Author's note: Pitting one of my favorite characters with a character I've always liked but never written about. Guess who's who. I don't own Transformers, Hasbro and Takara do. Set days before the G1 toon pilot

Trailbreaker and Windcharger Bite Off More Than They Can Chew

Kaon prison, two Earth days before the Ark departure

"Riot on floor nine! No! Every floor in the prison! Kill prisoner MB-5 and AC-8 on sight!" A Decepticon officer's voice hollered as lasers fired and alarms sounded from throughout the prison, just then, a giant crash struck the outer wall of the prison and two Cybertronian vehicles drove through it, falling through the air, each one yelling in a terrorized scream. One a small red and black Cybertronain muscle car, the other a large black Cybertronian SUV with yellow and red racing stripes. The muscle car was Windcharger, an Autobot scout, and the SUV was Trailbreaker, an Autobot defensive strategist and security officer. These two Autobots who had just got out of the toughest, highest security, most no-Autobot-has-ever-gone-in-and-come-back-out-online prison on Cybertron. Now, believe it or not, this prison escape started as a simple energy scouting mission. What made it escalate to these stakes? Let's find out.

Three Earth days before

"So, where do you think your being sent to 'Bee?" Windcharger asked his fellow Autobot scout Bumblebee as the two walked through Autobot headquarters in Iacon city.

"I'm kinda hoping Uraya." The yellow scout replied. "What about you?"

"Anywhere but that blasted Kaon and Tarn." Windcharger chuckled. "Neutral Territories would be a great place, unlikely though. Protihex wouldn't be that bad I guess... who's your mission partner?"

"Wheeljack, you know him?" Bumblebee asked.

"Yeah I know him! He's the mech who gave me my electromagnets." Windcharger nodded. "I'm with Trailbreaker, know him?"

"I think so, he's the security bot right?" Bumblebee asked.

"Yeah. I don't know him all that well, he's really friendly apparently." Windcharger explained.

"I bumped into him once on the way to the washracks, well, more accurately he bumped into me." Bumblebee said. "I'm pretty sure he was deep into a cube of high grade."

"Drinker on the job huh?" Windcharger asked.

"It was a Luncycle." Bumblebee said. (Luncycle = Cybertronain for Monday) "I'd drink on the job too... If I was another few thousand stellarcycles older."

"You'll get there." Windcharger laughed, the two stopping at their leader, Optimus Prime's command center. "Well, here we are."

"Yep." Bumblebee nodded, the door opened up and a medium sized white and black Autobot with a red crest on his helmet welcomed them in.

"Let me guess, you two are the scouts for the energy retrievement missions?" The Autobot asked.

"Sure are." Windcharger nodded.

"Right this way, the big guy will see you in a moment." He said, leading the scouts. "My name's Prowl."

"I'm Windcharger." Windcharger told Prowl.

"And I'm Bumblebee." Bumblebee spoke up.

"And I don't care." Prowl said coldly. "Optimus, your scouts are here." He spoke up to Optimus, who at the time was talking with the engineer Wheeljack, and the security officer Trailbreaker.

"Wonderful." Optimus turned and greeted the two scouts. "Hello, I am Optimus Prime."

"I know." Bumblebee said with a grin, his fists clenched in excitement.

"I suppose you're eager to hear your designations?" Optimus asked, the two scouts nodded.

"A'ight." A new voice said, Optimus' second in command Jazz. "Bumblebee, you an' Wheeljack are headin' to Sistex." He said, looking over to Wheeljack as well, who was standing at the wall of the room with Trailbreaker. "I head there's a Seeker blockade on the highway from Iacon to there, so you might wanna take a detour."

"I wish you luck Wheeljack and Bumblebee." Optimus shook the hands of the two. "Now, transform and roll out!" He instructed. Wheeljack and Bumblebee nodded, Bumblebee turned to Windcharger and patted him on the back.

"Good luck buddy, see you at the launch!" He smiled.

"See you then Bee." Windcharger nodded before the two Autobots left the room. He turned to Jazz and Optimus, awaiting his designation.

"Windcharger, you and Trailbreaker are off to..." Jazz looked at his datapad. "That's gotta be a mistake..." He remarked, looking at the pad.

"What does it say?" Optimus asked.

"It says they're going to Tarn." Jazz stated.

"Tarn?" Windcharger thought. "That's the city with the highest Decepticon populace on Cybertron... this had better be a mistake or I'll..." He then remembered his diminutive stature. "Or I'll... be mildly disappointed and make my discomfort known verbally."

"No mistake." Prowl stated. "We're sending eighteen Autobots off to nine major cities, it was all random selection."

"Well that's just perfect." Windcharger thought to himself. Trailbreaker strolled over to where he stood with Optimus, Prowl, and Jazz.

"So, let me get this straight." Trailbreaker spoke up. "You want to send a low rank security officer and an even lower rank..." He stopped for a moment. "... No offense." He looked at Windcharger.

"No, none taken." Windcharger nodded, waving his hand. "Please continue."

"And an even lower rank scout to the biggest Decepticon populace on Cybertron?" Trailbreaker concluded, speaking his mind to Prowl. "Funny that according to this, you're going to..." Trailbreaker swiped the datapad from Jazz and looked at the list. "You aren't going anywhere." Windcharger couldn't help but respect Trailbreaker for this, it took ball bearings to speak like this to a commanding officer, especially in front of Optimus Prime.

