Please note that these characters belong to their original creators as do any songs used in this fiction, not me, this is just my take on what might happen enjoy and let me know what you think.

also i am still trying to fix any mistakes that i might have missed in past chapters (i.e spelling, grammar and so on)

Sam though about how they should go about this and decided that he should tell Optimus first of all. "we need to get to optimus and tell him about all this" said Sam as he looked at the tick device sitting on the workstation. "agreed" said Ironhide hoping that Optimus would take more action than Sam about Galloway. Ironhide transformed and said "both of you follow me", Sam and Bee transformed and followed Ironhide out of the bay. The weapon specialist drove through the corridors faster than Sam had ever seen him move and soon the three reached what looked like a solid wall. Ironhide at last stopped and transformed back into his robot form, both Bumblebee and Sam followed suit as Sam asked "why have we stopped here ironhide?". For the first time that day Sam saw Ironhide smile as he transmitted a com signal in, a second later the whole wall slid backwards to reveal a concealed platform of sorts. "get on" said Ironhide in a gruff but more normal manner as he pointed to the platform. Sam and Bee got on then Ironhide followed them, an instant later the platform started to descend and once they were down far enough down the wall above them slid back into place like it had never moved. The platform descended about five Autobot sized story's before it stopped and another wall slid to the side revealing a tunnel large enough for five Autobots to drive side by side. The tunnel was well lit and looked unused, maybe even out of the box new.

Sam stepped out and he heard his footsteps echo out in all directions, "what is this place?" he asked more than a little surprised that some thing like this existed beneath Autobot city. "this is a transit tunnel, it's the only way to get to the command center" explained Ironhide as he transformed "there are only a few access points like the one in the security office and their all in secure buildings, under guard and concealed from intruders". Sam was stunned at the level of security that had been built into the design, when Bumblebee had said that Autobot command centers were under ground he had never though of anything like this as the access point. Bumblebee transformed and gave Sam a nudge to pull him from the thoughts he was lost in. Sam looked down and saw that Bee was ready to go just like Ironhide, realizing that he was holding things up Sam quickly transformed and got in line behind the others as they moved off. Ironhide lead the way though it was impossible to get lost in a tunnel that only allowed movement in two directions. The three traveled down the tunnel at high speed as it twisted and turned in different directions until the tunnel connected with another tunnel, Sam started to wondered why it was built like this instead of just a straight line to the command center. After a few more minutes of driving Sam saw another adjoining tunnel that connected to the main one they were in. Ironhide drove past it and continued on in the main tunnel as it curved round in a circle. They kept driving past other tunnels still following the same path until Ironhide stopped next to a wall far from any access tunnels. Once more the wall moved, only this time it slid down to reveal that the wall was more then thirty feet thick. Ironhide drove across what was the top of the wall and into the new tunnel. Once they were out of the main tunnel small machines came out of the walls and started cleaning the floor removing any trace that any vehicle or Autobot had passed through.

They quickly moved off the lowered wall and it slid back into place like it was just a normal solid unmoving wall. This new tunnel curved round like the first so Sam could only see a short distance in front of him. As they drove scanners swept them over looking for anything out of the ordinary or that which might be concealed even from the Autobots that were passing through the tunnel. It took a minute to pass through the scanner filled tunnel and when they reached the end another barrier awaited them. This time it took the form of a large door made of the gold colored metal Sam had come to associate with the strongest structures. They waited as the door swung slowly open, it was at least twelve feet thick and locked strong enough to hold off a direct attacks from Megatron him self. Finally the door finished opening and Ironhide lead the way through, yet another tunnel awaited them but this time Sam could see the end which looked like it opened onto the command center. Halfway down the tunnel Ironhide stopped dead in his tracks which forced both Bumblebee and Sam to stop as well. A moment later the floor opened up to reveal a ramp which Ironhide drove down calmly. "how many more secret doors are there?" asked Sam as he entered the new hidden tunnel "we're almost there sam, we didn't want to take any chances with this facility as both humans and autobot are working here, the harder we make it for the decepticons the more time we buy for our allies to get ready for incoming attacks" replied Ironhide. This time when Sam saw the end of the tunnel it was the door to the command center, like the door before it was made of the same dull gold metal and looked able to hold of the strongest of attacks. This time when they reached the door it broke apart and transformed as it opened, the effect was much like the allspark changing size only the sound was more like a bot transforming.

Finally they had reached the command center, as he drove though the last barrier Sam found him self in a very large sphere shaped room filled with controls and displays. There were people rushing round checking stations and monitoring the information that came through. Sam quickly noticed that many of the displays gave readings about the city's total power output, the status of the water supply, construction, the incoming weather and so-on. Only a few were dedicated to the weapons system, city wide scanners and other systems that would be used in combat situations . Optimus stood in the center of the room looking at a large screen with Lennox next to him on a raised platform, the screen showed an image of the interior of the oval office before it went blank and Sam heard Lennox say "well at least he listened to what we had to say about the attack and galloways behavior, now all we need to do is get galloway out of here so the president can deal with him face to face". "yes he listened to us will, but I have a feeling that galloway will survive this even if his position will be shaken by our report" said Optimus with an almost grim expression on his face. "we have a victory today optimus one in which I get to hand galloway his marching orders and escort him out of the city" replied Lennox smiling. "you might not be smiling in a minute when I tell you what we found earlier" said Sam as he transformed and walked over to the center of the room. "sam it's good to see you here" said Optimus happy that his brother had come even if it was with bad news. Sam smiled back and said "I wish I wasn't here with information like this, we found a communication tapping device in the central tower earlier on and when bee examined it he found that it was built by sector seven". It took sam more than a few minutes to explain the details about the device and about what Simmons had said about it even with Bumblebee's help.

