption." Ironhide snorted after checking out Daniel's work.

Daniel motioned Sgt. Epps over and started explaining how to operate the controls he'd installed on the alien cannon. By the time he was done, both men were grinning like a pair of kids turned loose in a candy store and told to eat all they wanted.

Sgt. Epps and Daniel both wanted to take the LRV out for a spin to try out the new firepower, when Sec Def Keller walked in accompanied by Agent Bannacheck.

Keller walked straight over to Optimus, and asked what he needed.

"Simmons said that you needed to speak with me about something urgent. Well, what is it?" Keller asked not beating around the bush.

"I'll get right to the point. More Autobots are on their way to Earth. We've received a communications signal from them stating that they will arrive in a few days time." Optimus stated bluntly.

"Ok, so more friends are on the way. What's the problem with that?" Keller asked somewhat puzzled.

"The problem lies in that they will be arriving in the Ark. It is a Cybertronian vessel of immense size and capable of transporting a few thousand of us." Optimus informed Keller gravely. "Your government has made it clear that we are to remain a secret. I do not know if this will be possible because of the sheer size of the Ark itself. We will need some place to land the vessel. The transmission that we received was garbled and incomplete, which suggests that some of the Autobots onboard may be in need of medical attention. They will need a place to land when they do arrive." The Autobot leader continued.

"Well, when you say immense size, just how big are we talking about?" Keller asked giving Optimus a hard look.

"That thing would have to be a hell of a lot bigger than a damned aircraft carrier just to hold that many people as large as Jazz here, forget about the others! This means we're talking one damned big piece of fucking machinery!" Daniel burst in.

"The Ark is as long as four of your aircraft carriers and as wide and tall as two placed side by side and stacked on top of one another." Optimus said quietly trying not to overwhelm the humans with something that would seem incomprehensible to them.

Daniel turned to the closest mech to him, which happened to be Bumble Bee. "Wait a damn minute! You tellin me that this ark of yours is meant to land? On the ground?" Daniel demanded in pure disbelief.

The yellow scout nodded his head enthusiastically in reply.

Keller had witnessed the yellow and black mech's response to the question. He ran a shaking hand through his hair as he tried to get an overworked brain to function again.

"Simmons! Call in everybody who's actually met these people, and everybody here that knows about 'em. We need to get some more brains on this problem pronto!" Keller snapped at the former Sector 7 agent.

Agent Simmons made exactly one call from his cell phone, and within minutes, the med bay started filling up with people filing in. Keller waited until everyone was present before presenting them with the problem. When he did more than one person sat down heavily as their mind refused to acknowledge the sheer size of the problem at hand. A weighted silence fell on the room for more than a minute before it was broken by a source that almost no one expected.

"AREA 51 MAN! Area 51. Land it right there! They can park it next to Hanger 18!" Glen exclaimed excitedly.

Every pair of eyes and optics in the room turned to look at the heavyset computer geek.

"Son, have you lost your mind?" Keller asked with concern.

"Yeah! No shit! What he said. Do you have any fucking idea how many idiots are out there stalking that place every fucking night looking for flying saucers and UFOs?" Daniel demanded in exasperation.

"So! Nobody believes 'em anyway! So who cares?" Glen shot back confidently.

That one comment shut both men up along with any objection they might have had. It also got Daniel to thinking.

"I hate to say it, but he's got a point. Even if somebody gets pictures, who's going to believe a ship that big even exists." Sam stated.

"Somehow I can't seem to come up with a single argument for that." Keller said after thinking about it for a few seconds.

"JOHN ROBERT KELLER! THERE YOU ARE! What do you think you're doing running off while we are supposed to be on vacation? And WHY are you interrupting our vacation to have a stupid meeting?" The woman stormed straight up to her husband, and had been so busy haranguing the man that she hadn't noticed any of the Autobots, until Optimus moved to provide some room for the two humans.

"Now Margaret, These folks only needed a few minutes of my time. We've got things straightened out now, so I can go wherever it is that you want." Keller said in an attempt to placate his angry wife.

"What the devil are THOSE?" Mrs. Keller demanded from her husband pointing at one of the Autobots.

"We are autonomous robotic life forms from the planet Cybertron. Your government has graciously allowed us to make a home here since our world has been rendered lifeless." Optimus answered trying to divert the irate woman's attention.

"Are you sure they're not dangerous?" She whispered to her husband while Optimus was talking. Keller shook his head in response.

"And just why would The United States do such a thing, if I may ask?" Mrs. Keller asked Optimus suspiciously.

"Uh, maybe because they sacrificed THEIR world to save OURS!" Daniel piped up.

"And who might you be that you're so quick to interrupt a private conversation?" She promptly demanded of Daniel.

"I happen to be someone that doesn't like having a critical life and death situation interrupted by someone's personal matters. Now OBVIOUSLY, given the fact that there ARE alien life forms here, this would SEEM to call for some diploma . . . whatever that word is. And YOU aren't showing any. It might, just MIGHT also call for the personal attention of the Secretary of Defense. Don't you think?" Daniel shot back instantly.

"Now you just hold on there son! You may be certifiably insane, but that's my WIFE you're talkin too! And I won't put up with that for one damned minute, do you understand me?" Keller snapped at the salvage operator.

"She started it!" Daniel replied pointing at the still fuming Mrs. Keller.

Sec Def Keller just stared at Daniel until the junkyard owner turned to do something else.

"Epps! Let's go shoot something with that cannon, I set up." Daniel yelled to the Tech Sergeant.

"Can't do it man. Still gotta figure out where we're gonna hide a ship the size of the Empire State Building!" Sgt. Epps shot back.

"Nellis Air force base is a sound suggestion. Bannacheck, you do what needs to be done to make that a reality, in the meantime, I'm back on vacation!" Keller said as he escorted his wife from the room.

Agent Bannacheck nodded his acknowledgement to Keller, before walking over to a still irritated Daniel.

"You don't have enough sense to back down from much of anything do you?" Bannacheck asked him, not really expecting an answer.

"NOPE!" Daniel instantly shot back with a grin.

Agent Bannacheck shook his head, not having any idea on how to respond to that.

"Ok. Since we now have a ship full of Autobots coming in, and we now know where we're going to land it. We need a team to head to Nellis to get them prepared for what's coming their way. Daniel, since Ratchet is obviously busy, you'll be going along to make sure that a proper med bay is set up in case of injuries. You'll be accompanied by Capt. Lennox and his team. This means that you'll be taking Ironhide, Jazz, and Bumble Bee at the least. I'll need Optimus here to try to get some estimates on what type of contingent we're looking at. Anyone got any suggestions on what to do with Barricade?" Bannacheck told the group.

"Well, if you want an eye kept on him then I say take him with us to Nellis. That'd be the best solution all the way around. And yes, I'll ride with him, that way nobody gets the heebie-jeebies from being inside an evil alien robot that wants to kill everything." Daniel answered.

"WOW! That's got to be the longest speech he's ever made without cussing." Maigan told Mikeala jokingly.

"I heard THAT!" Daniel called out to his niece.

Everyone could hear the three teens burst out laughing at that comment.

"I have no objections to going along for the ride, as long as someone makes sure to keep that slagger's cannons pointed in a safe direction!" Barricade put in angrily.

"Oh, is the murderous little butcher worried about my cannons?" Ironhide asked condescendingly.

"Yes, I AM! And you have no right to accuse me of being a murderer, Autoslagger! At least I have always made my kills face to face! But I know for a fact that YOU have killed helpless civilians!" Barricade shot back instantly in a tone dripping with venom.

Ironhide grabbed the black and white mech and slammed him into a wall, pinning him there.

"I have never, and I mean never targeted the helpless in my entire life!" The weapons specialist growled in a rage as he shoved one of his famed cannons in Barricade's face.

Barricade's left arm snapped out in a blur to land against Ironhide's head, knocking the cannon aside, and staggering the larger mech with ease. Barricade then grabbed the black mech with his right hand and spun quickly, pinning the Autobot to the same wall he'd just been against.

"Really? Is that REALLY true, Ironhide? I seem to recall that a mere few days ago, you had me at the end of those cannons of yours, and you weren't going to even wait for orders before offlining me, now were you?" Barricade demanded.

"Admit it Autobot! You've always enjoyed killing helpless bots even more than you think I do. This war was nothing but an excuse for you to get your sick pleasure out of killing more bots, wasn't it? I WAS THERE THE DAY MY CREATORS WERE MURDERED AUTOBOT!" Barricade finished with a bellow.

With each statement, Barricade had slammed the larger mech into the wall to punctuate his words.

Suddenly a tennis ball of all things was ricocheting back and forth between the two mechs managing to hit both of them right between the optics.

Even Optimus had to reset his optics in surprise as he saw Daniel twirling a large crowbar in each hand. The salvage operator seemed to be grinning wildly, ready to hit both mechs indiscriminately as the crazed little human went storming towards the two mechs with a purpose.

Optimus was just about to grab Daniel to keep both mechs from killing him, when the human suddenly stopped and glared up at the two fighting mechs.

"You little slagging glitch! If you EVER do that to me again. . ." Barricade began.

"You'll WHAT? Get dropped like a bad habit! I may not be invincible. But I got a mean streak bigger than any sumbitch in any comic book! An I'll just bet that my mean streak is a hell of a lot bigger than yours too!" Daniel interrupted.

Everyone was staring at Daniel in disbelief. No one was really willing to face up against even one of these two mechs unless they HAD too, but Daniel hadn't hesitated in taking on BOTH of them.

"Weren't you ordered NOT to use those against us? What about our deal?" Ironhide demanded angrily as he saw the crowbars in Daniel's hands.

"Awww, don't you worry about it much, Tackleberry! I didn't bust you up the way I did the last time. So both of you can either get done with your little bonding ritual or save it till the end of the war! Either way, shut up about it!" Daniel ranted loudly.

Both mechs separated quickly in disgust as they glared down at the human.

Optimus grabbed the bridge of his nose and blew a massive jet of air out of his cooling vents.

"I can already see that this is going to be one long vorn!" The Autobot leader lamented softly.

Daniel just stood there glaring at the two mechs, as if daring them to try something else. Bumble Bee was shaking with suppressed laughter at the scene in front of him, while Jazz had no reason to hold it back.

"It's about time somebody got Hide in line!" The saboteur cracked.

"Yeah, well just wait till he gets a hold of you with one of those slagging things!" Ironhide taunted back.

"After seeing what he just did to you? I ain't stupid enough to give him a reason too!" Jazz shot back laughing heartily.

"Are you going to be able to keep those two under control?" Bannacheck asked Daniel candidly.

Daniel nodded as he lit a smoke. "If a crowbar don't do it, then I got a little something else that WILL convince 'em that I mean business."

Agent Bannacheck eyed the salvage operator speculatively, before nodding his approval. "If you're sure. But. Just a little warning. The personnel at Nellis are not going to take this lightly, so I suggest that you let Capt. Lennox make the introductions." He told Daniel in an obviously patronizing tone.

"Can ya tell me something I didn't know two minutes ago?" Daniel shot back in the same tone.

Bannacheck actually smiled at that.

"I think you'll do fairly well in this business." He said with a smirk.

That made Daniel blink in surprise. A compliment was one of the last things he'd been expecting. With a negligent shake of his head, the junkyard owner turned his attention to his ice chest. He was pleasantly surprised to find it fully stocked and also full of ice.

"You'll find that our bosses tend to do what it takes to keep us happy. It helps make sure that we stay good at our jobs. That's why they put in the Starbucks. When we get a more permanent setup, you'll probably have a refrigerated cooler stocked with those things. Any particular flavor you prefer?" Agent Simmons spoke from behind Daniel.

