Alright! new chapter up and ready to go! Not going to say much, other than that I hope you all enjoy this chapter!


Chapter 9

There were three things that woke Mikaela up the next morning.

One was the smell of sizzling eggs and bacon.

The second was the quiet smooth jazz coming from somewhere in the room, accompanied by soft humming.

The other was the heavy warm weight covering her that seemed to keep trying to nuzzle closer.

It was only when she felt something sharp nestle against her skull through her hair that she decided that enough was enough and opened her eyes.

Only to find the mass to be a large, small horse sized mechanical bird, black white and grey in colouration, hogging the majority of the sofa with one wing seemingly wrapping around her to hold her close to the surprisingly warm metal feathers as what she guessed was it's head rested on hers, whilst the other wing was tucked to their side.

Deciding against moving, lest she startled the thing covering her. She peered out towards the other sofa after spotting a yellow and black form there.

Sure enough, there was Bumblebee's human form, one arm thrown over the armrest, one leg on the floor, and mouth wide open in silent snores.

Then she realised he too had a companion.

A slightly smaller, black, brown, cream and red faced metal bird who was just curled up on his chest and staring out the floor to ceiling panoramic windows, clearly awake.

And with a turn of his head, his large gold eyes locking on her, acknowledged her wakefulness with a squawk over his shoulder.

Not a moment later a whispered voice hissed back, replacing the soft humming. "Shush Nibbler! Don't wake our guests!"

Apparently though, the squark had brought her own companion to alertness, as the sharp thing she assumed was its beak lifted from her head and a set of bright sea green glass eyes appeared in front of her almost immediately after.

Then it turned towards the hissed voice, stretching it's neck a good way, revealing the cabling hidden under the mass of feathers, it too squawked, this one sounding more insistent.

More… happy?

"Hera! Shhhhhhh! Let them sleep!" The voice hissed again in a whisper that sounded slightly strained.

The creature dubbed Hera just squawked again and bounced its head up and down, seeming to get more excited as it moved to stand around her.

Not a moment later she caught sight of the talons clutching the sofa not an inch away from her arm.

They looked like meat hooks.

Really big, serrated meat hooks.

"Hera! Really! You'll wake them!"

"Um… I'm already awake." She mumbled, deciding to finally bring attention to herself.

There was a moment of silence as what sounded like the gas of one of the cookers being turned off before the voice materialised as a form of a grey and white unkempt haired woman peering over at her from the other end of the couch, and oddly enough they were wearing sunglasses, really dark sunglasses, where they hung over or something? Could they be hungover? It was way too early to be questioning her hosts fashion sense...

"Oh… so you are… okay… hungry?"

"Urr yeah? Um… Aria? This is the Aria half right?" Mikaela responded back, but struggled to move anywhere with Hera on top of her. "Can… can you tell her to get off?"

Aria blinked at her after giving a quick nod to confirm that she was right about guessing which half of the set she was. "Mmmm, Hera, off."

The response was for the metallic bird of prey to give the white and grey haired woman a full blown incredulous look.

For a moment she was left wondering how such a feat occurred.

Then she remember the human form of a giant alien robot was still out cold on the other sofa and decided heightened facial expressions were now snugly within the norm of crazy shit she'd seen within the last twenty four hours.

"Don't give me that look young lady, she's up now so get off." Aria responded to Hera's look.

Apparently she was familiar enough with the bird to reach out and outright yank some of the poor creature's tail feathers so as to make her stance clear.

Turns out that was all that was needed to convince Hera to spread her large, ridiculously large wings out and with a few quick beats that threatened to knock away literally everything in the room, relocated herself to the floor between the sofas where she puffed up in indignation.

"Oh hush you, you've slept enough you lazy thing." Was Aria's response before beckoning Mikaela to follow her into the kitchen, Hera already tailing after the older woman, her grievance apparently already forgotten.

Knowing there was to be no bartering a few minutes more sleep given how awake she already felt, Mikaela managed to get herself upright, groaning under her breath at how stiff she felt from sleeping as awkwardly as she had on the admittedly really comfy couch.

