Maggie frowns, sitting forward as she once more listen to the shrieking signal that had served as the electronic score to the attack on the SOCCENT Base. She had played it over and over, to near exhaustion since she had walked into the National Military Command Center. Which while it was underground, it could not by any stretch of anyone's imagination be described as a basement. Everyone around her was doing as she was, being worn out trying to make sense of the sound. A growing numbness had manifested itself, but sadly not revelation. Worn out and frustrated, she pulls the headset off and laid it to the side.

The analyst posted closet to her station took advantage of the break to lean towards her, "What d'you think? Encrypted Mandarin? Amharic? Or maybe some obscure African language like !Xan or Twi?"

While half her mind was focused on the task at hand, she used the other to formulate a reply, "No...no this is nothing like Bantu-derived dialects or anything else African, or for that matter like anything the Chinese have been using. It no more like a Xingiang dialect or Tibetan than it is the King's English. This," Maggie gestures to the screen, "Is something else," and then to the disappoiment of the analyst, Maggie slipped the headphones back on and once more activated the playback. For the thousandth or maybe two thousandth time, she concentrated on trying to distill a comprehensible pattern from the wild, high-speed shriek.

Though, the four superchared engines of Air Force One generated was a different kind of shrieking. It cruised in circles hig and wide over the eastern seaboard, the sound they produced was not noticed within the heavy soundproof interior. On either side of the much bigger plane, fully armed F-22s kept effortless pace. The fighter escort was rotated every few hours so that fresh pilots were always in the air, always on the watch. Some were even part of Star and Stripe Squadron. Inside though, a miniature version of the command center buried deep below ground near the capital, where, like them, they received messages throughout the day.

Adjusting her shirt slightly, an air force staff sergeant walked through the cabin where so many communiques were being exchanged and made her way to another part of the big plane. Following a brief formal exchange with the Secret Service agent station there, she was allowed entrance. Inside the president's airborne stateroom, a single figure sat on the wide bed. She did not smile at the figure's stockinged feet, having encounter them on numerous previous occasions. "Yes, Mr. President?" she asked politely by way of announcing her arrival.

The figure did not looked up at her, so engrossed in a thick printed file, "Think you can wrangle me up some Ding Dongs and a glass of milk?"

"Right away, sir," Only when she was once more outside the room and beyond hearing range of the agent station at the door did the woman allow herself to mutter, "I did not survive West Point for this," shaking her head, and keeping further opinions to herself she strode past the Secret Service cabin. Within, other agents were busy at work or catching on sleep. Agents were good at that: you slept when you could because you never knew when the next catastrophe might announce itself.

No one noticed though, a small boom box nestled under one seat. Because of that, no one noticed when its outlines began to shift and flow like silver-tinged oil, or when it astonishingly sprouted short legs and tiny feet. Unseen and unobserved, it lifed itself and scuttled crablike behind the shoes of the agent seated nearby. Only when it was well out of sight did it transformed completely. The four and a half foot tall robot had a narrow body, and legs like steel sticks, looking like some sort of giant insect stepping straight out of some long lost and unknown era. Silently, it scuttled off behind a row of unoccupied seats, before easily slipping inside the elevator, and quickly transforming as the Staff Sergeant step in. The little robot had to hold back the urge and transform right there and then to stab into the woman's fleshy chest as she picks him up. But he fights it, shoving it down as she places him on a counter and steps towards the refrigerators. For one second, they thought they would have to kill the meat sack when she drop one of their food sources, but luckily she didn't notice them when she went to pick it up.

Once she was gone, did they step out into the dim light of the storage area. Skittering along the floor, the robot paused before a locked access panel label P.O.T.U.S. ONLY. Digits fashioned of an alloy not forged on Earth probed the edges of the panel: testing, feeling, analyzing. Then they ripped it off. Revealing in the light of the storage room was an open terminal which brought out a small sound of satisfaction, a muted, modulated electronic shriek, issued from the intruder. The sound would have been recognized immediately by Maggie and those who she was working with as a greatly subdued and twisters version of the scream that had accompanied the assault on the base in Qatar. The red lights that made up its eyes twinkle when the terminal winked to life, and a small readout announced matter-of factly, 'Connecting to Pentagon Secure Network,'

Maggie sits bolt upright and press her headphones even more tightly against her head. Her eyes on the small pop-up that had appeared on her console.

