Heyyyyy I'm back with another updated chapter! You're welcome! While i was rewriting this chapter, I realized just how cringy the original one was. I have to say that I have definitely gotten better at showing and not telling, as the old version of this chapter was pretty much just told. Hopefully you guys like the new and improved writing :D

*By the way, if you are wondering what happened to all chapter that used to be here, refer back to chapter 1 where I answer those questions in the author's notes.

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.

Experimentation

Almost a full week had passed since the incident at the energon mine, and Reese was getting restless again. Optimus was not too pleased to hear that the kids had run into the Decepticons, and Megatron and Starscream, no less. Reese had been on strict orders to only leave the base to go to work, which annoyed her to no end.

Work was nice and all. It kept her mind busy during the day, but when it was done, she just came back to the base and was bored again. She couldn't even get out to go exploring in that old abandoned outpost she had found with Bumblebee.

With a sigh she plopped down on the sofa and pulled out the controller to the racing game that Raf had left at the base. She had gotten pretty good at it, having had nothing else to do.

While she played, she formulated a conversation between herself and Optimus in her head. She planned out everything she would say to him. Her plan was to hopefully convince him to let her finally go back home. Sure, her house wouldn't be as safe as the base, but she would much rather prefer to be there.

As fate would have it, about as soon as she finished her game, Optimus came into the main room of the base, walking over to the computer mainframe and pulling up one of the data logs. It was now or never.

Reese pulled herself to her feet and walked over to the Prime, trying to look as unassuming as possible. She wanted it to seem more like a pleasant conversation than a plea for freedom.

"Hey Optimus, you got a minute to talk?" Reese asked nonchalantly.

"Reese, it is funny you should ask, as I also had something that I wanted to speak with you about," Optimus looked up from the computer, giving Reese his full and undivided attention.

"Oh… uh… you can go first," Reese stammered. She hadn't been expecting him to also want to talk with her about something. What if it ruined her plans? She was just supposed to convince him to let her go home. The conversation was supposed to be one sided. Already, things weren't going according to plan.

"Are you sure? You came up to me first."

"No, no, I'm sure it's not as important. Please, go ahead," Reese assured him, internally kicking herself. She should have just taken the opportunity.

"It's about your living arrangement," Optimus began, already piquing Reese's interest.

"Oh?"

"Well, I have been giving it some thought, and I have seen how difficult it has been for you to live here at base, and so I have decided to allow you to return back to your home."

Reese merely stared at Optimus in awe. Had those words actually just come from his mouth? Did he really say she could go home? "Really!?"

"Seeing as the Decepticons do not know of your home's location, I suppose it would be safe for you to go back. I realize that I was being unfair to you by forcing you to stay here. Please understand, I meant it purely for your safety and well-being, but I see now that perhaps it was not the wisest of decisions."

"Oh Optimus! Thank you!" Reese was practically bouncing with excitement. Finally, she could go home, get back to her normal life, and move on. Behind all of that excitement, though, was still a little sting, deep down. Reese was going to miss living with the bots, even if it was only a little bit.

"Tomorrow, after your shift, Bulkhead will take you back to your place. He will stay the night and keep watch over the house, just for that night. Unfortunately, we do not have a bot to spare to keep watch over your home every night, but if you ever have a problem, you can always call us here at the base, now that you are connected to our secure frequency."

"This is wonderful! Thank you so much! You have all been so kind and thoughtful," Reese beamed happily. "I should probably go and make sure my stuff is packed," She thought aloud as she darted down the stairs to the spare storage bay that had temporarily been turned into her room.

She threw her suitcase onto the bed and began packing her most essential items into it. She had her laptop, her clothes, a couple pairs of shoes, and all her other items that she might need. The rest of her stuff would probably be brought back over later.

By the time she had finished packing, it was about time for her to be getting ready for bed. Oh, how she wished it was already the next day. Sleep was something that was not going to come easily for her that night.

Despite her extreme excitement, the next day seemed to go by in a blur, and the next thing Reese knew, it was time for her to head in for her evening shift.

