Meanwhile back at Jasper Nevada, Miko had arrived at her host parents' house and she grinned as she slowed to a walk.
"Ah, finally." Miko said as she stepped on the front yard before noticing that her host parents' car wasn't present and she smiled since that means no one's at home yet.
"No one's home. Perfect." Miko smirks before going to a tree and climbs it to the roof by the window to her room and enters it.
"I'm in." Miko grinned.
After she got inside, she closed the window and started checking her closet to try and find what she was looking for.
"No, no. Not that. Not that too. Where did I put it?" Miko tapped her chin as she went over and checked her drawers but didn't find it. So she went back to look in her closet again.
"Let's see. Ah, here they are. Better not forget my comic books." Miko said as she grabbed the costumes and put them on the bed and grabbed her superhero comic books.
"Good. Now all I need is a bag. Ah, here's one." Miko said as she looked around the room and found a backpack and started to put the costumes and comic books in it.
After finding the costumes that she wanted to get rid of along with her comics, Miko put them in the blue and red bag. Suddenly she heard her phone ringing so she took out her phone and checked the caller ID. It was Jack calling her. She answered it quickly as she went downstairs.
"Hey. What's up?" Miko asked as she went down to the living room and got a glass of water.
"I'm at my house." Jack replied
At Jack's house, Jack found some of his old costumes that were still a little bit big for him but it might fit Emily as he zip the bag as well as a couple of comic books.
"I found some good costumes and some old comic books. I'll meet you at the alley." Jack said as he went out and quickly hopped inside of Smokescreen after closing and locking the house door behind him.
Back at Miko's host parents' house, Miko smiled as she finished drinking and went out of the house after locking the front door.
"Cool. I'll be there in five. I'll check on Raf." Miko said before hanging up and dialed Raf's number and called him while walking.
Meanwhile Raf and Bee had reached their destination as Bumblebee parked at the side of the road in front of his house.
"We're here. I'll be right back, Bee." Raf told his guardian as he unbuckled the seat belt as Bumblebee opened the door while whirring for an okay as Raf got out and ran to his house.
He opens the front door and greets his mother in the living room as she was cleaning when he came in and goes to the stairs.
"Hola, Rafael. How was your day?" His mother asked as Raf smiled at her as he was by the stairs.
"Hey, mama. Good. I can't talk right now. I just came by to pick up something. I'll be in my room." Raf told her as she looked at her son in confusion but nodded.
"Okay, mijo." Raf smiled before climbing the stairs and running to the room.
When he entered, he started looking for his costumes as he went to the closets quickly but couldn't find them.
"Where are they?" Raf muttered as he searched some boxes before hearing his phone ringing. He took it out and saw that it was Miko as he answered it.
"Can't talk, Miko. I'm trying to find my old costumes." Raf said as he looked in another box.
"Hurry it up, man." Miko said as Raf just shook his head at her.
"Not helping." Raf said.
"Sorry." Miko quickly apologized as Raf remembered something just now and he would have facepalms.
"Now that I remember. I think my mom sold them." Raf said as he went out of his room.
"Are you serious?" Miko asked him in disbelief on the phone.
"Yeah. She likes everything in order. But wait, I think my brothers and sisters have some. Wait a sec." Raf said before he covered his phone with his hand as he called over to his mother downstairs.
"Mama, where did you put the Halloween costumes?" Raf asked her as she answered quickly.
"They're in the attic, mijo. What did we say about shouting around the house?" His mom reminded him of the number five rule in the house as he laughed sheepishly.
"Sorry, mama." He apologized before going to where the attic is as he took his hand off his phone.
"Good news. I've found out where the costumes are. Hold up a sec. I need to see for myself." Raf said as he ran to the attic.
He pulled the rope that was hanging as a pair of stairs opened up. He walked up the stairs and was in the attic. When he's finally in there, he goes to some boxes and starts searching for the costumes and he was able to find them all and put them in a bag that he brought along. When he was done and closed the attic, he started running towards the front door and told his mother to notify her that he was leaving for now.
"Bye, mama. I'll see you later. Te quiero mucho." Raf said as Raf's mom peeked outside the living room with a smile.
"Te quiero, Mijo. Be careful." She said as Raf nodded.
"I will." He nodded before closing the door behind him and ran to Bumblebee as the scout opened his door while whirring a question if he found what he was looking for.
"I did, Bee." Raf said as he showed him the back pack before he set it beside him as he buckled the seat belt as he dialed Miko's number.
"Miko, good news I've found some costumes. I'll meet you at the alley." Raf said as he could hear the cheer in Miko's voice.
