They say never judge a book by its cover. Well, you'd be more than dead if you tried to judge me by my appearance. I maybe small, but I pack a mean punch if you mess with me and my team... Oh, I'm sorry. That was rude... hey there! I'm Windswept! And boy, have I got a story to tell you. Well, what are you waiting for?! Get over here and get ready for my adventures on Team Prime!

A little birthday present from me to everyone who continues to put up with my lack of keeping promises! Another year been and gone, this one probably being my most life-changing. I've definitely had my eyes opened to so much, and I don't ever want to close them again. I hope by this point next year, this story will be long finished and the sequel and prequel will be more than well underway. But life is crazy so don't quote me on this. ;)

Thank you to Angelwings2002 for reviewing the previous chapter! Starlight and Moonlight's relationship is complex and I suppose difficult to understand, but as this story progress, we'll see more of their intra-sibling battle and its' consequences. Ahhh, yes Megatron continues to make more enemies not just from the Autobots (just like the show). Whether this ends up biting him in his behind will be interesting.

Another thank you goes out to Mpatton17 for also reviewing! I don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I hope you had an amazing one! And your wish is my command!

- Transformers Prime does not belong to me. All rights go to the people and brands who were able to create this show.
- Windswept and the other OC's belong to me.

This chapter starts off in No One's P.O.V

(Chapter Title: Teamwork Makes A Sick Dream Work)

Crickets chirped continuously through the thick brown trunks and the green grass. There was nothing suspicious in the forest… Nothing except two long red beams appearing out of nowhere.

Two men followed the beams, holding the guns that were projecting those red lines across the thick forest of trees. They had their eyes locked on something, slowly stalking their prey ahead of them. Two more men appeared, holding guns also projecting red beams. One of the men, however, didn't have their face covered by a black ski mask, but rather a pair of orange-tinted goggles.

"Suppression fire only," The man warned the men, "We take this one alive."

A sudden noise behind them forced the men to turn around to see what it was, their beams shining in the direction that they had just come from. Blaster fire was shot at them, missing and hitting a nearby tree. Another shot fired and missed. This time, one of the men took action, bouncing off one of the trees to fire at their enemy. They barely missed as the leaping person had only just lifted their feet away from the tree trunk they had landed on when it exploded in black smoke.

The further the person leapt into the forest, the quicker the men with the red beam guns were to follow. They eventually came across a ledge, the four men pointing their weapons high and low for their prey.

The man with the orange-tinted goggles pressed a button on them, checking the location for his prey. It was close. "Tight formation."

The men leapt off the ledge and slowly stalked the grounds to find their prey, their red beams still pointing in the direction they wanted to go. They walked under strands of sticky webbing that had suddenly appeared before they had jumped down, unaware of what those exact webs could do.

The lead man was close; he could tell by his goggles showing their location being not too far away from their prey. Until it disappeared suddenly.

And so did his men as they were yanked from their positions on the ground, stuck to the webbing above.

The lead man pointed his weapon towards them, trying to figure out how exactly they had gotten up there.

What the man didn't realise was that nearby, their captor was hissing in excitement. A new prize for her to play with.

As his men continued to grunt and struggle against the webbing in an attempt to free themselves, Silas below could only watch and wonder what had gotten them up there in the first place. Suddenly, small rocks began falling over his goggles and it wasn't long before he was screaming in fright at the sight of his prey going to attack him.

His prey grabbed him by his weapon, throwing him around like a ragdoll, his weapon sparking as it was crushed in her hands. Silas was flung to the rock wall nearby, being pinned there by sudden webbing that appeared out of his prey's hand. He grunted and struggled against it, but it was no use as his prey reached up to meet him face-to-face.

"Don't tell me MECH never considered that an open channel distress signal from an injured Decepticon might be a trap."

"I'll bear that in mind next time," the man only growled out in response.

Airachnid chuckled, "Next time? Decepticon radio chatter's all abuzz about the workover you gave poor Breakdown and Moonlight. As an Ex-Con myself, I really should eviscerate you for that!" The Cybertronian noticed that the man failed to flinch at the anger she held, "But an old acquaintance and her nasty little human destroyed my ship and skinned my knee. I mean to pay them back in kind. Both of them." She moved her face closer to the humans, "You see, I make it in and out of places most Decepticons can't. But I'm still learning to navigate this planet."

Silas could sense that an offer was starting to appear on the table. A truce of some kind. The Cybertronian female was quite impressed about their work they had done on Breakdown and Moonlight - sounded like she wanted in on their work. But, to get in on that work, Silas needed more of the Cybertronian tech that he already had to work with. "What's in it for MECH?"

"I'll let you live," Airachnid replied simply, "And since you came to collect a…Transformer, was it? I'll throw in whatever's left of Arcee. After I've broken her."

WINDSWEPT P.O.V

Man, these long workdays were starting to remind me why I valued recharge so much.

Arcee and I spent pretty much the entire day on a scouting mission with Sunburst. Since the MECH incident involving Breakdown and Moonlight being captured, and with Agent Fowler reporting that the organisation were still at large, Optimus was refusing to take any risks. So for the last two weeks, we've had three 'bots to a scouting mission at all times. And this was probably going to continue until at least Fowler could give us the all clear that MECH had gone quiet.

So for Jack and Carly, they've been stuck on their own without their guardians for pretty much the entire day - not that they would probably complain about, of course, being the loved up couple that they are. Kind of gross really…

Moving off topic; after the day of scouting, while Sunburst - who's been realising how much he's missing his sparkmate thanks to the two humans - slumped to the training room to brighten himself up, Arcee and I took our favourite humans - don't tell Miko - out for a drive in the evening to make up for not being able to hang out with them.

With Megatron and his growing army of Decepticon's becoming more of a threat for us, as well as MECH's ever-growing presence in our war, it's getting to a point where it's becoming all servos on deck. As a team, we may have grown in size, but there were still lots of jobs within Team Prime to be done - scouting missions, Energon pickups, multi-day trips to other parts of the globe for more scouting and patrols. Of course, there's also Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Arcee and I being guardians for Miko, Raf, Jack and Carly. Sometimes, the only 'bot around base was poor Ratchet, who sometimes had to deal with questions about when certain 'bots were coming home. But Ratchet had to be there to look after the kids - we couldn't even think of the thought of them being alone in the base. That sounded horrible in more ways than one.

