And we were off!

Following behind the Camaro I was tailed by Jack and who I learned to be, Miko. The drive although scenic, was hot and too slow for my liking. Who knew robots obeyed the speed limits. Once out of the city, we took for at a more reasonable pace of over 60 mph. Still bored however, I lazily began to weave me bike back and forth between the dotted yellow line that stretched out on the black tarmac. Gradually, my angle became more extreme, at one point my knees skimmed the ground.

"Bumblebee would like to ask you to stop what your doing." came a female voice from behind me.

I straightened up, flipping up my visor, and glared at the motorcycle with my vibrant green eyes. "You can't tell me you're not bored with this speed." Nothing but the hum of our engines filled the silence. Then Bumblebee sped up and we raced across the blacktop.

"So if he's Bumblebee, what's your name?" I asked looking back at the trio happy at the speed we were finally going.

"Acree." she put simply.

Miko cheered aloud as we approached a 'T' intersection, who knows how many miles from Jasper. "And why exactly are we taking her?!" Jack asked aloud.

"Rules." the blue motorcycle replied. Blowing past a stop sign we head straight for a large, plateau that jutted out of the landscape. Jack shrieked a bit as we continued forward, until an opening appeared in front of us. I laughed a bit at his reaction, as we rode through a lit concrete tunnel. I looked around and heard Miko's astonishment from behind me as we stopped inside the building. I parked my bike in a nice nook against the wall and set my helmet on the seat, then I unzipped my black, leather riding suit and stepped out of it. I was wearing what I usually wore, which was a pair of snug light-washed denim jeans with a black long sleeved turtle neck shirt and a pair of black and white Puma's.

When Bumblebee and Acree transformed, the red and white one who was standing next to a tall army green one spoke."I thought there were three?" he asked.

"Haven't you heard, humans multiply." Acree replied in a matter-of-fact tone as she walked away from us with one hand on her hip. I joined the rest of the group that was gazing upon two other large robots.

"I'm Raf.."

"Kathrine, or Kat."

"And I'm Miko! Who are you?" she asked running up to the large green robot.

"Um, Bulkhead." he said a bit surprised.

"Are you a car? I bet you're a truck, a monster truck! Do you like heavy metal? How much do you weigh? Ever use a wrecking ball for a punching bag?!" Miko said all at once.

Bulkhead looked down at the rest of us slightly confused. "Don't worry, that's just Miko." I called up to him, understanding flashing on his face.

"So if you guys are robots who made you?" Raf asked.

"Pa-lease." said the red and white one.

I shook my head. "I don't think anyone created them Raf, their too advanced even if they were military technology. They would have to be AI based, and the codes for everything we as humans learn in the real world would take millenia to write. Not to mention the fact that we can't even get two computers to talk to each other without specifically telling them to. Even then we would have to tell them what to talk about!" I explained. Raf accepted my answer.

Large metal footsteps approached us and soon we were looking up at a red and blue bot. "We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron, also known as Autobots. " his deep voice informed.

"Why are you here?" Jack asked stepping forward towards the large red and blue Autobot.

"To protect your planet, from the Decepticons."

"The jokers that tried to jump us off last night." Acree explained.

"Ok, so why are they here?" I asked joining with Jack.

"A fair question, Katherine, in part they are here because our planet is uninhabitable. Ravaged by centuries of civil war."

"Why were you fighting a war?" Raf asked next.

"Foremost, for our world's supply of energon. The fuel and life blood of all Autobots and Decepticons alike. The combat was fierce and endured for centuries. In the beginning I fought along one, whom I considered a brother. But in war ideals can be corrupted, an it was thus that Megatron lost his way."

Miko sighed, "Is there going to be a quiz?" she asked aloud, clearly uninterested. With one quick movement, I slapped her upside the head.

Startled a bit so looked a me, "Hey! What was that for?!" she cried.

"For being rude. Some of us," I turned to Jack and Raf, "are actually interested." Miko groaned under her breath.

"So what does Megatron or any of this have to do with us?" Jack asked as we turned our attention back to who I assumed to be the leader.

"Megatron has not been seen or heard from in some time. But if his return is imminent as I fear, it could be catastrophic. And since you now know of our existence, I fear that as of last night, the Decepticons know of yours."

"Got it, if we spot any strange vehicles, call 9-1-1. Can we go now?" Jack asked.

"Jack, I don't think it's that simple." I said.

"Yeah, are you insane?!" Miko asked. "I'm," I made a noise like clearing my throat and looked back a Miko. "We're, living a dream here in Botswana, and I will not allow you or anyone else to shatter it." she huffed at him.

