—san andréas—

Astraea hung up the pay phone, slamming it onto the line so hard that the entire thing broke and fell off the wall. She promptly kicked it while it was on the ground before stumbling out of the phone booth.

She ignored the citizens gaping at the feat of super strength.

The sun burned as she made her way through the warm sand.

No, she was not lonely at all. That's not why she called Agent Fowler and mentioned the scary Autobot leader by name. Not at all.

Astraea made her way through the crowd and back up to the bar. She burped into her fist as she practically fell onto the countertop. While the bartender looked at her in concern, he did not cut her off and gave her the jello shot she requested.

Astraea took it from him happily, licking the top before dumping it into her mouth and swallowing the chewy substance whole. In the next moment, she was dancing back on the beach, ignoring the way the sun beamed down on her sweaty body covered in sand.

It's why it took her so long to notice the American semi-truck sitting on the curb of the sidewalk nearest to the beach. She could not be sure how long it had been since she used the pay phone to call Fowler—time was meaningless to her.

However, she still did not hesitate in straight-up speeding toward Fowler who was leaning against the driver's side door of the truck. No one noticed that the "driver" he was talking to did not exist and was only Optimus Prime.

Time seemed to stand still barely moving as Astraea made it to Fowler's side. She knew that it was not time standing still but rather her moving exceptionally fast—she could see it in the way that Fowler's eyes moved ever so slowly as he started blinking.

She stared at him before moving her gaze to the red and blue semi-truck.

The Optimus Prime of this universe.

After living around Cybertronians all her life, practically being raised by them at that, Astraea was able to identify them a little bit better in their alt modes. She understood the meaning and care behind their individual alt-mode looks as opposed to most humans.

This semi was not a sharp truck made of murky purples, greens, and silvers. He did not give off the sheer appearance of being evil as his counterpart did. He was not emitting any questionable vibes or tricky EMP fields. Or at least none that Astraea could pick up on, but then again, she was highly intoxicated and moving faster than sound itself.

So don't blame her if her judgment is a bit impaired.

No—this version of Optimus Prime was a softer build of semi. A Peterbilt design, if she was not mistaken: he was boxy without extra hard sharp edges. And there was not a hint of purple to be seen, simply a whirlwind of blues and reds with a metallic undertone.

She quickly flitted in front of Fowler before time resumed as normal, but to Astraea, it simply felt as though she was now the one moving slowly.

Fowler finished blinking, but when he opened his eyes a familiar woman was standing in front of him. He yelped, jumping backward at her sudden appearance—her disheveled appearance. She was swaying, her eyes were bloodshot and barely focused, and she smelled of sweat, ocean, and booze.

"Astraea, what the hell are you thinking!" Fowler growled, brows furrowing as he quickly stood a step closer, fists clenched at his side. "Are you trying to be noticed by a civilian? Let alone lead the 'Cons right to you?!"

Astraea smirked before holding up her wrist device which was still poking straight into her arm.

"I made this..." She said as though that was the answer to everything.

"AND?!" Fowler exploded.

Astraea hazardously rocked on the balls of her feet, almost falling backward if not for Fowler reaching out and steadying her. She finally answered when her vision stopped spinning.

"And, I figured out how to get it to block my energy. As long as I'm connected to it, I can't be tracked by my speed... also its teleportation is much smoother, want to see?"

"No!" Fowler quickly answered, grabbing her hand to stop her from pressing the button that would make her teleport to who-the-hell-knows-where.

"Well then..." Astraea sniffed as though offended, ripping her hand away from Fowler's.

Fowler had steam practically coming from his ears. "Get in the truck!"

Astraea looked to where Fowler was pointing, staring at Optimus Prime in his alt mode. The American Semi looked almost out of place amid the sunny Columbian beach. She put her hands on her hips, tilting her head to the side.

"Optimus Prime!" She chirped loudly, speeding in front of his grill. "A pleasure to encounter you without you trying to kill me!" She laughed wildly at the end.

Fowler nearly passed out from her flagrant display of using super speed and calling out a highly classified undercover Autobot, the leader at that, in public. The risk that it posed was immense. But thankfully, it appeared as though there were no civilians noticed seeing as everyone was either too drunk or just not paying attention.

