"Okay, these guys do have the ability to take over someone's mind so we're going to have to be careful about that. Lauren even though you decided not to become a soldier have you kept up your permits?"

"Indeed I have, I even go shooting whenever possible and I have a few of my weapons with me, the rest are back at home still because to be honest I wasn't sure what I would need and what I wouldn't"

"Okay, Karen also has some weapons stored here which you might not have but I know for a fact that she'll allow you to use them, you stay here Lauren as you're the last line of defense"

"I know and I won't argue, just make sure to bring Karen back safely, we EDC kids might not have believed her death easily if we knew her but it still hurt and she only just came back and we want her around for a good while before we lose her for real"

"Don't worry we'll keep her safe after we deal with the Kaltranians we'll..."

All of a sudden Springer and Powerglide stop what they're doing and then it's obvious that they were angry

"Lauren you're evacuating as well you are no longer the last line of defense when it comes to the Kaltranians"

"Don't tell me"

"Indeed we are"

"Okay, this is going to get complicated, are you sure I can't help with her?"

"Positive you don't have the training needed to fight her, yes you do have some self defense training but not enough not with the fact that she also has military training on top of regular self defense training"

"And with her abilities being automatic at times when she's defending herself against a strong opponent it equals trouble I'm not trained for"

"True, but she was fighting a while before she was taken over so hopefully the enemy is weakened themselves, after this we'll inform our leaders about you Powerglide"

"I can fight, remember when Karen mentioned she reactivated some of my systems?"

"Oh yeah"

Early that morning

*Hey guys there's something you two and Inferno need to know *

*What? *

*I've reactivated some systems that you might need and that I can on my own *

*Is that why you shut me down for a bit shortly before you went to bed? *

*Exactly, now then some of the systems are manual activation but others are not, don't worry you'll know what's manual and what's not when you do a systems scan but make sure the scans are necessary before you do so because quite honestly I hope you don't need them before we inform the family about you being alive *

*Okay I'll wait *

Present

"It looks like she reactivated my weapons systems which means I can join the fight, just can't transform like I should"

"Maybe you should stay grounded then, she told you to before she jumped"

"That was before she had to fight an enemy that now has control over her"

"Okay you win you're in the fight, but man are the others going to be surprised about you"

"Not our fault we haven't contacted them and to be honest is made sense"

"Indeed it did, at the time it did indeed make sense so hopefully they won't be too mad at us"

"The enemy on the other hand we can be extremely angry at because of what they've done"

"Wait what about comms?"

"They're reactivated as well"

"Okay then"

"Guys, if Karen goes after us what should I do?"

"Just do your best to survive, however you should know that when last we saw her she had such control over her powers that she could activate them without speaking"

The Chief overheard the conversation and spoke up

"That's true, according to the Captain she was with when the Kaltranians showed up she told him to get the men away while she stayed behind, when he asked what she could do she simply said that she had her ways and all of a sudden there was a sword in her hand"

"That's her mental call of her powers alright, looks like she's as strong as ever with those"

"Okay let's hope she doesn't go after us then"

"Well either way she's headed this way though so is the EDC but it will still take a bit of time"

"Okay, get out of here you two and Lauren here you might need this"

Lauren is handed a gun she knew quite well because when she turned seventeen that summer she decided to see if she wanted to work in a zoo so she did some volunteer work there and discovered that while she liked animals she wasn't cut out to work with wild ones. While there though she was taught a bit about what zoos do including the vets and was introduced to a tranquilizer gun and Lauren instantly knew that's what she had been handed

"Just in case"

"Understood, maybe you shouldn't have trained her endurance to last three days"

"How else would she have survived some of the situations she's been in if we hadn't though?"

"Okay you have a point but still, her endurance is ridicules because of that"

"We know, now get going"

While the fire team escaped the three Cybertronians fought Karen to a standstill. Five hours later the EDC arrived along with Karen's family and that's when they received the surprise of Powerglide alive

"Powerglide how are you alive?"