"Anything except that damned 'Lo-Bal'!" Daniel replied happily.

Simmons nodded. "No problem. They'll get someone on it. We've got a battalion of aids that make sure things run smoothly around here. You don't always see 'em, but that doesn't stop 'em from getting their job done." Simmons informed him.

Daniel nodded after gathering up what he wanted to take with him on the road trip.

"Ok people, let's load up! I want one LRV in the front. Tackleberry, you're next in line, with Buzz Boy next. Then me and Mister Badass, after that, Jazz. The LRV with the space gun brings up the rear. So let's hit the road people. Boogity, boogity, boogity!" Daniel bellowed to the room at large.

"I'm top man on the cannon!" Sgt. Epps yelled out happily, as he climbed in the back of the now modified LRV.

"Any particular reason you want that kind of firepower in the rear?" Capt. Lennox asked curiously.

"Yeah, I want that cannon sitting back there to keep a pair of jokers in line." Daniel replied loudly enough that both mechs who were still glaring at each other could hear it. "That's mainly for Tackleberry, if the scrap yard reject gets out of line, I'll take one of my crowbars to his dashboard, and rip his engine out from the inside!" Daniel added making sure that Barricade heard it.

Every mech in the room, Ironhide included, cringed at those words. A second or two later, the silver saboteur could be heard laughing.

"Primus! If that's how he treats a friend, then ya gotta wonder what he'd do to his enemies!" Jazz said still laughing at the obvious discomfort of the two mechs at which Daniel's comments had been aimed.

The men that were to accompany Capt. Lennox were getting geared up, and ready to go. All that was left to do was actually get in the vehicles. The mechs had transformed, but none of the soldiers were getting in, instead they were looking at Daniel as if he'd lost what was left of his mind.

Daniel noticed this and looked at Capt. Lennox curiously. "Is there something they're waiting for?" Daniel asked confused.

"Yeah. That would be an order from someone in their chain of command, which isn't you." The Army captain answered with a light smile. "Mount up men!" He ordered.

Within three seconds, everyone but the salvage operator and the Army captain were ready to go.

"Damn! And here I was thinking I was actually running something for once." Daniel remarked ruefully with a shake of his head.

That brought a loud chorus of laughter from every last one of the soldiers who had clearly heard the loud complaint. Even several of the mechs had to laugh at the salvage operator's expense. Needless to say, Daniel wasn't too happy about being the butt of the joke. He grabbed his ice chest and his two favorite crowbars, and climbed into Barricade's cabin.

Daniel put his ice chest on the passenger floorboard, his CD case in the passenger seat, and then he put his crowbars in the rack that would normally be occupied by the police issue shotgun.

Seeing that Capt. Lennox still hadn't given the order to move out, Daniel decided that he wanted to help things along with a hint.

"Hey! Switch over to the racing Hemi!" Daniel told the black and white Saleen.

A few clanks and the sounds of whirling gears could be heard as Barricade did just that. Daniel could almost feel the mech grin with delight as the hood reformed around the massive supercharger.

The stuttering roar of a top fuel racing engine filled the med bay as soon as Daniel turned the key. Everyone clearly heard the heavily modified engine, and turned to look. Soldiers were sticking their heads out of windows, and craning their necks to see what was making the noise. Daniel and Barricade both took an almost sadistic pleasure in the powerful revving of the massive engine. Then, Daniel goosed the accelerator a few times to get his point across.

"Slagging pits of the matrix! Does he have some kind of seeker's engine or something? He's got meter long jets of flame coming out of his fragging aft!" Ironhide bellowed in surprise as he saw Barricade's exhaust.

Daniel laughed as he leaned out the window to look at the black Topkick.

"Not quite, but pretty damned close!" Daniel yelled with a grin.

When the order was finally given to hit the road, Daniel kept revving Barricade's engine maliciously. Occasionally squealing the tires, Daniel was giving a not too subtle hint that he wanted to move a bit faster. Once they had left the Hoover Dam complex, the group did just that. Moving down the highways at 80 miles an hour, they were eating up the distance rapidly.

An hour into the trip, Daniel cracked open a Java Russian, and popped a ZZ Top CD into Barricade's player. Barricade promptly spit it out. Not really thinking about what had just happened, Daniel grabbed the CD and stuck it back in. This time Barricade spit it out hard enough to make it hit the passenger seat.

"What the FUCK?! You bust my CD an I'm gonna bust yore ass!" Daniel warned getting pissed.

"I do NOT want to listen to any of that slagging waste that you humans mistakenly call music!" Barricade growled irritably.

"Tough fuckin shit! I wanna listen to Billy, Dusty, and Frank. Three guys playing the same three chords for three decades! I don't give a damn what you think, THAT takes skill!" Daniel informed the mech as he popped the CD in for the third time.

This time Barricade spit the CD into his back seat.

"Next time it goes out the window!" The Saleen warned in a deep growl.

Without saying a word, Daniel snatched up one of his crowbars and placed the end of it against the dashboard, right under the police style computer system. Then he reached back and grabbed the CD again.

"My CD goes out the window and half the shit in your dashboard will follow it." Daniel said flatly, as he slid the CD in a fourth time.

Barricade let the CD slide into his player, but he didn't start playing it. He could feel the human's anger, but then he also knew that the human could feel his as well. What Barricade didn't know, was that Daniel couldn't tell the difference between Barricade's anger and his own, and that Barricade's anger was only adding fuel to the fire.

Daniel started applying pressure on the crowbar.

"Play it." Daniel ground out.

"NO."

Daniel applied more pressure to the crowbar, and both the mech and the human winced from the pain that it caused.

"Play it!" Daniel snarled.

That was when Barricade realized exactly what was happening. He had seen how the human reacted to pain, and how crazed he could become. Barricade did NOT want that type of reaction going on in his interior, where he would be essentially helpless against whatever assault the human chose to dish out.

With the first notes of music, Daniel eased his crowbar away from the dash. When it continued to play, Daniel dropped his crowbar in the passenger seat, and grabbed his Java Russian from between his legs, where he'd been holding it.

"Thank you." Daniel snapped just before he took a slug of energized coffee.

Barricade didn't respond. Since he happened to like the group anyway, but what had really gotten on his neural receptors was that Daniel hadn't asked him to play the CD in the first place. He'd let the human have his way for now, but as far as Barricade was concerned, this was NOT over!

Then Daniel started rubbing his side as if trying to ease a pain there. Barricade knew that the sensory and emotional transfer of a spark bond went both ways, and he was beginning to see that Daniel couldn't tell the difference between his own feelings and senses, and those belonging to the Decepticon. That was when Barricade realized that his anger would only serve to increase the humans anger.

Daniel left all the windows down while he had a smoke. He made sure to use his pocket ashtray that he carried with him; even so, Barricade wasn't happy about it. Having been on Earth for several months had allowed the former Decepticon to learn quite a lot about humans in general. One of the many things he'd learned was just how irate smokers could get when they didn't have their cigarettes.

Barricade was having a difficult time keeping a tight reign on his emotions. He knew what was happening to the human, but as of yet there wasn't much he could do about it. Barricade knew that with him knowing that his emotions could affect the human, without that human's knowledge, he would have a slight advantage, IF he could find a way of capitalizing on it.

When the CD began it third repetition, Barricade couldn't stand it anymore. Even though he did like that particular band, hearing the same songs over and over, three times in a row was enough. Barricade popped the CD out.

As soon as the music stopped, Daniel was reaching for his crowbar. He had just put his hand on his tool of choice, when Barricade told him to choose a different CD. Daniel looked at the dashboard, then back at his crowbar. Then he snatched up his CD case and began rifling through it.

The CD that Daniel put in happened to be one that he'd ripped himself. It was full of instrumentals. Ranging from Trans Siberian Orchestra, to Manheim Steamroller, with some classical such as the 1812 Overture, and Flight of the Valkyries thrown in. When the CD got to a disco version of the Star Wars theme by Manheim Steamroller, Barricade could stand no more.

"What in the slagging pits of the Matrix are you trying to do to me? Drive me right out of my processor?" Barricade snarled at the human as he cut the CD off.

"I happen to like that stuff, why? You got a problem with musical variety?" Daniel retorted instantly.

"When you start playing things to deliberately irritate me, then yes I DO have a problem with it!" Barricade responded.

The salvage operator didn't say a word; he simply started rummaging through his CD case again. When he found what he was looking for, he held up the CD as if it were a prize.

"I could have popped this one in to play." He said with a grin.

Barricade scanned the CD, but didn't recognize the artist. Hitting the web to look up Jimmy Stur, Barricade was horrified to see that it was traditional polka music.

"No. No. NO! No slagging way! If you stick that in my CD player, I swear on the spark of Primus that you will NEVER get it back!" Barricade told the human finally.

"Well then you got a better idea?" Daniel quipped.

The former Decepticon didn't say anything; instead, he began to play a composition of Cybertronian origin. It was a simple piece by Cybertronian standards, but it did have a soothing tempo, and a relaxing tone.

"Hey can you rip that onto a CD?" Daniel asked when the song was over.

"That will not fit onto one of your CD's. The file size is too large, because you are only able to hear a small part of the range of tones that are actually used in the song." Barricade said simply.

"Oh. Got any more like that?"

Barricade didn't answer, but instead began to play more Cybertronian compositions. Soon, the Saleen was able to relax and enjoy the road while Daniel enjoyed the music. Forty-five minutes later, Daniel lit his second smoke and happened to glance at the side view mirror. Daniel's eyes bugged as he spotted the silver Pontiac Solstice, bouncing, bobbing, and weaving back and forth in time to the music that Barricade was playing.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! Ham it up wise guy!" Daniel told the rear view mirror.

Barricade neither liked nor disliked the human that he'd found himself bonded to. He did have to give the squishy little flesh wad some credit though. The irritating little slagger didn't back down from much of anything. Barricade knew that he owed the human his life twice over, but he had no clue as to how to repay that debt. His honor was of supreme importance to Barricade, since it was almost the only thing he had left from his creators. They had taught him the meaning and definition of honor, and Barricade had struggled to live up to their ideals all through his time with the Decepticons. For personal reasons, joining the Autobots had been, and still was, out of the question. Still, Barricade had preserved his honor by making sure that each and every opponent that he faced in battle saw him coming from the start.

Hundreds of bots had fallen prey to his skill, weapons and even on occasion, his claws. Every one of them had seen his approach, and every one of them had known that their death was at hand. Barricade took great pride in the fact that never once during his entire career, had he ever allowed his actions to endanger a civilian. Frenzy had come very close to doing just that when he'd gone after the two teens, and Barricade had done the only thing he could think of at that time to prevent their deaths. He intentionally lost a fight. Barricade had no regrets, and no remorse about losing that fight. Even though it was one of the very few times that he'd lost, he'd done so without hesitation in order to maintain his honor and the ideals that he lived by.

Barricade was not about to join the Autobots for just any reason. Nor was he going to allow himself to be forced into it by Daniel. Barricade was almost certain that Daniel would want Barricade to repay his debt by helping to defend this world. That Barricade had no problem with, but how to do it without joining the Autobots, or otherwise sacrificing his honor. That was the problem that was eating at Barricade's processors.

In the meantime, Daniel was concerned about the type of reception that they'd receive at Nellis Air Force base. It was one thing to be acting under the direct orders of the Secretary of Defense, but it was something totally different to try to gain access to the largest military installation in the U.S.

