Love it!! Just love it.

 

Ah-hah, I knew it, I knew I wasn't totally crazy.   But yeah, I noticed this example of when you used the word "then" instead of "than" by accident. So yeah, just something to try to pick up on when you're writing in the foreseeable future.

There was nothing about this context wise that I didn't like, but I did come across quite a few grammatical errors besides that one over the course of the chapter, so my only suggestion is to maybe reread your work more thoroughly, or at least go through the revising process if you already don't. (Even though this is silly coming from me because I often post things without actually rereading them myself. XP) Most of them consisted of a statement missing a word or something along those lines.

Anyways, on to the good stuff, it's nice that we've picked up on a relatively lighthearted situation after the rather dark themes of the previous episode...at least on the Autobot side. :/ As for the Decepticons, of course, I loved the dialogue between the team and how they were all yelling at each other, and of course, how

Nighttrace  O) stepped in and got them all silenced. Another instance in which we were hinted at Starscream's fondness of her, because I assume that if it were anybody else, he would have continued lashing out regardless. Not to mention the principle on which hearing "SHUT UP" wouldn't be nearly as impacting coming from anyone else, because everybody else regularly talks. XP Afterward, I admit that I was somber to see Airachnid leave, hope she comes back at some point. At the same time, I'm happy to see Grindor and Sideways. I'm particularly fond of the former, though I appreciate the latter's outrageous characterization with how nervous and jerky he is. Like a Chihuahua or something.   They seem like quite a dynamic duo though, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of them. Also, for what it's worth mentioning, this is the first time I've pictured any characters in remote likeness to the official designs, since I've seen them on your dA profile prior to this. And idk, it's pretty cool.

I giggled a bit when Wheeljack effectively irritated Bumblebee by referencing the last episode. It also quite bemuses me how "annoyed" he gets with the rookies on occasion, and yet he's so enthusiastic to show them what he's up to. As for Bumblebee's sharing his lie with Evac and Wheeljack, (and Evac on his way to tell the others, also amused by his inherent enthusiasm), I'm wondering just how much it'll effect the plot.

Did I also spot Airachnid referencing the nodule that Barricade had stolen? Have I spoken too soon? 0_0

Excited for the next update!  

EDIT: Oh, and we already see that Grindor might just have a little...crush...on Nighttrace. ^^ Also, Barricade's "I'm a fragging legend, I am." That got a good chuckle out of me, that silly arrogant fragger. xD

EDIT AGAIN: Oh, yes, and I forgot this:

 

Ratchet was in a very good mood, despite the rather injured condition in which another Autobot had found himself in. For starters, he was walking more securely now, even with whatever remaining glitches buzzing at his leg's systems. The brace was doing its job wonderfully, and his regenerative systems had plenty of energy to spare in speeding up the healing process further.

Secondly, against the odds, the Autobots had not only reclaimed their wayward scout, but they had dealt a devastating and strategic blow to their enemies. Starscream's ship was crippled, trapped on the moon and helpless to perform any more of its odd little scavenging runs. Whatever metals he was trying to forge, whatever purpose he was aiming for, Starscream was now hampered by a brutal setback, and he wouldn't be causing trouble for a while.

Well, he could, but not with his ship at least.

And thirdly, he was oh so pleased to resume his medical duties. He'd been lounging around in a berth for too long, forced to just sit back and watch his apprentice put up with the other Autobot's oddly persistent habits of procuring injuries. And while he was very proud of Evac's improvements in terms of managing the others, he needed to set a better example as the resident Chief Medic.

And so he was, currently poring over the gaping blackened hole in Jazz's chest, the signature style of a Shredder Shotgun. The damage, thankfully, was mostly absorbed by the chestplate and thus few valves were severed and the spark chamber, though slightly visible under the wreckage, remained undamaged. However, the armour was ravaged and transformation was certainly impossible with the vehicle mode's front missing. It would take a bit, and Jazz wouldn't be driving for a while, but he could do it.

His fingers shifted and transformed into a variety of miniature tools and he began prodding into the Lieutenant's cavity, tongs seizing any severed valves and re-joining them for a small welder to start searing them back together. Ah, it was good to be doctoring again.

Hound, loitering behind the Hummer, was currently talking to Grimlock: "While we do have an estimated time that it would take for Starscream to fully repair his ship, we can't exactly bet on it reliably. He may well attempt to summon back-up to act in his place, or a repair crew to speed up his ship's recovery."

"And a hunting strategy would not do us much good at this point." Grimlock snorted. "Their cloaking and shielding technologies still function, and attacking a prone target focussing its power on defence is more difficult than a mobile unit that fights back."

Hound was surprised at such consideration from the berserker, but took it in stride: "Indeed. If we want to overcome them without much risk to ourselves, we need to get our Solanor plan into action quickly, and use the extra Energon to give us the boost we need to get through any defence they can put up."

"And wipe them off the face of the universe." Grimlock replied with satisfaction. "Well, Grimlock will pass credit where it is due; the Lieutenant had a good idea with this one. But Grimlock is curious as to how we'll dig out an hidden spot for our converter and enough cables to transfer energy from the human solar foundries before the Decepticons are airborne again."

"We only need one enhanced solar farm to really boost us up." The jeep pointed out. "Once the Decepticons are taken care of, we can start converting the rest."

Grimlock nodded in agreement, before Ratchet, still working on the offline Solstice, chipped in: "Speaking of which, how exactly are we intending to take care of the Decepticons? I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly too comfortable for exterminating a group trapped within a crippled vessel."

The truck simply rolled his optics, dismissive of the medic's moral standards, but the jeep was more contemplative, eventually replying: "If they surrender, or if it's possible to disable them, then we'll take them alive. I personally believe we should try and ensure that Nighttrace and Soundwave are captured; they could provide valuable information on Decepticon endeavours-"

"But if they insist on fighting to the death, Grimlock shall not hesitate to indulge them." The truck growled. "Grimlock will try to avoid ripping your chosen two apart if you are so eager to interrogate them, but Grimlock won't be so caring to the others. The Seekers in particular should hold no concern; they are merely drones, expendable and not worth the effort of incapacitation."

Ratchet seemed prepared to argue with the larger Autobot regarding his brutal intentions, but Hound regained the conversation: "Fine; the Seekers are to be removed, I can live with that. Starscream and that Triple-changer, they're much more dangerous, however. We can't guarantee their effective capture. If push comes to shove, we may have to eliminate them."

"And the other one? That jet that stole Bumblebee in the first place?" Ratchet asked.

Grimlock spoke up before Hound could respond: "That one belongs to Grimlock. Grimlock will enjoy ripping it apart for daring to steal our comrade from us."

Hound's response was cold: "If they insist on trying to kill you, you can have whatever Decepticon you want, Grimlock. But avoid unnecessarily slaughtering Soundwave and Nighttrace if you can. And most of all, and this applies to every Autobot on this ship, you won't touch Barricade. That Decepticon is one that I will take care of."

Now this was surprising, both to Grimlock and Ratchet, who had all but forgotten about poor Jazz in this conversation. Hound spoke those words with an intensity they hadn't seen in him before. Well, actually, Grimlock had seen it before; when Hound engaged in combat with the Decepticons that had tried to use the Beetle as bait.

Most prominent was the lieutenant's undertone of sheer hatred and lethal intent. He spoke of this Decepticon like an Insecticon to be exterminated. Ratchet was stunned at such a brutal insinuation from the jeep. Grimlock was merely impressed.

He informed them of this motivation by stating: "Do you know what Bumblebee told me after we got him back from them? That Barricade directly threatened him with torture and mutilation, specifically to hurt me through him."

Ratchet looked shocked at this revelation, feeling a bit viral at the thought of such an awful scenario. Grimlock's optics widened slightly in angered surprise, before he automatically growled.

"I know." Hound said coldly, acknowledging the other Autobot's shock. "No-one drags my apprentice into a rivalry strictly between myself and the other, least of all by threatening him like that. So quite frankly, if I ever see that wretched piece of scrap again, he's on a one-way trip to whatever dark cold space spawned him."

"Not unless Grimlock gets to him firs-" The berserker snarled, but the jeep immediately asserted himself.

"NO. Barricade is mine to fight, and mine to end, not yours, Grimlock. He's always been intent on making this personal, and now he just got his wish. You'll leave him to me."

It wasn't a request.

Interestingly, the berserker did not press the point. Whether surprised by such assertion or impressed by such dedication to finishing a foe, Grimlock did not argue with the jeep.

Ratchet, on the other hand, was more inclined to pursue this matter: “Much as I agree that Barricade’s actions are frankly appalling, are you sure you should be so zealous in returning the feeling, so to speak? Revenge for lethal intent isn’t exactly the best road to take-“

“I appreciate your concern, Ratchet. But while I too would prefer to avoid unnecessary violence, there are some Decepticons out there for whom mercy is not a second chance to better themselves, but simply an opportunity to continue their desires for pain and murder. Barricade is most definitely in the latter class. I have to finish him, both to remove this insane rivalry he’s constructed, and the threat he poses to everyone I care for.”

The Hummer hesitated, seeming a bit uneasy, but even as he mustered up a counterpoint, Grimlock sneered: “You know, it’s funny how you’re the first one to talk about moral standards, medic, despite the fact you seemed pretty eager to threaten a prisoner’s life to save your own plating.”

Ratchet was stunned by this cruel taunt, briefly sagging in the face of that bitter fact and Grimlock’s malevolent optics, before he regained himself, revved angrily and turned back to Jazz, deciding to resume his repair job than to justify Grimlock with any kind of reply he could further bite at him with.

Hound felt a tad unhappy with rejecting his friend’s good intentions like that, certainly displeased by the cruel jibe from the tanker truck, but he was distracted from these thoughts by Grimlock returning his attention to the jeep and asking: “So, quick question; why do you and Barricade hate each so much? Besides his threats to our friend, of course.”

“I encountered him once before on the battlefield a long time ago, in a scenario that ended badly for him. It was just business on my part, but he took it to spark, apparently, and vowed to exact his revenge on me for that day. And now he’s made it clear that he’s more than willing to hurt my friends and comrades to maintain his desire for vengeance, to hurt me whenever possible. Basically, he took a defeat too far, and he won’t stop until either I’m gone or he is.”

“Intense.” Grimlock snorted. “Well, Grimlock has to say, Grimlock is impressed that you are capable of ensuring that you will end his threat permanently. Perhaps you’re not as soft as certain other Autobots.”

He flashed his optics tauntingly towards Ratchet, who ignored the jibe in favour of reconnecting some circuits.

Hound wasn’t sure whether he should be flattered or ashamed of Grimlock’s praise, but thankfully he was spared from replying by the sudden arrival of Evac. The helicopter jumped in through the door and started excitedly hollering about something Bumblebee had said, causing the three Autobots to jerk in shock at his loud entrance.

As he jabbered on, Hound managed to shout: “Evac, Evac, slow down! What is it?!”

“You won’t believe this!” Evac chattered eagerly, rotors flexing wildly and his huge frame bouncing in place. “We were just talking about stuff and Bumblebee told us something he did while stuck on the enemy ship! He told the Decepticons a big lie, a great lying lie that totally fooled them!”

Hound was surprised. Grimlock perked up in amusement and chuckled: “Well, good for our bee. What did he tell our easily belittled opponents?”

“Well, they already knew about the Solanor, ‘cause the scorpion one fought Jazz over it, so Bumblebee told them that we were planning to build a solar foundry in the nearby forest, you know, the forest where we had our second fight with the Decepticons!”

He fell silent and cheerfully gazed at them, hoping for awestruck and excited responses. And fortunately enough, while Ratchet simply preferred to keep working on Jazz, the lieutenant perked up and stated: “Well, that could be very useful. If they think that’s what we’re up to, then not only can we set up our true agenda with less concern about their finding out, we can also set up a trap for them.”

“Assuming they come to find it, considering their condition.” Ratchet pointed out.

“They will.” Grimlock sneered. “Starscream won’t pass up an opportunity to see if he can snag a functional solar foundry for us. Well done, Bumblebee.”

“Well done indeed.” Hound stated proudly, shifting past Evac towards the door: “Grimlock, we’ve got strategizing to do. Evac, help out Ratchet.”

“But of course, lieutenant.”

“You got it, Hound!”

The two exited the med-bay and Evac promptly darted over to the other side of the berth that held their injured leader, eagerly asking how he could help. Ratchet simply glanced up at him, smiled grimly and said:

“Well, if you could ever convince Hound not to give into the same cruel intensity that has utterly absorbed his rival, then that would be great. But if not, I’ll settle for you fetching some spare plates and attaching them to his chassis. He’ll be feeling this slag when he comes back online.”

His good mood wasn’t feeling very good at the moment.

---

Grindor and Soundwave moved swiftly through the corridor, the larger Decepticon muttering strategies and solutions to himself as his third arm weaved about in a frantic fashion, the Lamborghini simply musing on whether or not his new shipmate could live up this flabbergasting claim of repairing the Darksyde's damages within a mere four days. It was a hefty statement to make, certainly, and most Decepticons would only something like it to sound more impressive.

However, Soundwave sensed this wasn't quite the case with Grindor. He seemed far more involved with his career than most other Decepticons would be, and somehow it seemed unlikely that he would outright lie about his capabilities. But then again, he had mentioned good assistance would also speed up the ship's recovery, so perhaps that was the source of his confidence.

Either way, the Lamborghini felt a tad relieved. It would be wonderful to have another Decepticon like Slipstream or Nighttrace around; calm, polite and overall tolerable, a welcome change from the crude Barricade and the temperamental Starscream.

"So, Soundwave, if you don't mind me asking, how did a Neutral like yourself come to our side of the conflict?"

Grindor's deep voice, politely curious, snapped the car out of his musing and caused him to pause slightly, rather caught off-guard by the question. The larger Decepticon also hesitated, turning slightly to see why Soundwave had frozen, one brow raised in slight bewilderment.

Soundwave regained enough sense to reply: "I beg your pardon?"

"Your optical visor is yellow." Grindor pointed out. "Only Neutrals wear that colour these days, or Neutrals that have joined either faction. Hence my question of why you have joined the Decepticons."

The car considered him, before shaking his head and resuming his walk: "My past and my motivations are my business, Grindor."

"I respect that, Soundwave. I was merely curious." The engineer stated soothingly, amending for any unintentional discomfort his question may have inflicted. The car simply shrugged and the two continued down the corridor. The silence that had followed them before was a tad more awkward now and Grindor did not make any further attempts at conversation.

Not that Soundwave cared. At least he had established the basic point with the newcomer (and probably would have to do the same with Sideways later) and that was that.

At the end of the corridor, just before the lift, Soundwave strode forward and typed in a password onto a small console on the wall. It beeped in confirmation, before the metal slid open to reveal an alternate pathway; this new corridor led to the inner workings of the ship, which was exactly where the Decepticon meant to repair them was supposed to go.

The duo stepped through and turned on the lights.

Primus it was a mess. The explosive the Lieutenant had dumped in here had certainly done its job; the left side of the internal corridor had all but been torn open, pieces of shrapnel and chunks of metal scattered across the floor. Severed valves and loose circuits hung limply from the wreckage, Energon dribbling over the floor. The vents were as torn as the walls, the lights further down were shattered and quite a few circuit-boards had been scattered about in pieces.

In short, definitely a mess.

Soundwave's visor flashed in slight unease; though the ship had crashed for a reason, he hadn't anticipated the physical damage being this bad. But then again, he'd only ever been in one other ship had been similarly sabotaged before, and he hadn't checked that one so whatever.

Grindor, on the other hand, was totally at ease as he observed the wreckage, shifting forward slightly for a closer look and stating: "Well, any doubts of explosive use are certainly cast aside now. It's been a fair while since I've seen internal carnage of this degree, but rest assured I can repair it quite easily."

"Are you sure? It looks pretty intense."

"Intensity only inspires intensity in turn." Grindor replied confidently. "I'll have a quick scan, determine the best plan of action in regards to removing this impediment and then we'll get to work. Do me a favour and check the warp-space mechanics panel over there. The last thing we need is for it to undergo a sudden overload and warp us all into some demented dimensional strand."

With that, he strode forward and Soundwave, a tad bemused at his comrade's chatter, obediently shifted over to a large panel nearby. Flicking it open, he inspected the collection of lights and switches. Thankfully, all of the little lights were flashing bright purple, indicating positive status. No chances of warp driver failure-and-implosion here!

He'd heard that an unfortunate Devastator-class vessel had undergone such an unfortunate tragedy, torn apart and crushed by its own imploding failure of a warp driver. Soundwave shuddered a little bit at the thought and snapped the panel closed.

"Good news, Grindor; the panel displays optimum conditions. We won't be having any accidents from this mechanism."

"Always a pleasure to know." The engineer stated cheerfully, shifting through the wreckage and picking up pieces of circuit boards, examining them with a curious optic. "These circuit boards seem reasonably intact; I'll ask Sideways to see if he can put a few of these back together. It'd save having to replace all of them at least. The main priority is to reconnect these valves and get out the Energon flow back to an optimum status."

"That would be good." Soundwave stated. "The sooner we get the thrusters back online, the better."

"Indeed." Grindor said, continuing his observations, before he was struck by a thought and turned to face Soundwave. "You stated that the mechanics panel confirmed the warp driver is in good condition, correct?"

"Yes, I did."

"Well, since the ship won't be using it in conjunction with the thrusters for a while, would you kindly reconfigure it to act as a makeshift ground bridge? Such a system would certainly increase our efficiency despite our crippled state."

Soundwave stared at him blankly, and Grindor, about to return his attentions to the damage, felt a touch of bewilderment in his neurals, before he slowly said:

"Soundwave. Tell me you know how to reconfigure a warp driver."

"Well, I, um.... I don't. I actually didn't know it could do that. Act as a, a ground bridge..."

Grindor was flabbergasted, before he adopted a stern expression and place his hands on his hips: "Soundwave, didn't you read the Vessel Schematics Manual?"

"Yes!..... Maybe.... just the bits of communication and.... that's it."

The engineer revved in disbelief: "The Vessel Schematics Manual clearly details how to utilise the warp-space mechanics panel to synchronise the warp driver's portal generation systems into the ship's transmission wavelengths in order to serve as a make-shift ground bridge generator capable of forming a basic portal anywhere upon a planet within the acceptable range of transmission on Page 8.1, titled Warp Driver Basics."

Soundwave awkwardly nodded.

Grindor revved slightly: "Well if you haven't read it, then I'll do that. Would you mind sweeping aside some of this junk so I can get some foot-space, and then informing Starscream of my alteration?"

"Of course. No problem."

They passed by each other, Grindor moving over to the panel and beginning to mutter to himself again and Soundwave to the wreckage, feeling profusely awkward.

As he began shifting the junk off to one side, being sure to keep the circuit boards separate for Sideways to look at later, Soundwave felt quite unhappy with the humiliation he had just endured. To think, he had been caught off-guard like that so easily, all due to the fact he hadn't really bothered to read the full details of that stupid manual.

But to be fair, he was the Communications officer, not a repair con. He was expected to know tachyon transmitters and ultrasonic conundrums, not the intricacies of a ship’s warp driver!

Though, it was still rather humiliating to have been talked down to like that- Well, not actually talked down to, Grindor was perfectly justified in highlighting his negligence. But it still bit at him considering he was normally the Decepticon with the answers and the knowledge, not some youngling to be told basic stuff.

He revved a little bit and decided he would read the manual in its entirety tonight.

Soon enough he was done, just as Grindor happily confirmed a successful alteration, and with that, the Lamborghini left to the engineer to his business as he exited the inner corridor to the outer one and stared down towards the control with a slight rev.

