A/N dialog may be wrong if you know what was said let me know :)

Darkness rising part 3

I woke up the next morning, with Dad hovering over me like he knew I was going to wake up at that split second.

"Good morning" he said

I grunted, and then sat up in bed as i wiped the moisture from my eyes, "H-How long have you been up for?" i asked.

"Long before you." he said quietly.

"no surprise there then." i lightly jested standing up.

"are you well?" he suddenly said.

"Y-es?" i said suspiciously. "Why do you ask?"

"Just confirmation, we have performed further study on the substance we discovered yesterday, i was slightly concerned it may have had a radius of the effects it pulsated." he said.

i tilted my head in confusion, "how-how long have you been standing there to ask me that?"

"three hours." he said flatly.

i slightly cringed, "Dude, i talk in my sleep and wake up in a roadkill position, now i have to worry an eclipse may come every night now?" i jested.

Dad shook his head looking to the ceiling, "i am going to continue the research me and Ratchet are currently undergoing, care to join me in a brief stroll down the hallway?" he said with his hands around his back.

"Sure, i mean, where else do i go?" i stated following after him as he quickly disappeared through the archway.

"how do you feel about sudden arrangements?" he asked me as he practically moved in slow motion for me to keep a steady pace with him.

"Hmm, different and that's the only way i can describe it, but you know..."

there was suddenly a lot of noise coming from the main room and as we both stood still to listen to them Ratchet sounded like he was in distress.

We both ran for it, and upon entry there was this little claw looking thing attacking Ratchet, without time to even acknowledged it, Dad swiftly shot it down before it could inflict any harm onto Ratchet, it then got up again but was crushed under Dads foot before it could even move and might i add what a way to go.

"And stay broken" Ratchet said relieved "now what could have caused that?" he added.

I knelt down and started poking it as it sparked and twitched.

"I have a grave suspicion Ratchet" Dad began saying "Dark Energon."

"Dark energon?" I said "like in those stories you told me about? The blood of Unicron...?"

"More than just stories it seems, if the residue Arcee found on Cliffjumper brought your broken equipment to life. It would stand to reason, that the very same substance brought Cliffjumper back...from the dead." Dad said as he disposed of what was left of the zombie instrument.

"Creepy" I shuddered, seriously i felt a chill.

"Hmm, that would account for his life signal inexplicably coming back online, but dark energon? It's so scarce as to be virtually non-existent, what would it be doing on Earth?" Ratchet said rather puzzled.

"It was transported... by Megatron." Dad said in a threatening tone.

"For what purpose?" Ratchet questioned.

"To conquer this planet, by raising an army of the undead." Dad said.

"Are you serious?" I said as another chill went up my spine, i can do Spiders, i can do heights, i can do Aliens, but Zombies? as long as they stay the hell away from me then i can deal with it.

Ratchet laughed slightly, "Well Megatron will need to bring quite a few toaster ovens, I mean where...on this world, would he find that many Cybertronian dead?" he said not sounding convinced at all.

Suddenly Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee pulled up with their appointed charges. I then realized I was still in my pyjamas and In a panicked fit i ran off towards the bedroom to get changed.

Well lets see white top, jeans, jacket, all set, like a cartoon character, well that and i can't really be bothered to have tons of cloths, so i think i have about six pairs of the same top and jeans, but hey there my favorite brand...comfy, if it ain't broke don't fix it. right now back to the herd to engage in social awkwardness and tension...and that's only Ratchet.

"...baby sittings another" was the first thing i heard coming from Arcee.

Jack sighed heavily as he let it go over his head.

Arcee continued, "besides Ratchet hasn't been in the field since the war."

"My pistance may be rusty but my hearing is sharp as ever!" Ratchet argued from his position at the computer.

"For the moment its only reconnaissance" Dad explained.

"Then why do I hear an edge in your voice?" she shot back.

"Arcee much has changed in the last 24 hours, and we all need to adapt." He firmly told her. "Ratchet, bridge us out" he then said and as the ground bridge activated they both walked through it without a second thought, o-kay so is this Dark Energon related? i should've not thought so much about manners and focused on the situation itself.

Jack then spoke up, "okay, so uh what's on the activities list?"

Arcee rolled her optics "I'm going on patrol." She said with a slight attitude.

"But Optimus told us to stay" Bulkhead said.

"When you're in charge you can call the shots!" she the then turned to Bumblebee "Bee! With me." she said in a very bossy tone.