She came bouncing out of her room, pulling her rolling suitcase behind her and placing it in the backseat of Bulkhead's vehicle form, before climbing in herself.

"You seem awfully excited to leave us," Bulkhead joked, though it hit a bit of a soft spot in Reese's heart.

"Oh, you know I'm not leaving you guys. I will still see you often. I will just be staying at my own house instead of staying at the base, that's all," Reese rationalized the situation, more for herself than for Bulk.

"I know, I'm just teasing you," Bulkhead chuckled, seemingly unaware of how his little joke had actually affected Reese.

"Heh, I knew that," Reese chuckled and tried to play off her uneasiness at leaving the bots.

The two rode in silence until Bulkhead pulled up to the front of Reese's workplace. He opened the passenger door and let Reese hop out.

"I will be here to pick you up when you get off. Have a good shift," He called out to her before closing the passenger door and pulling out of the parking lot.

"Thanks Bulk," Reese smiled, albeit a little sadly, before she opened the doors to her job and went in.

Reese's shift lasted until 10:00 p.m. and when she finally walked out of the small tech support office, it was dark. As promised, Bulkhead was waiting out in the parking lot for her when she walked out of the store. She climbed into his vehicle form and yawned.

"How'd your shift go?"

"Not too bad. It felt like it was never going to end though." Reese yawned again.

"Well, let's get you home so you can get some rest," Bulkhead said as he started up his engine and pulled out of the parking lot.

He couldn't help but notice that there was still another car in the lot that started up about the same time he did. Something about the car was familiar, though he couldn't quite place from where. He kept an optic on it through the rear-view as he drove down the road, not ready to worry Reese about it just yet.

Bulkhead drove for a while, keeping a constant optic on the car behind them. By now, Reese had closed her eyes and was dozing in the passenger seat. He didn't want to scare her, but he was starting to get concerned about the car behind them. Perhaps, they were just going in the same direction, but something about the car put Bulkhead on edge, and he didn't like it.

"Reese, we are gonna take a quick detour, okay?" Bulkhead warned before he pulled sharply off the main road and onto a little dirt road that led off into the desert. His tanks dropped as the other car swerved to keep behind him, speeding up and closing the distance between them.

"Bulkhead, what's going on?" Reese asked worriedly, trying to turn around in her seat to get a look at the car behind them. The headlights on the car were extremely bright, effectively blinding Reese when she tried to get a good look at the car. It was almost like dejavu to the night when she had first met the Autobots.

"I'm not sure, kid. Something about that car seems very familiar; I just can't place from where, and I don't like it. They have been following us since we left your job, and it's high time we lost them," Bulk's voice was strained with tension as he began making evasive maneuvers. After several sharp turns and multiple fake outs, Bulk was finally able to lose their pursuer.

Reese let out a sigh of relief when the mysterious car was no longer tailing them. This was too creepy. "Do you think we lost them for good?"

"I think so, but we are going to take a long and roundabout way to get you home. It will take a little longer, but I would rather be safe than sorry," Bulkhead replied as he pulled back out onto the road.

"That's fine, I don't mind. I would rather be safe too." Reese held her hand over her heart, trying to get it to calm down. Despite the fact that there was nobody around anymore, the hairs on the back of her neck were still bristling.

After an extra thirty minutes of driving, Bulkhead finally pulled up to the gravel driveway of Reese's house. She hopped out and opened the side door to get her suitcase out of the back seat.

"Thanks for the ride, Bulk," She smiled as she turned to walk to her house, but something stopped her. She wasn't sure what to call it, other than an extreme sense of uneasiness and dread. "Hey Bulk, something's not ri-"she was cut off by bright high beams illuminating her and the front of her house.

Before Reese could even process what was happening, Bulk had transformed beside her and was picking her up, cupping her in his servos.

"Bulkhead! What's going on!?" Reese screamed.

"I knew that car looked familiar," Bulkhead's voice was almost a growl. "It belonged to MECH." He defensively held her against his chassis.