Short a distance as it was, he nevertheless converted into vehicle mode, rotating his hips around to align himself as he compacted into the sleek sports car. To be honest, he was feeling a little bit frustrated with the fact that he hadn’t been able to go down to Earth and drive for a while. He missed the feeling of the roads under his tires, and he missed the air whipping over his frame as he moved at speeds unattainable by any mere human-made car.

Driving down the corridor was hardly the ideal replacement for Earth’s roads, but at least it was something other than walking or sitting or standing. Idling down this imaginary road, he contemplated the options that this ground bridge would grant them, provided the ship had enough energy to handle it.

For starters, the Earthbound Seekers wouldn’t have to worry about giving away the Darksyde by coming back with the shuttle; they could bridge in whatever supplies they had scavenged. And now that he thought of it, he could bridge himself to Earth anytime he wanted and drive wherever he felt like!

Of course, he could always drive on the moon’s surface, but of course a Lamborghini driving around this little satellite was a dead giveaway to any watching Autobots.

Still, the thought of having all of Earth as his leisure driving ground cheered him up and he shifted back into robot mode upon arriving at the control room, entering it with the stride of one who has news to deliver. Starscream was sat on his chair, talking to Slipstream about something, and Barricade was at a console, playing video games while on duty. Again.

Of course, the Mustang was unaware of Waspinator spying on him from upon the ceiling, so Soundwave didn’t bother paying any more attention to him and strode over to the two jets.

“Starscream, I have some good news from Grindor.”

The jet perked up at the car’s statement, before turning his attention to him and cheerfully stating: “Ah, excellent! I do love good news. Lay it on me, Soundwave.”

As Slipstream strutted over to see what Barricade was up to, Soundwave began: “Grindor reports that the damage, while intense, won’t be much problem for him to sort through. Also, he says that Sideways can repair some of the circuit boards that was broken, so we don’t have to replace all of them.”

“Well that’s good. Anything else?”

Soundwave paused for a moment, considering how to relay his next point without seeming foolish. After all, he would be expected to have read the manual, right? Being the ship’s smart bot, so to speak. But then, perhaps Starscream hadn’t read it either. Might as well get on with it.

“Grindor has also made an alteration to our warp driver- with my permission, no worries- so that it can act like a ground bridge. For, you know, bridging stuff.”

Starscream tilted his head and raised his brow, perplexed: "I didn't know the ship could do that."

"Well, um… did you read the Vessel Schematics Manual?"

"Of course!... kind of... just a little... well, no, no I didn't."

"It's okay, I didn't really read it either."

"To be honest, I didn't know we had one. But still, ground bridge is a good thing. Yep, good thing."

"Yep."

A moment of awkward silence passed between them. Barricade and Slipstream were snickering in the background.

With new motivation, Starscream recovered from the awkwardness, got to his feet and declared: “Well, if this is the case, than I am very pleased! The addition of a ground bridge will add a new strategic dimension to our endeavours! We can reclaim the supplies my Seekers have gathered with ease, we can send ground troops to Earth without constantly using the shuttle! Of course ground bridge portals can’t be cloaked, but who cares, it’s just a quick flick and that’s that!”

Tapping his claws together cheerfully, he continued: “Now then, I have a new plan forming within my processor! In due time, Barricade, I will be sending you out on a covert mission!”

Barricade revved in annoyance, not looking up from his game: “What kind of mission?”

“Reconnaissance, but it won’t be for a while so you can chill out for now, I guess.”

“Yay.”

“My goodness, I just come up with the best ideas.” Starscream gloated, evidently having reached a sort of gloating point in his mood. “Sending in for Grindor worked out wonderfully now that he’s given us a delightful new asset!”

“Of course, we could have had it earlier if a certain commander read the manual!” Slipstream sang, giggling fanatically.

“Shut up Slipstream. Go make yourself useful and tell Sideways to go help Grindor or something, I don’t care.”

The jet simply continued to giggle, darting off towards the door, as the jet turned to Soundwave and said: “Well, thanks for telling me this, Soundwave. Kindly resume monitoring duty, while I go and inspect our Cybertanium stock. Let me know if anything else pops up!”

With that, he strode off towards the door, Waspinator buzzing down to settle onto his shoulder, and he exited with his usual flair. Soundwave watched him go, before shaking his head with a slight turn of the wheels and moving over to sit next to Barricade, still absorbed in his game.

“So, having fun slacking off again?”

“Profusely.”

“Even though you could be doing something productive?”

“You shutting the Pit up is productive.”

Meanwhile, Slipstream strode down the corridor, a cheerful influence in her walk thanks to yet another good taunt at Starscream as she made her way down to the vacant rooms at the end of the corridor. With Grindor and Sideways moving in, and only eight such rooms to fit the crew (four on each side), the Seekers had been moved to Slipstream's side of the ship, which she shared with Nighttrace and Soundwave.

On the one hand, she felt a tad sorry that the amiable Grindor and the nervous Sideways would have to share a corridor with Starscream and Barricade. On the other hand, at least she was safe on the other side if they had any bad recharging habits.

Speaking of them, she was quite contemplative of these new comrades. Grindor seemed good enough, a polite and competent Con indeed. He'd certainly be useful in fixing up the ship after that Lieutenant fiasco. And Sideways was very funny, in a panicky sort of way. He reminded her of another Decepticon, some bot called Breakdown or something, who was very, very paranoid. The idea of two such characters meeting up made her giggle.

Anyway, she reached the rooms that were reserved for these newcomers and peeked into them. Huh, there was no sign of Nighttrace or Sideways, despite that Starscream had told her to show the little Decepticon to his quarters. How bizarre.

So, deciding to cut to the chase, she tapped into the ship's internal scanners, thankfully undamaged by the aforementioned fiasco, and was surprised to learn that the two of them were in fact in Nighttrace's quarters. How bizarre.

Regardless, she changed course and headed up the corridor back towards the control room, tossing a hello at a passing Starscream and made a turn at the door to head down the other corridor. It was a short walk, since Nighttrace was the closest to the control room, given her status as the general right-hand-bot to Starscream.

Of course, Slipstream did contemplate that Starscream did not have an actual second-in-command on this ship. It generally rotated between herself, Soundwave and Nighttrace depending on the Raptor’s mood or requirements. Never Barricade for obvious reasons, and probably not Sideways either, but she suspected Grindor may also be a Con to turn to.

Regardless, she reached the UAV’s quarters, knocked on the door and then barged in anyways because Nighttrace was her friend and that’s what friends did. However, her sudden entrance yielded an unexpected reaction-

“ARGH IT’S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!” Sideways squealed, instantly throwing himself into the corner and curling into a defensive position, earning expressions of shock from both the jet and the UAV, who was currently hanging upside-down on the ceiling, adhered to it by her tail, in her unique recharging pose.

“I was just curious as to how she recharged with the wings and the hovering and never-coming-to-ground thing!” Sideways squeaked, optics flashing wildly as Slipstream stared in bewilderment at him. “I wasn’t peeking at her while she was recharging, no I wasn’t, nope nope, I’m not weird like that, please believe me, don’t think I’m weird-“

“Sideways-“ Slipstream interjected, torn between the bewilderment and a sense of amusement as Nighttrace rolled her optics. “-I was just here to tell you that Grindor needed to see you. He’s in the inner corridor going over the ship’s damage.”

Sideways paused for a moment.

“Oh.”

Shakily, he got back to his feet, assumed as dignified a pose as he could manage and stated rather limply: “I, um, apologise for my overreaction, medic… ah…”

“Slipstream.”

“SLIPSTREAM! Sorry, sorry, I get all worked up and… and maybe I’ll just… go. Go right now. To, um, Grindor. See you later!”

With that, he jumped up, scurried past her and zipped off down the corridor, squeaking panicked statements to himself as he vanished around the corner.

Slipstream watched him go as Nighttrace fired up her wings, detached from the ceiling and hovered over to her, before she burst into giggles: “Well, isn’t he just simultaneously the weirdest and funniest Decepticon I’ve ever met.”

Nighttrace merely shrugged as Slipstream’s laughter subsided, before the jet turned to her and said: “Oh, by the way, we apparently now have a ground bridge active on the ship. Warp drivers can be reconfigured to act like one, so I’ve just learnt. I didn’t know that, did you know that?”

She nodded in confirmation, promptly causing the jet to scoff: “Right, you totally knew it all along. That would have been great to know earlier when we were panicking about our ship being crashed and lacking a reliable way to transport resources with the Autobots waiting for any sign of movement!”

Nighttrace simply flicked her antenna.

“Oh right, let me guess; we never asked! You know, Nighttrace, you don’t need to constantly have someone addressing you just to tell them about important functions or details! I mean, how are we expected to know stuff if you insist on keeping everything to yourself?”

She finally got a vocal response this time, the other Decepticon’s tone flaring with annoyance: “I don’t see why you’re blaming me for not speaking, when all you lot had to do was actually read the fragging manual.”

With that, she shoved past the jet and hovered off down the corridor into the control room, flexing her tail with a degree of frustration. The jet stared after her in shock as the door snapped shut, optics flickering slightly as she comprehended what the UAV had just said.

“Did… did she just swear at me?... Oh Primus, Airachnid was right. Barricade really is getting to us.”

--

Bumblebee and Wheeljack were coming to some disagreements over which Earth films would be the most fun to watch. The tow truck was currently arguing against the Beetle’s choice:

“I’m just saying, humanity deciding that giant robots are the best way to fight monsters is stupid-“

“Right, you’re calling my choice stupid when you pick a film featuring blood-sucking sparkly things trying to establish relationships with humans. That’s real classy, Wheeljack.”

“Hey, lots of people really like it, and it got very good reviews-“

“SO DID MY ONE!”

“But it’s stupid!”

“YOUR ONE IS STUPID!”

“NO YOU’RE STUPID!”

“NO YOU!”

“YOU!”

Hound and Grimlock entered the control room to find the amusing sight of the car leaping over the console and crashing into the larger Autobot, the two immediately engaging in a furious and petty wrestling match, demanding the other to take back their negative comments. The jeep raised a brow and the tanker truck chuckled, before they moved over to and settled down by the main console.

Ignoring the scuffle nearby, Hound stated: “So, Grimlock, given our resources are a tad limited since we’re currently down an Autobot and need one or two more to fix said Autobot up, how would you suggest handling our new plans?”

“Grimlock would propose that we send the less capable combatants to secure the first solar farm, enhance it and prep the hidden converter, while those more suited to battle can prepare an ambush at the forest in case of any curious Decepticons having a look around.”

“Fair play.” Hound stated, bringing up a holographic map of the area via the console, highlighting the nearest solar farm, several miles away, in yellow and the forest in green. “I suppose you’d want to be on the ambush team?”

“Naturally.”

“I thought as much. I’d have to join you in such an endeavour, considering my holograms can make our lives so much easier in regards to catching a Con or two off-guard.”

“But of course. Grimlock loves progress.”

“Only when it involves Grimlock killing a few Decepticons.”

The truck tilted his jaw and flashed his optics proudly: “It’s a wonderful motivating factor.”

“Mm-hm. Anyway, since Ratchet and Evac are fixing up the commander, and we’re busy checking the forest, that would leave…. Bumblebee! Wheeljack!”

The two Autobots promptly froze mid-battle, though the scout added a last-minute punch to the abdomen as they stared up at the jeep in surprise, earning another chuckle from the berserker.

Hound didn’t bother reprimanding them for their shenanigans, instead pointing at the hologram and stating: “You two have a job to do. Take some of the Solanor, a length of valve-cabling and one of the spare converters and prep this solar farm for Energon harvesting. Wheeljack will know what to do, Bumblebee, so don’t feel off-put or anything. You two think you can handle that?”

“Sure, Hound, no worries!”

“Absolutely, we can do it!”

With that, the two jumped up, still trading arguments and darted off out of the room, flashing their headlights and honking their horns. When their shouting vanished upon the door closing, Hound gave a slow rev and rubbed his head, torn between amusement and bewilderment.

“Some days you wonder how we're still sane.”

Grimlock just snorted and puffed out some exhaust.


Notes: A bit short today, just setting up some stuff. Next chapter will feature more Grindor/Sideways interactions :3

For all the problems he's had, what with being a raging dinosaur generally feared by others, Grimlock sure is a major asshole.

 

Alright herewego

1. Stuff grammatically in this chapter was good all throughout, except for a couple of times when I caught a sentence with a missing word. Nothing to report besides that, so bravo.

2. You know that I usually think that the dialogue is strong (Slipstream scoring jabs at Starscream, good golly), but there was one part in this chapter about it that bugged me...and this time it was with Soundwave. Otherwise it was up to par as usual, but I kind of felt that the latter's dialogue was kind of weird for the characterization on him that's been established up to now. (Especially when we just had a discussion about him lol). It's not that anything he said was pragmatically irrelevant, but by now I'm a little confused about what his persona is, because I was under the impression that he keeps that anal professional-hardworking-endorse-technicalities wall up to hide his tollziness. It's not that the aforesaid trollziness was revealed that was the problem, but I felt like questioning the strength of his will to keep up that robotic facade when his dialogue suddenly became to casual when he approached Starscream with Grindor's news. It's cool when he's talking to Barricade and he's not quite so monotone because I see Barricade as a foil to him (vitriolic best buds), but here it just came out of nowhere. He could have delivered the same message with more sophisticated dialogue and it would have sounded a lot more like Soundwave, you know what I mean? Then he loses the characterizing quirk that makes him an individual, which is being robotic above and being condescending underneath. Especially with the latter trait, you would think he would be more articulate by means to disguise the fact that he had been embarrassingly duped like that. (Albeit, his resolve to read the manual in its entirety THAT NIGHT was funny). In the end, because you're the writer, what's in and out of character is inevitably up to you. But that's just something I picked up on that disconcerted me for what it was worth.

3. There's so much fodder hanging around, it's ridiculous. Not in a bad way, it's too early to assess that "OMG SO MUCH CANON FODDER THAT THE PLOT WILL SURELY FORGET" it's just something that I keep on noticing. Some things are like, "gee, I remember when this happened, I wonder how/when/if it will be brought up again" and other things are more, "oh yeah, I forgot about that." Like I said, it's not a bad thing, if nothing else, it opens a lot of opportunities to establish ongoing continuity between all the characters and the plot, but whenever one fodder goes away, it seems like two more pop up. Like Ratchet's character arc with Nighttrace, Hound's rivalry with Barricade, the stolen nodule, Grimlock's fib (which hasn't been mentioned in a while), more ambiguously is Jazz's and Grimlock's personal issues, and the fodder is not limited to these things.   I like how much depth it adds to the immersion and the characters, however many tricks it plays on my mind. It's nice because all these elements allow for me to be more invested in the happenings of the story.

4. Speaking of Hound and Barricade, I wasn't really expecting for much from the Autobots in this episode (since like you said, it's mostly a talky Decepticon-centric episode), so I'm a little surprised that their character arcs were brought up in the dialogue. Perhaps I shouldn't have been, because this is a really dialogue-y chapter (which is a good thing). But the mentioning of their vendetta makes me anxious, because given the brief implications of episode 8, I'm suspecting that there's a bit of motivation exposition here and there with Hound mentioning how angry he was from what Bumblebee had told him (Bumblebee apparently tells everybody everything, not surprising). I'm still super excited for the day that they finally confront again. Especially when they didn't in the last episode, which I already mentioned was a disappointment.

5. As for how I feel about the escalation of Hound's character arc, you already know how much I love him, so there's no need for me to start gushing about his inherent heroics. I could have easily foreseen Ratchet and even Grimlock being surprised at his grudge against Barricade (heck, he said "Barricade is mine" and even I went wide-eyed). I also found it intriguing that I felt like Hound implied by saying "he just got his wish" in terms of making the match personal, that he never took it as more than business before Barricade pushed his buttons by messing with his family. It reminds me, to an extent, of Jazz's opinion of his "rivalry" with Starscream, except it's always been perhaps less one-sided between Hound and Barricade. It's not that Hound never took it seriously, but it's that he never felt that it was personal, so he wouldn't have minded if anybody else offed Barricade. We now clearly see that you don't press Hound's relative button, or else even somebody as reasonable and amiable as him gets angry. (In that regard, I liked that a monologue for Grimlock referenced that the latter had only seen Hound get so enraged in fighting the Decepticons for, in a separate instance, messing with Bumblebee).

6. It was easy to tell what films Bumblebee and Wheeljack were mentioning, so it's funny that Wheeljack is apparently a Twilight fan. :I Points for fake wrestling, I love it when robots fake wrestle.

7. Another thing about Soundwave. Although I complained about something concerning his characterization earlier, I thought it was interesting that he seems really conservative about his past and even made it a point to himself to establish that with Sideways now that Grindor was made aware. (ALSO MORE FODDER YAY). Inasmuch, I'm wondering if/when we'll get details on his past and why he's so touchy about it. I'm already concocting head canons in my mind.

8. I got a couple real laughs out of this chapter, which is rare. Literature virtually never makes me laugh, but Slipstream's second iceburn and Nighttrace's cursing (oh my gawsh) made me laugh out loud. I love it when humor is brought out through casual dialogue instead of blatant jokes. Makes for strong dialogue and characters.

9. I finally decided on a voice for Soundwave, it's D.C. Douglas with a touch of mechanical distortion all the way.

10. Hopefully everything goes as planned now with Bumblebee and Wheeljack going out. >.> YA NEVER KNOW WITH THESE KIDS. (Inb4 Barricade goes out on mission and "runs in" to them).

I...think I covered everything. :/ I usually try to save the text walls for the episode finales, but I dunno, a lot came to mind for this chapter. :Y Either way, fun one. Really excited for update!

EDIT: Nope, I forgot that I wanted to mention something about the little glimpse of Barricade/Hound (Houndicade lol) rivalry with what Hound said about it. I dunno, I have this instinct that's telling me he's minimizing the situation (especially when Barricace is all, "HOUND DID THE MOST TERRIBLE THING IMAGINABLE TO ME" which arguably must mean a lot because we already know that there are plenty of terrible things that Barricade can imagine), but then again, Barricade is a loud idiotic jerk and has a tendency to exaggerate. It wouldn't be surprising if he took an occurrence that was reasonably conventional and twisted it into a personal vendetta...but by that logic, he would hold a grudge against everybody that's bested him. In times of war, I can only assume that he hasn't had the upperhand in every last battle situation he's been in, so whatever Hound did that made him so mad must have been distinct enough. For instance, Bumblebee freaking tired his face, but Barricade's obviously not holding a grudge against him that would be remotely as strong as the one he holds against Hound if it was tangible at all (which, although he mentioned he was angry about it once before, it's pretty much not). If there was turn of tables, and it turned out that Hound did something that was legitimately wrong, I would be pleasantly surprised. I reiterate that I can't help but feel like there has to be more to the story than simple "it was business and Barricade just ended up taking it personally." If it turned out to be a shaggy dog situation, and Barricade's vendetta is sparked out of something that's actual really simple and stupid, then I would be disappointed. All in due time, my curiosities will be quelled. At least I hope.

 

Notes: Soundwave's a little shaken. It's not every day he's the one on the receiving end of an obvious correction, and he's so used to being the bot with the answer that it threw him off a bit. That, and he's just really hoping/happy that Starscream didn't read the book either  

"Consider our opponents, for instance." Grindor was stating, as he idly soldered some basic circuits together, the delicate wires encircling a severed valve that still had remnants of Energon dribbling in its innards. "The Lieutenant and the rogue abomination, for example, are the commander's primary concern, and they should be ours as well. The latter is particularly formidable, not just for the impressive resilience and strength he displays, but simply because, unlike most of the opposing faction, he has no sense of morality."

