Arcee and the Cyber Worlds

by Tigressa101

The Queen of Cybertron returns. Months after taking back the throne and retrieving the Allspark as promised, Arcee finds her next adventure outside the world she is most familiar with. She becomes bent on a mission to restore Cybertron's relations with the Cyber Worlds, the other Transformer planets, but can she do it? Sequel to Arcee and the Isle of the Allspark

36. World Heritage

Song: Scarlet Cross – Black Veil Brides

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Arcee was eager now, excited to see Earth again. Of course, with every destination around the globe scattered, there had to be a bypass to navigate it. Haywire handed her a beacon with a neutral expression.

"Perceptor and Scythe both told me about Earth and if you're going to get anywhere on that rock, you're going to have to travel from place to place. That's a ground bridge coordinator. It's a simplified version of the space bridge, as you no doubt know already. It has a limit to how many portals it can make so do try to use it sparingly to only go where you need to."

Bolt added, "We each have one too so if you do waste yours, we can come over and get you. I assume Megatron's going to be flying more so than teleporting, so his is probably going to last the longest. Our drop point will be Jasper, Nevada and we'll go from there. I don't know how we'll keep track of the Metal Head activity, but where there's a will, there's a way."

"If the Metal Heads are already on the planet, someone would have seen them by now," Megatron argued. "They aren't exactly discreet, and humans will run from anything. Perfect prey for a malevolent virus."

"I don't think they would infect humans though. They're too small compared to the specimens we've been seeing. They will probably aim to kill them more so, biting them would end up killing them anyways I would assume."

Arcee replied, "Regardless, in and out like always and hope the Metal Heads haven't become wise enough to start attacking multiple places at once. But then that would mean unleashing multiple commanders because those are a lot of members to keep track of. Seems a bit excessive for the least regarded planet out of all eight of the worlds."

"True," Bolt said.

Bumblebee laughed as Moonhunter walked past him to be near his master. "At this point, I think the Metal Heads know not to mess with you, Arcee. If they are aiming for you alone, they are going to try and isolate you more than hunting the humans down. But appearances aren't everything."

"Wisely said, Bumblebee," Optimus interjected. "As we've learned in the past with Megatron's attempts and with other Decepticons, protecting humanity has been a priority but at a cost of our own sacrifices. This time, I'm afraid you must utilize this ideology with caution. With such a vicious enemy, going out of your way to protect every human life over prioritizing the many over a few casualties may be taken advantage of. We have no clue if the Metal Head Leader is aware of this. You must be careful with who you help, Arcee."

"But humanity will always have a few good people among them," the Allspark's voice said. It appeared with a burst of light and swayed. "The past is catching up and so will our most crucial decisions. History will always repeat itself, just be prepared for what you do to move on from its previous mistakes. Hopefully, you see the folly of the old and fix it anew."

Bolt huffed, "Once again, your riddles suck! Can't you just tell us?! What exactly will go wrong?"

"If I tell, bad things can-"

"'Bad things can happen.' 'Bad things can happen.' Bad things are happening! At this point, it's not going to change shit! I don't know if anyone else noticed, but no matter what we seem to do, bad things always happen. Well then, if it's going to be that way, I say let's break a few rules on this 'don't tell or else' policy because we're eventually going to die anyway. Let the universe pick a fight with us and we'll beat it again and again like always. Fuck fate!"

Arcee threw up her eyebrows but pointed at the Vehicon and turned to the Allspark. "I kind of agree with him. I know you want to protect us, but sometimes we need to know if we can prevent something. If the universe is going to screw us either way, we're making a laughingstock of it. Sorry."

The Allspark considered that with its colors changing to an orangish-yellow hue. "Perhaps..."

Predaking and Grimlock were messing with the Space Bridge Nexus' wires until the Dinobot made a squealing roar as he was electrocuted, shifting to and from Dinobot mode rapidly before dropping face first into the ground in robot mode. The Predacon leader peered down concerned but their antics were ignored as Scythe fired up the Space Bridge Nexus. He promptly yelled at them after witnessing the sight as the Arcee and her team prepared to go to Earth. The beams of each bridge collided, and the portal was active.

"Jasper, Nevada, here we come, baby!" Bolt said excitedly, "I so miss this planet the most, not gonna lie! I'm awesome, and it has the best roads, and it has some of the coolest creatures in the galaxy! I would fight anything barehanded for this world!"

"Okay, calm down, Miss Universe, I think the planet already knows you love it. If you solve world hunger, they'll really love you," Arcee sneered.

"Can we do that?"

Megatron shook his head amused, "This planet, by Primus, is going to be my grave."

The queen retorted, "It was over a decade ago."

"Hush," he scowled, now annoyed.

The Allspark hummed, "Be careful and don't lose your way. Help will always come in most unexpected places and from those who are not what they seem."

Arcee was curious about the choice of words but ignored it to focus on Earth itself. They jumped in with a cackle of energy. Moonhunter raced her across the portal's vortex straight towards the light. Arcee reached for it as it grew brighter with a hiss. Running onto rocky desert, Arcee opened her optics to see the sky she hadn't gazed upon in years. The buttes of Nevada's lonesome soil were heavenly to witness. She didn't know if humans appreciated such well-crafted formations of nature, but she sure did at that moment.

Bolt stormed past her and transformed to make donuts in the dirt to stir up dust in his wake. Arcee held a servo up smirking at his delight. Megatron wasn't as thrilled, but he held a peaceful demeanor looking up at the signature blue sky with its clouds of white. The sun was up in the afternoon, somewhat hot but tolerable. They didn't mind Bolt's enthusiasm driving around, using the small bumps in the dirt to test his wheels properly compared to driving on normally flat terrain or dealing with highland-type environments not friendly to any grounders. Earth was perfect for a fun drive. Moonhunter took a few steps, unsure of the dirt and it took him a while to adjust back to feeling the organic matter between his paw toes.

"Just how Mama likes it," she muttered to herself.

"I have to admit, I kind of do miss this world, mostly the aerial views if anything. But it's serene," Megatron said.

The Vehicon started making donuts around them while yelling, "We should visit Kenya or Madagascar where all the fun animals are or maybe Australia! I heard it's so wild, even the locals avoid the interior of the vast continent. Or, or, or what about Brazil! All the pretty birds, guys!"

Arcee huffed with a partial smile before waving down his excitement as he transformed with a stylish flip and a proud pose. "Okay, okay, one thing at a time and that is figure out how to keep the Metal Heads from doing what they want here. We're going to have to put a tour of Earth's animals on hold for the time being. Okay?"

"Aw..." Seeing Bolt sink a little in depression made her scowl.

"You've seen plenty on the Isle of the Allspark, did you not?" Megatron frowned.

"Not the same as seeing them in their natural habitats though," he whined like a little kid.

"Defeat the Metal Heads, tour after. Got it? I'll throw in a trip to the ocean too."

"Yes, ma'am," he huffed. "So, where do we start first, ringleader?"

She had no clue. Earth was vast, so many places to see and so many countries to explore. There was no telling where the Metal Heads would attack first...until she remembered what Silos told her. The Metal Heads had the Peace Core and with the Dark Core, they could destroy cities. They had a heading, but her teammates wouldn't appreciate doing anything for Silos. But it wasn't for Silos...it was part of the plot to hurt the world by other means.

"I think we need to step away from Nevada and split up. We can find clues easier that way. Bolt, you peruse North America for any broadcasts of anything unusual. Megatron, you get Asia. I'm going to...Europe."

Bolt shrugged, "Fine, I get Moonhunter though."

"Deal. We find anything suspicious, we meet back up."

Megatron reluctantly agreed and transformed, soaring across the sky westward. Bolt gestured to Moonhunter and the two ran off to run as fast as they could push themselves. She could tell Moonhunter was pleased to get a good workout. That left her alone to peer around and contact the one person she really didn't want to talk to.

"Silos, are you near Earth?"

He growled, "Yes, enjoying something named a mojito until I got this call. What is it?"

"Don't get snappy. Where's the Dark Core since you've been keeping track of it so much through your link."

"It's protected by a thief...he stole it from a company named 'BioMech' in one of their facilities not too far from your current location. That blasted nuisance has been scouring the globe for centuries stealing anything he could get his claws on. The Metal Heads know he has a trove in...New...Ze-al-land? Sealand..."

"New Zealand?"

