Hey all! Sorry, I meant to update over the weekend, but some health concerns in the family kept me busy. That and I've had this awful migrane from a cold, and if any of you have had migranes, you know that staring at a bright computer screen doesn't exactly help it any lol. Anyway, thank you all so so so very much for the reviews! Luv em! Anywho, here's the next update!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, but I DO own Cat! Any pilfering of my character will result in me whining, bitching, and moaning about it... Which believe me when I say my own brother wouldn't wish that fate on his own worst enemy... So please no stealy stealy...

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"Pit-born slag?" Cat was confused. She had heard Ironhide use Cybertronian curse words, but she had never heard "pit-born" used before.

"I hope that's your way of saying "Glad to see you two alive and well!" Doc…" the silver mech that could talk crossed his arms.

Ratchet looked to Cat, then back to the two smiling mechs sitting in front of him and sighed, "Something tells me that my workload just got a lot heavier…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cat crossed her arms, carefully, over her torso as she raised an eyebrow at the medic.

Ratchet, seemingly regretfully, began working on the other mech, fixing his speech processor as well.

"Between you and these two, I doubt that I'll ever get a full night's recharge again…" he snorted.

Cat laughed before succumbing to a sharp pain in her ribs, but replied, "If you remember correctly, I've managed not to injure myself since Mission City… Until today of course…"

"That's most likely because you had Sam's creators looking after you as if you were their own. You had no room to do anything foolhardy. Something tells me that, now that you have more freedom, you will be causing more trouble for yourself. It only took two weeks for you to break something, so I can only wonder what will be next, Catherine," he laughed.

Another "click", and the second mech's speech processor was fixed.

"So which one of you is which?" Cat asked.

The first mech spoke up, "I'm Sideswipe, this is Sunstreaker… Did Hatchet just call you "Catherine"?"

"Yeah, that's me," she smiled and laid back on the table to relax a bit, "You can call me "Cat" for short."

Cat suddenly heard several "BOOMS" approach and her head shot up from the table as she saw two silver Autobots at either side of her.

"We've heard a lot about you!" "Sideswipe" spoke cheerfully.

"Did you really take Starscream's head off?!" Sunstreaker asked.

Ratchet had been putting his tools away, but when he heard this question his cranial unit spun around on his shoulders, practically, and his optics went straight to Cat.

Cat's smile faded. It was a bit of a sore subject still.

"I'm afraid you have me mistaken," she closed her eyes, "My sister, Five, was the one who did that. Not me…"

"But… Didn't you fuse with her? So technically, you're both her and yourself and you-" Sideswipe was cut off.

"That's enough, you two. Cat needs to rest, and the both of you need to find an alternative form," Ratchet could see that the subject bothered Cat.

"Aw, but Hatch, we have so many things to-" Sunstreaker whined.

Ratchet scoffed, "I'm growing quite tired of hearing excuses today. Now do as I say, before I rewrite your programming!"

The twins grumbled but left the medical bay, leaving the room in a bit of silence. Ratchet looked over to Cat, who still had her eyes closed, but she was nowhere near a state of recharge.

"My apologies for them, Catherine. They didn't mean any harm by their questions, they just-"

"I know… And it's okay, I just… I'm still having trouble adjusting to everything… I dream every night about what it's going to take to live up to what I am… And what she was…" Cat barely whispered her reply.

And that's when Ratchet realized why Cat had been training. He gently leaned on the table, a soft look on his face.

"Look at me, Catherine," the girl's eyes opened and focused on the neon yellow mech, "The only thing that we are interested in is you living up to being yourself. Five may have been strong, physically, but you are the one that persevered. She was unable to keep her mental state balanced enough to overcome her hatred, and in the end it cost her, her life."

"I know… And if she had she'd still be here with us today…" Cat sighed.

"Yes, perhaps. But you would not have," Ratchet explained, "If Five had not eventually realized her faults, and called to you, you would have died of your illness," he reminded.

"Right…" Cat gave him a fake smile.

While speaking with the girl, Ratchet had monitored her stress levels, and noticed that they were a bit high and would spike each time she would move. He, carefully, scooped her up into his hands and placed her on a human-sized bed.