So, long story short, the last few weeks had been really tough on us and the human kids. Which was why Arcee and I wanted to make up for being distant from Jack and Carly by taking them out for the evening while we had the free time.

"Thanks for walking me home, Jack," Arcee thanked her charge as he walked her up the driveway, "You're a real gentleman."

Carly pouted teasingly, crossing her arms while attempting to keep her balance on top of me, "Why can't you walk me home Jack?"

"Because it's too far away, Carly," Jack replied in what I thought was a genuine disappointed tone, "Besides, I don't want Arcee revved up before bedtime." The boy walked over to the garage door to lift it up. "And mum's a light sleeper. And I don't think she'd understand about-."

"Understand what, Jack? You breaking curfew for the third time this month?"

Carly's face paled at the sight of the dark-haired woman standing with her arms crossed in the middle of the garage. She had what I believed was nurses scrubs on, indicating that she had just recently come home from the hospital she worked at. Hmmm, the woman looked a lot like Ja-

Oooohhhhh… well no wonder Carly froze up - I think this was Jack's mother.

"Mom!"

"Or why your boss called about you missing another shift at work?" The woman continued questioning as she walked up to her son, "Or maybe the email I received from your Art History teacher who is concerned that you have been falling asleep in class?"

"Well, two words, mom: Art and History!" Jack shrugged his shoulders defensively.

"Tell me the rumours aren't true, Jack," Miss Darby's face softened, "Tell me you're not racing that motorcycle."

How in the world did she hear about those races when whenever I'm in Jasper, there's barely anyone here to cause even the slightest scene?

Jack raised his arms to explain, "No! No! Wait. Where did you hear that? I-"

"Small town. People talk." So there are other people in this town that exist? "I work in an emergency room, Jack. I've seen what can happen. So please, tell me you haven't fallen in with a bad crowd!"

"What?" Jack whispered in disbelief before waving his arms around, "No, no, no! Our friends are the good crowd! Seriously good!"

"And her?" Miss Darby looked over her son's shoulder at Carly, "Please tell me she's not forcing you into doing things you don't want to do."

What? Carly Esquivel? She's too much of a goody-good to be doing bad things… Don't tell her I said that…

"Are you serious Mom? You know Carly almost as well as me! You know she's encouraging me to be better than I already am!" Jack defended his girlfriend.

Hmmm… good boy...

"I let you have that bike because you convinced me you were mature enough to handle it. But I think you may need a gentle reminder," Miss Darby insisted.

"Message received, mom. Loud and clear," Jack promised, grabbing Arcee by the handlebars, "I'm glad we had this talk."

"I meant, let's see if a few weeks without the distraction of your motorcycle will do the trick," The older woman decided, going to walk back inside.

I did not like the sound of this. And I bet Arcee didn't either...

"But-"

"No buts!" Miss Darby interrupted, putting her hands on her hips, "You are grounded from everything but school and work. And if you want to take a bike to either, you'll pedal!" Miss Darby pointed to the pushbike in the corner of the garage. Jack must have been staring at it because the woman moved into his line of sight, "Serious face, Jack! If I see that motorcycle out of the garage…" She trailed off and softened her facial expression, kissing her son's forehead. "I'll let you say goodnight to Carly. Then go wash up and get some sleep. I love you." With that rant now over, Miss Darby walked away to the door leading to the house, closing it behind her.

Wow, and I thought Mama Esquivel's rants in Spanish about me and Bumblebee were bad… I dread to think what she might exactly be saying to Carly and Raf about us...

"I'll miss you while you're grounded," Arcee sing-songed as her charge began wheeling her into the garage.

"Don't worry, Arcee. I'll visit you every day," Jack promised, signalling for Carly and me to come over to him.

As Carly stepped off me and wandered about to her boyfriend, Arcee hummed in disagreement, "Uh…Jack, I won't be here. Sitting on my back tires for two weeks is NOT an option."

Jack looked at my motorcycle form in a panic, "Please tell me she's not serious."

I sighed. Arcee couldn't be any more right. Like I had mentioned about the Decepticons and MECH and our duties, no matter what occurred, we still were on call; when we were needed, we were needed. I did truly feel bad for the predicament Jack was in - really, I did - but there was no sitting on back tires as Arcee had put it. Our duties as Autobot soldiers came first… As long as our human friends were safe of course.

"Sorry Jack," I apologised sheepishly.

"No, no, no. You all saw mom's serious face!" Jack was slowly looking like he was gonna blow his head off his shoulders, "Look, Arcee, I feel badly enough that I have to lie to her all this time. But if you're not here, she's gonna think I'm blowing her off!"

"Deep breaths, Jack," Carly gripped him by the shoulders and began taking breathes with her boyfriend to help him calm down.

"Your mum works late nights," Arcee pointed out, "I'll try to be back in the garage before she gets home. But no promises."

"I'll put in extra work for Arcee if you need me to," I offered, "Carly and I will do whatever you guys need to get through the next two weeks."

It did nothing to calm Jack down really. Even getting a kiss on the lips from his girlfriend did nothing… and that usually got her a smile in return. To be honest, I was a little worried myself - I just committed to something I feared I wasn't going to live up to...

NO ONE'S P.O.V

Day one of having no Arcee to take him to and from work was over for Jack Darby. And so was work, the boy walking over to the pushbike his mother insisted on having him use instead of his motorcycle. So as he climbed onto the bike and flicked up the stand, the sixteen-year-old boy pulled out of his parking space to head home at a lot slower pace than normal.

The sound of his ringing phone caught his attention, pausing in his movements to check who was ringing him. As soon as he checked the caller ID, he wasted no time answering, "Hey, Ma."

"Jack, I hope you're not planning to eat take-out tonight," June Darby hoped as she opened the car door of her vehicle parked outside her home, "I took my break early. So I thought I'd come home and cook my grounded son a wholesome dinner."

