Notes: This time around, we introduced to the human characters.

It had been well over a month since the Nemesis had gone down in what the Decepticons now know as the Nevada desert. Luckily for them, the crash was in fairly close proximity to a human military base that had been setup to shield the downed Decepticon cargo ship, the Harbinger, and so the now Megatron's half-functional capital ship was hidden behind restricted lines as well. In this short period of time since their arrival, the Decepticons had taken on Earth alternate modes, as agent Fowler had made it explicit that they had to keep their presence on Earth a secret.

Now that the Decepticons had acclimated to their directive of being "robots in disguise", there was little more to do other than scouting for energon, of which the planet had been seeded with plenty of the stuff a long time ago, and keeping an ever watchful optic on the sky above, incase any Autobot ships came looking for them.

Driving across the back roads of the Nevada deserts, Airachnid was out on one of her usual patrols around the vicinity of their crashed base of operations. She had been on this planet long enough to have already taken in many of the sights, natural and human-made, but she had always been partial to their base's location.

She had been away from base for no more than an hour or two at this point, enjoying her peaceful patrol in solitude, only having to comm a report back to base whenever Soundwave or St-3 checked in on her. Airachnid found it funny, really. For so long, it had been just been their little scouting party, of Barricade, Blackout, and herself here on Earth, sometimes going days without contacting each other. Now, with the arrival of the Decepticon top brass, they slowly had to return to the standard protocol.

"Well, it sure sounds nice that you guys had the run of the place," St-3 crackled over the comms back to her, during one such routine check-in. "I'm not surprised you did, though. If I was an Autobot, I would steer clear of any solar system that had three of the finest Decepticon warriors in it!"

"Yeah? You're not too bad yourself. What was that story you always tell? The one about how you and your batalion defended an entire city for 700 years."

"Eh, beginner's luck. My troops and I had just completed basic training, and happened to be in the area when we caught word of the Autobots breaking through the front lines."

"Always the modest one," Airachnid chuckled. However, she wouldn't be laughing for much longer.

As Airachnid came turn off the road she was on, now headings towards a human town, she activated her holomatter avatar, and rolled down the streets of Jasper, Nevada. As she turned down a street, close to the centre of the somewhat-small town, two black and dark purple muscle cars came out of nowhere, and started following her. She looked back, noticing that they had Autobot insignia on their grills.

"Autobots finally showed up, huh? Lets see if we can't shake em'." She said, as she turned down another street, and then again at random. Once she thought that she had confused them enough, she pulled into what the humans called a "drive-in" and let her holomatter avatar dissipate. Just then, she realised that she wasn't alone. Sitting at a table nearby was two young humans, who thankfully paid her no mind.

…

"Alright, that's the basics on advanced geometry. Any questions Miko?... Miko, were you even paying attention?" a young boy in a yellow sweater with brown hair said annoyedly. The girl who he had been talking with, was plucking at the strings of her guitar in boredom. She had streaks of bright red in her hair and a shirt of some rock band. Miko looked up from her guitar, and pulled off her headphones.

"Yeah, yeah, I was listening to ya', Raf. I was just hoping that you would have made it less, you know, boring!" she exclaimed.

"Well, how would you have liked to learn the material? A rock ballad about it?"

"Ew, no! That sounds like something they would play on some cheap kids show."

Raf sighed, as he picked up his bag and got up. "Well, I gotta go Miko. See you at school tomorrow. And remember what I said,"

"Yes.'Study, study, study.' Hard to forget." Miko said with a small laugh, as she picked up her own belongings and left soon after.

'What a relief,' Airachnid thought to herself, as she let out a heavy vent, glad that they never even gave her a glance. As she observed the surrounding area, she determined that it was time to get going again. Before she could, another human, slightly older than the other two, stepped out of the drive in she was parked at. He brushed something off is his clothing, and pulled out his phone. "Hi mom… yeah, work went fine… I'll be home soon… Be careful, really? This is Jasper, what kind of things could happen here?"