FOREIGN SIGNAL DETECTED

Alert, completely awake and no longer bored, her fingers flew over the keyboard. On the screen a pair of sound graphs appeared side by side, followed most instantly by a single word: Match. Her eyes widen and without turning she raised her voice to yell, "THEY'RE HACKING THE NETWORK AGAIN!"

Within the storage room on board of Air Force One, the probing shriek continued to emerge in a steady and unbroken aural scream from the robot. New words scrolling out across the small readout. Searching Special Access Files. The shriek modulated slightly as it dug deeper, demanding, insistence. At last the file it had been searching for appeared. Project Ice Man- Top Secret Sci- Sector Seven Access Only.

Inside the lower Pentagon the detected shriek all but screamed from every open speaker as Maggie typed furiously/ Expressions grim, the deputy director had rushed to her position and was now leaning over her right shoulder, staring at her monitor. Others clustered nearby, straining to see. "Run a trace route," he order and Maggie had to hold back the groan as she ignores him. Not because it was a bad idea but because she was already way ahead of him.

"Ive been trying, but its locking me out! The probe includes some kind of mobile, continously adaptive firewall that responds differently to each trace attempt. The freakin' thing adapts every time you try something new," her fingers pounded away at different keys, continuously trying new combinations in the desperate hope that something would work, that something would slip past the probe's remarkable defenses, "Its learns,"

And then to her horror, another window appears on her console, something that had appeared on the storeroom terminal on Air Force One. She swallows, "Ar eyou or anyone you're linked with running a system wide diagnostic?" she asked making the tight face analyst closest to her be taken aback,"

"No...do we need to?"

Standing up, Maggie shouted at the top of her lungs, "IS ANYONE IN THIS ROOM RUNNING A SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTIC?"

Started by her accusatory exclamation, not to mention volume, everyone looked up from their consoles. A few even abandoned their positions to join the crowd that was now fighting for a look at her main monitor. A groan of dismay escapes Maggie's lips as she stares at the console hard, "Oh my God...cut the hard lines!"

At this, the deputy director gaped at her, "What?! Are you crazy? I can't just do that. What've you got?"

Maggie ignores him, fighting the urge to roll her eyes though her wings fluttering in annoyance. She waves her hands at the console as if she could somehow reach inside so she could tear apart the offending data streams with her bare hands, "If you can't do it, then get someone who can! They breached the national defense firewall. I think they're planting a virus,"

The deputy director stares at her, "A virus," he echoed dumbly.

Maggie frowns, leaning forward, "Wait a minute...wait a minute. How in the….they're not just inserting, they're taking something too! They're planting and they're taking, and I can't make sany sense out of either one!" whirling in her seat, she stared up at him, "Cut the hard lines!"

To his credit the deputy finally recovered from the initial shock her words had induced. He yelled into his headphones, "Code Red! We have a full security breach! Cut all server hard lines now! Initiate full physical isolation!"

75%….90% Transmission complete...file found...Project Ice Man. Type Specimen discovered 1897. First on site Witwicky, Archibald, CPT….Witwicky File found...Clarence Witwicky….Akira Witwicky… Inko Midoriya… Izuku Midoirya….File on Izuku Midoriya Found...Hero of Kamino...Leader of the Maximals… Champion of the Pits...Code name: Aurora Primal…

Even a bot, can be filled with frustration as the terminal connection it was utilizing suddenly vanished. So absorbed in its angers and rage, as it slams its head into the screen, it failed to notice the arrival of another human, this one in a weird uniform. The woman though, with her blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, wearing black spandex with yellow bolts of lightning on the arms and legs, a white domino mask across her face were not similarly preoccupied. She immediately noticed the broken lock that had fallen to the floor. Instantly she brought her wrist communicator up to her lips, "Break in sector two, Repeat: break in sector two,"

Seconds later another person came up...though they didn't look human. No this person looked to be what people would call a naga...with purple scales covering their form, golden bracelets on their wrists...and purple smog leaking from the corner of their mouth. The both of them exchanged looks before nodding, entering the room and making the robot turn to them. The woman brings her hands up, and bolts of lightning flew from the tips of her fingers, striking the metal being full on, bringing forth a painful shriek from them. But then, two impossibly thin, impossibly sharp metal disks shot from the upper torso of the metal being.

Both of his opponents went down, and the robot eyes them. Walking closer, it prods the chest of the snake in confusion, tilting its head. But then bullets were fire at it behind, which were easily blocked before more discs were spat from the whirling mechanoid.

