Optimus batted aside a vehicon with one arm, the other in blade form to block a blow from Megatron. Nearby, Arcee and Bullhead were in similar situation, respectively engaging Airachnid and Breakdown, each with their own force of vehicons. The fight had only just begun, but Optimus sorely wanted it over - beyond his disdain for fighting, the longer he was engaged with Megatron, the more likely the Animorphs would suffer casualties against the Yeerks, and Optimus refused to let that happen.

He would fight to save all species - it was who he was.

In the nearby forest, Fowler was watching the ensuing conflict with feelings of helplessness - much as he wanted to, there wasn't a thing he could do to help. Being a squishy human made fighting against robotic organisms difficult, especially if they dwarfed you in size. Reinforcements we're on the way, but for now, all he could do was watch…or maybe not.

"Ratchet, Raf, where are our new friends?"

"About two miles to the South-East," was the Hispanic boy's reply. "They're engaged with the Yeerks and…well, I don't have any words from them, but it isn't looking good."

For this operation, Team Prime had had their base computer hooked up to several unmanned aerial vehicles, which they were using to observe both fights. While the Autobots were managing well enough, the same could now be said of the Animorphs - their battle morphs paled in comparison to the monster that the Yeerk leader had morphed into. The strange tentacles on its back fired off electricity, which combined with their own gripping strength made them lethal at any distance, which made approaching the Visser all but impossible. They had managed to fight off several human and Hork-Bajir controllers, but that hardly helped here.

"Think you can ground bridge me over?"

"Agent Fowler, if we attempt that, the Decepticons will notice that something is wrong."

"Can you send Bumblebee in, then?"

All eyes and optics turned toward Bumblebee, who had a look of determination on his face. Ratchet, however, had other ideas.

"Yes, but I would prefer sending him to Optimus, if only to recover the other trailer full of energon."

"You have a point. Dang it, what are we supposed to do?"

It was Miko who answered. "Don't you have other reinforcements for the Autobots? You guys had a tank and two not-tanks in here when this started."

"Yeah, we did. Those are already en-route to support Optimus, alongside some helicopters."

"So why not just send the ones that aren't helicopters to aid the Animorphs?"

"Even if I do, that will take time, and they might not have enough left."

"…Then send us over to help them."

The base was silent for a moment. Then Miko continued. "Look, all the soldiers you sent are needed to make sure none of the controllers try to attack us. So maybe send us over to buy time?"

"Miko!" began June, but for once, Miko wasn't letting her get a word in.

"There are five kids already risking their lives to defend Earth. What's one or two more?"

June opened her mouth, but no words came out - Miko had a very good point. "…You're right, but - and I can't believe I'm saying this - they have superpowers. You don't. Jack doesn't either."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we can just do nothing."

It seemed the human members of Team Prime were at a gridlock.

Taking cover behind an upturned tree, Jake glanced at Elfangor. "Do you know what this creature is?"

"I have heard of it, but not its name. As for weaknesses, unfortunately, it has none. At least, none that we can easily exploit."

"What is its weakness?"

"It is a creature adapted to monopolize water sources on an exceedingly dry world. It has limited methods of attacking flying creatures as a consequence."

"Why didn't you just say we should attack it with flying morphs?"

"Because it is only vulnerable to flying creatures at range. You would need war machines to harm it now, be they planes or helicopters."

Jake watched as Cassie and Marco just evaded some of the creature's tentacles. "You mind if I call for help?"

"Be my guest."

Jake watched as Ax, Rachel, and Tobias continued to duel the Visser, waiting for an opening to move. When the chance finally came, Jake hastily boarded the truck and activated the communicator, demorphing all the while. "This is Jake, we really need some help - the Yeerk's sent their combat leader, Visser Three here, and he's giving us a lot of trouble. He can morph, and he's using something that makes using our morphs problematic. If you guys can send in aerial assistance, it's be appreciated."

As soon as the last word was out, Jake returned to his Tiger morph and joined the fray. Hopefully, his message had been heard.

Landing a punch square on Megatron's spark-chamber, Optimus watched his enemy flying backwards for a moment before contacting Ratchet. "Ratchet, this is Optimus. Send Bumblebee to assist in recovering the energon.I'll move to assist the humans-"

Optimus was cut off when a tree slammed into him. Grinning Megatron took another swing. "You should know better than to lose focus in battle, Prime."

