"Slam!
You drop me where I stand,
Yeah it just hit the fan,
The moment that you kissed me hit me,"

»«

"Soundwave found a set of coordinates that may be useful to us," Ratchet gestured to where the silent Decepticon was working as he addressed his fellow team members. "And since it has been only a few days since you passed your driving tests, I'm a little more than reluctant to let either of you out on the field," he eyed both Megatron and Chromia with a frown.

"So, you're saying you're going to go out there, and leave me alone with these two?" Chromia demanded as she pointed at Megatron and Soundwave, her hand on her hip in a very Arcee-like gesture. "No way. Either I go, or he does. But I am not staying with them."

The medic shook his head. "Hardly. Even with Lockdown missing and his ship in supposed pieces, it still isn't safe for us to be piddling about in the open, out of the confines of this military installation. Without knowing where he is, or what he could be up to, any one of us could be at risk."

"That means I still go," Dana guessed. "With the Apex Armor, obviously."

"As much as I hate to say it, yes," her guardian settled his cyan optics on her. "Since you lack a Cybertronian life signature, you will avoid any unwanted detection."

Megatron furrowed his optic ridges. "I highly doubt that, considering the device she possesses in her back," he reasoned. "And, because it contains y-"

"Ep, ep, ep!" Ratchet sputtered loudly, waving a servo and shutting Megatron up, much to the warlord's distaste. "I've already calculated that risk; it is far too small to be picked up by any standard scanners, though I doubt even the more sensitive ones could find something so miniscule."

Dana raised an eyebrow at her guardian, Megatron puzzled as well. Was Chromia not supposed to know about the shard? Agent Fowler?

"I guess that means you're suiting up," Agent Fowler told the young woman. "Though why can't I do that?" He asked, realizing what he had just said.

"Because I'm going to get there first!" Dana shouted with a grin, sprinting down the steps and heading towards the Apex Armor.

"She is a formidable opponent," Megatron reasoned, "and has been in the field several times - unlike you."

"Yeah, unsupervised and without permission," the Agent gave him a glare. "Which is why she even has that thing in her back in the first place."

Megatron bared his teeth, prepared to snap back at him, but did his best to quickly reign in his emotions. "That is by no fault of her own," he said, trying to remain cool.

Ratchet looked at the Decepticon in surprise. Did his audio receptors really just pick that up?

"I'm ready," Dana announced, grinning from ear to ear. "My comm piece is in and functional!"

"Soundwave, put in the coordinates for the Groundbridge, please," Ratchet asked, waiting for the silent communications officer to give him a nod of confirmation before he pulled the lever, the Groundbridge coming to life.

Dana took the energy scanner from her guardian, smiling at him as she turned it on.

"See you on the flip side," Dana grinned, and rushed out to the designated area.

She stepped out and let the bridge close behind her, her eyes scanning the green expanse, a deciduous forest visible perhaps a mile out.

"See anything?" Ratchet questioned.

"Not yet," she started walking forward, holding the softly beeping scanner in front of her. "But if I had to guess it's probably buried-"

Her comm went silent as the ground exploded beneath her.

»«

"Dana?" Ratchet frantically pressed a few buttons. "Dana?!"

"What was that?" Chromia demanded, both confused and alarmed.

"It sounded like an explosion," Megatron clenched his fist. "It was a trap."

"I'm reactivating the Groundbridge!" Ratchet gripped the lever and pulled, the Groundbridge flickering to life.

Megatron moved to step into it, but Soundwave gripped his arm and pulled him back, earning a snarl from the warlord.

"Soundwave, I demand you release me right this-!"

The Groundbridge screamed, then collapsed within itself, shutting down entirely and causing the portal generator to smoke. The Autobots and Decepticons alike stared at the bridge with shocked expressions.

"How did you . . .?" Chromia raised an optic ridge at Soundwave.

The communications officer pointed to one of the rings which created the portal. The welding job that had been keeping it together had somehow come apart.

"Great, just perfect!" Ratchet snapped. "Dana could be in trouble, and our Groundbridge just malfunctioned!"

"Just weld the pieces back together," Agent Fowler said, trying to hide his own panic. He should have been the one out there.

"Soundwave, run a diagnostic," the medic demanded, transforming his servo into a welding tool. "Help me figure out if the shortage caused more damage."

Megatron glanced at the screen. The coordinates listed indicated that Dana was on the other side of the world, on the edge of a large peninsula jutting out westward in the Northern Hemisphere of their planet. It was quite a ways from where the wreckage site of Lockdown's ship was located, but there was always a high probability the bounty hunter continued to prowl around the Earth.

What if Lockdown had gotten to the relic first, and set a trap?

"How long will the bridge repair take?" Megatron asked.

"Too long," Ratchet bemoaned, scrambling to find an elevated platform he could use to repair the bridge. "If I had to guess; two hours, maybe three."

The warlord bared his teeth, clenching his fists and heading towards the door.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Ratchet demanded as he paused in his rummaging for tools.

"I am going to help Dana." Megatron said. "The longer we let her sit, or grapple Lockdown, the more likely it is she is captured, or worse."

"But you have wheels." Agent Fowler argued. "And you are not allowed in US airspace!"

