Things settled down after a few days. Sideswipe did, indeed, tell the whole Ark, and after a cycle or so of awkward questions in the rec room, things were more or less back to normal. Fireflight's shifts had been changed to monitor duty, and although rumors were still flying about exactly who his sparklings' coder was, no one was saying anything to him about it directly. Yet.
Fireflight pecked desultorily at the board in front of him, wingtips drooping. This was a lot less fun that he'd thought, being released from patrol duty- and he hadn't thought it would be much fun to begin with. He could feel his brothers' joy in flight through the gestalt bond, and it was starting to get to him. He looked up, and the only other person in the room was Perceptor, of all mechs. Better him than nothing, though...
"Perceptor, can I ask you something?" Fireflight said in a slightly wistful tone.
The science mech turned toward Fireflight, one optic ridge raised. "You may, Fireflight."
"How do you /do/ this every day?" Fireflight said, after a long minute of trying to decide how to word things. "It's so /small/ in here, and there's nothing to look at. I don't know why I can't fly patrols, Ratchet says my spark's healthy." He sighed sadly.
"Because you...ummm..." Perceptor didn't like hurting other mechs' feelings, but Fireflight had a record for running into things... "Your balance in flight may possibly be adversely affected by your condition, and partols are inherently dangerous due to the prospect of enemy encounter." Perceptor said, rather hurriedly. "As for how I 'do this every day', well, I prefer quiet places to think."
Right after the words left his mouth he mentally kicked himself; he didn't want Fireflight to think that Perceptor wanted him to shut up...
"Oh." Fireflight said, face falling. "I just miss flying." He sighed again and went back to staring at his monitor.
"The fact remains, that we are going to /have/ to find more space for the Aerials." Grapple groused.
"There's no room in their quarters for one additional mech, let alone two. And will they appreciate it? No, of course not. You'd think topside quarters find themselves."
Hoist shrugged. "I agree, but we have to put them /somewhere/...luckily, the little ones will stay that way for awhile, so the extra space needed will not be a lot, not at first." He looked over the plans in his hand and 'hmmmmmed' loudly. "An alteration here, a tuck there...Aerial nursery. Oh, slag, it has to have a view of the sky, does it not?"
Perceptor felt sorry for Fireflight. "Are you tired? If you are, you can get off-shift early." He had never been around a sparked mech and thus only had theoretical knowledge of the feelings involved.
Fireflight shrugged. "No- not tired, just sort of..." He paused, tilting his head. "Sort of itchy."
"Itchy? Perhaps you should speak with Ratchet. I don't believe that is a normal part of spark division. I can summon Blaster to complete your shift, if you will report to the medbay."
Fireflight shook his head again. "It's not bad itchy, just funny-feeling. I'll go after my shift. I don't want Bolt to have to change my schedule again."
"If you insist, Fireflight. I only wish for you and your progeny to be safe and healthy." Perceptor immediately dove back into his datapad with every indication of pleasure. Fireflight himself checked his internal chrono and sighed deeply; time for more of that nasty slag Ratchet was making him drink. And he still /itched/. He unsubspaced a cube and added the stuff, his lip curling at the aroma of the supplement.
"This stuff tastes like slag." he remarked sourly, before literally holding his olfactory ridge shut and downing it, his optics squinched tight.
On the Nemesis, sparkling gifts were mysteriously appearing on Starscream's console on the Nemesis' bridge. When consulted about the culprit, Soundwave simply shrugged and said that the video showed no one accessing the bridge during Starscream's off shifts who was not authorized to be there.
Starscream just glared at Soundwave. "/Somebody's/ putting this slag in my chair." This retort was met by an impassive red visor that barely flashed, certainly not in amusement because Soundwave did not possess so base a thing as a sense of humor.
"Problem: not mine."
The shriek of outrage was heard even in the Decepticon rec room, where a certain black and violet Seeker crowed in laughter.
