Disclaimer: I only own my OCS. Vox belongs to a friend.

Authoress: Alrighty bots! Let's put it together for a birthday request!

Pandimala and Knockout: *start singing* Happy birthday to you!

Everybot else: *sing* Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday MothraRanger! Happy Birthday to you!

Authoress: *chuckles* Oh, and such a good chapter too.

Chapter 1: The Power of MECH

Prometheus Black's 1st P.O.V.

This was my moment. This was my time to show the world that MECH was the only option for survival. We were its only salvation.

Of course, this would have been easier if my partner had royally fucked things up. Silas had the job of being the public face of MECH. He was the one who was supposed to keep this operation growing stronger and stronger while I supported him from the shadows. It was even working out so well. Our infiltration of the world's governments had been simple enough and we were slowly, but surely, cleansing the ranks of this infected society we lived in. Using the technology we innovated, MECH was to unite the world under one government, our government, and rule it as one front.

And then Silas mucked it up with his obsession with the aliens.

Yes, their technology moved MECH's objectives forward at a rate that we had never thought possible. What should have taken generations for us to accomplish was being done within a matter of months. The evolution of our technology was staggering to behold. I was even pulled into its power for a moment. However, while it was easy for me to move past the temptation that the alien technology presented, Silas was consumed by it. He became so obsessed with that technology that it became all that he focused our efforts on. Those plans that were moving forward so much before then went to an immediate stop.

I had been ready to meet with the man when Project Chimera came crashing down on him, literally. I needed him whole to talk sense into him, so I gave the green light to use the mechanoid chassis we had in storage to save the man. As crazed as he was becoming, I needed him to live longer. At the time, I was upset when one of our investors called me away to an important meeting on the day that Silas was estimated to wake.

Looking back now, I was glad that I was gone.

The monster that had once been Silas destroyed the facility he was saved in, along with the scientists and doctors that had been vital in saving his pathetic life! All of those assets were lost while he tried to chummy up with the very aliens we were attacking. His symbiosis with the machine should have vaulted our goals into taking over the planet with ease. However, with his departure from MECH, we had to retreat into the shadows while I rebuilt our power base. It was not simple, yet I was able to accomplish that seemingly impossible task in less than a year.

I was simply a god among insects, bending them to my will.

Of course, thoughts about what we had recently accomplished caused a smile to grace my face. What better way for MECH to improve our goals than to use our enemies to do so? And while Silas may have fallen from grace, he did provide intelligence on premier subjects that supported the enemy forces.

While it was a shame that two out of the seven subjects were unable to be located, the five we did have were working perfectly. I should go and check on them now that I thought about it. Testing on each of them had been more than successful. Now, we were just running final diagnostics on each of the test subjects before we began work on mental subjugation. We couldn't have our test subjects turn against us with what we had planned. If this continued to be a success as it was, MECH would rule the world within a few years.

As I moved toward the first experiment, though, I thought about the missing two subjects. It was truly a shame to not get them for this. They would have turned out spectacular. I took out one of my tablets and opened the file of the first one that slipped through our fingers. Paul Riley Muskogee. A relative newcomer to the business world of technology twenty years ago, his company soon started to outbid my own company, Biotech. I started to lose contracts left and right until I was left with only a few small military contracts…barely enough to keep my company afloat.

And that was when I had been approached by Silas to support his revolution.

Having that man under my control would have been the sweetest victory I could have wanted. I had been so close. However, he had simply vanished. The second subject, however, had vanished long before he had, and given that the young woman was employed by Muskogee, that was surprising. Lizzie Val was a smart woman and surprisingly loyal to the man. It was to the point where the spies I placed in his company reported that the woman was more comparable to his right-hand woman. The pain I would have caused the man as she screamed under the experiments we performed... Glee ran through my body at the thought.

However, that glee soon faded as the bitter reminder of their disappearance infiltrated my thoughts. I would find them one day, and I would make sure that they suffered. Oh, I would make them suffer. Muskogee would rue the day he was born. I would take great pleasure in causing him pain.

