After having Ratchet groundbridge her to base, Adelaide got herself settled down to start her report for Fowler. She was going to take some artistic liberties with this week's report, leaving out the children for now.

The weekend morning was quiet as Ratchet milled around his tools and Optimus did whatever he was doing in his quarters.

Adelaide stretched out for a moment before standing from her chair. She quietly made her way towards Ratchet and sat on his work desk, just out of his way.

"The base elements of this goo are like nothing I've ever encountered," Ratchet mumbled to himself as he looked though the microscope. He moved to grab a pair of tongs as he continued rambling. "It must be extremely concentrated to have affected Arcee so rapidly."

"So you have no idea what this stuff is?" Addie asked as she looked up at the medic.

"Not yet. Unfortunately, complete results are slow-coming without the use of proper diagnostic tools. Thank you, Bulkhead."

Ratchet took the microscope slide out to move it to the next test, a drop of the goo flying off and landing on the broken machine that lie forgotten on the floor.

"Well, if anyone can figure it out, it's you," Adelaide encouraged.

That seemed to boost the medics ego a little as he straightened with a nod.

He added a new solution to the slide before returning it to under the microscope.

"And thank goodness for some peace and quiet," he quipped as he began to look into the microscope. "House guests can be such a bother."

Adelaide laughed quietly before there was a clanging sound from by the groundbridge.

Both Adelaide and Ratchet perked up at the sudden sound.

Ratchet only looked back down, but Adelaide kept looking towards the grounbridge. A second sound made her stand up.

Ratchet glanced up once again. "Optimus?"

"And since when has Optimus been that quiet?" Adelaide snarked in a harsh whisper. "Ratchet!"

"By the All Spark!" Ratchet gasped as he saw a tiny metal creature bolting towards him before launching itself into the air.

Adelaide dove out of the way as Ratchet ducked, allowing the creature to land on the platform space where she had just been sitting. Ratchet grabbed a pipe while Adelaide grabbed her pistol.

The little spider creature launched itself at Ratchet again, only to be smacked like a baseball. The creature slashed microscope out of its way and Ratchet's eyes widened.

"I needed that!!"

Adelaide took aim and hit the bug twice. She cursed when she saw how little damage she had done before screeching as she creature lunged at her.

"Adelaide!" Ratchet cried, jumping to scoop her off the platform. He covered her in his hands before flinching back as he prepared for the bug to jump on him only for a blaster shot to ring out.

The medic opened his eyes to see Optimus retransform his servo.

The little creature made a move to get up before Optimus crushed it under the weight of his foot.

"And stay broken!" Ratchet gruffed before lifting his hand from over Adelaide who was curled up in his grasp. "Are you alright?"

"Peachy," she grumbled as she got to her feet.

Optimus looked at her with concern as Ratchet set her back on the platform.

"Now what could have caused that?" Ratchet questioned as he looked at the destroyed creature that lie sparking on the floor.

"I have a grave suspicion, Ratchet," Optimus began. "Dark energon."

The Prime picked up the broken creature and Ratchet grabbed a stasis tube to ensure that it would no longer be able to regenerate itself.

"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 spoke as he closed the hatch to secure the stasis tube.

"That would explain the life signal coming back online, right?" Addie suggested to which Ratchet nodded.

"But dark energon? It's so scarce as to be virtually nonexistent," Ratchet said as he held a hand to his chin in thought. "What would it be doing on earth?"

"It was transported here, by Megatron," Optimus reasoned.

"For what purpose?" Ratchet questioned.

"To conquer this planet by raising an army of the undead."

Adelaide looked at Optimus with worry. An army of zombified Cybertronians was not on her bingo card.

"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 scoffed.

Before Optimus could answer, the sounds of engines speeding into the base filled their ears.

The kids were all laughing and clearly having a good time.

Bulkhead paused when he felt something in his cab. He reached in and pulled out an electric guitar case.

"Sorry! Must've left it in the backseat!" Miko said as she took her guitar from her guardian.

