So, downside to late night/early morning posting, I missed a few sections and have accidentally rearranged a few things.

Whoops.

I think I got everything back under control going forward.

Healing

Undisclosed Location

"We need to upgrade security around the Esquivels, again. This is the second time that Circuit Breaker has almost hurt him, Autobot Bumblebee and Mrs. Esquivel have both expressed concerns, and between the two of them, Autobot Bumblebee has the most reasonable suggestions." General Bryce informed the committee.

"I agree. Though this means we'll have to delay their move."

"The new house is still under construction, especially since we're adding the security systems suggested by Autobot Ratchet, the area has strict zoning and permit laws, but Mrs. Esquivel is eager to leave sooner than later."

"We must insist on investigating Circuit Breaker, her willingness to harm those in her way, especially a minor, is concerning."

"We will of course send over her files." Attinger promised. "She has not reported back in."

"You better not be hiding her. It's one thing to hate kids, it's another actually try and harm them and their guardians."

"Of course not!" Attinger assured them.

There were the last minute pleasantries where General Bryce glared directly at him before the meeting ended.

"That could have gone better." Attinger noted, after hanging up on General Bryce and the rest of the committee devoted to watching the Autobots and Decepticons. "How hard is it to acquire a child?"

"That Damn traitor stopped me!" Circuit Breaker snarled, electronics sparking near her.

"I see." Attinger blinked. He would give Figuroa the benefit of the doubt, if Circuit Breaker had acted like this during the acquisition attempt, Attinger would have kept the child away from her as well. "No matter. I will look into alternate methods of acquiring the boy. How did project Nightbird perform?"

"Within acceptable parameters. The getaway was less clean … any chance of getting what they're calling Nemesis Prime back?" Dr. Arkeville asked absently, already losing interest in the conversation. "It would be easier to keep them together and have a mobile command unit as well…"

"I'm working on it, General Bryce upped security … we may have to nudge things along." Attinger sighed. "I'll have to talk to that Mad Dog again."

Lead Science Lab, Griffin Rock, Maine

"I'm surprised you didn't want to do this at your ship?" Doc Greene wearing a hazmat suit and respirator as a precaution set down a few more chemicals at the bench for Boulder to use. Boulder was cautiously tapping at the bot sized keyboard Doc had created for their use at the lab.

"Technically, I am. Also using some computer called Skyfire and the Omega base. It's a pretty heavy encryption." Boulder went silent as he studied the information on the screen.

Doc waited until Boulder sighed. "Something wrong?" Doc asked.

"We're close. And Prescott's on his way." Boulder stepped away from the screen to quickly add the necessary chemicals to the next set of trials.

"Again?" Doc sighed. He left to get out of the suit and respirator.

Once Boulder was done they went to the garage opening where Boulder pretended to be slumped over near some items while Doc checked the status terminal in that area.

"Any news on when the last Rescue Bot will be repaired?!"

"Hello, Huxley, how are you doing today?" Doc crossed his arms. "The calibration tests are going well, as they were yesterday. I am waiting to speak with the scientist who developed them to make sure everything is online."

"That's right! They were made on the mainland- who made them-"

"Classified." Doc looked annoyed. "As we stated before when they arrived. And you signed the contract for not publishing or recording about it for five years with threat of jail time."

"Uh, right. I'll be going now." Prescott escaped quickly with his drones.

The computer chimed.

"That was fast." Boulder got up and headed back to the chemical lab.

A steady light blue glow was in one container.

"I think we have a successful test!" Doc noted.

"We'll have to double-double check to make sure. Synthetic Energon … we wouldn't have to worry about finding any, or receiving any more shipments from Prime." Boulder noted.

Unit E

"Raf." Miko watched her friend wake up slowly before she got bored watching and began to poke him awake. "Hey, you awake yet?"

"Miko?" Raf sat up on the couch.

"You kinda passed out after Nurse Darby gave you some painkillers for whiplash. She's yelling with your mom now, Fowler and Doctor Keen are trying to mediate between them." Miko informed him. She immediately took half the couch and stretched her legs out so they rested on top of Raf. "Let's talk strategy."

"Strategy?"

"Yes. We've got three new bots, and Bluestreak is chatty when you get him going. You're gonna talk to him."

"Why?"

"Cause he needs to talk to a human and I'm tackling Seaspray. He's got good stories." Miko informed him. "Then I'm going to the den."

"We're not supposed to go there Miko."

"Only when Howler was there. He's still unconscious in Skyfire." Miko frowned at that. "Want to join me? Our Preds are nice, Paddles lets me climb on him."

"… I should probably start on coding."

"Bzzt! Wrong answer. I declare today a Raf can have fun day! You need a break before you actually turn into a little old man!" Miko grinned. "Hey Bluestreak! Raf needs a ride to breakfast!"