When a line of heavily armed agents charged into the storage area from the opposite ends, all they found were three bloody, motionless bodies riddled with metallic discs. That, and a boom box on a food preparation table playing easy listening…

It was late, and dark, all through the apartment not a creature was stirring, provided one discounted the slight raining noise coming from the speaker on Izuku's bedside table. Park against the curve in front of the building, the old but brightly colored Camaro suddenly came to life, its engine rumbling softly. The sound was deep enough and near enough to wake the vehicle's owner. Sitting up in her bed, Izuku blinks sleepily, rubbing her eyes as she sat up. Turning to the window, just in time to see the camaro driving down the road.

"Shit!" Izuku said throwing herself off her bed. She grabs a pair of shorts, slipping them on while snatching up her phone, "Ok you...fuck are you trying to get in trouble with the cops? A car driving without anyone in it!" she mutters under her breath, running down the stairs, and ran outside. Grabbing her old bike, she began the chase, following the Camaro south, and thanking anyone out there that it wasn't speeding. She didn't bother to call the cops, seeing no point with what she thought the car truly was.

Izuku was pretty well winded as the Camaro busted the lock of the gates to an old cement factory and material storage yard that had been shut down years ago. She watched as it slowed down, and she hops off her bike, stowing it carefully out of sight and following the car on foot. Izuku watches as it disappears briefly behind a slow moving train, but emerging a few moments later. Izuku couldn't help but swallow when she does see that there was no one in the driver's seat. Taking a deep breath, Izuku bites her lips watching as it cruise slowly around the corner before stopping...and in the darkness of the night...it began to change...change its shape...and stand up

"We...we were right," Izuku whispers, huddling behind a crate as she looked on as the dark, now vertical silhouette removed something from its torso. Without warning the object emitted a light as overpowering as it was unexpected, temporarily blinding her. Shielding her eyes, Izuku tired to identify the light source...and then she frowns when she realizes it was the same mark that was on the steering wheel of the Camaro.

"Their war...our world...one day these two things will meet Aurora...will it be today...tomorrow so some distant future long after us...who knows...but mankind must be prepare...for it may awaken him….and then there will be no end to the worlds that he could destroy...starting with us"

Izuku sighs, shoulders slumping, "If only you were here to see this Apelinq...to show that you were right," she closes her eyes, before she brings her phone up, calling Mei...which unfortunately went straight to voicemail, "Of course the one night you don't stay up the whole time...Mei...they're here...the things we learn on the Axalon and the Darksyde...their all true...and we were right about my car...its alive…" she closes her phone, stuffing it back into her pocket and turn, blinking in shock to see that the spot where the robot had been was now empty, vanish into thin air as if it was never there…

Standing up slowly, Izuku sighs, "Ok...time to go…" she whispers to hers as she quickly grabs her bike. Her eyes flickering about, on the look out.

It was an old village, once inhabited by the ancestors of the Qararis who were now very wealthy and had long since abandoned the place. It could boast a well, in part of the country where there was no need to pipe in desalinated seawater...That was reserved for the new gleaming cities that hugged the white sands beaches of the Gulf. But where the desert gave water, it would always attract some kind of life. The place was not wholly isolated, a single telephone wire still connected the lines of poles that marched in sturdy single file across the sand and gravel plain. It made an easy trail for the boy and his friends to follow.

One of the poles abruptly shuddered, even through there was no wind and the ground underfoot was steady. Nearby, an old wood frame sign tremble and came crashing down. Gun muzzles rose, leveling in its direction...all of them unsettled, even Carlos who had roosted on the sign quickly rose skyward, flying around in circles keeping watch.

Captain Lennox eyed his men: a team of three, and the stragglers they had picked up in the course of their retreat from the devastated base. Had their footsteps been enough to cause the old sign to collapse like that. He was pondering it a bit before Carlos let out a shriek of warning. They quickly turn, Epps screaming as they all fired at something gleaming, snake-like and metallic that was behind Lennox. They all fired, trying to fit the owner of said tail, but soon it quickly disappeared underneath the burning sands.

Though not for long.

Exploding from the dry ground, sand flying everywhere, a metallic scorpion of all things attacked, sinking the tip of its tail into Donnley, yanking him into the air. Lennox's eyes widen as it vanished back beneath the surface, dragging the young sergeant down with him, not even giving him the time to scream. But Lennox did, "Move! Move! Move!"

