Writer's Note:

So, yeah, it's been a while since I updated but with low interest I got a little discouraged in uploading. Then I just came to the conclusion that it's my story and if people don't like it, so what? I enjoy writing it and I can always read it myself when I can't read it on my own computer. xD

I do not own Transformers in any way, shape, or form so it is entirely possible the original characters will not sound like themselves. This is the writing of a fan girl inspired by her own imagination so love stories can and will happen. Just warning you ahead of time. =P

Look for the lines for changes in Point of View!

"So far I'm still trying to get stuff packed." Mikaela said, picking up a box while relying on her headset to stay hooked onto her ear. "Some friends of mine helped me out but then they had to head out for work. The essentials are done at least."

She set the box down with a huff, running a hand over her hair and making quick work out of tying it back out of her face with a formerly wristed hair band. Striding past the stacks of boxes, she bent over to retrieve a flattened one off the ready and waiting pile to carry it into her tiny kitchen and continue the grab and stash. There wasn't a lot of crockery to pack since she never really cooked much but there was still plenty to fit into at least one box. Assembling it, Mikaela pulled the tape off the counter; balancing the box on her knee while folding the flaps together.

"You still there?" she asked after the noticeable silence on the other end of the line.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm here. Just keeping an eye on the GPS, that's all." Sam's voice returned over the small speaker and she smiled, relieved he hadn't hung up on her or lost the connection. He was clearly distracted by the monitor that revealed the positions of the Autobots in the Middle East, keeping tabs on their movements to make sure there were no disturbances that could have implied there was an attack they couldn't handle. It was rare for them to have such difficulties with the Decepticons seemingly gone but they both knew those things didn't stay down for long.

"Are they still overseas?" she asked, taping up the bottom of the box with a long strip that stubbornly clung to the serrated edge of the dispenser. She had to limit specifics about what they were talking about when it came to the Autobots since they were on civilian phone lines that could easily have been tapped into. It was something they learned to do while still teenagers after the Autobots first arrived and she always got a kick out of trying to avoid names and terms while Sam would have to figure out what she meant. It had turned into a game that she found hilarious, especially whenever Sam got frustrated because he couldn't figure out what she was talking about some of the time. He had a hard enough time explaining to her that Sideswipe, Dino, Lennox, and a team of other NEST members were going overseas to investigate sudden energon readings popping up in the east.

"Yeah, they didn't find anything in the desert when they checked the vicinity but there was some noise farther east that they're heading for now. I just want to keep an eye on them so I know they're okay." He explained, his voice getting a little defensive when he admitted to wanting to keep an eye on them.

Setting the box onto the counter, Mikaela leaned against it, reaching up and touching the earpiece thoughtfully, "You think they're coming out of hiding?" She didn't like worrying about them coming back but it sounded possible with the energon detectors being triggered in different parts of the world. If they kept going off, the Autobots would have to go investigate and she wouldn't be able to see them as often as she planned to once re-locating to Arlington. It was barely a twenty minute drive to D.C. where the Autobots were stationed so the government could keep an eye on them and also wave it in the faces of the other countries that we had the shiny alien robots on our side. Mikaela rolled her eyes at the thought many times since the founding of NEST.

"They could be." Sam sighed, not helping the worry factor.

"Should I start unpacking everything again?" she asked, unplugging the rarely used toaster and setting it into the bottom of the box in spite of her words. The point of this move was to be closer to her friends and patch things up with the Autobots that she butchered up in the past. A lot of stuff went down since she and Sam broke up and even though he was still with his supermodel-esque girlfriend, she was positive she could make the move without it being overly awkward. So far they were talking normally again, right? Well, Sam could still not want her around and now was his chance to help change her mind. She bit her lip during the pause, hoping he wouldn't try to change her mind when she already boxed up half of her possessions already.

"No, you already signed the lease in Arlington. Just finish packing and get going; the guys will be here waiting to see you when you finally get here. And you're in for a surprise when you see them."

Sighing in relief, she smiled to herself again. "What, did they get a new paint job done?" she asked sarcastically, opening one of the cabinets to start pulling down dishes.

