WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN TRANSFORMERS AGE OF EXTINCTION!

Now...

My thoughts on Transformers 4 Age of Extinction: HOLY SLAG! A LIVE-ACTION TRANSFORMERS MOVIE WITH AN ACTUAL PLOT!! I seriously enjoyed this movie, not because its just another thrill ride cgi slug fest like the last two, but because this time the Transformers take center stage, not their human charges. Shia LaBarf is gone, history, and the new human leads are infinitely more relatable and endearing in a way that doesn't detract from the Autobots protecting them. The humor is also much cleaner, if you catch my meaning, and you can count the reasons for the movies PG-13 rating off on your fingers. (giant robot carnage excluded of course)

Following Optimus into battle we have Hound, Drift, Crosshairs, and of course everyone's favorite black and yellow scout. I'm not gonna go on a rant here and spill a bunch of spoilers, so I'll stick to the main points. The movie makes sure you know the Transformers are the main characters in a way the first three didn't even try to, and it also makes way more references to the previous series than all the previous movies combined. I saw references to everything from G1 to Prime, heck they even gave a nod to Hasbro's chronic use of Recolors.

But the movies does fall flat in one respect: The Dinobots. Granted they disappoint in the same way Godzilla did in his movie. they get barely any screen time, with most of it at the tail end, and they don't even speak nor are they named onscreen.

One final note before we get to the chapter: Expect a sequel, because though the Autobots do succeed and save the day in the end, one thing is indefinitely clear by the time the credits roll.

The Decepticons.

Are.

Back.

Now... TO THE CHAPTER! ALL HAIL GALVATRON!

Skylynx looked around the hangar, yellow optics lingering on the new human cowering behind Fowler, then on the human standing beside Wheeljack.

"...Am I interrupting something?"

To his credit, Dynomo only wavered for a moment at the sight of the massive predacon, while Rodney's jaw nearly dropped free of his skull. And though Miko, Raf, Jack and Fowler were no strangers to large transformers, none of them had ever seen a Predacon in robot mode before.

"Whoa," Raf gasped, looking up and up at Skylynx, his wings within inches of the roof girders making him appear that much larger. Jack echoed his surprise.

"He's as big as Megatron." Fowler managed to tear his eyes away from the towering mech long enough to reach over and close Rodney's mouth before the smaller man caught an insect in it. The Director though was speechless as well, caught between the previous tension and an entirely new predicament. Fortunately Ratchet was not so awe struck.

"Skylynx!" He barked, boldly stepping up and craning his neck struts to look the predacon in the optics. "What is the meaning of this? Why aren't you still tracking Soundwave?" Skylynx snarled, optics and circuits flashing from yellow to orange with his disposition.

"If you think I'm going to be ordered around like one of your Autobots, Medic, you are sorely mistaken. Besides," he added with a twinge of self admonishing, "The trail ended not far from the battlefield."

"Then where have you been for the past five hours?!" Ratchet said, retrieving his favorite tool from its subspace storage. The humans noticed how the much larger predacon's optics darted down to the instrument now brandished by the medic, and it seemed even a predacon knew to fear the Hatchets wrench.

"I was," he said slowly, not unlike a child coming home after curfew, "familiarizing myself with the area's terrain." But Ratchet wasn't buying it.

"And why did you fly all the way here from Japan, instead of sending your coordinates for a ground-bridge?" Miko noticed a slight twitch in Skylynx's thin wings as the appendages folded slightly toward his shoulders before he got out an excuse.

"I told you, I was familiarizing myself with the area. That includes the sky I will be hunting in." Ratchet only glared at the towering mech: Autobot or Predacon, fliers were always a processor ache to deal with. Ratchet was about to launch into a reprimand, when he noticed he had lost Skylynx's attention to a certain young woman. Miko saw the dragon-former staring at her, optics wandering over her frame but catching on her armor.

"Hey," She snapped, gesturing to her face and catching the predacon off guard slightly, "My eyes are up here Preda-dolt." The dragon-former just scoffed.

"My deepest apologies," he said smoothly, stunning Miko for a moment while he tilted his helm slightly, "Though you do have an impressive plating structure. For a youngling."

"Uh, thanks?" Miko said as Skylynx looked around the hangar and a frown appeared on his faceplates. That's when Jack realized they hadn't exactly thought out sleeping arrangements for the mech considering he couldn't exactly shift to an inconspicuous vehicle mode for recharge. "So," he said with a slight but definitely sarcastic growl. "Am I to sleep in the corner then?"

