Notes/ Thanks for the info on the writing and editing software. Problem solved now, and of course I plan to keep writing this. Haha, I thought about naming chapters, too. But I'm so terrible with titles…

Honestly I'm not completely happy with this chapter or the last one. But I'm trying to move this into a certain direction, and it will take a bit to get it there and stay have it all make any sense without missing a pile of needed detail. I know exactly how this ends (I'll never tell! Haha.) Getting there is the hard part.

Jack pulled into the base on his ten speed. He hopped off and pushed the bike, still gliding forward, against the closest wall. His music was blasting over his earbuds, and he turned it off, shoving the MP3 device into his backpack, just as soon as he had slid that off his shoulders. Seeing the place far emptier than he had expected it to be, and hiding his disappointment at that, he hurried up the metal stairs to the upper level of the base. His pack swung from one hand.

Both his mother and Agent Fowler sat on the sofa near the far wall, across from Fowler's office. He flopped down into the aim chair across from them. He dug through his pack and pulled out a small handful of envelopes, which he passed to his mother over the coffee table.

"I rode by the house and picked up the mail. Hmm, I think it's just bills and junk mail."

June flipped through the small pile in her hand. "Utilities bill. Internet bill. Fast food coupons. Grocery store flier. Hmmm… look at that. I could save fifteen percent on my car insurance. Thanks for the grabbing the mail."

"No problem. So, where is everyone? They should be here by now, right?"

"Two bots are out doing pick-ups." Fowler explained. "One should be rolling in any second. Another is stuck in traffic across the world. The rest of them are around here somewhere. Out back I think. Something about having a look at some of Ratchet's old projects stored in the big shed."

"Cool. So..." Jack paused before he went on speaking, "The 'bots' newest ally… I don't think I understand most of the deal with that. Centuries old, planet destroying wars get complicated, yeah. I just know the little I've heard from Ratchet, but they are actually bringing this 'con with them? Back here, to Earth?"

"That's all true, yes," Fowler answered. "He's under the protection of the Autobots. I would think he's probably safer here than left behind."

"For the record," June put in, frowning, "I still don't like this one slight bit."

"I'm not too hot on the idea myself," Fowler said, moving to sit closer to her. "But like I said, they know what they're doing. Anyways he's hardly the first on Cybertron to change sides. It does happen."

"Ratchet says he was the 'cons medical officer..." Jack stated. He was still not sure what to think of the whole matter, but he had always leaned more toward mistrust than anything else. "Apparently we've met..."

"Yes and today we met again, and I was not happy about it," June grumbled. She pointed a finger at her son and her face took on a certain look that it seemed only a mother could give. "Jack, you be careful. I raised you to be polite and I would hardly tell you otherwise now, but don't ever let yourself end up near him alone and don't get within his arms-reach. I'll most definitely be giving Miko and Raf the very same warning later."

"Mom, what did he look like. I mean is he okay and stuff?" Jack was no happier than his mother was, but still he couldn't help but be concerned anyway. He knew the bots were as emotionally complex as any human, and it did stand to reason that the situation would have been a bit of a messy one.

"He looked… less threatening," his mother's answer was hesitant, but it was obvious she was trying hard to give the truthful response as well. "Just kind of stared at the floor for a while until one of the bots led him out of the base with them. I think he recognized me. He's quiet so far. The eyes though… or I guess optics? I will never feel safe around red ones. Jack, I mean it. Be careful."

The sound of multiple huge heavy footsteps across on the other side of the pair of back sliding doors, made Jack leap to his feet, in under a second. He watched as most of the bots hurried in. He was quick to greet Arcee, who had all but run to the railing to say hello. Smokescreen improvised a high five, by holding up a fingertip. He listened for a bit as Arcee told him all about the base on Cybertron. Apparently it was much bigger than the one they stood in at that moment. He listened with interest as she explained how it had partly survived the war with minor damage, and had once been an education center.

A known and familiar, but now entirely out of place red painted bot, drew his attention away from his partner's explanations. Jack eyed him with growing nervousness, as he made his way closer to the railing. The bot looked over the rail with a curious look about him. Clearly he was intrigued by the human friendly set up.

Arcee stood looking from the red bot to her human partner and back again. With a tone far more awkward than the confidant Autobot typically showed, she said, "I believe the two have already met."