Jack began panicking instantly, stuttering in his sentence, "Organic tofu. Awesome! Hey. Car beats ten-speed. I'll be home soon. Love you. Bye." The boy wasted no time ending his call to his mother and going to call someone new. "Come on. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up!" He was beginning to panic the more the receiver to his call didn't answer… and then she did. "Arcee, you wouldn't be in the garage right now?"

WINDSWEPT P.O.V

Why, oh why is it that every time we happened to find a really good stash of Energon, stupid Decepticon drones had to be there to attempt to steal it from us?!

Bumblebee, Arcee and I fought desperately to try and claim the Energon we so desperately needed. A larger team meant we needed more Energon to keep us healthy and running. Things weren't looking so good as more Decepticon drones kept piling in and firing shots at us.

"Negative, Jack. Can we talk about this later?"

You've gotta be kidding me! If that's Jack calling about Arcee needing to be in the garage, I'm gonna turn this entire cave upside down!

"No! Mum's on her way home!" Jack answered worriedly over the open commlink Arcee had put online for us to hear, "If you don't race back there right now, I will be grounded for life! And mum will make me sell you for parts!"

Welllll, we don't want Jack's mom to know that she can't exactly be sold in parts… And Jack's an important member of Team Prime sooooooo...

Arcee turned to Bumblebee and I, "Can you two handle it?"

"We got this!" Bumblebee replied.

"Just go!" I yelled just as I dodged a blaster shot from a Decepticon drone. Oooohhh, he's gonna get it now!

"Ratchet, I need a bridge."

I hope Arcee gets to Jack's in time. But I also hope that this Decepticon drone that I'm about to pound into scrap didn't value his life as much as Bumblebee and I are gonna value this Energon when we finally get our servos on it.

NO ONE'S P.O.V

Jack peddled as fast as he could. There was no way his pushbike was going to beat his mother home, that he already knew. But if Arcee was yet to return to the garage by the time either he or his mother returned to their home, then the least he could do was try to limit the damage that was probably going to occur.

As he sped around the corner to the road his house was on, he could already see the white, four-door vehicle parked in his driveway. He knew instantly that his mother had arrived home.

June Darby walked through the hallway on her way to the kitchen. It had been a long time since she had the chance to be able to leave work early enough to cook her own son some food. The shifts she worked certainly took their toll on their relationship. It was difficult to spend time with him, especially with him already being sixteen-years-old! He already had a job and a transportation vehicle he could use to get to his job! He was growing up so fast!

The woman paused at the thought of the motorcycle which should still be in the garage. As she walked past the garage door, June stopped with a sigh, facing the door. She trusted her son, she truly did, but she had to know. Had Jack taken the vehicle to school and work when she clearly told him not to?

June got her answer when she opened the door to have a peak. And well, with what she found, she didn't know what to say.

Huffing and puffing all the way up to his driveway, Jack Darby finally made it to his home. He quickly peaked into the driver's side of the car, but his mother wasn't in the vehicle.

"JACK!"

Nope. She was in the garage. And she was angry. And she was walking up to give him a piece of her mind right now.

"Jack, I can't believe you disobeyed me. Where is the motorcycle?"

"Uhhh…" Jack didn't get a chance to answer straight away as the familiar green light flashed in the garage for a brief moment. When the light disappeared, Jack reached into the driver's side of the car to press the button that would open the garage door, "What do you mean? She's right where I left her!"

June turned around with narrowed eyes, expecting to not find the two-wheeled vehicle parked there. So when the garage door opened and it revealed the blue motorcycle parked up like it had been there the entire day, June was a little taken aback at first.

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, facing Jack, "Did you get one of your crew to sneak it in? Or did you just walk it up again?"

Jack sighed. Enough was enough. He was getting tired of sneaking around and lying to his mother, "OK, mom. Do you really wanna know?"

Arcee edged herself closer to her charge as a warning. June simply looked at her son for an explanation. But Jack had already made up his mind, "Fasten your seatbelts. My motorcycle is a sentient robotic organism from a distant planet. Part of a team stationed on Earth fighting a secret war. And I spend most of my time after school hanging with her crew."

June raised an eyebrow as her son wheeled the peddle bike into the garage, "Jack."

"And the coolest thing: this isn't even her actual form." Jack continued, "She's really a giant robot who can transform into a vehicle."

"Enough, Jack!" June snapped.

"It's OK, Arcee. Show yourself." But Arcee didn't flinch one move, much to Jack's annoyment and June's confusion. "She's shy. Arcee… Really. No more hiding. No more lies…" June's face softened at her son when he continued pressing the matter, watching him kick the blue motorcycle, "Oh come on! Roll out already."

"Oh... Um, the bad crowd you have been hanging out with is a science fiction club?" June guessed in an attempt to understand just what her son had been getting up to after school that has him being late almost every night.

Jack didn't answer, only looking at his silent motorcycle.

June checked her watch, "I have to get back to work. We'll talk about this when I get home." With that, June walked over to her car to begin heading back to her work.

"Thanks for the support, partner," Jack thanked sarcastically when his mother was in her car.

"Don't blame me. Remember-"

"I know. I know. You don't exist."

"Your ship's Black Box sustained serious damage in the explosion. But our software was able to reconstruct a few frames of the security feed."

Footage of Airachnid's near capture of a teenage boy was playing on the screen. It froze when it began to look up everything they could find about the boy, scanning him with small messages popping up on both sides of him.

"That's him," Airachnid recognised the boy who's friend happened to be her enemy. She leant in and curled her hand into a fist, "My Jack."

"Our facial recognition algorithm will send Jack's image across the web. Another kind of web." Sudden beeping from the screen instantly got Silas' attentions. "Ah. The mother lode."

"Government database?" Airachnid guessed with interest.

"That and his social networking page. Everything we need to know about Jack Darby is right here." The screen showed Jack's social media page, his message board full having been talking to multiple people in the recent week. Silas didn't waste time reading everything there was to know about the boy, "Age, sixteen, Jasper, Nevada. Mother June Darby, a nurse..."

"Girlfriend, Carly Esquivel." Airachnid's Energon boiled, a small smirk gathering onto her lips...

