AN: I wanted to try and continue this story a bit, but when I went back and read what I had I noticed a ton of mistakes, or that I didn't like the way I had worded things. So I decided to go back and edit each chapter before writing the newest one, and then reuploading the entire story under the new one. This story, and the entire first four chapters, were previously known as Curveball.

Chapter 1
Waking up to a new body

Sam could feel himself slowly waking up, and stuck his heels in trying to stay in the comfortable darkness of sleep, feeling slow and sluggish. But even as he tried to go back to sleep, thoughts came unbidden to his mind. Something seemed off, but he couldn't place what. Resigning himself to the fact that he'd have to wake up eventually anyway, Sam took a moment to think.

The first thing he actually thought was: where's Bumblebee? Ever since the mech had spoken at Mission City and Sam had accepted the young Scout staying with him, it was extremely rare for him to wake up on his own. Bumblebee had cracked down on his perfectly normal teenage sleeping schedule, and ever since Sam had been getting eight hours almost every night, but not allowed to over sleep. It had gotten to the point that even if Bumblebee had taken a trip to base for a checkup with Ratchet, Sam would wake up on his own around the same time his Guardian would have got him up. But there had been no planned trips that Sam could recall, Bumblebee would have told him.

Sam slowly realized that the more he thought the more blanks he was drawing. One of the last things he could remember was a static filled scream, sounding like it was from Bumblebee. Normally this would be enough to have him up and finding out what the hell had happened, but he still felt as if he were half asleep, and couldn't even come to open his eyes just yet.

That was another thing that was wrong. He had always been a hard one to get up, but once he was up he was up. Outside of just wanting to be lazy and lie in bed all day, Sam could get up fairly quickly. But now he couldn't draw himself away from the fogginess of sleep, or even bring himself to open his eyes yet.

After a moment of trying to battle through the cobwebs of sleep still clouding his mind, he gave up. He told himself to just think. What could he last remember? Bumblebee's scream, and having pancakes for breakfast. His mind focused on the pancakes even as he tried to think of why Bumblebee was screaming. They had been chocolate chip, something neither of his parents cooked. That meant Miles had been over, his best human friend enjoying chocolate chip pancakes, and Sam loving them just as much.

Despite Miles being his closest friend, he hadn't told him about the Cybertronians yet. It was only September, and while it had been several months since he had met Bumblebee, and the two were already on their last year of high school, Sam just couldn't find a good way to say it. On top of that he was worried about the Decepticons. There was still at least Barricade on Earth that they knew of, and Starscream had escaped.

The upside to Miles not knowing about the Cybertronians was that Sam could eat all the junk he wanted because of his friend, and get away with it. While chocolate chip pancakes weren't that bad, Bumblebee would normally bother him to work out later on to rid himself of any lasting effects. It was no wonder that Sam's gym grade had improved vastly. The down side, besides the guilt of lying to his friend, was that not only was Mikaela riding him to tell, but Bumblebee too. Miles rode around in Bumblebee all the time, meaning that the mech didn't have the freedom to do anything but play non-sentient car around him.

Sam pulled his mind back on track from where it had wondered off to. Miles coming over, cooking chocolate chip pancakes. Getting a text, and checking his messages. One from his mother, saying that she and his father had gone out for the day and that if he was going somewhere to put on a jacket, a side note saying to say hi to Miles for her, and the other from Bumblebee, reminding him to put on a jacket. The day was apparently colder than normal. Going upstairs to find a jacket then searching in the back of his closet when he couldn't find a clean one.

He could remember the next few parts clearly. Pulling out the jacket he had worn during Mission City, and sniffing at it. Deciding it would do since it didn't smell that bad, and he thought just maybe it would turn into his lucky jacket. Putting it on, and almost as an afterthought he checked the pockets. Surprise when he actually found something, and pulled it out to look at it.

A blank, then whatever it was burning him. Dropping it when he felt the burning sensation, and the object burning a hole in his floor, and he could remember cussing fluently, in both English, Spanish words he had picked up from Fig, and the words he had picked up from the Autobots.

He couldn't remember what he did after that, but he could remember hearing several odd noises from the kitchen, and then Miles scream. Racing down the stairs, two at a time, only to find what looked like his entire kitchen Cybertronian-ized, and freezing at what he saw. His kitchen was alive, and there on his counter was a piece of the Allspark. Watching as Miles tried to beat away the blender with a frying pan, and then noticed Sam, saying they needed to get out now, but Sam was running towards what he saw on the counter, using his hand to pick the shard up even as the blender of evil went flying past his head. Miles screaming something Sam didn't quite catch and running towards Sam, then grabbing him and heading out of the house.

They had nearly run right into Bumblebee, and Miles had fallen backwards, gaping up at the giant yellow Autobot in shock. Miles had taken a brief glance at the frying pan in his hand, and Sam could practically read the 'well, shit' look on his face when he realized this robot was a lot bigger than the others. Sam remembered trying to explain that Bumblebee was good even as the mech started to battle the kitchen appliances of doom, dragging his friend back up and farther into the backyard.

