Wheeljack was in a bad mood. As if things weren't tense enough already, what with Jazz, whilst thankfully alive and active, still in a reasonably weakened condition and Grimlock looking ready to defy all orders and send the ship after the Decepticons no matter what, but then this had happened.

He had come home with Bumblebee a day after deployment, their mission to hook up a convertor to the human solar farm they had enhanced with Solanor complete, and they had been in such high spirits! The plan was coming along nicely, they'd soon have a stable supply of extra Energon once they hooked up the ship to it and the Decepticons had no idea what they were up to, what with the convertor safely hidden underground where they couldn't detect it!

But then they had driven home to a particularly infuriated Grimlock pacing around the ship, huffing out fire and smoke and insults, and when Bumblebee had asked him what was wrong, he informed them of what had happened to Hound.

On a scouting run, the lieutenant had engaged Barricade, who had become much more feral and savage for some reason, and had ultimately lost the ensuing fight. If not for Evac's intervention, Hound would certainly have been killed. He had been returned to the Zeta-1 an absolute wreck, all but torn to shreds and his systems suffering critical damage, and Ratchet and Evac had been devoting all efforts into restoring him since then.

So great, both the mission's commander and his right-hand bot were out of the fray, which promptly left Grimlock in charge. To his credit, the berserker had neglected to lead them all out into suicidal hunts or something so far, but Wheeljack had a feeling he'd whip out some kill-them-all plan later.

Of course, Bumblebee had been horror-struck by the news of what had happened to his mentor, and had instantly darted off to the med-bay to see him, Grimlock following him of course. For all his faults, Grimlock was a good friend to the rookie.

That had left Wheeljack to go to his quarters, intent on finishing up his latest project, only for him to come across a horrific sight; his entire room had been painted the most atrocious shade of bright greens and pinks and blues in the most unappealing colour scheme ever seen by mortal optics!

Evac had to have been behind this, and Wheeljack considered leaving a crate of flash grenades in the helicopter's room in retaliation. But then, he supposed, the hilarity that should have been garnered from this prank had been ruined by Hound's condition.

Several hours of strenuous repainting later, because Wheeljack had absolutely no regard for precision or strategy when painting, and a quick trip to the decontamination chamber to wash off said paint (humans would call it a shower. So many words for the little things, they had), he'd decided to pay Hound a visit himself.

Or he would have if Ratchet hadn't, put bluntly, told him to frag off and let the medics do their job.

Whatever.

So, all things considered, he was in a bad mood. Currently, two days after Hound had been brought back, he was sulking by the main console, tinkering with his energy rifle, which didn't look much like an energy rifle anymore, not with the Seeker's Energon converter strapped to it, a new barrel and a bunch of other scrap stuck to it. When this thing was finally complete, he'd probably cheer up, but until then, he just wanted to sulk a bit.

Grimlock and Bumblebee were in here too, discussing something in whispers. Considering the Beetle's sad little face, the inventor suspected they were talking about Hound. Most likely the poor rookie felt guilty about not being there to help his mentor, or not even knowing about it until they got back. Wheeljack felt that he was being too critical of himself. Ever since he'd been captured by Decepticons a few times, he was always more prone to criticise himself.

Wheeljack shook his head. It wasn't his fault, far from it; he'd had his own mission with the tow truck, which had been completed, which was good. Hound wasn't dead, he could still be repaired, and Jazz should be let out of the med-bay sometime soon. Ratchet had reported that his systems had appropriately regenerated now and he'd been walking soon enough, which was also good!

The Autobots were on their way to completion. All they needed was their star players back, as the humans would say. Wheeljack liked quoting the humans. So many different phrases!

His musings were interrupted by Grimlock speaking up, the larger Autobot walking over to him with a questioning look in his red optics as Bumblebee idly wheeled over to flank him: "Wheeljack, do you happen to have any spare beacons?"

"Spare beacons?" He repeated, perplexed, before thinking hard and replying: "Um, sure I do. I test out frequencies on them for possible invention ideas, you know?"

"Fair enough. Grimlock requires one of them for a new mission Grimlock and Bumblebee will be embarking on."

A new mission? The tow truck was even more perplexed now. What kind of mission would a berserker and a rookie be going on that required a beacon? He considered this, before shrugging and nodding. Whatever mission it was, he was sure they could deal with it. Grimlock wouldn't put his best friend at risk if he could help it.

Grimlock stalked off to retrieve, as Bee sat down next to Wheeljack and idly asked: "Wheeljack, I was thinking. You know that the Decepticons have been using some kind of mini space bridge, right?"

"A ground bridge."

"Ground bridge, yeah. I was thinking... if they have one, even with their ship crashed and all, how come we don't have one?"

".... That's a very good question, Bumblebee, a very good question. I'll answer it as soon as I can, but first things first; what are you and Grimlock going to do?"

The car perked up, cheerfully stating: "We're gonna use that spare beacon to set up a trap for Decepticons! We'll capture one and bring it back and find out what it knows and what Starscream's up to and I'm actually getting kind of excited now because I've never interrogated someone before-"

"And you never will." Wheeljack snapped, flexing his third arm uneasily. "Being interrogated yourself is not the same as interrogating someone else, Bee, and quite frankly, you don't have the neurals for it. Grimlock and Jazz will handle it, okay?"

"Oh, um, sure! Sure, Wheeljack, no problem."

With that, he stood up and made to wheel off, presumably to re-join Grimlock, before thw tow truck said: "Hey, Bee."

"Yeah?"

"Are you holding up alright? I know Hound's not in the best way now, so..."

The car hesitated, optics shifting uncertaintly, before he revved slightly and replied: "I'll be alright. I know I shouldn't feel guilty about not being there to help him, because I had our mission to do, but... I just don't like knowing he needed me and I didn't even know about it..."

Another rev, before he perked up slightly and added:" But Hound would want me to stay positive, right? He'd want me to keep on rolling, no matter what. Hound always said that bad things are only as bad as you let them be! So I'm gonna stay positive for him! Always be buoyant!"

He managed a grin at the older Autobot, before he wheeled off out of the door. Wheeljack watched it close behind him, before he nodded his head and returned his attentions to his gun. Good attitude to have, positivity. There wasn't enough of it with this whole war going on, so it was pretty darn relieving that one Autobot here was pretty devoted to the mind-set.

But his question had raised a good point, a very good point. Starscream had a ground bridge, a way to transport his ground troops to Earth without having to use that shuttle, quick and efficiently, and it had allowed him to make progress even with his ship crippled. Wheeljack did not appreciate that, not one bit. So, how to even the odds?

The answer was clear; the Autobots needed their own ground bridge. The question, how to get one? Starscream could have had one brought in from Cybertron or something, but he doubted it; space bridges had long since replaced ground bridges, and no way would any Decepticon commander spare a scouting team one. So he must have improvised somehow...

Wheeljack stood up, placing his current project on the console with a determined look in his optics. If he wanted to uncover any possible way of forging a ground bridge, if he wanted to uncover any means of evening the odds against the Decepticons, he'd have to do something he'd thought he'd never have to do in his entire life, something so processor-numbingly excruciating that just thinking about it made his frame shudder.

He needed to read the fragging manual.

--

Entering Earth's atmosphere was always a chore; the intense friction and heat of all that air setting alight over her armour made Slipstream's neurals bristle nervously. Of course, her shielding systems were more than efficient enough to hold off the worst effects, but it still left her with an uncomfortably hot feeling for a while. But on the bright side, flying through a few clouds tended to soothe that sensation.

Oh, she loved clouds. Huge big fluffy masses of suspended water particles, so cool and refreshing to the armour and capable of becoming delightfully colourful whenever struck by the rays of the sun. Cybertron didn't have clouds, excluding the toxic cloud of smog that it had for an atmosphere, and it was another reason why Earth here was quickly becoming a favourite of hers.

Securely within the planet, Slipstream levelled out her flight path and idly dipped and weaved through the huge suspended liquid masses, appreciating the coolness of their composition on her heated armour, to the point her metal was steaming somewhat. The sound of a propeller indicated Nighttrace nearby, and the UAV darted by to fly alongside her. Of course, she had a jet too for atmospheric bypass and vacuum travel, but for the most part Nighttrace preferred to fly with her vehicle mode's propeller. Less energy required and all that good stuff.

Obligingly slowing down for the slower flyer to keep pace with her, Slipstream offered a communication: "Aren't the clouds just wonderful, Nighttrace? Don't they just tickle the armour?"

Nighttrace didn't reply, thought she did flicker her tailfins a little bit. Slipstream took it as a yes, before adding: "Before we get scouting, Nighttrace, is it okay if I talked to you about something?"

The UAV flicker her tailfins again and veered off to the right. The jet followed her and the two of them descended rapidly through the clouds, onto the wide world below them. The UAV was much faster than the vehicle she was based on, and thus the two came to a nearby mountainous region fairly quickly; a good private place for them to discuss.

Slipstream jetted forward and transformed first, landing neatly on a protruding ridge with her wings folding onto her arms and her cockpit sliding onto her back, turning to face the other Decepticon. Nighttrace transformed as well, her wings splitting into the fluttering appendages that kept her aloft as the rest of her formed, and the two of them took a moment to observe the beautiful world below them.

Forests as far as the optics could follow, a heavy field of deep green dotted with sparkling blue of rivers and lakes, bordered by a bright blue sky dotted with bright white clouds light by the sun that provided life to it all.

Slipstream gave a whimsical rev: "Beautiful, isn't it? Such a darling planet, this one is."

Nighttrace just shrugged, before gazing at Slipstream in a manner that all but commandeered her to speak her peace. So the jet did: "Well, I just wanted to ask you... what do you see in Starscream? What is it about him that makes you so loyal?"

Nighttrace didn't respond, so she pressed her point: "No, really. I know you're not one for talking that much, but I just... I'm just curious how you can still be the loyalist even after what he did to Barricade, all just to try and preserve his reputation. What Barricade did was wrong, absolutely, but what Starscream did was even worse if you ask me. So how do you tolerate that?"

She paused, then added: "Not to demean you or anything, I'm not implying you can't see his faults, but I'm just curious."

Nighttrace fluttered there before her, staring out over the horizon and contemplating the jet's words, before she just shook her head and shrugged.

Slipstream was promptly bewildered: "You don't know? Or you're not sure how to define it?"

She shrugged again.

The medic was a bit annoyed at such disregard, but shook her head and muttered: "Alright, fine, you don't want to talk about it, okay. But if you do find an answer, let me know. I'm trying to find one myself-"

And then they picked up a signal. A faint Energon signal, emanating nearby that canyon where Slipstream had captured the yellow Autobot; it would appear some source of Energon had been uncovered, or perhaps an injured Autobot separated from the rest. The two glanced at each other, and came to the same conclusion; this deserved exploration.

Slipstream jetted forward into vehicle mode, blasting off towards the sight of the transmission, Nighttrace immediately shifting and following after her. The two flew through the sky as fast as they could, before the dusty wilderness made itself known underneath and the two slowed down, adopting a circular flight pattern to scan for any threats.

The signal was emanating from a rusted old shack near a small quarry, flanked by large rock formations. There was no sign of any humans, or any Autobots, and an experimental swoop from Slipstream confirmed the lack of a hologram projection. With the sight secure, the medic transformed and landed beside the shack, Nighttrace fluttering down to join her as they investigated the shack.

"An Autobot hiding place, perhaps?" Slipstream theorised, scanning the shack intently. "Where they store spare Energon?"

Nighttrace shook her head, doubting such inefficient means of storing Energon, before the jet leaned down and peeked in through a broken window, and promptly exclaiming: "A-ha! Found the source of the signal."

She reached in through the window, the metal walls crumpling when her arm got a bit too thick, and pulled something out; a bright green beacon, idly beeping with a blue light. It was the source of the signal, most certainly, but what was it doing out here in some rusty old dwelling in the middle of nowhere?

Nighttrace examined it curiously as Slipstream gazed around, muttering: "Autobot ambush, perhaps? But there's none of them around here. Maybe they're trying to summon reinforcements, what with their lieutenants being out of commission."

The UAV shrugged, and Slipstream promptly got frustrated, tossing the beacon down and crushing it underfoot, snapping: "You know Nighttrace, your whole quiet one shtick really gets old after a while. Can't you ever just talk normally?"

Her comrade flickered her antenna at her in annoyance as Slipstream moved off to examine a nearby rock in case an Autobot was hiding behind it, replying to the UAV's silent retort: "I'd offer a witty rebuttal, Nighttrace, but you never give me anything to work with."

She stood up, determining a lack of Autobots, and turned to face her comrade, who seemed ready to take her leave, when she froze.

"Nighttrace..." Slipstream muttered, staring apprehensively at something by the shack. "Was... was that car here when we arrived?"

The UAV responded swiftly, unsheathing her energy blaster as she turned around to face what her companion was staring at. True enough, there was a car parked next to the old shack, a bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle decorated with black stripes. And Slipstream raised a valid point; it had certainly not been here when they had first landed in this area.

Both of them narrowed their optics in suspicion when their scanners did not detect any trace of a human driver, and both of their weapons charged up as they came to the same conclusion.

"It's one of the Autobot rookies. Bumblebee, I think the name was." Slipstream muttered, taking a step towards the car, who remained motionless. "The little yellow one I captured a while ago, who also happens to be the one who fed us that rubbish of a solar foundry. How convenient; now I can express my own displeasure towards that little fib."

Nighttrace just shrugged slightly as the other flyer moved towards the car, stating sharply: "Well, Autobot? Are you just going to sit there and wait for me to blast you into scrap, or are you going to try your little tricks again? Don't think I'll let you off easy for humiliating me over your clever little lie."

The Beetle didn't reply. He didn't do anything other than sit there.

Slipstream did not appreciate the silence as she raised her ray arm, orange plasma charging up at the tip, aligning the barrel right at the annoyance: "Nothing? No pleas for mercy, no witty retort, no surprise plan?"

And this did prompt a response; the car idly spoke, his tone reasonably cheerful: "You were halfway there with that third option. Problem is, I'm just the surprise, not the plan."

Before she could ask what the plan was, before she could consider the implication he presented to her, there was a sudden and terrifying loud roar from behind her, and she spun round just in time to witness the berserker lunge at the surprised Nighttrace, jaws clamping around her tail and dragging her to the ground with a hefty impact of metal on dirt.

"Nighttrace!" Slipstream squealed in shock, immediately and reflexively turning her gun on the monster, Nighttrace furiously struggling to get back into the air as her attacker forced her to remain on the ground, but this was a mistake.

The other Autobot made his move when she turned her back on him, transforming and leaping upon her leg and declaring: "Say hi to Barricade for me!", right as he jammed his stunner into her vulnerable knee joint. The electricity crackled at her, and she gave a yelp of pain as her leg gave out, sending her falling down to the floor.

Infuriated, she lunged an arm at him, intending to grab the nuisance, but he'd learnt from his mistake last time and made sure to put distance between himself and the Decepticon, wheeling away rapidly as he grinned tauntingly at her.

Forcing herself up on one knee, Slipstream weighed her options; Nighttrace needed her help, but then the rookie would just keep paralysing her. If she focussed on the rookie, though, her comrade could well end up torn apart-

Nighttrace made her move, twisting her tail around so her body clashed into Grimlock, deploying her propeller blade and violently slashing at his neck, forcing him to release her with a snarl of pain and giving her the chance needed to get airborne.

Never mind then. She had it covered. Slipstream turned her gun round and aimed at the rookie; reluctant as she might be to actually kill him, injuring him wasn't as bad on the conscience. So, she aimed, charged and fired.

But alas, he was a quick one, the rookie called Bumblebee. Easy as a cog, he simply wheeled out of the way, the plasma blast impacting uselessly behind him.

"You'll have to aim a bit better than that, Decepticon!" He called out cheerfully, already wheeling around her for another attack. Slipstream narrowed her eyes and revved in frustration as her leg finally regained feeling and she could stand up. This could take a while.

So, with Nighttrace easily evading Grimlock's gunfire, and the berserker in turn enduring her attacks without a care, Slipstream fired again and again at the rookie, who dodged her blasts again and again. On the bright side, he was too occupied with evasion to try attacking her, but on the downside, he was too occupied with evasion to stop dodging her attacks.

A burst of fire from Grimlock came dangerously close to her, and she was forced to jump back to avoid it, despite the fact the berserker's attention was still focussed on Nighttrace, and the sudden evasion made her leg jar uncomfortably. Wincing as she lost her balance and fell to one knee, Slipstream realised that the scout was taking advantage of her stumble to move in for the attack.

Swiftly, she responded by raising her arm and firing at him, but he ducked under it with a smooth transition to vehicle mode, and before she could fire again, he transformed again, hands slamming into the dirt and flinging himself upwards, legs coming around, and he slammed into her with an impressive kick that in her vulnerable position she had no hope of tanking.

The two crashed backwards right into the nearby quarry, slamming and bouncing over the rocky edge with a shower of rocks and dust, landing in a dazed and disorientated heap at the bottom. Bumblebee let out a low groan and muttered: "Okay... didn't really think that through..."

And at the top of the quarry, Grimlock was growing very frustrated; the UAV fluttering around him was proving to be far too agile a target to hit. Every attempt to burn, slash and bite it was proving fruitless and it made him very angry, snarling and roaring incessantly.

Nighttrace avoided another jet of flames, and Grimlock roared: "Stay still! STAY STILL AND DIE!"

His cannons changed from the laser setting to missiles, and he finally managed to get a lock on her while she briefly recovered from the searing heat and, with a snarl of satisfaction, fired at her-

But then her hip panelling split open, unleashing a stream of flares that stung his optics, forcing him back as the blinding light bit at him, and his missile's targeting systems were instantly compromised, causing the projectiles to veer wildly off-target. The missiles swung wildly through the air and finally ended up crashing into a hefty rock formation above the quarry. Its support destroyed, the massive mass of rock began to crumbled, breaking apart and falling downwards.

Down straight towards Bumblebee and Slipstream, who seized the rookie upon recovery, infuriated by his neurals in kicking her down a cliff. To his credit, he fought back viciously, punching and kicking at her as she tried to incapacitate him, but then there was the BOOOOOM above them and both of them looked in shock.

The cliff was collapsing atop them, and panic flooded their systems in an instant, screaming out in horror at the oncoming rockslide and in a desperate manoeuvre, Slipstream held the small Autobot out in front of her like a shield just as he cried: "GRIMLOCK! HELP!-"

Grimlock heard the panicked shriek and he spun round in an instant with defensive instinct flooding through his fury in time to see the rockslide crashing down, and he immediately put two and two together, horror flooding his systems.

"Bumblebee!" He roared, blasting another series of lasers at Nighttrace, who immediately shifting into her UAV form and beat a retreat, flying away as fast as she could before the blasts struck her, and with his foe gone, he ran over to the impact site.

It was a massive ruckus, the rockslide, and it rumbled violently in Grimlock's audio, dust upheaving everywhere in a massive shockwave of impact that shook his very frame. Nevertheless, he ran through the dust clouds to the edge of the quarry and stooped just short of the edge, scanning wildly in search of his friend as the dust settled and the plethora of crumpled rocks, enough to have filled a fair amount of the trench, made itself clear.

"Bumblebee!" He called desperately, trying to access the scout's communications systems but finding himself unable to make contact. "Bumblebee, are you there?!"

It was no use; the rockslide had either taken the rookie's systems offline or were blocking the frequency and there wasn't a damn thing he could do to contact him. Furious and horror-struck, Grimlock immediately changed tactics, sending a call out to the Zeta-1 instead. He'd need help to move this rubble aside and rescue his friend!

High above him, Nighttrace scanned the wreckage, circling around in an observational manner, before her propeller transformed into a jet engine and she boosted away, up into the atmosphere back to base.

--

Wheeljack hated the manual so much. It kept going on and on about dumb slag he couldn't be bothered to care about! How to maintain hull integrity and fend off things like space barnacles or space slugs (a lot of space stuff, really), how to keep the engines slick and clear of blockages, how to fix a console, all stuff he either already knew or just felt was boring. Mostly boring. But if there was a way to make a ground bridge in here, he'd find it! He'd totally find it!

Assuming he didn't die of boredom first. Ah well, it was a risk he'd have to take-

"Hey Wheeljack."

He spun around in his seat, a flicker of hope lighting up in his optics, because that right there was a voice he hadn't heard a while, a voice he was so, so glad to hear again! And indeed, grinning at him was Jazz, fully recovered, flexing his silver frame and looking much better than he had a few days ago!

As the Solstice strode over to him, the tow truck groaned in happiness: "Primus, Lieutenant, you have no fragging clue how happy I am to see you up and about! How are you feeling?"

"My legs ache, Ratchet says I shouldn't be getting into a fight anytime soon, but other than that I feel pretty good. Nothing permanent, just a day or so of chilling out."

"Sweet. Say, you wouldn't mind helping me with this manual thing, would you?"

Jazz flopped down next to him, powering up the console to listen to some music. "Now why in the Pit would I do that, Wheeljack? I didn't survive being shot in the chest to play manual scouter with you."

"Yeah well, I don't like it either, but we need to figure out how the Decepticons got a ground bridge."

Jazz turned to him, a sudden seriousness on his face: "They have a ground bridge?"

"Yeah, you've been out of the loop for a bit. Starscream's got himself a new Decepticon, Grinder or something, an engineer apparently, and with that con came ground bridges. Screamer's been using them to shift his troops around to mess with us."

"Such as what happened to Hound?"

"Yeah, Evac said he lost a fight with Barricade. Thank Primus the rookie got him back okay. Regardless, I was thinking the manual can tell us how to make our own ground bridge, which would be pretty useful in making a comeback against the 'Cons, you know?"

Jazz nodded in agreement, before stating: "Well, good luck with that. I need to catch up on some tunes first before I can even go near that thing."

"Have you ever read it?"

"I'm the Lieutenant! Of course I ha.... of course.... No, no I haven't."

"Thought so-"

Suddenly, the console beeped and Jazz's intended soundtrack was replaced by Grimlock's voice: "Zeta-1, come in! This is Grimlock, requesting immediate reinforcements!"

Both of them exchanged a surprised glance; since when did Grimlock ever call in reinforcements? But Wheeljack promptly figured that it must have had something to do with Bumblebee, yet again, and he responded: "Wheeljack here. What's the problem?"

"Bumblebee's been buried in a landside. Grimlock needs help to evacuate him immediately before the Decepticons return to this area."

Jazz gaped in disbelief as Wheeljack responded: "On it, Grimlock. I'm on my way now."

The communication shut down and Wheeljack stood up, squaring his shoulders and tossing the manual aside: "Never mind reading, I need to save Bee! Again. Should switch my title from scientist to rookie-rescue-bot or something."

"And here I thought I might just get a moment to relax." Jazz snorted, standing up and taking command like the Lieutenant he was. "Ready to roll, Wheeljack?"

"Are you sure you can? Didn't Ratchet say you should rest?"

"What Ratchet doesn't know won't hurt me. Besides, Grimlock and Bumblebee need me more than recuperation does."

"Well, whatever you say. You're the Lieutenant."

Jazz flexed his shoulders, flickered his headlights, spun his wheels and replied coolly: "I am, aren't I? Let's roll out!"

--

The control room only had Soundwave and Barricade in it when Nighttrace fluttered, her optics alight with apprehension and her antenna flickering this way and that, apparently playing another one of their video games, this one being a simple RPG type that didn't require two hands, much to Barricade's appreciation.

They glanced up at her entrance, and while Barricade immediately focussed on ignoring her and going back to his game, Soundwave, ever the more acute one, asked: "What's wrong, Nighttrace? You seem tense."

She fluttered over to him and, surprisingly enough, delivered her news both bluntly and vocally: "Slipstream's been compromised."

Both of them froze for a moment, before Barricade spun round and snapped: "What did you just say?"

Nighttrace didn't reply, prompt turning around and leaving the room, presumably to find Starscream and inform him of this, leaving Soundwave and Barricade fairly frustrated and fairly anxious as they immediately leapt to their feet, determined to find out more. The two darted out through the door after the UAV, and chased her down the corridor.

"Wait up, you damn fragger, what even happened?!" Barricade hollered after her, indignant at her ignoring him. "Damn it, you piece of scrap, why can't you ever be accommodating to the needs of communication?! Tell us what happened, you moron!"

"What happened to Slipstream?" Soundwave chipped in, the duo running after the faster Decepticon as quickly as they could. "Did the Autobots attack you?"

Nighttrace finally stopped outside of Starscream's quarters and immediately knocked on the door as the other Decepticons caught up with her, still vainly trying to get her to answer their questions. The door slid open and Starscream poked his head through, snapping: "What is with all the yelling?! Can't anyone see I'm having an inner conflict here?!"

"Apologies, Starscream." Soundwave stated as he and Barricade caught up to Nighttrace, immediately and correctly guessing Nighttrace wouldn't talk. "But we've come to inform you- Well, Nighttrace has- that Slipstream has been compromised on Earth. I assume. I'm unaware of specific details right now."

Starscream blinked in surprise, before turning his gaze upon the UAV: "Is this true?"

She nodded once, regaining her typical stoic demeanour as Barricade immediately interjected: "If it is true, then obviously we need to go get her back! I need my other arm fixed, and I can't have that if the medic's been scrapped by Autobots!"

Starscream ignored him: "Define compromised, Nighttrace. Dead? Captured?"

"Trapped." She replied. "Buried under a landside caused by the berserker, alongside the rookie Autobot designated Bumblebee."

Starscream considered this, Barricade gaped and Soundwave seemed concerned. For a moment, all four of them remained silent, the trio understanding that their commander was preparing his response.

Which came quicker than they expected, as he spoke, his tone low and dejected: "If that is the case, then..... then we don't have much choice."

He straightened, focussing his gaze upon Nighttrace, and he continued, firm and cold: "If the scout was trapped with her, and the berserker was there, then it's far too risky to attempt to free her; the other Autobots will move in to reclaim their scout and I can't afford-"

"Are you fragging with me, Starscream?!" Barricade hollered, immediately and violently furious, immediately flexing his claws as he glared with outraged disbelief at the taller Decepticon. "Are you seriously telling us we're going to leave Slipstream to the Autobots?"

"I don't like it any more than you do, Barricade." Starscream hissed, flexing his own claws in return. "But I am not risking any of my soldiers battling the Autobots over one missing medic, not when Operation Harvest is so close to entering the final phase! If you don't like my decisions-"

"Don't like?! That's a fragging understatement, you cowardly piece of scrap! I hate your decisions! I hate YOU!" Barricade shrieked, immediately prepping himself for a scrap even as Soundwave and Nighttrace restrained their respective 'Cons via a firm hand to the shoulder. "You're gonna let them strip her for information, let that monster rip her apart?! Frag no! We have to get her back, you idiot!"

"You want to fight the berserker over her, go nuts, you incompetent imbecile! It's not like you're worth anything anymore after that stunt you pulled! But understand I'm not going to risk my operation, the operation that's supposed to put us in good favour with Lord Megatron I might add, over one life!"

Barricade hissed angrily at him, but Starscream pre-emptively silenced him, snapping: "My decision is made. We won't risk any more Decepticons today, especially not when the Autobots could well bring their entire ship over to secure both their comrade and a prisoner! So you just shut up and deal with it, Barricade!"

And with that, he turned round and the door slammed shut behind him.

They stared after him in disbelief, before Barricade revved deeply, clenched his hand into a fist, took a moment to calm down, before he spun round and stalked away to the lift.

"Where you going?" Soundwave asked, perplexed.

"Frag Starscream." Barricade said simply. "He wants to prioritise his scrap operation over us? Fine. I'm going to get Slipstream back myself. Are you coming or what, Soundwave? I don't really care if you do or don't, just don't keep me waiting."

Soundwave shook his head in disbelief: "You'd really risk fighting the Autobots for Slipstream? Since when did you care about someone else?"

"Since that someone else has to finish my arm!" Barricade snapped. "Are you coming or not?!"

".... Fine, fine, I'll come. We do need someone with strategy on their side if we want to reclaim her from the Autobots."

"Great! And what about you, Night-"

He paused, and Soundwave turned to see why. His visor dimmed in confusion.

Nighttrace had gone.

Author's Notes: Remember that episode where Bee ended up kidnapped by Slipstream? Remember how Evac had a plan? Wheeljack hates that plan so much.

Starscream continues to prefer cold logic over basic communal concern. He better sort himself out soon.

Also Nighttrace has talked more times in these two chapters than she has the rest of the series  

 

I awaited for this one........YES!!!  

 

Oh you did. Nice.

Moving on, a lot happened in this chapter! It felt like it went by very quickly. I was excited to finally see how the Autobots were holding up on their end of the situation, it was interesting how the expositionary stuff was explained through Wheeljack's monologue. I was frankly really confused at the allusion to his room being repainted by Evac, so I'm glad you explained that at the end of the chapter, because you know how much my memory sucks. But I digress. I found it interesting that there was a an indication towards a slight shift in attitude in regards to Bumblebee since it was mentioned that he tends to criticize himself a little more after getting into trouble so much; I guess there's sort of a sense of a teetering ego. I wasn't expecting him to feel guilty over not being there to help Hound, but I liked the idea of it; I guess nobody likes to feel helpless. It's nice that he tried to maintain his character in keeping up the positive attitude, but there's still that sense of hurt that doesn't really just go away.

It's also funny how passive Wheeljack is about literally everything. He really just goes with the flow and hardly ever asks questions or worries about anything. He even seemed relatively fine with having to repaint his room after Evac's little prank.   Then when Bumblebee explained the plan he and Grimlock had in mind, he barely raised any caution to that either, other than getting all touchy when Bumblebee insinuated the potential to interrogate somebody (I wonder if there was a reason that Wheeljack was testy about it or if it's just a throwaway line). I thought it was a little odd that Grimlock decided to coordinate a plan without the apparent supervision of any of the commanding bots, who are or have been laid up, but then again, it is Grimlock and he's apt to do whatever he wants to do.   He's pretty cocky thinking he can jump into a plan despite the possibility that the amount of cons they encounter could out number him, but that's Grimlock for ya. It's not like he doesn't have reason to be fearless, since he is THE Grimlock after all.

There was something that I liked about Slipstream expressing frustration about Nighttrace's perpetual silence. Like, the latter can't just get away with her continuous despondency without it irking some people, just like it wouldn't in real life if there was actually a person like that. I've seen it so many times where, in a show or whatever, there's that one extremely silent character that hardly ever speaks and everybody's just endeared by them or doesn't care and nobody shows any actual legit frustration in regards to it. Even though being quiet doesn't automatically make you a jerk, having a one-sided conversation with somebody is irritating and even though Slipstream seems to have some patience, I understand her annoyance at the failed attempt to establish conversation. Especially with something she was genuinely curious about. At the same time, it's interesting how the aforementioned attempt seemed to invoke unrest on Nighttrace, like she doesn't like being pressed further.

It always surprises me how heartless Slipstream can actually be in battle. She doesn't want to kill the rookie, oh no, but injuring him will do. And now that she's found herself in a predicament in which a whole bunch of rocks are ready to rain down on her, let's use the rookie as a shield! Effective! Maybe some quality time with an Autobot will help her adjust her mixed up perspectives a little bit, but who knows? Only time will tell.

I enjoy how it's made clear that Bumblebee learns from his mistake; at one point he used his intuitiveness in that regard to not allow Barricade to overcome him, and this time he made sure to keep some distance between him and Slipstream so that she can't just reach down and manhandle him like she did last time. However, he clearly has a lot to learn because he made yet another pretty back mistake in toppling both himself and Slipstream into a quarry which, to their massive misfortune, was subsequently filled up with a bunch of rocks. But again, I digress. Point is, I'm picking up on how he has sharp observation skills. I eagerly await to see how this will develop his habits in combat situations later on.

Barricade in this chapter was so dang great. ;V; I love getting implications of him not being "all that bad," even when he's quick to cover up speculative caring with an incentive like "we need to get her out because she needs to fix this arm." He was quick with that one, but I would personally like to believe that his motivation lay in mostly part due to some affection that he holds for her. *adjusts monocle, sips tea* And even though there was a bit of it, I still can't get enough of Barricade and Soundwave's banter and how those two interact with each other. XD Speaking of what's going on with the Decepticons, I wonder what the hequius happened to Nighttrace.

Since I mentioned Nighttrace again though, there was one thing that puzzled me. Was there a reason that Nighttrace went all the way back to the ship instead of just comm linking in for help? Was she so far retreated from Grimlock that she thought she might as well? Idk, I thought it was weird that she would take the time and effort to exit the atmosphere again and get back on the ship, but whatever.   I might have just missed something.

I'm so excited to see what happens in this episode. I eagerly await the confrontation between Barricade and Soundwave (and Nighttrace I guess, where ever she went) and Jazz, Wheeljack, and Grimlock.

 

The commotion outside his quarters peaked Grindor's attention, and he got up from his seat, dumping his tools on the desk beside Barricade' unfinished replacement arm and idly strode over to the door. Opening it, he peeked outside and noticed Barricade storming past muttering curses to himself as Soundwave followed.

Seeing they seemed to heading to the lift, he asked: "What are you two up to?"

