Okay! To make up for the long hiatus, I give you a bloody long chapter! 10,000 plus words to be precise! Sorry to everyone who's waiting for Stealth to be updated, my muse did tank for a long while but I am back on the next chapter now and hopefully it will be ready in the coming weeks, but Uni is a demanding affair that must be kept up with, I hope you all understand. Anyway, lots is going to happen this chapter! And I hope you all enjoy!


Pentagon

Jamerson honestly cursed his own vigilance at the current moment.

He didn't even want to look at what time his ever fateful watch said it was.

It was some god awful hour gone midnight and he hadn't had his coffee.

Beyond the door he stood next to, he heard the African American teen they'd brought in with the blonde bragging about having eaten the entire plate of donuts. Apparently he thought them giving them the only food left in the cafeteria that night was a test of how guilty he felt.

So, he'd eaten the whole plate.

There'd been what, twenty? Yes, twenty donuts, they'd just dumped all that was left on the plate thinking that it would state the hunger of both.

Clearly that hadn't been the case.

And he was getting distracted by the eating habits of a teenager.

He needed a shot of caffeine or he'd be keeling over sideways asleep before he could name the Capital he stood in if he wasn't careful.

"Agent Grant." The sudden voice jolted him back to full alertness as he quickly saluted.

"Sir!"

"At ease jungle boy."

Turning at the nickname he found himself glaring at Flint. "Would you cut it with the nickname already?" He hissed.

Flint raised his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright, jeez, anyway, looks like we've been partnered up to interrogate these two, so, I'll be good cop, and you be bad cop because you're obviously in a pissy mood already. Here. The files." He then finished, passing Jamerson the manila folder that he'd had tucked under his arm.

Jamerson gave him a withering look before sighing and nodding, taking the folder and turning the open the locked door.

All it took was for him to drop the folder on the table for the gluttonous kid to break.

He honestly caught very little of what he was rambling about over the blonde's constant attempts to get him to shut up.

He decided to help her, banging his fist down on the table hard enough to get the empty crumb covered plate to jump.

Instantly there was silence.

He turned his attention to the blonde. "Maggie Madsen, you were caught having stolen top secret information out of the Pentagon. Then passing it onto a hacker. This man. You've got some explaining to do. Both of you. But you're going to go first because clearly this young man can't keep his own tongue in check."

Flint frowned. "Yo, what kinda cop you playin'?" He hissed into Jamerson's ear.

Jamerson responded with a look between all three. "I'm playing myself, and myself has a nice warm bed that this mess is keeping me from. So I ain't gonna play around with this shit."

He saw the kid gulp and Maggie shrink back a bit in her chair.

"Okay… I know what I did was wrong, but I knew that Glen here would be able to crack this thing. I was right. The first hacker… it's like nothing we've ever seen, and there's mentions of these things like 'Cube' and 'Allspark', hidden within the code, those are what we think were used to search through the files. But then, as we all know, the second signal cut it off before it got anywhere. And it's that second signal, that Glen found out the most."

Glen nodded, taking over at Jamerson's skeptical look towards the teen. "Right! I know the hacker who did this! I recognise their work!"

Now that, was interesting.

"Who. Who's the hacker who emptied our files in Qatar? Who are they affiliated with?" His tone was firm, leaving no room for the kid to squirm out a half truth.

"A new hacker to the global scene, I only noticed her a few months back when word of her hacking clean through a Russian base in Siberia's security system got out onto the forums, someone managed to get snapshots of the codes she used to bust right through the firewalls. I ain't ever seen anything like it man! It was… almost… rotting the systems from the inside, destroying even the coding the security systems was made up of, nothing was spared, not even the heating system! An I don't know who they're working with." Jamerson was losing his patience, and one firm glare got that message across. "Right, basically, no one's able to even remotely match her speed, skills, nothing, and she has a calling card, one of my buddies over in Tokyo found it hidden within the code they managed to copy and contain so it didn't wreck their systems too. The calling cards a wing, specifically a Red Kite wing, with the word Halloran, printed over the feathers. Means 'Stranger from across the sea', weird huh? I mean, that birds from Europe, so I guess it works…"

Jamerson frown deepened. Halloran… he recognised that from somewhere…

Then it hit him.

"Ira… Ira Halloran…"

Glen tilted his head towards Jamerson. "Come again? You tellin' me you know this chick?"

Jamerson didn't pay him any attention.

He was already pacing in front of the table. "You said you'd never seen hacking like this." He remarked.

Glen nodded. "Yeah man, never seen code like that."

"Like it was from the future…"

Glen sent him a look of cautious concern. "You lost me."

Maggie spoke up then. "What are you talking about?"

Flint was also giving his partner a very confused look. "Dude, care to share?"

Jamerson didn't respond, going back to his pacing.

None of this made sense, they said they wanted to go home…

Arien even gave him that memory stick as a parting gift…

The memory stick…

If Ira was able to hack…

The realisation that dawned on him then was one of impassable horror, his heart dropping into his gut as he realised what he should of two years ago.

"No... no… no… no no no no nononononoNO!"

He shoved Flint out of the way and sprinted from the interrogation room.

"Jamerson! Hey! Wait up!" Flint shouted after him, trying to keep pace with the sprinting agent.

Surprisingly, even Maggie and Glen were chasing after him, though the later was struggling to even keep pace with his friend.

He made a beeline through the building to his personal desk, scrabbling for a moment before tearing the device from the port.

The green light flickered out, but he felt it was nothing but a hollow victory.

They'd had access to their systems for over two years.

And no one had even noticed.

There wasn't anything advanced enough to detect it.

Just like the second hack on Qatar.

After all, what was a better tool for hacking a computer, than a sentient one from the future?

Flint came to a stop next to him, followed soon after by Maggie, Glen, and a few of the night guards who'd tried to stop the later two from going into the room, but not being fast enough to stop them.

"What the hell was that all about?" Flint demanded.

Jameson turned to him with a haunted look in his eyes.