Placing his phone back into his pocket, Jack started to walk back home after his tiring shift at work. Just as Airachnid had thought he hadn't seen her, he turned and couldn't take his eyes off of her. "Hello beautiful, where have you been all my life?" he exclaimed as he walked up to the motorcycle. He ran his hands over the handlebars, than took a seat. "You're incredible. As much as I want to, I'm not sure if I am ready to take a ride on a masterpiece like you."

'By Primus, is this how all humans treat their vehicles?' Airachnid thought to herself.

"Are you really talking to your motorbike, Jack?" a new voice said.

Jack looked up, meeting the eyes of an amused looking girl about his age.

"Talking to it?... No no no, and it's not mine. Just admiring it, that's all. How are you Sierra?" Jack quickly stammered, trying, and somewhat succeeding, to act casual.

"Same-old, same-old, I guess." she said with a shrug. "Not like theres anything new or exciting in Jasper anyways."

Suddenly, the roar of engines was heard, as two dark colored muscle cars pulled into the parking lot, and shined their high-beams onto the two teenages and the robot in disguise next to them. As the two cars charged at them, Sierra ran out of their way. Airachnid, however, bolted off, with Jack still in the seat. She charged right towards the two attackers, and scraped right between them, sparks flying as their metal bodies ran across each other.

As they darted down the street, Jack finally came to his senses, and cried out, "What's going on?!"

"Do not let go!" Airachnid snapped at him.

"Who said that?" Jack exclaimed, looking around for where the voice could have come from.

The two Autobots finally caught up to them both, each on either side of Airachnid and her stowaway human. Airachnid caught on fast, and braked hard, getting behind the two, letting them slam right into each other. With their pursuers in a daze, she quickly ducked into an alleyway.

Jack jumped off the sentient motorcycle, and stared at it in confusion.

"What even are you?" he asked shakily.

"I don't exist," Airachnid quickly snapped, "If you tell anyone about me, I will hunt you down."

Scared out of his mind, Jack ran off down another alleyway, as the two Autobots finally caught up to Airachnid. Looking back, she noticed one of them duck down the path that the human had taken.

"Scrap" she said, as she turned back around to try and save the human. She revved up, and used the Autotrooper as a ramp, jumping right over them. Driving down the same alley she had seen Jack and the other Autotrooper go down, she saw the two up ahead. The dark muscle car was ramming past everything in its path, gaining ground on the helpless human.

Airachnid maneuvered around the Autobot, and got up bedies Jack.

"Hop on!" She said. He quickly followed suit, and the two sped away as their pursuers regrouped, and continued the chase. Nearing the open freeway, the two Autobots transformed parts of their front end, revealing blasters, and began to open fire upon the Decepticon and her unwitting human accomplice.

"Why are those guys shooting at us?" Jack yelled out over the noise of the busy freeway.

"There's no 'us', kid. And those aren't guys." Airachnid replied sternly.

As Airachnid bobbed and weaved in between traffic, the two Autobots were brutishly pushing ramming aside any vehicles in their way. Coming up behind them however, was another muscle car, not too much unlike them, in a vibrant blue, with white racing stripes over it. The newcomer crashed right into one of the Autotroopers, sending all three of them spinning out. This blue muscle car, as if just to show off, kicked into reverse, and managed to brake and turn back to catch up with the white motorcycle.

"A friend of yours?" Jack asked hastily, looking back at the newcomer.

"Family," Airachnid replied, in a more gentle tone than before.

…

Raf, still having some spare time that day, had gone down the street from his home to race his RC car under the bridge. He was enjoying himself, making general race car sounds as he steered around a miniature obstacle course he set up.

He was pulled from his own little world, as he heard the sound of an engine roaring, and it was getting close. Very close. He looked up just in time to see a white motorcycle fly right over his head, and land only a few yards away.

Dumbfounded at what he saw, he dropped his controller, simply saying, "Woah," with a look of amazement on his face.

Jack, looking up at the younger boy, sighed. "You have… no idea" he huffed, as he caught his breath from all the excitement he had gone through, slowly getting off of the motorcycle.

Just then, the same two dark muscle cars came roaring down the hill. As they descended, they transformed mid-air, revealing themselves to the humans.

Then, the motorbike transformed as well, revealing a smaller looking robot than the Autotroopers.