"It is best that your four remain under our watch." Optimus who's name I suddenly remembered, said. Our face's except for Jack's lit up. "At least until we can determine our enemies intentions."

"Optimus, with all do respect, the human children are in as much danger here as anywhere." the red and white bot pointed out.

"Children?!" I said annoyed a bit.

"They do not have protective shell, if they get underfoot they will go .. squish." he continued. I giggled a bit at the last part.

"Really, he couldn't he couldn't have picked a different word?" I whispered to the group, earning a smirk from Jack and giggles from the other two.

"Then for the time being, Ratchet, we must watch where we step." Optimus finished. I couldn't help but stick my tongue out at Ratchet, who looked down at us and almost seemed to roll his optics at us. A green light began to flash and a beeping noise accompanied it as it echoed throughout the base. Everyone turned to look over at the elongated octagons displaying various things.

"What's that?" Jack asked as we looked around.

This time it was Bumblebee who answered as a beeped through several octaves of sounds. "Proximity sensor." Raf and I answered at the same time.

"Someone's up top." he finished however. The screen flashed to the top of the base and the image of a helicopter was displayed.

"It's Agent Fowler. " Ratchet said.

"I thought we were the only humans who knew about you guys?" Jack questioned.

"Special Agent Fowler, is our designated liaison to the outside world. As he tends to visit only when there are issues." Optimus said emphasizing his last word. "It may be best if you do not met him at this time."

We looked a each other somewhat confused but ran over to the entrance to a long corridor and hit around the corner. I leaned around the corner to see a dark skinned male with curly black hair walk out onto the platform. Ratchet and Bulkhead turned away from the man as he continued forwards.

"7 wrecks, 34 fender benders, a 3-hour traffic jam, and a particular note; numerous reports of a speeding motorcycles of unknown origin and make, and a black and yellow custom muscle car." Wow, this guys has issues I said to myself. "So anything you care to take off of your tin chest, Prime?" the Agent asked, clearly frustrated.

"We have the situation under control, Agent Fowler."

"Their back aren't they?" he asked.

"If you are referring to the Decepticons, I have doubts they ever left, your planet is much too valuable."

"Then it's time to wake up the Pentagon."

"Hear me Agent Fowler, we are your best, possibly your only defense against the Decepticon threat."

"Says you."

"Hey fleshy," Bulkhead interrupted, "Did anyone get splattered? Team Prime knows when to use force, and how much to use." he said as he ripped an electronic arm out of the table and squeezed it.

"Bulkhead! I needed that!" Ratchet screamed.

"Enough." Prime said calmly looking back at Fowler. "Military involvement will only result in catastrophe. Perhaps you can condone widespread human casualties, I, however, cannot."

"Then do us both a favor and handle this Prime. Under the radar." With that Fowler turned and left. "Or I will."

"He has some pretty big bearings, for a human." Bulkhead assessed after Fowler left.

"Agent Fowler is concerned for his world Bulkhead, as he should be."

"Yeah but he doesn't have to be an ass about it." I said coming out of our hiding spot and up onto the metal platform.

"Kat!" Jack yelled at me. "Language."

I waved my hand off at him. "So what, anyway the guy was so pissed off, he didn't even see my bike over there." I said pointing to the corner. "And really, I want to see him take on a couple of Decepticons by himself." I huffed, taking deep breaths. I never really get mad just rant a bit a people.

"Easy there tiger, retract the claws." Jack commented. I couldn't help but laugh at his comment. A few others giggled a bit.

"Blasted Earth tech!" Ratchet suddenly yelled at the screen. "Cliffjumper's signal just popped back online."

"Who's Cliffjumper?" Miko asked.

"How is that possible?" Optimus questioned the bot.

"It isn't, another bug, the systems full of them." he replied.

"If there's any chance Cliff's alive..." Acree started in.

"Ratchet, prepare sick bay, we may need it."

"Hey!" Miko yelled, getting Prime's attention. "What can we do?" she asked.

"Remain with Ratchet." he said simply.

"Awwwhh."

"Phff, what did you think he was going to say Miko?" I asked her. Ratchet then looked over at us and did the same. I raised my eyebrows and looked at him. Apparently, he thought we were a bother.

I watched as right in front of us, a vortex of blue, greens, and purple mixed violently together. It was beautiful watching as particles shifted infinitesimally around the gaping circle to keep itself stable.

"Wow." I whispered to myself.

"Autobots, roll out!" Optimus said as he, long with Bulkhead, Acree, and Bumblebee, ran into the portal transforming before entering the barrier linking them to the other side.

"What just happened?!" Jack asked stunned.

"He transported them to the coordinated on the map, its a teleporter." I answered Jack.

Ratched nodded, "Via, the Ground bridge."