Barricade spun on a circlet and declared: "We, oh so valuable engineer, are off to rescue Slipstream. She's been trapped under a lot of rocks by that damnable Autobot monster, so it falls to us to get her back, since Starfragger is too busy whining about his stupid promotion to do anything productive!"

Grindor raised a brow in surprise: "Since when do you-"

"I ALREADY ANSWERED THAT QUESTION, SHUT UP. All that matters is that Starscream fails at life, and Nighttrace has fragging vanished off to Unicron know's where, so it's up to me and Soundwave here, and maybe you if you feel like it, to get her back."

"Of course I would be coming along. It wouldn't be right to let an idiotic one-armed moron to go charging in against the berserker by himself." Soundwave said, rolling the lights in his visor around as he rotated his tires in slight irritation. "That's akin to a human letting another human in a wheelchair battle a hungry tiger without any assistance."

"Shut up Soundwave, I hate your fragging comparison slag-"

Grindor interrupted them: "If Slipstream has been compromised, and by the berserker no less, are you sure it is worth going after her? She may well be already reduced to a mutilated carcass by that animal."

"Dead or alive, it isn't right to just dump her to the Autobots." Barricade declared. "She deserves to be free of their filthy clutches."

"That's very noble of you, Barricade." Grindor mused, before continuing with a rather snide tone: "But I'm curious; if it had been me trapped by the berserker, would you go to such lengths to secure my safety and/or sanctity?"

"Of course not, I don't even know you, you piece of scrap!"

Soundwave and Grindor exchanged a bemused glance, before the Lamborghini shrugged and the Trojan chuckled: "That's what I thought. Regardless, if you are going to help her, I'll come too."

The communications officer was surprised: "Really? You would accompany us despite the fact we're blatantly defying the commander? Surely you have your own tasks to do or a good reputation to uphold?"

The tank shrugged: "Unlike Barricade here, I do not assist others purely out of convenience. I do hold a basic respect for all of my fellow Decepticons, regardless of how distasteful they may be. Besides, Sideways can handle any technicalities whilst I am gone. But I should inform you both that the ship's ground bridge is offline right now whilst we undergo the recharging cycle."

"Hardly a problem for someone as clever and versatile as me!" Barricade hollered, swinging his arm around wildly. "We'll just take the shuttle and glide down!"

"Excellent idea. Shall we then?"

With that, the Mustang hopped off to the lift, followed by the other two. As the doors closed behind them and the lift descended, Sideways drove down the corridor again, transforming into robot with an effective flick of his front parts onto his back as his single leg stretched out, head and arms emerging as he wheeled over to Grindor's door and knocked on it, asking: "Grindor, the warp driver's making weird noises, what do I need to do to stop it?"

A moment's pause.

"Grindor? Grindor, are you there?... Oh, how come everyone always ends up leaving me alone when I have problems?"

--

It is very dark in here. There is nothing but blackness and roughness and pain. For a brief moment, she's terrified; the last time it was this dark, she had been dying on that battlefield so many years ago, her arm missing, her armour pierced, bleeding and scared and far too naïve of the true horrors of the war she'd been so eager to fight in.

Her systems tense up, relaying her fear, as she tries to calm herself. She can't be dead, her data chip is relaying a multitude of minor damages and the environment so damningly cramped and heavy upon her is determined to be mere Earth rock, two things that wouldn't be occurring in any kind of afterlife.

Of course, there is the possibly that this IS the afterlife, the Pit itself, and it's manifested itself as a eternal tight space. That's a scary thought.

Just don't panic, Slipstream. Just don't panic, there might still be hope, you could still be alive. But unfortunately, her systems were quite unresponsive; limbs were pinned down, radiation absorbers were blocked off, communications disabled, weapons offline. In short, she was well and truly trapped, blocked off from her comrades under a whole ton of rubble.

So quite frankly, she was well and truly screwed, as terror starts to build up in her. Trapped in here until she either ran out of energy or someone came to save her-

Suddenly, a light. It illuminates the rocky layer above her, barely a metre, fills the dark chamber with a gleam that is so beautifully reassuring. She gives a tiny whimper, whether relief or fear she doesn't know. Is it the light of Primus? Is it a rescuer? Is-

"Hello?"

Wait.... she knows that voice. Hesitant, she leans her head upwards, green optics constricting slightly when the light glows brighter, before she sees through it. Right into the curious bright blue optics of the yellow Autobot. He's leant against her abdomen, one of his arms raised, and the light is coming from a headlight at his wrist.

She stares at him for a moment, then whimpers: "Are you Primus?"

"No, I'm Unicron."

"...Was I really that terrible a person?"

"Depends." He replies, shrugging and smiling a wide smile at her. "Did you think using me as a shield is morally correct?"

"Well, no... I suppose I panicked."

"Ah, it's alright. We do all kinds of crazy things when we're scared. But in case you're wondering, you're not dead. I'm not dead at least. Or we're both dead and ended up in the same place. But somehow I doubt that. So, yeah, we're alive. Stuck under rocks like wormearths- No, wait, earthworms- but alive."

She blinked at him in disbelief, before she gave a groaning rev and muttered: "You know, maybe I should be dead."

"Am I really that unlikeable, Decepticon?" He asked, voice far more cheerful than it ought to be as he idly climbed over her chassis so that he could look her in the face. "Or do you get a bit.... what's that word they use... claustrophobic?"

She huffed: "I'm not scared of small spaces. I just find them uncomfortable. My tailfins are jammed into dirt, my wings are way too loose, half of my systems are jolted and we're cut off from any communications or solar absorption. So can you blame me for not appreciating our current situation?"

"Well, misery loves company. At least we have each other, right?"

"Don't be so sentimental, Autobot-"

"Bumblebee."

"... Bumblebee." She all but spat the word, earning her a distasteful raising of a brow from him. "Don't be so sentimental. You're the reason we're stuck here in the first place; if you hadn't tackled me down here-"

"Well maybe you shouldn't have tried to shoot us."

"Well maybe you shouldn't have planted a beacon to lead us into an ambush!"

"... Okay, fair enough. But what's done is done; our plan failed, and us two are stuck down here." He stated, shrugging his shoulders and flashing his lights around the cramped space. "I don't suppose you're strong enough to dig our way out?"

"Under normal circumstances, I would be, but I'm pinned too tightly. I can barely move my head, never mind my appendages." She revved with annoyance, before turning it on him: "But you're evidently a bit more mobile. Maybe you should be the one digging us out."

"I'd love to, but to be honest, I can barely lean up." He demonstrated this by trying to raise himself off of her, but his back almost immediately scrapped rock, bringing an arm up to add some light for her to take note of this. "I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, literally."

"Well, fantastic. I guess all we can do now is just lie here and either wait for our comrades or de-energise to death."

"That's not all we can do." He pointed out, cheerful again. "We can always talk."

She stared at him for a moment, before she said: "You are very obviously a rookie, you know that? Any other Autobot would rather just glare at me, and to be honest, I'd rather glare right back myself."

"I'm not any other Autobot. I'm just me, Bumblebee." He replied, before he asked: "So, what's your name then? I know you're the Decepticon who captured me that one time, but I don't recall your name."

She shuffled a little bit under him, having the grace to look a tad exposed: "You remember that.... But hey, if you must know, I'm Slipstream. I'm the medic aboard our ship."

"Nice to meet you, Slipstream, under circumstances that don't involve fighting to the death or being interrogated for once." He snickered, the tiny protrusions on his head wiggling a little bit.

She was promptly indignant: "I was not fighting you to the death. I don't kill rookies."

"I remember Starscream said something like that, right before he tried to kill me. But even so, you apparently have no problem trying to kill my mentor."

"Your mentor is a much more experienced and credible fighter than you are. I can't afford to take risks with him-"

"But Ratchet told me that every medic makes it their solemn duty to avoid the loss of life at any cost."

A rev of irritation: "I'm not Ratchet, alright? I'm not any medic you know, I'm me, Slipstream-" He chuckled a little bit at the echoing of his previous words. "-And I'm not stupid enough to neglect an enemy's capabilities just to satisfy some overtly pretentious morals."

He tilted his head and observed her for a moment, before he asked: "So, if you don't care much about morality and life and what not, how come you're a medic?"

"I do care about life." She snapped. "I'm just not an extremist about it. I know when I have to make a killing shot and when I can afford not to. Would you stop fragging probing me?"

"I'm just trying to figure it out. You're a medic, so you apparently care about life, yet you're willing to kill people and shoot rookies, yet you still claim you care about life even when your actions are kind of contradicting that-"

"Oh shut up, Autobot- Oops, I mean, oh shut up, Bumblebee. Like I said, I'm not an extremist ultra-moral archetype like your Ratchet is. If I can, if it doesn't end up stabbing me in the back, I will try to avoid killing, I focus more on defending myself than-"

"Hound says you attacked him and Ratchet first."

"You know what, forget it. You're just going to keep bugging me and bugging me no matter what I say, so why even bother?" She snapped. "You're just a dumb rookie who's parroting what his mentors say instead of actually thinking for himself or considering the other point of view. Hound says this, Ratchet says that, don't you even have an original thought?"

He leaned back, his expression suddenly hurt. Not that she should care, considering he was the one jamming stunners into her leg and tackling her into collapsing quarries, but a tiny part of her points out that making a greater enemy of him was illogical; in her trapped position, he could deploy a hidden knife and make short work of her.

So perhaps she should try and remain amiable, if only to ensure her company wouldn't just end up turning on her. A brief rev, before she said: "Alright, fine, I'm sorry I said that. I shouldn't have been so hasty to judge you. You're only young, after all."

"True..." He mutters, contemplative now. "But tell me something; are you saying that for my sake or yours?"

She rolled her optics: "Yours, duh. You don't apologise unless you're willing to make amends-"

"Or unless you're just trying to keep yourself in a positive light regardless of whether or not you actually are sorry." He retorted.

A pause as she stared at him, the Beetle staring right back, a slight smile coming to his face now when he noted her slight shock. Then, she gives a soft rev and leans back, her aching frame contradicting the sense of slight impressment she felt.

"Okay then, I take it back. Maybe you're not as dumb as I thought."

He shrugged: "I see Grimlock do it a lot, saying sorry without being sorry. He doesn't really mean it, he just can't be bothered dealing with any more hassle." A pause, then he added: "But he does mean it when he says it to me. I guess he just plays favourites sometimes."

Curiousity now: "You're on good terms with him?"

"Of course! He's my best friend, why wouldn't we be on good terms?"

"Maybe because he's a violent monster intent on ripping my faction apart?"

"I won't deny he's pretty aggressive, but everyone just insists on viewing him just for his negatives. They never ever consider his positive aspects, never consider trying to get around to see his good side, and I think that makes him a bit bitter."

"Oh good, I'm glad he's so misunderstood and just needs some love, it totally justifies all the Decepticons he left on our doorstep as mutilated corpses."

Bumblebee revved a bit: "Aren't we all misunderstood? Hound says-"

"Oops, there's that copying someone else's opinion shtick again."

He ignored her: "-That at this point, everyone is misunderstood. Neither side is willing to try and see the other's good side, they just focus on the bad side."

"Well aren't you optimistic."

A smile: "Beats being a sullen grumpy jerk, right?"

"Heh, I guess it would."

A brief pause, as they considered each other, before he revved again and said: "Well, I should switch these off." He gestured to his lights. "Sucking up a bit of power-"

Her response was swift, unexpected and very dramatic; her entire frame jerked under him, her head snapped up, optics panicked and she squeaked: "NO! DON'T DO THAT!"

He was surprised at the undiluted panic and fear in her voice, her frame shifting under him with surprising vigour and her optics wide and terrified. He blinked once in light of her shaking and quivering, and promptly raised his heads in a soothing gesture, showing her the active headlights upon them.

"Okay, okay. I won't turn them off." He stated softly, sounding as reassuring as he could manage. She shuddered again, before her expression changed into distaste and she awkwardly glared at the rocky wall of the small cavern, presumably chastising herself for showing weakness in face of the enemy.

Bumblebee tilted his head in curiosity, examining her for a moment before asking: "Why don't you want me to turn them off?"

She continued glaring at the wall, before her optics dimmed in inner defeat and she muttered something to herself. He leaned towards her slightly, silently asking for a repeat.

She shuddered again, her larger frame vibrating against his, before she repeated clearly: "I'm scared of the dark, okay? I don't like the dark. That's all there is to it."

Head turned, the Decepticon glared at the wall again.

Bumblebee just laughed slightly, causing her to swiftly turn that glare at him, assuming mockery, before he enlightened her: "That's nothing to be ashamed of. Lots of bots are scared of the dark. I not too fond of total darkness myself! But Hound always said that the darkness isn't the true fear we have, but the things we imagine within it."

She raised a brow, expression softening into curiosity: "Hound says a lot of things, doesn't he? That's quite philosophical, I guess. I suppose it makes sense."

Bumblebee nodded, and his smile faded into contemplation: "It does make sense. You're scared of it because you're scared of dying."

"...What?"

"It's in your optics." He replied, shrugging slightly. "Optics say things you'd never say. The things you wish you could say, but you'd never say for whatever reasons, is what your optics will say. You just gotta look hard at them, and you'll see what's important. Darkness reminds you of dying, and dying, well..... who's not scared of that?"

She stared at him for a moment, before she asked: "Is that how you knew I wasn't really being sincere before? My optics told you?"

"No, that was common sense based on observation of similar situations." He giggled. "But sometimes I see things that can be quite surprising in people's optics."

"I'll keep that in mind if I ever need a procotist." She said softly, leaned her head back and trying to make herself comfortable. "That kind of knack could make you a good audio sensor, you know."

He laughed: "You think so? Are you giving me future advice, Miss Decepticon medic?"

A low chuckle: "No. Just false hope."

"Ouch; you bite anyone else with that wit lately?"

"Only everyone I talk to."

"Ha. You remind me of Wheeljack a bit."

"And you say I'm the hurtful one."

He burst out laughing at that, he honestly burst out laughing, absolutely howling in hilarity, and she finds her laughing with him. It's a nice thing, to laugh, even when trapped under all this rock, cramped and damaged, but she's laughing, he's laughing and at this point it's not sure what's so funny anymore.

But at least it's better than darkness and moping, right?

Right.

--

The shuttle breached the atmosphere easily enough, gliding panes extended to enable it to make a stealthy trip to the location of the beacon Slipstream and Nighttrace had been heading towards. Barricade asked Soundwave who he knew where to go, since Nighttrace hadn't mentioned the location, to which he responded that he wasn't the communications officer for nothing; Nighttrace had marked the location when she'd been flying back to the ship.

Regardless, the trip downwards was simple enough once they'd gotten through the atmosphere and all the heat from the friction had worn off. The two cars were settled in the front seats, Grindor idly settled in the back, and the shuttle itself was making good tracks to the marked coordinate.

As they descended, Grindor asked: "So, have you two prepared a plan of approach? If the berserker was responsible for Slipstream's predicament, he may have summoned reinforcements to secure a prisoner."

Barricade snorted: "That monster's too vicious to call up some sidekicks. He'll be more interested in digging her up just to rip her in half without any of his buddies even knowing."

"But Nighttrace did mention that the Autobot designated Bumblebee was also trapped under the rockslide he caused." Soundwave pointed out. "He'd have certainly summoned support to ensure the best chance of rescuing his comrade."

"As if! I doubt he cares about any Autobot other than himself." Barricade responded.

"Of course not." Soundwave replied sarcastically. "He's purely selfish. That moment when he was first on the scene to save the rookie when we had held him hostage? Simple coincidence."

The Mustang considered that: "Huh. I forgot about that."

"Then it's a good thing I decided to come with you. Someone needs to employ basic logic after all."

"Are you calling me dumb, you little fragger?!"

"Calm down, Decepticons, I think both of your physical frames are equally admirable." Grindor chipped in, chuckling slightly as they turned to stare at him with utterly bewildered expressions. "But in seriousness, we have more important priorities than arguing with each other."

"Yeah, sure, whatever, just never ever say that again, you creeper." Barricade grumbled.

"But Grindor's right." Soundwave noted. "We do need a proper plan if we're to free Slipstream without the Autobots overwhelming us. I'll be jamming their communications in case there's only a few of them there so they can't summon yet more reinforcements, and I suspect you'll have to scout ahead with your cloaker, Barricade, to determine how many there are."

"And assassinate them, right?"

"If you can. But I'd prefer you avoided attacking them until we arrive to back you up."

Barricade just revs a bit, probably doubting their ability to assist them, but Grindor relays his agreement; with just one arm and his ability to transform impeded, Barricade wasn't exactly in the best condition to pick a fight with the berserker. That said, neither was Soundwave, really; of the three of them, Grindor was the only one powerful enough to take on Grimlock one-on-one. But that still left him and the impeded Mustang against whatever reinforcements the Autobot monster had summoned.

So patience and strategy would be required. Thank Primus he and the tank were so kind enough to accompany their less tactical companion.

The shuttle landed a fair distance away from the designated coordinates, cloaking itself beside a large rock formation, and the trio exited it, immediately debating whether or not the Autobots may well have brought their entire ship over.

"Doubtful." Soundwave mused when Grindor raised this point. "If they had flown, we'd have picked up their Energon-nitrate trail, and if they'd used their treads, we'd have seen the tracks."

"Still, we should remain vigilant." Grindor replied. "If they have somehow smuggled their ship to Slipstream's location, we may end up walking straight into a plethora of gunfire."

"It's a risk we'll just have to take, you fragging cowards." Barricade snapped, revving his engine with annoyance. "Now can we get a move on or what?"

"If you insist." Soundwave responded coolly. "Let's roll out, Grindor."

With that, he twisted into his vehicle mode and drove off, whipping up a cloud of dust that had Barricade venting in irritation before it settled on his paintjob, as Grindor also shifted to his alternate mode of the excavator-like military vehicle.

Tilting his frame slightly, Grindor asked: "Since you cannot transform, I assume you require transport?"

"That'd be great." The Mustang grunted, hopping onto the hefty bulk of the engineer's vehicle form and steadying himself by gripping the excavating arm. Settling himself atop the larger Decepticon, he added: "I know this is kind of awkward for me to say, given our current situation, but... you're actually kind of comfy."

"I'm flattered." Grindor replied amiably. "Let's go recover our medic."

Treads flaring into life, the Trojan and his passenger set off at an impressive pace, far beyond any Earth equivalent of the vehicle. The Lamborghini was not too far ahead, and once Grindor caught up, the trio headed towards the nearby quarry, slowing down slightly to ensure they didn't end up barging into an Autobot ambush.

The coordinate was easy enough to recognise; a titanic flurry of rocks had cascaded into a ravine, reducing the area into a massive mound of rubble. This had to have been the landslide caused by the berserker, and the trio, upon noting it, paused in the cover of a large boulder not too far away.

There was no sign of any Autobots, but that was hardly a source of comfort for the cautious Decepticons.

"At least we know Hound can't be hiding them." Barricade sneered, flexing his claws. "He's either too busy being lodged in the med-bay, or too busy being dead and buried."

"But even if he had perished, the Autobots would have harvested his hologram generator." Soundwave pointed out. "For all we know, the berserker could now have it, or the Lieutenant, or one of the others."

"Besides, their ship can create holograms too, if I recall correctly." Grindor added. "They could well all be here, cloaked under their vessel."

"Well, there's only one thing to do. Barricade, you need to cloak and scout the area."

Barricade replied: "No problem. I'll see if there's any Autobots for us to kill."

With that, he hopped off the Trojan, drew his scythe from his back compartment and vanished in a flicker of distorted light. The other two idly watched the randomly appearing footprints in the dirt make their way towards the rubble, and were a tad relieved to see they did not vanished for whatever reason. If they had, it would have been the definite confirmation of Autobot holograms.

Barricade himself confirmed this with a quick communication: "All clear. No sign of holograms, no sign of a ship, no sign of any fragging Autobot. They must have decided the yellow idiot is more trouble than he's worth; how many times has he miserably failed?"

"Off the top of my processor, three times, two of which forced his comrades to engage us." Soundwave replied coolly, the Lamborghini and Grindor now idling forward. "But regardless of that, the Autobots are far too sentimental to have cut off a youngster. They'll be here in time, but for now, let us work-"

Grindor immediately froze, and then Soundwave did too, because he had scanned it as well; the heavy footfalls of a large life-form moving nearby. They were still shaded by the boulder, so it was enough to reverse into cover, but Barricade, out in the open, was immediately vulnerable.

Because the massive Autobot stepping out from behind a rusted old shack was the berserker himself, red optics flashing menacingly as he moved into the open, olfactory sensors on the tip of his maw sniffing incessantly at the air, and there was no way Barricade's cloaking device would shield him from the simple sense of smell.

"Frag, frag, he's gonna sniff me out." Barricade hissed with annoyance. "The piece of scrap is gonna sniff me out, I tell you."

"Just stay calm and move towards cover." Grindor advised him. "I doubt he may have picked up your scent yet, if he can even distinguish it from what might remain of Slipstream and Nighttrace's-"

"Grimlock smells you, cloaker."

The Autobot's deep growl, almost as quaking as his footsteps, interrupted their whispering, the huge bestial Cybertronian scanning the environment intently with vicious red optics: "Grimlock will find you, and then Grimlock will kill you."

"-Okay never mind. Lure him that way, and then we can strike from behind."

Barricade took the advice to spark very quickly, and they could detect the dust being whipped up by his movements. Grimlock saw it too, and he leaned forward, becoming a predator as he moved to pursue the source of the disturbance. With their foe distracted, Grindor and Soundwave moved unfolded weaponry from beneath their panels as they readied to open fire. Barricade moving toward them swiftly, and Grimlock was too distracted tracking his prints to notice the ambush lying in wait.

But alas, just before he was in range, the berserker paused and glanced to the left. Just as Barricade reached them, decloaking himself to conserve some energy, the Decepticons also noticed what had caught the berserker's attention; two vehicles were rapidly approaching him. One was a bright silver Pontiac Solstice, the other a primarily white tow truck.

The Lieutenant himself was here, alongside the scientist known as Wheeljack.

Soundwave swore to himself as the two pulled alongside the tanker truck and the Lieutenant called out: "We know you're there, Decepticons. Identify yourselves and state your purpose, before Grimlock here gives up on being patient."

The berserker gave a snarl of frustration, glaring at the silver car, and with it fairly clear that the element of surprise was no longer on their side, Grindor replied: "Our business is the same as yours, Autobots; we're here to retrieve our comrade."

Jazz paused, then asked: "You're the new one, aren't you? Grindor, was it?"

"Correct. And you are the Lieutenant. We'd thought you had perished from your injuries."

"The universe doesn't quite favour you so much." He responded coolly. "As you can see, I'm feeling pretty well."

"You won't be feeling well for much longer unless you and your buddies get the frag out of here right now." Barricade snarled, stepping before his fellow Decepticons and bearing his scythe menacingly: "Not unless you want me to rip another hole in you!"

Grimlock responded to the challenge, stepping forward and snarling, deploying his hip blasters: "Not if Grimlock rips you apart first! How about Grimlock evens out that other arm-"

Grindor transformed, slamming his treads into the ground to haul himself as his body formed itself into robot mode, red optics lighting up as he moved forward to flank the Mustang, treads shifting forward into the hefty whips: "If it is a battle you seek, monster, you'll have to face me as well."

"He won't be alone." Wheeljack declared, also transforming and unsheathing his plasma cannons, aiming them right at Grindor's face. "Push comes to shove, I'll shove all of you back to your boss in pieces."

Soundwave transformed as well, swinging around his sonic shock rifle, just as Jazz also converted into robot mode and deployed his energy pistols, fusing them into the sniper rifle form. Their visors flashed in challenge, as both sides faced off, each waiting for the other to make a move.

The tension was thick. Optics flickered across their opponents, sizing them up and determining the best plan of attack. Grimlock's plan was simple enough; rip them all apart. Barricade decided he would attack the Lieutenant, finish the job, whilst the other two held off those goons. Wheeljack wondered if throwing down a flash grenade would be the option. Grindor figured he could handle the berserker, whilst his turrets supported his comrades.

But the plan of the Lieutenant and Soundwave was not what any of the others expected. The Lamborghini lowered his rifle and pointed out: "This isn't really the best time for a fight, is it?"

"Not really." Jazz agreed, also lowering his weapon. "Our comrades need us more than we need to kill each other."

He then stepped forward, the other two Decepticons and Autobots tensing at the movement, and offered his free hand: "How about a truce then, Soundwave? Bumblebee and your medic have a better chance of getting out of this in one piece if we work together."

The communications officer considered that, before he sheathed his weapon and stepped forward to meet the Solstice halfway, gripping Jazz's hand in his own: "Very well. We accept your proposal."

"Grimlock begs your pardon, Lieutenant?" Grimlock hissed, flaring heat from his exhaust pipes and mouth now with a furious snarl. "Did you just say exactly what Grimlock thought you said?"

"Are you fragging kidding me, Soundwave?!" Barricade shrieked, throwing his hand up in disbelief. "Are you honestly fragging suggesting we help these worthless pieces of scrap?! Are you as Unicron-damned stupid as I thought you were?"

"Excuse me a moment." Soundwave said, before turning around and converging with the other two in a huddle, just as Jazz did the same with his comrades. With their huddles formed a fair distance from each other, both groups immediately descended into debate.

"You're out of your fragging processor if you think I'm going to help those idiots!" Barricade snapped angrily. "Of all the obnoxious moronic things you've ever done in your obnoxious moronic life, this has to be the most obnoxious and moronic of them all!"

"I don't like it anymore than you do." Jazz replied coolly. "But the fact is, our efforts are better devoted to getting Bumblebee out of there alive, rather than risking injury in a brawl with those three."

"It's hardly the worst thing in the world to join forces against a common impediment." Grindor added. "Remember the saying; the enemy of our enemy is our friend, at least temporarily."

"It'll get the job done that much quicker." Wheeljack admitted. "Six of us digging them out rather than just three. Besides, if we ended up fighting, we might not even be able to do any digging at all."

"Slipstream depends on this. We didn't defy our own commander to rescue our comrade just to waste time battling the Autobots when we could simply cooperate." Soundwave stated.

"But who's to say they won't just stab us in the backs the moment we free Bumblebee?" Grimlock snapped. "We are dealing with Decepticons, as you are well aware. Emphasis on the deceptive aspect."

"It is entirely possible they'll betray us after the job is done." Grindor agreed. "But somehow, I doubt the Autobots will so willingly toss aside this moment of cooperation purely to fight us. Their efforts are better spent ensuring their rookie's safety."

"Their priorities are best served making sure their medic is okay." Jazz pointed out. "Even for their faction, some fights just aren't worth it."

"I still don't like it. We haven't exactly been on good terms." Barricade grumbled.

"Regardless of what they've done, we need to throw it aside for now." Wheeljack declared. "For the greater good and all that jazz."

"So we're all settled?" Soundwave asked. "Good. Let's rescue a mismatched pair, shall we?"

The two huddles separated, and Grindor moved forward, stating: "We have sorted out our internal dilemmas, and we will be happy-" Barricade muttered an insult to himself. "-to throw aside our faction's rivalry for now for the sake of our trapped comrades."

"Fantastic!" Wheeljack replied, idly clapping his hands together. "We just came to the same conclusion."

"Now that that's settled." Jazz said, moving forward to examine the rubble. "I don't suppose any of you have any bright ideas on how best to deal with us?"

Grindor moved to flank him, observing the rubble with analytical optics, before declaring: "Whilst it is tempting to dig in from the side and try to reach them faster, giving the trajectory of this rock fall would have had to land directly atop them, we can't risk the rubble collapsing any further. It is therefore best for us to focus our efforts on dispersing the layers from top to bottom; slower, but much less risk of destabilising this carnage."

"Fair enough." Jazz agreed. "You and Grimlock are the strongest of us, so I suggest you two handle moving aside the larger rocks, whilst the rest of us clear out the smaller rubble and try and flatten it out some."

"Excellent thought." The Trojan replied. "Let's begin immediately. Soundwave, Barricade?"

"of course." The Lamborghini said, moving in towards the rubble. Grindor stepped onto the veritable mound of it, moving over to the other side to a flatter section and transforming into vehicle mode, immediately shifting his arm forward to shift a large rock off of the pile. Soundwave moved into assist, as Grimlock also stepped forward, hissing at the Decepticon when he walked by, before seizing a rock in his mouth and distastefully crunching it into dust.

As Barricade moved in to help, he idly sneered to the Lieutenant: "Remember, Autobot, try to exert those injuries as much as you can."

The response was swift and immediate; Jazz's hand shot out, wrapped itself around the Mustang's throat and dragged him down, the Decepticon letting out a squeak of pain as the pressure on his neck increased, and Jazz coldly murmured to him:

"Listen to me very closely, Barricade, because I'm not going to repeat myself. I know exactly what you did to my lieutenant, and the only thing that's stopping me from doing the same to you is the fact my rookie needs cooperation to ensure his safety. So if I were you, I'd keep my mouth shut and my head down, or else it'll be you getting buried next. Do I make myself clear?"

The Mustang just hissed at him, scrabbling at his arm with his claws, before Wheeljack stepped in and shoved the two apart, promptly reminding them of the task at hand. Barricade, massaging his neck, glared at the smaller Cybertronian, before he stalked off to join Soundwave, as the two Autobots moved over to Grimlock.

As Jazz got to work on shifting some rocks aside, revving heavily with restrained anger, Grimlock sneered: "Still think this is a good idea, Lieutenant?"

"Shut up, Grimlock."

Author's Notes: Whoa, Jazz. And they call Grimlock the violent one  

Bee and Slippy bonded quicker than I expected. Sometimes characters just click and you just adore writing them  

Writing the scene where they have their separate huddles yet identical conversation was hilarious  

 

Awww..........now I ship BeeSlip  

 

Bumblebee's dialogue was surprisingly sophisticated in this chapter. While so far he's obviously been very childish in his verbal exertions, his word choice became a little more eloquent and I was honestly taken off guard by the sense of maturity. Even it was just a small adjustment; I'm not sure if you intended that, but something I picked up on. I appreciated the expectant glee and calmness in a stressful situation as well; contrast Slipstream's more disoriented, ornery, and in one instance, panicked demeanor.

Speaking of Slipstream, it's weird to see the other side of her personality come out in recent events. I didn't like seeing her so violent and trigger happy before because it seemed out of character, but now I get the whole point and I'm glad she has that inherent contradiction. It was in character to be out of character, basically. I guess because, like you said before, she's maybe a subject to propaganda and doesn't have her opinions/priorities straightened out. Now twice she's gotten into an squabble in regards to this and has had the weaker argument in both cases. I was wondering earlier if her confrontation with Bumblebee in a situation where all either of them have to do is just talk would help her sort out her perspective, and I'm kind of sensing now that it just might. Of course you never know, because nobody is easy to sway, but perhaps any consideration will come to her indirectly, under the pretense that sometimes people aren't real people to you until you get to know them.

Then as for the situation with everybody else, the huddle scene was really humorous and fun to visualize. Just as much as I'm excited to see how the interactions between Slipstream and Bumblebee go, I'm also excited to watch the Autobot and Decepticon teams attempt to cooperate with one another. At least one person already flipped shizz on one occasion, and with characters like Barricade and Grimlock forced to work together, I can't imagine it will go one hundred percent smooth like butter, but we shall see. In any event, it's nice to see that two quarreling teams are willing to temporarily put aside their difference to assure that their teammates will get out of their current predicament alive.

Also, I really liked how Jazz easily overcame Barricade when the latter decided to be snarky and threatened him in a stand for his friend. It's inevitable that the truce does not mean anybody can get too comfortable in this situation.

Can't wait for updaattee. ;W;

 

Starscream's mood had not improved at this point, though it had changed from indignant anger and resentment to cold grim dejection. Currently, the jet was moping around the hallways of his ship, seeking out any kind of distraction from his mood, but alas, he had found none. Sideways was busy checking out the ship's innards, and though Starscream had attempted to start a conversation, the bike was quick to tentatively remind him that he kind of needed to concentrate on the ship, since it was in the final phase of repairs.

So he'd left the inner corridor, even more downtrodden than before.

There was no sign of Grindor anywhere, probably loitering around the warp driver or the forge or something, but Starscream doubted he'd be interested in talking to him either. Soundwave and Barricade had locked themselves in their rooms, so they certainly wouldn't want to talk (not that he wanted to talk to either of them anyway) and Slipstream-

Starscream paused for a moment and revved heavily, before continuing, deciding to head to the control room and maybe drown his sorrows with some video games or Earth Internet funnies or something. Anything to distract himself from this irritating mope.

So, his crew hated him, his most loyal soldier wasn't impressed with him, he was potentially in the firing range of a powerful Conciller and now his medic had been apparently buried and harvested by the berserker. How had his success, with the ship's repairs coming along nicely, the Autobots set back a step and Operation Harvest nearly at the final phase, turned on him so swiftly? His moments of triumph had been stomped into this damnable mood, and all because of stupid Barricade and stupid Airachnid's nodule test and stupid Shockwave's stupid nodules. Urgh.

The jet revved heavily, sagging a little bit. Even cursing a bunch of morons wasn't cheering him up. Maybe Nighttrace was right; maybe his priorities were getting skewed by his own promotion-related desires. He wanted to tell himself she was wrong, and in some ways she may well be, but he couldn't deny there was some logic to her words.

