Here's Chapter three, a little later than I would have liked, but it's here. I didn't like the first version I had and started over.

I don't own Transformers! I'm just playing with them before putting them back where I found 'em, don't worry. I don't own Cowboy Casanova by Carrie Underwood either.

Chapter 3: The Human Element

At Toxin's headquarters, Akar stood on an overlook platform as his scientists were recreating a signal beacon. It was all part of his plan to capture an autobot so they could better study it and find ways to better counteract it. Why an autobot? It was simple: They were ordered not to harm human life. Even though they already had a deactivated decepticon to study, he wanted to study a transformer that wasn't dead, and he wanted to see a bit more than just a generic trooper that was essentially a clone with little sentience.

He refused to allow Earth to fall to those metal behemoths. Autobot, Decepticon, it didn't matter. To Akar, clearly D.C. didn't see the threat they posed, much less deal with it. He would not be fooled or deterred. In his mind, the aliens had to go, and someone had to do it.

And you couldn't get him started on humans and Autobots working together. Now, that just made his blood boil. He was disgusted to even share the same planet as the two young human soldiers on Fireteam Phoenix, who had grown up around and so amiably worked with the aliens. How could they? They clearly had no clue the treason they were committing against their kind.

Some would say Akar was deranged and borderline vengefully jealous, and to some degree they were correct, but he was conniving. His plans were disturbingly thought through every detail to affect the opposing side as negatively as possible.

"Akar!" One of his men called, running up to him. "We just found that the prisoner had contacted Fireteam Phoenix yesterday. What should we do?"

"Interrogate him, see how much he told them." Akar ordered.

"Yessir."

Akar turned to the scientists working. "Is the decoy almost done?"

"Almost, sir. We will be ready to mobilize in 30 minutes."

"Perfect."

Thousands of miles away, in a completely different time zone, Autumn, Hunter, Ratchet and Chromia stood in the washracks as Ironhide purged his tanks on his hands and knees.

"Ironhide, how did this even happen?" Autumn asked, half laughing. Hunter was actually far into his laughing fit, leaning against the wall.

"Wheeljack… the fragger gave me some energon and told me he was running an experiment." Ironhide hissed through gritted mouthplates, before retching up more energon. He bashfully wiped his mouthplates off with the back of his arm.

"And you still drank it?" Ratchet accused, bringing up medical scans to see what was going on with Ironhide, careful not to get in front of him.

"If it comes from Wheeljack, you just assume it's going to explode in your hands." Autumn deadpanned.

Finally able to breathe again, Hunter smirked. "Come on, 'Hide, I thought you were tougher than this."

Unable to respond with a good retort, Ironhide just gave Hunter a death-glare… and then hacked up more energon.

"The good news is nothing is permanent. The bad news is there's nothing you can do except clear out your tanks of the contaminated energon." Ratchet informed him.

"How long-" Ironhide gagged. "Will that take?"

"Not more than a few hours."

"Ya know 'Hide, I think we'll let you puke in peace." Autumn smirked, patted Hunter on the shoulder and made it toward the door. Hunter and Ratchet followed. "You coming Chromia?"

"Wanting someone to stay with you when you feel like crap is universal for both our species." She smirked. "I'll stay with the glitch here."

"Alright, we'll kick Wheeljack's aft for you," Autumn responded. Once of out of the room, she glanced down the hall, Wheeljack sprinting toward them. "Speak of the devil." She muttered.

"Is Ironhide ok?"

"What did you do?" Ratchet asked, clearly not amused.

"I attempted to use the rebuilt energon filter to decontaminate energon, but I think it doubled the contaminates instead of removing them." Wheeljack sheepishly admitted.

"You think?" Ratchet growled.

"Ya know, I think I hear someone calling me, I gotta go!" The inventor ran off.

"The day's off to an interesting start, don't ya think?" A voice asked from behind. Ratchet spun around to see Sam leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

"How long have you been standing there?" Autumn asked.