"just let it pass, just let it pass." i said to myself raising a hand up in surrender. Bee beeped disappointingly, "don't worry Bee we'll hang out another time." I said to him.

"Bulkhead! You're in charge." Arcee said as she and Bee transformed and sped out of base, everyone's coming and going as they please, order is officially lost.

Bulkhead then turned to us "so, uh... what's on the activities list?" he asked. He then flinched at a sudden screeching sound as did i, good lord i think I'd prefer a fork against a plate.

Miko, as it turns out was setting up her guitar, "how about... band practice!" she announced.

"But we're not band" Raf said with his hands over his ears.

"Why so anti-social? Come on Raf! You play anything?" Miko asked him.

"Um...Keyboard?" he said hesitantly.

"Laptop and samples good!" she praised "You play anything Ellen?"

"No thanks... I want to keep my ears!" I said turning down the offer. "B-ut you'll need a manager" I said with a smug look on my face.

"N-oo way." Miko laughed sarcastically.

"Come on, i just want your souls" I mock begged, "and 50%." i added in a demanding tone.

"No to both." Miko said not impressed. "Jack?"

"I, sometimes mess around on the harmonica." He said rather pleased with himself.

"Do I look like I do country? Just, cover yourself in fake blood and jump around screaming" she said.

"Maybe you can throw an animal at him too" I said smirking.

"Bulkhead! Percussion." Miko said "we'll go for a big industrial sound. DIY we're a band! You just gotta learn the songs. This one's a Ballard, my fist, your face!" She started playing all of a sudden, yeah because i can keep up with that finger work...

And as she continued we all covered our ears, then the proximity sensor went off and I didn't know it was going off until I saw flashing green lights.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Bulkhead yelled cutting off Miko's music.

"Come on! Don't tell me you can't handle raw power?" she said.

"Proximity sensor, quick hide!" Bulkhead ordered.

The three of them hid behind Bulkheads leg with Miko taking her guitar with her. The elevator opened and sure enough Agent Fowler came walking in "Prime!" he yelled.

"Agent Fowler! He's not here, nobodies here... except me and Ellen of course" Bulkhead said laughing awkwardly.

"Well... where did he go? Wait don't tell he, he's out pan caking a mini-mall!" he replied "now I don't know what language you bots speak on your planet, but Prime promised he would handle the Decepticons! And blowing a crater in the middle of nowhere is not what the word handle means in English, so you tell Prime..." he cut himself off and he followed a lead that led directly to Bulkheads foot and then back to a speaker.

"Uh oh" I thought.

"Since when are you bots electric?" Fowler asked.

Bulkhead slightly panicked.

i sighed, "No point in beating around the bush now" I said as they came out.

Jack was the first to greet Agent Fowler "hey, how you doing?" he asked in the calmest way he could say it.

"Contact with civilians! Team prime has really gone off book this time, wait don't tell me you're running a day-care center!" Fowler said, any more young puns people want to point out?

"O-kay" Bulkhead nervously said trying to figure out an explanation.

"We're interns..." Jack explained striking a pose.

"Student interns!" added Raf.

"Earning extra credit in auto shops..." Jack said.

"Robotics!" Miko said in unison with Jack.

"Maybe we should've come up with a convincing story before we attempted this." i said face palming.

Either way Fowler wasn't impressed "okay let's move, I'm taking you all into federal custody, it's for your own protection".

I panicked when he said that and I started trying to convince him not to take them "Agent Fowler wait, you say its for there protection but what about there families and there lives? They'll be relocated, on constant surveillance, sign contracts that state that they will be imprisoned for life if they reveal anything that they have seen here."

"just be lucky that Prime has custody of you or you'd be joining them." he stated sternly before walking past me, a major fail on my part.

Then Bulkhead put his foot down blocking the gap between Fowler and the others, "we're protecting them" he stated.

"Is that so then maybe you can explain that to my superiors at the pentagon." Fowler said, reaching for the phone.

"Don't use that phone it's..." he then crushed it with a finger

"Out of order." I finished, well now I'll have to use a pigeon for communication.

"This isn't over big foot! Not by a long shot!" Fowler moaned he then proceeded to the elevator saying nothing more.

Bulkhead then groaned as i breathed out a long tired sigh. "Hey you did alright in standing up to him, no amount of soldiers are going to be able to protect them, not like you can." I said backing him up.

"being patient is definitely not my best strength, trust me if any of the others were here I'd say a lot more to him." he jested.

