Miko's p.o.v

Crud crud crud, dammit dammit dammit, crap crap crap, kuso kuso kuso, my mind came up with every single curse word I knew in every single language at the moment.

I could come up with a really long list but none of them would get us anywhere.

As we hid behind the boulder while a robot smack down was raging below us, I realized again that we might die.

The last time I felt like this was when Jack and I were stuck on the train carrying the DINGUS. And....all those times I 'pulled a Miko', I'd be lying if I said a small part of me wasn't scared that I might die. What's worse is that I might drag the others down with me.

"Maybe we should call the others and let them know we're here." I suggested.

"And distract them from the fight?" Raf asked.

"I think our friends down there have enough on their plate to worry about." Eve said and peeked over the rock.....only to yelp and duck back under cover as another stray shot flew 3 feet away from her head. "As do we." She added.

"Guys, think. There has to be some way for us to get back down to the tunnels." Jack said. "Maybe we can find some way to climb down."

We all looked around then my eyes fell on a beam on the ceiling. It was 4 meters away from us and about half a meter higher but there was a rock platform under it. The beam was thick and seemed sturdy....maybe.....

"Jack, where's the tunnels?" I asked.

"Over there." He said and pointed off. I looked to the tunnels, then to where the beam ended. The beam was placed diagonally downwards and ended on one of the rock walls. Underneath the end of it was a steep rock wall that was uneven but it had plenty of handhold and foot holds for support.

"If we can't take the lift, then maybe we can take the express way." I said and pointed to the beams then to the wall. "We can climb down the beam and climb down the wall then make it to the tunnels and boom! We're back in base!" I explained.

"But how are we goanna climb down that? It's too risky!" Raf said.

"I'm with Miko on this one." Eve said. Thank you, cuz.

"What?! No way, this is too risky." Jack hissed.

"You got a better idea?" Eve and I asked at the same time.

Jack looked at both of us then looked at the beam. He groaned. "You girls are goanna be the end of us." He said. I hoped that wasn't goanna be proven true.

"Then let's go!" I said and prepared to jump.

"Back up a minute, you want us to jump?!" Raf said and looked at me as though I've lost it.

"Uh, duh. How else are we goanna get there?" I asked.

"We'll just have to take a leap of faith." Eve said as she began to stretch as though she were in gym class.

"Okay you know what, you guys are nuts!" Jack said.

"Then you can stay here and draw circles on the ground and wait for the Autobots to come to your rescue." Eve snapped at him. "Are you going to come with us or not?"

Raf and Jack seemed to consider it then came to a decision. "I'm coming with" Raf said.

"So am I." Jack said.

"I'll jump over with Eve first, then Jack then Raf. Piece of cake." I said.....not.

"This is so not a piece a cake!" Raf said aloud. Well hello Mr. Sunshine junior. *eye roll*

"Think of it as a PE session, mates." Eve said.

"Yeah, except the punishment for failure could be going splat." I said. Then I bowed and extended my hands. "Ladies first." I teased.

Eve rolled her eyes and we both smirked shakily as we got ready. "On three?" she asked. I nodded.

"1....." Eve said. "2....." I said and we both got ready to run, legs tense....."3!" we both said and sprinted towards the rock platform beneath the beam with all our might.

We jumped and I wind-milled my arms as though doing so would propel me forward.

Soon our feet landed on solid ground. Eve dropped into a roll to reduce the impact. 

I tried to do that to....but just ended up scraping my arms.

I got up and rubbed my sore arms. "How do you do that?" I asked as Eve got up and dusted her body off. She looked at me and smirked.

"Two words. Taekwondo and gymnastics." She said.

No one's p.o.v

"Your turn, boys!" Evelyn called back to Jack and Raf. Jack took deep breaths as he tried, and failed, to calm his nerves.

He shook his hands to relax them and cracked his neck. 'You got this. You got this. You can do this. You can outrun Airachnid, you can do this.' He told himself.

"B-be careful, Jack." Raf said. Jack turned around and offered what he hoped was a confident smile.