"He /really/ fragged a seeker? I can't believe your stupid brother fragged a seeker?" Powerglide crowed. Skydive gave another mental sigh and sent a second mail to Silverbolt requesting never to be assigned to patrol with Powerglide again.
"What Fireflight did or didn't do isn't any of your business." Skydive said levelly. "Turn 24 degrees to starboard, commencing in .833 breems."
"But you'd still think that he'd shot Starscream down using his gun instead of his spi-"
Skydive darted past Powerglide, barely clipping the other jet with his wing. It hurt, but the spin Powerglide got thrown into was eminently worth it. /Nobody/ trashed his brother, least of all Powerglide.
"Pardon me." Skydive said calmly through the comm. "Variable in pressure threw me off. If you'd course-corrected as I told you, you would not have been in danger."
"You piece of- I'm reporting you!" Powerglide hissed.
Skydive would have rolled his optics if he'd been in root mode. "Go right ahead. I've filed a report with Silverbolt. Do you have any damage that needs to be reported to Ratchet?" Skydive commed back solicitously.
Fireflight finished out his shift without any other incidents. "See you tomorrow, Perceptor." He said, unable to muster up any enthusiasm for the prospect.
"Good afternoon, Fireflight!" Perceptor said, still engrossed in something on the other monitor. "Oh, ah, I took the liberty of comming Ratchet for you. He would like you to report to medbay when your shift is over."
Fireflight wondered if Air Raid could come up with anything good to do to Perceptor, who obviously had too much free time. He sighed and nodded, heading for the medbay.
When Fireflight arrived in medbay, Ratchet was ready for him. He jerked his thumb over to the berth, where a small monitor awaited. "Up, Flight. We're gonna have a look at what's going on in there. Also, Perceptor told me you've been feeling itchy for some reason. You're a first-time carrier, so you need to tell me any odd symptoms that crop up." Ratchet stood there until Fireflight obediently crawled up onto the berth, and then attached the small connector to Fireflight's chest plating. He turned the monitor on and waited for a clear signal.
"So what are you gonna name 'em?" Skywarp asked Starscream when he walked into their shared quarters.
"Name-Skywarp, you are an idiot. One, I am naming no one anything. Two, sparklings know their own names when they boot up for the first ti-...why am I even telling you this? Get the slag out of here and do something useful!" Starscream was more irritable than normal, and he had no real clue why. The pile of chewable squeaky toys on his berth may have had something to do with this, as well as the small packet of information on squishy birth control that some "kind" soul had found and thoughtfully provided him. It included tiny foil packets of something...when Starscream opened one, with a pair of tweezers, all it contained was a slick latex rubber thing. What the frag was that used for?
Fireflight craned his neck to look at the monitor, which was really facing Ratchet.
"Hold still." Ratchet ordered. "Everything looks fine. Did you read those datapads I gave you?"
Fireflight nodded. "Uh huh. I'm really gonna lay eggs?" He asked.
Ratchet wanted to facepalm. "Not like human birds, but...yes, sort of. Your spark has split. Right now, the sparklets' sparks are still forming in orbit around your own, but once their own energy stabilizes in a quartex or so, your nanytes will build each of them a spark casing – the 'shell'- around each of them, one for each sparkling. Once that finishes, the casings are ready to be extracted and installed in protoforms." Ratchet paused to study the readings on the monitor. "The sparklets are doing just fine, by the way, except for an odd variance in their frequency...which is something we really can't do slag about, at this stage."
A ping at Silverbolt's comm made him sit a lot straighter and immediately open the door. He neatly stacked the datapads in front of him, more out of nervousness than anything else, and cleared his intakes, looking up at his leader with as nonchalant an expression as he could manage.
"Yes, Prime, sir?"
Optimus Prime walked fully into the room, and said solemnly, "We need to talk about your team, and about Fireflight in particular. Can you merge into Superion while he is carrying?"
