Whee! Sorry bout the wait, originally I was gonna make this longer... but then it would have been TOO long for one chapter. Plus, how freaking awesome was the end? LOL tootin' my own horn here.

So, LOL. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOOOOOOOOVE Ironhide? He's da best. And his voice rocks. *holds up sign which says "MARRY ME IRONHIDE"*

Hide: Uh... no, no thank you. *edge away* *edge away* *RUN*

Me: Awww... ;( *pouts*

BTW, pretend, uh... the events of ROTF haven't happened yet. It's been about two weeks, during which Megatron and Namera have been building up and training their armies. (And you'll see what Namera and Screamer have been up to as well later... MWAHAHA.)

Well, hope you enjoy!

"I saw a mermaid! I saw a freaking mermaid!"

These were Sam's first words as he practically jumped out of Bumblebee and in front of the other Autobots. He looked absolutely frazzled, and because some small part of the AllSpark still remained in his mind, his eyes were flashing open and shut and he was just stammering to get his words out.

Ironhide raised an eye ridge. "A... mermaid?"

"Half fish, half girl." Mikaela stepped out of Bumblebee far more calmly than her boyfriend, shutting the door. "I saw her too - we went to the aquarium downtown and-"

"Y-You guys made contact with the Mariners!" Sam was now running up to Optimus and trying to explain everything that was tangled up in his mind with the apparent mermaid and the history of Cybertron. "A really long time ago! T-The planet Marinia-13 - Omega Quadrant - Avidian galaxy! She's one of them! She's a Mermaid!"

Bee transformed. "I don't know what he's talkin' about."

"Slow down, Sam." Optimus raised a servo. "You said the Mariners? I have read of them, but... the initial contact between us and them must have been before my time. And apparently the literature was even before Bumblebee's."

"They're very secretive," Ratchet spoke up. "If you're with one... well, let's say most of them make it rather clear that they would rather be in the company of their own kind."

"Wasn't their planet blown up or something like that?" Ironhide grunted.

"That explains why they're here, at least," Ratchet offered, shrugging. "They must have traveled here to hide."

"Then one of them got captured," Ironhide added. "Makes sense. They're careless about their curiosity. Don't pay attention till they're in the grasp of the enemy."

Optimus nodded at his soldiers, then looked down at the humans. "Did you talk to her?"

"That's the weird thing," Mikaela commented, stepping in front of Sam, who was trying not to have another freak-out. "She was performing, and when everyone else left, she swam over to us. She was staring at Sam - like she knew who he was."

"Telepathy," Sam muttered. Then he straightened up. "She sent us some kind of - of telepathic message. I don't know what she did, or how she did it, but all I know is outta nowhere, I'm thinkin' thoughts that aren't my own. When I'm thinking in a girl's voice, it can only mean one thing!"

"Is it that human thing where you walk out of a closet?" Ironhide asked, but the smirk on his faceplates said he clearly knew what he was insinuating.

Sam glared. "No! And that's not funny - Bee, stop laughing, it's not funny. What other explanation is there for that besides telepathy?"

"The Mariners were remembered as having some telepathic abilities in the writings of Cybertron," Ratchet added. "What little we knew of them, anyway. And it seems, by my scans, that your human fiction depicts them as being able to communicate with other sea creatures."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Are you reading Aquaman on the internet?"

"Never mind what I'm looking at-"

"Then you're watching The Little Mermaid?"

"That's not of import! What did she tell you?"

"She said she needs help," Mikaela answered, pushing some hair away from her face. "She needs to go home and help defeat the rest of the Sirens - whatever that means."

"The Sirens were one faction of the Mariners, I believe," Ratchet mulled, once again trying to recall whatever it was that he'd read on them. "They would have been the equivalent of the Decepticons. I don't think even one of them visited our planet - if they needed to talk to us, we met with them or we didn't meet at all."

"They sound scary," was Bee's two cents in the conversation.

