It was just yesterday that Bella's old friend Melany showed up at the Autobot base, and the two had started to catch up, by talking about the events that took place after Melany's supposed demise, which meant that Bella was doing most of the talking. But while they were talking, the Autobots that wanted to ask Melany questions yesterday, but didn't, walked up to them and asked Melany the questions they wanted to ask. Some of the questions Melany answered, while the other questions she didn't were either to personal for her to answer or very embarrassing to even think about. Even Skids, and Mudflap wanted to ask Melany a question, but they just wanted to know what Bella was like back on Cybertron, which Melany didn't answer because she knew that Bella did not want those two to know, and because it was in the past. So once everyone was done bombarding Melany with questions while she and Bella were trying to catch up, both of them walked out out of the base so that Melany could see the surroundings and get her to go on her first patrol on a new planet with a best friend.

        Either way, it was Bella's turn for patrol with Smokescreen, and Bulkhead, so Bella asked Optimus if Melany could come on patrol with them, even though it was just supposed to be the three of them. Optimus agreed and  thought it was a good idea for Melany to go on patrol and see the surroundings and find out more about the planet. Bella told Melany what Optimus told her and Melany was excited to learn about a new planet, especially now that she will be staying to help fight the Decepticons. So Bella and Melany met up with Smokescreen and Bulkhead, who were waiting for them outside, and then they decided who they were going to patrol with. Melany was paired up with Smokescreen, which she was fine with, because it would get them to know each other and talk, while Bella and Bulkhead paired up, and then they transformed and went on patrol.

"So how do you like Earth so far Melany?" Smokescreen asked over comms.

"Well, this planet is really beautiful from what I have seen so far." Melany replied.

"Well there is a lot of beautiful places on this planet that have not been destroyed by the humans." Smokescreen said.

"Is that so?" Melany asked.

"Yes." Smokescreen replied.

"Hey, Bella is that true?" Melany asked Bella over comms.

"Is what true?" Bella replied with a question.

"That there are beautiful place on this planet that have not been destroyed by the inhabitants of this planet?" Melany said.

"Well as far as I know, there might be a couple place that are being protected by the humans." Bella replied.

"Wait. So these humans, destroy these places, but they also protect them?" Melany said. "What in the name of Primus are these humans thinking?'

"I know. They can be confusing sometimes." Bella said.

"You got that right." Bulkhead said.

"But the humans can be really kind hearted at times." Smokescreen said.

"What do you mean by that?" Melany asked.

"Well, they let us stay on their planet. Once they heard what happened to our planet, and what the Decepticons are here on this planet for." Bulkhead replied.

"Oh, but why are the Decepticons here in the first place?" Melany asked.

"For the planet's resources, and to take over a new planet, but we are in their way of that, and every opportunity they get, they attack us with everything they got." Bella said. "But all their attempts to take us offline for good, have failed miserably."

"Oh. Well it looks like I did come at a good time." Melany said.

"Yes you did Melany." Smokescreen said.

        They continue to talk for a while, while still keeping an optic out and also keeping their attention on their tracers. At times they would get serious with their conversation, while other times they would start laughing after one of them something funny, or they would start telling Melany about some funny moments that Skids and Mudflap would have. Sometimes Melany will be really interested in a story, and other times she would state that she once did the same thing back on Cybertron before she met Bella, which was before the war. They were all having a good time talking to each other, while they were on patrol, and another thing was that they didn't find any Decepticon signal at all, which meant that they were no where near the base, or they were keeping their distance from them so that they wouldn't be spotted. So after a couple of hours they decided to head back to base and let Optimus and Ultra Magnus that they did not see any Decepticon signals that they knew of, and that the area's around the base were clear.

        So they regrouped and headed back to the base, and were almost there when a signal appeared on their monitor's, and it was a Decepticon signal. They all transformed and took out their weapons as they quietly converged onto the Decepticons signal, making sure that they don't make a noise, so that they don't give their selves away, and let the Decepticon know that they are there. Once they thought they were close enough, they stopped and they all took cover behind some trees, so that the 'Con wouldn't see them so easily. So Bella took a peak from behind the tree to see where the 'Con was and to also see what exactly it was doing there, and when she looked she saw the 'Con was just standing there in between two trees.

"Bella what do you see?" Melany said quietly.

"I see a Decepticon just standing there between two trees, but he's not doing anything." Bella replied.

"Can you tell who it is?" Smokescreen asked.

"Maybe. I'm not sure." Bella replied.

"What do you mean by that?" Bulkhead asked.

"It means that I need a closer look." Bella replied.

"Are you crazy?" Smokescreen asked. "He might see you and open fire on you!"

"I don't think she's crazy at all Smokescreen." Melany said.

"Why do you say that Melany?" Smokescreen asked.

"Because she used to do it all the time back on Cybertron, and she never got spotted or shot at. She would always get really close to the Decepticons to find out what they were doing and come back very quietly, without them knowing she was there." Melany said. "It was pretty cool actually."

"Is that true Bella?" Bulkhead asked.

"Yes every word of it is true Bulkhead." Bella responded.

"Oh, that's cool." Bulkhead said.

        Bella put away her weapon and started quietly walking towards the Decepticon that was just standing there doing who-knows-what. She would look down every once in awhile to see if there was anything that would make a noise and let the Decepticon know she was there if she stepped on it at all. She would also glance back every once in a while as well to see if she could still see her fellow Autobots. But once she got close enough to the Decepticon she decided she may need a better view of him, so she climbed up the nearest tree she could find and stopped near the top of and looked down and she could see the Decepticon clearly from up there, and there were leaves on the tree that she used as cover. Bella identified the Decepticon to be Darksteel, one of the three Predacons, and she thought that this was odd behavior for a Predacon, to just standing there doing nothing, until she turned her head in the direction the Darksteel was looking, he was staring at the left side of the Autobot base. She immediately realized that he was most likely spying for Megatron and that there is always more than one Predacon standing around and watching the base, because Predacons never go alone.