"Long enough to know Ironhide's gonna be purging his tanks for a while. But I've got some more details concerning what's been going on. Lennox requested that the personnel files be sifted through with a fine-tooth comb, and we came up with some stuff."

Fifteen minutes later, Fireteam Phoenix (Minus Ironhide and Chromia), Sam, Mikeala, and Bumblebee were in Autumn's office.

"So, what exactly did you find?" Arcee asked.

"Akar, Drakos is his last name, actually tried to join NEST but was turned away for how many times he went AWOL. Not long after, his captain ended up turning him up for a psychiatric evaluation after noticing how unstable he was becoming, clearly not able to take that kind of rejection. The psychiatrist deemed him unfit for service and he was medically discharged."

"Do they have anything about why he went insane on file?" Autumn asked.

"The psychiatrist noted that it was hard to have a 'normal people' conversation with him," Sam read directly from his computer. The inert computer that was closed and set to the side on Autumn's desk transformed. "But nothing else is on file."

"He's the devil in disguise
A snake with blue eyes
And he only comes out at night
Gives you feelings that you don't wanna fight
You better run for your life." Bumblebee played from his radio.

"Why are we even bothering with that nutjob?" OddBird asked.

"For the last time, OddBird, we think they might be working against NEST." Autumn exasperatedly rolled her eyes before patting the laptop-bot on his head. Turning back to what was going on, Autumn focused on Sam. "Is that all you could find."

"No, actually." Sam said. "Remember when you guys were chasing the cons in Montgomery, Alabama?"

"First time or the second?" Arcee asked.

"Second. Remember how after the battle, nobody could find the deactivated 'cons?"

"Yeah." Autumn nodded. "You think they might have gotten those?"

"At first, we just assumed that the decepticons sneaked around and got to them first, but I was looking at crimes that the Montgomery Police Department traced back to Toxin, and there's a direct correlation. Look," he pulled up a map on the computer. "This is where you guys primarily fought," He showed a few points on the map, and then brought up a few more in the same place, just different colors. "And here's where Toxin was for the most part operating."

"If they have been studying it," Ratchet glanced at the computer. "They may have already learned about our biology. Enough to, perhaps build weapons to deal worse damage."

"I still don't understand why we're wasting time with the weirdo." OddBird quipped. Autumn shot him a glare.

"The offer to turn off his vocal processors is still on the table." Ratchet suggested. OddBird quickly and silently transformed.

"You're terrible, Ratch'." Autumn chuckled.

Arcee smiled before taking an armored hand and tickling Ratchet's side. This sent the medic into fits of howling laughter as he flailed and tried desperately to push her away.

"Stop!" Ratchet managed to say between his laughter. "Arcee!"

Autumn, Hunter and Sam started laughing, the whole situation appealing to their childish side which none of them have quite grown out of yet, while Mikeala could only blink.

"Medics have exponentially more sensitive and perceptive sensors than most autobots. You could do this to anyone, but they won't have such the same reaction as Ratchet will. Plus, I know all of his ticklish spots." Arcee explained.

"You can tickle an autobot." Autumn wiped tears from her eyes. "Who knew?"

Everyone refocused back to the task at hand. For only a few moments.

"Fireteam Phoenix, report to the main hangar for a debrief. Be ready to mobilize." The PA announced. "This is URGENT."

"Well, that's just great." Autumn snarked.

A few minutes later, ready to mobilize, Fireteam Phoenix gathered.

"We tracked a strange signal in New Jersey, and we aren't sure who or what it is," Lennox explained. "It could be a trap."

"Sounds like it." Chromia commented.

Arriving in New Jersey, Fireteam Phoenix was converging on the strange signal. It seemed to be coming from inside an abandoned warehouse at the docks.

"Be ready for anything." Autumn warned.

"I don't like this." Arcee said. "It's too quiet."