"Still, how do I order a take away now?" I added as I pointed at the once telephone...may flights of angels send thee to thy rest.

"My bad" Bulkhead shrugged.

"So, how about that band practice?" I then said, trying to cut the tension and get back to a normal atmosphere.

"What is his problem?" Miko scoffed.

"Don't judge him too harshly, his job can't be easy." I replied.

"Yeah well, he needs to work on his people skills if he ever wants to get a girl." she added.

I puffed a laughed.

Then another alarm went off it wasn't the proximity this time it was an SOS, and was even louder than the proximity alarm.

"Ugh my ears" Raf said as he covered his ears I then put my hands over his ears as well.

"Law suit." I said down at him.

"It's an SOS from Fowler!" Bulkhead said he then tried to figure out what to press on the control panel. "Uh...ugh...Um."

From what we could tell as we looked at each other he had no idea what he was doing.

Then Raf spoke up "did you trace it?" he asked.

"Location scan was incomplete, oh well." Bulkhead shrugged.

"Oh well, seriously?!" me and Jack both said in unison.

"Fowlers a jerk". Bulkhead replied.

"Whoa! Whether you like the guy or not the decepticons may have him!" Jack started

"And no one deserves the eventual fate he will face if we don't find him a-sap." I added.

"And Agent Fowler knows your location" Raf said before a sudden dawn of realization appeared in his eyes "our location."

"And did we not just witness how fast Fowler backs down from a bot? The cons will totally make him squeal" Miko finished.

"But we lost the transmission, Fowler could be anywhere!" Bulkhead argued.

"Maybe I could narrow it down" Raf suggested getting onto the floor as he opened up his laptop, i guess we were all curious to what he suggested as we gathered around him, "about 5 years ago the government started micro chipping there agents, you know like owners do with pets!" he said enthusiastically.

We all just stared blankly at him, like witnessing the next evolution of human beings or something.

"What? I saw it on TV; anyway if I can hack into the feds mainframe maybe I can pinpoint Fowler's location." Raf said.

"You know how to hack? But you're like 2 years old." Miko jested, slight exaggeration on her part.

"12, and a quarter" Raf corrected as he tapped away at his computer.

"Hey Raf where did you learn all this?" I asked.

"Just picked it up." he explained briefly, "Okay... Latitude 39.5 longitude 116.9." Raf said.

Bulkhead then activated the groundbridge using these co-ordinates, "Okay wait here." He said as he made his way to the portal.

"Arh, don't break up the band." Moaned Miko.

"Uh, Ellen you're in charge!" Bulkhead said as he ran through the portal.

"I guess us four have the run of the place." Jack said.

"And I have a new post..." i shrugged looking to the computer screen.

"Miko?" Jack said looking around for her, i looked around myself, she was just here, how can she move so swiftly and so quietly for that matter.

"Miko?" I said myself a little louder "how can she just disappear like that?" i said to him, out of frustration i whacked a fist on the railings, "First time on the job and I screw it up, damn it." I said bitterly towards myself.

"What should we do? Bulkhead may not even realize that she followed him" said Raf obviously panicking.

"Miko hasn't seen the cons in action like we have, she has no idea" Jack said with concern.

"Those are the co-ordinates there destination is still locked in!" Raf as he looked at the screen.

"Uh, okay everyone just be calm, she can't have gotten far." i said as i looked towards the Groundbridge, "Raf can you reactivate that Groundbridge?" I asked.

"I can but you're not going on your own are you?" Raf asked nervously.

"It wouldn't be right leaving them but still I can't endanger their lives as well. Okay, just go to the co-ordinates grab Miko and then ask for pick up, then again, i don't even know what kind of environment Bulkheads been sent to..." I thought.

"Wait here." I finally said as Raf activated the groundbridge. of course i hadn't thought this through myself, I'm just hoping i can locate Miko quickly. I ran for the portal then as I went through it. I ended up in a canyon on the other side, looking around it was mostly bare then beside me was Jack and Raf coming out of the Groundbridge as well. "I thought I told you to stay there!" i said pleading with them.

"We couldn't let you go alone!" Jack argued.

I mentally growled frustratingly, we just lost Cliffjumper, damn it all i don't want them to die too, but there was no point in arguing now as there was no way to send them back, no way to get any of us back...

"You there!" especially now that we've been spotted!

A/N i'm guessing it was a Saturday as it looked like a morning they went to base.

please R+R

Again dialog may be wrong I'm a little deaf in the right ear :p

More action in the next chapter :)