"Talk later Ratchet right now we have to knock Karen out and get her secured, after we defeat the Kaltranians we should be able to break their control, we'll explain everything about Powerglide after that and we were going to contact you about him, but we had to get the fire under control first"

"Fine, but you are undergoing a full scan afterwords"

"Works for me, we all might need attention later...lookout"

All of a sudden the group was dodging Karen's necklace for a good reason. Over the years while helping Karen control her powers the necklace also absorbed a bit of her powers, alone it would never be strong enough to truly take out an enemy but it absorbed enough that whenever Karen chose to she could use the necklace as a ranged weapon. They also had to dodge chains

"So when did the necklace become a weapon? And how long has she also had chains?"

"The necklace has been a weapon since she was sixteen, as for the chains that must have happened while she was hidden away because we had no idea about those"

"Well we have to keep dodging and hope we get a chance to knock her out"

"We're working on it...Primes I have an idea but it might not work"

"What is it Megatron?"

"Remember that Decepticon weapon I mentioned shortly after we formed the alliance that would ultimately re-merge our species?"

"What of it?"

"Starscream keeps it on him at all times just in case it's ever needed due to mind controlling aliens, but we've modified it so that instead of killing someone it just knocks them out cold for several hours. Captain Faireborn volunteered accidentally as a test subject one day when we were making modifications and she was in the room at the wrong time when we were testing it's power source. Once fired it will knock out both Karen and the Kaltranians for five hours without a reversal drug that we also developed in case any allies were in the vicinity of the weapon, with the reversal drug it will only take five minutes"

"How do you know about the five hours?"

"Because after we explained the situation to her she volunteered a second time willingly to see how long it would keep an organic down so that we knew how long we had to transfer any prisoners"

"When was this?"

"Back when Karen was only seven months old and since Marissa was needed for something another EDC officer took her to the doctor's for a minor cold"

"Oh yeah I remember that day now, if you're sure it will still work after all this time"

"Don't worry it will we test the power source occasionally to make sure it still works just in case"

"Then go for it Megatron, Starscream but make sure that if Karen is in the air to catch her"

"No problem, what about the Kaltranians?"

"Don't worry they're all on the ground so they'll be safe however with Karen's abilities..."

"Right"

What they were talking about was Karen's jumping power, to get to their height or higher when they were on the ground she used objects to get into the air and she could jump a few feet before having to land as such she could use trees to good effect to reach them because all of them were low and close to the tree tops to take care of the enemy, something they had seen her do before during regular training with them during the school year. Due to the fact that some of the enemies could fly in low orbit basically close to the trees to attack the ground troops they taught Karen how to jump as high as possible once at the top of the trees and as such every flier was in range of Karen's attacks or if she was knocked out cold in range of quickly being caught safely if her family was fast enough

"How much has she improved since I was out of it?"

"A lot Powerglide, you and us can catch up later to give full reports first we need to deal with this situation, Starscream on your mark"

"Now!"

Starscream activated the weapon and Jetfire caught her before she fell into the trees, once that was done they made sure to shield her from any Kaltranian control and then made sure that the Kaltranians left the planet. It would still take three hours for Karen to wake up though due to the fact that she was exhausted after using her powers and even though she was given the reversal her power use exhausted her enough to keep her out cold for a bit but once she was awake she knew that she was safe and also had some explaining to do

"Optimus, Rodimus, Megatron before you get mad at Springer and Inferno for not informing you about Powerglide just know it was my idea because quite frankly we found out literally right before an arsonist struck and I knew that you wouldn't be able to get in for several days after the fire was out so I was the one to make the decision to wait to inform you until I knew that people would be let back in should an evacuation be called for"

"Springer and Inferno already explained it to us and we understand, what we don't understand is why you had to fake your death even if not many of us believed it"

"Sorry but the gang had weapons that could have killed you guys, as it is one of those weapons was the one that almost killed Powerglide and I'm still not sure how he survived that"

"Turns out it was your powers that brought Powerglide back, though only in spurts originally, the day of the fire was the first time he had truly been conscious in a long while. We've fixed everything you couldn't including his transformation cog and he's been given permission to stay here per his request"

"That's good, so you guys got all caught up then?"

"Yes, what happened out there though?"