I moved those pleasant premonitions from my head as I arrived at the first laboratory. As the scientists and mechanics moved around me, I basked in victory as I looked at one who used to be my enemy…and would soon be my pawn. Agent William 'Bill' Fowler. While the man had let himself go in his retirement from the Rangers, his experience and determination translated as well as we could have hoped to his new body. Brown armor seemed to gleam as the unconscious test subject lay helpless before me. Project Evolutionary, test subject Alpha. We based the previous human on a few of the files recovered from Silas' time as leader, with a heavy focus on the one that became Silas' body and the green one that fought that alien frequently. Records had their names as 'Breakdown' and 'Bulkhead'.

"Progress," I demanded of the lead scientist for this aspect of the project.

Doctor Arkeville glanced up from his tablet before he walked over to me. "Prometheus, test subject Alpha seems to be responding positively to the alien substance that has been fed into its lines. If progress keeps up at this pace, it should be ready for mental reprogramming within a few days. The involuntary impulses that it is showing are simply incredible. Finding out what is causing those will be quite an interesting discovery."

"Very good," I commended the doctor before leaving. There were still four other subjects to check on and little time to waste. I knew that the government would not wait long in retrieving the assets that I had taken. However, by the time those fools found us, it would be far too late.

The only reason those fools had been able to catch up to our operation before was due to the assets that were now in my control. Without them, I had months before they caught on to my location…and by then, the mental subjugation should be complete. Their assets would turn into weapons that would crush the government…and soon the world.

Soon, the world…no, soon all sentient life would come to flee at the power that came behind the name of MECH. I could hardly wait.

Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.

I hadn't been back for long, and yet some things felt normal. Well, as normal as our lives could be. And that included interesting interactions with the Esquivels and Mr. and Mrs. Jones, who were Miko's host parents. While I expected the Equivels to adjust quickly to everything going on with all of this, the Jones' reaction to all of this surprised me. When they were first introduced to us, they just glanced up at us before Mrs. Jones asked if we were the friends Miko kept seeing after school.

There was no surprise, no awe and amazement like some of the Esquivels, and no hesitation. She looked up at us and acted like she was greeting the neighbors. I had always wondered how Miko never got kicked out of her host parents' house when she would always say that they were strict. But, talking to them, they weren't. They just wanted to make sure that she got the most out of her time here.

Well, Miko definitely got that.

And then there was Mr. Jones. If I didn't know better, then I would think that the man was the girl's father. He was the adult male version of the girl. Impulsive and super hyper. During that first meeting, the man had the idea to just crawl up my armor to get a closer look at my cannons. It honestly took me by surprise. Found out from his wife later that he was a bit of a robot fanatic. Though, now that I thought about it, I doubted Miko got her impulsiveness from her actual parents if what I had read before coming here was accurate. So, she had to pick up that influence somewhere.

When we got her and the others out of this mess, I kept asking her how she had failed to mention any of this stuff.

Oh, don't get me wrong, both families had difficult questions about what their children were involved with. And given that there were both allies and previous enemies in the room, that conversation got awkward at parts. I mean, awkward. I mean, how do you explain to parents whose children are currently being held by some radical military group that some of those who were going to be helping them, at one point, were actively trying to take over humanity less than a year ago? Honestly, we had Rumble, Frenzy, Eject, and Rewind to thank for helping us out of that situation. Since they were closer in height to the humans, they were able to relate to them better. By the end of the third solar, we were all pretty relaxed around each other.

Knockout even got a sandal thrown at him for questioning Raf's mama's cooking.

But it had been a week since our arrival, and I knew that Soundwave and Prowl were working with the military to formulate a strategy for finding the others. We needed to get them home. With Silas gone and this version of Prometheus Black in charge, I didn't want to think about what he might be ordering done to them. Images from the universe I originally knew him from flashed threw my helm as I thought about that. Hybrids that had lost all of their humanity. Freakish monsters that attacked anything that they were ordered to. If this one was anything like that Prometheus Black, then we needed to move quickly.

