Washington D.C., ETA two hours till Australia planetfall

Two weeks had passed since Skywarp had popped up near the Pentagon and subsequently popped out and up again at every military air strip along the east coast throughout the same day. Once the Air Force had figured out the pattern they had tried to prepare attacks and traps. Nothing so much as a ding touched the Decepticon, for there was no way to predict where on the base he would appear. The last sighting was exactly at midnight, EST. There hadn't been a sign of the purple jet since then. Agents were still working to find out if it had been a distraction to cover yet another Decepticon operation or if the jet had moved to foreign shores.

So far no other country had reported sightings. The idea was being considered that Skywarp had received word of the Decepticon defeat in the Pacific and had taken cover somewhere. For that very reason the Autobots were creating their own holding area within the Ark to imprison the captured Decepticons, save for Tidal Wave. He had been dry docked in a former Sector Seven warehouse and was under guard by Inferno, Firestar, and some of the ARROW agents who hadn't sided with Tom Banachek. Banachek and his men were still being watched. Swindle had a small army of his six-legged drones studying every inch of the tunnels and chambers around the main one Banachek was working in. A task force was being organized to use that information to get in and arrest the rogue agent.

Not being involved in any of the proceedings, Maggie and Glen were having lunch at an outdoor cafe. They avoided talking shop when in public so their conversation was about the next best thing: video games.

"So, I lined up my sights, and -- BOOM! Headshot!" Glen started guffawing. "The other guy was like, "Dude, that was my kill!' and I was like, 'Hey, you snooze, you lose!'"

Maggie laughed along with him, more amused by his enthusiasm than the story, and reached for her cup. She then looked down as her pager went off. Tilting it, she saw a message from Epps scroll across the screen. Talk to Latch. No other details followed.

"What is it?" Glen asked before polishing off his fries.

"Bobby wants me to speak with our mutual friend."

"What about?" He looked apprehensive. He had become friends with Rattlelatch despite not yet being an official partner like Maggie was, and knew that messages from Epps usually meant official business.

"Doesn't say. I'd guess he wants me to just check up on him." The green bot hadn't left the data analysis room in the two weeks since the incident. He was diligently working on securing networks and hunting for digital traces of Decepticon activity, yet Maggie had begun to wonder about something, and it seemed Bobby might have noticed the same before heading out for the Banachek mission. She sipped her drink through the straw and stared thoughtfully at Glen's plate.

"Want me to come along?"

"Nah. It should be fine." In truth she was thinking, It would be better if I talk to him alone.

~*~

Maggie knocked on the door to the analysis room then waited to see if someone human would answer it. When no one appeared, she slid her clearance key and silently entered. Rattlelatch was sitting hunched up toward one corner, the cables to the surrounding databanks still connected to him. He was not working, however. He was rolling the jar containing Kickback between his hands, his gaze distant.

"'Latch..?" she called quietly. He glanced over at her and seemed to hunch down further. Maggie made sure the door locked shut then she sat down in one of the rolling chairs and scooted it toward him until she could have touched his leg, then waited.

He glanced at her from the corner of his optical structure, his face openly expressing guilt. In a way it relieved her, because it was honest. If Glen or anyone else had been there, he would have tried to look blank or pretend to be distracted.

"I'm not much of a heroic Autobot," he finally said. "It's so much easier to attack from behind coding and data streams. But if the enemy is bigger than me and right in front of me..." He raised the jar to optic level. "I might as well be in this jar."

Maggie leaned forward in the chair and placed her hand on his shin. "It's okay, 'Latch. You didn't see me racing out to fight beside Bobby's team. We had our job to do right here."

He gave her the guilty look again. "You aren't a giant, transforming robot. I'm expected to go up against a Decepticon simply because I am one." He set the jar down on a console and then rested his arms on top of his knees, adding in a morose tone, "Not all humans can be soldiers. Same with us."

A rush of anger filled Maggie as she realized something. "Did someone accuse you of that?"

Rattlelatch flicked his gaze to the floor, then gestured around him with one hand. "I've... glimpsed the occasional personal email while running between networks."