"Across the runway," Fowler suddenly said earning surprised looks from the younger agents and the smaller man still hiding behind him. "There's a hangar you can stay in. It might not have much in the way of comforts but."

"Is it empty?" The predacon asked cutting him off.

"Yes."

"Then it will do," he said curtly putting his back and wings to the hangar and moving for the now useless door. But Agent Darby's voice stopped him.

"Hold on, that's it?" he asked incredulously, causing the massive transformer to turn slightly to look at him. "You just walk in on all this," He said waving to Wheeljack and Dynamo, swords still drawn and held tight. "And this," He waved to Miko's armor, something that had been confusing them for the past few hours. "And then just walk out?"

"Youngling," Skylynx snorted in amusement, "You are talking to a member of a formerly extinct race of cybertronian life, cloned from cyber nucleic acids concentrated from fossilized bones, who's alternate mode is an icon of another species myths and fairy tales. You will forgive me if I seem underwhelmed." With that the massive dragon-former ducked out of the torn entrance and stalked across the runway, where thankfully the aforementioned hangar was sitting open. No one said anything for a moment, until Miko's father broke his silence.

"Seems I have been gone longer than I thought," he said relaxing his stance slightly as he heard an almost inaudible clink. Wheeljack tensed, ready to take advantage of the smaller transformers dropped guard when suddenly.

CLANG!

"OW! Son of a Glitch!" He yelped, servo's flying apart as the hit knocked his sword from his grasp, another wrench already appearing in Ratchets servo. "Ratchet, what the slag was that for?!"

CLANG!

"OOWW! RATCHET!" The wrecker snapped, glancing up long enough to see another wrench emerging from subspace just as the last person he expected to do so stepped between him and the medics fury.

"If you strike him again," Dynamo snarled, glaring up at Ratchet, "I will not hesitate to relive you of that hand." No one was more surprised than Miko when her father stood up to the hatchet, but she was even more surprised when the medic resubspaced his wrench. Ratchet glared at Wheeljack, and after holding the medics gaze a moment, the wrecker grudgingly sheathed his sword, but not before sending a glare of his own down toward Dynamo.

"This isn't over," he said stalking back to his previous spot by the ground-bridge portal. Dynamo sighed, then returned his own sword to its scabbard as the Director decided to try and put the conversation back on track.

"Not to sound like Ben Franklin without a kite, but what the sam hill was that all about?!" He looked up at Ratchet expecting an answer, but just then his phone rang. Fowler grumbled about bad timing as he retrieved the flip-phone from his pocket and checked the caller ID before silencing the Army Goes Rolling Along ring tone.

"Fowler. ... Can it wait?" he asked bluntly, "I'm in the middle of a briefing." He paused again, listening to who ever was talking on the other end of the signal, when suddenly his eyes went wide, only to snap shut in frustration. "What do you mean they're here early?" Jack, Raf and Miko exchanged glances when the Directors tone took a turn for the dangerous. "Are they still on the plane? Good, keep them there until I arrive." With that he hung up and gave a frustrated sigh. "Blasted flyboy's don't know their way around a clock. " Jack approached his commanding officer with a mix of curiosity and anxiety: only one thing could get Fowler that mad that quick nowadays.

"The Regents?" The Army veteran scowled.

"Worse. Fresh meat," he said in a flat guarded voice. "Transport of new recruits landed early. I gotta go make sure they don't loose their heads when they see what Uncle Sam's hiding under his red tape check book." he tossed curt nods toward Ratchet, Dynamo and finally Jack before walking out of the hangar, grumbling under his breath about insurance and predacons.

Jack felt the prickle of silence beginning to set in, so before it became out right awkward.

"So," he said as casually as he could to try and diffuse the remaining tension. "where were we?" Raf bit his tongue and spared a glance at his downcast friend, not about bring up the fact they'd gotten off subject when the fact that Miko's Dad had been a Con came up. But thankfully Dynamo found his voice again, after casting a firm glance of his own at Wheeljack.

"I was injured at Praxus and confined to a medical bay," he said, quickly looking away from the Wrecker. "After I recovered my strength, and my sense, I left Cybertron all together." His voice took on a hard tone, one Miko had only heard him use in those rare scolding turned heartfelt advice conversations. "So that I might atone for the wrongs I had done." Thankfully, Wheeljack kept his vocalizer offline as Dynamo continued.

"I stole a transport ship from Starscream's orbital station and began wandering from planet to planet. I tried to regain my honor by serving the inhabitants as I thought my Sensei would have done, but." He laughed slightly under his breath, more of a harsh scoff but it was one the younger among them understood. Not every species reacts well to a 20 something foot transforming robot dropping out of the sky. In fact most initial reactions, humans not excluded, involve some degree of mass hysteria and military action.