"It was completely random." Prowl stated once again. "Now, you have your assignment, I suggest you go and do it." He said impatiently. "But, be careful, quite a few Autobots have gone on this mission and haven't returned." He warned.

Trailbreaker looked as if he was going to speak up once more, but decided against it. "C'mon Windcharger." He said, grumbling a little bit.

"Good luck Windscuffer, you too Trailcutter." Prowl said. Knowing very well that wasn't their names.

"Transform, and roll-" Optimus began, only to be cut off by Jazz, who pointed out that they had already left. Optimus sighed and turned to Prowl. "It wouldn't hurt to be friendlier." He stated, much to Prowl's annoyance.

"The security officer was out of line." Prowl said as an excuse.

"And what's your excuse for before that happened?" Jazz asked with a smirk. Prowl just grumbled and went back to work, cursing Jazz under his breath.

Meanwhile, Trailbreaker and Windcharger drove down the highway out of Iacon. Neither of them really saying anything, the silence was long and awkward. Trailbreaker decided to break the silence with conversation.

"So... Windcharger, was it?" Trailbreaker asked.

"Yep." Windcharger replied as the two drove.

"Ah, y'know Windcharger, I really don't like that guy." Trailbreaker continued.

"Prowl?" Windcharger asked.

"Yeah, that's the guy." Trailbreaker said. "He's my boss."

"That sounds... rough." Windcharger remarked.

"You don't know the half of it." Trailbreaker sighed. "He's such a tightly wound jackaft. Like one cycle for example, I came online late and couldn't fuel up in the morning, so I swipe an energon cube from my chambers to bring to work right?"

"Yeah..." Windcharger replied.

"So anyway, I bring it in the monitor room with me like I normally do, Prowl sees it, swipes it, and it's weak stuff, not even enough to get a scout frame like yours buzzed, what's he do? He confiscates it and tells Prime I was trying to get fendered on the job! Then he and the big bot give me this long and droning speech about how 'every Autobot is a cog in the great Autobot machine' and how I should take my job seriously, it was the weakest grade a bot could get, just enough to keep my engine running!" Trailbreaker remarked.

"So what did you do for the rest of your shift?" Windcharger asked.

"Look at me!" Trailbreaker exclaimed. "You think a big bot like me can go that long without fuel? A couple astrominutes after the lecture, I get groggier and groggier, then what happens?" He asked. "Emergency shut-down at my desk. And of course, it terrifies my shift partner, Red Alert, know 'im? Real touchy guy, very neurotic. So of course that gets him off his rocker, next thing I know I'm in the emergency recharging doc at the Iacon Medical Ward getting stabilized. All because Prowl wouldn't let me have the cube on the job."

"Primus!" Windcharger remarked. "I'm sure Prowl felt real sorry afterward though." He stated.

"If only! He made me work over time for the time I spent passed out!" Trailbreaker exclaimed with a bit of a chuckle. "So, how about you? Any fun stories to share? Amusing little anecdotes?" He asked Wincharger. Windcharger thought to himself for a second. He wasn't an overly interesting bot, nothing eventful really ever happened to him, he wasn't one of Optimus's A-List Autobots like Ironhide or Cliffjumper so he never had any interesting battle stories, he grew up in the middle class part of Cybertron so he never struggled and he never really had much luxury to boast of like Tracks or Mirage. He had to at least think of something though, and Wincharger wasn't above fibbing.

"Actually, yeah, I do." Windcharger lied. "You may have heard of the attack on Vos." He chuckled coyly.

"Vos?" Trailbreaker asked. "That's primarily an Autobot populace." He remarked.

"Uhh... yeah!" Windcharger replied. "I was an Autobot who lived there at the time of the attack, Starscream and his seekers attacked, and I don't just mean his trine, I mean Starscream and upwards of forty other seekers!"

"Really?" Trailbreaker asked. "What did you do?"

"Well, a few other Autobots and I decided we weren't just going to let Starscream take our town. So we gathered up some weapons and took 'em down! I'm a pretty good strategist so I went ahead and took charge, at one point I even used my magnetic powers to do a real number on Starscream, I nearly offlined him too!"

"No fraggin' way!" Trailbreaker exclaimed.

"Yeah, I slammed them into his head and I clamped them like a vice around him, it was vorns before he was out on the battle field again. I'm pretty tough for my size." Wincharger chuckled.

"So, why is it you're stuck being a scout?" Trailbreaker asked.

"Naturally I'm not a very violent bot, I don't really like using my powers to really offline bots, so I opted for more of a quiet life of a scout." Windcharger said, when in reality he was a scout because the story he had just told was a complete lie and he's only used his magnets for maintenance and construction before.

"That's pretty impressive." Trailbreaker remarked. "However... nah, you probably wouldn't be interested, a big tough bot like you." Trailbreaker murmured.

"What?" Windcharger took the bait. Trailbreaker chuckled and continued his story.

"Well, one cycle, not too long ago, Wheeljack was working on somethin' in Autobot central, right?" Trailbreaker asked. "Apparently, it's an immobilizer bomb, once it goes off, it immobilizes everybot within a certain radius. So, I was recharging at the time and I always have a force field up whenever I do, so the blast didn't affect me, and when I wake up to see everyone immobilized, guess who I see roaming about the base." He stated.

"Who?" Windcharger asked.

"That no good bounty hunter Lockdown, heard of him?" Trailbreaker asked.

"Yeah, wasn't he the bot who stole Ratchet's EMP generator?" Wincharger asked.