Jack wanted little more than to reach for the closest human sized metal object and either hit the 'con with the thing or throw it toward his optics. But no suitable objects were stored nearby, and within reach. He settled for standing for at least half a minute, glaring at him, with his best 'you just try and touch me,' look in his eyes. Knockout backed up a small step, and Jack fought back the urge to taunt him for being scared of some human. He kept glaring another moment, letting his eyes narrow more and more.

"We've met," he mumbled. His mother was right though. This bot hardly looked so threatening anymore. Quiet too. With the all the glaring at him, the bot had never said a thing. Slowly he lowered his optics to look at the floor. Jack turned away, walked back to flop down in the armchair, and finally wondered if he should almost feel bad about his obvious rudeness.

A screech of tires made everyone in the place look toward the open garage door at the far side of the base. Jack laughed as Bumblebee skidded to a stop, sliding sideways on the smooth floor. Last he remembered it had always been Smokescreen that slid and skidded.

'Bee transformed into his bot mode, just as soon as Raf had hopped out of his passenger seat. Both the boy and the bot stood for a moment, grinning and waving. 'Bee carried little Raf, sitting on the palm of his hand so that he could greet each of the bots, most of them crowding in a bit to say their hellos. Jack watched with growing dread, unsure what might happen as 'Bee turned to the right, obviously intending to step closer to place Raf over the railing. The black and yellow Autobot came face to face with the 'con medic, who was only standing off the side of the group, still staring at the floor. Jack watched, prepared to start thinking fast, as Knockout looked up quick, and then stepped backwards, out of the way.

"H… hello," Raf said, from his place in his bot partner's hand, greeting him just like he had the rest of them. The kid's uncertainty about this bot was clear. But still, just the thought of trying to be nice was so typical of him.

"Hello," Knockout answered, the first he'd actually said a word since everyone had arrived.

"'Bee said you… h…hurt yourself," Raf said. He actually sounded concerned about the fact. "You… broke your leg?"

"That would be putting it simply, but yes."

It was clear from the momentary look of focus on the kid's face that the tiny genius was busy estimating just how great the force of impact must have been to cause such damage to a bot. He cringed for a second, before asking, now slightly less nervously, "is it all better now? Ratchet's always said a Cybertronian heals faster than a human."

Knockout only nodded without saying anything, as 'Bee lifted Raf over the railing.

Bulkhead roared into the base, heavy metal blasting over his speakers load enough to fill the whole base. Both his front windows were down and Miko sat with her hands on the wheel, pretending to drive while she banged one hand on the dash in time to a drum solo. She hauled out an overstuffed blue backpack and a plastic grocery bag, and stepped back to let Bulkhead transform. She raced up the metal steps to the upper level two at a time, flopped down onto the middle of the carpeted floor, beside the video game console, and proceeded to hand out Japanese candy and fizzy flavored drinks she had brought for Raf and Jack. She had little wrapped pastries for Fowler and June too.

"I can't read this," Jack laughed. He looked at a package he had been offered. "Looks good though. Thanks Miko."

Raf nodded a thanks while he struggled with a wrapper. He pointed to the label on the package Jack was holding. "I think that says… hmmm…. Something like… fruit crunchy…. chocolate?" He looked at Miko for confirmation.

"You practice reading when we aren't messaging online I guess," she said back.

"Of course I do. And Japanese is not so different than learning Cybertronian. New writing system, a ton of words, and…. Go. I figure you learned English. So did the bots. It made learning languages seem cool."

"And useful," Jack said. As he so often did, he felt a bit dumb next to his small genius friend. He made himself remember that Raf could not kick a soccer ball for anything, while he wished he'd spent more time paying attention in Spanish class.

Scene Break Scene Break Scene Break Scene Break Scene Break Scene Break

Miko was wide awake at roughly twenty after three in the morning. Staring in disbelief at the time displayed on her cellphone, she groaned and flopped back down onto the roll away cot she had been sleeping on. She was somewhat tired, and she felt like she should have been able to sleep without trouble. But it seemed her body and brain were also insistent on tell her it was early afternoon. She flipped herself over, buried her face in the pillow and groaned again. She hated time zones!

She sat up on the little bed after half an hour of trying to sleep again. It was no use and she knew that getting fed up would only make it worse. She checked her phone again, smiled at finding a working wi-fi signal, and spent a short while browsing through a few websites of slight interest, checking emails, and commenting on friends' social media. She was not a huge internet user though, social media was just not that amusing to her, and she got few useful emails. She grew bored of that quickly. Still wearing a fuzzy fleece par of polka-dot pajamas, and bare foot, she moved away from her bed and wandered off into the dimly lit base.

