Disclaimer: Hasbro owns the Transformers verse, which makes me sad. I get no money from this fic, which also makes me sad. I like money.

Author's Note: Plot bunny ate my soul. Tell me what you think, please and thank you.

Unfortunate Circumstance: The Forgotten

Thundercracker couldn't believe they were winning. As he blasted some Autobot on the ground, he nearly shouted with joy. Starscream was helping Megatron fight Prime, and for once the two were working together without swapping insults.

Skywarp returned from bombing the flank of the opposing forces, flying close to Thundercracker's wings.

Thundercracker commed him. "Nice job, Warp!"

"Thanks, TC!" Skywarp chuckled. "I love giving them a good spanking."

Thundercracker deadpanned, "Keep it clean, Warp."

"Oh, you're no fun." Skywarp shot off towards another pack of Autobots hiding behind some boulders. "Die!" He shot lasers at them, hitting a couple.

Thundercracker noticed some of their own Decepticons were in trouble. The Constructicons were split up. Thundercracker could see at least Scrapper and another trying to fend of five other mechs. Thundercracker whirled around to attack the ambushing mechs.

When he downed them, Scrapper commed him. "I could've taken 'em! But thanks anyway.

"I'm sure you could have, but I was in the area." Thundercracker chuckled. "And you're welcome." He zipped over to help out Skywarp. Suddenly, they heard a mass call.

"Autobots! Fall back!" Prowl was holding up Prime while trying to shoot at Megatron. He got a lucky hit to the shoulder. Megatron roared as he fell to his knees.

Thundercracker watched as the Autobots quickly retrieved their fallen commander. Megatron was up and chasing them, but they all transformed and drove off before he could get to them. Thundercracker couldn't believe it.

They had won.

The party was one for the history books. Thundercracker watched as his comrades clinked high grade cubes together and sloshed around energon all over the place. He shook his helm at their antics. Honestly, though, he could understand. For the first time in a long time they made a decisive victory.

Thundercracker went ahead and allowed himself to have a few cubes. He put them in his sub-space compartment and headed out to the hallway. There, Swindle was trying to persuade some mechs into buying some kind of interesting little thing that could get grease out between the cracks of a mech's armor.

"Come on! Only three left! They'll be gone soon, and when they're gone, they're gone for good!" Swindle loved to do his performances for only the drunken bunch. They were more likely to buy.

However, they were also more likely to just sway and stare at the bot as if they couldn't understand Cybertronian anymore. Swindle was getting nothing from the crowd. He was getting his desperate face, then one that said he'd been trying for too long.

Thundercracker rolled his optics. He gave Swindle a few credits. "Here, I'll take one."

Swindle smiled at him. "Thanks, TC! A pleasure as always."

"Uh huh. Don't let Megatron catch you." He walked away, putting the overpriced scrub brush in his subspace.

He walked towards the command center. He hoped no one was in there doing anything weird. He hated walking in on people. Luckily, he walked into a completely empty space, devoid of mechs all over each other.

Thundercracker ex-vented. "I suppose it's time to sit and relax." He sat down and threw his pedes up to sit on the console. He shifted until he was sitting just right. He took out a high grade cube and sipped on it. He shuttered his optics as he let the warming sensation run through his lines.

Suddenly, he heard the doors open behind him. Thundercracker turned to look, and smiled. "Oh, hello. Can I help you?

Thundercracker woke up with a splitting helmache. The seeker groaned as he sat up. His stabilizers were glitching. Wait, why were they glitching? Thundercracker looked around. The command center, right. He started to remember. He'd taken monitor duty while everyone else got slagged in the celebration party. Right! He'd taken a few high grades to celebrate, too.

Thundercracker slowly stood up. "Oh, frag!" He stumbled. His frame felt like it had been through some heinous battle. But why? He couldn't have gotten that overcharged. He'd made sure to just bring a few, small cubes.

Thundercracker checked his chronometer. Alright, only just a little before his shift ended. Soundwave should come in soon to take over. Thundercracker commed his superior, "Hey, Soundwave, I'm not feeling alright. I think I might have caught a virus. I'm heading over to medbay. That good with you?"

Soundwave responded, "Affirmative."