Silverbolt shook his head. "I don't know, sir. This is as new- well, newer, really- to us as it is to you. Ratchet or Wheeljack would be the ones to ask. Ratchet restricted Fireflight to light duty, though."
Optimus nodded. "Of course. I would never ask a carrier to endanger their sparklets in a fight under any circumstances. I was simply curious."
"Superion can function with only one arm." Silverbolt felt compelled to offer. "Defensor's done it a few times when First Aid was needed elsewhere during a battle. We can practice it."
Prime nodded, mollified with that answer. He brought up the second reason he'd come here.
"Silverbolt, are you sure that Fireflight consented to this...liason?" A delicate question, to be sure, but Optimus needed to know. There were considerations here that needed to be taken into account, and all information was required.
"Why can't you do anything about it right now, Ratchet? Is it gonna hurt them? Have you started their protoforms?" Fireflight held himself around the device gently; he didn't want his winglets to be harmed by some weird variance in..in whatever Ratchet said!
Ratchet sighed; he really didn't want to mention this part..."Generally speaking, when a mech, or femme, is sparked up, both the creator and the coder will be on hand as they develop and grow. This isn't the case, so their spark signatures are out of sync because..." Ratchet sighed.
"Because why?"
"Because they want their coder, all right? And I am not allowing Starscream within a thousand mechanomiles of you if I can help it, so don't even think about it!"
Fireflight frowned. He didn't really want Starscream around, either, but if the sparklets wanted it... "Is it going to hurt them?"
Ratchet shook his head. "No, I don't think it will, but if you start feeling odd around your spark, I need you to tell me. Or I swear by Primus I will strap you to this berth and only let you out tied to Silverbolt's back to fly." Ratchet knew well about sky-hunger; and the last thing they needed was a sky-addled pregnant jet. "Speaking of flying, you're due to go out this evening, aren't you? Who's taking you?"
Silverbolt shook his head. "I don't know. I can't imagine Fireflight ... well, you know- with Starscream, of all mecha. He was pretty overcharged when he left. But well... I know he's a slagging bastard of a Decepticon, sir. There's not very much I'd put past him. But - have there ever been any incidents with him before? Incidents where he... forced someone?" Silverbolt's faceplates were burning, and he caught himself clenching his fist just as a crack appeared on the plastic edge of his datapad.
Prime considered this. "No. Not that I am aware of. What does Fireflight say about it? Has he shown any signs of trauma?" Prime didn't need to mention that things might not be so great if it were consensual, either- being overcharged was a mitigating factor, but fraternizing with the enemy, particularly the opposing side's SIC, was not exactly something that could be swept under the rug.
Silverbolt sighed. "I don't know, Prime. I mean-" Silverbolt shook his head again. "From what he said, it was consensual, but I just... I can't imagine he'd /do/ that. But at the same time, well... It's Fireflight. He doesn't mean to break rules, he just doesn't remember half the time."
"I'm going up with Skyfire. Everyone else's busy because they're covering my patrols, but his stall speed's too low for regular patrol routes and Silverbolt said it was going to be hard to work him into the schedule." Fireflight looked mildly guilty.
Ratchet nodded. "Good. Fuel before you go and top up when you get back. Your energon levels aren't quite what I want to see."
Fireflight groaned. "More energon?"
"More energon." Ratchet confirmed. "You're consuming for three, you know. And those two are active little suckers. If you don't have enough, you'll go critical and shut down when you least expect it. The consequences of that can range from extremely embarrassing to fatal. Now go on, get the slag out of my medbay so I can get some actual work done."
Fireflight hurried out to find Skyfire, hoping he could start his flight early. It had been two cycles since he'd been in the air; maybe that was what was making him itch! He whispered to his bitlets on the way: "We're gonna go flying. That'll be fun. When you guys get out of your eggs, we'll really go flying then." Sunstreaker passed Fireflight in the halls as he talked to his little ones and only quirked an optic ridge.