"Astraea!" Fowler growled, leaping to her side. "What is wrong with you!? And you—" He pointed to Optimus's alt mode accusingly, "Don't you dare say anything until we are in your cab!"

The semi-truck remained stagnant: there was not even a whisper of Optimus Prime's low rumbling voice.

"Now who looks crazy talking to a truck?" Astraea sassed, standing with her hip popped to the side and motioning to the truck.

Fowler was now more than happy to pawn this woman off to the Autobots. Maybe the 'great commander-in-chief' Optimus Prime could whack some sensibility into her. But he doubted it, Prime was too gentle and kind for that, and he barely got onto his soldiers as is.

Then again, Optimus's 'soldiers'—if they could even be called that—were more like his family.

"Mayweather!" Fowler attempted to switch to using her last time.

Unfortunately for him, he could not say anything further as Astraea suddenly slammed her palms onto the hood of Optimus. She could barely reach it from how high the truck was off the ground.

She was not harsh; even if she was, it would not hurt Optimus. But the sound still reverberated.

"Any other planet, you could have taken any other planet—well, I guess you've pretty much taken all of them at this point, but still! Why could you not make Zanthar or Straxia your base of operations... or hell, I don't know, how about Cybertron?!" She was beginning to work herself up, smacking her palms with each sentence as frustration seeped into her tone. "Why, why, why? Why us—why me? It's not fair! We didn't do anything! It isn't fair!" Fowler grabbed her from behind, pulling her away from Optimus Prime.

"Astraea..." He started, this time his voice more calm, but Astraea yelled while fighting to get out of his grip.

While she managed to get out of his grip, her eyes were crazed as she accidentally backed herself against Optimus's grill. It was warm against her skin.

"Astraea, you know as well as me that is not your Optimus Prime, he hasn't done anything," Fowler said sternly. "And you are making a scene... stop this and come with us... we can all talk back at the base..."

But Astraea was spiraling—she was drunk, more than drunk really—she was totally wasted. Absolutely trashed.

"I said what I said, now leave me alone! I'm Brazilian now!" She pointed to the Special Agent accusingly before moving away from Optimus and attempting to leave.

Until Fowler stopped her, reaching forward and grabbing her arm. She was skinny, but not frail, she felt far stronger than she should.

"You're not even in Brazil!"

"Hey! Stop it—let me go! LET ME GO!" She screamed as she fought against his grip, and Fowler was yelling as she all but pulled him around.

It was now certainly catching multiple eyes.

"Astraea—!" Fowler started but did not need to keep going as Astraea grunted, slowly starting to fall to the ground finding that it was beginning to feel harder to keep moving and fighting.

How long had it been since she last slept? She found that she could not remember, but it had to be a few days at least. She'd been on this bender for a while at this point, and her dreams were haunted by nightmares of her decaying reality so she hated going to sleep.

And she was strong, faster than any creation known to man: she could go without sleep for longer periods before her body forced itself to shut down.

The alcohol raging through her system did not help either as she fell against Fowler, both of them going to the ground as he held onto her.

She weakly started punching his shoulder. "Let go of me..." Her voice was quiet, revealing how tired she was.

Fowler closed his eyes and bit his lip, sadness running through him at her poor state. She had been through more than most, and based on the few stories that she had shared with him about her reality—he was surprised that she even managed to survive it as long as she had.

"I-I no wanna sleep..." She was babbling nonsense, her words drunkenly slurred as her eyes finally closed on their own accord and her breathing started leveling. "It's not fair, it's all his fault, it's not fair..." Were her last words as she finally succumbed to exhaustion.

Optimus wanted to kill himself. Literally.

It sounded as though this alternate version of him was somehow even worse than Megatron. Optimus wished more than anything that there was something he could do to help, but even if he had to ability to get to her reality, he did not have the resources to help it.

Not only that, but it sounded nearly impossible to help a place in such a devasting state.

His engined rumbled as Fowler opened his back doors and placed the girl inside. Astraea cuddled close to his seat, shifting on her side as she snored lightly.

When Fowler heaved himself into the driver's seat no words were said between them.

Optimus broke the silence. "She is in great pain, Agent Fowler..."