June Darby's night shift at the Jasper Emergency Hospital was over. As she began walking over to her car to go home for the night, her mind shifted to her son. Her son who had been lying about recent events. She had resorted to punishing him by making him use his pedal bike for the next fortnight. But had she made the right call? She felt like she had but for some reason, it made her question herself.

"Maybe I'm being too hard on Jack. But he lied. And the only way he's gonna learn is if I stick to my-."

June cut herself off as a black SUV suddenly pulled up beside her. The woman looked around just in time to watch the back door slide open, revealing two dark-clothed men with one of them pointing a weapon at her. Gasping in fright, there was nothing she could do as she was suddenly hit with blue electricity, the world around her turning black…

Jack peddled down the road and up the driveway of his home quickly. He had just returned after sneaking out to go on a movie date with his girlfriend Carly. His mother's night hours sometimes allowed Jack the time in the world to sneak out and hang out with 'the crew' his 'motorcycle' hung out with. But tonight, it was just him and Carly, who after the film had insisted that she and her guardian drop Jack off. But since he had his pedal bike with him, he knew he had to ride that home.

At least his mother would know that he was actually using his bike as he had been told. And, if his mother returned home before him and discovered that he had snuck out when he was actually grounded, things would get a whole lot worse for him.

But his mother hadn't yet returned home, her car not pulled up on the driveway as it normally was. The garage door opened, revealing Arcee parked in the same place she was supposed to be. So for Jack, that was a good thing that his mother was a little bit late.

"Arcee, is mom home yet?" Jack asked, pushing his bike into the garage. He still felt the need to ask just in case. "I didn't see her car."

"Don't know. I just bridged from base to beat her here," Arcee replied, twitching her handlebars over at her charge. That was when she caught her optics on something she needed to tell Jack, "Oh! And there's a package for you."

Jack grabbed the abnormally large yellow envelope labelled with his name leaning upon his helmet. He didn't waste time tearing off the seal, emptying the contents of the envelope onto the table. A small communicator slipped onto the table, the screen showing a pinky-orange background.

"Hello, Jack." Jack's eyes widened at the voice that greeted him.

Arcee transformed immediately, recognising who it was that had greeted her charge, "Silas."

"What is it?" Jack asked worriedly, "What's going on?"

"MECH."

"They know where I live?" Jack whispered in fright

"We know things about your family that even YOU don't know," Silas answered for Arcee, "For example: do you know where your mother is?"

Jack was beginning to freak out internally. No, he didn't know where his mother was. But if Silas was asking him, then maybe he knew where she was. And that wasn't a good thing.

"What did you-?"

"Understand, Jack, we have no intention of hurting her," Silas interrupted to state his intentions, "In fact, we'd like to reunite the two of you as soon as possible. I just need you, Arcee to follow the GPS coordinates programmed into this communicator. It'll lead you to the temporary facility I've set up."

Arcee knew immediately that it was MECH that she was going to be dealing with. She remembered the current rule Team Prime had set up: three 'bots to a mission. Knowing very well that she was going to need backup, the blue Autobot moved away from the communicator's hearing range to contact backup.

"Ratchet-" No sooner had she attempted communications, a painful ringing noise in her audio receptor caught her off guard. The pain caused her to clutch her head, bending over to regain herself.

"Arcee!" Jack cried worriedly, rushing to his guardian's side.

"Did I not mention our communicator scrambles the signal AND your brains? Any break in communication or attempt to reach the other Autobots and Miss. Darby…well, I wouldn't want to feel responsible for the outcome."

WINDSWEPT P.O.V

It's been a long time since I've been able to drive around at night. I miss those days when I could just be comforted by the peacefulness the dark skies and quiet townships had to offer. Plus, I did miss screaming down town roads at the highest speeds I could reach… but I'd grown up a bit since then. With Cliffjumper not around for me to challenge to a drag race at night anymore, I had to learn that not everything could stay the same. I had hoped that the idea wasn't true after I left Cybertron, but alas, obviously not.

So as I quietly drove through town with my charge with me, after having been a movie date with Jack, I simply relaxed in the calmness that was around me...

That was until I saw a blue motorcycle scream past me at alarming rates.

Arcee?

"What are Jack and Arcee doing at a time like this? At those speeds?" Carly questioned.

I couldn't provide an answer for her. But since those speeds that Arcee was carrying were to quick to be anything normal, I feared something was wrong. So my answer to Carly was kicking up a few gears and speeding after them.

NO ONE'S P.O.V

While Arcee kept speeding down the Jasper road to get the coordinates provided by Silas, Jack looked at the map provided for him by the man. They were starting to get close to the base that MECH was apparently holed up in. As the duo turned the corner to continue following instructions, Jack was unable to keep himself calm at thoughts of his mother being hurt because of being caught up in the Cybertronian war he had innocently stumbled upon those months ago.

"If anything happens to her because of my connection to all of this, I-"

"Jack, MECH is only interested in me. Once they get what they want, they'll let your mom go."

Jack was unassured by his guardian's words, "That's not exactly reassuring. You're family too."

Nothing more was spoken as the duo turned the corner, entering an abandoned factory area.

WINDSWEPT P.O.V

An abandoned factory? What could lead Arcee and Jack here?

Carly and I trailed after them, watching as they pulled up. Jack went to step off Arcee but all of a sudden, red beams lit up onto Jack coming from the weapons of multiple men standing before them. There was also a man with no weapons standing before them…

Silas. MECH. Oh, scrap.

This didn't look good, and the thought of driving on in to find out what exactly was going on was doing my helm in. But if Arcee and Jack needed back up, I needed to be there for them whether they knew Carly and I were here or not.

"Stay quiet and try not to make a move," I whispered as I parked up in the shadows.

Arcee edged herself and Jack forwards towards Silas, whose face looked like he was winning at something Carly and I had yet to figure out. Arcee suddenly pulled a wheelie and drove forwards at Silas and his crew as bullets started to fly at them. Next thing we knew, Arcee and Jack had disappeared around the corner into one of the buildings nearby.

"Hold tight Carly." My charged let out a squeak of surprise as I also performed a wheelie before driving over to the warehouse as quickly as I could. I had no guarantees that MECH wouldn't see us, but I didn't care. My close partner was in some sort of scrap with the scary human crew - I was not going to let her fight them on her own.