"I will. Don't worry, you and I can do this." Jack said in the most reassuring voice he could muster. He took a deep breath and sprinted ahead.

He jumped and wind milled his arms.....

For a few short moments, he felt weightless. He felt the air whipped against his face and brush through his hair....

Before his feet landed on sweet solid ground and he roughly rolled to reduce the impact. "Ow....." he groaned as he felt even more scrapes on him now. Evelyn stood over him and tutted.

"You should've rolled using your shoulder." She said. "You're lucky you didn't break a rib." She said the last part seriously and offered Jack a hand.

Jack reached up and took it. He was surprised when he saw her jump and roll. Looks like gymnastics and Taekwondo had its perks. He was also surprised that she managed to actually pull him up. She was stronger than he gives her credit for.

"C'mon, Raf! You can do it!" Miko said. Raf was the only left. He chewed his lip nervously and eyed the 4 meter gap nervously.

"Ma-maybe you guys sho-should go on ahead without me. I-I'll just slow you down." He said as he backed away from the gap.

"What? No. Raf, no one gets left behind. We all go." Jack said.

"Either all of us go-" Miko began.

"Or none of us go." Evelyn finished. "No mate gets left behind."

"Including you." Miko said.

Raf was still nervous. He mentally did the calculations. 'The gap's about 4-4.5 meters wide and we're approximately 20 stories high so if I slip I'll drop down at 129.48 km/h and reach rock bottom in 3.67s. The conclusion, death or broken bones.' He thought grimly. Raf thought doing calculations would help but if anything it just made him even more nervous!

"I-I ca-can't guys. I'm sorry." Raf said.

"Yes. You. Can." Jack said firmly. "We'll catch you."

Raf looked at Jack's reassuring eyes to Miko's confident gaze in him to Evelyn's supportive ones. He gripped his backpack straps so tight his knuckles went white.

He took a deep breath and adjusted his glasses. "I-I'll throw my bag over to lighten the weight." He said and unslung his backpack. "Catch, Jack." He said and threw the bag.

His bag soared through the air and Jack's outstretched hands grabbed it. "Your turn." He said to Raf.

'Time to take a leap of faith.' Raf thought before sprinting towards the gap at a speed that surprised himself.

He jumped and wind milled his arms like the others did as he felt physics do its job..........it did a terrible job as he began to descend just short of the platform.

"No!" he cried and instinctively reached his hand out as he felt gravity pull him down.

Rather than making contact with hard rough rock, his hand made contact with another hand as Jack gripped his hand and pulled him up with all his might.

Raf scrambled back up and panted. "Tha-thanks, Jack." He said.

Jack gave him a thumbs up in reply.

After getting their breath back, Jack got up and walked over to the beam. He cupped his hands together. "I'll lift you up Raf, you're lighter so it should be easier." Jack said.

Raf slung his backpack back on and stepped onto Jack's cupped hands. Jack huffed and pushed him up. Raf's fingertips touched the beam and he cried out in pain before recoiling his hand, nearly toppling down in the process.

Jack lowered him to the ground. "What's wrong? What happened?" Evelyn asked.

"The thing's got electricity running through it." Raf said and showed the blisters on his fingertips.

"He's right, look." Miko picked up a rock and threw it at the beam. Sure enough, they briefly saw blue electric spark from where the rock made impact before disappearing.

"Well this is just fantastic!" Evelyn said exasperatedly and threw her hands up. "What next? Flame throwers?!" she said.

"Please don't jinx it." Miko said.

"Maybe it's only electrocuted on one section." Raf said. He threw rocks at various distances at various spots and.....nope the entire beam was electrocuted.

"The beam probably has wires linked to the machinery, hence the electricity." Ratchet explained over the comm after they asked.

"Can you turn it off from base?" Jack asked.

"Not without causing a blackout in the mine." Ratchet replied. He's seen the schematic and gone over it a hundred times and sadly, there really wasn't another way. Had he done it earlier on before the fight escalated and the gear was still more or less functioning properly, it would've been possible.