"We've been compromised. They've had access to our systems the whole time… they've probably got copies of everything I'd bet. And all because I stupidly used this device." The hand holding the device clenched almost in an attempt to break the memory stick, no luck, the metal it was made of didn't even strain under his shaking grip.

"Who? Who's compromised the system?" Maggie asked.

Jamesom took a deep breath, once he admitted this, he could pretty much say goodbye to his career.

"The Harpies. The beings who saved my life in the Amazon over two years ago… and I stupidly used their parting gift to give them access to potentially the entirety of the USA's Government systems… We need to raise the alarm."

Not even a moment after saying that, one of the other agents burst into the room.

"Someone get the Secretary of Defense on the line! Or anyone! We're getting mass responses from every space research station and radar center of hostile virtual takeovers! We're blind!"

Jameson felt like his gut couldn't drop further than it did right then.

Glen was the one to speak then. "I got my money on Halloran."

Jamerson scowled and spun on the man.

"For all we know, there's a Nuke coming our way because one of our enemies just knocked out our systems so that we couldn't see it coming! That's what they've been doing! Weakening our systems so we can't defend against such attacks! Oh God… I've doomed us all."


Beneath the Cosmopolitan

Winston let off what had to be the hundredth resigned sigh of the night as he once again glanced at where Mikaela was strewn out on the couch in the moderately sized human common area, his form primarily turned away from the still unconscious teen as he worked to make something for her to eat when she came around, something healthy preferably...

But Ira's passion for junk food made it difficult to find anything for the teen to eat without putting her health at risk.

Speaking of potential health risks the man's gaze then shifted to the Alien masquerading as a Camero down on the ground floor of the massive basement of the Cosmopolitan. Or at least the spot on the floor that he assumed he'd be able to see the Alien Camaro if he was Superman. Alas that was the not the case.

Yes he understood the full situation, yes he knew that they technically posed no threat to himself or any of his co-workers.

But this was an actual alien… not transdimensional humans who'd found themselves trapped in Alien bodies… This was a whole new ball game for the man.

But as Aria had rightly exclaimed when she realised what Ira had done upon arriving back after the end of the show, the act of knocking one of the Aliens unconscious for the sake of not wanting to deal with questions, was likely to sour any relations with the rest of his unit that had been desired by the four.

Exclaimed was a soft word, given the fact that they'd grabbed Ira by the top of her ear and given her her rights whilst dragging the younger woman around in a frog march whilst yelling repeatedly about how stupid she'd been.

He was honestly surprised that the spectacle didn't wake Mikaela or the Alien.

Especially when Arien had then turned their attention on Kia whom had been the cause of Mikaela passing out.

Letting off another sigh he remembered how the whole situation had been brought to his attention, at ten in the evening nonetheless, he'd been just rolling into bed when they'd called and asked him to come check on her, giving that she'd hit the ground before Ira, the only who could of reached her in time, had noticed the fact that the sudden appearance of Kia's beast form had sent the poor teen into a state of unconsciousness, after apparently, a very loud vocal outburst.

She had no significant harm to body, though the likelihood of her freaking out when she came too was a lot higher than any long term cognitive damage…

Finishing up the small, moderately healthy snack, he glanced at his laptop, which he'd brought with him to finish his work, which he had already completed, now it was just playing CSN, the news focused solely on the reported emergency landing of Airforce one, with reports of gunfire and a sudden, thankfully non-crippling, decompression from the hull bay doors opening.

The news agencies were already in a state of frantic conspiracy over what could of caused it, thankfully no one had the ludicrous notion which was actually the reality.

Though the massive tears in the fuselage was also raising a lot of concern, theories such as a dangerous high altitude monster threatening the airways, to sabotage, to more damage done by large objects being flung loose from the moorings inside during the decompression and causing the damage.

Giant Sentient mechanical birds of prey were thankfully not something that anyone wanted to stake their credibility on, even if they had the pre-existing knowledge of them existing like himself.

Speaking of the Harpies, not long after he'd arrived, he'd watched all four race down the main exit tunnel, the massive structure had only recently been completed, a full ten miles of tunnel out of Vegas which slowly angled up so that when they reached the end, lunging into the air was a breeze in the final vertical segment of the tunnel, it was yet to be fully lit though, so the Harpies had to rely on their 'unique' and very loud method of 'echolocation' to guide them through.

Their exit in general was even louder than Arien had been giving their friends the what for, given that, despite their low density for flight, they were still made of metal, and they were effectively running down a massive echo tunnel. Add to that Arien's pede damage and you've got quite the unholy ruckus.

At least the Twins were able to run with the damaged pede, it was a lot better now than it had been when he'd first been introduced to the group, back when the largest member of the group could hardly make it from one side of the underground hangar to the other without collapsing. That being said it was still nowhere near fixed and more their tolerance to the pain was higher after all of this time.

Soundproofing was a blessing really in this situation.

A groan from the sofa caught his attention as Mikaela finally began to come around.

"Ah good, I was getting worried I'd be waiting till tomorrow afternoon for you to wake up." He announced, trying to keep his tone quiet so as to avoid jolting the poor teen too much, she'd already had a lot loaded on her over the last two days, she didn't need anymore now, though that was inevitable.

"Ugh… Winston?" The teen guessed, rubbing the area she'd hit her head.

"Yes, just me I'm afraid. Don't be alarmed now, you've had enough excitement for now… Peanut Butter and Jelly?" He responded, offering the small stack of sandwiches.

Mikaela was quick to accept one, unsure of the time she figured she'd been out a long while, given her stomach was less than happy at the moment.

"Thank you... " She quickly wolfed down the first one, before she picked up the second however, she looked around, taking in the massive hangar like structure they were in, at present they were on a raised platform, decked out with a full kitchen, a cluster of sofas, even a pool table, and a TV in the corner that was currently turned off.