When I drove in the empty building, Jack was pulling his helmet off and looking around. But as soon as I skidded to a halt nearby them, his attention turned to Carly and me, his face nothing but pure panic.

"Carly?"

Said person pulled her helmet off her head and was quick to race over to her boyfriend, probably having seen the fear in his face, "Jack, hun, are you okay? What's going on?"

"MECH took my mom." MECH had Miss Darby? Oh, this certainly wasn't good at all.

It all made sense though. MECH tracked down Jack because of his connections with the Autobot cause, with Arcee in particular. So they've taken Miss Darby to lure him to their base… But why Jack and Arcee? Out of all of us, they went for them first? There was more to this story, I could tell.

Carly rubbed Jack's shoulder comfortingly while also trying to keep herself calm, "We're going to get her back, Jack. It's going to be okay. We have Arcee and 'Swept. They'll find her."

"You and Carly shouldn't be here." If I was in Cybertronian form, I would've raised an eye ridge at Arcee's comment when she pulled up beside me. "MECH told us no communications with anyone or June's going to suffer."

"You want to save June or end up like Moonlight?" I shivered at the thought of ending up winglet-less like Moonlight had.

Arcee must have thought about it too because she didn't reply straight away. But that might've been because we started hearing metal noises somewhere.

"Looking for June?" We spun around and discovered a female Cybertron hanging from the roof of the spider. She was mostly purple and black with goldish highlights in places. She had extended limbs coming out of her back, kind of like a Cybertronian version of what humans called a spid-

Wait a minute. Arcee and Bumblebee have both mentioned a spider-like Decepticon in the past… What was her name?

"She's hanging around here somewhere."

Arcee transformed and leapt in front of us, "Airachnid!"

That's her name!

Sudden webs appeared through Airachnid's servos, trapping Arcee with her arms pinned to her torso.

I transformed to give the femme a piece of my mind but no sooner had I done that, I was also hit with the webbing on my legs. The hit was rather decent - well, decent enough to knock me over onto the ground on my side. I went to leap up to try and free my legs from the webbing, but man, this Decepticon was quick! Next thing I knew, my servos were pinned to the floor.

Awh come on, this webbing is thick. I can't even move a single digit under it!

"What's she doing here?!" Jack demanded in a panic, standing in front of Carly almost protectively.

Silas and his MECH soldiers began forming some sort of pressure circle around us, like they knew they had us trapped. Even Airachnid began zoning in on Arcee, dropping from her extended limbs to her own feet… Okay I was beginning to understand just how unnerving this Cybertronian was...

"Help them. Please," Arcee begged to Silas, "They're human like you." She struggled against the webbing. "You can't let Airachnid-!"

"A few human lives are a small price to pay for a miracle of science like yourself," Silas interrupted before he looked at me. A small smile of what I could only presume was his sick definition of joy appeared, "And you've brought me more to work with. That wasn't the original deal." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "But this 'extra work' will no doubt benefit my plans."

Two men with guns in their hands gave a quick nod to Silas before they fired their weapons.

Oh Primus! Electricity! WHY ELECTRICITY?!

NO ONE'S P.O.V

Jack and Carly rushed to their collapsed guardians after they were hit with electric shock-filled tranquillizers.

"Arcee!"

"Windswept!"

"You and I will have a private session later," Airachnid whispered to her unconscious enemy, "Promise."

"Gentlemen."

Carly looked up from her unconscious guardian in time to see two men walking over to her and Jack. She held her guard up at first, scared of being grabbed and pulled away from her friends. But then, before she knew it, her phone had been slipped out of her pocket and out of her reach. The same happened to Jack, also having his phone removed from him as well as the communicator he and Arcee had used to track the MECH base down.

"I'm still learning about humankind. But one thing is clear to me, Jack. You people care deeply about family," Airachnid told the boy, walking up to him, "Therefore, the sweetest revenge I could possibly devise would be to watch as I take your family apart."

Jack looked at Airachnid, who was now well into his personal space, "If you hurt my mother, I-,"

"You remember how much I enjoy sport, don't you Jack?" The Cybertronian spider interrupted to rhetorically ask the boy, "So I'll give you the opportunity to save your mother. I've stashed her close by."

Airachnid looked behind the teenagers, causing them to turn around as well to find the timer on the orange screens. The red numbers ticked up to eleven fifty-three. Immediately, Jack and Carly knew things weren't good.

"If you can rescue her before the stroke of twelve, I will let both of you go unharmed. Deal?"

Carly turned back to Airachnid, shivering in fear behind her boyfriend, "And if he can't?"

"What do you think?" Airachnid replied in a retort, stepping away from the teenagers.

Jack turned to Silas and sighed. He could still find a way out of this, "Please!" He rushed up to the man, grabbing the man by the shirt in an attempt to plead with him. "Don't let her do this! You can let us go! We won't tell anyone!"

Silas did nothing but push Jack away from him with one hand, knocking him to the ground, "Enough."

Airachnid bent down to the boy's level, "Yes, Jack. Man up already." She glanced up at the orange screen, showing the time continuing to count towards twelve. "Six minutes." She looked back at two teenagers. "Oh and if I were you, I'd take your pretty girlfriend with you. You wouldn't want to lose your mother, your Autobots friends AND her, would you?"

Jack had no intentions of losing any of the people that were closest to him. Leaping onto his feet and grabbing Carly's hand, he dashed off into a sprint out of the warehouse. When the pair were a few feet away from the building, the brunette teenage girl paused in her run, causing Jack to as well.

"Split up." Carly pressed a hand to Jack's shoulder when he went to protest at her plan. "We'll cover more ground. If one of us finds her, we shout for the other, got it?" She didn't wait for an answer as she pressed a quick kiss to Jack's check before sprinting in a different direction in search of her boyfriend's mother.

Jack could only do what Carly had instructed: sprint away in search of his mother. "Mom? MOM?"

What the two teenagers didn't realise was that they were being watched by Silas on the orange screens. With Airachnid now out overlooking their progress, the man could freely start planning his next course of action. And that involved his two prisoners.