Nearly the size of neighboring Las Vegas, Nellis Air Force base occupied the entire Groom lake valley and the surrounding mountains. It would be more than large enough to land the Space Shuttle, were it not for those mountains. Base security was so tight that nothing got within five miles of the base's perimeter without being identified and apprehended first. In fact, security was so tight that the only other installation the came close was the Cheyenne Mountain complex that housed the SAC and NORAD command centers. Only part of what made these installations so secure was that no reporters or other civilians were EVER allowed inside.

It was well known in military circles that UFO buffs were constantly trying to get close enough to Nellis to catch a glimpse of some top-secret aircraft being tested. It was also well known that none of them ever actually made it into the bordering mountains. Security was that tight. Now Daniel and the rest of them were going to commandeer the entire thing!

A few hours, ten cans of Java Monster and half a pack of smokes later, the entourage rolled up to the first checkpoint of the famed area 51. The MPs at the gate were meticulously going over the identification of everyone in the group. After they had spent more than a full hour verifying the groups credentials, they started with the interrogations.

"Your identification checks out. Now you're gonna tell me what you're doing here!" The first MP told Daniel in a no nonsense tone.

Daniel looked over at Capt. Lennox.

"Hey! Don't look at him for an answer! I asked you a direct question and you're going to answer it!" The MP said as he placed his hand on his side arm.

Daniel's eyes narrowed and his expression hardened, as he looked the MP straight in the eyes.

"That's classified as need to know, and YOU don't." Daniel ground out softly.

"You wanna bet on it? I'll throw your ass in the brig for fuckin month, before you even get a goddamned phone call!" The MP retorted as he unsnapped the holster to his side arm.

"You can try, but with the tight schedule we're on, it'll be less than a week before your frozen ass is guarding penguins in Antarctica!" Daniel shot back in a soft but deadly tone.

"Now I strongly suggest that you get your base commander on the phone, as in right now, because we are acting on direct orders from the Secretary of Defense, John Keller himself!" Daniel continued in the same tone.

The MP gave the salvage operator a hard stare for several seconds before making a quick motion to one of his fellow guards and walking into the gatehouse to use the phone.

Twenty minutes later, no less than ten Hum-V's rolled up to the gate. Every one of them was equipped with a top mounted fifty-caliber machine gun that was manned and loaded. The Hummers escorted the unusual group farther into the base and into a hanger where they were told to wait for the OOD.

They were soon greeted by a Colonel Anderson, who did not look very pleased at all to see them.

"All right, you've got your meeting, now you've got les than ten seconds to tell me what you're doing here, or every last one of you are going straight to the brig pending a full investigation!" Col. Anderson stated angrily.

Daniel opened the black and white Saleen's door and quickly grabbed his ice chest, crowbars and CD case. He had just backed out the open door when he felt the barrel of an AR-14 assault rifle being shoved none too gently against his head.

Daniel finished standing up, and slowly turned his head to glare at the OOD.

"Barricade! Stand up and step on this son of bitch if he doesn't get this fucking gun away from my head!" Daniel ordered as he dropped the ice chest and CD case.

Barricade could easily see that this was going wrong, and not wanting to find out just how painful the human's death would be, he did exactly as Daniel had told him.

With the first sounds of whirling gears, the soldiers that comprised base security backed up, then began gaping as a robot more than fifteen feet tall suddenly stood in their midst.

"Stand FAST! Nobody make any sudden moves! It only took one of these guys to destroy Soccent Air base in Qatar, and there's a few more than that in here!" Capt. Lennox spoke up in a tone of command.

"What the HELL is THAT?" Col. Anderson bellowed.

"Try HE, numb nuts!" Daniel bellowed back just as loud.

"My NAME is Barricade! And you were told to take that gun away from his head!" The black and white mech said as he glared at the guard who still hadn't moved.

Just then, the large black truck known as a GMC Top Kick 6500 transformed and whipped out his cannons, pointing them at Barricade.

"Go ahead, step on him. I DARE ya!" Ironhide told the former Decepticon with a menacing grin.

That was when the MP with the gun jammed in the back of Daniel's head wisely decided to slowly back away.

Daniel turned around to face the MP that had been holding the gun against his head.

"Smart move." Daniel grinned.

"Ok, do you wanna tell me just what the hell is going on here?" Col. Anderson demanded looking straight at Daniel.

"Well, it's like this. In less than 72 hours a big ass goddamned ship full of these guys is gonna be landing on THIS base, and we got to get this place ready for 'em, because they might be in need of some repairs. So not only do we got to get a med bay set up, BUT we STILL have to explain all this shit to the base commander; who STILL ain't here yet!" Daniel said irritably.

"General Mallory is going to shit a fucking brick." Col. Anderson said softly as he stared back and forth between Ironhide and Barricade.

"I think he's gonna do a lot worse than that, when he finds out the whole story." Capt Lennox said quietly.

With a single nod of his head, the OOD gave the order to contact General Mallory, and get him up to speed ASAP.

Barricade in the meantime had transferred his glare to Daniel.

"If you ever try to shove a crowbar into my dash board again, I will make you suffer in ways that you wouldn't believe!" He said in a low snarl.

Daniel turned around to find himself face to nose with a very pissed off Barricade. Daniel looked the former Decepticon straight in his optics and shrugged. A malicious grin spread slowly across the salvage operator's face, while at the same time an almost evil sparkle began to light up in his eyes.

"Try it!" He dared, as he lightly pinged the smaller of his two crowbars off the side of Barricade's head.

Barricade stood up with an enraged roar that with have put Megatron to shame. The black and white mech stepped back to get a little swinging room, and as he did, he found himself being tackled to the ground by both Bumble Bee and Ironhide, while Daniel had his hands full struggling with Jazz. All of the Autobots had reacted instantly, to separate the two combatants, and it was a very good thing they had, because each was starting to talk some serious trash.

"Don't you ever do that again you over evolved microbial puddle!" Barricade snarled.

"Bring it, you outdated, over rated reject from a junkyard!" Daniel retorted.

"Flesh wad!"

"Scrap heap!"

"Meat bag!"

"Rust bucket!"

"Maggot breath!"

"Bastardized Buick!"

"Shit factory!"

"Slag heap!"

"Slime puddle!"

"Rattle trap!"

"Road kill!" Barricade growled with a sinister grin.

"Ford!" Daniel shot back with out hesitation.

Every mech in the room turned to look at Daniel with that one.

"Do you actually consider THAT an insult? How pathetic!" Barricade sneered.

Daniel grinned triumphantly as he stared at the former Decepticon.

"FORD! Stands for Fuckin Old Rebuilt Dodge that you have to Fix Or Repair Daily, before it's Found On Road Dead!" Daniel explained grinning ever wider.

Barricade burst out laughing at that explanation.

"Not bad for tiny little grease stain waiting to get stepped on." Barricade said while still laughing.

"You're as quick with an insult as you are with a crowbar." Barricade continued as the two Autobots that were holding him eased up on their grip.

"And don't you ever forget it!" Daniel shot back with a grin after Jazz let him go.

Jazz had been almost forced to let Daniel go because he was laughing so hard. Ironhide and Bumble Bee were faced with the same problem.

"They're worse than me and my brother." One of the Mps said to his partner.

That got the attention of both the human, and the Decepticon at the same time.

"You stay out of this!"

Both the human and the Decepticon had spoken simultaneously.

That was the straw the broke the camel's back for Jazz. The silver saboteur fell on his aft laughing raucously.

It was at that point that everyone involved noticed just how many guns were currently being aimed in their direction. It seemed as if every MP on the base was aiming an automatic rifle at them.

"What the fuck is goin on?" Daniel asked as he looked down the barrels of more than two dozen assault rifles.

"Maybe that's what I should be asking you!" Col. Anderson retorted.

"How do I know this isn't some kind of distraction in order for one of your men to gain access to a highly classified area?" Col. Anderson demanded angrily.

Capt. Lennox gave a disgusted groan of disbelief as he shook his head.

"Keller really should have let us come alone. This would have gone a whole lot smoother, if he had." The army captain muttered in exasperation.

"I hear ya, Sir. That crazy fool's gonna get us all killed." Sgt. Epps added almost under his breath.

"If this is an attempt at a distraction, then it's one hell of a good one, and the sooner you get your CO down here, the sooner we can do our jobs. Which right now, involves taking LEGAL control over this ENTIRE BASE!" Daniel shot back to the OOD just as angrily.

"Really? And just what the hell makes you think that's gonna happen?" The colonel replied.

"Where the hell else are we gonna land and HIDE a space ship that happens to be bigger than a damned super tanker? I'll give ya a clue. It's right here!" Daniel retorted vindictively.

"Is this guy giving me the truth?" Col. Anderson asked dubiously looking over at Capt. Lennox.

"Yes, Sir. I'm afraid that he is." Capt. Lennox replied somberly.

"Well now isn't that just wonderful!" Col. Anderson growled sarcastically.

Daniel wasn't paying any attention to the conversation going on between the two officers. Instead, he was noticing the very apprehensive looks that the guards were giving to the Cybertronians.

"Hey, why don't you guys chill out and look like normal vehicles for a while? You guys might be bullet proof, but I don't care to get hit by a ricochet because of an itchy trigger finger." Daniel told the mechs.

There was some grumbling from one or two of the mechs, most notably Barricade, but they all resumed their alt modes fairly quickly. Seeing that the MPs eased up a bit, Daniel decided that it was time for a smoke.

Daniel reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his cigs and his Zippo lighter. He wasn't paying any attention to what was going on around him as he got a smoke out and lit it. It wasn't until after his third drag on the cigarette, that he noticed the glares he was getting. The salvage operator shrugged his shoulders and kept on smoking.

Daniel had finished half the smoke when someone finally spoke up from behind him.

"You want to put that damned thing out?" A voice demanded angrily.

"Not particularly. Why?" Daniel asked as he turned around.

"Because smoking isn't allowed in here!" The man answered giving Daniel a look that might have melted steel.

Daniel slowly and deliberately looked around the hangar, noting the fact that there wasn't a single no smoking sign in sight.

"There ain't no signs sayin that." Daniel said still smoking as he turned to look at who was bossing him around.

"There doesn't need to be any signs, when I have a standing order that there is to be no smoking ANYWHERE on this base!" The General ground out angrily.

"I guess it sucks to be you trying to give orders to someone that is NOT under your command, now don't it?" Daniel shot back with a smart assed grin.

"Sergeant, put this man in the brig!" The General demanded.

"Try it and you'll end up taking my place for a LONG fucking time, ASSHOLE!" Daniel countered.

"And just how do you figure that?" The General shot back.

"Uh, Sir. These men are apparently under direct orders from SecDef to commandeer this base and prep it for use as an LZ for Aliens." Col Anderson stated none too happily.

"Their paperwork checks out?" The General demanded.

"Yes, Sir. I'm afraid it does." Col. Anderson answered sullenly.

"Fine! Col. Escort these men to my briefing room." General Mallory ordered.

"And You! Put that damned thing out!"

"I intend to, but not before I'm done with it." Daniel answered in a tone that dared someone to test him on it.

"Young man, don't you have enough sense to know when you're out matched?" General Mallory asked maliciously.

"Don't know. Never been outmatched before, and quite frankly, I don't see any reason for me to be outmatched now." The salvage operator stated with a boastful grin.

Several loud barks of laughter could be heard throughout the hangar, as the irate General looked around hastily for the source.

"I'm giving you a direct order to put that thing out this instant!" General Mallory snarled.

"Two problems with that!" Daniel began holding up two fingers of his right hand while taking another drag from his smoke with his left. "First, I'm not military. Second, even if I were in the military, I'm not under your command. All of which boils down to. . . . Shit in one hand, demand in the other, see which one fills up first!" Daniel retorted getting pissed all over again.