The rest of the massive structure was comparatively empty, a few large rolling doors leading off to other areas you could fit an upright space shuttle through, and the massive open space they were in broken up by the odd massive concrete pillar and hanging lights from high above.

Said lights were at present dimmed, leaving most of the place in a dark hue which made picking anything else out quite difficult.

"W-where are we?" She asked, finally picking up another sandwich that Winston had placed down on the sofa cushion next to her. In her observation she'd managed to eat the entire of the second sandwich.

Letting out a slight grunt the large man sat down on the over end of the Sofa. "We, are in a little known bunker under the Cosmopolitan, the Harpy's had it commissioned just after they bought the entire resort out from the previous owner." He answered.

"H-Harpy's?"

He nodded. "Yes, the Harpy's, it's what Aria, Ira, Kia and Wren call themselves, apparently, before they got tossed into our world they went by the codename to prevent them being tracked, hid how many of them there were at the top , since they've arrived here, it's become a lot more... literal." He answered.

Mikaela sucked in a breath, nearly choking on her most recent bite.

"So… the… thing… I saw? That wasn't a…"

"A dream? No, what you saw was Kia, she hadn't been alerted to your presence and so approached in her… 'true form' you could say... " He reached over and placed a massive comforting hand on her shoulder. " I know it's a lot to take in, but if you're willing to give it time, you get used to it. Becoming like this wasn't their choice, they've had a lot of hurdles to adapt to in the last few years."

Mikaela took in a deep breath before letting it out. "This is too weird… Metal Aliens from space and Metal former human bird… things from an alternate reality… shit this sounds like the plot of some stupid Sci-fi film."

Winston chuckled at that, patting her shoulder. "I've thought the very same thing every now and then…"

"Where are they now?"

Winston hummed for a moment. "Not really sure exactly, but I know that this place is likely to become quite a bit fuller soon."

Evidently she was able to piece together what that meant. "They're going to meet the other… the other Aliens… wait! Where's Bumblebee?!" She suddenly exclaimed, jumping up and looking around.

Winston chuckled again, it sounded more like a low rumble, and gestured to the railings which prevented a nasty tumble down to the actual ground floor.

On shaky legs Mikaela rushed for the railings, barely catching herself on them as her gaze shot down.

Sure enough, the yellow and black paint was visible in the low light, as well as the strewn out form of his human projection...

Projection, that must of been what she'd been talking to when she was speaking with any of the… Harpies.

Glancing back over her shoulder she found Winston back over by the laptop playing the news on the kitchen countertop, seemingly entranced by whatever was on the news.

How could he be so fine with all this?


Somewhere outside of Vegas

Before he'd even finished transforming, Optimus Prime knew he was being watched, the dark night was only lit by the small bush fires his landing had caused, leaving the organic world surrounding him in pitch blackness, the moon of this planet currently completely hidden by darkness.

His com-link was off, his unit already all clear on the plan to meet up at the Primes location, from there, they would seek out their unresponsive scout.

The mere thought of Bumblebee being in danger had his armourless fists curling, whoever that human was, they had some explaining to do.

But there was still that feeling of being watched, of eyes, optics? Bearing down upon him.

Craning his helm up, he regarded the star filled sky above, trying to map out the stars from this Planet's upper hemisphere.

That was when he spotted stars disappear, then quickly reappear high above, the size of the void too large to be a native creature.

And the faint, barely audible sound of something mechanical.

As if his realisation had been picked up, whatever it was moved into a dive, the black void growing larger and larger.

The sound of something beating the air… wings? The humans didn't have…

Whatever it was, landed, just beyond where the light of the quickly dwindling bushfires lit.

Something groaned, like metal being forced into a position it did not want to be in.

Then, came a chuckle, low, with a slight hitch half way through. "My, my, looks like our... childhood fantasy… has finally… become reality…" They were moving, circling him like a predator would with injured prey, the voice was accented, but undeniably that of a femme.

His audios caught the sound of that groaning metal with every other pede step, for a brief moment he considered that whomever this was, they were injured, the sound was telling enough.

But his attention quickly snapped back to caution when he realised they had gone full circle around him, and the silhouette that blocked the mountains was surprisingly large for a femme.

Up to the top of his chassis.

Not even Elita-1 was that tall.

And he couldn't see the glow of optics, perhaps hidden behind a visor?

Or was this somebot simply without Optics?

He decided to speak. "Who are you? Identify yourself. How did you know I would be here?"

The figure remained silent before another sound, like rustling tin leaves reached his audios, then, and only then did this femme answer.

"In due time Optimus Prime, explanations will come once you and your unit have reunited, preferably with us all tucked safely away in our little hidey hole. It's hardly safe to remain out here where any random scanner could pick us up after all." They responded, their voice suddenly a lower, colder tone than he'd first heard, which had been lighter, more playful.

He paused for a moment, before nodding. "Very well… But I must enquire, you are one of the Neutrals who lured my scout are you not?"

There was a brief pause before the femme...s? Answered, the lighter tone responding.

"Never one to miss a beat it seems… but yes. We used Mikaela and the glasses to lure you here."

Then they admitted it, he felt his servos clenching again. "Why? Why attack our scout?"

The sound of the Neutral taking a step back reached his audios, no groan that time.

"That really did look bad didn't it?" A sigh from their vents. "Allow us to apologise for our friends actions, without a doubt they were uncalled for, but Ira rarely thinks straight when she's tired and she'd only just returned from a very strenuous task. She simply did not want to deal with both your Scout and Mikaela's questioning so she… knocked him out simply put." They responded, the lighter tone remained, sounding honestly remorseful over the incident to the Prime's audios.

He decided to take a step forward, the bushes around his landing crater had all but burnt out, plunging him fully into the darkness.

"Why go through such trouble?"

There was a huff, like a laugh, with none of the humour.

"We've lived on this planet long enough to know that the humans are best avoided, especially if they are fueled by power over the majority, we've found a few humans we can trust, but they can hardly stop armies of their kind. Because of that, we thought it best to at least help you settle here safely without drawing unwanted attention." The lower tone answered, their voice cynical.

