"You know, I think this is actually easier than fixing space bridges," commented Bumblebee.

Bulkhead shrugged. "I guess so. I kind of liked working on space bridges though."

"That's because you love space bridges and how they work!" exclaimed Wheeljack. "As long as you love what you do, you never really work! That's why I became an engineer. It's like getting paid to have fun!"

"A little less fun, perhaps," suggested Prowl. "We get enough explosions as it is."

Wheeljack looked down at the cement he was mixing. The construction worker who had given him instructions had rather pointedly told him not to change the ratio. "I don't think cement can explode."

Bumblebee grinned. "But you could probably find a way to!"

Prowl groaned. "Do not encourage him. We are trying to make a good impression."

"The construction workers like us," pointed out Bulkhead.

"True." It was a small step in the right direction…Although Prowl suspected it was because a lot of their equipment wasn't working.

"How're your servos working?" asked Wheeljack.

"Fine," replied Prowl. "It looks like the water didn't cause any damage that my self-repair systems couldn't take care of."

"Ratchet wouldn't have let me leave the ship if he didn't think my servos weren't working," said Bumblebee. "And they seem okay, so the circuits must've been integrated without any problems."

"Mine's great!" added Bulkhead. "You did a really great job constructing a replacement, Wheeljack!"

And that was when a space ship flew overhead. The four stared after it.

"So, anyone know what sort of ship that was?" asked Bulkhead.

"Elite Guard," said Wheeljack. "Guess we should've expected that. Kind of wish they'd shown up before Megatron managed to get his body back."

Prowl groaned. "This could be problematic."

Park:

"Why do we suddenly have so many aliens?" muttered Fanzone. He raised his megaphone. "All right. Come out with your…" Didn't that one guy say some aliens had tentacles? "…limbs in the air."

"Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me." Fanzone turned back as the four Autobots made their way through the crowd of police, Wheeljack in the lead. He waved. "Hi Captain."

"You know who this is?" questioned Fanzone.

"Yeah, Elite Guard, they're sort of like…Marines?" guessed Wheeljack. "I haven't really paid much attention to military stuff since the war ended so I'm not sure, but they're basically the best of our military bots."

Anything else was cut off when the ship opened, revealing three bots. One was a mainly blue bot with a huge chin. One was black and white with a visor and what looked like headphones. The last was the one that caught Wheeljack's attention.

You knew it was serious when Ultra Magnus showed up.

Wheeljack quickly grabbed Prowl and Bumblebee and walked forward out of the circle of humans. Bulkhead took the hint and followed after them.

Ultra Magnus looked around for Ratchet and Flareup and frowned when he didn't see them. "Sentinel, put up the force field to prevent organic contamination."

Sentinel saluted. "Right away sir!"

The black and white one peered curiously at the humans gathered around. "You sure? I'd like to take a closer look."

"You won't be saying that when their acid slime eats through your armor," said Sentinel.

The other one recoiled. "Right, got it." A force field extended from the top of the ship to cut it off from the rest of the area.

Fanzone twitched. "This is why I hate machines."

"Sorry," muttered Bulkhead.

As it was pretty obvious what they were expected to do, they entered the ship.

A second later, they were being given a forced decontamination shower. "Do you think he recognizes us?" whispered Bulkhead.

Bumblebee shuddered. "I hope not."

Prowl gave them a questioning look at that. Wheeljack tapped the glass container. "I think we're decontaminated. I have a lot of experience with this sort of stuff what with explosions, going to high risk areas, accidentally mixing things that absolutely should not be mixed, and we should be fine by now." He paused. "Also, you look like you're enjoying this a bit too much."

"I am not!" protested Sentinel.

The unidentified bot grabbed Sentinel's servo. "SP, that's enough."

Sentinel huffed but let up on the foam. The mechs shook or brushed off the foam as they stepped out.

"I noticed that Ratchet and another member of your party are not present," stated Ultra Magnus. His optics went to Prowl. "And that you picked up a new member."