"This ends here, Autobots." She said, as she began charging towards them. The two Autotroopers opened fire, their bright red laser blasts focused on the lone Decepticon. Airachnid kept running at them, miraculously dodging their storm of blaster fire. As she got close, she leapt up into the air, and came crashing down on one. She flipped back, and kicked the other Autotrooper in the face, and started to go to dtown on them. She almost felt bad for the poor fraggers, they must not have known how skilled of a warrior they would be up against.

Meanwhile, the two young humans watched from the sidelines, in awe of what they were witnessing.

"What are they?" Raf asked.

"Talking cars that turn into robots. Or the other way around." Jack replied, neither of them taking their eyes off the fight taking place before them.

Just as Airachnid had thought she had beaten her opponents, they both got back up, and opened fire once more. She began to leap backwards, trying to avoid being hit, but a shot got her right in her chest, knocking her down.

Then, from up above on the freeway, the same blue muscle car as before came speeding off the edge of the bridge, and transformed, revealing a vaguely similar, yet distinctly different build to that of the Autotroopers, landing right on top of one of the Autobot attackers, and slammed his fist right into the face of the other one.

Stepping back from his handiwork, he heard a crunch under his foot. He tensed up a little, and looked down under himself. It was Raf's RC toy that had been crushed.

"Ah scrap. Sorry about that, kid." St-3 said apologetically.

"It's no problem, really." Raf said.

Just then however, the blue Decepticon took a large blast to the chest, and was sent flying. The two Autobots approached, looming over St-3 as he was pinned down.

"Leave him alone!" Raf shouted out, in a moment of bravery. The two assailants looked over to where he was. "Please?…" he continued, meekly.

One of the Autotroopers started to walk over to where the humans were, as Jack and Raf started to run away. Luckily, there was a drainage pipe nearby, and they reached it just in time. The large dark robot reached inside to grab them, but was thwarted when St-3 finally took them down.

Looking back as he continued to run, Raf only managed to say, "Thank you," back to the large blue warrior.

…

While St-3 was taking care of the safety of the two humans, Airachnid had been just barely holding off the second Autobot. The two Decepticons were cornered, in a battle of even match. Then, the blaring of a horn could be heard, as a big orange armored truck drove right into one of the Autobots, offlining them instantly. Breakdown transformed, and shifted his left hand into a large hammer.

"Trust me, 'Bot. If you don't wanna end up like your friend here, you'd better scram."

With that, the last Autotrooper looked to his fallen comrade, and transformed, speeding away.

Back onboard the Nemesis, Airachnid and St-3 were reporting on the day's situation. And as was expected, Megatron was not taking the news of the Autobots' arrival on Earth all too well. In fact, as soon as the mere mention of their presence came up, he dropped everything, and doubled Decepticon patrols around the globe. When he had finished distributing his new set of orders, he resumed with the briefing.

"And I belive you mentioned something about a human, Airachnid?" Megatron said, turning to the two who had been involved in the event.

"Two boys, to be exact." St-3 chimed in from his seat at their makeshift meeting room, in the next room over from the bridge of the warship.

"I guess the second one caught us in action?... I dunno, was a little preoccupied at the time." Airachnid said.

Megatron hung his head down, pondering something. After a few moments, he looked up to them again. "If the Autobots have truly arrived at full force, then anyone perceived as our ally will be at grave risk…"

It was the day after the 'event', as Jack walked down the steps of his high school, after a long and boring day of classes. Just as he reached the bottom of the steps, something caught his eye. Raf was waving at him to come over.

"Raf, hey." he said, waving at him. "Look, lets just keep this between us and forget anything ever happened, ok?" But before he could continue, Raf pointed out the same blue and white muscle car from the day before.

"Jack, look!" Raf exclaimed, as it pulled up alongside the two of them. The passenger side door swung open, revealing a young man in a dark pants, gray shirt, and a dark blue and white jacket that resembled the car's paint job, and his eyes were hidden behind blue tinted sunglasses. But as soon as it appeared, a few second later, the person in the driver's seat was gone.

"Don't worry kid, nothing but a hologram. Hop in, I've got a lot of explaining to do."

"Well, I'd rather not go anywhere with you." Jack said cautiously.

