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"How is he?" Jack stopped a few yards from Bulkhead to catch his breath after sprinting through the ground bridge into the Autobot base. June and Arcee's mini-me followed closely, the latter giving Jack a quick hug before walking over to the wall and switching to standby mode. He smiled up at Arcee's full-size body and she grinned back.

The rest of the team had assembled around Bulkhead before they'd arrived, and Miko had already been sitting with him. Ashanti and her team, minus Jensen, jogged out of the still-open bridge vortex, and slowed as they approached. Everyone turned to face Ratchet and waited.

"He's unable to move or speak yet," Ratchet said, "but his condition has finally improved. He can't hear us, either, but he can communicate via text messages and social media." He sighed. "He's back with us, but there is still a lot of damage to repair, if only I knew how. As I am only a field medic, I'm afraid this is beyond my capabilities."

Miko's shoulders slumped, but she forced a smile back onto her face. "Well, it's a start."

Everyone's phones beeped. Ratchet managed a shaky smile.

"That's Bulkhead. Talking with him this way isn't ideal, but for now it's all we've got."

Jack glanced at his phone's screen and smiled. A line of text had appeared beside Bulk's Facebook avatar: [Glad to hear the mission was a success. Sorry I wasn't the only casualty, though.]

"I filled him in on everything he missed," Miko said.

Jack typed, [So are we. But we're glad you pulled through. You really had us worried.]

Ashanti walked up to Bulkhead, smiled, and reached up to place her palm on his arm.

DeeDee Washington raised an eyebrow at her phone. "Hold on a second. Bulkhead's username is 'Bulki Bartakomous?'"

Miko snickered. "Apparently his public persona is someone with piss-poor taste in TV shows." She raised her phone and typed, [How're you holding up, buddy?]

[Glad to be alive ,] he replied. [I could really use a good laugh, though.]

Miko grinned and typed, [OK. Y'know what the next Star Trek movie needs? A Klingon character named K'Unt.]

Jack burst out laughing. Behind him, several others did the same. His mom leaned over to him and muttered, "I'm so glad I wasn't drinking anything right then."

[You're a bad person and you should feel bad], Bulkhead replied. [Also, BAHAHAHA!]

Miko grinned and patted his arm. "Welcome back, Bro."

Arcee glanced up at Ratchet. "Any chance of us getting him one of the Pretender bodies?"

"One is being prepped now. It should arrive shortly."

Miko lifted her phone again and typed, [They're getting you a mini-me so you can keep on kicking ass.]

Bulkhead responded with, []

"What about repairing his own body?" Arcee glanced at Ratchet again. "I know we'll have to wait for the new fabricator to be built, but once we can manufacture the parts..."

"I'm afraid some of our systems are beyond my expertise. The Cybertronian equivalent of the spinal cord, for example." Ratchet hung his head. "And our database doesn't include the information I need, so I can't just download it."

Optimus reached over to put his hand on Ratchet's shoulder. "It's not your fault, old friend."

"There is someone who has the knowledge you need," Steve said from the back of the group. He stepped forward and added, "Knockout, if he's still functional."

"If he can be trusted," Ultra Magnus said.

"Hmm." Arcee raised a brow plate. "We haven't seen or heard about him since we turned Starscream's underground base into an enormous crater. It's possible he was caught in the blast, or if he survived, he may have been executed for joining Screamer's coup attempt."

"Last I heard," Steve said, "a squad of Insecticons tracked him and Breakdown through the subway tunnels in Manhattan, but lost both of them. That was shortly before Khalilah and I defected, so we've been out of the loop since then."

Ashanti glanced around at the others. "If either of them has any brains, they've changed their color scheme at least, if not their vehicle modes. But just in case they haven't, if you could give us some clear images of their primary and alternate modes, we can start checking satellites and traffic cameras."

"I'd concentrate on illegal street races, if you can find any," Arcee said. "That seems to be Knockout's favorite hobby, and there's a good chance his ego won't let him give it up even if he's being hunted by his former cohorts."

"That would be a good start." Optimus motioned at the tunnel leading to the control center in the hub. "We will provide the images you need."