Evelyn looked at the beam long and hard as though the answer lay within it. 'It reminds me of the beams Ed and I would slide do- wait, that's it!' "Perhaps we can slide down it, like a zip line." She suggested.

"What?" the three of them asked. Evelyn explained that if they were to sling a rope of sorts over the beam, they could zip line down.

"That....could work." Jack said.

"Won't we get electrocuted?" Miko pointed out.

"If you don't make direct contact with the beam then you can actually." Ratchet said.

"But with what? I don't suppose the cons have rope lying around here." Jack said.

"Then what about wires?" Raf said as he unzipped his backpack and took out a long coil of thick wires.

"Where'd you get those?" Evelyn asked.

"The teacher gave it to me when I helped out with the computers, said he doesn't need them. Oh, I also got them from your brother." Raf said.

"Well remind me to send your teacher a card on Teacher's Day." Evelyn said with a smile.

Miko picked one of the wires up and pulled it, testing its tensile strength. "Will these hold? I mean, we could intertwine them but I doubt they're flexible enough." She said.

"Will cloth help with friction?" Evelyn asked.

"Theoretically, yes." Raf said.

"But where will we-" Jack's unfinished question was answered when Evelyn promptly untied the sweatshirt around her waist and began ripping it to shreds. The sound of seams splitting filled the air along with the various sounds of battle.

"Here." She said and shoved three strips of what was once her sweatshirt into his hand. "Intertwine them like this." Evelyn said and began to intertwine three wires with the strips of cloth.

Soon their makeshift ropes/zip lines were ready.

"You lads ever had gone zip lining before?" Evelyn asked.

"No/Yes." Jack, Raf and Miko said. Miko had in fact done it before, three times no less on a holiday with her parents once. Except back then they had an experienced professional guide, safety helmets and procedures and medical aid on standby.

Now? All they have are makeshift ropes for zip lines and the only safety procedure being.......actually that's probably thrown out the window and run over by now.

"I'll go first." Evelyn volunteered and tried to keep the nervous crack out of her voice as she slung the rope over the beam and gripped both ends tightly.

She wrapped the 'rope/zip line' around her hands once to make it extra secure.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and jumped.

Evelyn resisted the urge to scream ever so slightly in both excitement and fear as she slid down the beam.

The wind pushed against her face and whipped through her brunette locks with her ponytail trailing behind her like a ribbon. The fibers and rubber covering the makeshift rope/zip line rubbed against the smooth, cold hard metal plating of the beam.

From below, where a battle between machinery was commencing, Smokescreen stepped out and as he ran to another cover, leaving his previous about to collapse one, he shot at the cons and rolled ahead to dodge gunfire. As he took cover behind a piece of debris beside Arcee, his optics trailed up and they widened.

His jaw dropped as he saw Evelyn, his human partner/friend/charge zip lining down a beam directly above him!

He grasped Arcee's forearm (A/N: Fore-servo? I'm not sure.) and pointed a digit up. "Arcee look!" he said.

"Wha- Sweet Solus Prime!" she exclaimed as she saw one of her human comrades zip line down a beam. "What in the name of Primus is she doing here?!"

Unfortunately, Smokescreen did not have an answer to that and didn't have time to think of one as he got up and shot back at the cons.

As the rock wall came closer and closer, Evelyn bent her knees and braced herself for the impact......

The soles of her boots slammed against the wall and the force of the impact jarred her from her soles to her waist but it didn't hinder her. She lowered one foot and stepped onto solid rock that could hold her weight then lowered the other until both feet were standing on a secure foothold. Evelyn released the zip line in one hand and held both ends in one of her hands as the other clutched a secure handhold.

She took her other hand back and twisted her wrist to coil the makeshift rope/zip line around her wrist.

Evelyn climbed down a bit and gave Jack, Raf and Miko a thumbs up. They took that as their signal. One by one, they zip lined over to her and climbed down a bit to offer the next person space for the arrival.