"Aren't we all?" Fowler said right back, sounding rather tired himself.

But they both knew the truth, Astraea's pain was something that neither of them could imagine. Even Optimus himself, because even while he had dark days and had much taken from him—Astraea had nearly everything ripped from her.

By his own servo at that.

Even as Optimus knew that he was not capable in the slightest of doing what the other version of him had done: he could not stop himself from feeling slightly responsible. That topple along with the fact that the version of Astraea from this reality had died in his grasp made the Prime feel as though he owed the slumbering young woman much.

━━━━━━━

The children were on the edges of their seats as Ratchet opened up the ground bridge and Optimus drove through.

Miko was, of course, the first person to spring into action. She hit the railing with such force that she nearly fell over if not for Bulkhead panicking and pushing her back slightly.

"Miko..." He groaned, his voice holding a loose warning that she easily disregarded.

"Did you find her?" Ratchet asked as he closed the ground bridge.

Fowler popped out of the driver's side of Optimus, walking to the back before opening the door.

"Yep," He grunted while pulling Astraea out, the young woman still more than passed out as the Special Agent tugged her out of the living truck.

"You killed her?!" Miko yelled in astonishment while Raf and Jack panicked behind her.

Even Arcee, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead were staring in shock at Fowler and their leader. Ratchet was the only one calm as he had read the woman's vitals and found that she was still very much alive.

Her vital signs were odd, stronger than the average human—but she was alive nonetheless. Just very very intoxicated.

He rolled his optics at the others but chose not to say anything and let Optimus deal with it himself.

Fowler huffed as he held the young woman bridal style, making his way to the stairs. She was not necessarily heavy for a young woman, but she was tall and even as she was light, that certainly did not make her easy to lug around.

Optimus transformed barely a second afterward, throwing a slight look at the smug face Ratchet was wearing among the chaos of the others.

"Enough," Optimus cut through sternly, "She has not yet joined the All-Spark, she is simply..." He trailed off at the end, struggling to say she was hammered without saying she was well... hammered.

The children all took breaths of relief as did the other Autobots.

"Very drunk!" Fowler finished crudely, groaning loudly as he came to the bottom of the staircase.

He did not want to try and carry her up nearly three flights of stairs.

Thankfully, Optimus bent to one knee and held out a servo to Agent Fowler.

"Allow me, Agent Fowler," He said politely.

"Thank the Stars and Stripes—my back is already killing me," Fowler groaned and put the drunken woman in Optimus's servo without batting an eyelash.

He then slowly started making his way up the stairs while Optimus stood up, his servo cupped around Astraea gently. He stared down at her in a sad and contemplating manner.

She was different from the other version of herself that he had seen a few months prior.

For one: her hair was shorter and no longer was it brown. There were silver, nearly white, highlights that seemed to light up the cropped fray. She was also skinnier than her alternate self, most likely a result of not having a stable influx of food.

Small knicks, scratches, and scars were littered across her body. Optimus could recognize battle scars on anyone: human or Autobot seeing as he had quite a few himself.

There were a handful of other differences that he noticed, but overall, the most glaringly obvious thing was that she was exactly the same as the other version of herself. Same face, same name, but not the same person.

How could they be when their environments were very different growing up?

Optimus would not admit it out loud, but looking down at her, he was reminded of when he stared into the casket of the other version of her. When he looked into her dead face knowing she was completely innocent and had her life taken away for no reason.

A series of whirrs caught his attention, and Optimus suddenly realized that the other Autobots were by his side looking at the human as well. Bumblebee was the closest, staring into Optimus's servos with wide blue optics.

"So this is the speedster that's been giving everyone a hard time?" Arcee sounded almost dubious.

Then again, Astraea looked rather innocent in his grasp. Nothing more than any other average young human woman.

"Definitely," Rathcet answered before Optimus could, a blue scan going over Astraea's body. "Not that anyone would understand, but her vitals prove as much..." He hummed in curiosity, the Autobot doctor taking one last look at her before leaving to the nearest computer to further investigate the vitals.

Right away, he could tell it was of Cybertronian origin.

"She's puny though..." Bulkhead said.

Optimus reached over into the human section—gently placing the young woman onto the couch. She let out a snore in response, turning onto her side and cuddling into the cushions.