"Sure was, he always takes from his targets." Trailbreaker explained. "For example, Wheeljack used to have a pair of swords, Ironhide used to have arm mounted cannons... all things Lockdown took."

"What was Lockdown after?" Windcharger asked.

"Nothing much, just... the Autobot matrix of leadership." Trailbreaker explained.

"You're kidding." Windcharger remarked.

"Nope, luckily, I had the element of surprise on my side." Trailbreaker boasted. "Once I cornered him, I decided to try a fear tactic. First, I made myself out to be the most intimidating bot he'd ever met, I told him: "I'm the Autobot who lands the final punch. I'm the Autobot who gets to decide if you live. I'm a force of nature. An apocalypse on legs. The furious sound of symphonic brutality." And when that didn't work, I told him I planted a force field into his spark! In a snap of my fingers it'd expand and pop his spark like a bubble." He explained.

"Did you?" Windcharger asked.

"Of course not." Trailbreaker said. "Not my speed, but you've never seen Lockdown show his face around Iacon since." He chuckled.

"True." Windcharger said. The two kept driving, the highway wasn't all that busy, but that was no surprise for two reasons. Ever since the war broke out, main highways stopped being used mostly, and for the second reason, it was the highway to Tarn. Autobots never traveled the highway to Tarn, not even an Autobot who had an offline-wish would go to Tarn. Just their luck that they were stuck going there on an Energon seeking mission, that would no doubt end in them having to take Energon from Decepticons. Something neither of them were ready to do, but they were both sure that the other one out of the two of them would be.

Not much longer, Trailbreaker and Windcharger had to get off of the main roads to avoid detection. Decepticons had come up on their scanners by the hundreds, luckily they had signal dampeners on, courtesy of Wheeljack. At this point, they were to search the city, hopefully undetected until they found Energon, at which point they'd secure it and bring it back to Iacon. Seemed easy enough, but life is seldom as easy as we anticipate.

"What are we lookin' at?" Trailbreaker asked Windcharger as the short, red Autobot looked out at Kaon's cityscape from the top of a building.

"No signs of any of the big named 'Cons like Megatron or Starscream, so I guess that's a relief." Windcharger stated. "I think I see the Reflector team however."

"Those creepy little triplets?" Trailbreaker asked.

"Those are the ones." Windcharger nodded.

"Shouldn't be a problem." Trailbreaker remarked. "They're pretty much the same mech split into three bodies, same attack pattern."

"You notice that sort of stuff?" Windcharger asked.

"I'm the security 'bot, I notice stuff." Trailbreaker chuckled slightly before going silent, Windcharger turned to see him conjuring a medium-grade cube from his subspace. Trailbreaker turned and saw him glancing. "Want some? I'll gladly share." He said with a friendly grin.

"I'll pass." Windcharger shook his head. "I don't really drink."

"Can't blame a bot for asking." Trailbreaker shrugged before drinking the cube. "Alright, got some liquid courage in me, lets frag some scrap up."

"Easy." Windcharger stated. "I've got an idea, but it will require stealth."

"I hate stealth." Trailbreaker muttered, Windcharger wanted to say "That doesn't surprise me", but he kept it in. "What's the plan?" He asked the minibot as he examined the city.

"See that?" Windcharger pointed east towards an Energon mine. "That's an Energon mine, we sneak in there and with any luck we will be up to our optic sensors and higher in Energon."

"More Energon than we can fit in our subspaces?" Trailbreaker asked.

"Maybe." Windcharger said. "We're not close enough to get a signal on the mine so I can't tell."

"You also couldn't tell there was a Decepticon right behind you, funny how that happens." A new voice stated, sending a shiver down Trailbreaker and Windcharger's frames, the voice echoed with a sinister tone, they turned to see a tall dark gray and purple Decepticon, this was Astrotrain. "I see you two used signal dampeners, clever. You guys just make those now?" He chuckled, cocking his blaster. "Autobots were always behind on tech." He said, firing at them.

"How's this for behind on tech?" Trailbreaker replied, putting up a force field to deflect it, sending the laser off in another direction.

"Force fields?" Astrotrain asked. "You're an outlier I take it." He remarked.

"An outlier who's ready to kick some aft and take some names." Trailbreaker grinned.

"Trailbreaker, what are you doing?" Windcharger asked nervously, this Decepticon was far bigger than both of them, even if Windcharger stood on Trailbreaker's shoulders he'd still be bigger.

"What am I doing?" Trailbreaker replied, "I'll tell you what I'm doing. This!" He exclaimed, he then fired a blast from his force field projector at Astrotrain, the blast took the shape of a large sphere and collided with the Decepticon, sending him flying backwards on impact.

"Run!" Trailbreaker hollered at Windcharger. Before Windcharger had a moment to process what he just saw Trailbreaker grabbed him by the arm and leaped from the building. Windcharger hollered out in both confusion and fear. Trailbreaker was either stupid or had a serious death wish, a fall from this height would surely kill them both! Just as Windcharger was sure they were both toast, Trailbreaker shifted his weight so he was in a position to do a belly-flop with the ground and in mere seconds they had stopped falling, Trailbreaker had activated his magnawheels, attachments on his legs that acted like wheels in vehicle mode, but could also attach to metallic surfaces like magnets. Trailbreaker began running down the wall, he tossed Windcharger onto his back as he ran.