"Who's MECH!?" Reese's muffled cry came from Bulkhead's servos.

"There is no time to explain; we need to get you out of here." He was just about to transform when a stream of electricity shot out and hit his flank. The huge bot dropped to his knees, still clutching Reese to his chassis.

"Bulk! What's happening? Talk to me!" Reese had felt his whole frame shudder as electricity had flowed through him. The voice that answered her was not Bulkhead's.

"Drop the girl, Autobot, and maybe we won't dissect you down to your fiber optics," The voice was clear, strong, and full of malice.

"It's no use, Silas, I have already sent out a distress signal. The others will be here any minute. You would do well to retreat before you get squashed like a bug," Bulkhead retorted to the man's threat.

"Then you leave me no choice," The evil voice said, and Reese felt Bulkhead's frame shudder again as he was hit with several more beams of electricity. Bulkhead groaned in pain but still he held Reese protectively against him.

"Bulkhead!" Reese cried out, hugging his shuddering frame. Eventually, his digits began to uncurl from around the girl as his servo fell to the ground and went limp. "No! Bulkhead!" she screamed as his optics slowly flickered out. "Bulkhead!" she reached for him as strong hands seized each of her arms.

She struggled against the hands that pulled her back, but it was no use. They were too strong. Their vice like grip bit into her skin as they yanked her further away from her only hope of being saved.

She was forced into a car, stuck between two very large men wearing masks. It was too dark to see anything else clearly, though it didn't matter as one of the men tied a blindfold over her eyes.

"Fight and you will regret it, kid," one of the men said as she felt the muzzle of a gun placed against her temple. Given everything that had just transpired, Reese was in too much shock to even think about fighting back.

"Bulkhead, wake up." Ratchet was standing over the giant green bot. Optimus and Arcee were standing behind him. Slowly, Bulkhead's optics flickered back to life and he looked up at his three Autobot friends. He groaned and grabbed his helm as he tried to sit up. Suddenly, his optics snapped into focus as he remembered what had just happened.

"Where's Reese?" He looked around frantically, ignoring Ratchet's attempts to make him hold still. "They took her; it's all my fault". He groaned and held his servos to his head.

"Take it easy Bulkhead, who took her?" Optimus asked, resting a servo on the panicked bot's shoulder plating.

"MECH. They attacked me, demanding for me to give them Reese."

"What would MECH want with Reese?" Ratchet

"I… I don't know. I couldn't protect her. There were so many of them, and they had some new kind of weapon. Just took a couple of hits and I was out." The green bot slammed his clenched servo into the ground. "I should have just taken her back to base."

"Bulkhead, there is no use worrying about what could have been done. Right now, we need to find out what we can do to get Reese back." Arcee said softly as she placed a comforting servo on Bulkhead's other shoulder plating.

"Arcee is correct. We must try to find where MECH is holding Reese, and why they wanted her to begin with." Optimus straightened up and comm'd for a bridge back to base. "Arcee, you and I will follow the tracks as far as we can, see if they lead anywhere. Ratchet, you head back and see if you can try to trace anything from the computers back at base." With a nod Ratchet headed through the ground bridge with Bulkhead, while Optimus and Arcee began following the tracks left behind by MECH's cars on the dirt road.

The drive to MECH's base only took about forty-five minutes, but to Reese, it felt like a lifetime. She was stuck between two mysterious men, one of whom had a gun against her head, and they were taking her to some unknown location. How were the Autobots going to find her now?

She couldn't see where they were going, but she could hear mechanical doors open and close as they drove into what she could only assume was the MECH base. The car pulled to a stop and Reese found herself being dragged from the car and the blindfold pulled off her head.

"Welcome Reese. I must say, you are a difficult person to find. You are lucky you have those Autobot friends of yours or we would have had you a long time ago" a man with a scarred face and a military haircut greeted her. She recognized his voice. He was the one who had demanded that Bulkhead give her up.

"Wait, so it was you that tried to knock me off the road that night! Should I know you?" Reese growled angrily, still being held back by the two masked men who had captured her.