"I thought the most i had to fret about were the inhabitants overreactions," Dynamo added darkly as he walked back toward his daughter. "I never expected that Megatron would send a team to hunt me down. They perused me across the stars until both our ships crashed here, after which events took a, turn for the better." He couldn't help the small smile that had crept onto his face, and Miko had a good albeit rough idea of the memories behind that smile. "I met my would be captors on the field of battle, and with some assistance," he said nodding to Rodney, who just folded his arms and smirked knowingly, "struck them down and cast them out...Or so I thought."

"Hey, look Chopperface," Rodney said reaching up and putting a hand on his best friends shoulder, even as Dynamo snarled at the nickname. "For all we knews dey were crushed to scrap. Heck you dropped a freak'n Mountain on em! Dats gotta put some kinda dent in deir plans. Or at least deir chassis." Dynamo smiled in spite of himself.

"The final battle destroyed what remained of our ships. And even if it hadn't," He said, still smiling as he out an arm around his daughters shoulders and held her close. "I no longer had any reason to leave." Miko looked at her Dad even as he finished his tale. "My transformation cog was damaged in the fight, and I knew what ever form I scanned to repair myself would become permanent. I took this form," he said gesturing to his human body, "So I might live out what days I had left in peace, and not waste the second chance fate saw fit to grant me." Miko smiled.

"You stayed for Mom."

"Yes," He smiled, tears leaking into his eyes. "She showed me how to forget my past and move on. She gave me back my honor, but more importantly," he smiled hugging miko and kissing her on the forehead. "She gave me you." Miko returned her fathers embrace, and father and daughter held each other as they had not in years, even as their honorary relative put his two cents in.

"EY! What am I chop liver?!" Rodney yelled indignantly but not harshly, "If it wasn't fer ME you two love birds would've been like Rats in a Trap." But where a family had rediscovered something heartwarming, a certain Wrecker found bad news.

"Well," Wheeljack said suddenly, but still venomous in tone. "That explains why old Motorbreath was after Miko. He was gonna use her to get to you." Now it was Ratchets turn to be surprised, though in his defense stabilizing Bulkhead and diagnosing Miko had taken priority over debriefing Wheeljack and a new human.

"WHAT!?" He yelled, forcing those around him to either shield their ears or deactivate their audios. "Motormaster was the one helping Soundwave?!"

"Yep." The wrecker replied grimly, "And it looks like Wave's hooked him up with that Mech made Prime knock-off bod." The new designation peek a certain young computer genius's interest.

"Who's Motormaster?" Raf asked, making Rodney laugh nervously.

"One crazy bad aft mother-trucker."

"Motormaster," Ratchet explained, "was one of Megatron's favorite special operations commanders during the war, ranking with Onslaught, Snaptrap, and Razorclaw. His Stunticon squad was as close as the decepticons ever came to replicating the "Wrecker phenomenon"." Wheeljack only scoffed.

"The Stunts might have been just as crazy as we were, but The Wreckers never had a gestalt for a mech shield. Even if it was only a little one."

"Hold on," Jack interrupted, remembering one of Bulkhead's war stories. "Gestalt? As one of those groups of bots that could merge into one bigger bot?"

"Heh, try huge kid," Rodney said shuddering, adding under his breath, "I still have nightmares bout dat freak." he looked up at Wheeljack. "And how in de world could yous call dat Monster little?! I might as well ave been star'n down Godzilla!"

"That pipsqueak only had three components. Try imagining one with five, or six." That silenced Miko's uncle real quick.

"Dad," Miko said looking at her father while taking note of her uncles reaction, "who all was after you?"

"Excluding him, Four others," He said tiredly. "There was Dragstrip, and the combiner triplets, Wildrider, Deadend, and Breakdown."

"Hold up," Miko started, "Breakdown was part of a combiner?"

"I take it you're familiar with him?" Miko's posture shrunk slightly, now more nervous than anything about revealing her life with the Autobots to her dad.

"He and Bulkhead used to go at it all the time," She said, careful to avoid the part about her sneaking into the thick of it. "Before Mech got their hands on him and turned him into a science experiment." Now it was her fathers turn to be confused.

"Mech?" He asked looking up at Ratchet, who only scowled.

