So there wasn't too much to change between this chapter and the older version. I just cleaned up the writing a little bit, and added in one or two extra scenes to make it a little more interesting. I almost posted this bad boy without proofreading, and DANG that would have been a mistake. I dont recommend writing until midnight, and then deciding to update without proofreading. That is a big mistake. Dont do it!

p.s. Thank you to my former roomie for helping me proofread this.

Please note: I do not own Transformers. I do, however, have my own OC's which I have inserted into the story. My OC's include Reese Shields and Chase Sanders. Electra Belongs to my sister.

Between a Rock and Hard Place

The events of this chapter correspond to the episode "Rock Bottom"

"Optimus, I'm picking up a steady energon signal coming from some kind of cave or mine. Considering that our energon reserves are running low, this could be just the break we need." Ratchet turned from his console to the autobot leader, expectantly. "We don't know when another chance like this will arise."

"You are right, old friend, the signal needs to be investigated, considering all of our other scouting missions have come up empty handed. Arcee and Bulkhead, you two go and investigate the energon signal. Bumblebee, you will wait here in case they need backup. Ratchet, please continue searching for other possible energon deposits." Optimus gave out orders for each member of the team.

Miko ran up to Bulkhead's pede excitedly. "Yo Bulk, What about our Slash Monkey concert? We have been waiting all year for this!" The young Japanese girl looked up into Bulkhead's optics with puppy dog eyes.

"I know Miko, but some things take priority over leisure activities." Bulkhead looked down at his charge with sad optics; he was disappointed too.

"Well what if I went with you? We could go, scout out the energon, and then go straight to the concert!" Miko jumped up and down excitedly at her new idea.

"Oh, I don't know Miko, it could get dangerous. You should probably just stay here."

"Aww, c'mon Bulk, with you there to protect me what could possibly go wrong?"

"Ha! Those are some of the most famous last words in history, Miko." Reese chuckled as she walked up beside the girl. "But, I do think it would be cool to go investigating with you guys." Reese gave Bulkhead a look that was almost as pleading as Miko's. It was a Saturday, so she didn't have work, and this seemed like it would be waaay more exciting than hanging around the base all day.

"Bulkhead, I'm sure it will be fine. It will only be reconnaissance anyways. Besides, Reese is considered an adult on this planet; she can watch Miko and make sure that she doesn't get into any trouble, and I can bring Jack too, just for good measure." Arcee walked up with her energon tracker in hand.

"Well…. If you think so, I guess it can't hurt." He turned from Arcee to Miko and said with a stern warning, "But you will stay outside. Got it?"

"Aww man, what's the fun in that?" Miko complained, but when she saw Bulkhead raise an optic ridge at her with a stern look on his face, she complied. The two bots, their charges, and Reese stepped through the ground bridge and into the area close to where the energon signal was coming from.

"Now, you three stay out here. We will be back in a bit," Arcee looked down at the three humans. "And don't get into any trouble." With that she and Bulkhead walked towards the mouth of the cave.

Miko ran over to a bunch of big rocks by the entrance of the cave and plopped herself down on one of them. Jack and Reese did the same.

"So, Reese, aren't your parents getting suspicious of the amount of time you spend away from home? I mean your practically living at the base now." Jack tried to make small talk to pass the time.

"Um, well, the fact is, my parents aren't really alive anymore." Reese shifted uncomfortably at the topic. "Besides, I'm technically an adult now… I would probably be off in college somewhere if I had the money."

"Oh… I… I'm sorry. I didn't know." Jack kicked himself for bringing up the topic. He should have known better.

"Way to go Jack, now you just had to go and make things awkward didn't you." Miko poked Jack with a stick she found.

"Hey, hey, its fine; there was no way he could have known. I didn't tell anybody about my parents. He was just making a logical observation. Please don't feel bad Jack; it was a long time ago." Reese tried to reassure Jack.

"Speaking of a long time, what is taking Arcee and Bulkhead so long? We're supposed to be at a rock concert, but all I see is… rock." Miko pouted in annoyance.

"Relax Miko, the show doesn't start for another two hours." Jack replied with a humorous tone to his voice. This only annoyed Miko even more.

"Do you know how long I have waited to see Slash Monkey? Huh? Do you? FOREVER!" She yelled in Jack's face. "Besides, this is their only U.S. date! I won't get another chance like this!"

Jack seemed to be taking Miko's little freak-out session in stride, commenting about the fact that Bulgarian shriek metal isn't big in the U.S.

Just then Bulkhead and Arcee came out of the cave entrance, interrupting Miko's little temper tantrum. They seemed to be discussing what they had found in the cave, or rather, what they hadn't found.

"The mine appears to be completely stripped," Arcee stated.

