Chapter 1

Once they had finally managed to escape the party, Optimus and his team (Arcee included) quickly found themselves walking, or riding in Sari's case, towards the Autobot High Council chamber in the Metroplex. As they strolled in, Sari's optics grew wide under her visor as she took in the sheer size of the room which could've comfortably housed Omega. Seated in the center was a one-armed Ultra Magnus on a wheelchair as he patiently waited for the new arrivals, on his left was a large mech with white plates on his face that resembled a beard-mustache combo , on the seat to his left sat a red mech with horns that rather resembled Bumblebee when he scowled. On the seats beneath them sat an oddly green femme to the right, and a mech with a bulb-like head with optic enhancers on the left. Sari noticed from her perch on Bumblebee's shoulder that this last one's optics grew wide as he noticed the large pendant on Optimus' chest.

The team also noticed, much to their distaste, that Sentinel had also made it in. Sari mentally noted that his chin was noticeable from nearly thirty meters, according to her visor's HUD.

"Optimus Prime," stated Ultra Magnus, "it is good to see you again."

"It's good to see you too sir," He responded with a salute, "I'm glad to see you are up and about."

"Well, close enough," drily chuckled the Magnus patting his wheelchair, "either way, you and your team are here to debrief the Autobot High Council of your activities on earth since our last meeting."

Optimus nodded and began their tale, everything from Waspinator to Soundwave's attack and everything in between had been included, though he conveniently left out Sari's role for the time being.

"I am intrigued by this Blackarachnia character," stated an oddly mechanical voice from the left, "her origins are largely unknown, yet she appears to be one of the Decepticon's brightest minds. Enough so, that they tolerate her technorganic nature. I am curious as to her origins and design."

"Should it worry me that that's the only cybertronian I've met that actually seems robotic?" whispered Sari to Bumblebee.

"That's Perceptor," cut in Jazz, "he deleted his emotional subroutines to accelerate his processing speed."

"That's horrible!"

"It was necessary," stated Perceptor, who had been listening in, "in order to accelerate the completion of the numerous weapons that assisted in our victory over the Decepticons, a rapid mind uninhibited by emotions was indispensable."

"But don't you, I don't know, miss your emotions?" asked Sari.

"Nostalgia is an emotion," stated Perceptor, "I cannot miss them."

"Optimus," called out the green femme, "I couldn't help but notice that you left out a part of your report."

"Which is what exactly Botanica?" responded the Prime, fearing that he knew the answer.

"Where did that small femme come from?" clarified the femme, apparently Botanica, pointing at Sari on Bumblebee's shoulder, "What is your name little one?"

"Uhhh…" She was stumped; they had forgotten to mention an Autobot name for her until they got off-planet.

"That is something that I would like to share privately with Ultra Magnus first," stated the Prime, "it is a rather sensitive matter, I hope you will excuse me."

"I am more concerned over her unusual energy signature," stated Perceptor, "while it is perfectly acceptable that a Minicon protoform escaped the Decepticon extermination, her energy signature does not. If you are using a dampener to reduce your signature, I would suggest that you deactivate it."

"Minicon?" inquired Sari.

"One of the smallest cybertronian classes," stated the emotionless mech, "the only cybertronians that were smaller were Insecticons who were also exterminated during the war."

"Oh."

"Optimus," stated Ultra Magnus, "please accompany me to the back, you too Sentinel, and bring the femme with you."

Both Primes stood and walked towards Ultra Magnus' office, pausing only to let Sari onto Optimus' shoulder. Once inside, Ultra Magnus turned to them and signaled Optimus to put Sari on the table. He complied, and left her to look around the oversized desk.

"Why exactly are her origins a 'sensitive matter' as you put it?" he asked, straight to the point.

"She's not what you would call an ordinary cybertronian," he explained, "There is much about her that we don't know."

"Well, she's not bad," leered Sentinel, "for her size."