If expressions were capable of killing someone, there would not even have been a pile of smoking ashes left of the salvage operator as the General glared beams of pure annihilation at the cause of his ire.

Suddenly, unexpectedly the General smiled and nodded his head.

"Ok smart ass! You can have this round, but if it turns out that even for one tiny little instant that I can throw your ass in the stockade; you'll find yourself sitting inside the brig so fast you'll prove Einstein dead wrong!" General Mallory threatened ominously.

Daniel smiled and winked at the irate General in response. He didn't say anything as he deliberately followed Col. Anderson and the others to General Mallory's personal briefing room. Daniel did display enough sense to finish his smoke before he went in, but that wasn't enough to mollify the base C.O.

Once everyone was inside the General took his chair at the head of the table and ordered everyone to be seated. He scowled as he noticed that one person in particular hadn't waited for an invitation.

"Before we begin, if any of you gentlemen would care for a cigar, you may have one of my private stock. That does NOT apply to you!" The General offered with the last part being addressed to Daniel.

While none of the Special Forces members that had accompanied Capt. Lennox were smokers, they did have better sense than to turn down a General's hospitality.

The salvage operator didn't reply but did look inside the proffered humidor to see just what caliber of cigar the General smoked. When he saw what was in the box, Daniel nodded his head in appreciation.

"Hmmm. Monticino's! That's the brand Arturo Fuente himself smokes. He named those after his daughter, ya know." Daniel said in an offhand tone, which got him a surprised look from the General.

Then, with a truly evil grin, the salvage operator reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a metal cigar tube designed to keep a single cigar fresh. He clipped the end off and prepared to light it. Unlike the sweet aromatic aroma that had emerged from the cigars the General had offered the scent that arose from the monstrosity that Daniel hadn't even lit, could only be described as horrendously nauseating!

Capt. Lennox and Sgt. Epps were both looking at Daniel with horrified expressions on their faces, but then so was everyone else in the briefing room.

"What in the name of God is that unholy STENCH?" The General demanded as he stared at Daniel aghast.

"It's from Germany. I've often heard it referred to as a 'Wheelhouse Stogie'. I tend to save 'em for special occasions." Daniel answered with a lighthearted grin.

Even as the salvage operator had delivered his explanation, the Generals face and expression had fallen dramatically.

"All right. You win. I surrender. You can have one of mine and I won't even bother you about your damned cigarettes again. Just PLEASE for the love of God, don't light that thing up!" General Mallory pleaded in a nearly desperate tone.

Daniel couldn't help but burst out laughing. He knew that the German made cigar was the foulest thing ever invented by a smoker, and the stench it created when lit was even worse than that of a skunk and twice as strong. Smoking rooms across Europe had banned them in the late 19th century. Daniel did put the bane of both smokers and nonsmokers alike, back in its sealed tube. Daniel reached into his jacket pocket to put the stogie up, and came out with a second cigar tube. This one was a double cylinder that held two cigars in separate tubes. Daniel opened both of them and offered one to the General.

His curiosity piqued, General Mallory took the offered cigar, and was very surprised to find that it was an Opus opus X! Made by the same family that hand rolled the cigars that he'd offered to the men seated around the table, General Mallory knew that these particular cigars were very exclusive and hard to get a hold of anywhere west of the Mississippi river. The General's opinion of Daniel rose quite a few notches when he realized that the obnoxiously irritating civilian wasn't going to gloat after obtaining his underhanded victory.

Daniel knew that he'd aimed below the belt, and had hit like a fifty megaton nuke, when he'd pulled out that infamous monstrosity and threatened to light it. Daniel was deranged. He'd be the first to admit that, but just because he was certifiably insane didn't mean that he was stupid. Far from it; Daniel knew that there were times when one could gloat and rub it in your opponents face, but then there were times when, after beating someone so badly that they caved completely, you had to give them back a measure of their self-respect and dignity. Daniel knew that he was going to be dealing with the hard nosed General for the entirety of the foreseeable future, which meant that he needed to establish exactly where he stood in things. He figured that he'd made an excellent start with his smokes, but decided not to press his luck too hard until he knew a bit more about how this man saw things.

"Ok, Gentlemen. Who wants to be the one to tell me why the foremost airbase in the continental US is being commandeered for use as an alien LZ?" The General asked politely, but in a tone that definitely wouldn't take no for an answer.

Capt. Lennox and Sgt. Epps looked at each other for a split second before turning to Daniel.

"Looks like you're nominated Junkman!" Sgt. Epps piped up with a grin that said payback was hell.

Nonplussed, the salvage operator merely shrugged, since he'd planned on speaking up anyway. Then he looked the waiting General straight in the eyes and started.

"We have a ship full of official, if unannounced allies about to land in about 65 hours give or take. We know that their com system is shot, and given the size of the ship in question, that also means that there are likely to be some casualties, cuz this thing is HUGE! We've been told that it's even bigger than a damned super tanker. We need some place to park that thing away from snooping eyes, AND we need a repair bay because not only are these guys robots, but they're big!" Daniel said after pausing for a second to gather his thoughts.

"Just how big are we talking here?" Gen. Mallory asked.

"Sir, I suggest that you might want to see that for yourself." Col. Anderson spoke up.

"And just how do you suggest I go about doing that Colonel?" Gen. Mallory shot back.

"Come on back to the hangar!" Daniel piped in grinning as he stood up.

General Mallory quickly led the way back to the hangar where the vehicles were still parked. As soon as he entered the hangar, Daniel went over and snatched up his crowbars.

"YO! Rustbucket! You ready to get a crowbar shoved up your tailpipe?" Daniel bellowed with a grin.

Barricade didn't hesitate; he transformed fast and struck a combat ready stance.

"As long as you're ready to get stepped on and squished like the little stain you are, runt!" The Decepticon shot back also grinning.

Instantly the trio of Autobots also transformed ready to break up the fight that they were certain was about to ensue.

"Awww man, not again!" Sgt. Epps complained loudly. "Can you two just cool it and get along for a FEW hours?"

This exasperated comment brought a hard look from General Mallory.

"Are you saying death threats are standard behavior with these two?" General Mallory asked Sgt. Epps.

"Yes Sir. Well, they are with him anyway." Sgt. Epps replied gesturing at Daniel.

"I can understand assigning military personnel to work with individuals like this, but what I do NOT understand, is why you are even involved. Now, would you care to enlighten me as to the reason behind your involvement?" General Mallory asked as he returned his attention back to the salvage operator.

"That's actually the easy part to explain. Since I've proven that I can fix these guys, I've been assigned to do just that, and I think I do a pretty damn good job of it too." Daniel answered with a grin.

"Yo! You can say that again little man!" Jazz piped in giving the junkyard owner a thumbs up.

"You know how to work with alien robotic technology?" General Mallory asked doubtfully.

"Yes, he does." Both Jazz and Barricade answered instantly, while Ironhide and Bumblebee were both nodding their heads.

"Well that seems to be a resounding and unanimous answer. Colonel, if you would kindly take these men back to my briefing room and provide them with whatever refreshments they'd like, I would greatly appreciate it. In the meantime, I need you and uh . . . these uh . . . individuals to come with me." General Mallory stated with the last directed at Daniel and the mechs.

"Believe it or not, they actually have genders, and these are males or the equivalent. So most of the same terms can still apply. Now, that gray one there is Jazz. The yellow and black one is Bumblebee. The black and white scrap heap is called Barricade. (The Former Decepticon growled warningly at this.) And finally, you got the big black guy named Ironhide." Daniel told the somewhat disconcerted General

The General nodded his greeting to each mech in turn, but didn't reply.

Ironhide grunted in amazement that Daniel hadn't actually introduced him as 'Tackleberry'.

Daniel had to hand it to the man. Not many people could learn about aliens and then actually meet those aliens a few minutes later and still keep their dignified composure, that the General had done just that, impressed the salvage operator.

General Mallory led Daniel and the four mechs over to a large lift at the far end of the hangar. Then he motioned them all onto the platform and set the safety gates before setting the platform to descend.

General Mallory looked over at Daniel speculatively.

"I don't suppose that you're one of the few people in the US who's NOT familiar with the rumors of the Roswell incident are you?" He finally asked.

"Ha! If you're talkin about that supposed ship full of little green men, I don't think that any civilization with the technology to successfully navigate interstellar distances without hitting some chunk of drifting rock is going to hit something as big and obvious as a damned mountain in the middle of a desert!" Daniel replied without hesitation.

Both Jazz and Bumblebee snickered at that comment.

General Mallory gave Daniel another hard look as he revised his opinion of the salvage operator.

"Well put. And you've got a point. They didn't hit a mountain, well not first anyway. Looking at our new friends here, I think that ship full of little green men as you put it, might have hit one of them." The General stated bluntly with a gesture towards the four mechs.

Needless to say that got everyone's attention fast.

"Just how bad is it messed up?" Daniel demanded before any of the mechs could respond.

"To be honest, there hasn't been any sign of function in the 62 years that we've had it in storage. Mostly we've been concentrating on reverse engineering the wrecked ship. I will say that the robot, mech, or whatever it is, has a design that is similar to your friends here, but it's also radically different as well." General Mallory answered.

"That ain't sayin a whole lot. It could just be a different type of bot. We do come in all kinds ya know. There's even some of us that can join up and combine to form one great big huge bot that can kick some major aft! So why don't ya give us a few more details so we can figure out what we might be dealing with?" Jazz put in informatively.

"What do you mean by different types?" General Mallory asked in confusion.

"Well, right here we got a large truck, a Camero, a Saleen Mustang, and a Pontiac. I have seen a rescue modified Hummer and a Peterbuilt complete with a sleeper. I've also seen one damned big ass jet that made an X-wing fighter look outdated and over rated." Daniel explained quickly.

General Mallory nodded thoughtfully as the lift continued to descend deep into the ground beneath the desert. Fifteen minutes later, the unlikely group was being led through passages that were more than large enough to accommodate Optimus Prime without difficulty or inconvenience to the large mech. The Base commander paused in front of a pair of large doors powered by hydraulics.

"Now I realize that you're not military, so you're not in my chain of command. However what is in this room is classified. The ONLY reason I'm even considering giving you access to it is because these robots here have vouched that you know how to work on them. Now before I open these doors, I want to know for a fact that you know what you're doing." General Mallory stated bluntly.

"Hey, he was able to fix me up when our own medic would have sworn it was impossible. He knows what he's doin, and whoever it is can't be much worse off than I was." Jazz spoke up in Daniel's behalf.

"I must admit that his skill at repairs have saved my life as well." Barricade added quietly.

"That's all I needed to hear." General Mallory said as he used his military ID badge to open the security doors.

The room was huge and had all kind of odds and ends, but what drew everyone's attention was the bot lying on the floor at the far end of the room. On its back and lying prone, it appeared to be a fair bit taller then Ironhide, almost as tall as Optimus. As the group approached the bot, Daniel was already checking it out to see just much damage had been done to it.

"No. Oh Primus no!" Ironhide said softly as he suddenly rushed forward.

"You know who it is?" Daniel asked when he caught up with the mech.

"It. It's my sister." Ironhide said in a forlorn tone as an expression of utter despair tore at his features.

The other three mechs had all frozen while staring at the downed fem. General Mallory closed his eyes and shook his head slightly.

"For what little it's worth, I'm sorry. It. SHE was brought here, and hasn't been moved or messed with since the collision that brought her down. The reason we haven't done anything to her is because even at this time, we still don't have anywhere near the computer technology to conduct repairs. At least as far as we know." General Mallory told the grieving mech.