After a few quick stretches to try and loosen some of the tension out of her body, she turned to walk into the kitchen away from the waking city below.

Aria was already back at one of the stoves, the fire already going again under the pan as the bacon sizzled and eggs spat as they were thoroughly scrambled.

Coming up to stand next to the woman she peered over her shoulder, already feeling her stomach begin to growl.

Just to the side she spotted a plate of bread next to the six slot toaster which sat against the wall in all its chrome black glory.

This was just making her even more hungry.

That's when she noticed the enquiring look Aria was sending her out of the corner of her eye.

"So…" She began, but fell short of thinking of something to say.

"Hmm?"

"Um… where's your sister?"

"Oh Wren? Still sleeping, Ratchet's brace kept her up for a good while so I'm letting her sleep in."

"How… how do you do that? You're one brain right?"

The first answer she got was a chuckle. "No, no, we're not, and yet, we are at the same time, we may share a body, but we are fully capable of functioning on our own… back before we got these projections and were, you know, fully human, that meant we moved half of our body each, me controlling the left, Wren controlling the right, simple as. But that meant that 'functioning' with only one of us awake doesn't really work, given we need the other to be awake too to do things like walk and such without dragging an unresponsive other half along the floor by one arm and a leg. That make sense?" There was an almost strained chuckle at the end of that admittance, she barely caught it as Aria tossed the pan slightly, throwing up the eggs and bacon for a moment to help move them around as her other hand worked to add a dash of salt and pepper to the pan.

She responded with an honest shrug.

"Hmm, most people don't get it right off the bat, but I'll put it this way, with these projections, or holoforms, as they're called, we can operate separately if one of us is still asleep. It wasn't easy getting used to, having to learn how to control the other side of our bodies our sibling would normally control, but we manage in the name of us being able to multitask and pull off fun little tricks like that one last night… oh! I forgot to ask! Did you enjoy the show? Well, what small chunk of it you saw because of Ira's interruption but, did you like what you did get to see?" She outright giggled then, like a little girl who'd just spoken some dirty little secret she wasn't supposed t. There even seemed to be a sparkle within those sea green eyes of hers as she glanced over her shoulder at the teen, sunglasses pushed up to her forehead, but under that, she could've sworn she saw hesitation, veiled behind the bright eyes that were looking directly at her.

Mikaela worried her bottom lip as she tentatively leant against the marble topped island that sat in the middle of the kitchen area. "It was… pretty cool. Bumblebee was trying to ask me questions through the start of it though." She admitted, shrugging. "Honestly I'm not sure… it was kinda surreal. Everything is I guess… I mean, I met you like, the day before yesterday and now I'm trying to process alien robots, giant bird robots that used to be humans from another reality where I'm nothing but a… fictional character… oh god… that just hit me..." She muttered, her head dropping to stare at the floor below her as it all began to really sink in.

She… she was fictional… did that mean the only people in this universe that were actually real were these people? The twins and their two friends and what she guessed where they're pets?

Was this what it felt like to have an mid life crisis?

A plate of steaming hot bacon and scrambled eggs appearing not five inches from her face knocked her out of that spiral and her head snapped back up to stare at the strange woman holding the plate out to her.

"Try not to dwell on it too much with an empty stomach." Was Aria's response as Mikaela numbly took the plate and shuffled her ass back so that she could, after a bit of co-ordination, climb onto one of the padded raised seats and place her plate down.

All the while Aria was rummaging around in what looked like the cutlery draw before pulling out a knife and fork, quickly bumping the draw closed again with her hip before Mikaela could look inside.

"Here, enjoy… hopefully it tastes good… me and Wren may cook a lot… but, eggs and bacon was kind of an, on the fly thing, I just wanted you to have something to eat at least."

Mikaela looked at her, watching as Aria rubbed the back of her neck with her left hand. "Thank you. For the food, everything else I have no idea what to think of yet, so, thanks for now I guess?"

Aria stared at her with a completely blank face for all of a second before the strangest noise left her closed lips and suddenly very puffed up cheeks.