"Oh, you are so not hitting on me now!" growled Sari as she examined what appeared to be a giant paperclip, before folding it into a rough chair.

"She's versatile," admitted the Magnus.

"What are these things?" asked Sentinel looking at the paperclip.

"The organics on earth liked to keep them on their desks," he said, "I thought they made a good decoration and had a few made."

"Um, Ultra?" said Sari from her chair, "not to be rude, but they're not for decoration. They keep papers together to archive them."

"What's paper?" asked Sentinel.

"A white sheet made out of the pulp of dead trees." She explained absentmindedly.

"And trees are?"

"The green things that you kept crashing into on earth."

"How do you know about that?" asked Ultra Magnus.

"Well-! I-, uh," once again, Sari was at a loss for words.

"She was sparked on Earth," said Optimus, "but her imprinting is a bit more interesting."

Sari looked at him with a quizzical expression. He nodded and she grinned, not that they could tell with her mouth guard up. She looked at Sentinel and used her jetpack to fly up to his shoulder, much to Optimus' surprise.

"Well, let's just say that Sentinel here," she said bringing her mouth guard close to the aforementioned Prime's faceplate, "is not going to take it well," she quickly deactivated her helmet and slid her tongue on his cheek before flying off to the desk, leaving Sentinel Prime in a state of shock with his mouth open in a horrified expression.

"A technorganic?" asked Ultra Magnus with surprise evident in his voice, "Interesting, though you look familiar."

"It's Sari," explained Optimus, barely stifling his laughter at Sentinel's plight, "the girl that helped me and my team adapt to life on Earth."

"Ah, yes," stated the Magnus, seemingly ignorant of Sentinel's shivering as he slowly snapped out of it, "I was not aware that she was cybertronian."

"Neither was I," admitted Sari, "until I skinned my elbow in an incident with a space-bridge. Well, more like had the skin torn off, but you get the point."

"That does not explain your current size," stated Ultra Magnus, "I remember you were shorter."

"I had an Allspark-related growth spurt," she explained as Sentinel began to utter an odd whine.

"I see," muttered the Magnus, "but, what about that thing you did to Sentinel? Is that a greeting on Earth?"

"Nah," said Sari with a wave of her hand, "that was-."

Everyone in the council room was startled by a sudden shriek.

"Is it Bring Your Femmeling To Work Day or something?" asked Bumblebee.

"-to do that," finished the mischievous technorganic with a grin.

"Organic slime!" he screamed as he took out a bottle of disinfectant out of the storage space on his back, "Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!"

He splashed the disinfectant on his face, the whole time screaming like a little girl with a spider on her hair.

"Any second now," said Sari ominously, "the acid will start corroding your armor and eating into your circuits."

"You're lying!" screamed Sentinel, clutching his cleaning rag like a child would a blanket, "You said you couldn't do that!"

"Did you really think that I would tell you guys of my only defense?" she said with an evil smirk, "I wanted a few cards under the table."

Sentinel ran out of the office screaming for Perceptor to wipe the "disgusting organic acid" off him. Once he left, Sari was free to roll over on her back laughing.

"Was that really necessary?" asked Optimus.

"No," she admitted between giggles, "but it was hilarious!"

"That won't actually hurt him, will it?" asked Ultra Magnus with a slight tone of concern in his voice.

"Nah," said Sari as she wiped tears from her eyes, "it's just water and a few digestive enzymes. Rain is more likely to hurt him than my saliva, especially if it's in Los Angeles. Well, what's left of it."

Ultra, apparently satisfied that his big-chinned subordinate was safe, turned back to the yellow femme on his desk.

"Though I'll admit that was amusing," he said with a slight chuckle, "I'd rather you didn't give anyone else a spark-failure while you are on Cybertron."

"No prob," she answered, "I just wanted to give him a spark-failure."

"Back to the issue at hand," cut in Optimus, "I'd rather keep her organic nature a secret for the time being."

