A Spark's Life That Shines Book 1 (TFP Fanfiction) [Slow Updates/Haitus]

The Reunion Part 4

"Good thing to hear, now let's get out of here. This has been a rough day for all of us. And we could use some time to relax." Jack said as he stretched his arms up.

"Round of video games?" Raf asked excitedly.

"You're on." Jack said with a smile.

"Mind if the girls join in?" Miko asked as she gestured to herself and Emily.

"Sure." Raf nodded.

"Just as long as you don't mind losing." Jack said with a teasing look as Emily smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"You should know better than to challenge us." She said with a smirk.

"Oh yeah, challenging is one painful experience. But you know what they say. You win some, you lose some. And today I'm feeling kind of lucky." Jack said with his hands behind his head. He was sure that he'll win the game this time.

"How about you start bragging when you actually win." Emily remarked playfully while leaning against Optimus' side near his tire with her arms crossed.

"Whatever." Jack said with a playful roll of his eyes.

"Before we watch what's new on the internet, I'm sure by now there are some new videos." Miko suggested.

"What do you say, Jack?" Ref asked the raven haired teen curiously.

"Well a videogame champ needs to relax a bit before a big game. So I'm up for it." Jack said but Arcee had to stop them.

"Not so fast, Jack, you'll watch your videos and play your games after you finish the rest of your homework and after dealing with your chores. That goes for all of you kids." Arcee reminded them like a mother.

The trio all started to whine or complain except Emily who knew it was coming since Arcee was always the one that reminds the kids about doing their homework and their chores around the base.

"Come on, Arcee, we had a really hard day and we could use some time to relax a bit." Jack complained.

"Don't argue with me, young man, you know the rules." Arcee reminded him sternly with a tone a parent uses.

"Yeah I know, responsibilities before pleasures." Jack said with a sigh.

"Exactly." Arcee said.

"It's okay, I get it." Jack said as he pouted a little.

"Hmph, there she goes acting all mama bot again." Miko whispered in annoyance but stiffened when Arcee turned to her.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Arcee asked curiously.

"Nothing, it was nothing." Emily said as she jumped in defense of Miko.

"I'm pretty sure I heard something." Arcee said as she narrowed her optics even in vehicle mode.

"Must've been a fly. Or maybe a mosquito." Raf said with a nervous smile.

All of the sudden there was a huge silence and no one said anything. Arcee didn't really believe that what she heard was a fly or a mosquito. She really believed that Miko had said something disrespectful towards her. So to try and cut down the tension, Bulkhead started to ask the kids how school was today.

"So how was class today? Big pop quiz right?" Bulkhead said as Miko became nervous. Oh crud.

"Yeah." Miko said while avoiding eye contact.

"I'm sure that since you studied hard, you'll pass for sure." Bulkhead said as Miko became even more nervous.

"Yeah, sure... study hard." Miko said meekly.

"That didn't seem pretty convincing." Arcee deadpan.

"Hey, get off her back. The girl is just a bit tired because of all that study she did last night after I brought her home." Bulkhead defended his charge.

"Yeah..." Miko said as Jack, Raf and Emily gave her the look.

Something in Miko's voice seemed to be off and Bulkhead noticed it. He was wondering why she talked as if she was hiding something unless she was hiding something.

"Is everything okay, Miko?" Bulkhead asked in concern.

"Yeah, yeah. I was just thinking back about how fun last night was. Studying is tons of fun." Miko said as she wanted to change the subject.

"That's funny, you always said that studying was boring. And now you say it's fun?" Bulkhead said suspiciously.

"Well..." Miko started as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Miko. You did study last night right?" Bulkhead question as he uses that tone parents use.

"Yes. Maybe. A little? Okay, I didn't." Miko gave in after denying it for a few minutes.

"Aww, Miko, we talked about this. You must work hard if you want to-" Bulkhead started as Miko puffed her cheek while crossing her arms.

"To succeed. Yeah, I know that." Miko said with a pout.

"Well, well, mister. What do you have to say to that? It looks like you really don't have a way with kids, especially Miko." Arcee said as Bulkhead rolled his optics.

"Oh, I'm sorry if my way of educating kids doesn't live up to your mama bot standard. And unlike you, I'm not always breathing down people's neck." Bulkhead countered back as Arcee was taken back by that.

"I don't do that." Arcee denied but Bulkhead wasn't falling for that.

"Yes, you do. Jack's the living proof of that. The kids told me about how you never let him take the girl he likes for a ride." Bulkhead argued and Arcee was surprised and turned to the kids.

"Wait what? You guys told him about this?" Arcee said in surprise.

"No. Maybe. A little." The kids say nervously.

"Are you serious? Emily?" Arcee asked in disbelief as she turned to Emily who just smiled sheepishly.

"Raf?" Arcee turned to Raf who fidgeted on his spot nervously.

"Miko?" Arcee turned to Miko.

"Well..." Miko started as Arcee groaned silently. She should have known.

"So you guys did tell Bulkhead about that huh?" She asked in a deadpan tone.

"Actually, Jack did." Miko said as she pointed to the raven hair who was surprised.

"Me? When?" Jack asked in confusion. When did he tell them?

"Uh, hello, you told Raf who told me. And that's how Bulkhead knows because I told him." Miko said as she raised an eyebrow at him as Jack just groaned in dismay while covering his face.

"Ha! Take that, missy." Bulkhead said triumphantly.

"Uh oh, this is bad." Raf said quietly as he hid by Bumblebee's door.

"Really bad." Emily agreed nervously while Bumblebee whirred in agreement.

"If I were you, I would stop talking because all those talks about studying hard to succeed didn't work well with Miko." Arcee said.

"Oh really? Well if you're so good then tell me why is Jack complaining about you ruining his life?" Bulkhead retorted and that made Arcee back up a little.

"I'm ruining his life?! You're the one who lets Miko run wild and do what she wants. You sometimes even join her in her crazy ideas." Arcee told him angrily.

"No, I don't. You have no way of proving that." Bulkhead denied it.

"Need a reminder about what happened last week?" Arcee reminded him as everyone remembered it very clearly.

The whole team remembers the time when Miko and Bulkhead went for a swim. Ratchet wanted to try and see if the ground bridge was functional or if it needed some reparations. He wanted two volunteers, one bot and one human. He had been talking about checking the ground bridge functionalities for a week. Hearing that, gave Miko an idea. A beach day with Bulkhead on a nice oasis in the Sahara. She thought that she could go with Bulkhead and spend a whole day in an oasis at the Sahara and take a sun tan. Perhaps a swim and maybe some other stuff.

Flashback starts;

"Alright, everyone, the time has come to begin the ground bridge maintenance. I'm gonna need help from everyone around. And as you already know, for that I need two volunteers. One Autobot and one human. To travel through the ground bridge that way after we finish the proper check ups, we will try to bring those two volunteers back to base safely. In case the ground bridge doesn't work properly, we will be forced to stop the transportation and find out what's wrong all over again." Ratchet explained as everyone was gathered in the main room except for Optimus.

"You mean that if bringing back the two volunteers doesn't work, we will have to do this maintenance all over again?" Smokescreen deduced in a question as Ratchet nodded.

"Yes, Smokescreen. We will work on it as many times as necessary. Do you have a problem with that?" Ratchet said before raising an optic ridge at him as Smokescreen shook his head.

"No, sir." He said.

"Good. Also I must congratulate you on your fine use of the word 'sir' considering the situation." Ratchet said with his servos on his hips.

"The situation?" Cliffjumper asked in confusion as Bumblebee whirred to ask what he meant.

"It means, Bumblebee, that during this maintenance check up, I'll be your supervisor." Ratchet said but this only got Smokescreen bursting out laughing while the others snickered except for two.

"Hahahahaha! You? Get real." Smokescreen laugh.

"Your sense of humour needs a bit of work, Ratchet." Bulkhead said with a snicker.

"I'll say." Cliffjumper said with an amused grin.

"Wow, who knew the doctor could make jokes." Miko said as Jack nodded.

"I'm kind of surprised too." Jack said in agreement.

"That was really funny." Raf agreed but Emily just raised an eyebrow at them.

"No offense, you guys, but I don't think Ratchet is joking." Emily said while crossing her arms.

"Why's that?" Miko asked in confusion before Emily gestured to Ratchet's faceplate.

"Well, the look on his face says it all." Emily pointed out.

"Very clever, Emily. And yes you do have a point. I am not joking. I spoke with Optimus Prime recently and asked him permission for you all to be under my authority as supervisor during this work." Ratchet said but the others still think he's joking.

"Okay, now you're officially kidding right?" Smokescreen asked but Optimus answered for him.

"It's not a joke, Smokescreen." Optimus said as he surprised everyone.

He came in as everyone turned towards him in surprise except Ratchet.

"Optimus?" Smokescreen asked in confusion and disbelief.

"So it's true? You agreed to Ratchet's recommendation?" Cliffjumper question in disbelief.

"Why in the name of Primus did you accept that?" Bulkhead asked in surprise as Bumblebee whirred out in complaint as well.

"Because, Bulkhead, I'd figured that the team could use some work that would allow you all to reinforce your teamwork and the relationship with your comrades. Working together in and outside the battlefield is very important." Optimus told them as he looked at each of them.

"And you waited this long to tell us?" Cliffjumper question while putting a servo to his hip.

"You've gotta be kidding." Smokescreen groaned in disbelief.

"Thanks for telling us right now, Optimus." Bulkhead said with a small groan.

"Talk about bad timing." Cliffjumper muttered as Bumblebee agreed with him.

"Now that's enough complaining, you four. You should try and learn from Arcee who hasn't complained once. Much appreciated, Arcee." Ratchet said as the femme nodded.

"Thank you, sir." Arcee said with a small smirk.

"Boy, am I glad I'm not one of them. Since the bots are gonna be doing all the hard work. I think I speak to everyone when I say, games and movies tonight." Miko said excitedly.

"Cool." Raf smiled excitedly.

"Sounds like a plan." Jack said with a glint of excitement in his eyes but Ratchet had to stop them.

"Hep yep yep yep. Not so fast, you four. Just because you won't be helping with the ground bridge, doesn't mean that you'll spend all day watching your human movies and playing your silly video games. This work may be for bigger bots but the other will require smaller hands, in this case, human hands." Ratchet told them as Emily raised an eyebrow with a knowing smile.

"So you're saying that you have some work for us?" She guessed as Ratchet nodded.

"Yes, I do." Ratchet said as this piqued Miko's attention.

"What, really? Tell us then. What will we do? Please tell me that we'll unscrew something." Miko said as Ratchet thought.

"Well, not really. You see, this work is gonna be a bit dirty and we will need you kids to make it undirty." Ratchet said and Jack knew what that meant.

"Hold on a sec. You mean we...?" Jack asked as he gestured to himself and the trio.

"Yes, Jack, you four have been assigned to cleaning duty." Ratchet nodded to what he was about to say.

"Cleaning duty huh? Sounds like fun." Emily said.

"Yeah... fun." Miko said but she seemed distracted.

"What's up with her?" Raf whispered curiously to Jack as he noticed how Miko was acting.

"My guess is that she has a plan inside her mind." Jack whispered back with a shrug. Knowing Miko, she'll have an idea on how to get away from cleaning duty.

"Alright then, now that you know what we're doing. I'm gonna give you each of your assignments, but first. Anyone here want to volunteer?" Ratchet told them before looking at everyone to see who would volunteer.

No one said anything for some reason. Suddenly a weird rattling noise of metal could be heard. As if some servos were trembling. They saw that this disturbing noise of trembling servos was coming from Bulkhead, who was trembling for a certain reason which confused them.

"Is there a reason why you're trembling? Soldier?" Ratchet question curiously.

"No, sir, no reason, sir." Bulkhead said nervously.

"Very well then. Does anyone want to volunteer? I'm still waiting." Ratchet said as he eyed everyone.

No one still says anything yet and Bulkhead was still trembling. Miko started to look at him. She began to move her head on the side as a way to tell Bulkhead to say something. He didn't want to say anything because he was too nervous. Miko motioned him to do so before Ratchet chooses someone else of his own accord.

"Well... since no one is volunteering of their own accord. I have no choice but to choose someone. Unless someone is having a sudden change of mind." Ratchet said as he was still waiting for an answer but still none came from who would volunteer.

"Very well then. The two volunteers will-" Ratchet started but was cut off by Miko.

"Wait! I wanna volunteer." Miko said quickly as everyone turned towards her.

"You do?" Emily asked curiously and in confusion.

"Well, actually we wanna volunteer. Bulkhead and I. Isn't that right, Bulkhead?" Miko said as she started to wink at Bulkhead to tell him to say something so that the others won't suspect anything suspicious.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Miko and I... talked about it. We both thought that since I'm big, strong and clumsy that it was... best for the whole team if we both went out for a... a... an exploration." Bulkhead finally said as the others eyed him and Miko curiously.

"An exploration? Really?" Arcee asked curiously while raising an optic ridge as Bulkhead nodded..

"Yes, I mean, Miko could learn something new that could help her with... Geography and History class." Bulkhead said as his faceplate heated up in embarrassment.

Arcee and the others start to laugh because they could not believe what was coming out of his mouth.

"Geography and History? Last time you took her to an exploration, you broke a fresco with your aft, remember?" Smokescreen snickered as he was referring to the Deus Ex Machina incident before they met Emily.

"That's not true." Bulkhead said as he crossed his arms.

"Totally not true. He got thrown by Breakdown and then he broke the fresco, with his aft." Miko explained as Bulkhead just groaned at that.

"What, really? Oh man, I wish I could've seen that." Cliffjumper said. He really did miss a lot.

"Hey, guys, come on, the girl could use some exploration as a learning experience." Bulkhead insisted.

"You don't really expect us to believe you. Do you, Bulkhead?" Arcee questions him but Optimus stops them from anything else.