Then she exploded into a fit of giggles as she doubled over herself.

Suddenly finding herself overcome by the infectious giggles, she was quick to follow.

Soon enough the two were in absolute hysterics for seemingly no reason whatsoever.

Still busting whatever kind of gut her projection had, Aria braced herself on the table and gestured to her with the hand she wasn't currently using to prevent her from meeting the floor. "We've introduced you to giant alien robots, time travel and multiple dimensions in which one of said dimensions you're a fictional character! And that's your reaction!? Thanks!? I thought you'd start screaming at me and demanding answers now you weren't so tired!" She exclaimed, gesturing with her free arm now in a wide semi circle at the world at large around them both.

Mikaela, still trying to contain her own spontaneous fit of giggles tried to shrug her shoulders, but it ended up with her nearly falling off the high chair due to over compensating. "Give me a bit and I might just start!"

When a response didn't come, she managed to calm her own giggles and unscrew her tightly shut eyes, surprised to find the woman's forehead being cradled in her hands with her elbows braced on the table. "A-aria?"

"It… it just hit me… everything… oh ancestors… oh fuck, oh fuck… we're fucked… what have we done?! Oh Primus… oh good somehow non-fictional god of an alien race of giant robotic organisms… I LEFT THE STOVE ON! I LEFT THE STOVE ON FOR TWO YEARS! THE GAS BILLS GONNA BE MURDER!"

And then she was gone from the kitchen area, making a beeline for what Mikaela could only guess was her room, the door of said room being slammed open with such force and ferocity that the bang actually seemed to finally wake Bumblebee's sleeping holoform, who, with his sofa companion, both crashed to the carpet between the sofas with a noticeable 'thud'.

Which was quickly replaced by Aria shouting into the room. "WREN! WE LEFT THE STOVE ON IN LONDON!"

"WHAT?! Aria! What the fuck are you gripping about!" Came the voice of someone who'd clearly been equally rudely awakened like Bumblebee, who was currently trying to not panic with all the shouting going on and trying not to freak out about the giant feathered creature now in his lap and trying to eat his holoforms hand as he tried to use the same hand to push the thing off.

"THE STOVE! THERE'S BEEN A TURKEY SLOW ROASTING FOR TWO YEARS IN THE OVEN! OH PRIMUS IT'S A CULINARY DISASTER!"

"...It is too early for this." Was the resigned response, the tone easily distinguished as one belonging to someone tired of the Universes shit.

Clearly the Universe wasn't finished as a second door slammed open and storming out of said room in nothing but a hastily wrapped towel for modesty, was Kia.

"¡¿Qué diablos está pasando?!"

"J'ai laissé le poêle sur!"

"¡Entonces apágalo!"

"Le poêle à Mayfair!"

"¡Tienes diez años para volver y arreglarlo! Deja de enloquecer!"

"Non! Que la Turquie est ruinée!"

She was completely lost, and a pleading look from Bumblebee proved they were just as lost as the other.

Hera and Nibbler didn't seem fussed at all about the current situation, how she knew that even she couldn't fathom, they just looked, wholly passed this whole thing happening.

This would've continued had the last door suddenly not slammed open and what she could only call a being of pure rage and lividity stormed out holding a tankard which quickly had the contents inside chucked at the other two in the room by the head of seemingly matted short red head.

The startled shouts from said two receivers of the cold tankard of water seemed to put an end to the whole situation as it covered them and the tiled floor around them.

"Tá déileáil le géarchéim existential Aria ann. Anois stoptar gach duine suas! Tá sé ró-luath don chineál seo cac a tharraingt!"

With that declaration that she had no hope in hell of understanding, Ira stormed right back into her room, the door slamming behind her.

Feeling a tap on her shoulder, she turns her head to find Bumblebee standing a bit behind her, hand still partially out, but his gaze flicking between her and the corridor with an imploring look, apparently begging for an explanation.

All she could do really was respond with a shrug.