"You must truly be arrogant if you think you own the air," Megatron quipped, driving out of base. His bipedal form shifted to accommodate for his switch into jet mode, disregarding the rules set by Fowler and his government.

Dana was in danger; there was no time for rules.

Transforming into his jet mode he took off into the skies, letting his navigation systems point him in the direction of the coordinates. He funneled more energy to his jets, building up to as fast as possible, ignoring Fower as he screamed into his comm.

He was never one to take orders anyways.

»«

"Ma'am," Beta flipped his tablet, showing his superior. "We have a beacon of Cybertronian origin emitting from Europe."

Alpha tilted her head. "And?"

"It could be another pod like the one the Transformer described."

"Lockdown," Alpha called his name, drawing his red-optic attention to her. "Friend or foe?" She projected the data from the tablet onto a larger monitor, watching him study it and searching for any signs that he would lie.

"Neither," his optics narrowed. "It is a homing beacon, not a distress; and they are not projecting their affiliation. Whoever it is, they want to be found, but by whom is questionable."

"So, it could be one or the other," Alpha guessed. "Perhaps you should investigate it."

"I have no means to access them," he growled softly, not liking how she tried to tell him what to do. "Without a flying alternate form or Groundbridge, it is impossible to get to them before the Cybertronians with that technology do."

"Then let us give you an alternate form," Alpha insisted. "Every moment wasted leads to a higher chance of then being apprehended or befriended by your enemies."

"Deploy your own men!" He scoffed. "Unless it is Megatron or that medic, I have no interest-"

"What if it is?" She asked. "What if something happened and they're calling for help?"

He paused, Gamma swallowing in fear, convinced he was about to annihilate their leader.

"Where can I get an adequate alternative form, then?" The Transformer growled.

Alpha smiled, white teeth gleaming beneath her red lips. "We will provide it."

»«

"Ugh..." Dana groaned as she came back to consciousness, her head pounding and ears ringing. She sat up and looked around, finding that she was still in the grassy knoll that had viciously attacked her, holding her head in her hands while she waited for the headache to subside.

"I should have brought some Excedrin," she muttered, raising her head to look around a little more. The Apex Armor was covered in dirt, the ground beneath her blasted out in a ten-foot radius. Trying to piece together what could have happened, she tapped the center of the armor, not daring to step off of it until she knew where she was, and if the attack could happen again.

"Ratchet? Do you read?" She reached up for her comm piece, screaming in pain as her fingertips brushed against it and sent a wave of agony deep into her ear canal. Gasping as tears fell down her cheeks, she lightly touched it again, whimpering as another wave struck her sensitive ear. Pulling her hand away, she saw blood, now even more disoriented than before.

Searching her pockets, she cursed when she realized she had left her cell phone at the base, tilting her head and trying to get a reflection from the Apex Armor. The movement caused a little more pain, but finding a sizeable section she looked as best as she could.

From what she could tell, the blast had caused her head to smash against the side of the Apex Armor, jamming the comm piece and shattering it in her ear. At least, that's what it looked and felt like.

Feeling a little sick she sat down, debating on whether or not to tear it out or to just leave it, glancing around and wondering how long she had been out. Not much seemed to have changed, save for the giant hole that was now in the ground.

Her eyes trailed across the blast site, stopping when she came upon an unusual, unearthed object.

"Hey..." She stood up, allowing the Apex Armor to form back over her before carefully walking to the pod, scraping around it and pulling it free, the red dot pulsing gently. It was not much bigger than the two of her covered hands combined, the same size as the other relic pods the Autobots had been chasing. When she twisted the lid open the red beacon stopped, revealing an unexpected device.

Pulling it out, it looked suspiciously like a Transformation Cognition, however it was much smaller than usual. A long, dangerous needle seemed to protrude from one side, the rest of it encapsulated in warm, living metal.

Before she could explore its uses any further the shriek of a jet caught her attention, the woman freezing as she gazed up at the sky, worried it would be a human pilot. There was no cover, and if they saw her it would be a PR disaster that Agent Fowler would never let her live down. Squinting as the jet flew into the sun, she tried to make out the design.

"Scrap!" Dana scrambled back as the jet opened fire, the bullets bouncing off of the armor, but it was still alarming. She shoved the relic back into its pod and closed it, beginning to run, no longer caring if she was bombed again.

Making it for the tree line, she skid to a stop when another jet flew into view, screeching as it flew over her. Intuition told her something was not right.

The new jet opened fire on the first, red bolts hitting it dead on and causing a fatal explosion, the firey remans spinning out of control and crashing a a few tens of yards from Dana, causing yet another blast to burst forth from the ground, something finally clicking.

Land mines.

The jet that had "rescued" her transformed, Lockdown landing on his feet with a massive shockwave, his red optics glaring at her.

"You are the one that disrupted my interrogation, injured my hounds, and escaped," he growled, his servo reaching up and unslinging what looked like an assault rifle from his back. "Tell me where to find the medic, and Megatron, or I will not be merciful."

Dana took a few steps back as he walked forward, wishing the relic in her hands was a weapon of some kind, but highly doubting it.

"I-I won't tell you anything," She hoped the Apex Armor would protect her from whatever Lockdown had in his servos, however as the end started to crackle with electricity and her hairs stood up on their ends, the thought was drowned out by fear.

"I warned you," he snarled, and then opened fire.