Perhaps an hour later, fed, washed, dressed in clean clothes and her grazes, scratches and bruises attended to by Carly, Mallory found herself curled up on a couch in one of the guest rooms while Carly was off doing something. Mallie adjusted the thick blanket draped around her shoulders and looked about herself with some measure of curiosity. If it wasn't for the orange metal walls and floor the lounge could have come from just about any normal house she'd ever seen. It had rugs on the floor, decent furniture and some beautiful scenic photos hung on the walls.

But a scene of a desert sunrise brought tears pricking in her eyes, quickly bringing with it a rising tide of guilt. Her uncle had a similar photo hanging in his office, just over his desk. Now he was missing, probably because of those two Decepticon tape things and Monkey was gone too and her parents were probably worried sick about her and what was she going to tell them and here she was sitting warm and comfortable while who knew what was being done to Uncle Jake and Monkey...

"Prrroow?"

"Huh?" Her train of thought broken, Mallie looked down to see a little tabby cat parading around her feet. The cat looked up at her adoringly and mewed again, rubbing one furry cheek against her shin. Mallie smiled and picked it up, discovering in the process that the cat was missing one foreleg. "Aw, poor thing, what happened to you?" Mallie crooned, put the cat on her lap and scratched it behind one ear. The cat responded with an ecstatic purr and kneaded her leg with it's front paw, head turning to move the scratching fingers to a point under it's chin.

"I see you've met Twostroke."

Mallie jumped at the unfamiliar voice from behind, instantly curling her arms protectively around the little cat while she looked for the speaker. Twostroke however, squirmed her way free and jumped up on the back of the couch to greet the yellow Autobot who had somehow entered the room without her noticing. "Uh...hi?" Mallie squeaked.

The Autobot, who Mallie noticed was much shorter than Jazz and therefore seemed much less intimidating, gave Twostroke a quick pat, came around the couch and knelt. "Hey, relax." He smiled, offering one hand. "My name's Bumblebee, I'm one of Spike's friends."

She gingerly took his hand and shook it, absently noting that the metal was warmer than she expected and seemed to hum with a faint vibration. "Hi." Mallie repeated, tucking the blanket closer around herself as a barrier between herself and the mech. "Is that Red Alert guy or the other one wanting to see me?" Mallie tried to hide the quaver in her voice, neither of them had seemed very nice and she did not want to be left in their company for any length of time. In movies a human alone in an alien base with an alien always meant bad things for the human.

"No," Bumblebee smiled reassuringly, "Carly managed to convince Ratchet, the other one, that you were fine, and Red can't fit in here so he can't interview you." He shifted a bit to sit comfortably now that he was fairly sure that Mallie wasn't going to try and run away. Ideally one of their resident humans would have debriefed Mallie and hopefully unearthed some clues as to why her uncle's shop had been targeted but they still needed a fair bit of training first. Bumblebee was pretty sure that with his non-threatening manner and looks he could handle the task easily, hence why he'd volunteered. "So Mallie, how long have you known Spike?" He asked.

It didn't take much coaxing for him to get the full story, or at least as much as Mallie knew. She'd met Spike at the beginning of the prior school year- they'd had the same mathematics and history teachers. This year they'd had the same mathematics teacher again and had been study partners for a little while. Then had come the fight with Staine two months ago, followed less than a week later by the attack from three bored Seekers who'd seen Spike entering the school at the end of lunch bell. Bumblebee was familiar with that part of the story- he and Hound had been on patrol in the city when Spike had pressed the panic button on his pager.

Needless to say it was then that Spike had been 'asked' to leave the school by the principal, the school board and a committee of angry parents. The parents were justifiably worried about their children, but in the Autobots' collective opinion they were far too eager to lay blame, attack Spike and Sparkplug, be victims and get on the national news networks. Mallie hadn't seen Spike until she'd taken up the temporary job at Killer Rig to fill in for Gracie. Everything had been fine and she hadn't noticed anything strange until she arrived this afternoon to find the shop empty.

Carly arrived while they were talking and brought with her a welcome tray of refreshments- home made lemonade for herself and Mallie and a cube of energon for Bumblebee. Mallie watched in astonishment as Bumblebee downed the liquid-form energy. "What is that stuff?" She asked, sitting up to take a closer look. Bumblebee obliged her curiosity and held the cube where she could see it.

"We call it energon." He explained, moving the cube a little to make the pinkish liquid slosh around inside. "It's a type of processed energy and the main fuel for our kind. Usually it comes in cubes like this, but we can get concentrated crystals for emergency rations or in little sticks called energon goodies, our version of candy." Bumblebee smiled as several expressions flitted over Mallie's face while she processed the idea of robots having candy.

"Huh... does it taste like anything?" She asked, still watching the cube but wise enough not to touch it.

"Autobots don't actually have a sense of taste." Carly spoke up. "They can feel texture and energy signatures though." She pointed to the cube, calling up the memories of a long conversation with Spike to help her describe it in terms a human would understand. "Like that, energon is like cooking oil because it has a smooth energy signature. Energon rations are like a mouth full of rock salt and energon goodies are like molasses cookies."