"I'm almost there. See ya there." Miko said as both of them hung up.
"Let's go, Bumblebee." Raf said as Bumblebee whirred and started his engine and started driving back in the direction of the alleyway.
Meanwhile back at the base, things were pretty quiet. Ratchet was working on his secret project and was making sure that Emily won't see it yet and lucky for him she could not see him or what he was working on. Emily woke up a little moments ago and was still trying to finish the same sketch that she tore away when suddenly Bolty started getting excited for some reason as he looked up to her while wiggling his body like a dog wagging his tail as Emily looked at him.
"What is it, Bolty? Why are you so excited?" Emily couldn't help but giggle at how cute the sight was.
Bolty starts running to his bowl as Emily figures out what he was trying to say and laughs softly.
"You're hungry huh? Okay just give me a sec." Emily said as she put her sketchbook down.
She walked towards Bolty's food bowl to give him his favourite snack. Bolts. She pouted just the right amount of it in the bowl.
"There you go. Enjoy." Emily said as she pats his head as he squeaked in delight and started eating the pile of bolts and making sure to not leave anything left.
"You ought to try eating something else." Emily smiled at him before going back to the couch.
After feeding Bolty, Emily was able to keep drawing on her sketch as she was working on the boots.
"It's nice to have some silence. Don't you agree with me, Ratchet?" Emily said as she finally finished her drawing and put her sketch book aside as Ratchet didn't look up from his work.
"Yes indeed." Ratchet agreed with her since he appreciated the silence for once.
"How's your project going?" Emily asked curiously since he's been working non-stop.
"Going... rather well." Ratchet said.
"Cool. I wonder where the others went like that. They acted kind of weird. Don't you think so?" Emily said as she was confused on why the others acted strange all of a sudden.
"You could say that. I still can't believe Miko convinced me to use the ground bridge like that." Ratchet said as Emily laughed at that.
"She can be very convincing." She said before they heard a vehicle coming back in.
It was Arcee who came back from her solo drive and she was calmer now as she transformed back.
"Glad you're back." Ratchet said as Arcee nodded.
"Yeah sorry about that." Arcee sighed as she leaned against the wall.
"I'm sorry too." Ratchet apologize as Emily looked at the femme.
"You okay, Arcee?" She asked in concern as Arcee nodded.
"I am now." Arcee said before the comm-link started beeping, meaning that it was either the rest of the team or Miko calling the base.
Ratchet went to the computers and saw that it was Optimus contacting them.
"Optimus to base, do you read?" Optimus asked through the comm.
"I read you, Optimus. Have you reached the mine?" Ratchet asked him as Arcee and Emily listened.
Back at the highway in Oregon, the rest of the team were still driving on the road as Optimus was leading them to the area.
"Not yet. And have you checked how far we are?" Optimus asked.
Back at the base, Ratchet checks the computers to see how far the team is from the Energon mine and sees that they are still pretty far from it.
"Hard to tell. By my calculations you still have a few kilometres before reaching the location." Ratchet informed him.
Back at the highway, Wheeljack would have rolled his optics but was enjoying the drive for a change.
"Looks like we'll be driving all day long." Wheeljack said to Cliffjumper through the commlink.
"At least we have good scenery. This place is nice." Cliffjumper replied to him.
"I've never seen so many trees. Amazing." Bulkhead said as he used his mirrors to check the forest areas.
Back at the base, Arcee and Emily shared a smile at that as they looked at each other.
"Try to enjoy the view later." Arcee told them through the open commlink.
"Keep me posted, Optimus. I'll be sure to have the rest of the team ready in case of an emergency." Ratchet said
"Understood. Optimus out." Optimus said before turning the commlink off as Emily smiled slightly.
"Good thing Optimus and the others are okay." Emily said as she leaned back on the couch as Bolty came up to her shoulder.
"Yes. I just hope that they'll get there first before the Decepticons." Ratchet sighed before he went back to his project to finish it completely.
"It would be nice to have a mine of our own. Sooner or later our Energon reserves will come to an end." Arcee said as she crossed her arms over her chassis as worry was written on her faceplates.
"Despite the fact that the Decepticons have their claws in every major mine in the whole planet. There are still a few mines that haven't been found yet. Mines that we could find and use to our advantage." Ratchet told them as he was hoping that they would at least find another energon mine that they can use to resupply their Energon reserves.
"Just as long as the Decepticons don't get there first." Emily said with worry etched in her voice.
"Let's hope that this does not happen." Ratchet shared her concern for the rest of the team as Emily looked at the computer and wondered how the others were doing.