The roll away that Agent Fowler had managed to track down for her, had been shoved against the wall, inside a mostly empty and tiny storage room, on the bottom level of the base's main room. Creeping out of the closet, she found herself looking at the huge monitor screens, glowing dimply in power saver mode, and the few overhead lights that stayed on all night long. Miko had never been in the Autobot base overnight before. In the dimness, Ratchet's computer system looked even bigger than it seemed in daylight. The railing overhead seemed much higher than she had thought it was, and a reflection from a light above shone from the metal slightly.

She knew both the boys were asleep on inflatable mattresses they had brought along, near the wall in the 'human area' upstairs. And she could only assume the bots were all asleep, or as they would have put it, in recharge, each inside their former living quarters down a hallway to the right. She remembered seeing inside some of the rooms more than once. She remembered that it reminded her somewhat of most rooms in Japan. Neat, simple, functional. Minimalist, peaceful. Of course the bots' spaces were much bigger than her own at home, and what she would have called a bed for lack of a better term, was plugged into a power source. She grabbed a glass from a cupboard in the small kitchen area, and seeing just well enough under the dim overhead lighting, she got herself some water from the cooler in the corner. She checked the little clock hanging in the kitchen. Just about four in the morning, and still wide awake.

Miko knew it would be a while before either of the boys and likely the bots as well, were up for the day. Everyone had been up late the night before, talking, laughing and catching up on months of everything they had missed of each other's lives. She listened to the sounds of the sleeping base. A heater banging and clanging somewhere, a water pipe rattling slightly, the settling of the floor. Another sound got her attention through the slight banging and rattling. She turned toward the hallway to listen. She could hear footsteps. Large heavy metallic ones. She chuckled to herself a little as she considered a huge Autobot obviously trying their best to be quiet while awake in the night themselves. Miko set the now empty glass down on the little counter and hurried to the hallway. She wondered if it might be Bulkhead that was up early, but dismissed the thought with another laugh. He could never be that quiet with his big clumsy feet.

She walked through the hall, until she came to an open door and a light glowing at full brightness inside. She found herself at the door of what she knew had once been the bots' medical bay. Across the big room and through another big door, she knew there was a room that Ratchet used as a kind of office. The bright light was on in there. Miko crept through the medbay and toward the office door. It had always been hit or miss with the old doc-bot. But she knew Ratchet may bother to talk to her if he was in the mood to deal with human that morning.

"Ratchet," Miko called, speaking quietly so as not to wake the entire base. "Are you busy in here?"

She peeked around the door and then stepped into the doorway. The small human took a step into the room, but quickly stepped back again with a gasp of shock. She stood frozen, deciding what to do. She had assumed that Ratchet would be hiding out in his own office, but instead he was nowhere to be seen and she had found the 'con defector. Knockout had disappeared from the group many hours before and wandered off somewhere. She had eventually just forgotten to worry about where he might be.

Knockout was sitting in front of the work table, on a bot-sized chair, with a data pad in his hands. He'd obviously started reading something. But he looked up when he heard her speaking. Miko backed away another step, and for a second she wondered exactly what she should do. Thoughts and conflicting possibilities ran through her head quickly. She could turn tail and run out of there fast. But then she knew if he wanted to, he would easily catch and grab her. Even with a still slightly bad leg, a twenty foot Cybertronian was far faster than a five-foot human. Of course maybe he had no interest in chasing and scaring her, and maybe her running would only offend him. She was surprised that she actually cared about that. Jack didn't like him. Raf was clearly nervous. June Darby, had warned her to be careful. To stay well away from that bot. Just replaying that warning over in her head made her step forward again, if only slightly at first.

"Sorry, I thought you were Ratchet," she said, taking another step, and then a couple more, far quicker. "Are you busy then?"

Knockout appeared momentarily surprised. He shook his head slightly but said nothing. Miko made her way closer, slower again. She watched his hands. They still held his data pad, resting in front of him. She kept her an eye on him as she chanced one more step.

"Do you suspect I'm going to grab you, fleshy?" Knockout actually laughed slightly.

"Nah," Miko said. Her need to worry about that disappeared, and she laughed too. "Besides if you did, Bulk' would kick your tailpipe, and you know it."