"And that causes him to be more ruthless, because he doesn't care about the consequences." Sideways muttered, sat behind the larger Decepticon as he went through the circuit boards, piecing together the ones that had been connected before the explosions and promptly setting them down to be repaired once he had finished. "But still, I don't see why we should be stuck up here repairing all the time when there's a whole new planet ready to be explored."

"I understand your resentment, Sideways. I too have been quite eager to get away from Cybertron for a while, and I will admit that I have no objections to observing this new world from within its own atmosphere, rather than from a hologram or an observation pane."

He paused to heft up the valve slightly, looking around for its support strut and grabbing it when he located it, before continuing: "But the fact remains that the planet is contested territory and that the Autobots currently hold the advantage, and thus it is more productive to repair these damages as quickly as possible. The sooner we are flight-worthy, the sooner we can retaliate, and then perhaps we will have time for exploration, Sideways."

The smaller Decepticon revved a little bit, before returning his attention to the circuit boards. Once again, his friend always had a smart answer for any question he had. But still, it didn’t change the fact he was practically aching to get out of this ship and put his wheels down on a new world. He didn’t like being stuck in ships; they were too cluttered, too confined and they were full of Decepticons he either didn’t know or didn’t want to know!

He shuddered a little bit, remembering the fact that this particular vessel contained the infamous Barricade, one of the most cruel and brutal Decepticons in their ranks. Apparently commanders kept shifting him along to someone else simply because they couldn’t stand his crude and demeaning and nasty demeanour for long.

He made a mental note to always stay out of Barricade’s way. He was in no mind to recreate that old story of the time the brute had pulled off some unlucky flyer’s wing and beat it with it by ending up on the shock trooper’s bad side.

Still, he could reassure himself that not all the Decepticons on this ship were as mean and cruel as that bot. Nighttrace had been quite nice, even though the fact she didn’t talk made him feel uneasy. And that fluttering, the constant fluttering was also a bit bizarre. Who fluttered like that anyway? Nice but weird, that was Nighttrace. And that Slipstream seemed okay. Disturbingly tall, nearly as tall as Starscream, and tall things were kind of neural-wracking, but okay at least.

Soundwave, he hadn’t seen much, but his yellow visor inspired curiosity (and a sense of dread for the possibility of a truly terrible story behind it), and Starscream had been polite at least. But Starscream was awfully tall, intimidatingly tall, and he had heard lots of stories about his terrifying and unpredictable temper.

He made a mental note to always stay on Starscream’s good side.

But Pit, speaking of him, Sideways again had to wonder if there was anyone in their whole species who wasn’t taller than him. He was a tiny little scout, even smaller than Soundwave and Barricade, who had previously been the smallest members of the whole darn crew, and he truly disliked having to constantly, constantly, look up at someone. Why couldn’t he have been created as big and strong as, say, Lord Megatron? Why couldn’t he have been a powerful titan rather than just a small little hindrance…

This thought track of being unreasonably tiny made him sad, and that in turn made him feel mad, and being mad made him wish he could be in charge, that he could be the Decepticon Leader, and then no-one could ever taunt or bully him again! If only Megatron could step him down and let him take the throne, if only Megatron and all other competitors were gone so that Sideways could be in charge!

Lord Sideways, leader of the Decepticons, forever raised above and beyond the others, bigger and stronger and greater than any other!

The thought made his optics brighten, but then he gave a rev of dejection. Well, he doubted that would ever happen; he hadn’t a prayer at ever reaching that position. But at least he had his best friend Grindor to ease the troubles, right?

Right.

Anyway, Grindor was talking again: “If you haven’t already, I would suggest tapping into the Earth network the locals call the Internet. It's a fabulous wealth of cultural information, I find, and bears much useful information on their habits, their vehicles and the multitude of weathers and lifeforms on this planet."

Curious, Sideways confirmed that and promptly logged himself into the ship's downloaded database of said Internet. Someone, most likely Soundwave, had taken the courtesy of neatly filing most of it into related folders, so Sideways promptly opened the one titled: Earth Biology.

Oh wow! He was absolutely stunned by the sudden onslaught of all sorts of weird and crazy life-forms, ranging from bizarre things with five arms and a single mouth to furry creatures with odd flat bills and tails! His optics were wide with impressment; he hadn't seen such a diverse range of creatures since the manual on Riva Li's life-forms!

Too bad they were all disgusting organic compounds, though. Interesting appearances did not make up for a grotesque boncar foundation- No wait, carbon foundation. Still, carbon was pitifully inferior compared to Cybertanium, especially when it was lodged on a dirty planet covered in mud and liquids and stuff. Curious as he was to explore it, he acknowledged it wouldn’t be the cleanest or nicest habitat.

But then again, it would at least be better than being stuck on a ship for ages. He continued to shift through the Internet as he fiddled with the circuit boards, noting with bemusement that humans seemed to enjoy taking pictures of other species and putting silly captions on them for their amusement. A weird yet strangely humorous pastime for a species, certainly.

And then the door opened and in stepped Slipstream, green optics brightening upon sighting the two Decepticons. Sideways jolted a bit in surprise at her entrance, though he didn’t burst into a plethora of shocked statements like last time, and Grindor simply turned to face her, as she said:

“Grindor, Starscream would like to talk to you if that’s okay.”

“Of course. I will be there in a moment. Sideways, would you mind starting on those circuit boards as soon as you’re able?”

Sideways didn’t like the stare Slipstream gave him upon attention being focussed on him- it made his neurals quiver- but he nodded. Grindor was satisfied and, finishing up his solder, idly walked off after the vanishing jet, stating a quick goodbye and good luck to the smaller Decepticon.

And then he was alone. He hated being alone. Sideways revved slightly and muttered this fact to himself, before he finally tossed the last fragment aside and focussed his attention on the remaining pieces, the ones that could be joined back together. It would be boring work, but maybe the Internet had something or other to entertain him-

Oh! Music! This species had a wide variety of music! What a relief! He tuned in to as many tabs as he could, determined to pinpoint a good one and, with some hope that this job wouldn’t be too unbearable, got to work.

Meanwhile, Grindor entered the control room after Slipstream, the jet sidling off to talk to Soundwave and Barricade. He glanced around the room, noted Starscream beside the main console and strode over to the taller Decepticons. The jet was staring at a hologram of the planet Earth in a musing fashion, so Grindor promptly made his presence known.

“You called me, commander?”

“Yes, I did.” The jet replied, shifting his attention onto the engineer. “I know you’re quite busy ascertaining the ship’s damages, but I was hoping you might be willing to do a favour for me.”

“I suppose I can take time from my schedule. What do you require?”

“Well, you’ve provided us with a ground-bridge, correct?” And upon receiving an affirmative, he continued. “I was hoping to use it to bring my planet side Seeker’s supplies in, without having the Autobot’s follow my shuttle’s trail back to us. But of course, while we can hide ourselves, we cannot cloak a ground-bridge’s portal. When I bridge my Seeker’s supplies in, the Autobots could well home in and attack them before their endeavour is complete. So, in short, I need a distraction.”

“A distraction.” Grindor repeated, bemused. “What did you have in mind?”

“You.”

Grindor didn’t seem surprised: “Me.”

“Yes. Basically, I’m going to ground-bridge you to this area here-“ He pointed to a highlighted section upon the hologram. “-A forest that has become somewhat contested territory. The Autobots will be attracted to the signature, and then it will fall to you to keep them entertained until my Seekers are ready for pick-up.”

He leaned upright, folding his arms in a smug fashion and awaited the smaller Decepticon’s reply. Grindor was contemplative, before he nodded and formed a reply.

“A good plan, Starscream, and certainly one I’ll be happy to aid you with. But I do have some questions regarding certain discrepancies it presents. For starters, I’m wondering why you see fit to send me in place of say, your cloaker. Surely I’m better suited continuing repairs than risking possible damages or capture against the Autobots.”

Starscream smiled: “My colleague Ramjet was kind enough to send me a file regarding your combat tech and capabilities. You have a knack for defensive mechanisms, Grindor, the perfect tools to hold a position. Any Autobots attempting to engage you would have a hard time even reaching you, based on your past battlefield reports, and the longer they take, the more time my Seekers have undisturbed. And you needn’t worry about the firepower of their ship; they wouldn’t dare risk exposing their vessel by firing on an easily flammable area.”

He paused, and added with a glance at the Mustang: “Besides, I need Barricade in reserve for another mission, and he’s far too battle-hungry to be counted on avoiding any unnecessary risks.”

As Barricade idly threw a curse at the jet, Grindor tilted his head in satisfied acknowledgment. “Hm. You have a good sense of logic, Starscream.”

“I didn’t reach my position with fancy sciences or sycophancy, you know.”

“Of course. But another question I have is the fact you’re sending me, apparently, on this mission by myself. Do you believe that is a good idea, against at least seven or six Autobots, one of which is an infamous monster whose reputation exceeds quite a few prominent warriors?”

“Have no fear, Grindor, I will do no such thing! Slipstream will be accompanying you on this endeavour.”

The Nighthawk suddenly perked up in surprise, only now paying attention to the conversation and feeling a tad bewildered by her sudden involvement in their chat: “Say what now?”

Starscream ignored her and continued: “A suitable combination, I believe, for your mission of prolonged Autobot distraction; it’s always good to team the medic with the heavy. And if at any point you feel the Autobots could overwhelm you, Soundwave will be on hand to provide your exit.”

His side of the conversation finished, having felt he had covered all the bases, Starscream waited for the engineer’s reply.

As Soundwave informed Slipstream of what she was to do, Grindor replied: “Well, Starscream, I will gladly perform this task. Granted, there is a certain amusement to your summoning me for repairs, and then swiftly shifting me to the battlefield, but you can be assured I will occupy any Autobots for the sake of your endeavour.”

Starscream sighed wistfully: “If only all Decepticons could be as eloquently polite as you. Well, before you go, would you care to adopt an Earth vehicle mode? I find they afford useful advantages of disguise, obviously, as well as a lovely design for the frame.”

“I have been considering alternate forms since I tapped into the human Internet.” Grindor noted thoughtfully. “And I think I have the perfect choice for myself.”

He turned to the console and began tapping buttons upon it, replacing the hologram of the Earth with a detailed image of a vehicle that was part of the human’s military; an armoured construct bearing caterpillar treads and a long excavating appendage upon it.

“They call it a Trojan armoured vehicle, in simplistic terms.” The engineer stated cheerfully. “A combination of strategic placements and impressive armour. It suits my opinions quite well.”

With that, he inserted a transfusion tubule extracted from his abdomen into the console and declared: “Commencing download of vehicle mode schematics.”

The machine whirred slightly and Grindor’s optics flickered, before he disengaged and retracted his tubule, the hologram fading away, and flexed his claws slightly. Almost immediately, his frame gave a violent shudder, a hiss of hydraulics as his panels shifted slightly, before he regained control and noted: “Huh. These Earth forms are quite vigorous.”

With that, he turned to face the door and gave in to his transformation; he keeled over as his body began to split apart and reformat itself, panels flipping around and treads emerging from within him, his colours shifting and his frame compacting, before he was the Trojan armoured vehicle, a deep handsome green in colour and bearing the impressive excavator arm.

The other Decepticons simply watched with mild interest as he settled into his new form, stating: “Hm. I like the feel of it. Well then, Slipstream, let’s get to work.”

As she strode over to stand next to him, Soundwave promptly engaged and activated the Decepticon’s new ground-bridge, and a portal promptly spawned before the dup, not quite as bright as those generated by the space bridges but nevertheless pulsing strongly. Grindor engaged his treads and rolled forward, exiting the room in a flare of light and Slipstream followed, bidding a cheerful copy of Starscream’s exiting phrase to the others.

The two Decepticons gone, the portal faded away as Soundwave powered it down and cheerfully noted: “Well, our first conduction of ground-bridge operation was a great success.”

“Yeah, fragging wonderful.” Barricade snorted. “At least I don’t have to rely on the damn shuttle every time I want go for a drive.”

Soundwave nodded in agreement, as Starscream settled down on his chair and stated: “Well, with any luck, the Autobots will soon be tracking down that signal we just lovingly broadcast for them and my Seekers will finally be able to return with their spoils. And then, my Decepticons, we will be another step closer to the next phase of Operation Harvest! Mwahahahaha!”

His diabolical laugh carried on for a while, and Barricade muttered: “How many times has he laughed like an idiot over his dumb operation?”

“Past the point of me caring, I assure you.”

---

Jazz was in good shape, Ratchet was glad to note. The inner circuitry and valves had been surprisingly easy to secure, thanks to the bulky chestplate that had shielded them so and it had been even easier to secure the spare panels onto the offline Solstice to commence the final stage of his restoration.

Currently, both of them were standing over the Lieutenant, observing the subtle activity upon the recovering Solstice; Energon had been lathered across the plating, and now there was a rippling of change across them, metal fusing together as the faint blue glow of energy shone across it.

Obviously, all Cybertronians possessed a flexible molecular structure to accommodate their mimicking capabilities, and Energon only enhanced that structure with the ability to stimulate molecule division and regeneration. Thus, these spare panels could be absorbed and reformatted into the new chestplate for the Lieutenant, and they had been sure to hook them up with his alternator circuitry so that the vehicular template could be transferred onto it.

In short, Evac was marvelling on just how versed his mentor was on their kind's metallicology and Ratchet was simply happy that Jazz's systems could take care of the rest now. For a bot who’d taken a shotgun to the chest, he'd been very lucky.

And on the bright side, now he could focus on another matter. Settling himself on another berth, the Hummer declared: "Well, Evac, I think the time has finally come for me to remove this brace."

The helicopter's interest in the car switched into unsure concern: "Are, are you sure, Ratchet? I don't know if your systems are totally ready yet-"

"I'll be fine, Evac." His mentor replied in a smiling assuring manner. "I've been running some self-diagnostics, and provided I don't get into any situations of intense pressure or activity, my leg should be fine."

The helicopter paused, before he accepted the older Autobot's words and nodded, moving forward to help him unclip the bracing mechanism. It detached from his leg with a slight hiss and the helicopter moved back to put it away, as the Hummer gave a rev of anticipation, stated he was about to begin, and slowly made to stand up.

His feet touched the floor and he straight upwards, hands still gripping the berth but otherwise placing his weight upon his legs. The hydraulics within gave a soft hiss, accommodating to being in use once again, and then... that was it. He was standing up without assistance or pain or glitches. He let go of the berth. Still fine.

Feeling quite pleased, he took a step with one leg. No glitches. Took a step with the other. His weight was supported fine. He took a few more steps. His legs moved well and held themselves easily. Still no glitches.

Evac was watching with both intense caution and exuberant hope, green optics wide and rotors clacking together slightly, silently supporting his mentor to succeed. And indeed, it seemed success had been achieved. Ratchet toddled around the room for a moment, continuing to test his legs, test the repairs and overall it appeared that the critical injury Starscream had forced onto him was at last quelled.

It was a satisfying feeling.

Ratchet turned and grinned at his apprentice: "Well, what do we know. I'm feeling pretty good if I do say so myself. So good I may have to add my picture into the Earth dictionary right next to good!"

Evac promptly sniggered even as he quickly looked up the meaning of the word via the Internet, and immediately sniggered again upon figuring out the joke. Ratchet just grinned wider, before he flexed his leg, wiggled his hips slightly and strode towards the door, declaring he felt like going to see the others and celebrate the return of his independent mobility.

The Hummer swaggered out of the med-bay with confidence, pleased with the repairs and continuously offering praise to his humbled student over his professional and well-done medical work. After all, none of the other Autobots could have healed him as efficiently as Evac did, and he owed it to the helicopter for his relatively quick recovery.

Evac, of course, was all but swelling up with enthusiastic pride and happiness. So happy was he to have been so useful-

"Hound? Grimlock?" Ratchet asked, stopping short and causing the other Autobot to pause too, surprise in his voice. "Where are you two off to?"

The jeep and the truck were standing by the side hatch, discussing something, but they ceased their talk and perked up at the arrival of the medics. Grimlock simply tilted his head in a rather dismissive fashion and returned his attention to Hound, but was annoyed when the lieutenant strode over to the other two.

"Ratchet, good to see your leg is back in shape." Hound stated cheerfully, stopping just before him with a pleased smile. "I take it you were on your way to show it off?"

"Well, yes, really. But, um, I'm curious as to where you two are going. I didn't think you preferred to have Grimlock with you on scouting runs, so..."

The berserker gave a low growl at the Hummer's insinuation, but Hound ignored it and replied: "Well, we're not doing a scouting run, Ratchet. We're heading off to the forest to see if any Decepticons are in the area. Assuming they took Bumblebee's information to spark, we might well find a scout in that area, and possibly capture it for interrogation."

Ratchet considered that, as Evac silently mused that any team with Grimlock on it shouldn't really be counting on catching any lone target they come across, averting his optics slightly in case the truck took note of what thoughts might be displayed in them. Bumblebee did that sometimes, and Evac was hoping Grimlock didn't share the same skill.

Regardless, the Hummer said: "I see. Well, if that is the case, then I would like to come with you."

All three Autobots were surprised at this declaration, and Evac sputtered: "B-But Ratchet, your leg might still be a bit, I dunno, iffy! I don't think going to look for Decepticons in forests is a really good idea, not really."

Hound and Grimlock were about to voice their agreements when Ratchet scoffed in reply: "Don't worry, Evac, my systems are perfectly fine. Besides, I could use a drive; I haven't transformed in ages! It's not good to keep the alternator circuits idle for long."

He nodded to himself, secure in his statement, and Hound and Evac exchanged a glance, before the jeep revved and agreed to bring Ratchet along. Besides, his adhesive gel gun would be very useful in apprehending any Decepticon they were lucky enough to find and ambush, he added, and it wasn’t like they were absolutely guaranteed to engage Decepticons in the first place.

Ratchet was very pleased, Evac was apprehensive but ultimately acceptant and Grimlock- Well, Grimlock revved in displeased frustration.

The side hatch opened, and the tanker truck was the first to leave, compacting himself into vehicle mode and idly setting off towards the road. Hound made an ‘after you’ motion to the Hummer, who simply smiled and initiated his transformation. It was slower than it usually was, and there was a faint rumble of protesting systems, but with a rev of effort, he managed to finalise his conversion and successfully made it to vehicle mode.

The Hummer gave a soft whine, flickering the sirens slightly, before he drove off down the ramp, followed by the jeep, revelling in the feeling of his tires crossing over the ground. Oh, it had been too long since he'd been able to enjoy a good drive! And when he reached the road, he all but groaned in relief at the smooth tarmac playfully rubbing along his tires.

He'd have to stuff a glob of gel in Starscream's stupid mouth the next time he saw him.

Evac watched his mentor and the other two drive away, a little bit concerned for Ratchet, but otherwise pleased that he had been able to successfully transform and get out of the ship for a bit. It was nice to know his friend and teacher could enjoy the road and the sun after spending ages in the med-bay.

Optics brightening with good feeling, Evac turned and shut the door behind him, before taking a moment to stand in the middle of the corridor and contemplate. As of now, he was in the ship by himself (excluding the offline Jazz). Bumblebee and Wheeljack had already left, and now the other three had left and now it was just him, the rookie medic, and an offline Solstice.

He had the whole ship to himself, essentially. He could do anything he wanted! Jazz didn't need him right now, he was in a regenerative phase, so Evac was free from that particular duty.