"Whatever. The human languages here are a nightmare. In New...'Zealand', his trove with all his loot is said to be there. The Metal Heads are converging on it, so best to hurry up and get to it before unwanted miscreants do instead. It's in a place dubbed Fi...Fiordland, southwest of the island. Some very strange names here. Find the Dark Core and bring it back to me once I call upon you. Now, leave me alone while I find comfort in the little amusements this backwater planet can bring."

Arcee set her coordinates for Fiordland, New Zealand and ran through the portal that spawned. She saw before her mountains and water spanning across the whole area, around said mountains for miles. It was remote enough to hide a trove if no one knew where to start. With the morning just underway, the vast area shined in a beautiful light. The satellite map she immediately downloaded showed off its winding water. It could be anywhere within the huge region. A cruise ship in the distance had her backing away and hiding among the trees. She didn't need to be spotted by humans just yet.

"Okay, if I was Soundwave, what could I do to track a foreign trove?"

A part of her began to think to look up and saw one of the highest mountains close to her. It could probably give her an insight into what to look for. A trove that couldn't be found had to have some clues, and this seemed to be one smart thief to hide it all the way out here. She climbed up the side of the landscape through the trees, weary of open spots just in case there were any humans hiking. It took her nearly twenty minutes to get to the top because she underestimated the size of the mountain.

Once there, she gasped upon seeing the fiords and mountains below and across far more than a few miles. Birds flew beside her and beyond. She gazed outward to the point where she spotted the tip of the ocean and the smaller ranges that made up the border of the island. It was too big to navigate on her own, that was until she spotted something peculiar. A normal human who made the hike up to where she was may have missed it, but her eyesight worked differently, allowing her to zoom in long distances to pinpoint anything she was focused on like automatic binoculars. A streak of red among the jungle had her curious. It was human-sized but once she identified some tints of gold streaks and light-colored pants, she found the coat was a bit odd for such an environment. The figure somehow managed to coast down the side of a waterfall off the cliff to the fiord below and stopped midway using what appeared to be... claws. Suddenly, they jumped behind the waterfall and vanished. Suspicious indeed. Humans didn't have claws.

That had to be investigated. That was too odd of a coincidence to ignore. Arcee got a running start and leapt off the mountain top, spinning in a single roll before igniting her energy wings. She took the sky and made sure the waterfall was in her sight. It was almost a mile out, but she made quick timing of it, diving partially to cut across the sky like a missile locked onto its target. Once she was close enough, she got out of her dive and flew around until she was near the forest close to it. Cancelling her wings, she hit the ground and ran over to the waterfall peak. The water came from a stream going through two mountains where the sun was nearly sitting perfectly between them. Like a beacon of light, she believed this might have been the trove she was looking for. She got her answers once she crawled down and noticed a hidden ledge in the rock.

Creeping in, Arcee stayed low to listen for the person who came in. She almost touched the ceiling of the passage. Definitely a human's manmade cavern. It must have taken years to carve out though. When she got into a larger area, she froze. Trillions of dollars' worth of valuables were stored in the cave, all from different eras and a giant wooden rigging ship sat floating in a shallow spring with nowhere to go except up but it wasn't like the ship could climb out. It had an old depiction of a dragon logo, wings spread on its largest sail with a barely moving black flag with an unknown skeletal design above its crow's nest. She had seen Pirates of the Caribbean with the kids before; she wasn't convinced this was the work of a cursed pirate but if they had been doing this for centuries...

Suddenly, Arcee noticed that among the trove were dead bodies. Some were underwater picked clean by fish that had made residency in the spring while others had bullet wounds and impalement markings through their clothing or skulls. A few bodies were undefined, but plenty of them were from recent eras within the last hundred years or less. Two of them were very recent, partially decomposed pinned to a corner where falcons and swamp harriers were perched on the remains feeding on it. She looked back up at the pirate ship to see several of them camped out and looking right at her with their feathers ruffled like they were waiting for her. If she didn't know any better, they were waiting for her to die. The only thing that spooked her more was that she couldn't find the supposed human who had entered here-

An alien screech from above barely had her react in time to see a pitch black Minicon leaping down at her. She jumped out of the way down into the lost treasures. Everything except the Minicon's lower faceplate with its mouth and parts of its abdomen were as black as the darkest shadows. The two other parts were dark grey. Its optics were blackened as well like it was missing them like Marina, but this thing could clearly see her if not sense her. When it roared at her, a mouthful of grey fangs, as jagged as the uncut jewels lying about, were pronounced in warning. It was like the Tyranquentor miniaturized and non-fish-like. She took that as confirmation that whatever this Minicon was, it protected the trove. Claws scraped the ground as it stood to its full height. It was almost as big as her. No wonder no one found the cavern to begin with. Hearing the cries of the birds egging on the fight and hoping she would die, the bastards, made her tense and she brought out her double-bladed sword and aimed at it. Throwing it as it roared again, she smirked as the blade was flying right at it...only to be directed off course by a gunshot.

Arcee glared at the origin of the sound and saw a man with a pirate's red long coat and tricorn gold-rimmed black hat with the base having a black metal design along its rim connecting to the head. With piercing green eyes, he glared at her, narrowing them. The outfit was thought to be a mockery of the pirates of old for it supported a modernized look. The coat was designed to stay tight against his form instead of being baggy like most pirates in the movies were often led to wear. He was well shaven with a small patch of beard and had clawed gauntlets covering his hands and lower arms. She could see armor was embroidered into all the material, especially the white pants and the hint of the undershirt barely made out beneath the coat. His orange and white rimmed fancy ascot with a green gem in the middle made him look like a wealthy aristocrat, an irony of his believed motives. He had armored boots and a belt with multiple straps across his lower waist and legs to secure it, supporting a few bags to keep items and able to hold two guns and a sword. The guns, not pirate grade weaponry and instead modern high-powered handguns, and the sword were both customs.

Either this guy was a delusional nutjob pretending to be a real pirate, or this guy was a servant of a lineage to protect and hoard this screwy family secret for centuries, evolving across the times with each member.

She was no stranger to seeing cults among humans, and the nutjobs? Detroit was said to have a lot of customed thieves. This guy was probably both, and he seemed very dangerous. He scoped her out like he was looking for a weakness. When his pupils slightly expanded and his grip tensed, somehow, he had found one like he was a predator on the hunt for blood. Arcee grew vividly uncomfortable and could see he was prepared to pull the trigger.

"Wait!" Arcee yelled out in English. Seven in ten chance this person knew English. She hoped she was right.

He lowered his gun slightly, but the Minicon he was protecting hissed in case Arcee tried anything. Then he abruptly stated in a mixed European-Polynesian accent, " Why...is it every alien species that ever visits happens to know English and from the United States out of all places? Can't you ever land in Egypt or China for once in your existence? Learn something new? Mongolian, there's a fun language you'd like."

"I don't mean any harm. You're not the keeper of this trove, are you?"

"Mmm, unfortunately, I am. Been doing it for years. You're not a wayward traveler seeking treasure from urban myths, and you don't strike me as a tourist who can't learn to stay on the marked path. So, why are you here?"

His grip on the gun tightened again and the Minicon slowly crawled on the walls to be behind him, growling and whipping its tail.

"Look, my name's Arcee, autonomous robotic organism-"

"-From the planet Cybertron?" He finished suddenly, sheathing his gun almost instantly. "There's no way you're a part of the team the being named Optimus Prime ran, are you? The 'Autobots' you called yourselves?"

Arcee narrowed her optics. "How do you know about him?"

"You think the American government is impenetrable? Unexplained alien encounters, a car driving itself, a photo of a walking, talking machine-does that sound familiar to you? Plenty of people in their dying breaths give away a lot for a chance to survive. When the government starts homing in on my mythology because of my partner here, Kia, and the vast mysteries of the cursed pirate treasure-blah, blah, blah-that gives me incentive to protect my friends as you no doubt did yours. The fun thing about places like these is that there are plenty of hideaways for bodies."

"You're a murderer?" Arcee questioned, frowning distastefully.

Kia and the human glanced at one another before he shrugged, "Call me whatever you want, some secrets are best left alone. If it matters to you, my name's Malachi Jacova, but you can call me 'Max' for the modern era, I suppose. I've known about you and your friends for quite some time, even before knowing your names. I was a little boy when I met young Kia and we grew up together before...um, a personal matter took hold."

The femme huffed, "Okay, Max, Halloween's over. I don't care if you play dress up or not but I'm here looking for something, a Dark Core. Probably a canister of unknown substance? Purplish black maybe?"

"Dress up?" Max grinned, "Says the Autobot who's a bit too big to have a motorcycle for a vehicle form. I would have thought you to be a small car if anything. You're like a surplus Minicon, maybe bigger."

