Another Side, Another Story

Look At It Dis Way

"Aww yea, look at me an' my bad self," says one of the youngest members of Team Prime. The Autobot twin stands, admiring his reflection. The twin, known as Mudflap, recently traded in his Chevy Trax's mode in for the new Chevy Sparks. He even changed his color scheme from the red-orangey color to becoming mainly all black with just a hint of his older color. "Yeah, baby work it," he mumbles to himself as he begins posing. Mudflap soon begins flexing his gear and pistons or whatever Cybertronians call muscles. "Pull off dem sexy poses!"

"Sexy? My aft you are!"

"Wat?" Mudflap quickly looks over his shoulder and sees the other youngest member on the team walking over to him.

His twin, better known as Skids, just stands there with his arms crossed over his chassis. He, too, had changed his appearance, no he did not change his alternate mode… sure it's no longer called a Beat, but now merely a Sparks. The only real difference in the Autobot is his color scheme. Skids was no longer green all over, instead he was mostly black with a couple of traces of green. The Autobot smirks as he says, "Y'heard me."

Mudflap waves his arm, ignoring his brother for the moment. He turns back and looks at his reflection. Before he can start admiring his new body, he spots the reflection of Skids, shaking his head. "You just jealous y'can't look dis good," he states as he strikes a pose.

Skids takes a step back as he says, "Jealous? Of you- wait a minute, we twins, we look de same."

"De same, naw, y'see you," Mudflap says as he points to his twin, "have an ugly aft face. While, me over here… it's like Ah'm hoggin' all de beauty."

"UGLY? Now Ah know y'didn't just call me ugly." Skids proclaims getting furious towards his twin. "Y'bout as sexy as, as… ugh," Skids begins fidgeting with his digits trying to come up with an insult. He quickly snaps his digits and answers, "like that combining aft."

Mudflap quickly turns around and stares down Skids. He steps closer to his twin before shouting, "COMBINING AFT… y'comparin' me to mister wreckin' balls."

Skids starts getting irritated at how close Mudflap is getting. He takes a step back and spreads his arms out while saying, "Yeah, gotta problem wit dat?"

"Y'bet Ah gotsa problem wit dat," replies an angered Mudflap before he shoves his twin back a bit.

Skids watches as his twin pushes him away and looks down towards the area where Mudflap's servo had been. "Oh Ah know y'didn't just get all up in my grill."

Mudflap quickly smirks knowing the perfect comeback for that. He quickly spreads out his arms and sarcastically says, "Yea, gotta problem wit dat?" saying it exactly as Skids had said it mere moments ago.

Skids' optic twitches as his servos clench up tightly. He soon finds himself tackling his twin. The twins quickly engage each other in combat, causing a ruckus among the other Autobot personnel in the base.

The first to notice that the twins would only end up in a scuffle was none other than the silent warrior known as Jolt. The quiet Cybertronian just watched as the twins were bickering over who looked better. The Chevy Volt robot no longer sporting his solid blue coloring instead he now has a grayish-blue color scheme with some hints of black paint. He still continues to watch the twins clash only shaking his head at their immature behavior, but then again they are still the youngest members of the team. Suddenly from the corner of his optics, he sees a tall yellow mech walking into the hanger with a small blue femme at his side. Jolt quickly goes back to working on his task at servo.

The second being watching the twins about to start a tussle is the blue Autobot scientist himself Que. The Mercedes-Benz E550 robot simply chuckles to himself as he continues to watch the two bickering. "Oh to be young again,"he mumbles to himself as he scratches the numerous fibers on the side of his head. His laughter soon fades away as the twins actually start their tussle. "Here we go," he mutters knowing he has to stop this soon before they break something important. Suddenly he hears something which causes his optic ridges to rise. He quickly turns around and sees two Autobots passing by Jolt making their way towards the twins. "Oh dear," is all he mumbles as he goes back to work on finishing his latest inventions for Ironhide.

Speaking of Ironhide, he was simply ignoring the twins' bickering all together. The GMC Topkick robot was merely sharpening a bladed-weapon, he extracted from one of his legs. He quickly hears Que mumble something to himself and turns to see what happened. Much to his surprise, he sees a fellow yellow comrade walking passed the Autobot scientist. Ironhide watches as the robot proceeds towards the twins, but he soon spots a smaller blue femme following the yellow mech. The mech lets out a grunt as he says, "This should be fun." With that said he quickly places the weapon back into his left leg and proceeds to watch the outcome.

The twins continue their battle as they both punch and kick one another. Mudflap quickly grabs a hold of Skids' torso and flings his twin over himself. He looks down at Skids, who seemingly has had the wind knocked out of him. Mudflap smirks as he says, "Y'like de way dat feels?"

Skids quickly opens his optics and replies, "That ain't hurt!" He rapidly jumps to his stabilizing servos and readies himself for more combat.