"Patrol tonight, Screamer." Skywarp smirked. "You'll have to put down the toys and come on."
Starscream gave Skywarp a positively filthy look and threw a squeaky seekerling at his trinemate.
"Won't you all just frag off and deactivate."
"Primus, who lubed in your energon today?"
"That is revolting, Skywarp."
"You're being an even bigger glitch than normal-"
Skywarp's words were cut off by the wing that hit him in the face as Starscream stalked out of the quarters.
Starscream jabbed the button on the access tower with more force than was truly necessary. He normally loathed patrols, but anything was better than another shift of sitting on the bridge and listening to people snicker.
Skyfire was more than willing to start their scheduled flight a little bit early, although he was less than thrilled as Fireflight flitted around him as they flew, the smaller jet unable to resist a few loops out of the sheer joy of wind over his wings. "Careful, Fireflight. I'm not sure who will offline me faster if you manage to crash yourself, your brothers or Ratchet."
Fireflight huffed over the comm. "I'm FINE, Skyfire. Ratchet said it was okay to fly!"
Skyfire answered after a pause. "Maybe so, but how about we fly right side up in a straight line today. We can go look at something, if you want"
"Alright." Fireflight was too glad to be in the air to be disagreeable, and really, Skyfire was always fun to fly with. "Let's go west and see if there's any whales off the coast today?"
All right, Fireflight." Skyfire was happy to humor this little request if it kept Flight upright and fairly near him. He extended his sensors outward as a matter of reflex, because he was fairly certain that Fireflight wouldn't be doing so.
Fireflight zoomed forward, just a bit. Not too fast, because then Skyfire would say Something and perhaps cut their time out short. The ocean was fast approaching, or, rather, they were approaching it.
Starscream transformed and exited the tower with all due haste, glad for once that he wasn't tied down by trine or partners on this flight. He'd been...irritable, lately, even for him. Starscream didn't really know why, either. It didn't really cross his mind much until his sensors informed him of two Autobot signatures dead ahead, off the coast, one of which he was extremely familiar with. The other...fraggit.
Skyfire noticed Starscream at approximately the same time that Starscream noticed them, and he commed Fireflight immediately. "Turn around. We must go."
"Whhhyyyy?" Fireflight wailed over the comm. "We just got here and there's dolphins playing over there, see?"
"Trust me, Fireflight, I would not cut your flight short if I did not have a compelling reason." Skyfire moved to physically herd the much smaller jet toward land. "Now!" Skyfire ordered.
FIreflight sulked, but obeyed, banking into a lazy turn. "What's that on the sca- oh." His energy field shifted. Despite their... encounter at the airport almost a quartex ago, Fireflight had no desire to run into Starscream again any time soon, even outside of a battle. "Should we call for backup?" He asked uncertainly.
"No need." Skyfire said calmly. "He knows better." Skyfire's only worry was the real fact that Starscream could outfly them both, unless Skyfire took Fireflight straight up, extra-atmospheric- which the smaller jet was capable of, but inexperienced with. That was the only place where Skyfire could outfly Starscream, but Skyfire had another advantage here. Size mattered.
Starscream saw Fireflight and something within him felt...odd. Very, very odd. He threw it off, annoyed with this entire process, and increased speed despite Skyfire's presence.
*That pacifist won't do a slagging thing.* he thought to himself with an inner smirk.
"Stay away, Starscream, or I will be forced to do something you will not like." Skyfire warned. He didn't like or much approve of violence, this was true, but he was intelligent enough to realize that sometimes it was the ony thing that a bully like Starscream would listen to.
"Frag off, shuttlecraft. I only want to talk to him." Where those words came from, Starscream had no idea, but he did know this- the closer he got the Fireflight, the calmer he felt. Then it hit him. Son of a glitched-up half-addled two-cred pleasurebot. Coder anxienty.
