I wake up to Ratchet grumbling to himself. "The base elements of this goo are like nothing I've ever encountered. It must be extremely concentrated to have affected Arcee so rapidly. Unfortunately, complete results are slow coming without the use of proper diagnostic tools, thank you very much, Bulkhead." As he turned a drop of the goo fell off. I got off the couch and looked over the edge of the railing to find the broken tool alive. I freaked out and went over to Ratchet.

"Hey, Ratchet. What are you doing?", I ask.

"Taking a break from finding out what that goo is. I've been looking at it all night", Ratchet says as he rubs his face.

"You should get some sleep then", I say.

"Not until I figure out what it is", he says as he makes his way back over to look at the goo some more. "Thank goodness for peace and quiet. House guests can be such a bother."

Some metal clatters and I'm instantly alert. "What?", Ratchet looks up when he says that. There is no noise so he goes back to what he was doing. Then there is some metallic tapping. I tense up as Ratchet looks up again.

"Optimus?", Ratchet says cautiously as he turns around. Then he gasps and I see the broken tool from before. I freak out as Ratchet exclaims. "By the Allspark!!" It jumped up towards Ratchet. He dodges and it jumps toward him again, he quickly pushed it away, helping each time it jumped at him. Now it was above him on the railing of a catwalk. It jumped down on the platform next to him and he grabbed a pipe and tried to whack it. It dodges several times before finally cutting the thing he was using.

"I NEEDED THAT!!", Ratchet exclaims. He had dropped his pipe and the broken tool had cornered him against a shelf. It leaps toward him and I was about to transform when it was shot. I breathe a sigh of relief. I didn't have to reveal my secret. I tense up when it starts to power up again but Optimus steps on it.

"And stay broken", Ratchet says, "Now, what could have caused that?"

Optimus speaks. "I have a grave suspicion, Ratchet. Dark Energon."

"If the residue Arcee found on Cliffjumper brought your broken equipment to life, it would stand to reason that the very same substance brought Cliffjumper back from the dead", Optimus says as he gets rid of the broken equipment.

Ratchet hums thoughtfully. "That would account for his life signal inexplicably coming back online, but Dark Energon? It's so scarce as to be virtually non-existent. What would it be doing on Earth?"

"Megatron", I pipe up, knowing he is the only one to be evil enough to do it. "That's probably what he spent the three years he was gone doing."

They both look at me and Optimus nods. "Jaymen is correct. It was transported by Megatron."

"For what purpose?", Ratchet asks, confused why Megatron would want that dark stuff.

"To conquer this planet by raising an army of the undead", Optimus says gravely. I stumble back and realize that I need to sit down or I'm going to pass out...

"He must have used Cliffjumper as a test subject...", I mutter. "Arcee is not going to be happy when she hears this..."

They both look at me before continuing their conversation. "Well, Megatron will need to break quite a few toaster ovens. I mean, where on this world would he find that many Cybertronian dead?" Ratchet asks.

Optimus didn't get a chance to answer as the three remaining bots came into the base with the humans. I'm guessing Optimus assigned one bot to each human. I don't have a guardian but it usually tends to be either Optimus or Ratchet that take me into town when I need stuff.

All the humans let out happy exclamations.

Optimus then calls to the Autobots. "Autobots, prepare to..." he trails off when he sees the humans.

"Roll out?", Arcee questioned.

"Remain here. Ratchet, you'll come with me. Arcee, we'll be outside communications range for some time, so I'm putting you in charge", Optimus says instead.

Ratchet goes to set up the ground bridge while Miko and Bulkhead have a conversation. Arcee tries to argue with Optimus but he quickly shuts her argument down.

"Optimus, with all due respect, playing bodyguard is one thing, babysitting's another. Besides, Ratchet hasn't been in the field since the war", Arcee says, the last part quietly. I had moved from the couch to the railing and was watching this in amusement.

"My piston may be rusty but my hearing is as sharp as ever", Ratchet retorts.

"You tell her, Ratchet", I smirk.

"For the moment, it's only reconnaissance", Optimus says to Arcee.

"Then why do I hear an edge in your voice", Arcee questions.

"Arcee, much has changed in the last 24 hours, and we all need to adapt", Optimus says, his tone hardening. "Ratchet, bridge us out."

Ratchet does so and they leave. Arcee was severely annoyed and decided to go on patrol. She took Bumblebee, leaving Bulkhead in charge.

Miko decided that it would be great for band practice and I listened and decided I did not like Miko's music taste.

Suddenly, the proximity alarm went off and I instantly went to the computer to see who it was.

"It's Agent Fowler", I inform them. Bulkhead tells the other three humans to hide. They do so behind Bulkhead's foot.

"Prime!" Fowler shouts.

"Agent Fowler, uh... he's not here. Nobody's here. Except me and Jaymen, of course", he chuckles nervously.

"Well, where did he go?" Fowler asks. "Wait, don't tell me. He's out pancaking a mini-mall. Now, I don't know what language you bots speak on your planet, but Prime promised he would handle the Decepticons, and blowing a crater in the middle of Nebraska is not what the word 'handle' means in English!!"

"Geez, take a chill pill, Fowler", I say. He was standing next to me, leaning over the railing. He glares at me and I just smile softly.

He continues on his rant. "So, you tell Prime-", he stops when he noticed the cord going to Miko's guitar behind Bulkhead's foot.

"Since when are you bots electric?" he asks. I sigh.

The three humans came out and Fowler groans.

"Contact with civilians!! Team Prime has really gone off book this time", Fowler growls.

"Hey, I'm a civilian!", I exclaim. He glares at me and I could see that he was thinking about my ability. I correct myself. "Okay, fine. I'm half civilian." He rolls his eyes before going down the stairs.