"This worlds rendition of our owns Decepticons," he explained. "They seek to dominate others of their kind through manipulation of cybertronian technology. With the loss of their leader they have become little more than a nuisance, even though their agents continue to hide amongst this worlds armed forces." Jack knew that was why Fowler was so overly paranoid when it had come to expanding Unit:E while trying to make sure they didn't wind up with any Mech turncoats on the payroll. But his thoughts were interrupted as Ratchet redirected the conversation yet again.

"Though Motormaster, and most likely the rest of his squad are still alive, we know Breakdown was terminated by Airachnid some time ago," The medic said gratefully, as something caught the attention of Rafael, who quickly moved to the ground bridge controls. "And without him, Menasor is no longer a factor."

"Guys!" Raf suddenly cried from beside the smashed control console, operating instead for his ever present trusty laptop. "Satellites just picked up an Energon reading!" Miko was actually a little miffed when Wheeljack and Ratchets attention did a one eighty away from her and her father and toward Raf.

"Where?" Ratchet asked, trying to get a better view of the laptops screen.

"It looks like, the British Isles," Raf said zooming in on the signal.

"Can you tell how old it is?"

"Not from here," He admitted, looking at the smashed control console. "Not anymore at least." Miko looked away, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Uh, right. Sorry about that. I got a little carried away." Ratchet groaned as he picked up the control console in his digits.

"Jack," he said turning to the young Agent. "Inform Director Fowler we've detected a new energon signal, most likely a ground bridge activation."

"On it," he said, then looked at Raf. "Can you run the Ground bridge controls through your laptop?" The computer genius only needed a split second look at the smashed control console.

"Give me five minutes."

"Good," The young Agent said taking out his phone to dial the Directors number, then remembered the issue of Soundwave.

He stuffed the device back in his pocket and sprinted out of the hangar, flagging down a runway maintenance truck. He cast a sideways glance toward the hangar across the runway and had to forcibly remember not to pinch himself when he saw the tip of Skylynx's tail sticking out from behind the doors. Jack heard the driver he'd asked for a ride yelling at him to get in, and he quickly jumped into the trucks rear bed, driving away before he could see the slumbering predacons tail suddenly whip across the hangar entrance as its owner jolted to his pedes.

Before Jack knew it he had already driven past a newly arrived C-130, its engines still ticking down, and arrived at the main part of the base, though in reality it was mostly dedicated to managing damage control operations. He sprinted inside and onto the tiled floors, almost bowling over a soldier carrying a stack of boxes.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry!" Jack yelled back, stumbling a little to avoid a uniformed woman standing in front of one of the snack machines with a tablet in the crook of her arm. "Excuse me!"He apologized, catching himself on the plaster faced walls and continuing down the hall. Until he came to a T junction, and quickly cursed himself and his brain for picking now of all times to forget where the briefing room was. Then he remembered Fowler preferred to give new recruits the talk in his office when possible, so Jack hung a left and headed toward the Directors office. He had just walked past a pair of restrooms when he heard footsteps behind him, the beginning of a sentence, then the pressure of a hand that grasped his right shoulder just a little too firmly.

Reflexes built by training took over. He snapped his left hand up, clamped it over the foreign hand and swung his right back and under the arm attached to it. His left hand shot to the man's face, forcing it way from him at an awkward angle before Jack moved his grip back and up his neck, holding him while he drove his knee into the man's chest, catching a glimpse of the man's fiery red hair and stunning him enough for Jack to spin him around and down to the ground, left arm held in a tight lock. Roughly the same time as he recognized the U.S. Army uniform he was wearing along with the man's face.

"VINCE?!" Jack yelled, not believing his eyes. "What the slag are you doing here?!"

"Herg, I could ask you the same thing Darby," the former bully growled, "Now Get off me!, Gah!" Jack only tightened his grip, trying not to take pleasure in the small grunt of pain that escaped Vince's lips as both heard more footsteps coming up the hall.

"Darby! Coles!" Fowler yelled like a drill sergeant at the top of his lungs. "On your feet!" Jack let Vince go, both jumping to their feet and snapping to attention as The Director stalked toward them, his army roots on full display. "Now what in Washington's false teeth is going on here?!" Vince was the first to find his voice.

"He attacked me Sir," The former jock said with a flat military tone Jack had a hard time recognizing as Vince.

"He startled me," Jack explained calmly, "I reacted on reflex."

"You like'd to broke my arm," Vince shot back, only for Jack to return the blow.

"Not my fault you're so fragile, Vinny." That did it. Vince snapped around and grabbed jack by the collar.

"What did you say you little!"