"Well, Flareup is in bad enough shape that Ratchet's refusing to leave her on her own," explained Wheeljack. "And Prowl-"

"They blew up my ship," deadpanned Prowl.

Wheeljack chuckled. "Not my fault that time. We were just gonna drop him off at the next colony when we restocked, but then…all this happened. He's just really unlucky."

Ultra Magnus nodded. That sort of thing happened sometimes. "We've come to retrieve the Allspark." He frowned when the repair bots suddenly tensed. "Is there a problem?"

"Well…" Wheeljack shrugged. "It blew up."

Silence.

"What?!" Sentinel was the one to break it. "What do you mean it blew up?!"

"It blew up," repeated Wheeljack. "And for the record, I was nowhere near it when it happened. I was helping Ratchet give Flareup emergency field treatment." He turned to Prowl.

"I was not paying attention to them. I was trying to keep the ship from crashing." That was completely true. Flying a severely damaged ship with only one functioning servo was very difficult. Prowl had tried firing at Megatron, but it had been impossible to keep his optics on him long enough.

Wheeljack nodded. "Never had to do that myself, but I imagine that would be difficult."

"You destroyed the Allspark?!" repeated Sentinel.

"Well, considering Megatron had it-"

Ultra Magnus raised an optic ridge. "Megatron?"

"Yeah, he's here…or was. Not sure where he disappeared to after the explosion." Which he did not cause. Wheeljack was quite happy about that in case you couldn't tell.

"There hasn't been any Decepticon activity since the Great War!" argued Sentinel.

Wheeljack shrugged. "Doesn't mean they're not around."

Ultra Magnus slammed his hammer onto the floor. "That is enough." He gave Wheeljack a reproachful look. "This is very serious situation. The Allspark was our main method of reproduction."

"We still have Vector Sigma and carrying," said Wheeljack. "We just have to adapt."

"It is still a heinous crime," said Ultra Magnus. "Are there any other witnesses to the destruction of the Allspark?"

Wheeljack paused. "Yes, but I don't think-"

"Take us to them."

Wheeljack shrugged. "Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you."

Sentinel saluted. "Sir, I've already taken the liberty of scanning alt modes to fit in with the local life forms."

A moment later a DeLorean, a monster truck with a snow plow, and a military vehicle with a satellite dish exited the vehicle, the latter two bumping into several cars on the way out and nearly hitting Captain Fanzone. He grit his teeth as he stood up. "This is why I hate machines!"

"I don't think I've ever seen cars like those," commented Bumblebee from up in the ship.

"Looks like we're gonna be hanging out for a while," said the unnamed bot. He held out a servo. "Name's Jazz."

Bulkhead shook it. "Like the music?"

Jazz raised an optic ridge. "Music?"

*Clang!*

Swoop jumped at the sudden noise and spun around. He frowned. "Why you Ratchet hit head?"

"Because the universe hates me." Swoop gave Ratchet a weird look like he was asking how that would work. Ratchet pushed away from the monitor he'd been looking at. "Go tell Silverbolt and your mother that someone from the Elite Guard is going to come ask them questions about Megatron and the Allspark."

Swoop nodded and dashed out. Ratchet looked at Flareup, who was still spending most of her time in recharge. He wasn't sure if he should consider her lucky or unlucky for getting to miss this.

Swoop swooped down from the ship. "Mommy!"

Sari looked up from where she was roasting an opossum. "Yeah?"

"Him Ratchet say Guard bots come to ask you and Grandpa about bad bot and spark explosion."

Sari paused. "Someone's coming to ask us about…Megatron…and the Allspark explosion?" Swoop nodded. "…Who're the Guard bots?"

"The Elite Guard," said Silverbolt. He stood up from where he'd been curled up next to the fire. "This is…important."

Sari thought for a second. "Those are the best in the military right? Name kinda gives it away."

"Yes."

Sari stared at her hands. "This could be bad for us."

Silverbolt sighed. "Yes."