"That is enough, team, whatever the reason Bulkhead and Miko have to volunteer, I'm sure they'll make the best of this experience." Optimus said and Bulkhead and Miko had to thank him for that.

"Thank you, Optimus." Bulkhead said with a smile as Optimus nodded.

"Alright then, enough chit chat, now that we have our volunteers it's for the assignment." Ratchet started before turning to Cliffjumper and Smokescreen.

"Cliffjumper and Smokescreen, you'll be in charge of removing the panels, carefully." He instructed.

"We got this." Cliffjumper said as he and Smokescreen fist bump.

"Yeah." Smokescreen grinned as Ratchet turned to Arcee and Bumblebee.

"Arcee and Bumblebee, you'll make sure to put the panels in a safe place. Put them in order, carefully. And make sure you clear them of any dust." Ratchet instructed them as Arcee and Bumblebee eyed each other before nodding.

"Sounds easy enough." Arcee said as Bumblebee agreed with her.

"Jack, Raf and Emily. You three-" Ratchet started but was cut off by Jack.

"We know, we must clean everything." Jack started.

"Leave it spotless." Raf continued.

"While being careful." Emily finished with a nod.

"Yes but I haven't told you what you'll be cleaning. I want you three to clean off every bit of dust that will come out of the panel removal. You'll have to broom, mop and vacuum. And while you're at it, you could clean some parts of the base. The downstairs level and the upper levels." Ratchet instructed them as they agreed. This is just like spring cleaning.

"Sure, sounds easy enough." Jack said.

"Yes but let's not get too carried away. And before I forget, Rafael. I'm gonna need your help later with the ground bridge reprogramming procedure." Ratchet said as he turned to Raf who nodded at the request.

"No problem." Raf said with a thumbs up.

"Hey, Ratchet, are you sure you're not forgetting something?" Emily asked him as Ratchet turned towards her in confusion.

"Not that I know of." Ratchet said as Emily shook her head in amusement.

"Well, I think I have a new assignment. And I have just the right person for it." Emily said as she let Bolty climb onto her hand.

"Bolty? You want Bolty to help? It is absolutely out of the question. I don't want this Scraplet to mess things up." Ratchet stated as he was still wary of Bolty for being a Scraplet even though he isn't like the normal ones.

"Come on, Ratchet. He won't do anything bad. Besides, Bolty doesn't do anything unless you give it to him." Emily told the medic as he raised an optic ridge.

"Oh really? And how could this thing help?" Ratchet questions her as Emily just smiles.

"Simple, since this job requires unbolting certain stuff. You'll probably find a rusty bolt." Emily said and she quickly got an instant reaction from two mechs.

"Rusty bolts?!" Both Cliffjumper and Smokescreen exclaimed in fear and shock with Bumblebee asking the same thing while Emily and Bolty looked at them.

"Did I say something wrong?" She asked in confusion.

"Let's say some bots here act like sparklings when they hear the R word." Arcee said as she threw the two scared mechs an amused smirk.

"What's the R word?" Miko asked curiously.

"Yeah, tell us." Jack said as he was curious as well.

"Okay, get ready. You'll laugh at this one. It's Rust." Arcee said as the kids had their jaws drop in amusement at that.

"Seriously?" Jack asked as he snickered quietly.

"Rust?" Raf questioned in amusement.

"You gotta be kidding." Miko said as she tried to hold in her laughter.

"Doesn't seem that funny." Emily said as she held in her laughter with Jack agreeing.

"Yeah." Jack nodded in agreement.

Emily said that the bots being scared of the word Rust didn't seem very funny. She and the others were trying desperately to hold back their laughter but it was so hard. In a matter of seconds, they couldn't resist it and they began to laugh as Miko was practically rolling on the ground while kicking her feet.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!" The kids burst out laughing hysterically.

"You bots are scared of rust? That's a good one!" Miko wheezed as she tried to get her breathing back to normal.

"Not funny, guys!" Smokescreen pouted while crossing his arms which added more laughter to the kids as they were practically wheezing from laughing too much.

"Thanks a lot, Arcee." Cliffjumper grumbled in both annoyance and fondness towards his femme friend

"Hey don't blame me. It's not my fault if humans are curious. Besides, their reaction is kind of accurate. You guys are big bots and you're still scared of a little rust." Arcee said with a shrug and a smirk.

"We're not." Cliffjumper said in denial.

"Sometimes, you are." Miko said.

"Whatever." Smokescreen said with a roll of his optics and grin.

"At least Bulkhead isn't scared. It figures that big and strong bot like him wouldn't be scared of rust." Miko said as Miko turned towards him.

But Bulkhead stays silent but for some reason his trembling starts up again.

"Uh, dude. you're trembling again." Miko pointed out.

"I'm just... nervous." Bulkhead said as Miko raised an eyebrow.

"Don't tell me you too are scared of rust?" Miko asked him in a teasing tone.

"Who, me? Scared of a wee bit of rust? Not a chance." Bulkhead said but it was clear he was bluffing.

"Okay." Miko said with a shrug but didn't believe him.

Miko did not believe a word of what Bulkhead just said about not being scared of rust so she had decided to put that to the test

"Oh no! Bulkhead! You stepped into some rust!" Miko yelled and had to stop herself from bursting out laughing at what happened next.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! WHERE???!!! WHERE!!!???" Bulkhead screamed like a girl.

"Right there. Under your foot. I got you! Man, you totally fell for it. Hahahaha!" Miko burst out laughing again as she hit the couch with her fist from laughing too hard

"Okay, this is gonna come as a surprise but that was really funny." Jack agreed as he chuckled.

"Oh, Miko." Bulkhead groaned in embarrassment.

"Sorry, big guy. But come on, you're huge and strong. No one can beat you. And you're scared of rust?" Miko stated.

"We're made of metal, Miko, so of course we're scared. For any Transformer, it's the worst thing." Bulkhead said and hit his chassis to prove his point as it made a clunk sound.

"Yeah and you guys have no right to laugh at us. After all, it's a well known fact that humans are scared of thunder." Smokescreen said as he kept his arms crossed.

"Okay, that's the actual fear of talking." Jack said as he remembered Raf having a fear of storms.

"Enough nonsense. Emily, explain how your pet can help us." Ratchet said as he had enough distractions and needed to get to the point.

"That's easy, he can eat every rusty bolt you find. Plus it helps with his training. So far he hasn't eaten anything that he mustn't eat." Emily explained as she rubbed Bolty under his chin as he purred happily at that.

"Yes, it's true that despite his savage nature, Bolty hasn't eaten anything or anyone made of metal. I suppose he could help." Ratchet said as he thought about it before coming to a decision.

"Very well then Bolty can help. Since Miko is the one who volunteered, he will take her place." Ratchet said as Bolty jumped up and down happily. He would love to help his friends and caretakers.

"Cool and don't worry. Bolty won't cause trouble." Emily said as Bolty sat on her head.

"I hope so. Now that everyone has their assignment, I will give you all a five minute break. I need to get my tools." Ratchet said before turning to the two volunteers.

"Bulkhead and Miko, prepare for immediate departure and think of where you wanna go." Ratchet told them as they nodded.

"Will do, Ratchet. Yo, Bulk, come. I wanna tell you something." Miko said before turning to Bulkhead.

Miko gestured for Bulkhead to accompany her to a quiet place so that no one would hear them.

"Dude, what was that all about?" Miko asked him after they were out of earshot.

"Sorry, I'm very scared of stepping on something rusty." Bulkhead apologized as Miko raised an eyebrow.

"Not that. I meant when Ratchet asked who wanted to volunteer. We had a deal, man. You would tell him that you and I would volunteer both. You almost blew up our whole plan." Miko scolded him as Bulkhead sighed.

"Sorry. I get nervous, at least now I won't have to worry about Ratchet yelling at me because I broke something he needed." Bulkhead said honestly as Miko agreed with him there.

"Yeah, that's a relief. So are you ready to go ahead with the plan?" Miko then asked excitedly.

"Yeah, you could say that." Bulkhead said a little hesitantly.

"What's wrong now?" Miko asked him curiously.

"Are you sure it's a good idea? You know how much I hate it when that stuff gets in me." Bulkhead asked her as she gave him a thumbs up.

"You're gonna be fine." Miko reassured him as Bulkhead was still pretty unsure of the whole plan Miko had in mind.

"If you say so. You got the stuff?" Bulkhead asked as she nodded.

"You betcha. Give me a moment." Miko said as she went to where she had hidden something that had to do with her plan.

Both her and Bulkhead had agreed on spending a day in a nice place. They could've gone to the beach but that wasn't the best option since beaches are sometimes full of people.

If they saw Bulkhead, word about aliens living among humans would spread all over and the secret would stop being a secret. So to avoid getting caught, Miko had decided that the best place they could go was to enjoy a nice beach day at an oasis in the desert of the Sahara.

Miko had recently heard in Geography class that the desert of the Sahara has many oases. So she thought that she could go with Bulkhead and spend a whole day on a nice Oasis, take a sun tan and perhaps a swim.

For that matter she had all her stuff for it. During that week Miko had put everything she needed for the desert and the oasis in a single duffel bag. When she was done with gathering everything she needed.

She brought it to the base and hid it in a place where no one would find it so that way no one would find out about her plan of using this unique occasion to slack off and avoid doing chores.

"Here it is. Everything I need for our beach day at the Sahara." Miko said as she put all the stuff away for a beach day.

A swimsuit, 3 bottles full of water, sun tan lotion, sunglasses, a beach ball and a wireless bluetooth speaker.

"You got everything?" Bulkhead asked as she nodded.

"Yeah. Although I should tell you that most of my stuff is your trunk." Miko told him as he blinked in surprise.

"Wait what? You mean you put some of your stuff in my trunk without even telling me?" He questioned her in disbelief.

"Uh, yeah." Miko said with a grin.

Bulkhead began to check his trunk and found out that Miko did put certain stuff in his trunk like her summer chair and parasol.

"A little warning next time?" Bulkhead said as Miko raised an eyebrow at him. She did give him a memo for that.

"I left you a memo, dude. In a yellow post? I put it on your front window." Miko said as Bulkhead just looked at her blankly.

"You do know that I can't read your small writing right?" He stated as Miko laugh sheepishly at him.

"Right, whoopsie. Anyways, let's get this beach day ready." Miko said but Bulkhead stopped her.

"Hold on, young lady. I hope you did what I asked you to." He reminded her.

"Oh that? Pfft no probs. It's all in here." She said as she tapped the side of her head with her finger.

"That's a surprise." He said in slight suspicion.

"Hey, for a free day of no chores. I would study the whole theory of relativity." Miko said with a shrug.

"Oh really?" Bulkhead raised an optic ridge at that.

"Don't start getting any ideas on that big head of yours, big guy. Anyway, it looks to me like our plan is a go." Miko said as Bulkhead agreed with her on that. He just hopes it doesn't blow at their faces.

"Yeah. I just hope it won't end badly." Bulkhead hoped.

"Stop being so negative, bro." Miko said with a puff of her cheek.

"Okay, okay, I'm just saying." Bulkhead said with his servos up in defense.

"Too late to back down. And even if it was, we're not backing down anyways. We're this close from a vacation day." Miko said with a grin.

"And what will we tell the others if they get too suspicious?" Bulkhead asked as he looked at her.

"Leave it to me." Miko said before they both heard Ratchet calling them.

"Bulkhead! Miko! Where are you?" Ratchet called them.

"We're coming, Ratchet!" Bulkhead exclaimed before both him and Miko winked at each other.

Ratchet had called them since he had found his tools and he wanted them and everyone to get ready. Miko and Bulkhead went to see what he wanted. Everyone was there and getting ready for duty. Bulkhead joined his fellow Autobot companions while Miko joined her friends

"So... where do you plan on going? To a huge cliff and make bungee jumping?" Jack asked as he guessed some ideas.

"Very funny, Jack." Miko said with a pursed of her lips.

"Not to encourage Jack's lousy yet accurate sense of humor. I gotta admit that I do share his curiosity. Where do you plan on going, Miko?" Emily asked as she was curious on where Miko and Bulkhead plan on going.

"Nowhere, we're just going... exploring." Miko said as Raf looked at her.

"Exploring?" He asked as Jack and Emily looked at her like she grew another head before the three burst out laughing.

"You can't be serious. You never do exploring or anything like that." Emily said as she calmed down from her laughter.

"Well... I decided to start today." Miko told her before Arcee approached them.

"What's going on, guys?" She asked curiously.

"Believe it or not, Miko and Bulkhead are going on exploration." Jack said as Arcee looked at Jack like he was crazy.

"Jack, I know you're trying to be funny. But your sense of humor needs improvement." Arcee told him as he was confused.

"Nothing's wrong with my sense of humor. Right?" He asked as Emily and Raf shrugged.

"I would rather not answer." Raf said with a nervous laugh.

"It's true, Arcee. Bulkhead and I are really going on an exploration trip."

"Is this true? Bulkhead?" Arcee asked as she turned to the green wrecker.

"Yeah, I felt like Miko could use this chance to explore new things and learn too and I thought that I could do the same thing, you know, that way I could learn about earth." Bulkhead replied as this caused Arcee to chuckle a little.

"Hahaha, okay, I don't know how you came up with this but there's no way I'm buying that." She said while crossing her arms.

"What is it, Arcee?" Cliffjumper asked as he and Smokescreen came towards her as he became curious about what was funny.

"Bulkhead and Miko are going on exploration." Arcee said as Smokescreen snickered.

"Hahaha really? Exploration? Get out of here." Smokescreen said with an amused smirk.

"These two are going on an exploration trip? Yeah right, like that will ever happen." Cliffjumper said as he didn't believe it.

Ratchet comes in with his toolbox. When he saw the humans and bots laughing, he went to them to ask what it was all about.