The smile was obvious in Sam's tone. "You'll just have to find out."

"I already explained it to you that it can't be done!" the insect snapped in his primitive language.

Stryker growled at the human, slamming his fist upon the ground and shoving his cannon into the man's face, focusing his optics on the creature's panicked face while it squirmed under the weapon, whimpering incoherent words that Stryker wanted to cease immediately. A smaller hand clacked upon the barrel of the cannon and he turned to the source, regrettably drawing away the weapon and backing off as Pretendor approached the simpering human, crouching before him and bracing their clawed metal fingers upon their legs. "It can be done. I have seen it happen." It said, mocking the Japanese language as it reached over and drew a sharp talon-like finger over the man's face. "They look and move just like you."

The Pretender transformed and the scientist flinched away, shocked by the human likeness of a severe-looking blond woman crouching before him. "We are in need of your lab. You won't get in our way."

With that, the woman stood up straight and held up her arm, the flesh-colored exterior suddenly collapsing to the metal limb from before but it continued to transform into a smaller weapon and without blinking, the woman pointed the gun at the man's head and smirked down at him. Stryker looked on silently as the gun discharged, the human that had been cringing on the floor slumping lifeless at Pretendor's feet. The smaller Decepticon turned to their fellow con and maintained a smirk across their lips as the flesh-colored panels rippled and slid over one another to reshape into the likeness of the now deceased scientist. Turning back to the body, and picking it up by the arm, he drug the corpse into the next room, speaking in their native tongue as he walked. "Bring them."

"Did you pick up on anything?" Lennox asked, approaching Sideswipe as he scanned the area where the last energon reading had been located.

"No, whatever was here has already skipped town." Sideswipe said soberly, turning around to look down at the humans. "They're moving pretty fast. Three hits since the other day and this was the last spot. They might trigger another one soon."

Well that's not good. Weren't the Decepticons supposed to be uncoordinated without a leader to order them around? Megatron's head was ripped to shreds by Optimus a year ago. One had to admit that he couldn't recover from that clusterfuck. Starscream also had his head blown off and it seemed to rip into his chest as well from what he saw in Chicago after he cut Sam free from the cringing Decepticon. It was highly unlikely those two would be coming back since Optimus wouldn't be using the Matrix of Leadership on either of them anytime soon and the cube sliver had already been used on Megatron a few years ago. But there were some worries creeping into the back of his mind when he rounded up the guys and prepared to continue searching.

If the Decepticons were starting to coordinate under the radar, that meant they could come back at any time, didn't it? Lennox would have paled if he were not used to bad scenarios like this. But if the Cons came back while the Autobots were in their human forms, they would have more than one more funeral to attend. Those bodies were not built to tango with two-story tall robots. Maybe he should talk to Pullman about putting his project on hold until things went quiet again…

But the Autobots were pretty psyched by their human forms and Bumblebee was just trying his out since he had been with Sam when they were first released. Ratchet still bitched about them but Optimus seemed to be growing on his. Especially after what Dino reported about his giving Anne a ride home the other night. Big man was finally making an effort to interact with other humans and enjoy the outside world after being cooped up in his own thoughts for so long and now here comes the potential threat of incoming Decepticons.

Slinging his gun over his shoulder, Lennox shook his head and jogged after his team. "Those guys have lousy timing!"

Sam watched the Wreckers walk into the warehouse, their human forms a different sight in comparison to their robotic bodies but from this angle the youth could definitely see some similarities between the true bodies and these false ones. Apparently their exploration had been cut short since they were all complaining, even the usually quiet Topspin was saying something while they walked. He glanced over at Bumblebee who was also leaning on the railing with him, his ever-silent friend that couldn't carry his voice into this body because it had shorted out in his vocal processor shortly after he was able to speak again during the All Spark fiasco. Now this silent human was standing with him but he still gathered from the boy's gestures anything he ever needed to know.

Bumblebee was the youngest in appearance in comparison to the other Autobots, the same height as Leadfoot with butter blond hair and the same blue eyes all of the other human forms had, minus Optimus since his eyes were much brighter than the rest of theirs for some unknown reason. He reached over and ruffled his hair, smiling at him while the scout laughed mutely. "Bee, if those energon readings turn out to be nothing, what do you say we take the girls to a theme park or something once Mikaela gets into town?"