Suddenly the two are quickly lifted up into the air by a pair of yellow servos. In unison the twins groan, "Aw Bumblebee, not again." The two look up to see their friend, but are surprised by the fact the face they are looking at is not Bumblebee's. Their optics widen as they are staring straight into the optics of the Autobot medic, Ratchet. The two mutter in unison, "Oh boy."

Skids smiles sheepishly towards the medic and says, "Aw hey dere medabot," he answers nonchalantly, "How's it goin'?"

"Yes," begins Mudflap, "how've ya been, Ratch."

Ratchet merely rolls his optics and says, "So what was it about this time?"

"Well Skids over here," starts Mudflap, "called me ugly."

"Nuh unh," argues Skids and quickly points accusingly towards Mudflap, "he called me ugly. Me… can y'image me ugly?"

Mudflap clenches his fist and points towards Skids with his other servo. "No, no, no, "exclaims an angered Mudflap, "y'started it by comparin' me ta dat ol' combiner."

"No," starts Skids, "Y'started it by callin' me ugly."

The two's dental plating clench tightly together as they soon try to fight within Ratchet's servos. Ratchet simply lets out a groan as he spreads his arms farther apart, ceasing the twins' squabble. "Can't you two see your causing a scene?" questions the medic as he turns around showing the two the others in the base.

The two look out towards their comrades only seeing Jolt shake his head, Que chuckle a bit, and Ironhide just standing there with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. Both twins look away from the others, feeling a little embarrassed. Their shame soon fades as another Autobot comes into their view, a small blue femme by the name of Arcee. A smirk slowly forms on their faces before they casually look towards their counterpart, knowing they now can get off the hook easily.

The femme slowly rolls around her medic to take a glance towards the two. Arcee, like the twins and Jolt had changed her appearance. In the past, she was a tripartite Cybertronian but thanks to a couple of Decepticon soldiers her pink and purple components were destroyed and all that remained was her blue element. Out of respect for her fallen sisters, the Suzuki B-King had reformatted herself into her pink component's vehicle mode, the Ducati 848, and added the Cyber-glyphics of her purple counterpart. "You both know neither one of you is ugly," says the femme with compassion in her voice. She smiles as she sees them glance towards one another before looking back towards her. "Now apologize to one another."

Both Mudflap and Skids cross their arms over their chassis before turning their heads away looking in a direction where the other cannot be seen.

Arcee crosses her arms and if see had normal stabilizing servos, she would be tapping one of them. "Mudflap, Skids," she calls their names in a slightly strict tone.

The twins slowly turn their heads to one another and are quiet for a moment, clearly unsure who should apologize first.

The first to make a move is Mudflap, his arms slowly start to dangle by his sides as he says, "Ah'm sorry, Skids."

"Yea, me too, sorry Mudflap," Skids replies as both twins look over towards Arcee.

She smiles warmly towards the duo. "Good," she says to the twins before looking up at the mech still holding the two. "Ratchet set them down."

"Wa, but Arcee?" the medic questions, "Even after the fuss they caused?"

Arcee places her servos on her hip joints before saying, "Ratchet, they apologized to each other. What more do you want them to do?"

"Well for starters they-"

Ratchet is soon interrupted by the twins as they speak in unison, "Sorry guys fer causin' a scene." Their optics glance toward each other, knowing Ratchet would have wanted them to do something like that.

Arcee glances at the two before smiling again towards them. Her optics trail back up to the medic's face and says, "There, they just apologized to everyone even before you mentioned the idea. Now set them down. "

"But Arcee, they're never going to learn if you keep letting them off the hook so easily," Ratchet replies. "They should at least be punished in some way to ensure this won't happen again."

Mudflap and Skids both flinch at the sound of punishment being involved. The two glance over at the trio of Autobots watching the scene before them, would they agree with Ratchet's decision in the duo needing a punishment. They soon come to the conclusion that Ironhide would agree with Ratchet while Que and Jolt would probably be indecisive. Their attention is quickly drawn back to the sound of Arcee's voice.

"Why do they require a punishment, Ratchet?" she questions before gesturing around the area where the twins' scuffle just took place. "Both Mudflap and Skids made sure their roughhousing was far from the rest of their teammates. Isn't that right boys?" she asks as she looks them in the optics.

The twins are a little stunned by Arcee's words, had they been careful as to not disturb the others or had it just been dumb luck. Either way the two look over their shoulders and up at Ratchet before rapidly nodding their heads.

"But," is all Ratchet can say as Arcee turns around and faces the remaining teammates.

"Did their little quarrel bother any of you? Jolt?" she looks over in the silent mech's direction. Jolt only offers a simple shrug with a shake of his head. "That's what I thought," she says before looking towards another comrade, "Que?"

