'Hey have any of you seen my lucky bat?'

'Where the pit is Blitzwing?!'

'I'm not saying anything but it was totally Chop Shop that stole your essay'

That Fragger! I'm gonna break his servos later!'

'I think Blitzwing's sleeping in the back.'

Megatron sighed deeply, his team was always a mess just before a match but today was the worst he'd seen. The seekers were doing anything other than stretching Blitzwing was missing and AstroTrain wouldn't do anything unless he was in the field with him, and Vortex was just blatantly reading a copy of 'Play-Femmes.' which was actually quite tame for him.

The only two mechas on his team that were doing anything productive were Soundwave and DreadWing, his ace pitcher was stretching, one leg bent high using his locker as a stand and his hands texting as he bent over. Megatron remembered Soundwave saying something about a babysitter, while DreadWing was writing something?

Megatron tried to look at the small data-pad but the screen was turned off quickly. The seeker scowled at his captain, Megatron laughed nervously and backed off.

But nothing could make him feel threatened at this point, he was full of confidence after their last winnings against the neighbouring teams. The matches had been victory after victory.

And finally they were facing off against Decepticon highs greatest rival.

Megatron stood up onto the middle bench, one hand on his hip the other resting the large aluminium bat on his shoulders.

'DECEPTICONS!' he roared his team mates turned around and gathered, even Blitzwing Groggily walked out of the supply room.

'We have been waiting for this match for all year, we've risen through the ranks, first smashing the Quintessons, then we destroyed the Maximal's on their own turf, we have gained victory over victory and now in their own back field we have the chance to take down our greatest enemy.'

He swung his bat around as he spoke listing off how each of his team mates had helped with the victories.

'Autobot preparatory school is the last hurdle to the trophy, WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO TO THE AUTOBOTS?' he roared raising the bat high into the air narrowly missing the lights.

'DESTROY THEM' the team cheered. Megatron grinned wide, his teeth bared. His rousing speeches always worked.

Coach Hun-Grr strolled in his arms full of energon treats and jelled candies, he proceeded to fill his two mouths full before pointing to the team.

'Hrro hghet fem!' he said between chewing.

'Yes, coach.' they said not even bothering to ask him to repeat, they'd all but learned how to understand him anyway.

'GOOOO AUTOBOTS!' Bluestreak twirled before jumping backwards into a splits, his red and blue pom-poms raised high in the air.

He stood up quickly, taking small sharp gasps into his vents as Jazz rallied the crowd into chanting

Go go! Autobots, Let's go!' the resounding clapping made the entire stadium shake and Bluestreak's whole body shook with it, he heard a commotion and turned around to see the Decepticon's team come out of the changing rooms.

They were all huge and menacing heir uniforms black with purple stripes they're numbers were dark maroon and the Decepticon insignia was sown onto their sleeves, large and imposing.

He saw the large pewter grey captain standing by the door, saying something inaudible to each team mate. Bluestreak could pick out some of the more famous players, the dark navy mech with the red visor and mask was definitely Soundwave, he had become the ace after pitching out half the Quintessons team in the first half.

Bluestreak couldn't help but watch as his long legs strode at the front of the pack, behind him were some seekers he didn't recognise but he thought they looked close, their arms were intersected and their wing tips clattered together.

'Blue come on!' Sunny said nudging him in the chassis, he twirled quickly just in time to remember he was next for the large cartwheel.

'You gotta be fragging kidding me!' Thundercracker groaned as he watched red and blue mechas somersault through the air perfectly.

'How come they! got cheerleaders?' he asked turning to his captain.

'There's a lot more students at their school.' he said pretending to not care but inside he was seething with no small amount of jealousy. Starscream looked at the line of small bots as they went through their dance routine.

'Pfft bunch of air heads anyway. He said dismissing them quickly as he went to join his brothers on the bench.

Jazz said a final cheer before disbanding the group, they ran back to the changing rooms before bursting into motion, some going straight for a shower while others went straight into the topic of the opposing team.

Jazz cracked his neck joints as he looked around his locker, he frowned and pulled back to the group.

'Hey have any of you seen my coolant?' he asked but he got no response from his team mates. He sighed closing his locker and checking his chronometer.

If he hurried he wouldn't miss the opening pitch.

He left the changing room and went in search of a vending machine. His throat felt dry and his voice box was already sounding strained, he rubbed his neck as he worked his way back into the school building.

Everyone had gathered for the match and the school was eerily quiet as he went past empty classrooms, some UV lights shone inside from the class reptiles but all they did was throw huge shadows onto the wall that loomed over him.

Jazz quickened his pace as he neared a turning, the open windows letting in a cold draft that made his plating crawl, and the sound of the wind could have been whispering for all he knew.

He saw the brightly lit vending machine and walked over hastily typing in his selection, he paused as he thought he heard..scurrying, he looked side to side quickly, the end of the hallway to his left was almost completely black except for the glowing EXIT sign over the door and to his right was where he came from, only a large billboard with many different messages caught his optics.