Bumblebee nodded his head.

"You'll love it." He pushed off of the railing, tugging at the tie Carly helped him with that morning and rotating his shoulders as he began to walk across the platform towards the com center. NEST had set up the offices and technical sections on the upper floors of the modified warehouse and the com center was where they had men monitoring energon readings and atmosphere conditions just in case they had anything trying to drop in on them by any chance. Sam walked among the desks and computer monitors, eyeing them as he passed while sticking his hands into his trouser pockets, pausing before a screen revealing the location of Lennox's team in China. Bumblebee came to stand with him but his eyes strayed to another monitor and he nudged Sam with his elbow.

"What is it, Bee?" he turned to see where he was now pointing and a surveyor stiffened in his chair. The screen revealed a shape highlighted in red and blinking while approaching the computer generated earth and a vague outline of its atmosphere. As it grew closer, the shape blank faster and Sam backtracked a few steps, grabbing the shoulder of one of the men that also noticed the object. "Excuse me, but what the hell is that?"

"I don't know but it's coming in fast." The man said, clacking the keys of his keyboard and zooming in on the object. A closer view of the image startled Sam. It looked like one of those vessels the Autobots had arrived in back when Bumblebee had called them in. He gripped the man's shoulder and he batted his hand away uncomfortably, Sam approaching Bumblebee and looking at his friend with wide eyes.

"Bee, you know what that is, don't you?" he asked. Bumblebee nodded and circled his arm about before turning and jogging out of the com center, Sam looking back at the screen and seeing that the object was entering the atmosphere. He raised his hands to his head as an alert began to sound, blaring throughout the hanger. "Shit, shit, shit!"

The plummet was disorienting as the vessel spun about in arching circles. It was pulled hard by the G forces influenced by earth's gravity that tossed it about through the wind resistance until finally the push died down but with the whistling gone it could only mean that land would be next and that was confirmed immediately. Several clatters and thuds rattled against the sides of the metallic casing as it struck tree limbs and bounced off of the trunks, breaking the mighty trees in half from the impact and ripping branches free. The scraping ceased but microseconds later the vessel slammed into the earth, bouncing off of it and skipping almost like a rock across water until it finally dragged to a halt and all went quiet.

After a long, cautious pause, the vessel began to alternate itself and open up but revealed nothing inside of it. Instead, the stone-shaped object transformed and molded into a bipedal creature that crouched close to the ground even though it was surrounded by battered trees and the ground hissed with heat from the sudden friction its arrival caused against the earth. The air smelled of burnt wood and scorched dirt but it hardly phased the new arrival. The Protoform snuck closer to the remaining trees, picking up traces of distant signals that were not familiar to their processor and when they reached the edge of the trees and encountered a small structure that seemed to be a shelter for a creature of smaller size than itself, it picked up on data within the signal. Clinging to that source, they scanned through the contents and found out in microseconds the location they were in and the languages the planet possessed. There was quite a variety of them and from the images flashing before their optics; there was a vast amount of cultures occupying it as well.

Keeping in a crouch, the metallic figure crept along the shelter which it now learned to be a house. In the driveway was a rundown earth vehicle, the make and model unknown by the state of it, but there was no other means of a disguise provided and so the creature scanned over the vehicle. Once understanding the components needed for the four wheeled structure, the metal being transformed in a series of clangs and creaks as it reproduced the rusty state of the car. In seconds it rumbled to life and took off out of the driveway; finding its way with the Global Positioning System the previous signal had provided until it was out of range.

This was going to be a long search.

"Optimus, we have reports of an interference in the atmosphere over the mid-west of the United States." Ratchet said, approaching his leader with Epps walking alongside him at a quick but practiced pace. "Sam witnessed the satellite tracking of the object."

"An astronomy club at a local high school there said that it was a meteor when they saw it on their telescope, but we all know how those assumptions can turn out." Epps huffed, looking up at the two Autobots while Bumblebee jogged up to them.

