"Bulkhead?!" Miko shrieked not a week later when she saw the bruiser lying unconscious. "What happened?"

"Tox-En exposure, among other things," Ratchet answered, then turned to Arcee and Bumblebee. "Help me get him into the medbay." Jack and Raf followed their companions, and Miko held her head. "If I hadn't gone to New York-"

"You couldn't have known," Fowler answered, "and that Hardshell sucker-punched him. A surprise attack. It couldn't be prevented."

"Who?" Miko asked.

"Insecticon. I had to deal with one, too. Hardshell is apparently their leader, and he's very dangerous. Shatter is tough for you, so Hardshell would have been too dangerous. It's not your fault," Fowler said. "I've gone through this, too. Stay calm. No good will come from worry. Understand?"

Hardshell, huh? "Yes, sir," Miko answered, committing the name to memory.

She spent a few hours in the training room that day, fighting a simulation army to blow off steam. "Decepticon freak," she hissed as she threw a car. "He thinks he can just kill whoever he wants. I oughta find that guy and give him what for. I should-"

RING! Miko turned off the simulation and grabbed her cell. She didn't recognize the number, but Fowler tended to call from other areas. "Hello?"

"Kid, ya there? I wanna talk," came Wheeljack's voice. "You doing okay?"

"Not really," Miko replied. "Is Bulkhead-"

"He'll live," Wheeljack answered. "He'll be thrilled when I take out the fragger who killed him. Speaking of, who did it?"

"I…" Miko hesitated. "Are you sure you wanna do this? What if he went back to hide in the Nemesis?"

"I'll go in and find him," Wheeljack answered. "Do you know who?"

Miko frowned. On one hand, it was a bad idea to go for revenge. She knew it. On the other hand, this was Wheeljack. He could handle it. "Hardshell. His name is Hardshell."

There was a pause. "Thanks, kid. I owe ya one."

Miko nodded. "Don't mention it. To anyone."

"Of course."

It took a few minutes after the call ended for Miko to realize that if anything happened, it was on her. Hardshell had taken Bulkhead down, what did Wheeljack expect to do? So, for her own sake (at least, she would tell herself that), she suited up and took flight.

She found his ship before she found him. There were bombs, swords, and other such weapons in there, but no Wheeljack. "Where the-" Once Miko looked out the window, her question died in her throat. Hardshell was beating Wheeljack. Hard. If nobody intervened, the Wrecker would die. Thankfully, Miko was in-uniform, so she flew down to deal with it.

Wheeljack, when he looked back on it, should have expected worse. He figured Hardshell would go down easy just because of the cowardly way he had harmed Bulkhead. But as it turned out, the Insecticon was strong. Really strong. Strong enough to beat Wheeljack himself in battle.

Which he had. And now he was standing over the Wrecker, ready to take his spark, when- wait, was that a human? What the frag was she…

Wow. A human girl had just flown down and kicked Hardshell to the ground. Then, before he could react, she blasted him in the chest. And cracked open his jaw. And ripped out his spark. Frag, this person was no joke. And she dressed like it, too. Dressed in a black, pink, and white bodysuit with a matching cape and helmet, she finished Hardshell off and flew down to Wheeljack. "You alright?" And yep, the voice was distorted.

"What the… who are you?"

"Commander Fistfight. Local superhero."

"I thought that was a dude."

"Wrong generation," Commander Fistfight answered, dry tone seeping through the distortion. "Come on, we gotta get out of here. I doubt he was alone."

Wheeljack staggered to his feet. "How did you know-"

"That doesn't matter," Commander Fistfight interrupted. "What matters is that I did. Now, you have to get back to the base. And try not to do something like that again. If I'd shown up just one minute later…" Then she went silent. "I'm needed elsewhere. Farewell."

Before Wheeljack could protest, the mystery girl flew away.

Commander Fistfight was supposed to be a hero. But Miko didn't feel like one. The day after she killed Hardshell, she sat on Bulkhead's chest sadly and curled up. She had originally been disgusted when Shatter killed that one guy- Barricade, had he said? But she had no more room to talk. She understood.

Wheeljack glanced at her. "He'll be fine," he said, coming over. "If it makes you feel better, that fragger Hardshell is dead."

"You killed him?" Miko had to ask. She couldn't risk exposing herself.

"No. Some human freak did. I owe her one."

Miko crawled onto Wheeljack's hand and curled up, crying, and he hugged her as much as possible. Briefly, her powers flared, but she kept them from expressing themselves as the two sat down to sulk.