"Isn't Bumblebee his guardian?" Bluestreak fiddled with the gun he carried. Which was weird, why didn't he have a gun attached? "I don't wanna cause a problem-"

"Bee's out for the day, congratulations you've been chosen." Miko steamrolled past the bot's attempt to deflect. "Here, I'll show you where to go."

"Relax, they don't bite. Just bring them back after they refuel." Smokescreen piped up from where he was stretching. "Drive slow on the base."

Bluestreak transformed and only then did he apparently realize what was going on.

"Wait, you have to sit inside me?"

"Yes. That's the safest place for humans. The kids are like younglings." Smokescreen offered. "Or minicons. Which aren't miniature decepticons, just small transformers about human sized."

"Relax, we're not covered in mud or anything, and even if we were, we'd clean the mess." Miko continued her crusade to get Raf and Bluestreak to go to breakfast. Once Bluestreak started to drive away with Raf, Miko zeroed in on her next target.

Seaspray was grumpy and when not patrolling oceans, he was glaring at everything that came near him that wasn't Bulkhead and Wheeljack.

Of course, that could just be his face. His mask didn't seem to be retractable.

Miko had noticed that the wrecker had studied the group and the men outside with interest when he thought no one was looking.

"You're worse than space barnacles." Seaspray informed her as she climbed up his frame. "Those I can destroy with prejudice."

"There are barnacles in space?" Miko asked. She settled on his shoulder. "You mean like actual Barnacles? Things that stick to ships? There's a space version?" She knew she was repeating the question, but there wasn't a better way to clarify when both of them were speaking their second language. Optimus Prime had weird issues explaining timelines (ancient autobots when talking about the war they were fighting for a while and so autobots he would have known? Miko got a feeling that their concepts of time were different), and Bulkhead and Wheeljack still asked questions for clarification on things said.

"You don't get out much do you?" Seaspray didn't shove her off or remove her. Or actually ask her to leave.

(Jack would have told her that she needed verbal permission or something, Miko however, believed that cats had the right idea, someone ignores you you pester them until they pay attention.)

"I'm in highschool. I need a guardian or whatever fancy name you bots have to do much of anything. Bulk talks construction and buildings and Wheeljack's all about the explosives. You've seen other planets! So start talking." Miko looked at his optics eagerly. At some point she was gonna ask why some bots had two colors in their optics but right now she was gonna get a story.

"On Tlalak, I fought Deceptitran, an attempt by decepticons to make a teletran intelligence."

There was a benefit to language barriers, and that was Seaspray was clearly trying to tell a violent and gory story to scare her, and while Miko knew enough about bot anatomy from helping Bulkhead's rehab to be horrified for the allies in the story and cheer at the violent deaths of the enemies, it wasn't gory enough to actually scare her.

"Wrecker! That is not an approved story!" Ultra Magnus, however, did not see it that way. "We are not training her to rip out fuel pumps!"

"She wants to be a wrecker she should know what she's getting into." Seaspray growled.

"You're worried about me?" Miko just barely caught the way the optics changed shape. "I know it's dangerous! I almost lost Bulkhead and Wheeljack! But I can't stop wanting to punch someone or something." Miko was well aware she had not always been smart about her choices. Jack had accused her of being an adrenaline junkie and he wasn't wrong. "By the way you got a barnacle here." She pointed to her own neck.

"I'm aware. I can't reach it." Seaspray actually yelped as Miko used a pen as a chisel to start removing it. "Didn't any bot tell you to ask first?!"

"She believes in the phrase that it's better to ask forgiveness than permission. Miko, here, you'll need to rinse the area." Ultra Magnus held out a water bottle in his claw.

"I need to get a better tool, he's got a couple more on the line. They're mostly dead." Miko absently untangled a knot of lines after rinsing the spot, making Seaspray shudder.

"Okay, that's enough! Off! That's not proper behavior!" Seaspray insisted.

"What do you mean?" Miko hopped onto Ultra Magnus's waiting hand.

"It's a bit like the human concept of a massage. There's platonic and medical versions but there's also a romantic connotation, especially for certain spots." Ultra Magnus explained.

"Oh, whoops, sorry about that!" Miko apologized. "It just looked uncomfortable and Bulkhead lets me fix the lines in his neck. Especially after dune bashing."

"Bulkhead would need the help, the softy. You must stress him out." Seaspray rubbed his neck. "Just don't do that again without asking me first."

"I promise! Now how did you shut down Deceptitran?" Miko asked. "You said he didn't have an accessible fuel pump? And did Alanna survive?!"

Ultra Magnus sighed. He did that a lot around her. Behind him, Arcee operated the ground bridge.