"And do not piss off Grimlock. That'll piss off the rest of the Dinobots, and they will burn you with fire…or hit you with burning weapons…except for Sludge. She will punch you with burning fists, and she's a big femme," instructed Wheeljack as they made their way across the lake on a rather simple skiff/barge thing Wheeljack had managed to put together.

Ultra Magnus was staying cool. Sentinel was gaping. "You're saying a bunch of drones developed sparks and T-cogs?"

"Yeah, not bright though. Ratchet and I think it's because they don't have the general information in their processor that's downloaded before sparks are put into the frames since their sparks look fully developed."

Sentinel stared. "Why'd you expose a bunch of drones to the Allspark?"

"We didn't. We're not sure where the sparks came from, but it might have something to do with Sari. The Allspark seemed to have taken a liking to her…if that makes sense. What she was saying didn't really make sense to me, but she did manage to-Oh we're here!" Wheeljack jumped off and tied the boat to a post that Bulkhead had driven into the ground. "Okay, we're camping under and in the Orion, depending on size and how easily we can reach the ship."

Sentinel stared at the ship, which was still embedded in the mountain. "How did that happen?"

"Beats me. We originally crashed in the lake, but apparently the ship was made airborne long enough to distract Megatron before crashing into the mountain, although in Prowl's defense, those holes were already there and one of his servos wasn't working." Wheeljack set out. "Let's go!"

Sentinel stared after Wheeljack for a moment before turning to Ultra Magnus. "Is he crazy?"

"Possibly."

But he was still their guide so they followed after him to the camp site.

What they found was strange. Silverbolt was sitting cross-legged against a tree. Sari was still cooking the opossum, and Grimlock was playing guard. The other Dinobots didn't appear to be around. Grimlock growled when he saw Wheeljack with the unfamiliar mechs. Wheeljack held up his servos. "Hey, it's okay. These guys are on our side. They just wanna ask your mom and grandpa a few questions."

Grimlock continued to glare at the two strangers. He wasn't going to trust just anyone after all those other robots had shown up and hurt his family. They were going to have to prove that they meant no harm.

"Back off you malfunctioning glitch!"

Silverbolt facepalmed with a groan.

Grimlock took offense to Sentinel's statement and lunged for him. Wheeljack dove out of the way. Sentinel instinctively activated his shield. Grimlock transformed to robot mode, reached around the shield, grabbed Sentinel's servo, and flung him into a tree.

Sari was instantly up and running. "Grimlock! Don't do that!"

Ultra Magnus briefly debated helping Sentinel before deciding that he should be able to handle himself. He made his way over to Silverbolt, who was watching Sentinel and Grimlock with an odd look on his face. "You are Silverbolt?"

Silverbolt switched to Ultra Magnus. "Yes."

Ultra Magnus looked Silverbolt over. Even with his injuries, Silverbolt gave off an…aura. "I need to ask you what happened."

"I…can not…talk…lot." Talking for too long made Silverbolt's throat hurt…a lot.

"Just say what happened."

"Sari…was taken. I…followed. Megatron. I…chased him…lost him…found him…fought him. There was…ec…ex…explode? Explosion." Silverbolt coughed. He couldn't talk much longer.

"That's it? I need more information."

Silverbolt paused. How to explain with only a few words about how much he missed, how much more he noticed and how he still didn't understand how he'd managed to survive for so long. He didn't think he could explain even if he was given all the time and words in the world. He gestured towards his neck and made a choking motion.

Ultra Magnus seemed to understand to some extent. He frowned. "But you can't say for sure if it was Megatron?"

Silverbolt thought. "Never seen him." He'd seen pictures, but that didn't mean anything. Transformers changed their appearance regularly, especially when they were completely reconstructed from near deactivation. And a picture didn't show how someone moved, how they acted, how they smelled, how they spoke. Silverbolt opened his mouth to explain that…and coughed up blood.

Well, he wasn't going to be saying anything for the rest of the day.

Ultra Magnus seemed to understand and backed off. That or he was freaked out by the blood. It was hard to tell with him. "I believe I will talk to 'Sorry' now."