"Okay, don't tell me. You're running a day-care center", he growls, sarcasm dripping off his voice.

"Totally, Fowler. They're 16, 15, and 12. It's totally a day-care center", I roll my eyes.

The kids try to come up with a reason as to why they're here.

I laugh. "Yeah, he's not gonna believe that."

"Okay. Let's move. I'm taking all three of you into federal custody. It's for your own protection", Fowler says. Bulkhead stomps his foot in front of them.

"We're protecting them", he says.

"Yeah. Optimus thinks the Cons might be after them for some reason. Don't know", I put in my two-cents. Fowler glares at me again.

"Is that so? Well, maybe you can explain to my superiors at the Pentagon", Fowler says, as he goes to the phone.

"Don't use that phone", Bulkhead says as he smashes it. "It's out of order."

Fowler growls before going back to the elevator. "This isn't over, big butt, not by a long shot!"

I giggle at Fowler's face and he glares at me. Fowler leaves and we go do our own thing for a few minutes until there's another alarm. Bulkhead gets to the computer before me.

He figures out what it is and who it's from. "It's an S.O.S.... from Fowler!!"

He then figures out how to turn off the alarm.

"Did you trace it?", Raf asks.

"Location scam was incomplete. Oh well", Bulkhead says, not even caring that Fowler was taken.

"Oh well? Seriously?" Jack exclaims.

"Fowler's a jerk", Bulkhead says.

"Whoa! Whether you like the guy or not, the Decepticons may have him!" Jack responds.

I glare at Bulkhead. "Yeah and if he dies because of the Decepticons, who knows what the government will do to you!", I snap. "And you know Optimus would not be happy with you!"

"And Agent Fowler knows your location", Raf says before he gulps. "Our location." He was scared, I could see it.

"And did we not just witness how fast Fowler back down from a bot? The Cons will totally make him squeal!" Miko exclaims.

Bulkhead tries to put up a compelling argument in that they lost the transmission and that Fowler could be anywhere but Raf remembers that the government microchips their agents and he could hack into the mainframe. Soon enough, we have the coordinates.

Bulkhead opens a ground bridge and was about to run through before he realizes that he needs to put someone in charge.

"Uh... Jack you're in charge", he says before running through the bridge. It automatically closes.

"Guess we four have the run of the place", Jack says before noticing that Miko was gone.

"Miko? Miko?" Jack questions.

"She ran through?!" I exclaim. "Unbelievable!"

They soon open a bridge and run through. I sigh and follow them quickly.

We find ourselves out in the open, with the entire Decepticon warship in front of us. I gasp when we started getting shot at and was about to transform when Bulkhead drove in front of us.

"Get in. Now!", he says before dropping us off behind a rock.

We all got out except for Miko. Bulkhead thought she got out and drove off. A few minutes later, we could see Bulkhead looking at us. I saw Miko's pink hair a moment later before hearing some heavy thuds behind us.

"Uh oh...", I mumble to myself. They pick us up and take us in the warship. I struggle and was about to transform when Arcee and Bumblebee attack the Cons holding us. Arcee catches Raf and Jack but I fell to the floor.

"I only got two hands", she apologizes. I shrug and we continue around the corner. We end up coming across Bulkhead and they argue a little bit. We soon continue towards the brig which is where they're keeping Agent Fowler. We come across more Decepticons in a hallway and we humans had to avoid getting hit by arms and heads and bodies. It was not easy. I wanted to transform but I knew I couldn't do it around the bots.

They clear out a room and tell us to stay here. Jack and Miko get into an argument which Raf ends by running off.

We all go to comfort him and I notice an equation. It was weird.

"Hey, Raf. What do you make of that?" Jack asks, evidently noticing the equation too.

"It's important. Really important", Raf says as he takes a closer look.

They discuss it while I keep a lookout. Soon a Con comes in. I tense and hide, seeing the other three doing so as well. Raf almost made it to the hiding spot when the Con spotted him. I growl and forget about the other humans. The con was about to shoot at Raf when I leaped out, transformed and punched him.

"Leave him alone", I growl. The con tried to shoot me but I quickly ended his life with my dual swords before transforming back into a human.

"Jaymen?" the kids all ask.

"Yeah", I say.

"Did you just..." Jack asks.

"Transform into a bot. Yeah. Now, you have to keep it a secret, okay? I don't want the bots to know. You can say that you saw a bot but don't say it was me, say she ran out of the room once she was done fighting the Con. Now, Miko. Take a picture of the equation. Ratchet will want to take a look at it", I say. We head out of the room in time to see the bots pull up.

"I thought I told you to stay put!" Arcee exclaims. I shrug and climb into Bee with Raf.

Soon we make it back to base, just in time to hear Optimus call for a ground bridge.

Arcee opens one and we explain what happened. Once we got to the part with my other form, Miko came up with a very good story.

"This con came into the room we were hiding in and it was about to shoot Raf when all of sudden this bot came out of no where and took him down. She was really pretty too. She was mostly red with bits of orange and yellow. After she took down the Con, she nodded at us and then took off out of the room", Miko explains.

Optimus hums and Ratchet looks at him. "Optimus, doesn't that sound like..."

Optimus cut him off. "Venus. Her name is Venus."

I focus on my feet. So that's what my other form's name is. It sounds like Optimus knows her.

"Did you know her well, Optimus", I ask.

"She was one of the best fighters around. She could take down 50 cons without a break. It makes sense considering she was raised in the gladitorial pits. But she is dead. Megatron killed her. I saw it myself. So it could not have been her", Optimus voice sounded... angry and sad. I look at him before sighing.

After more discussion, Jack decided he didn't want to be a part of this. Ratchet gave him a ground bridge home. The other humans stayed but left a couple hours later. I was tired so I went to lay on the couch and soon I fell asleep.