Chapter 17: The Allspark-Part One

Out searching in the Grand Canyon, Arcee, Windblade, and Drift were searching high and low in ever corner for the cube but had had no luck as usual.

"Still no sign of the Allspark. Are you sure Jazz didn't miscalculate the cube's location?" Arcee asked as she searched each crack of the rock wall.

"Trust me, Arcee. Jazz had the scanners locked on the Allspark's exact whereabouts prior to us making landfall here," Drift, who was practicing his sword fighting while searching, said.

Windblade nodded. "The reason why we can't find it right away is because the Allspark cut off its signature as a safety precaution. We just have to not give up, that's all," she said.

It wasn't that Arcee wanted to give up on finding the Allspark; it was just that she had been spending less time with her daughter more than usual and it was sadly obvious that she went on solo missions to relieve her anger towards Miko's foster parents. Arcee knew that Miko hadn't told her everything that she should have told her, but Miko was hiding it from her to keep her from getting mad. Arcee talked to Windblade about the situation as she wanted to know everything that her daughter was keeping from her and Windblade knew exactly what to do and say to comfort her friend, suggesting she give the teenage girl some more time. To go from being a foster child to adopted was a big change and for one that had been in a bad situation prior to being adopted, trust was a big thing. While Miko trusted Arcee as her mother and told her some things, she wouldn't tell her everything right away. It would take time to build up more of that trust. Arcee agreed that that made sense, thankful to her friend for helping her work it out.

"Alright you three, head back to base. We go back to searching next week," said Ratchet gently.

"Activate the groundbridge please, Ratchet," Drift said through his comlink.

While entering the base with empty hands, Arcee instantly spotted Jack and Raf seated on the couch playing on the Xbox One X, but she didn't see her daughter. "Where's my baby girl at?" Arcee asked in concern as it wasn't like her daughter to not be at the base after school. To see that she wasn't made the blue femme greatly concerned.

Both Jack and Raf stopped playing their game and were worried about telling Arcee on what had happened earlier. Seeing this, the femmes grew a bit more worried.

"Raf? Tell Mama, where's Miko?" Windblade asked with a hand on her hip and sweet smile.

With her looking at him like that, Raf couldn't help but spill the information as his guardian mom was putting on her sweet charms and he loved her too much to keep something serious a secret for too long. "Miko is in after-school detention for fighting Sierra and breaking her arm," he said, a little scared on Arcee's reaction.

With Arcee's right eyebrow raise in shock, Jack took out his phone and pulled up the video one student had posted on the internet. "Sierra said some hurtful things to Miko and Miko tried to walk away from the situation, but then Sierra initiated the fight and...well...Miko fought back and broke Sierra's arm," he said, turning the phone around so that the others could see the video.

"Let me go, you stupid orphan! Or I'll really make you regret it!" Came Sierra's voice as they saw she was struggling to get away from Miko.

"No! And this is for for calling me an orphan!" Came Miko's voice.

A loud snap that made the boys wince echoed and Arcee saw Miko using the exact same move that she did with Windblade for training. "And that's why I didn't want Miko watching me fight like that, because I knew that she's going to use it one day," she said. While she was proud that her daughter had defended herself, she was upset about the whole thing too.

Jack cleared his throat as he put his phone away. "They wanted you to pick her up form school, but...," he trailed off.

"But what?" Drift asked, sensing concern from the boy.

"Miko isn't there anymore," the teenage boy said softly.

"W...W...What?! My daughter is missing?!" Arcee yelled with utter worry in her voice. She went to speed-dialing her daughter, but kept getting her voice mail and her text messages were ignored too.

"Arcee?" Windblade asked, worried for her best friend as she had never seen her so worried and stressed out before. But since she was now a mom, it was all completely natural.

"Oh, Allspark! She might think I'm going to beat her for getting into a fight, thus deciding to...to.. to run away!" Arcee yelled with tears in her eyes, thinking badly about the situation. Windblade pulled Arcee into a hug as the poor femme allowed herself to think negatively about the situation, as this was one of the things that mothers would think about their child when something bad happened.

Meanwhile in the open road...,

"So why can't I call or text back my mom?" Miko asked, laying down on her adjusted seat.

"Because kid, this our mission. Plus, don't you want to surprise your mom by giving her what she always dreamed of? Giving her the chance to bring her home planet back to life?" Evac asked while still driving in great speed.

Miko thought about the question and realized Evac had a point. Arcee always talked about her home planet in every bedtime story to the girl and wished that she could go back to live on it and really be happy. Not only had Evac told her that, but he also told her that, if she didn't wanted to become a disappointment to her mom and wanted to prevent her from having second thoughts on adopting her, this would be a great opportunity for her and it would be a win-win. And Miko was determined to get the Allspark for her family and proved herself to be a true Autobot with purpose.

"Can we stop at a gas station? I'm starving and I want to get some snacks for this road trip," she said, rubbing her growling stomach.

"Sure, why not? There's a gas station right up ahead," Evac said while slowing down to drive up to the gas station and let the girl head in to shop for snacks. He chuckled to himself.

"No wonder Arcee adopted her. She's not only a cute sparkling, she's tough as nails like her too," he said to himself as he saw Miko come out with some snacks and hop back into the passenger seat. As soon as she put on her seatbelt, Evac took off at a high speed again, cloaking his signal carefully as this part of the mission was about to get dangerous.