"simmons is sure that there are no more than sixteen of these tick things here?" asked Lennox "he's sure" said Sam "remember this guy takes his job way to seriously not to be". "you've been awfully quite about all this ironhide" said Optimus "I'm sure that galloway is behind all this optimus, we should bring him in for questioning about it at the very least, the last time we faced this kind of problem we just brought the one responsible in and got the truth from him" replied Ironhide. "the last time we faced something like this the rules were different ironhide, we were at war with the ones who had planted the devices and they were unlikely to give the answers we wanted with out a fight, this time around we need to use far greater delicacy as the ones responsible may be part of the government we have allied our selves to or they may be working inside the government against it's orders" said Optimus calmly. "optimus is right, this isn't a combat situation and we need to tread carefully on this one, if the city is as compromised as we think it is then these guys have far reaching connections that could cause real trouble for us" added Lennox. Ironhide turned to Sam who just said "you know what I think we should do, we need to get enough information as we can then use it to hang galloway once and for all". Ironhide had hoped that Will at least would want to try and fire a few shots at Galloway during the integration, but the others were right they needed to be careful how they handled this even if they didn't want to be.

"all right" said Ironhide a defeated tone in his voice "I'll not bring him in for questioning, but I will have my people keep an eye on him and those with him until he's at least ten miles from the city limits". "agreed" said Optimus "this may be the last time any of them get the chance to enter the city openly so we need to make sure that they leave nothing behind". "I think that bumblebee and my self should join the search teams in looking for more of these ticks in the city, we can't really risk anything being over looked right now" said Sam. "bumblebee is free to start searching if he wishes but I would like to speak with you first before you start searching the city sam" Optimus gave Sam a look that said "we need to talk" as he spoke. Sensing that the primes need some space Lennox said "come on ironhide we can head over to galloway and give him his marching orders, I was going to hand the papers over my self but you can do it if you want, I have a feeling that you need it more than me right now". A small grin broke over the weapon specialists face at the thought of personally throwing Galloway out of Autobot city and slamming the doors behind him. Ironhide transformed and said "come on will, lets give him the god news", Lennox climbed into Ironhides cab as the weapons specialist drove out of the command center. Optimus gestured to a closed off section in the command center that served as a sort of office for whoever was in charge there at the time. Sam followed Optimus into the room and Bumblebee followed Sam. Even if Optimus had wanted to speak to Sam alone he knew that it was pointless as Sam would tell Bee everything later anyway no matter what it was.

The doors slid shut and Optimus said "computer lock the doors to this room" a small chime answered him as the locks on the doors slid into place. "sam this room is sound proof so we may speak freely" said Optimus as he sat down behind the Autobot sized desk after stepping over the human sized one next to it. "what do you want to talk about optimus?" asked Sam as he pulled up a seat on the opposite side of the desk. "when you entered I had just finished speaking with the president and as you know he has ordered the removal of galloway from autobot city, what you do not know is that he wishes to apologize to you and you family about what happened and the lack of protection that you were given" there was a tone to Optimus primes voice that said there was more to this than a simple apology. "well if he just wants to apologize then that's ok with me" said Sam "or is there more to this?" he added. "when I say your whole family I mean your parents, you and your partner ben and possibly his family" Optimus motioned to Bumblebee who was now sitting next to Sam. "it seems that Simmons did such a good job in creating a background for bumblebee's avatar and covering up any information which may have indicated that ben was really bee that even his own government can't tell that the identity was created only recently.." Sam now got at what Optimus was saying. "and it's going to be hard to produce ben's dad when the president wants to apologize to him" finished Sam. "yes" said Optimus "we could tell him a part truth about bumblebee's avatar and your relationship to him as his human partner rather than the whole truth but that may raise some questions about our ability to create avatars and in turn it may expose your secret as well". Optimus paused for a second and then continued "I know that this is your choice sam but you may want to consider what will happen if the decepticons find out about you being an autobot now, let alone a prime, I ask that we come up with a way to keep your secret for the moment at least". Sam nodded and said "your right optimus, this isn't the time for anyone we cant trust completely to know about me and I don't think that we should even risk them knowing about bee either, no we have to come up with a way to cover our selves that won't raise suspicions"

"if we could get someone to play the part of my avatars dad then we'd be ok, I'm sure that simmons could create the paperwork and make it look just as real as the one's I have" said Bumblebee. "we will ask him about that when he gets here but I think that he will have other things on his mind when he arrives" said Optimus. "well when he finished getting these ticks out of the city I'm sure that he can help us, but that still leaves us with one question who are we going to get to play ben's dad?" said Sam as he looked from Optimus to Bumblebee both of whom had no answer.