"I agree," stated Ultra Magnus, "all things considered, it is probably best for her safety. However, I must insist that the council is made aware of this so that the proper protection can be provided to her."

"If you think it is necessary," said Optimus, he wasn't entirely happy with this arrangement but he could cope, he only hoped that Sari would too.

"Good," stated the reigning Magnus, "now if that is all, I suggest that we return to the council chamber. There is one more matter that I wish to discuss."

The two mech stood up and waited for Sari to catch up with her jetpack. As they left the room, they passed several bewildered Autobots covered in disinfectant. Optimus almost slipped on a puddle of the stuff as he walked into the council chamber behind Ultra Magnus. Inside, they were greeted by the sight of a quivering Sentinel Prime that was having his cheek scanned by Perceptor, who insisted that the liquid was harmless.

"Now then," stated the one-armed Magnus, "the Hammer, if you please."

Optimus handed the staff-like Magnus Hammer back to its rightful owner. Ultra took it with his single right arm and paused to examine it.

"It feels… odd, somehow," he muttered, "Was it damaged in the battle?"

"Not exactly," said Optimus, "the head fell apart during the journey back and we had to swap out the power core."

"It fell apart?" said the tall mech with the beard and mustache combo said incredulously, before noticing the pendant around Optimus' neck, "Where did you get that?"

"It was inside the Magnus Hammer," answered Optimus, slightly taken aback.

"Inside the Hammer you say?" he then turned to Perceptor, "What is the meaning of this?"

"This is a conversation that would be best discussed in private," responded the mech in his emotionless voice, "but if you wish for a summarized version, it was deemed to be necessary."

"In what way was it necessary to-!"

"This will be discussed in private," insisted Perceptor, leaving the older mech grumbling, "I will repair the Hammer in the meantime. Please hand over the parts."

"Actually," piped Alpha, "I will hold onto the Matrix for the time being."

"That is not necessary," cut in the scientist in an almost, but not quite, exasperated tone, "I will transport this to my laboratory and return."

"But you don't want to miss the meeting," countered the older mech, "how about you let me-."

"Enough!" snapped Ultra, "I will keep the Hammer and this device for the time being. Unless either of you wish to explain what is happening?"

"Gladly," snapped Alpha Trion, "you see-."

"Ultra Magnus, this is not a subject that should be discussed publicly," insisted Perceptor, "I recommend that we at least wait for the Council to be isolated."

"Very well," he replied after some thought, "for the time being, I suggest that we return to the issue at hand. Are there any Decepticons left on Earth?"

"No sir," answered Optimus, "only the Constructicons."

"And they're not really bad," cut in Bulkhead, "they just hung out with the wrong crowd for a while. Scrapper's fun and Mixmaster's a bit of a hothead, Dirt Boss is the only one I'd worry about."

"Why didn't you bring them?" asked Alpha Trion, "Is there a particular reason that you saw it fit to leave three Decepticons in the same planet as those humans?"

"Detroit hired them to help with the reconstruction efforts," said Optimus, "with the exception of Dirt Boss, who's been missing from some time."

"Is Dirt Boss a threat?" asked Ultra Magnus.

"He's puny," said Bulkhead, "but agile, and those cerebro shells of his are a nightmare."

"Cerebro shells?"

"He shoots them out of his forehead," explained the green mech, flailing his large arms around, "they attach themselves to your helm and basically turn you into a drone."

"Hmm, we'll have to retrieve him later," said Alpha Trion, "that kind of weapon could be devastating in the hands of the Decepticons."

"What about the other, uh, Constructicons?" asked Botanica.

"Well, Mixmaster can stir up acid out of a tank in his midsection," said Bulkhead, "but he can also mix cement or other chemicals, Scrapper has a drill but that's about it. Oh, and they're both really good builders."

"But they'll work for just about anyone," cut in Optimus, "for anyone that has the oil anyways."

"But they're harmless," insisted Bulkhead, "Scrapper even helped Sari take down Soundwave back when he wiped our processors."