Ironhide turned to look at his comrades. Jazz's expression was one of sympathy, and while the yellow scout didn't have very mobile features, his sympathy could clearly be seen shining in those blue optics. Most surprising of all to the black mech was that Barricade also had a torn look in his optics, as several emotions fought for dominance.

The large black weapons specialist looked very small and humble as he knelt down to look at Daniel.

"Please, I. I know that we've had some differences, but she's never done anything to you. You pulled off a miracle when you saved Jazz, and you did it again by saving Barricade. Please, just be able do it one more time, please that's all I ask. She's my sister." Ironhide asked in a near pleading tone.

Like many soldiers, the Autobot weapon specialist was able to look his own death straight in the face without flinching, but when it came to watching a loved one fight for their life, it was nearly too much for them to handle.

As Both Daniel and General Mallory looked up at the face of the black mech, both men would have sworn that they could see hints of tears in the glowing optics of the giant robot.

Daniel's mind raced as he tried to think of something, anything that he could say to give the alien robot some kind of hope that his sister might be able to pull through. Finally Daniel took a deep breath and stepped forward to lay a heavily callused had on the mechs arm.

"I ain't gonna make any guarantees, but I promise to give her everything I possibly can. Let me take a look at her and see just how bad it is, then, I might be able to tell you more." Daniel said quietly.

"We've got every kind of tool and piece of fabrication equipment available right here on the base. If you need it we got it. You just say the word. In the mean time, where do you want her moved so you can work on her?" General Mallory spoke up trying to help.

"I don't want her moved at all. They've got all kinds of electric servo motors that can send out a power surge if a limb is forcibly moved. I don't wanna take a chance on frying any damaged circuits with the shape she's in." Daniel said as he began to look over the damaged femme.

General Mallory nodded his head in understanding. "In that case I'll get some men down here to start clearing this other stuff out of here."

"Better yet let these four do it. I don't want any distractions that I don't need, and these guys are a hell of a lot stronger than they look." Daniel replied.

Looking over the twisted and mangled limbs, Daniel could see that whatever had hit her, had hit HARD! The armor was torn completely off on most of the torso, and what was left of the torso was bent inwards. The abdominal armor was missing completely, and there was a very large disturbing dent in the center of the forehead.

Daniel leaned down to peer up into the chest cavity through the shredded abdominal section. From this vantage Daniel could see the femme's spark. The glow from it was extremely weak and not entirely the right color. Then the glow brightened almost imperceptibly as the spark pulsed weakly.

Daniel turned around to look at Ironhide, who was busy helping to clear out the room.

"Yo. Tackleberry. Come here a minute." Daniel called out to the black mech.

Ironhide set whatever he was carrying down, and rushed over, a mixed expression of hope and dread filling his features.

"She's alive. Barely, but she's hanging in there. So don't give up on her yet, okay?" Daniel told him straight out.

Ironhide shuttered his optics and nodded in relief, too full of mixed emotions to speak at that moment.

"Let me know what you need, and I'll have it brought down. Just say the word." General Mallory spoke up.

"Let's start by raiding the motor pool for every size of vacuum hose and rubber tubing you've got. I'm also gonna need some sterile one gallon containers and a few dozen IV pumps from your infirmary, if you got one. Channel lock pliers, vise grips, hacksaw, hose clamps, crowbars, sledge hammers, bolt cutters, chop saw, and grinders for now. I can worry about welding her back together later, right now; I want to concentrate on getting some power and fuel to her systems." Daniel stated.

General Mallory walked over to an intercom and gave some quiet orders to make sure that the materials that Daniel had asked for would be gathered up and delivered quickly.

Daniel wasn't even thinking as he reached into his jacket and got out his smokes and lit one. Still walking around the downed femme, Daniel was checking her out to make certain that there was no energon leakage.

General Mallory watched the four mechs closely as they made short work of clearing stuff out of the oversized storage room. He'd noticed it when the salvage operator had lit up a smoke. But then, it was obvious to the watching officer that Daniel wasn't as nonchalant as he appeared. The General couldn't blame the man. After all, he was about to play surgeon on an alien robot built from technology that was who knew how many centuries ahead of anything earth had to offer, and with the very life of that robot on the line; General Mallory knew that anyone would be nervous.

The salvage operator had just finished his smoke when Capt. Lennox and his men entered bringing in roller carts loaded with the supplies that Daniel needed. Daniel looked over at General Mallory curiously.

"Any reason why you had them play packhorse?" Daniel asked.

"Two reasons actually. One, they already know about our new friends here, so they won't be busy rubber necking instead of getting things done. Two; they obviously have the security clearance to know about our new friends." General Mallory answered with a grin.

There was no way that Daniel could argue with that, so he let it drop. Then he looked over at Jazz, who was waiting to see if there was anything he could do to help. If fact ALL of the mechs were waiting for the same reason. Various levels of concern written on each metallic face. Understandably, Ironhide was obviously grief stricken. Barricade on the other hand looked much the same way, although no one was about to question the Decepticon about it.

"Jazz get on the radio and tell Ratchet to get his bolts in gear and get over here, cuz I'm gonna need some help with her soon." Daniel instructed.

"Don't bother, Jazz. I already asked him. He said he can't leave Figueroa without taking a chance of killing him right now." Ironhide interrupted sadly.

"Okay, Buzz Boy, Ironhide. Since there's not a lot that you two can do to help me here, I'm gonna need you two to do something else for me." Daniel said as he scratched his head almost franticly in an attempt to get his mind working in a higher gear.

At this comment, the black mech looked about ready to break.

"I can't. I can't leave her!" Ironhide protested.

"Yeah? Well ya got a choice. You can either be the one to drive like hell to go get her a fresh supply of energon, or you can wait another fifteen to eighteen hours while it gets trucked in by some of our vehicles! Now I need to know if you can snag the engine that Ratchet's using over that radio of yours." Daniel shot back.

"What does Ratchet's engine have to do with anything?" Ironhide asked confused.

"That's right you weren't there." Daniel said as he snapped his fingers in realization. "We got everybody but you a faster engine, so if you can get the specs on his, then you can get to Hoover Dam and back in about seven hours or less. Bringing me the energon that she needs. Take one of Capt. Lennox's men with you and someone from this base as well. That way you won't have any problems getting through either gate." Daniel told the distraught weapons specialist.

Then Daniel turned his attention to Bumblebee. To his credit, the yellow scout had brightened up tremendously at the prospect of being able to help in some way.

"Buzz Boy, I'm gonna need you to bring back Maigan and Mikeala. Be sure to tell them what the problem is, so they can dress appropriately. I don't need a murder charge cuz of some soldier trying to grab a looksee, but those two are damned good at what they do, and I'm gonna need their help if this gal's got any circuitry damage." Daniel instructed the scout.

"Any of my men do any gawking, and they'll be spending a lot of time scrubbing toilettes! They know better than that, and they know I expect better than that. As far as someone to ride with those two to make sure that they get back in here with no problems. I'll do that myself, since I'm off duty anyway, there can't be any dereliction charges. Col. Anderson will be on hand to make sure that anything else you need will be obtained." General Mallory said in a matter of fact tone.

"Thanks. Is he gonna be nearby in case I need to ask for something?" Daniel asked as he began rifling through the materials that had been brought in.

"I'm gonna be standing right over here out of the way, and right next to this intercom, so I can get someone to bring what you need." Col. Anderson said from the oversized doorway.

Daniel merely nodded his head as he began setting out a dozen one gallon jars, a roll of 1/4 inch rubber hose, vice grip pliers, and the bolt cutters. Looking over everything that had been brought in Daniel spotted a few things that he hadn't asked for. A pile of couplings for each size of hose that had been brought, a box of surgical gloves, a case of electrical tape, and two rolls of military duct tape.

Daniel looked at the surgical gloves for a minute. He knew that many mechanics used them to keep grime off their hands so that they could present a neat appearance to their customers, but he had no qualms about getting his hands dirty so he'd never bothered with them. Then Daniel got an idea.

Pulling out his pocket knife, Daniel grabbed a glove out of the already open box and cut the tip of the middle finger off of it. Then, Daniel grabbed a roll of electrical tape out of the case and cut a six foot length of 1/4 inch hose. Sticking one end of the hose into the middle finger of the glove, Daniel taped it up stretching the tape as he did, to form a good solid seal. Placing the wrist section of the glove on the neck of a one gallon jar, Daniel taped that up in the same manner.

"Barricade. Come on over here and have a seat." Daniel told the former Decepticon.

"What do you plan on doing?" Barricade demanded instantly.

"I'm gonna use you and Jazz as energon donors to keep her alive until I can get some skilled help in here." Daniel told him in reply.

"Why can't you use me for that? She's MY sister! If anyone should be able to give their own energon to save her it should be me!" Ironhide retorted angrily.

"Two problems with that! One, you don't have a bleeder valve installed. Two, none of these others can haul four fifty-five gallon barrels of energon! The faster you get to Hoover Dam and back, the faster she'll be up and running. Now MOVE soldier!" Daniel finished in a roar that would have done any drill sergeant proud.

The weapon specialist was grumbling as he and the yellow scout left the room, but he didn't argue with the salvage operator any further. Ironhide knew that the man had made sense, even if he didn't want to admit it.

Barricade had sat down next to the wall near the downed femme, causing Jazz to look at him curiously. There was something in the black and white mech's optics whenever he looked at the damaged femme that forestalled any comments.

Instead of saying anything, Daniel began climbing over the former Decepticon unplugging the mech's limbs.

"What are you doing that for?" Barricade demanded.

"I know for a fact that you lost over nine gallons of energon when Jackass pounded the hell out of you. I think the only reason you survived that much energon loss was because you didn't have power to your limbs. So I'm disconnecting 'em so I can drain about seven gallons of energon from you.

Seeing that Ironhide had finally listened to reason and left with Capt. Lennox, Gen. Mallory and Bumblebee; Jazz had turned his attention back to what Daniel was doing. He honestly expected Barricade to put up a fight, or at least an argument about loosing that much energon. Jazz was surprised by the mech's actions, but then he knew that the melee specialist had always had a strange sense of honor, and had even been known to kill a fellow Decepticon or two for even asking him to violate that honor.

"I have some training in field repairs, but I'm nowhere near good enough to deal with the kind of damage she has." The saboteur told Daniel.

Daniel's head snapped around to lock his gaze on the silver mech.

"So you can tell me what the vital components are, and identify which ones are damaged? Is that what you're sayin?" Daniel demanded.

"Sure, just about any bot can do that. That's basic anatomy. I'm sayin I know how to fix a busted energon line, and do basic repairs on a limb or even a few internal circuits to get a bot moving again, or keep 'em alive till they can get to a real medic." Jazz answered.

Daniel let out a breath that he didn't realize he was holding.

"Okay. Good. Get over here, and let's figure out just what vital parts are damaged. We can concentrate on those, get her up and running. Then we can work on the structural damage, busted joints and shredded armor." Daniel said in relief.

Jazz walked over and began the most thorough scan he'd ever conducted in his life. He could clearly see that most of the damage was in fact structural in nature, and that few of the internal components were damaged.

While Jazz was doing that, Daniel had opened a valve in one of Barricade's energon lines and was filling a jar from it. When that was set up, Daniel was able to turn his attention back to the saboteur.

"Well, just how bad is she?" Daniel asked cutting right to the point.