I might have been neutral during the fighting, but nothing messed with my family, and I got away with it. I would make MECH pay.

"You look kinda weird when you are brooding," I let out a vent and raised an optic ridge before turning to look at the owner of that voice. After Raf, Gabriel was the next youngest of the seven Esquivel siblings, and he seemed like the quiet loner type. But, during our time here, he had talked to me a few times. I got the kid. I did. While Raf felt left out sometimes, he wasn't the only one. Gabe, which was the name he told us the other solar he liked to be called, admitted that in such a big family, he felt like he was in the background. But, he did understand that his family was big and that there was only a certain amount of time in the day.

Honestly, what got us talking was his love of writing. Given my fanfics back in the solar before this became my life, I appreciated any sort of creative mind. Gabe was currently in the middle of writing a fantasy/mecha hybrid story. It was looking good, but he said that since he had met all of us, he was looking at revising some of it to be more accurate.

I was excited to read it.

Back to what he said, though. "There is so much happening right now, Gabe. With how good Prowl and Soundwave are at finding what they are looking for, I have a feeling that we are going to be launching our rescue mission soon. MECH is not an enemy to take lightly. We just stopped fighting a war…and I'm afraid we will take casualties when we face MECH." And I was really scared of that. While I knew that we needed to get the others away from them, I also knew the dangers. I wasn't stupid. I spent enough time learning under Knockout to see the damage that could be done even on a regular scouting mission.

This was going to be so much more.

"Well, that's obvious," I frowned at the young adult as he responded so simply. This wasn't that simple. "I mean, everything has risks. Hell, you are living proof of that if what you all said about you was true." Yeah, they knew that I used to be a human. We felt that they deserved to know that, given everything that Miko and Raf had contributed along with Jack, June, and Fowler. "And my little brother and his friends know that too. There might be three years between us, but I know Raf. He doesn't do anything without thinking. The kid gets stuck in his head sometimes. If he thought you all were worth it, then you should give that same kind of energy."

What was with this family and pep talks? I mean, seriously, was it in their DNA? "You know, your brother has that same way of talking," I smiled at the thought. "There were many times, during stressful situations here at the base, where he was a voice of reason. I'm glad you all are here." I then glanced at his computer and noticed that he wasn't working on his story like he normally was. "What are you doing?" I then motioned to said computer.

Gabe glanced at the screen before he turned it to show me. As I studied the spreadsheet in front of me, he described it to me. "Well, since there are so many of you, I am writing a list with a brief description of each of you. I mean, while Joe and Steve look different, some of the others look very similar. Yesterday, I accidentally called Frost by Nemo's name and never felt more embarrassed in my life."

"There's no reason to," I argued with him. "I lived with them for months before I was able to learn how to tell them apart." I had several times back then when I had to pause and study the drone in question's identifier to know who I was talking to. It was a long time before I could keep them straight from each other.

In return, Gabe gave me a 'that's exactly what I mean' look before he nodded. "And that's what I'm doing. But I can't always see those identifiers, so learning how to tell them apart by my spreadsheet is a little easier for me. And I'm adding the rest of you bots on here as well."

A smirk ghosted across my faceplate when I saw some of the descriptions he used for the non-drone bots. "The one that likes to blow shit up?" I questioned as I motioned to Wheeljack's description.

Gabe blushed at my reading of his description before he nodded. "Well…he does. From all the stories you all have told us, there seem to be a lot of explosives involved when Wheeljack is around."

"Glad you've picked out my best qualities," Gabe's blush grew darker when Wheeljack walked into the room with a smirk on his faceplate. Fragger was probably waiting for an opening like that. "But it fits, so we're good."

When he turned to me with a hard look, I knew that what I was fearing was fast in coming. "They found them?" I asked him seriously.

The mech nodded. "Yeah, it took some time, but Soundwave and Prowl were able to narrow down the possible locations to only one. The others want to meet to discuss the game plan."