"What's the meaning of this nonsense?" He asked as everyone turned towards him.

"Bulkhead and Miko are planning to go on an exploration trip." Smokescreen told him as he was in disbelief.

"What? Are you serious? Those two? Exploration trip? Hahaha. I gotta say both ingenuity never ceases to amaze me. How in Primus did these two ever come up with that idea?" Ratchet said in amusement before a sharp whistle from a certain Japanese exchange student grabbed their attention.

"Hey, Doc, we're right here. And we would appreciate it if you stopped talking to us as if we weren't here." Miko said as she crossed her arms while raising an eyebrow.

"Ooh busted." Cliffjumper winced playfully.

"Yup." Smokescreen said in agreement with Bumblebee agreeing.

"Don't worry, Ratchet. We acted the same way you did. In fact I think they're both hiding something about this supposed exploration trip. If you ask me, I'd say that by exploration they meant to have fun in a nice place full of sand." Emily said as she looked at both Bulkhead and Miko.

"Full of sand? Come on, that's a big cliché. That place could have rocks, small rocks, big rocks. A nice mountain view. A nice forest full of trees, with squirrels and chipmunks. Maybe a nice field with lovely flowers and a nice herd of... deers." Miko said as she tried to come up with an excuse.

The others didn't say anything and just kept looking at Miko with a serious look in their eyes that led her to believe they didn't believe anything she said.

"You guys don't believe me, huh?" Miko deadpan.

"What gave us away?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Come on, Miko, you can tell us." Emily told her with a smile as Miko gave up.

"Okay, well, we plan on going... sand surfing." Miko said as Raf blinked.

"Sand surfing?" He asked curiously.

"Hmm. That seems... more logical." Emily said with her arms crossed.

"Where do you plan to do your sand surfing?" Raf asked her curiously as Miko thought of one desert.

"In the... desert of the Sahara." Miko said as they looked at her in disbelief.

"The Sahara?" Jack questions in surprise.

"Are you serious?" Emily asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, why? It's the perfect place for sand surfing." Miko said as she put her hands on her hips.

"So that's why you wanted to volunteer? To go on a stupid human activity?" Ratchet couldn't stop himself from asking.

Optimus comes in worried about what's going on.

"Is everything okay?" He asks in concern as everyone turns towards him.

"Well you see, Optimus-" Ratchet started but Bulkhead cut him off.

"It's okay, Ratchet. I got it." Bulkhead said as Miko face-palmed.

"Oh brother..." She groaned as Arcee kept her arms crossed.

"This is gonna be fun to watch. Unlike Miko, Bulkhead has no lying bone on him,or in his case, servos." Arcee said.

"I'm not surprised. The big guy can be so nervous sometimes." Cliffjumper said truthfully.

"Yeah." Smokescreen nodded in agreement.

Bulkhead walked up to Optimus to tell him what was going on. He knew that he wouldn't agree with such use of the ground bridge but Bulkhead believed that he could convince him that it wasn't a bad idea at least.

"It's like that, Optimus. Miko wanted to, uh, do a fun activity. Something humans call sand surfing." Bulkhead said as he finished explaining.

"And where will you be doing that activity, might I ask?" Optimus asked while raising an optic ridge curiously.

"In the desert of the Sahara." Bulkhead replied.

"Bulkhead, I do not need to remind you that this is only a check up. And therefore, we cannot afford using the ground bridge to go on frivolous adventures." Optimus reminded him as Bulkhead nodded.

"I know, Optimus. But it won't just be for amusement. The girl could actually learn something. From what I've heard, the Sahara is one of the world's greatest deserts. Going there could help Miko learn something important for her school." Bulkhead said as he looked towards Miko who was tickling Bolty who let out sounds that sounded like laughter.

Bulkhead was pretty convincing even though it was a fun activity. Optimus still felt hesitant but Bulkhead had put up a good argument. So after careful consideration, he had come to a decision.

"Very well, you may proceed." Optimus said as both Miko and Bulkhead perked up at that.

"Really? Thank you, Optimus." Bulkhead said with a smile as Miko was practically jumping in excitement.

"Sweet!" She cheered.

"Hold on a second. I said you could proceed. However, that's not my call. Only your supervisor can give you the proper authorization. What do you say, Ratchet?" Optimus said before turning to Ratchet to see what his answer is.

"To be honest, I do not like using the ground bridge. Still we need to do this for the check up. Plus I admit that Bulkhead gave quite a convincing argument there. We all know Miko needs to be reinforced in her school studies." Ratchet said as Miko cleared her throat while giving Ratchet the look.

"Dude, you're still talking as if I'm not here." Miko said as Ratchet looked apologetically.

"Oh sorry. Anyway, you both have my permission. Just as long as you don't make a habit of it." Ratchet said as both Miko and Bulkhead smiled.

"You got it, Doc." Miko said with a thumbs up.

"Very well then. I shall program the coordinates of the Sahara. I do hope you can give me the precise coordinates this time and not say a few kilometres." Ratchet said as he reminded Miko who puffed her cheeks. That was one time!

"That only happened once. Besides, I studied the coordinates of the desert." Miko said as Jack looked at her incredulity.

"Coordinates? Studied? You? No way." Jack said in disbelief.

"For your information I did study them. So go on, doc. Type down what I said. Longitude 11.288452. Altitude 23.806078." Miko said proudly before telling Ratchet the precise coordinates.

The whole team was completely silent in shock after witnessing that amazing demonstration of knowledge Miko had shown. They all had a hard time believing that for that matter Miko had memorized a full set of coordinates. Not even the kids could believe it.

"Did she recite a full set of coordinates all by herself?" Jack questions in shock and disbelief.

"I saw it but I still can't believe it." Emily said with a disbelieving look but with a smile.

"That was something..." Raf said as he tried to find the right words.

"Strange?" Emily suggested.

"Strange and impressive." Raf said as he snapped his fingers with a smile.

"Agreed, Rafael. I'm glad that for that matter you decided to learn something useful. It's nice to see that you accord importance to proper learning for once." Ratchet said and started to type something on the ground bridge.

Ratchet starts to upload the coordinates properly and make sure everything is okay before the transportation.

"Thank you, Ratchet." Miko said with a smile.

Miko winks towards Bulkhead who gives her a thumbs up like a proud dad. He was proud to see that by making Miko study she would be able to prove how smart she can be if she makes the effort.

"Gotta hand it to you, Bulkhead. Miko did a really good job." Arcee said with a smile while crossing her arms.

"But that's because he did a good job." Cliffjumper said with a grin.

"Way to go, big guy." Smokescreen said with a wide smile with Bumblebee buzzing and beeping to congratulate his friend.

"Aww, come on you guys. It's not that big of a deal." Bulkhead said with a sheepish smile.

"So, Miko,... since you'll be going to the desert to do sand surfing. You must've brought a sand board right?" Jack said and that made Miko nervous.

Miko started to become a bit nervous since she didn't think of bringing a sand board. In order to not let the others find out her true plan, Miko must act as if she brought a sand board with her.

"Yeah, I did." Miko said with a small grin.

"Wow, cool. Can I see it?" Raf said excitedly.

"Me too, I wanna see how it looks." Emily agreed with the 12 year old.

"Ooh, guys, I wish I could but it's in... Bulkhead's trunk right now. So..." Miko said as they understood what she meant.

"Oh... okay." Raf nodded in understanding.

"I would let you see it but it's not actually my board. It's a rental and I don't want anything bad to happen to it." Miko said with a shrug.

"That's understandable." Emily said as she crossed her arms.

"Are you sure you have everything you need? That desert is tricky. Not to mention hot and dangerous." Jack said as his voice was filled with concern for their friend.

"Be careful of mirages." Emily said with Jack agreeing.

"And venomous creatures like cobras and scorpions." Jack said as Miko motioned for them to relax.

"Hey, guys, relax. I'll be fine. We'll be just doing sand surfing and exploration." Miko said with a smile.

"Maybe you should bring some clothes for the hot temperature." Raf added with a smile as Miko returned it.

"Thanks for the tip, little guy. But I got it covered, trust me." Miko said while ruffling his hair.

"Okay, well, have fun. Just not too much." Jack said as Miko grinned at him.

"I can't promise you that." She said with a mischievous grin while Smokescreen approached Bulkhead.

"Hey, Bulkhead, think I can come with you? I always wanted to see the desert." Smokescreen asked.

"I've seen a desert once. That's one heck of a story. I was stuck in the Sea of Rust with no one to talk with." Cliffjumper said as Arcee rolled her optics at him in amusement.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah you told us that one a dozen times." Arcee said with Bumblebee agreeing.

"Okay, fine, geez, bunch of story killers." Cliffjumper said with a small pout.

"I'd love for you to come, Smokes, but since Ratchet gave you all an assignment for this work. I'm not really sure he would approve of you leaving like that." Bulkhead said as he didn't want Smokescreen to not do his assignment.

"Oh come on. The doc is old and rusty. I doubt he'll even notice." Smokescreen pouted as Arcee raised an optic ridge.

"Notice what?" She questioned him.

"Notice me leaving. All I gotta do is transform and drive toward the portal fast and that's it." Smokescreen said as Cliffjumper shook his head at him.

"Wow, Smokescreen. You still act like a rookie. Ratchet is not that easy to pass by. The doc might be old and rusty but trust me. He's no amateur." Cliffjumper said with his arms crossed.

"Oh please, he is slower than a rusty gear. I'm the fastest one around here." Smokescreen said confidently as the others saw who was behind him.

"Is that so?" Ratchet asked.

Ratchet, who was right behind Smokescreen, had surprised him and the others. No one saw him move from the consoles of the ground bridge.

"Ahhh!!!! Oh, Doctor, I mean, Ratchet, Doctor Ratchet. I didn't notice you there. Is there something new with you? That paint looks freshly new." Smokescreen yelped before smiling nervously.

"Flattery won't get you anywhere, rookie." Ratchet said with an unamused look.

Arcee along with Cliffjumper and Bulkhead began to laugh. Even Bumblebee laughed too at Smokescreen's little predicament.

"Guess you heard what I said huh?" Smokescreen said with a nervous laugh.

"Every last sentence. And just to be clear. I may be old and rusty but I have the gear to show you a lesson or two." Ratchet said and Smokescreen gulped. Ratchet with a wrench is a scary thing to think about.

"Right... I think I'm gonna...go right there and wait for your orders, sir. Permission to go, sir?" Smokescreen said as Ratchet nodded.

"Permission granted." He nodded.

"Thank you, sir." Smokescreen said and began to walk away, nice and slowly.

Even though he avoided further trouble, there was no escaping Ratchet's gaze since the doctor didn't stop looking at him with a serious look in his optics. Arcee rolled her optics at the rookie before turning to Ratchet.

"You wanted to talk to us?" She asked as the medic nodded.

"Yes, I just wanted to tell you that the ground bridge is ready for transportation. So all of you get ready to assume your positions." Ratchet said as everyone nodded.

"Understood." Arcee nodded as Cliffjumper shrugged.

"When you gotta go, you gotta go I guess. Sand surfing is starting to become a better idea than doing check ups." He said and earned a small punch from the back by Arcee.

"Don't even think about it." She told him in a warning tone.

"What? I'm just saying that it sounds more fun that's all." Cliffjumper said with a nervous grin.

"Yeah right." Arcee said with a roll of her optics.

Arcee, Cliffjumper and Bumblebee began to walk towards the ground bridge controls, waiting for Bulkhead and Miko to leave the base so that way they could begin their assignments.

"So everything's ready?" Bulkhead asked as Miko nodded.

"Bulkhead, you and Miko better get ready to go." Ratchet said as he started to type in the coordinates.

"Roger that." Bulkhead saluted.

He then transforms and opens his door while honking his horn to tell Miko to hurry up and get in.

"Miko, time to go." He called as Miko looked towards him.

"I'll be right there! Gotta go, guys, see you later." Miko said before she grabbed her duffle bag and started running to where Bulkhead is.

"Bye." Raf waved.

"See you later." Emily nodded.

"Have fun, but not too much." Jack told her as Miko went inside of Bulkhead who closed the door quickly.

"Oh man. That was a close one." Miko said with a sigh.

"Keep it down, Miko. We don't want any of them to find out our true plan." Bulkhead whispered as Miko nodded.

"Right." She nodded while buckling up.

"Everything ready, Doc?" Bulkhead asked as he nodded.

"It is. I'm activating the ground bridge now. I wish you both a safe trip. Remember, this check up might take a few hours. During that period the ground bridge will be offline. I'll contact you when the check up is over so that way you'll be ready to come back. Now if you feel or see anything weird during your return be sure to tell me and I'll stop the procedure immediately." Ratchet explained to them.

"Will do, Ratchet." Bulkhead said.

"Enjoy your trip. And, Bulkhead, make sure you don't bring any sand with you." Ratchet warned him.

"Okay." He replied as Ratchet was giving him a serious look.

"I'm serious. If I see even a tiny grain-" Ratchet started before Bulkhead cut him off.

"Yeah, I get the idea. I'll be sure not to bring any sand with me." Bulkhead said as he turned on his engine.

"Be careful, Bulkhead." Optimus said.

"Thanks, Prime. See you guys later." Bulkhead said as the ground bridge came online and Bulkhead drove towards it.

Miko waved goodbye at everyone from the window. After that, Bulkhead drove through the portal and disappeared into the coordinates. When they're gone, Ratchet deactivates the ground bridge with a relief sigh.

"Ground bridge online. Now we can begin." Ratchet said as the others noticed something.

Something weird was going on with Ratchet as he seemed pretty happy for a check up.

"Are you okay, Ratchet?" Arcee asked as Ratchet looked at her.

"I am. Why do you ask?" He asked while raising an optic ridge.

"You seem... happy." Smokescreen noted.

"And even weirder you let Bulkhead and Miko go to a place where they could have fun even though they said they were gonna explore a bit." Cliffjumper added while crossing his arms while the kids turned to them.