"Enough!" Fowler barked, separating and silencing the two young men with a glare that might as well have been the business end of a cannon. "Both of you. My office. Now." Jack waited for Vince to be in front of him, ignoring the look his former bully gave him as they followed The Director. With Fowler holding the door they filed into the room, not bothering with either of the two chairs sitting in front of Fowler's desk.

In truth Jack was much more interested in the red head already in the room. She was thin and slender, with an athletic physique that the skirt of her Navy dress blues revealed. Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled back in a bun below her cap which sported the wings badge of a Navy Pilot, while her arms were crossed across her chest in forced patience. Fowler stood beside his desk and pointed to the two recruits.

"Have a seat." It wasn't a request. Vince flashed a glare at the Director before he took the left chair, while the woman snapped an almost unnoticeable glance at Jack from the corner of her eye before she too sat. Jack knew he should be intimidated; Not only was Vince much more muscled than last time they'd seen each other, and just judging by their physique they had just as much combat training as Jack did, likely more. Of course Jack had helped a race of sentient robots win their billion year old civil war and become an honorary Prime along the way. That had to count for something right?

Fowler nailed the new arrivals in their seats with a glare, then led Jack back out into the hallway and closed the door behind them.

"Now whats this all about Jack?" He asked like a man who'd been interrupted, so the young agent decided not to waste his time.

"Raf picked up a new Energon signature. British Isles. Ratchet thinks it could be a ground-bridge activa."

"Go," Fowler cut him off, "Send Wheeljack, Ratchet, and Skylynx. The sooner we get this Con problem taken care of the better." Jack nodded, a little annoyed that he wasn't being told to saddle up with them but his ride was still being fixed and he was still a mummy from the eyebrows up. He settled on a simple nod, then took off back the way he came, leaving Fowler to return to his briefing.

Dynomo glanced between his daughter and the younger teenager and Autobot medic currently re-hot-wiring the laptop and ground bridge control circuits respectively.

"Does this sort of thing happen often?" He asked.

"Yeah," Miko sighed, "But usually Bulk is the one breaking stuff and I'm the one running ooofffff" She stuttered when she realized what almost came out of her mouth. "To, the uuhhh..."

"Miko Nakadai," Her father started just as they heard tires squealing to a stop outside, then hurried footsteps as Jack rushed back in and up the stairs to the ground bridge controls.

"Fowler gave the go ahead. He said to...wait," He said looking around the hangar and noticing an absence. "Where's Wheeljack?" Ratchet scowled in his usual manner.

"Relapsing into old habits," he spat irately, the ground bridge sparking where he was working on it. "Blast!" Jack groaned and turned to the usual suspect.

"Mikoooo!"

"Don't look at me Jack-Knife!" The Japanese teen said throwing up her hands in defense, "I had nothing to do with it!...This time."

"She's tell'n de truth," Rodney said, defending his niece, "Dragon boy came in right after yous left. He had dis reaaaly weird look in his eyes and said he needed te use de ground bridge right away." Jack had a sinking feeling he knew what the Directors reaction was going to be when he found out their newest arrival was already trying to get them on the front page of the London Times.

"Did he say why?"

"Noooot really," Rodney admitted, "Only dat someone was in trouble somewhere, Personally, I'd be more concerned bout how he knew where it was."

"Where what was?"

"The ener-whatsit signal. Sky just stormed in and literally pointed to where he wanted de kid to send him!"

"I am not a kid!" Raf shouted in a way that wasn't convincing anyone. Rodney just continued as if he hadn't heard the young teenager.

"You mean," jack said skeptically, "That Skylynx just walked in here, and asked to be bridged to the exact coordinates of the energon signal without you guys telling him anything? AND YOU JUST LET HIM GO?!"

"EY! You wanna try say'n no to a six story building with teeth!? Be my guest!"

"Ah man," jack groaned looking at the clearly fried ground bridge. He considered alerting the medical staff to get the infirmary ready for when Fowler found out about this latest development.

Okay, one last note for my fans: So far the most popular theory has been than Miko and her father are pretenders IE transformers wearing techno-organic exo-skins to let them appear human but still be cybertronian on the inside.

Sorry, nope not the case, and if you've been following the story this is going to make sense. I hope. (crosses fingers)

In chapter 8 Ratchet mentioned how some transformers had to heal themselves by scanning a new alt mode, and that they weren't always around the block from a car or plane dealership. And before you say it I know! How can a 20 something foot tall robot transform into a tiny human?

The same way Arcee can have an alt mode smaller than her leg.

And Yes, Miko's Uncle Rodney is meant to be a humanized Rattrap.