"That's a complicated story, as it is after they got control over me it was like I was watching a movie"

"Just explain what you truly remember up to the point of them gaining control over you, we'll explain everything that happened afterwords"

Karen gave her report and then her family gave theirs. A few days later the fire crew was allowed back in by the EDC who decided to handle any fires left themselves seeing as how it was the Kaltranians fault that there had still been fires after everything was under control. Once Karen knew that things were under control she went to the lodge to see if she could be of any help there and that's when she got a surprise. Back when she was ten and on a Coast Guard mission one of the Captain's she served with died from drowning, when she arrived at the hospital an hour later due to the fact that she was on a vessel she was told that they had been unsuccessful in reviving him, however that wasn't the entire truth

"Captain you're alive but how?"

"What do you remember of that day Lt.?"

"To be honest I remember basically everything of that day, including why you drowned in the first place"

"That's part of the reason why your family never told you of my survival. You see I did die that day but your family had developed a formula that had the potential to bring people back to life even after being declared dead. As you know several hypothermia victims have succeeded in being brought back but it's tricky and not always successful, your family decided to see if someone could be revived without hypothermia being induced naturally or in a hospital setting. With my family's permission they gave me a drug that succeeded in reviving me but there were side effects. I was paralyzed for two years and it took another two years of rehabilitation before I succeeded in getting as far as I have in walking. I will never have full function of my left leg and as such when the Coast Guard discovered that I was alive but injured they gave me honorable discharge and medical retirement which I don't blame them for. After I finished physical therapy I decided to move as far away from water as possible in order to not be tempted to do anything stupid that would set me back years from what I succeeded. At first we didn't tell you about me being alive due to the side effects, afterwords you weren't told because of your guilt and apparently the fact that your family stopped producing the formula and made sure it was destroyed"

Inferno walked in during that conversation and took it up knowing information that the former Coast Guard Captain didn't

"Yes, you see we discovered that while it could work with side effects as severe as being paralyzed we also discovered that not only was there a chance it wouldn't work but there was also a chance that even if it did work it didn't last longer than two weeks. After that there would be an allergic reaction that was lethal, the Primes and Megatron decided that the formula was too dangerous after that and we destroyed everything regarding that project. We were going to tell you Karen but when we realized that you were feeling too guilty still we knew that you not only wouldn't have believed us but you very well simply might not have listened to us period, and even if you did hearing about the side effects might have made you worse"

"This was because of the fact that we lost Powerglide during that time isn't it?"

"Only part of the reason why, and we lost Powerglide two years after we knew about the side effects, what really tipped us off about your mental state was that visit with the Psychiatrist after that stunt you pulled at school"

"That really wasn't my best moment was it?"

"No it wasn't, as it is the President almost called everything off and was ready to simply keep you off duty until you were of legal age"

"So why wait until I was fifteen to force me to take a break for a summer?"

"We both realized that taking you off duty for so long would only hurt you in the long run, instead there was a compromise your base commander knew what was going on and agreed to keep you on limited duty every few days, in return the base commander had the President's authority to pull you from active duty if he even thought we were going to lose you mentally"

"Wait is that why I was on base so often?"

"Exactly, I also think that was the year you were given the assignment that allowed you to meet lifeguards"

"No that wasn't the assignment as far as I remember but I do remember being stuck at base a lot more often then normal unless I was really needed"

"Like when?"

"Massive boat evacuation, turned out that the safe route that as picked was no longer safe due to not only a few mines but also a man made reef that wasn't in the updated charts and the Captain was never told of it until it was too late. The mines were illegal and the person responsible was found and not only fined but I do believe he's still in jail, as for the fact that the Captain hadn't been told about the man made reef and it wasn't in updated charts several people were fined for that as well but no prison, just a warning and being under Coast Guard observation for a few years"

"Either way when we told the Captain about your mental state he decided that you wouldn't be told until you were healed enough to believe and handle the information, unfortunately considering the situations you came across afterwords that never happened"

"And by the time I was ready I was graduating and since you didn't know where I would be stationed after training you decided to wait. But why didn't you tell me after I joined Yellowstone?"