Those were his. And now Starscream felt something else that he hid desperately: a touch of guilt. This was more than he'd felt in several hundred vorns, but it was there.
Fireflight dropped back slightly, coasting on Skyfire's slipstream and sending a wordless ping with a glyph requesting command clarification to Skyfire, nervously. This wasn't like flying with his brothers, there was no sense of connection and Skyfire's EM field was clamped down so tightly around him that Fireflight didn't dare try to skim through it. "I don't want to talk to you!" He sent over the open comm, ignoring the way his spark seemed to almost settle, a little ache he hadn't quite been aware of fading away.
"Overcharged or not - if Fireflight did indeed interface with the Decepticon SIC consensually, Silverbolt, there will be consequences." Optimus Prime's optics were sad. "I will be ordering Prowl to investigate the situation further."
Silverbolt nodded, feeling slightly sick in his tanks. "I...I know. But...can you be merciful on him? It's Fireflight. He doesn't mean any harm- he just doesn't think. And he wasn't sharing secrets, I think I'd know it if he did!" Just what did they do to people who fragged the enemy, anyway, Silverbolt wondered? He was worried for his brother, moreso than usual. He wished he'd come back from his flight-time with Skyfire so they could talk about it.
"I'm not going to hurt you, you oversized glitchling." Starscream hissed. "I just..." He just what? Starscream almost stopped, hovering in midair. Why in the frag did he want to talk to the jet anyway? Especially with Skyfire hovering over them like a guardian who wanted to step on them.
"FALL BACK, Decepticon." Skyfire said. He prepared himself to make the wide turn to effectively drag Flight off-course enough to dump him into his hold, then get the hell out of there.
"It's Decepticon now? Come now, Skyfire, we know each other better than that." The old sarcasm was back in full force, tinged with more than a little charm. Starscream edged closer, feeling more at ease with every mechanometer he got nearer the Aerialbot. "Fireflight. I wanted to know something."
"What do you want, Screamer?" Fireflight blustered, trying to cover his unease, edging marginally closer to Skyfire. "I was overcharged!"
"I want..." Starscream couldn't believe he was saying this, but something in his coding was screeching at him more surely than he knew his designation.
"I want to know if..if the little one is all right." His tone on the comm was soft.
Skyfire would have blinked, had he eyes to do so. He kept watch on the Seeker, ready to interpose his bulk in between Starscream and Fireflight if necessary.
A long pause, while Fireflight tried to figure out what to do. Eventually, he decided there was no harm in it. "Little ones." He corrected. "Ratchet says everything is normal."
Prowl contemplated the datapad in the center of his desk.
Despite rumors to the contrary, Prowl indeed did possess a real spark and fully-active set of emotional protocols. While he never allowed his feelings to impact his duty, it was entirely untruthful to say that he did occasionally find himself dreading certain parts of his required function.
The datapad contained Prime's order to investigate the circumstances of Fireflight's recent... circumstances. Neither option was good. Fraternization or sparkrape. Primus.
"Ones? Plural?" Starscream edged a bit closer, watching Skyfire as if he expected the shuttle to eat him. "I...good. Good." Then he wondered what the frag he thought he was doing, getting close to this damned Aerial and worse, Skyfire off the coastline where Primus and everybody could see. This would certainly not help all the slag onboard if anyone heard of this. Still...
There was something within his spark that wanted to know, and felt for that little jet. He couldn't show it, though. Weakness was terminal in the Decepticon army. So Starscream did the only thing he knew how to do.
After one last look at Fireflight he banked sharply around and took off at top speed in the opposite direction.
The ache in his chest did not get any better.
Prowl figured, with this written order, Ratchet might be able to fill in some of the blanks. He went to medbay to talk to the medic, datapad in hand. As he walked in, Ratchet was berating Sunstreaker for a severed arm, which Sunstreaker was currently holding in his undamaged hand.