"You noticed it too huh? I found it weird that Ratchet fell for such a bogus excuse. Especially one that came from these two." Jack said.

"Yeah that surprised me too." Emily said while resting her hand on her hips.

"Why don't you tell us what's going on, Ratchet?" Arcee question as Ratchet just sigh

"Well you could say that I was expecting Miko and Bulkhead to volunteer. As a matter of fact I was counting on it. That way none of them won't cause any trouble. Especially Bulkhead. That big lugnut can be clumsy sometimes. I'm not taking any risks with this check up. Everything must go well. If he and Miko had not volunteered, the risk of Bulkhead damaging the ground bridge could've been catastrophic. With him out of the way we can work peacefully without anything getting broken." Ratchet explained as they blinked.

"Wait a minute. You're telling us that you wanted Miko and Bulkhead to volunteer to be out of the base while you guys work on the ground bridge?" Jack stated in disbelief as Ratchet nodded.

"That is correct. But I prefer to use the term, focusing on the strength of others in another area. An area that involves them being very far from the stuff that can easily be broken." Ratchet said with a huff.

"By stuff, you mean, your tools." Arcee said with an optic ridge raised.

"Exactly." The medic nodded.

"Whoa... What you did is just... plain mean." Jack said in disbelief.

"Yeah." Raf agreed with him.

"I agree with them on that one. But I would be lying if I didn't say that it was kind of smart." Emily said with a shake of her head.

"Super smart." Raf agreed.

"It was mean but smart. Good work, Ratchet." Jack added.

"Not bad for an old doctor huh?" Ratchet said with a small smirk.

"Not bad at all. Boy, I sure hope Miko never finds out. Because if she does, she's gonna flip." Jack said as he laughed a little. Miko is gonna flip if she finds out.

"Hopefully I can count you all to keep it a secret." Ratchet said.

"We will, right, guys?" Arcee said before turning to the others.

"Sure thing." Smokescreen nodded.

"Our lips are sealed." Cliffjumper agreed with Bumblebee agreeing while making a zip the lips sign.

"Same goes for us." Emily agreed.

Bolty starts jumping and running around like crazy. It was his cute way to say he wanted to be part of it too. Emily giggled and grabbed him so she could talk to him.

"You too, Bolty." Emily patted his little head.

"Good. Enough talk, let's get back to work, people. Come on, move along, you all know what to do." Ratchet said as they all nodded.

"We're going. Guess the fun's over." Jack said.

"Looks like it." Emily nodded in agreement.

Emily then noticed that Raf had a worried look in his eyes. Like something was bothering him and it concerned her.

"You okay, Raf?" She asks as Raf turns towards her.

"Yeah..." Raf said slowly.

"If something's bothering you, tell us." Jack said gently as Raf pursed his lips.

"I'm a bit worried." He admitted.

"About what? Miko?" Emily asked as Raf nodded.

"Yeah." He said with a worried look.

"Hey. There's no need for you to worry." Jack reassured him as Raf turned towards them.

"Aren't you guys worried?" He asked meekly as Emily just smiled.

"Maybe, but deep down we know that Miko is a tough girl." Emily said with a smile.

"Yeah, but what if something bad happens to her?" Raf couldn't help but ask.

"She'll be fine. If there's anyone who can come back from a trip in the desert, that's Miko all right. She's wild and all but she's tough too. We've gone through worse things. With her and mostly because of her." Jack said with a smile.

"You got that right. I missed most of these wild adventures yet I've been with her long enough to know that despite her wild nature, she's hard as a rock and with Bulkhead watching her. Oh I just realized that even with Bulkhead watching, Miko can become trouble too." Emily said with a small laugh.

"Agreed. Guess these two are one of a kind." Jack said with a roll of his eyes.

"Okay, enough talk, you two. Let's get to work before Doctor Ratchet becomes cranky. You know how he is when it comes to cleaning up." Emily said as she handed Jack and Raf a broom with Bolty on her shoulders.

"You said it. I just hope that the trip to the desert is better than cleaning here." Jack said.

Little did Jack know that cleaning the base was the best thing that could happen to them.

Back in the Sahara, Bulkhead and Miko were right where they wanted to be. But they kind of landed in the middle of nowhere. Miko was out to see if she could find the way to an Oasis.

"Okay, now where do we go? It's maybe there. Or maybe there. Or maybe..." Miko said as she pointed to some random direction.

"Uh, Miko? You do know where we're going right?" Bulkhead asked as he couldn't help but worry.

"Of course I do." Miko reassured him.

"Miko, please don't tell me you didn't study the maps." Bulkhead said with worry etched in his tone.

"I did but it's not that easy you know. But not to worry, I brought a map with us. It's right here in my duffle bag. Just give me a moment." Miko said as she opened her bag.

Miko took off the seatbelt so that she could see inside her duffle bag. She came out of Bulkhead and that's when she started to feel the heat and the sun was very bright and hot as she wiped her forehead from sweat.

"Aw man... It's so hot." Miko said as she wiped another bead of sweat rolling down her forehead.

She then opened the door to the backseat where she had put her duffle bag. She opened it and started to look inside for a map but it looked like it wasn't there.

"Let's see... Oh, come on. Where is that thing? it's gotta be here. Come on, come on." She muttered.

Miko looked and looked around in her bag but sadly didn't find any map.

"That's weird. I thought for sure I put a map on the bag. Let's check the list." She muttered and took out her phone.

Miko began to check the list she had made on her phone. She scrolled down the whole content. Everything was checked yet something had caught her attention. In the whole list, there was no mention of a map or whatsoever. She had realized that she totally forgot to add the map on her list of things to bring for that trip and it caused her to facepalm and groan.

"Oh scrap... Uh, Bulkhead? Something funny just happened. I sort of... forgot... to bring a map." Miko said as Bulkhead looked at her with his side mirrors in disbelief.

"You, what?" He said in disbelief as she closed the door.

"I know, I know. But there's no need to worry. We can use the GPS on my phone." Miko said as she pointed to her phone.

Miko tried to use the GPS on her phone but sadly since there was no signal. It didn't work and there were no bars or signals.

"Scrap... No signal. Hey, Bulkhead, think you can use your GPS?" Miko asked as Bulkhead tried but nothing.

"I can't, this place is interfering with my signal." He said with a small groan.

"Well, this is going great... I guess our best option is to drive and see what we find. Let's get a move on, Bulkhead." Miko said as she got inside Bulkhead and put her phone away.

"A move on? But where? We don't know where we are." Bulkhead said as Miko gave him a deadpan look.

"Stop worrying, dude. We just have to drive. With any luck, we might find what we're looking for." Miko said as she buckled her seatbelt around her.

"I hope you're right." Bulkhead said as Miko agreed.

"Me too. Hey, do me a favour. Turn the air conditioner on. It's so hot that it makes me sweat like crazy." She said as Bulkhead did so.

"Sure thing." He said as he turned on his air conditioner and that helped Miko feel a bit fresh as she relaxed against his seat and enjoyed the cold air from it.

"That's better. Now let's go." She said enthusiastically.

Bulkhead started to drive as he and Miko both hoped that they would find a nice place to relax. An hour and a half had already passed and so far they had not found anything yet. The heat of the desert was becoming unbearable. So unbearable that the air conditioner was starting to be a bit useless for that kind of temperature. Miko opened the window but that only made it worse. The poor girl felt like she needed to take some of her clothes off like her boots and socks. So she took them off and put them on the backseat so that way her feet wouldn't get too hot. With the unbearable heat and not finding a good place to relax, Miko had enough of driving around like that.

"Okay stop." Miko said as she had to wipe more sweat with her handkerchief.

"What is it? Did you find something?" Bulkhead asked but Miko shook her head.

"No, I didn't. Just do what I say, please." Miko said as Bulkhead was curious but agreed.

"Okay." He said and hit the breaks.

Bulkhead stopped driving like Miko told him to and when he did, Miko opened the door and was about to step out and Bulkhead saw she wasn't wearing any footwear.

"Uh, Miko, I don't think that's a good idea." Bulkhead told her worriedly.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." Miko reassured him.

Miko thought that nothing bad would happen if she walked barefoot in the sand. But when she did, she immediately started to regret it. Due to the sun, the sand of the Sahara was very, very hot to the touch. That kind of heat made her feet burn like crazy and it caused her to scream loudly.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! IT BURNS, IT BURNS!!! MY FEET IS BURNING!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" Miko screeched in pain.

The scorching sand was hurting Miko's feet so much that it made her scream at the top of her lungs. It also made her run around like crazy. She then started to run fast straight to a dune and Bulkhead became alarmed.

"Miko, wait!" Bulkhead called out to her but it fell on deaf ears.

Miko didn't hear Bulkhead because of the pain of the sand burning her feet. Without realizing it, she had reached the top of the dune and slipped as she started to roll down the whole thing. When she stopped rolling, her face was in the sand. Her hair was a mess and she had a bit of sand in her mouth which was gross.

"Puahhh!!! Puahhh!!! Gross..." Miko gagged.

When she got up, she started to spit out the sand that was in her mouth by accident. She then started to shake off the sand that was in her hair as she groaned.

"This is just great, not only are we lost, but on top of that my feet got burned real bad. And worse, I got some sand not only in my hair but in my mouth too. This is the worst." Miko ranted.

"Miko! Are you okay?!" Bulkhead asked loudly in the distance.

"I'm fine!" She yelled.

"Hold on, I'm coming." He said and turned on his engine.

Bulkhead started to drive and reached the other side of the dune to get to Miko but the sand made it pretty hard on him since it kept sliding down from under his tires when he tried to climb up.

"This might take a while. Just stay where you are." Bulkhead said.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." Miko replied.

Miko got up slowly but suddenly stopped because right in front of her there was something weird. She saw grass in front of her. It looked a bit like some sort of tropical forest and right at the center of it there was some sort of lake. It looked like a beautiful oasis. A crystal clear lake as she raised an eyebrow.

"An oasis? Oh man... I bet this is a mirage for sure. This heat is driving me crazy." Miko grumbled.

On the other side of the dune, Bulkhead was struggling to reach Miko as he put the pedal to the metal.

"Come on, come on." He muttered.

And thanks to a bit of effort, Bulkhead finally reached the top of the dune.

"Whoo-hoo, I did it!" He cheered.

Bulkhead was proud that he had reached the top of the dune. Sadly that victory didn't last long. He was starting to slip due to the sand and he was feeling it too.

"Uh oh... Uh, Miko?" He called out worriedly.

Miko heard Bulkhead's voice and started waving her hand at him to make him see where she was standing.

"I'm here!" She said and saw something was wrong.

"Get out of the way! I'm slipping! Whoa!" Bulkhead cried out as he started to come down.

"Oh no." Miko's eyes widened in alarm.

"Ahhhh! I can't stop! Get out of the way!" Bulkhead exclaimed.

"Oh dear, what do I do now?!" Miko panicked.

Miko started to look at the water and had an idea. She still thought that it was a possible mirage and that she would end up with more sand on her mouth and hair.

"Another sand bath, coming right up." She muttered in dismay.

Miko got out of the way quickly and jumped in the lake. She avoided getting hit by Bulkhead. When she got up, she was soaked and had some water in her mouth and Bulkhead reaching the down part of the dune had made some sort of a tiny sand cloud that went away easily.

"Puahh!!! Great... More sand in my... mouth? Wait a minute." Miko spitted out the water which she thought was sand before she stopped as she realized something.

Miko thought that the lake was a mirage and that she would land in the sand again but it turns out that it wasn't a mirage. It was a real lake. The water was very real. Everything was real as she started to grin.

"That's water. Real water. I feel soaked... and fresh. Oh my gosh. We found the oasis! Bulkhead, we found it! Whoo-hoo!" Miko cheered happily.

Miko started to jump from the happiness she felt.

"We found it, we found it. Oh my gosh, we found it. Oh no... Ahhh!!! Cold water, cold water! Ahhh!!! Ahhh!!! Ahhh!!!" Miko yelped loudly.

The cold water made Miko jump like crazy because she didn't like the cold water soaking her feet. She got out of the lake and sat on the grass from the ground and it made her sigh in content.

"That's better now. I can't believe we found it, Bulkhead. For a moment there, I thought we would never find it. What do you think, Bulkhead? Looks like a nice place to relax right?" Miko said and asked her guardian but didn't get a reply as she turned around.

"Right? Bulkhead? Are you there?" Miko said as she didn't see him.

Miko started to look around and there was no sign of Bulkhead. It's like he had vanished without a trace.

"Bulkhead?" Miko called out.

Miko started to walk around in search of Bulkhead. The sand didn't bother her feet much since they were wet. Although it made the sand become a bit muddy and she didn't like that as it stuck to her feet.

"Oh great. Bulkhead, where are you? This isn't funny!" Miko called out loudly.

Bulkhead, who heard her, transformed slowly and without realizing it, he was covered in sand that fell on him. When Miko heard the transformation sound, she turned to where the sound was coming from and saw a giant monster made of sand. It scared her so much that she let out a loud and shrill scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Miko screamed loudly as well as the so called monster.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

They both screamed like crazy but Miko immediately stopped screaming since the scream from the giant sand monster was familiar and it sounded a bit girly too. There was only one person who could scream like that.

"Hold on a sec. I know that screaming. Bulkhead! BULKHEAD!!! Stop screaming, it's me!" Miko yelled to calm him down.

It worked and Bulkhead stopped screaming when Miko told him to.

"Oh, Miko, it's you. You scared me. Sorry for the screaming." Bulkhead said in relief.

Miko was very, very angry to calm herself, she started to breathe in and breathe out which is not working for the record.

"Calm down, relax and talk slowly. More like you scared me big guy. For a moment there I thought you were a huge alien monster made of sand! You could've told me you were covered in sand! Why didn't you say anything?!" Miko started but exclaimed angrily.