"Yea, but I'm still getting a faint but steady energon signal," Bulkhead looked down at his energon tracker with a confused look on his facial plating.

"This makes no sense. This mine appears to have been abandoned for what, four or five years now, and decepticons never leave energon behind." Arcee spoke her thoughts aloud.

While they were talking, Miko took her chance to sneak away from the group and go running into the cave.

Jack and Reese looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Leave it to Miko to make everything complicated.

"Hey guys, I think Miko's making a run for it," Jack pointed to the girl's quickly retreating form.

"I can't believe it. She actually did it," Arcee said with utter disbelief.

"Well, I mean, its Miko… What did you expect?" Jack responded, clearly not surprised by Miko's behavior.

"Well, we should probably go in and get her before she gets herself lost," Reese sighed before she took off running into the cave as well. Followed by the others. "Miko! Get your Kawaii little butt back here or so help me!" She called after the Japanese girl, who was already deep within the cave.

Bulkhead and Reese came into the main cavern in the mine to find Miko testing out the acoustics. She seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself, running around yelling just to hear her voice echo throughout the chamber.

"Miko, give it a rest, would you? If there were any decepticons in here, they would know we were here now!" Reese remarked at the rebellious girl. "Don't you know anything about stealth? Sheesh."

Bulkhead decided to stay out of the debate between the two girls. He was much more interested in the fact that his energon tracker was now getting a stronger signal. He walked up to one of the walls, where the signal was the strongest, and began examining it.

"Hey, Cee, I think I found something," He attempted to inform Arcee about his discovery, but all he was met with was static. "Scrap, the mineral composition down here must be jamming the signal. Welp, I guess I will just go ahead and collect a sample for Ratchet." He transformed his fist into a giant wrecking ball and began whacking away at the stone wall.

Not even a minute after Bulkhead began whacking away at the wall, all three of them heard the earth shudder as stones around them began falling.

Miko and Reese let out a shriek of terror as a giant rock almost landed right on top of them. They both dove out of the way, just in time, and scurried over to Bulkhead. He bent down over them, shielding them with his massive frame.

There were several minutes of loud crashes and banging until finally everything seemed to quiet down.

Both girls looked up at Bulkhead, who was now standing, arms outstretched, keeping a massive chunk of the ceiling from falling and squishing them all. It looked like an uncomfortable position to be in.

"Did I do that?" Bulkhead looked down at the girls worriedly.

"I… I don't know. I don't think so… I mean, you weren't hitting that wall hard enough to cause the whole room to collapse." Reese said as she shakily stood to her feet, helping Miko up as well.

"Are you two okay? You didn't get hurt, did you?"

"We're intact," Miko gave Bulkhead a thumbs up. "Though, I can't say the same for the rest of this room."

Miko was right. The room was littered with rocks and dust, and the exit was completely blocked by debris.

"Were trapped in here. Do you think you will be okay holding up that big hunk of rock, Bulkhead?" Reese asked the green wrecker with concern.

"I will be fine. I just hope Jack and Arcee are okay, because we could sure use an assist. Can you see any holes that might be big enough for one or both of you to climb through?"

"No… from what I can tell, we are sealed in here tight," Reese sighed defeatedly.

"Don't worry guys, I'll get us out of here," Miko jumped up and ran over to the rock-slide that blocked the exit. She hastily began picking up rocks and throwing them to the side, hoping to create an opening of some kind. Unfortunately, every time she moved a rock, another fell in to take its place.

Reese came over to help her, hoping that maybe their combined effort would be able to make a dent in the rock-slide, but it didn't matter. There was just too much debris to get through.

"This is useless," Reese sat down next to Bulkhead. She was tired, dusty, and was finding it difficult to breathe for some reason. Miko flopped down next to her, panting as well.

"You need to conserve your energy. There isn't a lot of air down here, and when you are working hard, you need more oxygen." Bulkhead looked down at the two girls worriedly.

"You mean we're gonna suffocate!?" Miko cried out in horror.

"Not all of us, Miko, just you and Reese. Autobots don't need to breathe. Remember?"

"Oh yea, I forgot, you had a smack down with the Decepticons in outer space." She gasped again as she crawled back towards the rocks. "Maybe if we just move slower, and breathe less." She struggled to lift another rock but ended up falling backwards.

"It's no use Miko, there has to be another way," Reese said as she propped herself up against Bulkhead's pede. She didn't want to die, not like this, but the lack of oxygen was making it harder and harder to think clearly, meaning that no new ideas were coming to her head.

"Okay you two, new plan. I want you to hit me with rocks. Try to make as much noise as possible. Maybe the sound will guide Jack and Arcee to us," Bulkhead suggested.