Tranquillity Nevada

The underpass that Frenzy found himself tied to by his pede was an abandoned mess, but compared to the conditions he'd had to deal with not a joor before, it was a significant improvement.

Specifically because he was actually on solid ground and not dangling from that flying mechs talons by his helm.

A bit of poking around had revealed that the fragging mechs talons had actually pierced some minor energon lines, causing his helm to give off a dull throbbing.

When they'd come into land the mech hadn't even bothered to try and hide himself from the admittedly sparse human life in this area.

Clearly the mech had no care for if humanity discovered him or not because he was just fragging standing there the second joints of his massive wings resting against his hipplates and the majority of the feathers curled in behind him, as if he was trying to close them like he would a servo.

His minicon had been sent off somewhere to 'catch' him something.

Whatever that was, Frenzy could care less for.

He'd already messaged Barricade his location, given this mech had somehow known the general location that his temporary partner was in, he just hoped that the former Enforcer would show up soon.

If this mech started ranting and raving again about how 'filthy' his already pristine metal feathers looked, he was going to put himself out of his misery.

On top of all that, his servo, the one that this mech seemed to have a great vendetta towards, had stabbed, was really starting to fragging itch, apparently there was a secondary part of that damn virus that was there to make sure he couldn't damn well forget it.

Why the frag did he agree to go on this mission to Earth? He and his siblings had already been separated from Soundwave, then he had to stupidly abandon them thinking he'd be able to make it on his own.

Now look where that had gotten him… tied to the support structure of an underpass by his pede and a freak of a mech holding him captive until his temporary partner showed up and, maybe bartered well enough to get him free, all after getting literally sucked out of a plane and into the open air only to be caught by another of these freaks who seemed to be appearing from every damn fragging shadow!

That was when he heard the sound of Police Sirens in the distance, and quickly growing louder with their approach.

Turning his helm up he went to give the mech a smug look, Barricade was not going to put up with this mechs scrap, and would hopefully pummel the freak into the ground.

Oh now wasn't that a thought?

That attempt at a smug smirk faltered however at the practically psychotic look upon his captors features.

He honestly hadn't thought his spark could sink lower.

This mech had an ace in the hole, and he knew it.

This was not good.

"Ah, like a loyal dog, they return to collect their favourite toy." The mech mumbled his voice suddenly pitching sideways into a gleeful sounding noise not out of place coming from Laserbeak or Buzzsaw.

He watched with what was probably an unhealthy level of concern as Barricade skidded into view, transforming almost immediately and drawing his weapon to brandish at the freak.

Barricade growled. "You're a scrapped mech." He spat, allowing his weapon to spin up to its full speed.

The mech was unperturbed. "Oh please, that little trinket is supposed to scare me?"

Then something happened that Frenzy honestly didn't think possible.

With dual sharp motions of his wings, large, scythe like blades shot out from the underside of the feathers, shedding a few in the process with how suddenly the gleaning, crimson tinted blades shot out.

Then the mech was hunching himself, wings flared out to bare the paler brown undersides fully and the blades which hung from the undersides.

One of the mechs pedes scrapped against the ground, the three frontal talons screeching and sparking against the concrete, the back raised off the ground.

Barricade scowled, red optics narrowing as he moved into a battle ready stance.

Then, they were charging.

The avian mechs massive strides ate up the distance far faster than Barricade's own pedes could, and Frenzy watched, unable to look away from what was to quickly become a bloodshed.

Only, it didn't.

For at the last moment, almost too quick to catch even with their optics, the avian mech flipped himself forwards onto the platted struts that held up the wings and used those to vault over Barricade, leaving the mech to stumble as his attempted swipe met thin air and the mechs talons landed dual blows against his back strut, very nearly knocking him off his pedes as they hooked and tore a chunk of metal armour from the former enforcers back plates.

In the time it took for Barricade to turn around, the mech was already leaning against one of the underpasses struts, regarding the former enforcer with a look that couldn't be discerned due to the how pitch black the mechs visor was.