Back at the Base...

"Where would she go? I mean, she doesn't have anywhere else to go," Bulkhead said gently as he was very concerned for the girl that was his best friend.

"It's my fault that I didn't spend enough time with here, something that I promised myself when adopting her. I'm a terrible mom," Arcee said, while the lies she spoke were hurting her.

"Arcee, you're not a terrible mom. You're a great mom to that girl and she wouldn't run away from her home. Somebody must have took her," Windblade said, patting her back in comfort.

Jazz nodded in agreement while tracking Miko's phone on the screen that he had been doing a lot for the past half-hour along with upgrading the groundbridge to have a spacebridge with no signature finder so the Cons couldn't track them or their base. That, and he upgraded the whole entire base with high tech and installed the special equipment that Windblade have requested. A moment later, he got a hit on the girl's phone, but couldn't pinpoint it, which wasn't exactly good. He took a deep breath.

"Okay everyone, I've tracked Miko through her phone, but somehow, I can't pinpoint her location," he admitted.

"What do you mean you can't pinpoint Miko's location?" Optimus asked, concerned about the little girl.

"He means that whoever Miko is with, she's going at hyper speed. That's impossible for a human being to go that fast," Ratchet said.

"Which could mean only one thing," Crosshairs said grimly.

"She's either with one of our own, or a filthy 'Con," Hound said, looking ready to go out and try to track down his niece.

Wondering who Miko was with concerned every Bot as it was very mysterious. It had to be either a Decepticon or one of their own, but there shouldn't have been another Autobot. Jazz had found what was left of the Autobots and there shouldn't have been any more...unless some Bot might have been on the planet for a long time and not yet showed themselves. Besides the point, the Autobots wanted to know where their favorite girl had gone to and why she was heading to wherever she was going.

"Prime?!"

Every Bot looked up to see Agent Fowler coming back form his daily work at the Air Force base and it looked like he had some news. "Can you explain to me who or what is going at high speed on the highway? Almost faster than the speed of light," the agent asked.

That alone told them that the Air Force had no doubt found whoever had Miko. "We don't officially know, Fowler, but we now know that whoever that is has my daughter," Arcee said in a rage as her right fist was shaking hard, indicating she wanted to kill whoever had kidnapped her sweet sparkling.

"What?! Are you telling me this is not just a national security issue, but a hostage situation too?!" The liason asked in worry. "Oh, no. I better let the boys know."

"Do you know where the fast object is heading Agent Fowler?" Ultra Magnus asked.

"From what the boys have told me, the vehicle is heading to Washington, D.C.," the agent answered.

"Why would the Bot take Miko there?" Ironhide asked. "If it was a hostage situation, wouldn't the kidnapper keep Miko close by?"

"Good question," Ratchet said as he feared this may have not been just a kidnapping for ransom. Arcee must have felt the same as she was trembling with both fear and anger and Windblade was trying to calm her down.

Agent Fowler gave some good thought on what exactly did a Cybertronian want Miko for and why were they taking her to Washington, D.C. Suddenly it hit him. "I think I might have something," he said. "For someone, either a 'Con or one of your own, if it is, to take Miko to our nation's capital, it can only be one thing."

"What?" Raf asked.

"Sector 7 or S7 for short," the liason said. "I don't know much about it except that it's a secret government base that keeps extraterrestrial objects: objects like the Allspark."

"Huh, I should have figured out that why we haven't find the cube. The humans have it the entire time," Crosshairs said, crossing his arms.

"We don't know it's there for sure, unless whoever has Miko has figured that out," Optimus said.

Agent Fowler nodded. "Hold on. Let me make a few calls. I've got a buddy who owes me a favor," he said as he pulled out his phone. "I just hope he can give us the information we need as it's not only a race to get the Allspark for you guys, but also to get Miko back safe and sound."

Barely a moment later, he nodded and hung up the phone. "It's there, guys," he said grimly.

"The Allspark is in Sector 7?" Jack asked, confused as he never herd of the place.

On the road...,

"We're going to Washington, D.C.? That's where The Allspark is at?" Miko asked as she stuffed her mouth with some junk food.

"Yep, and I need you to sneak into Sector 7 to get two things. One is a mini Autobot by the name of Brains and two is getting the Allspark," Evac said as he explained a bit further about the small Bot and how to obtain the Allspark. As she heard the plan, the teenager was ready to prove her worth.

"Alright! Now, let's head to Sector 7," she said as she was super excited. She stuffed her mouth with more beef jerky and cheese crackers, eager to do the mission and make her mother proud.

Night came a couple hours later and they made it to Washington, D.C. Evac headed straight to the secret base facility that was undercover as it was inside of a huge dam. He sneakily drove inside of the base and parked in a hidden alley before opening his door to let Miko out with a super-sized chocolate bar in hand and on a mission to go get the ancient relic and the mini Autobot.

"Remember to watch out for Agent Simmons, little one," Evac said cautiously.

"I will," she promised with a salute. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck," he said, watching her scamper off while he turned on his sensors to keep an eye on her and to be ready to come to her aid if she ran into trouble.

Can Miko reach Brains and the Allspark in time?

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GoldGuardian2418