He listened in curiously and peered up at Optimus, signing with his hands to the Autobot leader, a trick he learned while scanning through the internet on a previous search. It was called Sign Language and without a radio included with his human form, his hands would have to do. "Should I return to my body?"

Optimus shook his head, "No, Bumblebee, you may stay as you are. I will inspect the crash site while you and the others wait for Dino, Sideswipe, and their team to return." Optimus explained but Ratchet shook his head, drawing Optimus' gaze. He noticed Epps shaking his head as well.

"With all due respect," Epps started, glancing back behind him then back up at Optimus. "Send the Wreckers over to check things out. Some of the guys are going nuts from dealing with them after they were kicked out of the scrap yard, again. I've worked with them before so I know how to handle them. I'll go with them and see what's up. I just need to talk to Morshower about headin' out ASAP. The last thing we need are more Decepticons roaming around the neighborhood." As he said this he shook his head, jogging towards the stairs to the platform to make his phone call.

Optimus faced Ratchet, "Do you agree to this?"

"Optimus, let them handle it. We are supposed to be on 'vacation' remember?" Ratchet rolled his optics at the word but he knew that it was what Optimus was supposed to be doing. The recent energon readings and now this would definitely obstruct the calm but it was nothing they couldn't handle for the time being. Dino, Sideswipe, and Lennox all made reports of returning to American soil in the next forty eight hours, the Wreckers wouldn't mind leaving a few days. They would be fine.

Prime would disagree.

"Mikaela Banes is relocating her living quarters closer to our base of operations. Sam requested that we be present for her arrival." Ratchet included, Sam having informed them of her move to Arlington in order to be closer to her friends now that her father had assumed ownership of his garage and was drawing in enough clients to keep it running. Ratchet was pleased at the promise of having her present once more since she was the only human that seemed to grasp their anatomy, having made small but sufficient repairs on them in the past before the sudden severing of her ties with them due to failed relations with Sam. She would be far more useful than the bumbling scientists that would not break free of their initial knowledge of robotics. He paused, disliking the recollection of human robotics and knew he had another message to relay at this point. "He also requests that we meet her in our recently acquired forms."

"My mom said you're into trucks." Nick said, untucking his uniform shirt as he spoke. Kayley caught a glimpse of his skin underneath but it was too sparse of a glimpse to really register anything as he pulled the hem of his shirt down and continued walking with her. As odd as it seemed, she was disappointed she didn't get a better look. Nick wasn't a world class hottie but he definitely had a cuteness to him that made him a tolerable face to talk to once she agreed to meet him at last.

"Yeah, I got my hands on an '87 Chevy three years ago and I haven't parted with it ever since. I never paid attention to the names, just the bodies and brands. Though there was this gorgeous Peterbuilt semi the other day." She rose her hands, clawing them slightly as she emphasized "gorgeous" while walking with her good friend's son. After a moment she dropped her hands again, peering over at the house they were starting to pass where a man was sitting in a lawn chair. The amount of crap in his garage and the long folding tables lining the driveway were sure signs of a yard sale and the two teens turned into it, browsing the items half-heartedly since nothing looked very promising. Well, to Kayley anyway.

"Why are you selling this?" Nick asked, indicating what he was talking about with a simple indication of his hand.

The man leaned back in his lawn chair slightly and sneered at the rusted car parked in the grass. Kayley turned to see what they were talking about and could immediately see why the man looked back at the car with such distaste. "The thing's a piece of junk. I found it abandoned on the side of the road just out of town and it started up when I got my hands on it. No one claimed it after a while and I could see why. Nothing I do will make the damn thing start up again."

"Wait, you got that for free and now you're selling it?" Kayley asked, bracing her hands on her hips while Nick walked around the car, observing it in a slow walk-around.

"I've gotta make a profit off of it somehow." The man held out his hands, shrugging. "It's only five hundred."

"If I got it to start, would you lower the price?" Nick asked, earning puzzled looks from both Kayley and the man in the chair. "It has no make or model listed on it from what I can see and a lot of the panels don't even belong on it so it can't be very valuable. It's more of a Frankenstein project more than anything."