"Sam, I am going to be running a scan. Do not panic, and keep your optics closed."

Ratchet's voice suddenly broke through Sam's thoughts, startling him into letting lose a strangled sound of shock, but it sounded extremely odd to him. He felt rather silly, somehow thinking he was alone, but after remembering what he did it should have been obvious that he wouldn't. He listened to Ratchet's instructions, feeling it as Ratchet scanned him, which was unusual. He had never felt a scan before, and Ratchet had never used the term optics when referring to his eyes before. The Medic was pretty anal about what terms were used when referring to the tiny organics he worked with, unlike his fellow mechs. Something was wrong.

He opened his eyes, and everything looked different. He was in the Autobot Medbay, he could recognize that, but the ceiling appeared closer, and more detailed. Glancing at Ratchet, he found that the medic didn't appear as large as usual. Ratchet frowned at him, and Sam could see him move a servo towards him. Sam held up a hand to keep Ratchet's at bay, though he knew that in the end his weak organic arm could do nothing compared to Ratchet's. That was when he saw his own hand and froze, staring at it like he had never seen it before.

That's because he hadn't.

Sam screamed, or tried to, but all that came out was static. Almost instantly Bumblebee came into his line of sight, Miles in servo, but he didn't even take note of that fact. Ratchet hovered over him worriedly, trying to speak to him, but Sam couldn't make out what he was saying, staring at his hand. His servo.

He was Cybertronian. A thousand different questions raced through his mind, but nothing could explain it. Then the thought of his parents came up. How could he tell them? Hey Mum, Dad, look, I'm just like Bee now! They'd freak. He was freaking. What about Mikaela? Miles? Finishing high school? Going to college? He couldn't do any of that now. He wasn't human.

Miles cleared his throat to gain attention, all optics shooting to him as he sat awkwardly in Bumblebee's servo. "Can you show him how to do that human thingy?"

It took Ratchet a moment to understand exactly what Miles meant, before he was placing a servo on Sam's chest plates to hold him down, and using the ports at the back of his neck, added for a Medic's use, to connect, and then hack into his processor, doing several things at once. It was almost too easy, Sam posing no defense at all.

Sam was jerked out of his freak out session by the sensation of something going into his neck, and then Ratchet entering his mind. He started to freak out all over again, before everything suddenly went black. He panicked, not even realizing he had the option of opening his eyes for a minute. When he did he looked down at himself, seeing his human body.

But when he went to touch his own chest in amazement, nothing was there to touch. He was just about to re-enter freak out phase, when he heard his name.

"Sam?"

Sam's gaze jerked upwards to who had called him. Miles, sitting in Bumblebee's hand, was staring straight down at his best friend. Sam noted that he was in the same clothes he had been while cooking the chocolate chip pancakes, though he was unsure how much time had passed. His friend looked dirtier than he could last remember, clothes torn in random places, and a few scratches visible. It looked like he had been rolling around on the ground, and the way that the blender had been gunning for him, that was entirely possible. His hands were clean, though, which showed he had taken a moment to at least clean up a bit. There was a bandage on his cheek, and a small bruise on the left side of his forehead.

"Sam," Miles repeated his name to regain his attention, "This is cool."

"Cool…" Sam echoed dumbly, not even being able to process how his friend had come to that conclusion. He could see Bumblebee give Miles an incredulous look, and it looked like Ratchet wanted to snap at the teen.

"Dude, you're a giant robot..." Here Miles trailed off, before finding the word he wanted and picking up with enthusiasm, spreading his arms to emphasize the wow factor. "thing! Not like them, since you were born-made?-here on Earth. A giant robot made on Earth. And you got the same symbol as them; it's there on your shoulder."

"I do?" Sam asked, sounding unsure. He looked around with his hologram, noting that Optimus and Ironhide were in the room as well. He looked behind him, and could see his bipedal form. He looked to be about the same height as Bumblebee, but he couldn't tell for sure. He was unpainted, so the grey of the metal making his body up shone through. His optics were shuttered. Like Miles said, the only painted thing on him was the Autobot faction symbol on his shoulder. He was connected to several instruments that Ratchet was apparently using. Sam dragged his gaze away, turning it back to Miles, who was waiting.

"If you can use that, you can use the solid one that I saw Bumblebee use," Miles said, "Holoform, I think it's called? Not important, what is important is that I can still kick your ass if you ever annoy me, Judy can hug you as much as she wants, Ron can mess up your hair, you can still play fetch with Mojo, and hey, maybe you and 'Kaela can still get it on. So there's no worries, bro. And believe me, I am so kicking your ass, I've been making a mess of Bumblebee forever now and you never once told me!"

Sam felt grateful towards his friend. Miles was trying to help him see the good side of things, trying to keep him far away from his freak out mode by being the Miles he knew best, a silly even when serious kind of guy. Then he felt bad. How long had Miles been waiting for him to wake up, been thinking of ways to help Sam calm down? He had lied to his best friend about something as big as the Autobots, and Miles was still there. From the sounds of it, if Miles had been filled in he wasn't too worried about using the proper terms for everything, or he just hadn't been filled in on everything yet.