"I'm going to have one of the human physicians give you some pain medications," Ratchet informed her.

"Where are you going?" Cat asked.

"Those troublemakers are going to need some assistance in finding proper alternate forms, and I am the only other Autobot here to aid them in their search. I'll be checking in on you shortly," he replied.

Cat sighed and relaxed against the bed, in no mood to argue about her prolonged stay in the med bay, "All right…"

Ratchet smiled down at the girl and walked out. It wasn't more than a minute or so later that a human medic walked towards Cat, medication and a glass of water in hand.

The man looked over Cat and set the medicine and glass down on a cart next to the bed. He put a hand under her upper back and gave a gentle push up.

"Come on, you're going to need to sit up to take these," he ordered softly.

Cat complied and painfully sat herself up. The doctor handed her two pain pills, and she took them with ease. He, then, handed her two more pills and she looked at him confused.

"I was told to give you something else to aid your sleeping," he pressed.

Cat snorted, "I should have figured that he wanted a way to keep me here for a while without wondering if I'd leave before I was "supposed" to…" she took the pills, "who knows… Maybe I'll sleep for a few hours…"

Cat laid back down, the doctor leaving the room. She looked up to the tall ceiling, counting the tiles for about ten minutes before her eyes felt heavy, and her vision blurred. Even her left eye's computerized vision began to falter. And soon, she was resting.

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"Prowl?" Sam walked out from behind the house, approaching the two vehicles, "I thought that the new guys were supposed to meet the others out by the Dam?"

"I'm afraid my telemetry systems have failed me. However, Bumblebee's signature code was the first that I was able to pick up. So I configured a landing zone that would be the closest to him as possible. But I'm afraid that I might have caused a little uproar after landing…" Prowl explained.

"A little?!" Sam began, "You're on the news, everyone's worried that there's an invasion, the only thing that they can't figure out at the moment is what it was that caused all this!"

"… My apologies. Had I known that the area that I was landing in was exceptionally populated, I would have chose differently," Prowl apologized.

"Don't worry about it, Prowl. Optimus will be able to fix all of-" and that's when Bumblebee realized something.

"Bee? What's up?" Sam asked, a bit concerned at his friends' silence.

"I forgot to call back Optimus to tell him that it wasn't a threat!" he initiated his communications link and was quite for a moment.

After a minute of silence, Bumblebee looked to Prowl and asked, "Can you make it out to the Hoover Dam on your own? Optimus is asking if you require someone to accompany you."

"Actually, I doubt that I will be going too much farther as I am now," Prowl replied.

"Why's that?" Bumblebee asked.

"I was in a bit of a rush to find an alternate form, and when I did, some of my systems locked up on me. One of those systems is part of my motor function capabilities, which is locking up the rear axle of this form… In fact I believe that I am stuck right where I am…" Prowl explained.

Another minute of silence before Bumblebee spoke up, "Optimus says that it will be a while before Ratchet can get out here. I guess he stayed behind at the Dam even after the others were on their way. However, Optimus, Jazz and Ironhide are on their way."

"Why'd Ratchet stay behind?" Sam wondered aloud.

"I guess there are two other Autobots who needed repair. That and Cat managed to injure herself to the point of being unable to battle," the Camaro replied.

"Cat? What happened to her?!" Sam asked.

"I haven't asked the details, but apparently she's fine for now, so Ratchet's on his way here," Bumblebee replied.

Prowl looked to Sam and asked, "You are the Samuel James Witwicky from Optimus's report?"

Sam looked up to Prowl through his thoughts and replied, "Uh, yeah. That's me."

"And this "Cat" that you speak of, is this one of the other humans from the report?" the Mustang asked.

Bumblebee replied this time, "That's her, all right," he smiled, even though facial expressions couldn't be seen in his alt form.

"Why do they stay so much farther away from the rest of you?" Prowl continued with his questions.

"The American government conditioned the laboratories at the Hoover Dam to sustain Autobot life. Optimus and the others set up a base there as the headquarters for the alliance between the government and Autobots. Cat stays there for the purposes of learning more from us, and for security purposes," Bumblebee explained.