Of course, maybe the fact she had actually gone out of her way to really argue with him about this was the cause of his hesitance. Maybe she didn't talk much because she had a habit of utterly undermining your argument and ripping your previous assumptions apart. One part of him admired that about her. Of course, he admired a lot of things about her.

And speaking of which, she was in the control room when he entered, idly hovering by one of the consoles, apparently typing something or what not. Knowing his luck, she may well be reporting this whole incident to Shokaw; loyal as she was to him, she was ultimately subservient to the chain of command, and the necessity of reporting such a crime to Conciller Shockwave outweighed the need to adhere to his desire to keep the incident under wraps.

But to be honest, even as he contemplated this, he really couldn't bring himself to stop her if she was. What would be the point? Knowing his luck, Shockwave would have found out sooner or later, no matter how much he tried to hide this incident, and the punishment would even more severe as a result! The thought made him shudder; he really didn't like the idea of ending up in Polyhex all because of Barricade's idiocy.

A soft rev, before he stepped over to her and asked: "Nighttrace?"

She turned to face him, a calmness in her optics and an acknowledging flicker of her antenna, and tilted her head, silently asking him what he required in that fashion of her. To her credit, if she was writing to Shokaw, she made no attempt to hide it nor did she seem guilty or surprised; this was just business as usual. Starscream supposed he should be thankful for her professional outlook, before he spoke again:

"I've.... well, I've been thinking a lot about this whole.... shenanigan, shall we say, and maybe I've come to a conclusion that perhaps I've been a bit too.... self-centred about it." Upon noting her bemused expression, he mumbled: "No need to give me that look; I'm not entirely close-minded, alright? Just... just a bit overconfident in my own endeavour- No wait, I mean, possibly too reliant on the ego or... or something, I dunno-"

Nighttrace simply patted his shoulder gently, coercing him into ceasing his ramble, and he appreciated that, taking a moment to regain himself.

Once he was calm and fairly sure he knew how to speak, he asked: "So, um... is that a report for Shockwave? About this whole incident?"

She observed him for a moment, apparently deciding whether or not he really should know, before she nodded her head and gestured for him to read it. Peering down at the console, he noted the report she was writing; a simple report of Barricade's crime, regarding his theft and concealment of a Battle-Inducement Nodule and use of it to attack an Autobot. Perhaps a bit merciful, she had refrained from detailing the following two days and his own punishment, as well as insinuating that Barricade had had no treacherous intentions, simply a shallow desire to defeat a nemesis.

He had to admit, she crafted her reports very well, even if it was one that would essentially expose his failure to realise a subordinate's deception. He stared at it for a moment, before a soft rev and asking her: "Is it finished?"

She nodded, optics still intently observing him, as if she was seeing right into his processor to uncover his motivations and thoughts. It made him squirm a little bit; he wasn't used to such probing.

"Well, I won't stop you if you intend to send it. It is probably for the best that we get it out of the way now, no matter how much..." His vocal components jammed up a tiny bit, paused by some trace of desperate preservation, but he forced them back into gear and finished: "No matter how much I don't like it."

Nighttrace seemed bemused again, perhaps even a bit intrigued, and he elaborated: "I've just been thinking a lot about this, really, about all this slag and how the rest of you are handling it and... and with Slipstream suddenly compromised, I feel as though... Maybe I need to rethink some things, you know? So, um..."

He scratched the back of his head nervously, managing a weak smile at her: "First, I'd like to apologise to you. I shouldn't have called you a moron during our last.... debate. That was childish of me, and I really shouldn't have treated you like that. It's... well, it's like you said; you're not my yes-con, you and the others have your own opinions and I should be more considerate of them. I am the commander after all, and a good commander should be attentive of what their soldiers think, right?"

Her optics conveying a smile her mouthplate could not, she nodded.

"Right. Okay, that was the first bit, um.... so, secondly, if it's no problem for you right now, I know you've got a report to send, but if you have some time to spare before you do, I.... I'd like to talk to you again, in my quarters, just talk to you about all this, about Barricade, the nodule, Slipstream, all of that. And this time, I'm not going to just tone you out and keep focussing on my own point. This time, I'm going to listen, Nighttrace, I'm going to really listen, even if you don't wanna talk that much, I'm going to listen to you and finally sort something that can make my crew... well, happy again. That's what a commander should do. I'm not Shockwave, I'm not some slave to cold logic, I'm Starscream! I am Starscream, I am my own commander, and I am going to listen to this UAV right here and-"

Suddenly, her finger was on his mouth, immediately silencing him with a surprised squeak. She leaned forward, staring into his optics with something akin to plain impressment, before her antenna wriggled with delight and she murmured: "I'd love to, Starscream."

With that, she released him and fluttered to the door, her tail idly saving the folder and removing it, as he stared blankly after her, before promptly prancing after her, eager to finally get his thoughts back on track and hopefully get rid of this moping and the discontent and the problems once and for all!

As they left, one Seeker mused to another: "The Commander seems very self-aware today."

"If the medic returns, we must update her on his destabilised mind-set."

--

"Gotta save the Bee, gotta dig all day, gotta save a Con, gotta dig all day-" Wheeljack was idly singing, as he shifted a few more rocks off of the mound and tossed them aside. "-Jackie's digging, digging, digging, saving the bees and ow, hurting his knees-"

"Do you honestly have to keep fragging singing like some demented Earth bird thing?" Barricade snapped, tossing a rock at the tow truck, which shattered on his shoulder and earned a yelp of irritation. "It's bad enough I have to actually cooperate with you worthless piles of scrap, but I certainly didn't freaking sign up-"

"Barricade, shut up." Soundwave snapped, noticing that the berserker was exhaling flames and the Lieutenant seemed to be quaking with rage and deciding to avert any kind of an outburst. "We're here to extract our medic and their rookie, not start fights over our musical preferences."

"Soundwave, you cannot look me in the optics and tell me that slag isn't annoying-"

"If you have a problem with my singing, you have a problem with everything rational in this universe." Wheeljack snapped, tossing a rock at Barricade which split in half on impacting his head, surprisingly furious over the insult towards his excellent vocalisation and masterful improvisation and conveying of the scenario.

Barricade snarled furiously, shaking his fist at the tow truck, who simply spread his arms wide, daring the car to come at him, as Soundwave was forced to restrain the Mustang whilst Grimlock started hollering for them to fight each other. Fortunately, Grindor shifted into robot mode and interrupted them.

"It's hardly purposeful, Barricade, to start aggravating our temporary allies over such matters when our comrades require us to cooperate to ensure their safety. That said-" He added, turning to the bewildered tow truck. "-I will admit that your singing could use... practice, shall we say?"

Wheeljack blinked, before he muttered: "If you're going to insult my singing, Decepticon-"

"Grindor."

"If you're going to insult my singing, GRINDOR, can you at least be honest about it?"

"If you insist; I think your singing is horribly off-key and lacks finesse. That said, it is not your singing that piques my respect, but rather your admirable talent and innovation in the field of inventions, Wheeljack." The Trojan said cheerfully, shifting some rocks aside with his third arm. "I have to say, your additional advancements to flash grenades amongst Autobot scouts are quite impressive, considering the relative volumetric-ratio of Solanor to catalyst."

Wheeljack stared at him in disbelief, before he whimpered: "You think my idea on flash grenades was impressive?"

"Indeed. According to battlefield reports, their effects are even more potent than before. As I recall, Commander Motormaster was furious over how swiftly they changed the outcome of a battle over an Energon river, your improved design."

"Well, it wasn't too hard, I mean, the whole problem with the previous design is that the Solanor component wasn't giving out enough energy to simultaneously initiate the flash and break the shell at the same time, even though-"

"Unicron below." Barricade grumbled. "Now they're off."

The two scientific types immediately glared at him, before Wheeljack said: "But hey, what about you, Mr Grindor? If I heard it right, didn't you once stop a Devastator-class vessel's warp driver from imploding mere seconds before it teleported the whole thing into a sun or something? That takes some quick engineering!"

"Well, bragging was never my forte, but I do believe that was a highlight of my career. It's quite nice to be able to converse with someone about the inventive aspects of our society; aside from my comrade of course."

"Well sure! These bots right here don't know a damn thing about the subtleties of crafting and fine-tuning and construction-"

"We know, in your case, it also tends to lead to a fair amount of explosions." Jazz stated coolly. "Can we return to the task at hand now?"

"Of course." Grindor replied. "My apologies for the distraction."

"Don't blame yourself, Grindor." Wheeljack stated cheerfully. "Sure, we'll be fighting and killing each other later, once we've bypassed this current obstacle in our respective faction's goal to fight and kill each other, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy some friendly banter until then."

"That's very true." Grindor replied amiably. "Well, while we're clearing out those rocks, tell me how you're coping with the decommissioning of the Thunder Cannons? I have to admit, I was positively spark-broken; fabulous weapons they were, and so gorgeously designed."

"Oh Con, don't even talk to me about Thunder Cannons, I was practically a shell of my former glory when I heard about that..."

It was really quite interesting, Jazz figured, watching his inventor and the enemy engineer engage in a sparkfelt whimsical reminiscence of the old weapons. Of course, there was always that slight fear biting at him, the fear that is only born from years of warfare. But at the same time, there's amusement, amusement in these two characters from different factions finding a common ground whilst working on a common objective.

Perhaps it was a sense of sentiment, but he felt just a tad hopeful that this might be a sign of things to come. At least with these Decepticons. Well, maybe not Barricade, certainly not Barricade, but Grindor and Soundwave at least could possibly prove to defy the cruel standards expected from Decepticons.

He glanced at Grimlock, who was huffing exhaust again as he furiously dug at the rock, preferring to lose himself in his vicious need to retrieve his Bumblebee than to listen to such fraternisation, and Barricade was also preferring to focus on the rocks rather than the talk.

So, in simple terms, the two scientific types were happy to natter, the two brutish types refused to socialise, which left him and-

"Well, Lieutenant, I suppose it's you and I right now."

Soundwave shuffled over to assist him with a particularly large rock, and with a heave, the two cars tossed it aside, watching it roll down the hill before returning their attention to each other. Jazz had to admit, they were quite amusingly contrasted; Soundwave had no mouth, whilst his visor flickered to and fro, whereas Jazz's visor was static, but his mouth was mobile. Huh.

"I guess it is, Soundwave. I haven't been online for a while, so tell me, what's your boss been up to lately?"

"Well, if you must know, Barricade's been punished for theft." Soundwave replied coolly, ignoring the outraged sputtering from the Mustang. "Stole technology from a Conciller and thought he could get away with it. That's been rectified by now, of course."

"Oh good." Jazz snorted. "I'm so happy Barricade managed to evade the wrath of a Conciller."

"As am I." Soundwave said, lacking the sarcasm of the Lieutenant. "It wouldn't do us any good to end up on the bad side of a right hand of Lord Megatron."

"No good at all."

"None whatsoever."

A pause. Grimlock exhaled some fire before crunching another rock between his jaws, as Grindor and Wheeljack compared their third arms and Barricade muttered curses to himself.

"You know, this is, what, the third time your yellow rookie has placed himself into a terrible position." Soundwave pointed out, flexing his arms slightly before shifting aside another rock. "It does lead us to wonder why on Earth you tolerate him. After all, a soldier who keeps endangering himself and forcing his comrades to rescue him is hardly a useful asset in warfare."

"Well maybe, Decepticon, we don't just keep each other around purely for our uses in battle." Jazz replied, ignoring the snort Grimlock gave him. "Maybe we keep each other around because we care about each other and we appreciate what we bring to the group. Bumblebee is quite frankly the kindest and sunniest spark it's ever been my pleasure to meet, regardless of his combat capabilities."

Soundwave considered that, before the Solstice continued: "Besides, it's not like you can deny you only tolerate your comrades for their battlefield skills. I imagine your medic isn't the best fighter on your ship, yet here you are working with us to dig her out, right?"

Soundwave shrugged and conceded: "You raise a good point. Perhaps you Autobots are not as shallow we give you credit for."

"I'm flattered you give us any credit at all, Soundwave. Maybe you're not as much a slave to Megatron's propaganda as I thought."

Soundwave merely chuckled at that: "Lord Megatron is hardly the only one who glorifies his pursuit of glory. What do you Autobots tell your infused soldiers when they're released from the spark wells?"

Jazz didn't reply to that, and the Lamborghini did not pursue the subject. A moment of silence passed between the group.

Grindor spoke up then, to break the brief air of awkwardness: "You know, Lieutenant, I quite admire how well you've implemented a clearly above-average vehicle into your frame. The sleek composition of the car complements your natural predilection for agility and speed, and the way you've utilised its features in combat is very innovative."

Barricade chortled: "You are such a suck-up, Grindor. Sleek composition! Natural predilection! Have you ever said anything in your life that isn't something to do with fragging adoring everyone's frame?"

Grindor ignored this, awaiting the Lieutenant's reply, which was expressed with mild amusement: "I'm glad you think so, Grindor. I do love this planet's sense of style, and this car right here really defines that style."

"Style, smyle, what a vehicle really needs is to be distinguished and practical, traits I believe the tow truck possesses and certainly exudes." Bragged Wheeljack, flexing his frame and shuddering the panels upon himself.

"I must agree with the Lieutenant." Soundwave replied, as Jazz flipped a rude hand gesture at his subordinate. "A sleek smooth car is a much more satisfying alternate form than a clunky truck with a glorified crane sticking out of it."

"Don't knock it unless you try it." Wheeljack huffed.

"Practice what you preach." Jazz sniggered.

"This conversation is stupid and I hate all of you." Barricade snapped. "Can you pieces of scrap just shut up and keep digging?"

"Why don't you lead by example?" Grimlock snarled, and Barricade immediately fell silent, quite reluctant to challenge the berserker with only one arm, though he did give him one Pit of a glare.

The group again descended into silence, but now Soundwave was contemplating. Quite frankly, despite the animosity and distrust in the air, there was a slight sense of companionship present as well. Of course, it was allowed only due to a common goal, but nevertheless there was a sense of pleasant relief in that this had not degenerated into a typical fight.

Granted, he was of the opinion that Autobots were weak-willed fools who deserved whatever fate Megatron condemned them to, but for now, he was willing to accept them as an alternate viewpoint.

He wondered how Slipstream was doing right now, trapped under so much rubble with the rookie. Perhaps she was already dead, crushed to a pulp, or perhaps she was offline, knocked out by the impact. Or maybe she was online, injured or uninjured, but otherwise conscious, and perhaps the rookie was too. Was she conversing with Bumblebee as he was with these three up here? Possibly.

What a bizarre scenario. Funny how one battle can force two separate groups to interact in a passive manner.

What was even funnier was how relatively easy it was. Soundwave considered that; excluding the obvious crudeness of the berserker and Barricade, it was actually fairly simple to maintain a conversation with these rivals. Curious...

--

Bumblebee was scuttling across her chassis, idly probing the rubble for any weak spots he could potentially shift aside, but alas, his search yielded no results. The rubble was far too well pressed to yield any vulnerabilities, far too thick a barricade for the rookie to overcome. Slipstream might have had better luck, had she not sustained a fair amount of damage, but as it was, they were fairly firmly trapped.

The jet was currently staring at the ceiling, contemplating whatever it was she tended to contemplate about, leaving Bumblebee to idly settle himself on her abdomen, much smoother than her angular torso, and assess his energy levels; he was doing pretty good, since his frame didn't have as much specialised systems as some other bots, but his headlights required a stable supply of juice to keep their cave lit up.

He glanced at her, idly wondering if she might want to attack him at any point, before shaking his head. Slipstream wasn't as bad a Decepticon as the likes of Barricade or Starscream; she wouldn't suddenly try to kill him, not when he was her only company and light right now. So, he was confident enough to divert some shielding and weapon-related systems to his lights to keep them online for longer.

She perked up on noticing the subtle murmur of rerouted Energon and asked: "Running low on power already? It's only been half an hour."

He shook his head: "I'm fine as wine, whatever wine is. I'm just making sure the lights stay on, is all."

She nodded in acceptance, shaking her frame slightly and shaking him in turn before asking: "So tell me something; why are you going out of your way to keep the lights on for me? What could possibly drive you to be that selfless?"

He considered that, before replying: "Well, the thing is, we can't always be selfish all the time, right? There has to be a point at which you got out of your way for someone else, maybe 'cause you like them, or you don't want them to be hurt or sad, and.... and stuff."

A childish chuckle, before he went on: "Plus, it's nice to be nice, you know? Always good to help out! Like bumblebees do, they help flowers grow and make honey and all kinds of nice stuff-"

"Wait a moment, this planet has bumblebees?"

"Yeah! Small universe, right?"

"... Wow. That's almost scary levels of convergent naming right there."

"I know right?! That was so crazy how it turns out I'm Bumblebee and this planet has things called bumblebees and it's just the weirdest thing ever, right, even weirder than the fact they have jazz music despite the fact-"

He suddenly paused, surprised by something, and squeaked: "No wait, it was ratchet joints! How the heck do I mix up music with joints? But really, there so many similar names on this planet it stops being a surprise and starts being a pretty funky routine!"

She just stared at him, utterly perplexed by such levels of chattering. The most chatter she ever got at a time was either Barricade's ranting fests or Starscream's gloating speeches, and those were positively idiotic. This was a different kind of idiotic, one that was more interesting than repetitive. But then, he was a ditzy rookie in a world far too wide even for those big blue optics.

She shuffled a bit, and ended up wincing when her sensors flared with slight pain. Evidently the cramped conditions were starting to weigh on her armour and the sensitive neural net within. Urgh, she really didn't appreciate this situation; a jet like her just wasn't designed to be trapped underground in such confined conditions. Still, at least she wasn't an airhead like Nighttrace. This kind of scenario would probably kill her, the poor sky-loving thing.

But then, she remembered something.

"Bumblebee, are your stunners still working?"

He glanced at her, surprised, before he glanced down at his arms and replied: "Sure they are. Not jammed, not broken, a bit low on power, but they can still work. Why do you ask? Do you want me to knock you out?"

He chortled at that, and she rolled her optics before elaborating: "No, Autobot; I need you to use them to dampen down my sensory perception. These rocks are really digging into me, and I could appreciate some sensory deprivation right about now."

"Oh, like the killerpains humans use!"

"Killer pains?"

"No wait, painkillers. I got it! Bear with me-" A shuffling of mechanics before those stinger-like stunners emerged from his forearms, crackling yellow with electricity (the sight of it immediately made her cringe) before he asked: "Shock treatment ready to roll! Where do you want it?"

"Okay, just set it a low power level and apply it to the neural cluster in my hips. You should be able to tap into it via the abdominal connection right there..."

She felt him shuffling around on her frame, before he declared he'd found it, and then, with a bright light and a zap, her hips, and by extension her legs, lost all feeling. The relief of not having to feel the rocks atop them was positively glorious, and she gave a sigh of contentment: "Ah, that's better..."

"Is that all you needed?"

"Well, for now at least. I'll let you know if I need any more shocks."

"Okay! Ha, I've never played medic to a medic before."

She chortled: "First time for everything, rookie."

A pause, before he asked: "I know you don't want me to probe and all, but I am still curious about you; why did you become a medic if you're not as.... passive?"

And now the good feelings were gone. She glared at him, before coldly replying: "My motivations are none of your business."

He tilted his head, perplexed: "Even if they're contradictory in nature?"

"Contradict- Look here, Autobot, you need to understand that your experiences in life does not apply to everyone else! I'm sorry that I don't reach the oh so high standards your medic has set on your lot, but quite frankly, I don't care. I know my path, I know my views, and I'm hardly going to switch my opinion around just because you don't like it."

He shook his head: "It's not about switching an opinion. It's about thinking why it is what it is. You're a medic, yet you're quite disregarding of life-"

"No I'm not." She snapped. "I've saved plenty of lives. There's tons of Decepticons out there who owe me for making sure the darkness never got them-"

He suddenly snapped his head towards her, understanding dawning on his face, lighting up in his optics, and she was suddenly nervous now, nervous if this random chattering yet perceptive Autobot might have caught on, but when he spoke, it wasn't what she had feared it would be.

"Ooooh. OH. I get it now. You are a good healer, you like healing. You do appreciate life." He paused, before his tone darkened a bit and he muttered. "It's just not Autobot life you're appreciating."

She stared at him for a moment, before dryly noting: "Well, we are on opposite sides of a war, right? Give me a good reason why I should value the lives of my enemies as much as I value the lives of my comrades."

"Because all lives are equal maybe? Because someone dedicated to saving lives should save lives?"

"See, those are idealistic reasons, not practical reasons. No matter what we'd love to believe, there's just no room for that in warfare. I could heal your berserker, for example, and he repays me with jaws crushing my spark. I could heal your scientist, and he goes on to invent a superweapon that wipes out every last Decepticon. That's the whole damn problem, Bumblebee; the enemy you save could well be the enemy that kills you later."

"But not everyone-"

"No, not everyone will do that! I'm aware of that! But what's the point in taking that risk? What's the point in putting my own life at risk just because I, for whatever reason, showed mercy to someone who may well not deserve it! Do you honestly believe that everyone will be happy and smiling if you save them? Or is it less of 'saving' and more of 'giving them another chance to flip the board?"

He hesitated, unsure of how to respond, before he revved softly and asked: "Is that something you believe, Slipstream, or is it something Megatron taught you?"

She snorted: "It's basic logic. Hand ten people a knife, I guarantee one of them will decide to see what happens if they jam it into you. At least with a fellow Decepticon I know they won't stab me in the back."

"But at the same time-" he pointed out. "How do you know the person you save won't end up saving you in return?"

"You don't. But I'm not-"

"I think that's the problem." He muttered, seemingly speaking more to himself now than her. "Maybe it's because we've just given up on trying that means we never see our negativity subverted. Maybe we're just too cynical..."

A soft rev, before she said: "You know, somehow I doubt Starscream will be coming for me. He'd have probably said something along the lines of me being a failure and that I was better off being the berserker's chew toy than another strike on his clean slate..."

"Even if he doesn't come, the Autobots will." Bumblebee reassured her, patting her chest comfortingly. "They'll come and get us out."

She titled her head: "You honestly think they'd let me go?"

"I don't know." He admitted. "But I do know they won't leave you here like this. I wouldn't let them."

"You'd do that for me, rookie?"

"Well, not everyone you hand a knife stabs you with it, right? Sometimes they just toss it away." Bumblebee replied, smiling sweetly at her. "Maybe you might think leaving your enemy to die is the only way to be sure, but I'm willing to give you a chance. Chances are all we have, Hound says, and it's how we act on them that really defines our paths."

She revved softly: "You know, when I joined the Decepticons, all I ever heard was how you Autobots were cowardly overly-sentimental saps who could never achieve anything worthwhile. And in a way, you are. But in a way... you're not."

"And I heard that all Decepticons were just mindless evil brutes who wanted to take over everything and crush freedom itself underfoot." He replied, pulling himself over her so their optics were level. "In a way, you kind of are. But in a way, you're not."

"I guess this is what happens you finally face your assumptions."

"I guess. Weird stuff."

"Mm."

They stared at each other for a moment.

"Alright then. If you don't mind, I'm just going to lie back and chill for now. Thanks for the philosophy debate, I guess."

"No problem. I mean, it is pretty crazy how all that fighting led to all this talking and-"

"Bumblebee, stop talking."

He fell silent, and resigned himself to circling up atop her, as she leaned, closed her optics and revved softly. She had some thinking to do.

Author's Notes: Update, just in time for New Years!  

Slippy and Bee debate morality and priority, Starscream seems ready to finally acknowledged his actions and the Bot/Con team seem to be thinking about things too.

This is a very thinking episode. I like thinking.

 

............ 

WHOOOOOO!!!!  

 

Warning: I preach about grammar, and yet there are tons and tons of typos. Too lazy to go back and fix them.

THIS TIME I TOOK NOTES. Which means that I noticed a lot of smaller things this time around, and it also means I won't be forgetting anything that I thought was worth mentioning! Since this read through (and I read the whole thing twice, mind you) was inherently more pedantic than others, I caught a couple of little grammar things, but they were minor and silly and I never would have seen them had I not been scrupulously eating at every last detail. Inasmuch, at once point, you used the wrong "bear,"

You also accidentally misspelled "singing":

And I'm thinking maybe you forgot a word in this fragment:

Later on, you misused the word "depravation"

When you probably meant "deprivation," since "depravation" would be a form of the word "deprave" which means to make morally incorrect.


But like I said, I would have never ever noticed these things if I wasn't paying such close attention. I'm pointing them out for what it's worth, I didn't take notes in the margin throughout the read to not just blabber about every last thing that I picked up on, lol. Also maybe for future reference, but you seem to have a tight grasp on your grammar and everything anyway, so I guess it doesn't really matter if I pick it apart now. But anyway, moving on to some things of interest:

But also, is it really spelled "Shokaw"? Because for the longest time, I thought it was "Shockaw." >.>

So it seems that you have a certain rotating style in which you write, as now in this chapter, we begin with the B-Story where Starscream is pacing over his current conflicts. I made a note of how I thought it was funny that even Sideways didn't want to talk to him. XP Additionally, I picked up on how he's under the impression that nobody's left, which kind of surprised me even though there's no reason for him to believe otherwise. It seems like this will be brought up again later if at any point he finds that the others have left in pursuit of Slipstream, but I'm not sure how that would effect anything. If, you know, he were to get mad for whatever reason, since I seem to recall him telling Barricade that he could go if he wanted to, but I'm not sure if that's correct. In any event, he may never find out, but I doubt since at some point he's going to have to question how/why Slipstream has returned, but I guess we'll see it play out in due time. On the subject of Starscream, there were other things that I picked up on in both his monologue and his dialogue, such as how he shows so much insecurity and how much he admires Nighttrace, which I found a bit shocking; not so much that it would be Nighttrace, as it's odd to think that somebody like Starscream would have the humility to admire anybody. Going back on the former, though, even though he's so annoying to me, I reiterate how his emotions at this point are actually pretty (humorously, in a way) relatable. When you feel like you've fallen into that funk and you can't wait until you're over it, yes, we all know of these feels.

I also thought it was interesting how he turned into a blathering, awkward teenager in this chapter. For somebody who was originally presented as so eloquent in the beginning, it's amazing to see the other sides of his character and that he puts an incredible amount of weight on the opinion of others, which sort of detracts from his evilness. Other more stereotypical evil characters don't care (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but it's plain to see that Starscream isn't on that level. I thought back to how he's been portrayed in the past, always the irksome joke of a character, but then I thought about how the whole reason he's in this slump in the first place is because he did something incredible cruel. I admit that he showed maturity in this chapter by finally showing repent for his tantrums, but he's on my shitlist, and there's no turning back from that.

Oh, and I also noticed that he mentioned Polyhex in regards to how Shockwave will react when he finds out about the incident, and it made me think back to that one-shot you wrote recently resting on the same grounds. I wonder if these events will be become canon in any way, and if it does, if Starscream's monologue mentioning it is actually foreshadowing for it.

One more thing on the exploration of the B-story, was that I took note of Nighttrace's kindness toward Starscream as he shows his regret for his actions. It briefly brought me back to the conversation that she and Slipstream had, and when Slipstream questioned what Nighttrace saw in Starscream that made her so consistently loyal to which the former just shrugged at. I also question this, but now I wonder if there's an unfounded maturity that Nighttrace senses in her commander that she has faith in, and that's why she sticks with him so faithfully. It's just speculation, so who knows?

Also, lol seekers.

M'kay, so the first thing that I noted when we moved on to the A-Story was that there was an implication that Cybertronians are accustomed to the concept of singing. It's a trivial thing, but I often question what the parallels are between Cybertronians and humans, since their idioms obviously aren't the same as ours ("killerpains"), and I like it when there are implications of cultural similarities. I remember enjoying such indications when I was reading Exodus, how there were all these mentions of things like Cybertronians clubs, comedians, and singing and dancing. I don't know if the brief discussion of musical preferences, as Soundwave put it, was indicative toward a pre-existing knowledge of similar tendencies on their home planet, but I appreciated it nonetheless.

There was also a note on the mention of Thundre Canons. Question pertaining to the pretense of foreshadowing. Moving on.

The dialogue during the digging scene was really great; we got to hear a bunch of different perspectives and various allusions on different subjects without it feeling cluttered or overly chattery. It was really cool how it seemed that every member of each respective faction sort of had their own counterparts, making the whole thing feel like a "Not So Different" scene, but a lot subtler. As the context stated, the whole gist was Grindor/Wheeljack, Barricade/Grimlock, and Soundwave/Jazz. They all make pretty sweet matches.

There were certain specific things that were brought up that intrigued me, such as one being that Soundwave actually ADDRESSED Bumblebee getting into trouble a lot FOR ONCE. It really annoys me how in other incarnations, and not just with Bumblebee in Transformers, that character who's danger-proned is never actually brought up and everybody like accepts that they have this habit of getting into bad situations all the time and that's just how it goes and it's not unusual or repetitive at all. I.e., Princess Peach from Mario Bros., Robin from Batman, Daphne from Scooby Doo, and all the other damsals you can list. There's always that insinuation that that's what they're there for, to be damsals, and everybody accepts it. HOWEVER HERE IT'S MORE CLEAR THAT THE CHARACTERS MAYBE JUST MAYBE SERVER A GREATER PURPOSE AND IT'S NOT SO NORMAL AND FOUNDED FOR A CHARACTER LIKE BUMBLEBEE TO BE CONSTANTLY PUT IN BAD SITUATIONS AND MAYBE JUST MAYBE THAT TREND IS EXTRAVAGANT ENOUGH FOR ANOTHER CHARACTER TO MAYBE JUST MAYBE PICK UP ON IT AND MAYBE JUST MAYBE ACTUALLY POINT IT OUT. //endrant Plus, it could be reinforced if/when in the future Bumblebee's development comes around 180 and there's a clearly diminished tendency to getting clawed/kidnapped/buried.

I also noted how I thought it was weird that Soundwave shamelessly, audibly blathered to Jazz about something that Starscream obviously wants to keep under wraps, but it was an opportunity to embarrass Barricade, so. Soundwave also obviously has a lot less reason to keep that private since it wasn't him that messed up big time and it's not like the Autobots can use that against the Decepticons or anything. I mean, I thought that it could come to mind for the Autobots to file the report to Shokaw themselves to get Starscream's team into trouble, but there might be some kind of flaw in that idea, idk. It seemed like a throwaway line, so I guess it doesn't matter.

Some short other notes:

Oh, but she's a pretty good fighter. lol

Is that a suggestion of humility? Conservation? Is Megatron not who we think he is?

Another thing, with Soundwave bringing up spark infusing. I was wondering why that subject came off as touchy. Knowing Soundwave's habitual eloquence, I would have thought that he wouldn't have brought it up on such lighthearted grounds if he thought that it would create any sort of controversy. I was honestly pretty disappointed when there was no response, because I often wonder the exact same things and want to learn more about the whole concept of infusing; it hasn't been brought up at all before now, so there needs to be a reiteration some time in the future, at least I hope. What this means is, more fodder, yay.

Jump back when I mentioned the charming aspect of the Autobots and Decepticons inheriting counterparts. I like how the only time that Barricade and Grimlock ever communicated was to be mad at each other. Tbh, I really relate to Soundwave (was it Soundwave?) when he thinks about how weirdly comforting (also maybe a little disconcerting) to see everybody working together in this singular instance and how easy it was to communicate with members of another party. I really just want for all of these guys to be friends bc I really like the way they interact. (-_-* ) Fights in the future are going to be super awkward.

Okay, so Bumblebee and Slipstream, some more talking. First, we can safely state that Slipstream and Bumblebee have decided to trust each other. Also, I like how other pragmatic contingencies were again actually addressed as Bumblebee and Slipstream began to speak of bumblebees and jazz and ratchets and so on and so forth. There's nothing much to say about them, other than it's fun to hear them talk and descend into argument when Slipstream clearly has the weaker end. Time after time, she's had the same conversation three times, twice with the same person, and she's always thwarted. Since she seems to resign into thinking at the end of the chapter, maybe we got a sign that she'll straighten out her ideals and rethink her hypocrisy; granted, this could backfire. While she can realize that she can't choose which life is sacred, she may alternatively realize that no life is sacred to her at all. We shall see. Incidentally, the entire conflict over medics being obligated to preserve lives in general helps me realize why Ratchet was so bent out of shape over holding Nighttrace hostage a few episodes back.

To offer some speculation, if there's ever going to be a heightened sense of urgency in Slipstream and Bumblebee escaping, it looks like there are a few pretenses in terms of issues with being underground, if they become legit. With Slipsteam, it would be the pressure on her armor under the rocks, which have already caused some pain. Can't imagine that it will do her any good if it's prolonged. With Bumblebee, there's a greater risk of running out of power, especially since he feels the need to keep his lights on for the sake of Slipstream. These potential conflicts might not pose any real threat in the long run, but I guess we'll see.

I hope I'm done because wow I'm tired.

 

"What are your friends like?"

His voice jolts her out of her thoughts, and he squeaks slightly when her entire chassis moves under him as she tilts her head up to peer at him, green optics perplexed.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, the other Decepticons. I guess maybe you don't consider them friends, maybe, possibly, but still, what it's like having to share a ship with them?"