Nodding, I turned and lowered my servo next to Gabe. Once he had his laptop in his backpack, he quickly hopped on before I followed Wheeljack to the main communications room. This was it. We had found the others, and now we were going to bring them home. They were our family, and we would pull out all of the stops to make sure that they made it home safely.

Paul's 1st P.O.V.

"Are we all here?" General Bryce asked as Whelljack and Pandimala arrived with Gabriel Esquivel. The room was tense as Soundwave nodded toward the human military leader. While Bryce and I hadn't exactly met on the 'right foot' per se, he seemed to understand more of the situation that was happening around him. That was good. With him as a closer ally, I had a feeling that we were going to get a lot more accomplished with this alliance the others had started.

Glancing at Pandimala, I couldn't help but feel relief all over again. She was online. All of those solars in that fragging tower, and I was alone, she had been in my thoughts. I wished for her to rest in the Well, and I never even allowed myself to hope that she would return. Being here now, I felt like all of those lonely solars locked away were worth it. Now that she was here, everything was going to be alright. I hadn't realized how much she truly meant to me until she had been gone. It hurt, those first solars in Decepticon Village, without her there. Without her enjoying what they had all worked so hard for.

I knew I hadn't done much, but knowing that she had been missing that peace…even if it was short-lived, had almost been too much. And then they locked me away, and I thought I would break.

But that was in the past…and I would never allow that to happen again. This was a new future, and we would make fragging sure it was the best one we could forge. To start that off, we would bring the others back. I had been freed, and now it was their turn.

"We have been able to trace MECH's movements to this compound," Prowl started while pulling up a display on the monitor. I focused on the huge complex shown in blueprint format. There looked to be seven large structures that could hold multiple labs capable of holding even Cybertronians, let alone human prisoners. "Each of these buildings is large, even in comparison to us, and so we will be going in teams of three into each one. Each team will be accompanied by a squad of soldiers picked by Bryce here to help search the buildings. As they are doing this, the rest of us will act as a diversion, keeping MECH's artillery and manpower focused away from the retrieval teams."

"We are certain that Prometheus has separated the five of them between the buildings," Bryce picked up. "That means two of the teams will come up empty. Once all five of them have been recovered, we will fall back here to base. We leave no one behind, alive or dead,"

While that thought was harrowing, that sentence alone told me that Bryce more than understood what we were dealing with. Even though we wouldn't want to leave our offline behind regardless of the situation, going against MECH made that a cruciality. They would not hesitate in using their chassis to create more monsters as Silas had become. They could do that, and no bot deserved to have to fight a butchered puppet of their offline comrades while someone else pulled the strings of their chassis.

No one left behind.

I focused on the briefing as Soundwave spoke up. "While we are infiltrating, we will try to gather as much intelligence about MECH as we are able. This attack will not be one to take out MECH. That will come later."

"Yeah, for now, just get in there, get what we need to and can, and then we get out of there," Prowl agreed before he moved the schematics to focus on four towers. "Each of these towers hosts an advanced version of their electrical weapon. Outside forces should focus on taking them out while they keep MECH away from the rescue teams. If they aren't taken out, they could cause major problems as the mission moves forward."

"Teams are going to be formed based on who can work best together while being able to get in and out," I spoke up, having been in on the conversations. "However, while stealth will be important on this mission, we also must be prepared for any internal defenses that MECH may have guarding them. So, each team of three Cybertronians will have at least one bot who can take a hit. We cannot get over our heads in this. Teams will be announced before departure to keep information from possibly leaking to MECH."

We were worried that there were still spies within the military, even this top secret, and we were taking as few chances as we could. We weren't even going to tell the others when we were going to launch until the call came in. That would give MECH even less time to plan. That fear was also the reason that only Bryce, myself, and the families of Raf and Miko were in this meeting. The soldiers who would be joining us weren't told about this yet. Their orders wouldn't come until right before we were going to leave. Bryce had the troops that he was going to bring selected, but they were blissfully unaware of how close we were to launch. This was so if MECH did have a spy within the ranks here, they wouldn't know we were this close until it was too late for them to move the kids, June, and Fowler.