"Indeed it was... Though it doesn't matter now, since we have you right where we want you. As for your other questions, no I don't suppose you would know me. He always was one for secrets, it would make sense that he wouldn't tell you about me... No matter, I am Silas, but more importantly, we are MECH.

"Who are you talking about? Who kept secrets!?" Reese racked her brain, trying to find out who this Silas person was speaking of, but nobody was coming to mind.

"That is of no importance now. What is important, is the fact that you are here."

"What do you want with me? I am just a normal girl. There is nothing special about me."

"Oh, but you are special. You have a rare and unique genetic mutation that we think will lend to you being very useful in our little experiment."

"What kind of experiment," Reese's eyes widened at the man's words.

"Ah, you will find out in due time. Men, show our guest to the lab," Silas smirked and walked away.

"No, let me go!" Reese yelled as she was dragged down one of the many halls in the MECH base. "Please! Don't do this!"

"Shut up," one of the men whacked her on the back of the head, causing the room to spin a little.

The men brought Reese into what she assumed to be the lab. It was full of terrifying looking equipment, as well as a medical table with restraints attached to it.

Reese was dragged over to this medical berth and metal restraints were clasped over her ankles and wrists.

"This is bad, this is really bad," Reese thought frantically as she struggled against the restraints. How did this Silas guy know who she was? What genetic mutation was he talking about? If she didn't even know she had one, then how did he know? She needed to get away, but currently, she wasn't in any position to do so.

As she continued to try and free herself from the restraints, Silas came walking into the room, followed by several more men wearing lab coats and those mysterious masks. The scientist looking men went about preparing many of the different kinds of equipment, while Silas went up to the large computer that was at the front of the room.

He typed a few things in on the keypad and then, much to Reese's surprise, the Autobots appeared on the screen.

"Hello, Optimus Prime. I'm so glad you were able to join us for this momentous occasion. You are going to witness us make history as we create our very own Cybernetic warrior."

Arcee and Optimus were able to follow Mech's trail until they came to the paved highway. There, the trail vanished without a trace.

"Scrap," Arcee muttered under her breath. Optimus only vented and called for a ground bridge back to base.

"Have you been able to find anything, Old Friend?" Optimus asked Ratchet who was standing at one of the computer monitors.

"Nothing yet," Ratchet grumbled as he tried scanning a different frequency. "I have already contacted Nurse Darby and Agent Fowler. Considering that MECH has Reese, she may be in need of medical attention when we find her, and Agent Fowler can help us when we do find MECH's hideout."

"Good thinking, Ratchet. Keep searching those frequencies; we need to find Reese as quickly as possible." Optimus vented as he reassuringly placed a servo on Ratchet's shoulder plating.

It just so happened that as soon as Optimus said that, the computer stumbled upon an open frequency and tapped in. On the screen, Silas appeared.

"Hello, Optimus Prime. I'm so glad you were able to join us for this momentous occasion. You are going to witness us make history as we create our very own Cybernetic warrior," Silas sneered as he grandly gestured to Reese, who was restrained to a medical berth in the background.

"Silas, what are your intentions for Reese?" Optimus kept a level tone.

"I just told you, we are going to make our very own cybernetic warrior, and we are going to use your friend, Reese, to do it. You see, all of our other attempts to infuse energon into humans has unfortunately ended… poorly, however, Reese here has a special genetic mutation that should allow her to be compatible with the energon."

"You don't know that. You could very well end up killing her!" Ratchet sputtered, appalled that Silas would suggest such a thing.

"Silas, if your only intention was to use Reese, then why would you contact us" Optimus queried seriously.

"I just thought that you would like to see history in the making. Not to mention, it is so much more entertaining to have a live audience. I have taken extra precautions to ensure that the call is untraceable, so sit back and enjoy the show."

About the time Silas finished his little spiel, June and Agent Fowler came running into the base. June gasped and covered her mouth when she saw the predicament that Reese was in. Agent Fowler, on the other hand, was not one for funny business and stomped right up to the screen.

