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_ On the Way Out _

Here we go. Miko fought the urge to peek around the end of the lockers as the door opened. If everyone could keep quiet, maybe the guy would make a quick visual sweep and then move on. Her dad thought the search party had spotted him, but he could be wrong. Maybe he'd ducked out of sight before anyone could look in the right direction.

"We know you're in here. You might as well come out where we can see you."

Fuck.

"Come out now, and we won't hurt you. If we have to go looking for you, it'll just make us cranky."

Miko concentrated on the sound of the boots moving slowly across the floor. She could make out at least three or four different sets of footsteps, but they kind of blended together. For all she knew, there could be twice as many people fanning out across the room.

One set in particular seemed to be getting closer. Miko slipped her gun back into its holster, cocked her robotic arm back, and waited. A woman in the familiar green MECH uniform appeared around the end of the locker, wearing a tactical vest and carrying an assault rifle. She spun to face Miko and raised the gun into firing position.

Miko lunged at her, swatted the gun upward, and drove an uppercut straight into the woman's crotch. She doubled over with an ear-splitting scream and curled up on the floor. Miko grabbed the rifle, plucked two spare magazines from her belt and stuffed them into a pocket, and then pulled the woman's tactical vest off. She put it on and zipped it up. It fit loosely, but it'd have to be good enough.

Okay. Now I've got some protection, at least. She backed a few steps toward the wall to give herself some room, raised the rifle, and crouched. In the corner of her eye, her dad glanced at the woman and back to Miko, and stared at her in shock. She shrugged and focused on the open space past the end of the lockers.

"What the hell?" someone muttered, followed by a sharp intake of breath. Miko frowned and decided to risk a quick peek. She found Raf standing beside one of the men at the rear of the group, his finger hooked through the pin on a grenade on the guy's belt. The man stared at Raf and held his breath.

Miko flicked her eyes around and counted six other people in MECH uniforms before Raf pulled the pin, flung it across the room, and vanished. The man let out a strangled scream, yanked the grenade from his belt, pulled the door open, and pitched it into the hallway. It bounced off to the left and exploded with a sharp bang. Everyone else winced and turned one way and another, trying to locate Raf, while the hostages let out a cacophony of terrified screams.

Miko drew her pistol and popped out long enough to drill two guys in the kneecaps before ducking back into cover. Across the room, a heavy piece of machinery rose off a shelf as the two guys collapsed, and shot through the air. It slammed into the side of another guy's head and knocked him flat on his back. He groaned once and passed out. The rest of them turned and opened fire on the spot it had launched from, and Miko caught a glimpse of the air rippling along the wall as Raf darted away from the hail of bullets.

Miko poked her head out again, picked the nearest enemy, and shot her in the left ass cheek. Her leg buckled and she dropped the gun and rolled around on the floor, screaming.

Something that looked like an oversized helmet launched from another shelf and fired across the room. Miko peeked around the corner just in time to see it hit another woman right in the face. She staggered back, blood pouring from her nose, and toppled over. She dropped her gun, clamped her hands over her face and groaned.

"Fuck this," she snarled, and scooted over to the door. She fumbled with the knob, smearing blood all over it, and then yanked the door open and scrambled into the hallway.

In the corner of her eye, Raf's dad popped into sight, scooped up a rifle someone had dropped, and aimed into the center of the room.

Only two left. Might as well see if we can get 'em to back down. Maybe we can get out of this without actually killing anyone. She holstered her pistol, gripped the rifle with both hands, and stepped into the open. Her dad emerged behind her and helped her cover the remaining bad guys.

Raf's mom appeared, glanced around, and grabbed another dropped rifle. Her hands trembled, but she kept it pointed in the two men's general direction.

The guys looked around slowly, grimaced, lowered the guns to the floor and kicked them out of reach. They placed their hands on their heads and sank to their knees. Miko let out a long sigh.

Okay, one checkpoint reached, and we only maimed a few of 'em.

She noticed the sounds of kids weeping, now that the shooting had stopped. Bobby and some of Raf's youngest siblings, probably.

"Be thankful that we didn't slaughter you," her father said. "You deserve it, after threatening to kill children."

"We didn't exactly have any choice," one of the guys mumbled. "Sokolov … hell, you might as well put a bullet in us right now."