"What's a Ground bridge?" Raf asked. I almost rolled my eyes but was curious as to why it was a 'ground' bridge as opposed to a 'light' bridge.

"A scaled down version of Space bridge technology. Since we don't currently possess means or Energon required for intergalactic travel. " Ratchet answered as though everyone knew that, turning towards us.

"So, you're stuck here... on Earth." I said somewhat sadly.

"With the likes of you , yes. But I constructed the Ground bridge to enable travel from here to anywhere on your planet." He finished.

I rolled my eyes at his comment. "You know it could be worse." He could at least try to be nice.

"Whoa, does it work for humans?" Raf asked amazed by the technology glowing in front of us.

"Naturally."

"You mean I could just shoot on over and visit my parents in Tokyo?" Miko asked next.

"Within moments, in fact allow me to send you there immediately, all four of you." He said.

"Dude, you've got issues." I said walking away from the platform.

"Yeah, watch it Ratchet." Miko inserted. Ratchet stood up and shrugged the comment off. As he walked back over to the controls for the screen our group wondered about the metal platform.

"What is this anyway?" Miko asked pointing to an object that looked like an early computer.

"Broken, don't touch." Ratchet said as he turned his attention to the computer.

"Don't touch that either." He said without looking at her.

"Is there anything in here we can touch?" Jack asks as he stood next to Miko, look annoyed a bit. Ratchet looked down at him, giving him a look of 'what do you think'. An error noise sounded from the computer behind and he looked back at it clearly annoyed with it.

"How come you guys are using human computers?" Raf asks, fixing his glasses a bit.

"It certainly wasn't by choice! It was handed down from the previous tenants when we inherited, this former missile silo. I make modification as I see fit." Ratchet said as he looked back to the computer, spontaneously more error messages popped up. I laughed, it seemed as though the messages were mocking his words.

"Oh yes, I see those, 'modifications', worked wonders." I said giggling now. Jack and Miko were as well as I earned a glare from Ratchet.

"I, think I can fix that." Raf said as he took out his laptop from his backpack. I forget he even had the thing. I walked over to the computer and observed.

"Really?" Ratchet said with sarcasm dripping from his voice. "You do know this is complex technology, don't you? I mean it isn't a child's toy." he chuckled at the last part. I looked over the data stream that was being presented on the computer as Raf typed.

"Now try." Raf said looking back up at him. Ratchet looked back over at the controls and pushed something and green check marks replaced the red 'x's on the screen and the systems came back online. He gazed back at Raf, a bit amazed.

"Your other problem is your software is outdated. The last update appears to be 5 years ago. Raf, may I see your computer?" I asked him.

"S-sure." he said a bit surprised himself, as he handed me his computer.

"And how do you know that?" Ratchet asked me as I sat in Raf's spot.

"It's in the system code, I can update it if you'd like. It will help, if that convinces you any." I said looking at him questionable.

"And how is it going to do that?!" he asked throwing his arms up in the air in an exaggerated movement. "What does it need that it doesn't already have?" I looked at him and rolled my eyes, wow I was doing that a lot.

"It's not a question of what it needs. This outdated software is trying got communicate with up-to-date software. There are things that it doesn't understand or recognize because it's not written in its codes to interpret it, so it gives you error messages."

"Ok, but how are you going to 'update' this 'software'?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

I grinned widely. "Easy we're going to hack into the military information database..." I trailed off as I continued to work.

"No way, that's almost impossible! How will you get in without being detected?" Raf said behind me, as curiosity peaked his interest.

"Don't worry Raf, I just have a couple more years of experience on me. And I'll get in by tagging onto an in-going data stream... and disguise the signal... alter the i-p address... download the file... and then transfer the file to the machine." I replied. "And... ta-da!" I cheered at the progress complete box.

Ratchet stared down at me. "Hmm.." was all he said before he could say anything more a voice came in over the intercom system.

"Ratchet! Bridge us back!" Optimus' voice ordered. "Use the arrival coordinates, NOW!"

Ratchet pulled the lever and the bridge instantly glowed as Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee came speeding through. Not far behind them was Optimus with a cloud of a blue substance right behind him. He jumped through and transformed, sliding to a stop, while Ratchet closed the bridge. We all were amazed at the action that had happened right before us.

"Cutting it a bit close, how about Cliffjumper?" Ratchet said.

Everyone slumped their bodies at his question. It obviously didn't go as they thought it would have. Miko, however, rushed over to them and I could tell what was going to happen next. I ran over to her as she started to talk.

"What..." she started but never finished as I clamped my hand over her mouth. Acree looked like she had just about had it with her.