"Silas, you piece of crap, you give Reese back right this second or I will get the military involved, and they wont be as lenient with you as the Autobots," The special agent yelled at Silas through the screen.

"Ah, Agent Fowler, and June too, lovely of you to join the party. You are just in time to watch things all come together," Silas paid no heed to Fowler's threat. "Alright men, everyone is here. Let's begin."

At Silas' command, several of the scientists pulled over a rolling tray stocked with energon filled syringes.

"No, please, don't do this!" Reese cried as she struggled against the restraints that held her down. It was no use. "Please, I'm sure there is another way."

"Reese, relax, you should feel honored to be contributing so much to the expansion of science," Silas came and stood in front of her.

Several men held Reese down, keeping her from moving too much, as one of the scientists injected the first syringe of energon into Reese's arm.

A blood curdling scream erupted from Reese as intense fire shot through her veins. Every inch of her writhed in pain as the energon made its way through her blood stream, infecting every cell of her body. Her heart rate steadily increased, faster and faster, until it had reached a dangerously high rate.

"NO! You're killing her!" June screamed in horror, watching Reese's heart rate continue to increase."

"Sir, her heart can't take much more. She is going to go into cardiac arrest," one of the scientists informed Silas.

"Be patient, it might take a few minutes for her body to accept the energon," Silas said calmly, clearly not too concerned.

Then Reese's heart rate on the monitor went into v-fib, causing the scientists to immediately jump into action. One of them pulled out a defibrillator and prepped it.

"Hold it, give her body a few more seconds," Silas ordered his men to stand by.

"Sir, we will lose her if we don't do something now," The scientist looked at his boss with surprise, though he held back from using the defibrillator, as ordered.

To everyone but Silas' surprise, after what felt like an eternity, Reese's heart rate slowly came back into rhythm and began to decrease back to a normal rate.

"How did you know that her heart rate would come back down?" The scientist turned back to Silas in shock.

"I wasn't positive, but I had a hunch that it would take a little bit for her body to adapt," Silas replied casually.

"You were willing to take that risk, after all we did to find and capture her?"

"Yes. It was a huge risk, but it worked in the end, so that is all that matters. Now, since she is back in a stable rhythm, you can begin the cyber enhancing process." Silas seemed done with the conversation and turned from his soldiers back to the screen where the Autobots were still watching.

"Well, I hope you enjoyed the show, but I think you have seen enough for now," He smiled sinisterly and cut the communication line.

Unbeknownst to MECH, the autobots had not been watching idly. Rather, after Silas had turned from them to watch the experiment, Agent Fowler had pulled up Rafael on the phone.

"Hello?" a sleepy sounding voice answered the phone.

"Rafael, I'm sorry to wake you, but this is an emergency," The tone in Fowler's voice conveyed how urgent the message was.

"What's up?" Rafael's voice sounded concerned as it came through the phone.

"Reese has been kidnapped by MECH, and we need your help tracing a frequency to find the location of their base. They have some kind of encryption code on their frequency that is keeping us from being able to trace it."

"Hold up, Reese was captured by MECH? Why would they do that?"

"The details can wait, we are on a bit of a time crunch here," Fowler massaged the bridge of his nose, trying to release the tension from the stress headache that had been building since he arrived.

"Okay, let me get my computer pulled up."

"No time, you are going to need to come here and do it from the mainframe."

"I can't leave the house! It's WAAAAY past my bedtime, and if my mom sees that I'm not here, I'm going to be grounded for a lifetime!"

"This is a matter of life or death! If it comes down to it, I will speak with your mother personally after this is all said and done. Ratchet is opening a ground bridge, so get you're little hiney over here," Fowler ordered and then hung up the phone.

A moment later, the ground bridge opened and Raf came walking through, still wearing his favorite sports car themed pajamas and holding his laptop firmly against his chest. Fowler ushered him over to the mainframe so that he could do his thing.

"Whoa! What are they doing to Reese!?" Raf's eyes widened in horror as he took in what was on the screen before him.