"Now I know we promised the spider-bot that she would have first crack at you. But something tells me she plans on turning our mutual crisscross into a double-cross." Silas looked over his shoulder at the two Autobot females now lying down on their backs.

"Silas, we don't have the means of transporting it right now," one of the MECH soldiers told his boss.

"We'll have to cut and run," Silas decided, taking a few steps to the Autobot known as Arcee, "Open her up." The next thing the man knew, he was watching saws coming to life before him...

As time was slowly ticking by, Jack Darby could tell that the more he searched for his mother, the more his fear of not finding her grew. And it didn't help that everywhere he went, he was being stalked by the Cybertronian shadow of Airachnid, overlooking his progress. So far, he was coping under pressure - he hadn't considered throwing in the towel just yet.

"JACK!"

Just as the boy turned around at the yell of his name, he found the smug Airachnid standing a few hundred feet away from him. He narrowed his eyes at her for a moment, wondering what she had exactly planned. But all she did was point to a water tower ahead, Jack following her hand. And that's when he spotted it… or her rather. Wrapped up in webbing dangling over the edge of one of the walkways of the tower was his mother.

"MOM!" Jack yelled, taking off into another sprint to get closer to her, "MOM!"

At the sounds of yelling in the distant, June slowly came to. But as she did, she was realising two things; one of them was that she was somehow very high up in the air, and the second was that her son screaming out to her. "Jack?!"

"Just stay calm, Miss Darby." The woman flinched as someone grasped her shoulder gently. Looking up, she discovered Carly Esquivel looking at her with a mix of panic, fear and calm. "Jack and I are going to get you out of this, okay?"

Just as Carly had stated it, she soon knew that she had to change sentence as she was suddenly flung back. She landed onto the metal walkway hard, but apart from the sore bones and the possible bruises that were bound to spring up from the hard landing, Carly knew she was not going to let any pain stop her from rescuing Jack's mother. But she soon realised that Jack was going to have to do it on his own as she discovered her leg trapped under the webbing Airachnid had used on her and her boyfriend's guardians.

So when Jack arrived to her, having noticed the webbing on her leg, the teenager told him to go to his mother, knowing very well that she was much more in need of rescuing than her.

"Jack! What are you doing here?!" June cried out when her son had run over to her. "Who are these people? How did I get in this…stuff?"

"Don't worry, mom," Jack attempted to calm his mother, "I'm going to get you out."

A large thud against the water tower immediately told June to do that opposite that her son had told her to do. Instead, she began whimpering in fear as Airachnid began scaling around the tower around her with a chuckle.

That was when June realised that what her son was trying to tell her wasn't just a 'science fiction club'. "Jack? The robots are real?"

"I beat your deadline!" Jack announced.

"Afraid not, Jack!" Airachnid provided the bad news to him, "The task wasn't for you to find your mother by midnight. You had to rescue her."

Jack only realised that his spider enemy was right too late.

"And time's up!" Time had worked against his favour. "Now…"

Airachnid shot some of her webbing at the boy, knocking him down on the metal walkway with ease. Now that both of the teenagers were pinned down by the webbing, it was now Airachnid's chance to do what she had planned...

"Take a seat, sit back, relax and enjoy the horror show."

Silas watched the events that were occurring in the confinements of the warehouse. Time had now ticked down, but it was in no mood to even think about slowing down. And neither did Airachnid based on her movements.

"Make haste, gentlemen," he ordered, looking over his shoulder, And don't worry about making a mess."

Jack continued to fight against the webbing pinning his hand down. Carly kept attempting to sliver her way out from the webbing keeping her leg trapped. And Airachnid was just watching, loving all the struggle that was occurring before her.

"You know, Jack. She's your mom. Why should I have all the fun?" The Cybertronian asked rhetorically, "So you get to choose. Agonizing or excruciating?" Drooling with excitement, Airachnid spat her acidic saliva onto the walkway, the acidity melting through the metal.

Jack would've not chosen either regardless of if it was an option or not. There was no way his mother was going to die tonight.

"No!" June whimpered, having seen the acid melt through the walkway that her webbed cocoon was barely hanging onto.

Carly looked up from her struggling for a moment, discovering that a metal bar close to her boyfriend had also had the acid dripped onto it. The teenager coughed quietly to get Jack's attention, pointing to the bar quickly and was unable to do nothing more but watch as he loosened the bar free from its' position.

WINDSWEPT P.O.V

I hate electricity… But my distaste in it doesn't beat the hatred I have for MECH.

Awakening to the sounds of sawing beside me, I realised that MECH had not yet left the building. But I also realised that I was now free from that sticky horrible webbing that Airachnid had shot at me. Maybe that was what they were doing to Arcee now.

"Please tell me that you're awake, Arcee." Thank goodness we didn't have to actually speak out loud to talk on a private comm-link.

"Hold your position until my command, 'Swept." If I could, I would've nodded at the instruction.

"Jack, your mother wants to know," We heard Airachnid taunt the teenager, "Don't leave her… dangling."

"YOU MONSTER! STOP THIS!" I nearly snapped at the desperate cry of Jack's mother. She needed help and she needed it now!

"We only have time to take one part," Silas announced, "Go straight for the heart."

The sounds of a drill suddenly swirled into my audio receptors.

Okay, that's it!

I leapt up onto my feet, scaring the hell out of the humans around me. I performed a low roundhouse kick, sending MECH soldiers flying. Arcee beside me swatted the drill and any soldiers close by away. Sudden firepower came at us from the two soldiers at Silas' sides.

Immediately, we knew that was our cue to escape. Arcee and I transformed into our motorcycle forms, driving out of the MECH base to go find our human friends. And really, it didn't take long. We were quick to spot them on top of a water tower… and things didn't look good.

Miss Darby was hanging from the edge of the water tower walkway wrapped up in Airachnid's webbing. And the Cybertronian femme was circling around Jack dangerously.

"Well, Jack, if you won't decide, I guess it's ladies' choice." We could hear Airachnid's voice from where we were, watching her scale down to the whimpering Miss Darby.