Silverbolt growled, somehow able to tell that Ultra Magnus got her name wrong. Then he coughed up more blood.

Ultra Magnus made his way over to Sari, who was sitting on Grimlock's head. Grimlock was in beast mode and had Sentinel in his mouth. Sentinel was predicably not pleased. "Put me down you demented turbolizard!"

"Stop antagonizing him!" demanded Sari

"You shut up!" shouted Sentinel.

"You're making it worse!" Sari whapped Grimlock on the snout. "Drop him! Drop him or no snuggles!"

"Snuggles?!" screeched Sentinel. "What sort of snuggles?!"

"What do you mean 'What sort of snuggles?' Snuggles are snuggles!"

"I need to talk to 'Sorry'," interrupted Ultra Magnus.

"It's S-A-R-I," said Sari, also somehow able tell he got her name wrong. "What-No chewing!" shouted Sari as Sentinel started making pained sounds

Ultra Magnus continued without missing a beat. "So far, all the witnesses have said you were kidnapped by Decepticons-"

"Actually, I got abducted by a human who was holding a little girl hostage and threatening to kill her," corrected Sari. "He did take me to a bunch of Decepticons. They had those pointy, purple face symbols on them."

Ultra Magnus frowned. "That doesn't make any sense. Why would an organic help a Decepticon?"

Sari shrugged. "How should I know? I'm not a mind reader! Grimlock, if you do not drop him right now, I swear I will-" Grimlock abruptly dropped Sentinel.

Sentinel scrambled backwards before standing up. "You-You-I ought to arrest you!"

"Grimlock was born on Earth, and you have no authority here," deadpanned Sari.

Ultra Magnus drew on his stores of patience. "And why did the Decepticons want you?"

"Uh, well they stuck a cable into me and the big gray head, and…" Sari trailed off. "Anyway, they did something with me so that he got his body back."

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," said Sentinel.

Sari shrugged. "You asked. If you don't believe me, that's your problem."

"Do you know what happened to the Allspark?" asked Ultra Magnus.

"It blew up."

"We already knew that," muttered Sentinel.

"After I stabbed it," finished Sari.

Awkward silence. "Why would you stab the Allspark?!" shouted Sentinel.

"Well, I didn't realize what it was at the time, also it…was…uh, how to put this? Something was pushing me to destroy it because it needed to be destroyed?" Sari frowned and shook her head. "No, that doesn't sound right. It didn't need to be destroyed. Uh, it wanted to be destroyed? Can it want stuff?"

"I think that's enough for now," said Ultra Magnus. This was becoming confusing. "Where can I find Ratchet?"

Sari jerked her thumb behind her. "He's in the ship with Swoop and Flareup."

Ultra Magnus sent a quick message to the ship's computer. A moment later, Ratchet was flown down by Swoop. Ultra Magnus gave Swoop a suspicious look before turning to Ratchet. "What exactly happened here?"

"…You may want to take a seat. This could take a while."

Down Below:

"Why am I still here?" muttered Hector. "He's got his body back, he's got troops, and I really doubt he needs me for reconnaissance."

The human was ignored.

"Whoever tore Spittor up sure was messy about it," commented Oil Slick. He'd finally repaired himself enough to start on Spittor's repairs. "I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to reattach his limbs…"

"You managed to repair yourself," said Strika. "It can't be that different."

"I'm a chemist, not a medic. I just picked up a few things from Scalpel. Anyway, the only really serious damage was my energon lines, which isn't too difficult to repair. Reattaching a couple of limbs may be out of my skill range. Any chance I can contact Scalpel?"

"No," said Megatron. "One of our sources reported a ship that matches the description of an Elite Guard vessel. It would be best if we do not alert them to our presence. That way they won't send any reinforcements. They may even evacuate the Autobots already here."

Icy Blitzwing nodded. "It may be for the best. Some of us are still recovering from the injuries we sustained in the battle for the Allspark."

