Authors Note: I just forgot to note that the song, 'Somebodys Somebody' belongs to the singer Christina Aguilera :P

Optimus glanced up and down the row of Autobots that Prowl had slapped together for the scout party. There was Hound, who would be acting as team leader, Bumblebee, Spike, Windcharger and Phage. Prime did a double-glance at her and cocked an optical ridge, to which she returned with an unamused glare.

"How'd –" he began, but Phage had such a nasty way of cutting people off, especially when she was in one of her foul moods, which she was –again.

"Funny thing really, I was off duty so I was a perfect first pick for Prowl. Hilarity actually, given that if I had still been in Medbay doing your –"

"Wonderful choices, Prowl!" The Autobot Commander-in-Chief declared a bit too loudly, drawing a glare from Phage and a few curious glances from the scout party. The looks quickly dissipated however as Prowl took point at Prime's side and leveled them with his expressionless, collected stare. One that said that if they so much as twitched the wrong way, he'd make a note of it and bust them later for it. The look didn't escape any of them, not even Prime, whom he narrowed an optic at –a sign that he hadn't missed the stressed tension between the two and that he would likely be looking into it later.

"Your orders, Prime?"

Optimus drew himself up as he examined the small party of Autobots before him. He clasped his hands behind his back as he began. "I want you five to remember that this is nothing more than a simple scout mission. Find out what the Decepticons are doing and get out. No confrontations, no fighting. Not until we know what it is that we're dealing with. If none of you report back within six hours we are to assume mission failure and that the situation is critical."

"Affirmative, Prime." Saluted Hound as he stepped forward. "We'll sniff 'em out and return posthaste."

Optimus returned the salute. "Your all dismissed. May the Matrix be with you."

Hound and Windcharger transformed to vehicle mode and immediately started off. Bumblebee and Phage were slower to follow, as Bumblebee had to wait for Spike to settle himself in before taking off and Phage…hadn't even bothered to transform yet.

Optimus quirked an optical ridge at her again as she lingered at the entrance to The Ark, looking off where the others had gone. "Was there something you wanted to say, Phage?"

The femme blinked as she looked back at her superior officers, almost as if she were trying to pull herself out of some mental fog. "Oh, no. I just…had a weird little feeling is all." She didn't give him time to demand an explanation. She quickly transformed into her Honda motorcycle alt mode and sped off, leaving him and Prowl to glance sidelong at each other.

Prowl was the first to break the disconcerting silence settling between them. "What'd she mean by that?"

"Just nerves I'm sure." He wished he was as confident in his words as he sounded, but truth be told, he felt it too. It wasn't some physic call she'd received but basic, primordial urges crying out. It stirred in the bowl of his systems. Forewarning him of something terrible that lay just on the horizon. Prime shook it off and repeated, "Just nerves."

///

The scouting party returned just as the sun was starting to set. And not in as good a condition as when they set out –or with all their members. Prime and a few other officers escorted Windcharger and Phage into a room for debriefing before they would allow Ratchet to see them. Their armor was scuffed and scorch marks were present from laser fire, but nothing serious. It seemed that any injury that could have become serious had been taken care of, presumably by Phage herself.

Prowl slapped his hands down on the table, causing Phage to jump at the resounding contact. "What happened out there. Teletraan-1 detected laser fire in sector 3 through 7!"

Windcharger was the first to respond. "We were found out by that blasted Soundwave is what happened! As soon as he detected us we had the whole Decepticon squadron on our tailpipes!"

"What about Hound, Bumblebee and Spike?"

"Hound told us to split up." Phage supplied dully. She had been extremely quiet up till that point, and Prime took note of the distant look in her optics. She looked drawn and incredibly aged for somebody of her youth. "Bumblebee and Spike went one way, off towards Avalanche Path, and Hound took another route leading further up the mountain, I think he was heading in the direction of Look Out Mountain. Windcharger and I took the obvious and least difficult path back."

"Probably why we got here before them."

"Assuming there not already caught!" Phage snapped at the minibot.

"What about the Decepticons following you?" Asked Trailbreaker calmly.

"It was Starscream, Runabout and Runamuck." Windcharger huffed. "Took care of them easily enough with my magnetic pulse. Sent their systems fritzing and we got back a-okay."

Optimus stepped up at this point, arms still crossed over his chestplate as he inquired, "You said Starscream was there, which means that whatever the Decepticons are doing in sector 3 is serious. Did you at least find out what the Decepticons were up to?"