"Hmmm, a little too brash with those attacks, you'll never stand a chance against Ira with that form, let alone my sister or the twin freaks." The mech remarked. "Which is significant given they're your real enemy." The remark ended with a knowing cackle as he held one wing up to hide his lower faceplates from view, as if that would mask the sound of his amusement at Barricade's inability to land a hit.

Barricade growled under his vents, fists clenching, clearly thinking along the same lines as Frenzy.

"You have a lot of gaul freak." Barricade hissed, practically spitting each word with his ire.

The avian mechs response was actually quite the sight, the elongated protrusions that lay along the sides of his helm flared up, as did his armour, it was a strange sight, one Frenzy assumed was supposed to display aggravation.

But then, it all settled back down with a taunting swagger of the avian mechs wide shoulder platting. "Oh really? Name calling your best shot at winning this war?" They remarked. "Bad move." The smirk was telling of the mechs amusement.

Barricade didn't fall for the goad this time though.

"Oh really? Prove it then."

Their gazes seemed to lock for a moment, before the avian mech shrugged. "I know where your precious cube is."

Okay, so that may of really peaked his interest.

This mech knew where the Allspark was?

Barricade seemed to be equally surprised by this statement, but he remained sceptical.

"Prove it."

The avian mech snorted. "My aren't you a parrot. Such valuable information, I'm only willing to trade for. What are you going to offer me? And it has to be worth my while of course." He responded, smirk remaining in place, as he reared up now, towering over them both.

Oh so that's how it's gonna be? This fragging mech wanted to make a trade for the Allspark's location, really should of seen that coming, he hardly acted like the charitable type after all.

"What do you wish to trade then?" Barricade spat out, getting impatient.

"Two things, one, I join your ranks. Living like this, solo that is, isn't fun, two, I get to skin my sister alive… or whatever you aliens have that describes the mutilation of the outer layer of a person that results in their demise from pure agony~. Because I would love to turn that perra into some lovely book covers to read at my leisure before tossing upon a roaring fire."

Frenzy actually felt a chill go down his strut at his words, how he seemed to relish in the motion of murdering his own sister.

This mech wasn't fooling around.

Then again there was also a high chance this mech was completely out of his processor, he didn't even know what protoform flaying was? That was a go-to decepticon torture method… not that this mech was a decepticon.

Barricade seemed to think on it for a moment, before he nodded. "I'll need to… run this through Starscream."

The mech snorted, pushing off the pillar and stretching his right wing out, the main strut almost reaching Barricade even from the distance they stood apart, a testament to the mechs wingspan.

"Fernando De La Estrada. A pleasure comrade."

Barricade paused, regarding the limb.

"Oh come now, you know I have no hand to give you to shake, my wing will have to do."

Barricade snarled under his vents, but relented and grasped the bowed limb with his own servo, giving one quick shake before having to jump back, the blade nestled away which seemed attached to the main strut having suddenly sprang back out, nearly slicing the mechs digits clean off like the metal feathers now decorating the ground.

Fernando chuckled at his own stunt, the smirk growing ever larger. "I'm going to enjoy this.~"

A now familiar cry from above drew Frenzy and Barricade's attention up.

Frenzy recognised the strange miniature version of its master almost immediately, though it took a moment for him to realise what the bloody mass it was carrying was.

A sheep, an organic domesticated species of this world with one of its legs missing and leaving only a bloody stump.

"Ah, it would seem I'm having Lamb for Lunch. Care to join me mechs? I can toss you each a bone once I'm done."


Pentagon General Grant's private office

Jamerson gulped as he stood before his father, whose face was nothing but an impassable stone wall.

At his left stood Flint, his right, Maggie.

Next to his father, an Agent by the name of Banacheck.

"Sir…" Flint tried to speak up, to break the tense silence.

"Silence Agent." His father shot Flint down without even breaking eye contact with him, his time worn eyes unflinching.

Flint promptly shut up.

"Grant." Jamerson tried not to flinch, last name basis, great, he was in deep shit.