"Mom, I'm sorry," Jack apologised to his mother. That just about tore my spark in two hearing that...

"NOOOOOOOOO!" June screamed when Airachnid came close.

Just ahead of me, Arcee crashed her enemy's party by transforming and tackling her hard away from the humans. Perfect time for me to transform shortly after her, landing on top of the water tower. By then, Jack had freed himself and was running straight for his mother. I looked down at Carly slipping out of some webbing around her leg, also going to run to help Jack.

"Jack, Carly your motorcycles?" June began to question.

"I can explain, mom," Jack promised before as he and Carly went to pull his mother up from the ramp. He paused for a moment, "Wait. I already did."

I wanted to question Jack about why he told his mother about us before this mess even started, but Arcee and Airachnids' fight was distracting. As long as Carly and Jack had some sort of hold on his mother, they would be okay. But it was Airachnid I had to worry about - she was quick, slick and dangerous. Arcee may possibly need help should she gain the lower hand.

Arcee backflipped down a chute away from her enemy's swats, eventually stopping to activate her wrist blades.

Airachnid took a step forward, "MECH lost Breakdown and Moonlight. What were the chances they could hold onto you and your partner?"

She leapt up to dive-bomb my partner, but Arcee was too quick for her, leaping away at the same time. And she would've escaped her enemy had she not had those spider limbs and drag her back down onto the chute. Airachnid threw another shot at Arcee, the latter sliding down the chute. And oh boy did Arcee react.

She sprinted up to her enemy and threw punch after punch at her, one punch so hard it sent Airachnid to the chute below. Following her down probably wasn't the best idea given that would leave her vulnerable to be attacked, which was what Airachnid decided to do, pretty much slapping my partner onto the ground. Arcee had to roll out of the way when Airachnid jumped down to join her, but she was soon scaling the water tower with her enemy close behind. Halfway up, the duo threw kicks at each other, but Airachnid was the only one that had missed so she retaliated by firing blaster shots at my friend… and also at the humans.

Oh yeah no, that's not how things work around here.

I activated my blasters, firing shots at Airachnid as Miss Darby began screaming below me. I could hear metal bending below me, but my target was now set on the Cybertronian who was going to regret teaming up with MECH...

"JACK!"

"MOM!"

I had to look down when Airachnid moved. My optics widened in fright - the walkway Miss Darby was stuck at the end of had buckled and had moved her closer to the edge. Jack was barely hanging onto the edge of the ramp that meet with the walkway. Carly was hanging from one of the metal railings...

"JACK!" Miss Darby cried out to her son when Airachnid had scaled closer to her.

I've had enough! I tried to play nice with you femme, but now it's time to play brutal!

I slipped down to Airachnid's level and attempted to punch her away from the humans. But she was too quick and instead punched me away from her. I nearly fell straight to the ground when Arcee grabbed her wrist and pulled me up with her. But no sooner had she done that, we were dodging hits from Airachnid's limbs.

A sudden whirring from my left caught my attention - I rolled away from Airachnid and stood just in time to see Jack looking at one of the chutes now spilling concrete into one of the large barrels below us.

Huh, that could actually work in our favour.

Arcee and Airachnid continued the fight before me, the former still dodging the limbs from her enemy. And then suddenly Airachnid hit her so hard that it knocked Arcee over the edge. Then the Cybertronian spider's attention went on me.

"Arcee's already lost two partners, why not make it three?" She whispered with a sadistic grin.

I swallowed hard as Airachnid began throwing punches at me. I had to step up my game a little bit - this femme was quick! I could barely block the stabbing punches her limbs threw at me. I attempted to throw a couple of punches at back, but she was just as quick with the blocks. I started to get a little stressed at how slick and cunning this 'bot truly was.

Arcee suddenly reappeared to my rescue, knocking Airachnid around a little bit before managing to get the upper hand, leaping up and eventually kicking her down into a container below her. And funny enough, it was large enough to fit Airachnid's height.

Arcee jumped onto one of the pipes that were sitting over the ground below. I looked over at Jack, who seemed to be fiddling with some kind of control pad. He looked at Arcee for what I presumed was a quick approval. When she nodded, he moved one of the control levers. There was a sudden whirring-like noise before Arcee kicked the pipe she was perched on so that it was sitting over the container Airachnid was in.

And before the recovering femme could do anything, she was hit with the concrete mixture from the pipe. She leapt up with a scream, attempting to remove the grey substance that was over her body. But she could only gasp in realisation at she began to freeze because of the effects concrete had, her purple eyes still glowing.

With Airachnid taken care of, a sudden scream caught mine and Arcee's attention. Miss Darby was still screaming out for her son. Near her, Carly was perched precariously on one of the metal railings close to her. She was unable to help her boyfriend's mother as I could see the fear in her eyes when she locked them with mine. She was scared that she would slip and fall. Immediately, Arcee and I were going over to help them.

"Hang on, June," I heard Arcee whisper.

As I was running over though, sudden strings of webbing sprung up and grabbed my partner, pulling her onto the ground and trapping her.

"ARCEE!" I screamed.

Airachnid didn't forget about me either, also going to fire at me. I barely dodged some of the strings that were sent flying at me. But the next lot I couldn't dodge, catching my arms and torso being pinning to the structure the water tower was sitting on. I could only watch helplessly as the Cybertronian spider aimed at Arcee, ready to finish her off.

Sudden noises of a helicopter whirring caught our attention - make that three helicopters.

NO ONE'S P.O.V

Flying the leading helicopter of the three was none of than Agent Fowler, having been called in when he was told that the Autobots and their human friends needed help.

"Aim for the creepy-crawly."

The soldier flying the helicopter nodded at the Agent's command, pressing a red button on his gearstick. Blaster fire was shot at Airachnid, the helicopters edging closer and closer to the Cybertronian. The femme could cover herself as the concrete continued to keep her pinned down.

Meanwhile, Silas watched from the orange screens in the safety of his warehouse, the helicopters continuing to fire at his current associate. He was confused - it couldn't be possible! Agent Fowler knew where he and the MECH team were, but how?

"How did they find us?" Silas demanded.

Then he realised something, something that was on his person but was no longer there...