Once the others had been dismissed, I refocused as Soundwave and Prowl, the only two bots remaining, moved over to where Bryce and I were standing. We were going to figure out these teams. Thirty bots in total had come through the bridge, not including symbiotes, and that included Pandimala. While we did have allies left on Cybertron, we obviously couldn't call them for this. We needed to figure out how to split the bots up the best. Also, we needed to decide what squads here at the base would work best with which team. However, getting the Cybertronian teams figured out seemed to be the best first course of action.

"So, we need to decide on these teams and which squads will go with them," Bryce started. "There are two companies of soldiers prepared for this operation, but most of those will be assisting the outside forces in keeping MECH at bay. Depending on how you all form these teams and what you can tell me about the bots you pick, I can figure out which squads to pull from the main force to send with them."

As I thought, we would have to get our seven teams of three prepared first. Hopefully, the humans that were going to be with the teams could keep up with the bots physically while being able to relax. While some of the bots would be able to keep serious during a mission, I knew that quite a few we had here liked to relax while they were moving about. Bryce would need to know which were which so he could assign squads with those bots based on that.

"Logical," Prowl agreed before he pulled out a datapad, presumably with all of the bots listed on it. "As you have seen from our arrival, thirty of our supporters made the travel here to Earth. Fifteen of those were Autobots, four were neutral or not online, and eleven of those were Decepticons. All of us have grown closer during our brief time on Cybertron and Decepticon village so there should be no problems in mixing those bots. Also, I believe that we should split up those with bonds and the drones. Those with the bonds would be of more use separated just in case MECH decides to interrupt the communication signals. The drones are not as proficient in fighting, for the most part, and would best serve as scouts for their respective placements unless they are a part of the distraction force."

"I agree," Soundwave made his thoughts on this known before he continued. "Those with any sort of bond would be Thundercracker, Skywarp, Ironhide, Chromia, Inferno, Red Alert, and most recently Pandimala and Knockout."

I smiled slightly at that last bit. After our arrival on Earth, I was told that Pandimala and Knockout had bonded during her hiding with the Predacons in Darkmount. Given everything that had happened before, they felt it was for the best. Neither Knockout nor Pandimala wanted to waste time again, just in case something happened. They weren't going to be thrilled about being separated, but I knew that it would work out alright.

"So," I jumped in. "Since each team needs a big bot on it, let's pick out those seven first. Pandimala will be on a team, as should Blitzwing."

Prowl gave a nod at my first two choices before he spoke up. "With that in processor, Springer should be on a different team as well as Ironhide. Inferno should also be able to take a hit well."

"Scavenger can hold his own, and I think Scattershot should round out the last team. Scavenger is used to taking charge and taking hits, while I have heard enough about Scattershot to know he can cover for his team," Soundwave added. I had noticed that, ever since Pandimala entered the mech's life, he had become more and more talkative. He wasn't fully at the point of long conversations, but sharing information out loud instead of with his visor was an improvement.

Bryce looked between the three of us while we listed those bots. Once we were done, he cleared his throat. "What can you tell me about those that weren't on Earth?" They had information on Blitzwing? Fowler must have had one Pit of a report when the bots left. Thank everything that I wasn't at that meeting as well.

"I can tell you about the Autobots," Prowl spoke up. "Scattershot is a pretty relaxed mech. However, he can focus when he needs to. Ironhide is a straightforward mech who isn't afraid to tell anybot his thoughts on something. Inferno has a lot of patience and can be a voice of reason. And then there is Springer. As with Pandimala and Blitzwing, he is a triple changer, and he was once a part of the Wreckers. He, like most of them, likes to act first more often than not. However, he can keep a level helm most of the time."

When the Autobot stopped and glanced at Soundwave, I realized that the Autobots must not have much about Scavenger, who had gone neutral after the battle of Tyger Pax. "Scavenger thinks deeply about what is around him. It was part of why he left the Decepticons when he did. However, he is good at keeping bots calm under him."