Meanwhile back at Jasper, Miko, Raf and Bumblebee were waiting for Jack and Smokescreen to arrive as Miko tapped her foot on the concrete ground.
"Where are they?" Miko asked as she was getting impatient.
"Who knows. Maybe I should call Jack." Raf said as he fished out his phone.
Raf is about to call Jack when Bumblebee whirred and told the two of them that both Smokescreen and Jack had arrived. Jack steps out of Smokescreen with a backpack.
"Sorry we're late." Jack said as he showed the bag.
"Yeah, yeah. Let me see." Miko rolled her eyes before Jack gave her the bag as she checked the costumes that he brought which were only a few.
"Are you serious?" Miko gave Jack a deadpanned look as he looked at her with wide eyes.
"What? They're good costumes." Jack said as he defended him. It wasn't his fault that he only had a few costumes when he was young.
"Says you. Well I guess it will have to do." Miko shrugged before giving the bag back to him before calling Ratchet for a ground bridge.
"Yo, Ratchet. Send us a ground bridge." Miko said as a sigh was heard and the typing was heard next.
"Right away." Ratchet replied as a ground bridge opened up as Miko hung up.
"Let's go." Miko said as she grabbed the bag and got inside Bumblebee who turned his engine on and went through the portal with Smokescreen right behind him and got back to base.
When everyone returned, Emily had already finally finished her drawing after giving it some color. Both Miko and Raf got out of Bumblebee who transformed back into his robot form as Jack got out of Smokescreen so that Smokescreen could transform back as well as Emily looked at them.
"Back already?" She asked while raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah it didn't take too long." Jack said as he, Raf and Miko climbed up the stairs to the human area.
"How's your sketch going?" Raf asked her curiously as she showed them a replica of the drawing she was doing earlier.
"Already done with it. What are you guys carrying there?" Emily said before asking them since she noticed the bags with them and was curious.
"Trust me, Ems. It's something truly special." Miko said with a Cheshire cat grin which made Emily a bit confused and a little nervous at the same time.
"Okay? Let's see." Miko gave Emily the bag as Emily unzipped it and checked what the content of the bag was carrying.
"That's weird. I only see a bunch of clothes, comic books and... costumes? Wait a minute... you didn't go to get art stuff did you?" Emily said as she realized why the trio left with Bumblebee and Smokescreen but what's with the costumes?
"Nah-ah. We went looking for some old costumes that we all used at Halloween just for you." Miko said as Jack shrugged when Emily gave him a look.
"For the record it was her idea. Not ours." Jack said since he just went along with it with Raf.
"I'm with Jack on this one." Raf agreed with the sixteen year old.
"I figured it was weird that they all went back to their homes for some art stuff. I always thought that humans bought these things at the shop or the mall." Smokescreen said since he did a little scouting and always sees some humans going to malls or shops to buy art materials.
Bumblebee whirred and explained to Smokescreen about art tools and the materials.
"Ah, okay I get it now." Smokescreen nodded as Emily was still confused.
"So you brought your old costumes. What are we supposed to do with these? It's not Halloween yet you know that." Emily said since it was in the middle of August as Miko rolled her eyes at her.
"Actually they're not for us. They're for you." Miko said, causing Emily to blink at this in surprise and confusion.
"What? And what am I supposed to do with these?" Emily then gestured to the costumes in Miko's bag.
"Duh. Try them on of course." Miko told her.
"For what?" Emily asked as she raised an eyebrow.
"For your battle suit of course." Miko said and caused Emily to drop the bag in surprise and disbelief as Ratchet scoffed.
"Ha, do you really think that human costumes can make good armor? That is utterly ridiculous." Ratchet said as he was still working on his project.
"That's not what I had in mind. I'd figured if Emily tried different costumes with different styles, she could find one that suits her and let me tell you. It's not as ridiculous as you think and I'm gonna prove it to you." Miko sent Ratchet a look that says 'You're gonna eat your words later on'.
"This I gotta see." Jack said as he liked what was happening.
"Me too." Raf said.
Bumblebee whirred in agreement while Miko took out her comic books and showed it to them.
"Check these out." Miko said as Smokescreen looked at them in confusion.
"What are those?" He asked.
"They're comic books." Jack said as he took out some of the comics that he brought.
"Comic books?" Smokescreen asked in confusion.
"Are those some sort of funny books?" Arcee asked as she was curious about it as well.
"No. Comic books are books with illustrated images with a story." Raf said as he showed one to Bumblebee as he opened the first page.