"You shoot, I run, got it?" Trailbreaker asked, Windcharger nodded and armed his blaster, ready to fire at whatever posed a threat, by the time they made it to the ground Astrotrain had already alerted other Decepticons of their presence. All around them Decepticons began firing at them, leaving Windcharger to have to shoot hundreds of directions at once, hoping at least one shot would pin down a Decepticon.

"Think we'd cover ground faster is we were in vehicle mode?" Windcharger asked.

"Bright idea." Trailbreaker agreed, the two transformed into vehicle mode and sped off, fleeing from the Decepticons.

"They're headed for the mine! After them!" A red and yellow seeker hollered, his trine taking to the skies after them, firing down at the two Autobots.

"Remember what I said about stealth?" Windcharger asked Trailbreaker as they sped through the Decepticon city.

"Stealth went out the window the moment that Decepticon showed up." Trailbreaker replied, firing his vehicle mode mounted weapon upward at the seekers.

"How about using that force filed projector of yours to help us out?" Windcharger asked.

"No dice, used up my reserve for force fields sending that blast at Astrotrain." Trailbreaker stated.

"How convenient." Windcharger muttered.

"We're nearly there!" Trailbreaker remarked, seeing the entrance to the mine in the distance. However, a blockade had already been set up in front of the entrance, seekers and other Decepticons waiting for them to blast the two Autobots. "Frag." He remarked.

"I've got this." Windcharger stated, he transformed and leaped onto the roof of Trailbreaker's alternate mode and prepared his magnets, he wasn't sure about this, because despite his claims he had never actually used them for combat. "Here goes nothing..." He remarked. He picked a target, it looked like it was an Insecticon, he was pretty sure it was Barrage. He fired up his magnets and shot the pulse at Barrage, the beam contacted Barrage and suddenly it was like he was holding Barrage in his hands.

"What the... what's happening!?" Barrage exclaimed, now floating in the air.

"This is what's happening, bug face!" Windcharger laughed, throwing Barrage into the others and knocking them down, clearing the blockade.

"Nice job Windy!" Trailbreaker remarked as they sped past the knocked down 'Cons and into the mine. Trailbreaker transformed and quickly typed at the control panel. Shutting the door of the mine and blasting the panel, jamming the door mechanism. "That should hold them off." He grinned.

"That should also lock us inside with Primus only knows how many Decepticons." Windcharger stated.

"Look on the bright side, I also locked us in here with all the energon we can carry." Trailbreaker smirked as the two began to walk down a mine shaft, Windcharger pulled out a scanner and looked at it.

"Well, you are right about that, scanner readings are off the charts." Windcharger remarked. "This way." He pointed.

"Alright!" Trailbreaker grinned as they kept walking. "Nice work with the magnets back there."

"Thanks." Windcharger said. "Good work with Astrotrain." He added.

"All in a day's work." Trailbreaker chuckled. "Now, lead the way Windy."

"I'm gonna have to ask you to not call me that." Windcharger said. "I was able to ignore it the first time, but not twice."

"Aw c'mon, I'll let you call me... Breaky! Or... Traily?" Trailbreaker pleaded.

"I'll pass." Windcharger stated with a slight chuckle. The two kept walking through the shaft, there were no mine workers in sight, which was odd, especially when there were raw energon readings off the scale. "Stay on high alert, they could be watching us."

"I believe it." Trailbreaker nodded. Not long after, the readings got closer, closer... so close that Windcharger was confused. There was no energon in sight, yet the scanner was blaring like crazy. He tapped the scanner a couple of times to see if it was glitching out.

"Fraggin' thing, this can't be right." He remarked. "Say's here there should be energon all around us."

"All around us?" Trailbreaker asked. "I doubt it, under us however..." He pointed to an elevator.

"I like it... but we should take the elevator, it'd attract too much attention." Windcharger remarked. "No idea what we may be walking into."

"Well... what if we don't take the elevator, but we do take it at the same time?" Trailbreaker suggested.

"What?" Windcharger asked.

"Like this." Trailbreaker kicked down the door to the elevator and shot down the pulley system and sent the elevator crashing down. "Going down." Trailbreaker smirked, grabbing the cables and sliding down them like a fire pole. Windcharger looked down the shaft skeptically, but then realized his partner had already went so he had to follow, he sighed and grabbed the cable, descending with Trailbreaker.

"See any Decepticons?" Windcharger asked Trailbreaker as he peaked through a crack in the elevator shaft.

"Surprisingly... no." Trailbreaker remarked, so far exploring this mine had been easy, too easy.

"Let's proceed with caution, this could be a trap." Windcharger instructed, Trailbreaker blasted the wall of the shaft and the two jumped down, now in the cavern completely full of energon ripe for the taking. Windcharger took out his scanner and scanned one of the crystals. This was pure, raw energon, not one bit of it fabricated. Windcharger grinned widely as he put the scanner away. "Fill your subspace Trailbreaker!" He exclaimed. "We've got the good stuff!"

Over the next couple of minutes, Trailbreaker and Windcharger grabbed as much energon as they could, both laughing and joking in joy, they couldn't believe how easy this mission turned out to be, nothing but one little run in with Astrotrain and some Decepticon grunts, with the sweet, sweet reward of walking away with all the energon they could carry.

"I still can't believe how easy this was!" Trailbreaker exclaimed.

"Tell me about it, almost too easy!" Windcharger chuckled.