The sound of a ground bridge opening diverted Megatron's attention away from Prime, his gaze soon falling on the newly arrived Bumblebee. Dodging the scout's opening shots, Megatron returned fire, before being forced to leap backwards by a recovering Optimus. Nearby, Arcee was overcoming Airachnid, while a heavy blow from Bulkead floored Breakdown. Taking advantage of the opening, Bee grabbed the trailer and pushed it through the portal before taking out three vehicons. His stingers were soon aimed at Megatron, only for Optimus to block him.

"No, Bumblebee. Return to base and redeploy to assist our human allies."

Bee wanted to argue, but Optimus had a point, and so reluctantly the Autobot scout retreated for now.

Megatron did not miss Prime's choice of words. "Human allies? I know that you have chosen to defend mankind, but the fact they are in need of assistance now indicates something new. Tell me, are they dealing with MECH? Or, perhaps, had a new combatant joined this conflict?"

"Brutish warrior you may be, Megatron, your mind is as sharp as a blade. I doubt you will need my words to determine the truth."

"You flatter me, Prime. But I doubt you will be able to help your friends before I sniff out your spark."

As soon as Bumblebee was back at base, the energon trailer was hastily moved into storage. But while Ratchet and Raf reset the coordinates for the ground bridge, Miko and June refused to budge on their argument.

"Miko, Bumblebee is going in. You don't need to go!"

Miko wanted to offer a retort, but didn't know what to say. Anything she could have said, though, was cut off by a radio call. "Agent Fowler, this is Apache callsign Hunter 1. Myself, Hunter 2, and Hunter 3 are entering the AO. We are aware that there are two active engagements. At this time, we have no orders on where to intervene, so we request clarification, over."

"Hunter 1, Fowler copies. Team Prime seems to have their engagement handled. Reinforce X-Ray 1, over."

X-Ray 1 had been the designation applied to the Animorphs.

"Copy. Heading in now, ETA ninety seconds. Please mark friendlies with green smoke. Over."

"Understood. Fowler out."

Raf glanced at Ratchet. "Did the Animorphs get any green smoke?"

"…I do not believe so," was the medic's answer. His gaze, however, had fallen on a set of flares and smoke grenades located next to Raf's computer.

Miko glanced at the mass of equipment. Then she glanced at June.

June sighed. "Fine. But Bumblebee goes with you…and so does Jack."

"Yes!/Mom?!"

"I don't want you to go into a fight. But I trust you to reign in Miko."

Jack stared at his mom for a moment, then signed. "Okay. Let's do this."

"Optimus, Arcee, Bulkhead. We're diverting some incoming reinforcements to aid our allies. See if you can make your way toward them, so that you can all fall back once they are relieved."

Using her one free arm to parry Airachnid's attack, Arcee blasted herself free of the Decepticon's web before answering. "Copy that Ratchet." Another blast sent the spider-femme reeling, giving Arcee the chance to realign herself. Soon, she was back on her feet and ready to move.

Balancing on her spider limbs, Airachnid flashed a feral grin at the other femme. "Oh, new orders? You really think you'll have a chance to act on them?"

Arcee responded by opening fire on the Decepticon Femme. "Yes."

Nearby, Bulkhead was dueling with Breakdown. So far, they were at a standstill, but having only one optic was not exactly helping the Con, and one well placed punch sent him rolling.

Taking a quick break from the action, Arcee and Bulkhead shared a glance, then looked to Optimus. Prime was still fighting Megatron, but he was able to spare them a glance and nodded, then turned his attention toward where their allies were fighting. Catching Megatron's next blow, Optimus parried the attack, then countered so that Megatron was thrown toward the distant fight.

Regardless of how the Autobots reached the Animorphs, one thing was clear: two wars were about to become one.

Jake rose to his feet (well, paws), shaking, glaring at Visser Three. Nearby, Marco, Cassie, and Ax were trying to crawl away, while Tobias, Rachel, and Elfangor circled around the alien morph, trying to look for an opening.

The Animorphs had given it their all, but they were tiring. The longer the fight dragged on, the more they would tire, and the greater risk that they would be caught - Visser Three did have more reinforcements on his way. As much as they wished otherwise, it was time to retreat. Unfortunately, they didn't have any way to retrieve or destroy the cargo trailer, meaning their only win here would be taking out the quarry - a nice victory, but not a big one.

"I applaud you for managing to last so long, but you Andalite bandits should know by now that victory is impossible. Surrender, and you will love to become hosts."

"Taking a dirt nap would be preferable," was Marco's answer.