"Autobots, prepare to-" Optimus stopped as he thought for a moment.

"Roll out?" Arcee questioned.

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

"Dude, you're biggest. You should be the boss," Miko claimed as she looked up at Bulkhead.

"Uh, he never picks me," Bulkhead claimed sheepishly.

"Optimus, with all due respect," Arcee started as she stepped forward to draw the Prime's attention. "Playing bodyguard is one thing. Babysitting is another. Besides, Ratchet hasn't been in the field since the war."

"My pistons may be rusty but my hearing is sharp as ever," Ratchet called from the groundbridge controls.

"For the moment, it's only reconnaissance," Optimus spoke as he tried to appease the femme.

"Then why do I hear an edge in your voice?" Arcee argued as she crossed her arms.

"Arcee, much has changed in the last twenty-four hours and we all need to adapt," Optimus chided. "Ratchet, bridge us out."

Ratchet pulled the lever and the groundbridge swirled to life.

"Optimus," Adelaide spoke up and he turned to look at her. "Just be careful, okay?"

The Prime gave a curt nod, and though it went unseen under his battle mask, his lips curled into a tiny smile.

The two bots disappeared through the bridge before the vortex closed.

"Okay, chief, so what's on the activities list?" Jack asked awkwardly as he rocked on his feet.

Arcee rolled her eyes and walked towards the exit. "I'm going on patrol."

"But Optimus told us to stay," Bulkhead reminded as he tried to stop her.

"When you're in charge you can call the shots. Bee, with me."

Bee looked at Raf and whirred sadly. He then turned his gaze to Adelaide before letting go out a few bleeps.

"I would, but there's some stuff I wanna work on. Just go. I'm sure we'll be fine," Addie pushed as she waved off the scout with a smile.

Arcee and Bumblebee both transformed before speeding out of the base.

"So, uh, what's on the activities list?" Bulkhead asked as he looked at the kids.

Adelaide sat at her computer and got to work on her next report. Meanwhile, Miko plugged in her electric guitar.

"Band practice!" The teen announced excitedly.

"But we're not a band," Raf pointed out.

"Why so antisocial? Come on, Raf. You play anything?"

"Keyboard?" He suggested sheepishly as he held up his laptop.

"Labtops and samples. Good," Miko nodded quickly before turning around. "Jack?"

"I sometimes mess around on the harmonica," he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Do I look like I do country? Just cover yourself in fake blood and jump around screaming. Addie?"

"Busy," the agent announced.

"Bulkhead, percussion! We'll go for a big industrial sound. Diy, we're a band. You just gotta learn the songs. This one's a ballad. It's called, 'My Fist, Your Face'."

Miko began ripping into the ballad, filling the base with loud rock music coming from the speakers connected to her guitar.

Everyone was covering their ears to protect from the loud music, but suddenly another noise joined the music. Green lights began to flash above the elevator door.

"Woah, woah, stop!" Bulkhead called out.

"Come on, Bulkhead. You can't handle raw power?" Miko prodded before hearing the alarms.

"Proximity sensor. Quick, hide!" Bulkhead ordered.

The three kids quickly ran behind Bulkhead's large foot.

"Prime!" Fowler barked as he stormed out of the elevator.

"Agent Fowler, uh, Optimus isn't here. No one's here. Except me and Addie of course," Bulkhead stammered.

"Well, where did he go?" Fowler questioned as he looked around. "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!"

"It wasn't their fault, Fowler," Adelaide spoke up with her arms crossed. "The cons blew an energon mine."

Bulkhead moved a little to hide the kids from view, moving the auxiliary cord on Miko's guitar.

"Well, one of you, tell Prime-"

Fowler heard the noise again and looked down to see the cord traveling to behind Bulkhead's foot.

"Since when are you bots electric?"

Adelaide smacked her forehead and dragged her hand down her face as the kids slowly came out from behind Bulkhead.

"Hey. How you doing?" Jack spoke first.