"Not that I'm complaining!" Trailbreaker laughed. The two climbed back up the elevator shaft, laughing and cheering with glee. Just as they were ready to open the door and charge through the city to make it back to Iacon, the door opened without and effort from Trailbreaker and Windcharger, and what they saw... made them realize why stealing that energon was so easy. It was Astrotrain, a legion of Seekers, Barrage and his Insecticon tribe... and Megatron, front and center.

"Salutations, Autobots." Megatron chuckled, aiming his large, arm mounted cannon at Trailbreaker's face. "I must say Astrotrain, the sting you've set has worked perfectly."

"Yes, this is the eighty fourth successful attempt after all." Astrotrain remarked.

"You couldn't have really been so stupid to believe that we were just leaving that energon for anyone to waltz in and take?" A seeker laughed.

"Well, congratulations Autobots." Megatron said. "You may have been able to lock the energon you could grab in your subspaces, but that doesn't save your lives."

"You're coming with me, Autobots." A Decepticon with a build just like Prowl except black and gray with Decepticon sigils on his door-wings.

"Take them to Tarn Prison, Barricade." Astrotrain instructed.

"With pleasure." The Decepticon nodded, arming his blaster, he fired a shot at Trailbreaker, then at Windcharger, stasis bullets. Within moments, Trailbreaker and Windcharger toppled over, immobilized in stasis.

When Trailbreaker and Windcharger awoke, they were looking into the horrid underbelly of all Autobot's nightmares. Kaon Prison. All around them voices hollered, guards patronized prisoners, and cries and screams came from the execution room located morbidly close to the prison cells. The two Autobots stood to their feet and looked around, they had no idea what Kaon Prison was like going into it, after all, no Autobots had ever been inside and lived to tell the tale.

"Windcharger?" Trailbreaker asked.

"Yeah?" Windcharger asked.

"I think I understand why that energon was so easy to access." Trailbreaker remarked.

"As if Megatron and Astrotrain explaining it to you didn't help you understand?" Windcharger asked.

"I was a little busy staring down the barrel of Megatron's fusion cannon." Trailbreaker explained. Just as Trailbreaker said that, a chuckle was heard from the corner of their cell, the two looked over and saw another Autobot in the corner, laughing away as he listened in.

"Let me guess," he laughed. "All the energon you could carry was right in front of you? You couldn't believe how easy it was?" He asked. "Been there, done that." He sighed. This Autobot was one unfamiliar to either Trailbreaker or Windcharger, but he looked similar to Trailbreaker in build. "Always happy to see another 81052-5301-404." The Autobot smiled at Trailbreaker. "My name's Treadsmoke." He introduced himself. "Welcome to cell 0808-1986, make yourselves comfortable, don't worry, I'll be out of your hair soon." He sighed, taking on a little more morbid a tone, looking down the hall to the door of the execution chamber.

"What do you mean?" Windcharger asked.

"Well, picture this analogy if you will." Treadsmoke stated. "An android figure for sparklings sits on the shelf for a couple of anocycles, right? Then, newer android figures start coming in, the old android figure? He get's tossed out, recalled, killed off on whatever broadcast he's from, get it?" Treadsmoke asked. "I'm on my way to the parking lot in the sky pretty darn soon." He sighed.

"Execution?" Trailbreaker asked. "No trial or nothing?"

"They're Decepticons." Treadsmoke stated to his twin in build. "They don't believe in trials, you get a better deal in Quintessa, at least they give you a trial there, but spoiler alert, just setting foot on that planet is a death sentence, but they prolong it with a trial so that's kind of cool." He shrugged. "Not here... you rot in the cell until the machine recharges, then they kill you." He said glumly. "It happened to my partner, Leadfoot, I'm next."

"Maybe we can think of a way out?" Trailbreaker suggested. "Ooh! Windcharger here once took down Starscream, the Starscream!"

"No kidding." Treadsmoke remarked, looking over at Windcharger.

"Uhh..." Windcharger stammered. "Yeah, but, then we've got Trailbreaker, he took down Lockdown, know much about him?"

"Know him?" Treadsmoke asked. "The guy stole my power chip rectifier! I used to be able to take on the appearance of any Cybertronian for brief amounts of time, it worked great on infiltration missions, but I mostly used it for stand-up." He chuckled. Just then, the cell doors opened up and Barricade and a taller Decepticon with a hulking, broad stance with one center optic on his head and smaller others to the sides known as Lugnut.

"Let's go Treadsmoke." Barricade smirked. "You an' Deadfoot will be together again soon."

"That's Leadfoot." Treadsmoke corrected. "And... about that..." He chuckled. "I think I choose life today!" He said, punching Barricade in the jaw and shoving past Lugnut, hoping to escape. "Trailbreaker! Windcharger! Come on!" He hollered back as he ran.

"Sniper!" Barricade hollered, in no more then a second, a laser fired straight through Treadsmoke's helm, then his feet, then his head. The Autobot collapsed to the ground, color fading from his body as he died.

"Ohh... frag." Trailbreaker remarked.

"Well, looks like we've got the machine primed up for nothing." Barricade sighed. "You know what? Nah. Which cell was Scrounge locked in?" He asked as he and Lugnut walked off. Barricade then turned around and looked at the Trailbreaker and Windcharger. "You two, next solar cycle, 0008 hours." He chuckled as he turned back around and walked off. The two Autobots exchanged looks and sighed, the death clock had started.

That night, the two sat solemnly in their cell, Trailbreaker humming an old Cybertronian folk song in sorrow. Windcharger laid back on the slab that sufficed for a recharging berth, cursing himself for the situation he was in. He hung his head back and sighed.