"Bad timing girl, they're a little upset right now." I said whispering in her hear. She gave me a look of 'oh, ok' and I let her go.

"What she meant to say was, what happened?" I interjected for Miko.

"Look..." Acree growled and I instantly knew I hit a sore spot.

"Hey Miko, Kat, let's go see what the bots hide in their sock drawers." Jack interrupted.

"Seriously?" Miko asked, while walking away with Jack. I looked back at Acree and could see her pain of grief and loss. All four of us began to walk away down one of the corridors but, I stayed behind and listened.

"Arcee, what did you see?" Optimus asked as she held onto her arms, like she was trying to hold herself together.

"Not Cliff, at least not anymore. He was mutated, butchered, like something from those Con experiments during the war..." her voice shook a bit at the end of what she was saying. And like she was reliving a bad memory she couldn't handle she staggered backwards a bit into storage containers that were behind her.

Bumblebee stepped forward a bit to help as he whirled his concern to her. "I'm fine," she said holding her hand up, "Just dizzy." By this time Jack, Miko and Raf had come back from wherever they had gone and we walked back up to the group.

"Robots who get dizzy?" Miko asked.

"Robots with emotions." Raf emphasized.

"Robots, who can die." Jack said darkly.

"Just as easily as us..." I added on sadly.

We watched as Acree sat on the boxes and Ratchet scan her, she was hard to look at, she looked so, defeated.

"What is this?" he asked as she lifted up her hand. Looking closer I could see a purple substance that was emitting a purple glow and it reacted as though it were fire.

"Don't know, Cliff was covered in it, leaking it." she said as Ratchet used a scraper to take a sample.

"Go take a decontamination bath now" He said sternly. Bumblebee helped her up as they walked away.

"Optimus, I hate to bug, but, no bars." Jack said as he held up his phone.

"A security precaution, the silo walls isolate all radio-waves." he answered.

"Well, if I don't call my mom like, now, I'm pretty sure the cops will be out looking for me." Jack rebutted. I peered over at his phone with read the time of 10:10.

"Scratch that, SWAT is more like it." I added.

"Have you broken a law?" Optimus questioned seriously, which I had to inwardly giggle at.

"Uh, curfew. It's after 10 PM." Jack answer.

"I better get home too, or I'll be grounded for a year." Raf said sadly, I raised an eyebrow at his comment, he sounded so serious about it too.

"Earth customs, I hadn't considered. But the issue of your safety remains. Bulkhead, accompany Miko home."

"Awesome, my host parents will freak!" she sang.

"Maintain covert surveillance in vehicle form." Optimus added.

"Curbside duty, got it" Bulkhead confirmed.

"Ahwww." Miko frowned.

"Bumblebee, you'll watch over Raf." The two simply smiled at each other.

"Ratchet..." Optimus questioned.

"Busy." he said.

"Acree, you'll accompany Jack." who looked completely terrified at the idea.

"Uh, still dizzy." she tried.

"Your fine, says your physician." Ratchet answered back at her waving his arm in the air. She sighed, and shrugged.

"I'll go with home with Jack. We live across the street from each other." I added in. Optimus nodded, and Acree crossed her arms over her chest.

"Great, now I have two of them." she huffed.

We zipped down the road at a comfortable cruising speed till we reached the city limits. Everything seemed to move slowly after that, time, life, movements. I waved at Jack as he turned into his driveway and I turned into mine. The houses in the area were all almost alike inside and out, mass production housing.

I watched in the darkness of my garage Jack talk to Acree, after a bit she transformed, I felt like a creepy stalker. Lights flickered from up the street, I knew it was June by the white car she drove.

Acree's hands transformed into weapons as she faced June in the driveway, but she quickly transformed into her alt-mode as June got out of the car, and Jack rushed over to greet her. How she didn't see the Autobot, I didn't know. I was sure she was going to freak-out when she saw Acree but she remained calm the whole time.

A familiar, painful ache entered my system as I watched them enter the house together and close the garage door. Turning around I did the same. I didn't bother turning on the lights, I knew my dad wasn't home. I could feel the darkness that surrounded me seep into my heart.

Who knew this world with fantastic transforming, alien, robots could be so painful. Who knew lack of parent-child interaction would lead to such an effect. My mother's death probably didn't help either.

Realization struck me, my hair was wet, and I was already in my pajamas, meaning I had already gotten something to eat, and taken a shower. Accepting this I went to bed, and attempted to get some sleep. Insomniacs don't sleep.

Well there it is, please let me know if this last part was a bit too 'deep' as it were. I don't want to alienate you guys, anyway please let me know what you think. I don't know when I'll be able update next maybe in two weeks, I have finals then, and I'll be done with classes too.