His helm tilted to the side slightly. "And how long have you been on this planet?"

"Long enough to fall victim to one of their traps."

They took another step and that same grinding sound was heard by the Primes Audios.

That just confirmed it. "They harmed you?"

A huff. "Not intentionally, the majority of humans do not know we exist, another reason to lead you away from heavily populated places to keep you from exposing the lot of us with your dramatic entrances!"

There was an accusatory tone in their voice for a brief moment then, evidently his units sudden arrival had forced their servo in someway.

Before he could respond, the lighter tone spoke up.

"As much as we'd love to stand out here in the cold night, I think it's best we get this show on the road, oh, could you possibly tell your medic to back off Ira a smidge? He's currently choking her out."

The complete deadpan way they said that statement urged one of his optic ridges to raise, but he decided to check on his unit anyway.

"Ratchet?"

What came back over the comlink was a very graphic and extreme screaming match of Cybertronian and a very odd sounding language he'd never heard before, along with a lot of just outright screaming, banging of metal on metal, and the pandamonium which came over the com-link at such a volume his audios shorted for a moment.

So loud that the femme(s) in front of him snorted, evidently they could hear it as well it was so loud.

He tried again. "Ratchet? What seems to be the issue?"

"PRIME! NOW IS NOT THE TIME!"

"Is oh go bhfuil an Príomh-? HI OPTIMUS! Aria! Wren! Níorbh fhéidir leat seo a fháil asal grumpy d'aois chun aonaigh mé ?! Chaith mé díreach tar éis a bheith ag bonn ag dó! Geallaim! Ceart go leor go raibh sé trí thine! Ach tá sé seo le beagán de thar an imoibriú barr!"

He paused. "What?"

"She said 'Oh is that the Prime? HI OPTIMUS! Aria! Wren! Could you get this grumpy old ass to let me go?! I just threw a tire at him! I swear! Ok it was on fire! But this is a bit of an over the top reaction!'" The lighter tone pitched in, evidently they could understand that language, and that their names were Aria and Wren… so two individuals, he was beginning to view this femme as something akin to the Decepticon Blitzwing, only with two personas instead of three.

"Grumpy old ass huh?! I'll show you old you little punk! You nearly took my helm off with that thing!"

"Ira for the love of my sanity could you for once not be such a pyromaniac?!" The lower tone huffed, he could practically picture them folding their arms over their chassis.

"Riamh!"

"God damnit. Ira, behave, I do not want to give you another talking to today and I doubt you want that too. It is too god damn late at night for you to be pulling your usual shit!"

A strange growling huff came over the com-link as the sounds of struggling finally died off. "Oh fine! Only cause ah don' wan' you yanking my audios again, damn, Arrrrriiiiiaaaaaaaaa~ tell your sister to be nicer to me!"

"Ira, I'm am one hundred percent on Wren's side here, it's too bloody late for you to be flinging flaming tires again… wait… if you two are getting along so… well… what about Kia? She went to get Ironhide? Right?"

That was when the com-link was joined, not by the aforementioned Weapons specialist, Optimus was beginning to wonder how these Neutrals knew the designations of his mechs, instead, it was Jazz.

"Prime! There is a bunch of fragging giant birds dive bombing me! They've got me pinned in a cave! This planet is way more wigged out then ah thought it'd be! Oh Primus they're back!"

The com-link cut off and he turned his gaze back to the femmes as the silhouette of their form grew significantly and the sound of metal on metal reached him.

"... What were we thinking sending those three to get him?" The lower tone, Wren, the lower tone was Wren, he'd been able to put that together from 'Ira's' pleas which were still coming over the com-link as Ratchet maintained his firm hold on the femme.

"... Hera at least has never failed before, maybe he landed on something and they're more interested on the meat stuck on him? They're easily distracted by food after all." Aria then respond, clearly having a conversation with her other half.

"If I'm allowed to put my two sense in here, maybe, now hear me out, this is just a maybe, but did we really have to go through all that trouble to get these dolts away from trouble, only for one to very nearly wring my neck out?! Yes I dealt the first blow, but I'm really not in the mood for any of this shit anymore and I'd love to know if our beloved twins agree with me when I say that I'd be much happier sleeping the next few days then deal with any of this?!"

"Ira shut up, we know you're tired and cranky, just kick him in the crotch and fly back to the roost if your that done with everything." Aria huffed, clearly their exasperation was growing quickly as well.

"Like I haven't already tried that! He's got me pinned! And my feathers are getting filthy! I'll be up till mid day trying to get all of this damn scrap out!"

"Feathers?" The Prime inquired, a quick scan of the World wide web alerted him to the fact that they were lightweight constructs which allowed the organic 'Birds' of this planet to produce lift and fly, said creatures were, seemingly regardless of species, very meticulous in their preening… they used wings to fly, like the wing beats he'd just heard before Aria and Wren's arrival…

More questions were arising than he could really keep track off.

"Ugh… this is getting us nowhere… Optimus I must apologise for our friend, she's highly irritable when she's like this and rarely thinks about consequences to her actions." Wren spoke, now that he thought of it, 'Wren' was a strange name for a femme, as was 'Aria', where they abbreviations?

'Wren' was as far as the world wide web was concerned, a sub group of eighty eight seperate bird species of incredibly small size, which also had a similarly named secondary group native to the Oceana Continent who seemed to have far brighter plumage to add to their still tiny size.

'Aria' was apparently a type of song sung as a solo.

"Let us try and right the course of this discussion, those two can avoid killing each other for a few more minutes surely."

He nodded, deciding that working out the next course of action would likely be for the best, instead of musing why their designations were so odd.

That was when he received a com-link request, origin, directly in front of him.

"We wish to transfer a pack of potential alt modes for you and your unit, as well as the location of a hidden entrance into our home, given this rocky introduction thanks to Ira, we will understand that you likely do not trust us enough to simply go in blindly to our home so soon after arriving on this planet. After all, what reason do you have now to trust us?"