Maggie scowled and wondered who she could go to in order to stop such talk.

Rattlelatch peeked at her and saw that she was angry, but not at him. "No, no, please don't tell, I... I shouldn't let it bother me. It's a natural assumption. I... don't blame them, really. I... I just wish... I wish that some days I could just be a regular car." He flicked another glance her way. "Well, your car, because I like working with you. But I want to just do what I do. I... don't want to keep being obligated to fight a war I'm sick of." The last came out with a burst of static. Maggie took it for a frustrated sob. She patted his shin, not saying anything but wanting to offer sympathy.

A creak came from Rattlelatch's hands as he clenched his fists. "I want to have a chance at life again."

She heard resentment in his tone now. Her hand went still. They needed to talk more. "'Latch, let's go for a drive." Before he could reply, she hopped up and opened the section of wall that exited to the car-sized hallway. The short bot blinked at her, then quickly extricated himself from the cables connecting his hardware to the surrounding computers. He transformed then opened his driver's side door for her. Maggie climbed in and set her hands on the wheel even though the green Honda Fit drove itself into the hall and toward the exit. The wall closed a moment later.

Behind them, laying still in the ventilation duct above the left hand bank of computers, were two much smaller mechs, their attention on the glass jar forgotten on a console. Rumble hissed in irritation over a private line to Frenzy. "That's the chump we're aimin' for? He's a whiny little loser!"

"He disabled Laserbeak and Buzzsaw," Frenzy reminded him sharply. "He is trouble."

"Yeah, well, he'll be in trouble very soon," Rumble cackled as he worked the vent cover loose. They had already set the cameras to a ten minute delay -- easy enough when Rattlelatch had been sitting in the same spot for hours. Rumble leaped down, scurried over to the console where the Autobot had left Kickback, and snatched up the jar without acknowledging the bug inside. He kept low as he headed back to the vent's opening, gazing hungrily at the monitors. He tossed the jar to Frenzy, who secured it within the shaft then jumped down and pounced on the nearest console. This time he made sure no one would notice his intrusion into the system. Rumble, meanwhile, hacked into the security system again to watch for anyone approaching. They both had to skim across the protections installed by Rattlelatch, but they had begun to learn how to adapt around some of his work.

"Here, birdy birdies..."

~*~

The Ark, ETA one hour till Australia planetfall

Ratchet watched Broadcast's vital signatures fluctuate again. He made an adjustment to one of the energy feeds, never taking his gaze from the screen. The lines evened out, and after five more minutes of steady readings the medic turned the vigil over to Thundercracker, who had just left Dirge to his own recharge in a partitioned-off part of the room. Both former Decepticons had been quiet while Dirge had undergone repairs, but there was no anger between them nor any directed at the Autobots. Dirge seemed sullen every time he was online, but Ratchet had decided that it was merely natural for him. The only non-diagnostic conversation Ratchet'd had with him was Dirge asking which form suited his future mass better, a Tu-95 Bear or an AV-8A Harrier. Ratchet had advised him to make a choice based more on what he thought his new function would be. Dirge hadn't spoken to him since then. The medic liked to believe he was thinking about it.

He also understood that Dirge was a potential problem that related to his next patients. With the Decepticons captured aboard Tidal Wave being imprisoned at the Ark there was a chance that Dirge might change his mind and free them. Thundercracker had sworn to keep him in line and away from the stasis-locked 'Cons, yet Ratchet also needed to determine if they would unintentionally be reactivated by exposure or proximity to the four humans present.

Bumblebee had brought Sam and Mikaela to the Ark to try to find an explanation for the boy's reaction to the Cybertronian glyphs. Sam had snapped back to his normal self as soon as the images had been removed from the screen as if nothing had ever happened. He had even protested against going to the Ark. "My vacation is almost over! I can't think about some weird trance just because I looked at alien symbols! I need to get ready for school! I just won't look at them again, seriously."