"You fragging moron, how many times have I told you that you cannot fly, and jumping off Sideswipe's back while you practice your slagging jet judo is going to get you worse than deactivated. *THUNK* A new dent, this one on Sunstreaker's helm, was formed from the wrench that Ratchet hit him with.
"What do you want?" Ratchet growled at Prowl.
"While this appears to be a less than opportune time, I need to speak with you regarding a possible criminal offense at your earliest convenience." Prowl replied. Show no fear. Rumor said Ratchet could smell it.
Ratchet's engine growled again. "AID! Get over here and start prepping that arm for reinstallation. Scan the struts and if they're intact, start re-stringing the new tension cables and call me when you're done with that."
"No problem," The Protectobot hurried over from the other side of the medical bay to pick up a tool on the table, leaning over Sunstreaker with a gentle pat to the frontliner's good shoulder.
"You-" Ratchet turned to look at Prowl. "In my office."
Prowl merely raised an optic ridge and escorted himself into office, making sure that the door was closed firmly behind the two. Once Ratchet got settled, he consulted the datapad in front of him.
"I have here an order from Optimus Prime requesting any and all information concerning the possible...possible assault on one Fireflight, member of the Aerialbots and one of your patients." Prowl tapped his fingertips on the desk. "This conversation will be officially recorded for evidentiary purposes."
Ratchet leaned forward in his chair and pulled a pair of cubes of high grade from his desk drawer, offering one to Prowl and peeling off the seal on the other. "Fireflight. What a slagging mess."
Prowl declined the cube with a polite shake of his head. "How so? What can you tell me about the situation."
"Fireflight presented approximately one orn ago with symptoms not uncommon to first time carriers, initially diagnosed as a fuel processing glitch. The ... evidence showed up on a routine physical scan for changes from his standard results. He's carrying- twins- and his spark has completed the initial phase of division, meaning the sparkmerge that initiated the split took place approximately a decacycle previously. He admitted to multiple merges during a single encounter with a Decepticon Seeker during that time frame, after leaving the Ark while intoxicated."
"Do you have any reason to believe that the merges were non-consensual?" Prowl asked.
Ratchet took a deep drink from his cube, considering this very carefully. He knew the answer could mean many things, none of which were ideal, but he had to tell the truth.
"No. I do not. There was no trauma to casing or plating, no trauma to the spark itself. It is also incredibly difficult to spark a single sparkling from a forced merge, let alone two. The energy required is gathered through mutual overload, and while it is certainly possible to force that sort of thing...it is incredibly easier to accomplish if both participants were willing." Ratchet looked into Prowl's cool blue optics.
"Additionally, and I have been practicing for a VERY long time, I have seen only three Seekers ever perpetrate the crime of rape, and they were all glitched in ways I don't care to discuss. Their core programming includes a strong imperative to protect the young, in addition to an aversion to forced carrying, as their frametypes are particularly suited to it. Fireflight may have been overcharged, but he was willing enough."
Fireflight watched the Seeker fly away with a queer ache in his spark, and he felt that itch start up again, the itch where he definitely couldn't scratch. He desperately wanted comfort, but Skyfire felt so far away, even while Fireflight was right next to him. Skyfire's EM field was wrapped tight around him, with only a little feeling leaking out...and that feeling was sadness. Fireflight felt even more miserable.
"We can stay out a little longer, if you want." Skyfire said, after a few minutes of silence. "We'll just go the other direction."
Fireflight was quiet for a few minutes in return. "I think I want to go back to the Ark now, if you don't mind." His spark itched, and he wanted nothing so much as to be curled up in the middle of his gestalt brothers.
"We can go back." Skyfire said, alone in his thoughts. Some high grade didn't sound so bad after all this... He turned, making sure that Starscream wasn't coming back, and escorted Fireflight back to the Ark, keeping his emotions firmly in check.
