Detonation Time: Unknown

Arcee stifled a frustrated groan as rose slowly to her knees. If only she had thrown a drill at Silas instead of a man…

"Arcee." The MECH leader walked down the steps slowly, as if he was taking his time to make sure the stairs were stable. "We meet again. Funny how the circumstances are so like before isn't it?"

"Hilarious." Arcee ground out. She unconsciously pulled Jack closer to her body.

Silas smiled. "Well, we are certainly glad you are here for a reunion. And ths time we have a new…guest."

A MECH guard shoved Raf forward, where Silas seized him by the scuff of his neck and held still in front of himself, effectively ending any notion of idea of simply shooting the terrorist.

"So what's your plan?"

"Excuse me?" Silas frowned at Jack, thrown briefly by the question.

Jack's face as white with pain; he held his side at an odd angle, and he kept reaching up to rub his chest, yet his face was set in a brave grimace and his eyes shone with a determined light. "Doesn't the villain tell his master plan at this point?"

Silas looked genuinely offended at being defined as a villain, but humored the boy anyway. "My plan has changed. Instead of receiving one transformer, I now have five. Of course, you and the operator here-" he said , jerking his thumb at a furious Ratchet whom Arcee hadn't noticed until then. "-will be somewhat more charred, and I feel we may be a little hard-pressed to retrieve your admittedly limited remains of technology before Megatron arrives, but your other friends will serve our purpose if you do not."

"So you're willing to kill a child for power?" Arcee's voice could have frozen the Atlantic Ocean.

"Not just power," Silas corrected. "But for change also."

"And your sacrifice will fuel America's vessel of prosperity," said Sanchez, speaking up for the first time. He looked calmly at Jack. "You're an American child. Soon you will see the good of your sacrifice. You've been led astray by these…people," he spat, making 'people' sound like a curse. "But make peace with yourself now, and you'll be proud to die for your country. And if you don't, the mourners will call you a martyr anyway, or at least a tragedy."

Arcee and Jack exchanged glances, and then looked at the two men. "You're nuts," they said simultaneously.

"There's a fine line between genius and madness," Silas smiled. "Haven't you heard?" His smile dropped abruptly. "Step away from the robot, boy. I haven't forgotten what you did with my radio before, and I won't be letting you try anything funny like that again."

Arcee stiffed and briefly drew Jack even closer to her, almost overshadowing him with her mass. Then she relinquished her grip and allowed Jack to start stagger away to the side of the silo. Two men started forward to flank him.

And then Jack was turning on is heel, his good arm taking something shiny and sharp from the sleeve of his cast. Airachnid's blade. The arm whipped back and forth, and the blade flew through the air directly towards Silas.

The man ducked, which was just as well, considering that Jack hadn't been really aiming towards him; rather, he was aiming at the man behind Silas.

Perhaps some deity was watching over him that day, but Jack's throw struck true. The man howled in panic as the blade shattered the lens in his left goggle. In his panic, the grunt tightened his already tight grip of the trigger of his weapon.

Electric rounds tore from the barrel, hitting several men. Two hit Silas point blank in the back, and he toppled to the ground, steam rising from his armor, and the smell of burning hair quickly spreading through the air.

Arcee and Jack worked simultaneously, Arcee lunging forth and beginning to swat MECH grunts and Jack seizing Raf's hand and dragging him out of the fray. Sanchez saw the boys hurry away, and roared out, "What are you idiots waiting for? Take her out and get that bomb!"

The men responded immediately, shooting out several rounds of metal and electric slugs.

Nobody saw Ratchet standing discreetly to the side with one servo on his comm.

Sanchez could almost feel his dreams crumbling to dust in his hands. Silas was down, and half of the terrorist's men were on the floor with him. The rest were trying to hit the constantly shifting female, and were epically failing. And now the bomb was out of his reach.

No, he realized with a start as is eyes drifted to Silas's prone figure. It may have been out of his hands, but it was far from out of his reach.

Dropping to his knees, Sanchez did a quick search of Silas's pockets and felt his heart leap as he found what he needed. The detonator was safe nd sound, and had not short-circited. Quickly, he began to punch in the code.

Glancing up, Sanchez's eye's met a pair of blue-grey ones across the silo. The eyes widened as the owner realized what he was doing.

With a wicked grin and a care-free lauh, General Sanchez activated the E-bomb's contingency codes.

And…cliffhanger! Yes, I hate these too…unless I'm making them. And I'd like to make a toast to all my favorite fanfiction writers who are making a name for themselves in the vast confines known as . Let's have a hand for:

Foxbear

BlackWolf219

Inkcrafter

TheDarkTulip

Zapwing

PatrickTheWriter

Rogue-Scholar-Blue

tediz-leader

Hexalys

Fatal Intestinal Maelstrom

CyberAngelAlexis

Iratepirate

Designation M

IHeartTFs94

Asher Tye

Please note I also appreciate my reviewers and if your name was not on the list, I apologize. These are all the names from the top of my head.

Speaking of which…Please Review!

Almost forgot... remembered while editing...THANK YOU ForgottenForever for teaching me about line breaks!