"Alright, thanks." Thundercracker headed off towards the hallway. He limped, favoring his left leg over his right. Thundercracker winced every time he put pressure on the wrong leg. What the frag happened last night? Did Skywarp come in and mess with him? Sounds like something he would do, but Skywarp never left him in this bad a shape before.

Eventually, he wobbled his way into medbay. Hook noticed him limping inside and grinned, "Had some fun last night?"

Thundercracker shrugged, "Not that I remember."

"Really?" Hook frowned. He would never admit it, but he had a soft spot for the blue seeker. He was one of the few Decepticons who didn't seem to have a screw loose. "Come on in. No one will come for overcharge issues for another vorn or so."

Thundercracker allowed Hook to fuss over him for the better part of a vorn. Scrapper came in at some point, but he just went over to a berth to go back into recharge. Thundercracker didn't question it.

Hook watched the signals popping up on Thundercracker's read out, "Well, you're not showing any foreign contaminants. Actually, you look pretty well functioning." Hook scanned his patient's frame, "Honestly, I think you just had some overcharged fragging with some mech."

Thundercracker ex-vented. "Well, I didn't think I got that overcharged, but I suppose it's possible." He glanced over at the read out on the screen, "So, I'm fine otherwise, right?"

"Right." Hook plugged a few cables into Thundercracker's neck ports, "But just to be safe, we'll go ahead and cleanse out your systems. It's unusual for you to lose memory. The others, sure, but in your case I'd have to wonder foul play." Hook gritted his denta at the thought.

Thundercracker looked away, "Well, it's over now, whatever it was."

"Yes, over." Hook turned on the cleanser. "We'll flush the old and put in the new, and you're good to go."

"Thanks, Hook." Thundercracker smiled, a little brokenly, "I appreciate it."

Hook shrugged. "It's my programming." He walked over to Scrapper. "Why are you here? Your shift doesn't start for another three vorns."

Scrapper groaned. "Not so loud, Hook. My helm hates me."

Hook rolled his optics. "I'll get you some menders." He walked over to a side table to grab the cubes.

Bing! Bing! Bing!

"What?" Hook looked over at the read out. "Huh, apparently I was wrong. There is something new in your systems, Thundercracker. Give me a click. Let me help out the piece of scrap over here first."

Thundercracker didn't respond. He was staring at the read out, mouth hanging open in shock.

Scrapper groaned. "The yelling is so unnecessary."

"I'm not yelling." Hook said, "Now take your menders." He shoved the cubes into the mech's hand.

Quickly, Thundercracker slipped a cable out of its port. The read out took away the signal, and the bings stopped.

Hook walked over, "Oh, it must've gotten flushed out." He turned to Thundercracker. "Did you see what it was?"

Thundercracker shrugged. "Just the usual crud. Nothing terrible."

"Good." Hook looked at the cleanser. "It says you're done." He unhooked all the cables from his patient. "Alright, you know the drill. No energon for about four vorns, and no heavy lifting or flying. Blah, blah, blah, see you around."

Thundercracker headed straight for his room. He couldn't believe what he saw. How in the frag did this happen? Well, obviously fragging, but he couldn't be-! The seeker forced himself to quell his panic. He had to start thinking about what he was going to do. Should he get rid of it? Should he keep it? Oh, Primus, how had things gone so wrong so fast?

"TC!" A hyper-happy voice yelled out from behind him. "You going to recharge?"

"Thundercracker forced himself to put on his best fake tired face. "Yeah, I'm exhausted."

"Aw, poor you." Skywarp came up to pat him on the shoulder. "Always the responsible one."

Thundercracker nearly laughed out of near hysteria. "Yes, well, I've got to go. See you around, Warp. Try not to get into too much trouble."

"Oh, I won't!" Skywarp giggled. "Much, anyway."

Thundercracker rolled his optics as he turned to walk away. As he rounded the corner, he nearly collided with someone. He took a few steps back and then looked up.

Megatron stared down at him with a frown deep in his facial plates. Thundercracker felt his spark nearly freeze in its casing. His leader was in a really bad mood this fine morning.

Thundercracker gave him a wide berth as he walked around him. "Sorry, sir, I wasn't paying attention. Excuse me, sir."