She was just about over this guy and pointed a digit at him. Max barely flickered his eyes away from hers to look at it as she got closer. "Listen, wiseass, I need that Dark Core because the whole world is in danger. If I don't get it, everyone dies."

Max snorted, "And that concerns me how? If it dies by anything, it's not my problem. I grew up in the 1700's. Yes, I'm far older than you think, cursed to walk this world forever and trust me when I say it's not worth saving. I've lived to see it crumble from the inside out."

"Just because you had a terrible life doesn't mean you have to be a bad guy when we've already got enough to deal with as it is!" Arcee chastised, glaring at Max.

The pirate turned away and walked a few feet before holding up a finger. "You know the funny part about that? It's very easy to be the bad guy when you already are. I'm a pirate, born and raised in a century long ago where if you didn't kill someone, pillage and plunder, someone else would do it against you without a single second of hesitance. It's still the same today. It's not about being a good person, Arcee, it's about what you are able to do that's good in your means and knowing when you need to do bad things to accomplish what is necessary. Call me a liar.

"And it amuses me even more how you have this self-righteous sense of good when you yourself have probably done just as much as I have, perhaps more. How many people have you killed? How many skeletons lie in your closet that even the great Optimus Prime will never know? We had to do what we needed to in order to survive, to live because if we didn't, someone else might have taken their chances instead. But if you ask anyone, they will tell you we've done wrong no matter what. That's the universe's greatest hypocrisy. Even when we do good, the only thing anyone cares about is how it was done and yet, not one of them will consider it an act of kindness without suspecting it was for an ulterior motive. Why should I care?"

Arcee frowned, "Because they are still your own species..."

Max grew amused, "Are they now? Do you know the real difference between those who strive for good and those who commit crimes for any motive other than because we can? At the end of the day, we can pull the trigger and live with ourselves. A majority of humanity claims to be bold, but you put a gun to their heads, they will squeal like pigs, especially the people who only see good because they can't imagine how easy it is for someone to take a life and sleep at night knowing they got what they want while the dead and their loved ones lose everything. Being good in a place where everyone else has no problems destroying the kindness you try and make is quite hard and more than often, there's no benefit. Why waste precious time helping when most people will forget the deed or abuse it?"

"That's...not true. I've seen humanity do great things. They have compassion, they learn from each other, and they are willing to grow. That makes them worth saving," Arcee scolded.

Max looked at her like she was an idiot, and she couldn't figure out why until he began to smile. "By dissecting anything they don't understand? By figuring out another get-rich-quick scheme? People grow into what they desire most and when you have nothing they want, money becomes the ultimate fuel of fire. You can't be good in a world that relies on currency; it is just not going to happen no matter how much you tell yourself at night you will change the world by doing certain things. Every day, a person is killed, raped, tortured, and abandoned in a ripple effect. When people try to be these nice, caring saints, someone gets hurt in the process, and they don't bat an eye because it's not 'their people' or the sacrifices to prove their point are necessary.

"You can name any group, and that smudge on their rap sheet will come up. For example, religious beliefs are the steppingstones of the world's greatest choices, but they are also the bane of existence. For everyone who believes in any god, deity, or creature, someone is killed by the same extremists of the religion. They are basically being hypocrites to their own beliefs. You can pray to any god you want, your actions are not justified or forgiven for being complete assholes to anyone other than yourself, and the biggest fools in the world are those who follow only the parts of a belief they think apply to them which is arguably what led to at least half the world being screwed up as it is.

"So, you're one to criticize me for my choice to leave everyone else behind when you've done the exact same thing. The Decepticons, you hated them despite not everyone on their side being a bad person. You are a hypocrite just the same and like humanity, you don't see what you're doing has hurt and will continue to hurt everyone around you. You have biases that you're too scared to admit. You have killed people you say you had no choice in the matter but there's always a choice. If it's not you, it's someone else. So, when you ask why I won't save humanity, here's my response to you: what the fuck is there to save now?"

Arcee was silent. As Max scoffed at her, shaking his head and starting to walk away, she found he was, in a way, right. Cybertron had done the exact same thing. Megatron was one of many who proved the statements true. But it occurred to her...there would always be death, like he said. Maybe the people who would die didn't deserve it, maybe if they knew what their lives were sacrificed for, they wouldn't either agree or disagree, but if fighting gave everyone else a chance to live, would the sacrifices be worth it?

"The world will...never be good enough to save, Max?" Arcee said disheartened. The human froze. Brows furrowed, she replied, "Then maybe that's why it is."

"What?" He turned around confused.

She stood her ground as he stared at her. "People will die in every decision, right? That outcome is inevitable. No one deserves to die, true, but it will happen. Their sacrifices are not their own choice, their pain is forgotten by others who didn't suffer. Earth is nothing but a cesspool of pain. But the ones who try to make it better, even for a moment, that's who I fight for. You can call me stupid for believing humanity has a shred of decency, but freedom is the right of all sentient beings. So, who the hell are you to say who gets to live or die? Who am I to say who lives or dies? It's not about saving them; it's about doing something other than for yourself and letting them choose what happens to them. Everyone dies, Max. It's just a matter of what they die for.

"As far as I'm concerned, those who tried to be anything but cruel deserve to be fought for, and maybe I won't be able to help them but at least I can say I tried. They may never know if I exist or why I chose to do it except that it was the right thing to do. Everyone has flaws, everyone has the capability of doing great harm, and it will never stop. It's the people that continue to fight for creating a world worth living in even if it leads to death that are the people you should be fighting for...but you don't care. No one cares and that's why the world is crumbling among everyone else's best efforts. You complain about all these flaws in humanity, but you won't do anything about them. It's not your problem yet, do you think you have the right to say anything about it? Those who try to be more than just another person in the crowd get the worst life offers, those who don't care get everything. It was never fair and never meant to be. I'm not trying to make the world fair, I'm not trying to save it for glory, and I'm not trying to make it fit everyone's needs. I'm helping humanity because it seems like a pretty good thing to do considering you also live among it as the rest of have. If you can't understand that, that's your own problem."

He was about to argue, deflated, "That's not the same as-"

"I can move on knowing I did something beyond my flaws. I can live what's in my conscience, good and bad. You can live knowing you took a life. Congrats, your just another killer! Haven't seen a billion of those already. I won't be expecting anything more than that from you, will I? Anybody can kill, but it takes a leader to kill for others who need a little help battling their demons, sometimes very real. You're immortalized? Maybe use that for something other than moping around, complaining how the world should be when you have the power to be a hero to those who will never see one. You don't strike me as a hero, Max. You're just a pirate; a stone cold, petty, hypocritical, arrogant thief...and I can't help but pity you."

Arcee stormed off leaving Max and Kia to stand frozen where they were before the latter whined. He rolled his eyes with a considerate growl before looking back at Arcee. The femme crossed her arms, taking in the view of the rest of the trove with the falcons still staring her down pissed the prey they were waiting for had yet to be their next meal, not realizing of course she was inedible to them.

"Hey," a child's voice said. Shocked, she peered towards the ship and saw triplet girls lounging about, two of them had guns but they were placed to the side as they smiled at her. One of them struggled to lift something to her amusement until they got it high enough for her to see it was the Dark Core. One of them gestured, "Looking for this?"

"That's what I need. It's important alright. Say, what are your names?"

The girls looked a lot like Max, black hair and a slightly lighter complexion but their eyes were more hazel. They wore more modern clothing but were all around seven years old. The farthest kid on the right coughed, "My name is Catherine. Cat for short."

"I'm Christine! Chris if we're friends," the middle sister said.

The left sister proudly spoke, "I am the magnificent, magical Cadence, or Cade for short."

Cat sneered, "As magnificent as the rest of us. Get in line."

The girls blew raspberries at each other. It reminded Arcee of her dynamic with her sisters. They loved each other, but they weren't above teasing and having a sibling rivalry. She watched with unbridled interest in their little argument, feeling a bit homesick because she missed her sisters so dearly. Chris caught wind of this and aggressively nudged both her sisters before pointing down at Arcee.

The other two peered down at her like owlets with wide, cautious eyes as Cade stood on the railing of the ship leaning over it with her sisters clinging to her legs so she wouldn't fall. She leaned close enough to almost be nose to nose with the femme. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, you three just remind me of my own family. Unfortunately, I won't ever see them again," she sighed.

The three sisters regrouped and grew saddened. Cade said, "We know how you feel. We never got to meet our mama or daddy. The only family we have now is our big brother and Kia."