"So what were you planning to do after the war was over?" Trailbreaker asked Windcharger to break the silence.

"I don't know if I'm being honest." Windcharger replied. "I didn't think I'd survive the war... you?"

"I was gonna but a ship and have a nice long retirement cruise across the stars, maybe bring a buddy or two along with me. I guess that's not gonna happen anymore." Trailbreaker sighed before he sat up and looked over. "Why didn't you help him?" Trailbreaker asked.

"What?" Windcharger asked.

"Treadsmoke, why didn't you help him?" Trailbreaker asked. "You took down Starscream, right? Neither of them were as big as Starscream, well, maybe the big fella I s'pose." He remarked. "But the two of you together could have-"

"Well why didn't you help him?" Windcharger interrupted him. "You're the one who took down that bounty hunter with your force fields!" He remarked. "I didn't see you helping him out!"

"Yeah, well..." Trailbreaker thought. "I talked Lockdown down! I didn't actually do anything, it was mind games, you actually took Starscream down with force!"

"So now you're going to sit here and lecture me? Oh yeah, that's right, because that's all you do, talk!" Windcharger snapped. "Talk, quip, and get scrap faced on the job!"

"Hey! That was a low grade cube! It wouldn't even get a minicon buzzed!" Trailbreaker replied.

"And what about all of those other times?" Windcharger asked. "I hear things, you stumbling around deep into a cube of high grade."

"It was a lunacycle for Primus' sake!" Trailbreaker exclaimed. "Like you're so perfect anyway."

"What do you mean?" Windcharger asked.

"Fat load of useless you were when Astrotrain had us pinned. Luckily I had the ball bearings to do something about him!" Trailbreaker remarked.

"Fat load of good that did us!" Windcharger laughed. "He let us get away."

"You didn't know that was the plan when you sat there with your piston in your servos." Trailbreaker smirked. "Come to think of it, you do that a lot!"

"Reserving energy." Windcharger explained.

"Reserving energy? You're a fragging minibot!" Trailbreaker exclaimed. "I use more energy flexing my servo than you'd use to drive from Iacon to Gobotron!"

"You can't drive to another planet!" Windcharger scoffed.

"You get my point!" Trailbreaker exclaimed before leaning back and swearing to himself. Neither of them said a word for minutes, though it felt like hours. At this point they had accepted that their fates would be similar to Treadsmoke and all the other Autobots in this prison, not wanting to die on bad terms with anyone, Windcharger decided to speak up.

"Look... I'm sorry I said all of that stuff." Windcharger sighed. "I just... believe it or not, being about to die can stress a guy out." He remarked.

"Tell me about it." Trailbreaker remarked. "You... you maybe want to split a cube with me?"

"Eh, I'm going to die in the morning, I might as well." Windcharger remarked, sitting up. Trailbreaker made an energon cube appear from his subspace and then two smaller empty cubes. He then filled one of the smaller cubes up with energon and handed it to Windcharger. "Thanks." Windcharger tipped the cube slightly.

"No problem." Trailbreaker nodded as he sipped the drink. "They never took anything from our subspaces, That's because they harness the subspace window from your workings after your execution."

"Aren't subspaces inaccessible to anyone other than the owner?" Windcharger asked.

"Used to be." Trailbreaker nodded. "Until Shockwave came up with a way to get in to them."

"Figures." Windcharger remarked. The two sat there in silence once more. Neither of them really sure what was left to say, Windcharger could still think of something to say, the truth regarding his act of heroism perhaps. "Look, Trailbreaker." He said.

"Yeah?" Trailbreaker asked.

"I didn't help Treadsmoke because I was afraid." Windcharger said. "And I was afraid because... I lied."

"You lied?" Trailbreaker asked. "About what?"

"About me 'saving' my town from Starscream, yeah, I lived in the town at the time of the attack." He explained. "I didn't start a revolution, I hid in a bunker. The only reason Optimus Prime noticed me was because I used my magnets to help with the relief effort after the fact. They're a construction aid, not a weapon." He sighed. "I made up the story mostly because I was sick of mechs looking at me and just seeing a minibot scout. Y'know?"

"I get that." Trailbreaker nodded. "I s'pose I should come clean myself." He sighed. "I never encountered Lockdown, hell I don't even know what the guy looks like!" He remarked. "I just made it all up after I told you about the other story and all that, kinda makes me feel better, people hear that and they think 'Man, that Trailbreaker, he's a cool mech! He can hold his own, he's definitely not a... big waste of space and energon or anything." He sighed.

"You... feel like that?" Windcharger asked.

"Like what?" Trailbreaker asked.

"You know, the... waste of space and energon?" Windcharger replied.

"Well, yeah." He nodded. "I mean, look at me. I'm the biggest standard soldier model, my power chip rectifier ability takes up the most energon, I'm more of a liability than anything." He sighed. "If it helps, I thought you were a pretty neat bot before the story." He remarked.

"Thanks." Windcharger sighed. "And... I don't think you're a big waste of energon, you're the best security bot the Autobots could ask for, how many break ins have happened since you started in security?"

"I thought Counterpunch was in the base once," Trailbreaker said. "But then it turns out it was just Punch."

"I've had that happen to me once." Windcharger chuckled. "Wait..." He remarked.

"Wait, what?" Trailbreaker asked.

"Well, Treadsmoke tried to make a break for it, and what happened?" Windcharger replied. "He got sniped."