Miko was about to start for her, only for Optimus to corral the children away with a large servo.

"For your own safety, I do not think you should wake her or engage with Astraea at this time," Optimus explained, keeping his voice low and serious but kind all the same.

"What, why? Is she dangerous?" Jack questioned, moving away even further and pulling the other two with him.

Optimus shook his helm. "While I do not believe that she would harm anyone in this vicinity, she is highly intoxicated with unmatched power and speed. It is best we allow her to rest and sober. I would not like to chance anything until she is of sound mind and we can guarantee she poses no threat. Especially to you three..."

Fowler snorted as he finally got to the top of the staircase earning all eyes on him. "Astraea is a lot of things, but I need to question if there is any part of her, drunk or sober, that is of sound mind..."

Optimus's shoulders slumped just slightly, another twinge of guilt rocking through his system. He forced himself to remember that it was not his fault.

Ratchet; however, stiffened and looked to Fowler.

"She is insane?"

The Special Agent shrugged, "I'm willing to bet at least partly..."

Ratchet groaned almost angrily, turning to Optimus with a scowl. "Are you certain keeping this human woman here is a good idea?"

"You think it's better we leave her on the streets for the Decepticons to catch?" Bulkhead piped from where he stood.

"Enough—the girl will stay here..." Optimus spoke sternly. "We are the only ones fully capable of keeping her out of Decepticon's reach."

Agent Fowler shook his head, leaning against the railing with a snort. "Prime, she seemed pretty capable of staying away from them herself."

"For the time being, Agent Fowler. An accident could easily occurred at any point and she could be a prisoner of them—subjected to their experimentation."

Agent Fowler huffed but could not deny it.

"Sweet! Now we have a cool and super speedy lady on our team!" Miko fist-pumped the air.

"Miko!" Jack groaned just as Ratchet looked at all of them.

"All three of you are to stay away from here until we can speak with her fully. In fact, I think it's time for all of you to head home for the night—" Ratchet started only to be met with their disgruntled cries.

"What! No way—we've only been here for a few hours!" Miko spoke for Jack and Raf who surprisingly agreed.

Ratchet quickly got into it with the children, nagging them and telling them why it was time for them to go home for the day. Their guardians only watched the scene amusedly while Optimus and Fowler spoke much quieter to each other.

Unsurprisingly, not that anyone noticed, the noise woke up Astraea. Her eyelids snapped open.

She tilted her head to look around, and just as her gaze passed over a huge speaker and to the Autobots, the speaker burst to life.

Loud and heavy rock music filled the base causing the place to nearly shake.

"What the hell?" Fowler cried, turning to look at the stereo. "Turn that off, Miko!"

"I agree, turn it off, Miko! Then all of you get in your guardians and go home...!" Ratchet ordered.

Optimus did not argue against the medic—it was best for the children to go home for the time being. Not because he thought that Astraea would necessarily hurt them, but he could not ignore the facts.

Astraea was unfamiliar and essentially a wild card. She literally came from a different reality, something that was only a theory even on Cybertron in its golden age. Not to mention, she was the fastest thing alive with unknown abilities.

They needed to at least speak to Astraea without the children present just to ensure their safety around her.

Not to mention, it was also very concerning that Optimus and Fowler found her drunk in South America. She had been on a bender for nearly a week!

It was right for Ratchet to question if it was the right decision to keep her with them, but Optimus knew in his spark that it was the right thing to do. Her innocent counterpart, the version that was born to this reality had already died due to the Decepticons and his inability to protect her. He would not let that happen again.

"I didn't turn it on!" Miko stomped her foot.

Optimus was silent as he regarded the human children before turning his helm to see if the music had disturbed their sleeping guest. He suspected it had not as she was not really sleeping but rather passed out from how drunk she was. Seeing as that was the case, it stood to reason that noise would not cause her to wake up.

He was wrong.

And that became apparent when he looked over and found her gone.

Now, Optimus was the greatest Autobot ever when it came to controlling himself and his emotions. Better than even Ultra Magnus.

But even the last of the Primes could not stop his mouth from falling agape or the briefest flicker of panic from seeping into his gaze.

Because—as Ratchet would so gently put it—what in the name of Cybertron?!

