"Welcome to the Cybertron History Museum. Do you need a map?"

"No, thank you." Arcee blinked upon hearing that voice. She swore it was the voice of her sparkmate, Bumblebee, but that couldn't be. He was still on duty... wasn't he? She turned to see a flash of yellow disappear around the corner, which confused her somewhat. Why was he here and not patrolling the streets like he should? She took a step forward only to be cut off by two other Cybertronians running in front of her.

"Sorry, M'am!" Yelled one of them, the bulky femme who Arcee had met several times. If she recalled correctly, that was Bumblebee's underling Cadet Strongarm and connected to her was that delinquent Sideswipe. Why were they all here. Curious, she walked forward, following Strongarm and likely Bumblebee to where they were at. As she rounded the corner, she heard the trio talking.

"Optimus Prime wants to send us to Earth?" Came the excited voice of Strongarm. Arcee raised an optic ridge in confusion. What? "I am so, so in!"

"No, you're out! It's a mission for me." Bumblebee froze, thinking of what to say next. "Alone."

'Oh Pit No!' Arcee cursed mentally. If Bumblebee thought he was leaving Cybertron, leaving her, without saying goodbye, he would be in a world of hurt. She cleared her throat, causing the trio to look at her, all with varying levels of shock. "What's this about you leaving for earth, love?" She asked cooly. Bumblebee froze, realizing the amount of trouble he was in due to his Sparkmate's possessiveness over him. He chuckled nervously before speaking.

"H-honey, let me explain."

"Oh, you don't have to explain anything, Hun. I perfectly understand." She seemed calm, too calm, but Bumblebee didn't notice this fact, sighing in relief.

"Oh good, for a second, I thought-."

"That you were going to leave me behind without a fragging word!" She interrupted him before slapping him, hard. He groaned in pain at the feeling as Arcee began to hit him again and again, saying a word with every hit. "How dare you think about that, you fragging idiot?! You thought I wouldn't find out?!" Bumblebee gasped in pain at his Spark's vicious onslaught. The war may have ended and Arachnid may have vanished but Arcee was still a bitch if you tried to get past her.

"Uh, is this normal for them or should there be a call for domestic abuse?" Sideswipe questioned awkwardly. This sort of thing just didn't happen all that often around him. Strongarm shrugged, unsure of what to think of this situation herself.

"And another thing-!" Arcee was about to scream at him some more until she heard some footsteps. They all froze, wondering what was going on. Bumblebee looked over the corner to see what it was.

"Guards." Was his only word. He looked at Arcee and sighed. "Honey, listen, I'll explain later, but just let me distract them while you disable the stasis fields around the space bridge."

"Tampering with museum property? Sir, you know that violates protocol section-" Arcee held out a servo, stopping Strongarm from continuing.

"Be quiet and just do what he says, ok, kid?" Strongarm nodded and Arcee turned her attention once more to Bumblebee. "You better explain everything after this." She stabbed a finger to his chassis.

"Don't worry, I will."

"Good." She then gave him a small peck on the lips. "That's for good luck. Now go!" She pushed him to deal with the guards as she, Strongarm, and Sideswipe worked on the space bridge. They were nearly finished when she heard a rather hilarious report.

"Intruder doing a bad impersonation of Bumblebee! Send backup!"

"Bad impersonation?!" She lightly chuckled at her Sparkmate's misfortune. However, she stopped when she started to hear gunfire. She looked to her side to see Bumblebee taking cover behind some steel. Groaning, she looked at Strongarm.

"Think you can handle this while I help out idiot over there?" The cadet nodded and so, Arcee got out her energy blasters, setting them to stun, and ran to help her helpless lover. As she got closer, she heard him speaking to a bust of Optimus Prime's head about a chat happening right now. 'What in the pit is that moron talking about?!' the bust of Optimus was destroyed the second her thought was finished, causing her to grit her teeth in anger. 'Fraggers!' She internally growled.

"Careful, mine's set on stun!" Bumblebee yelled as he blasted one of the guards, rendering him unconscious. She took aim while running and scored a direct hit on the other one, knocking him out. Bumblebee looked at the guard in horror, unsure of what happened.

"Don't worry, 'Bee! Mine is on stun too!" She yelled out, causing him to calm down. It was at that moment that Sideswipe disabled the stasis lock, opening up the space bridge to Earth for the first time in years.

"Lieutenant Bumblebee, Commander Arcee, we did it!" Called out Strongarm, though Sideswipe looked pissed.

"No, I did it." He then brought his and Strongarm's shared cuffs into view. "And with a giant paperweight strapped to my arm." Bumblebee walked over and nodded at them.