"Security purposes?" Prowl wondered.

"Well, if you have received the complete report, then you already know that Cat had once been a "project" of the governments. She was, herself, a secret that required the highest level of quiet. No one knew of her, not even the presidents that resided power over this nation. The agencies responsible for her were disbanded, some of the humans responsible for her were either jailed for their actions, readmitted into other government programs, or promised to their silence. There are many security risks that go along with all of that knowledge," the Camaro explained.

"I see… Bumblebee… What is that noise I hear in the distance?" Prowl asked.

Sam could hear it too.

"It sounds like… It sounds like a whole fleet of helicopters. And sirens…" the teen looked around the skies, trying to pinpoint the noises of the helicopters. He then ran out to the front of the house, where his parents were exiting the front door, looking around as well.

"Ron, where is all of that noise coming from?" Judy asked, looking down the eastern part of the street and seeing both sides of the roads crawling with black Crown Victoria's and high-end SUV's. Their windows completely black with tint, not even the setting sun could pierce through the darkened glass.

"Hey Bee?… Who else did you forget to call back?" Sam turned back and asked his friend.

"…Frag…" was all the Camaro could respond with.

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Cat didn't know how it was that she had gotten there, but all she knew now was that it wasn't where she wanted to be. The world around her was dark. Pitch black, actually. The only thing that she was aware of was that her feet were touching the ground. She looked all around her, but neither her human eye, nor the special lenses in her left eye, could see beyond the darkness.

"Ratch?! Optimus?!… Anyone there?!… Jazz? Ironhide?!… What the hell is going on here?!" she walked, but couldn't tell if she was going anywhere.

Cat stopped dead in her tracks. She could feel a chill roll up her spine and spun around to look behind her.

"Who's there?! I know you're there somewhere!" she growled.

"Seven" a voice whispered softly, making her gasp in shock. Cat could feel someone's hot breath on the back of her neck.

She spun around again, only to come face to face with the figure of an older man. His hair was streaked with black and gray, his face was stern. The man had small, brown eyes, crows feet off to the sides of them, with dark bags underneath. His mouth was curved into a small frown. He was wearing a black suit, with a black tie, his hands in his pockets.

Cat backed up several feet from this man and stood in a defensive position yelling, "Who the hell are you?!"

"You've gotten so big… I always worried as to whether or not we'd see you full grown, but here you are," he gave a frail smile.

Cat was caught off guard by this. She backed up further, her eyes dead centered on this person.

"What happened to you to make you have a feature of Eight?" he asked.

"Are… Are you from the government?" Cat asked.

"I suppose you could say that…" he walked towards Cat.

She tried to back up, but the dark world seemed to shrink. Her back hit a wall, he was getting closer, which prompted Cat to growl, "I'm warning you now, I don't take kindly to random human strangers… Especially the ones that call me by my project name…"

The man stopped just a couple of feet away from her, "I would have expected this sort of behavior from Eight, but not from you, Seven," he tried to scold, "Did something happen after you escaped to make this change in you?"

Cat was about to say something when she heard, what sounded to be, giggles of some sort. Like two, overgrown children laughing at something quietly. This caused the man to look around just as Cat was.

Suddenly the world around her began to glow brightly. A white light drowned everything in sight, including the strange figure, which caused Cat to put a hand over her eyes and flinch.

"I'll be watching you…" the man's voice was the last to be heard.

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Cat's vision blurred into perspective. She could feel herself regaining her motor functions as her arms and legs lethargically moved to her will. She could still hear the giggles and fits of laughter. She, immediately pushed her dream out of her mind.

Sitting up in bed, Cat could finally make out the figures in the distance of the med lab. The two, familiar figures of the silver twins were looking through the main screen at pictures of cars.

Cat groaned tiredly, the two Autobots turning to see what the noise was from across the room.

"It's about time!" one announced.

"Is it normal for humans to sleep for eleven "hours" like that?" the other chimed in.