All of a sudden Sam felt tired, despite the fact he had just woken up. It was all just too much, but he still needed answers.

"What happened?" He asked, looking up at his Guardian. Bumblebee had been there, he would know.

"I was sitting in the garage running my usual scans when a blip of Allspark energy showed up on my radar, coming from your room. It had never shown up before, though I suppose it had to have been there all along. I transformed and looked into your bedroom window just as you dropped it, and watched as it burned a hole through the floor. Evidence shows that it transformed the mechanical objects in your kitchen, and I heard Miles scream just like you did. You'd left before I could say anything to you and not long after both you and Miles came out of the house still under fire by the kitchen appliances." Bumblebee trailed off and cleared his vocalizer, having hit a rough patch from talking too much. "I am not sure what happened to injure you as I was occupied with other things. Miles, perhaps, can fill in the rest."

"We were out in the backyard, and I was trying to beat off that damn blender, again. You were watching Bumblebee and playing lookout for any of the other hellish kitchen appliances, and I wasn't really keeping an eye on you. I guess I thought Bumblebee was taking care of all of them besides the blender, but the next thing I know is I hear you scream, like a little girl by the way, and I turn around to see the microwave is attacking you." Here Miles hesitated, "Microwave won. I won't go through the details, but you were a goner. I checked, no heartbeat and there was no chance of CPR or something getting it back. There was so much…" Another hesitation, Miles not wanting to freak Sam out or make him worry. "You were still clenching that magic doohickey thingy in your hand, and hell, I just thought I wanted the damn thing away from you. I knew it had caused whatever the hell was going on, so I went to take it out of your hand, and I guess Bumblebee had just realized you were down because I heard him scream your name, and then the doohickey went hot and I couldn't see anything. When my vision cleared you were still there, only as a big robo Sam.

Sam knew there was more he wanted to ask, more he wanted to say. The words fought for a place, and eventually something just came out on its own.

"The shard?" Sam couldn't help but wonder what had happened to it. The piece of the Allspark cube that Optimus had found in Megatron's chest was planned to be used to revive Jazz. Ratchet was working on repairing Jazz's body, and was almost done, so the reviving was going to be happening soon. What would they do with another one available? Or had all its power been lost on doing what it had done to him?

"In the confusion I lost it," Bumblebee almost sounded ashamed, though none in the room were going to blame him. Ratchet, Optimus, and Ironhide understood how much the Scout cared for Sam, and Miles wouldn't have thought much about going for a magic doo-hickey, as he had called it several times, if his best friend was dead on the ground then magically alive, either.

"Oh, I-" Sam's hologram fizzled out, optics unshuttering for a brief second before the light dimmed and then they reshuttered.

Ratchet quickly scanned Sam, before venting softly as he found the human-turned-mech had fainted. "He crashed."

"He lasted longer than I thought he would." Miles said cheerfully from his seat on Bumblebee's servo, looking down at the new form of his friend.

"This is Sam's room, but I doubt he'll really be using it. Not like he'd mind you using it," Will commented as he guided Miles into the room. The teen had been ordered to clean up, then been given a spare set of Sam's clothing. Luckily the two were roughly the same size, and that Sam had a few pairs for whenever he might spend a night on base.

The incident of the kitchen appliances of doom had happened Saturday morning. It was now late Sunday evening, and Miles hadn't slept at all. Sam had only just woken up about an hour ago, and Miles had spent all of his time on Bumblebee's servo for the most part, waiting for Sam to wake. He had only just gotten around to cleaning up, minus his hands. Those had been the first thing he had washed, even before going to watch over Sam with Bumblebee.

"Thanks," Miles muttered tiredly, "G'night."

Will nodded, before leaving. Miles waited until the door had shut and he could no longer hear the soldier's footsteps, before plopping down on Sam's bed with a sigh of relief. He took off his shoes, before picking the right one up and taking a tiny object out of it. Miles held the object up to the light to see it better.

"You've caused a lot of problems, haven't you?" Miles asked, though he knew there would never be a response. He tossed the shard up in the air, before catching it in his palm again, and making a fist around it as he thought.

When the shard had heated up between his and Sam's hands, Miles had jerked back, taking the shard with him. He had thought nothing of shoving it in his pocket as Bumblebee finished off the entire kitchen, before checking over the new mech body. And then he had just never said anything about it, sticking it in his shoe instead.

None of the Autobots had been able to tell he had it, which he still didn't understand. The energy was dormant so they couldn't sense it? What was up with that? He searched for a bit, before finally deciding to place it under Sam's pillow. That'd do until he could figure out how to keep it on him, or find a better place.

No one needed to know he had it just yet. Tomorrow he'd find a better place to keep it, and find out everything he hadn't been told yet concerning the giant alien robots his best friend, best friend's girlfriend, and government had apparently known about for a while now.