"Weird." Mallie made a face at the notion of anyone willingly eating something that could be compared to a mouth full of rock salt. There was silence for a moment and Twostroke clambered up Bumblebee's arm to sit on his shoulder and nuzzle the edge of his helm. Mallie glanced over at the picture of the desert sunrise again and drew the blanket tighter around herself with a shiver. "Bumblebee? My uncle and Monkey... what are the Decepticons going to do to them?" The thought that if her uncle hadn't scribbled that note she would know because she would be there with them was one that she didn't want to entertain for long.

Bumblebee shifted a little and chose his words carefully. "They're holding them hostage right now, but we're going to bring them back." He explained as gently as he could. Megatron had called the Ark to gloat and provoke about five minutes before Jazz had arrived with his passengers, the deliberate placement of the camera showing not only the two humans but ranks of machinery that was the sort of stuff from nightmares. The words the tyrant had used to describe the humans had been different too- beginning with 'subjects' and ending with 'experiment'.

Hook had apparently been tinkering with the concept behind 'Autobot X' and was ready to begin testing. Megatron had quite a list of things he wanted in return for not testing it on Monkey and Jake Kirke, although no Autobot was under the illusion that he wouldn't turn around and use it anyway.

Mallie drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "I wish there was something I could do..." She sniffed. "I should call my parents, they're gonna be so worried about me... shoulda done something when that bluey-purple guy and the cat thing appeared..."

"Hey now," Carly slipped a comforting arm around the teen's shoulders, "you did the right thing by running. Me, I was stupid and almost got myself killed for it. I was just lucky that Ironhide had seen me and came after me."

"Who's Ironhide?" Mallie rubbed at her nose.

Carly smiled. "You'd like him. He's like a big old cowboy, gruff and grumble on the outside, softy on the inside. Maybe we can go for a walk around later and I can introduce you to him after you call your parents."

"Okay...can we go and see Trailbreaker too? Spike introduced me to him..."

Bumblebee carefully dislodged Twostroke, put her on the couch and quietly left while the girls talked, large feet barely making any noise on the rugs. Jazz, Prowl and Sparkplug were waiting for him when he slipped out into the hall. "How is she?" Sparkplug was the first to speak, his worry for the girl clear.

"Calmer, but she's still pretty worried about her uncle and Monkey." Bumblebee frowned and transmitted the transcript of his conversation to Prowl and Jazz. "She didn't notice anything out of the ordinary until today." He added for Sparkplug's benefit.

"It seems a little too convenient that this attack has only come after Mallory's arrival, especially as she is someone whom Spike is familiar with." Prowl rubbed his chin in though, door wings flicking once. "Jazz, what is the status of the rest of our local suppliers and their families?"

"I got Blaster and his crew callin' t' check on 'em all." Jazz reported and crossed his arms, mouth drawn into a thin line. "Silverbolt and his boys, Blades an' Powerglide are all doin' flyovers t' double check and I sent First Aid and Streetwise t' go check on Gracie."

He looked to Prowl. "What are we doin' 'bout Megatron's revamped 'X' threat?" Jazz asked over the radio. Sparkplug was still blaming himself over what had happened to Spike in the original 'Autobot X' fiasco and no one wanted to compound it by reminding him that Megatron was now threatening to inflict it on others. "I still can't believe we missed this...shoulda known Megatron was up to something when he started goin' after medical labs an' that biotech company." Jazz frowned behind his visor, mouth twisting. "Sorry Prowl, I dropped the ball on this one."

"There is no need to apologise, Jazz. In any case, Blaster was able to narrow down the transmission location. Mirage and Hound are scouting the area now." Prowl gently diverted Jazz away from self-recriminations and into business, making sure he included Bumblebee in the loop as he formed his reply.

"Megatron's decision to attempt to copy the process is a logical one." Prowl flicked his doorwings and began to explain. "Drones, while cheap and loyal, have no real ability to think for themselves and are only truly useful in large numbers to swarm a position, provided you have the manufacturing capabilities to produce and maintain such numbers. Sparks are the only way to give drones true thinking capabilities but they are too rare and valuable these days to risk giving them to cannon fodder. If Megatron can transfer the life from a human into a mech shell and keep it relatively stable he will have a ready supply of thinking drones to swell his ranks, here and on Cybertron." Prowl's door wings flattened against his shoulders, the only external sign of the disgust and horror he felt.

That was a thought that no one wished to contemplate for long. The situation on their home world was already dire enough without the Decepticons getting additional reinforcements.

"Sparkplug, please ensure that Mallory stays on base and see what other information you can find from her. I believe there is a telephone in the next room that she can use to contact her parents." Prowl requested aloud, breaking the momentary silence.

"Got it. Page me if anything happens." Sparkplug nodded to the three and went into the room.

Prowl waited until the door closed before continuing. "Jazz, we are going to update Prime, Bumblebee, alert Ratchet, Skyfire, Perceptor and Wheeljack. I want all possible options examined should we arrive too late."

"Hold up..." Jazz indicated for pause and touched two fingers to the side of his head. "...that was Streets, him and Aid are at Gracie's flat." The Porsche grimaced as he received the last of the report. Were he human he would have been swallowing back against the bitter taste of bile. "It ain't good."