Megatron watched him run away, glaring at him the whole time. Thundercracker tired to ignore the optics searing into his back as he practically ran away.

Finally, a few more hallways later, he rushed into his room. He ex-vented, and walked over to his berth. As he sat down, he wondered if anyone could know who fragged him that night. He thought about that. Did he want the other one to even know?

He flopped backwards onto the berth. He'd been so careful. How had this happened? He could feel his systems start to power down. Maybe a little recharge would do him some good.

And maybe when he woke up it would all be just one big, bad dream.

Starscream stumbled into the medbay with his own helmache shortly after Thundercracker left. Hook merely held out the menders. Starscream scooped them into his servo and gobbled them down like they were candy. Hook chuckled and shook his helm at the display.

Starscream ex-vented, "Who else has been in here?" He needed to know so he could make sure duties were being covered despite the base-wide suffering of the morning after.

Hook thought about it. "Everyone, really. Even...Thundercracker."

"Thundercracker?" Starscream frowned. "But he wasn't at the party. He went to monitor so Skywarp didn't have to."

"Yes, well," Hook ex-vented. "he did in fact come in. He was in pretty rough shape. Now, I'm only telling you because your his wingmate and Air Commander, but I believe Thundercracker was attacked last night. He doesn't remember anything, which is not good."

"Thundercracker never gets that overcharged." Starscream scrubbed his facial plates with his servo, "Frag."

"Now, even Thundercracker isn't sure. It could've been consensual." Hook looked like he doubted it.

Starscream did too, "Yeah, but if it was he should've remembered it."

"Yeah." Hook hated to agree, but the truth was hard to ignore. "He's probably going to just stay quiet. Unlike Skywarp, he doesn't like to cause trouble or make waves."

Starscream ex-vented, "I'll keep my optic on him." It was oddly disconcerting to say those words in association with his better behaved wingmate. Still, he knew Thundercracker would need some help in the cycles to come.

"Watch for oddities. He's a pretty routine mech, so watch how he goes about his cycle. If he deviates, tell me. He's probably going to need some help." Hook looked over to Scrapper, who was slowly going about his own cycle. "Need more menders?"

"No, I'm good." Scrapper placed some equipment over to a side table. "Thanks, anyway."

Scrapper didn't really care about most mechs. They irritated him. He only tolerated his gestalt because he liked that together they were nigh unbeatable. However, he made a few small exceptions. One of them was Thundercracker.

Nearly everyone on base liked the seeker. He wasn't as arrogant as most seekers, and if you asked politely he generally helped a mech out. Scrapper wouldn't say that he liked the guy, but he definitely didn't hate him.

And for some reason, the fact that some fragging slagtard decided to assault the seeker made him mad as the Pit. Scrapper went immediately from his shift over to an empty storage compartment down in the sub-levels. He knew only a few bots that could find out information quick, and that bot was one of his few other exceptions:

Swindle.

The mech was just lounging around, pedes propped on top of a container. When he saw Scrapper, he smiled his ever-so-charming salesman smile, "Good morning, Scrapper! What can I do for you?"

Scrapper stood before the smaller bot. "I need some information found out, and I need it found out in utter secrecy. You got me?"

Swindle frowned. "You sound so serious, today. What happened?"

Scrapper looked around. "If you've got any of your blackmailing slag on, turn it off."

Swindle pressed a button on his arm. "Done. What's going on?"

"Thundercracker was attacked last night." Scrapper growled. "I know I shouldn't care, but the guy's helped me out of a few binds. I feel like I owe him."

"So, you want me to find out who did it? Why won't he just say?" Swindle found himself honestly curious about this one. In order to force down a seeker, even an overcharged Thundercracker, a mech would have to made of some pretty dense metal and have a glitched up processor. Those mechs were fierce.

Scrapper shook his head, "Doesn't remember. Come on, I'll pay you some now and some when you get the info."

Swindle gazed at Scrapper really hard. "No."

"No?" Scrapper clenched his fists. "Listen here you-!"

"I mean you're paying me half the usual fee." Swindle stood up. "You're a good customer, Scrapper, and so is Thundercracker. I'm going to find out who did it." He smirked.

"And I'll make sure he pays."

Author's note: Love it? Hate it? Yes, no? I'm a review whore, so please ravish me.