After those seven were separated as being on separate teams, we all debated about what other bots would go with them and which ones would stay outside and help the forces there. In the end, I was sure that we made the best teams that we could, given the circumstances. Once Bryce assigned the squads, each of which was led by a Staff Sergeant, to each team, we even had names for the teams that were taken from those squad names.

Team Alpha would be made of Scattershot, Barricade, and Domino, along with the squad led by Marissa Faireborn. Team Gamma was made of Ironhide, Joe, and Vox along with a squad led by William Lennox. The third team, Team Epsilon, would be made of Scavenger, Wheeljack, and Cohrada, and the squad led by Ezra Greene. Blitzwing, Cliffjumper, and the drone called Nemo made up Team Theta, along with a squad led by George Lafayette. The fifth team, Team Kappa, was made of Inferno, the drone called Frost, and Soundwave, along with a squad led by Raoul Ramirez. Springer, Knockout, and Prowl were on Team Lambda along with a squad led by Carlos Lopez. Finally, the last team, Team Sigma, was made of Pandimala, Jazz, and Thundercracker along with a team led by Carmine Fanzone.

It was difficult not to smirk when I heard some of those names. I knew that Pandimala would be internally fangirling at all of the references those names would bring to her. And that didn't even include the unknown members of their teams. I didn't know who they were, but something told me that there would be more familiar names. While this was a serious situation, we would need that bit of levity. Of course, these familiar names could also cause the femme some paranoia, but she would get over it. I mean, it wasn't like any of these soldiers were going to look like any of the villains.

Pandimala: *nods in approval* We will soon be able to free the others from MECH and their plans. I hope for your sake Authoress, *glances at Authoress* That everything goes well. I did not suffer through all that I did for you to bungle this.

Authoress: *raises eyebrow* Oh? and you think that I have any control over this? I am just recounting what you went through. Nothing more and nothing less.

Knockout: *reluctantly sees logic* Fine, but this still better go well. While we won't get rid of MECH anytime soon, we can keep them at bay easier as long as this goes through alright.

Paul: *still amazed that Pandimala is online* I'm fine. Authoress gave Pandimala back to us.

Knockout: *raises optic ridge* And if the tale takes her away again soon?

Paul: *godly energy pours out of him* Then I will make sure that Authoress is no more so the tale cannot be told anymore.

Authoress: *nervous* Heh.

AN: And that is all for this chapter folks! Again, happy birthday MothraRanger! I hope you all liked this chapter! It was a lot of information, but there wouldn't be enough time to get through what I need you all to know during the next chapter (which will of course be the beginning of the rescue attempt)! We do get to see a little into Prometheus and his plans though. I'm sure some of you can see what is going on, but to what extent have I pushed the boundaries this time? It will be a lot of fun to explore this some more.

Also, I feel like I do need to explain the new Decepticons. While this story does go off of the new ending of Power of One, I felt like a few more Decepticons showed up before the Council was reformed and started making things difficult for new Decepticons to Cybertron. You have met most of the new ones on Earth, though one is still unnamed, as well as a good number of new Autobots. Again though, there will be more of them as well who are a part of the outside force. They will be introduced next chapter when they get ready to launch the rescue mission.

Of course, there is also the little addition I decided to add with the name-dropping for the commands of each squad. Going for the nostalgia not going to lie. And each team is littered with references to other Transformers series, works of known fiction, and even some names from other works of mine. Of course, Pandimala's team is going to be interesting with the squad leader being Fanzone (and yes he will be similar to his Animated self in a few ways...hehe). I can't wait for it. However, I'm not sure which story I am going to work on next (though I will admit that Awakening Resolve is getting its hooks into me and I do need to get more updated for Valor of One). We will see when we get there.

Now, here are the names of the next chapters!

Chapter 2: Storming the Base

Chapter 3: Experiments

Chapter 4:...(find out next time!)

And that is all for now. If you want, drop a review to either say hi or let me know how I did on the chapter! I enjoy them and try to answer when I can, though work sometimes makes that difficult. Until next we meet though, TTYL! *listening to a large variety of different music*