He and the others had been standing right by Astraea the entire time, how did she leave?

Optimus was not the only one to notice her absence, Fowler noticed a second afterward.

"Where the hell is SHE?!"

And he looked like he was going to blow a gasket. Cue full-blown Autobot panic mode + a stressed-out military agent + three teenagers + heavy rock metal.

Astraea, on the other hand, was only slightly more sober than she had been earlier as she blasted around the Autobot base. She had already explored the place about twenty times in the time it took them all to notice her absence (mind you, Optimus noticed her gone less than a minute after she initially left).

She gave zero fucks about privacy, wandering around the Autobot's personal living spaces in the base.

They were all rather boring.

Bumblebee's room was the only one that was actually decorated, and even then it was just a random poster on his wall. She said poster but with Bee's size, the poster was actually a small billboard.

Not to mention... it was a McDonald's x Nascar advertisement. It gave her a good laugh.

Bee was already her favorite just from that alone.

It was weird, definitely, especially as she sped around all of them so fast that none of them had even noticed her presence. To stand so close to Optimus Prime and have him not try to kill her and steal her away was interesting.

For all of the Autobots, really. Especially Ratchet—the version of Ratchet she was familiar with would do anything to get his hands on her to conduct more experiments. Then again, the Ratchet from her own universe was not such a homely white and orange.

Rather, she knew Ratchet to look rigid and sterile.

A stainless white and glassy ice blue with gleaming red optics and scarily sharp edges. A bot that thought only with logic—the only emotion he ever allowed to show was anger.

The Ratchet she knew was terrifying.

Almost as terrifying as her version of Optimus Prime.

But all of these Autobots were more lively and colorful than the ones from her own universe. Less sharp and somehow appearing... friendlier.

Astraea did not tremble in fear at the sight of them; in fact, she was even bold enough to mess around with them.

The human children were kind of cute.

A lengthy white teenage boy who could not have been older than sixteen. A tiny Asian girl who looked to be around the same age as the boy. And finally, a short boy who barely looked to be scraping eleven with large glasses.

It had been a long time since Astraea had witnessed children. Let alone children who were in such good condition and not on their deathbeds.

Astraea herself was not quite old enough to be any of their mothers yet, but she was old enough to be like a much older sister.

Agent Fowler was... well Agent Fowler.

He had been mid-yell when Astreaea circled him in an amused manner. He was yelling at Miko to turn off the stereo.

Seeing as it was in the middle of a song, and she was moving so fast, the only noise was an odd and loud humming that came from the speaker.

She truthfully did not mean to turn on the speaker when she woke up, but she had a lot of pent-up energy and friction and it had to go somewhere. The perks of being a speedster.

Humming she backed away from the incredibly slow-moving Fowler, so slow that he looked almost frozen along with the others.

She noticed at the moment that Optimus was slowly turning his head to where she had previously been lying on the couch. In a matter of moments (for him), he would notice that she was 'missing'.

Snickering at the chaos about to break out, she backed away and turned toward the hallway where she knew the bathrooms and bunks to be. There were many empty rooms, bunks, and bathrooms in this place.

All of which she had already looked to.

Not to mention the inactive missile lying directly under this part of the base, she had a feeling that the Autobots might not know of its existence.

Then again, all of this was to be expected in a secret military base from the Cold War.

As Astraea stood overlooking the others, she certainly looked like an interesting character. Her short choppy hair was going every which way, her silvery purple eyes bloodshot, and her skinny frame stuck in a revealing bikini and nothing more.

Thank God she was not gifted with huge titties, otherwise one might have slipped out when she was passed out on the human couch of the Autobot base.

Not to say that she had nothing going on, but she certainly didn't have big enough tits to worry about slippage.

In one of the backrooms, she had found a few old clothing pieces. Nearly off of it was too big for her and made for men, mostly old military uniforms, but a few other things nonetheless.

She had stolen a pair of boots, the smallest pair that she could find that fit her just right. And so now, she stomped around drunk and nearly at the speed of light in nothing but a bikini and military boots.

She heaved at that moment, putting a hand to her mouth and moving quickly to the nearest toilet before she hurled all over herself.