When all of them had arrived, they began their descend down the rock wall. They surprised one another, seeing as to how all of them were more agile than they gave each other credit for.

Evelyn was naturally agile and flexible and the years she spent on Taekwondo and gymnastics has helped build up some lean muscle on her otherwise slender figure.

While Miko lacked muscle, she made for it when it came to flexibility and agility as well. Jack was already athletic and while Raf was small, he was lighter and his size made it easier to descend although sometimes his height would turn against him as he had trouble looking for a secure foothold and had to release and jump to find another.

After what seemed like forever, their feet landed on steady ground. Most of them jumped the last feet down and without needing to be told, they sprinted towards the tunnels.

Their hearts hammered against their chests and thumped in rhythm with their footsteps as they sprinted as though there were hounds sent by Satan on their heels, in a way there was considering all the giant killer alien robots around them.

Blood roared in their ears and their harsh pants joined the various sounds of gunfire. Their heads were beginning to throb, their scrapes began to bleed, every muscle in their body screamed for a break but they ignored it all and focused on simply getting back to base.

They entered the tunnel and digging into their last reserves of strength, they retraced their steps back to where they'd entered.

"Ratchet! The bridge! Now!" Jack managed to say through his breathes for air into the comm.

"Activating groundbridge." Ratchet said and surely enough, the swirling green vortex appeared.

Evelyn wanted to cry in relief right then and there. They were finally seeing a light at the end of a dark tunnel, literally.

The quartet literally threw themselves into the groundbridge.

Their bones felt like they were vibrating and their vision was blinded by a world of light, but when they made it out, they found themselves standing on the smooth clean floors of the base with the signature Autobot logo on the floor.

The humid confining atmosphere of the mine was now replaced with the coolness that was no doubt coming from air conditioners and fans.

They stood there, panting for breath, covered in sweat, dust and grime, skin also littered with scrapes, cuts and bruises, their entire bodies aching.

Then they heard footsteps and looked up to see Ratchet standing there. His optics widened as he saw their states.

He left the groundbridge controls, the groundbridge already gone and walked over to them. They were dirty and exhausted. They were covered in sweat but even more concerning were their torn clothes and the scrapes and bruises he could see on their skin.

There was a thin trail of blood leaking out of Miko's hand where the rock had cut her and another thin trail of blood going down one side of Jack's face from the small cut.

Evelyn's sweatshirt was gone; the only remainder of it was the makeshift ropes/zip lines still wrapped around their wrists.

"Is everyone alright? Anyone hurt?" Ratchet asked as he kneeled down and immediately began to scan them. He only knew the basics of first aid and of the human physiology so he was a bit at a loss.

"We're in one piece so there's that." Miko said.

"Nothing serious. We're alive." Evelyn said and gave him a thumbs up.

"Nothing's broken." Raf added.

"It's just some scrapes and bruises." Jack added.

Then they all fell down onto their butts. "What's wrong?!" Ratchet asked.

Evelyn waved him off. "Just.....resting.....we....really need it." She gasped and she flopped onto her back, Miko doing the same beside her.

Ratchet's scans showed that they were simply tired from the exertion. He was relieved to know nothing too serious had happened.

Evelyn looked around. She looked at the base, then at the Autobot medic who was gazing at them in genuine concern then at her and her exhausted friends when it hit her.....

They were alive. They were still in one piece. They'd just lived through that ordeal. She'd just lived through that. They had done it. They'd gotten out of the fire.

A delighted smile spread across her face and she laughed.

"What's so funny?" Raf asked.

"Sorry mates, I'm just relieved and bloody glad that we're all still alive after that. It's good to know that my first Miko I pulled isn't going to be my last." Evelyn said.

"Yeah, we did it...." Miko said. "Admit it guys, we're awesome, aren't we?"

They looked at each other and grinned and soon they were laughing away. They weren't doing smiles or releasing laughs of happiness, they were smiles and laughs of relief, achievement and pride from what they'd just accomplished.