He and the remaining members of the squad broke into mad sprint towards the village. They gain a moment or two before the metal scorpion erupted from the ground behind them a second time . The dogs of the village appeared barking like mad. Horses and camels reared and bolted in all directions, adding to the confusion. Rounding a mud-brick wall, Lennox howled at his men, "You two, cover the road! Epps, take point! Fig, you and Carlos are eyes in the back. Everyone watch the ground! Try to stay off the sand and on the rock!"

With that, Lennox grabs Mahfouz and following the young boy's direction, gave him back to his father, who scolded him a bit. Lennox had to fight the urge to smile but he shakes his head, "Sir, in the name of all that is holy please tell me you have a phone," the man blinks but cowers a bit, holding his son close when the metal scorpion exploded from the sand directly in front of the wall.

"Lay down fire!" Lennox yelled, nodding his head in thanks as the father hands him a cell phone, each soldier promptly lose with whatever armament he happen to be carrying...and let loose their Quirks. Epps brought his hands down, placing the palms against the scorching sands and grits his teeth. The sand moved a bit, before slowly rising, forming into a huge fist that slammed into the robot's back. Unfortunately, the robot stood right back up, shaking its whole body. The other villagers came out, wielding guns in their hands while others created shields when the metal arachnoid shape responded with bursts of white-hot plasma that erupted against them, the walls, sand and the buildings behind.

Lennox dialed rapidly and had to shout to make himself heard over the staccato reverberations of gunfire and explosions.

"A T and T," the voiced declared in heavily accented English, "how may I direct your call,"

"International to the United States!" Lennox yelled, "This is an emergency Pentagon call, class A!" Lennox cries out, ducking down as glass breaks from the explosions, shards falling all around him

"Your cell service does not include long distance minutes, sir. Do you have a major credit card?"

Lennox sputters in disbelief, "No I don't have a credit card!" he all but shots, forcing himself to not crush the slim phone in his fist, "Listen carefully to me: I need you to put me through now!"

"Sir the attitude is not going to speed things up. I will be happy to connect you. Preferably without the yelling and with a major credit card,"

Uttering a curse under his breath, Lennox whirled and race back outside. The prospect from the exterior of the house was not good. Bullets merely deflected off the metal hide of the scorpion. As Lennox dove for cover, Fig took aim with a grenade launcher and let loose. Sand and gravel flew in all directions. But the warrant officer bawled in frustration as the robot recovered quickly. "I hit it! I hit the son of a bitch but the freak won't go down! ¡Qué cosa es esta cosa en nombre de todas las cosas sagradas!"he cries out as Lennox runs over to Epps, who heedless of his own safely, was still on point. Using his control of the sand to make a quick barrier or to move anyone out of the way when the robot got to close with its claws while firing furiously at the agile dodging target.

"I need a credit card!" Lennox yells, ducking behind a stone wall, "Where's your wallet?"

"Back pocket!" Epps shouts, barley blinking.

Lennox quickly slides over and had to hold back the groan, when he saw the mutiple pockets, "Which pocket? You have ten back pockets!"

"Left cheek! Left cheek!"

Yanking out the battered wallet, Lennox rolled to one side as balls of plasma hissed past overhead, he fumbles through the surprisingly large pocket of cards contained in the wallet, "Got it…" he wheezed gratefully as a basic Visa fell into his hand. As fast and clearly as he could, he rattled off the numbers onto the phone, "And don't tell me you don't take Visa!"

"Of course we take it, sir," the operator's tone was calm and reassuring, "Would you like to hear about our Premium Plus World Service Package?"

"NO I DON'T WANT A PREMIUM PACKAGE. PUT THE DAMN CALL THROUGH!" he passed the phone to Epps, "Here Pentagon!" as Epps grabs the phone, Lennox took charge to began unloading clip after clip in the direction of the relentless mechanical monstrosity...and cursing himself with the fact that he could not do any more. If only he could get close enough without being stabbed by that thing...if he could just touch his hand against the metal, and weld it to the sand with his Quirk…

As earth and stone erupted around him, Epps tired to shield the phone's pickup from as much of the destruction. Ominously, less and less of the clamor was coming from nearby as one soldier after another was taken out by a weapon the likes he had never encounter. Containing his fury, he concentrated on making himself understood over their only lifeline to the outside world, "Troops in contact mission, unknown freakin' aggressor! Need gunships on station ASAP, everything you can send this way!"