Strika made an annoyed sound, partly because she was uninjured and partly because she hadn't actually gotten to fight due to how long it had taken her to make her way to everyone. She glanced at Cyclonus, the only other one who had gotten away uninjured.

"Our injuries are not so severe that we cannot serve you!" declared Lugnut. His right servo promptly fell off.

Strika sighed and facepalmed. "Dear, remember what I said about pushing yourself beyond all reason?"

While Strika lectured Lugnut on trying to fight when his parts were falling off, Blitzwing switched to Random and started miming Strika's gestures next to Cyclonus, seemingly in an attempt to get a reaction from the stoic mech.

So far, it wasn't working.

What passed for normal was interrupted by several gunshots. The Cons immediately turned towards the source, weapons drawn. It was Hector. He started when he realized what it looked like. "The drone malfunctioned and attacked me!" he explained.

Hector had found a still functioning drone and had brought it down. It had initially seemed like a good idea, but now it looked like it was gonna get him shot.

Megatron frowned as he noticed something unusual about the drone. He picked it up and sifted through the parts until he found an object that definitely shouldn't be there. It was very small, but he recognized the substance and energy signature. "It's part of the Allspark."

"Wasn't that destroyed?" asked Oil Slick.

Megatron thought for a moment. He hadn't actually seen what happened, but as there hadn't been a trace of the Allspark when the light faded and he'd recovered, he'd assumed it had been destroyed. Apparently, he'd been wrong. "It must have only been shattered instead of disintegrated like we assumed." He dropped the remains of the drone. "The explosion likely scattered the fragments throughout the city, if not farther. It's likely they will supercharge any machinery they come into contact with, causing it to behave erratically like this drone."

"I wouldn't be surprised if it has additional effects," said Oil Slick. "It does produce an unlimited amount of sparks and energy. If each shard isn't capable of the same thing, they will at least be capable of producing a lesser amount."

Blitzwing switched to Icy. "Will the shape affect how the energy is discharged?"

Oil Slick shrugged. "Don't know. The Allspark's always been one shape."

Megatron gave the shard a long, considering look. Perhaps he should not attempt to put any of the shards in his spark until after they determined how the individual shards would behave. "Oil Slick, build a container for this shard and any others we will recover. The Allspark may not be as lost as we initially assumed."

As Megatron gave this order, one of the factories up in Detroit shuddered to life.

Sari jumped as an odd feeling suddenly flared in the back of her head. It felt oddly similar to what she felt during the Megatron debacle. Where had that come from?

"…We found the casing for the Allspark, but the Allspark itself was gone. Considering the circumstances, it was probably destroyed. Flareup's still recovering and an organic medic assisted in repairing Silverbolt." Ratchet wondered if Ultra Magnus would believe the crazy story.

"You actually expect us to believe that bucket of slag?" It was obvious Sentinel didn't.

"We have not picked up any Decepticon signals," said Ultra Magnus. "In addition your explanation for the Allspark's disappearance is rather…outlandish."

"Would I make up something that ridiculous?" deadpanned Ratchet.

Sari sidled over to Wheeljack. "Would you mind taking me to the mainland?"

Wheeljack looked at her in surprise. "What brought this on?"

"Uh, there's something telling me to go to the mainland."

"Is it telling you why?" Sari shook her head. "…Well, I don't see any reason why I can't."

Grimlock stomped over. "Me Grimlock go too."

Wheeljack winced. "I don't think that's a good-"

"Me Grimlock go!" roared Grimlock.

"Okay, okay!" Sometimes it was easier to just go along with the Dinobots.

Somehow, by the time they'd reached the raft, the other Dinobots had joined them. After some corralling, the Dinobots were all safely on the boat, and Wheeljack was steering them towards the mainland.

Elite Guard ship:

"Sorry I took so long," said Jazz. "Ultra Magnus gets upset if we don't keep track of everything that we move around, energon included. Kind of slows down everyday life." He handed a cube to Bumblebee and Bulkhead. He tried to hand one to Prowl, but Prowl didn't move to take it. Jazz frowned but shrugged and put the cube next to him. "So, how long have you been on this planet?"