"Contact with civilians! Team Prime has really gone off book this time," Fowler scolded as he walked down the steps. "Wait, don't tell me, you're running a daycare center."

Bulkhead looked down nervously.

"We're interns," Jack said quickly.

"Student interns!" Raf specified.

"Earning extra credit in... auto shop!"

"Robotics!" Miko claimed, speaking over Jack.

Fowler huffed in frustration. "Okay. Let's move. I'm taking all three of you into federal custody. It's for your own protection."

Bulkhead stepped between Fowler and the children. "We're protecting them."

"Is that so," Fowler spoke through grit teeth. "Well, maybe you can explain that to my superiors at the Pentagon."

"Don't use that phone," Bulkhead warned quickly before using a singgle digit to crush the button pad. "It's out of order."

"This isn't over big foot!" Fowler gruffed. "Not by a long shot."

The government agent stormed his way up the stairs.

"And you didn't report this to me immediately, why?"

"That was Optimus's call. Not mine," Adelaide replied simply.

"You report to me, Parks, not Prime. You are under my command, or did you forget?" Fowler spoke harshly.

"Yes, sir," Adelaide conceded with a nod.

"You're coming with me. I'm sure General Bryce would love to hear about this." Fowler turned to enter the elevator.

Adelaide looked at the kids and they gave her guilty looks to which she just smiled and waved them off.

-

"Sir, this is Agent Fowler. We have a situation. I'm en route from the Autobot base. I'll brief you in person," Fowler spoke over the comm line. After he cut the line off he looked to the female sitting in the helicopter beside him. "I'm not understanding why you wouldn't just tell me. This is a major breach of classified government intel, and you know it."

"It was an accidental meeting. The two boys caught Arcee and Bumblebee in a confrontation with the Decepticons. The girl saw them as well at some point, though I'm not positive on when. Optimus thought it was best to keep it from you until he would have a moment to talk to you about it in person," Adelaide explained. "Preferably when you weren't already having an aneurysm."

"And you just agreed with him, no questions asked?"

"Sir, Optimus knows what he's doing, contrary to your belief. I know them better than you do, and I trust Optimus. So, yes, no questions asked," Adelaide replied with a nod.

"Well, I don't-"

An alarm began blaring and Fowler looked at the radar to see something was flying towards them.

"Hey, big bird. I'm flying here," he grumbled.

"Fowler!" Adelaide called out.

His gaze shot up and he saw metal bird looking thing flying directly towards them. He tugged the stick and sent the jolting to the side to avoid the creature.

"First the freeways aren't safe, now air travel?!" Fowler cursed as he manuevered the helicopter throught the ravine walls to try and outrun the creature following them.

The bird slammed into the side of the helicopter and Fowler struggled to get then steady.

"Holy shit!" Adelaide gasped before clenching her eyes shut aas Fowler headed straight into the dead end wall of the crevice.

Fowler waited till the last moment before pulling up over the rock wall. He flew over the flat land for a moment until he came up on another part of the canyon system. He dropped the helicopter down and the bird sped forward. They were now behind the bird and Adelaide got a good look at it.

"It's definitely Cybertronian," Addie said, gripping her seat with white knuckles.

"You wanna dance, con?" Agent Fowler muttered to himself. "I'll lead."

Fowler slammed his thumb down on the trigger and let the bullets fly.

Addie watched as each hit bounced right off the Decepticon, but Fowler kept firing until empty.

"Well, fuck," Adelaide squeaked.

The bird flew up and around them before cutting off the tail of the helicopter.

"Never an Autobot around when you actually need one," Fowler mumbled.

Adelaide reached for the SOS button without a second thought as they spun out.

A metal claw broke into the cabin and ripped Addie out by the back of her shirt to which she screamed.

"Shit," Fowler cursed as he tried to fight off another claw that was attempting to grab him.

The bird pulled Fowler out of the helicopter before it crashed into the side of the canyon, flying off with it's new passengers.