She considered that, before revving and asking: "Well, um.... quick, tell me, who do you know on our ship?"

"Okay, I know this, I know this, there's Starscream, and all his Seekers and that big wasp thing. Oh, and that jerk Barricade-" She gave a giggle at that, earning a grin. "-and... Soundwave! Oh, and there was that other Decepticon, Nighttrace or something like that? The one that flies all the time."

"That's Nighttrace, yes. She's tolerable. Doesn't talk much, not the best conversationalist in the universe, but she's nice enough to always lend an audio sensor for you. But to be frank, we're not quite as quick to throw 'friend' around like you might. There are certain professional parameters we tend to abide by."

"Such as?"

"Well, we're not exactly lobbing with the commander every day, I can tell you that. Basically, we're... kind of close, I suppose, but probably not as close as you might be to your comrades."

He considered that, before musing: "Seems a bit cold. But whatever works for you, I guess. So, what are the others like?"

"Starscream's the biggest egotist I've ever had to work with. He's constantly absorbed with his own rank and dreams and quite frankly he's a temperamental idiot. Then there's Barricade, who takes jerk and turns it up to eleven with extra cursing on the side."

Bumblebee was sniggering at that, and she couldn't withhold a grin of her own, before she went on: "So yeah, those two are jerks, but I suppose even jerks have their moments of genuine humour. Anyway, Soundwave I think is probably the best one of them. He's like Nighttrace, very calm and professional, but he's not a glorified mute, so that puts him above her in that sense. The Seekers and Waspinator are drones, so, whatever."

"Are drones not very interesting?"

"Not Starscream's drones, I can tell you that. I guess someone out there has personalised drones with a sense of humour, but Screamer isn't one of them."

"Ha, Screamer. We call him that too sometimes!" He giggled, and she briefly laughed with him, a tad bemused at how easily this Autobot she'd once interrogated was peaking her sense of humour, before he suddenly went into a thoughtful state and asked: "But do you consider any of them friends? Like, actual close friends, like me and the other Autobots are?"

"I guess Soundwave and Nighttrace are my friends. I get on very well with them. And sometimes... well, don't tell him, but sometimes Barricade's pretty nice, when he's not being an absolute devolved overtly-crude moron. Oh, but I do have a best friend."

"Really?"

"Really. She's not on Earth, though, which is a shame really, because I really like having her around." A pause, considering, before she turned the question around: "And what about you? How's life under the Lieutenant?"

Oh Primus, that set him off. The rookie immediately burst into an excited flurry of chatter of all the fun stuff he did with his friends, all the games he played, all the movies he'd watched, with the other rookie, Evac, or Grimlock or Hound or Wheeljack. She wondered how he didn't burn through his entire Energon supply with the rate of speech he was going at.

Still, she noticed that while he ranted on and on about all the funny habits and aspects of his comrades, he never once slipped up and revealed anything important or vital. He spoke of how Evac was surprisingly dexterous despite his bulk, but never said anything about him that could be perceived as a weakness. The Lieutenant was a very nice bot who loved music, but he never even hinted at what his actual name might be.

Slipstream had to admit, she was a tad impressed. This rookie was clearly brighter than he led on; though the situation here might have inspired however brief a friendliness, he wasn't dumb enough to start spouting his side's secrets to her. Still, it was very clear how much he valued his comrades, and how much they must value him in turn.

After all, he was confident enough to be assured they'd rescue him like they had before, regardless of the trouble he got in and the pranks he pulled (The one about petro-rabbits had her, as the humans say, in stitches), so there was a strong comradeship amongst the Autobots. Even their berserker, at least for Bumblebee judging by what he was saying, seemed willing to go out of his way for the others.

Could she really say the same for her own faction? She wasn't lying when she said she didn't believe Starscream would be organising a recue mission, not when he had his operation to manage given how close it was apparently coming to completion. But would the others defy him and come regardless? Grindor and Sideways, she doubted, given she'd hardly formed any kind of bond with them, but maybe Soundwave or Nighttrace or Barricade might come for her.

Still, there was doubt. The former two may well simply obey the commander and remain put, and Barricade was an unstable glitch who was as quick to demean her as he would praise her.

A part of her stung with longing; if Airachnid were still here, she would have come for her. Slipstream could at least be sure of that. But Airachnid wasn't here, wasn't even in the same galaxy, and she couldn't be sure whether or not the other Decepticons would be as compassionate to her as her old friend would. Perhaps she was condemened to being a prisoner when the rookie's allies-

A faint clatter, muffled by the rubble, but audible enough to jar her from her musings.

She paused, and listened. Was it just the rookie's nattering? Possibly, but she could have sworn- No, wait, there it was again! A sort of clattering noise, like rocks bouncing off each other. She swiftly requested that the Autobot be quiet, which he complied with, and they listened intently.

Oh, there was no doubt about it now. Something was moving rocks above them. And that meant only one thing.

"They're here!" Bumblebee stated excitedly, shuffling rapidly in excitement atop her as his bright blue optic flashed with joy. "They're here, and they're gonna get us out and we can finally see the fresh air, even though we don't breathe, and the sky and the sun and all that other cool stuff!"

She couldn't really share his enthusiasm, but she nevertheless nodded in acceptance and laid back, prepared for her fate. Once the other Autobots broke through the rubble, they'd retrieve their rookie and drag her back to their ship as their prisoner. For all of Bumblebee's kind words of refusing to let them leave her here to rust and what not, she doubted he could override the Lieutenant's authority; she'd be certainly interrogated, perhaps brutally, and it may well end with her being tossed to the berserker once they'd torn out every bit of information they could find in her.

So she closed her optics, listened to the car's excited ramblings and laid her head back. If this was it, so be it. Maybe it wasn't the end she'd envisioned, but at least she could say it had been a tad interesting, discussing all she had discussed with a little Autobot rookie.

Granted, he'd been overtly probing of her personal views, but Slipstream supposed; how can one determine how faithful they are to their views without challenges to them? Still, she felt disinclined to feel that the Autobot could be right about the fact she would well be a hypocrite. Yes, she was a medic, sworn to preserve the lives of her comrades, but that hardly meant she should be so naively optimistic as to extend that to her enemies.

She's reminded of when Airachnid herself had brought up this point to her, and she's reminded of the youthful joy in combat against Hound and Ratchet, and she feels a trace of uncertainty.

Was it just what she thought, or was it something that Lord Megatron required she think?

Above the small cave, utilising his third arm to assist Grimlock with a particularly hefty boulder whilst using his primary appendages to move his own smaller load, Wheeljack had shifted the conversation into something quite thought-provoking: "Assuming they're online, in good condition and haven't degenerated into assassination, what if Bumblebee and Slipstream are having the same kind of curious bewildered conversations we're having?"

"That would be quite amusing indeed." Grindor noted. "Opposing factions conjoined by a specific event and further linked by ensuing discussion, a singular concept distributed across two circumstances of thematically different yet ultimately united stimuli."

A pause.

"Shut the scrap up Grindor." Barricade grumbled.

"Bumblebee certainly has the optimism for it." Grimlock muttered, optics flashing with something that seemed a tad like bemusement. Wheeljack and Jazz, much more aware of the rookie's attitudes than the Decepticons, gave brief sniggers. “If anyone would ever to think to indulge in cross-faction banter, it would most assuredly be him."

"And Slipstream's a soft-sparked medic who can’t even finish a rookie." Barricade huffed, diligently continuing to dig. "She wouldn't have it in her to kill him off, no matter how much the little fragger likes to chatter-"

Grimlock immediately reared upwards, provoked by the insult towards his closet friend as a sharp snarl escaped him: "Unless you want Grimlock to remove your other appendages, slowly, one by one, Grimlock suggests you shut your filthy little vocaliser-"

Barricade immediately responded by whipping out his Shredder Shotgun and aiming it at the Autobot, snapping: "How about you fragging learn to speak in the first-person before telling other bots to shut up, you damn dirty dinosaur!"

Grimlock growled furiously, taking a threatening step forward, heat flaring from him as his bladed tail whipped around viciously, utterly unconcerned by the Decepticon's weapon and utterly intent on ripping him apart. To his credit, Barricade didn't back down this time, snarling in turn as he powered up his gun and maintained his aim at the berserker's head.

The others immediately reacted, Jazz swiftly demanding that Grimlock restrain himself and reminded him that Bumblebee needed him more than he needed to pick a fight right now, just as Soundwave slapped down Barricade's arm and snapped: "Would you please stop aggravating the berserker?! It'll hardly do any Slipstream any good for her to have to fix you up again."

"Absolutely." Grindor agreed, shifting himself between his fellow Decepticons and Grimlock, optics locked onto the Autobot with defensive warning. "Insults and aggression will serve no purpose right now other than to waste the time of both ourselves and our trapped comrades.”

Barricade shrugged off Soundwave’s arm, glaring furiously at Grimlock from behind the bulky form of the Trojan, before he reluctantly sheathed his weapon and got back to digging, pettily cursing all of them and their creators. Grimlock himself shook his head and revved violently, forcing himself back under control as he shifted away from the group to regain himself, exhaust pipes heaving out thick black smoke in his restrained fury.

Jazz and Wheeljack exchanged a glance, before the tow truck clapped his hands together and, overtly cheerful, switched the topic: “Okay then, well, as I was saying, it would be pretty weird if Bumblebee and your medic were having the same kind of chatter as we are.”

“What about, I wonder.” Soundwave mused, tossing a rock aside disdainfully. “They may be debating philosophy and their respective opinions of the universe, or perhaps discussing irrelevant Earth customs, or even forming an unlikely romance between Autobot and Decepticon, drawn to each other despite the limitations our war has placed on them, their sparks united by circumstance and craving the other by choice.”

Barricade immediately snapped: “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, Soundwave. Slipstream would never go for an Autobot, no way, no how, so shut up, shut up you idiot-“

Ignoring the Mustang’s ranting, Jazz asked: “That last part was quite poetically described. Have you been reading human romantic novels, Soundwave?”

“Maybe, possibly, ambiguously. Nothing the infamous Lieutenant would be concerned about.”

Wheeljack was just chortling: “That would be fragging hilarious, though. Imagine Bumblebee crushing on a Decepticon. He’ll pop out of the cave saying ‘Wheeljack, I spent like an hour cramped up against a girl, is that love?’ and I’ll say ‘no, Bumblebee, it’s the grounds for a restraining order and possible assassination’, just to see his reaction, ha.”

“It wouldn’t be ideal, mind you.” Grindor pointed out, nevertheless bearing an amused glint in his optics. “It would an affair of miraculous proportions for such a relationship to ever hope to function in a healthy manner.”

“True, true, but it’s fun to joke about.”

“Nothing funny about it, you fraggers!”

“Barricade, shut up-“

“YOU SHUT UP, SOUNDWAVE.”

“ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!” Grimlock roared, immediately and effectively silencing them, before he leaned his massive head towards the rocks and muttered: “Grimlock thinks that Grimlock can hear something…”

Curious, the others also listened. For a moment, they could only hear silence, perhaps a slight twitch of their limbs or a murmur of their engines. But then… they leaned in closer. There was something under the rocks, some kind of awfully faint murmuring sound. It was very quiet, very subtle, but it was there.

“Do you think…” Wheeljack murmured, casting Grimlock a hopeful glance.

“Grimlock does not think, Grimlock knows.” The berserker said, immediately rearing up and swiping away a rock with his tail enthusiastically. “That has to be Bumblebee!”

“And if he’s in a good enough condition to speak, than Slipstream may be fine as well.” Grindor pointed out, transforming into vehicle mode and bringing his excavator arm to bear. “Let us extract our comrades at last!”

The group immediately redoubled their efforts, clawing and pulling at the rubble with all their might. As they dug with increased fervour, Jazz was feeling simultaneously relieved and excited; at last, this awkward team-up may finally reach its end and he can extract his soldier and return to the ship without any injuries, any losses, any trouble. That’d be a first, and it would be a first he could appreciate.

Still, a part of him felt just a tad perplexed. After this, the forced comradeship between Decepticon and Autobot would end, and they would return to being enemies again. One instance of cooperation could not change centuries of warfare. But maybe… maybe it could change individuals.

Well, except for Barricade and Grimlock, he imagined. Brutes like them never released their grudges, never released their hatred, and quite frankly, he couldn’t imagining letting go of his current hatred of Barricade anytime soon, not after what he had done to Hound.

But he shook that thought aside; for now, it was merely a matter of ensuring Bumblebee’s safety. The sooner he got his rookie to safety, the better.

And the sooner he set Grimlock straight about going off on these solo errands without any authorisation, the sooner the Autobots might be able to avoid these situations.

As they dug furiously, the sounds within the rubble gradually became more pronounced; it was definitely a high-pitched voice calling from within, shouting currently indistinguishable words up towards the rescue team, and Grimlock called right back: "We're getting you out, Bumblebee! Grimlock's going to get you out of there!"

"And Slipstream too." Barricade grunted, though being sure Grimlock didn't hear him. "I'll rescue her and she'll be eternally grateful to my dedication and persistence, and I'll dig her out with one fragging arm and then she'll finally understand just how fantastic I am-"

And then one of the rocks, upon being flung aside by Wheeljack, revealed blank space, and the voice that shouted out was as clear as day: "-Finally getting out of here!"

The group immediately froze, and then Grimlock, shoving Wheeljack out of the way, darted over to the hole and put his optic to it and exclaimed: "Bumblebee? Are you okay?"

And from within the blackness, a faint yellow form with excited blue optics stared right back at him, eagerly cheering: "Yay, Grimlock! You saved us! We're alright, we're fine as wine!"

Wheeljack pushed Grimlock's head aside and snapped: "Alright, rookie, we're gonna get you out of there, and then these Decepticons right here will get their medic back, and it'll be as right as rain. Can you give me your hand?"

"I can, yes!" Bumblebee squeaked, and his arm shifted outwards, his hand just protruding out of the hole and was promptly seized by the tow truck, as the group gathered around and help to widen the hole, allowing Wheeljack to pull the car towards him. "But wait, you said Decepticons?!"

"That I did, Bumblebee!" Wheeljack laughed, eagerly reaching into the widened hole and dragging out of the smaller Autobot, the rookie squealing with joy as he lifted him up out of the rocks and into the fresh air. "Would you believe it? We teamed up to save you and the other Con! Am I glad to see you alright!"

Bumblebee just laughed excitedly, before Wheeljack set him down and he was immediately set upon by Grimlock, the massive Autobot's head bumping against the car's chest as he grumbled: "Don't you ever get tired of putting Grimlock through these shenanigans?"

"Not when you're always so hugging afterwards!" The rookie chortled, eagerly wrapping his arms around the berserker's maw and hugging him tightly. "Thanks for coming to my rescue again!"

"It's what Grimlock tends to do."

"And Wheeljack too, Wheeljack is a pro at saving the rookies-"

"Shut up Wheeljack."

Jazz simply chuckled, before he and Wheeljack moved away from the rubble as he stated: "Well, Bumblebee, I'm so glad to know you've been spending my time away getting yourself into more trouble."

"Lieutenant!" Bumblebee squealed, immediately gesturing for Jazz to come over to him, since Grimlock was quite reluctant to let him go, so the Solstice shifted forward and allowed the Beetle to wrap an arm around him in glee. "You're alright!"

"I'd be better if my rookie wasn't getting buried."

Bumblebee grinned sheepishly: "Well, better than getting kidnapped, right?"

"Right. It's much less effort to move some rocks than it is to infiltrate an enemy ship." Jazz chuckled. "Well, at least you're alright."

"Again." Wheeljack chortled.

As the Autobots rejoiced in their reunion, the Decepticons immediately moved to the hole and Barricade hollered: "Slipstream! Are you alive? Are you dead? Please answer me so it doesn't have to be the second option-"

"Barricade?" Her voice, a tad surprised but otherwise healthy, floated out of the rubble. "You came for me?"

"Of course I did, you fragging idiot." He snapped, hiding the utter relief of his tone under his typical rudeness. "I need you to finish my arm, don't I?!"

A soft chuckle: "Of course you do."

"I brought Soundwave and Grindor too! These idiots would have had no idea to use the Autobots as spare diggers without my intuition!"

The trio got to work widening the hole for the larger Cybertronian, who cheerfully replied: "Of course, Barricade. Only you could be so smart as to convince the Autobots to assist in my rescue."

Barricade revved with self-satisfaction, as Grindor chortled: "It is a relief to see your sense of humour is not nearly as quashed as this rubble was, Slipstream. Are you injured in any way?"

"I'm fine, Grindor. A bit dented, a bit cramped, but fine. To be honest, I hadn't really expected you cons to come for me; I would have thought Starscream would have forbade it."

"He did." Barricade snorted. "The fragger didn't want to risk his precious operation over fighting the Autobots for you, so me and these two came after you anyway because I couldn't stand it if anything happened to yo- The medic I need to replace my arm, yep."

Another giggle, before they had cleared enough rocks to expose her frame. Carefully, Soundwave and Barricade leaned and pulled her free of the rubble whislt Grindor made sure none fell on her, and with a gasp of delight, she saw a bright clear night sky above her, dotted with stars and fresh with air. It cycled through her ventilation pleasantly, and it was wonderfully cool after the heat of the cave.

"Easy now, Slipstream." Soundwave cautioned, as he and the others helped her onto her knees. "Your systems seem to be a bit sluggish."

"I'm alright, Soundwave." She revved softly, flexing her wings and tailfins. "Primus am I glad to be out of that. The problem with being a jet is that it's never in any way comfortable to be confined like that. But at least I had you three to dig me out."

"Not just us." Grindor said amiably, turning and casting an arm towards the Autobots. "We had some help."

She stared at them for a moment, watching the way they crowded so affectionately around their delighted rookie, before turning her gaze on the Decepticons by her side. Despite her misgivings, despite Starscream's continued dismissal of their importance, they had come for her. Soundwave, Grindor, Barricade, they'd come for her regardless of Starscream's orders, they'd even worked with the Autobots (The Lieutenant himself, the berserker, that scientist truck bot) to help her.

Suddenly, she felt quite touched. It was a rare sensation, and it tickled her neurals delightfully, her wings and tailfins waggling as a smile spread across her face. Against the odds, her comrades had come for her, and it filled her with the same confidence she was so sure had filled the rookie when he was reassuring her over the arrival of the Autobots.

"Are you alright, Slipstream?" Soundwave asked, noting her change in demeanour, and she just nodded and laughed slightly.

Detaching from their hug, Jazz turned to the Decepticons, appraising them for a moment, before he said: "All's well that ends well, Decepticons."

"But of course, Lieutenant." Grindor replied, stepping forward before the others and nodding at the smaller Cybertronian. "We are grateful for your assistance in recovering our comrade."

"And we're grateful in return." Jazz said, the others watching the two converse with interest. "I suppose that's it for tonight, though. I'm not naïve enough to expect this changes anything between us."

"I'd be a fool to believe otherwise." Grindor admitted. "Still, however sentimental it may sound, I do like to think that, while were digging for our friends and conversing with each other, that perhaps, even if briefly, we were more than Autobot and Decepticon recovering fellow soldiers. We had been Cybertronians recovering fellow Cybertronians."

"I like to think that too."

The Trojan extended a hand to the Solstice and said: "Even if the status quo of our war dictates that we meet again only with violence, you have my consolation in that I shan't forget tonight."

Jazz accepted the larger hand and shook it firmly. "I doubt any of us will. See you on the other side, Grindor."

The tank nodded, before moving back to his comrades and asking: "Shall we take our leave then?"

"Wait!" Bumblebee cried, immediately wheeling forward over to Jazz, optics set on the jet. "Um... before you cons go, can I..."

Barricade seemed ready to retort, possibly to tell the rookie to go away in a rude manner, but Slipstream cut him off with a gentle push of an arm as she shakily got to her feet, systems huffing as her slender form, the tallest among them, reared upright.

A soft rev, a flare of her thrusters, a wiggle of the tailfins and then she said: "Bumblebee."

The car wheeled forward a bit more, Grimlock shifting over to flank him, as he said: "I know it was technically my fault we ended up stuck in the rocks and dirt and stuff for ages, and I know we're probably just gonna go back to shooting at each other after tonight.... but thank you. For keeping me company and, um, well, proving some things wrong for me, broadening my worldview, I guess."

Behind him, Wheeljack hollered: "Oh hey cool, they did talk to each other. How crazy!"

She gazed at him, endeared by the sincere gratitude and kindness shining in his optics, before she said: "It's fine. You've given me a lot of things to think about, and I guess you proved some things wrong for me too. But most of all.... thank you for.... for keeping the lights on."

The others, save for Soundwave, exchanged bewildered glances at the sharp insinuation of a deeper meaning her tone, before the jet suddenly felt quite overwhelmed. What a night tonight had been; this little Autobot, so friendly to her despite the fact he had every reason not to be, had given her a lot to think about, and not only that, his comrades, even if only for the rookie's sake, had also worked to dig her out of that rubble.

It was a lot to take in.

She revved heavily and stated: "Thank you, Autobots."

And then she turned, leapt up, her frame shifting into the angular form of her jet, and with a powerful roar of her engine, she was gone into the night sky, faster than sound and leaving a trail of fire and smoke behind her.

They watched her fly off, before Grindor said: "Well, I suppose we ought to follow her example. Farewell, Autobots, and thank you for your assistance."

With that, he transformed into vehicle mode and meandered a bit on his treads, gesturing for Barricade to climb on.

The Mustang paused for a moment, glaring sharply at the rookie, who simply stared right back at him with an impressive coolness, before he grunted: "Yeah, what he said. Thanks a lot, jerks."

And then he jumped onto the tank and declared: "Onwards, my comfy steed! Back to the ship for the heroic Barricade's reward!"

Grindor idly grunted he wasn't a steed as he and his obnoxious passenger trundled off, leaving Soundwave behind. The Lamborghini stared curiously at the Autobots, before he shook his head in disappointment and stated: "Maybe in the next life, Autobots. Maybe in the next life."

And he transformed and he was off in a flurry of dust after the other two. The Autobots watched them go, before they turned the other way and idly started on the way back home.

Wheeljack mused: "For Decepticons, excluding Barricade, those chaps weren't too bad, really. In another world, another universe, we could have all been friends. I mean, we did have a pretty good conversation, save for the typical hateful bits, and we did all have the same idea of helping our friends."

"In an ideal world." Jazz revved softly. "In an ideal world. Well, let's roll out, Autobots; Ratchet's probably wondering where the Pit I am by now."

With that, he jumped forward into vehicle mode, gleaming silver and looking smooth, and Wheeljack was next, twisting himself into the tow truck as the duo drove off. Lagging behind, Grimlock idly nuzzled the smaller Autobot and muttered: "Grimlock apologises, Bumblebee. Grimlock shouldn't have been so reckless back during the fight."

"It's not your fault Grimlock. I mean, you weren't the one to tackle a Decepticon right into a collapsing quarry." He chortled, before adopting a more curious expression and musing: "But it wasn't too bad. She's actually quite good company when she's not shooting me and kidnapping me and what not."

Grimlock snorted: "Is this a crush, Bumblebee?"

"No. Just a bizarre situation and a whole lot of philosophical stuff." He replied, before he glanced up to note the crescent moon, a sliver of silver against the black sky, emerging from behind some darkening clouds, and he giggled: "You know, I still haven't been on the moon yet. I need to see if the Man in the Moon really is up there."

"If he is, Grimlock will be sure he'll be happy to meet you." The tanker truck replied, before he paused and his red optic locked onto the other Autobot with intense care. "Grimlock is glad you are alright."

"I'm glad you're alright too. Did you have fun nattering with those other Cons?"

"No."

"Heh. I figured as much. Race you back to the ship?"

His optics glowed mischievously: "Grimlock didn't realise you wanted to be crushed again so soon."

"Ha! Touché, buddy. Touché."

--

Starscream idly sat on his chair and gave a low rev, easing himself into a relaxed mood, a mood that promised productivity and satisfaction as Waspinator flitted over to its perech, buzzing merrily. Before him, Nighttrace was hanging upside down from the ceiling, tail gripping it tightly as she swung to and fro before him, optics curious on how he would begin.

Pondering to himself for a moment, he then turns and says: "Let's put it all down on the table first. For starters, my crew is discontent with the method of punishment employed against Barricade for his theft of a Conciller's technology. For seconds, my crew has decided to alienate me on account of justifying my use of said method of punishement. And thirdly, my medic has been compromised and my crew is dissatisfied with my decision to leave her be and focus instead on the completion of our primary objective. Does that sound about right?"

She nods.

"Okay then, let's just look at this from both sides of the story, and be as honest with each other as we can. I'll start! I feel as though the use of electricity against Barricade, while admittedly quite extreme, is nevertheless justified in order to remind him of not only the consequences of his reckless actions, but also to remind him exactly how an arrogant attitude like his will end being treated."

He pauses, wating for her response, and she simply said: "As honest as we can."

"I was honest."

She stared at him.

"Okay... okay, fine, maybe that comment I made about it being extreme is an understatement. Maybe I-" He paused, surprise on his face as his vocaliser seems to glitch up for a moment, before he forces it down and he trucks on: "Maybe I.... possibly.... actually..... o-overreacted. Overreacted, I did, maybe, no, possibly- Certainly? Well..... I'm not actually feeling as justified about it as I did a day or so ago."

He shuddered a bit, before revving and stating: "Okay. I was honest. Now I will listen. What do you feel?"

She just flicks her antenna.

"Okay, yes, I know how you feel, you told me earlier and you're not one to hold back or coat-sugar it. No wait, sugar-coat it, there we go. I assume your opinion hasn't changed since then?"

She shook her head.

"Alright then. So, if we're looking at this from a statistical point of view, nice and calmly, I'm probably around 60% for electrocuting Barricade, 40% against electrocuting Barricade, though possibly fluctuating as I think harder about it, and you're a solid 100% against electrocuting Barricade."

She nodded.

"Okay then, glad we've settled that. and that is why my crew has seen fit to avoid interacting with me, really. Because they don't like what I did, don't like my views on it and may even think I'm more willing to do it to them as well."

He paused in his pacing, anxiously running a hand over his head, before revving heavily and turning to face the UAV: "But really, Nighttrace, how else could I have reacted? The idiot's possibly condemned all of us to Shockwave's wrath, and he's still completely ignorant of the consequences of his actions!"

She stared at him stoically.

"Right, right, be calm, I know. I'm calm." A brief rev, before he continues: "You know, even though I've been really worried about what Shockwave will do, and how I ever ended up with such an impudent idiot on my crew, I do actually feel.... dejected. Rejected, more specifically. The rest of you have turned your backs on me, and suddenly I'm not feeling as.... confident in my plans anymore, because now I'm wondering if the rest of you are even motivated to help me carry them out...."

He revs softly again and graciously accepts the gentle pat on the head she gives him, before she replies: "Torture is a strong motivation, but it is never as strong as loyalty."

"Huh.... I know, Nighttrace. I know.... I guess I screwed that aspect of the chain of command up, didn't I?"

He seems surprised, as if he can't believe he so graciously admitted to a flaw like that, and she just nods in agreement.

A pause, as he stares into her optics and she his, before he continues: "And if that's not enough, I tell them they can't go save Slipstream from the Autobots. I want to believe I'm making the right choice, Nighttrace, that it's a fruitless endeavour to try and reclaim her when the Autobots may well already have her secured in their ship, that our efforts are best reserved for Operation Harvest, but..."

He gathered himself and pushed on: "But at the same time, it bites at me. Leaving her to the damnable Lieutenant and his goons, allowing the Autobots to take one of MY soldiers! And then it hits me.... it hits me just how much of a hypocrite I am. When that Autobot had you in their grip, blade at your throat, all I wanted was to ensure your safety. I knew he wouldn't have it in him to carry it out, but still, I just wanted to make sure you, my soldier, my subordinate, was safe. I was so willing to make sure you were safe... and now here I am damning another soldier to the Autobots without even raising a finger."

He looked up at her, and suddenly, his optics were not that of a commander, not that of a proud and powerful Decepticon, but a youngling desperate for guidance: "What do I do, Nighttrace? What do I do?"

She stared at him for a moment, before she gently replied: "You are not Shockwave. You are not Megatron. You are Starscream. You look up to others, but you look up so high you forget where the mountain even begins. Do what do you want to do. Not what our superiors would prefer you do, do what you want to do."

He stared at her dumbly, running over her words in his head, hesitating, unsure, before he murmured: "I don't want to be a failure. I don't want to be a nobody. I want.... I want to be... somebody. Somebody others could look up to. Somebody others would remember the name of."

He paused, and he considered, and he said: "If my own crew hates me, who am I to them? A nobody. If my own soldiers are left to the Autobots, who am I to them? A nobody. I don't want to be a nobody. I want to be somebody. I want to be Starscream. I AM Starscream. I AM STARSCREAM!"

And then his fire was burning again, he was working himself up into a mighty and righteous fury, and she watched with impressment as he declared, proud and tall: "I am Commander Starscream! I am not Shockwave, I am not Megatorn, I am me, Starscream! I will not live with discontentment and hatred, I will not live for regret and failure! I will do what a commander should do! I will regain my crew's respect! I will amend for my mistakes! I will fight the Autobots to my dying spark for the soldiers who would help me secure ultimate victory! I will go to that planet below, and I'll kill every Autobot who dares try and take one of my soldiers from me!"

Enraptured by his passion, he cried out to the heavens: "I AM COMMANDER STARSCREAM!"

And then he leans forward, smiling widely and maniacally, wrapping his hands around the surprised UAV's head, and he whispers to her: "And it's time for me to prove it. I'm off to Earth, Nighttrace, and I'm going to bring Slipstream back, and then I'm going to beg and grovel for my soldier's forgiveness, and then, when all is right again, I will lead us to victory!"

Releasing her, he added: "Primus smiled on me the day you joined my ship, Nighttrace! What would I be without you?!"

Leaving her absolutely stunned, Waspinator buzzing proudly on his perch, he darted out of his quarters, filled with purpose and determination. No more mistakes, no more foolishness, now was the time to redeem himself! Now was the time to fly to Earth, kill any Autobot who dared try to seize his medic, apologise to her, apologise to everyone else, and lead them to glory as a better commander-

And then he stopped short when the lift door opened before he even reached it and Grindor, Soundwave and Barricade stepped out of it, looking quite dirty with all the dirt on their arms and what-not. They also stopped short upon sighting him, and there was a brief moment of bewildered stares.

"Whoa." Starscream muttered, taken completely by surprise. "Where did you three go to get so dirty?"

Before any of them could reply, Starscream waved it off, stating: "Well, never mind, it doesn't matter anyway. I have something to say to you three. Even with enlightenment upon me, it's still a tad difficult to relent, giving my general personality traits, but nevertheless, I must do it if I am to ever repent for my mistakes."

Whatever they had been expecting, ranting or screaming or accusations, it had not been this. They all started a little bit, utterly caught off-guard by such a blatant display of calmness and humility from their commander; even Grindor, who had not been here as long, was perplexed. Starscream allowed himself a small smile of amusement at their reactions, before he continued, voice as strong as if he were giving a speech of glory:

"Put bluntly, my Decepticons, my recent actions have not been appropriate for one who would call himself your commander. I have made the mistake of prioritising an, at best, uncertain pathway, and I have made the mistake and putting my concerns before my crew. And that is something no worthwhile commander should ever do!"

He raised his fist in a dramatic gesture and declared: "I am Starscream, commander of the Darksyde and the one who must lead you to victory! I refuse to repeat my mistakes; I shall not continue to alienate and dissatisfy my own soldiers over my own concern over a clean slate. Because what is a commander without soldiers? NOTHING!"

Soundwave and Barricade exchanged a terrified glance. Grindor idly contemplated whether or not he ought to get back into the lift.

"So, I must do what I may have considered nigh impossible to do before." Starscream stated, and with that, his confidence vanished into soft pleading, and he murmured: "I ask you to forgive me for my rash and dismissive actions. And most of all, directed at you, Barricade, I ask- No, I beg for your forgiveness for how I've treated you. No matter how flawed your idea may have been, I should not have reacted the way I did. Can you forgive me?"

Barricade just stared at him in complete and utter disbelief. Soundwave gave a sort of startled rev. And Grindor, ever the controlled and amiable type, tentatively replied: "You certainly have my forgiveness, commander. I understand that the recent fiasco has placed an amount of pressure on you."

"Thank you, Grindor. And you, Soundwave? Barricade?"

"I believe..." Soundwave said slowly, the wheels on his shoulders turning in discomfort. "That this change in attitude is really disturbing. Promise me you'll go back to your usual egotistical smug habits after this, please, and you'll have every last ounce of forgiveness in me."

"I promise, Soundwave."

Barricade slowly raised a finger, trying to make sense of this: "Is this.... is this even real? Is this even you, Starscream, and not some depraved clone of some sort? How can this make any kind of sense whatsoever?! My processor is fragging dissolving, that's what's happening right now, I'm sure! Who the frag are you and what have you done to our jerk?!"

Starscream raised a brow in bemusement, before replying: "It's me, you incompetent pile of scrap. I'm sorry your tiny little excuse for a processor is too degenerated for you to understand my honest regret, but what can I expect from an idiotic troglodyte like you?"