"A few months," said Bulkhead.

"Plus those 58 stellar cycles we were in stasis," added Bumblebee.

"Do those count?"

"Sure, we were on this planet. We just weren't aware of anything."

"Wow, how did you survive that long?" asked Jazz. Bumblebee and Bulkhead gave him confused looks. "Sentinel says that organics shoot acid slime that can melt through our armor."

Bumblebee and Bulkhead gave him a shocked look before bursting into laughter. Jazz recoiled a bit. "What? What's so funny?"

"Acid slime?" asked Bumblebee. "Really? Where'd he get that from?"

Jazz blinked. "They…don't have acid slime?"

Bulkhead shook his head. "Nope. Must are harmless. They're just so small."

"Prowl, you're the expert. You tell him," said Bumblebee. Prowl didn't move. Bumblebee frowned. "Prowl?"

"Is it his glitch?" asked Bulkhead.

"Glitch?" Jazz tensed up. Glitches could be dangerous depending on what caused them and what they did. "What sort of glitch?"

"He just does…" Bumblebee gestured at Prowl. "That. I think it happens 'cause he gets bored, but Ratchet says that's ridiculous"

"It is kind of weird though," muttered Bulkhead.

Jazz waved a servo in front of Prowl's optics. "Weird how?"

"He didn't do this before we crashed," explained Bulkhead.

"It's acquired?" Jazz clapped his servos in front of Prowl. "Any idea what brought this on?"

"Well, he was pretty beat up when he was put into stasis," said Bumblebee. "It was…bad."

"How do we fix him?"

"Ratchet usually just hits him," said Bulkhead.

Jazz lightly slapped Prowl on the back of his helm. Prowl jerked, realized that everyone was in a different position and staring at him, and groaned. "Again?"

"You really should get that fixed," said Jazz.

"Yes, I know." Prowl did not like being unaware of his surroundings. That was one of the most basic aspects of being a ninja! "Did you need something?"

"Jazz thinks organics shoot acid slime," grinned Bumblebee.

Prowl snorted. "That's ridiculous. True, some species secrete toxic mucus, but it's only harmful to other organics, and it's mainly a defense mechanism to keep from being eaten."

"So…no acid slime?"

Prowl shook his head. "No, I'd imagine it would harm the organism that produces it as well. Besides, Sari and Silverbolt wouldn't have survived for so long if organic and mechanical life forms weren't capable of coexisting."

"Who're Sari and Silverbolt?" asked Jazz.

Factory:

"Did you know this was going on?" asked Wheeljack, staring at the scene in front of him.

Sari was also staring. "I honestly had no idea."

Robots were pouring out of the factory and attacking anything, including each other. The police force had shown up, but there wasn't much they could do in the way of damage control currently.

"This is why I hate machines!"

Sari and Wheeljack's attention went to Capt. Fanzone. "Uh, did someone figure out how to fix the drones?" asked Wheeljack.

"No!" shouted Fanzone. "It just started up on its own! Do you know how hard it is to deal with malfunctioning robots that have guns and Tasers?"

Sari frowned. She needed to get in the factory. She didn't know why, but she needed to. "Want us to deal with them? The Dinobots are itching for a fight."

Fanzone gave the Dinobots a dubious look. They did look like they were about to jump the robots. "Those bots are liable to destroy the whole building!"

Sari jerked her thumb towards Wheeljack. "So's Wheeljack."

"Hey!"

One of the robots overturned a police cruiser. Fanzone twitched. "Fine! Just get them to stop!"

Sari grinned. "You heard him boys!"

Elite Guard ship:

"So, they're organic and mechanical?" Prowl nodded. Jazz tried to picture what such beings would have to look like and got a rather scary image. "It's kind of a creepy picture."

"I personally find them fascinating," said Prowl.

"But you've been avoiding Sari," said Bulkhead. Prowl gave him a look while Bumblebee snickered.