Now Sam sat on the edge of a third exam table with Mikaela and Will beside him. Simmons was pacing behind them, stopping occasionally to write something on a notepad. Once or twice he went to Lennox to show him the pad, and they would quietly discuss it. Meanwhile, in between these notes Will was visibly anxious. He kept rubbing his hands. Ratchet had surmised that he was worried over the idea that he had somehow activated the key to the Ark just by picking it up. As for what Simmons kept talking to him about the medic couldn't begin to guess. He had become accustomed to Reggie's constant presence in the Ark even though the man was quite enigmatic.

Approaching the table, Ratchet took note of how Sam had his arms folded over his chest and was gripping his upper arms tightly. The boy raised a desperate look to him and blurted, "I want to be normal!"

"I know. Your distress is quite clear. But it is not for me to decide, only to determine a possible underlying cause." Ratchet's optics flared brightly as he scanned each human in turn. He then projected all four images in the air above them, switching rapidly through views of their skeletons, nervous system, lymph system, arteries, veins, and internal organs. "Will, please stand and walk to the other side of the table then return, even stride, same path."

Lennox did so, his military discipline keeping him in the exact same space, exact same pace both ways. The x-ray projection followed seamlessly. Ratchet switched amongst the views as man and projection went, looking for a hint of any type of Cybertronian energy residing within Will. Finally, as Lennox stopped beside Simmons, Ratchet flipped back and forth through views of his arteries, organs, and veins. The medic emitted a low, thoughtful rumble.

Reggie stepped back to study the scans for himself. "I think I'm seeing what you're seeing, Ratch. Can you overlay those images, zoom in on the upper half of his body?" Will shot him an annoyed look which said he didn't appreciate being treated like a Sector Seven experiment. Reggie didn't notice, his attention on the chest region of the projected scan. "There!" He pointed. "Brain to heart. Not going up, only coming back. Some kind of... well, not a surge, but it's something." He glanced up at Ratchet quizzically. "I would think any type of electrical energy would be moving through the nervous system, not the blood. In human physiology, anyway."

Ratchet nodded with another thoughtful noise. He then projected the other three from the waist up, moving the images back so the humans could more easily see themselves. Sam and Mikaela stood to see better as well. Sam squinted at his image then looked at Lennox's, and he saw what Simmons had indicated. There was a more obvious pulse in his own and in Reggie's while Mikaela's was less noticeable.

"Strength is dictated by the the amount of time you were each exposed to the Allspark, or spent holding it, I would guess," Ratchet said. "Sam used it against Megatron..." He peered at the others to let them volunteer their encounters with the Cube.

"I was only near it for that little time in Hoover Dam and on the drive to Mission City," Mikaela answered.

"I picked it up while we were in the city," Lennox said, his tone pensive.

"And I hung out in the viewing room over the Allspark chamber," Reggie replied, a different level of thought in his voice; he was curious where Will was concerned. "Then there's the people who were crawling all over it studying it..."

Ratchet let the scans fade out, but not before they reflected three increased heart rates. "I highly suspect you have all absorbed some of the Allspark energy. However, I do not know what long term effects it might have. I will have to run some tests." His optics dimmed as he considered the questions raised.

"Nothing weird happened to the people working around the Cube every day -- that I know of," Reggie said. "I don't think transforming fleshlings are next on the evolutionary chain. You guys can't imitate organics, right?" He glanced at Ratchet. "Look at how the 'Cons have tried with their impressions of wildlife. Just a collection of plates in the shape of a cat. I don't think we have any need to worry."

"Except when Sam goes into trances," Mikaela reminded him with sarcasm. "Nope, nothing wrong there."

"I meant in terms of us mutating into some kind of technorganics," Simmons replied defensively. He gave Sam an apologetic look. "Sorry, kid."

Ratchet scanned Sam again, this time using the spectrum he utilized for his fellow Cybertronians. He displayed the empty grid results on a blank outline of the boy's body. "No Cybertronian material is present. Having had a physical hand in usage of the Cube may have deposited a larger amount of energy in you, Sam, somehow making you react to the symbols..." Ratchet's voice trailed off as something else occurred to him.

The humans all looked at him expectantly. Mikaela was the one who prompted, "Ratchet..?"

