Strongarm threw more power to her engine as she put her tires deep into the loamy, earthy hill. Her current assignment was taking her out into the forest, into parts hereto unexplored by her, where the vegetation was thick enough to scratch against her plating, and the terrain was rugged enough to give even her high suspension and hefty frame a fair bit of trouble. Her quarry's alt form had legs, so it was no wonder he had managed to wander out here so easily.

Grimlock had been MIA for a few Earth hours, now.

The Lieutenant had been hailing him on the coms after his tracker had stopped moving while he was supposed to be on a forest patrol. Oh, he'd been responsive, but when asked to return to base, all he'd said was "I'm coming."

That was five breems ago. And it was the same response as those from ten, fifteen, twenty breems ago.

Needless to say, Bumblebee was not pleased. An attempt to dispatch Sideswipe to recon with the wayward Dinobot had resulted in an elaborate whine about what branches did to fresh wax. As such, it fell to Strongarm to head out to find their missing parolee. Not something she considered fun (or safe), but the Lieutenant had given her a direct order, and his expression told her explicitly that any refusal would be taken poorly. At least she could find amusement that Sideswipe had earned himself double shifts elsewhere.

She checked her GPS against Fixit's coordinates, and plowed through more foliage. This planet was so soft and leafy and unkempt, not like the formal structure and clean lines of Cybertron (her mind did remind her that there were still wild areas of Cybertron, where animals, and much worse, prowled confidently around, and where the ground was not friendly to undercarriages). Still, she found far more to enjoy than to dislike; this was Earth, after all, where the last Prime had managed to put the kibosh on the Decepticon warlord. And no matter what others might say about organic species, Strongarm liked humans. They had strange customs—some of which were rather gross—but size and composition of body structure aside, she found them more like Cybertronians than unlike. Earth was still the best assignment in the pool, ever.

And then she took a tree branch to the windshield, and her opinion was disturbed ever so slightly.

Her HUD blipped, she was within yards of her target, and she decided to forgo tires for pedes. She picked quietly through the underbrush, boosting power to her audials as she went. It had been a few weeks, and she still wasn't quite sure what to make of Grimlock, and she'd really rather not surprise a toothy Decepticon that could bite her clean in two. Bumblebee seemed to trust him, and she trusted her CO's judgment near absolutely, but her tank still flipped a bit when within arm's reach of the massive former prisoner. And he had some slagging long arms. Sure, he'd made some difference against Underbite, and had so far not made any moves against anyone else, and for a member of a criminal organization that was known for a great deal of dislike for any non-Cybertronian race, he genuinely appeared to be awfully fond of their human landlords (he'd spent the first few days of his freedom lumbering about with Russell perched on his broad muzzle, poking this plant and that animal and asking if humans could eat it). It was still, however, against protocol, and after her encounter with Steeljaw, she was hesitant to trust anything that came out of the mouth of a Decepticon.

Granted, Steeljaw operated like a smooth con artist, was confident in his charm and chose his words carefully. Grimlock wasn't careful with just about anything, and she didn't think he had the patience to verbally cajole someone into compliance.

Or… maybe that's just what he wanted them to think.

Grimlock's signal was coming from in front of her, a short ways off. The tree line ended, and Strongarm pushed out into a clearing. An open hillside, at least a quarter mile wide. The groundcover was an assortment of local grassy vegetation and small flowers, in a not unimpressive array of colors. Right in the middle was a hulking shape that was clearly not native, unless Earth was in the habit of attracting other large, green Dinobots. He was in his beast mode, the sunlight reflecting off the armored plates that ran down his back. He wasn't moving, lying belly down in the grass, and his tail thumped lazily against the ground every once in a while.

Strongarm set her jaw before taking slow, deliberate steps out into the field. She paid attention to the noise she made, giving the Dinobot plenty of opportunities to hear her coming. He didn't move an inch, even once she got close enough to feel the outermost edges of his field. Her own field was held rigidly close, but Grimlock clearly had few such compulsions to do the same. Nothing vulgar like flaring or the like, but what one might find amongst close friends. Strongarm was assaulted with what she could only describe as the most sublime relaxation she had ever felt in another. Even when she walked right up to one of his haunches, it didn't ripple in the slightest. He did, however, crack an optic open after a few ticks.

"Hey there."

"Grimlock, Lt. Bumblebee has been requesting your presence for hours, now."

"Mmmm, has it been that long?"

"Is your chronometer damaged? He's been comming you almost constantly. And you've been answering."

"Yeah, I guess I do remember that."

He "guessed", huh? Cheeky Dinobot.

"Then lets go."

"Yeah, I'm comin'." And he shuttered his optics, letting out a long, easy sigh that terminated in a purring rumble that gave the decidedly opposite impression that he was going to move anything in the near future. Strongarm felt her fists flex, and resisted a frustrated growl. She eyed the sharp purple symbol on his nearest haunch, before giving the Dinobot a firm prod with her hand. His plating was warm. Incredibly so.

"This doesn't look like movement, Grimlock."

"Mmm…"

"Seriously, get up. We still have to hike back to base."

"The base ain't goin' anywhere." His optics blinked open, and he looked up at her in mild confusion. "Is it?"

"No…"

"Ah, good." And he shuttered them again, relieved.