So, he decided there was only one thing he could with an opportunity like this! With a snicker of laughter, he promptly dashed off towards the med-bay. He had a plan in mind and he couldn't wait to see the result of it!


Notes: Well, a pretty short chapter today, took me way too long to actually get around to, but at least I can get on with the good stuff next time. Besides, a nice peek into Sideway's head at any rate.

Anyway, I also have an early synopsis/sneak peek at Episode 8 to make up for the short chapter here! Enjoy!  




Episode 8: Hounded

Synopsis: Cut off from his comrades and injured, Hound must survive the relentless pursuit of his savage nemesis as he struggles to reunite with his fellow Autobots.

His scythe dragged along the dirt, and Barricade's tone with rife with triumphant sadism as he taunted: "You want to know what I find funny? You're always hiding behind your fragging holograms, always trying to be set up a diversion or to conceal the truth. And I find that very fitting for you. After the shame, after the horror, you came to rely on perhaps the ultimate hiding tool."

Hound desperately fought to keep still, curled up behind the cracked boulder, the pain and the terror flooding through his neural net, desperately fighting to keep from whimpering, to keep his hologram online even as his energy reserves began to burn out.

"But you can't hide from the past, Hound!" Barricade hollered, his voice distorted with sheer malice. "You can never hide from what you did to me! It'll always come back to haunt you. Just like I will."

He was coming closer, his scythe scraping against rock.

"It'll always be there to hurt you. Just like I will. It'll always be there to remind you that at the end of the day, you're just a brutal uncaring monster-"

And then he was in front of him, and Hound screamed when he looked into the mutilated remnants of Barricade's inner cranium, acidic residue burnt around the frenzied optics and the demented smile.

"Just. Like. Me."

 

Evidently Starscream plays Team Fortress 2. The next episode looks like we might finally get an insight to Hound and Barricades past but I'm not trusting that just yet.

 

Screamer plats TF2 and the next episode looks FUN!!!!

 

Just amazing!!! Can't wait to see what Sideways transforms too. Hound will soon be running for his life....YIKES!!! As always, great work. It gave me inspiration to get off my butt and write a couple updates to my Fan-Fic...LOL. 

 

Yo I kid you not I wrote out like three quarters of a full review before I left for rehearsal and when I came back the page had refreshed itself and now it’s gone. e_o So I have to start over and I’m feeling a serious lack of motivation right now. (Especially when it’s late at night blah blah, but would you rather here about make my opinion of the chapter or my personal problems?). So I’m going to try and cover everything that I had before as it comes to me. So--

Pause, I may or may not have more to say about the sneak peak than the actual episode itself. Idk let’s see.

I didn’t notice any grammatical shennagins going on in this chapter, and the episode as a whole turned out to be pretty good in that regard. There’s that occasional mistake that everybody makes when writing, so there’s no issue that in any way detracts from the enjoyment of the story. 8/10

As for the structure of the episode, it was talky and idle, just like you said, and I’ll admit that I missed the action. Granted, this is coming from a person who’s virtually obsessed with warfare, so my forebode for the lack of confrontation is more sentimental than prudent, because in reality, I actually thought this fillery episode was good in regard to the pacing of the series. Transformers Meta isn’t exactly a slow-paced series (heck, a lot has happened in the past seven episodes), so among all the fights and injuries and kidnappings and terrible things, it was nice to get a break from it all and have an episode that simply lets everything and everybody breathe. Inasmuch, it was nice to get to know Grindor and Sideways…though interestingly, and I suppose this is a mostly trivial complaint, I actually feel like we didn’t get to see that much of them…I mean yeah, the episode was centered around their arrival and them fulfilling their purposes to get Starscream out of the mess that he’s currently in, so I guess it’s kind of weird that they didn’t get as much screentime as I was expecting them to? Don’t get me wrong, we got the gist of them and their personalities and their presences are at least progressing the plot to an extent. I guess I was just expecting for the episode to be even more Decepticon centric, and granted the chapters were a little shorter than usual IIRC, so. As for the characters themselves, based on what we got to know about them in this particular episode, I have rather different opinions between either of them…I’m somewhat fond of Grindor, though I can say Sideways may be one of the only two characters in this series that I genuinely dislike.

But don’t get me wrong, it’s not because he’s a bad character. If anything, I appreciate his outrageous personality and his interactions with Grindor and his funny dialogue, it’s just that he’s got a characteristic archetype that I typically don’t like. (Nervous and jerky, “eager little guy”, etc). He’s got a lot of quirks that make him a clear individual among all the Decepticons, so he’s a pragmatically good character, I just personally don’t particularly love him. Granted, I wouldn’t say I hate him (yet), but yeah, not my favorite. As for Grindor, I’m actually a little offput by his characterization. Reiteratively, he’s not actually a bad character I would say, it’s just that, especially compared to Sideways, there’s nothing rather extraordinary about him that makes him particularly likable or a distinct individual among the other Decepticons. His main characterization so far is a smart, polite guy. He’s one of those “pleasant” Decepticons. I mean, I love having bad guys that aren’t stereotypically evil; I never get tired of those, but whereas Slipstream has her sass, and Soundwave has his fodder and inward trollziness, Grindor’s own personality seems a little mundane. It would be fine to me if that was distinctively the thing that set him apart from everybody else, but it’s not his own character traits that set him apart, it’s everybody else’s. Do you know what I mean? Once again, I definitely wouldn’t call him a bad character, he’s just not that special to me. I kind of feel like he’s only here to progress the plot and I don’t care for him that much. Granted, we need characters that show up just to progress the plot (and characters that show up to die, to foil, etc etc etc), but I still want to see them as clear individuals. However much I ramble, though, it’s true we’ve only just seen him (and it’s late and I’m tired and might not know what I’m talking about), and I could always warm up to him as the series progresses and we learn more about him. Not to mention I’m still looking forward to seeing his foiling with Sideways. Also keep in mind that when I claim something you might interpret is “bad,” it’s not “bad,” it’s like the TFM version of “bad” which is actually good, I just feel like it’s not “as good” as everything else.  

Um also really appreciate all the little continuity nods…it’s really nice to be continuously reassured that TFM knows that it’s TFM and the audience can be assured that the things that have happened really did happen and that the plot doesn’t habitually forget about them. Like, it took a good few episodes for Ratchet to recover from him injury up to this point and it’s great beyond greatness that there was actually some notable progression and he didn’t just randomly get better. I hatewhenthathappensTFP. Not to mention that it was sweet that Evac was worried about him and was hesitant to “allow” him to take the next step in his recovery by not only removing the leg brace, but going off on a mission with Hound and Grimlock. I was a little surprised myself that he chose to go with them, ya know, with how “paranoid” he is and how much I can only assume he hates to be in Grimlock’s company, but it was justified with him just wanting to transform and get off the ship and I would really like to see how the two interact if at all in the next episode. It kind of seems like, at some point somehow, they get separated from Hound, so if they end up having to work together or something to reunite with him, I would be really endeared. We haven’t seen too much of those two annoying each yet and I would really like to see it, I feel like it’s due.   It also sounds like he’s going to fully recover and be completely okay, which I like because it gives Evac some credentials and it is too darn early for somebody to be permanently injured from going out and confronting the enemy in, what was it, the third episode? Either way, that little thing made me happy. Also Hound being glad for him. Love those subtleties. ^^

It also sounds like Jazz is still pretty laid up, kind of wondering how long that’s going to go on? It kind of sounds like…I mean, I wouldn’t say his injury was less vigorous than Ratchet’s (actually, maybe I would, even though it was still pretty bad), but I’m kind of under the impression that it’s not going to take four or five episodes to see him out and about again. Especially when Ratchet noted to himself that he’s in pretty good shape. I don’t know if it’s going to effect the plot any in the upcoming episode, but with him and Evac alone at the ship…well idk, I’ll get to that momentarily.

This leads me to start speculating about the next episode and omigosh get ready for a lot of capital letters son.

Okay so like I do this thing where I tend to skim ahead before I actually read to see if there’s anything that I can be eager for and it actually resulted in me reading the sneak peak before the actual chapter and I kiND OF SPAZZED OUT A LITTLE BIT BECAUSE IDK HAD TO READ IT A COUPLE OF TIMES LIKE THERE’S HOUND AND THERE’S BARRICADE AND I MEAN YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS EPISODE THIS IS LIKE THE EPISODE THAT YOU’RE WATCHING YOUR FAVORITE THING AND YOU’RE LIKE ENJOYING IT AND EVERYTHING BUT YOU’RE NOT TRULY IMMERSED UNTIL THAT ONE FAVORITE CHARACTER-CENTRIC EPISODE COMES ALONG AND THEN YOU JUST WANT TO DEVOTE YOUR ENTIRE MENTALITY TO CONCEIVING VISIONS OF THIS FUTURE EPISODES AND HOLY COW I’M LIKE DYING I MIGHT ACTUALLY

Alright so like all kidding aside, I am extremely excited about the next episode (is this what you meant when you said that you thought that I was going to love the next episode, Seeker?), to the point that like it’s going be distracting me.   Out of all the fodder that’s been dangling around in the series since episode one (and I actually thought of some that I didn’t mention in that one review when I started talking about it), the thing that I wanted to know about most was Houndicade’s rivalry. You can only imagine my utter elation over the indication that we might actually be getting some backstory, but—and it’s been said—I don’t know if I trust that it’s actually going to happen. I sort of sense it, but I can’t rely on the instinct because it went terribly wrong for me when I did before. >.> I can only hope that we finally get to see some revelation, but it looks like the short exposition from the beginning of the last episode really was leading up to what I thought it was because lookit, Hound it is in big trouble.

I have some speculation going through my mind about how the events of this episode lead to the potential events of the next one, but my main concern right now is character death…yeah, and this early too. I know that, within the first ten episodes of the series, it’s really not likely to happen that anybody is going to die, but Barricade and Hound are two of my ultimate favorite characters and if either one of them dies, I will be highly upset. Given the sneak peak, it kind of looks like both of them are suffering from their own physical plights (I can’t remember for the life of me where the acid on Barricade’s face might have come from…are they going to run into an Insecticon, I wonder?), but it’s seeming like Hound’s worse off. Especially being Barricade’s quarry. In pain and tired, and having to resort to hiding behind a rock. (No time for rock jokes right now. :I)

I don’t have much speculation pertaining to how Hound ends up getting separated from Ratchet and Grimlock (no idea how that happens, actually), but I’m thinking that Barricade’s going to put that nodule fodder to use. The thing is, is that those things are supposed to enhance you, IIRC, not only physically but psychologically, and Barricade is arguably already considerably more insane than the other Decepticons. We’ve seen that he can be cruel and crazy and relentless, but I can kind of sense that even in that instance, there was something about him that was perhaps more exaggerated than what I might have expected otherwise. He was being utterly satanic in the sneak peak, whereas usually he’s just loud and belligerent. Granted, Hound likely acts as a foil to him and I wouldn’t be at all surprised either if he wasn’t even using the nodule in that instance. In any event, I adored his dialogue in a really weird way, which leads to more speculation.

You know that I briefly contemplated the notation that Hound might have done something genuinely wrong when he and Barricade confronted however long ago because it seemed like Barricade’s vendetta against him was perverse, even for a brute like him. And now I kind of feel like this idea is reiterated. Barricade is blatantly messing with head by telling him, one of the most amiable guys on the show, that what he did back when makes him a “monster…” IN FACT, WE EVEN GOT THE “NOT SO DIFFERENT” MENTION LIKE HOLY COW I WANTED TO SEE THAT SO BAD AND I REALLY DIDN’T THINK IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. I had a head canon a while back regarding the circumstances surrounding these two’s hatred for one another and now I'm kind of throwing it out the window in favor of Hound perhaps doing something that he might actually regret since the evidence points to it. Granted, we don’t know how reliable or how truthful Barricade really is. He could be exaggerating the heck out of the whole thing like I mentioned earlier, even though I still feel like it would be weird if that were the case. Also, if Hound did something truly immoral, I wonder what it says about his character. I’m just eternally curious as to know how truthful Barricade’s words are.

I also know that Grindor is going out on ammission to distract the Autobots, so I’m also wondering if/how he’ll get mixed into the plot. I’m kind of under the impression that him and Wheeljack and Bumblebee are going end up confronting, but idk, it would inevitably go any way right now. I also tried to think about if there would be a C-story with Evac and Jazz still being on the ship and if they’re going to come into the episode in any way or get shafted. In this particular instance, I wouldn’t mind if they did, but I kind of feel like we’ll still see a bit of them or at least Evac in the events to come. I could still be wrong though, or it could just be a transition from the action to him and maybe Jazz doing something idle or stupid just to troll the audience and rip us away from the action.   Or, Evac might end up saving the day again. Or Jazz might. Or both of them might. WHO THE HECK KNOWS THIS IS WHY I’M KIND OF FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW.

And can I just emphasize again how much I appreciate that we’re actually getting a Not So Different scene between these two like that one my list of Things That I Want To See That I Probably Never Will See and yet here it is I’m freaking out so hard and I want to know what Hound did and I want to know if he comes out okay and I want to know why Barricade’s face is burnt and if he uses the nodule and how it effects him if he does and omigosh just kill me stahp. *dead*

I didn’t reread this, I’m too tired, there are probably so many typos. -_-

Anyways, on another note: MESSAGE TO THE OTHER READERS—

Guys, if I comment first, don’t let my text walls dissuade you from actually reviewing yourselves. :V

 

"Feel that gorgeous breeze! Feel the lovely tarmac! Feel that warm sun! By Primus it is good to be outside again! Why, it feels like just yesterday when I went for that fateful drive, simply revelling in this planet's clean pure beauty, feeling all of those wonderful sensations-"

"And when we first arrived you were screeching and crying about how this planet would rust and destroy us with unknown viruses." Grimlock snorted, frustration boiling through his valves as he drove down the road behind the other two, Hound in the lead and Ratchet right in front of him. "Give it a rest already with the happy-go-lucky preaching, medic."

"Oh shut up, Grimlock, so I was wrong about a planet's chemical possibilities for once; no need to keep rubbing it in my face. Just let me enjoy the joy of being on the road again!"

"Grimlock would if you'd just stop going on about it!"

The tanker truck jerked forward with a surge of the tires and bumped the back of the Hummer, who swerved slightly in shock, flaring the sirens, before Ratchet shouted back an insult and opened his back doors, being sure to be close enough to smack them against the front of the larger vehicle.

As the two repeatedly attempted to smack and bump each other, Hound revved with annoyance and demanded: "Would you two knock it off?! Primus, you're acting like Wheeljack!"

Both of them stopped with their own argument and promptly began protesting that they acted nothing like fragging Wheeljack, that they were far more reserved and mature than the tow truck, but the jeep again asserted his desire for them to stop acting like idiots and silence descended upon the bizarre little convoy, save for some growling from the berserker.

Okay, sure, Hound was very happy that Ratchet was back on the road and out of the med-bay. It was always a delight to see a good friend back on their legs and back on their wheels after a rather daunting injury from the Decepticons. But he really, really couldn't deal with the consistent jibing from those two. He should have just asserted his authority, agreed with Evac and kept Ratchet home but nope, he had to be soft.

And now this road-trip would probably end up turning sour if they kept up their damn arguing. Everyone and their Driller knew that Ratchet and Grimlock had always been at odds; after all, one was a morally uptight healer and the other was a brutal fire-breathing savage. But it seemed even a simple drive to a simple scouting run couldn't help but become another one of their jibing contests.

To be honest, Hound wasn't sure if they'd ever come to actually like- or even grudgingly respect- each other. Their personalities were far too conflicting for that. Then again, Bumblebee was also immensely different from Grimlock, and those two were best friends. Mind you, Ratchet lacked the innocent endearing qualities of the Beetle, so that probably didn't help much.

He revved again, annoyed by his thoughts on his argumentative colleagues, and focussed his thoughts on the road ahead. Some cars passed by, nothing special, the trees were coming up ahead that indicated their closeness to the forest and, oh, he detected a bunch of humans sat by on the grassy slope coming up ahead, all of them bearing things like backpacks and those weird viewers they called binoculars, which reminded him a lot of his telescopic visor.

A glance at the Internet indicated this group of humans were called bird-watchers, who liked to watch birds, and they seemed to be getting their gear in shape before heading off to find some birds to watch. Hound gave a rev of wistfulness. He wished he could do some bird-watching, or any kind of peaceful observational activity really. This planet had so much life upon it, and here he was forced to go check for Decepticons.

As they passed by the group, Grimlock suddenly noted something: "Huh, Grimlock recognises one of those humans.... Yes, that's the human Jazz gave a lift to."

This revelation was quite startling to the other two, and the lieutenant promptly sputtered: "Wait, what, when did Jazz ever give a lift to a human?"

"After our match with the Decepticons in the forest, against Soundwave and Barricade." Grimlock replied, suddenly quite disinterested with a conversation he had started. "She was, what did the Internet say, ah yes, hitch-hiking, and the soft sappy Solstice obliged her."

"Huh, really?" Hound asked. "Wow. I'm surprised Jazz didn't blow his cover with the whole actually interacting with a native thing."

"How did you even know it was that specific human anyway?" Ratchet asked, a tad sceptical now. "You're not exactly one to so lovingly remember the details of anything other than a Con you want to bite."

"If you must know, medic-" Grimlock sneered. "-Grimlock scanned her genetic code while she was riding with the Lieutenant. Grimlock can now recognise her specific DNA strands and thus identify her with ease."

A moment of silence.

"Huh." The Hummer mused. "I didn't know you could think to do that."

"Throw another condescendence at Grimlock again, Ratchet, and any Decepticons we encounter won't be the only ones coming away with teeth in their sparks-"

"Oh shut up you two." Hound grumbled. "Can't you even give it a recharge for one minute?"

Wisely, the two did not challenge the jeep nor continue their argument, though Grimlock did certainly make a point of huffing some exhaust from his pipes. Not that it mattered much to Hound how grumpy the berserker got, so long as he didn't keep breaking the silence with his and Ratchet's consistent arguing.

Of course, this did raise the point of just how productive bringing both of them on the same mission had been. While the focus of finding and battling Decepticons was a shared goal that could unite even the most unlikely of Autobots, Hound wondered if Grimlock could restrain himself for that long until they either found a target or went back to the ship. After all, all it would take is a few more snide comments from Ratchet and the tanker truck could easily lose his cool.

Hound was vaguely reminded of the time Grimlock had outright bitten another Autobot's arm clean off, years ago when he had just been recovered from wherever the Decepticons had taken him. Of course, that was when Grimlock had been far more unstable and other Autobots far more fearful, before he had been shipped off to Critico.

And everyone who went in and out of Critico ended up a tad more subdued afterwards-

His sensors suddenly entered a warning mode, and he jolted slightly, causing the two behind him to slow down slightly in curiosity. Regaining himself, Hound appraised the situation and realised that he had picked up the sudden surge of space bridge activity. But it couldn't be; the power level and wavelength was all wrong for a space bridge, but at the same time it was far too familiar not to be one.

The other two had picked it up as well, and Ratchet asked: "Decepticons, no doubt. They're either picking something up or dropping something off."

"Whatever it is, we're going to find out." Hound replied coolly. "Let's see what our 'buddies' are up to."

"Grimlock can't wait." The berserker purred.

They were far away enough from the human group to abandon the road and head into the forest, so he gave the order to shift to robot form and was the first to unfold his limbs and dart into the cover of the trees. Grimlock and Ratchet also transformed, the latter a bit slower than normal and with a wheeze of joints, and followed after him.

"Well, only parts of this planet are pure and clean." Ratchet muttered, optics and wheels rotating with slight disgust as he shuffled through the foliage. "This dirt certainly isn't."