"Well to be honest… no, it did not, if the two didn't bicker every now and then it would just seem too quiet around here," Que says with a smile. "Besides I've grown accustom to their little outbursts to have them change."

Arcee nods her head at the elder's words before turning towards the remaining Autobot, "Ironhide?"

"Well," Ironhide starts not really knowing whose opinion to side with. He sees Ratchet's point in they will never learn without a little discipline but then again he would much rather see the look on Ratchet's face with an unanimous amount of support for the twins. "Nah, it didn't even bother me," he replies with a smile, "I didn't even know the two were fighting until Ratchet said something." He smirks at the sight of Ratchet's bothered facial expression.

Arcee turns back to face Ratchet before saying, "See Ratchet they didn't disturb any of the team. So put them down."

He looks over towards Ironhide and sees him silently chuckling to himself. Ratchet rolls his optics before sighing in defeat. "All right," he mutters as he sets the twins back onto the ground. He watches as the two are about to take off to another part of the base before he stops them. "Wait, I just want to know what started this."

The two look towards one another before Mudflap says, "Don't y'remember Ratch? It was when Skids called me ugly."

"No," Skids counters, "it was when y'called me ugly."

The twins were just about to start their argument again but are calmed after hearing Arcee clear her vocal processor. They look down in shame, even after all that they were about to start bickering again. "Sorry Arcee," the two say in unison.

Skids begins tapping his golden dental plate, trying to remember what actually caused all this. He soon snaps his digits and says, "Now Ah remember, it was when y'was doin' poses."

"Poses?" Mudflap questions, "Oh yea… dats right, Ah was admirin' my new form." He looks down at his body before saying, "Dis time Ah gots de vehicle Ah wanted… y'know de one Skids beat me ta," he glances over at his brother before finishing, "and Ah really mean beat me ta."

Ratchet places a servo over his metallic forehead. "So you mean to tell me this whole fiasco started over you changing your alternate mode."

Mudflap glances over at his twin, who only shrugs his shoulders as a response. He looks back up at Ratchet and replies, "Ah guess so."

Ratchet merely shakes his head in astonishment. "I don't believe this… I don't even see what's the point in changing the alternate mode you're use to."

"Hmm," Mudflap begins, "Well Ah guess it could help in dealin' wit de cons."

The medic raises an optic ridge towards Mudflap's comment. "How would it help in dealing with de cons- I mean the Decepticons?"

"Well, Ah guess it would help in confusin' de cons." Mudflap looks up at Ratchet's face, clearly wanting him to elaborate. "Cause," he places a servo over the back of his head carefully choosing his next set of words, "uhm… say y'was a con Ratch and y'see a vehicle dat looked exactly like Prime or Hide or Bee right down ta da color. Wouldn't y'just attack it on sight?"

Skids listens closely to what his twin is saying with a servo under his chin. He looks over towards Mudflap and says, "Now Ah got'cha, de cons would attack just cuz dey look like dem."

Mudflap nods his head. "Yea, now if y'mix it up a little dey would have to scan to see if it was a bot or not an' Ah don't dink dey would reveal demselves since dey know N.E.S.T. would be all over deir afts."

"Huh," Ratchet muses, "I had never thought of it that way." He places a servo under his chin in thought. Ratchet really had not every thought of it that way; he always assumed the twins did it because they thought it looked cool. The medic looks over towards Jolt and inspects his change in color scheme. "Hmm," he ponders, perhaps Jolt had the same idea and that is why he changed. Maybe mixing it up a little would help in confusing the enemy. Ratchet nods his head in his decision before looking back down at the twins. "All right, I can see your point in logic… and… I have decided that I will also do as you say 'mix it up a little' just in the coloring."

The two look at each other in deep confusion. Had Mudflap just convinced Ratchet, one of the smartest Autobots they knew, into changing his opinion on change so much that he was getting a new color scheme.

Ratchet smirks at the befuddled looks on the two. He gently pats both twins on their head before walking passed them. The medic stops before turning around and saying, "Good job you two," and with that he continues walking towards his fellow Autobots.

Arcee giggles towards the twins' flabbergasted expression. She smiles as she was filled with astonishment in the twins being able to make Ratchet forget about a punishment and a sense of pride that the duo managed to influence Ratchet into trading in his old color scheme for a new one. The femme turns around and follows her medic to the others.

Mudflap and Skids continue to have bewildered looks plastered on their faces. The first to break this is Skids, who instantly steps forward and says, "No problem, medabot, anytime."

Mudflap's puzzled trance also breaks as he looks towards his twin. "Wait a minute," he starts, "Ah'm de one who came up wit de idea, so why is he givin' y'credit."

His brother answers with a shrug along with, "Ah don't know, but Ah'm takin' it." Skids's optics look into Mudfap's face and sees a small bud of anger. He smirks knowing how to calm his brother. "Y'know Arcee wouldn't want us fightin' again."