"Thank you, sir. We'll get started right away. In the meantime, at least Bulkhead will be able to link up to a Pretender body and get back into the action."

The 'Bots glanced up suddenly. Arcee smiled.

"Speaking of which, we were just informed that the body's arrived on the helipad. Bulk should be back on his feet in no time."

Ratchet nodded and turned to tunnel leading to the hub. "Alright, then. Let's get to work."

#

The Pretender body opened its eyes, sat up, and glanced around. It turned to stare at Bulkhead, shuddered slightly, and scanned him. When the process was complete, it transformed into a human-size duplicate of him. It glanced down at its hands and arms, and turned back to the others.

"That's better."

Miko beamed and let a long breath rush out. It sure is.

He tilted his head back to stare up at Arcee, Ratchet, Optimus, and the rest.

"Whoa. Now I know what it must be like for humans around us."

"Quite a shift in perspective, isn't it?" Arcee grinned, crouched in front of him, and put her hand awkwardly on his small shoulder.

"You can say that again." He patted the back of her hand and turned to face Miko. She grinned and rushed over to him.

"Great to see you up and around, big fella." She hugged him.

"Yeah," Raf said. "We were all afraid you'd never wake up."

Jack nodded and stepped forward to clap Bulkhead on the shoulder

Tomoko, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside Raf, clapped her hands and aimed a brilliant smile at Bulk.

"It's a relief to finally be awake. Back on the Nemesis, when I realized how badly I was damaged, and feeling myself starting to shut down, I was sure it was all over. I thought I'd never see any of you guys again." He shivered and gave Miko another hug. "I think that's the first time in my life I've ever been that scared."

"Same here. Luckily, Ratchet's a better surgeon than he seems to think he is."

"Well, I appreciate the compliment, Miko, but I had some help." Ratchet motioned at Optimus and the two Vehicons. "They assisted me in replacing damaged parts on both you and Arcee."

"Huh." Bulkhead turned to stare up at Steve. "Never thought I'd owe my life to a 'Con. Even partially."

"We didn't expect it, either, but we're relieved it worked out." The former Vehicon stared at the floor and shuffled his feet. "Finally realizing we chose the wrong side so many thousands of years ago is quite the paradigm shift. We welcome every opportunity to undo at least some of the damage we caused."

"Well, that's good to hear. I'd like to see the war end in my lifetime."

"So would we."

Bulkhead nodded and turned back to Miko. "By the way, that was a good job of avenging me you did back on the Nemesis. Wish I could've seen it."

"From what I'm told," Ultra Magnus said, "it was very impressive, indeed. Single Insecticons are hard enough to take out. I've never heard of anyone killing five of them at once."

Miko blushed and shrugged. "Heh. Well, what can I say? I was pissed off."

Bulkhead laughed and clapped her gently on the shoulder. "So--"

A soft moan came from the far corner of the room, and everyone glanced past Steve to Khalilah sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall.

Miko raised an eyebrow and grinned as Khalilah slid her palms slowly over her chest plate.

"Huh." Bulkhead glanced at Ratchet. "That one's not malfunctioning, is she?"

Arcee chuckled. "She's having sex with Major Jensen."

"Uh." Bulkhead stared at her for several seconds before turning back to Khalilah. "Is he invisible?"

Miko laughed and nudged his shoulder. "Dork. She borrowed one of the other Pretender bodies and decided to try out certain, shall we say, software and hardware features. Which seem to be fully functional."

"Huh. Okay." He shrugged.

Khalilah suddenly arched her back and her hips twitched.

"Well, that looks like a malfunction," Bulkhead said.

Ashanti grinned and shook her head. "I'm pretty sure it's not."

"Should be done in private, though," June muttered.

"Well, I doubt she knew what to expect, never having done this before." Arcee shrugged. "Probably doesn't even realize she's moving or vocalizing here."

Khalilah continued shuddering and crying out softly for several more seconds before finally relaxing.

Ashanti snickered. "Nicely done, Jensen."

"Yeah," Miko said with a wicked grin. "Achievement unlocked."

Jack and Arcee burst out laughing.

She glanced at him and sighed. "Figures a 'Con would get laid before I do."