"Don't forget Antagonizer," Cat said, pointing down at the ship.

The Antagonizer didn't strike Arcee as a cybernetic being. It probably wasn't given the wooden frame couldn't transform with so many limitations.

"Your brother's ship?"

"Technically, it was our mama's. She was a pirate captain too, you know? Escaped the chains of her oppressors and hijacked this very vessel from the Spanish fleet. It became Max's after she passed. He is very touchy about Antagonizer's condition, won't let anything happen to her."

Arcee retorted, "Your brother's a bit of as ass, no offense."

One of them blew a raspberry in Max's direction instead. "Ah, he's pessimistic sometimes. We overheard everything, mainly because this cave echoes. Maybe we aren't heroes...but it doesn't mean we can't do the right thing at the moment of our choosing."

Max suddenly flipped over the side of the ship onto the deck with Kia climbing after him. He gazed at the Dark Core and snarled annoyed, tensing and shaking his head while peering off to the side. Finally, he got over his brash behavior. Unlike the girls, he picked up the Dark Core with ease and looked away as he outstretched his arm for her to come get the item as he balanced it in a strong grip.

"I thought about what you said and although I still don't see the future of humanity, there's a chance I can be proven wrong. I spent my whole life doing whatever I needed to survive, taking what I wanted and giving nothing back. And I wanted everything...but now, maybe it is time to grow from those fairy tales of an old pirate's dream in centuries long gone and start living in the real world as it is. It might not be what I want, but it seems like the right thing to do. Just don't make me regret this."

She made a deadpan smirk as she took the Dark Core, growing more empathetic as Max let a twitch of a smile graze his features if only briefly. The Matriarch and Max would have gotten along so well. A sudden rumble and Metal Head roars from above on the surface had all six individuals peering up as fragments of rock shook loose. Another strike had the girls grabbing their weapons and growling.

Max sneered, "Friends of yours?"

"If you believe me, they will rather bite my face off than shake my hand!" Arcee snapped back. "The Metal Heads are looking for the Dark Core and had I not shown up, they would blow this place apart trying to get it before you even knew."

Without looking at his sisters and focused on the ceiling, Max declared, "Alright, girls, kill anything that moves, but stay here and stay safe."

It was alarming to see three six-year-olds wielding high caliber weapons, but she had no say in their safety as the triplets turned vicious, cocking their weapons accordingly. Max used his gauntlets to scale the mast of his old ship quicker than Arcee thought a human capable of. The falcons lingering scattered as he stood on the crow's nest closest to a cavern stalagmite. Jumping on it, he leapt from multiple as he kept balance with the edges of his metal boots and claws to go to the hole in the cavern ceiling with overgrowth. Disappearing into the light, Arcee looked towards the girls protected by Kia who acted confused and pointed in his direction.

"Well, are you going to keep up with him or are you going to sit in here like a deer in headlights?"

The childish insult mostly humored her, but her expression was crossed between an amused sneer and a frown. Growling at the impatience of the pirate, she trailed after him. Form-shifting into her Kanjian mode then transforming into a jaguar, she climbed up and searched for him. The shadowed jungle had narrowed rays of light through its thick canopy raining down. She listened for any movement until a blast beside her had her scrambling a few yards. She hid behind the brush and waited, panting in her beast mode.

"Arcee." Arcee almost hit her rear against the tree in startlement before Max's armored hand covered her mouth. He made a shushing gesture and crouched beside her. "These Metal Heads are coming from the north. I can see five bombers out there aimed directly near my trove. They are here to ambush us, mostly you."

"Now you believe me," she scowled. When she peeked out from the brush, she saw none of them. "Where are they?"

"Right there," Max pointed.

The direction of his point of view yielded no results for her. She had no visual on anything. The jungle looked vacant aside from the spotted burned holes in the ground where the ground had been shot at. She narrowed her optics perplexed.

"How do you see them, but I can't?!"

When she peered down at him, she expected another wiseass remark but instead, Max was heavily focused in the direction he claimed had enemies and an electronic mask formed over his eyes from the metal lining his hat rim like a bandit's disguise. His vision was red until he moved and then it vanished back into the tricorn's intricate design. Arcee stared at him unsure of what had just happened. When he caught her staring, he facepalmed.

"You've never seen night vision technology before? It's a nanotech prototype I stole from the lab jockeys in Germany. The nanites disguise themselves as objects close to your face, I put mine at the base of my hat as you can see, and you can control them with the proper coding to move over your eyes and create a mirror to let you see in any form of night vision. Infrared, color, green, and grey can show different things even if you're looking in the same direction. Right now, with the minimal lighting of the trees, I'm using colored night vision and I spy with my little eye, five guys that are about to die," he grinned, boasting a set of canines among his most sinister expression so far, she had witnessed. To her surprise, he suddenly asked, "Do you want one? I have the four others they have made, not as many options but should serve your needs easily. Try not to move so fast with them on though. The nanites are sensitive to movement and will deconstruct to prevent damage to themselves."

Max held out his palm as multiple tiny black dots crept up his arm and built into a ball. They immediately leapt at her as she transformed and covered her optics. She shook her head madly, rubbing her face as she was temporarily blinded. When she had vision again, she saw infrared. Blinking, she gasped as everything was shifting colors between hot and cold then when she peered towards the direction Max had been focused in, she saw what he did.

Five large bodies of heat paced and gestured around to their peers waiting to hunt their prey. They were slowly making their way towards the trove, creeping in the shadowed vegetation to find them. She noted a switch prompt, and she changed her vision to direct thermal. The Metal Heads now appeared orange against purple backgrounds of the forest. She switched again to the green light. They weren't visible...but their gem skulls and eyes reflected instead because the glow of their parts were picked up. The grey night vision option wasn't in her inventory, but three different types of vision alone was good enough for her.

"Why steal this?"

"How else am I supposed to keep up with today's security? I still plunder for a living. Why do you think I have this armor? You can't be a badass if you're getting shot at constantly and aren't bulletproof. I just evolved with the times as any good criminal should," he smirked as he posed on the ground like a predator stalking prey.

"You're quite smart for a human," she mused. "And here I thought pirates were nothing but looters with no concept of what they stole. Max, you're breaking my expectations."

Max shot her a humored raise of a brow until a roar too close for comfort sounded. A big, burly monster walked among them with a sizable cannon for an arm as Arcee and Max hid in the safety of the brush again. This Metal Minotaur was its namesake, but it had no mouth and three sets of horns. Its four eyes were small, as was its brain they could imagine, as it didn't even bother to look around as it caught their scent, only pausing briefly before moving on. Arcee cancelled the nanite night vision and was amazed as they darted to her pink head crest, expanding on it like a small crown.

"Idiots..." Max hissed, shaking his head. "But that might make things easier for us. You have the power; I have the strategy. If we can tag team these guys, we can take them out. Divide and conquer each one. Their blasters will decimate us if we're hit even once I suspect, so let's not get each other killed for the time being."

Max stalked close behind one of the Minotaurs, pausing to make sure the other four were spread out far enough so he wouldn't risk getting shot at. Arcee turned invisible after he looked back which made the human pause.

"What's the plan?" Arcee whispered.

He quickly answered, "Aim for the back of the neck and sever the cables near its elbow...you can go invisible, huh? Never mind. It can't fire with no fuel, and the neck isn't protected. One strike to it might be Goliath's weak point as we are its David."

"Who?"

"Metaphor. Don't worry about it. Just watch and learn."

The human carefully brought out his sword and crouched. With a sudden leap, he clawed up the large Metal Head's back and cut through the weapon's fuel lines before punching the Minotaur twice in the face and whipping over its shoulder to shove his blade into the soft spot on its neck. The sword went through its spine and through to its throat. With a snarl, Max forced his blade sideways and decapitated the monster. As soon as its body hit the ground, Max fled into the safety of the brush in the shadows with only the faint glow of his night vision on as a blast flew past him.

"Remember, aim for the neck and the fuel lines. With me now."

Arcee waited for the three Minotaurs that appeared to lose interest in their fallen brethren's corpse and click their weapons into place ready to fire again as they stepped randomly over on brush and knocked down trees. The daylight tainted the normally shadowed area. Arcee waiting for one of them to stray farther than the others to ambush it. Since killing one would alert the others, it was best to kill and retreat which was fine by Arcee.

Invisible, she stalked alongside Max who ran up a tree to prowl from above, distracting the Metal Minotaur from her when she got too close, and it began to sense her. The falling leaves had the Metal Head snort and tried to pinpoint if it was a bird or its enemy. It spotted the narrowing red glow of the nanites' eye mask. Arcee made her move.