"Those two guards you locked up," the other man said, "the ones you stripped naked … he executed them on the spot. Just shot them right between the eyes. Because they let a fifteen-year-old girl get the upper hand."

Miko suddenly felt as if ice water had flooded her guts. "Oh, shit …"

Raf appeared beside her and stared at the men. "Why would you work for someone like that?"

"We didn't know he was that crazy until it was too late. Some of us are only sticking around because of what might happen if we try to go AWOL."

Miko shook her head and turned to the door. "Just stay here, then. Lay low until it's all over. If there are any first-aid kits in here, see what you can do for your buddies. We've got a team coming to extract us. If they find you, don't put up a fight. If you do, you'll just die." She turned back to her dad and the others. "Grab one of their vests and put it on, just in case we run into any more of these guys."

She strode through the door and found the woman with the bloody nose sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall. She glanced up at Miko, shook her head, and held her hands up.

"Easy, there. I've had enough. I figured the pay was good, but I didn't sign up for this shit." She pointed at the intersection before tilting her head back and putting her hand back on her nose. "Take the hall to the right, then another right, then a left. That'll lead you to the nearest exit."

"You're not worried about Sokolov shooting you?" Miko stepped aside to let everyone else file into the hallway.

The woman nodded at the rifle on the floor beside her and said, "I'll blow his head off if he tries." She sighed and wiped tears from her eyes. "Just get the fuck outta here before I change my mind."

"Thanks." Miko turned around to be sure everyone else had joined her in the hallway.

Raf closed the door and placed his hand against the keypad beside it. "I can lock them in with my armor's EMP generator, but you'll need to get out of range first. It'll fry whatever electronic devices you've got on you. Including your arm, Miko."

She raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Well, I can't let anything happen to my favorite vibrator. How far away do we need to be?"

"The far end of the hall should be enough."

"Now that I think about it," the woman on the floor mumbled, "lock me in with those guys. The more obstacles between me and Sokolov, the better." She picked her gun up, held it by the barrel, and stumbled through the door.

"Alright, then." Miko jogged to the end of the corridor and the others followed her. "Let 'er rip."

---

"Our first priority is the hostages," Ashanti said as the team approached the MECH base. "Once they're secured, we'll take MECH down. Arrest them if possible, but if they refuse to surrender, do what you have to do. Especially if any of them put one of the hostages in their crosshairs."

"We're almost there," Tomoko said over the radio. She'd pulled ahead to scout the base. "I'm seeing several buildings that look like warehouses, two hangars, and ten smaller buildings. My scans are showing structures beneath three of those buildings, like underground bunkers. And I've just spotted twenty … huh, they look like robots, but my scans show humans inside them."

"Mech suits or powered armor, probably," DeeDee said. "Seems like the kind of thing these guys would build."

"Strika, you should set down before we get within range of any anti-aircraft weapons. We'll proceed on wheels and on foot from here."

"Descending now, Colonel."

In the corner of her eye, Tomoko's human-size body lifted the bag Miko's armor had been stuffed into, put her hand on the door handle, and waited for Optimus to reach the waypoint Strika had sent to everyone's HUD. They'd almost arrived when Tomoko's mini-me squealed and pointed straight ahead. At the same time, a series of dull whumps came from the air.

"They're shooting at me!"

"Get on the ground!" Ashanti glanced up, found Tomoko in a steep dive, and zoomed in with her helmet cameras. Tomoko transformed out of her helicopter mode, landed on her feet, stumbled, and then faceplanted, the impact shaking the ground and sending up a huge puff of sand. She curled up and threw her arms over her head until the shooting stopped, and then she pushed herself up and shifted into her half-spider mode.

"Are you okay?" Ashanti glanced from her to her Pretender body in the passenger seat.

"Yeah, I -- I think so." She sighed and took a moment to pull herself together, and Ashanti glanced around, searching for the rest of the team. In her HUD, their blips converged on her position.

"We are here," Optimus said.

Ashanti and Tomoko jumped out and jogged far enough away to give him room to transform back into his robot mode. She turned around and found Bee, Ultra Magnus, Smokescreen, and Arcee and Jack approaching, followed by Elita-1 and her entire team. They hadn't taken on any local disguises yet, so their vehicle modes looked quite alien.