Barricade's optics widened: "You fragging piece of slag up Unicron's exhaust, you aren't some twisted clone! Well then, actual jerk Starscream, I might be more inclined to forgive you if it wasn't for the fact that you were willing to leave Slipstream to the Autobots!"

"And that is another mistake I shall not repeat nor let go without vengeance!" Starscream snapped, his bemusement switching instantly into aggressive determination. "I was an idiot to place cold logic over my own medic, and I will put right what I set wrong! I'm going down to Earth right now, right as I bumped into you lot, and I'm going to kill every Autobot who dares to interfere with my recovery of Slipstream, even if I have to dig her out with my own face! I will rip their ship apart if they have taken her to it, and I will make her music out of their screams to apologise for my failure! And if it can earn me your forgiveness, you fragger, victory shall be even sweeter!"

He revved heavily with the power of his words, and the Decepticons exchanged impressed glances, before they suddenly perked up and glanced behind him. Perplexed, the Raptor turned as well, wondering what they were looking at-

And came face to face with a tall black Decepticon with bright green optics, smiling widely at him with utterly giddy amusement. Starscream gaped at the perfectly fine albeit dusty and dented form of the F-117, before he squeaked in disbelief: "Slipstream?! You're here! How... how long were you standing there?"

"Long enough, commander." She giggled sweetly.

Putting two and two together, he spun round to face the other three: "You rescued her! You left this ship without my permission and rescued her! You.... you.... you clever magnificent specimens of Decepticon superiority!"

They were dumbstruck at this point, but Slipstream was oh so delighted by this change in demeanour in her commander as she giggled: "Starscream, this is an absolute surprise! I come back expecting to see an angry moping jet, and instead I get this fantastic display!"

"It's because, Slipstream-" He replied enthusiastically. "-I took a good hard long look at myself, metaphorically, and I realised exactly what was wrong with my normally handsome good looks. I had made the mistake of acting like Shockwave, of putting cold cruel logic before my own soldiers, and I realised that that would not do! I should never have even considered leaving you to the Autobots, and for my mistake, all I can do is beg for your forgiveness!"

And then he was quiet and soft again, murmuring: "Can you forgive me, Slipstream?"

She laughed: "Well, I can't say I appreciate you thinking of dumping me on the Autobots, but on the other hand, I doubt many bots can say they've ever seen Starscream actually apologise to someone. So why the Pit not? You have my forgiveness, Starscream."

And with that, she turned and cheerfully skipped away, idly nattering about how much fun she'd have relaying this to Airachnid. Soundwave and Grindor, deciding they'd seen enough for today, promptly excused themselves and scuttled off, the former to his room and the latter to see how Sideways was doing.

This is of course left Starscream and Barricade by themselves. For a moment, they did nothing except stare at each other.

Then, the jet repeated himself: "I know I did you wrong, Barricade. I know you did me wrong first, but my wrongness towards you was even more wrong, kind of- No, not kind of, definitely. So, all I can do is ask you to forgive me for my overreaction. Can you do that?"

"I can never forgive, Starscream. I can only hate a little tiny bit less." But there was a slight grin on his face now. "And frag me, is it both the funniest and most disturbing thing to see a cocky arrogant scrap-pile like you actually start begging us for forgiveness. Do you want to play Super Plasma Adeventure 2 with me, you fragging obnoxious thruster-footed idiot?"

"Barricade, you absolute moronic excuse for a space slug, it would be my pleasure."

Author's Notes: I'm so happy because teamwork saved the day and I'm so sad because the war won't let them be friends. GAH.

Starscream finally learns an important lesson; it's better to have a crew that likes you than a crew that dislikes you. Well done, Starscream.

This episode felt so good to write. Everyone is happy to be reunited and Starscream is happy to be himself and to be make up for his previous crap and be a good commander and gah, so much happiness!

Episode 9: Cave-In. Complete

 

This was probably the most heart-warming and funniest chapters yet...........I applaud you!!!    

 

I didn't take notes this time, but I think I got the gist well enough. Getting to the end and finally reviewing took longer than I thought it was going to, because for some reason I must have gotten distracted and stopped reading three-quarters of the way through the B-story, went on Tumblr and then on dA to message you, and then came back and realized I hadn't actually finished it and then finished and now here we are. Before I begin gushing and fangasming, I must say that I relish in the speed at which this update came. I was so very anxious to know how this escapade would turn out with our Autobot and Decepticon friends. This review may actually be comparatively short, especially when I have nothing to criticize. All just good stuff and gushing and such.

Not sure where to begin...I suppose it's good to point out that I actually audibly squee'd a few times while I was reading this and when I got to the very end, I hugged myself. So many warm and fuzzy and wonderful feelings, like, it almost seemed like this episode was a massive fan service. Enough fluff so that it was sweet and believable, yet not saccharine and cheesy. The episode felt like it went by pretty quick, but it felt like somehow everything that happened here is going to be important somehow later. If the events of this particular installment weren't later brought up, then the entire episode would be pretty useless; inasmuch, it looks like any development that comes of it will mostly be character-related. It all leaves a lot open for some dynamic that'll be rendered later on, particularly with Slipstream. Hypocrisy was definitely the theme of this episode. And not only was it implied with her, but with Starscream and with the Autobots as well. I wonder how her muses induced by the events of this episode will affect her, if there's any perceptible difference.

The scene of the Autobots and Decepticons working together and their dialogue was great again, not too much repetition, thankfully, but you could still feel the awkward. In a good way, per se. The whole thing was bound to be awkward. The moment that Barricade and Grimlock were about to kill each other was pretty expectant, I thought that it had to happen at some point, especially when those two were restraining themselves throughout the duration of the episode. Once again, I think it's pretty funny how as the others gleefully interact, the only time Barricade or Grimlock say anything is mostly in conjunction with the other and it's to be mad at one another. However, luckily nothing actually happened there besides them yelling at each other, thanks to the others for reacting. I think I actually vocalized when Barricade said something about Grimlock's Third Person Person. Shots fired. Not to mention Barricade catching himself from almost implying an affection for Slipstream literally killed me. No readings on the EKG.

Ah Barricade, you extravagant glitch. He was great in this episode, especially in this chapter. I reiterate that it's crazy how almost bipolar he seems at times; like in this instance, it kind of felt like he's not so bad a guy. He snarked the whole time and flipped out at least once, but then again, so did Grimlock. Granted, Barricade wasn't as restrained as Grimlock was, but the point is that his tactics this entire time were more childish than anything, really. Especially his heroic banter at the end when he hopped on his "steed." Brought me back to the whole reaper episode. I also relished when even Slipstream plainly said that every once and a while, he can actually be pretty nice. I like to make myself believe that if you stripped away the layer of anger, you would actually find a relatively tolerable childish demeanor that didn't always make you want to kill him, but he's so far proved otherwise. It'll take more niceness to "even out" everything he's done so far, including screaming and snarking and threatening and clawing apart my other precious baby. But I digress.

I actually really liked hearing what Slipstream had to say about everybody. She seemed to expose a bit of animosity toward Nighttrace, but after getting frustrated with her not long ago, I can understand why. Her saying that Soundwave was the best of them was really great, because as you know, I also really like Soundwave as a character and would have to agree with her. You have to appreciate his level of control, contrasting Starscream's and Barricade's tempers and Nighttrace's eccentricity. Then of course Bumblebee exploding into chatter about his own comrades was expectant and adorable, but what was great about it was Slipstream's analysis of it. The implications that Bumblebee's actually pretty competent for all the trouble that he gets into and all the childish chattering that he does is a good refresher; one, because usually characters of that type are actually not competent at all. And two, because it indicates a deeper side of Bumblebee's character that opens more opportunity for good character-based exposure. It's cool to think that, for something as simple as keeping important detail under wraps as he talks, he just does that obliviously. I don't know how to explain it, other than saying that I appreciate these implications that I suspect may become progressively more exposed the more that Bumblebee matures. There's obviously more to him that a ditzy, childish rookie that gets himself into a lot of fixes. He's observant, keen, and strategic. Very intriguing.

Then of course the reunion was literally perfect. So cute. So fluff. Much sweet. Very feels. Look at Wheeljack, aww, he cares, he really does. Then Grimlock and all the hugginess and then Lieutenant hugs and all the hugs and fluff and wow. It was just so nice. >.< I'm thiiinkiinng Bumblebee will be more mindful in the future, because you can only have so many things happen to you in a short amount of time before enough caution is advised so that your friends don't have to go out and rescue all the time. X'3 Knowing Bumblebee, he at least clearly learned to watch out for landfalls of all things. >.> Oh, and I was also happy that there was something mentioned about how Jazz intended to confront Grimlock about planning an assault without any authorization, because if I remember correctly, I actually mentioned that I thought that this was a little weird in the beginning. In any event, it was really heartfelt and important. Yes. Much approval. -u- So touching that the Decepticons came for Slipstream too, and that she realized the significance of that.

I reiterate that in that regard, Barricade was really funny. And even though there had to be that snark between them, Slipstream was still of course appreciative of Barricade's coming to get her. Heck, if anything, he seemed to be the ringleader that instigated the operation. Which I will be storing for future use whenever I feel the need to argue that he's, ya know, NOT SO BAD. oUo Nah, but he is. But whatever, I digress. Slipstream and Bumblebee's bidding farewell was another nice thing, especially since the ambiguity in Slipstream's thanking Bumblebee for keeping the lights on is so open for interpretation. Hurururururururu. I also want to say that the whole joke about those two forming a romantic relationship was pretty funny and cute. THE SHIPPERS WOULD GO CRAZAY.

Oh yes, and Starscream. Mkay, he frustrates me. Like, alright. You impressed me here, Starscream. I can genuinely appreciate your change of attitude. That takes a lot of integrity. I thought there was absolutely no turning back for you, after what you did. I did not contemplate the possibility of you apologizing. But you know, it takes a lot of guts to do something like that. And, not to get all deep or anything, Starscream in this chapter actually kind of reminded me of a very important person in my life. This person held some authority over me and other people at one point and was an absolute dick to us in the beginning. In this situation, he actually made me and another acquaintance of mine cry on separate occasions, but at one point, he realized how wrong he was and completely turned it around. Over time, he fixed his attitude and became a good friend, leader, and inspiration for me. Like Starscream wants, this guy became somebody I looked up to and will always remember. The point of my relaying this is that it's significant that I can apply this important person in my life to Starscream. It may just be enough for me to take back what I had said and thought, even though I thought it was impossible; but first, Screamer's going to have to show, not tell. His character arc, at least this one, blew over pretty quickly, but it's okay, because it wasn't something that was meant to be dragged out. I appreciate these character-related subtleties and revelations. In a short amount of time, we learned a lot about Starscream which, even if you decide that you don't like him, makes him more valuable to you. I don't think he'll ever be one of my favorite characters, but he showed a lot of humility in this episode and it took that amount of humility to force me to associate him with somebody who's very important to me. So, go Starscream, I guess. >_<

But the thing with Barricade, oh my, I approve so much. I loved the latter's response to Starscream. I love the video game running gag. I can't tell you how much I approve. THUMBSUPTHUMBSUPTHUMBSUPTHUMBSUP.

It felt somewhat fillery, but I feel as though this episode was important nonetheless. It was by all means a character-progression episode, and I enjoyed it very much. Besides, the action in the last episode was enough to carry over for the absence of action in this one. XP So, my thoughts are provoked, and my heart is touched, and I am very happy and satisfied. As always, great episode, and I look forward to the next one! Do we get sneak peak? ^^

 

Episode 10: Whispers

Synopsis: Investigating a bizarre signature, Wheeljack and Evac end up encountering trouble, trouble that may well end up giving the Autobots an advantage over the Decepticons...

The attitude aboard the Darksyde had become much more positive ever since the recovery of Slipstream, especially for Starscream. Perhaps his utterly unexpected reversal of his previous demeanour and his determination to be a much more amiable and respectable character to his crew had legitimately made him feel a lot more positive, or maybe he was more positive because his crew had responded positively to said positivity.

For all the faults of Barricade's theft of the nodule (currently stored in Starscream's quarters in a secure compartment) and the potential repercussions of said theft from Shokaw, it seemed the Decepticons had regained the sense of advantage they had possessed before the incident, most prominently with the fact that the ship was once more airborne.

A few hours after the cave-in incident, Grindor and Sideways' work had finally paid off; systems powering up, Energon flowing smoothly, thrusters at last online, the Darksyde finally pushed itself off of the surface of the moon, scattering bright-white dust across the airless plains, the Seeker-class vessel rising up majestically before the main engine kicked in and it was off into the dark expanse of space.

Within the control room, the Decepticons let out a cheer, their home base at last fully operational and the Autobots now incapable of hunting them down over the Earth's lone satellite. The first act of business had been to put the ship towards the Sun in order to absorb plenty of solar energy to finalise its repairs, and Grindor and Sideways were met with much compliments for their efforts.

Even Barricade had grudgingly admitted he hadn't expected them to fix the ship as quickly as they had what with all the shenanigans and distractions going on.

So, with Decepticon morale uplifted, the crew were ready to press on with Operation Harvest. While Starscream had not yet divulged the specific aspects of the plan to anyone, not even to his Seekers or Nighttrace, they were aware that they had enough Cybertanium for the operation to proceed.

Presently, at least one day after the cave-in incident, Sideways was sat in Grindor's room, idly going over his treasured beam rifle. Once an ordinary beam rifle he'd used in his duties as a scouting sniper, his time with Grindor had seen it modified into a more powerful and precise weapon, though admittedly at the cost of requiring more energy to function. But it was a price Sideways was more than happy to pay, since a single powerful shot tended to prove more effective than a multitude of ineffective grazes.

Grindor himself was at his desk, currently going over the design of a grappler-grenade, as he had termed it, a grenade designed to sprout sharp protrusions into a surface to prevent removal. Also cluttered over his desk were a multitude of bits of metal he'd been moulding into specific shapes, though nothing had taken form as of yet.

The duo were highly satisfied with their success in repairing the Darksyde, and Sideways, rare enough as it was, was feeling quite confident from the compliments he had received in seeing the ship fly once more. Perhaps the others here would now see him less as 'the little con who hangs out with Grindor' and more of 'the clever useful con who hangs out with Grindor'. Ah, how wonderful that would be!

It didn't hurt that Starscream, who had terrified him with his use of an electric prod on Barricade, seemed to have pulled a 180 on his previously angry attitude and strived to be more positive for his crew. Sideways could say he was reassured; he always functioned better in environments of friendliness anyway. And even better, he and Grindor would be continuing their stay with the Raptor to assist with the completion of Operation Harvest, which meant that he could find even more glory with seeing Starscream’s plan succeed!

Satisfied with his check-over, he retracted his beam rifle and slotted it into his back before standing up and wheeling over to Grindor. Being much shorter than the other Decepticon, he had to pull up and stand upon a stool to be on level with the desk, and he asked: "What are you doing, Grindor?"

"Testing out the new struts I've implemented. Should they prove viable, I will upgrade all of my explosives in this manner." The Trojan replied simply, setting the grenade on it tips and tapping a button on its side. Instantly, the lower half shifted into a variety of spiked appendages, which latched sharply onto the desk.

Grindor chuckled, before nudging his comrade and stating: “Well, try to pick it up, my friend.”

Sideways reached for it and grasped the smooth upper half, before tugging as hard as he could. The grenade’s systems gave a small whine, but it didn’t budge. It was well and truly stuck to the desk. Sideways continued struggling with it for a moment, before he finally relented and Grindor let out a satisfied rev.

Tapping the button and coercing the weapon to retract, he picked it up and slid it into the compartment within one of the wheels upon his huge arms, treads shifting along the appendages slightly, and he said: “Excellent; this brief test seems quite promising. I’ll put it through a few more trials, and then we shall hopefully have ourselves a much improved sticky grenade, so to speak, one that can better controlled and thus more suitable for confined spaces and subjugation.”

“Nice one, Grindor.” Sideways complimented cheerfully. “Don’t you just love it when a new gadget comes together?”

“It is a great passion of mine.” The Trojan replied wistfully. “The subtle care and precision of mechanical engineering and invention, crafting devices of aggression and defence and support, all aimed for the glorious finale of victory. It is a beautiful thing, Sideways. What greater beauty in this universe is there than stringing together the very fabric of our frames and our tools into all kinds of wondrous innovations?”

“I can think of a few.” The bike chortled. “A lovely lady friend, for one!”

“Love can be a wonderful thing, but ultimately, I feel, woefully fragile and subject to dilemma and drama. I prefer my passions to be longer-lived, sturdier and broken only by forces truly stronger in construction than it.”

His cheerful comment shot down by the oblivious tank, the bike revved in dramatic indignation, idly wondering if Grindor might ever pull himself away from his fascination with simple constructs and indulge in something much sweeter. Alas, that was a flaw (or maybe opinion was a better word) of his comrade, and it was one Sideways just had to accept.

On the bright side, the tank’s devotion to his position had granted him a fantastic expertise in the trade, and he had crafted all kinds of impressive weapons and gadgets in his time, as well as learning how to repair ships and even mend armour (though perhaps not quite as good as an actual medic). It had, after all, been Grindor who had designed and produced Sideways’ own supply of patented graviton mines.

Deciding to leave Grindor to his work, Sideways hopped down from the stool and wheeled over to the door. It obediently opened and he moved through, before folding down into vehicle mode and idly wheeling over to the control room. One of the good things about being a small bike was that he could easily drive around the corridors of the ship without much hassle, and he cheerfully drove along until he reached the main door and shifted back upright again.

The door opened, and he moved in, noting Barricade standing by the consoles, showing off his newly acquired and fixated appendage to Soundwave and Nighttrace. Two Seekers were monitoring the consoles, and Waspinator was crawling around on the ceiling. Sideways felt a bit fond of Waspinator; it was, after all, the only being on this ship smaller than him.

Sideways idly imagined what it must be like to have your own fleet of drones built to your specifications and geared to your very commands; it would be very nice to have his own group of obedient enforcers, cons that would carry out his will and listen to his every order. It was a long-standing dream of his, to be the one doing the commanding rather than being bossed about by everyone else, and he truly desired to make this dream come true one day.

But until then, he would simply be patient. Anyway, wondering if maybe Soundwave might give him permission to play a game or something, since Starscream hadn’t given any specific orders lately, he tentatively wheeled over to the trio, again dully noting how all of them were larger than he was. It was always demeaning to be the smallest one in a faction as sharp and treacherous as the Decepticons; other cons were always quick to label him as the weakest…

Barricade turned upon noting the bike’s arrival and hollered: “Sideways, check it out! Had it fit on an hour ago, been testing it out, working the kinks a bit, and my, it’s pretty damn awesome!”

He flexed his new arm, twisting and bending it, stretching out the sharp claws, the appendage a perfect mirror of the other limb and easily compatible with transformation. Slipstream and Grindor certainly knew how to craft a replica. So, Sideways offered a quiet congratulations, before turning to Soundwave and preparing to ask-

“But wait! There’s more!” Barricade exclaimed, distracting the bike from his request. “It’s not just a great replacement, it’s also got a new trick! After my ingenious plan managed to rescue Slipstream from that landslide, she and Grindor saw fit to put in an improvement to show just how grateful they- and all of you- are to have a great Decepticon like me on the team!”

With that, he extended his arm, and the front half began to shift, his hand and claws locking together into a kind of barrel as a bright blue circlet extended from his palm, nigh-identical to the vibrational amplifiers on Soundwave’s blocky arms. Exposed circuitry within his forearm glowed with power, and this newly integrated weapon’s tip rumbled with energy.

Seeing Sideways’ optics widen in surprise, Barricade grinned and elaborated: “Pretty cool, right? Soundwave here had some spare amplifiers, Slipstream had an idea, Grindor had the tools and they gave my new arm a nice upgrade; a short-range pulse of disorientating sonic energy, perfect for fragging up neurals and wrecking some processors. It’ll make those Autobots nice and vulnerable, perfect for me to smash their stupid heads in!”

He leaned in close to the perturbed bike, a sadistic grin on his face and a frenzied light in his optics: “I like to think of it as the screech of a dread Reaper, swooping down upon its prey and devouring their souls!”

“Very poetic, Barricade.” Soundwave stated, rolling his visor’s multitude of individual optics around. “So long as you treat this appendage better than you did the last one.”

“Oh, but I will, Soundwave! There’s so many things I need to do with this new arm! It has to wrap itself around Autobot throats, pull out some sparks, poke in some optics, tear off some bits and pieces! I gotta make some fun memories with this!”

Soundwave and Nighttrace exchanged an amused glance, used to such dramatic and violent exuberance from the shock trooper, whereas Sideways felt just a little bit viral at the idea of anyone being so eager to craft memories out of mutilation and violence. Maybe he should just go, go somewhere with less disturbing imagery and scary thugs.

Turning around, he wheeled over to the door, but before he left, a sharp beeping sound emanated the main console, loud and piercing, causing him to pause and turn to see what the commotion was. The other Decepticon’s interests were also peaked by the sound, and Soundwave, ever the communications master, was the first to it, tapping a button on the console to see what it was.

Soundwave scanned the source of the notification intently, before he outright rotated on his hips, bringing his upper torso to face the others, and he said, his tone suddenly cold and mechanical: “Does anyone know where Starscream is?”

“Last I checked, he was in the med-bay chatting to Slipstream.” Barricade replied, raising a brow in confusion. “What’s got your alternators in a twist?”

The Lamborghini immediately addressed Sideways: “Go to the med-bay, Sideways, and fetch him now. And for that matter, bring Slipstream and Grindor as well.” The bike promptly squeaked an affirmative and darted away, as Soundwave stated, visor locking onto the Mustang with slight accusation. “As for why my alternators are in a twist, as you put it, it’s because we’re receiving a live transmission. From Shokaw.”

--

Wheeljack entered the control room, feeling immensely proud of himself, bearing the energy rifle he had been modifying for a while before him with as much reverence as a human monarch clutching their crowns and sceptres. At long last, his project was completed, all systems nicely linked together and the additions and conversions sorted out, and he was eager to show it off! Well, to anyone who would listen at least.

Of course, a part of his processor idly noted that the time he’d spent on this weapon could well have been better spent picking apart the manual for anything that could possibly lead him to a ground bridge. He naturally told that part to be quiet; anyone could look for ground bridges aboard ships, but it took a truly unique and masterful individual to craft something as sophisticated and elegant as what he held in his hands.

The early morning sunlight streaming through the observation panes and painting the room a delightful shade of gold, he takes note of Grimlock, the sole inhabitant of the room, idly staring at a hologram of some Earth creature. Figuring that the berserker would be the most receptive to his latest gadget, being the most combat orientated of the crew, the tow truck cheerfully hopped over to him.

"Grimlock my friend!" Wheeljack declared, standing next to the contemplative tanker and holding out his new gun. "You'll never guess what I, Wheeljack, with all of my skills and innovation, have con-"

"Do you know that this is, Wheeljack?" Grimlock interjected, pointing a scrawny arm at the hologram. Hesitating, the tow truck glanced at it; a blue image of a bipedal organism, an imposing animal with massive jaws, a long tail and very small arms. He stared at it for a moment, bewildered and a tad indignant of having his bright idea ignored, before it suddenly clicked.

"Huh, oh wow. This thing looks like you, Grimlock. So, anyway, this thing right here-"

"It does." The tanker truck replied. "Or more specifically, it looks like Grimlock’s current form. Do you remember what that Decepticon said to Grimlock whilst we were unearthing Bumblebee? The impudent wretch with one arm, to be specific."

"Oh, that one. Well, um.... oh yeah, he called you a damn dirty dinosaur, right? Not that you are one, of course! But seriously, this device here-"

"Indeed. And it made Grimlock think. Not just about ripping him apart, of course, but also on what a dinosaur was. There's still many things about this planet that Grimlock has yet to research, and dinosaurs were among them. So Grimlock investigated, and this is what Grimlock found."

Gesturing to the hologram, he informs the tow truck: "Tyrannosaurus Rex, the humans call it, a name that means 'tyrant lizard king'. It was an ancient predator, driven to extinction millions of Earth years ago, arguably the most famous of all dinosaurs and the most prominent member of the tyrannosaur family."

He idly examined the hologram, before dully noting: "This creature, or at least another similar to it, was the very species the Decepticons of the Abominus Initiative had in mind when they converted Grimlock; a monster that should have made a mighty weapon...."

Wheeljack was awkwardly silent, unsure of what to say, as the tanker truck shook his head and snorted: "How funny, in a twisted way; this species was documented years ago during scientific expeditions of peace and discovery, only to return to us as a glorified weapon."

The tow truck hesitated for a moment, staring at the holographic representation of the beast, before he muttered: "So... I guess it's kind of, I dunno, weird, how we ended up on the same planet that spawned your beast mode, right?"

Grimlock didn't reply, simply shaking his head again and stating: "Grimlock is going to his quarters. Grimlock needs to think."

"Okay then.... sorry about... this, I.... well... Okay then, do you know where any of the others are?"

"Ratchet and Evac are working on Hound in the med-bay, Bumblebee is with them keeping an optic on his mentor and-“ His tone suddenly sharpened, darkened, became quite demeaning. “-the Lieutenant is off for a drive, as his overtly passive attitude tends to coerce him to do."

Wheeljack definitely understood exactly why the larger Autobot’s voice became laced with venom when speaking of Jazz; after they’d returned to the ship, the ensuing argument between the Solstice and the berserker regarding Grimlock’s reckless agenda had been horrendous, echoing throughout the entire ship. Poor Bumblebee, forced down from his high, had retreated to the med-bay and Wheeljack himself had tried to lose himself in his engineering to drown out the shouting.

Eventually, thanks to an intervention by Ratchet, they’d disengaged their argument and they hadn’t spoken to each other since, but it had left an awkward air around the Zeta-1. Evac hadn’t left the med-bay for a while, most likely terrified out of his rotors, and even Bumblebee had felt the need to give Grimlock his personal space. Not quite the triumphant return from another rescue the tow truck had imagined.

Quite frankly, Wheeljack was sure the only reason the two hadn’t degenerated into a straight brawl right there and then in the control room was because even Grimlock wasn’t quite willing to assault a recently recovered comrade. The berserker’s sense of honour, vestigial as it was, would only tolerate battling Jazz if he was at full capacity. Or at least, Wheeljack hoped it would.

The truck was moving to leave again and Wheeljack, suddenly feeling deprived of a chance to pontificate, blurted out: “Wait, Grimlock, one last thing.”

The huge head turned and crimson optics glared at him, and any last hope of showing off his new toy evaporated like a puddle under a supernova. So, he changed tactics to something less provocative.

“You wouldn’t happen to know which part of the manual might be able to, I don’t know, make the ship produce a ground bridge?”

Grimlock stared at him in disbelief, before he shook his head and chuckled: "If you’re so curious to find out, the Vessel Schematics Manual details the synchronisation of the warp driver's portal generation systems and the ship's transmission wavelengths in order to serve as a make-shift ground bridge generator on Page 8.1, titled Warp Driver Basics."

No fragging way.

NO FRAGGING WAY

Wheeljack stared at him in utter complete and total shock, uncomprehending of what he just heard in regards of who he had just heard it from, before he straightened up, adopted as calm and measured a tone as he could and replied: “Oh. I didn’t realise that you’d read it-“

“Of course you didn’t. No-one would ever expect brutish violent animalistic Grimlock to ever have an inkling of rational thought, would they? Do you know what Ratchet once said to Grimlock after Grimlock pointed out the logic behind scanning the DNA of the Lieutenant’s human? He said he never expected Grimlock would ever be intelligent enough to do that. So Grimlock can’t say that Grimlock is surprised you’d have thought Grimlock wouldn’t have even looked at the manual, never mind actually read it.”

Wheeljack felt a tad insulted, both for Grimlock’s sake that Ratchet would stoop so low as to say something like that and for himself by the blatant comparison: “Hey now, ease up, I wasn’t trying to jab at you, I was just surprised that someone on this ship had actually survived it. I mean, do I look like Ratchet to you?”

A pause, before the tanker gave another chuckle: “No, you don’t.”

And with that, he turned and left. Wheeljack stared after him for a moment, before glancing at the hologram of the dinosaur upon the main console. Times like this reminded him just what it must be like to be in Grimlock’s position; forced into the shape of some alien and perceived as an unintelligent brute incapable of empathy or logic. The thought made him sad, humble, quite lucky in fact, and he gave a rev before switching off the projector and heading out. Maybe someone else would like to see his new tool.

And then he’d mess around the warp driver, right? Right. Oh, and maybe ask Grimlock why he’d never mentioned this slag before too, definitely. Whatever happened to basic communication, my goodness.

Jazz wasn’t here and Hound was in stasis, so those two were out. The other three were in the med-bay, according to Grimlock, which immediately made them the targets of Wheeljack’s rejuvenated enthusiasm. He was so sure that his new weapon would impress them, as they tended to do most Autobots, and he couldn’t wait to test said weapon against some unlucky Decepticons.

The med-bay was awfully quiet today when he knocked on the door, received an affirmative to enter and strode in; apparently Hound’s recovery was at a stage where his system’s natural regeneration had to do most of the work. As it was, Ratchet was sat next to the berth containing the wounded jeep, hands folded together and wearing an expression of deep contemplation, and the two rookies were sat in the corner, muttering something or other to each other. They glanced up at Wheeljack’s entrance, spared him a friendly wave and immediately resumed their quiet conversation.

Feeling suddenly quite awkward, Wheeljack tip-toed over to Ratchet and asked: “How is he?”

“He’s stable.” Ratchet murmured, casting a glance at the jeep, specifically his mutilated torso. “It’ll take some time, of course, to heal from injuries like these, but he’ll live.”

“Will he be… you know, the same? I mean, he hasn’t had anything permanent done, right?”

“His rate of recovery indicates his physical frame won’t suffer any permanent effects, thank Primus, but I’m not exactly sure how his psychological aspects may respond to an assault as brutal as what Barricade did to him.” The Hummer shook his head in viral disgust. “Brutish as he was, I’d never expected even that Decepticon to go to such lengths. Wheeljack, there are markings on the armour that can only be teeth, and no animal on Earth is strong enough to bite into Cybertanium.”

The insinuation made Wheeljack shudder, before he forced him into more positive thoughts and asked: “Well, at least you and Evac have got him safe and sound now. I’ll be sure to pay Barricade back for this next time I see him. But I was wondering if you wanted to see-“

“You know, I was talking to Moonracer earlier.” Ratchet interjected. “And we had some disucssions about… well… Evac.”

Wheeljack hesitated, surprised: “What about Evac?”

Keeping his voice low so that the helicopter himself, still nattering to Bumblebee, didn’t hear, Ratchet elaborated: “Considering what’s happened to Hound, and the disturbing frequencies of battles and traps we’ve been going through, I’m honestly wondering if it’s worth allowing Evac to stay here where it’s clearly quite vicious and if he’d be better off going back to Iacon.”

The tow truck was stunned, responding with a shocked mutter: “What?! What do you mean, send Evac back?”

Ratchet revved softly: “Just think about it, Wheeljack. He’s just a rookie on an energy-gathering mission, not some hardened soldier who can tolerate the sights we veterans have become accustomed to. What Barricade did to Hound, no young one should have to see. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s worth keeping him and Bumblebee with us when Starscream’s forces continue to pressure us like this-“

“Wait, just wait a moment, Ratchet, just hang on. You mean to tell me that you’re getting cold servos over keeping Evac on Earth just because the Decepticons aren’t as easily pushed over as we hoped they are?”

“You can’t honestly look me in the optic and tell me that this-“ He gestured to the prone form of Hound. “-is not a hint that the Decepticons are becoming more and more vicious. That battle with those Seekers at the quarry, whatever force made them more violent, is clearly spreading amongst the other Decepticons. Brutal as he is, I’ve never known Barricade to rip armour apart with his teeth, and I won’t stand for Evac to be on the same planet-“

“In case you’ve forgotten-“ Wheeljack snapped, interrupting the Hummer and pointedly jabbing him in the windshield with a finger. “-Evac’s not some soft sap who’ll go crazy over battlefield injuries. I remember what you were like when we first arrived, Ratchet, panicking about viruses and atmospheric difficulties and all that slag, but Evac had no problems.”

Ratchet made to speak, standing up now to face off against the somewhat shorter Autobot, but Wheeljack overrode his protests as the two rookies glanced over at the older Autobots with perplexed expressions: “And in case you’ve forgotten, Evac saved Jazz’s life when Screamer had him on the ropes! Evac took on one of those crazy Seekers and he held his own pretty damn well! Evac was the one who sent Barricade packing and saved Hound’s life! And yet you’re gonna stand there and tell me you’re so scared you’d rather send him back to Cybertron despite all he’s managed to do?!”

“It’s not about my fear!” Ratchet snapped. “It’s about making sure what little hope, what little sunlight our species has left isn’t just corrupted by brutality, isn’t just torn away from us like damn near everything else in our lives!”

“You know what I think?” Wheeljack retorted. “I think that’s not the reason at all. I think you might actually just be jealous.”

The Hummer was stunned, sputtering: “J-Jealous?! What in Primus’ name makes you think I have any kind of jealousy?!”