"I am worried about this Soundwave character," cut in Cliffjumper, "are you certain that he is offline?"

"Positive," said Optimus, "I cut him and that bat of his in half and Sari finished him off. All that's left is the other guitar."

"I see," said Cliffjumper, "how soon can you retrieve it?"

"You can leave him to me," stated Sari, "without Soundwave around to mess with my jetpack, he'll be easy pickings."

"Which reminds me," cut in Ultra Magnus, "there is one last matter that we need to address before we can call this session to a close. Miss Sumdac, if you please."

She nodded and shut her optics to let the white organic cover slip back onto them like an iris darkening her white pupils in the process. At the same time her armor gave off a blue flash as it receded back into her body. She heard gasps from the surrounding bots and slowly opened her eyes to see their shocked faces.

"How is this possible?" asked Botanica with wide optics.

"Technorganics?" asked Ratchet, "there were two others, Blackarachnia and Waspinator."

"I don't know about Waspinator," said Alpha Trion, "but Blackarachnia's transformation sequence is very different from hers."

"Maybe it's because humans have a similar body shape to ours," proposed Wheeljack "kinda weird when you think about it."

"I propose a series of tests," stated Perceptor, "so that we may be certain about her origins and her internal functions."

"It is not my decision to make," said Optimus, "Sari, what do you say?"

The technorganic hesitated for a moment before nodding, "I need to know," she explained, "not only about my systems, but also about my origins."

"Please accompany us to my laboratory," said Perceptor leading her away.

"Wait!"

Perceptor turned to face Arcee, his cold stare asking her to continue.

"Before you go," the pink femme angrily demanded, "I need to know. Why was I left in that hospital for so long?"

"Resources where scarce," explained Perceptor, "my attention was needed elsewhere."

"So you left me there to rust!?"

"You were properly cared for," replied the emotionless mech, "rust would not have been an issue. After the war was over, your recovery became a minor priority."

"You mean to tell me," growled Arcee, shaking with barely contained anger, "that after the millions of stellar cycles that I worked for you, after being hunted down like an animal, and even after making me force a freshly sparked protoform into war, you had better things to do!?"

"My attention was needed elsewhere," repeated Perceptor, "repairs where necessary throughout Cybertron, millions of Autobots were dead, many more where missing, and the stock of Autotroopers had been severely depleted. Your recovery was deemed to be unlikely."

"We took less than five megacycles," growled Sari.

"And I guess the repair of a loyal Autobot intelligence agent came second," finished Ratchet, "if you weren't standing in front of me right now, I would say you lost more than your emotions over the war Perceptor."

"I did not lose them," clarified the mech, "I removed them," he turned to Sari and Wheeljack, "come, there is much work to do."

"Can Ratchet come?" asked Sari with a hint of nervousness in her voice, "he's treated me before."

"Ratchet is needed elsewhere," he pointed out, "we need to perform tests on agent Arcee to ensure that her processor did not suffer any critical damage."

"Oh, alright," she said with a slightly dejected voice, "See ya later guys."

"We'll go to Maccadam's Old Oil House for a drink later," proposed Ratchet, "I'm buying the first round."

"We'll take you up on that," jested Jazz.

"If that is all, then this meeting is over," said Ultra Magnus, "dismissed."

"Well, we might as well go with Sari then," said Bumblebee as he turned to follow.

"I would not advise that," stated Perceptor, "your reputation precedes you."

"My strength? My speed?"

"Your inability to follow simple commands and overactive pistons, often resulting in otherwise avoidable accidents," stated the red mech, "and Wheeljack has several prototypes in the laboratory."

"So?"

"There is an 87.3% probability of any one of them malfunctioning and detonating within the next ten megacycles," he explained, unaware of Sari's growing optics behind him, "and that is under normal circumstances. I would prefer not to have to rebuild my laboratory, again."

"In that case I'll stick with Prime," said Bumblebee, "who has a relatively low chance of exploding today."