That was a very fair question. "Your… methods, shall we say, have been less than, desirable." He responded.

The femmes huffed, he might of just said the wrong thing. "And if you'd stuck on your original trajectory you would of alerted the majority of the largest superpower on this planet to not only your existence, but potentially ours as well, you were set to land in one of the biggest cities in this damn country. On top of that, we had no way of directly communicating with you without risking alerting the Decepticons already on this planet to our existence. So we had to do this, as undesirable an outcome as this is." Wren responded, a noticeable bite in their voice as they answered him.

"We did what we could because we wanted to help you, not make enemies on this planet, we're just, not very good at it, we… have always been quite… socially inept." Aria added, he made out their silhouette shifting, as if anxious. "Are you… going to accept the pack? We've already sent it, you did get it right? We're not quite sure if our communication system works with yours…"

Jolting slightly at that he realised he had received the package, but he found himself prevented from opening it out of curiosity by Ratchet.

"Don't do it Prime! It could be a virus!"

"Oh fuck yah too then! ah made tha' fraggin' alt mode pack! I had tah fraggin' buy each and every one of their patents tah have full access tah their schematics! Not tah mention how long it fraggin' took meh tah find vehicles suitable for all yah frames once ah managed to ge' long range scans of you bastards! Do you have any Idea in tha' damn processor of yahs how much of a fraggin' chasm in mah bank account there is for you, no!? I COULDA BOUGH' AH THIRD WORLD COUNTRY WITH THA' MONEY YAH MOTHA FRAGGER! MAR SIN, DUL SCRIÚ BÓ!" Ira's incredibly insulted shout was enunciated at the end by a very loud clang of metal on metal, followed by a very pained groan from the medic just before the com-link cut out.

What filled the empty space, was the faintest, most lilting giggle he'd barely ever caught with his audios.

Then.

"SHE DID WHAT WE TOLD HER FOR ONCE!"

"SHE KICKED HIM IN THE DICK!"

Then he was surrounded by two types of laughter and the sound of them actually crashing to the floor, the laughters cutting over each other, one lilting and and the other rumbling guffaws.

Dick?

What was a dick?

"Ironhide come in, I have a question to ask? Do you know what a… dick is? Apparently Ratchet has just had that part of him kicked… Ironhide? Ironhide?" The lack of response was concerning.

There was no response from the other side, not even a confirmation that the link had gone through to his weapons specialist.

Maybe it was a good thing that Ironhide hadn't picked up, something told him the mech would be little help in this situation.

Given it was clearly an uproarious topic.

"Heck hem… alright… back to business…. Damnit… this whole thing's gone sideways off a cliff. Ugh… so much for good first impressions…" Aria's voice suddenly cut off the laughter coming from the two as they apparently sorted themselves out.

He tilted his helm to the side. "I must agree… this… greeting seems to of gone off the rails."

"Should we start from the top?"

"Yes, but quickly, my weapons specialist, Ironhide is not responding to me, given you've obviously…"

"He banged his helm on a boulder whilst landing, Kia is trying to rouse him as we speak, though she is not having much success, now then, from the top, Optimus Prime, it is a pleasure to meet you, I am Wren, along with my sister Aria, we are the unofficial leaders of our small group of neutrals, whom, have resided on this planet for a number of years. In that time we have been able to garner significant information and success within the human world by integrating into their society with the use of our holoforms. The reason we have brought you here is because of that information, seek out the Allspark without our words of caution, and you will have a very unsavoury surprise waiting for you on your attempt to reclaim the Allspark… or destroy it, depending on how much of a Martyr you're feeling like Prime." Wren declared, they moved forwards, stepping to his right side until they were parallel. There was a bite in their tone, an accusation.

The words hung in the air, and he felt a sliver of fear touch his spark, how had they known about his final resort? He had not even discussed it with his mechs…

He offered his right servo out, as if to shake. "Aria and Wren, I am thankful for your attempts to help us, despite how circumstance has turned this meeting. From what I have gathered, it is a custom on this planet to shake servos in greeting?" He spoke, waiting for a physical response from the other.

He got it, he felt something long and thick press into his servo, and his attempt to close his servo around it proved fruitless given the girth prevented a complete closure of his servo.

For a brief moment he pondered if they'd just dumped a piece of metal into his servo, but he felt it push up and down, causing his arm and servo to at least go through the motion of shaking. "I was… expecting a servo."

They chuckled, and Aria responded. "We have no servo to give you Prime, our arms are all currently trying to herd Jazz to our roost. You'll have to do with the limbs we do currently have available."

"You, are armless?"

"Yes. It is a difficult predicament to live with, technically we still have the same struts that make 'arms' function, it is simply the fact that ours are not designed to to function the same way as yours so to speak." Wren responded this time as whatever he was holding pulled away, revealing itself to be a long, slightly curved, conical structure which took a good while to taper off.

But in that time, he felt something he hadn't further up, the brush of strange, fibrous structures which bent and shifted around his digits as they were pulled by.

Feathers.

Metallic feathers, not decoration like he had assumed was what Ira had been complaining about.

These femmes, did not have them as decoration, but as a functioning part of their anatomy.

It explained the rustling which came with each breeze and the lack of transformation when they were approaching from the air.

Their bipedal form was perfectly able to remain airborne, something he'd previously only found with those who had the function of having thrusters, which these two did not have.

He was getting off track once again, so he returned his attention to addressing these strange femmes. "You…"

"How about we continue this at our roost if you do decide to join us within our residence, I do not mean to sound rude, but we did not intend for this to stretch out as long, and we are quickly feeling the effects of exhaustion, we must depart for our roost now lest we risk falling out of the sky on the way home." Aria interrupted, the femmes stepped back and their wings, not arms, full blown wings stretched out in preparation to take off. "If you decide against joining us, we shall give the knowledge we have gathered to Bumblebee once he has arisen, then we will send him back to you to relay our information."