"You seem to be taking after the humans you protect a bit too much of that is your retort. Very well, then - to the death it is."

Before the Visser could move to begin his next attack, though, the sound of a car horn filled the air. Moments later, Bumblebee's alt-mode slammed into the morphed andalite controller, knocking him back and crack a bone or two - the species he had chosen to morph was suprisingly durable. Reversing, Bumblebee moved to shield the animorphs with his metallic form. Miko and Jack, meanwhile, had gotten inside the truck after exiting the rapidly closing ground bridge.

Visser Three was suprised to notice the two humans. "Oh, what do we have here - humans who saw the fight and decided they wanted to be brave? How amusing. Foolish, but amusing."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, slug-brain," snarked Miko, who then noticed a Dracon Beam near the truck and hastily picked it up, alongside another for Jack and a third for backup. Visser Three watched on, utterly unthreanted - two children were no match for him.

"Do you really think that you can oppose me?"

"Us? No," acknowledged Jack. "Bee, though? Yes."

Before the Visser could react, the Autobot scout tranformed, and in moments his humanoind form now stood before the monstrous morph.

"...What the-"

That was all Visser Three could think before Bumblebee opened fire. The bizarre water-dweller took a few hits before taking evasive maneuvers, while the remainder of his minions fled back into the Blade Ship. The Animorphs, for their part, spent a few moments staring in awe, before retreating back toward the truck, with Tobias flying in to get an update on the situation.

"What's going on?"

"The cavalry is here!" was Miko's answer.

"…So it's just you and Bumblebee?"

Miko looked hurt at the images location that they weren't enough help, but got over it quick enough. "No, we're just wave one. Speaking of which."

Before Tobias could respond, Miko pulled out a flare gun and, leaning out of the window, fired it off into the air. Jack, meanwhile, broke out one of the smoke grenades and tossed it out the other window.

As the green smoke filled the air, a new voice filled the radio.

"This is Hunter-1, we see your smoke! All Hunter units, move to engage."

The sound of helicopter blades soon filled the air. Confused, Visser Three looked upwards just in time to see the trio of helicopters open fire. Once again forced to evade, the Visser now found himself facing attacks from land and sky, dividing his attention. Bumblebee took the chance to get a few shots off at the Blade Ship, annoying the Yeerk Leader, though the damage was mostly superficial. A Taxxon controller tried to return fire, only to get blasted by a Dracon Beam. All eyes fell upon Miko, who was holding the source of the attack. Her expression shifted from awestruck to sheepish in moments as she slowly lowered the weapon.

The Visser, having had time to adjust to the new arrivals, readied to go back on the offensive, only be shocked yet again when the form of Megatron flew out of the treeline, plowing through a small grouping of voluntary controllers. The newly arrived Optimus felt a pang of sorrow upon witnessing this, before turning his attention back to Megatron. Nearby, Arcee and Bulkhead also emerged from the trees, their nemeses right on their tailpipes.

Glancing at the ongoing chaos, Optimus called up Ratchet. "Optimus to base, are there additional Decepticon forces inbound?"

"Yes, Optimus - multiple additional Decepticon signatures heading to your location. The will arrive in ten minutes."

"Understood. Autobots, humans, Andalites, be advised: enemy reinforcements are inbound. It is time for us to fall back."

"Hunter 1 copies. Hunter team, disengage, we've done enough!"

"This is Arcee, I copy."

"This is Bulkhead, I copy."

"This no Bumblebee, I copy."

"Miko here, we hear you. Elfangor is getting in the truck now to get us home."

Smiling, Optimus cut the transmission, only to notice a Hork Bajir lining up a shot on him. A bullet later, though, its weapon had been blasted out of its hands, courtesy of a shot from Agent Fowler. Nodding, Prime grabbed Fowler and switched to his alt mode, hastily getting on the road as Megatron recovered from his fall. As the ground bridge opened, Airachnid fired some webbing at several controllers, trapping them against the road. Team Prime and their allies surged through the ground bridge just as the Visser Three boarded his Blade Ship, realizing the battle was lost. The portal closed just as said ship took off, leaving the Decepticons alone amid the rubble.

Megatron watched the Blade Ship retreat before glancing at Airachnid, who was busy securing her prey.

Despite the losses suffered and the survival of Team Prime, Megatron smiled - it seemed they would soon know the truth of their foes.

AN: Read and Review at your leisure! This is Flameal15k, signing off!