Smoke billowed, and a high powered engine whirred, heat seeping through metal as fire washed over the ground. The flame flickered, and there was heavy heaving as vents whirred to life, relieving excess smoke as they struggled to intake.

A servo twitched, and the coughing started anew. Pained shouts echoed throughout the crash site, but as metal melted and fell, the sound was washed away by the crashes and whirring of the engine.

Wings flicked back and forth, emerging out of the smoke as they tested for injuries, and to the blue jets great relief, both waggled healthily behind his back, no pains or dents presenting themselves to burden his flight.

Thundercracker groaned as he recalibrated his optics, the lenses struggling to see through the smoke and flames. His audials ached as the shuttle's engine spluttered and squealed, and he inched himself backwards.

"Skywarp!" He called, one scratched and scraped hand cradling his aching helm.

"TC!"

Thundercracker perked up, peering through the vapor to catch a glimpse of his purple trinemate. His optics squinted under the assault of smoke, and he turned away. The raspy voice sounded close, and he dragged himself to his knees. He winced at the sudden movement, a sharp pain shooting up from his pede as his processor sent urgent pings at him. Clenching his denta, the jet dragged his pede out from under his body.

A sharp piece of metal had buried itself into his ankle, and raw energon trickled from the wound, mixing with all the grime and dirt that had built up on his plating from the crash.

"Thundercracker!"

"I'll be there in a second! Are your hurt?"

There was a brief pause, "I think something happened to my wing."

Thundercracker grasped the protrusion, "Hang tight. I'll be there in a sec-AH."

He grunted as the metal slid free with a hurried jerk of his hand, and ignored Skywarps worried squawking as he tossed the metal over his shoulder. The energon flowed more freely now and trickled into the seams and crevices of his plating.

"TC!" Skywarp barked worriedly.

"I'm alright. I'll make my way over to you now."

He brought himself to his knees once more, and with the ground as his clutch heaved himself off the ground. He stumbled for a second, his wound stinging and aching in protest as he placed weight on it.

The jet winced, and lifted his injured pede, holding it gingerly over the ground as he inched forward, his pace wobbly and unsteady.

"Can you see anything?"

There was no answer and Thundercracker sighed, "Skywarp, I can't see if you're shaking your head."

"Oh, yeah. I can only see smoke, and my hands if I hold 'em really close to my face."

Thundercracker's internal fans were whirring, and his vents struggled under the pressure of clearing smoke from his intake.

As the blue jet ventured further into the crash site, he heard the familiar sounds of someone's fans clicking on high.

"I think I can see you."

"Over here."

The smoke cleared and Skywarp came into view, his purple plating faded and dinged, dented in places and torn in others. But what really made Thundercracker wince was the large foliage that had landed on one of Skywarp's splayed wings.

"Is it bad?" Skywarp joked, expression jubilantly stupid despite the situation.

"Skywarp, I don't think I can lift that."

Skywarp shrugged, "So? Just slide me out."

Thundercracker frowned, kneeling next to his trinemate as he examined the foliage. It was large, thick and wide, and had probably completely flattered Skywarps wing. Thundercracker quickly took the initiative to realize that Skywarp had turned his pain receptors off, otherwise his trinemate would probably have been screaming in agony.

What part of the wing that hadn't been flattened was torn viciously, wiring sparking and energon trickling free.

His gaze flickered to the shuttle next to them, where it was sparking, erupting fire, leaking oil and billowing smoke. It's heaving became heavier and shriller as the engine powered on and whirred faster, heat pouring from it in dense waves. Thundercrackers internal pump quickened as another bout of flame erupted from the cockpit.

He shook his head, eyes flicking between the ticking time bomb and his trinemate, "you're probably gonna hate me for this."

"Wha- Hey!"

Skywarp protested as his arm and upper body was grasped tightly by his trinemate. Thundercracker grunted as he adjusted his hold before massive arms heaved and Skywarps body inched forward, energon lines in his back tearing free from his wing as Thundercracker continued to pull. Plating tore, and Skywarp went silent as he watched his wing get torn free by his very own trinemate.

He flinched as usually delicate plating that would have caused copious amounts of agony broke away until his wing was no longer comfortably attached to his back.

Thundercracker continued to drag Skywarp across the ground, leaving a trail of their combined energon as he quickened his pace.

The shuttle shuddered, and smoke swelled upwards, sickeningly black and filling their senses with the smell of charred metal.

Thundercracker lurched backwards as the port side of the shuttle erupted in an explosion of flame and debris, sending shrapnel flying and agonizing heat in all directions. The force of the explosion sent Thundercracker reeling back, and he landed on his aft harshly.

Skywarp sat up, eyes fixated on the giant hole in the shuttle before his red optics flickered over his shoulder.

Black hands instantly flew around to his back, and he prodded at the large tear, coating his fingers in energon as he poked.

"You tore off my wing." He stated in disbelief.

Thundercrackers eyes were drawn downcast, and his own wings twitched guilty.

"You amputated my wing."

"Skywarp, even if I managed to get that thing off of you, there wouldn't have been much of your wing left anyway. Let alone enough of a wing to fly with."

"But I still would have had my wing."

Thundercracker sighed at the sulky compliant.

"I'm sorry."

"Hmph."

Skywarp stuck out a hand, and Thundercracker pulled him to his feet.

"Is anyone else here?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen any of the others around anywhere."

Skywarp cast a side-glance at the blue jet, "Neither, you think they made it?"

Thundercracker shrugged, "Probably."

"Eh, who cares anyway?"