"You can let us go! We won't tell anyone!" Jack had begged before him.

As Silas swatted him away, Jack looked to have attempted to keep his hold on the man. But he had only grabbed the communicator device Silas had on his side. So when he fell to the ground, he took the communicator with him.

"Thanks for coming, Agent Fowler," Jack thanked the Autobot liaison.

"Had I known there'd be a 'Con involved, I would've called in Prime."

"That would have been too much for Mom to handle in one night." Agent Fowler looked at where Jack was pointing down. Carly was barely hanging onto the railing, but beside her was a woman the Agent could only presume was Jack's mother was wrapped in the webbing. He only nodded.

WINDSWEPT P.O.V

Blaster fire continued to rain down upon Airachnid. Through the dust caused by the missed shots hitting the concrete, Airachnid continued to shield herself. The dust though was helping Airachnid as it meant that the fired shots weren't exactly hitting her. Eventually, the helicopters ran out of projectiles, putting us in a not-so-great position.

Airachnid, now free from the concrete she was covered in, looked up at one of the helicopters. Her eyes turned green as she scanned the helicopter.

"Argh! NOT AGAIN!" Was the only thing we heard over the communicator.

Happy with what she had achieved, Airachnid transformed into her newly acquired helicopter form and flew away from us.

"NO!" Arcee screamed below.

That was when I knew that Airachnid had escaped Arcee's clutches again. But there was no doubt in my mind that that was going to be the last of Airachnid, and I think that's why Arcee was screaming at the thought of letting her get away again...

NO ONE'S P.O.V

Silas watched as the now helicopter form of Airachnid fled from the scene. He turned off the orange screens.

"So that's how it's done. Genius."

With the snap of his fingers, the lights were turned off. That would be it for MECH… for now...

WINDSWEPT P.O.V

With Airachnid gone, and probably MECH too, Agent Fowler helped Carly, Jack and his mother off the water tower that were trapped upon before he and his soldiers helped free Arcee and I are from our webbed traps. While Arcee had gone to scout the area to make sure we were safe, I stayed with the humans just in case there was still an enemy nearby, but at a distance so Miss Darby would get the chance to rest before she had to deal with Arcee and I.

Miss Darby was wrapped up in a blanket to keep her warm after her kidnapping experience. Jack was attempting to comfort her, placing a hand on her shoulder. Carly was looking after Jack, rubbing his shoulders to keep him warm, also keeping an eye on the mother of her boyfriend.

"Miss Darby." We looked up when Agent Fowler came over. "I'm Special Agent William Fowler. It's time you knew the truth," What else did Miss Darby need to know apart from what she had already seen tonight? "For the past several months, Jack and Carly have been…interning for me at the agency."

Yeahhhhhh, nice try Fowler...

"Agent Fowler, mom's not gonna buy it," Jack warned.

"He's got that right." She was glaring at the man.

He didn't get to respond as a soldier came up behind. "Agent Fowler."

He looked over his shoulder at the man, "Let me guess. Without a trace." With the small nod of confirmation from the man, Fowler walked away with a sigh of disappointment.

Damn, MECH must've gotten away again…

Arcee walked up beside me and quickly gave me a look that asked if it was okay to check up on the humans. I nodded and together we walked up to them, careful with Miss Darby's expressions.

"And they would be your…?" Miss Darby trailed off, looking at her son and Carly.

"Motorcycles."

"Autobots."

"Friends." Arcee and I knelt down to the human's height as Jack and Carly continued listing what we should be referred to as.

"Best friends," Carly corrected her boyfriend, looking up at me with a small smile, something that I mirrored.

"Call me Arcee," Arcee offered beside me.

"And Windswept," I introduced.

Miss Darby stood up from the crates, still wrapped up in the blanket as she looked at us, "Thank you, Arcee and Windswept."

There was nothing more that Arcee and I could say. So we only shared the smile that Miss Darby had for us for looking after her son and his girlfriend.

"I think it's time for that ride you once made me promise," Jack decided.

After returning to the humans to their homes briefly to wash up after the traumatic night they had, Arcee and I were soon on the road with our friends as we headed towards Autobot base. By now, the sun was shining over us, telling us that it was now morning. Man, time really flies when you're busy trying to save lives…

The doors to our base slide open, allowing us to drive through. As Arcee and I drove through the tunnel to the main room, I couldn't help but wonder what Miss Darby was thinking. Was she freaking out as our four human friends had first done when we brought them here many months ago? Was she calm like Carly and Jack had attempted to tell her to be as we drove here? Did she even want to be here?

Unfortunately for Miss Darby, that was no longer an option for her. Whether she liked it or not, she was stuck with us… and the rest of Team Prime once she got to meet them.

We drove on into base where everyone was standing around like they were waiting for us. Huh, what's this? A rare chance that the whole team was together for once without scouting missions or patrols getting in the way? Wow, that's been a first for so long!

Ratchet was at the Groundbridge controls as per normal, yet to turn around and face us. Sunburst, Bulkhead, Aquastrike, Bumblebee and Starlight were crowded near the human's chill-out area, talking with Miko and Raf on the crates until they saw us and stopped. Our Autobot and human friends looked around at us with looks of relief and wonder. Relief probably because they hadn't heard from us since yesterday. Wonder because Arcee and Jack had an extra passenger on board.

Optimus Prime then walked up to us, obviously spotting Miss Darby sitting behind Jack on Arcee. Miss Darby, Jack and Carly removed their helmets.

"Mom, meet my science fiction club."

Our strong and proud Autobot team gathered around us. Miss Darby did nothing except from waved nervously.

Yeah, meeting us for the first time, I bet that's gotta be pretty intimidating for Miss Darby. But we're not as big and scary as we look. Nah, we're the good guys for a reason. And I hope that while we are forced to tell her all about the really mean Decepticons we've been fighting, she overlooks that and understands that having Carly, Jack, Miko and Raf around has been nothing but a blessing in our lives. Something I hope she could be too.

Another one in the books. I was very surprised to find myself preparing to upload this chapter, to be honest, and out of all the days too. Oh well, plans change... and they can be changed even more so if a review, follow or favourite convinces the author to.

Thank you for reading.