Not that there was any reason for them to hide, anyway. Not for this fight.

Khalilah soared overhead, transformed out of her jet mode, and landed on her feet a few dozen yards away, carving two grooves into into the desert terrain until she came to a stop. At the same time, Strika landed and opened her side doors, disgorging June, Rosalina, several other Pretenders, and the human-size duplicates of Bee, Bulkhead, Smokescreen, Khalilah, Strika, Elita, Chromia, Firestar, Greenlight, Lancer, Moonracer, and Strongarm.

Once all the passengers were clear, the Autobots and their new allies transformed into their primary modes and advanced on the MECH base. Ashanti zoomed in for another look at the fence at the base's perimeter and found several dozen robotic-looking things taking positions just beyond the fence. An even closer look revealed humans inside, using pedals and joysticks to move around.

"Yep, that's powered armor. Looks like they've been busy since we locked their boss up."

"Building their own giant robots, eh?" Elita smirked. "How adorable."

"Don't underestimate them," Khalilah said. "I saw a lot of Vehicons killed by human weapons before some of us defected."

"Approach with caution," Optimus ordered, "but those of us too large to fit inside those buildings need to neutralize enemy forces out here while everyone else goes in to rescue the hostages."

"Alright, then." Elita plucked the huge cannon from her back and stomped toward the compound. "Let's kick this off."

The power armor units pointed their arms at the 'Bots and Ashanti noticed what appeared to be cannons mounted on them.

"Watch out for those guns. They might be loaded with --"

The mech units opened fire. Long muzzle flashes erupted from the cannons and the 'Bots leaped aside to dodge whatever they'd fired. In the corner of Ashanti's eye, a shell slammed into Khalilah's chest and sent her staggering off to the right. She clamped a hand over the wound, grunted, then groaned, and then screamed and doubled over. Ashanti caught a glimpse of the inside of the wound glowing white-hot and molten metal dripping out onto the ground. Khalilah stumbled around and then collapsed.

"It's still … it won't stop burning!" She screamed again and curled into a fetal position.

Jensen's voice came over the radio. "Jesus, somebody do something! Khalilah!"

"Get her under cover!" Elita ran to her side, laying down covering fire as she sprinted, each titanic footstep making the ground shudder. Strika and Tomoko joined her, the former dragging her behind the nearest warehouse and the latter shooting globs of her semi-organic spiderweb from her palm-mounted launchers to try to immobilize the enemy troops. Elita pried Khalilah's hand away from the wound so she could get a closer look at the damage. "What kind of weapon is that?"

"How is she?" Jensen's voice quavered. "Is … is she still …?"

"She is still operational," Strika said. "The shot missed her spark chamber. Whatever was in that projectile, it's still burning through her, but it seems to have slowed."

"Not … enough," Khalilah grunted. Her whole body shook.

Ashanti glanced around and found the rest of the 'Bots taking cover behind other buildings or chunks of rock big enough to shield them. Good thing they set up their base near some rock formations, and not a flatland.

"You should turn off your pain receptors," Strika said. "Just don't forget how badly damaged you are. Try not to move."

"R-right. Okay. Let me just … uh …" Khalilah uncurled slowly and stretched out on her back. "That's better … but I'm still … a little worried."

"Stay with me, Khalilah," Jensen said. "You'll be okay, just stay put until we can get you out of there. And hang on."

"I'll do my best, Chad." She glanced over at her human-size doppelganger. "I've got my remote-control body, there, so I can stay in the fight. I'll help Ashanti with the hostages."

"Ratchet," Ashanti said, "can you send Steve and a couple of the other defectors through the ground-bridge to take Khalilah back to the base? She needs immediate medical attention."

"Activating the bridge now. They'll be there momentarily."

"Thanks." She sighed. "I hate to say this, but be prepared for more incoming wounded."

Tomoko leaned in for a closer look at the wound. "It's not melting through as fast as it was, but it hasn't stopped."

Elita put a hand on Khalilah's shoulder. "As Jensen said, you hang on." She stood, turned toward the compound, and her face twisted with rage. She glanced around at her team and said, "Shoot to kill."

Optimus turned and stared at her. "Elita, we did not come here to slaughter them."