"I'll need samples of your blood," the medic abruptly answered, turning in a rush to a small white box on the side counter. He sounded uneasy as he continued, "There may be something to your technorganics theory after all, Reginald, but not exactly as you were thinking."

After carefully drawing blood from each of the humans, Ratchet called up Perceptor to confer with him as he ran the tests. In the meantime, Sam and Mikaela sat silently holding hands, Will returned to his own thoughts, and Reggie went back to his notes, mumbling out loud now and then. No one paid him any mind.

Suddenly Reggie grabbed Will by one shoulder, thrusting the note pad toward him. "I've got it! Can't believe it took me this long. Look, these are all the former S-7 agents who didn't side with Banachek. They are also all people who either worked directly on the Allspark or were exposed to it regularly. The guys who are with him now were no where near that project but did know about it." He folded his arms, looking satisfied with himself.

"So, what, Banachek's buddies have jealousy issues?" Sam sniped, deflating Reggie's ego for a second.

Lennox sighed. "That just gives us a list of people who need to be tested for -- whatever." He turned a hard stare on Ratchet's back.

"It could be," Simmons defended, "a reason why the Autobots have as many allies as they do amongst former S-7 agents. We weren't supposed to play favorites with our projects, just secure and study. These people," he tapped the notepad, "might have 'seen the light', as it were, about considering the Transformers to be living, breathing, feeling beings as opposed to war machines whose technology we should steal. The Allspark showed them, either on its own or conclusions they drew while studying it."

He held up a hand as he saw Lennox and Sam about to comment. "I never touched it directly myself, so I can't say for sure." He peered back pointedly at the younger men.

"We -- I already knew that before handling the Cube," Sam said, glancing at Lennox after presuming to speak for him. Will only nodded.

They heard a rush of air as through a metal tube. An accompanying rumble clarified the sound as Ratchet sighing. The Autobot medic came back over to the humans, his optics dim before brightening to project a cross section of his findings. "You have nanites in your blood. They have disguised themselves as red blood cells. They have integrated with your organic matter so precisely as to be indistinguishable unless someone was looking for them and had the equipment to detect them, which my lab does and your hospitals do not. They are housed in your version of a CPU -- your brain -- and are traveling through your blood stream. They are not interfering with the operation of your natural blood cells and it would appear some of them are imitating those cells' function." He projected an image of a system of arteries and veins with tiny glittering specks flowing along the normal routes. "I have not yet determined why there is only a pulse when they travel from the brain to the heart, nor do I know what their purpose is or will be. They may have reacted to the proximity of the key to the Ark and to the familiarity of the symbols being read." He nodded to Will and Sam. "At the moment they appear physically harmless."

Mikaela gripped Sam's hand. "What does that mean for us?"

Ratchet's optics dimmed again. "I don't know."

Sam swallowed hard. "So are we like part Cybertronian now?"

"No. You are... your own entity."

Hoarsely Reggie quoted, "The Allspark can create worlds and fill them with life. Not all life made by the Allspark is necessarily Cybertronian."

There was a metallic whirr and from around the partition came Thundercracker and a dim-opticked Dirge. The latter stared at the humans intently. Thundercracker had more of a trepidatious expression. The humans gazed uneasily back at them. Then Thundercracker asked, "Is it all humans, or just the ones who were in contact with the Cube?"

"I would have to test them to find out," Ratchet replied, also watching Dirge. "Preferably Tom Banachek and his team."

Dirge uttered an electronic grunt and disappeared back behind the partition. The whirr repeated and Thundercracker looked over his shoulder, then informed the others, "Back to recharge." He looked over at the humans. "He meant no harm. We overheard, and he wanted to be sure he was not imagining things." He turned to Ratchet. "If the Allspark energy can bond with humans it could mean any number of things for our race."

Ratchet's response came over a private line to the Neutral. "Our race's fate is sealed. My concern lays more with theirs." He shared a quick grid construction of Megatron's successor harvesting humans to try to collect the Allspark energy out of them. Thundercracker shuddered visibly.