“I may not hold the rookies in such high esteem as others might, but I can definitely acknowledge that Evac’s done a lot of good on Earth, while all you’ve managed to do was get your hip shredded by Starscream and fragged up helping Hound and Grimlock against those other cons. No wonder you’re suddenly getting oh so eager to kick him back to Cybertron; he’s showing more potential both on and off the battlefield in just these few weeks than you have in your entire career!”

Ratchet was completely thrown back by this accusation, gaping with utter disbelief and incomprehension at the heavily revving tow truck, but before he could retort, Bumblebee forced himself in-between them.

“Stop it! Stop arguing!” The distressed Beetle wailed, optics wide and shocked at this argument having sprang up so swiftly and furiously. “We can’t argue like this! Hound’s really hurt, and Jazz and Grimlock hate each other, and now you bots are going to start getting all angry as well? We’re a team, not a mob! We’re supposed to work together, not fight each other!”

The two larger Autobots stared at him, taking in his words, as Evac moved over and tentatively added: “It hasn’t been going well for us lately. Should we really be making it worse by trying to hurt each other?”

Wheeljack huffed: “It's not my fault some of us seem to have our priorities skewed."

"At least I have priorities." Ratchet snapped. "What do you expect to accomplish, tinkering around in your lab on useless little trinkets?"

Before the tow truck could retort, Evac interjected: "You know, maybe one of us should go check on the converter that you and Bumblebee put by the solar farm? See if it can produce Energon yet?"

It was a very obvious attept to defuse the tension between the older Autobots, and it seemed to work; both of them withdrew from their sharp stances as Ratchet moved over to check on Hound and Wheeljack headed towards the door, confirming that he'd be the one to check on it.

As he opened the door, he paused, turned, and asked: "Wanna come with me, Evac? You're big enough to carry any cubes back if the converter works. It would be really useful of you to come along."

Evac missed the probing tone of 'useful', whereas Ratchet tensed up but forced himself to ignore the jibe, before nodding his head and moving after the tow truck. Hound didn't need him right now, and it would be cool to deliver Energon back to the ship. He'd never delivered Energon in alien territories before!

Bumblebee watched them go, before he turned to Ratchet and asked: "Why do bots do that? Why do we keep trying to figure out each other's weaknesses and hurtful spots when we're on the same team?"

"I don't know, Bumblebee. The best answer I could give you is that we find it difficult to tolerate behaviours outside of our own views on such matters."

"Like how you don't really tolerate Grimlock?"

He must have struck a neural; the Hummer turned round to face him slowly, green optics suddenly narrowed with distaste, and he stated, his tone forcibly calm: "Perhaps you should leave, Bumblebee."

The car cowered under such a cold expression: "Right. Maybe I should. Bye Ratchet!"

And then he wheeled out as quickly as he could. The Hummer watched him go, before turning back to Hound. The jeep's body was wracked with tears and scars, regenerative patches slapped over particularly gruesome wounds and transfusions cables locked into several ports over his frame. Despite this, his face looked peaceful in stasis, as if he were merely recharging.

Ratchet gave a soft rev. He wished Moonracer were here.

--

Starscream, flanked by Slipstream and Grindor, Sideways trailing behind them, stepped into the control room with all the confidence and bravado of his typical attitude. Waspinator buzzed down from the ceiling to perch onto his outstretched arm, and he declared: “Report, Soundwave.”

“The transmission from Shokaw is on hold currently. I will inform them that you are ready to speak.” The Lamborghini replied.

The jet paused and exchanged a meaningful glance with Nighttrace, before he had Waspinator crawl into his back-mounted compartment and moved over to his chair, declaring: “Nighttrace, with me. The rest of you, line up behind us. If Shockwave has decided to confront us so soon, we shall give him no reason to accuse us of a pitiful image.”

The Decepticons immediately obeyed, Soundwave tapping the main console before darting off to stand beside Slipstream, Starscream settling himself comfortably into his chair and facing off against the powered up holographic projector as Nighttrace fluttered over to hover next to him. The console wavered for a brief moment, and then a figure made itself known.

"Commander Starscream. You have no idea how surprised I am to have to talk you again so soon."

The jet's demeanour, previously professional and stoic, immediately degenerated into a groan of frustration. Ignoring the excited coo of Slipstream in the background, he snapped: "Airachnid. Why in the Allspark's sweet universe am I forced to hear from you instead of your Conciller?"

The holographic image of the scientist, amusingly still clad in the alternate form of the Earth helicopter, simply smiled sweetly at him: "Shockwave is currently at Kaon, engaged in a strategy discussion with Lord Megatron and some of the other Concillers. Which of course leaves myself in charge of Shokaw and all its businesses. And I must say, I had not expected theft to be amongst said businesses."

"I won't deny Barricade's failure." Starscream grunted, leaning forward and glaring viciously at the helicopter. "But I can assure you that there was no treacherous intent or mutiny involved. My subordinate merely wished to kill Autobots with more efficiency. You would know this, assuming you actually read the report my reconnaissance officer sent you."

"I did read the report, Starscream, but I feel I should let you know that it was not Nighttrace's eloquent literature that enlightened Shockwave to your soldier's crime." Airachnid replied, her tone becoming a tad deviously smug. "We were aware of the nodule's misplacement the moment Barricade activated it on Earth."

A moment of stunned silence as the Darksyde's crew stared at the hologram in disbelief.

Grindor stepped forward and spoke: "Airachnid, that can't be possible. Even with the sophistication behind their technology, it would utterly impossible for any kind of neural signal to be relayed from the nodule to Shokaw. It have to require hyper-condensed tachyon transmitters of some kind with an elaborate power source capable of fuelling said transmissions."

Airachnid observed him, bemused: "Grindor, am I correct? One of the two Decepticons Starscream enlisted to assist in his endeavours. Well, I am delighted that you're so eager to challenge Shockwave's design, so I shall assure you that your theory is actually quite correct."

Sensing this was the engineer's forte, Starscream did not interject, allowing the awed Trojan to mutter: "I can't believe it. You mean to say Shockwave actually managed to implement perhaps the most intricate and efficient communicative methods within a device designed for another purpose entirely? Such a feat of engineering is.... is astonishing!"

Sideways, despite the situation, giggled slightly. His friend always so amusing when swept up by the passions of construction.

"Indeed. But that is not the objective of my call. What really matters is that Shockwave is quite displeased with this turn of events, Starscream. We'd trusted you to test the invention, and you repay our trust with theft and secrecy. Oh, consider yourself very lucky your Nighttrace sent us that report, commander, otherwise there would have been a lot more trouble at your doorstep."

Starscream just stared at her blankly. So, once again Shockwave had been a step ahead of him; if he had tried to keep this incident under wraps, the Conciller would have nevertheless come knocking, and he would have found himself in even greater trouble.

It made him feel foolish; his aggression towards his soldiers over this, trying to force them into never speaking of this, would have been made redundant by Shockwave's technological efficiency anyway. He glanced at Nighttrace, and felt another wave of gratitude for her professional outlook and logic.

So, he turned back to the hologram and stated: "Very well then, Airachnid. The cards have been laid out. What does Shockwave intend to do?"

"He had a few ideas, most of them quite unpleasant even by my standards, stuff involving Polyhex and Ravagers and the like. But ultimately he decided to prioritise his meeting with our Master and has left the task of dealing with you.... to me."

Starscream sagged in disbelief, optics wide and shocked: "You?"

"Me. And I think I have some delightful ideas of my own on how to rectify this grievous crime against Shokaw." The helicopter replied cheerfully. "For starters, I request that you, Barricade and your second-in-command come to Shokaw immediately, bringing the nodule with you."

Before he could respond, she mused: "Oh wait, the records on your expedition state you don't have a specifically designated lieutenant, do you?"

Starscream muttered: "It tends to revolve around my more competent subordinates, but yes, I haven't exactly picked out a specific second yet."

"Then I suggest you do so now. I will send you a space-bridge in one Earth minute, and you, your lieutenant and Barricade, with the nodule, will come straight here and we shall decide what to do with you. It's been an absolute delight talking to you again, Commander Starscream."

"The feeling is mutual." He grunted, before his compartment split open and he deployed Waspinator, ordering the drone to retrieve the nodule from his quarters.

As she made to end the transmission, Airachnid took a moment to add: "Oh, and Slipstream, I think you should come too. Commander Blackout is currently visiting Shokaw, and I'd be delighted for you to catch up with our old teacher."

The jet was touched: "That would be wonderful, Airachnid! I haven't seen Blackout in ages!"

The helicopter simply gave her a smile, before adopting her cruel smug smirk towards Starscream and then flickering off. The projector powered down and Starscream stood up, speaking sharply to himself: "I am calm. I won't let her get to me. Shockwave won't get to me, nope, and neither will that jerk, double nope."

Confident he had a lid on his temper, he then turned and stated: "Nighttrace, as of now, you are the official lieutenant of the Darksyde. And Barricade-" The car glowered at him. "-I can only hope that Polyhex isn't reserving a cell for you."

"You and me both." The Mustang muttered.

The jet just shrugged and stepped off of his chair, beckoning for the shock trooper and Slipstream to stand by him as Waspinator returned, the nodule clutched in its little legs as it buzzed over to the Raptor. Idly plucking the device from it and allowing to again return to its compartment, the jet added: "Grindor, you are in command until our return. Try not to do anything reckless."

"You have my assurance, Starscream, that no calamities will befall us in your absence."

"So long as your promises match your vocabulary, I should have nothing to fear."

They exchanged a chuckle, as the other Decepticons returned to their positions just in time for the swirling vortex of a space bridge to materialise before the quartet. Heavily revving to himself, Starscream nodded and strode through, granting the remaining Decepticons his classic 'ta ta for now' statement, followed by Nighttrace and a rather exuberant Slipstream.

Just before he went through, Barricade paused and turned to Soundwave, stating: "If I don't come back, Soundwave, if I end up in Polyhex or whatever, I want you to know that I hate you and you can't have any of my stuff."

"You'll come back." The communications officer replied disinterestedly. "After all, I'd get lonely without another car around, and there's no way you'd have that on your conscience."

"You soft piece of scrap." Barricade laughed snidely, and then he was gone and the portal vanished into thin air.

For a moment, the remaining Decepticons simply stared at the spot it had been, before Grindor declared they should return to their occupations and maintain the ship's flight path for now. No use stressing themselves over whatever the Autobots may be doing with both their commanding officers and their medic absent.

Sideways settled himself next to Soundwave, idly bringing up a video game on one of the consoles as Soundwave monitored the Earth for any anomalies. As the game loaded up, and Sideways amusedly noted that Slipstream held the high score for this one, he decided to tentatively ask Soundwave: "You and Barricade have a weird relationship, don't you?"

"It suits us. I hate him, he hates me, we happen to hang out because the rest of them aren't quite as funny." The car replied idly. "What's it to you, anyway?"

The bike cowered a bit at the sharpness of his tone: "N-nothing. I was just a bit curious, that's all!"

Soundwave's visor did that optic-rolling thing: "Well, if you want to know what a strange relationship is, you can ask the Autobot berserker about his soft spot for the yellow rookie."

"The b-berserker has a soft spot?!"

"Indeed he does. Under normal circumstances this would be a delightful opportunity to exploit a weakness in an otherwise overwhelming enemy, but considering his brutality and instability, I doubt trying to exploit his bond with Bumblebee will yield us anything except pain, misery and mutilation."

Sideways shuddered; he knew just as much about the berserker's reputation as any other Decepticon. With his question asked and a pretty grim statement received, he focussed his attention on the video game.

But barely a minute into it, he was disturbed by Soundwave suddenly straightening up and declaring: "Grindor, I have interesting news."

The Trojan, discussing something or other with one of the Seekers, turned to him with a curious expression: "What is it, Soundwave?"

"I've just picked up the most bizarre little signature in the continent of North America." The car informed him, scanning the information intently. "It's really quite odd; it has the same frequency as a spark, yet a bit weaker and much more exposed. There's a... dissipating quality to it, as if it is built up and then diminishes over time to a level we cannot detect."

Grindor was intrigued: "Interesting. It can't be the Autobots; unless one of them has suffered a chamber rupture, their sparks are too well concealed in their armour to give out such a signal, and any Autobot with such a rupture would hardly leave the safety of their ship. Do you have any theories?"

"The only possible explanation I could give is that something has been exposed to a spark, or at least within the proximity of one." Soundwave muttered. "Perhaps one of the Autobots has interacted with a human or some other organic, but I strongly doubt that. They'd have to have an organic inside their alternate mode to achieve the correct proximity for such weak spark radiation to adhere to it."

"It nevertheless bears investigating." Grindor noted, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "If an Autobot is exposing radiation to organics, they are either tampering with nature in ways they ought not to, or they have befriended a native. And if it is the latter, perhaps that native may know some of their secrets...."

"Doubtful; even the most sentimental of Autobots wouldn't dare divulge their plans to a human." Soundwave replied. "But I agree with your idea of investigation."

Grindor nodded, before his gaze fell onto Sideways: "Sideways, my friend, would you care to scout out this phenomenon? The Autobots are unfamiliar with your vehicle mode and thus unlikely to suspect you."

The bike sputtered: "W-well, um, I'd love to spy on them, really, I would, but I was just thinking-"

"Sideways, I am not asking you to fight the Lieutenant, I simply desire to find out what this anomaly is." Grindor reassured him. "The ground bridge is operational should you require an escape, Soundwave will be monitoring your progress and I will have one of the Seekers provide air support should any Autobots attempt to engage you."

There was really no argument against it. Sideways revved softly before nodding in acceptance and standing up, wheeling over to the doorway to prepare for bridging. Grindor again reminded him that this was not a battle mission, but reconnaissance to avoid the Autobots at all costs. With this in mind, Soundwave activated the ground-bridge.

Sideways, making sure all his weapons were in gear and his hologram was ready, shifted down into vehicle mode and buzzed off through the portal, followed by one of the Seekers. With this done, the bridge closed and Grindor sat upon the chair, satisfied.

"Well Soundwave, with any luck we shall solve this mystery without any hassle."

"I hope so." Soundwave replied. "The last time we investigated a bizarre anomaly, while we did capture one of the Autobots, we lost a Seeker. Granted, I don't hold them in as high regard as Starscream does-" The remaining Seekers in the room gave him blank stares. "-but it wouldn't do well for him to return to another loss."

"I doubt it will come to that." Grindor stated, turning around to access the main console. "So long as Sideways remains cautious, and I assure you he will, this mission should pass without any conflict at all."

Soundwave didn't respond. Experience told him that such a notion was often easily proven wrong.

 

Author's Notes: Time for a quick sneak peek, methinks!  

Episode 11: Heavy Landing

Synopsis: When a misguided ship crash lands upon Earth, Autobot and Decepticon alike race to find it, unaware that a grave threat has been brought to the planet...

"Grimlock smells something." The tanker truck muttered, glaring around at the dark forest with suspicious optics. "Something... unnatural."

"The ship?" Wheeljack asked, unsheathing his plasma cannon in response to the apprehensive tone of the berserker. "Any of its crew?"

"No." Grimlock muttered, growling softly as he continued to sniff at the air. "Something else. Something that is not our kind..."

"You mean to tell me there's another alien presence here?" Jazz asked, ahead of the other two, seeming a tad doubtful. "I don't think that could be possible. That ship was a Seeker-class vessel, and they're not suited for transporting alien specimens-"

From the bushes came a blur of bright purple and pink, and it rammed into Jazz with stunning speed and force, sending both him and his attacker crashing through the undergrowth. The other two Autobots, shocked at this turn of events, immediately dashed forward to assist their commander.

Alas, the Lieutenant and his foe were rolling down a hill, faster than they could hope to reasonably catch up. Still, they had to try, so they darted towards a less steep slope to try and catch up with him. At the bottom, said Lieutenant managed to lock his feet into the ground and throw his attacker off of him, simultaneously regaining his footing.

But alas, whatever was attacking him was faster than he though; he'd barely turned before the figure, a slender Cybertronian of superior height, was upon him, sharp arms darting this way in a multitude of punches. Jazz managed to bring his door-laden arms up like a shield to deflect the blows, before flicking his doors outward in a retaliatory snap.

Alas, it was not enough to deter his foe, who suddenly swept down with impossible speed and took out his legs with a neat swipe. He fell to the floor, and his opponent was already pinning him down with a foot, and the arms fused together into an ominously powered up fusion weapon, the distinctive coils identifying it as a railgun.

Trapped, he could do nothing but remain still, silently submitting to his foe, as they snapped at him: "Identify yourself, Cybertronian; Autobot or Decepticon?"

Of course; his visor would prevent anyone noting his optic colour, and the contrast between Wheeljack's blue and Grimlock's red would only confuse the matter more. But at least he could identify his assailant; an Autobot by her optics and the insignia on her chest, and a ruthless one at that what with the railgun pointed right at his face.

"I am the Lieutenant of Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots." Jazz replied calmly, and then he unveiled a surprise; a slender barrel darted up between the gap in her arms, and her optics widened in surprise as the barrel of his sniper rifle, so stealthily formed, tapped at her chest, right where her spark ought to be.

She glared at him now, the duo locked in what was known as a Mexican stand-off, and he gave her an overly happy smile: "And you?"

 

Okay, sorry this took so long. I read the chapter a couple of days ago so idk how good my memory is, but we'll see. I guess this won't be a long review, there was a lot of talk in this chapter and stuff. Fitting since we're getting the exposition for a new episode, so yeah.

I really liked opening up with Barricade enthusiastically telling everybody how how cool his new arm is and everything and how Slipstream ironically ended up giving him an upgrade in it anyway; at least he's grateful for it. It's also tons of fun to visualize him being all gleeful and satisfied and childish so that there's always that contrast between his berserk and occasionally-nice side. He's so cute when he's fangirling over his fixed-up appendage. Not to mention, the addition of a sonic-based weapon, if I understood, similar to Soundwave's is interesting and I was a little surprised tbh. Obviously with Barricade's attitude you wouldn't expect for Slipstream to upgrade him anyway, but choosing to give him that weapon intrigued me because you wouldn't associate something that's subtler like that with a brute like Barricade. Maybe it's just my perverse perception of that kind of weapon, but it's not a guns-blazing type thing, or a Grim Reaper type scythe. If I recall, we saw it in action in the fourth episode, I think Soundwave used it on Bumblebee; that is, if that's the weapon that we speak of and I'm not getting confused. What also makes it weird is that it was cool for Soundwave because like, it's a sound-based weapon for a guy that's got "SOUND" in his name and everything, but we'll see how Barricade makes use of it in any event.

So also, we finally got to see that reply from Shokaw that we were waiting anxiously for. What a nice twist that Shockwave actually knew of the theft the entire time; I did not see that coming at all. I didn't try to interpret what Grindor had said about the technology that they would have needed to be able to do such a thing, but I thought it was cool because it reminded me about that conversation of fake science that we had like five minutes ago. As you know, I'm no scientist, so it sounds pretty legit to me. But I digress; anyway, it turns out that Starscream is taking Barricade and Nighttrace and Slipstream with him to Shokaw to confront Shockwave. Sure is a good darn thing that Nighttrace knew where her loyalties were, or else there would inevitably be much worse hell to pay, as Airachnid had said. I'm looking forward to seeing her again if she gets any dialogue during that whole incident, but more importantly, I'm looking forward to seeing how the cons' visit to Shokaw will turn out. It brings me back to that one shot that you wrote not to long ago. I recall you saying that none of the drabbles are canon unless you say so, so it was needless to say that the one I'm referring to wasn't, so I'm looking forward to drawing parallels nonetheless. I wonder if there was any foreshadowing to be had or if the result of the canon will be anything like how the one shot in question had gone about, but I suppose only time will tell.

And yes, all of the Soundicade. I loved how Sideways pointed out that their relationship is weird and Soundwave had basically said that him and Barricade hang out with one another because everybody else isn't as funny. That was a pretty comedic one, because you wouldn't characterize Soundwave as funny (at least I don't think one would, initially) because his whole "thing" is being super stoic and professional to mask his inner trollziness. And yet he insinuates as much and also implies that he finds Barricade funny, WHICH MEANS THAT HE MUST REGARD BARRICADE AS GOOD COMPANY. Look at me reading way too deep into it but I love those two a little more everyday and I just



THEY'RE SO CUTE. <3 Last time, it was they're both short, now it's "well everyone else boring so."

As for Starscream, he's doing good so far, let's see how long he can keep it up. >.>

And as for the Autobots. Man, I really hate chapters like this in regards to them...not because it's actually just fundamentally bad, but because it makes me feel personally bad, because who feels good about friends yelling and arguing with each other? After spending so much time with one another, it's only a matter of time that they begin to get so restless. The last time I felt this same tension was back like five episodes ago or so when not only was Jazz and Grimlock hating each other like usual, but we also have a sad rookie and everything. It feels like it's heightened here, however; the conflict between Jazz and Grimlock INTENSIFIES. Gosh dangit, they make me nervous every so often. Part of me wants for them to calm their tits and be friends, but part of me also wants for them to snap and finally effing battle each other. As long as neither of them dies--

OH AND GUESS WHAT DEATHS ARE GOING TO START HAPPENING AFTER THIS EPISODE NOW I CAN START FEELING NERVOUS AND PARANOID. BUT I DIGRESS.

As I was saying, it was also shameful that those two had to ruin the happy mood that was set by the finale of the last episode, but I can't say that I didn't sort of see that coming. I just want to say,

I kind of called it.

And let's talk about Wheeljack. This entire time, the whole reason that I really enjoyed him was because he was always the chillest of the Autobots. He never really cared about anything, never got mad, was always just like "What? Rookies in trouble? That's cool, let's go." So I guess this is the first time that we ever really say him get pretty upset. Incidentally, over a matter concerning Evac which kind of reinforces this idea I have that he seems to be pretty protective over the rookies. Out of all the things that could have actually triggered him so far, it was Ratchet saying that he wanted to send Evac back to Cybertron. (Which, by the way, I did not see coming). Gotta say, angered Wheeljack is pretty darn intimidating.

And as for Ratchet. He was one of the characters where, in the beginning, I liked the interpretation of him, but other than that, I never really appreciated him as a character. Not because he's poorly written in my eyes or anything, but just because I'm not a fan of his characterization. Over time he kind of grated on me and I became pretty apathetic towards him. Sometimes, eh, I guess he's cool. Other times, wow, he kind of irritates me. Tbh, the prospect of sending Evac kind of ticked me off too, because he said that he wanted to do it to not subject him to the war's brutality. But that's effing weird, because it's war back on Cybertron too. No matter where Evac goes, he's going to be surrounded by war. So I understand Ratchet's sentiment, but his intent makes no sense. I got the whole "the cons around here are becoming more and more vicious" logic part, but there's always going to be different technologies, there's always going to be revolutions, war is always going to be a nasty thing.Nonetheless, I do not personally believe that Wheeljack's accusation towards Ratchet was accurate; one, because I don't think he actually has as much reason to be jealous of Evac as Wheeljack claimed (not because Evac's not awesome, but because Rathcet personally knew Optimus Prime and everything, for crying out loud), and two because he's just not that shallow. Something tells me that Wheeljack doesn't really believe that either and was just speaking out of agitation, but who knows? In any event, that was the absolute last thing that Ratchet needed for his ego. Now he's going to need another pep talk from Hound--OH WAIT WOOPS.

Speaking of, poor Hound. :'c That's my baby, con flabbit. >.< I wonder how much longer he'll be laid up and if the battle does indeed effect him psychologically. I honestly expect it to. You would be mentally messed up, at least just a little bit, if somebody tried to literally eat your heart out, amirite?

OH AND ALSO SUBTLY PISSED OFF RATCHET IS CREEPY AS HELL. I just visualized him slowly turning around to Bumblebee and telling him to leave like that and yeah, no wonder the kid was startled. But he seems to get it from all sides; first from Wheeljack accusing him of being jealous of his own apprentice and then Bumblebee blatantly calling out his prejudice towards Grimlock. It was only a matter of time until that happened I guess, though...I guess it's Bumblebee trying to stand up for his friend in a way. I can imagine that Ratchet would be perturbed by Bumblebee picking up on his hypocrisy, but it's becoming progressively more apparent that Bumblebee is rather intuitive. He figures people out. And heck, Ratchet's hatred isn't a puzzler.

Also, it's really nice how Wheeljack is kinder to Grimlock than the others and how he even refers to the latter as his friend. And although Grimlock acts like somewhat of a dick in this chapter, he at least acknowledges that Wheeljack is no Ratchet. I have a theory in regards to why Wheeljack has a higher tolerance for Grimlock than the others, but I'll save it for later if/when I have more evidence to confirm it.  

I have nothing to say about the sneak peak, other than that I'm really excited because LOOKS LIKE WE'RE GETTING CAST EXPANSION. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Rock on, brother. Good chapter.

 

Shokaw is a planet best defined by its relatively isolated position (situated in the Tronus Galaxy, one of the further galaxies from Cybertron's central dominion and deep within Decepticon territory) and its brutal environment (a wasteland dominated by dusty winds, brutal storms and twisters of rubble and sand). Only the hardiest organisms, ranging from the titanic diggarurms and the scuttling rock-snatchers, could survive on the brutal planet, and only the most foolish or courageous Autobot ships would dare stray near it.

The home of the Abominus Initiative was well-defended, not just by the planet's own environment, but the array of weapon-bearing satellites orbiting the planet, as well as a handful of Decepticon Devastator-class vessels traversing the area. The experiments and upgrades that the underground facility contributed to the Decepticon cause were vital, so it would make sense the planet was so intricately protected.

The facility itself, named Shokaw-Eva, was underground, safe from the storms and the winds above. Cut off from any sunlight, it gathered energy from the planet's thermal vents that occasionally breached the surface in a blast of magma and steam to fuel the multitude of tests and experiments occurring within it. And within a secure vault in the upper levels of the base, a space bridge portal opened and three Decepticons stepped foot into one of the most infamous locations in all of Cybertron's history. The fourth one just hovered.

Starscream and Slipstream had both been here before, the former whenever Shockwave had felt the need for him to directly report any matters to him, the latter on visits to her comrade Airachnid. Barricade and Nighttrace, on the other hand, had never been here before and as such they were prompt to glance around at the chamber, curious to see if there was anything worth regarding in here.

Alas, said chamber was uninteresting, being a simple storage compartment rather than anything important, and Starscream had the sense this was a purposeful manoeuvre, to remind him that he was here as a criminal under questioning rather than a proud commander. Flexing his claws with irritation, he moved towards the hefty door, which immediately opened just as he reached it.

On the other side was Airachnid, or at least the helicopter she had adopted on Earth, and the sudden shifting of air in the room became quite apparent from the movement of her rotors, alongside the distinct racket they caused. Starscream raised a brow in surprise and irritation at the sight of the vehicle, having to step to the side as the chopper promptly moved into the vault lest he be hit by the rotors.

"Greetings, Decepticons!" She declared cheerfully, circling the bemused trio still at the centre of the room. "Welcome to Shokaw, new arrivals, and welcome back old hands! It's an absolute pleasure to see you all again!"

"Likewise, Airachnid!" Slipstream giggled, amused at the circling helicopter. "You seem in a good mood today!"

"Of course she is." Starscream grunted, folding his arms and glaring at the exuberant flyer before she could reply. "She's currently high on power gleaned from running Shokaw, a power that, I should remind her of, is only available to her what with the true head of this facility having left for the time being."

"Ah, as blunt as ever, Starscream." Airachnid purred, pausing in front of him and bringing the front of her vehicle mode to face him, his irritated expression reflected in the canopy. "But power is power, regardless of where it is from.”

“Some of us have earned our power.”

“And yet it still wasn’t enough to avoid this situation.” She taunted him, before rearing up and transforming into robot mode, the tail splitting into her legs as the front shifted into her torso. Arms and head emerging, rotors folding back, she landed neatly before him and smiled cruelly. “If I were you, Starscream, I would understand my current position and keep my mouth shut.”

He glared furiously at her, but he did not retort, well aware that she had every advantage at this point. With her rival shot down, she turned to the other three and greeted them: “Slipstream, Nighttrace, Barricade, it is good to see you all in person again. I trust your trip here was enjoyable?”

“In the split second it took us to teleport here? Probably.” Barricade huffed, folding his arms and glaring at the Decepticon who would be determining his fate today. Of course, she just ignored this remark, but he was a bit amused to see Starscream behind her giving him a thumbs up for his excellent sarcasm.

There was something highly amusing about fragging Starscream of all cons being on his side right now. Evidently, his hatred of Airachnid superseded his dislike of the Mustang in a similar manner as his hatred of Shockwave. The thought made him smirk.

Anyway, Slipstream cheerfully pranced over to her friend, eagerly exclaiming: "So, Airachnid, how is our old commander? Is Blackout well? Is he in good condition?"

The chopper chuckled, amused at the jet's enthusiasm to reunite with their mentor. "Blackout is as fine as ever, Slipstream. He's just led a successful raid against an Autobot Master-class vessel in the Solus System and secured the Energon it had been harvesting. An impressive feat, but one that's to be expected from our teacher-"

"Excuse me, Airachnid-" Starscream snapped, hopping from one foot to foot by the doorway with his classic impatience. "But for once can we please skip to the formalities and just get on with this? I have a tight ship to run-"

"Excuse yourself, Starscream." Airachnid stated coldly, her tone less playful and more venomous. "But I am in command here, and I will decide when the formalities end and your interrogation begins. You ought to be grateful I'm even humouring you with all this rather than simply ripping open your processor and extracting all relevant information by hand."

The jet was promptly silenced, forced to just pout and rev angrily, as she disdainfully turned her back on him and continued: "Regardless, he's doing perfectly fine and he'd be delighted to see you again. I'll reunite you when we get on our way."

Slipstream nodded in understanding as the helicopter acknowledged Nighttrace: "And as for you, Nighttrace, you've no idea how relieved I am that you took the time to actually inform us of Barricade's crime. I'm so glad to know that you have your priorities straightened, unlike certain others."

She shot a pointed glance at Starscream with that, who did his best to just ignore her, remain calm, don't even look at her, folding his arms tightly. Nighttrace just nodded, before buzzing over to wait by the door, exchanging a glance with the Raptor.

Finally, she turned to Barricade and leaned down a bit to better be on the shorter Decepticon's level: "And Barricade, well. I have to say that I'm not actually that surprised that you're the instigator of this delightful meeting. Surely you could have simply asked us if you desired our technology to destroy the Autobots."

He just glared at her, maintaining as defiant a posture as he could in face of her authority.

She just smiled, amused at his futile attempt to defy her, before continuing: "Well, have no fear. One way or another, it'll all be in the past soon enough."

He did not like the implication she was giving him, did not like the way she was so damn dismissive of him just because some stupid Cyclops gave her some leeway, so he spoke up, disdainful and infuriated: "Quit spouting hot air, Airachnid, if you don't even have any bites to go with your barks-"

She moved so fast it was practically a blur. In a shifting of metal, she was in her beast mode, the scorpion's claws locking around the shocked car and pinned his arms to his sides, her tail arching up to bear the lethal blade and her bestial maw was in his face with a piercing screech that rattled his audio sensors right down to the very molecules.

The other Decepticons flinched at the noise, Slipstream shocked, Starscream startled and Nighttrace stoic. The scorpion quieted with a threatening hiss, before shifting back into robot form, maintaining her claw's grip on the squirming car.

"Let me make it crystal clear to you, Barricade." Airachnid growled. "You have no power here. You have no freedom here. You are a criminal, and until you are freed of all charges, until your innocence can shine through, you will do the smart thing and shut your fragging mouth before I peel out your vocaliser right from within your throat. Does that make sense?"

He squeaked and nodded.

"Good."

She dropped him down, retracting her claws and rearing to her full height with an air of superiority, satisfied with the assertion of her power as she turned to the others and declared cheerfully: "Alright then, Decepticons. Let's get down to business."

--

The side hatch of the Zeta-1 slid open smoothly, deploying the ramp to ground level, and the tow truck blinked a little bit in the bright sunlight, gazing up at the beautiful star delighting the Earth with its light and warmth. The sky was blue, dotted with white clouds and birds swooping overhead, the road was a warm black under the heat and a few cars whizzed by as he watched.

Satisfied that at least today looked good, he idly pranced down the ramp to the dusty ground, the heavy rumble of the larger Evac following behind him, and he declared: "Well, looks like a gorgeous sunny day to check out a converter connected to a solar farm, am I right? Of course I'm right! Perfect day to get things accomplished, perfect day-"

"Wheeljack."

"-to get ourselves some fresh Energon, keep the mission going and keep the Lieutenant happy! Heh, Starscream's probably kicking himself in frustration over falling for Bumblebee's foundry trick, that'll teach him-"

"Wheeljack."

"-And.... and somehow I get the feeling you want my attention, Evac."

The helicopter, barely a moment away from seizing the smaller Autobot and turning him to face him himself, allowed himself a moment of pleasant surprise at his comrade's consideration before he said: "Before we go, I just wanted to know.... do you think Ratchet really is jealous of me?"

Wheeljack hesitated, considering the question before acknowledging that he kind of deserved this, so he shrugged and responded: "To be honest, rookie, I don't even know what's going through that bot's head. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. All I do know is that, quite frankly, he's losing his edge. I mean, c'mon, carting you off back to Cybertron just because Barricade went crazy? He's probably got a few cogs loose if he thinks that'll do anything other than lose us a team-mate."