        Bella was about to climb down the tree and head back to the others to tell them who the Decepticon was, when all of a sudden a voice came from Darksteel's comm, which was most likely meant for all three Predacons. She recognized the voice as non other than Starscream, telling the Predacons that Megatron demanded that they should get back to base immediately, and that he will inform them of what was going on when they got back. She noticed the look on Darksteel's face plate once Starscream said that, he did not look happy, although she realized that the Predacons never looked happy. Bella watched as he took off the other way and then saw movement from the other side of the base and realized that it was the other Predacons. Once she knew that the cost was clear, she climbed down from the tree and slowly walked towards the spot where Darksteel was standing moments ago, and then she walked back to where the others were at.

"Bella what happened? Did you figure out who the 'Con was?" Smokescreen asked.

"Yes. I did figure out who it was." Bella replied.

"Who was it?" Smokescreen asked.

"It was the Predacon, Darksteel." Bella replied.

"Darksteel? What was he doing?" Bulkhead asked.

"It took me a while to figure that out, but it looked like he was staring at the left side of the base. Most likely spying for Megatron while the other two Predacons were spying on different sides. Until they were requested to come back to base a moment ago." Bella replied.

"Wait a second now. So your saying that there are live Predacons on this planet that are being commanded by Megatron himself?" Melany asked. 

"Yep." Smokescreen said.

"But I thought that the Predacons were all wiped out during the great Cataclysm." Melany said.

"Well, they are not exactly real Predacons." Bella said.

"What do you mean?" Melany asked.

"Well you see Melany, these Predacons are just clones that Shockwave made in his lab back on Cybertron, from using a single strand of CNA from the bones of Predacons that he found." Bella answered.

"Oh. Okay." Melany said.

"But I wonder why Megatron would send them to spy on the base then tell Starscream to tell them to come back to Decepticon base immediately." Bulkhead said.

"Bulkhead, what do you expect? It's Megatron, if he sent his Decepticons to spy on us, it means that he wants to know are weaknesses, and the reason why he demanded that they come back is probably because they didn't obey one of his orders and he wanted to punish them. That is the best explanation that I can think of at the moment." Bella said.

"Well I guess that sums it up then." Bulkhead said.

"Yeah, I think Bella is right." Smokescreen said.

"Well at least they left, so that we didn't have to take care of them ourselves." Melany said.

"We should probably go back now and tell Optimus and Ultra Magnus about what happened." Bella said.

        They all agreed to what Bella said, and then they transformed continued to the base, which they got back to in no time because they were practically already there when they spotted the Predacon. Once they got inside the base, they transformed back into robot mode and went to look for Optimus, and Ultra Magnus to tell them about the Predacons. Bella spotted them talking and started walking towards them, with the others right behind her. When they reached them, they stopped talking and looked at the four Autobots who were standing right in front of them and waited to hear their report, since they both knew that they were out on patrol. Bella was the one who gave the report to Optimus and Ultra Magnus, and she told them about everything, and she gave them every single detail, from when the left, up to when they found a Predacon staring at the base until they were called back to base, she did not leave anything out. Ultra Magnus was the one to ask Bella if the Predacon had known if she was there spying on him, in which Bella said no, because if the Predacon had known she was there, then he would try to kill her. Ultra Magnus asked Bella a couple more questions, before Optimus said that they could go and told Bella that what she did was very brave, and very daring, which Bella acknowledged. Once Bella, Melany, Bulkhead, and Smokescreen gave their report to Optimus and Ultra Magnus, they walked around the base for a little bit, while talking to each other.

        After a while though, Smokescreen and Bulkhead left Melany and Bella to go and train in the training room, as Melany and Bella went to the armoury to do some improvements with their weapons, since Bella didn't get to finish her improvements with her gun yesterday, because of Melany's arrival. But on their way to the armoury, Bella noticed something out of the corner of her optic run across the floor, but when she turned her head to look, nothing was there, she thought she imagined it and decided to forget about it. Once they got to the armoury, Bella noticed that Arcee, Blurr, and Warpath were also there, and she also noticed that Melany was very impressed with all of the stuff that was there. Bella chuckled a little when she saw the look on her friends face plate, and once Melany heard Bella chuckle she immediately walked over to a table and started to sharpen the sword that she had, while Bella went to a different and started working on her gun. But not long after they started working on their weapons, that the lights started to flicker, which made everyone stop what they were doing and look up, and then they stopped flickering, but then they turned off, along with all of their other tech that was in the base.

        Everyone was confused and wandered what was going on, so they all went to the main part of the base to find out, and they noticed that the Autobots that were already there were trying to figure that out themselves. They were trying to figure out what the problem was since something like this never happened before, and everyone was becoming frantic, while some of the Autobots that were standing guard rushed in to figure out what was happening. But they were all unaware that a small device, made by Shockwave was the cause of all of this, and all it did was plant a virus in the main computer that would shut down all of the Autobots tech. While Bella was unaware that just moments ago, when she was headed to the armoury, she saw that device going towards the main computer, but she just thought it was nothing, and now the Autobots were clueless about what was about to happen. They are about to be caught off guard by the Decepticons, who are just outside the Autobot base, ready to attack them.