Ratchet chuckled. "Yes, it takes a certain, er... how shall I put it... tolerance... to adjust yourself to their ways and presence. Luckily, it doesn't seem like the one you're describing is a Siren. The Sirens can switch between their fins, their wings, and human legs, but the Mermaids are much like those of your Earth lore - they can change their tails and fins to legs, though they can't be out of the water for long periods of time."

"Just throw 'em overboard!" a radio clip from Bee cried.

"Oh, Bumblebee, I'm afraid it's not that easy," Ratchet remarked. "Sirens can still swim - in fact, they're even more dangerous under the water than above it. Why do you think their whole planet was effectively an aquarium?"

"Speaking of aquariums," Mikaela sighed, "that Mermaid is pretty much stuck there. She put on this act, but when everyone else left..." She shook her head, apparently deciding to abandon whatever she'd been thinking to say. "I could just tell she didn't like being there."

"They've been experimenting on her," Sam put in, having regained his cool. He paused to put his arm around Mikaela's waist and allow her to lean against his chest before continuing. "They're - They're doing stuff to her that she doesn't want done. She's being poked and - and zapped and just... all kinds of stuff she doesn't want. So technically, rescuing her could be considered stopping abuse."

"What are we waiting for?" Ratchet was clearly eager to go, as the noise from his transformation into the Hummer indicated. "Mariners are an endangered race! They've not been spotted for... well, I'm not sure how long exactly, but let's just say the galaxies have been devoid of them for a while. It must have been millennia since Marinia-13 was destroyed."

"Well, now we know where they ran off to anyway," Ironhide snorted, then transformed as well.

As everyone else seemed pretty much ready to go, they were looking at Optimus to lead them, and Optimus wasn't transformed. He was standing there, looking down at Sam and Mikaela, with an almost blank look in his optics. "OP?" Sam called, letting go of Mikaela and walking forward. "You coming, big guy?"

Mikaela followed him. "Optimus, she needs help. I know you're not, you know... naturally allies, but... you said you were going to protect us and everything on our planet. Well, they're on our planet, and they need protection - at least this one does."

Optimus vented, finally meeting their eyes. "Sam... Mikaela... if there are Mermaids on your planet... then there must also be Sirens. They came here while their civil war was still in progress, after it already destroyed their planet. What if it still hasn't been resolved? They could easily destroy your planet as they did their own."

Sam snickered. "Come on, Optimus. What are a bunch of little girls with fish tails going to do to you guys?"

"He... has a point," Ratchet muttered. "There are some aspects of the Mariners' voices that are... well... unpredictable."

Mikaela blinked. "Wait... unpredictable how?"

"Er... have you ever seen a human break glass by singing a very high note? Yes, well... Mariners' voices can go far beyond that. Hypnotism, energy manipulation, systems overload... they could crack our spark chambers and logically the debris from that would have to go somewhere and... well, you get the idea, don't you?"

"They could kill you?" Mikaela questioned, clearly not believing it.

"The powerful ones could do quite a bit of damage," Ratchet restated. "Most of the Sirens could short-circuit our systems for a while if they did their absolute worst, but their leaders can presumably emit strong vocal waves at a high enough pitch to shatter the glass our chambers are comprised of. And when that happens... well... what goes up must come down, yes?"

"Or what shatters has to find something to stick itself into," Mikaela sighed, "and the nearest thing..."

"The spark itself."

"We should go," Bee spoke up, chirping and shuffling his door-wings. A quick transformation, and the passenger door popped open for Sam and Mikaela.

"I agree." Ratchet drove over to Optimus. "The risk is worth it, and besides we'll have to deal with the humans first - it is their property we'll be entering. Right now, we'll be meeting with the Mermaid. And if we happen to run into any Sirens - well, what's the human expression? 'We'll cross that bridge when we get to it'. Let's roll out, shall we?"

Wheeeeee! Yes we shall, Ratchet!

Hehe, I lurv Ratchet. So does my mom, so I should probably give myself a kick in the ass and finish that birthday oneshot with her character I promised her... like, six months ago. XD

Well, next chapter they will hopefully meet Amaris!

Thanks for reading, hope ya liked, and pleeeease leave a nice-o review! ^^