"This is a serious situation we have here, potentially caused by the fact you seemed to decide that it was not in the best interests of the USA to keep full track on a group you seem to be claiming, to be highly advanced mechanical beings capable of flight that have been residing on this planet without our knowledge for a number of years. Enabling them to learn our ways, our technology, everything, by foolishly using a device they gave you. You had better have a perfect god damn excuse for this lest I be forced to have you fired this moment."

He knew that was coming.

But he knows his father very well, he isn't finished.

"However, due to your… experience, and what you have told us, I must admit I doubt any of us would've actually believed you were it not for Mr Banachek's evidence here, and what has happened only earlier this night. So instead of firing you, you and Mrs Madsen and her… 'advisor' will be relocated to S7's base of operation. There's a plane waiting for you, hopefully you'll be able to do more for them." His father continued, as he'd expected.

What he hadn't expected, was the relocation.

Then it dawned on him, his father was finally putting him back out in the field.

He would have hugged them man if he wasn't afraid of pushing it.

"Thank you sir, I won't let you down."

Flint then piped up again. "Er, sir? What role do I play in all of this?"

"You'll be going with them, this is very sensitive information we can't risk you being picked off on a normal mission and have information like this pulled from you. You'll be safer with S7." Was his father's response.

That was understandable reasoning when he thought about it, wouldn't want the Russians finding out about the fact the hacker apparently just a big a thorn in their side was actually a giant metal bird who could crush heads with a toe clench. And she was the smallest of the three.

Maggie spoke up then. "Then me and Glen are going too?"

His father nodded. "Yes, given you're now the SecDef's advisor, and he's… your advisor, you'll both be going with Jamerson and Flint here to advise Mr Keller during his time there… Your flight leaves in six hours, you will be escorted to your homes so that you can prepare for the journey, dismissed."

"Wait, one more thing." Jamerson finally spoke up. "What did you mean, by earlier this night?"

His father's gaze met his again before his father turned to the silent agent, who just gave a nod. "Son… ten hours ago, Airforce One was attacked. At least ten good men are dead and there is irreparable damage to the fuselage." He admitted, opening a folder on his desk to reveal a collection of pictures.

The first was of the underside of the massive jet, six massive gashes running vertically down the hull like someone had released Wolverine upon it, revealing the severed inner workings beyond.

He heard Maggie gasp and Flint mutter a curse under his breath that got him a foul look from his father. "It's a miracle she landed with the damage done, there is also the fact that… the rear cargo door was hacked… as quickly as the second hack in Qatar… there were men in the hold… they were the ten whose bodies have yet to be recovered, they were at thirty thousand feet, survival has been listed as impossible." The solemn tone he used was haunting, one the man reserved for his fallen brethren.

Then his features hardened and he pulled one picture in particular and held it out for them to see, it was over exposed by a bright flash, used to get a better view of the gashes.

Jamerson felt his stomach drop at the all too familiar reddish orange paint and the small metal feathers caught in the jagged metal surrounding.

"Ira… that's her colour… there's no doubt in my mind sir… she's the one who's been doing this… and that means, by my guess, Kia and the Twins are still on planet… I'm sorry… if I'd known even an inkling more of their intentions I would not of remained silent…"

"I know son, but that time for regret is passed, now, we must do all we can to locate these things, and make sure they cannot do us any more harm… Dismissed."

The three stepped back out, and seemed to in tandem let of a joint sigh of relief.

"Holy shit, this is not what I signed up for." Flint muttered. "Dude your dad is scary." He remarked.

"Wait, that was your father? Oh god now I'm seeing the resemblance." Maggie spoke, looking Jamerson up and down quickly. Apparently she hadn't put that together after the multiple times his father called him 'son'.

"It doesn't matter… what does is the fact I'm partially responsible for the deaths of ten men." He responded, already feeling somehow even worse at the new revelation, honestly could this get any worse?

Oh, right, secret branch of the military… those are never the good guys in movies… and he had the fun of going to work with them… joy.


And there we go! Things are starting to ramp up! Fernando is with the cons, not a fun day for anyone, and Aria remembered she'd left the stove on back in London.

Hope you all enjoyed this most recent chapter! Until next time!

Moon