"What? You can't leave a story unfinished!" Miko informed him.

"What story?" Bulkhead asked as behind him Wheeljack talked to Arcee.

"Tlalak." Seaspray huffed.

"He was telling her how to rip out fuel pumps." Ultra Magnus explained.

"Neither of you have seen the horror movies Miko likes." Bulkhead noted.

"I was given to understand there was a rating system." Ultra Magnus frowned.

"It's more of a guideline than law." Miko huffed. She was seventeen soon, she was old enough for horror movies. Of course, she maintained that she had been old enough for horror movies since she was thirteen.

Maybe she should introduce the bots to slasher films? She had been sticking to classic horror films and series because she had noticed that Optimus would stick around for the more boring philosophical ones, like the Twilight Zone, and she liked it when everyone was at base, even if Optimus preferred leaving a lot.

"Can't be worse than a real war!"

"Wanna bet?" Bulkhead shuddered. "I still have trouble hearing chainsaws…"

"I said I was sorry! The first Chainsaw Massacre wasn't that bad, who thought the sequels would be worse?!" Miko huffed.

"How did you even see those movies?" Ultra Magnus asked.

"Drive in theater. There was an all night marathon Halloween last year."

"…A what?"

An alarm went off. Ultra Magnus passed Miko to Bulkhead.

Mess Hall

"And then Sunstreaker and his brother Sideswipe got into a fight." Bluestreak sighed. "Half the Ark was in the brig by that point and Old Ironhide and Prowl were both ready to throw the next troublemaker out the airlock."

"What stopped them?" A soldier asked for Raf, who realized he had stopped eating while listening to Bluestreak and quickly resumed.

"Jazz. He locked the two in their quarters until they calmed down and then had Hound, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe remove Blurr, Tracks and Hot Rod from the ceiling. At which point they found Blaster and Mirage, who had been stuck to a wall. First Aid was not happy because Mirage had said his Holo mod was fine but then he couldn't shut it off without help."

"Holo mod?"

"He mostly used his to be invisible, or rather, camouflaged, but that's Mirage. Gears says it's cause he doesn't like being on the Ark, but Mirage is actually pretty nice to everyone that isn't Gears. I don't know why they don't like each other, but Gears doesn't actually like many bots now that I think about it." Bluestreak mused. "Oh. Raf, Ratchet wants you back in the hangar when you're done."

Raf finished his food and waved to the soldiers as he got back into Bluestreak who drove them back to their Unit. Everyone was there, Optimus was arriving as well.

"Good, you're here. Bumblebee's brought the sample." Ratchet looked around. "Jazz, Arcee, Wheeljack, Optimus, you'll be with me in Skyfire. Everyone else be on guard, in case …" Ratchet didn't finish that statement.

"Are you sure that's safe?"

"Nurse Darby, at this point, if we don't do anything, we will lose him. At the very least, we'll buy more time." Ratchet informed her. "As for the worst … Roadhauler's made it clear what he wants if this further destabilizes his mental state."

Raf went over to Nurse Darby and took her hand. She gripped it tight.

Jack had to make it.

Arcee had the same concerns as June. Though she was distracted upon entering Skyfire by the reveal he had let the Predacons in and they were blocking the way to Jack.

"They were very convincing." Skyfire explained apologetically.

Paddles lifted his head to look at them. Divebomb was as small as he could be to fit on the berth and was still half off it. Sky-Byte and Razorclaw both made low noises of warning.

"We have a treatment for him, we need to administer it." Optimus informed them. "It would be best if you waited in your den."

According to Shark Week, the only time Miko consented to something educational, Earth Sharks didn't have vocal cords, but some could grind their teeth to imitate low growling, with one species capable of barking.

So the snarl that left Sky-Byte was a little bit startling.

Paddles bit Sky-Byte's tail fin and pulled him out of the way. Razorclaw nudged Divebomb until he moved off the berth, nuzzling Jack's shoulder before transforming to help move Sky-Byte out.

Arcee wished she could understand the way they communicated, but most of it seemed nonverbal. They didn't seem particularly bothered by it.

"Alright, Skyfire, start scanning." Ratchet did something to the sample, before hooking it into a syringe.

Optimus's servoes rested on her pauldron, Arcee gripped it back.

For a moment after Ratchet injected the sample, nothing happened.

Then Jack jerked on the table, claws digging into it. There was a faint glow that brightened briefly before fading and Wheeljack's muffled curse as he looked at something that shrieked an alarm before cutting off.

It was fairly anticlimactic, to be honest.

"I got it, he's still on life support, he didn't tear any lines." Skyfire reported. "Bringing him out of stasis now though."

"What happened?!" Arcee asked, raising her voice slightly more than she meant to.