Evac tentatively tapped his fingers, his rotors clacking together nervously as he asked: "You don't think Ratchet honestly wants me gone, do you?"

"Like I said, I don't know what he wants anymore. I think the war's starting to get to him, and he's got it into his head that you, being a rookie and young and innocent and all that scrap, are somehow an unstable little snowflake who'll melt at the first sign of any heat. You're not going back to Cybertron, Evac, not if the rest of us have anything to say about it."

The helicopter, though obviously dejected by his mentor's activity, perked up a little bit: "Did you really mean what you said, Wheeljack? That I am useful?"

"Evac, you saved Hound's life. You saved Jazz's life! For those two alone, you've done pretty good for a ditzy chatterbox of a rookie. Plus, well, you're our only flyer. Ratchet would have to be strategically depraved to deny us that. But that's another thing, actually. I also think Ratchet's spent so much time perfecting medicine, so much time going over healing procedures, he's forgotten what it is to actually fight a war and now it's starting to hit him hard."

"Because... because he can't fight as well as others can?"

"Pretty much. He's had like two fights throughout our time here, and he screwed up both of them-"

"He did defeat that flying one."

"Yeah, and he couldn't even use it as a hostage before he bailed out and got wrecked by Screamer. Look, Evac, I could go over the multitude of ways Ratchet frustrates me right now, but frankly, I imagine it's in my best interest to just let it go and carry on with my life."

He made to move forward now, Evac watching him with a mixture of curiosity and uncertainty, before he paused as a thought occurred to him.

"Okay, I know I just said what I said, but here's a thought; Jazz only brought Ratchet along because he's so damn good at healing. But you know what, you're damn good at healing too. And you're a better fighter, and you can fly, and you aren't nearly as pretentious and judgemental and overtly sentimental with your morality, so the next time Moonracer phones up, lay it on her that maybe Ratchet's the one who needs a time-out in Iacon."

Okay, that felt good. It was rather rare for the lax tow truck to get so worked up over something, but to be frank, the Hummer had had this coming for quite a while. Ah, it was nice to let out some frustration now and then. Small wonder Grimlock was always eager to take out his furies by ripping open Decepticons.

Evac flinched at the harsh words towards his mentor, forced into an awkward position between loyalty to his teacher and comprehension of his friend's sharp truths. He didn't know which side to pick, which Autobot he should listen to.... but then, he didn't want to go back to Cybertron. Would it really be any safer than Earth as his mentor claimed?

Though, to be fair, Iacon had never suffered a Decepticon breach through the years. As the Autobot capitol, its defences were beyond any outpost, matched only by Critico itself. So, fair enough, it was safer than Earth.

But it wasn't free. Earth was free, this bright beautiful planet with its life-forms and its forests and its oceans and the noble helicopters rescuing stricken people from storms and sinking ships. It wasn't the ruined wasteland Cybertron had become, the soot-stained fortress Iacon had become...

Evac revved softly and asked: "Do you think it would be safe back at Iacon?"

"There's no such thing as safe in warfare, Evac. There's only safer." The tow truck replied coolly. "That's a lesson Ratchet probably hasn't learned yet. But heck, that's enough of that for now. Let's just get to it, shall we?"

Evac nodded, before turning to the dusty plains and dashing off, getting a run-up before he flipped into vehicle mode, the rotors whipping up sand as they pushed him skyward. Wheeljack watched him go, before he took a moment to determine that no cars were coming his way and shifting onto the road.

Ah, it was nice to be back in his good old tow truck form again, his body clipping into place as his wheels gripped the smooth road, approving of the lovely compact feeling of his vehicular chassis and the urban roadway under his tires. Engine revving, he set off at a brisk pace, sensors idly noting the helicopter maintaining a casual flight path above him.

All problems aside with their ship's crew, it was a relaxing feeling to be out on the roads, feeling the fresh air and the sunshine and the urban run-off. It reminded him of better times, back before wars and death and torture and all that slag, when Cybertron had been as shiny and peaceful as this planet. Well, some of it at least, he wasn't unaware of human landfills and oil spills and all that slag.

Still, he couldn't really fault the humans. Every sapient species made their mistakes, and at least they hadn't degenerated their planet and so many others into a wasteful acidic battleground. There was hope for them yet.

Wheeljack gave a soft rev. But in seriousness, it was getting problematic aboard the Zeta-1, what with the growing tensions between some of them. Jazz and Grimlock were tooth and nail away from pummelling the Energon out of each other, Hound was offline and severely wounded and Ratchet was just being frustrating. It seemed only he and the rookies were keeping a cool head these days. Well okay, Hound would be too, but he was offline right now, so.

Still, problematic. Their chain of command was one short, the other one was encountering much resistance from a particularly grumpy tyrannosaur-bot and their medic seemed intent on prioritising his moral obligations and self-righteousness over allowing the rookie to continue being a benefit to their endeavours.

He recalled what Grimlock had said to him, how Ratchet had so bluntly put down his intelligence, and the thought made his chassis shudder. Sure, Grimlock wasn't the kind of bot you'd trust with your sparklings, but he had some kind of a good spark under that brutal frame; his friendship with the Beetle was proof enough of that! And yet bots like Ratchet continued to just keep on hounding over the fact he was different, he wasn't up to his standards. No wonder Grimlock was always so bitter.

Not that he particularly helped himself, what with being overly aggressive and contradictory and brutal, but still, one could see how he wasn't changing his attitude anytime soon, with Ratchet always demeaning his lack of morality and restraint and what not. Wheeljack understood the value of morality, don't get him wrong, but it seemed painfully limited to place it above basic respect for a teammate.

He briefly mused on that one Decepticon, the one with the wings and tail, and wondered if she was going through the same kind of prejudices as Grimlock just for being a bit different-

"What was Cybertron like before Megatron started the war?" Evac asked, probing into his com-link and earning a brief rev of surprise from the truck.

"Um, wow, I don't... wouldn't you have asked Ratchet this already?"

"I did. I just wanted to know what you thought, what you did before all this."

"Gosh, wow, that was a long time ago. Let me think.... Ah yeah, I got the memory banks here. It's pretty much the same as what Ratchet told you, I guess. Shiny, beautiful, peaceful, happy, fun. It was a gorgeous planet, no doubt. I lived in Crystal City back then, back when it was the most beautiful place in the whole wide universe, and I was doing what I do now! Inventing, science, explosions!"

Evac giggled: "Before or after the grenade-on-a-sword?"

"Don't you ever speak of that to me again, EVER. That was just, just a miscalculation, probably had too much rust in my Energon or something, shut up and leave me alone."

"Oh, sorry, I'll just-"

"Rookie, I was just ranting defensively, no need to take it so literally. Anyway, I learned the tricks of the trade from my mentor, a swell bot called Elita-1. Fantastic name, I know, but she never told me how she got it."

"Whoa. You worked under THE Elita-1?!"

"Of course I did, she was only one of the best scientists of our time! Where else could I have learned all of my fabulous talents? Perceptor? Frag that bot, he was as boring as watching paint dry! But Elita, she knew her stuff, and best of all, she knew how to do it without boring my damn cogs off. She had just the best styling to her gadgets, all smooth and efficient and beautiful. That Decepticon, Grindor, he'd give all three of those arms just to peek at her prototypes."

"Grindor? The new tank engineer one who helped you rescue Bumblebee?"

"Yep. He's pretty cool, for a filthy Megatron-loving Decepticon at least. He and I, if there's one thing we would definitely agree on, it's how utterly beautiful Elite's gadgets were. They were just the prettiest little things ever assembled! And get this, Elita-1, when I was a qualified scientist myself and now serving as her assistant rather than her rookie, she started on working on something pretty amazing. She started delving into the fields of chronology, chronological-science and the like."

"Um, what?"

"Time, Evac. She was working on time-related gadgets. You know, time travel, time manipulation, all that jazz."

"Whoa. I knew she was great, but.... time-travel?!"

"She never got it off the ground, though. The war began, Crystal City ended up falling to the Decepticons, and she had to abandon her research to join the war effort. Still, part of me wonders if she managed to save some of her data, managed to rescue just enough information to keeping with those studies. Heh, imagine if she did make a time machine. We could go back and stop this whole thing from happening."

Evac didn't respond, lost in his thoughts of this, and Wheeljack decided to give him his time and thus returned his attention to the road. They'd come pretty far now, passing by the good old forest. Wheeljack felt a touch of affection for this forest; it was the place they'd had their first ground battle with the Decepticons, specifically Soundwave, Barricade and those two Seekers. Wheeljack fondly recalled Bumblebee tiring that fragger Barricade in the face and Grimlock setting him on fire; served him right-

His sensors suddenly beeped, and he heard Evac squeak in surprise through the line; a ground-bridge signal, emanating somewhere from within the forest. It was only there for a second and then it vanished, but it was confirmation enough that a ground-based Decepticon had come to Earth.

"Well, look who's deciding to take a field-trip." Wheeljack stated, idly shifting his wipers around in a manner resembling one raising their eyebrows.

"Do we investigate? I've never investigated a ground-bridge signal before! Ooh, I love doing new things-"

"No, Evac, just leave it alone. It's off our intended course anyway; let's just go check the converter, grab some Energon, and head home, no trouble needed. Besides, I doubt they'll be doing anything extravagant; a signal that brief, probably just a lonely scout off for a drive or something."

"Well, I could fly over there and-"

"Evac, just drop it. That's what got Hound into his mess, and I'd prefer not to have to take time from my schedule to save wayward rookies again."

Evac promptly dropped it, falling silent again, and Wheeljack revved a bit. No use looking for trouble right now. With Grimlock and Bumblebee back at the ship, Ratchet with Hound and Jazz AWOL, there wasn't much point seeking out trouble with the Decepticons. Sure, he'd love the chance to try out his new device, happily nestled within him, but he had a more productive task to do right now.

So, just ignore it. Carry on, do your stuff, fantastic, and... and... Huh.

"Evac, are you getting this?"

"What?"

"I'm picking up this weird signal ahead. Something like.... spark radiation? Huh. I don't even know; it's weird, kind of weak. What do you think?"

"It's definitely on the same polarity as a spark. But it's much weaker, much less concentrated. I don't know what could do that. A leak in the chamber, maybe?"

"Probably. Let me have a look, it's coming up ahead now."

He drives along, his scanners sweeping forward to assess the environment. The bizarre little signal was a fair few hundred metres before him, and it seemed to be intermingled with an Autobot signature. Specifically, the signature of none other than Jazz, idly parked in some pull-in space at the side of the road. Wheeljack's a bit perplexed; the signature is most definitely emanating from him, and yet Jazz had received an all-clear from Ratchet when he'd finally gotten out of the med-bay.

Maybe his chamber was a bit loose? His spark over-agitated? Huh. Regardless, the car noticed him and gave a subtle flash of the headlight in greeting, but otherwise he remained silent. And Wheeljack could scan why; Jazz had that human inside him again, that one he liked to chat to now and then.

He didn't talk much about her, so he didn't know the Lieutenant's friend's name or anything, but he figured that Jazz was busy right now. If his chamber was a bit finicky, he could discuss it later after he'd had his natter with the human.

So, Wheeljack drove on, contacting Evac: "It's cool, Evac, it's just Jazz. I think his spark chamber might be a bit loose or something, but it's nothing dangerous."

"Wheeljack, a loose spark chamber is actually kind of sorta really dangerous to have-"

"Evac, he'll be perfectly fine. I just scanned him and there's nothing drastic about his signature or anything. He's just talking to that human right now so we can discuss this with him later."

The helicopter was sputtering: "Talking to that human?! If his spark's leaking, she'd be bathed in lethal radiation that'll envelop her cells and burn them alive from the inside out and then explode them in an explosion of human pieces-"

"Evac, spark radiation can't do that."

"Oh."

"Don't worry about it, the radiation output is way too weak to do anything anyway. Nothing to fear, Evac. Jazz is fine, that ground-bridge wasn't on anyone's course and we're gonna bring some good old Energon back to the ship. It'll be fine."

"Alright, but.... how come Jazz gets a human friend and we don't?"

"Because tow trucks and helicopters are awkward vehicles to make friends with, I'm sad to say."

Evac just sighed in dejection, and the tow truck returned his attention to the road. Human friends was something he had contemplated during his time here on Earth, but to be honest, it was far too much hassle than it was worth in his opinion. The secrecy, the possibility of getting killed by Decepticons, the need to prioritise his mission, it just wasn't worth juggling a native in all that. Jazz was kind of pushing it as he was, and Wheeljack wasn't too surprised over Grimlock disapproving of this.

But Wheeljack himself, he didn't care too much what the Lieutenant did in his spare time, so long as the team got results. And hey ho, he was off to get some results, so that was good-

Up ahead was a motorbike parked up by the side, and not just any motorbike, but a motorbike with no driver. Well, it did have a driver, but here's the thing; it wasn't actually a human. Holograms like the ones Hound used were very potent camouflaging techniques. The less sophisticated industrial holograms designed to fool native life-forms, not so much.

A Decepticon then. A new one at that, he might add, since none of the Autobot crew had ever encountered a motorbike Decepticon on Earth before.

Realising it must be here after the same signal he'd picked up from Jazz, Wheeljack immediately contacted Evac: "Evac, never mind what I said earlier, we gotta put our relay mission on hold for a second because I just found a Decepticon."

"A Decepticon?! Here?"

"Yes indeed. It's the motorbike below you, the one without a human heat signature. Obviously it's here to check out the spark signal Jazz is giving out, but since it's on its own, and a small one at that, I think we might be able to capture it for interrogation."

"Whoa. I've never captured a Decepticon for interrogation before! What do you want me to do?! Should we call Jazz?! Should-"

"Relax, rookie, he's busy right now. I'll handle this by seeing what it's here for, and if it tries to escape, you can help me run it down."

"Okay! Sure, Wheeljack, no problem, just call me when you need me, oooh, I'm excited now, I've never-"

Wheeljack shut the link.

Calmly, casually, he slowed down and pulled into the side just in front of the motorbike. His scanners detected the hologram shifting to look at him, a curious and somewhat anxious expression displayed on its face. The way the human moved though, a bit too quick and jittery, the fact it wasn't even mimicking breathing or blinking, gave it away that this Decepticon really had no idea how to be an effective robot in disguise.

Wheeljack just smiled to himself. This was going to be easy.

Author's Notes: Kinda short today, but it's all good. Anyway, the gag arrives on Shokaw, woo, and Wheeljack and Evac are off on an adventure, woo.

More of Shokaw next time, as well as a reunion with Blackout and Ellen Sherriff, only on the HUUUUUUUUUUUUUB

 

No excuses for my lateness, no excuses. But I shall move on regardless. Gosh dangit, this chapter was such a tease. Shorter ones like this bug me because my curiosity and anxiety has not only longer to hold out but also less to work with until then. There was also minimal plot progression in this chapter, so eh. Obviously the last episode was 90% dialogue, and this episode is off to a super dialogue-y start, so hopefully there will be action in the extremely foreseeable future because the universe has been thrown out of balance, son. Nah don't mind my ranting. I'm trying to get to get revenge because I know that you like it when I flounder in these teasers. GOSH DANGIT.

But anyways yeah, to reiterate, this chapter was literally all talk and the scenes (all two of them) were lingering, so I guess I don't have much to speculate with. It would be natural for me to go chronologically, so I would start with the group of Decepticons going to Shokaw, but most of that was Barricade and Starscream having a sass-off with Airachnid. Not to say some of it wasn't funny. I got a hardy dose of secondhand embarrassment thanks to Barricade being owned by Airachnid, but I get that from him all the time. When the one who is snarky tries to snark and gets pinned by a giant spider-not-spider, mm yes, I shake my head at him. When will he learn? When will my Barricade learn that one cannot sass everybody all the time? Youth these days. I liked visualizing him squeaking, though. D'awww.

With Starscream, yeah, same old with him too in regards to the confrontation with Airachnid. I guess you're kind of holding up on the Shockwave introduction so that it gets built up, but I at least fully expect to be seeing him this episode. I'm pretty excited too, thinking about that guy makes my brain hurt, because he's all god-like with his "superior psyche" and what have you. As in how he reads people like books because his mind is just on a different level and the people that he analyzes don't even bother to consider this of him because they're basically inferior. And by inferior, I just meant that they're on a lower level but I didn't want to use the word "level" again, but "inferior" didn't sound right so idk. WOW LOOK AT THIS RAMBLING. I have an idea of a prospect for somebody being able to amount to Shockwave in terms of psychological analysis, but it's purely speculation at the moment, so I'll save it.

Also wow there was tons of mentions of other characters in this chapter. And by tons I mean like three. So there was Blackout who was actually mentioned before, and if you hadn't come across what I had said to Seeker on dA, I imagine his voice either being KMR or JEJ, but probably JEJ because I had KMR reserved for that Autobot that Jazz had been talking to a while back about the Solanar, I think. Can't remember his name. Too lazy to go back and look for it. But anyway, also there was Elita-1 and Perceptor, two scientists. I haven't watched every episode of G1 (actually pretty much none post-movie), but I vaguely remember the one where I think Elita-1 first shows up along with the other robot gurls, Chromia and idek who the other two were. But so I have the gist of who Elita-1 usually is in Transformers lore, Optimus's love interest in like every fan fiction involving her ever (and canonical in G1, IIRC), but I don't really know jack about her beyond that. Nonetheless, I really like TFM's interpretation of her, with her being a scientist. Already she has a sense of actual purpose, which I appreciate, and it seems like she's got a fondness for aesthetic in her work. That reminds me of Rei from Free!, because he's got this obsession over beauty in athletics. But like in every review, I digress.

Obviously Wheeljack hadn't said much about Perceptor other than that he's boring, which I found pretty funny, but I felt bad for the guy. I always liked Perceptor in G1, he was always so sweet and pacifistic. (I remember how happy I was when in this one episode I think it was Brawn or someone who was being a dick to him and Bumblebee stood up for him and AHHHH OFF TOPIC NEVER MIND). I take these little mentions as foreshadowing, so as of now, I expect to see Elita-1 and Perceptor AND Blackout sometime in the future. I assume that it's likely that Perceptor will be introduced in conjunction with Insecticons because of all of the records that he took of them IIRC. But I know for sure that apparently Insecticons won't be coming along for a while, so I guess Perceptor's on the waiting line. And who even knows about Elita.

All in all, Wheeljack's conversing with Evac was nice for some exposition despite its (supposed) general lack of significance to the plot. It's good to have that every now and again, especially for the foreshadowing purposes. Evac's also pretty cute with all his curiosity and what not, and Wheeljack always entertains me with his chatteriness and his apathetic attitude. Except for being grumpy about Ratchet, but WE'RE ALL GRUMPY ABOUT RATCHET BECAUSE HE REALLY IS KIND OF A D-BAG RIGHT NOW. Also, speaking of Ratchet, I think I might have spotted what you said was the justification for his thinking that it would somehow be safer back on Cybertron but it was pretty vague so I'm not sure. It was nice to hear at least one other character think the same thing as me, though. Like the plot doesn't forget about obvious stuff, that's nice to know.

And Jazz is chatting with Ellen, got that. Hopefully he's as okay as Wheeljack says. Oh, and on that note, I appreciated how Wheeljack was testy about the prospect of going to search for a signal because of what had happened to Hound when usually he's all dismissive about everything. On the other hand, I have a feeling that he might be underestimating Sideways. We shall see.

Evac needs to do something really awesome really soon because I have this great pun that I'm dying to use.

oh and

no

I will not ship them
I WILL NOT SHIP THEM
I WILL NOT SHIP THEM
I WILL NOT SHIP THEM
I WILL NOT SHIP THEM

DONE BYE.

 

Considering all the stories he had heard about the dread headquarters of the cold and methodical Shockwave, Barricade had honestly expected to be coming across things that would be, I don't know, impressive. Rumours of the Ravagers were running rampant in his head, whispers of the wreckage left in the berserker's wake, combiners, abominations, all kinds of stuff! The kind of stuff Autobots had nightmares about, the kind of stuff Megatron was willing to execute old Thunderwing over!

The reality was much less what he had been hoping for.

Keeping close to Starscream's thruster-heels, the car bounced up and down to catch a glimpse at what lay on the other side of all these observation panes dotting the dark hallway, and what he had seen so far was so fragging underwhelming that it was positively boring him to rust!

It was all just lame old purple drones with one optics, personalised assistants of Shockwave or something like that, just going over the same boring weapons Barricade saw every day; unwrapping the innards of energy pistols or modifying some energy rifles, poring over Energon knives and some flails, checking out grenades and what not. Barricade liked weapons as much as the next con, but c’mon, where was the good stuff?!

He was tempted to ask Airachnid where all of the good stuff was, but she was too busy nattering to Slipstream, never mind the fact she'd probably just tell him to shut up. After all, he was here to face charges for his crimes against Shokaw, not for sight-seeing. Still, being a criminal in Shockwave's optic shouldn't have to mean he couldn't see any cool stuff, right? Right.

At one point, continuing to glance through the panes in the hopes of finding something interesting, he’d thought he’d seen a bunch of those drones working over an actual honest-to-Unicron Thunder Cannon, but alas, it had just been a stupid flamethrower or something. So close, yet so far!

This boring atmosphere wasn’t helped by some of the facility guard drones bearing heavy-set plasma cannons joining the party and flanking him and two of the others. The guards were bulky drones with four spindly legs, a clever combination of a hulking torso and agile legs, and they continually pushed him along if he tried to take a longer look at something. He swore and swiped at them a lot , but they just nudged him with those hefty guns until he was forced to scuttle off to the others.

Well, at least he knew what Shokaw really was now. The infamous planet of abominations, actually a boring little cesspool of plain corridors and dumb drones and boring gun tests. What a joke.

The other two the drones were keeping a single red optic on were Starscream and Nighttrace, the two leaning into each other and whispering things about something or other. Well, Starscream was whispering; Nighttrace tended to just bob her head or mutter a one-word/one-sentence reply, ever the mute of the crew. This always tended to be the shtick between the two of them; Starscream nattered, Nighttrace listened, and it was laced with a kind of closeness that went beyond anything Barricade could fathom, and that concept would only be enhanced with the fact she was the lieutenant now.

Barricade had his ideas on why that particular relationship was the way it was; he’d long since noticed how Starscream always tended to favour Nighttrace, always preferred her company over the others and he always went to her if he had problems or something. If you asked him, he would gleefully snort that the oh-so self-absorbed Starscream and the oh-so quiet Nighttrace might have the makings of a fluffy little romance budding between them.

Barricade smirked a devious smirk and snickered to himself: “Starscream and Nighttrace, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G- Oh wait they can’t she doesn’t have a mouth, ha ha.”

Fortunately for him (not that’d he ever admit that), neither of them heard him.

Slipstream, on the other hand, was ahead of the pack, currently beside and nattering to Airachnid, the two tall females caught up in their discussions about Blackout and Shokaw and Megatron and mermaids and all that kind of scrap. Glaring after her, Barricade was feeling a bit resentful now; what did fragging Slipstream have to worry about? She wasn’t here to be interrogated, strip-mined, tortured or anything, she didn’t have to worry about the sadistic Insecticon-scorpion-thing jerk or the guard drones, she didn’t have to worry about Shockwave! All she had to do was chat to her old mentor and that was that!

Where was the sympathy for Barricade?! This could be the most disastrous moment of his entire life, the moment Airachnid tore his whole face off over a nodule and sent him off to Polyhex to forever be Overlord’s chew-toy, and all Slipstream could do was chatter like some stupid human off to a sleepoversleep?! Where was her bribing Airachnid to let him off the hook?! Where was her lamenting the situation of the most awesome and powerful Decepticon?! Where was her tearful confessions to the others about how Barricade was her favourite ever and she wished he would not have to suffer so?!

Urgh, stupid Slipstream and her prioritising her friends and mentor over him, Barricade. What a selfish jerk.

Well, he had to admit, he was feeling a bit dejected right about now. If he failed this Shokaw business, then he’d probably be stripped of his weapons, his cloaker, his very freaking identity, and carted off to Polyhex as a nameless piece of scrap instead of the proud and mighty Barricade. But there were so many things he had yet to do, though! He hadn’t made sure Hound had died, he hadn’t found the mermaids, he hadn’t been there to laugh at Hound’s corpse/grave, he hadn’t asked Nighttrace why she always hovered, he hadn’t been able to beat that yellow rookie to death with his dead mentor’s severed body-parts!

He had so much to live for, Barricade did, and yet all these selfish scraps kept talking to each other about their own rubbish instead of talking to him and how they idolised him and how they had faith in him and how they adored him so! Idiots.

Barricade revved heavily. Insult to injury, Shokaw was so boring; it was still just stupid basic armour and weapon testing, nothing ground-breaking or exciting or hardcore. He should have asked Starscream if he could have had one last street-race before they left, or to play a game with Soundwave, or to stare at the beautiful sun and contemplate posting Autobot innards to it. And now, now he may never have the chance to do so again.

Poor Soundwave, he considered. That Con was as close to a friend as the Mustang had, at least until he got better friends. What would that idiot be able to do without the handsome and intelligent Barricade around to guide him? He'd probably end up throwing himself into the sun, half out of mourning for the loss of Barricade, half out of his typical idiocy. Poor stupid Soundwave.

Urgh, this was that sentimental slag sentimental fraggers felt when they met their end. But Barricade was tougher than that! He would face all this scrap with his trademark dignity and honour and respect and he would-

The whole group came to a stop abruptly in front of a hefty silver door and he ended up bumping into Starscream’s suddenly stock-still legs, reeling backwards and landing on his rear with a distinct clang and a yelp of annoyance.

“Argh, Starscream, you made me fall over, you idiot, gah, why can’t you ever not be an obnoxious barricade in life?!”

Starscream rolled his optics as he bent down to offer a hand to pull the Mustang back up, which was promptly refused as the car folded his arms and huffed at him. Rearing back to his full height at the rejection, he coolly snorted: “10/10 for the insult involving the use of your own name as a demeaning factor, 0/10 for the ability to do bipedal locomotion any justice.”

“Oh shut up, you piece of-“

“Quiet now, you two.” Airachnid declared, casting an irritated glance at the argumentative duo and rattling her rotors with annoyance. “I'm activating the main lift to take us down to the next level and I'd prefer to do it without your whining. The middle floor of Shokaw-Eva contains some more elaborate experiments as well as a host of med-bays, personal quarters and the Conciller’s meeting chambers. That’s where we’ll drop off Slipstream so she can meet up with Commander Blackout, leaving the rest of us to go to the lower floor.”

A virulently sweet smirk spread over her face: "The lower floor is where all the good stuff takes place."

As she turned and start typing a passcode into a monitor by the door, Barricade torn between excitement and nervousness, Starscream asked: “So, quick question, is it true, Airachnid, that the rumours of another experiment based on the old alterations of the berserker are true? Is Shockwave really trying to create another monster like that Autobot animal?”

“I can’t say. Legal obligations and what not.” She replied disinterestedly, the console confirming the lift’s activation with a bright green beep. “There are many things happening in Shokaw right now, Starscream, and some you’ll just have be patient for.”

The huge iron door swung open on the cue and the group entered the massive lift, much bigger than the two on the Darksyde put together and imposingly lit with bright purple lights. None of the guarding drones followed them in, and the huge door swung shut with a hefty tightening of locks. Airachnid tapped another console and the elevator gave a low rumble as it moved downwards, Nighttrace almost bumping her head on the ceiling before she could adjust her hovering to match the lift.

For a moment, there was no sound save the lift’s movement and some jaunty little song being played, as everyone just sort of stood there and bobbed their heads in time to the tune, before the console gave a bright TING sound. The lift jolted to a stop, the door unlocked and swung open and Airachnid stepped forward, half in the lift, half in the new corridor, and she gestured for Slipstream to exit.

As the jet did so, the helicopter advised her: “The Conciller’s meeting chambers are at the very end of the corridor, but if you get lost you can always ask one of the drones for directions. Blackout and I think one or two other commanders are overviewing possible imports there, but he’ll be more than happy to lay them aside and spend some time with his best student, Slipstream.”

She grinned knowingly at her comrade, exchanging an amused glance with her as the jet endearingly shook her friend’s hand and replied: “Thank you very much, Airachnid. I hope you got to speak to him too.”

“I did, thank you. He’s quite pleased at my elevation through the ranks, as he would be for any of his students.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Well then-“ The F-117 said, moving out of the lift and glancing back at the other three: “-I trust I’ll see all of you soon. Best of luck, Barricade.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

The jet idly observed the grumpy car for a moment, looking as though she wanted to say something else, before she shook her head and merely exchanged a polite nod with her commander and the UAV. With her goodbyes said, she turned her back on them and strode down the corridor.

Barricade hesitated then, staring after the retreating form of the medic, flexing his claws uncertainly and optics flickering as he considered something or other, suddenly a tad anxious now. It seemed as though he was struggling to find words of some sort, wrestling with some inner doubt of hism and it culminated when he suddenly lurched forward and shouted: “Hey Slipstream, wait a sec!”

She paused at the shout and turned, green optics brightening in curiosity: “Yes?”

He stood at the entrance of the lift, painfully aware that everyone was staring at him now, before he forced it down and grunted: “Well, I just wanted to say…. That if, you know, I end up… going to, to Polyhex or something… that, that… well, you were… you… you were better than other medics I’ve had, I guess. Pretty not bad, in fact, not bad at all. Could have been better, but… hey, you were not bad, you know?”

She seemed stunned at such a statement, the other Decepticons also exchanging surprised glances, before a wide grin spread over her face as though she had just heard the Allspark had landed and wanted to meet her, her tailfins wagging enthusiastically.

Striding back to the lift, she knelt down in front of the smaller Decepticon and cheerfully replied: “Barricade, that’s the nicest most emotionally aware thing I’ve ever heard you say. It was quite a delight serving beside you. For all your faults, you were not bad yourself. Don’t you worry about this, tough con; I think you’ll be fine. After all, the oh so mighty Barricade has recovered from much worse than this.”

Smiling, she fondly patted his head, earning a slight grumbling and squirming from him, before rearing back to her full height and turning around again. As the jet made her leave, the car briefly allowed his typical demeanour of callousness to melt into something a bit more tender, a bit more pleased. Snorting to herself at the bemusement of it all, Airachnid stepped back into the lift, making sure they were all still inside and shut the door, preparing to move it down to the next floor.

When the door shut and he lost sight of her, Barricade’s oh so brief visage of happiness vanished into an ugly pout.

No-one said anything for a moment, simply listening to the jaunty music and thinking about what had just occurred, before Nighttrace murmured: “That was very brave of you, Barricade.”

“Brave?! Bah, nothing to do with bravery! Just wanted to let my medic know I appreciated her medical stuff and all that, like my new arm and scrap! Don’t need to be brave to tell your medic they didn’t suck, nope, not at all.”

He folded his arms and huffed at her, satisfied that he had made his point to the other three.

Nighttrace just waggled her antenna in amusement, Airachnid gave a low chuckle and Starscream grinned widely and deviously at the car and started to sing-song: “Barricade and Slipstream, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-“

Barricade immediately and violently flew into a tantrum, lunging out and kicking at the jet’s legs furiously, hollering: “URGH, THAT’S NOT FUNNY YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SCRAP! ONLY A CHILDISH IDIOT WOULD MAKE THAT KIND OF JOKE! ARGH I HATE YOU!”

--

If this was any other Decepticon, literally any other Decepticon, Wheeljack might have considered this a rather tense stand-off. If this had been Soundwave or Barricade, one cunning and bearing powerful sonic weaponry, the other rash and violent and capable of cloaking, he might have been a tad more cautious. If it was Grindor, that genius in the body of an armoured brute with all kinds of impressive gadgets, he'd be quite a bit hesitant.

Against any of the flyers, he'd be particularly wary, especially if they were as tricky as that UAV one or as cruel as Starscream, and if it had been that one that turned into a scorpion, he'd be pretty fragging nervous. Thankfully, or maybe just luckily, the scorpion one hadn’t been seen since Bee had escaped their ship and they had suspicions that it had returned to the main Decepticon army. But it wasn’t any of those Cons; just a lonely little bike without any backup and without any clue.

If he were more like Grimlock, there wouldn't even be this calmness and thoughtfulness; he'd have probably torn it in half and siphoned information from the wrecked processors by now. The thought made him question his sanity for a second, before he shrugged his chassis and debated the best option to confront this Decepticon.

Of course, while it wasn't any of the other bigger and more intimidating Decepticons, it still had the potential to be a deadly opponent; faster than him for certain, probably a lot more agile. Sure, he could mock its blatant inability to play it cool or safe, judging by how the vehicle was shuddering despite the fact it should be static, but it could still turn things around and spit a bullet right through his head.

He had to keep the situation calm, and he thought he knew just how to do it.

Digging into his basic hologram generators, he promptly began constructing for himself a human disguise. Let's see, the human body consisted of two arms, a head, two legs, a bunch of fingers, toes, hair, eyes... Ew, what was that thing? Oh right, a nose. Okay, um, lots of things to chose from in terms of eye, hair and skin colour. Oh yeah, purple wasn't an acceptable skin colour, was it? Let's see....

Okay, he thought he had it now. Good looking human, male, rather tall, nicely muscled, oh yes, nice muscles indeed for the human form of Wheeljack and bright blue eyes too! Dress him up as a tow truck driver guy and he was ready to roll.