"Focus, Ratchet."

The trio set off into the woods, the jeep and the Hummer cautiously pulling out their energy pistol and gel cannon, the tanker truck sniffing the air with predatory intent. The signature had vanished now, but they had at least pinpointed where it had formed and following it was their first priority.

There was now a practically confirmed presence of Decepticons in the area. The trio didn't know how many they were, or if Starscream had summoned any reinforcements. But all they needed was the element of surprise, a few lucky shots and with some luck they'd have their own prisoners to find out the depths of Starscream's agenda, and maybe a few less foes to deal with, if Grimlock had anything to say about it.

Hound revved in anticipation; he wasn't sure what he'd find, but he was sure it would be something pretty tense.

---

Grindor trundled out of the portal into a clearer section of the forest, grass flattening under his treads as his long arm extended slightly, sweeping around as if it were a sort of optical stalk. He took a moment to appraise his surroundings and feel the planet's sensations; a rather shaded are with coarse softness yielding under his weight and a cooling breeze whirling around his armour. He heard the twitters of organic creatures and he noted the tall and sturdy trees all around him.

Overall, quite a serene scene. He found himself a tad enamoured.

Slipstream stepped out behind him, flexing her tailfins slightly as she shook herself in response to the quaint sensation of the wind, before the ground-bridge portal vanished and she stated cheerfully: "Lovely, isn't it? I find this planet to be a very beautiful one."

"I can agree with that." Grindor replied. "It has an interesting flair to it. But our goal is not to observe but to prepare, henceforth-"

He transformed now, utilising the third arm of sorts to prop himself up as he unfolded into robot mode, the treads retracting and shifting into massive arms, the front sliding into an armoured torso and stocky legs gripping the ground. He reared up, the exactor sliding onto his back and his optics came online in a crimson flair.

"-We shall prepare."

As Slipstream watched with interest, two panels opened on his abdomen, and he ejected two little metal things, which landed on the forest floor. For a second, they did nothing, when they unfolded three little legs and propped themselves upright, also unfolding a dual-barrelled gun on top.

One of Grindor's sharp horns flickered slightly, and the turrets scuttled away towards the trees, scaling them with ease at his direction. This done, ports on his feet extended slightly and began firing a flurry of metal objects over the forest floor, small enough to hide within the grass as they extended thin but potent spikes.

"Automated mobile turrets and spike-spheres." Slipstream mused, bending down to observe one of the little spike balls nestled into the dirt. "You came prepared, Grindor."

"All of my own design." The engineer stated, flexing his substantially larger arms. "Fixing ships isn't my only hobby, Slipstream. I am quite fond of tinkering."

"And you do a good job at it. If only Barricade had ever taken up such a productive hobby; maybe he might be more tolerable."

He chuckled at that: "Perhaps. And if the day ever comes that Barricade enhances his ability to be viewed as tolerant , I may have my chance at discovering a flying Driller."

Another chuckle, shared between them, before he added: "Well, the ground traps are set and I will be more than happy to provide the target any curious Autobots may want to find. Would you be so kind as to provide aerial observance and a surprise form of back-up?"

"Grindor, it would be my pleasure. Few things are more satisfying than an Autobot's terror when it all comes raining down." She said cheerfully, flicking her tailfins again, before she jumped up with a flare of thrusters into her jet form, easily cutting through the air into the sky high above.

He followed her ascension for a moment, internally admiring the angular form of the vehicle (these humans had a lovely sense of vehicular style), before his optics darkened slightly and, making sure she was well out of audio range, he tapped into his com-link: "Sideways, this is Grindor."

"Oh oh, hey Grindor! Where'd you go, where'd you even go?! I'm stuck all alone on a ship full of Seekers and weirdos!"

"I'm currently playing distraction for Starscream to give some wayward Seekers the chance they need to return to the ship without hassle. I'll be back soon enough. But when you get the chance, my friend, I need you to commence mapping."

"Ooooh wow, we mapping so soon?"

"Of course. Just in case."

"Of course, sure, just in case, right. I'll get on that soon enough, buddy, once I sort out all these fragging circuit boards!"

"Good. Grindor out."

The com-link went down and Grindor nodded his head in self-musing, before he revved and shifted back into vehicle mode, the Trojan compacting itself in the middle of the clearing and assuming a patient mind-set.

"Take your time, Autobots." He snorted slightly to himself. "It's not as if I have other tasks at hand."

But fortunately for him, there wasn't much longer to wait.

Hound had taken the lead at this point, slowly stalking through the trees, optics flickering from side to side, with Ratchet awkwardly shuffling behind him and Grimlock rumbling softly as he continued to sniff for any Decepticons. The three moved with decent synchronisation and caution; with cloakers and flyers on the enemy team, they had to keep their wits about them.

"Smell anything yet, Grimlock?" Hound asked quietly, training his energy pistol on a shuffling bush and lowering it when a mere bird fluttered out of it.

"Yes; metal smell, not too far away, and faint exhaust as well." The truck rumbled. "There's something unnatural out here."

Hound nodded, before he activated his telescopic visor for a better view of the world, the specialised lenses rotating slightly in a brief adjustment. As he scanned around, he became aware of something glinting in the distance. He turned to focus on it, magnifying the view, and he became aware of the fact he was looking at a vehicle; a sort of tank with an excavating arm upon it.

Now this was bizarre. None of the observed Decepticons had this for an alt-mode and he certainly doubted any human would leave a, as the Internet revealed, military vehicle alone in the forest. He wasn't scanning any organic life other than basic birds or insects nearby, so it couldn't be the result of human activity.

It was most likely a Decepticon, perhaps a new one coming to investigate Earth or maybe an old one with a new costume, so to speak. But it wasn't moving. He didn't even have his holograms up and yet it was not reacting at all.

He felt a bit uneasy, and stated: "Autobots, I've found something interesting."

"What is it?" Ratchet asked, stepping up beside him. "What can you see?"

For an answer, Hound extended two transfusion tubules, which the other two promptly accepted into their ports. A moment of neural connection took place, and Ratchet and Grimlock promptly had access to Hound's optical filing, specifically his viewing of the lone vehicle.

They tensed upon going through the implications themselves, before Ratchet muttered: "Well, if it is a Decepticon, how should we proceed?"

"My scans aren't picking up any internal activity or thermal anomalies from it." Hound noted. "Either it's just a regular lost vehicle, or its armour is well-shielded against scanners. I think we should approach with caution-"

"Enough with caution." Grimlock snarled, disengaging from the jeep's tubule. "Grimlock will investigate this."

Despite the other two's protests, the truck stomped forward, knocking aside an unlucky tree in his predatory focus. He'd quite frankly gotten very bored of the other Autobot's habits of always hesitating, always debating, when they could be doing something productive, like actually investigating this the old-fashioned way!

They were on the berserker's heels, grumbling protests to themselves, when they reached the lone tank, designated a Trojan armoured vehicle. It was deep green in colour, and utterly obtuse sat in the middle of nowhere. Grimlock took a step towards it and snarled:

"If you are a Decepticon, you have five seconds to state your identity and utterly surrender before Grimlock tears you apart. One... two..."

Ratchet and Hound just shrugged and revved in annoyance, deciding to let the tanker truck exert his own variant of diplomacy, both utterly unaware of subtle movements in the trees behind them.

"...Three..."

Fire was beginning to brew with the berserker's mouth.

"...Four-"

Suddenly the air was rife with gunfire, and energy blasts peppered the jeep and Hummer, flaring over their armour as they yelped and staggered in shock and pain, Hound shrieking that it was a trap. Grimlock turned into surprise, just as the Trojan came to life, reversing to a safer distance before transforming into a bulky Decepticon with huge arms and sharp horns.

The Decepticon smiled with a toothed maw and stated: "Well, monster, come and tear me apart now."

As Hound and Ratchet managed to regain themselves and start firing back at two turrets scuttling up and down the nearby trees, Grimlock accepted the challenge with a frenzied roar and charged-

Pain suddenly shot up through his legs, a horrible stabbing sensation in his feet, and Grimlock roared with pain, staggering slightly as spiked objects dug into his armour, pushed into him by his own heavy footsteps.

"Spike-spheres, Grimlock. Never leave a ship without them."

The Decepticon lunged forward, extending the treads upon his arms like whips and struck Grimlock across the face with them, the heavy serrations grazing the truck and adding further pain to his disorientated neural net.

However, Grimlock had dealt with worse pain in his life, and he promptly managed to regain himself and jerk forward, slamming into the Decepticon with a hefty head-butt that sent him staggering back.

Disabling the neural net in his feet so to remove the annoying sensations in his feet, Grimlock gave into his feral nature, snarling: "Pathetic sneaking coward! BURN!"

He prepared to unleash a stream of fire, but his foe reacted faster, slamming a claw upwards and snapping the berserker's jaw shut, his flames uselessly sealed inside his own mouth.

"Don't think you can catch me off-guard so easily, Grimlock." The Decepticon taunted. "You'll need more than your basic instincts to defeat Grindor!"

His other hand slammed into Grimlock's head, knocking him back, and Grindor kept up the attack, scraping at the truck's side with his treads and slamming upon his neck with the third arm. The Autobot retaliated by shoving his body to the side, slamming into the Trojan and sending him crashing to the ground, roaring in anger, fire bursting from his jaws.

Grindor got back to his feet as the beast raged before him, and stated coldly: "Intensity inspires intensity in turn."

Grimlock lunged at him with a shriek of fury and Grindor seized his jaws in his claws, the fire searing against his armour, the two furiously struggling to overpower the other in an epic clash of wills and force!

---

"Huh, that's bizarre." Wheeljack mused, as he and Bumblebee were driving along the road to the solar farm, the Solanor happily belted into Bumblebee's back seats. "I'm picking up a space bridge signature at that forest we went to before, but at the same time, it's not a space bridge signature. Does that make any sense?"

"Not really." Bumblebee replied, bumping the tow truck's rear bumper slightly in playful teasing. "But that's okay, a lot of things you say don't make any sense."

"Ha ha, Bumblebee, ha ha. Well, either way, it's gone now. Weird. Do you think we should check it out?"

The rookie adopted a more serious tone, imitating his mentor: "No, Wheeljack, we were ordered to implant the Solanor and prepare the first converter. We must not diverge from our mission."

He paused, and added: "Besides, the last time I went to check out random signatures didn't work out so great, so no thanks."

"Well I am shocked, Bumblebee. You have actually learnt a lesson from previous experiences."

"Shut up, Wheeljack."

"Not that it matters really. Hound, Grimlock and Ratchet's signatures are heading there anyway, so I imagine they're gonna check it out."

"I hope they're okay! Especially Ratchet, 'cause I thought he couldn't come outside just yet 'cause his leg was broke and stuff."

"They'll be fine, Bee. Weird space bridge signals or not, I'm sure they'll be ready for anything."

---

"I'm not even ready for this!" Ratchet protested, as he struggled to roll out of the way of yet another barrage of fire from the annoying turret thing that was scuttling up and down the nearby tree, blasts of energy spraying up dirt around his feet. "I just got out of the med-bay! Why oh why do I keep taking drives that end up with bad luck?!"

"Just keep your head together, Ratchet!" Hound snapped, firing back at the other turret that refused to stop aiming at his legs. "They're just dumb turrets!"

His next round of fire changed tactics; instead of aiming at the turret itself, he instead blasted the base of the tree it was perched on. His blasts easily tore apart the wooden structure, and the tree promptly began to keel over. The little turret attached it was too slow to respond, and when the huge plant hit the ground, it was knocked over and rolled across the dirt, little legs flailing uselessly.

But unfortunately for Hound, his declaration had not gone unheard. When Grindor, awaiting Grimlock's next attack, became aware of the insult directed towards his gadgets, he turned his head towards the offender, optics suddenly burning brightly, and shouted: "What the frag did you say about my turret, you impudent piece of scrap?!"

He locked up his shoulder, turned one of the wheels, and as Hound looked up at the shout, Grindor fired a beeping grenade from the port, the projectile whistling sinisterly as it sailed towards the jeep. The lieutenant yelped in horror and dived down just in time for the grenade to sail over him, land somewhere behind him and explode in a shower of fire and dirt and plants.

"Don't you insult my hardware, Autobot!" Grindor snapped. "I work hard on them!"

"You should work harder on surviving!"

Grimlock's shout followed the seizing of this opportunity to launch another attack, lunging forward with jaws aiming right for Grindor's head, but the Trojan was ready, swinging down the excavator arm on his back and impacting it on Grimlock's head, stopping the truck's charge short with a clang and a burst of sparks.

However, the berserker was hardly deterred and shoved forward, slamming his head against his foe's armoured chest and knocking him backwards before Grindor could dig his legs in and shove back, the two brutes engaging in a furious wrestle for control.

Hound was back on his feet, and with a air of distaste, raised a foot and crushed the squirming turret underneath, grinding it into the dirt, before he unveiled his shoulder missile launcher and fired the missile at the turret harassing Ratchet. Focussed on the Hummer, it was unaware of the projectile-

BOOM!

-Until it exploded into little bits.

Ratchet revved in relief when the firing stopped, as Hound hopped over and helped him up, asking: "How's the leg, Ratchet?"

"Fine for now. Let's go give our favourite savage a hand, shall we?"

"My thoughts exactly-"

BOOM!

An explosion tore up the ground between them, and the two were flung back at the force of the blast, just as the air was torn by the shriek of a jet swooping overhead. Hound was first to get back to his feet, aiming his pistol upwards and shooting after this new opponent.

As it retreated, intending to turn around for another fly-by, he recognised the angular design and the black colouring, and a flair of recognition and cold anger flowed through him. If he wasn't mistaken, this was the Decepticon who had kidnapped Bumblebee.

Never mind Grimlock's earlier claim of desiring this one for himself; Hound decided he was justly due for some payback himself. The jet made a sharp turn and swiftly came back towards them, readying the next barrage, but this time Hound was ready; his rocket launcher had reloaded and, locking on, he fired.

The missile was more potent than his energy pistol, and the jet had to swerve to avoid it, distracted from its attack and forced into evasive manoeuvres as the rocket persistently tracked it. Hound kept up the pressure by firing shots from his pistol, bright bolts of energy flaring by the jet as it worked to avoid all of these attacks.

Eventually, it had no choice but to transform to robot mode, still utilising the thrusters to remain airborne, and just as the missile came in, it fired a plasma blast from its ray arm, obliterating the missile before it could strike. With that done, the jet descended rapidly, returning fire with boiling streaks of plasma and Hound had to quickly whip up a hologram to buy some time to get into cover.

The jet took this time to land, crashing into the dirt and flexing long sharp wings, straightening up with green optics narrowed and plasma gun readying the next shot. The Decepticon, ignorant of Grimlock and Grindor's furious wrestling, scanned intently for any sign of the other two Autobots, before shrugging and firing a smaller but prolonged beam of orange plasma.

The bright energy distorted slightly on contact with the holographic field, and Hound retracted it before the Decepticon could possibly set the forest on fire, and he took advantage of the surprise at his reappearance to fire on the Decepticon, determined to inflict some potent damage on it for the fear it had caused him!

The Decepticon yelped in shock and darted out of the way of his blasts, and was further caught off-guard by the sudden bright blue glow thrown at it; identifying this new object as a plasma grenade, the jet activated its thrusters and neatly back-flipped away from the projectile just before it exploded, landing neatly and prepping the plasma for return fire.

Ratchet emerged to flank Hound, his shoulder panels clipping back into place and sliding his gel cannon into his backpack, declaring: "I've got your back, Hound."

"Well, if it isn't the Autobot medic Ratchet." The jet sneered, feminine and cruel, aiming her plasma ray at them. "How'd that thrashing from Starscream treat you?"

"Not nearly as bad as what you're about to receive." Hound stated coolly, clenching his free hand into a fist. "I owe you a humiliating beat-down after you stole our friend."

"How cute, the Autobots were scared for their little buddy." The jet snorted. "Why don't you come over here and back up those words, hologrammer?"

"Won't just be him." Ratchet snapped. "You're gonna have to deal with me as well."

With that, the medic folded his hands inwards and deployed his dual buzzsaws, the lethal circular blades powering up and spinning at an immense pace as he and Hound tensed for battle. The Decepticon, whom Ratchet identified as a medic named Slipstream, simply raised a brow, before she grinned and flipped forward her long wings into the position of deadly blades.

"Daunting." The Hummer admitted, glancing down at his smaller weapons. "But I've faced worse."

"Me too. Let's get her."

The two Autobots lunged forward, Hound firing his pistol, as the jet returned the concept, sprinting forward and raising her weapons for a deadly blow, Hound's blasts glancing off the wing-blades as they aimed for their torsos. Hound simply ducked to the side and Ratchet brought his saws up to intercept the blade, the weapons clashing in a flare of sparks.

Slipstream simply responded by attempting to kick Ratchet, but she was thrown off course when he deflected her blade to the side, missing him by a few inches. She had to lurch back before he could cut into her, but then Hound was joining the fray, slamming into her other leg and forcing her to one knee. A back-handed blow knocked him away, but Ratchet seized the opportunity and sliced at her hips, again forcing a retreat as she grunted in pain, Energon leaking from the cuts in her side.

As the two Autobots sought to whittle down their larger foe, Grimlock and Grindor maintained their furious struggle; extending his tread-whips, Grindor struck out at Grimlock, who deflected the attacks with his tail and darted forward, snapping his jaws at his foe. The Trojan avoided this attack and lashed back with his third arm, knocking Grimlock back slightly.

However, as he moved in to deal another blow, Grimlock pivoted around and knocked Grindor's side with his tail, sending the engineer flying back, the Decepticon crashing into a tree before he came to a stop.

Shaking his head slightly, he got back up and sneered: "Nicely played, berserker. You have more finesse than your crude attack pattern suggests."

Grimlock didn't bother replying, instead charging up fire within his throat and unleashing a barrage of flame upon Grindor, who was too slow to dodge and thus was forced to adopt a defensive position, wincing as his arms bore the brunt of the searing heat. But though Grimlock thought he had gained the advantage, it was not to be.

From within Grindor's third arm emerged a small plasma blaster on a specialised strut, and it promptly began firing on the truck's head. Shocked by this sudden attack, the berserker recoiled defensively, forced to shut off his flamethrower, giving his foe the opportunity to leap at the Autobot and slam the tread-whips into his side, knocking him back.

Grimlock rolled neatly back to his feet, snarling in frustration: "You're just full of tricks, aren't you?!"

Grindor simply smirked: "They don't speak highly of my engineering capabilities for nothing, animal."

Grimlock gave a thunderous growl, and the Trojan casually raised an arm and beckoned him forward with a curling of the claws. Enraged, the Autobot lunged, as did the Decepticon, and they collided with an immense squeal of metal scraping metal, claws and jaws slashing at each other.

Meanwhile, Hound jumped back to avoid the swipe of the jet's blade, taunting her speed and efficiency, and it made Slipstream angry. Again, she lunged forward, swinging at him, but when he dodged, laughing, she was ready. Her plasma ray arm sprung up, charging a bolt of power and she fired it, hitting him straight-on-

Well, it would have, if he hadn't vanished in a flicker of light. A hologram!

Stunned, she spun round and he was behind her, a missile loaded and locked onto her. He smiled and fired it, but alas, the jet was faster than he realised; with a flexible bending of the legs, she ducked out of the way, leading the missile to harmlessly impact a tree.

However, this gave Ratchet the chance to move in, the Hummer swinging his saws at her legs; the sudden pain of metal ripping into her caused Slipstream to stagger back, and he aimed upwards at her abdomen, slicing precise cuts into her metal before she managed to bring a leg up and kick him away.