"It's bad. REAL bad! You couldn't think of a better way to kill a bot slowly. One of the wires to her regeneration system has been severed, her fuel conversion unit is crushed beyond use, and her energon processing unit is also crushed. Part of her torso armor was crushed inward and knocked her into stasis lock. Other than that, it's all structure damage. But she can't process any fuel that we put in her tanks, and she can't regulate how much energon gets into her system lines." Jazz said as he relayed the results of his scan and pointed out the damaged components.

"So if we filled her fuel tank with energon it wouldn't do any good. BUT, if we were to introduce small amounts of energon straight into her energon lines?" Daniel asked.

"That will help, but you'll have to do it slowly so you don't cause a power surge and blow out other systems." Barricade put in.

"So you know a bit about field repairs too?" Jazz asked the black and white mech.

"No. I'm only familiar with some of the THEORY behind it. There's a world of difference there. For example. In theory it's possible to attach one of Prime's arms on a bot your size." Barricade explained.

"But in PRACTICE? Yeah, you're gonna need to beef up the struts, bracing and the hydraulics, and that's not even touching the problems it would cause with balance, You'd have to install one hell of a gyroscopic unit to keep him on his feet, either that or he'd have to use that arm as a crutch." Daniel burst in.

Both mechs had to chuckle at the image that suggestion sent through their processors, but neither of them had their spark in it.

Finally, Jazz could stand it no more. He had to know why a mech as notoriously selfish and outright hateful as Barricade was willing to help get this fem fixed up.

"Can I ask why you're willin ta help save her life?" Jazz asked.

Barricade narrowed his optics at the saboteur, wondering just what the mech might know, and how he might have found out. Then he noticed Daniel watching as both the human and the Autobot waited for the answer. Barricade avoided looking at the downed femme; instead he looked over at Daniel before turning his attention back to Jazz.

"On two separate occasions that human has saved my life. I owe him something that I don't know if I'll ever be able to repay." Barricade said quietly.

Knowing just how he thought the former Decepticon felt, Jazz nodded in understanding. The human was strange, there was no doubt about that, but there was no denying that he was good at what he did. Jazz wasn't sure just how he could repay the strange little human for saving his life, and although he'd agreed to watch over the man's niece, Jazz felt that it wasn't enough.

Slag me for scrap! If I feel like this, even after he gave me a way to repay him, how does Barricade feel, when he owes the man his life twice over, and just how the pit do you repay something like THAT? Jazz thought.

Daniel hadn't stopped what he was doing to listen to the conversation. He was busy setting up four of the IV pumps. As soon as the one gallon jar was full of energon, Daniel shut off the valve and disconnected the hose. Then he grabbed another surgical glove, cut the tips off all the fingers including the thumb, and began using it to replace the one that had been used to fill the jar. Then Daniel cut five more lengths of ¼ inch hose and taped them into the fingers the same way he had when filling the jar.

Instead of trying to find a way to plug the ¼ inch hose into the IV pumps, Daniel cut the lines from the IV bags and wedged them into the open ends of the hoses. The fifth hose he taped to the side of the jar as an air intake valve. Then Daniel grabbed the roll of military duct tape and taped the jar to one of the IV stands.

With the IV pumps and energon ready to go, Daniel went over to the damaged femme with a load of tools, and a short length of ½ inch hose. He kinked off the return energon line to the spark, cut it with the bolt cutters, and quickly spliced in the ½ inch hose. Then he unkinked the energon line. Daniel went and rolled the IV pumps over, and connected the needles, then, he stuck all four needles into the ½ inch hose that he'd spliced into the energon line that went straight to the femme's spark.

"Here's hoping she's still got some fight left in her!" Daniel said as he started up one of the IV pumps.

Daniel leaned down to watch the femme's spark closely. He had no clue that both mechs were scanning the femme at the highest resolution they were capable of. The glow of the spark brightened noticeably as soon as the fresh energon reached it. Daniel let out a sigh of relief, and he could have sworn that he'd heard both mechs do the same.

"Okay! So far, so good. Now let's see if we can turn up the flow." Daniel said to himself as he began increasing the flow rate on the first IV pump.

"Jazz, how's she holding up?" Daniel asked with obvious concern in his tone.

"Hah! She's doin just fine man! I wouldn't have thought of doin it that way, but it's workin great! With fresh power she'll be able to last until Ratchet can get here." Jazz replied happily.

"Hate to break it to you, but I don't plan on letting her lay here that long." Daniel said as he started up the other three IV pumps. Then he set all four pumps to their highest flow rate. At that setting, Daniel knew that it would be at least a half an hour before he could hook up a second jar.

"Okay, now let's start getting the rest of these jars filled up. That'll take a good thirty minutes to get pumped into her, so that gives me time to gather the rest of what she needs for now." The salvage operator informed them.

Forty-five minutes later, Daniel had placed both Jazz and Barricade into stasis lock and obtained all of the energon he needed. He now had twelve IV pumps pouring a total of nine gallons of energon into the damaged femme's lines. He knew that there were only a few things left to do.

"Col. I'm pretty much at a stand still here until they get back, so if you want to lock the door and take a break and deal with whatever it is that you normally do, then you go right ahead." Daniel told the OOD.

Colonel Anderson looked around at the storage room that was empty with the exception of three mechs, the salvage operator, and the equipment that he was using to work on them. He decided that there wasn't any trouble the man could get into if he was locked in, so the OOD took him up on his offer so he could grab a quick lunch at the mess hall.

Daniel had sat down against a wall and lit a smoke. But no sooner had the Colonel locked the doors to the storage room, than Daniel was on his feet stomping out his smoke and rushing over to the damaged femme.

Daniel planned to work fast. He knew that he had about an hour or less to do what he needed to do. He shut down the femme's pain receptors and then grabbed the bolt cutters and a crowbar. It took him a good twenty minutes to cut and pry the torso armor far enough away from the femme's neck juncture so that he could bring her out of stasis lock. Then Daniel got down on his belly on top of the femme and reached in to see if he could reconnect the severed wire to her regeneration unit.

Daniel could see both ends of the severed wire, but he couldn't splice it without dismantling half the torso first. Daniel decided to grab both ends and see if he could hold them in contact long enough for them to do some good.

The salvage operator would have sworn that he'd just grabbed the number one plug wire to a V-8! Agonizing jolts of electricity ran up his arm and into his shoulder. But the second that he'd grabbed the ends of that wire, the femme's spark brightened up so much that he decided to hold on.

Daniel couldn't have said how long he'd been holding onto that wire that was pounding the hell out of him. All he knew was that his left arm had long since gone numb. Then he got another shock, but it wasn't electrical.

"What. You. Doing?"

The salvage operator glanced up at the femme's face and saw that she was online and looking at him with somewhat dim optics.

"You speak English?" Daniel asked surprised.

"Some. Little. Learn from radio." She replied.

"I'm trying to do repairs. Try to get your fuel systems fixed." Daniel told her tiredly.

"Not able. Must replace." She answered.

"I know I'm gonna regret this." Daniel muttered to himself. Then he spoke to Starglide. "Then concentrate on fixing your repair system." Daniel told her as he gritted his teeth in anticipation of an even stronger jolt.

Daniel watched as the fem shuttered her optics, but the expected jolt never came.

When the optics opened back up they were just a shade brighter.

"Who you?" She asked.

Daniel couldn't help but notice the note of concern in her voice. He knew he'd be concerned too if he'd waken up to find some strange alien with their arm shoved into his guts.

"My name's Daniel. I'm a friend of Ironhide." He told her after thinking fast.

The look of relief on the femme's face told Daniel that he'd said exactly the right thing at the right time.

"I name Star. Starglide." She answered trying to smile.

"Okay, you can't work on the fuel systems, so why don't you try to recharge, I think that's what Ratchet called it, and conserve your power. I'll hang onto this blasted wire for as long as I can. In the meantime, I got more help on the way, so you just relax and hang in there. As for what happened, all I know is that you hit something, or it hit you. You been lying in a storage room for a long time. I shut off your pain receptors and almost all your joints are shot, so don't try to move." Daniel told her trying to fill her in on things, even if he wasn't sure if she could understand him very well.

There was a sound which was suspiciously like a sigh of relief as the femme's optics shuttered again.

Then next thing Daniel knew, he was being forcibly jerked around.

"What the fragging pit are you doing to her?" Ironhide bellowed in rage when he finally got the human's attention.

"I was using my hand as a connection to get her regeneration system going." Daniel told the mech as he examined his left arm which was an angry red and completely numb.

Instead of waiting for the weapons specialist to respond, Daniel went over to Barricade and reconnected his limbs and brought him out of stasis lock, before doing the same to Jazz.

Ironhide knew that there was something wrong with Daniel's arm. The red color wasn't supposed to be there, and the arm was hanging limply at the human's side.

"I. When I asked you to help her, I didn't mean for you to risk getting yourself killed." The black mech finally replied in a flat tone. Then he asked the question that was nearly burning his processors.

"Is she going to be alright?" Ironhide asked nearly praying to Primus that the human had been able to pull off one more miracle.

"Yeah, I'd like ta know the answer to that too!" Jazz said as he got up.

Daniel didn't answer either mech. Instead, he went over to Starglide and rapped lightly on her forehead with his right hand.

"Hey Lady! Ya got some visitors!" Daniel said when she unshuttered her optics.

Four mechs and nearly two dozen humans were instantly by the femme's side.

Starglide looked up at Ironhide and emitted a burst of Cybertronian. The black mech answered in the same language.

Daniel felt his skin crawl at the sound of their language.

"Ok y'all gotta stop that! It sounds like you're dragging a hacksaw blade across a chalkboard while tryin ta harmonize with a cat fight." Daniel complained.

"Oh, you just HAD to say something like that didn't you?" Sgt. Epps griped, shuddering as he felt his own skin crawl.

Starglide whose attention had been focused only on her brother to this point looked around. Her optics widened in surprise when she spotted Barricade.

Suddenly there was the sound of whining hydraulics, straining motors, and grinding metal as Starglide whipped out a very large weapon and pointed it straight at Barricade's face.

"Ca. Can you give me one decent reason as to why I should not offline you right now, Decepticon?" She asked with that final word dripping with more scorn than anyone should have been able to pour into a single word.

Barricade didn't flinch, nor did he move. The mech's optics were looking straight into the optics of the femme.

"I was on my way home, and I was even early for once. I saw the shattered and smoking remains of my home, and I saw this one particular Autobot dragging away the bodies of my creators. I thought he was the one who had killed them, and I joined the opposing faction so that I might avenge the deaths of my creators." Barricade said simply never taking his optics away from hers.

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that you thought my own BROTHER had killed me?" Starglide demanded angrily.

"Wait a minute! YOU'RE Cavalcade?!" Maigan burst out.

Instantly all optics and eyes locked onto the female teen.

"Where did you hear that name?" Barricade demanded.

"Ironhide told me and Daniel about you. He thought you were killed when Shockwave and Thunder something or other destroyed your home." Maigan answered.

Barricade turned to look at both Ironhide and his sister for confirmation of the human's words.

Suddenly all three bots were carrying on an in depth conversation in Cybertronian. Daniel decided that it might be best to let them work things out on their own, but there was one thing he was going to insist on.

Daniel eased his way past Ironhide and put his hand on Starglide's arm that was still pointing her sniper cannon in Barricade's face. The arm began to lower accompanied by the whine of several servo motors.

"What are you doing?" Starglide asked the human.

"Putting your arm down. For one thing, you don't need the stress on your support structure, and for another, you don't really have the spare power to fire that thing off anyway. And third, if anybody's gonna send that heap of scrap back to my junkyard, it's gonna be me." Daniel quipped.

"My creation is NOT a heap of scrap!" Starglide protested weakly.