Going on a handstand in front of it, she used her upper body strength to kick up into its jaw as her invisibility wore off and turned to punch out its leg, forcing it to kneel. Max shot his gun downward to rupture the fuel lines which blew off its arm. Knowing the other Minotaurs were on their way, she and Max got in sync and began kicking the crap out of the Metal Head. While she climbed onto it to strike its face, Max sliced his sword across its waist and other arm after jumping down. Arcee had him swing up and gave him the opportunity to impale its weakness. They both scattered into the nearest brush as the Minotaur groaned and died, folding over as its eyes and skull gem faded.

Only three total Minotaurs remained. Like Megatron did for her, she let Max perch on her back as she kept low stalking her next victim. The pirate grabbed a rock and flung it far, the noise of it bouncing off a tree distracted two of them as the other stayed where it was to guard the corpse of its peer. The Metal Minotaurs proved yet again to be the meatheads of the legion. When they couldn't shoot their targets, they were utterly confused. Arcee and Max didn't spare a moment.

Arcee threw the human with his guns out and fired as he landed and slid underneath the large Metal Head. When the Minotaur visually tracked him, it only looked up to get brutally kicked in the snout. Max kicked its spine, blowing the discs out as it shouted in pain. Then Arcee did a high kick, jumped onto its back when it fell forward, and used her double-ended sword to skewer its neck and the ground. It sank lifeless down the edge of the blade bleeding heavily before she retrieved her weapon.

When the last two Minotaurs rushed over and grew paranoid, they used a brain cell and finally decided to watch each other's backs. They pressed forward with one of them trailing behind as they swung their weapon randomly around when they had no visual of their two opponents. While they couldn't see their targets, Arcee and Max could definitely see them. Taking a page out of Max's predatory approach, they both were watching from above as the thermal night vision all but revealed the large brutes' whereabouts.

Max took the first leap of faith. Right as one of them exposed their neck, he already had his sword prepared with a dark chuckle. Doing a flip on the way down, he severed its neck again. The last Metal Minotaur whipped its weapon around to fire despite it was aiming at its own kind but forced the dying body to counter it, twisting it around to let Arcee land down on the corpse's shoulder with her blaster out meeting the tip of its own. With the Heat Seeker ability, she grinned ferociously.

"Mine's bigger," she lied just to piss it off.

The Minotaur's four eyes went wide as Arcee let her weapon go. Max shielded himself behind the dense flesh of the techno-organic dead body as it prepared to topple from the force of the explosion. Arcee had launched backwards and caught herself on a tree to swing back around. The Metal Head that got the full blast of the Heat Seeker wasn't killed but instead was heavily burnt and damaged. Smoke poured from its blaster as its entire arm and parts of its right torso were gone. It stumbled forward with a mix of a roar and an alien shriek. Max had escaped being almost crushed under the corpse and rolled out into the open where the last Metal Minotaur grew hostile just looking at him. He sent it his own glare as he mentally dared it to try anything now that it didn't have its cannon.

Suddenly, it surged forward trying to grab him with its available hand only for Arcee to sever it. She rotated her double-bladed sword and struck it straight through the damaged armor on its chest. It stood there baffled, unable to process its body shutting down until it made one last roar that faded. With an array of dust, its corpse fell to the ground.

After all the Metal Minotaurs were gone, Arcee walked up to it to ensure the last one was dead and scanned the area to find there were no other Metal Head combatants. Max stroked his sword with the sweet sound of metal glistening as he removed the excess purple sludge off it. He placed it back on his belt and readjusted his collar and coat, placing his claws hands on his waist with a chuckle.

"Well, that was certainly a highlight of my day. If those monsters want the Dark Core that bad, then you must have done something to really piss them off." He smirked, "And to that, I'll tip my hat to you, my dear. I like thinning out my enemies as swift as possible."

Arcee matched his expression. "See, doing some good deeds for the sake of humanity isn't all bad."

"I still have my doubts but if it's any consolation to you, maybe I'll be in touch if these monsters come back. I take it you don't have many friends in other areas besides the United States, right?"

She made an obvious grimace to indicate the failure of not getting around to the other ends of the planet for as long as Team Prime had been on Earth making peace with its civilians while fighting Megatron.

"The good news is I've made quite a few connections in the past two hundred years or so with people from all over the world. If there's news of aliens or the unknown, I will know first and foremost. I even have a few...well, I wouldn't exactly say friends, but they tolerate my nature. Two of them are friends of each other, and they know Agent William Fowler who worked for you before. If you want to reconnect with the United States first, a familiar territory, look for Sergeant Robert Epps in Moscow, Russia. He's undertaking a mission there to find out what's been happening with the world leaders as well as some strange fungus growing on the BioMech labs there."

That stopped Arcee dead. "What...what's been happening?'"

Max gestured unsure. "I'm not supposed to say this but with the recent encounter of the Metal Heads, it explains the rather unusual series of events that have been riddling Earth for almost a week. World leaders like Chile's President, the King of Thailand, the King of Sweden and many others have started to go missing. There was an attempt on the Emperor of Japan's life, but it didn't succeed. I fear someone's going to start a war that's not supposed to happen, and today's leaders are petrified. If no one gets to the bottom of this soon, we could be facing a World War that could rival the previous. If it's these monsters, you need to stop them and fast before the remaining leaders start killing the wrong people in retaliation."

"You're telling me this now?!"

"Like I said, I didn't really care up until now. You convinced me to fight for the world, so let's get to bashing some Metal hide before the real war shows up here. Look, find Sergeant Robert Epps in Moscow and Colonel William Lennox in Washington D.C. Maybe they can help you find out what those Metal Heads are up to because they were both sent to deal with problems I now think are connected to the monsters. Lennox is protecting the President of the United States. Kia and I can meet you in D.C. with some experimental travel technology I commandeered and figure out what to do from there. Fair enough?"

Arcee finally agreed and Max left her to go back into his trove. Moscow and D.C. were two worlds apart, figuratively. If the Metal Heads were attacking leaders and spreading panic across the world, that could work to their advantage in toppling Earth's thin unity.

"Arcee, did you find anything?" Megatron asked over the commlink.

"Met a new human associate, someone whose been around some time to hold his own."

"What happened to 'robots in disguise?'" He sounded peeved which she could only scoff at.

"Max apparently has been keeping tabs on our war through whistleblowers that went his way, and he now knows about the Metal Heads. He can keep us informed of their movements now that he knows what they're doing. They're attacking the leaders of this world, Megatron, and fast."

The warlord grumbled, "Kind of beat me to the punch on that because there has just been a report of the King of Spain surviving a 'monstrous attacker with a yellow jewel.' Someone obviously is not playing by the rules."

"Figures," Arcee huffed. "Contact Bolt and meet me in Moscow. Max says two of his informants of the U.S. government might be in trouble with Metal Head encounters of their own."

"Will do."

Arcee activated her beacon to summon a portal to Moscow and jumped in. The city of Moscow was covered in snow, and she shivered on the outskirts of it. As it was still night there, the temperatures were even worse. Compared to sunny New Zealand, she was beginning to consider going back and dragging Max over here to suffer with her. How was she supposed to find the Sergeant Epps in snowbound Russia?

Her commlink went static before a voice tried to come through. At first, she thought it was Bolt or maybe one of her teammates on Cybertron but to her shock, it was Max himself. "Ar...Please respon...Arcee? Do you read me?"

One it was clear, she did. "Max? How did you get this frequency?"

"Trial and error, also your signal is weird, not very encrypted either. Let's just say I also know a few tricks of my own. I started thinking you might not know where to go. There's a base Epps is visiting near the BioMech lab. Go to it and say passcode 'Autobot' so they'll know not to shoot you on sight. It's one of the few United States bases that are standing in Russia, and the United States government never forgot you. You're quite famous there. Good luck."

The base wasn't too far if Earth's map was correct. She transformed into vehicle mode and sped into the blizzard. She followed the roads to the wilderness beyond the city limits where several structures stood like warehouses. That seemed like a military base to her. As her HUD warned her of the cold and the potential damage it could cause, she quickly made her way to the base checkpoint. The personnel on duty immediately halted her and stared horrified as she didn't have her holo driver, Sadie, present. She had forgotten to use it after years of not needing it.

"W-What is that?!" One guard yelled, pointing his weapon.

She quickly said in a demanding tone, "Autobot! Autobot! Friendly! Don't you dare shoot me."