"Sorry, I thought you knew. I should've told you I was covered in sand, my bad." Bulkhead apologized.

"Ugh... Nevermind that. At least, we found a nice place to relax." Miko said as she calmed down somewhat.

"We did?" He asked as Miko smiled.

"Yeah, look." She said happily.

Miko points out at the oasis and when Bulkhead saw it, he was amazed to see a nice beautiful crystal clear lake and a nice green grass around it.

"Wow, you're right, we found the place. It's so beautiful." Bulkhead said in awe.

"You said it, buddy. Enough talk, it's time to have fun." Miko said excitedly.

"Right, just give me a moment." Bulkhead said with a chuckle.

Bulkhead started to shake like crazy to get rid of the sand. When the sand got off him, he started to stretch so that way he could check if there were some in his articulations which he hates the most.

"Finally. No more sand. I just hope that when we get out, I won't get any of it stuck in my articulators." Bulkhead said before he noticed someone wasn't there.

"Miko? Are you there?" He called out in confusion.

Bulkhead started to look around to see where Miko was but she was nowhere to be found which started to worry him.

"Where did she run off to? Miko! Miko, where are you? Please stop fooling around." Bulkhead said worriedly.

"Mmrhthre."

"Hmm?" Bulkhead blinked when he heard the muffled noise.

Bulkhead heard a muffled sound that was coming from a small mountain of sand. He got close to it to ask if Miko was there.

"Miko? Is that you?" He asked and it was.

Miko shakes off the sand on her and Bulkhead helps her get rid of the rest that was in her hair.

"There you go." Bulkhead said but stopped when he noticed her expression.

Miko's expression spells out that she was gonna blow a gasket any second now.

"HOW ABOUT YOU TRY GIVING ME A HEADS UP THE NEXT TIME YOU PLAN ON SHAKING THE SAND OFF!!! THAT'S THE THIRD SAND BATH I GOT TODAY!!!" She yelled angrily as he raised his hands in a motion for her to calm down.

"Sorry. Do you want me to get your stuff out?" Bulkhead asked as Miko huffed. She can't just yell at Bulkhead all the time. The heat was probably getting to her.

"Duh. How else are we gonna start our beach day without the stuff?" She said while she crossed her arms.

"Right, give me a moment." He said.

Bulkhead opened his chest and made Miko's duffle bag come out. And that's not the only thing that came out. Her chair and parasol did too. Everything was there and suddenly something that wasn't part of her stuff came out. A whole bunch of sand came out of him and covered Miko again. Four sand baths in just one day is a new record. When Bulkhead laughed sheepishly, he felt bad about it.

"Hahaha. Sorry... I didn't know." He apologized with a sheepish smile.

Miko came out of that other sand bath again, and the look on her face says that she was very angry, really angry. And Bulkhead was thinking that it was a sign for him to run away. Of course since she was human, she couldn't hurt him that much and yet her look was like the one of a cat that was about to scratch someone. Actually more like a cheetah. After getting rid of the sand, again, Miko slowly grabbed a tree branch that she had found on the grass.

"Uh, Miko? What do you intend to do with that?" Bulkhead asked her nervously.

"Oh not much. Except hitting the big fool that covered me in sand twice in a row!" Miko said as she was really peeved right now.

"Miko, wait." Bulkhead tried to stop her.

"No way. Now you're gonna get it! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Miko yelled and started to hit Bulkhead's leg with the branch but he wasn't really feeling the hits and let her do it to let off some steam.

"Miko, stop please. I'm very sorry." Bulkhead apologized.

Miko didn't hear Bulkhead's apologies because she was too angry. But after a while, she calmed down as she let out a breath.

"Okay, I think I'm calm now." She said with a small sigh.

"Yeah... calm." Bulkhead said as he looked down at his charge.

"I'm sorry I got mad." Miko apologizes as she looks up to him sadly and he just smiles at her and pats her head with his digit.

He couldn't blame the girl he viewed as a daughter for being mad at the sand baths she went through.

"It's okay, I get it." He said with a chuckle as she giggled happily.

"Come on. It's time we had some fun. I just hope the guys are enjoying their clean up assignment. I sure am since I'm not there to clean." Miko said with a cheeky grin.

Meanwhile back at the base, all the bots and humans were helping Ratchet with the ground bridge. Cliffjumper and Smokescreen were removing the panels. Arcee and Bee were piling them up in a safe place. Ratchet was taking care of the sensitive materials. There was a bit of unscrewing but nothing major. Most of the bolts that he had unscrewed were rusty and he gave those to Bolty who was happy to have a snack. The rusty bolts were like a salty snack for him. It made him very happy and perhaps a bit excited too as he munched on it happily.

"Yes, yes, yes, you really like rusty bolts. Don't make a habit out of it." Ratchet told him sternly but he got to admit that he found it amusing that Bolty was enjoying it.

While the Autobots were taking care of the big job, Jack, Raf and Emily were cleaning up just like Ratchet asked them. First they had to pass the broom and the vacuum. Jack was using the vacuum and Raf was sweeping. Emily was waiting for them to finish so she could start to mop the floor. Ratchet saw them and wanted to make sure they left everything spotless.

"Remember, kids, I want everything to be spotless." He said as Jack and Raf rolled their eyes. He doesn't need to remind them.

"Yes, sir." They both said as Ratchet turned to Emily was still waiting.

"Emily, you're not working." He noted as Emily turned to him.

"I can't. I have to wait for Jack and Raf to finish or else mopping won't work." She said as she pointed to the boys.

"I don't recall asking for excuses." Ratchet said as Emily sighed.

"Yes, sir, apologies, sir." She said with a sigh.

Emily starts to mumble out of anger because Mister Sargeant Mad Doctor was telling her how to clean like he actually knew something about it. When Jack saw her mop the floor when he and Raf had not finished yet, he turned off the vacuum so he could ask Emily what she was doing.

"What are you doing? Raf and I have not finished yet." He asked as he raised an eyebrow.

Emily gave him a deadpan look before pointing to Ratchet with her thumb.

"I know that but Sergeant Mad Doctor doesn't want me to stay still and do nothing. So he asked me to mop the floor without giving him any excuses." She said with a small roll of her eyes.

"Jack, Raf, I hope you guys are working too!" Ratchet said while he was doing some repairs at the ground bridge.

"We are." Jack said before he dropped his voice in a whisper.

"Something tells me that this is gonna be the worst day ever." Jack said with a small sigh as Raf agreed.

"Yeah. Miko sure is lucky. We should get back to work though." Raf pouted a little.

"You go there and I'll go the other way." Jack said as Raf nodded.

"Right." He nodded and went to where Jack pointed.

Jack turned the vacuum back on and went to clean another section of the floor and so did Raf, leaving Emily to mop the floor with an annoyed attitude. Smokescreen saw it and was hoping that Ratchet wouldn't start pushing him and the other bots around.

"Sheesh, the doctor is the worst when he starts acting like a drill sergeant." Smokescreen said as he couldn't help but feel bad for the kids.

"Welcome to the club, rookie. He's always like that whenever there's a big job." Cliffjumper said while he continued his part of the assignment.

"Let's just hope he won't do the same with us. I mean, we're the one helping on the big job." Smokescreen said as he helped him.

"Keep dreaming. You have more chances of beating Megatron than surviving a whole day with Drill Sergeant Ratchet." Arcee said as Bumblebee agreed with her.

"To think Bulkhead is out there and we're the one stuck here." Smokescreen said with a small sigh.

"You're one of the fews to complain about it. I don't know about you guys but Ratchet seems happy that Bulkhead isn't here and that's scary. I don't think I've ever seen him smile that much. Thank Primus he's not humming or anything like that." Cliffjumper said as he shuddered just thinking about it.

Grumpy Ratchet was enough for them to handle especially with a wrench in the medic's servo and a Happy Ratchet was something that still weirded him out.

"Speaking of humming. Something tells me that right now, Bulkhead is doing his weird rock noise." Arcee said with a smile of amusement.

Whenever they do something, Bulkhead always seems to have found a way to make it more fun and amusing.

"His weird rock noise?" Smokescreen asked curiously.

"What's that?" Cliffjumper asked Bumblebee who shrugged and whirred that he didn't know what it was.

"You know, that weird rock noise he makes whenever he hears a rock song." Arcee said as Smokescreen got the idea what she meant.

"Oh you mean. WUAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!!!!" He imitated Bulkhead doing it as Arcee nodded with a small chuckle.

"Yeah that one." She said with a smirk.

"Excuse me." Ratchet said with a raised optic ridge and Smokescreen gulped.

"Uh oh... Doc-Ratchet,I mean, sir, what are your orders, sir?" Smokescreen asked nervously as Ratchet gave him a look.

"My orders are for you all to get back to work and cut the chit-chat." He said as Smokescreen nodded.

"Yes, sir. Cut the chit-chat, sir." He said and got back to work.

"Good, now chop chop, everyone. We got work to do." He said and resumed his work.

After that, the bots resumed their work. Optimus, who walked in, was checking if everything was okay and had seen that Ratchet's commanding method wasn't very well appreciated. True that since he was their commanding officer for this task, it didn't mean that he had to breathe on everyone's neck when they were having a conversation. So he felt like he had to have a little talk with Ratchet to give him some pointers on how to be a proper commander since he had some experience.

"How are you holding up, old friend?" Optimus asked as he approached Ratchet who didn't need to look up from his work.

"Well, so far nothing unusual. The ground bridge looks functional but like humans sometimes say. Better safe than sorry. Hopefully nothing will go wrong." Ratchet said as he sighed.

"Let us hope you're right." Optimus said.

"So, is there anything you wanted to tell me?" Ratchet asked as he looked up to the prime who nodded.

"As a matter of fact there is. I understand that this check up is very important to you. But I would suggest you try and be a little less tight with everyone. You're their commanding officer on this assignment, but acting tough won't make them work faster. I understand that some of our elements can be driven by certain foolery. But we must not forget that each one of them is capable of doing great things if given the chance to let them do so. And you should try and let the kids do their work. When it comes to human matters, it's best to let them be." Optimus explained as Ratchet contemplated this.

"I... guess you're right. Sorry if I seem a bit under pressure. As you well know our resources are very limited. With every battle that comes we have to struggle. This ground bridge is our only advantage against the Decepticons. Without it, who knows how we could even fulfill our missions. If it starts to fail, then this whole team shall fail." Ratchet said after much thought.

"That much is true. But a team is more than the resources they use. A team's greatest and most powerful resource is unity and the ones who fight together. No matter what." Optimus said as Ratchet nodded.

"Yes, you are. The team sure is strong. I just hope that same strength might help us make sure the ground bridge gets operational. There's a lot of work to be done." Ratchet agreed with a nod as Optimus was glad that he understood before asking.

"Do you require my assistance?" He asks since he's the only Autobot who wasn't assigned for a task.

"Everything's good here. But thanks for trying to help out. Maybe the kids could use your help." Ratchet said as he looked to see where the kids were.

"Good thinking. I'll go check." Optimus said as he started to walk to where their three human friends are doing their part.

As Optimus started to walk away, Ratchet felt like he needed to thank him for trying to see that he was probably doing something wrong.

"Optimus." He calls as Optimus stops and turns around to listen to whatever Ratchet wanted to tell him.

"Is something wrong, Ratchet?" He asked in concern as Ratchet shook his head.

"No, I just... wanted to thank you for what you said earlier. I really appreciate it." Ratchet said with a grateful smile.

"My pleasure, old friend." Optimus said as he returned the smile.

Optimus resumed his walking while Ratchet returned to work on the ground bridge. By that time, Emily was mopping the floor as she was passing by the areas that had already been broom and vacuum by Jack and Raf and still mumbling about Ratchet's leading method.

"Who does he think he is? Telling me how to mop a floor. I mopped tons of floor long before I met him." Emily grumbled in annoyance.

She then heard the loud steps of a bot and thought that it was Ratchet and it caused her to groan silently.

"Look, Ratchet, I'm sick and tired of you breathing down my neck. I know how to mop the floor!" Emily said as she closed her eyes before she turned around.

"So could you please? Just let me do... my..." Emily said as she opened her eyes only to trail off.

When she saw that it wasn't Ratchet to whom she was talking to, she was a bit surprised and quite embarrassed. She started to blush a lot since she had seen that she was talking to Optimus without even knowing that it was him.

"O-Optimus, it's you. O-Oh my gosh, I-I'm so sorry f-for what I said. I-I really thought you were Ratchet. Please forgive m-me. I-I didn't mean to." Emily stammered while trying to stop the heat from rising to her cheeks as Optimus just smiled softly.

"It's okay, I know you didn't mean any harm." Optimus reassured her.

"Y-Yeah..." She nodded while blushing and turned her head away to avoid any more embarrassing situation.

"Way to go, Emily. That was really embarrassing." Emily muttered in embarrassment.

Just like that she got back to work but Optimus felt like something was bothering her and he wanted to ask her if she was doing okay.

"Are you doing okay?" He asked in concern as Emily looked up to him before letting out a sigh.

"Yeah, sure. I'm good. Nothing like mopping the floor on a regular weekend." Emily said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Don't hold a grudge against Ratchet. You know he didn't mean to hurt you." Optimus said as Emily sighed.

"I know... It's just that I hate it when people tell me how to do the things I already know how to do. It drives me sick when people think I don't, that's all. Sorry, don't mind me. I'm just being silly here." Emily said with a small laugh while Optimus gave her a reassuring smile.

"It's okay, I know you're upset and there's nothing wrong with it. I just wanted to make sure that Ratchet didn't mean no disrespect toward you." Optimus said as she shrugged.

"Well, it's easier said than done right now. " She said.

"Remember, you two are part of the same team. Therefore any grudge toward each other could affect you and your teammates.