St-3 chuckled at this. "Don't worry, you won't be. Your ride is over there."

With that, Jack turned around, seeing the ever familiar white and gray motorcycle from yesterday.

Jack sighed, mumbling some obscenity under his breath. "Look, I really don't that-"

"How's it going?" Raf asked, cutting off Jack as he closed the door, and drove off with St-3.

He turned back, looking at the mysterious motorcycle that has entered his life. He stood there a few moments, staring it down, before he started to walk away.

…

Miko wasn't much of an artist, unless it was in musical arts. But, when an unfamiliar build of motorcycle parked itself right out front of her high school, well, she started trying her best at taking down the image on a bit of scrap paper she managed to fish out of her bag.

"Coolest. Bike. Ever." she said to herself, looking up at it once again.

Her phone rang, distracting her for a moment. "Host parents? Ignore." she said, placing it back in her pocket. When she looked back up again, the motorbike was gone.

However, she saw it speed past out of the corner of her eye, and she ran after it.

…

Jack had ducked down an old disused side street, hoping to keep away from that damned motorbike that kept showing up. But before he could react, it had sped in front of him, turning to face him head on.

"Easy, I just want to talk with you." Airachnid said

"Don't you mean you and your new friend?" Jack retorted angrily, gesturing at the nondescript rider on the bike.

"Kid, there's a lot that you don't understand." Airachnid said, trying to keep calm with the stubborn human.

"No its cool, I get it. First rule of robot fight club, is don't talk about robot fight club. But you have to understand that I don't want a bunch of talking vehicles following me around trying to get me killed!"

Airachnid transformed, letting out a heavy vent. "Look. Jack, is it? Your personal safety is exactly why Megatron has requested your presence."

"Wait, Mega-who?"

"Jack, your safety is at risk because you are one of the few, one of the only who have ever seen us!" Airachnid exclaimed, trying her best to keep some level of composure.

"Dude, what are you waiting for? Go with the cool robo-lady!" Miko exclaimed, as she came out from behind a corner.

"Scrap." Airachnid said in a tone of annoyance.

As the two Decepticons, who the humans had now learned to be Airachnid and St-3V3, and their human passengers were driving through the middle of nowhere, Airachnid and Jack where having a hard time putting up with Miko, who kept asking questions and screaming in excitement.

"Remind me, why are we bringing her?" Jack asked.

"Rules." Airachnid responded.

Soon enough, they had reached the edges of a region of rocky terrain and canyons. As the small convoy drove as if they were to crash into a cliff, a secret door slid open, revealing a tunnel. As they drove through, they eventually exited out the other side, at what appeared to be a fully developed military base. In the middle of the large compound, was a massive spaceship, though clearly it was crash site. Off to one side in an open area, a group of robots similar to St-3 were undergoing some sort of training exercise. In another area, a gathering of trucks and cars were racing around a dirt track, with a few onlookers watching and cheering.

As they drove up to the ship itself, the humans got out of the Decepticons as they transformed.

"Jack, Miko, Raf. Welcome aboard the Nemesis." Airachnid said, gesturing at the large vessel they stood in front of.

"Yep, home sweet home." St-3 said with a laugh, as they started their journey to the bridge.

It took a while, as Raf and Miko kept wanting to run off and explore the whole ship, but after a while, they finally reached the bridge.

The large room was fairly sparse at the time, other than a few Vehicons,there was a tall dark mech with some sort of robotic cat curled around his legs, typing away at a terminal, and two other ones, a large orange and gray one and a pale blue one with red markings, were talking and laughing about something on the other side of the room.

The two from the other side of the room came over first,and started talking with St-3 about something in some unrecognisable language. The robotic cat noticed the new arrivals as well, and strode over to them, curious about them. The tall one looked over as well, at the tree new humans.

"Inquiry: You reported only two human youths?" Soundwave asked.

"Haven't you heard? They multiply." Airachnid said jokingly.

"Hi, I'm Jack..." the eldest one said.

"I'm Raf." said the youngest one, waving up at those around them.

"I'm Miko. Who are you?" she asked, walking up to the big orange 'con nearby.