"Hi everyone. This is Wheeljack. There's a factory that's started up on its own and is producing malfunctioning drones of the attack variety. I'm gonna go in and see if I can fix it while the Dinobots deal with the drones. Sari said I should let you know."

Prowl, familiar with the damage the Dinobots could cause, shot up and ran for the exit of the ship.

Jazz intercepted him, bringing his servos up. "Whoa now! I can't just let you leave!"

Prowl tried to get around him, but Jazz continued to block him. "You do not know the Dinobots like I do! They will need some sort of supervision if they are going to be in a fight!"

"But Wheeljack and Sari are there," pointed out Bulkhead.

Prowl shook his head. "They aren't the most responsible role models in that regard."

Bulkhead winced. "Good point."

"Can't you just go with him?" asked Bumblebee.

Jazz thought for a moment. "Yeah, that could work."

Ratchet's response to Wheeljack's com was to curse violently. Ultra Magnus was already running for the shore. Sentinel was running after Ultra Magnus, although he didn't understand why his commander was running like that. Silverbolt just rolled his eyes and grabbed the opossum that Sari had been cooking. He was getting hungry, and it would be a waste to let it burn.

"That was some funky light show," commented Jazz

"You mean the traffic lights?" asked Bumblebee.

"Traffic lights, huh? Solid…Whoa!" Jazz's exclamation was brought on by the sight of the Dinobots trashing any drone that got near them. "Those are the Dinobots?"

Prowl transformed and jumped into the fray. "Slag! Do not throw the drones into the walls!"

Jazz barely had time to blink as Bumblebee and Bulkhead jumped in to help Prowl and/or the Dinobots. Jazz paused. "Is that circuit-su? You know circuit-su?" Jazz jumped in to help out and observe Prowl's moves some more.

Wheeljack was inside the factory. He would've tried to shut down the factory, but he had to avoid the drones that went after him. He didn't think using grenades in such a small building would be a good idea. At least Sari was helping by blasting and slicing the drones. "Why did you come in here again?" he asked.

"I needed to be in here!"

"Why do you need to be in here?"

"I don't know! I just do!"

Wheeljack groaned. "You're going to need a better reason than that! I can already tell that Ultra Magnus thinks there's something wrong with you!"

"So do most civilized humans!" countered Sari. She absentmindedly cut through a nearby drone. "Let's face it! Most of the people in our groups could be considered crazy!"

"I personally think Bulkhead's more of a savant," argued Wheeljack.

"Why are we talking about this?!"

"I don't know!"

Sari suddenly pointed to the right. "What's up with that control console?!"

Wheeljack zoomed in at the console. "It has a hole in it! Not a big deal!"

Sari vaulted over to the panel. There was a tugging sensation coming from the panel. Sari stuck her hands into the hole and ripped the console open.

There was something in it that was glowing. Sari reached in and yanked it out.

Immediately, the factory and drones shut down. Sari glanced at the small piece of matter that had apparently caused this mess before turning to Wheeljack. "Do you know what this is?"

Wheeljack's optics bugged out as he knelt down to get a closer look at the shard. "That…That looks like the Allspark!"

Outside, Ultra Magnus and Sentinel had pulled up just in time to see the drones deactivate.

Fanzone walked over. "Hey! Are you the bots that rammed into my police cruisers earlier? Do you know how much it costs to repair those?!"

"Silence organ-gah!" Sentinel's response was cut off as Grimlock, who was still riding the battle high, jumped him.

"Grimlock!" Prowl was instantly there, swatting Grimlock's head. "We do not attack allies! Let him go!"

Grimlock decided to be difficult. Fortunately, Sentinel had a free servo that he used to punch Grimlock in the snout and jumped back when Grimlock reflexively opened his mouth. "Why do you keep trying to eat me?!"

"Me Grimlock not like you."