Hunter was ready by the door, setting the explosive. Autumn gave him a thumbs up. He sprinted to get behind the wall once he enabled the timer. It exploded 30 seconds later. Fireteam Phoenix burst in, weapons blazing, moments later. There was a steel box in the center of the room. Ratchet stalked up to it, carefully investigating.

"Ratchet, Careful." Arcee warned.

"This place gives me the creeps." Hunter shivered. "Something's off about it."

Ratchet set a hand carefully on the box, but jumped back with a cry. He flexed his hand and rubbed his servo, resentfully glaring at the box.

"What just happened?" Autumn asked.

"It shorted out the transformation circuits in my servo." He shook his head. "It's painful."

Suddenly the door slammed shut and lights flared to life.

"A secondary door?" Ironhide exclaimed. "What's wrong with this place?"

Footsteps which did not belong to Fireteam Phoenix echoed in the hangar.

"I could ask you the same thing, Fireteam Phoenix." Akar stepped into the light, and snapped his fingers. Other members of Toxin pointed their guns at the Fireteam.

"What do you want, Akar?" Autumn snarled.

"It's very simple really," he said, stepping up to the seething Fireteam leader. "Lieutenant, I want things to go my way. You see, I can't have them my way."

"That's the way the world works." Chromia interrupted.

"I can't have them my way yet. If, perhaps, I had a bit stronger weapons and more advanced tech, Toxin could challenge the sheer existence of the regime, but as of yet we cannot." He walked in a circle around the young Lieutenant. "You and your team clearly are the way to do that."

"Cut through the crap." She hissed. "What is this about?"

"Oh, this?" He gestured to the surrounding warehouse cheerily. "If you haven't been able to tell, humans working with aliens is so… unnatural and disgusting."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're a psycho?" Autumn asked.

"Many times." Akar replied. "Where were we? Oh yes, things are about to get interesting."

Autumn launched herself at Akar when Arcee collapsed after being hit with a very strong electrical discharge. Chromia attacked after that, enraged that they would do that. Hunter ducked a piece of debris. Ratchet was trying to destroy their weapons and Autumn and Ironhide chased the fleeing Akar with the intention of making sure he spent the rest of his life behind bars. He weaved between buildings, ducked behind corners, but they weren't easily deterred. Akar set an explosive and dropped it behind him. Ironhide grabbed Autumn, spun around so his back was to the explosive and dug his feet into the ground as it went off. Ironhide leapt over the debris, but Akar was gone. He carefully set Autumn down.

"He just disappeared." She mused. "I wonder if he left anything that could give a clue to where he went."

But after looking around, the pair could deduce that this wasn't the case.

Back at the Warehouse the rest of Toxin scattered and fled. A worried Ratchet cradled Arcee who was in stasis-lock.

"Is Arcee ok?" Chromia asked.

"Her spark is steady," Ratchet stated.

"It sounded like you were going to say but." Hunter said, narrowing her eyes.

"But I have no idea how the weapon affected her; her systems are erratic."

Footsteps sounded from not too far off. One was light and small; the other was heavy and metallic.

Seeing the looks on both Autumn and Ironhide's faces wasn't exactly comforting to Chromia. Autumn's deep brown eyes were intense, anger and frustration practically radiating off the young lieutenant. Ironhide was also essentially simmering with rage. Autumn simply shook her head before she met Lennox, Sam and Optimus outside.

"Well?" Sam asked.

"We lost him. Fled once things got hairy. Ironhide and I chased him through the Shipyard but we lost him once he set an explosive. After he fled, so did his back-up."

Hours later, back at base, Autumn sat at her desk typing up the report. The Secretary of Defense was flying into Diego Garcia, the President would called in and Optimus would be present at this meeting to discuss what had happened at the docks. Arcee was in the med-bay, injured but not critical. Although, Ratchet wasn't too sure how quickly she'd be back on her feet and refused to leave his sparkmate's side until she came out of stasis. The Pentagon was demanding answers that she didn't have to give. They also wanted Fireteam Phoenix back out in the field soon, but one of their members was down for the count. The more Autumn stared at the blank page on OddBird's screen, the more cryptic the situation became. In rage, she kicked the desk and muttered an obscenity. OddBird, for his credit, didn't more, or say a word. Autumn got up from the desk and angrily paced the room. How was she supposed to provide answers she didn't have, and how could she get her team back out in the field when they were still picking up the pieces from the last mission? She was pissed, and rightfully so.