"Don't worry about that right now. You need to focus on getting that communication link traced."

"Okay, okay," Raf went to work typing away on the keypad of the mainframe computer.

"Can you get through it?" Optimus asked Raf seriously.

"Not by conventional means, no, but I might have an idea that could work," Raf opened his laptop and connected it to the main computer. He began furiously typing away, becoming completely absorbed in the lines of code that appeared across his computer screen.

"What are you doing?" Fowler peered curiously over the boy's shoulder.

"Creating a virus that should be able to corrupt the encryption program they are using. It's a long shot, but its all we have to work with right now," Raf said as he adjusted his glasses.

"Do you think it will work," Fowler asked, still hovering over Raf's shoulder.

"It might, if you stop pestering me about it!" Raf snapped impatiently, turning back to his typing.

June walked over and pulled Agent Fowler back a bit, giving Rafael some room to work.

After several tense minutes of working, Raf finally had the virus coded and sent it through the channel to corrupt the encryption program.

"Well, I have done what I can. Let's hope it was enough," Raf adjusted his glasses again.

They all turned to look at the screen, gasping as Reese's heart rate reached a dangerously fast rate.

"No! You're killing her!" June screamed at the screen, watching as Reese's heart went into V-fib.

They all watched, breath held, unable to do anything but hope that Reese's heart was strong enough to pull through. After a few tense moments, Reese's heart finally came back into rhythm and slowed down to a normal rate. Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

Silas walked back over to the screen and gave a sinister grin, "Well, I hope you enjoyed the show, but I think you have seen enough for now." With that, he terminated the communication link.

"Oh no! The link!" June gasped, looking worriedly over to Raf, who was intently watching a loading bar on his screen.

"Was it enough time?" Optimus asked, looking down at Raf expectantly.

"… YES! I got it! I got the coordinates!" Raf jumped up, beaming widely.

"You did it!" Fowler scooped Raf up in a bear hug and swung him around excitedly, before setting the dizzy boy back down again. "Alright, time to call in the infantry."

"Hold that call, Agent Fowler." Optimus stopped the man from placing the call. "We will go in and retrieve Reese first, then you can come in with the military. Have them on standby until we have Reese safely off the premise."

"Understood!" Fowler saluted and placed the call to have the infantry put on standby until he gave the word for them to assemble and move in on the coordinates.

Ratchet opened a ground bridge to the coordinates that Raf had acquired and everyone, save the medic and the humans, went rushing through.

Optimus, followed by his team, came running through the ground bridge to find what appeared to be an old abandoned factory that had been turned into MECH's base. Finding Reese among all the different buildings could be a struggle.

"Alright Autobots, split up," Optimus ordered, sending his team in several different directions.

Optimus himself went for the largest and most central building on the lot. It made sense to start there, considering that the room they had seen Reese in had appeared to be quite large.

As he closed in on the building, he found himself suddenly surrounded by several MECH vehicles, soldiers inside them with weapons trained on him.

"Autobots, I believe I have found where they are keeping Reese. Join me at my coordinates," he informed his team before activating both of his blasters and pointing them at the surrounding MECH soldiers.

Within moments, the others arrived to bring their leader backup. "You deal with the MECH soldiers, I will get Reese," Optimus said as he turned from the others and attacked the main building, breaking a huge part of the wall away.

Inside, Optimus saw several MECH scientists transferring Reese to a gurney, undoubtedly attempting to evacuate the premises. He could not let that happen.

Running in, Optimus swiped at the scientists, sending them flying into the concrete walls of the large room. The sounds of pinging and ricocheting metal echoed through the room as several MECH soldiers opened fire on the Prime, but this did nothing to deter him from his mission. He picked up Reese, cradling and shielding her from the gunfire with his servos.

Looking down at her made his spark wrench. She didn't even look the same anymore. Both arms and legs had been altered with cybernetic enhancements, making them more metal than actual skin.

Optimus transformed around the girl, making sure that she was securely inside the cab of his vehicle form before speeding out of the base, still ignoring the mild sting of bullets leaving little dings in his metal frame. Once free of the actual structure of the building, he hailed the rest of his team.