"They're not defenseless. They're capable of severely damaging us, maybe even killing us. My team and I are treating them like any other enemy." She glanced at Chromia and the rest. "You heard me. Take those bastards out."

Moonracer nodded, peeked around the corner for a quick glance at the enemy troops, and plucked the sniper rifle from her back. She hopped onto the warehouse roof, her weight leaving dents as she sprang into the air. The MECH troops turned to fire at her. She twisted in the air and the shells zipped past her. She lined up a shot as she turned upside-down and pulled the trigger. A slug ripped from the railgun and broke the sound barrier before it cut one of the powered armor-wearing humans in half. Ashanti winced at the boom that rattled everything around her as Moonracer completed her arc, landed on her feet between the warehouse and a smaller building, and darted out of sight.

Ashanti shook it off and spoke into her helmet mic. "Everyone who can fit through a normal-size door, regroup at my position. We're going in."

---

"At least we got out of there without stumbling onto the torture room that guard told us about." Miko's father held the door open for everyone to file out of the building.

"I still wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be a dildo dungeon, or something." Miko smirked and took a slow look around the parking lot. "Probably would've found their boss sitting on his thumb and jerking off to My Little Pony porn."

Her dad paused to gape at her for a few seconds before sighing and pointing across the compound. "I see some small vehicles way over there, but not the bus we arrived in. Maybe they moved it into a hangar to hide it."

Miko squinted at the vehicles on the other side of the compound. "Oh, some of them look like SWAT tanks. If we can steal a few of those, we'll have better protection than we would in the bus." She took another look at the small buildings and stacks of cargo containers between her and the vehicles. "We can get across most of this place by using that stuff as cover, then it'll be a short sprint the rest of the way."

"Miko, I don't think …" Her father sighed. "Well, I suppose it's better than hiding somewhere and waiting for them to find us."

"That's the spirit. We probably won't be able to fit many of us into each one, so you can drive one, each of Raf's parents can take two others, and I'll grab another. If that's not enough, maybe Lucas can drive a fifth."

"Do you even know how to drive yet?"

"I do a lot of driving in GTA Online. How hard can the real thing be?" She darted across the parking lot before he could say anything else. She glanced over her shoulder and found him grimacing and then sighing and waving everyone else ahead of him. He brought up the rear and Miko faced forward again. She paused behind the first building and waited for them to catch up.

"Suppose we run into more of these lunatics?" her dad said.

"Then we do what we have to do."

He stared at her for several seconds before looking away. "I … suppose we won't have any choice."

"Pretty much." She smirked and crept to the end of the wall. "And I'm kinda hoping we run into Sokolov. I owe him for the concussion and the bruises."

"I hope we don't. We saw how dangerous he is, and now we know how insane he is."

"If he gets in my way, I'm gonna punch him in the dick until it liquifies." Miko peeked around the corner and sprinted across to a stack of shipping crates.

"Hey," Raf said suddenly, and she glanced over at him. He pointed into the air. "I see a helicopter approaching, and it's not one of theirs."

Miko strained her ears and finally noticed the rapid thumping of rotors. She ran to the end of the shipping crate and poked her head out long enough to glimpse an incoming chopper. She couldn't quite make out the shape from here, but the colors -- black and sunset red -- were familiar. She broke into a huge grin.

"I think that's Tomoko! I bet the others aren't far behind."

"Yeah." Raf crept up beside her and pointed again. "There's another one that looks like a Cargobob. I bet that's Strika."

"They've found us!" A wave of giddiness swept over her and she had to suck in several deep breaths. Once she'd regained her composure, she waved at the others. "Those SWAT-tank thingies should be able to plow right through the fence around the base. If we can get to them, we can make a break for it while our friends keep these assholes busy."

She took another quick look around. The path looked clear, so she bolted across another open space and took cover behind another building.

Straight ahead, just past the fence, a silo sprouted from the ground and opened to reveal a pair of huge cannons. They rotated and fired, and the explosive sound rattled her bones. She glanced to the left and spotted Tomoko swerving and diving to dodge the incoming fire. She plunged to the ground, transformed, touched down, then stumbled and fell flat on her face.

Oh, no! Was she hit?

Tomoko picked herself up and shifted into her half-spider mode, and Miko let out a quick sigh. She checked on the others, waited for all of them to catch up with her, and then she sprinted over to the final piece of cover, a stack of crates holding ammunition.