As she moved forward to continue her attack on Ratchet, Hound was charging in. She swerved around and swung her blade at him, but he brought his hand up and caught her arm before it could slice into him, his systems wheezing with effort under the force of the larger Cybertronian. Angered, she swung the other arm around, but he caught that too. The two struggled for a moment, evenly matched despite the jet's superior size.

However, Slipstream refused to be hampered so easily. Twisting her fingers around to dig into his hands, she suddenly leapt up and over him, the jeep crying with shock as his arms were pulled back, and she landed neatly behind him, still holding on. With a flare of heat, her thrusters activated and forced her torso upwards, giving her the extra push needed to pull him upwards, and she brought her arms around, flinging him over her head and into a few trees, all of which snapped and broke from the force of the Autobot impacting them.

As Hound struggled back to his feet, Slipstream sneering as she stalked towards him, he vaguely noted that this might be a bit trickier than he had intended.


Notes: At last! Slipstream gets into an actual fight, and it seems she has the advantage over even a two-on-one match-up!  

Once again, Wheeljack's sense of timing is absolutely hideous  

 

As always....to awesome. The vividness of the fight scenes are just brilliant....YOU SHOULD WORK FOR HASBRO!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'm too shocked for words...........so here's this gif!!!!

 

I take a day to actually get back to this, and now I'm going to ahead and be anal. I invite you to cut me however many times you like; inasmuch, out of curiosity pertaining to the structure of the installment, did you feel rushed while you were writing it? The inquiry is mostly rhetorical, but I raise this point because I kind of felt that there was something a little "off" about the whole thing. Fundamentally, there was nothing bad about it, it follows a similar pacing and omniscience as TFM episodes have so far, but I found that aspects I usually find strong in your writing were enervated to an extent in this chapter. For the most part, I thought that dialogue, what there was, was mostly weak. The overall mode regarding the interactions between the characters was fine, (like, I love how Hound is mostly non-confrontational but gets annoyed with Ratchet and Grimlock and I'm very satisfied that those two are actually getting to annoy each other after so much time), but the dialogue was somehow wooden, and the pacing suffered until it could pick itself up when the action started.

Particularly with Grimlock and Ratchet, I would sometimes read their dialogue and not be able to really imagine them saying that. I guess you could handwave that as me just misinterpreting their characterizations, but it's happened trice now that characters have said or done things that I feel like they wouldn't. It makes it feel like the mannerisms of everybody across the board are "generic" in a certain way...like everybody has a tendency to do/say similar types of things despite what their personal archetypes are. Or it could go the other extreme and they could say cartoony things that nobody ever really would. Inasmuch, the switching between goofy, lighthearted atmosphere that's set up with campy verbal context doesn't contrast the other opposing atmospheres set up with poetically creepy and crass lines/actions, it just makes it feel inconsistent.

Granted, I'm not saying this is typical or that it happens all the time or that it makes the series in its entirety bad. I merely mean to convey that sometimes it feels like TFM is trying to be two different genres in a way that doesn't heavenly coincide. I'm not saying that action can't have comedy and comedy can't have action or that anything has to be all-happy-all-the-time or all-serious-business-all-the-time, but it has to knit. Otherwise it's like listening to a bubblegum-pop teeny-bopper song set to the instrumentation of classical-style strings. Either way, this is just me being all stupid and pedantic, I'm moving on the predominance, the good stuff. >.>

Even though I complain that I thought the pacing wasn't eloquently conveyed, I actually liked what it was pragmatically. Broadly, the episode starts off simple and lighthearted with mostly dialogue and monologue as particularly Hound gets psyche exploration and a center of the omniscient perspective. I like how it foreshadows that this episode is going to focus a lot on him later on, when he ends up having to deal with Barricade. (Would be so great if I was totally unspoiled right now, but alas, it's unavoidable whether you're friends with the writer or not  ). So far, IO, you don't suspect much of anything above the subtle implications that we're going to get some pretty diabolical imagery later on. I always like it when things start off casually and then escalate.

Some smaller things I liked were the continuity nods like Hound being mad at Slipstream and the fact that her and Grindor got to be BA. I was a little disappointed at Grimlock's retatiliation...but idk, I said enough, I'm letting that slide.   Also with Bumblebee saying no to the signal because obvious reasons and the general banter between him and Wheeljack. Not to mention that I love how this is the second time Wheeljack has conveniently handwaved a serious situation. e_e

In any event, I'm as excited as always for the next chapter!

 

The problem with fighting a medically inclined Cybertronian, as evidenced by the unmistakeable design of Slipstream's replacement appendage as an Energon ray, was that they had a sense of precision that few others shared. They knew the intricacies of the body and all its weak spots. They exactly where to cut to strike the most vulnerable Energon valves. And then there was the fact their regenerative systems were just so much better.

Example of course, being the fact that the cuts on the jet's hips and abdomen were already resealing themselves, amplified by a blue glow emanating from the ray arm that seemed to be diverting specially energised Energon to the wounds. Hound narrowed his optics in frustration as the jet stalked closer, slowly raising her blades to finish him off. At this rate, he and Ratchet wouldn't last much longer; the jet was faster and bigger and she wasn't nearly as impeded by injuries as they were. He needed a plan to take her down quickly.

Optics flickering to the side, he considered Grimlock, attempting to sink his teeth into the other Decepticon's head, and he considered Ratchet, struggling back to his feet, before he nodded his head and got to his feet.

Okay then. Plan settled.

Slipstream paused slightly when he made no move to dodge or retaliate, optics narrowing in suspicion, her blades shivering ever so slightly in preparation for a reaction to whatever he did. An Autobot as tricky as this infamous example deserved the benefit of caution as much as it deserved the retaliation for its persistent annoyances.

Still, she’d better mind herself now. She’d heard all the stories about this Autobot’s habit of foiling all attempts to destroy or capture him, and she wasn’t in the mood to become another example of those Decepticons who had failed to bring down this wily opponent.

“Contemplating surrender, Hound?” She asked, her tone a mixture between a taunt and slight tension when he still didn’t make a move other than glaring at her. “I’d be happy to drag you back to my ship if you’re so disinterested in fighting me.”

“I’m in no mood to be on any ship under the command of an egotistical pretentious bully like Starscream.” He declared coolly. “But I am in the mood to offer you some advice, Decepticon; taking someone’s apprentice away from them is a mistake you really shouldn’t make. Not unless you value optimal health and a good physical condition.”

Slipstream raised a brow: “A big boast to make, hologrammer. Is it as solid as your little tricks?”

“Why don’t you come and find out?”

Oh, a direct challenge. Tempting, but unfortunately for him, she knew what he was up to; his plan was clearly to lure her into lunging at him, only for her to stumble and become vulnerable when her blades passed through a simple light construct. In such a scenario, he’d easily get her from behind with that rocket launcher of his. But alas, such a trick was far too painfully obvious coming from him

Humouring him just a tad, she smiled sweetly, stated: “Certainly.” And immediately swung around with her blades, fully intent on cutting through the deceptive Autobot from wherever he had positioned himself to strike from behind. As if his pathetic taunts could fool her!

Only her blades contacted nothing. No scream of pain, no severed metal and no spilt Energon. He wasn’t behind her at all. But then, she realised with a widening of the optics in horror, now he was.

As much as she hated to admit it, even in this moment of weakness, that had been pretty sleek on his part.

Hound went for the leg, leaping up and grabbing onto her abdomen as his feet furiously kicked at her knee joint, impacting the more vulnerable section with loud clangs and causing her appendage to bend awkwardly at the sudden force. In her moment of unsteadiness, he shifted backwards while maintain his grip on her, and his extra weight combined with her lack of balance brought the jet crashing to the floor.

She struggled to get back to her feet, but he quickly landed upon her with an elbow drop that earned a cry of pain, before he shouted: “Ratchet, adhesive gel cannon! Target her ray arm!”

Ratchet, who had gotten back to his feet when the jeep had made his move, quickly nodded, retracting his saws and pulling the gun from his backpack as he stepped forward for a better shot-

“Argh!”

The Hummer cried in pain when his leg suddenly seized up in a jarring screech of failed mechanisms, and his forward movement was instantly impeded. His damaged appendage shuddered violently as it failed to complete its movement, promptly buckling and bringing him down to one knee as he cursed the damnable timing of such an error.

“Ratchet!” Hound called out in concern, and that moment of weakness was what Slipstream needed. She activated her thrusters, and the jeep was forced off of her with a yelp of pain as the jet of fire seared at his armour, giving her the space needed to get back to her feet. Taking advantage of the moment, she brought up her ray arm, the very target the other medic had been hoping to hit, and fired a blast of plasma.

It struck him on the chest, and in his vulnerable state the Hummer was flung backwards in a searing blast of overheated energy, sending him crashing to the floor. Hound cried out in shock for his friend, but was stopped by the jet swinging around and bringing her blades to bear.

Hound leapt back just in time, armour smoking slightly, as she swung at him, but his advantage was lost now. She was advancing faster than he could retreat, and it would be a matter of moments, even seconds, before her blades caught up to him-

A missile impacted the jet’s side, tearing her abdomen slightly and forced her away from the jeep, the Decepticon staggering as she struggled to regain her balance and determine what had attacked her. And when she realised what it was, terror flowed through her. Grimlock lunged at her, aiming low, and his jaws clamped onto a leg, metal crumpling under his teeth as he furiously shook at the captured appendage, upending the shocked jet and bringing her to the floor.

As Grimlock furiously bit into his foe’s leg, the jet shrieking with pain as she desperately slashed and kicked at him in a frenzied struggle to free herself, Hound noted the other Decepticon, the one who had called himself Grindor, getting back to his feet. His red optics noted the jeep’s gaze, and he smiled a small smile.

Hound was more than ready to take on the tanker truck’s opponent, when suddenly his internal sensors beeped into life, having detected something perturbing; another space bridge anomaly, as bizarrely unrelated to actual space bridge signatures as the first, and he paused in his combat-ready motion in shock. This one was remaining open for longer, and it couldn’t be the other Autobots, unless-

Grindor’s smile widened as he watched the Autobot connect the dots with a cruel dawning comprehension.

“It’s a distraction.” He muttered in horror, before his volume increased: “It’s another distra- AH!”

Grindor had taken advantage of his hesitance and lunged in with disturbing speed, slamming Hound’s chest with the excavator arm and knocking him back with ease, the jeep uprooting dirt and grass as he was dragged through the floor by his own momentum.

Satisfied, Grindor turned his attention to Grimlock and immediately ejected another grenade from his bulky arms, the projectile whistling menacingly towards the remaining Autobot, too distracted with his struggling victim to realise what was coming-

BOOM!

The grenade exploded upon contacting the berserker’s hips, knocking him away from the panicked Slipstream with a howl of pain. His armour was torn at the side, his leg jerking violently as the burning fragments hissed at him, but potent a blow as it had been, it was not enough to dissuade Grimlock from activating his cannons and firing a flurry of laser blasts at Grindor.

The Trojan was forced back at the plethora of projectiles impacting his thick armour, throwing his arms and treads around himself for better protection, but thankfully his comrade was on hand on alleviate the pressure; Slipstream climbed back to her feet, her injured leg shuddering, before she charged up the plasma and blasted Grimlock with it, the Autobot staggering back under the force of her blasts.

Enraged, he charged at her, but this time he was ready for her next shot; as she fired it, he suddenly spun round and the blast impacted uselessly on his swinging tail, and the momentum brought him round in time for an impressive lunge that ended with his head slamming into her chest, crumpling the angular metal and sending her flying through a tree with a tremendous CRACK!

But his foes were persistent; even as Slipstream was struggling back up, Grindor lunged in, slamming his arms upon the truck’s neck and smashing his head into the dirt, brutally pummelling the struggling Autobot’s head. But alas, Grimlock struck back, forcing himself upwards and slamming his head against the engineer, sending him staggering back.

Grimlock swung round and brought his leg to bear, delivering a powerful kick that knocked the Trojan back, before swinging his tail round just in time to smack Slipstream away when she attempted to ram her blades into him. Sensing weakness, he lunged at her again, but this time she managed to jump over him with a flare of her thrusters, swiping downwards to cut sharp wounds into his back with a roar of pain.

She landed neatly despite the damaged leg, and as Grindor was getting back up, she called: “Refreshments coming up!”

Charging up energy, she fired a beam of blue energised Energon that bathed him in a bright wave of healing power that instantly started to hyper-stimulate his regenerative processes. The damages accumulated to his frame promptly began to repair themselves, spurred on by the medic’s ray.

When she finished, he flexed his rejuvenated appendages and declared: “Much appreciated, Slipstream. But our purpose here has been accomplished. It’s time for us to take our leave.”

With that, he turned around and promptly beat a retreat, running off into the forest as fast as he could. Grimlock, facing off against them, made to pursue, but he was distracted by boiling plasma striking his back, earning a snarl of pain and fury as he turned and unleashed a jet of flame towards Slipstream.

Alas, the medic simply activated his thrusters and flew above the frenzied attack, and with her distraction complete, she compacted into her jet form and instantly blasted off, soaring away into the sky at speeds beyond the lasers Grimlock attempted to shoot at her. As the lieutenant clambered back to his feet, the berserker angrily noted that the other Decepticon had made his escape by now.

He revved with frustration and anger, before rearing himself upwards and unleashing a terrifying roar, flame billowing from his jaws as he howled his fury into the sky above.

The jeep simply watched as the truck exerted his anger vocally, before Grimlock finished off with a skyward jet of flame and shuddered violently, attempting to reign in his temper. For a moment, the forest was completely silent. And then Hound gave a low rev and walked over to Ratchet, who had managed to prop himself up against a tree and was examining the plasma burn on his chest, his windshield cracked slightly from where the projectile had struck him.

“Are you okay, Ratchet?”

“Armour absorbed most of it, hardly any damage to internal systems.” Ratchet muttered, averting his optics from the jeep as he gave a low rev of dejection. “To be honest, my pride received more damage than my chassis.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Ratchet. You-“

“Wasn’t his fault?!” Grimlock interjected, anger defining his tone as he stomped over, heaving exhaust from his pipes and heat from his mouth in his renewed infuriation. “Of course it was his fault! His pathetic little glitch cost us a chance to capture a Decepticon, and you don’t even have the chrome to point out the fragging obvious!”

Ratchet flinched in fear under such close proximity to the enraged berserker, but Hound kept his cool and snapped: “Don’t you start, Grimlock. We have enough to deal with without your accusations-“

“You call it accusations, Grimlock calls it truth!” The truck insisted furiously, stomping his feet into the ground. “Ratchet is useless in combat, and yet you soothe him with outright lies about his helpfulness! You’d have been better off leaving him in the med-bay where he belongs!”

Hound was silent for a moment as Grimlock promptly shook his head in an attempt to regain control of his temper, the Hummer wincing at the impact of his words. The tension between them was quite intense, but then the birds in the forest tentatively began to twitter and sing to one another again. It was an innocent sound, the song of the little feathered organics, and even amidst their doubts and blame, the plethora of natural singing seemed to help the Autobots to regain themselves somewhat.

They all took a moment to listen to the wildlife scattered in the trees around them, and there appeared to be a reminder for them in the noise, that the world they now lived and fought upon, while persistent and lively, was fragile and soft and breakable. Hound glanced around at the results of the recent battle, glanced at the broken trees and scorched grasses and torn dirt, and he felt a faint ache of regret in his frame.

Such damage done to an innocent world that should never have encountered Cybertron’s War in the first place, and done by a relatively minor conflict at that. The beautiful little clearing had ugly gouges across the forest floor, had lost several of its trees that may have taken decades to grow and may even have killed any unlucky creature that had been too close to the furious fight between Autobot and Decepticon.

Would it ever end, he wondered. Would the ever-reaching claws of the War ever stop hurting other planets, other galaxies? How many more forests, so rich and diverse in their organisms, would play host to warring soldiers?

What would it take for the violence to end?

Grimlock had calmed down by the time Hound managed to pull himself away from the bird song, and thus the jeep said, speaking wearily and mournfully: “Grimlock, escort Ratchet back to the ship. I’ll scout around a bit, see if I can find the source of those odd signals, and then I’ll make my way back.”

The tanker truck didn’t argue, perhaps not deeming it worthy of his attention or simply focussing on restraining himself now, but he did mutter: “That Decepticon, Grindor. Grimlock knows of him; an expert engineer, a perfect choice for repairing a damaged ship. If he is here, we may have to accelerate our own plans.”

Hound nodded in acknowledgement, and thus the truck turned and slowly stalked away. Ratchet hesitated for a moment, unease settling in his green optics as he seemed to move to speak, and Hound pre-empted his words with a response.

“I’ll be fine, Ratchet. Any damage I took in that fight will heal up soon enough. Just a quick scout and I’ll be on my way back.”

“I… I’m not doubting your ability to look after yourself, Hound, but… I’m just…” He shuddered slightly and forced himself to continue, glancing after the berserker to make sure he was out of audio range: “Grimlock was right, Hound. I’m... I’m useless. I’m not a fighter, I’m no good in the battlefield-“

“Ratchet, don’t-“

“-Don’t deny it, Hound! Don’t deny… that I’m no good at this. I’ve been in this war for years and I can hardly even fight the Decepticon’s own medics! I failed to help you when you needed me, not that I could have done much to either of those Cons regardless. Primus, the last time I was caught in a fight, I nearly did-“

He shuddered again and stopped in his lamentations for a second, which gave the jeep, both roused to defend and annoyed to explain, the chance to properly interject:

“Listen to me, Ratchet, because I’m going to make this brief and I’m not going to repeat myself. You. Are. Not. Useless. Do you understand that?” And when the Hummer seemed to protest, he forcibly continued, raising his volume now. “No. You are a great asset to us, Ratchet, possibly the greatest we have on this planet. You might not be able to fight as many Decepticons as Grimlock could, but tell me; do you think Grimlock could have helped Jazz when Bumblebee dragged him in with a shotgun tear in his chest?”

Ratchet paused slightly, considering, before he answered with a soft no.

“Exactly. Ratchet, you don’t have be a great warrior to be helpful in this campaign. You just have to be you; the best medic I know, a good mentor and a loyal friend. Don’t ever let Grimlock make you doubt that.”

It wasn’t a particularly long speech, but it seemed to have worked the trick. Ratchet gazed at him for a moment, contemplating his words, before he revved slightly and nodded. Satisfied, Hound nodded in return and gently tapped his friend’s shoulder, before motioning for him to follow Grimlock.

Ratchet hesitated, before he said: “Well… thank you, Hound. I…. I suppose I needed that. Yes… Well, um, I’ll see you back at the ship- Oh! And for the sake of my sanity, please take this with you.”

He unfolded his back compartments slightly and pulled out a medi-kit, a rather boxy octagonal container, which he promptly handed to the touched jeep: “For any bumps in the road.”

“Thanks, Ratchet. I’ll put it to good use.”

“I know you will. Good luck, lieutenant.”

The Hummer set off after the tanker truck, limping slightly but otherwise walking fine, and he bade another thank you and a goodbye before hurrying off into the trees. Hound watched him go with a small smile, before he closed his optics tightly for a moment and then set off in the opposite direction, deeper in the woods.

“Alright, Starscream.” Hound muttered coldly to himself as he strode into the foliage. “Credit where it’s due; even a crashed ship isn’t slowing you down. But what are you really planning? These distractions, your scavenging runs…. You’re trying to make something, Starscream. But what? A weapon? A harvesting tool? What’s taking it so long?”