"But Bulk, I don't wanna hurt you," Miko looked up at her guardian with tearful eyes and a quivering lip.

"You aren't going to hurt me. I promise. Just make as much noise as you can."

"Are you sure?" Reese looked questioningly up at the bot, though she already knew the answer. She was just as hesitant to hit him, considering that he was already under a lot of pressure with holding up the ceiling.

"Just do it," Bulkhead ordered. It was no longer a request. The two girls picked up nearby rocks and walked over to the giant robot, bringing them down heavily on Bulk's pedes.

Amid the clangs of rock against metal, they thought they could hear the faint sound of drilling. Both girls stopped and perked up, listening carefully to make sure they weren't just hearing things. Sure enough, the sound of drilling echoed down to them from somewhere outside their stone prison.

"Keep hitting me! We need to guide that drilling closer to us!" Bulkhead said frantically, grunting loudly as a hissing sound escaped from his arms.

"What was that?" Miko and Reese looked up at him worriedly, panicking at the evident strain on the robot's face.

"You need to hurry, I don't know how much longer my arms are going to hold out."

"Does it hurt?" Miko looked like she was about to cry, seeing the situation her guardian was stuck in.

"A little, but that doesn't matter right now. What matters is that you two keep hitting me with those rocks. Our only hope of getting out of here is to lead Arcee and Jack to us."

"Bulkhead's right, Miko. The sooner Arcee and Jack find us, the sooner we can get out of here," Reese tried to urge the other girl on.

Sweating and panting, both girls went back to hitting Bulkhead with the rocks, hoping that the clanging noises would reach the person with the drill. They were about to give up hope, when they noticed that the drilling noise was getting closer.

"I think its working!" Miko gasped as she made a particularly loud clang against Bulkhead's pede.

"I think you're right," Reese stopped for a moment to try to catch her breath. Air was running out pretty quickly for them.

Sure enough, the drill was headed towards them, and within a few minutes, they could hear it drilling away at the other side of the rockslide.

"WERE SAVED!" Miko called out happily as the tip of the drill broke through the wall of rubble. She jumped up, ready to hug whoever was on the other side, but quickly changed her mind when she saw who was actually behind the drill.

Both she and Reese huddled against each other as they saw a silver robot hop off the drill and look at them in confusion.

"Well this is quite the surprise?" He chuckled in a gravelly voice, one that sent chills down Reese's spine. She recognized that voice.

"A surprise indeed, Starscream," Bulkhead snapped back. This was not the rescue party he had hoped for.

"I wasn't expecting to find you down here, and look, you have your pet vermin with you," Starscream sneered as he caught a glimpse of Miko and Reese."Oh, and what have we here? if it isn't the human that won me the polarity gauntlet!" Starscream recognized Reese almost as instantly as she had recognized him. He tried to reach down to grab one of the girls, but Bulkhead kicked at him, causing him to reel back a little.

"Don't you lay a digit on them, Starscream," Bulkhead growled angrily.

"Or what? You will glare me to death? Please autobot, you clearly have your servos full. I don't have any reason to be afraid of you."

"Reese, Miko, stay behind me," Bulkhead ordered the girls, who were happy to oblige.

"Reese was it? Is that your name? what a pathetic name for a pathetic human being. Though, I suppose I should be thanking you, since it was all because of you that I got the polarity gauntlet."

"Starscream, leave her alone!" Bulkhead warned threateningly. While there was little he could do to actually stop Starscream, he was at least going to do his best to intimidate the Decepticon.

"What's the matter? I'm just having a conversation with your little friend. What's so wrong with that?" Starscream feigned an innocent smile before lunging forward and catching Reese by the back of the shirt, before either she or Bulkhead could react.

Reese yelped as she felt herself get pulled backwards, the ground rapidly getting further away as she was lifted into the air.

"Put me down!" She screamed as she thrashed around, trying to get loose from Starscream's hold.

"Pathetic, that is what you are," Starscream chuckled as he dangled her in front of his face. "You know, I bet Megatron would be proud of me if I brought you back to the warship. How does living on the Nemesis sound to you, Reese?"

Reese blanched at Starscream's words. Surely he was kidding, right? Bulkhead wouldn't let Starscream take her.

"Starscream, so help me, if you don't put her down, I will hurt you so bad…" Bulkhead tried to threaten the silver seeker, but his threats were meaningless given his current predicament.

Reese feared that this would be it. She would become a Decepticon prisoner and the others would never get free, but then the sound of drilling again reached her ears. She tried to look past Starscream to hear where the drilling was coming from, when another one of the mining drills rammed right into Starscream's back, causing him to shriek and drop Reese. She fell to the floor, spraining her ankle as she hit the ground. Despite the searing pain, she crawled back over to Bulkhead's pede, making sure to keep her distance from Starscream.