So, forming his hologram in his seat, he lowered his window, poked the hologram out through the side like a normal human might do and he said: "Hey there, biker. Are you stuck out here?"

The vehicle went stock still and the driver, a rather skinny human male (Wheeljack idly wondered if the Con itself was male, but then, holograms didn't always reflect their deployer), cowered a bit at the voice of the other human/vehicle/Cybertronian and managed to stutter: "Um, um, j-just fine, thank you, tow truck... guy! Just, um, enjoying the view!"

"It is a lovely view, isn't it?" The truck driver replied amiable, waving his arm around at the lush green trees surrounding the road. "Perfect natural environment right here, wouldn't you agree?"

"Um, sure! Lovely and.... and green! Very green. Though, um, heh, I could, I could do without all the mud and stuff, you know?"

"Yeah, mud is kind of a downer. But hey, nothing a good wash can't sort out, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, right, right!"

"So, buddy, the weather's been looking great, hasn't it?"

"Um, yes, it sure has! Lovely and sunny, perfect for soaking up energy- I mean heat, soaking up heat!"

"Indeed. And hey, remind me, how's Starscream doing lately?"

"Oh he's doing fine, he-" The hologram froze. "-..... oh no."

The truck's driver grinned: "Oh yes."

Quick as a flash, the bike's engine kicked into gear right as the tow truck lurched forward; with impressive agility, the motorbike managed to dodge the hefty bumper of the larger vehicle, darting out onto the road and making a break for it. With manoeuvrability beyond any Earth truck, the Autobot swung round into fierce pursuit.

As the bike poured on the speed, the tow truck right on its tail, Wheeljack promptly summoned his air support: "Evac, the Decepticon's making a run for it. I need you to keep a mark on it and be ready to intervene if I can't snag it, okay?"

"Oh wow, an actual pursuit! I've never pursued an intended prisoner-to-be before! Oh, this is so exciting-"

"Head in the game, rookie; just make sure it can't get out of my range. Bike's fast, but you've got the sky on your side; keep an optic on it, keep it trapped between us, and it's either going to end up running right into one of us or trying to bail into the forest."

"And if it goes into the forest?"

"Then it makes our job a lot easier. Stay ahead of it, Evac, and also keep watch for any human vehicles too."

"On it!"

The rookie shut down the link and Wheeljack returned his focus to the road, sensors locked onto the motorbike in front of him. The smaller vehicle was faster than he was, but it was hesitant at times, often slowing down a little before realising he was catching up and putting the speed back on. Obviously, the weird signal he'd detected from Jazz was what was keeping the bike around, as well as the threat of the helicopter above them.

He wondered if the Decepticon might honestly try to attack Jazz, but he doubted it; from what he could tell, this one lacked the resolve of Starscream or the violence of Barricade, and it wouldn't dare attack the infamous Lieutenant by itself. Chances are it would be forced to drive past Jazz, leaving it in the hands of both the pursuer and the air support.

The motorbike was coming up to the parked Solstice now, and just as Wheeljack predicted, the bike just drove past, no matter how intriguing that weird spark signal might be; it just wasn't capable of doing anything to Jazz without turning a chase into a three-on-one beatdown.

Satisfied, Wheeljack poured on the speed and kept after the bike, also whizzing past the Lieutenant with speed unbecoming of a normal tow truck. Jazz didn't send him any messages or anything asking him what the Pit he was doing, but Wheeljack was pretty sure that both he and the human with him had to have noticed the vehicles speeding by.

"Was that a tow truck chasing some gaudy motorbike?" Ellen asked, peering over the dashboard after the retreating vehicles with a look of surprise on her face, hands clasped around a vacuum flask full of steaming hot tea.

"Seems like it." Jazz mused, stroking his chin in bewilderment as he watched them go, having been just as surprised as her when they'd gone whizzing past them. "Don't see that every day. Wonder if the bike's trying to give the hook the slip or something like that."

"That'd be a twist." Ellen snorted, leaning back into the comfy warm seat and sipping some of her drink. "Calls a truck for towing, actually just tricking them, truck doesn't like that, hey ho chase scene."

Jazz snickered at the idea, before he sobered up and asked: "So, Ellen, I need some straight advice here right now. Say there's this guy I work with at... at work, yeah, and say he's.... well he's an absolute jerk right up where the spa- sun don't shine. Sure, good worker he is, but he's just the most arrogant impudent little pile of urgh I've ever met. How do you suppose I deal with that?"

The female sighed reminiscently: "Reminds me of this jerk I worked with back in college, when I was doing part-time at this coffee shop. Man was he just the most intolerable idiot ever spawned. Eventually, I got tired of his garbage and I ended up breaking his jaw whacking him with a mug."

Jazz gave her a stunned look and she just smiled whimsically: "I was fired for it, and I did feel bad about it later, but at the time there was nothing more satisfying in that moment than his tears."

"Okay then. Remind me to never ever make you angry."

She just chortled.

Meanwhile, Wheeljack had deployed his towline, extending the crane-like appendage into its arm form in order to aim the hook at the fleeing bike. Carefully aiming, the tow truck launching his hook, the metal curve splitting into a hand-like form as it flew, but the Decepticon sensed it coming and managed to swerve out of the way. The grapple deflected harmlessly off the road and was promptly retracted as Wheeljack prepared to launch it again.

He could detect Evac flying up ahead, and the helicopter was giving him the all-clear that no human vehicles were coming up on the chase. This was good; it meant Wheeljack could continue to employ his third appendage without risking anyone seeing it. After all, normal tow trucks couldn't bend their towlines around like an arm and shoot their lines with such precision.

Chortling a bit, Wheeljack took aim and fired again, but the bike, for all its flaws, was fast, and it easily dodged. In fact, the bike had the neurals to return fire; from its exhaust pipes heaved an unholy amount of thick black smog, nicely heated and very dense, perfect for hampering a pursing vehicle's sensors. The cloud of smog enveloped the tow truck, and he immediately requested Evac to guide him through it.

The helicopter had good optics on the road and told the tow truck to just keep moving forward; there was no bends coming up and he was free to keep driving. Wheeljack prepped his tow line again and demanded: "Alright, Evac, the Con shouldn't be expecting this from a smog cloud; what's its position?"

"Um... couple of tens of metres in front, bit to the right... judging by smog dispersal, forward momentum, wind effects, um.... try firing right over your cab from a metre to your left."

Wheeljack adjusted himself promptly, wished himself the best of luck and fired.

His plan actually succeeded; the bike had not been expecting the Autobot to actually try grappling again when he was clouding its vision, and thus was not prepared for the shiny claw bursting out of the black fog and latching onto one of the protruding exhaust pipes. The Decepticon's engine revved in shock as it began to violently swerve to and fro, desperately trying to dislodge the grapple.

Damn, he was good. And he pulled it off with his own skill, no help required! Awesome.

Wheeljack put on the brakes, his tires squealing against the road as he attempted to use his superior strength and weight to bring the bike to a stop. To its credit, the Decepticon fought back ferociously, pressing on against the persistent grapple and the Autobot pulling on it with all the strength it could muster. But with Evac moving in now to assist the tow truck, it realised that brute force wouldn't be able to do anything to help it.

So, the Decepticon changed tactics and changed forms; sprouting upright into a slim robot with a single wheeled leg, lanky arms and the front wheel splitting in half and protruding from its back, the motorbike promptly turned around and wheeled straight for the Autobot, pulling an Energon knife from a side compartment. Its speed was only enhanced by the grappling line pulling it in, and it jumped into the air with a demented battle cry, knife held high.

Wheeljack barely managed to back up just as the knife slammed into the roof of his cab, jamming straight through his armour into the empty space within, earning a yelp of pain from the Autobot, just as Evac cried: "Wheeljack, human vehicle coming! You have to get off the road!"

"Allspark above, I've got a knife in me! Give me a break!" The tow truck whined, before his wheels got to spinning and he promptly drove off of the road into the shelter of the forest, the Decepticon gripping him tightly with a clawed hand as it dragged the knife out of him and stabbed through his roof again. "OW! Stop that!"

As they rumbled through the uneven dirt, Wheeljack promptly released the grapple and jolted his third arm forward into a punch that dizzied the Decepticon upon striking its head. Disorientated and panicked, the bike raised the knife again, but the tow truck was ready; he slammed on the brakes and the Decepticon was sent flying off of him, slamming into a tree with a hefty crack of bark and slumping to the floor.

Satisfied, Wheeljack transformed into robot mode and recommended Evac keep to the skies and keep an optic out for any reinforcements. Stalking forward, he noted the Decepticon recovering and bringing its knife up to defend itself; rolling his optics, he easily smacked the weapon out of the smaller Cybertronian's grip with one hand and snagged its throat with the other, lifting up his foe with ease.

"Let me go, let me go!" The Decepticon squealed, voice outing it as a male as he scrabbled uselessly at the tow truck's armoured forearm, squirming and struggling in the Autobot's grip with all his might. "I'm just a scout! Let me go!"

"Relax, I'm not going to kill you." Wheeljack replied casually, making a show of examining his other hand as if this whole affair was boring him. "I just want to ask you a few questions regarding your commander and what he's up to. If you're a good Decepticon, I get what I want and you get to go free. If not, well, I'll just call my friend Grimlock to come help out. He's much better at interrogation than I am."

"NO!" The bike squealed. "Not the berserker! Anything but him, anything!"

"Alright then. You just tell me what Starscream is planning, and I'll- ARGH!"

The Decepticon was more slippery than anticipated; he had managed to twist up his lower half, the single multi-jointed leg, and thus Wheeljack ended up with a face full of tire, his facial systems cringing in pain when the tire furiously grinded his armour. In his shock, he ended up dropping the Decepticon, who was swift to regain his footing and dart over to his knife, picking it up and prepping a retreat.

"Ow, ow, you tired my face you little runt!" Wheeljack snapped, shaking his optics free of the annoyance and prepping his grappling line, firing after the fleeing Decepticon and catching him by the tire, tripping him up face first into the dirt and leaves. Now somewhat understanding of what that Barricade had gone through that time Bumblebee had tired him, Wheeljack reeled in the squirming Decepticon like a fisherman with his catch.

The bike got up halfway through being dragged back to him and swung that knife at him, managing to jam it into the Autobot's side before he seized his foe and dragged him off, slapping the knife out of his hands again and slamming him to the ground, pinning him beneath a hefty foot. Satisfied that the Decepticon was well and truly trapped this time, Wheeljack went on with his previous topic, idly switching one hand to plasma cannon mode just in case.

"Well, that wasn't very nice of you. I'm probably going to have call Grimlock now just for that."

"NO! NO! PLEASE DON'T!" The bike wailed. "I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN IT! PLEASE DON'T BRING THAT MONSTER HERE!"

Wheeljack just hummed merrily and brought up his com-link with Evac, the helicopter currently hovering above them, swiftly whispering: "Evac, quick, pretend to be Grimlock for a sec."

"Oh boy, roleplay!"

Wheeljack ignored that and declared: "Hey, Grimlock. I've got this Decepticon trapped here in the forest, and I've been trying to ask him nicely to give us information about Screamer, but he's just not cooperating-"

"NO! STOP IT!" The bike shrieked, fanatically clawing at the truck's unyielding foot in a futile attempt to free himself. "DON'T CALL THAT MONSTER! HE'LL EAT ME!"

"-So I was wondering if you might want to come down and help me out."

"Um, RAWR Grimlock love eating Decepticons!"

Wheeljack chortled and stated to the prisoner: "Hear that? Grimlock's hungry! You better changed your mind quickly before he comes over for dinner."

"I'LL CHANGE MY MIND! I'LL TALK, I'LL TALK! PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME DINNER!"

"Hm, Grimlock, he says he'll talk now. What do you think?"

"RAWR I'm a dinosaur, I eat Decepticons!"

"Excellent point. Alright, Decepticon, I'll let you tell me what you know about Starscream's plans, okay? That way, Grimlock won't eat you. Sound fair?"

The bike nodded frantically.

"Alright, sweet, now then; what is Starscream planning to do? What's he been collecting all that scrap for?"

Before the Decepticon could talk, however, Evac suddenly chimed in: "Um, Wheeljack, I know you said I had to be Grimlock, but I felt I should tell you that I'm detecting something really fast moving to our location, like really, really- ARGH!"

Wheeljack looked up in horror as a missile impacted the helicopter's tail, sending Evac spiralling out of control across the trees, the rookie struggling to control himself despite his tail rotor being compromised. As he went spinning away, his tail smoking heavily, a deep purple jet promptly flew overhead, bringing with it the hefty sound of its powerful engines.

"Aw frag, a Seeker!" Wheeljack growled, immediately leaping into action, his free hand seizing the Decepticon by the leg and dragging him after him. This was not good, not good at all; a Seeker was a strong opponent, the likes of which were best left to Grimlock or Jazz to deal with. While he was confident he could give it a heck of a fight, he wasn't exactly confident in whether or not the fight would end with him as the winner.

Best to head into the denser foliage, avoid any aerial attacks and make sure he kept his hostage in a firm grip; the Seeker would be less likely to try and attack him directly so long as he kept the bike in a firm-

The bike pulled out an energy rifle and shot him in the side.

With a yelp of pain, he ended up dropping the Decepticon, whose superior agility enabled to get up onto his wheel before the tow truck had fully recovered and immediately beat a retreat, wheeling away backwards as he kept his rifle locked onto the Autobot and fired another shot that grazed his shoulder. Annoyed, Wheeljack brought up his plasma cannon and prepared to return fire, only for another attack to come from the side.

The Seeker's missile exploded at his feet, sending him flying through the air in a dizzying tirade of whirls and yells, before he smashed through a tree, hit the ground hard and rolled over and over until he slammed into the base of another one, which promptly fell over with a hefty creaking noise.

Groaning in pain, Wheeljack struggled to regain his footing, his free hand reaching into a back compartment as he managed to push him upwards, pulling out a gadget which he promptly unfolded into his custom-built sword, the sleek metal blades locking together into the melee weapon. As he did this, the Seeker landed nearby, frame jolting with the impact before it reared up, red optics locking onto him with intense fervour.

The two faced off, Wheeljack adopting a defensive position of sword-first, cannon-behind, just as the Seeker deployed its own blades, deadly curved weapons extending from the flattened arms. There was no hesitance or fear in its expression, simply brutal duty.

"Frag me." Wheeljack muttered, having lost sight of the bike and his rifle at this point, left with only this much larger and stronger opponent, with Evac out of the fight and Jazz unaware this was even happening. "This is gonna suck."

--

Slipstream all but danced down the corridor towards the Conciller meeting chamber, feeling a sense of elation she had not felt in years! It had been far too long since she had last seen her old mentor, far too indeed, and she was more than eager to catch up with him and fill him in on what she had been up to since their last meeting. Not to mention she had just received perhaps the most spark-warming comment she had ever heard in her life from a certain grumpy Mustang.

Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.

But though a thought of concern for his fate tingled at the back of her processor, she was currently much more inclined to focus on her reunion with Commander Blackout. The Conciller's meeting chamber had to be the one at the end of the hallway, bearing a elaborate crest upon it that seemed to be a stylised interpretation of Shockwave himself.

She found herself staring at the elaborate little decoration for a moment, before she gave herself a moment to get her thoughts back on track and make sure her demeanour was as professional as the days she was just a rookie. Blackout had always been one of the fairer commanders, but he was still as stern as any other when it came to proper presentation; no amount of years apart was an excuse to slack off one's image.

He was right behind that door. The Decepticon who had trained her and Airachnid and countless others, who had given her the option to change her path for the better. Her time as a medic had proven so much more vitalising to her than her original dream, and all it had took was a lack of spare appendages, an Energon healing ray and a commander with much more insight than one might give him credit for.

She hears voices on the other side of the door. They are muffled, deep, and she can't exactly recognise them. It must be a big chamber then. Still, she listens for a moment, wondering if she might hear Blackout. His voice is so much deeper than most others, and she's fairly sure that one voice on the other side might just be his...

Slipstream raised an arm and knocked on the door. It obediently slid open, and she stepped inside. The chamber was huge and nicely lit with bright pink lights, huge monitors along the sides of the room and there was a massive sort of purple throne at the end of a huge golden table, surrounded by smaller seats. On one side of the throne sits Commander Strika, imposing as ever with the hefty cannons on her back and her rich purplish-crimson colour scheme.

Slipstream had served under Strika ever since she'd left Blackout and before she joined Starscream; she was a powerful and intelligent commander, every bit the gladiator she had been before the war and every bit the tactician she had become to support her physical might. She'd been earning a lot of victories in recent years, and many Decepticons suspected that Lord Megatron might well make her a Conciller soon enough.

Slipstream liked Strika a lot. She'd never been as calm or fair as Blackout, but she knew how to motivate her troops. Standing behind her was Tankor, essentially her lieutenant and a rugged individual himself, and sat beside her was a average-sized Decepticon who Slipstream didn't really know. Flamewar, maybe? Crowbar? Something like that.

And on the other side of the throne sits Blackout.

All four glance up at her entrance, and for a moment she suddenly feels quite awkward, like an intruder. But then all of their optics flicker in recognition (even the one Slipstream doesn't really know) and Strika stands up, mobilising towards her old subordinate as she declares: "Slipstream; it's a wonderful surprise to see you here!"

Mostly, Cybertronians didn't really indulge in physical contact, given armour these days was more geared towards defence than comfort, but Strika nevertheless rounded on her and swept her up into a crushing hug. The tank was shorter than the jet, but much bulkier, and Slipstream gave a sort of squeak as her old commander's powerful arms squeezed her armour.

"Oof, Commander Strika! I'm happy to see you too!"

The tank sets her down and analyses her with a critical optic: "You seem to be in excellent condition. I'm reassured that that egotist Starscream hasn't led you into as sorry a state as he has led himself into."

Slisptream smiled weakly: "Starscream's been a fine commander. A few slip-ups, of course, but he's improved profusely."

Strika tilted her head, looking a tad bemused, before she replied: "If you insist. Well, I am pleased that you have done well so far, Slipstream; you always were such an amiable and competent soldier, and you were an even better medic. I assume you've been kept busy in that regard?"

"Very busy, commander, very busy indeed!"

"Of course. The Decepticon army can only move as far as its medics, and you move very far indeed." The tank replied, before she swiftly turned to the other two and declared: "Tankor, Flamewar, we must now appraise the test subjects Shockwave spoke of. We will reconvene with the others later."

The other two obediently got up and pranced over to her, Flamewar nodded her head slightly at Slipstream, Tankor granting her a grin and a muttered: "Good to see you again, Slippy. Glad you've been well."

She returned the favour, and the trio exited the chamber. The door slid shut behind her, and now she and Blackout were alone. Always so intuitive, Strika was.

She just stood there for a moment, gazing at him, and he slowly raised himself out of his seat, as utterly huge and imposing as ever. Even as an adult now, she was still shorter than him, but to be fair, lots of bots were shorter than Blackout. Her optics examined him for any differences, any changes since she'd last seen him, but he was the same as ever; same dark armour, same vehicular aspects, same spark-searching crimson optics.

In a way, she was glad he hardly seemed to change. It was nice to have an eternal boulder in her life, right?

He strides over to her, examining with all the sharpness of Strika but with a more personal intensity, and she fights the urge to cower under his size, as if she's just a rookie again, begging him to let her go and fight with Onslaught and the other Decepticons in that fateful mission.

And then he speaks, his optics alight with the smile his mouth never did: "You look well."

"You do too. How's Shokaw's weather up there?"

And then she bursts into laughter and affectionately grips a massive hand in her own, all but bouncing up and down before him as she giggles: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I've been meaning to use that joke since I learnt it on this planet my ship's currently parked at and, ha, it's just so good to see you again, sir."

"That is a good joke." He replies calmly, optics still twinkling even though he didn't laugh (she doubts he's ever laughed once in his life). "I'll have to remember it, though I imagine there are few on which I can properly execute it with."

She just laughs again, smiling up at him with the widest smile she's smiled in ages, because despite all of the trouble Barricade had gotten them in, despite the fears of what Shockwave may do, at least Blackout would always be the stability she could count on.

Realising his hands, she asks: "So, how have you been, sir? Airachnid tells me you won a fairly major battle against an Autobot Master-Class vessel!"

"A difficult battle, but ultimately flawed." He replied. "The Autobots were overconfident in their defences. They themselves assured our victory."

Ah, always to the point, Blackout was, and always so analytical. He was like Nighttrace in that regard, only a tad more talkative.

He went on, optics flickering around the chamber: "But more importantly, how are you, Slipstream? Shockwave himself informed me one of your comrades stole technology from him."

And then the good feeling dampened a bit. She hesitated a bit, promptly embarrassed that he knew about this whole shenanigan and that he had most likely come here to see how it had affected her, before she replied: "Well, um, yes, that's true. Barricade stole a Battle-Inducement Nodule from Airachnid and tried to use it to kill the Autobot called Hound."

"Barricade." Blackout repeated, and then he understood. "I suppose that is obvious. Only Barricade would have the lack of foresight to pilfer a device from a Conciller for his own agenda."

She chuckled awkwardly: "Yep, that's our Barricade alright. Sometimes he can be a pretty good bot, but he's mostly just the most absolute idiotic dimwit I've ever met."

"Indeed." Her old commander agreed. "Always the first to leap, never the one to look. But for all his faults, he has resolve. That Insecticon uprising failed to kill him. And somehow, I imagine this incident will fail to destroy him as well."

The jet tilted her head curiously at his words, surprised at a demonstration of faith from him towards the Mustang, but then he shook his head and changed the subject, settling down in one of the seats and beckoning for her to do the same.

"As much as I adore speaking of Barricade, I think I would find your subjects far more interesting." Blackout said fondly, appraising her with that old pride she'd seen the day she'd chosen the healing ray. "Tell me where your mission outside the territories has led you."

She perked up, as eager as the rookie he'd taught, and she immediately began to spin him stories of an adorable little planet with one moon and more beauty than she'd seen in a long time, all relayed with utter adoration to perhaps the best Decepticon she'd ever known.

To be frank, Slipstream hadn't felt quite this happy in a fair while.

--

To be frank, Starscream hadn't felt quite this uneasy in a fair while.

No matter how much he hated and resented Shockwave, he could at least count on him to be predictable, to adhere to his rules and his standards and his logic. Shockwave was the type of Decepticon who liked everything to run smoothly and methodically, who wouldn’t ever stray from professional standards unless he had some ulterior motivation behind it. In short, he wasn’t one to extend your suffering on a whim, not unless it complied with his sense of scientific rationale.

Airachnid, however, was not like Shockwave. She was a much more whimsical and cruel creature than the Conciller, much more inclined to flex her claws so to speak. She loved tormenting and torturing others, adored the sound of screams and tearing metal, and she was much more willing to use interrogation as an excuse to peel away one’s armoured piece by agonising piece. Quite frankly, Starscream suspected he wouldn’t be coming out of this place with his chassis intact.

Okay, maybe his hatred for her was much more justified than simply hating her on account of the Conciller she associated with.

Still, whatever horrors she could concoct, he would endure. Commander Starscream was not the plaything of some egotistical sadistic wretch, nor was he some inferior lab-rat of Shockwave's. Airachnid's idea of playtime was a childish concept; the Decepticon faction was far more than childish concepts.

Still, that didn't mean he would like whatever may be coming. Airachnid had a good (or was it bad?) habit of knowing exactly where and how to put a stinger to draw out as much pain as possible. There was a good reason she'd become a scientist; pain was so much easier to explore and indulge in within the comfort of a lab than the field of battle.

A part of him was thus reassured that he wasn't alone here, here in the long dark corridors of the lower floor, with these guard drones around them. It may have been his fault to begin with, but Barricade was here, and Starscream supposed that would be better than nothing. And of course, there was Nighttrace. He turned his head and glanced at them, the UAV fluttering at his side and the car strutting along beside her in turn, all of them following the scorpion scuttling along the ceiling.

There was no fear on their faces, Starscream noted, no apprehension at all- Well okay, Barricade had a little bit, but he masked it well under his crude demeanour. It seemed he was always veering between actual emotion and his typical thuggish outlook, presumably trying to fight down the former via the latter. Nighttrace was simple stoic, simple calm and acceptant, and Starscream doubted anything she'd see down here would faze her.

If Airachnid did torture them for whatever demented reason she could find, would they suffer? Would they break? The jet hoped he could say they wouldn't. His reconnaissance officer, his lieutenant, was far too solid an individual to let any sadistic little wretch break her, and his shock trooper was too caught up in his own crude little delusions to even bother getting worked up over pain.

He shuddered a bit, realising that his analysis of the Mustang came from experience.

Don't think about that now.

He observed Nighttrace's calm demeanour again and revved softly. Glad for her rock-steady attitude, an amusing contrast to her flighty frame, Starscream allowed himself to briefly take her hand in his for a moment and gently squeeze it, offering her reassurance. She glanced at him, giving him one of those meaningful looks she was so good at, and she squeezed back in return.

Of course, he'd need comforting long before she would; he was surprised at how easy it had been to admit to himself, but she was in some ways much stronger than he was. He gave her a small smile and their hands detached. That wasn't exactly wrong; he really didn't like it down here-

Barricade suddenly froze by the sole observation pane left uncovered by an obscuring sheet and the group paused to see why. The drones idly raised their guns at him, silently questioning his pause, while Airachnid detached from the ceiling, her beast mode's tail splitting into legs and catching her neatly as she finished her conversion and asked: "What's the hold-up?"

"You have Insecticons here." Barricade snarled flatly, glaring into the room behind the pane with impressive vigour as he pointed it out, and the other three also peered in. Indeed, within the darkly green-lit room was the cylindrical pulsing form of an Insecticon Feeder, the huge worm-like beast lazily expanding and contracting its huge sticky form. The creature was being fed lumps of raw material from a mechanical arm, and two drones were sat behind it collecting some kind of sickly silvery excrements emanating from the beast's tail.

"An Insecticon Feeder." Airachnid responded cheerfully, like an overtly perky tour guide. "It's the only Insecticon on Shokaw currently, and it is the source of a particularly interesting series of experiments. As you ought to know, Feeders are amongst the largest sub-species of Insecticon, designed for one thing only; feeding. They can ingest nearly everything with voracity and efficiency unlike any other of their kind, and they can convert nearly everything they eat into that substance you see being collected there."

She turned to look at Barricade, granting him a wide grin in response to his disgusted expression as she continued: "It's called Hivematter, and it's what the Insecticons use to fortify and build their hives. Very interesting substance; thick and viscous, yet malleable and obedient, and it hardens into thick barriers as strong as Cybertanium itself. We've been keeping this specimen for the sole purpose of producing and studying Hivematter. It could prove to be a valuable medical tool."

"How so?" Nighttrace asked, staring at the disgusting beast with distasteful optics.

"Well, let's say your armour has been torn in combat. Theoretically, you could pour a vial of Hivematter into the wound, have it expand and seal the breach before hardening into replacement armour, allowing you to soldier on. That's the idea anyway." She then shook her head in annoyance before continuing: "Alas, it's so far proved unreliable; the viscous state seeps too far in, and it contains too much Insectoplasma to be used safely. Still, we keep at it. It's a very promising concept."

"Insecticons are connected to each other via a hive-mind, are they not?" Starscream asked, looking a tad viral at the sight of the beast's acidic slobber and the sad drones having to collect its excretions. "How did this one handle being separated from its hive over entire galaxies?"

"Oh, it's just completely given up." Airachnid responded cheerfully. "All it ever does is lie there, sad and filthy. It eats only when we directly shove food down its gullet, so it's safe to say it's lost all purpose now. No sense of survival, preservation, even hostility. Without its hive, it's just a mindless husk of a creature that can only go through the motions we put it through. Makes me wonder if Insecticons can ever be suicidal."

The metal arm retracted to fetch another piece of sustenance and the Feeder gave a low warble. The sound was chilling in its emptiness.

Airachnid just shook her head, disinterested now, before turning and walking on: "But enough of that. We have other businesses here, if you three recall."

They tore their optics away from the sight of the despondent Feeder and shuffled after her, Starscream perturbed, Nighttrace distant and Barricade flexing his claws in anger, muttering himself: "Filthy little acid-spewing bag of pus. Those fraggers deserve to have their minds stripped and their lives ruined, they deserve to die, painfully, in the biggest fire I can start..."

Starscream took note of his ramblings and grunted: "You don't like Insecticons much, do you?"

"No. They need to die, painfully, brutally. They're just as worthless as the Autobots; why bother even letting such degenerates carry on wasting life as we know it?" Barricade grunted.

The jet observed him for a moment, but he did not continue the conversation.

They continued down the dark corridor, glancing at the obscured panes on either side of the corridor, before Airachnid stopped beside a heavy-set door and turned to face them, the trio coming to a halt before her as the guard drones circled around them.

"This is our interrogation booth." Airachnid purred. "It doesn't get used that often, but it's always a joy when it does. Now then, shall we get to business?"

Starscream swaggered forward, promptly setting himself up to go first, flexing his prominent shoulders challengingly as he sneered: "If the Conciller's right-hand says so. Do your worst, Airachnid."

"If you insist." She replied coolly. "Nighttrace, you first. You wrote such a lovely report for us; I wonder if you'll be just as eloquent here as you were writing that."

The UAV simply nodded, as the Raptor deflated and was pushed back alongside Barricade against the wall, before she fluttered forward as the huge door swung open. Airachnid beckoned her in with a graceful sweep of the arms, and she hovered into the room, ready to face anything the Conciller's right hand had prepared for her. Airachnid followed her in and the door shut behind them.

It was now just Starscream and Barricade, standing outside the interrogation booth, surrounded by guards and feeling quite apprehensive now. Of the three of them, Nighttrace had the best chance of getting off scot-ready; she hadn't been in a position of commander over a thief at the time of the nodule's theft, nor was she the thief herself. Surely Airachnid wouldn't see fit to use her as a warm-up for whatever tortures she had in mind for the other two?

With this in mind, Starscream grunted: "Tell me something; if Nighttrace ended up suffering over all this, over the trouble you've caused, would you at all feel even the slightest bit guilty? Even just a tad responsible?"

"No not really no."

"Just what I thought. Well, Barricade, I should probably tell you straight; regardless of our apologies to each other before, regardless of whatever grudging tolerance we have for each other, if she or any other member of my crew ends up unnecessarily suffering over your crime, nothing that Airachnid or Shockwave or Overlord could ever do will match what I will do to you."

"That's adorable and all, Starscream-" Barricade huffed, folding his arms and arching a brow at the jet. "But quite frankly, you're always been more scream than star."

"And you just have no sense of consequence." Starscream snapped. "Always leaping, never looking. It's a fragging miracle your stupid little attitude hasn't resulted in you dying at the hands of your own faction, never mind the Autobots."

Barricade gave a hollow laugh: "Ah, Starscream, didn't you hear? I've already died once; I can't die twice."

The jet just snorted: "You keep thinking that, Barricade. You just keep fragging thinking that."

The drones ordered them to be quiet, and the two fell into bitter silence, the only thing they could do now being to wait for Nighttrace to emerge and for their turn with the temporary master of Shokaw.

Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay, but hey ho, new chapter!

Oh look, it's Blackout again, and Ellen too, and Strika and Tankor and Flamewar and all that good stuff. At least Slippy is happy, but the other three, not so much.

Evac crashed again. Been a while since that last happened.

 

Ahhh okay herewego.

Barricade was pretty much the chapter. I will forever think of this chapter as the Barricade chapter. It's funny because I remember when the Decepticons were first introduced and Barricade was pretty much hardly in it for a while and whenever he would get a monologue or a piece of dialogue or something you'd be like "wut who's this guy," and now he's the catalyst for one of the biggest arcs so far in the series. Not to mention it feels like his mannerisms have gotten just progressively more extravagant. He reminds me so much of Karkat, they're both always angry. The difference is, occasionally displays genuine affection for his friends. Whereas Barricade is a basic bitch.

Oh but hold up, shipping nudges. Heck yeah. I really loved the like two seconds that Soundwave was brought up as Barricade was walking towards his doom. It was short but so worth it. Like, just admit it Barricade. You secretly want to submerge yourself in the ultimate bromance with your best buddy Soundwave and ride off into the sunset forever paired up as the two shortest guys on your team. Except for Sideways, but he doesn't count for anything. Speaking of shipping, obviously the thing with Slipstream was super cute. But it was humorously downplayed when Slipstream was literally like, "I think I'm worried about Barricade, but oh nevermind I'm meeting my old teacher so."

And onto that, seeing all of those new Decepticons was great. I know exactly who Strika sounds like, but I can't remember the name of the voice actress. So if I ever think of it, I'll let ya know. But as for Blackout, he's totes James Earl Jones like don't even argue with me on that, that is who he is. Mufasa. Vader. Blackout. Yep. And props on having Strike casually being a female in power, like, I really don't give nearly as much of a crap on "ROBOTS CAN BE GULRS TOO YA KNOOWWWW" as other people but I thought that that was cool.

Starscream bugged me again in this chapter.

As for Wheeljack, his fight teeny robot game is super weak. He would never be able to babysit a cat or something. And Evac, child, it's too early to die so get your slag together.

Okay bye.