"Yeah..." Trailbreaker arched his brow, confused as to what the minibot meant. "That's what happened."

"What if we did that?" Windcharger asked. "But didn't get sniped."

"And how do you fancy we do that?" Trailbreaker asked, not taking Windcharger seriously.

"Can you possibly put a force field around us both and have it able to move with us?" Windcharger asked, Trailbreaker bellowed a loud laugh and shook his head.

"Now that would be just plain impossible." He said. "I tried, it ends with me running into my own wall." He chuckled. "Besides, it's not like we could wait them out as they fired at us, my force field emitter wouldn't last long enough." He explained. "Just accept we're done for, that's what I did." Trailbreaker sighed, leaning back once more.

"Put out a force field, just a small one." Windcharger instructed.

"Don't know what good it'll do, but fine." Trailbreaker shrugged as he fired up the emitter and made a spherical force field on the floor, no bigger than a beach ball meant for a Cybertronian. Windcharger charged up his magnetic pulsers and aimed at the force field, it took more power that it normally would take to move something, but gradually he was able to make the force field energy ball roll. Trailbreaker watched in amazement and laughed in wonder. "Well sunova glitch!" He exclaimed, watching the ball.

"I'm thinking that, but large enough to fit us inside." Windcharger grinned.

"It's gonna take a slag ton of energon out of both of us to pull that off." Trailbreaker remarked.

"And?" Windcharger asked. "How much energon are you carrying on you?"

"Roughly enough to power a small cruiser." Trailbreaker answered.

"Then that shouldn't be an issue!" Windcharger exclaimed. "Once we're out we turn our emitters off and we make a break for Iacon, I know a tunnel system just outside Tarn city."

"Well..." Trailbreaker mumbled. "It's worth a try, if we make it out alive it'll be one heck of a story." He said with a grin.

"Then we're doing this." Windcharger grinned. "I guess we had better get some rest, wanna be charged up for tomorrow."

"You've got it buddy." Trailbreaker nodded.

"Alright worm, get up." Windcharger felt Barricade prodding his leg from outside the cell. "You too chunks." He prodded Trailbreaker, who jolted awake as if having a nightmare. "It's go time." Barricade snarled.

"You have no idea." Trailbreaker mumbled with a smirk. The two Autobots got up and nodded at each other, once the cell door opened Lugnut, Barricade's large assistant, grabbed them and led them down the hall.

"You seem to be coming along without a fight." Barricade remarked. "I guess what you witnessed yesterday scared some sense into you too." He chuckled. "Too bad it couldn't save you from the circuit fryer." He said with a sadistic snicker. Once they reached the large door at the end of the hall, Trailbreaker looked back at the cells holding upwards of a hundred Autobots everywhere. He sighed, knowing that even if they saved themselves they couldn't save their Autobot brothers.

"Unlock the door, you big lug." Barricade hissed at Lugnut. "And be careful, the unlock code is just one digit from the master lock, one wrong button and we'd have a full scale riot on our hands."

"I know the code, you camshaft." Lugnut grumbled, pressing the code on the keypad and opening the door, inside were two primed chairs, another Decepticon stood between them, he looked similar to Optimus' second in command, Jazz, but instead of a stark white color he was a red color with spiked crests on his helmet.

"Knockout, here's the prisoners, work your magic." Barricade grinned.

"But of course." Knockout nodded. "Now, prisoner MB-5 and AC-8, you are hereby sentenced to execution under the order of Megatron and the Decepticon army," The executioner droned, having said the same speech hundreds of times before. "Technically, as a right of being a Cybertronian you are allowed to say a prayer to Primus, The Allspark, or any other deity you choose before execution.." He droned. "Do you choose to execute that right?" He asked the prisoners, who both nodded. The two Autobots knelt down and began to pray, or at least mumble something.

"Three..." Trailbreaker mumbled.

"Two..." Windcharger added.

"One." They both said in unison. Trailbreaker blew up a force field around the two of them and Windcharger fired up his magnets and the orb began to move, dumbfounding Knockout, Barricade, and Lugnut, the two Autobots went through the door and out into the hall.

"Fire at that keypad!" Trailbreaker ordered, pointing to the keypad that Lugnut used to open the door to execution chamber.

"I'm gonna have to turn my magnets off!" Windcharger exclaimed.

"I can hold us for a second, just do it!" Trailbreaker exclaimed.

"Fire at them!" Barricade hollered. "Every sniper on floor nine!" He hollered, each sniper drone fired at the glowing orb that was Trailbreaker's force field, Windcharger turned and aimed at the keypad, he fired, destroying the keypad. Moments later, alarms throughout the prison sounded and every cell door opened. Autobots ran from their cells and immediately attacked the guards and snipers nearest to them, Barricade couldn't believe his eyes, he hollered out to the guards and snipers. "Riot on floor nine! No! Every floor in the prison! Kill prisoner MB-5 and AC-8 on sight!" He commanded. Meanwhile, Trailbreaker and Windcharger rolled through the busy hallway, rolling over various guards trying to stop them.

"That wall is our best bet to get out!" Trailbreaker said. "Neither of us have the firepower to get through it though!"

"Perhaps I can be of assistance!" A voice near them said, an Autobot who, like the others, was partaking in the prison riot. He was a large green Autobot with a jaw extention on his helmet and military like tampographs. From where his hand was came a large wrecking ball, he swung at the wall and sent the ball crashing through it. "Go!" He ordered Trailbreaker and Windcharger, who both transformed into their alternate modes and drove through the wall, yelling a fearful cry from the shock of how fast everything had happened.