"Thanks you guys." He then looked at the control panel. "Now stand back." He pressed a few buttons, bringing up some coordinates for him to arrive at before walking in front of the portal. "Strongarm, tell the guards you tried to stop me. Sideswipe, find another hobby, ok?" He then looked at Arcee, who had the stare of a demon locked on him right now. "And Arcee, I-" a slap cut him off.

"Bastard!" Shrieked the veteran femme. "How dare you think you can just leave me behind?! Remember the vow we made on the night we became one spark?" Bumblebee looked down, venting softly.

"Together, two Sparks become one."

"Together, the Sparks connect into one form."

"Together, the Sparks will always be there for each other." They finished together. Bumblebee inhaled deeply before looking at his Sparkmate.

"Ok...ok. You can come, 'Cee." Arcee smirked at her victory and walked into the swirling vortex. The lieutenant turned to the others. "This doesn't mean you can come with though!" It was at that moment that several guards appeared and almost immediately, Sideswipe raised his hands in surrender. With nowhere else to go, Arcee looked to Bee and ran forward, through the vortex and to their destination. Within a few seconds, they exited on the planet Earth, a place they hadn't seen in years. From the look, it was in the northeastern United States, due to the forest being a far cry from the desert of Jasper, Nevada. In the distance, they could see a large river cutting through the luscious green landscape. It was simply breathtaking. Arcee looked at Bumblebee, who was just as awestruck as her, and smirked. Maybe they could have some fun in order to celebrate their return. Just as she was walking behind him to tap him on the door wing, she heard the tell tale sound of the space bridge sending out two others.

"Earth!" Arcee rolled her eyes. Leave it to Strongarm to disobey a direct order. Her mate had just about the same reaction.

"What are you doing?!" It was then they both noticed Sideswipe, still cuffed to Strongarm. "What's he doing here?!" Strongarm looked at him, as if she actually forgot he was there, before shrugging.

"Oh, the punk. Forgot all about him." It took all the might in Arcee's processors to not facepalm right then and now. This fragging rookie!

"Look, I can't be responsible for you both while I'm-" he paused and shook his head. "Strongarm, go back through!" He barked. "The space bridge is going to close any-"

"Sir, ride-along regs. I'm with you." Arcee had enough at that point.

"Forget about you Primus damned regulations and go back through." She was very agitated right now. A possible moment of alone time with her mate, ruined, all because of this by the books idiot. 'Weren't you like that not too long ago?' One side of her processor whispered. 'Shut the scrap up!" The other side barked back. Bumblebee held out a servo, protecting Strongarm from his mate's wrath, before giving an order.

"Uncuff Sideswipe." The punk in question was quite happy hearing that.

"Yeah, uncuff Sideswipe!" Strongarm refused to do as told however.

"I know a violated protocol and I will fill out all the paperwork when-" she was cut off as Bumblebee blasted the stasis cuffs with his pistol.

"Move Sideswipe!" The senior officer yelled while the punk rubbed his likely sore wrist while smirking.

"Back to hassle planet Cybertron?" He gave a small laugh. "Forget that!" He then ran past all of them. "And forget you three!"

Arcee turned to Strongarm to order her go back through the portal only for it to close on them. "Scrap!" She cursed.

"And we're stuck on Earth with two teenagers." Came the stressed sentence of the yellow Autobot. Arcee smirked flirtatiously. Maybe she could still have some fun with her mate.

"Remind you of anything, Bee?" She whispered coyly while softly messaging his door wings. Bumblebee flushed blue at Arcee's suggestion, knowing full well what she meant.

"A-arcee! We weren't teenagers on Cybertron and on Earth. We were-"

"Young. Not as young as Strongarm and Sideswipe, maybe, but still young." Bumblebee sighed.

"I guess you're right, dear."

"Am I ever wrong?"

"Well there was that one time when-"

"Zip it." Bumblebee laughed before turning to where Sideswipe ran and sighed.

"Let's go after him." Strongarm had the happiest smile ever as they followed the delinquent.

"I can't believe I'm really here, Sir!" The couple rolled their eyes.

"Neither can we." Bumblebee groaned out. Just like that, the chase was on. The planet was still as beautiful as ever with the sun shining and the forest giving the luscious color they were used to seeing. At least, her and Bumblebee were used to seeing. With Strongarm being a third wheel who wouldn't speak unless spoken to as Arcee made sure about, she decided to speak.

"Bumblebee," she began, her voice cautious.

"Yeah?"

"Remember that you said you would explain everything when we got here?" Her Question came. "Well, we're here, on Earth." 'Even if we're not alone like I'd prefer.'