"Not if he doesn't get a doctor to look at him," said Ratchet, "the same goes for the lot of you."

"Sentinel Prime," said Ultra Magnus, "escort them to the medical facility."

"Yes Sir," saluted the blue Prime, "come on Golden Boy."

"Yes, Captain Chin, sir!" mock saluted Sari.

"Mute it!" yelled Sentinel on his way out.

A few hours later, Sari found herself standing naked with her hair loose underneath a large, red microscope with wheels.

"Now, transform as slowly as you can," said Perceptor, "but keep your optics open."

She complied and withdrew the white covering on her eyes while looking straight up at the lens. She tried to slow herself down, but her transformation was still faster than what most people could track.

"Fascinating," Perceptor said, "your armor is kept folded up underneath your organic components. It is thinner than most, but unusually strong and resistant to heat and electric discharges."

"Really?" asked Sari as she hopped off the microscope and headed towards her clothes, absentmindedly rubbing her arm where Perceptor had taken a blood and tissue sample, "I'd always figured that my head just turned metallic."

"That would be most illogical," said Perceptor as he turned back into his robot mode, the scope on his shoulder then projected a hologram of Sari, the hologram then started to slowly transform, grotesquely showing how her head came apart to expose her helmet. She stared as the white covering on the eyes of her holographic persona withdrew and her pupils turned white; giving her an alien look with two glowing-blue, almond-shaped optics on her human face. Her hologram's head was mostly left in one piece, but the back of her head slowly opened to reveal the folded helmet. The rest of her naked body was covered in tiny scales of various sizes that formed a skintight armor that started yellow on her sides and back with three black stripes on her ribcage aiming towards her belly. The armor directly under her chest plate and over her navel was a soft cream color similar to her dress, running all the way down to stop right above the waist where the yellow tones came back in a curved "V" shape right above her crotch.

"As you can see," he continued, "your body gives off a small burst of radiation to disinfect your armor, before drawing it into your body in slivers at a speed I did not consider possible for transformations."

He then zoomed in to view a cross section of one of the slivers.

"The armor itself appears to be made up of cybertanium coated by sheets made of carbon molecules arranged into hexagons."

"Graphene," said Sari, "that's what we call it on Earth. The army uses it to make body armor since you need to press the weight of an elephant onto a pencil to poke a hole through a paper-thin piece. We also use it to make high-capacity computer chips, though diamond drives are still the industry standard."

"Ingenious." Admitted Perceptor before he focused back onto her schematics, outlining five tanks underneath her stomach and one behind the place where her lungs should have been, "You also have many more fuel tanks that what I expected. There are the regular ones for energon, oil, and coolant," three tanks lit up blue respectively, "one filled with liquid oxygen," the one between her turbine cyclers lit up blue as well, "but I was unable to identify the substances that are held in this last one," and the last tank lit up red.

"Let me see," said Sari as Perceptor pulled up the molecular diagrams, "it's a mixture of glucose, water, amino acids, and lipid acids," she explained, "they're basically what organics run on. When we eat other organics, we break them down into these compounds. The oxygen serves to oxidize the glucose while the amino acids and the lipid acids are for repair," she frowned as she looked at the oxygen tank, "guess that's why I don't breathe when I'm in robot mode."

That's when she remembered a question she'd been saving, "What about these?" she asked, fingering the two metallic protuberances on her head before transforming back to her human mode.

"Sensory receptors, communications antennae, radar, data slots, and headlights that double as hologram projectors."

The hologram then focused on the rest of her body, properly censored at Sari's request.

"I had initially assumed that this object was a decoration," stated Perceptor, pointing at the blue jewel on her naked chest, "but after watching you remove your 'clothes', it is obvious that it is in fact an access port to your spark chamber."