Everyone was stunned before one personnel snapped out of his delusion and gestured for the gates to open to let her in the base. She would have figured they would have forgotten her by now but apparently, they never did as the warehouses contained simplified versions of ground bridge technology and housed a symbol much like the Autobot insignia. The United States had been grateful for their services in defeating Megatron. Of course, they were about to receive a nasty surprise about that.

Arcee transformed and scouted for the human named Robert Epps. There were so many faces of color, light to dark, that she didn't know who to begin with deducing the soldier she was trying to identify. The looks she received of flabbergasted individuals who had never seen an alien robot before and some who recognized her, often older officials, were nice reminders that she needed to take the whole approach without scaring anyone.

"Does anyone know where I might find Sergeant Robert Epps? Max Jacova sent me."

"Max sent you?" A deep voice asked. She turned to a small crowd of army personnel and slowly, a bald dark-skinned man approached. Suddenly, she got a not so calm response. "Who the hell does that jackass think he is sending aliens and shit to mess up my operation? No offense, alien babe, but I didn't do nothing and tell him I'm still mad he stole my goddamn-"

"He didn't send me to antagonize you," she backtracked upon realizing Max's ship name "...not trying to make a ship pun, sorry...but he did send me to figure out what's been going on with the deaths of the world leaders. What is happening?"

Epps scowled, "Man, you wouldn't believe what this last week has been. I've been freezing my ass trying to figure it out too. Word in Moscow is BioMech is behind the attacks because they are covered in this weird fungus-looking crap. They say they only manufacture future technology, not weapons of mass destruction. I've been trying to tell the boys back at the Pentagon they aren't our target!"

Arcee slowly understood Max was right. "But everyone is mass panicking because they don't know why. I need you to take me to that lab. If I can destroy the fungus, I can use it as proof it's another type of alien unless you already took samples?"

The human shook his head, "Can't. Anyone that goes near it is eaten alive. It doesn't really do much against tanks though. The firepower still won't cut through it."

"Have you tried high-heated water or any other liquid? I've been tracking the monsters behind this for weeks on other worlds. The fungus doesn't like heat. Is there anything we can use to burn it off the lab to capture a sample?"

Epps looked between his superiors and his peers. "Yeah, we have flamethrowers. It's a bit too chilly for us to be going out there freezing to death trying to remove a material covered in weird egg-looking things. I watched the movie, Alien; I ain't going near it even if you paid me now."

Arcee pursed her lips before extending her servo down. "Alright, I'll do it. Give me one."

The highest authority in the base got several looks in which he abruptly yelled, "Well, give our guest a flamethrower! What are you waiting for?"

The members of the base all rushed to get organized as a few of them left to get the flamethrowers. One was tossed up to Arcee who gladly took it and headed out along with a team of experts. The BioMech lab was not far out as she navigated the snowy terrain. When she was led to it, she gasped at the pustules growing at the base. A few dismembered bodies seemed to indicate the virus fed on organic matter more than cybernetic matter. Humans were easy prey to it.

"Oh, that's not good," Arcee muttered to herself. Transforming and watching the humans point their flamethrowers at the fungus that began to react rather hostile upon sensing organic flesh, she sneered, "Light 'em up!"

Right as a string of fungus quickly spread to reach a woman, it was scorched and whimpered as it tried to crawl back. Arcee aimed hers like a gun and got the closest knowing the fungus wouldn't attack her regardless. She took pleasure in burning the pustules among the webbed matter into ashes. The snow hardly stopped the fire raging as multiple humans had their backs covered by one another. Around the entire complex, the flamethrowers were used to purge it from every crevice and wall. The humans grew more confident in fighting it as less than a quarter of it remained.

Arcee shot Epps a thumbs up and the man grew impressed, "That's really all it took? Fire..."

Arcee laughed, "Sometimes the answer is always simple."

"Occam's Razor. Shit. Where were you when that big Buddha-looking robot was fighting Satan's jet from Hell?"

She assumed he meant Optimus and Megatron respectively and said, "Fighting with my own demons."

The sound of a jet had everyone suddenly panicked as Megatron transformed and Bolt pulled up with Moonhunter. When they stood among the humans both Decepticons once threatened, they were frozen in place. Epps looked to Arcee for help, not even sure how to fight someone as big as Megatron, but once the flamethrowers were pointed their way, Arcee stepped in front of them.

"No, wait, they are friendly now!"

"Friendly?!" Epps said in disbelief, "That grey alien shark-looking guy ain't friendly. I don't know what oil you've been sticking in your engine, but that dude is not friendly."

Bolt slowly began to laugh, "Wow, I'm liking this human already."

Megatron raised a brow and simply gestured, "I mean you no harm."

One personnel member behind Epps said, "Tell that to my wife's brother! You destroyed her hometown!"

"Yeah!" Another screamed.

The warlord sighed to Arcee unchanged, "They are never going to forgive me. Well, I tried."

"Just give them time." She then turned to the humans. "I know he's hurt you but right now, we share a common enemy responsible for this infestation, and it's only going to get worse. I need each one of you to help me defeat this evil. Tell every world leader about this and prove to them Earth is under attack, not a single country."

Epps tisked, "And what if they blame us Americans?"

Arcee had no answer to that. That would start another war without a doubt, so maybe it was time to come clean. "Then...tell them about us."

The soldiers all gasped and talked uncertain about that. Even Bolt was not sure of her idea. "Um, what happened to world panic of our existence? Did we forget not a lot of people like the prospect of 'Transformers' roaming around in their midst, or did you forget that little insulting name? Transformers...what do they think we are? Giant toys?"

"We can leave this planet and never come back after saving it, but we'll never be able to stop the Metal Heads unless they know. How long can we keep it a secret? Be real."

"Arcee," Megatron started, "if they hate me now, they aren't going to forgive and forget. But if you think it's necessary, then do what you think is right."

The trust Megatron had in her swelled her pride tenfold. Bolt finally agreed after some not-so-subtle talking among himself. Moonhunter didn't care either way. The superior in charge of the base appeared next to Epps.

"Are you sure? The government won't take kindly to you ousting a classified situation like this."

Arcee responded displeased, "No offense, but our existence is not yours to decide to be kept in the dark. We did it not to scare anyone. Things have changed and the Metal Heads attacking an unknowing populace would only make things worse."

Epps groaned, "I hate to say it, sir, but she's right. It's one thing to hide their existence, it's another to use it condemn everyone but not using it when we need to."

The queen felt proud of the General's decision to give her permission to finally break the taboo of their races intertwining. But their reveal needed to be strategized. Arcee was more prepared now than when she was on Velocitron to weaponize secrets against the Metal Heads. Those monsters were about to get one hell of a reality check.

Upon going back to the base, Epps brushed off snow in the warehouse they called headquarters as he listened to Arcee and her journey to Earth from the start. Megatron barely fit and had to lean rather uncomfortably against the interior walls trying not to break anything in the process. Bolt was intrigued by the simplistic yet homely set up, at least compared to what he had been used to in the barracks on the Nemesis.

"Man, this is...damn, this is crazy. And Max knew all along you existed. I only learned about you the last two years you were here before going back to your home world. Lennox did too. He wants to meet you so bad. He'll be jealous, that's for sure. I remember this big guy was our very first Decepticon encounter...scary."

"He's next on our list to visit in D.C. Max says he's going there as well. With all this Metal Head activity and so many Earth leaders, it'll be chaos."

"Maybe that's what the Metal Heads want...chaos," Bolt replied. "Earth isn't under one rule so no way to control everyone in a single unit."

"Unless we give them something to unify against," Arcee spoke confidently. Seeing the human sitting on a weapons crate and rubbing his face in disbelief, she laughed a little. Humans had some of the funniest expressions when things weren't what they expected.

Epps frowned, "I know one thing: you're going to give it all you got soon. If there's anything I learned from any alien movies, the aliens always wait for a moment of weakness. As soon as everyone lets their guard down, that is when they are all vulnerable. It's a waiting game. Do a few battles and then give it hell when all the cards are in play."

A waiting game. Arcee slowly considered that into her calculations. She had deduced once the Metal Heads were bidding time but if they were truly smart enough to take all these worlds on, there must have been some type of contingency plan. She had no clue what though. What did Malismar hope to achieve?

"We'll see what Lennox says and see if anything unusual is happening in D.C."

"Can I come with you?" The human asked, "Lennox is my best friend, right? I think it's only fair if I make sure he can hold his own against these things."

Arcee reluctantly agreed because she knew the friendship he had, having one herself where it was ride or die. "Then let's get to it."