They took another step back, and he heard the grinding sound again. "What of you?" He enquired.

They took a moment to answer. "We will manage, damaged talons are damaged talons, we've lived well enough so far, we had hoped to trade our knowledge for your medic repairing, or at least taking a look at the damage, but it is not something we will force… if you do not come, we will give Bumblebee the information for when he regroups with you, good night Optimus Prime." Wren responded.

Then their wings were beating, the massive limbs almost blowing back the Prime as they quickly ascended into the sky.

What followed next, he had no preparation for.

An echoing, near deafening animalistic screech to the stars above which seemed to shake the night sky itself.

By the time he managed to pull his servos away from his audios, they were long gone, and in the far distance, he heard likely equally loud screeches responding to the call.

"By Primus ah think they got bored of meh…" Jazz suddenly called over the com link.

"Are you in anyway damaged?" He enquired. Aria and Wren had mentioned sending a group after the short mech

"Only cosmetic, crazy things kept trying to drag me of the cave! The biggest one managed to get my whole arm out of the cave at one point!" The mech exclaimed.

"Hmm, likely because they were supposed to lead, if not drag you to the location we are now to go to ourselves."

"... Come again? Ah think mah audios are failin' me Prime, tell me you didn't just say we're going to the place those crazy things were trying to carry me off to?!"

"Jazz, they are neutrals trying to help us. Our arrival has risked potentially exposing them to both human kind and the Deceptions. They have information that will help us in our quest. Finally, two of them are injured, badly I fear."

"... Oh… so, they didn' tell yah tha information?"

"It would seem they wish to trade the information for medical attention, but have given us the option of not going, if we do not go, they have promised to tell Bumblebee before he departs them so he may tell us." The Prime responded.

"So… you've decided to trust them?"

"They didn't intended for yours and Ratchets interactions to go so foul."

"What happened tah Hatchet?"

"Apparently one of the Neutrals did not have the patience to be courteous and instead flung a flaming tire at him, it would seem they had a very vocal and agitated interaction before the neutral drew a blow which Ratchet has yet to recover from, in his… dick?" It was then that it finally dawned on the Prime what that was, and almost immediately felt a shadow pain go through that very same area for himself, yes, that would be quite a difficult blow to remain fully functional afterwards.

"Sounds like they're pretty hostile tah meh." Jazz responded.

"They were rebuked for their actions by the two who came to welcome me."

"They didn' harm yah did they Prime?"

"No, nothing of the sort, it was an… interesting interaction. But my decision still stands, once Ratchet and Ironhide are operational, we will seek out the Neutrals hiding place."

"Understood Prime, not quite feelin' yah confidence, but, understood, besides, what kinda mechs would we really be if we didn't try and help those in need."

The Prime felt a small smile grace his faceplates, reassured to hear that Jazz was still a mech of impeccable morals.

It was Ratchet who responded to the call first, albeit it took the Prime a level of patience worthy of a gods, and a lot of persuasion to convince the seething medic of the fact that, whilst his experience was… painful, there was a pair of injured neutrals who did require medical aid, and that he would have to swallow his damaged pride.

By the time he'd managed that feat, Ironhide had finally come around from stasis and had been filled in by Jazz.

Once all of his present unit was up to speed, he opened the data pack.

No traps, no viruses, nothing present of ill intent was found when he opened the pack and regarded the many vehicles, colour schemes, everything down to licences for each potential vehicle form, and most importantly, coordinates.

It took only a few moments for them to pick out ones that pleased them most, their processors left intrigued at the fact the Neutrals somehow knew of their preferred individual colour schemes, though the flame paint job that was offered to Optimus within the layout of the pack did earn a round of humour from his mechs.

He was half tempted to take the flame paint, but decided to go with the colour scheme that had always been his, red white and blue, apparently this country they were in viewed those colours as highly patriotic.

Once their respective alt modes where fully integrated, the four mechs set off over the rough untamed terrain, headlights illuminating the dry land before them.

The Primes curiosity warred within his processor with his focus on the task at hand, wondering what these neutrals could possibly look like, with wings instead of arms, how that would prevent such simple actions as holding one's own cube of energon.

The silence over the com links was now to prevent any nearby by potential Decepticons or humans picking up on their conversations only aided in the wandering of his processor as it contemplated what warning these beings would give for their search for the Allspark.

So much so was his distraction, that it took Ironhide's warning shout from directly to his left to alert the Prime that they had reached the coordinates given.

A giant metal door in the ground, with their headlights illuminating it, the steel was easily spotted under the camouflage which would hide it from view of any who were not aware it was there.

Transforming back to his full height once more the Prime regarded the gateway to the Neutrals hideout with his mechs, on the horizon, a sprawling human city illuminated by millions of lights of seemingly every colour under the sun.

That was where Bumblebee was, he had been in one of those buildings in his holoform when one of the Neutrals, Ira, took him out.

A sudden hissing noise from the massive doors drew his and his mechs attention into it fully as the doors parted revealing an inky black void beyond where the lights on their chassis could not reach.

A near vertical drop existed before them.

"Whoa… any bot here thinks there's ah trap down there?" Jazz inquired, squatting to try and get a better view. "Cause damn, be a pretty damn good spike trap."

Optimus took a moment of pause to regard all three mechs before stepping forwards and turning around so that he could begin climbing down the grooves, surprised to find significantly sized grooves ringing the wide tunnel, likely to support the aerial capacity of its residents.

"If it worries you so their trustworthiness in not setting a trap for those whom they seem to want to help, then I will go first." He finally responded just before his helm disappeared over the lip.

"You weren't the one to be physically assaulted Prime." Ratchet remarked in rebuff for how trusting the Prime was in the face of this unknown.

"You've had worse."

With that not exactly snark free response, the towering mech continued his climb down, quickly finding he could once again stand fully upright as the tunnel leveled out into a banked chamber, another wider tunnel directly to his left, towards the City on the horizon, it became clear to the Prime that this entrance was more suited for those with flight capacity but was still tall enough for him to comfortably walk down, though he did have to stoop his helm ever so slightly if he did not want to scrape the top of his helm.