Prowl groaned. "You don't attack someone just because you don't like them…"

Prowl proceeded to ignore the two Elite Guard bots as he tried to instill this knowledge into Grimlock. Fortunately, Jazz was there to prevent any sort of misunderstanding. "I think these Dinobots think like sparklings…They'd be cute if they weren't so big…and breathed fire…and enjoyed fighting."

Ultra Magnus thought a minute. Well, sparklings did tend to speak their mind and have bad grammar…However, there was another problem. "What are you doing here?"

"Prowler insisted that we needed to come down here to keep the Dinobots from causing too much damage," explained Jazz. He turned to look at the factory. There were a couple of holes, but nothing too serious. "Looks stable to me."

"…Is Wheeljack still inside?" asked Ultra Magnus. He wasn't going to consider the building stable while Wheeljack was inside.

Fortunately, Wheeljack ran out right about then with Sari riding his shoulder. "Look what Sari found!" He held his right servo out, the small shard sitting in the center of it.

Ultra Magnus stared before carefully picking up the shard. It was so small. He was afraid he might accidentally crush it between his two digits.

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Bumblebee.

"It appears to be a shard of the Allspark," admitted Ultra Magnus.

Sentinel frowned. "So they did destroy the Allspark."

"No," corrected Ultra Magnus. "This still appears to be functional. It's likely it was just split into an unknown number of pieces. It may be possible to repair it."

"That doesn't change the fact that they tried to destroy the Allspark!" argued Sentinel.

Sari raised an arm. "Actually, that was just me, and I didn't realize what it was at the time. I just thought it was some sort of super power up thing."

Ultra Magnus frowned. She had admitted earlier that she was the one stabbed the Allspark and likely caused it to shatter. He didn't understand how that would cause the Allspark to shatter though. That wasn't all that was bothering him. "How did you find this?"

"Uh, it pulled me to it," explained Sari with a shrug. "I don't know how else to describe it."

Ultra Magnus thought for a moment. "I believe this may require more observation," he decided. "Perhaps it would be best to stay on this planet for a short amount of time until we can find some hard evidence to support or dispute the claims we've heard up to this point."

"You mean we have to stay on this screw loose planet?!"

Dinobot Island:

"Seriously, why is my entire body suddenly itchy? It's really annoying."

Ratchet grit his denta. He was stuck on the ground while Flareup was complaining about her sudden itchiness up in the Orion, and he couldn't do a thing because Swoop had run off with the other Dinobots.

He was going to give that bot a talking to when he got back.

And now Butterflies presents: The Afterword.

"So now you're calling it 'The Afterword'?"

KHGiggle shrugged. "We didn't get a lot of questions to answer." She paused. "Although we did get a review with several questions about what would happen in this season from smartcat9. Ironic really."

Vector pulled out a list. He looked it over with a frown. "Some of these can't be answered without spoilers."

KHGiggle shrugged. "Let me take a look at them." Vector shrunk the list and handed it to her. She read a few. "I think we can answer a few of them. First, and I'm paraphrasing: What is up with Bumblebee's circuitry? Is he some kind of faction hybrid?"

"Bumblebee is a fully mechanical Cybertronian," said Vector.

"Why did you mention Ratchet being a parent?"

"Because he is a parent," answered Vector.

"Does Prowl find out what his glitch is in the next season?"

"He'll find out something about it."

"Will Optimus be on the Elite Team when they visit?"

"Oh yes, I wondered when someone was going to ask about Optimus Prime," commented Vector. "He's not in the Elite Guard, sad to say, but rest assured, he has an important role to play in this season."

KHGiggle snickered. "Who was Flareup's instructor whose house she blew up and why did she do it?"

"That is a canon event," said Vector. "Look up her bio on tfwiki. I believe the poor bot's name was Autosanrin."

"And…I don't think we can answer these two without giving something away," finished KHGiggle. "Sorry smartcat9."

Vector glanced at the list. "Those two questions will be answered this season though. So long as nothing happens to disrupt the schedule, you will have the answer to your questions relatively soon."

"And that's all for now! We hope you stay with us for the whole season!" said KHGiggle, waving at the audience.

This has been The Afterword.