"That's a bit more complicated, we were planning to but other things kept popping up, not to mention the fact that the Captain here got cold feet and decided that until you served here for a few seasons or it was necessary he would keep his survival a secret from you a bit longer, though part of it was that you did need to adjust to everything and he knew that so he's not totally at fault"

"You guys know as well as I do that I only need two weeks a month tops to adjust to a new situation, I have to adjust fast. Remember the memorization technique I developed?"

"The speed memorization we know of it, but we've never figured out how it works"

"It's actually quite easy, I know that I don't have photographic memory so even if I looked at everything for only a few moments I wouldn't be able to give exact details on everything so I compromised instead. I decided that if I couldn't memorize entire maps or reports in an instant I would look at what seemed to be the most important and memorize those few details to give to a commanding officer or someone who might need that information at a later date. While I couldn't exactly use that technique to adjust to new situations I used a modified version of military training where you simply have to toughen up and face the fact that your choice led you to your current situation, I also used that in survival training as well where I thought of it as you need to get your act together or die"

"Okay so you might not have needed as much time as we thought for you to truly adjust but still there were reasons we kept it a secret for so long"

"I know I just don't have to like it is all"

"What I want to know is why you thought my death was your fault"

"But it was if you hadn't been forced to come to my aid..."

"Karen, there's something you still don't know about that day that I didn't find out until I had been in rehab for an entire year. The reason I wasn't told was because it hadn't been discovered until then and even then it was a lucky break made mainly through your family. It turns out that an alien group allied with a terrorist group without the terrorists knowing about it in order to kill you and hurt the EDC in ways they had never been hurt before. The terrorists staged the accident and then had people lay in wait under water in order to drown you but they messed up big time. I was in the water helping a victim when I saw something heading towards you so I went under and began an intense fight however I didn't have scuba gear like the terrorist did so I ultimately drowned"

"But he succeeded in making the terrorists back off from their goal and it turns out he gave your would be attacker a nasty concussion that never got properly treated and as such had lasting effects. When we discovered the truth of that day it was because the terrorists finally realized that their friend needed treatment and came to the police in the hopes that even if they were convicted their friend would receive the medical attention he never got. As we questioned the group we discovered the alien side of the plot and the terrorists weren't exactly pleased about the aliens helping them but they also didn't care at that point. All they wanted was their friend who was in a coma to go to a medical facility to receive the care he deserved for however long he was alive"

"After all of that was discovered your family told me what had really happened that day and I was relieved I could stop a plot to take down the EDC because you know as well as I do that your family would have been devastated at your death. We thought about telling you that day but you were still grieving too much and pulled that stupid move as well which got you a visit to a Psychiatrist on a regular basis, a year later we couldn't because of Powerglide"

"After that you guys simply decided to wait until you were sure nothing would happen that would interfere with me discovering the truth and being given time to absorb what I had been told. Unfortunately for everyone here that simply never happened and I found out today because I decided to check on the lodge before going back to my station"

"Exactly, you were never meant to find out like this but what's done is done"

"I think I understand what's happened now and I can accept it especially considering the fact that you're alive Captain it's just that I wish I was told sooner is all, maybe I wouldn't have done that stupid move that sent me to the psychiatrist if I had known"

"We may never know now Karen but either way at least now you know the full truth"

"You know Captain, that day you died fighting the terrorist you also did come to my aid in regards to the person I was rescuing because he was in such a panic because of my age but seeing you coming to help even if you didn't succeed in your goal made him see that there were people there to help if I needed it, it also showed him that I did have the training needed because you only came after you saw I wasn't really getting any where's with him"

"That's good to know...Kerenai I think you have visitors"

Karen turned and saw two people in Army uniforms

"What can I do for you Sergeant?"

"We have orders for you Lt."

"Understood, I shall look at them to see what I am supposed to do"

Karen is handed her orders and she realizes that this needed quick action

"Head to the base with me, I need to gather some supplies and my uniforms, we can leave from there"

"Okay, we already have a plane there anyways, we were told to come here instead"

"Yeah I was doing a quick check on this place and discovered someone I had to catch up with, come on let's go"

Karen is soon back at base and is also quickly in uniform