Starscream headed out, somewhere, anywhere. He wasn't quite sure where he was headed, but he knew he needed to fly. Needed to put that little red and white jet out of his processor, him and his...his and Starscream's...
"Frag it all." Starscream yelled over the ocean. He fired his null rays at some weird organic thing he saw, watching the charge dance across the water and the creature sink far beneath the waves.
Prowl sighed. That the young flyer hadn't been forced was a relief, but that left the fraternization charge. "Is there any reason to expect any sort of complications for him? Other than light duty, will there be any special precautions that need to be taken?"
"He's having two instead of one, and this is his first carrying, so it could be rough on him." Ratchet admitted. "He needs additional rations, and his needs will only increase as his term progresses. The sparks will soon begin to form their casings- eggs, as he calls them- and that might cause a bit of pain, and then there's the problem with creator/coder energy. Usually, a bonded pair that sparks will interface more to provide energy, but this can't happen here. I don't know what he's going to do for that, but I imagine he'll take it up with his teammates."
"Is he still able to form Superion?" Prowl asked. "Not that we would take him off of light duty-" He hastened to add, before the medic could explode. "For my own information."
Ratchet shook his head. "He can, but he probably shouldn't. When they combine, our combiners basically are participating in a sustained spark merge. They're essentially parts of the same spark, in a lot of ways - a bit more like spark split twins than a more usual bond, which is why we're not hip deep in gestalt sparkles already. When they merge, the energy level goes up, but they're all resonating tot he same frequency, so you don't get the variable oscillation you need in order for fission to begin. That much energy could be damaging to the newsparks. Regular merging with one or two partners should be fine, but Superion is going to have to do without an arm until Fireflight's sparklets are fully encased and removed."
It wasn't an unusual greeting from Fireflight to find himself wrapped tightly in a hug. Silverbolt petted his brother's nosecone and looked down at him. "Did you have a good flight with Skyfire?"
Fireflight shook his head, face pressed against Silverbolt's plating.
"We ran into Starscream." Skyfire had followed Fireflight through the door into the Aerialbots' hanger so quietly that Silverbolt hadn't heard him come in. "We need to report to Prime. You should probably hear this too."
Silverbolt nodded, then, and took Fireflight's hand, keeping physical contact as well as the bond wide open to his brother.
Skyfire sighed. "I don't know if this is going to be an issue or not." he said as he pinged Prime on his personal comm.
Prime answered fairly quickly. "Skyfire. Is something amiss?"
"It's Fireflight. And I guess it's Starscream too." Skyfire said on the comm, wincing inwardly just as he always did whenever he had to say that name. To Skyfire, it hadn't been that long at all...
"Come to my offices, then, and bring Fireflight with you."
"Understood. Silverbolt is coming as well. Skyfire out."
Prowl nodded and made a few notations on his datapad. "Is there anything else that you think I should know, Ratchet?" he said as he stood to leave.
"No, Prowl, except that your stellar cycles' maintenance check is due in less than a decaorn, and if you try and duck out of it, I swear by Primus and his little children that I will physically drag your aft into this medbay by your doorwings." Ratchet was not kidding in the least. "And be easy on the youngling. We all do stupid slag when we get overcharged."
Prowl sighed. "It's not that easy, Ratchet. Rules and regulations exist for a reason, and if they are not followed, then they have no reason to exist. This rule is an important one, and Fireflight, despite his young chronological age, is a full-sparked adult warrior who is improtant to the Autobot cause, both as himself /and/ as a member of the Aerialbot gestalt. The possibility exists that Fireflight, while in a diminished state, told Starscream things that are classified information, or allowed him access to his databanks, which contain similar classified information. Starscream could have used that chance to gain information required to build an aerial gestalt for the Decepticon faction. He already has done so once; I would not put it past him to try it again. We cannot risk that."
He turns to leave. "I will take what you have said under advisement, but I must make my report to Optimus Prime now. He will decide the best course of action."