Fantastic. One stray shot in the wrong place, and we'll end up medium-rare. She glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the group and decided not to call their attention to it. "We're almost there. Just one last dash to the finish line."

"Then we just need to hope they're not locked."

Ohhh. Shit. Miko shrugged. "Guess we'll find out."

"I should be able to handle that," Raf said. "It'd give me a chance to try out a few more of my armor's hacking tools."

The roar of a jet in the distance caught Miko's attention and she glanced over toward Tomoko. A familiar purple jet streaked into sight, shifted into a Vehicon, and landed.

"There's Khalilah." Miko grinned as Strika landed and unloaded her passengers, and more of Team Prime arrived.

Then more robotic shapes appeared, filing out of the nearby warehouse, and Miko stopped and stared.

"Uh, what the fuck are those?"

Raf turned in the same direction. "I'm zooming in on 'em. Huh, they look like mecha suits. Twelve or thirteen feet tall, with human operators."

"Huh. MECH troops in mech suits. Terrific."

"They've got cannons mounted on their arms."

The powered-armor units opened fire. Most of the 'Bots dodged the projectiles, but one slammed into Khalilah's chest and sent her staggering away.

Then she screamed and collapsed, and Miko shivered.

Oh, shit, no! "Raf … is she …?"

"I think she's still moving. They dragged her out of the line of fire, so she's got a chance, at least."

"I hope so!" Miko sprinted to the nearest SWAT tank and tugged on the door handle. Locked, of course.

A muffled voice came from inside. "What the hell?"

Uh-oh. Miko took a step back as the door opened and a guy in a MECH uniform poked his head out. She waited just long enough to be sure he didn't have his seatbelt on, then she grabbed him by the throat and yanked him out of the vehicle. She let him drop and her dad ran over to cover him with his stolen rifle. The guy started to sit up, noticed the gun pointed at him, and froze. Miko plucked the pistol and knife from his belt.

"Unlock the rest of these things."

He groaned and stood slowly. Keeping his hands raised, he walked from one vehicle to another, with Miko and her dad keeping their guns on him. Once he'd finished, Miko twitched her rifle in the general direction of the building they'd left a few minutes ago.

"Thanks. Now, fuck off."

He backed up a few steps and turned, then glanced over his shoulder as if expecting to be shot in the back. Finally, he broke into a jog, then a sprint. Miko turned back to the far side of the base just in time to watch one of the newer team members leap off the warehouse's roof, do a twist-and-flip in midair, and snipe one of the mecha units clean in half with a huge railgun.

"Nice!" Miko turned back to the others and waved a hand at the vehicles. "All aboard! We're getting the hell outta here!"

She waited for Raf and several of his brothers and sisters to jump in, then she followed them and pulled the door shut. She glanced over the dashboard and drew a slow breath.

"Okay, pedals, steering wheel … and a whole bunch of buttons and levers and joysticks." I sure hope I can figure out how to start the fuckin' thing.

Raf pointed. "That guy left the keys in."

"Sweet!" Miko turned the key and the engine roared to life. "I just hope all the others have keys in 'em, too."

"Well, my sister Catalina has known how to hotwire cars since she was my age. Other than that, though … yeah, this could be a problem."

"Okay. Well … if the others can't be started, at least we're behind the armor on these things." She noticed one of the joysticks had a trigger and a couple of red buttons. She jiggled the stick and a crosshair moved on a small screen above it. "Oh, and it looks like these are armed. If nothing else, I can get into some mischief."

Raf sucked in a quick breath. "Oh, I'm not thinking! I'm gonna see if I can contact our friends, assuming my radio's not still jammed."

Miko nodded, then squinted through the narrow window at motion on the far side of the base and groaned. "Better hurry. Ashanti's team is going into one of the buildings, but we're not there anymore."

He nodded, then looked up at her with wide eyes. "I just had another thought. We're in enemy vehicles, and the 'Bots don't know it yet. They'll think we're just more bad guys."

"Crap." Miko shook her head, then another motion caught her attention and she faced forward again.

Elita-1 was stomping straight toward her and the others, an enraged glare on her face and a huge gun in her hands. Another chill rippled through Miko's chest.

"Aw, shit."