Craning his helm up, he could see his units figures looking over the lip of the entrance down at him.

"Autobots! The path is clear!" He called up, banging his pede to the ground for emphasis.

With a bit of grumbling from Ratchet that Optimus couldn't quite make out, the three mechs cautiously made their way down into the large chamber which stretched out around them.

Jazz let out a noise of appreciation as his headlights searched around the large but mostly bare chamber. "Gotta give it to them, this place is huge!"

Ironhide was about to respond to the smaller mech when he realised that Optimus was already walking down the unlit tunnel ahead of them. "Prime! Wait! There could be more traps!" He shouted.

"Prime! Wait! There could be more traps!" Echoed back from the tunnel.

Jazz snorted. "Yeah mech, yah vocaliser on replay."

He got a whack over the helm from the weapons specialist for that one, but the three mechs were quick to follow after their Prime.

"There are no traps Ironhide." The Prime responded, continuing his steady pace towards wherever the tunnel ended.

Letting out a disgruntled vent Ratchet sped up enough to fall into step with his Prime. "So, the trade is I treat them, for information?"

Optimus nodded. "Yes Ratchet, Aria and Wren require medical assistance."

Ratchet huffed. "Do you know what is damaged?"

"One of their pedes, it was damaged in a human trap, I could not see it, but it would seem that the damage is significant enough for it to warrant a significant overhaul, it sounded akin to a half mangled joint, damaged enough to cause discomfort, but not enough to completely cripple." The Prime responded, trying to explain an injury he had been unable to see was not an easy feat in the slightest.

"Then why would both of them need repair if only one is injured?" Ratchet questioned.

Optimus paused in his steps and regarded the medic. "They are twins Ratchet, same frame twins."

He watched as the CMO's jaw dropped slightly, and in his peripheral he saw Ironhide and Jazz exchange a look.

"Impossible… the only case… Blitzwing was a Decepticon experiment gone wrong! Every mech worth his armour knows that Prime! This could very well be another!"

"Ratchet."

"Such a phenomenon is impossible outside of that!"

"Ratchet…"

"Who knows how unstable their mental capacity is!"

"Ratchet!" The Prime shouted, cutting off the medic.

"Ratchet!" Echoed back.

The CMO paused in his rant.

"We will discuss this, later." Optimus stated firmly, before continuing on his way.

The walk was that of a significant distance still, and where it not for the seemingly endless grooves and bumps purposefully put into the floor to impede vehicle transportation, they may well of already arrived.

That was when Optimus spotted a light in the distance, believing it to be the end of the tunnel, the Prime's pace was quick to increase.

The light seemed to do the same, quickly coming closer and closer until two wide blue optics could be made out in the dark as well.

It took not a spark beat more to recognise the now sprinting scout, and the worry in his optics as he raced towards them, not a scratch to be seen on his frame.

"Bumblebee!" He heard Ironhide call, quickly followed by a clamour from Jazz and Ratchet as well.

It silenced when the scout practically crashed into Optimus in his haste, having not even tried to slow down his approach as he grabbed for the Prime's arm and began trying to drag the far larger mech back the way he had just come from, radio clippings firing off and being interrupted each time before sense could be made of what he was saying.

"Yo! Mech, slow down! What's got your gears runnin' so high?" Jazz exclaimed, managing to get Bumblebee's attention enough to slow down in his attempt to drag Optimus.

'They went down! Mayday! Mayday! We got a bird down!' An accented voice shouted over a radio clipping as he continued to pull at the Primes arm. 'Couldn't - take it! …' The scout trailed off, his helm craning back the way he came. 'They - sent me - to get you.'

Optimus glanced to his CMO, all of his reservations seemingly gone as, after a brief nod that they would in fact continue this discussion later, the medic bolted the way Bumblebee had come, leading the quickly forming charge of Autobots as they pressed on, the sounds of their heavy pede falls ringing within their audios in the giant echo chamber as they kept going, Optimus quickly catching up with Ratchet with his longer strides, Bumblebee racing close behind, with Jazz and Ironhide pulling up the rear.

They barely noticed as the tunnel suddenly opened up into a massive dimly lit hanger, focused solely on the location of where a pained muffled scream suddenly erupted from.

When their optics found the source, all but Ratchet and Bumblebee froze in place, the former quickly rushing over and outright shoving the two smaller… beings, out of the way and dropping to examine the largest as they lay strewn out on the floor, the later likely because the scout had already seen them and wasn't so shocked by their appearance.

'They really do have wings for arms' Was the first thing that the Prime thought when the initial shock finally wore off, leaving him to take in the monochrome colour scheme, the wide set helm design, the prong like additions on each side which twitch and flared as the femmes helm arched back and whatever they'd been biting down on to try and muffle their cries snapped.

He heard Ratchet curse when his attempt to grab something now out of the Prime's view earnt him a brutal kick to the faceplates, sending him stumbling back.

Leaving the mangled limb in clear view.

It was grotesque, there was no other word for it, the limb looked like it had been forced apart from the inside, with noticeable holes through the metal right up to the first joint of their leg.

They had been standing on that for the entire time they had spoken to him.

Walked on that wound.

Primus they had used it to take the brunt of force from their landing.

Then Ratchet was blocking his view again, shouting for someone to come help him pin the massive femme down so that he could operate.

Before either him or his mechs could react, the two other neutrals rushed to the medic and their stricken comrade, the red/orange, white and brown one using the struts of their wings to pin the far larger femme by their wide shoulderplates as best as they could.

Whilst two spindly limbs came out from the sides of their chassis, the claws grasping at the prongs on either side of the femmes helm.

"Shh, shh, shh, easy Wren, easy, we know it hurts… c'mon… shh, shh, easy, he's here, he's gonna fix yah… right?" The femmes helm came up, even with the pitch black visor blocking the upper half of their faceplates, the panicked nature of the smallest femme was easily read.