"Onward brothers, to freedom!" The large green Autobot cheered, leading every Autobot through the large hole in the wall after them.

"No! No no!" Barricade snarled, watching the escape, he opened his radio and commed out to any Decepticon available. /Requesting reinforcements, there has been an escape from Tarn Prison!/

/WHAT!?/ Megatron hollered through his com link. /Ramjet, Dirge, Thrust, Blitzwing, and Astrotrain will be in pursuit, and when I arrive at Tarn, I will have you on the execution chair for your insolence!/ Megatron snarled, offlining his com.

Outside, Trailbreaker and Windcharger had an entire convoy of Autobots large and small with them, racing their way back to Iacon. Seekers fired from above and Astrotrain and Blitzwing were firing from the highway they traveled on.

"Hey, big green, mind handling our road-block?" Windcharger asked the large green military vehicle Autobot beside them.

"Name's Bulkhead." The vehicle said. "And with pleasure." He chuckled, transforming and leaping over to the two triple changers, landing on Blitzwing with a hard crash and then tossing his wrecking ball at Astrotrain. "Road's clear!" Bulkhead grinned, letting the convoy of Autobots through and joining them, leaving Astrotrain and Blitzwing in the dust.

"We'd uh... we'd better lie low for the next couple of cycles." Blitzwing remarked.

"You think?" Astrotrain asked. "It'll take Megatron a good four million years to cool down after hearing we let them escape!"

"Welcome back to Iacon, if you happen to be returning from an energy scouting mission, please enter through he-" The Autobot, Bluestreak droned, not looking up from his desk at the border crossing booth to Iacon, he looked up and saw the large group of Autobots standing there, looking at him. Trailbreaker and Windcharger standing in front of them with large grins on their faces. He stammered a little and looked at a list of Autobots on his holodeck. "Holy frag, there's hundreds of Autobots listed MIA over here!" He remarked. "What in the pit happened?"

"Let's just say we have one heck of a story to tell." Trailbreaker grinned. "You're going on the Ark expedition right?"

"Sure am." Bluestreak nodded. "Tell me all about it then."

"Will do." Windcharger nodded. "Care to let us through?"

"Yeah, sure," Bluestreak chuckled. "I almost forgot. Go on in!" He waved them off.

Later on, the Autobots that had escaped prison had been gathered in the main hall of Iacon headquarters for a briefing from Prowl and Optimus. In the mean time, they had just been conversing with each other, all happy to be home and safe.

"So you're going on that Ark journey huh?" A red and white SUV build minibot asked Windcharger. "Yeah, I got an older cousin going on that thing, Primus, I wish I could go on that thing, I always love a good quest. Where are my manners? Name's Swerve. Me an' my buddy Tailgate fell for the same trick you did, he's okay though, he's somewhere around here. Anyhow..." Primus, this bot's going to yak my audio receptors off. Windcharger thought before being pulled aside by Trailbreaker.

"Hey buddy," Trailbreaker said. "Briefing is about to start, Prime's bodyguard told us to sit up front, just letting you know."

"Prime's bodyguard?" Windcharger asked. "Ironhide? He's the weapons specialist."

"Really?" Trailbreaker asked as they went to sit down. "I always figured he was Prime's bodyguard." The briefing soon began and Prime stepped up to the podium to address the crowd.

"Welcome one and all," Optimus said. "I must say, when Prowl came to me with the news that hundreds of MIA Autobots had returned home after a prison escape, I thought surely he was joking, but then I remembered that Prowl has never told, nor heard a joke in all of his life." Optimus said, laughter sounded throughout the gathered crowd and Prowl groaned as Ironhide smacked him on the shoulder in laughter. "But on a serious note, it pleases me greatly to see that you all made it home safely, though it pains me knowing you all had to bear the horrors of what occurs in a Decepticon prison, and that many of you probably had to lose many friends in that prison. For that, I apologize. But, their memories live on as we wage our battles to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons." He stated. "And now, we would like to give recognition to the two Autobots who made your return possible and brought back the highest yield of energon." Optimus said. "Please step up to the stage, Trailbreaker and Windcharger." He welcomed the two Autobots. The two grinned as they stepped up, waving at various Autobots who cheered for them. Prowl stepped up to the podium and read from a datapad.

"Trailbreaker and Windcharger," He droned. "congratulations on going above and beyond what the call of this mission was, not only did you succeed in bringing us more energon that we thought Cybertron had left, but you brought us something more valuable. hundreds of lives of our Autobot friends and brothers." He read. "And now, for your bravery, we thank you, and bestow upon you Autobot medals of bravery and heroism, till all are one and yadda yadda." Prowl groaned. Ironhide stepped up and gave the two soldiers their medals, saluting them.

"You done us proud soldiers." The grizzled mech grinned.

"Wow..." Windcharger remarked, holding his medal.

"Well Windcharger, now 'bots will know you as more than just a minibot scout." Trailbreaker chuckled.

"And I doubt anyone's gonna call you a waste of space and energon any time soon." Windcharger replied, nudging his friend.

"Come, we have a ship to prepare." Optimus said to the two. "Perhaps you two would be interested in making sure the defenses are... up to code?" He offered.

"Sounds good to me boss, lead the way." Trailbreaker nodded.

The end.

And there you have it. Two Autobots, neither very well known, pulling off something amazing. Adios! Please rate and review!