And just as she leaned over the toilet, the vomit unfortunately came at normal speeds and everything around her slowed down to the speed of life once again. That's what Astraea had taken to referring to the actual speed of things when she moved slowly with everyone else.

The speed of life.

She vaguely heard the chaos unfolding as she puked in the toilet. Namely, Agent Fowler yelling about where she was along with the rest of the Autobots.

She blocked that out—her stomach and throat burning.

Jesus Christ, it hurt. But it was totally worth it. To be wasted in a reality as glorious as this one would always be worth it in Astraea's eyes.

The woman found herself finished when her stomach had nothing left to vomit—she had effectively purged herself of the delicious nachos some random man had bought her earlier.

Sighing in relief but craving water, she stood up and stumbled out of the stall. The nearest bathroom had been one of the more public ones: not that anyone used it seeing as the only humans who were around this base were those children and Fowler.

The children... why the hell were three seemingly random kids involved in this alien war? Better yet, how?

Leaning against one of the sinks, Astraea hurriedly turned on the water to rinse her mouth. Unfortunately, she had found no toothpaste or a toothbrush. Water was the next best thing.

After spending a few minutes swishing and gargling water in her mouth, she was drinking from the tap as though her life depended on it. Seeing as clean and non-toxic water was extremely hard to find in her home reality, she was not picky about the water in this one.

Drinkable was drinkable in her mind.

Gagging a few minutes later, the very drunk speedster was quick to pull half of her short hair back with a rubberband she found on her wrist. Where it had come from, she could not seem to remember.

She pondered on her own reflection in the mirror for a few minutes.

She had not been born with these looks—no natural human could be.

Dark brown hair, almost red in nature with silver highlights. Purple eyes with undertones of red and silver? Of course, it was not natural... it was all from the red energon. Despite the painful transformation, even Astraea had to admit it proved to be more than a blessing than a curse.

While it put a target on her back, it also kept her alive.

Sluggishly, she finally left the bathroom. As she existed, she had two choices.

If she chose to travel down the corridors going right, she would almost immediately be left back to the atrium of the base where everyone was currently lingering. AKA, where everyone was panicking.

If she went left, she would wander by many different rooms, each holding something different.

Just as she was ready to turn left, the chaos finally started clicking and she felt a little guilt about whoever poor Miko was. While the stereo was now clicked off once again, Ratchet was still nagging her and lowkey blaming her for Astraea's disappearance.

Fowler was cursing up a storm while the others chattered noisily.

It seemed it was time to make her grand appearance and introduce herself to her new roommates.

"Enough," Optimus ordered sternly, not needing to raise his voice to silence everyone.

Including Fowler. Something truly impressive in Astraea's eyes.

She blocked out whatever he was saying to everyone, probably a lecture on remaining calm as she walked toward the atrium.

To hear Optimus Prime's deep baritone voice was... soothing. And it made her that much more terrified internally because she had never known his voice to be soothing. While it was certainly the same voice, the Optimus of her world always spoke with sharp sinister edges and unnerving tones.

It was extremely weird to be so close to a version of Optimus Prime and Ratchet, for the matter, who were not psychopaths.

"We must find her immediately, Ratchet are you able to track—" His firm orders were cut off by a small buzzing coming from the various computers.

Astraea froze in her place, merely feet away from the end of the corridor, and showcased herself to all present at the base.

There was the sound of pede steps before Ratchet spoke.

"Immense Decepticon activity in the state of Wyoming... by all accounts it looks like Starscream might be... drilling for dark energon..." Ratchet explained.

"Do we need to evacuate anyone?" Fowler was the first to speak, his voice at its typical loud volume.

"No, it appears to be in a non-populated zone," The robotic medic answered.

Fowler sighed in relief, it was a hassle to need to evacuate people every time there was Decepticon activity. Especially when they needed to try and play the alien robotic beings off as highly secretive government tech.

It was extremely expensive and lengthy with many contracts involved to buy the silence of any civilian witnesses to the Cybertronians.

"Thank God for rural Wyoming..." The Agent muttered under his breath.

"Dark Energon? If Screamy gets his hands on that, I can't imagine anything good comes next..." Bulkhead spoke.