"He was when I found him! He was in worse shape than you are as a matter of fact." Daniel quipped as he prepared to splice into one of the energon lines in her arm.

Quickly repeating the process he'd done earlier, the salvage operator made short work of installing a short length of hose complete with a T coupling in it and another short length of hose that was kinked off to allow it to be used as a bleeder valve. He was working with one arm and hand completely numb, but with the back injury that he'd lived with, he was used to that happening, so he knew how to watch what he was doing.

"Even if he was damaged when you found him, that still does not entitle you to call him a heap of scrap." Starglide said as she looked over at her creation.

"Hah! Don't let it bother you. The rotted out little wad of flesh is glitched in his processors, IF he even has any processing abilities." Barricade told her with a grin that clearly showed the deadly dagger like teeth that filled his mouth.

Starglide wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she kept silent. But she made sure to keep an optic on the two.

Daniel had grabbed an empty jar and was now filling it with energon that he was draining from Starglide.

"Why are you draining her energon? She doesn't have enough power as it is, and you're taking her energon!" Ironhide demanded in a rage.

Daniel started to make one of his typical smart assed comments, but for some strange reason thought better of it.

"She can only hold so much in those lines of hers, and I do NOT want to take a chance on rupturing one, because of over pressure." Daniel told the irate mech.

"Primus! That energon is nearly completely depleted! How did ya manage ta get her online like that?" Jazz asked as he looked at what was being drained.

"It took a while to take effect, but all of the fresh stuff is going straight to her spark and other vital systems. I wanted to get her online as soon as possible, so we could find out what else might be wrong with her." Daniel answered.

Daniel then used a dolly to roll a barrel of energon closer to the damaged femme. Then he stopped the IV pumps and disconnected the hoses from the nearly empty jars of energon and fed them into one of the full barrel of fresh energon that Ironhide had brought in. That taken care of Daniel restarted the IV pumps and stepped back.

"I don't suppose anyone brought my ice chest down did they?" Daniel asked dubiously as he looked around.

It was Mikeala who pointed out where Maigan had put it down. With a nod of thanks, Daniel went over, opened it up, and grabbed a Java Russian.

Daniel had just finished a long draught of his energy drink when someone cleared their throat behind him to get his attention. Daniel turned around to face General Mallory.

"She seems to be working, so now what do you need to do in order to get her fully repaired?" The General asked him.

"Well, we still gotta get Ratchet down here, because she's gonna need a few systems replaced, and a lot of parts are probably gonna have to be either melted down and reforged, or reformed one way or another. So we're gonna need to bring in some spare parts. In the mean time, I suppose that thirty gallons of WD-40 might do her some good, along with a few tubes from a grease gun. But trying to fix that busted armor and torso of hers is gonna be the fun part." Daniel answered.

"What is this WD-40 that you plan to use on my sister?" Ironhide demanded.

Daniel sighed in exasperation. "WD-40 stands for Water Displacement formula 40. It was developed by DOW chemicals specifically for use by the military to loosen rusted parts, prevent corrosion, and it's a penetrating lubricant for frozen hinges or joints. It's all natural and it's made of fish oil." Daniel answered.

"There is no WAY I'm letting you use that slagging stuff on my sister!" Ironhide said in disgust.

"What? You'd prefer that I use a petroleum product made from the remains of dinosaurs that died and rotted out over sixty-five million years ago, and still won't be half as effective as fresh fish oil? What do you think I put in your tanks the other day? We need to get her fixed up and that's the best stuff for the job. Now we are going to get started on her armor and get her rebuilt." Daniel shot back.

"And YOU aren't going to be doing any of that! You saved her life and got her working again, Great. Pat yourself on the back, and go away. All she needs now, is some TLC, which is something you don't know anything about, so me and Mikeala are going to work on her from here on out, so you won't be calling her a scrap heap or something similar." Maigan ordered.

"He'd better not call my creator by any such names!" Barricade ground out angrily as his objection was seconded by Ironhide.

Daniel turned to face the black and white mech with an irritated expression written all over his face.

"First of all. You ARE a pile of scrap! You were scrap when I found you, and you're scrap now. We even rebuilt you out of scrap. Scrap plus scrap; equals SCRAP! Always has, always will. Nothin you can do about it." Daniel told him with an evil grin. "Now you're mother, on the other hand, is what you might call a CLASSIC design! This means that while she might get old, she might get beat up and banged up, she will ALWAYS be a classic, which means that she'll always be a RESTORE project. Unlike you." Daniel finished with an even wider grin.

Barricade growled deeply in angry frustration. The former Decepticon wasn't sure whether to step on the human for insulting him, or thank him for complementing his creator in such a way.

Ironhide and several humans were laughing at that one, while Daniel had turned his attention back to Starglide, who was glaring at him.

"I do not appreciate the manner in which you are treating my creation, even if he is a Decepticon!" Starglide told him angrily.

"Would you prefer that I hit him in the head with a crow bar?" Daniel quipped back.

"Try it! I DARE you!" Barricade snarled before Starglide could respond.

Daniel shrugged and walked over to a roller cart and snatched up a two foot crow bar, before walking back to Barricade who had bent down and lowered his head.

CLANG!

The sound of the crowbar hitting the mech on the top of his head echoed through the entire room. It was quickly followed by the sound of that same crow bar hitting the floor.

To the complete amazement of everyone watching, both the human and the mech were instantly on their knees rubbing frantically at their heads. Daniel was seeing more stars than he would have believed possible, while Barricade was seeing much the same thing. Starglide could only stare in horrified shock as she watched what was happening

"Son of a BITCH!! That fuggin hurt!" Daniel exclaimed while still trying to rub the pain away.

"What the frag did you dare him for? Haven't you realized how glitched he is yet?" Ironhide demanded sarcastically while trying not to laugh.

"I didn't think the little slagger would actually do it! Not THAT hard anyway." Barricade lamented rubbing at his aching cranial plates while staring at the now slightly bent crow bar.

"Holy shit. It feels like I'm the one that got conked in the head with that thing!" Daniel complained.

"Yeah, now ya know how I felt the other day!" Sgt. Epps piped up, unable to resist the shot.

"That's the one major drawback of any type of spark bond. What one feels, so does the other. So don't you ever forget that, you little slime puddle." Barricade stated with relish.

"Oh, don't you worry about that, you over grown clunker! I'm definitely gonna remember this, and payback's a BITCH!" Daniel shot back wincing as he still rubbed at his head.

"How? How did you form a bond with a human? And WHY would you form a bond with a human?" Starglide asked in shocked surprise.

"Apparently it happened by accident while Daniel was in the process of trying to save Barricade's life. All I know is that when we found them, Barricade had been shot to pieces by Megatron, and Daniel was wedged into his spark chamber trying to splice some severed wiring." Ironhide interrupted.

"Are you a Decepticon still?" Starglide asked Barricade.

"No, you might say that my discharge was rather permanent and irrevocable." Barricade said ruefully.

"Then why are you still wearing the emblem of those that killed your mech creator?" Starglide demanded angrily.

"Because there was no way that I was going to join the Autobots without one slagging good reason, when I thought Ironhide was responsible for your deaths!" Barricade replied even as the Decepticon emblem faded from sight on his door wings.

"Well now. Let me see if I got this straight. You two each thought that the other was dead, and scrap heap here blamed his own uncle for killing his you and his father. What a crazy, screwed up family I've gotten mixed up in." Daniel said with a shake of his head.

"Oh, like you're one to talk!" Maigan shot back instantly.

"Exactly! It looks like I'm right where I belong, don't it!" Daniel exclaimed with a huge grin.

Every human in the room who had dealt with the salvage operator for any length of time started laughing uproariously while several of the mechs joined in.

Daniel walked over and knelt down next to Starglide so that he could peer into her abdominal cavity to look at her spark. Seeing that it was now nearly the color and brightness that it was supposed to be, Daniel knew that they could start on the rest of the repair process.

"Kiddo, Mikeala. Let's see if we can get these armor panels off of her so we can start rebuilding the rest of her." Daniel said as he got to his feet.

"Once my armor panels are removed and my joints repaired, I can revert to my protoform if that will help any." Starglide suggested trying to help.

"What's a protoform?" Daniel asked a little puzzled.

"Our protoform is our basic chassis. Almost a bare frame with no extra parts on it. Limbs, torso, and head; that's it." Ironhide answered.

Daniel looked down at Starglide, back at Ironhide, then back at Starglide again with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"I hate to say it, but that might make things a lot easier. But uh. . . I'm kinda getting a nasty feeling about that suggestion!" Daniel said after thinking it over.

"And just what feeling would that be?" Barricade demanded not liking the tone in the human's voice.

"Well, I'm getting the impression that it'd be similar to strippin one of these girls down to their birthday suits right here in front of everybody!" Daniel explained.

"That is exactly what it would be like, for her." Bumblebee put in.

"In that case. You four, OUT! NOW!" Daniel ordered without hesitating.

There were several loud protests from both Ironhide and Barricade, but Daniel wasn't having any of it. He found himself forcibly backed up by both of the two teen females that were in the room.

As the four mechs were leaving the room, Ironhide could help but voice one last appeal.

"What if you run in to something that you can't handle?" The weapons specialist demanded.

"Then I'll wait till Ratchet gets here and HE can deal with it!" Daniel retorted angrily.

"That goes for you guys too! Go on, out!" Daniel said pointing at the various soldiers. "If we need something, we'll come to the door to get it." He finished firmly.

"I swear he's as bad as Ratchet! Are ALL medics like that?" Ironhide grumbled as he left the room.

"Yeah, Buddy. Pretty much. Our doctors are like that too." Capt. Lennox answered with a chuckle.

"Just to let you know. The only reason I'm letting you throw me out of a part of my own base is because this is a medical situation." General Mallory said from the doorway.

"And that's the only reason I'm doing it." Daniel answered.

"Why did you have to throw them out?" Starglide asked when the doors had closed.

Daniel cocked his left eyebrow at the damaged femme as he looked her over.

"One, because you ALWAYS show a lady respect. Two, even as messed up as you are right now, you deserve to keep as much of your dignity as possible. And three, I ain't running no damned peep show! If they want ta see you buck nekkid, then they're gonna have to wait until you WANT them to see you buck nekkid!" Daniel answered bluntly.

Both Mikeala and Maigan snickered at that. Then the three of them got to work. Ratchet would have been impressed with both the efficiency and the teamwork that was used as the trio removed the various armor panels. While Mikeala didn't know much of anything about hydraulics, she DID know how certain things were built, and supposed to work. That gave her a distinct advantage over Maigan whose forte was electronics. On the other hand Maigan had made herself useful with precise use of the cutting torch. Her cuts were neat, and exactly where they were needed to get the job done. Both Daniel, and Mikeala could cut and weld, but Maigan's steady hand and experience at micro soldering made her an expert at it. Daniel was putting his strength to use with the crow bars, while Mikeala put the hand held chop saw to work.

An hour and a half later, the team was taking a short break before getting ready to start working on the joints. Mikeala had just come back in the door with a roller cart loaded with six one gallon jugs of WD-40, a pair of grease guns, several tubes of putty grease, diet soda, Red Bull energy drinks and a large plate of sandwiches.

The two girls wasted no time in helping themselves to a bite to eat. Daniel ignored his growling stomach, while he grabbed a jug of WD-40 and began pouring it on Starglide's joints. Daniel knew that he was probably being a little too liberal with the stuff, but then; he figured it was a case of too much still might not be enough. Once he had all her joints thoroughly drenched, he went over and grabbed a sandwich for himself.

The three humans were hungrily chowing down when they became aware of a strange sound coming from Starglide. All three of them turned to look over at her.