Ratchet gave a small smile. "I'll contact Miss Darby to come over and patch you all up." He said making the call.

"Yeah, sure, that'd be nice." Evelyn said. Then the significance of the name hit her and she sat up. "Wait, did you just say Miss Darby? As in Jack's mother?!"

"Yes." Ratchet replied not looking away from the computer.

Evelyn's head whipped towards Jack. He chuckled and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Right, sorry I may have forgot to mention my mom's in on this too." He said.

"And she allows it?" Evelyn asked. She's only met the woman a few times but Miss Darby spelled 'overprotective helicopter mom'. She once questioned how that woman would ever let her son own a motorcycle or much less ride one, now she wondered how that woman even let him out of the house after finding out about Jack's 'Sci-Fi Club'.

"It's a long story." Jack said and flopped back down. "One for another day." He was as exhausted as the rest of them so Evelyn agreed.

Soon they heard a car pull into base and the one and only Miss Darby aka Nurse Darby aka Jack's mom aka helicopter mom got out.

She saw the four of them flopped on the floor like dead fish and gasped. At an almost inhuman speed, she rushed towards them with her medical bag in hand.

"Oh my gosh, what happened? Are you hurt? Where does it hurt? Are you okay? Can you hear me? Do you feel anything broken? Ar-" Miss Darby fired off questions rapidly and Evelyn's head spun.

"Mom, we're okay. Nothing's broken. We're just a bit roughed up and tired." Jack said.

"A bit roughed off." She scoffed. "Jack, you're bleeding! Miko, you too. Come here, we have to clean it before it gets infected."

And so for the next hour and a half, Miss Darby took care of their injuries and fussed over them. She cleaned their wounds and patched them up and even offered them cream to treat their bruises.

She did wonders to their injuries. Soon their aching bodies were just a tad bit stiff and their injuries ached dully.

"Thank you, Miss Darby." Evelyn said as she put a band-aid on a scrape on her elbow.

She smiled at Evelyn but she noticed that it contained sadness and pity. "It's the least I can do." She said before getting up.

Evelyn got up from the cot she sat on and went back to the rec-center to join with the others. Jack had a band-aid on the side of his forehead where he'd been cut and Miko had some bandages wrapped around the cut on her arm. Raf was sitting on the couch and nursing a small bag of ice over the bruise on his forearm.

Evelyn sat down and took one of the other small bags of ice on the table and put it on the bruise on her shoulder.

As the teens rested and nursed their wounds, Miss Darby gazed at them sadly and shook her head.

"You shouldn't have sent them out just like that." She told Ratchet sternly.

"You think I wanted to?" Ratchet shot back. "With all due respect Miss Darby, putting them in harm's way was never my intention, nor is it the others."

Miss Darby sighed. "I know, but wasn't three enough already? Now you've brought another into the mix, another child." She said.

"Believe me, I'm not exactly happy about this new development either." Ratchet said. "But due to circumstances, Evelyn is a part of the team now."

"Ratchet, activate the groundbridge." Optimus's voice sounded through the comm. "Lock onto our coordinates."

"I can't the mine's signals are gone." Ratchet turning his full attention back to the console.

:Here are our coordinates.: Bumblebee beeped/said and sent Ratchet his coordinates. They were scratchy but they'd do.

"Wish we could've just done that." Evelyn whispered to Miko. Miko nodded in agreement.

Soon the groundbridge opened and the other members of Team Prime zoomed through. "Close it now!" Bulkhead said.

Ratchet closed it just as a clawed servo reached out but as the groundbridge closed, the servo got severed and dropped limply to the floor.

Evelyn and Raf released shocked cries when they saw the servo suddenly appear and drop.

"That was like something straight out of a horror movie." Evelyn said as she eyed the severed servo as though it might start moving again.

It twitched and they panicked but the problem was solved as Optimus simply stomped the servo and crushed it.

"And stay destroyed." Evelyn said pointing at the crushed unmoving servo.

"Welcome back, Optimus." Jack said as he tried to make his voice sound as casual as possible. But they didn't miss the looks Smokescreen and Arcee were giving them.