June cleared her throat and Jack held his hands up.

"We're trying to wait until I'm legal, Mom. It's not easy, but we're trying."

Khalilah turned her head and seemed to notice everyone staring at her. She pushed herself to her feet, walked over to them on wobbly legs, crouched and glanced around at the humans.

"That was the most amazing thing I've ever experienced! Why aren't humans having sex all the time?"

"And that doesn't make waiting any easier," Arcee muttered with a wink at Jack.

"Well, a lot of us probably would if we could." Ashanti laughed. "But if we did, we'd never get anything done. And we'd run into other problems, like starving to death."

"Fair enough." Khalilah stretched out on the floor and sighed. "I'll need a few minutes to recover."

"Wow. Jensen really knocked your ass out, huh?" Miko raised a hand and fanned herself.

Khalilah simply gave her a thumbs-up and slumped onto the floor again, letting her head rest on her crossed arms.

Tomoko stared at her, glanced around at everyone else, and turned her blank stare back to Khalilah. From her expression, Miko guessed Tomoko had no idea what the hell everyone was talking about.

A soft chirp came from Ashanti's pocket. She dug her phone out and arched an eyebrow at the screen.

"Well, how about that? Looks like Knockout was spotted by a traffic camera just a few minutes ago. He's still using the same vehicle mode." She shook her head. "Didn't even change the color scheme. He's all scratched up, though."

"Yes!" Miko glanced up at Bulkhead. "Feelin' up to a little roadtrip?"

"If it's a chance to get my real body working again, hell yeah."

Everyone turned to Optimus. He glanced around at them and smiled ever so slightly.

"Gear up and roll out."

#

"I wonder," Miko said from inside Optimus's trailer, where she and Bulkhead's mini-me sat, "if Breakdown's still hanging around Knockout. They seem almost inseparable."

_Uh-oh._Jack glanced over at Optimus as the team--minus the newcomers--cruised along the empty country road. He'd known for a while how much Bulkhead and Breakdown hated each other, but hadn't given it any thought until now.

"Well," Bulk said, "that'd just be the icing on the cake."

"Easy, Bulkhead." Jack let out a nervous chuckle. "I doubt we could convince Knockout to help us if we try to kill his best friend first."

"He is right," Optimus said. "We must attempt to resolve this situation peacefully."

"If I weren't in such bad shape, I'd be tempted to disagree." Bulkhead released a grumbling sigh. "But I'll try to keep myself under control."

Everyone rode on in silence for a few minutes. After being caught by the traffic camera, Knockout had been spotted by a surveillance UAV as it scanned the area around the traffic cam. It had pinpointed his location at what appeared to be an abandoned farm out in the middle of nowhere.

Jack glanced at the GPS display on the panel under Arcee's handlebars. Just a few more minutes.

"Hey, Jensen." Arcee's human-size doppelgänger, seated behind Jack, ran its hands suggestively over the chest plate of his armor. "From Khalilah's reaction, I'm guessing you really have a way with the ladies."

Double-D laughed. "Well, with the alien-robot ones, anyway."

"Eh, it was that software protocol Rosalina told us about." There was an audible shrug in Jensen's voice. "Which explains why it happened so quickly."

"Hah. That's not at all emasculating, is it? It wasn't your sexual prowess, it was her internal sensors setting her off when you couldn't hold your wad any longer." DeeDee snickered.

"If anything, it takes away the pressure to perform." Jensen gave a rueful laugh. "It's kind of a nice change of pace, after years and years of disappointing the women I've slept with. It was nice for both of us to, uh, reach our 'moment of apotheosis' at just about the same time."

Hmm. That's a good way to look at it. Jack grinned and raised his left hand to place it over Arcee's. Thinking about it doesn't make waiting any easier, though.

Miko laughed suddenly. "There's a way to talk Knockout into joining us. Hook him up to a Pretender body, then I can fuck him and tell him there's more where that came from if he helps us out."

"Jesus, kid." Ashanti sighed, but sounded like she was suppressing a laugh at the same time. "He's probably fifty thousand years old. You're, what, fifteen?"

"Doesn't make any difference to me. He's hot. Though, now that I think about it, he'll probably scream his own name when he blasts off."