"Name's Breakdown." He replied, a little hesitant at how quickly she asked.

"Are you a car? I bet your a truck, a monster truck! You like heavy music? How much do you weigh? You probably use a wrecking ball. No! A giant hammer?" Miko asked quickly, leaving little room for Breakdown to get a word in.

"So, if your robots, who made you?" Raf asked to noone in particular.

"Ugh, please." Knockout said indignantly.

Behind them, the door to the bridge opened, as two more Cybertronians stepped in. One was red and silver, and their wings gave away that they could fly. The other one, had a tall and bulky build, but their face seemed calm and friendly. He smiled down at them, before kneeling to talk to them on a better level.

"Greetings, young ones. I am Megatron, leader of the Decepticons. Do not let the name fool you, it was a name given to us by those who opposed us, but we have taken it and stride, and now seek to thwart the deception of others, and defend others from tyranny." Megatron said.

"Why are you here on Earth?" Jack asked.

"To defend both your world and ourselves from the Autobots."

"The clowns that tried to bump us off the other day." Airachnid chimed in.

"Ok, but why are they here too?"

Megatron stood up, and walked over to the central terminal on the bridge. He started pulling up image and video files showing their homeworld of Cybertron.

"In part, because of us. A long time ago, we hid caches of energon and munitions upon the Earth, before humans even came into existence. When we fled our home at the end of our war, we choose to retreat here."

"Why were you fighting a war?" Raf asked.

"Mainly, we fought over political power and resources. Millions of years ago, a corrupt senate ruled over our home world of Cybertron. They dictated everything to the people, and very few members of society held any power at all. Depending on one's optic color, frame size, and alternate mode, you would be placed into a caste, and could never move up in the world. In the beginning of the war, I fought alongside one I called brother, a library clerk named Orion Pax. One day, he was granted the 'honor' of becoming a Prime, a spiritual and cultural leader of Cybertron and it's colony worlds. However, the newfound power changed him for the worse, and he split off, founding the Autobots." Megatron said, stopping on an image of the purple and blue warlord.

"Ok, so you don't want us to talk about this, got it. And you also want to protect us? Great, fine. But something tells me you want something from us, right?" Miko said, now perched atop Breakdown's shoulder.

"You are correct, Miko. For you see, we are still strangers to this world, very few of us having any interactions with humans, and up until now it has been military and government personnel. What I had in mind was you acting more along the lines as guides for us while we are on your world." Megatron replied.

The kids looked at each other, in silent contemplation. After a few moments, Jack stepped forward a little. "You can count us in." he said.

The Lost Light: Somewhere on Earth's Moon.

"You insolent maggot, I can't believe you let the Decepticons escape!" Ultra Magnus yelled, as he kicked the downed Autotrooper once again. "At the very least, you should have stood your ground, and died out there like your fellow Autobot!"

"Lay off him, Magnus." Rodimus said from his commanders chair on the bridge, as he toyed around with a dagger. "We have to make sure to have as minimal casualties as possible. We can't exactly ask Iacon to send us more troops if we have our afts handed to us and lose everyone."

Ultra Magnus strode over to Rodimus, leaving the battered Autotrooper on the ground.

"Well I for one would rather we do something about the Decepticons down on that planet sooner than later. Wipe them out before they can regroup and attack Cybertron." He said, staring down his commander.

"Wipe them out how exactly? Just wait for them to come out of their hidden base and attack whoever it is at full force?" Rodimus said.

"Ideally, yes."

Rodimus stood up, waving his knife around nonchalantly. He looked back at the Autotrooper that Magnus had been tormenting, and watched as Bumblebee assisted them out of the bridge, and hopefully to the medbay. Before he left, his black and yellow brother shot him a look that he knew all too well. Rodimus turned abruptly back to Ultra Magnus, who had apparently was still rambling about some great plan of his, and slapped him right across the face-plate.

"You wanted on this mission, so I'll be putting you to work. You get to be on the next team down to that 'Con infested rock." Rodimus said, in an aggressive tone he unintentionally picked up from his sire.

And with that, he subspaced his dagger, and left the bridge in a hurry. He knew 'Bee had some choice words for him this time.