"I... guess you have a point there." Emily said as she looked up to him.

"Ratchet only acted harsh on you because he wants what is best for this team. But even he knows when he makes a mistake sometimes." Optimus said as Emily pursed her lips.

"That's a surprise. But I guess you're right. If Ratchet can learn from his mistakes, so can I. Thanks for the lesson." Emily said with a thankful smile.

"Glad I could help." Optimus said with a nod.

Optimus then started to walk away before Emily called his name since she wanted to ask him something.

"Optimus, wait." She called out as Optimus stopped walking.

He then turned around to listen to what Emily wanted to tell him.

"What is it? Is there something you wanna tell me?" Optimus questioned curiously and Emily could have sworn the metallic fins on both sides of his helm seemed to perk up.

"Well... I wanted to know if you'd like to help us with the cleaning?" Emily asked hesitantly as she looked up to him.

"I... I don't think I can do much to help you guys." Optimus said hesitantly. He wasn't sure how he was going to be of much help with the task.

"Nonsense, with me helping you. You'll do a good job. Being part of a team also means helping those in need. So what do you say?" Emily reassured him as she looked up to him.

Optimus thinks about it. He didn't really think he could be of much help but since Emily wanted him to help out, he decided to join the kids in their cleaning duty. After all, that is what teammates do. They help each other.

"Very well. I will help you out." He nodded and Emily grinned happily.

"Great. Since Jack and Raf are taking care of almost the same task, you could help me mop the floor. Here's your mop." Emily said as she grabbed another mop.

"How do I... mop the floor?" Optimus asked curiously.

"Simple, you put the mop on the floor and pass it all over it. Like this." Emily said and she starts mopping the floor to show Optimus how it's done.

"See? It's super easy. Just try not to step on the parts you mopped." Emily explained before Jack called her over.

"Hey, Emily. We finished passing on these parts." Jack called her as she gave a thumbs up.

"Good work. We got it from here." Emily said as the two blink.

"We? You mean Optimus is helping too?" Raf asked in disbelief and surprise as Emily grinned.

"Sure. I asked if he wanted to help and he accepted gratefully. I figured our team could use some help." Emily said while rubbing the back of her head.

"That's not a bad idea." Jack said with a smile.

"Right. Now you try it, Optimus." Emily said before turning to Optimus who nodded.

He then gently grabs the mop that Emily gave him and he had to use the tip of his two fingers to grab it since it was so tiny for his big servos. After grabbing hold of it, he put it on the floor and used his fingers to move the mop on the floor.

But sadly, he had applied too much strength and that broke the mop. Optimus felt a bit bad about breaking it but however Emily couldn't resist letting out a tiny yet sweet laughter. Optimus didn't quite get it so Emily had to explain that she didn't mean to make fun of him though it was pretty cute at how he looked a little embarrassed for breaking the mop by accident.

"Sorry, sorry. I didn't make fun of you. I just couldn't resist." Emily said with a few giggles escaping.

"I do not understand what's so funny about this... small predicament." Optimus said as he gestured to the broken mop.

"I know. But you see, sometimes it's normal to laugh when a small accident happens. It just means that you're having fun. Even teammates can have a fun time with each other." Emily explained with a smile and he couldn't help but return it.

With what Emily said, Optimus understood why Emily laughed and in a way he was happy to see her being happy and it gave his spark a warm pulse. Since the first mop was broken, Emily gave Optimus another one and helped him not break the other mop. She helped him mop the floor gently as Jack and Raf found it cute that she was helping him like that as they watched the two.

"They're so cute to watch." Jack said with a smile as he watched his two friends help each other out.

He even wondered when will the two confess to each other but he also hadn't confessed to Sierra that he has a crush on her yet so maybe it would take time.

"Yeah. It's a good thing Miko's not here. Knowing her would start teasing Emily." Raf said with a small giggle at the thought.

"I wouldn't worry about that. Seeing how Miss Rebel has a crush on a certain red haired guy at school, Emily would turn her teasing against her." Jack snickered since both Emily and Miko teased each other back and forth about their crushes.

"You're right. Guess it's a good thing she's not here to see that." Raf said with a snicker as he looked at Optimus and Emily.

Raf then turned to Jack to see that he had a small troubled look.

"You know what's weird? Is that deep down, I kind of miss her a bit. What's even weirder is that she didn't answer any of my messages." Jack said as he checked his phone after sending another message to Miko after 20 minutes.

"Maybe there's no signal in the desert." Raf said as he tilted his head as Jack shrugged.

"Yeah, that must be it. Either way I'm not complaining much. I just hope she's okay." He replied after putting his phone back into his pocket.

Meanwhile back in the desert, Bulkhead and Miko were settling in. Miko was almost finished with setting all her stuff up. The beach chair was up and so was the beach umbrella and she had found the perfect way to chill and enjoy the sun. Of course Bulkhead made sure that she was careful.

"Miko, be sure to put your suntan lotion on. I don't want you to have a sunburn." Bulkhead reminded her as she grabbed some beachwear to change into.

"Yeah, I know. Just give me a moment. I gotta finish setting my stuff. How about some music, dude?" Miko said as she stood up with the change of clothes in her arms.

"Good idea. Wanna hear track 7? Track 8? Track 17?" Bulkhead asked as Miko shook her head with a laugh.

"No, Bulk. When you're enjoying a beach day, you need a beach day song. Something cheesy yet enjoyable." Miko said as Bulkhead looked confused.

"And what did you have in mind?" He asked as Miko grinned.

"You'll see. But first I gotta change." Miko said.

"You sure it's a good idea? You might get bitten by a bug or a venomous snake." Bulkhead said as he was worried about her.

Miko, who had found some bushes to hide, began changing into something a bit more comfortable just in case she decided to have a swim.

"Relax, Bulkhead, there's no bugs or venomous snakes around here. Stop worrying so much. Just keep an eye out." Miko said as her head was only visible and she seemed to have let her hair down from her usual pigtails.

"Right." Bulkhead said and turned his back to her to give her privacy.

Bulkhead looked around him as if he was guarding something. It was a bit hard for him to stay and do nothing but he knew Miko wanted some privacy to change and he had to respect that.

"Uh, is everything going okay there?" He asked after a few moments.

"It's fine. I'm almost done. Just give me a moment and stop asking. You're distracting me." Miko told him.

"Sorry. Just tell me when you're done." Bulkhead said sheepishly.

"Okay. I'm almost there. Just a second. There. All done." Miko said with a grin as she came out of the bushes.

"I'm done. So what do you think?" Miko said excitedly while fixing something on her head.

Bulkhead turned around and saw that Miko had put on her bathing suit. With some cute panda sandals and a very cute beach hat and had some shades on which she lifted it up to reveal her hazel brown eyes twinkling excitedly.

"Not bad. Ready to have some fun now?" Bulkhead gave her a thumbs up.

"Sure am. But first. We need a jam." Miko said as she went to where her bluetooth speaker is but Bulkhead stopped her since she forgot something.

"Not so fast, young lady. First things first. You need to put on your sun tan." Bulkhead said sternly as Miko puffs her cheeks at him.

"Uh, Bulkhead, I'm in the shadows. What are you worried about?" She said as Bulkhead gave her the look like any parent.

"Miko." He said in a tone which made Miko sigh in defeat.

"Okay, okay, fine. I'll put my suntan on. Just do me a favor and don't start taking that big daddy voice with me." Miko pouted.

Miko took out her suntan lotion from her duffle bag and started to put it on every part of her skin that was exposed even her face so that way Bulkhead would be reassured and she would not get a sunburn which was a painful experience. After a certain moment, she was done with the suntan as she put her hands on her hips.

"Happy?" She questioned him after putting the suntan lotion away.

"Don't take that tone with me, young lady. I got half a mind to bring you back home." Bulkhead warned her.

"Very interesting, daddy-o, considering the fact that Ratchet said that the ground bridge wouldn't work for a while. So how are you gonna bring us home?" Miko said and grinned that she was able to outsmart Bulkhead.

"Uh..." Bulkhead was a little lost. Frag, he forgot about that.

"There you have it now. Less talk, more fun. You cannot have fun without good music." Miko said enthusiastically.

"I sure hope things at the base aren't as hard as here." Bulkhead said as Miko started to search for the bluetooth speaker she put in her duffel bag.

Meanwhile back at the base, Raf decided to ask Ratchet if they could put on some music to liven things up a bit.

"Hey, Ratchet. Mind if we put on some music?" Raf asked curiously as Ratchet looked up from what he was doing.

"Some music? This is serious work, Rafael." Ratchet said sternly but Arcee stepped in. Maybe some music might liven things up.

"Let the kids enjoy it a bit." Arcee said.

"Yeah, there's nothing wrong with having some music. Earth music is kind of good." Cliffjumper agreed with her.

"Come on, doc. We could use some music around." Smokescreen insisted.

Seeing how everyone wanted to have some music around to work a bit better, Ratchet had no other choice but to agree to their terms.

"Very well then." He said after deciding a few seconds.

"Cool, thanks, Ratchet." Raf smiled excitedly and went to where his bag was.

Since Ratchet had agreed to let everyone hear some music, Raf grabbed his computer from his bag and began to turn it on. He searched on YouTube for a good work song.

Back at the desert, Miko had found the perfect song for a beach day.

Both kids, without knowing it, played the song Can't Stop The Feeling from Ed Sheeran at the same time, but in different places and just like that both sides started to enjoy themselves. However, Ratchet started to regret agreeing to it since he likes the silence as he let out a sigh.

"Primus, please give me strength." He muttered to himself.

Emily was really enjoying the song, so was Jack. The kids and the bots were able to work with a bit more to the rhythm of the song. To teach Optimus how to mop the floor without breaking the mop again, Emily had dropped some water on the floor and taught him how to use the mop without applying too much pressure on it. So far the lesson was going well and Optimus seemed to enjoy learning and Emily enjoyed teaching him.

To teach him a little better, Emily had put her soft hand into Optimus servo which were cold as metal and yet for her it felt warm and soothing and as crazy as it sounds, she didn't blush or have any sort of nervous reactions this time but that didn't last very long when they both started to look each other. Emily looked around and blushed a bit more than before.

While teaching Optimus how to handle the mop, she had accidentally stepped in some of the water and began slipping but luckily Optimus was able to break her fall and make her land on his servo.

After getting caught by Optimus, she rubbed her head and opened her eyes before looking up and she saw Optimus' blue optics looking down at her in concern. He saw that she was okay and gave her a warm smile and that made her nervous as she began to blush a lot and it seemed steam was coming out of her ears from how much she was blushing. She got up very quickly and when she did, she stepped on the water again and fell flat on her back but for some reason the fall made her start to laugh.

Jack and Raf began laughing as well when poor Jack stepped on the water and slipped and Raf slipped right after him with a yelp of surprise. When they looked at each other, they began laughing and just like that cleaning duty was starting to be fun.

Ratchet was busy working on the ground bridge and saw how they laughed in enjoyment. He didn't quite get why but for some reason he couldn't resist but to smile at their antics to liven up the situation.

He finally understood what Optimus had meant earlier. Sometimes a team is some people who work and smile together. The battles take a heavy toll on them but no matter what they face, as long as they can keep smiling and have each other's back, everything's gonna alright in the end.

Arcee, who saw him smiling, asked him why he was smiling since he never smiled without reason.

"Did I see you smile right now?" Arcee asked him and made him snap out of his small daze.

Ratchet was surprised by Arcee since he didn't even see her there.

"What? No, I'm not... I don't see what you're talking about." Ratchet denied it as it made Arcee smirk a little.

"Tough as always, I see. Even so, that smile looked good on you." Arcee said as Ratchet grumbled.

"Just... get back to work." He said as Arcee just chuckled.

"Okay, tough guy." Arcee said with a small smirk before she returned to work.

Even though he wouldn't admit what happened earlier because of his legendary Cybertronian Pride let him admit that he smiled. He then resumed his work just like the others.

Meanwhile back in the desert, after she had changed her clothes, Miko had decided to take a tiny nap under her umbrella while sitting down in her beach chair. Bulkhead wanted to try something more fun. He wanted to get in the water but was scared that it would have salt in it and that it would burn like some sort of acid. So before going in, he first decided to try the water with his pedes.

He touched it real quick and when he realized that it didn't hurt or anything. He stepped his foot on the water. After putting one foot pede, he put the other one. He couldn't believe it, the freshness of the water was very relaxing. Much more than an oil bath.

He sat down on the water and let it cool down on him. He used both of his hands to make the water course from his head and straight down to his body. Suddenly he realized that water was kind of fun and he took it a wee bit too far. He soaked himself with it so much that he accidentally had soaked Miko who jolted up in a sitting position.

"Hey, watch it!" Miko told him as Bulkhead chuckled.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot you can't handle water, miss kitty cat." Bulkhead jokes.

"Is that so?" Miko started to grin as she stood up.

After doing so she takes off her sandals and goes running toward the water and makes a jump to the water.

"What do you think of Miss kitty cat now?" Miko teases playfully.

Bulkhead doesn't give Miko a straight answer and instead he throws water at her and she squeals to avoid getting hit by the water.

"I think that you know what this means." Bulkhead said with a grin.

"I sure do." Miko said with a matching grin.

"WATER FIGHT!!!" Both of them shouted.

Both Bulkhead and Miko started throwing water at each other. Miko threw as much as she could. However Bulkhead had the advantage. The big guy made a big wave that dragged Miko back to land. Even though getting wiped out was the worst, she couldn't help but to laugh at it and Bulkhead laughed too.

Meanwhile back at the base, the kids had finished mopping the floor and Arcee, Cliffjumper, Smokescreen and Bumblebee had safely removed all the panels. To spare the kids some cleaning, they decided to take care of the dust the panels had themselves. Ratchet was still working on the ground bridge system. He was done with the unscrewing, and he made sure Bolty had his fair share of rusted bolts. The little critter had more than he could ever dream. Everything was going great so far.