"This is stupid." She hissed, flicking a pen across the room, glaring the opposite direction.

"Knock, knock." Came a quiet voice.

"Hey, Chromia." Autumn responded.

"What's wrong?" She asked. "You seem… frustrated."

"Frustrated doesn't even begin to describe how I feel." Autumn slammed the drawer shut forcefully, and she was pretty sure she could hear a pencil snap inside of it. Good. Autumn hoped it was in more than just two pieces.

"You need to calm down." Chromia suggested.

"What gave you that idea?" Autumn snarked.

Truly, it's a bad idea to mouth off to Chromia.

"Autumn," Chromia dangerously narrowed her optics. "That's enough."

To Autumn's credit, she wasn't scared, but she did stop. She felt like she was 16 again, her and Hunter getting lectured by Chromia for getting into slag.

"Why don't we go play a game of Aft?" Chromia had a sparkle in her optics.

"You're on." Autumn responded. This challenge found the pair on the basketball court. Chromia used her holoform to challenge Autumn.

A game of Aft was just a game of Pig with a different word. Whoever lost was the aft. It was the way Autumn and Hunter settled their differences, thought up completely by the two siblings.

In the blistering August heat at roughly 1600, Autumn and Chromia played one of the most intense games of Aft ever played (Besides the ones that Autumn and Hunter play to settle stupid arguments, of course). It was essentially a stalemate. Both had the A in aft, and it stayed that way for at least twenty minutes. Then Chromia got the F in aft. Autumn got the F a few minutes later. But then Chromia got the T. Ironhide pulled up a moment after the game of Aft just turned into a game of keep away and throw it into the net. Caroline stepped out and looked around the court for a moment. Hunter came outside to see what was happening, and laughed. Caroline ran across the court and tackled him. She hugged him close.

"Hey sweetheart." He smiled, returning her hug and kissing her forehead.

"Hunter, Ironhide told me you almost got hit by rubble." She looked at him with wide green eyes.

"He's just being dramatic." Hunter gave Ironhide a side eye. That wasn't the best thing to tell a worrying army wife. Hunter helped her to her feet.

"Frag!" Chromia gasped. Autumn had gotten the ball back and was already across the court. Ratchet joined everyone, watching Autumn and Chromia.

"Hey, Ratchet." Hunter greeted the bright yellow mech. "How's Arcee?"

"She'll live." He said. "She's weak, but she'll live."

She wasn't the only one, Hunter noticed. Ratchet looked fairly exhausted himself.

"You're like a little honey badger." Chromia exclaimed when Autumn got the ball once again and dunked it.

"I'm smaller than Hunter, so I have to get it from him somehow." She smirked.

"A honey badger looks just about right." Sam laughed, joining the others on the court. Chromia snatched the ball back from Autumn when her head was turned. It took a little while, but Chromia eventually accepted that she was the Aft and Autumn was victorious. She was a smug winner too. She clearly made sure to stick it in Chromia's faceplates.

Author's note: I love the idea of a game of Aft. I thought of that when I was playing Pig with a friend. Next chapter, Fireteam Phoenix will take a bit more of a brazen move on Toxin, and the fight will be a bit longer than the little scrap they got into here.

Author's note 2: I ship Ratchet and Arcee because they interact a lot in the tie-in comics and stuff. It says on the TFwiki that Ratchet is Arcee's closest comrade. I'm not crazy, people! And they're just geniunely a cute ship. Chromia and Ironhide is kinda an obvious ship that I love too. I'll give them a bit more time to shine next chapter.