"Eleven… hours?" Cat's mind was slowly catching up, "Wait… So it's-"

"If what Wheeljack has taught us about human elements of time, it's six o'clock on…" the first one turned to the other.

"I believe the term is "Monday morning"…" the other helped.

Cat looked around, "Wheeljack is back?"

"Yeah, it turned out that there was no Decepticon attack. It was just another Autobot. But, apparently he was unable to move so the Hatchet went to fix him, and Jack and Blue came back to the base since there was no emergency. Jack's been helping the humans in looking after you and told us to stay… quiet… so we wouldn't…" the first mech looked to the other.

"Wake you…" the other finished.

Cat chuckled, "If I've been asleep for eleven hours, then it was about time for me to get up anyway."

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Cat touched her feet to the ground easily. She could feel less pain in her sore ribs. -They must already be healing- she cracked a smile out of the corners of her mouth.

-I tried telling them that I was all right… But noooo… They plucked me off of my bike, left it there in the desert and brought me back… here… OH CRAP!- Cat's thoughts suddenly remembered that her motorcycle was still hidden in the middle of the desert.

To the two mech's surprise, the girl suddenly shot out of the med bay, looking frantic.

"Where's she going?" Sideswipe asked.

Sunstreaker turned back to the computer screen, looking over more pictures of vehicles, "Who knows? We're not human-sitters."

Sideswipe shrugged and also turned back to the computer screen.

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-Previous night in Tranquility-

After having a long conversation with Captain Lennox, Bumblebee and Sam were able to have their friend call off the government reinforcements. Ron And Judy were able to fend off the neighbor's prying eyes as they explained that there was a short in their alarm system on the house which prompted calling the police and fire units. Lennox, however, stayed behind to catch up with the group after not having seen them in a couple of months.

"I really do apologize for not informing you sooner, Captain," Bumblebee couldn't have been any more apologetic.

"Call me Will. And it's all right Bee. Better safe than sorry anyway. If you hadn't contacted me, and it turned out to be a Decepticon, things might have gotten ugly, and people might have gotten hurt. I'd much rather be called to a false alarm, than find out that help would come too late," Will replied with a smile.

"Yes, I agree… Will," It calmed Bumblebee a little knowing that if Lennox saw it that way, then hopefully Optimus would as well.

Thinking of the Autobot leader seemed to prompt the arrival to the residence. Sam could hear the loud diesel engine purr, along with the squealing of three sets of brakes.

"I'll go meet them," Sam volunteered as he dashed to the front of the house and crept up to the brightly painted Peterbilt, "You guys should go through the back alley of the house, the whole neighborhood is on alert since the little visit from the government."

An affirmative came from Optimus as his engine rumbled to life, the GMC Topkick and Pontiac Solstice following in suit. Not more than a minute later, Sam had the gates to the alley opened up so that the three could stroll into the backyard without having to transform and show themselves.

"I thought Ratchet was coming with you guys?" Sam asked, noticing the unaccounted mech.

"He'll be here shortly. He stayed behind to look after two of our newest arrivals, and to look after Catherine, but he wasn't far from us after we sent Wheeljack and Bluestreak back to the base," Optimus replied.

As he spoke, the familiar sound of a small moped closed in on the driveway from behind Prowl. Mikaela pulled up, a worried look appeared on her face as she was a few feet away from the mustang. Sam was smiling at her arrival until he suddenly realized that she had no idea what was going on at the moment. He rushed towards her as she slowly took a few steps back, having dismounted from her moped.

"Is… Is that who I think it is?" she asked, her blue eyes wide in fear.

"It's all right, it's all right!" Sam caught up to her and put a comforting arm around her back, looking back to the mustang, "He's not who you think he is. This is Prowl, another Autobot."

Mikaela looked to Sam in disbelief, "Why does he look like-"

"Barricade, yes, so I've heard…" Prowl finished her sentence in a grumble.

Optimus drove further into the yard, approaching closer, "It's very good to see you, Prowl. I'm glad you managed to receive my message."

"Yes, I was only relieved to know that there was still a Prime in existence… I was starting to think that Autobots were more rare than I previously believed," Prowl replied grimly.