During that time the kids were about to pass the vacuum on the second floor. Jack and Raf started to work on it. However Emily wanted Optimus to try it and he felt like this time it was best for him to just watch how they work. But Emily didn't want to give up just like that, so she made him use the vacuum very carefully. To avoid something getting broken again, Optimus used the vacuum very carefully and was able to help the kids. However, for some strange reason the vacuum suddenly stopped working. Emily opened it to check if the bag was full. Since it wasn't, she had deduced that something was stuck in the tube that would suck everything when the vacuum is one. She checked it by using one eye. And when she hit the tube to unstick it, a huge smoke of dust came out of the tube and went straight in her face as she began to cough. When she was done, she started to look at Optimus. And just like that she bursted into laughter as the dust in the face situation was sort of funny to her. When Jack and Raf saw her like that, they laughed at her since she looked kind of funny with this dust all over her face.

When Bolty had seen that it was the tube that threw the dust that Emily had in her face, the little guy started to attack the tube didn't so that it was trying to hurt Emily. But by doing so, he had released a bit of dust that was inside. The poor little guy had received some of it, right inside his mouth. That made poor Bolty sneeze real hard and so hard in fact that it made him bounce and fly around a bit. Luckily, no one got hurt and Emily was able to catch him with an amazing jump. Another situation to smile and laugh at. Mostly laughs since Bolty's cuddling was very ticklish and that made Emily laugh so hard since she was getting tickled right in the face.

The smiles were everywhere. Including Optimus' face, who still did not understand how Emily was able to laugh at all this but the smile he was letting go had shown that deep inside he was laughing. Of course he wouldn't show it since he was someone to keep his emotions in check. Whether it was anger or sadness, he would never express it freely. However a tiny smile never hurt anyone, not even him. Yet even a tiny smile was enough to see that he was happy deep inside his spark and without even him even knowing. Emily noticed him smile and she felt so happy to see him like that.

Meanwhile back in the desert, after a big water fight, both Miko and Bulkhead had decided to chill out a bit and nothing relaxes more than taking a nice sun bath. Bulkhead did the same except that he didn't actually get the concept. He used a palm tree to protect himself from the sun like an umbrella. He didn't want the sun to hit him, for it would make his metal skin get hot. So with natural protection, he would be able to relax better and every time Miko would change position, he would do the same. And while they were both enjoying a nice relaxing time, Miko was also enjoying a nice drink. The best way to have a nice beach day is to have a nice juice to drink with a nice long straw. Sure, some ice in her apple juice would be cool. But the desert is too hot for ice. At least she had juice.

Meanwhile back at the base, the kids had finished with all the clean up. Everything was cleaned and spotless. The kids wanted to have their free time since they were done. But for that they had to ask Ratchet permission. Ratchet had seen that they had finished and before they could even say anything, he released them from any further duty. He had seen that they had worked very hard all day so before they could ask anything, he told them that they could take the rest of the day off. And at the moment they turned around, Ratchet congratulated them, much to their surprise. They must've done a good job if Ratchet took the time to congratulate them.

With that said, Raf turned off the music on his computer and connected it to the tv. The music stopped playing but with the happiness they were feeling, they felt like it was still playing. Without knowing that, Ratchet was gonna give them free time after this hard work, the kids had prepared tons of movies to watch. Very enjoyable movies and somehow it was like they knew that Ratchet would agree to that which was very surprising. Raf had downloaded the Despicable Me trilogy, as well as the Disney Planes Duology and Wall-E. For that matter, all three of them had brought some food; chips, popcorn and some apple juice. Since the kids were done, Optimus was about to go wander off on his own around the base. But before he had the time to do so, Emily wanted to give him a better thing to do.

"Hey, Optimus. Wanna watch some movies with us?" Emily said as she looked up to him when he stopped.

"I... do not think it's a good choice since I don't know much about them." Optimus said as Emily just smiled.

"You don't need to know much. You just have to enjoy it. Come on." Emily said hopefully.

Optimus wasn't very comfortable but since Emily proposed to him to watch those movies with her and he felt that he couldn't say no. Plus it could be a good way of learning about human pop culture.

"Very well then." He nodded in agreement.

"Cool." She smiled happily.

After a few moments and a few bowls of chips and popcorn, the kids had started their movie marathon. They had finished the first Despicable Me and were right in the middle of the second one. Even if Optimus agreed on watching some movies with the kids he didn't quite get it. Even the 7th art sort of escaped Optimus comprehension of human culture. Thankfully Emily was there to explain to him that movies were about telling a story, with moving images. But it was more than just moving images, movies were about creating a story that people would see and connect with it in a certain way. In a way movies show you certain lessons of life. And also you enjoy yourself.

He didn't quite get the story but seeing the kids smile and enjoy such a wonderful time made him happy. She didn't show it much but Emily was sort of nervous since Optimus was watching with them. Yet deep inside she was happy to see him enjoying something and taking a load off from the war. Even though she was a bit nervous she was able to stay very calm. And that had been noticed by Jack and Raf who found it kind of cute.

Meanwhile back at the desert, a while had passed and Miko was already done with her sun tanning. After a good small nap, she felt like playing a nice game of ball and nothing screams a good game ball at the beach than a beach ball. She took the ball she had brought and threw at Bulkhead. It bounced right in his face and landed on one of his servos. Since Miko wanted to play, Bulkhead felt like it was a good idea so he threw the ball back at her by using his finger tip. She threw it back at him and vice versa. Miko's laugh was pure joy for the big guy.

Back at the base, the work was going through its final phase. Ratchet had finished chewing every server and cable that the ground bridge needed to function properly. Everything was tip top shape and all that was left to be done was to put back the panels, reactivate the ground bridge and recalibrate it.

"Almost done. Good news, everyone. The ground bridge is intact. There's no sign of anything out of the ordinary." Ratchet said and much to everyone's relief.

"So we're done? Finally, it's about time. My joints started to ache so much." Cliffjumper said with a sigh.

"Maybe you're just too rusty, old bot." Smokescreen jokes.

"I'm young enough to kick your tailpipe." Cliffjumper snickered as Arcee just rolled her optics at them.

"Grow up, you two." She said with a shake of her helm.

Bumblebee beeps to ask Ratchet what he wants them to do.

"Just put back the panels. The only thing left is the recalibration. Rafael." Ratchet said before he called Raf.

Raf heard Ratchet calling him and went to see what he wanted from him.

"What is it?" He asked curiously.

"The time for recalibrating the ground bridge is now." Ratchet said as he nodded.

"I'd love to help but we're already using my computer for the movies." Raf said sheepishly.

"Grab my holo computer. That way you can help Ratchet without using your computer." Emily said as she popped another popcorn in her mouth.

"Sure, thanks." Raf smiled and ran to where the bags were.

He opened Emily's bag and took out the holo computer. He then ran for the ground bridge control. He connected the computer to it to start working on the recalibration.

"Logged in and ready to work." Raf said as he gave Ratchet a thumbs up.

"Very well then. Turning the ground bridge system on. Now." Ratchet said and turned the ground bridge computer on and so far everything is going well.

"It works. Good work, everyone. You guys did an amazing job." Ratchet said as everyone cheered at that.

"Stop it, doc. You're making me go red. I don't wanna get turned into a second Cliffjumper." Smokescreen said with a teasing tone and causing Cliffjumper to punch his shoulder playfully.

"You're pushing your luck, Smokes." He said as they snickered.

"The system seems to work. I'll start the recalibration." Raf said.

"Okay, everyone, you know what to do. So chop chop." Ratchet said to everyone.

"Back to work again." Cliffjumper said with a shrug.

"Yup." Smokescreen agreed.

"Less complaining, more working please? And let's try to keep the childish act in check please?" Arcee said as Bumblebee agreed with her.

"You just love making fun of us don't you?" Cliffjumper said as Arcee shrugged but had a small smile on her faceplate.

Back in the desert. Both Miko and Bulkhead got bored from playing ball, so they decided to do something else. Something a bit more crafty, artistic and fun. They started doing some sand sculpting. Bulkhead did all the faces of the members of Team Prime. He did sculptures of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Arcee, Cliffjumper, Smokescreen, himself, Wheeljack, Jack, Emily, Raf and Miko.

The sculptures were the size of a bot. It was amazing. When he was done Miko was so amazed that she wanted to take a selfie of the sculptures. She took a pic of herself with the other sculptures. However, when she had reached Bulkhead's sand sculpture. He told her to get close to him so he would appear in the picture too. She wanted to try and make a joke to the others. See if they guess right which is which. To make it harder, Bulkhead did a pose.

After they took the picture, the humongous sculpture of Bulkhead started to fall down on them. Both were covered in sand. When they came out of it, they both looked at each other and laughed. After finishing sculpting and getting out of the sand. It was snack time. Miko had brought a fruity snack just for her. A mix of apples, oranges, grapes and pineapples. All of it was in a plastic tupperware that she had brought in her duffel bag. She loved eating a mix of many fruits. The day might've started on a bad note but what followed could be called a great time and after so much fun, it was time to chill up a bit.

Back at the base, the recalibration of the ground bridge was going well with Ratchet's help. The other bots were taking care of putting back the panels. It didn't take them too much to put everything back the way it was. Despite how stressful that work was they put them back just the way it was. If one panel wasn't put back the way it was. Doctor Ratchet would've made a big fuss about it. He kept an eye on everything. In any moment the recalibration of the ground bridge would be over soon. For once, Ratchet could breathe easily and stop worrying about any possible catastrophe or anything like it.

"Thank Primus everything went alright." Ratchet said in relief.

"You did a very good job, Ratchet. Now we can all rest more easily, knowing that one of our advantages is still intact." Optimus said as Ratchet nodded.

"I agree with you on that point, Optimus. But for the other point I must differ, since I didn't do much. Not on my own at least. If it wasn't for the others, this never would've worked. The team deserves some credit too." He said as Optimus smiled.

"Indeed, they do. But I believe that when the leader receives credits for a job well done it's because he was a great leader to his team." He said as Ratchet pondered on this

"True but if you ask me, when it comes to being a great leader, my leadership can't equal the one of a Prime. Not even yours, Optimus." Ratchet told him.

"In my opinion, we're both good leaders. It all depends on the situation. There are some that I'm capable of handling while some others are out of my hands. And that is where your capability comes into hand." Optimus said.

"Let's agree that we're both good in our different ways." Ratchet simply said as Optimus had to agree.

"Agreed." He said before Raf called Ratchet.

"Hey, Ratchet." Raf called him.

Ratchet heard Rafael call his name and went to see if everything was okay.

"Rafael, is everything okay?" He asked and Raf nodded.

"Sure is. The ground bridge recalibration is almost done. The system seems to work perfectly." Raf said as he fixed his glasses.

"That's good to hear." Ratchet said.

At the same time that Raf had told Ratchet that the recalibration was almost done, the other bots had finished putting back all the panels.

"Sir, we have successfully put back the panels just the way they were." Smokescreen said.

"Good work. You all did an amazing job." Ratchet said as Smokescreen grinned.

"It was no biggie." He shrugged.

"Keep telling him that stuff and he's gonna talk about it for stellar cycles." Arcee said as she crossed her arms with Bumblebee agreeing.

"Almost there. Almost there. Yes. The recalibration is done. All systems are working perfectly." Raf said with a smile as the movie was paused and Jack and Emily stood up from their spot.

"So I guess it's over now?" Jack asked as Ratchet nodded.

"The work on the ground bridge may be complete but there's one last thing left to do. We must see if an Autobot or a human can travel on the portal and get from one point to another completely safe." He said as Emily put her hands on her hips.

"So all we need to do is bring back Miko and Bulkhead from the desert to see if the portal works just like it should be." She summed up and Ratchet nodded.

"Precisely. Since the system seems to be working properly, there shouldn't be any problem during transportation. Still we must be careful. I hope you guys left the main panel open." Ratchet said as Cliffjumper nodded.

"We did." He said.

"Good. Jack and Emily, I'm gonna need your help." Ratchet said.

"Us? Okay, and what do you need us to do?" Jack asked curiously.

"Well, if we open the ground bridge and the system starts to overload or something, I want you to handle the situation." Ratchet said as he pointed to the fire extinguishers.

"Us, handle the situation? You got it. Let me just grab a fire extinguisher. Just in case a fire comes out." Jack said as Emily agreed.

"Good idea." She said as both of them came down with Bolty following.

When Emily was about to grab it, Bolty wanted to play with it. So he started to bite it but Emily grabbed the little guy before something bad happened.

"Bolty, I told you a hundred times. No biting the fire extinguisher. The cold liquid in it could hurt you." Emily scolded him gently when he looked at her questioningly.

Bolty started to feel sad because he wanted to play so bad.

"Don't worry, you'll get to play soon." Emily said and kissed his little head as that cheered him up and went to her shoulder.

Emily grabbed the fire extinguisher and gave it to Jack. They both walked to where the main panel was.

"Okay, we're ready here." Jack said as Ratchet nodded.

"Very well. I shall contact Bulkhead and Miko to tell them that we're ready for their return." Ratchet said.

"I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I kind of missed the big lug and Miss Rebel." Arcee said.

"You won't believe this but the same goes for me." Cliffjumper agreed.

Back at the desert, Miko and Bulkhead were laying down on the sand. Watching the sky. For some reason the cloudless view above the desert was something that you won't be able to take your eyes off.

"Wow, the sky. With no clouds in sight. It..." Bulkhead said in awe at seeing the clear sky.

"It looks boring. Yet amazing, which is kind of weird. There's no cloud at all." Miko said as Bulkhead looked down at her curiously.

"Why is it weird?" He asked curiously.

"Well... when people look at the clouds, they tell what they see, for example a bunny, a bird or a marshmallow." Miko explained and had to giggle.