"Scrap!" He froze and gave a rather large groan before turning around to face his other half, who was staring at him expectantly while tapping a pede impatiently. The mech cringed under the femme's harsh gaze, even though it was basically the reaction when someone was caught. "Arcee, can we talk later? When we're alone?" He asked, pointing a thumb at Strongarm, who looked slightly offended at being called out. Arcee simply rolled her eyes at her mech before opening her mouth to speak until she, and the other two boys, froze. There was an audio signal, somewhere, even if faint. Bumblebee had a smile of relief on his face as he ran towards the signal. "Thanks! Great talk, babe!" Arcee gave a soft growl before following him, muttering to herself,

"When I catch him, I'm going to chain him to a tree and beat an explanation out of him." It didn't take long for them to find the source of the signal. A tiny orange bot, also known as a mini-con, was working on something and had an irritated tone.

"Mayday. For the 342nd time, mayday." He spoke agitatedly and Arcee raised an optic ridge. He had issued a mayday call 342 times? Geez, didn't this bot have a life? "This is Fixit, caretaker Mini-con for the cybertron max-security prison ship Alchemor, still on doo-doo." Arcee stifled a laugh at that. While Strongarm didn't notice, Bumblebee did and shook his head disappointedly. He opened a private comm channel to speak to her directly.

"Really, Arcee?"

"What? Unexpected comedy is some of the best in existence."

Bumblebee gave an irritated sigh. "What are you? 56? Grow up."

"Maybe I should say the same to my mech, who has a habit of watching westerns that are incredibly boring." Bumblebee's gasp made her smirk. Oh yes, she went there.

"You take that back!"

"No." As the two were privately talking, Strongarm approached the mini-con and initiated dialogue.

"Doo-doo?"

"Duty, m'am." Fixit shook his head before hitting himself with a wrench. "Oh, it's so good to see Cybertronian grills after all these years." He looked to both sides. "Where's your squadron?"

"You're looking at it." Arcee's tone was half-joking, half-serious and Bumblebee had no choice but to stifle his own laugh at his mate's hilarious tone, causing her to smile. She loved it when he laughed. Even if she acted like a total bitch to him sometimes, it was only because she loved him deeply and preferred not to let him go out of her sight for long. She continued speaking. " We didn't even know you were here, so…"

"I'm Lieutenant Bumblebee, this is Commander Arcee and Cadet Strongarm." The mini-con bowed at Bumblebee's statement.

"I'm Fixit, sir. And this is-uh, was the prison ship Alchemor, bearing Cybertron's most wanted Deceptions." He said, pointing to several empty stasis pods, all of which likely having held Decepticons very recently. Arcee gave a whistle.

"Looks like we'll have to hunt some Deceptions, eh, 'Bee?" The mech smirked at her softly.

"Just like old times, babe." The mini-con cleared his throat, getting their attention, before continuing.

"As I was saying," he began, "I've reconned the crash site and we're missing most of our stasis cells." His tone then went into soft nervousness. "Several have ruptured, their inmates presumably at large." Arcee shook her head before looking at Bumblebee, a soft smile on her faceplate.

"Think you're up for a challenge, Lieutenant." Her tone dropped with lust as she pulled rank rather flirtatiously. Bumblebee smirked and shot right back at her.

"Sure...if you can keep up, Commander." She couldn't stop herself. Her engine purred upon hearing that. She froze upon realizing what she had done as Bumblebee laughed and the other two bots looked at her in confusion.

"Erm, Should we leave you two alone?" Asked Strongarm. Arcee gave a soft growl before jabbing a finger at Bumblebee's spark, looking at him with an accusatory glare.

"This isn't over, Mech." Bumblebee continued to smirk at her and how she wanted to wipe that stupid smirk off his pathetically handsome face. "Not by a Longshot."

"Sure, it isn't, babe." He gave a small laugh at Arcee's flustered features before looking at Fixit once more for him to continue. Strongarm spoke instead.

"How many is several?"

"Oh, a couple hundred." Well scrap! Just when she thought they be home by what the humans called Christmas. The mini-con went over to the only undamaged pod. "In fact, this is the only pod still intactition." Arcee raised an optic ridge. "Intachometer." What? The mini-con hit himself. "Intact." It was at that moment that the con inside decided to wake up, causing everyone to get into battle stance. "And it's cryo-stasis mechanism may be a wee bit damaged too." Fixit added, fleeing over to the bots.

"I take left, you take right?" Arcee looked to Bumblebee, who nodded. Strongarm eagerly asked,

"What about me?" Arcee gave a soft sigh before looking at her.