"I could have told you that much," said Sari as she slipped on her grey long-sleeved one-piece. She then pressed the blue jewel on her chest lightly to make it pop out. She followed by putting on her shoulder guards and slipped the two pieces on top of the dress. The jewel fit snugly into the hole between her shoulder guards before the two pieces shut around the small shaft that had resulted. The jewel then sank partway in to power her flexible armor, activating the electronic paint and turning it back to its familiar yellow and cream colors as the power surged through the cloth-like metal. She then proceeded to put her knee-socks and combat boots back on, grey turning to yellow the whole way.

"How did you make that armor?" asked Wheeljack from his spot in front of a large, tubular object with wires hanging out of the open panel he was servo-deep in.

"I took some cybertanium scrap metal Ratchet had lying around," she said as she tied her hair back up, "then I used some destronium from my dad's lab, melted them together at high pressure to make crystals, and used them to seed a supersaturated solution of the same substance in mineral oil to make nanowires. We use the same technique on Earth to make copper nanowires for computers."

She put her hairpins back on before she continued. "Then I just had robots spin and weave them into cloth to make my clothes. I even made different styles, in case I wanted to shake things up from time to time."

"How did you learn how to do that?"

Sari blinked, "It kinda just came to me," she admitted, "sounds lame, I know. But a lot of things have been 'coming to me' ever since my upgrade."

"Anything beneficial about them?"

"Well, they should be bullet-proof," said Sari, "but I haven't really tested them. I'm also experimenting with destronium nanowires and the cybertanium's molecular structure to see if I can get it to harden into plaques." She then turned back to Perceptor and asked. "What about my organs?"

"Your organic subsystems appear to be isolated in individual casings to keep them isolated from the surrounding radiation," he stated as the hologram's torso opened to reveal a relatively small stomach, liver, pancreas, and shortened intestines encased in metal. Sari reached into her luggage and pulled out her laptop, unrolling it as she pulled it out.

"This is what we use graphene for," she said once she noticed Perceptor and Wheeljack staring at the paper-like computer, "I downloaded a whole mess of medical stuff in here to compare." She said as she moved her thin fingers on the screen bringing up medical drawings. "My stomach's smaller than most and my intestines are nearly two feet shorter. I have half a liver, but my kidneys have been replaced by cybertronian filters."

"Well, you're mostly cybertronian," pointed out Wheeljack, "you probably don't need as much organic fuel as you do energon."

"Yeah, that makes sense," she muttered, "but where the heck are my lungs? I mean, I get why I don't have a heart! Despite how romantic everyone puts it, it's just a pump. But lungs are actually important."

"Your engine block appears to have been modified to allow room for a set of reduced lungs," explained the red mech, "Instead of a standard four-cilinder fusion chamber, you have two separate engine blocks on each side with a single cylinder each. Right under that, you have your lungs, which appear to be half the size of a normal human's. However," he warned, "this does have a mayor defect. Despite its advances, your stamina is still much lower than that of a cybertronian's due to your missing cylinders and your heat threshold is well within temperature ranges that are considered normal for us. Your organic side is also affected due to the fact that you take in less oxygen than most humans, although I can't compare you to a normal human until I analyze the information you have brought."

"How do her nano-components handle the energon radiation?" asked Wheeljack, "Last I checked, organics and energon don't mix well."

"The tissue sample I collected seems to indicate that her organic cells are lined with cybertanium," he explained, "although I would need a sample from an internal organ to verify."

"Not gonna happen," she replied as she absentmindedly rubbed the small wound again, before her eyes wondered to Wheeljack's project, "what exactly is that, by the way?"

"Nice, huh? I call it the Barrage Cannon," said Wheeljack proudly while his faceplates blinked, "It's an energon ion rifle that works by crystalizing primed energon and conducting it through these two rails in the middle with an electromagnetic accelerator. Check it out."

He snapped a panel back into place before he hosted the cannon onto his shoulder like a bazooka. They both walked into the shooting range that was attached to the lab and ignored Perceptor as he stood up and rapidly walked towards his desk. He made it in to duck underneath it just as Sari yelled out "Fire!" and the door swooshed open to reveal Ratchet and Arcee.