There was no signs of anyone.

Jazz swallowed as he filled the machine with credits, his chassis tense and his spark swirling in his chest in tight circles.

'Excuse me?'

Jazz screeched and spun around backing into the machine, as the two small sparklings screamed in unison clutching at each other.

'Holy Primus, you two scared the scrap out'a me'.' he said clutching at his chest plates, his fingers gripping the loose material of his red and blue cheerleader outfit. The twins looked up scared and on the verge of tears, Jazz knelt down.

'Hey, hey none of that, I'm sorry little dudes I didn't mean to scare you.' he said. The twins looked at each other before separating, except for linking one purple servo with the others red servo.

'We're looking for our brother?'

'We didn't tell him we were coming.'

'We wanted to surprise him so we came alone.'

'But then we got lost aa-aanndd.' the red one looked like he was about to cry again and Jazz quickly tried to shush him.

'Hey now it's ok, my names Jazz I'm the captain of the cheer squad.' he said jumping up and striking a pose.

'And that means I can't let two brave kids stay upset.' he said before he turned around and bought another two coolant bottles.

'It's hot tonight so you're gonna want these.' he said, he heard cheering and cursed.

'that's a bad word.' the red twin said and Jazz chuckled.

'Sorry little guy, hey why don't you come with me and you can sit with my teachers in the VIP area while we find your brother?' he asked the twins looked at each other before nodding and following Jazz back onto the pitch.

Megatron looked over the layout of the team one last time before putting his hand up and clenching into a fist. His mecha on the field nodded at the go ahead and got ready.

Soundwave breathed deeply as he kept focused on the batter, the captain Hound had gone first with a weird looking bat, it must have been allowed since the Autobot teachers were notoriously strict but it was still strange, it was brown with what looked like grooves and a lot of deep scratch marks.

The rest of the team used the traditional aluminium bats, it must have been specially made for the captain.

Soundwave turned his attention to the actual mech, he was average size with a fierce determination and a dark green paint job an obvious grounder model.

Soundwave nodded once before stepping back his body going through slow motion as he reeled back only in the last few seconds his speed doubled and suddenly the ball was already hitting the glove of the catcher.

'STRRR-RIKE ONE!' Hound blinked once but kept his eye contact, his face just as expressionless as Soundwave's.

He processed what had just happened, his smile quickly came back as he set himself up for the next throw.

Frenzy and Rumble cheered loudly, receiving some stares from the Autobot fans. Professor Optimus Prime just laughed with them, nudging the school nurse Ratchet for his attention.

'They weren't joking when they warned us about the pitcher.' he said, Ratchet scoffed in between gulps of his mid-grade.

'Yeah Soundwave's always practising.' Rumble said his voice softer than his rowdier brother who was sticking his tongue out at the Autobot fans.

'When the 7th Inning stretch comes we'll get you on the right side of the pitch.' Ratchet said, but his tone was peaceful or as peaceful as Ratchet could sound on a good day, his nephew First-Aid had been stressing about being against another pitcher like Soundwave, he gulped don the rest of his mid-grade and bellowed cheers to the batters. First-Aid looked up and waved eagerly back.

'Why didn't you tell your brothers you were coming?' Optimus asked, Rumble looked back from the small recorder he had pointed at his older brother as he set up the next throw.

'We have school tomorrow and if they win the teams gonna want to party, so we told him to get us a babysitter, you know, so he didn't have to worry 'bout us.' Rumble turned back to the match as Frenzy took over the conversation.

'But then we got bored and the baby sitter fell asleep.' the grin he gave Optimus was laced with mischief and Optimus remembered never to underestimate children.

'Hey look.' Rumble waved his hand at his twin and watched as Hound smacked the second pitch into the out field.

It looked like it was going left but seemed to curve and go straight to the middle instead. Thundercracker raced off to try and catch the ball, as AstroTrain and Blitzwing had gone to the left leaving the middle open.

'Wow that was so cool.'' Rumble cheered.

'Yeah I didn't think he was going to swing like that!' Frenzy chipped in. Ratchet grinned as Optimus explained.

'Hound's trained very hard to confuse the outfield, he makes it look like the ball is going in one direction by sending it high enough that the opposition think it's a easy catch and making them go to whatever side he wishes, while the ball changes course mid-air.' He said proudly, now if he could just get Hound to use that concentration in class.

'Cooool.' Frenzy drawled as he watched the dark green mech slid into second base. Ratchet laughed deeply.

'Any chance to get down and dirty, hey Prime?' he said Optimus chuckled as Hound admired the dirt and dust on his outfit.

'Mirage isn't going to be happy with him.' Optimus said his voice had a warmth whenever he talked about his students and he couldn't stop himself from joining the gossip or boasting about them.