"Yes, there for a while we were starting to wonder ourselves. But we've been very lucky to have so many recruits join us already. Hopefully, more will be arriving over time," the leader agreed.

"Hey Optimus," Sam began as he and Mikaela trekked over towards the three mechs, "Bumblebee mentioned that something happened to Cat, is she all right?"

Ironhide and Jazz seemed to recoil a little, but Will and Mikaela suddenly perked up at this question.

"Something happened to Cat?" Mikaela asked.

"It wuz jes an accident…" Jazz responded.

Optimus chuckled a little and answered, "Yes, she's fine. She was involved in a minor accident on her motorcycle."

"I hardly consider it minor," the familiar mutterings of a cranky medic could be heard in the back alleyway as a neon yellow hummer ambulance pulled through the open gate.

"Hey Ratch," Sam smiled warmly.

"Good evening Sam, Mikaela. Ah, Captain Lennox, it's good to see you as well," Ratchet commented.

"Please, call me Will," Lennox chuckled.

"My apologies, Will. As I was saying, a human breaking any part of their internal structure is hardly considered minor," the medic continued.

"She broke something?!" Mikaela asked, a bit shocked.

"Yes, she broke two of the ribs that are part of her human components. They will heal quickly because of her advanced healing abilities, but it's still worrisome," Ratchet replied gruffly.

"Hrm? Why's that?" Ironhide was confused.

The hummer sighed, "It's worrisome because with human anatomy, even a small scratch could erupt into infection, which could be deadly."

Sam, Mikaela and Will all laughed a little in relief.

"Ratch, all humans take that risk with even a little scratch. It's hardly worried about anymore as long as any wounds are cleaned right," Sam explained, "You're just being overly critical."

"Perhaps an average human would not think twice about it, but Catherine is not your average human. There is an increased chance that even a common human illness could kill her."

"But, "Will questioned, "I thought that after fusing with that other girl, her immune system would stave off things like infections and illnesses?"

"The problem with that, is that fusing with Five may have healed her from the sickness that nearly killed her, but she still has her original genes. If her immune system fails over one, single infection, it could kill her," the medic explained.

"Yeah, but… We don't know that her new immune system would fail. She could be completely healthy for the rest of a long life," Sam rebutted.

"But we wouldn't know that it wouldn't fail either," Ratchet grumbled, "There is little that we know of, at this time, about Catherine's immune system. The only thing guaranteed is that there is a fifty percent chance that an infection could be nothing… And there is a fifty percent chance that she wouldn't survive something as small as a paper cut."

The entire backyard went silent for a moment before there was small revving from Prowl's engine, causing everyone to look back to him.

"My apologies for breaking the silence, but I do not wish to be stuck here for too long," the mustang's flat tone didn't sound even remotely irritated.

The others were about to transform when Will stopped them, "Whoa, whoa! You might want to wait until the early hours of the morning to do that. This neighborhood is still on alert, and we should wait to be sure that everyone is asleep before you guys show your true forms and scare everyone."

"Agreed. We will wait a while longer before Ratchet repairs Prowl, and early tomorrow morning we will make our way back to the base," Optimus laid out the plan.

-End Previous Night's Flashback-

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It was about six-thirty in the morning, and Wheeljack was finished looking around the Autobot laboratory that had been set up for their engineering needs. He had thought about going to check out this basement facility, when the thought of checking up on Cat had crossed his mind.

Walking into the medical bay, the engineer looked to the small human bed and saw that it was vacant. Looking around the bay, Jack caught a glimpse of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, still looking through pictures of sports cars.

"Did either of you two see where Catherine went off to?" he asked.

Without even turning to him, one of the twins answered, "We don't know where she went, but she seemed like she was in an awful big hurry to get there."

The engineer frowned behind his faceplate, his sky blue optics glaring at the two younger mechs.

"I wish you would have informed me about it. Ratchet gave me specific orders to keep an optic on the kid… He'll probably blow a gasket if he finds out that I've misplaced her," he shuddered.

Just then, Bluestreak walked by the med bay as Wheeljack turned to leave in order to look for Cat.