"Miko..." Bulkhead made a sound like he was shuddering with revulsion. "That shit ain't right."

"Says you. Just thinking about it...heh-heh, I'm gonna need some alone time when we get back to the base."

"We're almost there," Optimus said. "Let's stay focused."

Arcee's Pretender body tensed up suddenly. "Guys, I've just detected several Decepticon life signs up ahead."

The familiar, high-pitched sounds of blaster fire came next, followed by a much lower, heavier sound that Jack recognized instantly.

He'd heard the same weapon firing an instant before Bulkhead was almost fatally wounded onboard the Nemesis.

"Oh, shit," he muttered. "The Insecticons must've found Knockout. Probably the same way we did."

"Just means more for me to scrap," Miko said. "It's what they get for hurting my_bruddah_."

Behind Jack, Arcee tensed even more. "Son of a bitch! I just got a ping from one of the UAVs searching for Airachnid."

"Oh, hell. One of them found her?" Jack glanced over his shoulder and a cold shiver rippled through him at the sight of the rage on her face.

"Arcee," Optimus said, "I've picked up over a dozen Insecticons surrounding Knockout. We won't get another chance at this."

Arcee growled.

"Honey," Jack said softly, "is Airachnid near anyone? Is anyone in immediate danger?"

"No. Airachnid's alone in what looks like a quarry."

"We'll get another shot at her, Arcee."

"I--you're right. I just..." She snarled again. "Fuck!"

"Our destination is around the next curve." Optimus came to a stop, waited for Bulk, Miko, Ashanti's team, June and the medics to exit his trailer, and then he transformed into his primary mode.

"Bulkhead's more important," Arcee said as she stopped to let Jack and her mini-me off. She transformed and turned to face him. "We'll get another shot at her."

Her smaller, remote-operated body plucked the sniper railgun from her back and marched over to join Ashanti's team. She crouched in front of Jack and he took his helmet off long enough to kiss her, then he grabbed his EMP rifle and jogged over to the rest of the humans.

Arcee, Bee, and Optimus took their guns from the storage racks in Optimus's trailer. Optimus motioned with his hand, and everyone burst into action.

Jack sprinted around the grove on the right and slowed when he caught sight of a half-collapsed barn and several nearby buildings in similar condition.

The rest of the barn exploded and Jack's heart pounded suddenly. He glimpsed a red blur tumbling through the debris before a swarm of purple and black shapes dragged his attention away from Knockout.

One of the Insecticons fired his augmented blaster and the one corner of the barn still standing exploded into cinders like a balloon popping.

Knockout flinched and let out a panicked grunt as he tried to drag himself away from them. In addition to the scratches all over his body, he also had dents in his arms and chest.

Bulkhead chuckled and thumped a fist into his palm. "I bet none of that hurts more than the damage to his ego."

"Hey," Chang muttered, "where's Miko?"

"Oh, no," Jack groaned.

"Miko!" Bulkhead glanced around. "Don't do anything stupid!"

"Too late," Miko replied over the radio built into her armor. She disengaged her stealth system and appeared directly in front of the nearest Insecticon. "Hey, you fuckers!"

They stopped, turned toward her, and cocked their heads. Knockout glanced around and continued crawling away.

"Shit!" Arcee launched into a sprint. "Shit!"

"Remember the other day, when five of you got cooked off at once?" Miko planted her hands on her hips and smirked. "That was all me!"

All the Insecticons drew their heads back and released a screech that made Jack's guts turn cold. His heart pounded even harder and for a few seconds he couldn't breathe.

Miko turned and bolted. The enormous, bug-like robots lunged after her, their footsteps shaking the ground hard enough to almost knock the humans off their feet.

"Miko!" Bulkhead stared at her and clutched at the sides of his head. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Whatever I can." She activated her stealth system, rippled, and vanished. "Do what we came here to do."

"Ratchet," Optimus rumbled, "prepare to open the ground-bridge."

"Ready," Ratchet answered over the comm.

"Arcee, you and Jack secure Knockout and transport him back to the base." Optimus pointed at the Insecticons. "Everyone else, engage!"