"Is there something wrong?" Mikeala asked apprehensively.

"No, not at all. It's just that there is the most delightful smell coming from somewhere, and I can't seem to figure out what it is." Starglide answered while sniffing the air vigorously.

Daniel walked over and held both a sandwich and the Red Bull close to her. "Is it one of these?" He asked her.

"No. It's much stronger than that and more appealing as well." She answered with a slight grimace.

With that answer, all three humans knew right away what the femme was referring to. Daniel scooped a bit of WD-40 up with the tip of his right index finger and held it close to the femme's face.

"That's it! That's what I've been smelling. What is that wonderful smelling substance?" Starglide asked happily.

"That would be WD-40; a mechanics best friend. It makes parts move like their supposed to, and it even helps keep your skin soft." Mikeala answered quickly.

"Wait. THAT'S the lubricant that you used one me?!" Starglide demanded in surprise.

"Uh yeah. Why, do you not want us to use it?" Maigan asked uncertainly.

"Oh, no. Go right ahead. It's just that it smells like something one bot would use to attract another, for possible spark bonding." Starglide answered readily but with slight embarrassment.

The two girls were instantly giggling and laughing as they thought of the implications of that one, while Daniel was shaking his head ruefully.

"What are the odds that a robot from another world would consider WD-40 to be some type of cologne." Daniel muttered in wonder.

Shortly after that the three humans were back working on Starglide. Each of them would switch off for an occasional break, either for the bathroom, or in the case of Daniel and Maigan a smoke break. The team worked steadily, but carefully; making excellent use of Starglide's diagnostic routines as they went.

They had completely lost all track of time while they were working. So it was with some surprise that they heard the whine of hydraulics as the doors to the room began to open. Daniel immediately snatched up a crow bar and began storming towards the door, ready to bust someone up, when Ratchet walked in.

"Oh! It's you. Come on in Bones!" Daniel said as he lowered the crow bar.

"What were you planning on doing with that?" Ratchet asked as he saw the ever present weapon of choice in the salvage operator's hand.

"It was gonna be used as a very convincing reason to stay out of here while the lady is indisposed, and not properly ready to receive company." Daniel replied with a grin and a nod in the direction of Starglide.

Ratchet couldn't help it. The medic burst out laughing when he heard that. Daniel was a human after his own spark. Protect the privacy of the patient; with force if needed.

Then Ratchet took his first look at his new patient, and his jaw dropped open. Starglide was sitting up in her protoform while the two girls were welding parts of her torso supports back into place.

"Primus! You've just about got her repaired, and here I thought from the scan that Ironhide sent me, that I'd have a dead, or nearly dead bot on my hands when I got here." Ratchet exclaimed in surprise.

"Yeah well, we got lucky with the fact that I had both Barricade and Jazz along for the ride. Without being able to snag some of that energon from them, she wouldn't be anywhere close to being up and running." Daniel replied.

"How bad was the energon leakage?" Ratchet asked when he spotted the still active IV pumps.

"There wasn't any, luckily. But the stuff she had was nearly depleted, and pretty much useless, so I gave her an immediate transfusion from Jazz and Barricade. She says that her fuel converter is shot and unrepairable, along with her energon regulator. So I'm keeping the transfusion going and using her diagnostic computer to know when to drain off some of the excess. Other than those two systems, it was mostly structural damage, so we got the armor off and started on the joints and any other problems we could find." Daniel reported.

"Humpf! Good work, all of you." Ratchet said in approval as he made a quick scan to see for himself if there was anything the crazed human had missed. Then he caught a whiff of the air.

"What the slag did you do, douse her in perfume? With her stuck in her protoform? Do you have any idea what that can cause? Every bot, femme and mech alike, from here to Cybertron and back will be trying to rip her chest plates open to spark bond with her!" Ratchet bellowed.

"It's a LUBRICANT! I can't help the way it smells! I needed it to get the job done, so that's what I used! If ya don't like it, then there's the door. Don't let it hit you in the ass on your way out!" Daniel shot back angrily.

"Show me! I want to see the lubricant that smells like THAT!" Ratchet demanded.

Mikeala wordlessly walked over and offered the medic a spray bottle filled with WD-40, she also handed up an empty jug of it for the medic to examine. Ratchet checked the contents of the bottle against the residue in the original container, then he read the entire label.

"Humpf! What are the odds that a human lubricant could be used as cologne on Cybertron?" The medic wondered aloud.

"That's exactly what he said!" Maigan exclaimed as she gave her uncle a weird look.

Ratchet didn't say anything in response; instead he began pulling the spare components that he'd brought with him out of subspace.

With Ratchet's expertise there to guide and help, the job went that much faster. The replacement systems were installed in short order. After that, Ratchet downloaded the specs of Starglide's alt mode from her and began calling out the measurements needed for armor panels, while Maigan cut them, Ratchet checked them to make sure the cuts were spot on, Daniel held them, and Mikeala welded the panels into place.

Though long tedious and tiring, the job was made much easier by the team effort. The efficiency with which everyone did their part had both the notoriously grumpy medic and the ornery salvage operator, cutting up and being generally pleasant for a change.

Five and a half hours after he got there, Ratchet nodded in satisfaction.

"I do not want to see or even HEAR of you transforming for at least a Terran week! Those joints of yours haven't been lubricated or even moved in nearly a vorn. I want you in your standard form and moving around as much as possible, to integrate your own natural lubrication into those joints. That stuff the humans came up with is good, but your own fluids are far better." Ratchet lectured her.

As the medic was leaving the room, Mikeala turned to the femme and whispered.

"Don't take it personally, he gripes everyone out. Usually it's a LOT worse than that!" Mikeala told her.

Musical sounding laughter erupted from the now repaired femme.

"Oh, yes. I'm very familiar with Ratchet's quirks, as you might call them. So I KNOW how bad he can get." Starglide replied just as quietly, not wanting to let Mikeala know that the medic could easily hear them.

As the group walked out of the storage room, they could see Capt. Lennox and the men from his team crowded around a man in a wheel chair. The Hispanic was proudly showing off his legs, but when he extended one of them while explaining something, Ratchet came unglued.

"PUT THAT LEG DOWN YOU PIT SPAWNED SLAGGER! I didn't just spend hours telling the laws of natural science and biology to kiss my aft by regenerating your legs from nothing more than pair of mangled stumps so that you could snap those partially formed bones by showing off!" Ratchet bellowed. "I don't want you to MOVE those legs for at least twenty-four hours! Do you understand me?"

General Mallory snapped his attention up to the electric green decorated medic.

"Am I to understand that those legs were completely amputated?" The General asked in amazement.

Upon seeing the round of affirmative nods from the men, General Mallory turned a nasty glare on Figueroa.

"I'm not sure just how much trouble he had in accomplishing what we would see as impossible, but I can tell you this. If I hear of you moving or using those legs against his orders, I will personally see to it that you will spend the next thirty years scrubbing every last nasty latrine on every military base with your personal toothbrush! Have I made myself clear, Soldier?" General Mallory spoke in such a quiet, but deadly serious tone, that even Ratchet wasn't sure he wanted to frag this officer off.

It was at that point that everyone realized that Ratchet was standing there instead of working on Starglide. The medic was immediately besieged with such a huge barrage of questions that the medic was very glad it wasn't weapons fire. As fast as the questions were flying, it became so silent that one could have heard an infant breathing when the femme stepped from the room and into the hallway. Nearly everyone was speechless as they looked at her. Everyone except general Mallory, that is.

"Ma'am, as the commanding officer of this base, I would like to officially welcome you to Nellis Air Force base. I am sad to say that our hospitality up to this point has been severely lacking, but I would enjoy the opportunity to make it up to you. So if there is anything you need or would like in the way of amenities, please feel free to let me know." General Mallory said with a pleasantly warm and welcoming smile.

Starglide couldn't resist flashing a genuine smile of her own as she knelt down to better face the human officer.

"Thank you. I appreciate that. About the only thing I need right now is a bit of energon to put in my tank and a paint job." She replied.

The first request was filled instantly when Daniel tapped her leg and handed her a one gallon jug of the energon from the supply that Ironhide had brought. He had planned on trying something with the stuff, but changed his mind when the femme had spoken up.

"Thank you." She said with a smile.

"Ma'am, the men in the motor pool can help with the paint job, but I'm not entirely sure that military drab would be entirely to your liking. Are there any particular colors that you prefer?" General Mallory replied.

At that moment an image appeared in front of them. The projection was only seven feet tall, but it was clearly an image of the femme currently in their company. Colored in rose pink, light grey, and chrome; the image of the femme that was being projected was smiling beautifully at the observers. The vision of mechanical loveliness that stood there in the projection was vastly different from the dull metal grey of the actual femme that stood with them.

"Those colors, she prefers those colors." Barricade said softly as he shut off the projection.

"Colonel. I want you to send someone into Vegas. Tell 'em to pick up a dozen gallons of ten different shades of pink, five gallons of red, five gallons of white, five gallons of grey, and ten gallons of chrome paint. This lovely lady here; would like to look her best." General Mallory ordered.

"Since I'm off duty now, I'll do it myself. What about the paperwork?" Col. Anderson asked without hesitation.

"Can you cover it? If you can I'll reimburse you out of my own pocket." General Mallory replied.

At that moment every member of Capt. Lennox's team was digging in their BDUs (Battle Dress Uniforms) for their wallets.

"Here! Put it on my credit card. It's the least I can do after getting my legs back." Sgt. Figueroa said proudly. Before he started rattling off a spate of Spanish that no one understood.

Capt. Lennox put his hand on the Hispanic's shoulder and leaned closer.

"Fig. Fig, how many times we gotta tell ya man? Nobody understands that stuff." He said with a grin.

"Now see, I'd like to know why we didn't get that kind of welcome." Daniel said to Sgt. Epps in an offhand manner.

"We woulda got that kinda reception if you'd have let US do the talking!" Sgt. Epps shot back irritatedly.

"The Lady here got that kind of reception, because she is a lady. YOU got the reception that you did because you are a pain in the rear!" General Mallory said after overhearing the two comments.

Daniel shook his head in disgust and went back into the storage room to grab his jacket and ice chest. He was cracking open the last of his Java Monsters when Ratchet scanned him.

Ratchet growled deep in his chest as he got the results of his scan.

"Now Bones, before you start your bitchin. My arm is gonna be just fine in a day or two. So it's no big deal. I got her repair systems working, so it was worth it." Daniel said with a grin.

"You, recharge NOW!" Ratchet demanded angrily as he stared down at the salvage operator.

"That's exactly what I'm doing!" Daniel said with a huge grin as he held aloft the last of his Java Russians.

Faster than Daniel could react, Ratchet reached down, snatched the energized coffee drink from Daniel's hand, and crushed it. The sound that emerged from the medic as his dental plates ground against each other was one that sent chills up the spines of everyone present human and bot alike.

The only individual present that wasn't intimidated by the sight of the irate medic, was the more than slightly crazed salvage operator. Not having a crow bar handy for once, Daniel reached into his back pocket and pulled out his pocket knife. With a flick of his wrist, the blade was open and ready for business.

"You'd better have one damned good reason for doin that. Cuz if ya don't I'm gonna slash every last damned tire you got in a dozen places!" Daniel said as he got pissed and stepped forward to fight.

"My reasons for it are none of your slagging business! I told you to recharge and that means for you to find someplace to get some SLEEP! That means NOW, slagger!" Ratchet said as he took up his own combat stance.

Author's notes: Can you say cliffhanger? If you want to find out how the fight goes and who's going to win, then you'll have to read the next chapter, which is coming soon! :-)