"What?" Megatron frowned, "Go now?"

Opening a portal answered Megatron's question instantly as Arcee winked before running in. Moonhunter followed as did Epps and Bolt who laughed manically. Megatron was less enthused before walking through.

Spawning in D.C. just across the Washington monument, the bots were met with screaming people off the bat. Another portal was wide open. Metal Heads were sent out towards the White House with a military force already in defensive positions. The leader of the military ordered RPGs to be launched at the monsters sprinting towards their target.

Epps yelled out, "Will! Please, you have to help them! You have to stop them from reaching the President! You have to help Will!"

Arcee narrowed her optics at the Metal Heads and brought out Dagger Prima. Those monsters wouldn't lay a meaty claw on anyone else if they didn't want to lose their lives. She knew her wish wouldn't come true, but it was better than thinking bad thoughts. Bolt brought out his axe as Megatron prepared his own sword attached to the underside of his fusion cannon. Together all three, plus Moonhunter with his turrets, sprinted to intercept the monsters.

Several Metal Heads slowed to look at them before nearly getting ran over by the bots. Two Grunts targeted Megatron who slammed one face first into the concrete, blood splattering from the force, and tripped the other only to step on its head. It made a muffled squeal until its skull was shattered. Bullets from soldiers who were aiming for anything non-human did nothing other than annoy him.

"Explain again why we have to save these pests?"

Arcee scowled as she tackled a Spyder Gunner, breaking its legs and twisting its cannon arm before stabbing it directly in the heart. "Because we're doing a good thing! You sound like that pirate now!"

Megatron frowned, "Who?"

That reminded her that it may have been best to contact Max to tell him of the siege at the White House. If anyone deserved to know who she could at least trust to defend her at this point, it would be him.

"Max, Metal Heads are in D.C. and they are trying to get to the President and Colonel Lennox! If you care, we could really use someone who can get in close to that military to stop them from being overrun. We're fighting inward and being shot at by both friendly fire and monsters."

"Alright...maybe I do care, not as much as you think but if it keeps you off my ass for five seconds," he replied. "I'm on my way."

As Colonel Lennox and his army gaped at the presence of the Cybertronians on the battlefield, he was frightened briefly as some Metal Heads managed to shrug off their weapons, running at the closest target roaring. Lennox growled back at the possibility of this being his final stand and started shoot despite the efforts not working. The armor proved too thick. Abruptly, someone punched the one nearly in his face and it rolled out of its path with a snarl before turning to see who had struck it. The first and only thing it saw was a gun mere inches from its left set of eyes and a cruel grin from the pirate as he executed it. With one shot, the bullet went through the soft tissue of its eyes and went into its skull, blowing its head back frozen. It took a second for the Grunt to hit the ground when its body finally gave up.

Max pointed his gun facing the sky upon the recoil and snickered to himself. Lennox, however, had stumbled back to the ground horrified but grateful to be alive at the same time. He looked up at his savior who grinned back. "Told you I'd be back to bring hell one day, didn't I?"

"You-You might have mentioned it," the soldier said a bit flushed. When he was offered a hand, he took it without question. Before he could say anything else, the snarls of the Metal Heads gaining on their position had Max pulling out his second handgun with a sneer.

"Time to tango," he growled.

Lennox had his own weapons ready, cracking his neck. "Your move."

Moonhunter slid in front of a group of soldiers having trouble with a Metal Spyder Gunner, tackling it and ripping pieces of it off. When he was flung away, he activated his turrets and blasted the Metal Head with no mercy. It took quite a few shots, but it satisfied the Nitrotiger to see his opponent fall. He meowed at the soldiers who praised him briefly.

Arcee gradually gained on the Metal Heads storming the White House, stabbing as many as possible quickly. The bigger ones like the Centurions who turned on her she had to swing around to get the upper hand. She grabbed its shield arm and brought her elbow down on it before redirecting her assault to its face and throwing it over her with a grunt. When it tried to get back up, she sank Dagger Prima into its skull gem on its chest. Taking a step further, she stomped on its handle to completely puncture its heart as well.

A Rapid Gunner started firing at her. Arcee swiftly rotated out of its firing line and with a battle cry, leapt at it angrily. Shoving Dagger Prima into the gun caused the weapon to diffuse as she swept out its legs. She placed a knee to its neck and broke it in one fell swoop. Grabbing the body, she launched it at a Grunt to cover her. It didn't get a chance to defend itself. Torn in half by the blade, its split open body slumped over and died as she watched its organs physically falter. It was the first time she had seen the inner workings of a Metal Head's form; it was disgusting as its dark, mutilated organs spilled out.

"Nasty," she muttered.

Bolt didn't share the same opinion when he sent his axe down on one of their heads, enjoying seeing their techno-organic brain matter seep out of the wounds. Megatron was less than pleased witnessing his brutal tactic and seeing that. If a Metal Head's organs looked like that, he didn't want to know what a human's would appear as. When another Grunt ran at the Vehicon, he lifted his axe to strike the monster, only to freeze when an animal-like whine echoed behind him. It was distressing enough to make even the Horaquan pause too. Bolt peered back over his shoulder to see a secondary Metal Head go limp with the axe directly embedded in its face. It tried to sneak up on him. He looked at the Metal head in front of him again.

"That wasn't intentional...but it works for me!"

The Metal Grunt remaining growled, but he used all his might to bring both the unused axe end and the corpse over his head to strike down his real target. The panic on the monster's face as its skull was sliced open was amusing to the Vehicon. With both axe edges holding bodies, he could only laugh at the rare sight.

"Ahahahahaha! Poor bastards."

"You scare me, Bolt," Megatron said, deflecting a Centurion that decided to pick a fight with him.

Still adorned with the corpses of the monsters, Bolt leaned against his own axe handle casually. "And if I didn't occasionally, then you'd know something is very wrong. You can't spend years being berated and isolated and not have a crack in the old motherboard, buddy."

Megatron grabbed a Metal Head by the throat and forced its jaws open. He reached in and tore its tongue and spine through its mouth before throwing it to the side. "And I apologize for that, but there is not much I can do to fix the repercussions of my treatment of you or the many others I commanded now."

"True. But that doesn't mean I want to change."

That made Megatron stop in his tracks. "You...like being like this after everything I had done?"

Bolt ripped the corpses off his axe blades and discarded them, then shrugged, "I mean, why wouldn't I? I wouldn't have been your friend or Arcee's had I been anyone else other than me. It sucks sometimes, but it doesn't help focusing on what could have been than enjoying the moments around what is. Maybe it wasn't a happy beginning for me or you but look how far we've come. Do you think we would have been like this if any of us had the lives we wanted?"

Megatron considered that greatly, especially when a Metal Head leapt at Bolt. He was quick to aim his fusion cannon and practically blew off the head of the monster in seconds. Bolt ducked and popped back up once it was dead and laughed. Slowly, the warlord did too, placing a servo on his former subordinate's shoulder.

"You're right actually. I do prefer the madness of our dynamic to what I could have gotten. I wouldn't have you or Arcee in any other way. I wouldn't have anyone to save," he mocked.

Bolt put his servos on his hips scoffing, "Oh, you and your jokes. Sorry, Prince Charming, but I think I can tame the dragons just as easily."

Meanwhile, Arcee watched as the tanks protecting the White House struck down three Metal Heads with a single head shot in a row despite all three being different distances away. Seeing the blast rip through their skulls was humorous in a twisted way she wouldn't admit out loud. She caught up to Max and Lennox as both Megatron and Bolt in the distance slowly made their way towards them.

"How's everything over here?" Arcee asked.

Lennox fired several shots with a deadly focus before responding, "Peachy. These things just don't die as easy as you make it seem."

The queen waved his blaster vertically with a brash grin. "Lots of practice."

Max sniped one Metal Head in the throat causing it to gag and gurgling blood as it sank to its knees. He then said, "Technically, we're both cheaters in that regard considering the years. You should have seen when I first used an automatic. Talk about needing practice."

When Megatron walked backwards to them, someone in the tank had the wise idea to shoot the ex-Decepticon. Arcee winced as it caught Megatron off guard and left a mark on his right shoulder. He grumbled and growled viciously at the tank which Arcee had to take precautions by stepping front of both to not try and kill one another. A direct blast from Megatron's cannon would damage a tank no problem. Cybertronian alloy was a far different density than Earth steel and titanium.

