"Attention Passengers. We will soon be landing at Narita International Airport. Please take this time to turn off all personal electronic devices as well as in-flight music and movies. Thank you."

Miko ignored the message, continuing to sift through the pictures on her camera, not caring that most of them would probably be classified above top secret. But that was Fowlers headache, not hers. He might have moved up the ladder since they first met but Miko had never been the best at recognizing authority. She hid her camera as a stewardess passed by, waited a moment, then went back to her pictures. They weren't as interesting as they used to be, but they were no less special. Most of were of construction sites in various remote locations, all somewhere between just started and half finished. One was of a tall young man with raven black hair directing some of the workers around, showing them how to avoid the glowing crystals lining the rocks nearby if Miko remembered correctly, while the one after it showed a shorter teen making calculations on a plexiglas board.

She sighed; She missed her friends, Jack and Raf, in some ways more than her old guardian and Wrecker idol Bulkhead. After the Autobots had revived and returned to Cybertron, their former charges had joined William Fowler in Unit:E, along with the Autobot medic Ratchet.

Miko snapped back to reality when she felt the plane shake around her, and heard the familiar screech and squeal of tires on runway. She smiled slightly, more than a smirk but not as wide as one would expect from someone coming home for the first time in four months. Miko didn't hate her parents, well no more than any other young adult looking for to prove themselves could, but it always seemed they were trying to tie her down. It was a miracle she had ever gotten them to agree to the foreign exchange program that had let her spend her high school years in Jasper Nevada. Sure she came home every summer and over the winter break, but after graduating from Jasper high last year she'd barely had three months with her parents before she told them about her interning plans. Her internship of course was just a cover that provided her clearance, not that she really needed it, and an explanation for her popping up in various parts of the world.

Today however the ground-bridge was down after an earlier malfunction. According to Raf they had been sending a team of paramedics to one of the Decepticons old energon mines in South America after a cave in trapped some Unit:E workers setting up the base there down in the tunnels. But when the team leader went running through the bridge, he immediately came flying back out faster than Bulkhead with a scraplet on his tailpipe. So Ratchet and Fowler had stopped all ground-bridge travel until Raf and the Hatchet could find the problem.

But Miko pushed the thoughts from her mind. Work was the last thing she needed to be thinking about while she was on vacation.

She picked up her carry on bag and followed the stream of other passengers out of the plane, failing to put her mind completely on track for carefree relaxation. Her fathers hadn't taken it well when she told him about her plans to travel the world, and it was only after Miko convinced her mother that he had agreed. That was how most of their family disputes went; she would make her case to one of her parents, then they would convince the other. When she was eight and wanted a bike she asked her mom first then let her sweet talk her dad, and when she was ten and decided she wanted to take judo classes, she'd gone to her father first.

The memory brought a smile to Miko's face, along with a snorted laugh. The sound drew a questioning look from the other passengers assembled around the baggage claim but Miko couldn't help herself. She always laughed when she remembered how on her first day of class her judo instructor had taunted some of the students parents out onto the mat, never actually striking them but making sure the students knew how tough he was. But when he got to Miko's dad, he was in for a surprise. Miko still remembered how her father had a judo master, a third degree black belt, flopping and stumbling around his own dojo before putting him on the ground three times. Looking back Miko realized it probably hadn't even been fair, but you would never have guessed the speed her father had moved with.

Dynomo Nakadi was a mystery to most people outside of his family and a few close friends. His dark skin and tall frame made him hard to miss in a crowd, and he had a certain gruffness to him that made you reconsider approaching him. Even his voice, Miko remembered, had a kind of raspy growl to it, but it didn't stop him from cracking the occasional joke or when it came time to remind her mother how much he loved her.

Now Miko had her bag and was making her way from the baggage claim to the main lobby where her pick up was waiting. She scanned the signs people were holding up for arrivals, only to realize she didn't see one for Miko or Nakadi anywhere. Maybe Fowlers guys got stuck in traffic, or more likely they were lost in the terminal. Again. But just as she thought about moving to look for her pick up elsewhere.

"EY STREAKS OVER"ERE!" Miko stopped in her tracks, not only was the voice in a familiar accent, but only one person in the whole world called her that. She followed the voice, then found its owner waving his arms from where he stood beside a trashcan. Miko wasted no time in navigating her way through the sea of people and running up to the man, bags in tow.

"Uncle Rodney!" She said excitedly wrapping the honorary family member in a hug, one he returned in earnest. He was dressed in his usual style, tennis shoes and light brown shorts with a matching cargo vest over a solid grey T-shirt.

"Hehe, Nice to see you too kiddo," he replied in his unmistakable New York accent as he broke the hug. "Geeesh you've gotten tall," he said looking up at her, but only slightly. "Meh, must be your Dad's genes finally kicking in." Miko never remembered Uncle Rodney for being especially tall, her dad practically towered over him, but she had just recently tipped the five foot nine inches mark, making her a half foot taller than her favorite uncle.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, still smiling ear to ear then looked around. "And where's mom and dad?" Rodney's face changed for a moment, but it was so quick Miko barely had time to notice it.

"Something uh, came up at your Grandparents place," He said quickly, "they had to take de train out last night and couldn't make it back in time. Come on," he said grabbing the larger of her bags and starting for the exit. "Lets get outta dis madhouse."

"Uhg, Uncle Rodney,' Miko said noticing his direction of travel, "The stations that way."

"We ain't tak'n de train dis time!" He said, and his step gained a slight but noticeable skip as Miko rushed to catch up. "You know dat pawnshop I been work'n at?" He asked as he and Miko walked out the terminals main doors and headed toward the car park. "Well, de other day dis guy walks in, say's he wants his watch back, old rolex, niiice look'n too. Parently he and his wife got into a lil disagreement, and she sold the watch to ge'at him." He shifted the luggage he was carry to his left hand, then started fishing for something in one of his innumerable pockets. "Well turns out, dis guy owns a rental car service not too far from the shop. So, we cut a deal." He retrieved the car keys, and started clicking them, looking for the car in question.

Even if she was only half listening to his story Miko was still happy for her Uncle. Even when she was a kid she knew her Uncle Rodney was a thief, or at least had been at one point. And he was good at it too, if the way her parents talked about him was any indication, but Rodney had been adamant about going straight in recent years, going as far as getting a job in a pawnshop in Tokyo's south side. However, despite living in the most crowded city in the world, Rodney's big goal had always been his own car.

"AH-HA!" he cried as his furious clicking produced a beep in response, "Der you are!" He jogged over toward the sound, and Miko was right behind him, right until she actually saw the vehicle.

Or rather...Saw Him.

"No way," Miko gasped, nearly dropping her bags.

"Nice huh?" Rodney asked gesturing to the massive forest green pickup truck, but Miko was most focused on the red and silver face like badge emblazoned across the trucks grill.

A few minutes later the same forest green pickup truck was headed west toward Tokyo, but unknown to its passengers, so was the dark blue drone like aircraft flying silently above them.