As if on cue an alert began to sound over the PA speakers, followed by Jazz's voice. "Attention, all Autobots an' guests. We have incomin' planetfall, party of eight, IFF unknown. I repeat, incomin' planetfall of eight unknowns. Coordinates are as follows."

As Jazz rattled off the time and trajectory for the southern hemisphere, Thundercracker and Ratchet traded grim looks. Simmons checked his watch. "We'll never make it in time. Maybe if we--"

"I can try," Thundercracker cut him off. "I can fly faster than any human jet." He looked at Ratchet again. "I can try."

Silence from the medic answered him. In the background over the PA came a yell from someone about getting Huffer's shuttle airborne. Argument came in the form of the size of the shuttle crew versus the number of incoming.

"Eight," Lennox repeated over the comm noise. He stared down at the table top as if it had a solution for him. "How many Decepticons do we know of still floating out there?" He began to tick them off on his fingers. "Five Combaticons, Astrotrain..."

"Any number of Soundwave's lot." Ratchet provided. "They could all be his. There is a high likelihood he sent them a message before he was defeated."

"It could be anyone," Mikaela interjected. "We can't just wonder about it. We need to decide what we're going to do about it." She tilted her head toward Thundercracker.

Ratchet emitted a low, slow release of air from his upper vents. He opened a line to Optimus, speaking aloud to include the humans. "Prime, Thundercracker has volunteered to recon the planetfall. He can make it if he leaves now."

Ratchet may have been the only one relieved to hear Optimus' response was the same as his own. "No. He needs to remain here. Windcharger and Huffer are leaving on the shuttle." Thundercracker's faceplates flattened, then he spun toward the partition, disappearing behind it.

Ratchet sighed to himself and went about taking the humans down from the table so they could have a break. He then checked on Broadcast and his optics dimmed once more upon reading the monitor that measured the strain on the unconscious mech's spark. He opened a line to Moonracer to ask about the progress on Broadcast's new body. It was all he could do.

~*~

California desert, ETA fifteen minutes to Australia planetfall

"Well now, that's interesting," Swindle murmured for the third time in an hour, his gaze riveted to the tiny screen on his arm.

Seated beside him, Tracks rolled his optical cameras. "Your video commentary leaves much to be desired."

Swindle raised his head and the image of the generic mechanoid displayed on his chest screen affected a grin. "Patience. These pieces might be about to come together."

"Perhaps if you shared we could come to a conclusion before the humans come to completion." Tracks had lost patience with Swindle two days earlier. The only thing keeping him from calling up the Ark and demanding that someone be sent to relieve him was knowing that the infiltration mission was soon to go into action. Swindle's drones had located an access tunnel and had discreetly hacked the security system to disable the alarms and sensors in that area while making it appear they were still active. There were more EMP fields in place, so the two robots were staked out a mile away and were ready to retreat or move in as needed.

They saw the pink and black motorcycle before they heard it -- and even then it was running so quietly as to be mere wind over the desert scrub. It was no mere bike. The driver parked, climbed off, and took off his helmet, revealing a grim Robert Epps. The motorcycle transformed. Arcee eyed Swindle warily. "I'm backup," she proclaimed tersely.

Tracks nodded to her, then said to Bobby, "The team is in place. All of Banachek's men are accounted for. We are ready on your--"

"Hold up," Swindle interrupted in an odd tone. His chest screen fizzled then showed an animated image of Earth's southern hemisphere and the trajectories of eight incoming meteors, three lagging behind the others. "News from the Land Down Under -- they've got a planetfall. Chatter says they didn't receive word of it from any Autobots." A split second later Tracks and Arcee received Jazz's report. Swindle then switched his screen to multiple images of Banachek's team as transmitted by his drones. If they had also intercepted the news they did not react to it.

"Nothing we can do," Epps said quietly. "We'll deal with what's on our plate right here." Inside he was praying it wouldn't be more Decepticons.

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(c) 2010 S. Loweck. This work may not be copied, distributed, or reprinted without the author's permission. Transformers are copyright Hasbro/Paramount/Dreamworks.