"What are you two malfunctions up to?" asked Ratchet as he walked in, then he noticed the weapon on Wheeljack's arms, "DUCK!"

He pushed Arcee underneath the nearest lab table and ducked in himself just as the energon crystal shot out of the cannon at high velocity, impacted against the target at the end of the shooting range, and… plopped to the floor with a sound that rather resembled a goldfish's fart.

"Scrap," muttered Wheeljack, "it didn't even blow!"

"Let's consider that a good thing," said Sari from his shoulder as she jumped down to inspect the crystal.

"What was THAT all about?" asked Arcee as she and Ratchet crawled out from beneath the table.

"Hatchet, you're just in time!" called out Wheeljack as he put down the cannon, "I was just testing out my new invention."

"Hatchet?" Inquired Arcee.

"That's what Percy and I called this grumpy old medibot back in the academy," he answered, "Glitch off Ratchet and down comes the Hatch- YOW!"

"Just so you know, my aim is as sharp as ever!" said the grumpy old medibot.

"I can see that," moaned Wheeljack as he rubbed his helm on the dent that Ratchet's wrench had hit, "scratch that, I can feel that. Where did you even pull that thing out of?"

"I think I know what went wrong!" yelled Sari from…somewhere. As the Autobots turned in confusion, she yelled out, "Over here!"

Wheeljack turned towards the cannon on the table and noticed an open panel. When he peeked inside, he found Sari tinkering with a few wires.

"I recalibrated the ionization chamber," she explained as she connected a couple of sparking wires, uncaring of the electricity that was arching off her armor, "now it will keep the inside of the energon crystal liquid to make it blow up."

"Won't that make it unstable?" pointed out Ratchet as the yellow femme crawled out.

"Duh, that's the only way it'll blow."

"Ratchet, Arcee, please come with me," said Perceptor, "Wheeljack, I'd be thankful if you used the shielded range."

"What about them?" asked Arcee, looking towards Wheeljack and Sari as they strolled back into shielded shooting range.

"We will be able to see the results of Sari Sumdac's adjustments from the viewing platform."

"I don't know," said Ratchet as they took the lift to the viewing station, "I think Sari forgot about what you said about Wheeljack's inventions."

"I presumed as much," he replied, "she will learn."

"Ready guys?" called out Wheeljack from the comlink on the wall.

"Get ready for the fireworks!" continued Sari.

"Sweet Cybertron, there's two of them," moaned Ratchet as they walked into the viewing room, a square room with a small window on the wall that overlooked the shooting range.

"What's so bad about that?" asked Arcee.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

In the instant after Wheeljack pulled the trigger, a muffled explosion shook the building, the small window filled with gray smoke, and a small humanoid dent appeared on the metal wall beneath the window.

"That," stated Perceptor as he headed back to the elevator.

"Is that Sari?" asked Arcee, pointing at the dent as Ratchet ran out, "wait, does Sari even know how to recalibrate an ionization chamber? I mean, she's good at diagnostics but…"

"Frag it Wheeljack! If she's hurt, I'll weld your articulators shut!" she heard Ratchet yell out from the shooting range, followed by the sound of metal hitting metal as a wrench found Wheeljack's helm.

"How'd he get down there so fast?"

On his way to see Ultra Magnus in his private office, Alpha Trion was making a call.

"Come on. Pick up you rusty old- Vector! I need to tell-."

"You have reached the personal communications frequency of Vector Prime. I am currently undergoing a medical checkup and have deactivated my personal communication receiver for the next. [TWO. AND A HALF. Megacycles]. Please leave a message after the tone and I'll get back to you when I can."

Alpha Trion could feel his optic twitching. The ONE time the mech remembered to get his checkup on time.

"Vector, I swear, you have the worst timing in the universe," he growled into his comm when the tone passed, "this is important. Get back to me as soon as you can. The Matrix has reemerged."