"If you can get that thing to start, I'll let you have it for fifty." He laughed, "But you're not going to get it to work."

Nick went around and opened the hood; leaning in and observing the weathered motor. He wasn't big on cars from what Kayley learned from Anne but he reached down and jiggled a hose then tightened the wing nut holding down the lid of the air filter compartment. Walking around to the driver's side, he peered over the low roof of the car at the seated man. "Do you have the key?"

The man tossed the key to Kayley with a sorry swing that made her stagger to catch it and she stuck her tongue out at him before passing it over to Nick. "You know it's not going to start, right?"

"Yeah, but I have to try. A car would really help me and mom out." He said, opening the door and sliding inside. "This car isn't old enough to be in the condition it's in. Someone tried to replace parts of the body with pieces of other cars." Kayley walked around the car and noticed his point by the mismatched shapes welded to the frame. She peered back in at Nick and noticed he was frowning slightly as he muttered more to himself than her. "If I can get my hands on a car, mom won't have to walk or rely on weirdos in Ferarris to bring her home."

"Your mom rode in a freakin' Ferarri?" Kayley exclaimed, staring him down as he slammed the door shut and inserted the key. "Why didn't she tell me?"

"She didn't because she isn't sure why she even rode with him to begin with." He twisted the key but nothing happened. Not even a click. He rest his hands on the wheel, looking down at the center of it. A faded symbol that didn't resemble any car insignia he had ever seen before was etched into the wheel. "Do you know this symbol?" he asked, tapping his finger over it.

Kayley leaned in through the window, peering down at the mark. A robotic-like face made out of several lines and a rather serious mouth with blank eyes. "It's not any model I know of. But it looks familiar." She leaned in closer. "I think it was on the trailer of that semi I saw the other night."

The car suddenly roared to life, even though Nick's hand wasn't even on the ignition, startling the man in the lawn chair so much he fell out of it and Kayley bumped her head from trying to jump away from the strange vehicle. Nick held his hands up, startled but the car's engine maintained a steady pace that quieted down to a low, rhythmic rumble. Nick turned his head to look at Kayley, his face suddenly bright with the realization it now worked and Kayley ended up smiling as well, immediately shaking her head and averting her eyes to look at the hood of the now running car. His smile was a little too infectious.

The teens were suddenly aware of the man approaching them now, waving his hand at Nick, "Out of the car. Lemme see if it starts again."

Nick turned it off and climbed out dejectedly while the man heaved himself into the seat and worked with the ignition but nothing happened. He jiggled the key a few times and pumped the gas pedal while he tried to turn the ignition but it remained silent. He climbed back out and slammed the door, pushing the hood back down angrily while shoving the key into Nick's hands. "Car's yours if you can start it again."

Nodding, Nick leaned through the window and tried the ignition, the car coming alive immediately. This didn't please the man but Nick pulled out his wallet and looked at the hundred he had stashed in it as a means to give to his mother. He handed it over. "Here, you still made a profit." Kayley joined Nick and the two climbed into the car, Nick patting the wheel affectionately before looking down at the manual transmission. Boy was he lucky they had drivers education in school before his graduation…

"Well, you have a car now. Guess this meeting isn't going to be as mundane as we thought, huh?" Kayley asked, hinting at her hesitation in meeting Anne's son and his own grief in meeting a work friend of his mom's at her urging.

"No, I guess not." He returned the smile she flashed at him and pulled the car out of the grass slowly, being very gentle to it since it looked like it was already pushed enough by the poor body work someone had given it. "I just hope mom doesn't think it's unsafe."

"Oh, I wouldn't hold my breath on that."

Writer's Note:

Anne's son Nick makes his appearance now. Yes, more teenagers involved in the Transformers universe. DEAL!

The Decepticons are up to something and the small one "Pretendor" is not the one from Revenge of the Fallen. This is a new one that is the same design but it is the male equivalent.

Mikaela will be moving over (to make things a little tense for Sam and let's face it, I like her a hell of a lot more than Carly. =P )

I will try to get the other chapters edited and up here when I can.

FEEDBACK IS APPRECIATED!