Lennox was about to yell at whoever did it when he was pulled out of the way by Max of a persistent Grunt that had come out of nowhere. It snapped its jaws to crush anything it could reach of the Colonel. Megatron grabbed its neck with one hand and the human in the other while Max retreated to not get stepped on by the fast movements of the warlord. Lennox witnessed as he stood in the palm of the mighty warlord how quick and easy it was for the mech to squeeze the life out of the monster as the larger being flashed his sharp teeth in a scowl and his optics a vibrant, burning red.

As the last Metal Head seen was no more, Lennox panted in Megatron's palm as his life flashed before his eyes from such a close call for the second time. He peered up at the mech dumbfounded that the former Decepticon leader would save him. Megatron narrowed his optics back in warning not to push any luck with him, but Arcee could tell her sparkmate was relieved in his own way.

It suddenly occurred to her the Metal Heads stopped without a commander killed...unless they were doing test attacks.

"Daddy!"

Both Megatron and Lennox stared out among the stretch of green in the park to see a little girl with dark blonde hair crying as she ran from a pursuing Grunt with its jaws out wide.

"Annabelle!" Lennox screamed back, "No!"

Even the warlord grew worried seeing the Metal Head going full speed at the child. Suddenly, Max rushed towards her right as the Metal Head caught up with her. Annabelle barely glanced behind her as the pirate punched its skull with as much force as possible. Hiding behind a statue as her father approached, her tears stalled as she watched Max punch the Metal Head's partially crushed face a second time, shards of its armor flying as he appeared vicious. Twice in the abdomen he assaulted it with his clawed hands before forcing its jaws open, breaking the lower and snapping its neck despite it being almost twice his size, sending its corpse falling with an animalistic snort. A Radiant Core that had been stolen by the monster, skidded a few feet out from its grasp, and Arcee walked over and took it slightly amazed by the human's unpredictability.

Annabelle cracked a small smile at the deadly sight even as Lennox hugged her after Megatron let him down, and she pressed her face onto his shoulder to soak up the comfort.

"I thought I told you to hide-it doesn't matter. The main thing is you're okay. You're okay, baby girl," he whispered. Max ran to both of them just in case there were any more Metal Heads in the area. Lennox grew amused at the sudden behavior of the reclusive pirate. "You saved her? I thought you didn't care about us?"

The pirate-themed man snarled in frustration, "Of course I care about her! She's a child! I care about all children! You know this. I wouldn't condemn a child to death. You, on the other hand...you are prone to danger ever since I met you in Dubai and I am solely tempted to not save you one day just to save me the strife of dealing with you."

"But you do care?" Just to spite him, Lennox pressed, "I think you have a heart in there somewhere."

Max blushed and without another word threw his arms up before stomping away. Annabelle ignored them, still amazed at the sheer power demonstrated by the man when he was enraged.

As spectators began to cheer from their safety, neither Arcee nor the others expected humans of all kinds would be pleased to see them, much less praising them. For the longest time, they thought the humans would only see them as outcasts if not monsters themselves. It stunned Arcee to hear them shout and see them unafraid.

Arcee then heard a voice say, "Mr. President, sir, you can't come out here!"

The Secret Service were forced to escort their president out into the open as he went to look at the damage done from the Metal Head attack. He was a middle-aged man, only some grey hairs in his brunette hair. He took the scene with dignity as he then saw the Cybertronians. A president of the past would have been just as afraid as the populace, but he was instead silent, reserved and politely made a formal nod in respect to his alien saviors.

Arcee walked up to the President only pausing when the Secret Service prepared to draw their weapons. The fearless guards were also appreciated in her optics. It was Epps, however, who broke the silence between the two as they stared at one another unsure of what to say.

"Um, President Callison, sir, this is Arcee. She's from Cybertron...yeah..."

President Callison blinked before smiling, only addressing Arcee. "You probably don't remember me, but we've met before."

The femme shook her head but stayed silent, unable to find a good thing to start off with without seeming like an idiot or insensitive.

"I was a soldier on the base, Lieutenant Major, a friend of Bill's. William Fowler? I remember seeing you and your team throughout the base like one big family. I remember when Starscream, I believe his name was, destroyed Unit F thinking it was Unit E, your base after Megatron blew up yours in Nevada. You were inspirational. I see the times have changed for you both." Even though Callison knew of Megatron as the enemy previously, he showed no hostility towards the mech unlike everyone else initially.

Arcee realized the conversation was a bit too open for public ears and swiftly said, "Perhaps, President Callison, we should talk somewhere else?"

"What, no," Bolt argued, "keep talking. I want to know the crazy things you guys did on the base! Tell me; tell me!"

The President chuckled, "I suppose if there's more of those things around, we wouldn't want to be out in the open. Meet me in the 'Health Building' just down the street."

The Secret Service quickly ushered him away and Bolt grew disappointed. Arcee was unsure of trusting the human leader until Lennox, Epps, and Max all looked to her with good intentions.

"Do you guys need directions? We could escort you," the Colonel said.

"First, I meet Cybertronians, and then I am now far away from where I want to be." Max groaned to himself, "Three hours ago, I was a pirate."

Epps bit back, "Yeah, well, now you're an alien liaison. Suck it up, Maui."

Arcee laughed as the pirate gave his peer a death glare. When they headed out, Arcee offered Lennox and Annabelle a ride on her motorcycle form, much to the child's glee. Bolt was not as offering until Epps made a nice remark about his design in vehicle mode. Megatron and Max stared at one another before both decided it was best not to ask. They instead used the long way to the Health Building. Driving around D.C. was a culture shock as she was so used to traversing the worlds in robot mode whenever she felt like it. Here, she couldn't walk around yet without startling people.

The Health Building looked like a typical complex right next to a bridge over a canal but as she looked closer, there was a symbol on the guards' uniforms. N.E.S.T. It had to be one of the many top-secret organizations the U.S. government had. Inside, the building was a gutted warehouse with top-of-the-line technology and spacious enough for Megatron and Max to sneak in through the ceiling before it sealed. Megatron's entrance shook the place as it wasn't meant for someone of his caliber.

"Welcome to our little home from home," Lennox said as Arcee slid to a halt and let the two humans off her. She transformed as he continued, "It's our base in D.C. and boy, do we have a lot to tell you."

As Bolt did another donut before letting Epps out with Moonhunter going around sniffing all the humans curious about him, Arcee smiled, "Well, since it appears we have a lot of catching up to do, I'm all audios."

Lennox grinned back as Max picked up Annabelle in a sweet gesture when she playfully began poking his gauntlets. The Colonel didn't seem to mind. As he began, everyone gathered around curiously observing their extraterrestrial visitors.

---

AN: So, for those of you unaware, Max is an OC I designed nearly a decade ago for a different fandom where he was essentially the "Angel of Death" but for children, kind of like a past Peter Pan almost but mature among a bunch of kids. He was a guardian chosen by a sentient island, Zeliria, yada yada yada...it's a lengthy explanation. Well, I got out of that fandom knowing now how toxic and bad it was, not realizing it sooner, and moved him to the Transformers fandom but a lot of his original quirks and abilities didn't merge good with the tone of this fandom. So, I ended up changing a few things each time I used him in any fic. I wanted to make him more grounded. I got rid of the whole Angel of Death thing, he still cares about kids, none of the mystical elements remain except for a curse that keeps him on Earth. He is in no way immortal, and he no longer has Antagonizer as a living entity (yes, I once made the ship a living being, don't me.)

This version of Max is probably going to be what stays for every other version of him in the future, a greedy bastard with a cursed life messing with Cybertronian entities, as I feel he is a comfortable fit in the Transformers universe now that he doesn't have all these extra features to him. As you can kind of guess, he's going to be the main human ally that represents Earth. The reason why is because I wanted some neutral to any of the world's governments. No country on this planet should represent Earth as a whole so I wanted someone with no country loyalties, I wanted someone hated worldwide and before you assume I put him there simply because he is my OC, you'd actually be wrong.

The original planned "leader of Earth" was an OC named Cameron who was going to be representing humanity's worst values who learns with Arcee not to be a complete ass and stand up to be something a bit more. Well, while I was designing this guy, it started to dawn on me he was kind of looking like what Max's worst qualities as a pirate would be. And after a while, it started becoming clear I was basically making a modernized Max. I know when it comes to OCs there's a taboo of not making sense in the universe without coming off as a Mary Sue...which is why Max doesn't have any of his abilities like his previous variants, but Max was one of the better OCs I had created and it didn't make sense for me to create essentially a clone of him for this series. So, Max got the job, and I rewrote some of the dialogue and the interactions because of that. There you have it.