"Morning Jack!" a cheerful smile from the gunner.

"Bluestreak, you haven't seen Catherine around have you?" the engineer hoped that he had.

"Actually, I have! Just a little while ago I saw her running down the hall towards the hangers. I asked her where she was off to and she mentioned something about someone leaving her motorcycle out in the desert and that she had to go and get. She said that she would be back soon, but that's all I heard, really," he rambled.

Wheeljack mentally cursed himself. Oh yeah, Ratchet was going to have a fit about this… The engineered sighed. Not even a full daily cycle on Earth, and he was already getting into trouble…

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The place where they had left her bike was less than two miles from the dam, so Cat decided to hoof it. She'd just ride the bike back, and not worry about having to walk any farther than she'd have to. The thought of asking either Jack or Blue to take her out there had crossed her mind, but she felt as if she could do this under her own strength, so she didn't bother them. She took a small backpack with a couple bottles of water and wore a plain, white baseball cap to divert the sun from absorbing it's warm rays into her dark hair, which would cause her to overheat.

Cat had almost made it out to the horseshoe of rock and canyon when a sandstorm began to develop. She took refuge under a small rock formation to wait out the storm.

"Great… These things could last for hours… If I don't make it back before the others do, I'll catch it from Ratchet and Optimus for sure…" Cat sighed and sat back against the rock "cave", sipping on a cold bottle of water.

Lucky enough for Cat, the sandstorm began to falter, the intense winds dying down just a bit. Cat was staring off into space when she noticed a small glimmer of light in the far distance. Her mind zeroed in on the object, and her left eye zoomed in on the shimmering light. She scanned the surrounding area before seeing what was reflecting the sun's early morning rays.

"The bike!" she yelled gleefully, "It's a lot closer than I thought it was! I hope it's not too messed up…"

After the winds died down so that the storm was hardly a threat any longer, Cat decided to brave what was left of the storm and make a run for the bike. She put the water back into the backpack and threw it over her shoulders. Putting her right arm up to block the winds that were kissing her right cheek, Cat managed to arrive to her motorcycle.

"I must have passed out for a few minutes… I don't remember putting all of these rocks and debris over it to cover it up…" Cat said to herself as she began to pull the small fragments and sheets of metal from over her prized possession.

As Cat worked, feverishly, to free the two-wheeler from it's burial, her left eye began picking up heat signatures. Her head perked up, looking around the tall ridges of rock that surrounded her.

-Probably a coyote or something…- Cat shrugged as she turned back to her bike.

Finally removing the last of the rock fragments, Cat knelt down and picked the bike up from it's laying position. Feeling her sore ribs protesting against the movement, Cat snaked her right arm around the opposite handlebar and yanked it upright. She sat the bike on it's kickstand and looked it over.

"Ah! Much better! A few scuffs, but nothing I can't buff out!" she grinned as she knelt back down to check it over.

Before Cat could realize it, her left eye began beeping with a severe warning, that several bio-signals were closing in on her and fast. She whirled around and noticed five men standing around her.

"Don't think so," a burly man stepped closer from the left, "We found it first! Ain't no desert rat gonna take it out from under us!"

Cat was about to retaliate with a smart remark when she saw two of the men were holding small firearms in their possession. She sighed.

-Today's going to be longer than yesterday, I'm afraid…- she thought grimly.

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Chapter Teaser!

"I told ya we shoulda had one o' us stay behind! If we woulda waited for that guy to get here with his truck, it woulda been gone by the time we got back!" a skinnier man in flannel, blue jeans and a red hat spat at one of the others.

"Good thing we decided to turn back then, huh?" the man on the far right chimed in with a smirk.

"Go on then! Get on outta here and don't let us catch ya nearby til we leave with this, here, machine!" the man on the left waved an arm, motioning for Cat to leave, but she only crossed her arms, saying nothing in return.

"Don't think she got the point, Lou," the skinnier man in the middle gave a toothy grin, all five of the men taking a few steps closer.

"Pretty, young thing, ain't ya? It'd be a real shame if you got that face all messed up…" he continued.