"Stay back, kid. We don't want you getting damaged." Strongarm looked down dejectedly but nodded in understanding. As they were about to charge the 'con, they heard a beeping, taking them off guard.

"Fixit?" Asked the lieutenant, unsure of what was happening.

"Right. Tracking system just rebooted, sir." Fixit pressed the light, which brought up a screen for them to view, showing a map of the surrounding area. "I can't lock onto the prisoners' locator chips but I'm definitely getting a Cybertronian life signal. Odds are it's a fooditive." He cringed. "Fugitive." Bumblebee gave a soft groan.

"More likely it's Sideswipe." He looked at Arcee. "Think you can stay here and watch these two for me?" Arcee nodded.

"Of course, 'Bee. Oh, and this is just to make you remember I'm here." She pulled her into a deeply passionate kiss, using her Dominant glossa to claim as his mouth as hers before pulling away, the mech having the dopiest grin on his face as Strongarm and Fixit stared in confusion. "Now go." Bumblebee shook his head and ran in the location of the signal. Arcee turned to see the states from her fellow bots and gave a shrug. "What?"

"I didn't know the Lieutenant's mate was so…." She paused, trying to find her words.

"Mean? Cruel? Such a glitch?" Arcee finished for her but the cadet shook her head.

"I was going to say overprotective." Arcee's mouth turned into an O in understanding. Silence reigned until Fixit spoke up again.

"So what's your favorite color? Mine is red!" Arcee gave a sigh of agitation. Primus give her strength.

"I knew that if I worked hard and followed the rules, I would end up with an assignment on Earth and here I am, on the planet you and the Lieutenant fought the Deceptions on!" Came Strongarm's giddy statement and Arcee had to roll her optics in amusement. She had met Bumblebee's cadet a few times before at parties. Not often, but enough to consider her like a daughter. It was cute how much the bulky femme idolized Arcee. "Sideswipe just caught a break he doesn't deserve." Her tone became angry and accusatory. Arcee decided to correct her.

"Well, this isn't really an assignment, Strongarm. Remember that Bumblebee told you to stay behind and you didn't really listen, did you?" The cadet flushed at Arcee's reminder. "Look, I see you like a daughter, Strongarm. I'll talk to 'Bee when he comes back and convince him to go a bit easier on you. Ok?" Strongarm nodded politely and once more, silence reigned, apart from the usual bird caw. They heard a few honks after several minutes before a groan came from Bumblebee.

"Wonderful. You've been here less than an hour and you've revealed yourself to a human!" Strongarm shot up and ran in the direction of Bee's voice. It didn't take her long to reach them.

"So that's a human?" Arcee gave a vent of frustration and followed her. As it turned out, Sideswipe had indeed revealed himself to a human, a child at that, being in him while he was in vehicle mode.

"Strongarm, I told you to-!" Bumblebee was cut-off as Sideswipe began driving away as something purple began to appear on the horizon.

"Run!"

'Uh-oh.' came the brief thought from Bee and Cee before they, and Strongarm, turned around to see a gigantic...thing standing right before them. The thing looked narcissistic as it began to speak.

"I know what you're thinking. Is that tall, dark, and handsome really Underbite, devourer of Nuon City?"

"No." Arcee's blunt reply got a stare from Bumblebee in response. Then, the three bits (herself, Bumblebee, and Strongarm) pulled out their blasters, set them to stun, and began firing. The giant shrugged off the blasts before growling in anger.

"No one recognizes me?!" It was at that moment all three agreed that it was a good time to turn around and run for it. Transforming into their vehicle modes, the three quickly caught up to the delinquent.

"Sideswipe, what did you say to him?" Strongarm's question came. The four arrived at the crash site before transforming back into robot mode, with Sideswipe letting out the human first. Fixit came up to them excitedly but just as he was about to speak, Underbite roared in agitation. Very quickly, he jumped across the street clearing and was at the crash site. Fixit quickly ran up to the human and grabbed him, though he refused to budge so Bumblebee gave a small sigh of agitation before dodging to grab em both and push them out of the way just as soon as Underbite landed where they once we're.

"Human!" Bumblebee yelled, running with the child and Fixit in his arms.

"Russell." Came the kid's nervous response. The yellow mech set the two down near a rusty status pod.

"Get behind that stasis cell!" He pointed at the cell. "Fixit stay with him!" He then looked at Strongarm. "Strongarm, protect them!" The cadet looked ready to protest so Bumblebee interrupted her. "Me and Arcee can handle that con! You can't. Now go!" Strongarm looked conflicted for a second before nodding and running over to the cell.