As he moved deeper into the darker parts of the forest, he asked himself a final question: “And how do you intend to show us when it’s finished?”

---

Sideways certainly made a scene when he staggered in the control room bearing a hefty pile of broken circuit boards in his arms, and Barricade and Soundwave glanced up at him with rather bewildered expressions as he stumbled over to the main console, glancing around erratically as if desperately seeking someone to help him.

As it happened, Barricade refused to care and returned his attention to his video game, but Soundwave was a bit more generous to the new shipmate and asked: “Are you okay, Sideways? That’s a rather unwieldy load you have there.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” The smaller Decepticon stuttered, shaking slightly in his attempts to try and prevent any of the scrap from falling onto the floor. “Just wondered, er, where the trash disposal is!”

Soundwave’s visor shifted its optical units, glowing slightly to mimic a raised brow: “The trash disposal unit is on the bottom level, Sideways, like it is upon every Seeker-class vessel.”

“… I knew that.”

Barricade was snickering in that sneering fashion of his, so the Lamborghini revved in slight annoyance and signalled one of the nearby Seekers to assist the tiny scout, which it did so promptly, easily grabbing the pile of circuit boards out of the shocked Sideways’ hands.

As Soundwave ordered it to go drop off the scrap pile in the disposal units, Sideways, deprived of his endeavour, stood awkwardly by the main console for a moment, before he plucked up the neurals to ask: “So, um, Soundwave, right?”

“Affirmative.”

“Cool, um, right…. Is it okay if I use one of these consoles real quick? Grindor wanted to me to note down any more damages that he might of, you know, missed out or something, so-“

“You may proceed, Sideways. Whatever benefits Grindor’s task most.” Soundwave stated stiffly, having quite clearly lost interest in this conversation, and returned his attention to his own console, as Barricade again gave a sneering kind of snicker, presumably entertained by a rare bout of outward annoyance from the other car.

Sideways quickly nodded and scuttled off to one of the consoles on the other side of the room, silently reassuring himself that yes he had position, that he could get on with his other jobs, no worries, no worries at all. He sat down next to it, logged into the ship’s database and promptly guided himself towards the internal structuring of the vessel.

The other Decepticons didn’t notice him subtlety slide a small device into the console’s port.

It wasn’t long till Soundwave nodded in silent acknowledgement to a communication and tapped some buttons upon his console, and then the ground bridge portal formed before Starscream’s chair, pulsating brightly with power. From within emerged Grindor, looking a tad hurried but in otherwise good condition, and his quick glance at the car prompted him to immediately close the portal after him.

As the ground bridge dissipated, Soundwave asked: “So, I take it your mission went well?”

“The Autobots were sufficiently distracted, and we able to inflict some damages upon them as well. Regardless, the Seekers were able to initiate their ground bridge without any incident-”

“Where’s Slipstream?” Barricade chipped in suddenly, perking up from his video game upon noticing the lack of a second Decepticon beside the engineer. Soundwave and Grindor looked at him with rather curious expressions, and the Mustang immediately and nastily added: “Not that I fragging care or anything! I was just curious. Primus, can’t say anything without being judged by judgemental scraplets these days!”

“Slipstream is capable of flying back here herself, hence why she doesn’t need ground bridges.” Soundwave replied, still tilting his head in bemusement. “Grindor doesn’t have that luxury.”

“Speaking of luxuries, I shall return to work.” Grindor stated, moving off towards the door. “If Starscream requires anything else of me, he need just ask.”

With that said, he exited the control room, shifting his treads along his arms slightly as he went. As he left, Sideways asked: “Speaking of which, where is Starscream anyways? I’d have thought, you know, he’d be here to welcome the troops back.”

“He is.” Soundwave replied. “He’s at the forge with the returning Seekers. Why do you ask?”

“Just, just wondering.” He squeaked, before lapsing into an awkward silence. Soundwave stared at him for a moment, before Sideways promptly stated that he was done and, almost tripping over his own feet in his hastiness, scuttled away out of the control room. The door shut behind him and Soundwave immediately turned to Barricade.

“Call me suspicious, but do you get the sense that Sideways may be invoking a façade in order to set up some kind of deception? He’s barely been here for almost two hours and already I’m questioning the legitimacy of his outward expressions.”

A brief moment of consideration before the reply came.

“Shut the Pit up, moron.”

Grindor was back in the inner corridor, reattaching a severe valve to its other half, neatly soldering the line where they were to join, when Sideways entered, bearing a surprising degree of triumph in his rather skittish optics. He sidled up next to the larger Cybertronian, obnoxiously demanding attention with his presence alone.

The Trojan rolled his optics slightly, before asking: “Well, Sideways, how did you do?”

“Very well thank you Grindor, very well indeed!” The small scout stated cheerfully, shifting his tone slightly an attempt to emulate his friend. But of course, mimicking the engineer’s predilection for more sophisticated speech was difficult. So, he settled back into his typical chattering: “I was allowed on one of the consoles and I got that mapping down, just like you asked me too!”

Grindor displayed a bit more interest now: “Excellent news, Sideways. Did any of them show or hint at any suspicion?”

“Nope nope! I got it all, full schematics, total outline of innards, everything!”

Grindor finished his brief repair job, lodging the valves together and gently testing their stability. Satisfied when they held on with ease, he snapped it back into the supporting struts and initiated Energon flow, revving with satisfaction when he felt the warm energy begin to flow through the repaired section.

With this done, he fully turned to the smaller Decepticon and stated: “A perfect fix. Now if you’d be so kind?”

Sideways nodded and ejected the little port from a compartment on his abdomen, tossing it into the air briefly, before he handed it to the engineer, whom gently retrieved it and examined it with a contemplative air.

“So small, to prepare for so much.” He murmured bemusedly, bringing it closer to his optics. “I will overview this later, but we shan’t act on it yet, not with the Autobots aware that we are here to aid Starscream’s recovery. Only when the majority of this ship’s repairs are complete and we can exit this unfavourable situation will I build the foundation of our endeavour.”

Sideways tilted his head and grinned: “Just in case?”

A small smile in return.

“Just in case.”


Notes: Short finish, true, but voila, we have introduced two new Decepticons as well as an interesting plan. What are you up to, Grindor/Sideways?

Alas, poor Ratchet. It must be tough to not be a badass when you’re on the same team as a brute who took on two quite tough Decepticons by himself no problem. But as Hound rightly said, he has other virtues to help out his buddies. Hound’s a nice bot, you know?  

Next episode is Hounded, the glorious revelation of the brutal rivalry between Hound and Barricade. Time to shoo out the clowns; this episode may be a bit unnerving…

 

Wtf, Grindor's all like polite and quaint and he turns out to be a sneaky deceptive prick? That is if I read right, I kind of had to quickly go through the last half of the chapter (because who has time for anything these days), but it would seem as though our resident repairman has certain plans of his own. I have no real speculation as to what he might be up to, since all we have is the idea that he desired some kind of vivid "mapping," as it was put. I really love how it seems as though he's up to something; I'm wondering if it'll be detrimental to the Decepticons or if he's turning against anybody or anything like that. It's especially awesome because he's so unsuspecting with his amiable demeanor...on the track to retracting what I said earlier about him being boring. Can't wait to hear with more detail about what he's up to. (More fodder, yay!)

Also, yay for action! Glad that this episode wasn't totally lacking it, it was nice to have a break from the scenes that were pretty much purely monologue and dialogue and what have you. It was nice to hear all of the characters talking and interacting and everything, but the schematics of the episode definitely felt more balanced with a bit of fighting, and it wasn't even like a sissy fight either. No lie, that battle actually lasted a pretty good amount of time and either ends of it were having trouble; though, it kind of seemed like the Decepticons had the upperhand for most of it. Here we have Slipstream with, apparently, a healing factor (which is cool btb) and we have Grindor who actually seems to stand some kind of a chance up against Grimlock--maybe not actually killing him, but at least holding him off--, and then there's Ratchet who actually isn't that tough at all. Which I really appreciate. I remember when we were talking about how not every member of the team has to be a badass, but that notation was never really brought out until it was reiterated, how much Ratchet really does suck at combat. Though, to his credit, he did have a hip issue, but he proceeded to openly acknowledge his self esteem issues with his fighting incapability. I wish he would have retaliated more against Grimlock, whom was definitely being a jerk himself yet again, but that exchange between Hound and Ratchet was a really, really nice touch. And it's also nice to see one of the veterans having the ego issues, whereas it's usually the young 'uns that don't believe in themselves (a la Bumblebee in the, what, fourth episode?)

That being said, Hound is such a nice bot. Leave to him to be able to make Ratchet feel better even when he's convinced that he's of such little use to his team because he's not the best fighter in the world. It's nice that Hound is able to be so linguistic but spares us of all the political language and stuff that you usually get out of other characteristically articulate characters, like Optimus from TFP for example. The inter-team dynamics also get more points because it's not common that we get to see two adult male characters have a friendship moment like that when one is down on himself or such shenanigans. Not to mention that, pragmatically, Hound had a good argument; Ratchet might not be able to take down a Decepticon, but he's needed in the medical field for when commanders get shot in the chest. Not sure if Ratchet's confidence is completely repaired, (after all, he's always going to have to deal with Grimlock), but at least Hound was able to make him feel better.

We also get to see how Hound ends up being on his own, which leads up to the next episode (so many feels inside, restraining myself from pushing caps lock). Ah, it would seem like such an innocent scenario, just walking around to scout things out, and then ENTER THE REAPER. Oh my gosh, I'm like dying inside right now I'm so darn excited. ;W; While on the subject of Hound, I really like how he got investment into his regret over ruining the forest in battle...for a guy that loves the study of life and wants to immerse into this planet's own biology if it weren't for his war-born priorities, you would expect for him to hate it when these obligations cause damage to things that he loves. Up to now, we've never really had much insight into that, and I'm glad we did because it was actually one of my head canons.

Oh yeah, and him beating Slipstream with that trick. I'm kind of getting the sense by now that his typical battle tactic is trickery lest he uses more direct strategies, which is something that separates him from other soldiers. (And theoretically what makes him the "infamous hollagrammer"). He's a manipulator and knows how to mess with people to get the upper hand. Heck, if it weren't for him getting distracted, he probably would have been able to size up Slipstream. By the by, her monologue when she was foiled:

was perfect. ;V;

As for the Depticons, I loved Soundwave's dialogue in this chapter. The sophisticated dialogue was really awesome because I feel like that's one of the major things that makes Soundwave, well, Soundwave. I'm also extremely glad that he's actually suspicious of Sideways, because out of everybody on the ship, you would expect for him to be the one to catch on, per se. Of course Barricade is oblivious and consistently moronic, but Soundwave is tactile and, it would seem, observant. I suspect he could be a candidate for investigating Grindor and exposing him if the latter's tactics are as malevolent as they seem.

Going into the next episode (omgomgomg), it would seem all Hound has for him is his wits and the supplies that Ratchet gave him. Mnnn, I reallyreallyreally caN'T WAIT.

 

Episode 8: Hounded

Barely ten minutes after Grindor and Slipstream had returned to the ship, Starscream stalked into the control room, looking immensely pleased with himself, Waspinator eagerly buzzing around his head as the jet made his way towards his delightful chair. The present Decepticons who glanced up at his arrival and watched as he reached his seat and sat down upon it, the drone settling onto his shoulder, bearing a truly wide and self-satisfied grin.

Soundwave rolled his visor slightly and Barricade muttered curses to himself; they both knew exactly what Starscream’s current mood would invoke, a truly dreaded side-effect of his happiness indeed, and sure enough-

“Decepticons, it truly pleases me to say that Operation Harvest is now proceeding back on schedule regardless of our ship’s current condition!” He declared happily, flaring his arms widely as if his pleasure could not be contained! “Thanks to the generous gift from our new soldier, our endeavours can proceed unhindered!”

Yep. It was time for a Starscream speech. Soundwave focussed his attention back onto the console, determined to ignore the jet’s mindless pontification, and Barricade idly contemplated how many years he’d get in the Polyhex Prison Centre if he shot his commander’s head off and whether or not it’d be worth it.

Starscream was oblivious to these two, mainly addressing the attentive Seekers in the room: “Our new batch of supplies will provide for us yet more Cybertanium, and it could well be the last load we need before we commence with the next stage of my plan! The Autobots fall prey so easily to our distraction tactics that we hardly need fear of them! For, my loyal soldiers, Operation Harvest will soon reach its crucial stage, and our mission will be completed with supreme efficiency!”

He paused for a second, and the Seekers took their cue to grant him a brief clap in appreciation for his wonderful words and inspiring leadership, and one of them said: “Commander Starscream, your speech-making skills know no equal.”

“Oh stop, Seeker.” Starscream giggled, so full of himself in this present moment. “You’re just programmed to say that.”

“Yes.”

“Well, anyway, once we have ascertained our Cybertanium supply and Grindor gets our ship back into a flight capable status, we may very well begin the construction phase. The Autobots underestimate our ability to ensure success regardless of setbacks, and they shall pay dearly for it! Mwahahahaha!”

The Seekers clapped again as Starscream finished his speech with a grand flourish and a delightfully cruel laugh, before the Raptor promptly declared: “Right then, on to other matters. Barricade, I require your attention.”

“Oh joy.”

“It is time for you to begin your reconnaissance mission, my most savage soldier, and see if you can’t find any trace of the solar foundry our ex-prisoner mentioned the Lieutenant to be preparing. I want you to sweep the whole forest if you must, just make sure you can confirm whether or not the Autobots are preparing such a structure there.”

“And what happens if I do or don’t find one, oh grand and glamorous commander?” Barricade sneered, glaring up at the jet with the distaste of one who had just had their video games interrupted by a particularly frustrating acquaintance. Which, conveniently enough, had just happened.

“If you find it, destroy it and kill any Autobots who may be guarding it, before scavenging any good parts leftover from your carnage. If you don’t find it, well, I’ll just have to express my… displeasure to Slipstream over her and Airachnid’s interrogation techniques. And brutally murder the yellow cretin as well the next time I see his infuriating face.”

Barricade gave a whimsical sigh: “I do love destroying the Autobot’s hard labours and stealing their good stuff. And brutally murdering Autobots, that I also love. Why the Pit not, I’ll go scout then.”

“Great. Take Waspinator with you, in case they are utilising any holographic technologies.”

Barricade gave a shrug, before he got up from the console, Waspinator buzzing over to him from the Raptor’s chair and hovering around his head, much to the Mustang’s prompt annoyance. But even before he could request a ground-bridge, Soundwave promptly piped up:

“Do you mind if I go down to Earth as well, Starscream? I’ve been meaning to exercise my tires for a bit.”

Starscream considered the Lamborghini’s request, before shrugging: “Ah sure, why not. The Seekers can monitor communications until you get back.”

Soundwave nodded and thanked the jet, before standing up himself and moving over to Barricade, who was now tapping his feet impatiently. But once again, just as they were to request the ground-bridge, there was interjection, this time from Starscream.

“Oh, almost forgot; if you’re going to Earth as well, Soundwave, take Sideways with you. He needs an Earth mode if he’s going to be with us as long as his friend, and you can show him around a bit or something.”

Soundwave hesitated, staring at the jet in disbelief before awkwardly stating: “I’m… sure Sideways is better suited to assisting Grindor on the ship, commander-“

“Nope, not right now, he needs an Earth mode and a quick glance at the planet. Grindor can live without him until you get back, I’m sure. You must be a good host to our new soldiers.”

“Yeah, Soundwave.” Barricade taunted with malicious amusement. “Be sure to show Sideways all the cool stuff this planet could ever offer. Must be a good host to our new soldiers, you know.”

Soundwave glared at the Mustang with vehement annoyance, before Starscream declared: “Well, that’s all settled. I’ve just sent Sideways a com and he’s on his way here. Seeker, prepare to open the ground-bridge on my mark, and Barricade, I don’t even want to hear from you unless you have results, understood?”

“Whatever.”

A minute passed and Sideways scuttled into the room, nervously asking why the commander had called him, only to shudder in awkwardness when hearing he’d have to hang out with Soundwave and Barricade and Waspinator. Still, he couldn’t refuse and when the Seeker finally activated the bright blue portal, he was the first to jump through it.

“Have fun, Decepticons.” Starscream stated cheerfully. “Try to kill any Autobots you see! Ta ta for now!”

And with that, the two cars and the insect entered the portal and vanished in a flare of light. When they were gone and the ground-bridged dissipated, Starscream gave a contented rev and leaned back into his chair, stating: “Ah. I love it when things go my way.”

--

At this point, Hound could safely say that the source of those weird signals was not in the forest, nor were there any more Decepticons lurking around. He’d been scanning around intently for any sign of enemy activity, telescopic visor deployed and scanners on high alert, and yet there was nothing.

Evidently, the weird space bridge signature had the same function as the true device, given the easy disappearance of that tank Decepticon who Grimlock had identified as Grindor. But Hound couldn’t quite place what was so perplexing about it; the signature had been so similar to a space bridge and yet it wasn’t. He thought that maybe he knew it, knew what it really was, but had just forgotten, which was never appealing.

He considered the signal again, and muttered to himself: “A lesser space bridge that they might have brought along? No, signature would still match a regular one. Maybe… Primus, what was it… a ground-bridge? I doubt that, but maybe…”

Hound considered the possibility of the Decepticons having somehow procured a ground-bridged generator, but it was doubtful; ground-bridge’s had been decommissioned for years ever since the superior space bridge technology had been refined into a much more efficient and reliable tool. No sense wasting resources on lesser portals when the space bridge could do all that and more.

But maybe Starscream had somehow whipped one up. Grimlock had said Grindor was an expert engineer; was this why he had appeared on Earth all of a sudden? Had Starscream summoned reinforcements, not of soldiers, but of builders in order to make as swift a repair as he could to his ship?

“Always a step ahead.” He muttered to himself as he acknowledged the logic of getting some engineers to help, retracting his visor and contemplating his next move. “Well, Grimlock will be happy; all the more reason to start the ship up and go looking for them sooner.”

He gave a rev of slight frustration as he turned around and began to make his way back to the road. The addition of Decepticon engineers and possible ground-bridges had swiftly changed the scenario; Starscream would not only be able to repair his ship faster, he now had access to a quick and convenient portal technology for his ground units and any supply transport.

In short, the time needed to prep that solar farm and gain enough energy to overwhelm the Decepticon ship had been drastically reduced, and Hound knew his crew would have to in turn speed up their own efforts if they wanted to catch their enemies before they could escape the moon.

“It’s never that easy, is it?” He grumbled, shifting through the foliage on his rather dejected trek. “Just when we gain the advantage, it starts to slip away just like that.”

Plus there was the problem of the fact that there was no way Bumblebee and Wheeljack could implant the Solanor and set up the converter fast enough to produce more Energon to give the Zeta-1 a helpful boost in power. Without that boost, assaulting a defensive vessel would become much trickier.

Of course, he could risk it anyways and start hunting for the Decepticons now, but that would meant not only leaving two Autobots alone on the planet, but having to rely on two medics and an unrestrained berserker, which was never a good combo to rely on when attacking a grounded vessel and hoping to capture or defeat its crew, which would be in much better condition.

If only Jazz wasn’t dumped on a berth healing from a shotgun blast; he’d probably have a plan by now, while all Hound had was doubts and frustrations. The jeep revved dejectedly to himself and briefly wondered how bots like Jazz and Optimus and all the rest managed to stay reasonably sane despite all the intense pressure upon their shoulders. No-one envies a leader for their responsibilities.