His heart pounded, and he swallows, "I never seen this in my life…" he fought the urge to close his eyes as the minutes went by, when the shields and mud walls they been hiding behind was disintegrated to successive bursts of plasma. Everything around them was collapsing. and being blown up and he had to hold onto the phone with a deadly grip.

"I got you..I got you.."

Shoulders slumping, Epps held his ground, "Roger that," he barked into the phone, "Seven-man team north of orange smoke, plenty of dust and fire signatures," another chuck of barren soil vaporize next to his left and he flinch, "Whoa! Almost lost my head. Attack directions west, almost cleared hot," his gaze shifted to the burning blue sky, "This will be danger close, but we got no choice! We're getting slice and dice here!" Seeing the captain glancing his way, Epps shot him a thumbs-up and raised with was left of his hoarse voice, "GOT A BEAM RIDER INCOMING! LAZE TARGET!"

As the word was passed around, the surviving soldiers fanned out, all trying to aim their designators at their attacker. Thankfully the red beams that crisscrossed the metal scorpion was instantly picked up by the designators in the cock pick of the two low-flying A-10s.

"Warthog One to base we've acquired target,"

"Hogs One and Two. Locking on,"

As the first to see the incoming missiles, Lennox had just enough time to yelp, "The heat's coming!" before diving over a low embankment fronting a shallow gully and to bury himself deeper in the sand than the deadest pharaoh. Outraged earth erupted behind him as missiles from the Warthogs hit home. With the last clods and bits of sand and soil still raining down he lifted his head up.

"No way," he whispered in horror and disbelief as the mechanical shape was angrily clawing its way out of the cavity the missiles had dug. "Still not down Epps!"

Epps nodded his understanding and yelled into the phone, which was soon followed by a droning roar that made Lennox look up. "Oh crap!" rising, Lennox ran like hell, to get himself far away from the scorpion as an AC-130 unleashed a six thousand round a minute storm of sabot rounds at the metallic shape. Sand vaporized, rocks disintegrated, a miniature artificial sandstorm engulf the fleeing soldiers.

Hearts pounding in their chest, they all took a moment for the dust to settle, and at first they all felt dread. Their mechanical menace was still moving about in the hell they had unleash onto it...but then they notice it was stumbling around, clearly in distress. The tip of its metal tail fell off as it dip it head, dropping back into the sand and disappearing.

"Man…" Epps whispers, "That is one freaky machine," they all look up though as the a-10s did a flyby directly over head, and both Lennox and Epps exchange somber grins, completely winded. Lennox wanted to fall to his knees...before he heard Carlos crying out in pain and sadness...and he turns his head, to see Fig laying on the ground, breathing hard with a tint of red that was staining his uniform...and growing bigger by the minute.

Crying out both Lennox and Epps ran over to him, Lennox pressing his hand against him, using his Quirk, Chainlink, to seal the wound on his leg, "Come on...stay with me man...stay with me!" he screams, feeling his eyes burn with not just sand...but tears.

"Get a med-evac down here now!"

There were enough military police cars and civilain police vehicles surrounding the parked Air Force One to mount an invasion...two heroes were dead, alongside a special agent but none could find the one responsible. None could imagine that he halted behind one of the police cars, it quickly slipped inside, the human in the seat not even reacting...for it was no human…

"The virus will activate soon," the smaller said in a sound like pure noise that no human would understand, "But I am ready to complain to Starscream! He been here for years and he didn't have the gall to tell me that these fleshbag can shoot lightning! Or not look human at all! But I found a clue to the Allspark!"

A thin metal wire extrudes from his body and jacked into a port of the dashmounted 'police' computer. It took only for a second for the designated data to transfer, until a picture of Archibald Witwicky appeared on the screen, "Witwicky man...he has seen our language...he offline...these insects don't live long...but...he has a living descendant…" another picture was pulled up, a girl with green hair and green eyes, "Izuku Midoriya...Japan...also known as Aurora Primal…"

"That sounds like a Cybertronian name," a voice responded to him and the smaller had to nod his head in agreement.

"Agreed...this child may know the location of the Allspark, Barricade,"

"Then I will hound the Nemesis and go to this Japan. I will search for this child, and I will drag out the answers we speak," and with that, the wheels burn as they quickly spin, the police car driving away with its passenger.

they don't know about the glasses just yet because Izuku didn't put them on Ebay, like Sam did.