Windcharger and Phage glanced sidelong at each other for a long moment before looking back at the officers circling around the other side of the table. Windcharger was the one to speak. "Before we were caught we heard a bit about what they were doing from Megatron himself."

"Megatron was there?!" Prowl gapped, showing a hint of emotion, but it was quickly whipped away as Prime lifted his hand for silence. The Autobot commander-in-chief's optics narrowed intently on the both of them as he leaned over the table, both hands holding himself up.

"What did you find out?"

"They were constructing some sort of satellite thing."

"Meagtron said it was a spacebridge." Phage grumbled out, interrupting Windcharger.

The minibot shifted a glare her way. "It didn't look like one."

"Spacebridge?" Quizzed Prowl.

Both scouts made to answer at once but Prime stopped them and then pointed at Phage. "Clarify, and start from the beginning."

"Alright." She said as she propped her elbows up on the table and began to illiterate with her hands again. "Here's what happened. We worked our way around sector 3 until we spotted the Constructicons going in and out of the side of this mountain. We snuck in and found Megatron, the jets –"

"Jets? Which ones?" Prowl pressed.

"Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp." A nod from the Autobot tactician signaled for her to continue on. "There was all the Constructicons too, and Soundwave obviously, but we didn't notice him at first. Megatron was talking to Shockwave over a monitor about their plans, finalizing details. Hound tuned in on them and we overheard them discussing the operational status of Project: Primus."

Optimus slide Trailbreaker and Prowl a side glance before looking back to Phage. "Project: Primus?"

She nodded her head. "Megatron mentioned something about three locations where they've built these massive spacebridges."

"Why haven't we detected them?" Grumbled Prowl.

"Cloaking." Windcharger supplied. "We passed through it when we were following the Constructicons."

Phage agreed with a curt nod before picking up, her face entangled with an arrange of emotions running from nervousness to fear. "They've built these three spacebridges in a triangular formation in precise locations around The Ark. When activated, their supposed to transport everything within their interior radius to whatever destination the Decepticons have set."

"In this case, the sun." Windcharger declared dramatically.

Optimus revved his engine as he stood back, crossing his arms. "Project: Primus. I've known that Megatron's had a twisted sense of humor but this just takes the oil cake."

"Is this really a liable threat?" Posed Prowl. "The spacebridge technology in and of itself is incredibly dangerous and still in its experimental stages. These spacebridge transmitters will more than likely just blow up on them than transport us into the sun."

"Correction." Spoke up Phage, taking Prime and the other officers by surprise. "It was in its experimental stages when you guys first left Cybertron. Four million years has passed since then, and Shockwave's quite the techno-genius from what I've heard. He's had quite some time to perfect it, and with him back on Megatron's side…" she let it hang, allowing her insight to manifest in Prime, Prowl, and Trailbreaker's CPUs.

"She has a point, Prime." Grumbled Trailbreaker.

"We can't be serious about this!" Prowl pressed, seeming stressed as he took to his feet. "The amount of Energon required to power this is just inconceivable. I can't see why Megatron wouldn't just take it rather than use it to launch the entire mountain and us with it into the sun. With a lot less he could power all his troops and just send them against us in an all out assault and take us that way! Why waist energy on some project that might not even work?"

"It's flashy." Prime, Prowl, Trailbreaker, and even Windcharger slid Phage looks, to which she slipped a little further down in her chair for, as if she were trying to disappear without actually activating her invisibility drive. "I'll…ah, I'll just shut up now."

Prime turned his attention away from her and back on Prowl. "It's not just the mountain that Megatron will be launching, Prowl, but as Phage has said, everything in the interior radius. That means the forest, Central City, The Ark –everything and everyone! A credible risk or not, Megatron believes he can do this and is. Even if it doesn't work, think of the damage from the explosion of these transmitters. We can't risk any further inaction. The scout party has already been spotted. Megatron knows we're going to be coming and will be prepared." Optimus's optics flashed brilliantly. "Prowl, I want all able Autobots primed and ready for battle within the hour. Trailbreaker. Get me the spy-cams in the sky. I want those other two spacebridge locations found as of yesterday!"

Prowl and Trailbreaker saluted simultaneously as they both echoed out smartly, "Sir, yes sir!"

Optimus swept his optics over each individual in the room as if it would be the final time he'd see them in such prime condition. "Your all dismissed."