"Autobots, fall back. Ratchet, open a ground bridge and give Agent Fowler the signal to send in the military. I have Reese and we are ready to return to base."

"Understood, I'm opening the ground bridge now," Ratchet replied, and almost as if on cue, a ground bridge opened about 100 yards away.

Optimus drove through it as quickly as possible, followed by the rest of Team Prime.

Back at the autobot base, Ratchet and Nurse Darby were ready and waiting. June had already pulled out a gurney for Reese to be placed on upon the Autobots' return.

Optimus transformed as soon as he came through the portal, holding Reese delicately in his servos.

"Place her here," June motioned to the gurney, and Optimus complied, laying Reese gently down on it.

June went to work checking Reese's vitals, but it was difficult to do with all the cybernetic enhancements getting in the way. "Ugh, I can't get a clear reading with all this metal in the way!" June sighed in exasperation.

"Here, let me try," Ratchet stepped forward.

"She is still a human, Ratchet, what good is your equipment going to do?" the nurse snapped.

"My equipment can be re-calibrated to scan human vital signs too, I will have you know," Ratchet retorted, not appreciating the nurse's tone.

"Fine," June yielded, moving back so that Ratchet could scan Reese. As much as she appreciated what the Autobots were doing for Earth, she couldn't help but feel that they brought more trouble than good to the humans around them.

Ratchet quickly re-calibrated his scanner and began running a diagnostic on Reese.

"By the Allspark!" he looked at his scanner in surprise.

"What is it, old friend?" Optimus came up behind Ratchet, looking from him to Reese and back with concern.

"That genetic mutation that Silas was going on about, it wasn't a mutation at all… it was CNA!"

"What's CNA?" June asked.

"Cyber Nucleic Acid, it's the building blocks of all Cybertronians," Ratchet explained.

"Well, why is the stuff in Reese? Did MECH put it there?"

"I don't think so, June. MECH has access to a lot of technology, but CNA is one thing I don't think they would be able to get their hands on. It would explain why Reese's body was able to adapt to the energon though. The only times I have ever heard of organics being merged with energon and Cybertronian tech was back during the war. Cybertronians were experimented on, tortured in an attempt to meld organic material with Cybertronian tech. That's where we coined the term 'techno-organic'. That still doesn't explain how Reese is one, though."

"Wait, you mean to tell me that Reese is some half human half robot android person? That doesn't make sense!" June looked at Ratchet as if he had just told her that unicorns were real.

"I'm just telling you what my scanners are picking up! I don't get it either," Ratchet snapped at June. His patience with the human nurse was running out very quickly.

"Well, your scanners must be faulty then," June concluded dryly.

"I'll show you who's faulty!" Ratchet yelled angrily, completely losing his temper with June. It was humans like her that tested his patience.

"That's enough, both of you. Arguing is not going to help Reese right now, nor is it going to give us answers," Optimus stepped into the argument, acting as mediator.

"Well, if you think Reese is better off being taken care of by some robot doctor, then that's fine by me. I have other patients who need my help back at the hospital," June retorted and turned from the autobots, climbed into her car, and drove out of the base in a huff.

"Good riddance," Ratchet grumbled under his breath, turning back to check on Reese.

Optimus vented and turned away from the others. He knew that June did not fully trust them, and he couldn't blame her for that, but he also wanted to know that he could trust her to be of help to them, and it was looking like that might be difficult from now on. He would need to have a talk with Ratchet, but now wasn't the right time for that. Everybody's nerves were frayed, and at that moment, the only thing that mattered was making sure that Reese was okay.

Okie Dokie, so before you guys hate on me for making June be a butt, hear me out. First of all, even in the show, she had been a little wary of the autobots. take that and put it on top of an extremely stressful situation, and she was bound to speak her mind and lose her temper. Also, it's Ratchet she is arguing with, he could make just about anybody lost their temper, so yea... there. I promise that she won't be like that forever, so don't worry.

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!