Sideswipe woke to a burning sensation. A burning sensation that quickly worked its way up his legs to his pelvis. Where burning turned into raw pain. His optical lenses flickered to life faster than his processor, and he reared upwards, vents wheezing as he patted his chest and exhaled air.

His sight was fuzzy as he rolled to the side, his pelvis and legs still burning. He groaned, and his optics finally focused.

Fire.

"Gah!"

He patted himself down faster, black hands waving and dabbing his burning (ironically red ) plating.

The fire diminished after rolling around a couple more times, waving his hands in a ridiculous fanning motion and dousing himself in his own air exhaled from his vents.

He winced as the smoke and last of the flame cleared, revealing partially melted and sizzling plating.

He lay back, desperately thrumming at his brother as his armor throbbed.

His brother didn't return the feeling, and Sideswipe came to the conclusion that his dear yellow brother must have been unconscious.

He felt around his spark, poking at his brother to try and rouse him from his slumber or find his location.

Both would be good.

An explosion sounded in the distance, but he ignored it to instead grunt as he pulled himself into a sitting position, his lower plating completely ruined. Instead of the crimson red it usually was, his armour was charred black in places, the plating melted into creases and clumps.

Sideswipe looked away from his desecrated plating, his need to find his brother pushing him to ignore the pain and drag his body up into a standing position, where his armour creaked uncomfortably and pinched at his protoform.

"Sunny!" He called, optics doing his best to locate any hint of bright yellow through the storm of smog while he incessantly pinged his brother.

He stumbled forward, legs protesting as he stepped over and maneuvered through large foliage and debris.

Climbing onto a knocked over storage container, he stood up, coughing through the vapor as he peered into the abyss of smoke, only lit by the trail of flame from the downed shuttle.

His spark shifted uncomfortably, and Sideswipe frowned as he rubbed his casing, sending another thrum to his brother. Grogginess was beginning to seep into his being, and he jumped off the container, legs screaming at him as they almost crumpled under the impact.

"Ouch." The red twin muttered as he latched onto the container for balance, the pain ratio doubling from the jump.

He grunted as he started forward again, waving his hands around in a futile attempt to clear enough of the smoke to see more clearly.

"Hold still you Primus forsaken fraggi- Gah!"

Sideswipe halted, tilting his head as the familiar ire-filled voice attacked his audials.

He grinned, recognizing that grumpy voice anywhere.

"Ratchet!"

"What!"

"Where are you?" Sideswipe asked, swiveling his head in an attempt to catch sight of the medic.

"Behind the big orange eye-sore. And don't you touch that!"

Sideswipes grin widened as he turned and headed over to the large orange, container sitting on the ground, internally hoping that it was his brother that Ratchet was swearing at.

"Get off me your fragging Autoscum!" A new voice hissed as he neared, and Sideswipes grin fell flat as the newcomer's voice hissed and growled.

"And don't tell me what to do."

"I'm saving your aft, so I'll damn well tell you what to do when I want to, Decepticon or not."

"Ratchet?" He called again.

"Around here, kid." The medic grumbled, and Sideswipe turned the corner to find Ratchet kneeled over a large, black and yellow Decepticon, who was barring his fanged denta at Ratchet. The medic was in no one way bothered by the aggressive display and continued to work at stopping the flow of energon coming from his chassis.

Sideswipe winced at the wound and wondered how the Decepticon was still conscious. One of his finials was also bent at an odd angle, and some of his arm plating was ripped off. But those injuries weren't of Ratchets concern at that moment.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Ratchet spoke up, as if reading the red twins mind.

Sideswipe shrugged, "Have you seen Sunny, Ratch?"

"Well, considering I've had my hands buried in this fraggers internals for the last couple of breems, while trying to fix his aft with scraps that survived the crash and equipment from my own subspace, what do you think?"

The Decepticon glared, "I did not ask for your help."

Sideswipe shrank back, "I think I'll just keep looking."

He turned and left the medic and Deception to shout angrily at each other.

The frontliner trailed back to where he had left off and continued to trudge through the crash site, calling out his brother's name.

His next shout fell short as he heard two slightly familiar voices ringing out from some way away.

Sideswipe crouched, eyes wary as a clang rang out, then a snicker.

"Hey, isn't this mech a frontliner? Sunstreaker or somethin'."

"You mean the one with the twin who frequently jumps on our backs and tears at our wings?"

"That's the one."

Another snicker floated out, "Maybe we should stomp on his audial thingy. He doesn't look too damaged."

Sideswipe instantly shot up, eyes narrowed and fist clenched as he took a quick pace towards the two mechs who he had now identified as the two idiotic Decepticon seekers.

With fresh anger thrumming through him, the ache left his legs and he skidded to a halt just behind them. Barely noticing the absence of the purple one wings, his only sneered thought was to rip off the other one.

He leapt forward, not bothering with unnecessary announcements, and grabbed the purple ones wing, ripping it backwards in one smooth motion and sending him careening to the ground. The blue one whirled around, hands submissive as he glanced at his downed trinemate then back to the enraged frontliner.

"I wasn't going to do anything to him!" He quickly assured, voice slightly nervous as Skywarp groaned and began to peel himself off the ground.

Sideswipe scoffed and stepped forward, fist raised.

"Why you-" Skywarps enraged belittlement was interrupted by a sharp, tortuous scream of agonized pain as Sunstreaker reared upwards, startling the three as he shrieked. Optics bright, and faceplates twisted in a crippling affliction, he clawed with vigour at his own chassis and spark casing.