"A bunny in the sky? I didn't know that bunnies could fly." Bulkhead said in confusion and it made Miko giggle.

"That's not what I meant. What I mean is that clouds sometimes form something familiar." Miko said with a soft smile.

"And how do they do that?" He asked curiously.

"Dunno, maybe it has something to do with the wind." Miko said with a shrug.

"Something tells me young lady that you haven't been paying attention during your sky science class." Bulkhead said with a raised optic ridge.

"Okay, just so you know, it's just regular science class. There's no such thing as sky science." Miko corrected him.

"Isn't astronomy a science that studies the stars that are in the sky?" Bulkhead asked.

"Okay, you got me there. But still." Miko pouted as they returned their gaze back to the sky.

"This view reminds me a bit of Cybertron. The sky there was like that sometimes. During the night you could see the stars and more. It's hard to believe that here on Earth you can do that too." Bulkhead said with a small sad smile. He misses the old days before the war.

"I hope one day I'll get to see the stars on Cybertron." Miko said hopefully as she looked at Bulkhead.

"Someday maybe. For now, you'll have to look at them from here." Bulkhead said with a smile and she returned it.

"Yeah." Miko nodded before Bulkhead heard his comm-link.

"Bulkhead, do you read me?" It was Ratchet.

"I hear you, Ratchet. What's up?" Bulkhead asked.

"The maintenance work on the ground bridge is done. We're getting ready for your return." Ratchet said.

"Really? Okay, we'll get ready." Bulkhead said before he hung up and looked at Miko who looked at him curiously.

"Uh, Miko. I hate to tell you this... but the beach day is over. Ratchet just called and said that the ground bridge was back in action. They're just waiting for us to come back. I hope you're not too mad we have to leave." Bulkhead said as Miko stood up.

"Me, mad? Dude, this was the best day ever. I had so much fun." Miko said with a grin.

"I see. I'm glad to hear that." Bulkhead chuckled.

"Let me get my stuff. Think you can transform? That way it'll be quicker to get my stuff." Miko said as she started to gather her stuff.

"Right." He nodded and transformed into his vehicle mode

After he did, Miko started putting most of her stuff in her duffle bag. When she was done with her bag, she started to take down her parasol and grab her beach chair and put them all back in the rear seat section. After that, she got inside Bulkhead and closed the door and put the seat belt on after putting her pants on.

"Okay, time to leave." Miko said as she put the seatbelt on.

"Ratchet, we're ready to go." Bulkhead said after turning his comm-link back on.

Back at the base, Ratchet nodded after getting a fix on their coordinates.

"Good, I have a fix on your coordinates. Now the ground bridge should work like it always does. However we shall monitor the transportation until you get back safe and sound." Ratchet explained.

Back at the desert, Bulkhead turned on his engine.

"If you sense that something is not right. You tell me right away and I'll shut down the ground bridge." Ratchet told him.

"Copy that. We're ready." Bulkhead replied.

Back at the base, everyone got ready.

"Very well then. Is everyone ready?" Ratchet asked as he turned around.

"We're ready." Arcee said with a nod.

"Fire it up." Smokescreen said with a thumbs up and Bumblebee agreeing.

"Armed and ready to go." Jack said as he and Emily removed the pins from the fire extinguishers.

"Uploading coordinates and activating the ground bridge now." Ratchet said and quickly typed the coordinates in.

After uploading the coordinates, Ratchet activated the ground bridge. It turned on perfectly and smoothly without any trouble. The portal seemed stable.

Back at the desert, Bulkhead was waiting for Ratchet to tell him that he could enter the portal as it opened up.

"Bulkhead, you may come in. Now remember if there's anything weird happening. You must tell me." Ratchet said.

"I will." He said before Miko spoke up.

"Just out of curiosity. What would be shown if the portal starts acting weird?" Miko asked curiously.

"Let's try not to think about it. Just breathe and relax and think positive thoughts." Bulkhead said nervously as Miko pouted.

"Easier said than done." She said as Bulkhead started to enter the portal.

He got in and drove slowly and carefully.

Back at the base everyone was holding their breath, standing ready if anything bad happened. Ratchet had a steady look in his eyes. He was keeping his cool and yet he was a bit worried about the ground bridge malfunctioning.

"Bulkhead? Is everything okay?" Ratchet asked.

"All good. I think I'm almost there." Bulkhead said and Arcee noted the vehicle coming out of the portal.

"I see him." Arcee said as she pointed at Bulkhead and Miko who were coming back and soon out of the portal.

"We made it back. Phew. And in one piece." Miko said with a sigh of relief.

"Yup, you said it." Bulkhead agreed with her.

"It worked. Thank Primus. ground bridge offline." Ratchet said in relief.

Ratchet turned off the ground bridge and after Bulkhead came out of the ground bridge, he stopped and let Miko come out. After she did, the big guy transformed.

"Guess who's back?" She said with a big smile.

"Hey, looks like you had quite a good time. Wow, nice tan." Emily said as she noted that Miko's skin looks darker than usual.

"Thanks, I figured I could use some." Miko said with a grin.

Jack was trying to resist laughing at how Miko looks.

"So you decided to go for the toasty look?" He snickered only to get a beach ball to the face by Miko.

"Very funny." She rolled her eyes.

"So glad to see you're okay. When you didn't answer any of our messages, we got so worried." Raf said as he approached them.

"Messages?" Miko blinked in confusion and took out her phone.

Miko checks her phone and sees that she had tons of unread messages that they had sent her. Even two or three calls.

Miko checks her phone and sees that she had tons of unread messages that they had sent her. Even two or three calls.

"Oh, right, sorry. I didn't have any signal In the desert. But man I gotta tell you. It was fun. A bit too sandy and burning, but cool." Miko said as she put her phone back.

"So how was the desert?" Smokescreen asked Bulkhead.

"Ha, no different than the good old Sea of Rust." Bulkhead said.

"It figures. Boy, that place was the worst. And I should know, I've been there." Cliffjumper chuckled.

"It's good to have you back, Bulkhead. And for once I'm glad that you didn't bring any sort of catastrophe with you." Ratchet said as Bulkhead agreed with him.

"Yeah, me too." He nodded.

At the moment Ratchet thanked Bulkhead for coming back to base without causing any incident, a weird noise was heard which made them look up and look around where it was coming from.

"What is that noise?" Arcee question.

"I don't know." Cliffjumper shook his helm.

"Think it's the ground bridge?" Smokescreen asked but Ratchet shook his head.

"The ground bridge doesn't make that kind of sound." Ratchet said.

Emily listened carefully before looking towards Bulkhead.

"Call me crazy but I think that it's coming from Bulkhead." Emily said as he blinked.

"Who, me?" He pointed to himself.

"Yeah, I think she's right. Maybe something got stuck with you." Miko agreed with her.

"Let me help you with that." Smokescreen said.

Smokescreen hits Bulkhead a couple of times in the back to help him unstuck whatever he had stuck and make him make that strange noise. And what came out of it had everyone shocked. Sand was coming out of Bulkhead's joint. He had some stuck in him and he didn't even know. Some dropped on the floor. Ratchet had a pretty serious look in his eyes. He looked straight at Bulkhead who was a bit uncomfortable by this situation. Even Miko was a bit nervous. Everyone was amazed by the sand that came out of Bulkhead. It stopped for a moment falling off him for a moment.

"Anything else?" Ratchet asked as he crossed his arms.

"Let me check." Smokescreen said.

"There's no need for..." Bulkhead said but before he could finish his sentence, Smokescreen hit him on the shoulder and another ton of sand came falling off the big guy again.

"That." Bulkhead finished.

The second ton of sand was a bit bigger than the first one. What was really surprising about all this awkward situation, is that Ratchet kept his cool which was weird and scary for everyone. They were all used to hearing Ratchet say his famous catchphrase.

"This is one awkward situation." Jack said as he looked at Ratchet.

"Yeah and you know what's really weird? Is that Ratchet didn't say, you know what." Emily agreed with him.

"Right, his famous 'I needed that' catchphrase." Jack knew Ratchet would shout that.

"I'm not sure if it's something but from the looks of it, Ratchet is about to say it." Raf pointed as he hid behind Bumblebee.

"Brace yourself, guys." Miko said as she was ready to cover her ears.

The sand stopped falling off Bulkhead. The big guy was very silent since this was kind of embarrassing.

"Uh... hehehe... Guess I got some sand stuck in me and I accidentally brought some with me without even knowing... hehe... hehe. Okay, look just say it already. I know you're itching to say it anyway." Bulkhead said nervously as he looked at Ratchet.

"I know this... situation calls for it but since the work was completed without any incident. I won't say it." Ratchet said and that shocked and surprised everyone.

"What did you just say?" Bulkhead asked in confusion.

"I said that I wouldn't say it. You just brought some sand by accident. It's not that big of a deal." Ratchet said while keeping his arms crossed.

"Guys, I think Ratchet here is not the Ratchet we know. I think he got replaced by a con who can change its form." Miko said with her eyes wide.

"I would say that what you just said sounds crazy. But after what I've seen, I think you're right." Emily said with a nervous laugh.

"Maybe Ratchet is just trying to be nice?" Jack suggested.

"That may be so." Raf agreed.

"Which is weirder when it comes to Bulkhead." Miko said as she raised an optic ridge.

"Did I hear right? Ratchet won't say it?" Smokescreen question in disbelief.

"I'm not sure I believe that." Cliffjumper said.

"Hep-yep-yep. I said what I said. And I always stand by my word." Ratchet said as he gave the two a look.

The second ton of sand that fell off Bulkhead started to shift a bit. It was kind of getting close to where the main panel was. Bolty had accidentally touched it and made it move.

"Bolty, stop." Emily said as Bolty stopped and shook the sand off him.

"It's okay. I'm sure nothing bad will happen. Even if it does, I won't say it. No matter what happens." Ratchet said as he kept his cool.

The sand was getting terrifyingly close to the main panel. Everyone was expecting Ratchet to lose his cool anytime soon and that they would have to cover their ears and audio receptors soon because that blow up would be the big one.

"Ratchet, you sure you won't say it right?" Arcee questioned him.

The sand was getting closer and closer to the panel. The expression on Ratchet's faceplate let out that he was really trying not to say the phrase but it looked like he was about to explode big time as his left optic was twitching.

"I'm confident that no matter what will happen I won't say. I'm in control. Total control." Ratchet said.

Ratchet confirmed that he was in total control and that he wouldn't explode. Which was very impressive coming from him. He normally loses it quickly and some around felt like it was coming. The sand got to where the main panel was. Everyone stood still, waiting for the catastrophe to come. But something surprising happened. The sand fell on the main panel but nothing happened.

"Nothing happened." Jack said with a nervous laugh.

"Haha. Nothing happened." Emily agreed with him.

"Really? I mean, of course. Why would anything bad happen?" Miko said in confusion but she was nervous as well.

"See? Didn't I tell you? I didn't say it. I told you I wouldn't. You guys thought I would, but guess what. I didn't." Ratchet scoffed.

"Yeah, well, your face said that you were about to throw the bomb." Jack noted.

"True, I thought I was gonna be like. Boom." Miko said.

"I'm surprised the main panel didn't overload or anything like it." Raf noted.

"Guess it takes more than some sand." Bulkhead said with Miko agreeing.

"You said it, big guy. That techno stuff sure is tough." Miko said with a grin.

When Miko said the main panel was stuff for some tech, it started to overload. There was a small fire and a small smoke coming from it. Jack grabbed the fire extinguisher and quickly put the small fire out.

"Fire is out." Jack said.

"Uh... hehe, at least the fire is out and I'm sure nothing bad will happen after that." Bulkhead said nervously.

After Bulkhead said that, the automatic sprinklers turned on after sensing smoke. Water started coming down on everyone.

Optimus, who was walking around the corridors of the base, had deduced that such catastrophe could only come from another one of Bulkhead's accidental mischief. Back at the Command Center, everyone stood still while the water was falling on them. The kids were completely soaked.

The sand turned a bit muddy because of the water. Bulkhead had really messed up and although Ratchet had tried to resist saying it. This time that was it.

"Uh... whoops?" Bulkhead said sheepishly and nervously.

"Ah, Primus, I tried but that's it for me. Bulkhead... I... needed... THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ratchet yelled very loudly and caused everyone to cover their ears and audio receptors.

His yell was so loud that it became a huge echo. An echo that strangely it could even be heard by Decepticons in the Nemesis who all look up and stop what they were doing in confusion.

"You heard that?" Knock Out as Breakdown didn't hear anything.

"What are you talking about? I didn't hear anything." He said in confusion.

"It sounded like someone was shouting very loudly. Hmph whatever." Knock Out said as Breakdown resumed buffing out his finish.

Back at the base, trouble was brewing for the big guy and there was nothing his friends could do.

"Wait, wait, Ratchet. Please let me explain! Everything has an explanation!" Bulkhead said quickly in panic.

"He's right. It was an accident. When we got to where we wanted to go and he got covered in sand-" Miko said but what she said wasn't helping.

"He, what?" Ratchet leveled his glare towards the Japanese exchange student.

"Yeah, that was a terrible accident." Bulkhead agreed with her.

"Oh really? So I guess hitting you on the head with my wrench I'd gonna be your second accident of the day." Ratchet said as he got his trusty wrench out of his subspace pocket.

"Guys, you better run fast." Emily said as everyone took cover quickly.

"Run where?" Miko squeaked nervously as Bulkhead picked her up.

"Nowhere, Miko!!! Let's just get out of here!!!" Bulkhead said and quickly ran.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!" Miko screamed while holding on.

"Get back here you, big lug!!!" Ratchet screamed angrily after him and started to run after the two troublemakers.

There was nowhere for them to escape Ratchet's anger and after remembering that long pursuit and what happened one that day, everyone came off the memory lane.

Flashback ends;