The other was also quick to join, using their own wings to try and pin the undamaged pede to the ground so that it could do no more harm as the largest of their group continued to thrash and out right screech as Ratchet set to work, jabbing a needle directly into the wound in an attempt to numb the pain.

It only took a few more moments after that for the screeches to peter off into laboured venting and groans held back by clenched denta as their helm dropped out of their companions tiny servos and onto the floor with a 'thump'.

"I. Hate. Today." Wren hissed out.

"Technically it's two in the morning."

"Ira, at this point, neither of us have the energy to give a shit."

The one who'd been silent up until then, Kia, looked to Ratchet. "How bad is it?"

The medic responded with a near lethal look. "It's not life threatening, one of the main struts in her pede has splintered. That is, if my guesswork of how your anatomy works is correct, it looks like… like…"

"Ugh, like we got impaled by a ton of spikes?"

A snort from Jazz got Aria and Wren's helm snapping round and baring their denta (?) at the Polyhexian. Where denta should be were two smooth plates with hooked centres, there was no illusion within the Primes helm how sharp those were.

"Not those kinda spikes you gutter processor! Ira! Go get the instruments of mutilation then!" They snapped, focusing once again on the one their helm now rested against.

The irritated huff that came from the smallest femme suggested to the Prime that an optic roll of dramatic proportions had just occurred, amplified by the fact that the femme's sudden upright position left the largests helm to clang against the ground.

Followed swiftly by that same language that sounded a lot like they were more than a little aggravated as she strode over to one of the open hangar doors which lined the walls of the large chamber.

Not a few moments later and the sound of metal clanging together, the smallest was returning with a bundle wrapped in canvas.

Said bundle was then unceremoniously dropped on the floor in front of Ratchet, causing rusted, large jagged lengths of metal to scatter across the ground. The medic was quick to pick up one of them, bringing it under his scrutinous gaze as he took note of the long dried energon still splattered over the primitive mutilation tools.

"Now if yah'll excuse me, ah got ah nest with mah name written on it an' ah inten' tah use it tonigh'!" Ira stated, banging her right wing support against her chassis before turning back around and storming off to one of the other hangar doors which opened at her approach before slamming back shut behind the femmes backstrut and forked tail feathers?

It took a moment for the Prime to add that little feature to his interpretation of all three femmes, Kia's being the shortest and seemingly only barely getting past her upper legs before cutting off in a rounded curve, Ira's dropped to the top of her second leg joints in regards to the tips of the deep wedge cut that left the centre of the feathers half way up the full length of hers, and the twins had, unsurprisingly, the longest of the three, but in their current laying position it was difficult to gauge just how much longer than their partners theirs was as the black and white collection was mostly trapped under the femmes frame.

He was jerked from his musings when Ratchet rose, apparently having finished with his quick repair job. "It's not perfect, but until I have a better understanding of this abnormal anatomy you have, it's all I can do." The medic announced, his servos coming to rest on his hipplates as the large twin femmes tried to push themselves upright.

It was a clearly difficult procedure but one they seemed to manage with surprising ease, but they went no further at the warning scowl they got from the medic.

He'd expected them to shy away or something to that account, all the neutrals he had experienced were, if he was being truthful, quite timid, and uncertain of their new lives away from their home world.

Though that was hardly something he could rely on, to his knowledge, the Decepticons had made it a side mission to wipe out all Neutral groups who'd turned their backs to the war.

What he hadn't expected, was the almost smug smirk the femmes shot his CMO.

"Naww, what's the problem Doc? Never patched up someone with honeycomb struts before? Don't worry, our buddy Winston can give you a crash course on our anatomy in the morning, he took Mikaela up to our apartment just before we got back and went down, he's probably crashed himself now that I think about it." Aria spoke, trailing off into her own thoughts by the end before the left shoulder shrugged.

Kia seemed to nod along to some unspoken notion. "Best to get you two to your own nest and get some rest, I'll fill these guys in on everything ok amigo?" They asked, already using their own wing supports to hold onto the larger femmes under their own wings, helping to hoist them up onto one pede as they held their mauled right pede off the ground, said action, due to their nature of their struts, seemed in no way to the mechs remotely normal. Then again, this cycle had not been anything close to normal since they arrived on this planet, so that wasn't the best comparison in the Prime's optics.

"Merci Kia." Wren responded, before turning to them. "We're sorry if this incident forced your servo, it was not our intention to collapse like that… we clearly over did it this time, thank you Ratchet. Kia will give you the location of the Allspark in a moment, but do not just jump and rush off, it would likely be best if we helped you civilly interact with the branch of human Government currently looking after it." They paused for a moment. "And a certain… someone I do believe you all know very well."

Ironhide was the one to take the bait after a brief moment of silence as Kia shifted the larger femme into a shoulder carry. "And who, would that be?"

The larger femme let off an airy chuckle, Aria responding. "Why, your old pal Megzy."

It took all of three human seconds for the nickname to register with the faceplates of the Decepticon Warlord, but when it did, a sense of dread dropped into their tanks.

"That's why we need you to really at least let us help you with this part, he's on Ice, frozen stiffer than a flagpole in Antarctica, but if the humans get the wrong idea about you, and decide to wake their 'NBE-1', as they like to call him, well, he's not even got a hundred metres to cross before he's got the cube in his servos."

There was a long moment of silence as they watched Kia lead the larger twins into another hanger door, the rouge faced femme returning shortly after into view before the door slid shut behind her on its rollers.

"Now then, shall we begin? I guess you deserve to know everything we can offer."


Ouf! Would you believe me if I said that this chapter was initially only half as long? That's what having buffer chapters does to you, you keep having ideas of what to add and what sounds better and it can just get out of hand! Oh well.

Sorry about the long hiatus between chapters, I write so much yet it feels like the chapters take so long to be complete!

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed!

Moon