But there was no time for self-pity; the Zeta-1 needed a leader, and with Jazz incapacitated, that role fell to him. And he-

Another signature, exactly the same as the one that had brought him here in the first place, and the one that Grindor and Slipstream had been distracting them from; it was a few miles from here, up along the road, and it vanished within seconds, but it had been there.

Hound jerked to a stop upon detecting this, and his expression furrowed into frustration. Again with the portal shenanigans; Starscream clearly had a lot to cover for. The jeep promptly considered his options; he could ignore it and head back to the ship, or he could go investigate it and see if any Decepticons had made their appearance.

He considered the possibility of it being another mere distraction, and thus the idea of just going back to the ship was tantalising. Just let the Decepticons waste their own time while he carried on with formulating new endeavours. But on the other hand, this could well be something meaningful that he could not afford to ignore.

But he really didn’t like leaving the ship to just Grimlock and the medics. None of them, except Bumblebee and he was plain unknowing of the truck’s more demeaning habits, liked leaving the ship to just Grimlock and anyone he could bully or intimidate. But then, could he really afford to let this signature go unchecked.

“Do this and risk that, do that and risk this.” Hound grumbled. “Chase a signal, get nothing, leave the signal, lose something.”

Urgh, the conundrums of command. You didn’t really win at it, you just did the best you could and hoped it wouldn’t all just go to the Pit. So, Hound revved in decisiveness and made his choice; he’d better go scout the signal. Who knows, it might even yield something very positive after that failure against Grindor and Slipstream.

Though it could also yield something very negative. Capture, injury, death. All that good stuff.

Still, a shot that could hit centre target was one worth taking. Hound transformed into vehicle mode, extending his wheels slightly on modified struts so to easily manoeuvre the forest, and drove off towards the road as fast as he could. If the Decepticons were indeed up to something yet again, than who was he to let them go about their business un-investigated?

Hound gave a dry chuckle and increased his speed. Good luck lieutenant, Ratchet had said to him before he had left, and now the jeep certainly felt that he probably needed it.

--

Barricade stepped out of the portal, flexing his frame with slight relief. As scrappy a world as this one was, at least it had some nice breezes to cool one’s frame after a long fragging day sat at consoles. Well, not an entire day, but close enough. Plus the sun was a bit more colourful down here than it was on the ship, so that was nice; solar energy was much more delectable on an open world than a ship.

Sideways was loitering by the side of a nearby road, hiding behind a thick bunch of bushes as he intently stared up and down the long stretch of tarmac, hoping to spot any kind of interesting vehicles he could scan. And Soundwave, standing next to the shock trooper, promptly gave a rev of relief, spinning his tires in eager apprehension for finally indulging in a nice drive.

Barricade stepped forward, looked around for a bit and, guessing his comrade’s thoughts, declared: “Well, Soundwave, here we are, back at the old muddy rock. Isn’t it just so fragging beautiful?”

“It has a certain charm to it.” Soundwave replied coolly, as Waspinator cheerfully buzzed around their heads. “Distasteful as its specimens and chemical make-up may be. But I didn’t come here to enjoy the view, Barricade, I came to finally indulge in something other than monitoring deep-space communications. True beauty is not from appearance, but from appreciation.”

“Fan-fragging-tastic, Soundwave. Write a poem about it when someone actually cares. I, on the other hand, am off to hunt for some Autobots. Now that is a pastime worth having, rather than debating the damn conundrums of roads.”

“Not all of us are quite as devoted to-“

“So, why do cars have a gear stick if sticks are the things you find on trees and thus not on any technological construction?” Sideways asked suddenly.

The other two stared at him for a moment, causing him to promptly curl up a bit and mutter some apologies, before Barricade stated: “Right, well, I’m off. Waspinator, make yourself useful for once in your stupid life and go find something for the moron to scan.”

“I’m not a moron…”

Both Barricade and Waspinator ignored that, as the drone twittered in annoyance, which prompted an immediate and aggressive response: “Keep comments like that to yourself, you little jerk! Go do what I just said and then you can fragging help me find whatever damn things the Autobots might be hiding!”

Another annoyed twitter, before Waspinator circled upwards and flew off into the distance, Sideways and Soundwave watching him go as the Mustang fumed.

“Drones are so rude these days! I can’t believe how rude drones can be, you know?” Barricade snarled, as he shifted his panels in preparation to transform. “Remember when drones didn’t just spout insults at you whenever you asked them to do something?”

“Yes.” Soundwave stated sardonically. “Clearly they must have bad role-models.”

“Damn fragging right! Starscream should stop spouting slag and teach his dumb scraplets some manners!”

With that, continuing to condemn Starscream’s rude language and aggravating personality, Barricade shifted into his vehicle mode with a twist of the hips and a compacting of the frame, snapping his doors closed and set off down the road with a furious roar of his powerful engine. Such was his speed, it seemed like nearly an instant before he already far out of optic-sight and soon vanishing from view.

The Lamborghini watched him drive off, before he idly stated: “Words cannot describe how much I hate him. And at the same time, neither can they describe just how twistedly amusing he is either.”

“He’s not very, um, self-aware, is he?” Sideways ventured, and the Communications officer nodded in agreement, before heading to the road and also readying to change form. As he did, Sideways then sputtered: “H-Hey, wait! You’re not going to just leave me here, are you?! Without a camouflage, without support?!”

“Waspinator will be back eventually, hopefully with a suitable alternate form that fits your mass and general personality.” Soundwave stated disinterestedly. “In the meantime, I have rubber to burn. See you later, Sideways.”

“B-But Starscream said-“

But alas, the other Decepticon simply ignored him, transformed into the gorgeous sports car, slid onto the road and drove away, leaving the anxious scout all on his own. With no-one to talk to but himself and only a bunch of bushes to hide his silvery form, he had a feeling he had a long while to wait until Waspinator came back.

"No matter how it turns, I'm always the third wheel." Sideways muttered.

--

Sometimes Barricade really hated bots. Well okay, he hated them anyway, but days like this it just flared up to a whole new level. Waspinator had some fragging neurals trying to back-chat him like that, and even though he might not understand the actual words sputtering from its stupid mandibles, the manner of insulting someone is something easily and universally recognised.

I mean, what kind of drone, something designed to be obedient for Pit’s sake, would dare snap at someone like that?! He’d just asked the damn thing to go find an alt mode for the other damn thing. Urgh, drones had no respect these days!

Thinking about annoying drones made him think about the Autobots via similar factors of annoyance, and thinking about mutilating said Autobots promptly made him feel better. If he found any out here in that damn forest, he would happily pull it apart and that would definitely ease this bout of tension he was feeling.

It was kind of amusing in a way, he figured; as a faction, as individuals, Autobots are technically useless at every competent part of life imaginable. But as stress relief, they excelled marvellously. He had no idea why everyone insisted he should find some sort of calming mechanism or hobby, when killing those worthless Bots worked out just fine for him. What soft sappy idiots.

Speaking of idiots, he couldn’t believe that the damnable Lieutenant would ever think of putting a solar foundry around here, in territory the moron should damn well know was rather contested. Sometimes he wondered how Autobots managed to survive with the pathetic degenerated little processors they used. Good thing he was around to rectify such an illogical factor.

He really hoped Hound was there right now, or maybe his dumb little apprentice, or even both! Well, maybe not both, because then he’d have to make tough decisions about how to torture and agonise and kill first, but at least one of them would be great. If it was the scraplet, who had conveniently told the others about this foundry, then he would have the time of the day making the moron scream and scream until his spark finally gave out, just for the pain it would produce in his stupid sentimental colleagues.

Barricade pleasurably shook at the thought of Hound’s reaction to the mutilated corpse of his dumb rookie, and was even more invigorated by imagining doing the same to him. Hound deserved nothing less than the most excruciating pain Barricade could ever muster, and now he was hoping the yellow Autobot would be there so that he could add ‘loss of beloved apprentice’ to that list of hurtfulness.

Ah, now he was all cheered up after that fiasco with stupid Waspinator. Nothing like some good old imagination to perk oneself up! And now, he was getting closer to-

Wait.

His scanners immediately comprehended the full implications of the green jeep he had just drove by, ignorant of it in his musings but now fully aware of it. It had been going fast, faster than a typical Earth jeep, not to mention the lack of human thermal signatures, and he had been quite sure he’d felt the subtle sensation of scanners around. In short, that jeep was not a human jeep.

Hound. Might not have been the one he’d hoped to get first, but this day just went from good to brilliant.

With a frenzied roar of the engine and a squealing of tires, the Mustang executed a swift U-turn, and he scanned the jeep doing the same thing, having come to the same realisation as he had. Good, Hound knew his death was coming! Tires spinning, he charged at the jeep, who returned the favour with a savage snarl of his engine.

The two vehicles came at each other at devastating speeds, and seconds before collision, Barricade transformed, the front of his vehicle mode pushing himself upward as he twisted into robot mode, intent to digging his claws as deeply as he could-

Alas, Hound was ready, spinning on a dime as he too changed forms, and as he twirled around, his hands locked together into a tight fist and Barricade ended up flying straight into this side blow, the force of which was so potent it completely halted the Decepticon’s forward motion and sent him flying off to the side, crashing into the grass and dirt by the side of the road.

“YOU!” Hound cried in an anger Barricade hadn’t ever heard before, and his missile launcher, so swiftly locked and loaded, was targeted right at the Mustang’s head. But this time Barricade was not so unprepared; when the projectile fired, he easily rolled out of the way, and it exploded behind him in a burst of flame and heat.

Undeterred by the miss, Hound lunged forward, fists raised, and Barricade cackled enthusiastically as he lurched into combat. The two collided into each other, the Decepticon tackling the Autobot’s abdomen, staggering him somewhat, but Hound responded by slamming his fists down onto his foe and taking advantage of the brief vulnerability to grab him and throw him away.

Barricade rolled back to his feet and prepped himself when Hound lunged again, fist swinging for his head; he brought an arm up to deflect, spun around the jeep and slammed his elbow into the Autobot’s back, denting the metal slightly and sending him staggering headfirst into a tree.

With a rev of anger, Hound wrenched his face out of the crushed wood and punched out at the Mustang, catching his cheek in a powerful blow, throwing him off-guard, before following up with an uppercut that knocked the Decepticon onto the floor. Hound attempted to lunge at his downed foe, but Barricade simply knocked him back with a quick kick of his powerful legs and leapt back to his feet.

The two faced off, revving intensely, before Barricade sneered: “You have no idea who glad I am that you’re here to spice up my mission! But I have to say that you’re quite violent today, Hound, so full of fire! Did the little rookie tattle on mean old Barricade to his daddy-cakes?”

Oh, that had to sting. Disgusting as they were, humans were well versed in the art of insults.

“You’ve always been a spike in my foot, Decepticon, an annoyance who plays itself up as more than it really is.” The jeep growled, spinning his tires and clenching his hands into fists as they circled each other. “But the second you so much as dared to threaten my apprentice was the second that spike became a whole lot more jagged. And quite frankly, it’s a spike that’s long overdue on being wrenched out and tossed into the slag heap where it belongs.”

Barricade gave a cruel laugh: “Finally! I’ve been waiting for the day you let your hatred do the talking instead of your worthless fragging Autobot sentiments! How much further are you willing to take it, Hound? Are you going to actually try and murder me today?”

“Murder implies the one whose life is lost actually had some kind of meaning in this universe.” Hound stated coldly. “But you, Barricade, are more akin to a stain; something that needs to be wiped away to make the rest of the world cleaner.”

“Oooh, a grave and demeaning death penalty, utterly eradicating my worth as a sentient life-form.” The Mustang sneered, flexing his claws eagerly. “You’re sounding a lot like that berserker you Autobots all fragging detest so much. If I’d known hurting your dumb little rookies would bring this side of you out, I’d have been so much more prompt in killing them!”

That did it. In immediate response to this twisted statement, the Autobot was overcome by righteous fury, optics darkening intensely and engine revving violently.

“You won’t EVER TOUCH THEM!” Hound roared, and he lunged forward with astonishing speed, slamming into Barricade and sending them crashing through the bushes, the two furiously wrestling across the floor in a plethora of punches, kicks and slashes.

Hound pinned down his struggling foe and repeatedly slammed his fist into the Decepticon’s face in flares of sparks and with echoing clangs, who responded with a roar of rage as he swung his jagged doors upward, slashing them into the jeep’s side. Hound’s moment of weakness was what Barricade need to throw him off, and the two swiftly jumped to their feet to continue the brawl.

Barricade made the first move this time, swinging his claws towards Hound’s face, who leaned back to avoid the blow and sent his fists forward to punch Barricade. However, the Mustang managed to recover and catch the incoming attack in his fists, and the two grappled for a moment before Hound flung his head forward into a potent head-butt that disorientated his foe long enough to deliver a powerful thrust kick.

Barricade was sent rolling across the floor from the blow, and he seemed to be having trouble getting back to his feet. With a burning rage flowing through him, Hound continued the assault, lunging forward to attack. It seemed to overpower every neural in his body, this onslaught of anger and hatred, and it commanded him to obliterate this evil procotic monster.

Barricade was a filthy stain upon this universe, a cruel and vicious murderer who cared only about pain and death. There was no redemption for someone like this, there was no turning away from his lifestyle of hatred and sadism, and as such, there was no mercy for this damnable brute either. Only a monster would threaten to torture and kill young rookies solely to hurt those they didn’t like, and monsters didn’t deserve to live.

He could only regret that he hadn’t done this sooner, that he’d let his moral teachings overpower the necessity to remove this threat before it could develop into such intense cruelty. But morality didn’t matter now. Restraint didn’t matter either. All that did matter was that he killed Barricade here and now, and made sure no-one would ever be hurt by him again-

Barricade swung round, ducking under the incoming fists and his claws slammed into Hound’s abdomen with a brutal tearing of metal. In the second Hound registered the intense pain and the failure of his attack, Barricade pulled away and tore off a hefty chunk of the jeep’s armour and its internal connections, Energon spurting from the gaping wound as Hound gasped in shock and pain.

The jeep staggered to a stop as the Decepticon smoothly stopped nearby, systems revving in agony as his hands shifted down to clench at the ragged hole in his side, Energon spilling over his hands before his valves managed to seal off the wounded area. The pain began to dissipate, but the horror of bearing such an injury so quickly turned his blazing fury into cold shock.

As he clutched at his wound, which seemed to strike a certain fear into him, Barricade reared up to his full height, examining the lump of ragged metal and wiring in his hand, blue Energon dribbling down a crimson arm, and he stated: “You don’t know how good it feels to make your Energon spill, Hound. To rip your life away, bit by bit.”

His hand clenched and crushed the lump into bits, spurting out droplets of Energon and fragments of metal, and he tossed it carelessly to the floor as he turned to the Autobot.

“I’m guessing your drive down that road was a scouting run, like I was doing.” The Decepticon sneered. “And now it’s turned into a fight to the death. But this was always how it was to end between us, right? A final brutal brawl that only one of us gets to walk away from. And let me assure you that it won’t be you who’s standing after this.”

Hound, wincing in pain, staggering back a step, nevertheless glared at his foe with defiance: “You sure about that?”

“Frag yeah I’m sure.” Barricade laughed, taking a step forward as he reached into his back compartments. “You see, most any other time, you, Hound, would know me simply as Barricade! Or maybe Decepticon, or whatever insult you could think up at the time. But today, right now, as I’m dragging every inch of spark out of you, you’ll know me as YOUR REAPER!”

And he pulled out the terrifyingly sharp scythe, gleaming bright and lethal silver in the light, and with a roar of malicious fury, he lunged at the horrified jeep.


Notes: I'm really damn motivated for this episode. I love writing out particularly brutal scenes, and Barricade, who revels in such terrifying tactics, delivers in spades.

I mean c'mon. He just tore out a chunk of Hound's abdomen with his BARE HANDS.

 

...and I think I know what Barricade did to Hound to cause such a brutal rivalry!!!

 

Theoretically, it was Hound that did something to Barricade back in "those days."

Anyways: good golly, Meta, you always seem to be able to review at times that are coincidentally most inconvenient for me.   I had to rush through my homework to finish it on time for rehearsal because of this.   But it was worth it; I just want to let you know it's going to be really hard for me to refrain from caps throughout the duration of this review. It's not gonna be too wordy I don't think, trying to save the most massive of text walls for episode finales...but I'm sort euphoric right now. SO EXCITED FOR THIS EPISODE.

Interestingly, though I suppose not unexpectedly, Hound seems to be having the upper hand for the duration of the battle, which I'm happy about because it would be weird as heck if after Wheeljack's remarks about "better Decepticons trying to kill Hound," Barricade came back and turned out to be an opponent that was equally matched to him. I view Hound's combat methods as significantly exceptional (even if he has trouble battling the Decepticon medic, but to his credit, she did train to fight prior to becoming a doctor and is almost twice is size, and is a flyer), whereas Barricade is sort of in the middle, where he's capable, but not what you would consider a great fighter. An adequate fighter, but he's more belligerent and reckless than tactile, whereas Hound is smart and more stoic. I mean...he obviously gets notably less stoic when you push his buttons, but then again, I guess that's how it is for everybody.

Inasmuch, I'm starting to identify Hound by putting him under the trope, A Father To His Men, because even though he might not be the most authoritative figure ever, it would definitely seem as though his team, whom he likely considers family, is his top priority and has, more than once, fueled his motivated rage in combat. Which, I might add, is super awesome because him freaking out about the mentioning of Barricade killing the rookies was just so nice and touching in an ironically violent way. It's obviously not typical of him to unleash such anger...so yay for foils.

I also like how he talks to himself, it's cute. And his inner conflicts are justified. Not to mention that one of my favorite aspects of this entire chapter was his inner struggle with leadership. I already took into account prior to this that he's in a leadership position, but isn't exactly necessarily the best at it. As was edited in for Number Two on TVTropes, he's been in those kind of situations at least once before, but he's obviously struggled with it a little bit. He's not a bad leader, but he's not as naturally inclined toward it as, say, Jazz is. And the thought of having to be responsible for the decisions and the actions of the entire team is therefore justifiably unnerving to him...kind of seems like he doesn't really know how/doesn't want to lead in pressuring situations like this, and heck, who would for that matter? As calm and reasonable as he is, I feel like there's an indication that he's apt to lose some, if not a lot of, his cool when it's time to come out of second place and start actually commanding.

As for the fighting scene, I'm glad the action got started this early on. It would seem already as though the structure of the episode is kind of just going to be like Hound being a quarry to Barricade the entire time, or maybe it alternates between the two getting the advantage in battle, who knows. Right now, though, it seems inevitable that Hound's lost an edge with the fact that Barricade fragging tore out of chunk of his armor. For a little guy who's more hot gas than actual bite, he sure does have strong claws. 0_0 Eugh, poor Hound, having your armor ripped off has to be like something to the equivalent of plainly taking a shot. Ouch. e_o

I thought the dialogue between Hound and Barricade before they started to fight was a little weird, like, wow, they were kind of being patient with the chatter considering how much they wanted to kill each other. But I thought about how something would have definitely been missing without the dialogue and if they just jumped into the action, the pacing would have been all weird and rushed so I dunno, I'm on the fence about it. I thought it was awkward, but I'm still glad it's there, if that makes any sense. Maybe the poetic metaphor and verbal exposition was little long, but idk, it's seriously a nitpick, I really don't care either way. In the end, they came, they saw, that lunged, now we get blood. YAY BLOOD.

And this is just the beginning. I can't wait to see how this all plays out. Seriously, I'm dying. This chapter was already so awESOME I NEED MOAR OR ELSE I OR SOMEBODY ELSE WILL DIE.

 

Suspense has just torn a chunk out of me. With it's bare hands. Can not wait for the next part!!!