"Jack, Raf, Miko, Eve, what happened? Why are you all injured?" Optimus asked.

"We fell down." Evelyn and Miko blurted out at the same time.

".....Really?" the Autobot leader said in a voice that told them that he was not convinced.

"Yeah, we went out for a walk and tripped." Raf said.

"Got a few bumps and bruises from it, nothing much." Jack said waving it off.

"Perhaps you four went for a walk in the energon mine we were at not so long ago." Optimus said. It was a statement, not a question and the look he was giving them proved it. Optimus wasn't stupid, he was anything but that. He didn't miss the shocked looks Smokescreen and Arcee had earlier and when he too looked up, he briefly saw Jack zip lining down the beam as well.

"I am even more shocked that you agreed to send them there, Old friend." He said looking at the medic who sighed.

They gulped. Oh boy. Miko swallowed and stepped forward.

"It was my fault, Optimus." Miko said.

"It was everyone's fault in a way. But it certainly wasn't Ratchet's." Evelyn added as she too stepped forward and stood beside her cousin. "I should've kept an eye on Miko and not been so stubborn and convince Ratchet to let us go."

"I should've been more responsible too." Jack said.

"We all should have. We could've done something to stop this but didn't." Raf added.

"It's not Ratchet's fault, Optimus. If anything it's ours." Jack said.

Ratchet was.....shocked. Were they defending him? His sparked fluttered as he realized they were and no....what was he doing?! Darn it emotion, he willed it to go back under the layers of crankiness and sarcasm. But he won't deny that he was touched by what the children were doing for him.

"It is alright." Optimus said as his gaze softened slightly. "While we are mad at what the four of you did, I am glad to know that you have learned from your mistakes and chose to grow from them."

"I've got half a mind to punch all of you for scaring the frag out of us." Arcee said as she crossed her servos over her chest. "But...." her tone softened. "I'm glad that you're safe."

"Gosh Miko, you're goanna give our sparks a short circuit one day." Bulkhead said as he lifted his human buddy onto his servo.

"Sorry Bulk, didn't mean to worry you." Miko said and hugged him.

Smokescreen kneeled down and reached out toward Evelyn and touched her ever so gently, as though a gust of wind could break her. His metal digits made contact with her soft brunette locks. He released a breath of relief.

"You okay, mate?" she asked as she grabbed his digit.

"Yeah....just....I'm glad you're okay." He said with a relieved smile. He was. When he saw her earlier, his processor became filled with worry and he could hardly shoot properly during the fight at the thought of his human friend getting hurt in the crossfire. "You really are related to Miko. That stunt you did is all the proof I need."

Evelyn smirked. "Told you so." She said.

"What happened to your jacket? The one you tied around your waist." Smokescreen asked.

"Ribbons now." Evelyn said and gestured to the pile of their makeshift rope/zip line.

"Oh." Smokescreen said. "Anyways, I gotcha something." He took something out of a compartment in his chest and placed it in Evelyn's palm.

Her eyes widened as she realized that it was a glowing blue crystal shard!

'No, not just any crystal, energon.' She corrected herself. Evelyn ran her finger over the energon crystal and gazed at the beautiful blue tint of it.

"It's beautiful." She breathed. Then she gripped it tightly and hugged it to her chest. "Thank you, Smokes. I'll treasure it forever." She said and gave him a warm smile.

Smokescreen smiled and looked down to hide the red tint on his faceplate as he felt his spark give a weird flutter and his entire body heat up a bit. 'Her smile is so beautiful. Wait, why do I feel like this?' he asked himself. Then he shook his helm a bit. "Glad you like it. I told you I'd get a souvenir for ya."

"Good to know you're a bot of your word." Evelyn said and smiled.

As much of a crazy roller coaster ride today had been. She couldn't deny that some good came out of it.

Standing there in a room filled with all her friends, bots and humans alike who were still alive and in one piece with a beautiful new gift that she will forever treasure proved her right.