Strongarm did let that snarl out. Stubborn mech, he was almost as bad as Sideswipe, although she did appreciate the lack of snark. Regardless, her assignment was to bring him back to the yard, and she would do that even if she had to drag him.

Ha! As if. She was optimistic, not irrational. If she wanted to be back before the sun went down, she'd need to convince Grimlock that he wanted to move. She sighed through her vents.

"Okay, I'll bite. What are you doing out here?"

"Lying down." The Dinobot smiled, and nuzzled his snout into the vegetation. Another content rumble vibrated up from him. She could even feel it through the ground.

"Well, clearly." Yes, that was the problem. She would have preferred some walking. Or, even better, his crashing, lumbering run in a straight line back to Denny's yard. "I meant it as a bit more of a 'why'."

"Oh." He cocked one of his hefty brow plates at her. "Y'know, ya could have just said…"

"Grimlock." Just…she just needed an explanation. Of any kind, really. Something to keep all reason from melting out of her audials. He regarded her before giving a soft snort.

"I was on patrol…"

"Yeah?"

"…and I found this meadow…"

"Yeah?"

"…and the ground was nice and soft. And the sun is so warm here. So I haven't quite left yet." His smile came back, and he resumed lazily flopping about.

Strongarm blinked. That was it? The grass was soft and the sun was shining?

"Grimlock, I hate to break it to you, but the sun is warm everywhere. It's a sun."

"Yeah, but it feels better out here, for some reason." He half-cracked one optic. "This planet is weird. But in a nice way."

"It's grass, flowers, and sunlight, Grimlock. None of which are rare commodities on Earth." She gave him another prod. "Get up."

"Why not get down?"

Strongarm frowned, and blinked.

"Say what?"

"Why don't you join me down here?"

"No, thanks." She crossed her arms, determined not to entertain the idea. Relaxation could happen once the work was done. His field continued to protest this.

"Really?" He turned his neck enough to look squarely at her.

"No."

Grimlock's plating split, and she watched as he unfolded back into his root form (a dubious designation, considering how comfortable Dinobots and their cousins, the Predacons, felt in both their forms). He was still belly down in the grass, but he gave a lazy stretch and rolled slowly onto his back with a muffled thump. He grinned up at her, and patted the grass next to him with a huge claw. Seriously, if you weren't an Animech you had no reason to have talons like that in your root form.

"Don't knock it 'till you try it."

Strongarm gave a quiet 'tsk', and watched him wiggle his back into the grass, arms and legs spread wide. Ridiculous. Out scouting the woods, stopped to smell all the flowers.

She scuffed the ground with her foot. It was soft. Sometimes it felt like the whole of the Earth was spongy, and she wasn't used to feeling the ground give so much underneath her pedes. She regarded Grimlock for a moment before kneeling slowly, putting a hand to the grass. Oddly cool, regardless of the beating sun. Grimlock was back to not looking at her, optics closed, and she was well inside his field radius. She was half wondering if Earth's flowers contained a sort of sedative that could communicate to Cybertronian biological systems, because he was just a heaping pile of placid right now.

Maybe a small, brief test was in order. For science, and all that.

Strongarm rocked back on her heels, gingerly setting down on the grassy carpet. Well, it was not uncomfortable. She let her legs stretch, and leaned back on her hands.

Well. It was… comfy, she supposed, although she did wonder how much of the meadow was going to follow her back to base while stuck to her aft. None, if she could help it; Sideswipe didn't need any more fuel for his evil. Grimlock had more than a small amount of grass blades and flower petals smushed into his broad chestplate, and just about everywhere else, really. He gave no inclination of wanting to pick them off. Strongarm gave a soft snort. Silly, simple Dinobot. She wished she were able to shunt her responsibilities off to a corner of her mind to work on later; she didn't think such a state of utter tranquility was possible for mechs and femmes with work in their queues. The sun sure did warm her plating nice and good, though. It made those knotted cords under her shoulder plates seem a lot softer—

"Cadet Strongarm." She flinched, probably visibly, as her comm crackled. That was not a voice that fielded relaxation.

"Go ahead, Fixit." Or, you know, don't. That worked too.

"You have been directly on top of Grimlock's location for a while, now. Is there something wrong?"

Grimlock opened his optics and raised his head to look at her. His field rippled a little, tinged with the slightest bit of disappointment. Big lug knew he could only hold out for so long, especially if she had her superiors barking in her com unit.

"That's a negative, nothing is wrong." Not any more, anyways. Nothing could be wrong when one felt this unwound.

"Lt. Bumblebee is wondering, rather vehemently, when he should expect you both back at base."

Oh yeah. She could almost feel the prickly glare from here. She sighed, and made the beginnings of a rise to her pedes, when a butterfly landed on one of her ankles. It was rather pretty.

A-and it could be endangered! Earth had such fragile ecosystems. Better to wait for it to move along before she started marching them both out of here…

"Don't worry, Fixit," and Strongarm could not stop a smile from skipping over her face. Grimlock must have felt something in her field, because he matched it with a broad, sharp-toothed grin of his own.

"We're coming."

AN:

Finally fixed Strongarm's lack of a character tag.

Also, I've noticed that almost all the Decepticons shown up until now have an "anthropomorphic" root mode, but still a mutable, rescannable vehicle mode. I'm calling this family of Cybertronians 'Animechs' until I'm supplied with something canon.

There are probably typos in here. I will fix 'em as soon as I find 'em.