"Exactly. Check out this one. Superman, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Aqua-Man. See anything?" Miko said as she showed a Superman, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Aqua-Man comic book issue.
"They finish their names with man?" Arcee asked as she was confused by the whole comic book thing.
"Good one." Jack snicker silently at that as Miko rolled her eyes but shook her head.
"No. They all have cool costumes. Let me explain. Those guys are known as superheroes." Miko said as she took out the rest of her comic book collection.
"Super heroes? What's that?" Smokescreen asked curiously as this intrigued him.
"They're people who have superpowers that they use to save people." Jack explained to him what it is.
"Wow nice. So we're like super heroes too." Smokescreen was really intrigued by this as Ratchet sighed silently at them.
"For the love of Primus." Ratchet muttered.
"Keep going, I wanna know more." Smokescreen said as he was really intrigued by this.
"Okay, well, you see another thing about super heroes is that without their masks, they're normal people. They call that a secret identity." Miko explained to him, Bumblebee and Arcee who were intrigued by this.
"What's a secret identity?" Smokescreen asked curiously as Bumblebee whirred the same question.
"A secret identity is a super hero's true name. It's like with you guys when you transform." Raf said as Emily could see the spark of curiosity in Smokescreen's optics.
"Awesome. Do the heroes from those pictures have secret identities?" He asked as Miko nodded.
"Yes. For example, Superman's secret identity is Clark Kent, Iron Man is known as Tony Stark, Spider-Man as Peter Parker and Aqua-Man as Arthur Curry." Miko said as she explained who the identities of the superheroes were.
"So those... superheroes are normal people that use costumes and super powers to save people?" Arcee said as she processed what they were told as this really made her curious.
"Right." Miko nodded with a grin.
"And people believe that?" Arcee added.
"Not only they believe it. They love it." Miko said with a grin as Raf smiled when he saw Flash comic book with Miko's.
"Super heroes are the best." Raf said as he showed the comic to Bumblebee who was curious.
"How can humans believe such things? It's nonsense." Ratchet said as he didn't want to believe it.
"We used to say the same thing about aliens." Jack said as this made everyone become quiet instantly.
"You gotta admit he has a point." Smokescreen said as Jack did make a point there.
"Yeah, yeah. Do you mind letting me explain? Anyway. If you watch closely, every superhero has something that makes them unique. They got different powers and different costumes. Superman uses tights with capes. Stylish. Iron Man uses a technological armor that is totally rad. Spider-Man uses spandex. Cool and flexible. And Aqua-Man has aquatic armor. Majestic. That's why he's the king of Atlantis." Miko said as she explained to them what's the difference between each superhero as Smokescreen saw why the kids brought the costumes to the base as he pieced it all together.
"Now I get it. You want to help Emily find her own superhero style." Smokescreen said as Miko nodded with a smile.
"Exactly. That's why we brought some costumes." Miko grinned as Emily sighed. She appreciates their help but she doesn't think it's a good idea.
"Look, guys. I appreciate the help but I don't think it's a good idea." Emily told them as Miko pouted at this.
"Come on, Ems. You gotta try it." Miko said as she wanted to help Emily out.
"I can't. Ratchet has a point. It's total nonsense." Emily said as Miko gave her a dumbfounded look.
"Don't tell me you're on the grumpy Doc's side." Miko said as Emily gave her a look.
"All I'm saying is that this armor thing of mine is a crazy idea. It's not like we can build one from thin air. This is the real world, not a comic book." Emily said as Ratchet almost winced at that. He was really making something like that for her and he only needs a few more moments to finish it.
"Maybe if you try one it might help." Raf said since he wanted to help out as well.
"I don't wanna take sides or anything. But I think it's worth a try. Who knows, we might find a style that works for you." Jack said since he thought it was a great idea.
"Please, Ems?" Miko said.
Emily turned to Miko only to regret it as Miko, Raf, Smokescreen and Bee were giving her the puppy dog eyes. She tried to resist it but lost when Bolty joined them. She sighed in defeat at them.
"Okay fine. I'll do it. Just this once." Emily said with a smile as Miko cheered as Raf smiled while Bumblebee and Smokescreen high five as Jack laughed.
"Sweet. Try mine first." Miko grinned excitedly as she gave her bag to Emily as she looked at the costumes in it.
"Okay. I just hope it won't make me look ridiculous." Emily grumbled in embarrassment as Arcee felt pity but was curious and intrigued by the turn of events.
"This is not going to end well." Arcee muttered to herself as the gang all started to help Emily out with trying the costumes on.