Bee beeped in agreement while Arcee nodded. "Starscream isn't Megatron, but even I don't want to see the kind of mess he would make with dark energon..."

"We must not allow him to drill any further—for the sake of the wildlife in that area as well. Dark Energon destroys and kills anything biological that it touches if it causes any leakage there is no telling how much damage it will do to the biological life there. Ratchet, please groundbridge us to the coordinates..." Optimus said.

Astraea was gaping at how... inspirational Optimus Prime sounded. Not only that, but he was concerned about the wildlife of Earth. Most humans themselves didn't even care about that!

Damn, what a 'Bot.

Now, that was the spark of a true Prime.

Ratchet hesitated turning to Optimus.

"Optimus, with all due respect, should we not first locate the escaped human?"

Optimus hesitated as well, his bright optics flickering in a momentary decision. "A deep concern, indeed. Unfortunately, we must first deal with this before locating Astraea. The probability is that she is still in the base—even as she can travel at immense speeds, she would need to wait for any doors to open at the typical speeds. We would notice any open entrance points." He spoke wisely. "Though I do question how wise it is to open a groundbridge at this moment, we have no other options lest we allow Starscream to succeed."

Ratchet nodded, putting in the coordinates to the groundbridge.

"Try to keep the damage to a minimum, Prime," Fowler sighed, the closest he would ever get to telling the 'Bots to stay safe.

Optimus nodded. "We will do our best, Agent Fowler."

"Can I come?" Miko bounced.

Bulkhead chuckled before he deadpanned a simple. "No," And proceeded to playfully poke her causing the teenage girl to huff.

Ratchet scowled at the children. "You are all supposed to be home—be lucky the only reason that you are still here is because of Miko's absurd ability to argue anything involving her own safety..." The grumpy doctor spoke.

"Jack, watch Miko," Arcee told her charge as she turned to face the groundbridge.

Jack lazily saluted his guardian. "Will do—stay safe, Arcee. And don't forget you agreed to help me with my homework later."

She scoffed, but there was the ghost of a smile on her lips.

Raf was saying his own goodbyes to Bumblebee who was beeping happily. Well, beeping to the majority of humans in the base. To the other Autobots, Raf, and Astraea herself—Bee was speaking quite clearly in coding.

He was telling Raf that he promised to stay safe, and he also agreed to play racing games with him when he got back.

Optimus smiled at the interactions his team had with their charges. He delivered a firm nod to Ratchet and Fowler before facing the opening groundbridge. He allowed his optics to ghost over the parameter of the base once more, silently hoping that he was correct in his assumption that Astraea was still somewhere in the base.

"Autobots, roll out...!" Optimus commanded, his battle mask sliding into place before he and the others ran through the groundbridge.

Ratchet watched to make sure they all got through before he went to close it.

"Ratchet!" Jack cried suddenly causing the Autobot to look at the human in a concerned manner.

At first, he thought the teenager may have hurt himself in some manner.

However, upon meeting Jack's gaze and seeing him frantically point to the groundbridge, he followed his line of sight.

Astraea was standing at its opening with her head tilted curiously.

She had not been there a mere second ago—it was obvious that she just zipped into the opening.

Fowler and the others noticed her as well.

"Woah," Miko acknowledged the lady standing in a bikini and boots at the opening of a portal.

It actually looked pretty cool in her mind.

Fowler's face turned red in pure anger and frustration. "MAYWEATHER! Get back here!" He screamed, leaning over the railing furiously.

Ratchet did not bother trying to get her himself, instead, he focused on trying to power it off before she could leap through.

Astraea turned briefly, delivering a wink to them all before she hopped through the portal at an entirely human speed. She did not race at sonic speeds through the portal for her own safety, Astraea knew what could happen if she went too fast through a groundbridge portal.

It's how she arrived at this reality, after all. And she was in no hurry to leave.

But she did think it would be funny to mess around with Starscream and Knock Out before running to New York City. She heard they had amazing pizza.

By the time Ratchet managed to power down the groundbridge, Astraea had already gone through it.

He cursed in Cybertronian at the same time that Fowler let out a string of curses swear words that only Miko would ever dare to repeat.

"Y'know," Miko clicked her tongue, hands on her hips and eyes excited. "She's pretty bad-ass..."