She got another slight chuckle in response and stepped closer, until she was standing nearly at the red bot's feet. She looked up way over her head, to see him set the pad down and tilt his head down to look at her. Miko backed up a few steps again, not because she felt too close, but because their extreme height difference made it hard to comfortably look at each other. It had never worked well with Bulkhead, and it could never work with this one either. She finally ended up flopping down to sit on the floor of the office, a couple of meters from his right foot, looking up.

"What ya workin' on?" she questioned, curious.

"Studying medical and science texts."

"Boring!"

"I don't think it's boring at all. Both are most interesting subjects."

Miko shrugged. "I guess it can be. I worked hard on a science fair project last year. It was quite neat, and I got a B+ on it. Best grade I ever got on anything!"

"I always thought you were quite a smart little human. I can't think of many others aside from you and your friends, that would ever try to fight 'cons. I know that far fewer still would assume they might win."

"Well thanks…. I guess." Miko shrugged again, this time with greater enthusiasm. "What can I say. I guess I'm good at thinking on my feet."

"You'd make a good Autobot."

"Ha! I'm already an honorary wrecker!"

"You're called Miko, correct?"

The human nodded, before she dared to smirk at him. "I would have guessed you were always too busy trying to destroy us, to learn our names."

"Believe me, knowing who's who can be a benefit," Knockout commented, still looking down at her.

MIko got to her feet, and kept looking right up. She said with sincerity, "hey, sorry for the whole punching you so hard I knocked you to the floor thing. I was talking to Bulk' in Tokyo traffic. Apparently you might have been serious about wanting to join the winning team."

Knockout gave a slight laugh, and looked past her, to the floor. Miko could see the flash of a shameful expression over his faceplates, before he hid it well behind another nervous chuckle. "Well I can hardly say it was undeserved. Sadly, I think I started it."

The human girl stepped closer to the bot again. "Hey, can I get a lift up?"

Knockout only stared down at her confused for a moment. He gave first a baffled and then a surprised look. "You want me to pick you up?"

"Yeah. I could climb up, but it's less work just to ask a big bot for help."

With obvious hesitation, Knockout leaned down and lowered a hand. Miko found that his hands were smaller than some of the bots' but she fit just well enough to sit safely in his palm, as long as she kept a grip on one of the fingertips. She scrambled off again and sat on the top of the work table, leaning against a powered down monitor. Knockout laughed as Miko pretended to stretch before leaning back and looking up, now only slightly. The bot turned toward the work table and sat with his head resting propped on his bent arm. The two were finally eye to optic.

"Hey, Doc Knock, can I ask you something important?" Miko questioned, carefully. The red bot nodded silently laughing slightly over the nickname she'd given him.

The human leaned forward, resting her chin on her hands, studying his strange red optics. "I know you didn't put me in that container. That was Starscream's doing. But why'd you hold and carry the container?" She shivered at the memory, but went on looking at him anyway. She wanted to know. Wanted it all to make sense.

"Because he told me to," Knockout answered. His tone indicated that the answer should have been the most obvious thing ever. But to her it wasn't so simple.

"That's it?" she asked. She didn't bother to hide his disbelief and confusion over it. "He told you to, so you did?"

"That suddenly sounds so much worse when I say it out loud, doesn't it?" The bot paused for at least a minute, and Miko saw the look in his optics shift from one of confidence in his answer, to one of confusion, and then sadness. All the while he appeared thoughtful. "The fact is; it gets a little too easy to follow orders when you've done so for too long."

"You traded me for one of the omega keys! I'm a person. I thought was going to die that day. And worse, I thought poor Bulkhead would be made to see it all and die trying to save me." Miko brushed a hand over her eyes fast, to rid herself of a threatening tear and stared at him with a blank look, waiting to hear more.

"I truly am sorry for that day," the red bot said, never breaking eye contact with her.

"I believe you," Miko answered. Oddly, she really did believe him.

"I know that sorry hardly changes anything someone had done…"

The little human sat on the work table, looking the bot in the optics. "I think it can…" She shook her head and rolled her eyes slightly. "That is just so not how I wanted to first see Cybertron."

Knockout grinned at her. A real smile, instead of the arrogant smirk she had seen on his face many times before while he was on the wrong side. "Maybe you will see it again someday. It looks so much prettier now."

Notes/ yeah, Miko logic indeed! The group mother figure warns her to never do a very specific thing. Of course that suddenly makes the very thing a much better idea!