Mudflap expression goes limb before saying, "Ah know."

Ratchet stops in front of Que before looking down and asking, "Any thoughts on what type of coloring I should chose?"

"Hmm," he ponders, "I suppose you could be a red and white vehicle." Que looks up at Ratchet, who momentarily steps back clearly not liking that scheme. "Hmm," he starts pondering again.

"How about green?" asks Arcee as she joins with the group.

Que and Ratchet look over in Arcee's direction. Que tries to picture Ratchet with a green color scheme while Ratchet looks over towards Skids. "Well," he says really not knowing how to reply.

Arcee looks over her shoulder, wondering what Ratchet was looking at. She soon spots the medic staring at Skids. The femme giggles, "Not like Skids' paint scheme, but more of a lighter shade."

"Hmm," Ratchet starts, "I suppose that could work, but of course it has to be unique rather than just a solid pattern."

"Of course," she smiles towards her medic.

Que chuckles to himself over the two. "Well come on Ratchet we'll have to find that specific coloring you wanted." He quickly shuffles towards the entrance of the base as Arcee starts rolling behind him.

She slowly turns around and looks behind herself before saying, "Aren't you coming?"

Ratchet's optics lock with hers and nods his head before adding, "Yes, I am."

Arcee lets out a giggle and says, "I know that silly, I was talking to the twins."

"Oh," responses an embarrassed Ratchet.

At the mere mention of them, both Mudflap and Skids turn around and say in unison, "Huh?"

"I said aren't you coming," she says with smile on her face, "don't you two want to see Ratchet with his new color scheme."

The two quickly glance at one another before shouting, "HECK YEA!" Mudflap and Skids slowly start sprinting towards the other Autobots. They quickly pass up Ratchet and stop behind Arcee.

Skids turns his head and sees Jolt staring at the departing Autobots before saying, "Hey ain't y'comin' Jolt?"

"Yea," Mudflap chimes in, "y'can say to Bee, Swipe an', Dino that y'saw Ratchet change."

Jolt merely shrugs his arms before quietly walking towards the others. He joins the twins, Arcee and Que at the front of the base, leaving only Ratchet and Ironhide in the center.

Ratchet looks over to the weapon's specialist and asks, "Are you coming as well?" He watches as Ironhide simply shrugs his shoulders as the mech starts extracting his arm cannons and begins tinkering with the joints and cogs. "Hmm," Ratchet starts which catches Ironhide's attention, "perhaps you could also use a new paint scheme?"

Ironhide chuckles to himself before answering, "Yeah right."

"Perhaps," Ratchet continues, "involving an orange shade or maybe even a red?"

The black mech simply raises an optic ridge surprised by Ratchet's suggestions. "Seriously?" is all he can answer. Did Ratchet really expect him to change his color palette on the off change it would confuse the Decepticons. Ironhide did not need to change his appearance anyway, if the cons wanted to challenge him so be it, he is always up for a good fight. "I don't think so."

The yellow medic shrugs his arms as he proceeds to walks over to the others.

Ironhide looks back down at his arm cannons before he starts the process of retracting them back into his forearms. They creak and strain as they return back into place. Ever since he had lost his left cannon and most of his right one back in Egypt, his new pair just didn't seem as complete to his old ones. His optics drift upwards towards the blue scientist of the group and hopes Que is almost done with his new inventions. Ironhide watches as Ratchet and the rest of the Autobots soon make their way out. He lets out a sigh before saying, "Wait up." The mech sees the bots slowly come to a halt and turn their heads. He walks over to them, ready to join them on their little outing.

The twins watch as Ironhide passes them up to walk with the older Autobots. They glance at one another before cracking up laughing.

"Can y'imagine," laughs Skids, "Ironhide orange?"

His twin laughs even more before answering, "Naw, now can y'imagine him red?"

"Ha," Skids responds, "Maybe him in another universe."

Their laughter slowly fades away as they realize the others have disappeared outside of the base. Mudflap and Skids glance at one another before looking out of the base. "H-Hey wait up!" the twins yell in unison as they transform into their Chevy Sparks alternate modes and revving their engines as they peel out of the base.

The Autobot Twins were my favorite characters from the movie universe. This story tells the events of what happened to them during the movie. This will not follow the novel or comic depicting them dying, if it didn't happen in the movie, it didn't happen for me.

Any way this chapter takes place before the movie's events and was inspired by Ratchet's new color scheme. I didn't see a reason why he would change it, since the rest never changed their paint scheme. Sure they changed a little in physical appearance but none of them change coloring.

Skids, Mudflap, and Jolt were based off their DOTM toys, while Arcee was based off the HA Chromia toy.

Hope you enjoyed it.