"Definitely like old times." Arcee stated, bringing out her wrist blades as Bee caught up to her.

"Agreed." And with a nod, the two charged. Arcee used her small size to her advantage, running quickly before jumping high in the air before falling down, yelling a warrior maiden's battle cry as her blades collided with Underbite, causing him to roar at the feeling of metal scraping metal. With him distracted, Bumblebee pulled his wrist blasters out of subspace and began firing at Underbite quickly. Together, the two were like lightning, taking turns on giving Underbite little hits before running away and it didn't take long to see it was having an effect on him as the Decepticon slowly began to feel the pain of exhaustion take over.

"Awesome!" The human was awestruck and apparently, so was Strongarm.

"I've heard about them fighting together from the stories but I didn't know they were so great as a team." However they were ignored as the resident Autobot battle couple continued to battle the giant with Arcee quickly transforming into her bike form before driving off a rock, burning rubber in Underbite's face before driving away just in time to avoid an uppercut that Bumblebee delivered, causing the monster to stagger back.

"I hear fighting! Who's fighting? I wanna fight!" Came an unknown fight. Arcee transformed back into her robot mode to see...scrap! The con on the remaining stasis pod was breaking free. Fixit was quickly on it, shocking the head of the Decepticon rather brutally.

"Back in your cell. Back!" Barked the mini-con, shocking the imprisoned Decepticon with a rod. With the two distracted, Underbite saw an opening and smacked the two bots away. Turning around, he grabbed the rusty cell behind him and tossed it, colliding it with the cell that still had its con inside. Looking to his left, he sighed.

"Ah, my old stasis pod." He then leaned down for a quick bite to eat. "Should give me a little boost." Taking a chomp, he growled in satisfaction as his body glowed purple. "Feel the burn!"

"Hey." Underbite looked to see the con still in his cell talking to him. "Aren't you Underbite? The con who ate that city?" That activated Underbite's pride.

"Finally! What gave me away?" He flexed. "The muscles?" The other con grinned cruelly.

"The smell." That caused Underbite to go ballistic as he grabbed the cell and smacked it against the remains of the Alchemor several times, causing the con inside it to fly out, before he tossed it to the ground. Angrily, he approached, unaware that he had ejected the cell's inhabitant.

"How's that smell, you little-?" It was then noticed that the con inside was missing. "Huh? Where'd he go?" It was then he noticed a large shining city in the distance, causing to growl contently and chuckle darkly. "Heading for hugeness…" and then he began running for the city before transforming into a vehicle and driving away.

Meanwhile, Arcee and Bumblebee groaned loudly, clutching their spark Chambers. Being sparkmates was the ultimate sign of love and trust but the downside was that any pain your partner felt would be felt be you as well and that was what the two were dealing with as Strongarm ran up to them.

"Lieutenant, Commander, I've never seen anything like that before! You two were so great out there!" Came her awestruck gushing. Bumblebee gave a soft chuckle before accepting the hand the cadet offered to pick him up before doing the same with Arcee, who was somewhat dizzy due to the impact causing more damage to her because of her small frame.

"Thanks, Strongarm. You just learn that stuff once you've been on Optimus' Team long enough." The yellow mech gave a soft sigh, remembering his and Arcee"s father figure and what happened to him. "Oh yeah…" he said sadly before tossing Arcee's arm around his neck and setting her down gently. "First things first, we need to stop that con!" He looked at the orange mini-con. "Fixit, was that one of your escaped prisoners?" The mini-con went over to a panel. "Fixit?"

"Yes, sir" he responded before tapping a few keys on the panel, activating the screen from earlier, which showed the Autobot insignia before showing a database of all the Deceptions in captivity on the ship. It quickly arrived at Underbite. "A Chompazoid named Underbite." He then listed a detail that frightened everyone. "The more metal a Chompazoid consumes, the more powerful it becomes."

"So it's not good that he's heading for a metal graveyard then." Came Sideswipes's non chalant reply.

"Scrap." It was the Lieutenant and Commander who cursed loudly at the news. This mission had gone from a threat level of 2 (barely a threat) to a 9 (almost as threatening as Megatron or Unicron) really quickly.

"If Underbite gets all that into his jaws,-" Arcee finished for Strongarm.

"Then goodbye, Autobots."

"Wait, do you mean the scrap yard?" The kid asked and then yelled something that chilled everyone's insides. "My dad's in there!" No. No way. They weren't going to let another con make an orphan. Arcee looked at Bee and he nodded at her. They both knew that Underbite needed to be stopped, no matter the cost.