"His levels dipped low before straightening out, he's alright now, but the old synth en tried to kill him one more time." Skyfire sounded annoyed.

"What happened?" Jack asked, confused.

"I just said- oh, Roadhauler! You're online!" Skyfire realized.

"Yeah, what happened?"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"Hurting a lot. Before that, Sky-Byte and Razorclaw had an argument I needed to referee."

Arcee briefly registered that Optimus had pulled her away before she could try and get closer so Ratchet could do a quick physical.

"How are you feeling? Any feedback?"

"… I'm not in pain … which actually is confusing. Nothing actually hurts?" Jack looked confused by the statement.

"You were in pain?"

"Everything always ached." Jack admitted. "I kinda ignored it after a while- ouch!"

"Don't do that again, something hurts let me know, I can temporarily block pain sensors!"

"Huh?" Jack's optics cycled, trying to calibrate.

"Looks like all systems are fully online." Ratchet scanned. "There's extra ones. Even compared to the other Predacons."

"Okay. And I'm not hallucinating an extra bot that looks like Jazz from the Ark?"

"Nope! I'm definitely the bonafide Jazz. How'd you know?"

"I've been reading the reports. Including crew manifests for the different ships." Jack shrugged. His pauldrons moved easily, he was visibly less stiff. "I looked up the rest of the Autobot command cause I didn't want to get caught not knowing who they were. As well as politics."

"I'm definitely keeping you." Jazz informed him. "We'll hash out details later, but rule one of undercover work, don't volunteer information unasked for."

"Got it." Jack nodded.

"Your armor changed color." Arcee noted.

It was still predominantly black and silver, with the yellow lights of a Predacon, but there were now blue accents in places, and some of the sharp edges had more shape to them. The tail even seemed to have more armor as well. He looked like his armor was complete.

"Looks like we match." Jack noted, holding up his arm to compare the blue accent to her paint, Arcee held her arm up to get a better match. It was very similar.

"It's a good color." Arcee smiled.

"I am glad you have recovered. Please continue to listen to Ratchet." Optimus informed Jack.

"I will- ack!" Jack flinched back from the light shined into his optics.

"How is your emotional state?" Ratchet asked.

"Well, I'm not seeing green because of that." Jack informed him. "Why do you and mom do that? I know you give warnings to everyone else!"

"Quit complaining, you're almost done." Ratchet pulled back and unplugged multiple lines that vanished into Skyfire. "Transform, need to make sure your beast mode is fine as well."

The table sank back into Skyfire's floor to give room.

There were less gaps in the armor when he transformed into a wolf. Strangely the claws on the end of his paws were now thicker, as well as less sharp and more blunted.

"Huh, that's weird." Jack held up a paw. "I guess I was walking around with the quick, or whatever the Predacon equivalent was."

"What's that?" Arcee asked.

"Quick is the sensitive inside of a claw, tends to bleed. One of the Lieutenants was talking about taking their dog to the vet." Skyfire noted.

"It hurt to walk?!" Ratchet demanded.

"Ratchet, I promise I wasn't down playing symptoms on purpose, I just didn't know what normal even was." Jack rushed to assure the medic, twisting a little to look at him. That's when Arcee noticed something on his wolf mode's chest.

"The symbol changed." Arcee noted, tapping her autobot symbol when they looked at her. "It was a dragon before, now it's a wolf?"

"Huh?" Jack was unable to look at it. "Why'd it change?"

"A question for a later time, I think." Optimus noted. "The others are eager to see you back on your feet."

Jack's tail wagged, ears perking up as he looked at Ratchet.

"The instant you have trouble come and see me." Ratchet informed him, earning a tail wag.

"Understood. Thanks, Ratchet, Skyfire!"

"I'm glad I could help!" Skyfire opened up.

At which point Sky-Byte lunged at Jack.

Jack dodged, leapt, and caught Sky-Byte near where the gills should be to give him a shake. Sky-Byte immediately went limp and Jack let him go, nudging him after.

"What just happened?"

"Pack issue, and should I be concerned about having knowledge I definitely didn't have before?" Jack asked absently before Divebomb slammed into the ground next to him, chirping.

"Probably not, most likely it's basic Predacon programming finally online." Ratchet dismissed.

It took a moment for Jack to reassure the rest of the Predacons he was alright, before they let him go to Unit E.

Unsurprisingly, Miko was the first to greet them and start climbing on Jack.

"Looking good, Hauler!" Fowler smiled. Figeroua was frowning slightly, but given the man didn't seem to like any of them, they ignored it.

One problem solved, so many more to go.

End Note: okay, next up, the decepticons and I don't know what and then the chapter after that is Minus One.

Then I finish the story with the end of the season and start work on the sequel and have a buffer so I can post on a schedule… I hope. I pray. I wish.