Jack peered out from the side of the mining drill and surveyed the situation. He saw Bulkhead struggling to hold up the ceiling, Miko hugging Bulkhead's pede in fear, and Reese propped up against his other pede, holding her ankle.

"Quick, Jack, get them out of here!" Bulkhead yelled to Jack.

"But Bulk, I don't want to leave you!" Miko argued with her guardian, reluctant to leave him behind with Starscream.

"Miko, now is not the time to argue. You and Reese need to get out of here, NOW!"

Miko's eyes teared up as she reluctantly climbed onto the drill that Jack had driven into their little cavern. Jack jumped down and helped Reese limp over to the drill as well, before starting it back up and driving out of the cavern, leaving Bulkhead and Starscream to figure things out on their own.

"Jack, what about Bulkhead? Who is going to protect him from Starscream now that we're no longer there?" asked Miko in a watery voice.

"Right now, we just need to get out of here before Megatron gets free too."

"Wait, Megatron is here!?" Miko looked even more horrified to hear that the Decepticon warlord was also in the cave with them. Jack didn't heed her as he maneuvered the drill towards the exit. Just ahead of them in the darkness they heard heavy footsteps. All three of the teens gasped, immediately fearing the worst, but as soon as the mysterious figure came within the light of the mining drill, they realized that it was Arcee.

"Jack, get Miko and Reese to the exit; it's just behind me!" Arcee ordered.

"Will do! Bulkhead is not too far behind us… and he could use a little help," Jack heeded her command, maneuvering the drill to go around her.

"Got it. I will get Bulkhead and meet you three back outside," Arcee assured as she ran off into the darkness behind them.

A few minutes later, Jack, Miko, and Reese were able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Jack drove the drill forward, breaking through what was left of the rubble that blocked the entrance to the cave, and then, they were back in the fresh outdoors.

Fresh air had never smelled so good. All three teens breathed it in deeply. They had been trapped in that stuffy cave for far too long. Looking at the sky, the sun was already beginning to set.

"Dangit, guess it looks like I'm not going to make it to my Slash Monkey concert after all…" Miko pouted as she sat down and pulled her knees to her chest.

"Well, you know, you probably would have been able to make it if you hadn't decided to go running into the cave like that," Jack retorted angrily.

"Don't lecture me, Jack!" Miko snapped back.

Sensing an argument brewing, Reese decided to change the subject. "So, what happened exactly?"

"Well, we kinda got separated from you guys while exploring the cave. Arcee and I stumbled upon an open room where it looked like Megatron was about to kill Starscream. Unfortunately, Megatron saw us and decided to shoot at us instead of his second-in-command, and his ion blasts are what caused the cave in," Jack explained, thankful for a change in topic.

"That makes sense…"

"What about you? Is your ankle okay?"

"Yea, I think I only sprained it. I'm more freaked out by that Starscream con… He is the same one who almost killed me back when I got pulled into the fight between the bots and the cons," Reese shuddered at the thought, gingerly fingering the scar on her face that was a constant reminder to that fateful night.

"Yea, Starscream's a jerk… I'm sorry about that," Jack looked down awkwardly, not really sure how to comfort Reese.

Their conversation was interrupted, by Bulkhead and Arcee climbing out of the cave.

"Bulkhead!" Miko ran towards her guardian, joyful tears streaming down her face. "You're okay!"

"Of course I am! With Cee's help, it wasn't that hard of a situation to get out of."

"I'm just glad everyone is alright!" Miko bounced up and down happily, seeming to have completely forgotten her frustration at missing the Slash Monkey concert.

Arcee was in a more somber mood, however, as she stared off at the cave entrance. "You know… We could finish them both, here and now."

Jack walked up to her and put his hand against her pede. "Would Optimus finish them?"

Arcee sighed and shook her head, "No, not like this… Let's just go home."

"Hey Ratchet, we are ready for a ground bridge," Bulkhead held his digit to the side of his helm and commed the base. In response, a swirling green portal opened up in front of the group.

"you good to walk?" Jack offered Reese a hand, which she gladly took, allowing him to help her carry her weight.

"Thanks Jack, for all your help today. We probably would have been toast if you hadn't shown up when you did."

"Hey, we gotta look out for each other. That's what friend's are for."

"yea… You all have been great friends to me," Reese smiled. As much as she hated to admit it, she had gotten quite attached to her new friends at the base. It would be hard to leave them all behind and go back to her old life like she had originally planned to do."

WOOT WOOT! I'm so happy to get this out so quickly! so YAY! Happy DAY! Please review and let me know what you think of the story. That is a HUGE motivator for me to keep up my writing. Thanks again for reading, and as always, Have a lovely and blessed day!