Meanwhile, the husky twins also caught a whiff of the energon. They and their human partner were scoping out the fenced kennels far behind the barn. No doubt who ever owned the barn, owned the kenneled dogs and was a major fan of dog fights. Sunstreaker walked along the chain linked kennels and eyed the dogs suspiciously. They all barked at him and growled at him, but from what Sunstreaker understood of the canine language, the dogs weren't really saying anything. They were just angry. Sunstreaker tried to look away from their faces, but he couldn't. The smell of energon kept calling him back to them. Sunstreaker's frustration made him stop dead in his tracks in front of a kennel. His leash jerked a little.
"What's wrong?" Sideswipe asked.
"Can't you smell that?" Sunstreaker asked his twin back.
"Well yeah. But I'm just as confused as you are." Sideswipe answered. Their human partner, Paul Briggs, walked closer to the husky twins.
"What's up guys?"
"The energon's so strong here, but I just can't find it!" Sunstreaker said, frustrated. Sideswipe understood how much the dogs' loud barking was irritating Sunstreaker's ears. So Sideswipe walked around Sunstreaker and nudged him a few inches to the right, so that he would be between Sunstreaker and the loud dogs. It didn't help much, but Sunstreaker did feel a little relief when he was no longer face to face with the mad dogs. Through their twin bond, Sunstreaker sent emotions of appreciation and thanks to his twin for the kind gesture.
"We can't find a direct source of the energon, Sergeant. The scent's all around us like we're walking through it. But that's impossible." Sideswipe explained to Sergeant Briggs. They came to the end of the long line of kennels and were now walking around the other side where there were more kennels connected to the backs of the first row. Briggs' cell phone rang a common ringtone. He stopped to pull it out of his pocket and answer it.
"This is Briggs."
"Briggs, its Epps. You've picked up the scent, right?"
"Yeah. But we can't track it. They say they can't find the source, no matter how close it seems."
"Sounds like everyone's got the same problem."
"You too?"
"It's driving the Wreckers crazy. We're running in circles trying to track the energon. They say the energon's moving away from them."
"Well that's not entirely the case for us. The energon's not really moving for us. It's just around us. Or at least that's what Sideswipe and Sunstreaker say."
"Weird. Any suspicious activity?"
"Other than the energon, no."
"Okay well stay on guard. Lennox says he's been getting strange looks from some people."
"Hey Epps? Do you think Decepticons could have disguised themselves as some of the people here?" Briggs asked. "Or even some of the dogs?" He added, eying an especially feisty Doberman.
"Autobots say there's no sparks on the premises except their own. So far we have no reason to believe that Decepticons have found this place yet."
"Yeah. But I've just been thinking. If everyone's spread out over the property, and we're all trying to find energon that's just barely out of reach, what if we're being played in a Decepticon trap? What if there is no real energon?"
"We don't know that for sure. So gotta stick with what we planned best we can." Sergeant Briggs hung up and continued walking with Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Despite his doubts, he shrugged them off. Just by watching Sideswipe and Sunstreaker walk side by side, he felt comforted. The twins were without a doubt his favorite Autobots, and the ones he could relate to the most. Paul lost his twin brother Eric when they were kids. They were caught in a car crash one day when their dad was picking them up from school. Eric didn't survive the impact from the air bags. For the longest time, Paul always said it should have been him. They were identical. Same weight and height, same shaved bald haircut (which they both thought made them look stupid), same green eyes, and same everything else it seemed. 'If we're so identical, why didn't those air bags kill me too?' Paul thought when he was a kid. As he grew older he learned to accept life without his twin. But he still never felt the same. There was always something that got in his way of living his life to the fullest. It was always 'Eric and I used to do that. Now we can never do it again.' or 'Eric would have loved that.'
Something changed about Paul the day he met Sideswipe. When Sideswipe first came to Earth alone without his twin, Paul easily related and they became good friends. But the change in Paul really made an impact on him when Sunstreaker came to Earth. When Paul saw how overjoyed Sideswipe was to see his brother, Paul didn't mourn for Eric. He didn't become depressed and wish for his own brother to come back. He was happy for Sideswipe, and ever since then, he didn't grieve so much over his own troubles anymore. He never told the twins, but Paul carried on because he saw Eric and himself still together through Sideswipe and Sunstreaker every day. Even if Sunstreaker wasn't the biggest fan of humans, Paul still held a lot of respect for both of them.
Outside the barn, the Wreckers followed their noses to the corner of the barn. They stopped and let out their frustration in cybertronian swears at their bad luck.
"How hard's it really to sniff out one Pit slaggin' energon cube?" Leadfoot yelled. Epps wondered just how long the Wreckers would keep their sanity at this rate. They passed by that point twice now and there was nothing around the corner of the barn. "Fraggin' sensors must be glitchin' or 'Cons have slaggin' sent us on some wild turbofox hunt!"
"Guys calm down..." Epps started to say, but he was cut off by a ferocious bark from Roadbuster. 'Staying in dog form for so long can't be healthy for you guys.' Epps thought of Roadbuster's choice of 'language.' Roadbuster quickly corrected himself in clear human language (with Cybertronian slang of course).
"Calm down for what fraggin' reason? We're in our element of stone cold killin' and we can't fight! Energon's movin' around and we can't take it, let alone find it! And maybe it's the dog eat dog arena, but I'm a ready to kill somethin' and there's not even a slaggin' 'Con in sight!"
"Well unless you three can get a hold of yourselves, you're off the mission and going back to base." Epps said sternly. He had a feeling they'd listen to that, since it was a privilege for them to be permitted to leave the Xanthium.
"Says you, human?" Roadbuster mocked. He knew better than to call Epps that when he knew his name. They were even almost considered friends. But Roadbuster's short temper was getting the best of him.
"Says Optimus." Epps said. Leadfoot pushed Roadbuster by the shoulder as he stepped forward.
"What do ya want us to do?" Leadfoot asked. Epps noticed the Wreckers' eyes shifted around. Like they were looking for a ghost in the dark. They knew they couldn't see. But they still looked around for it, instinctively knowing something was there. Epps got an idea.
"What if it's under us?" Epps wondered. The Wreckers all looked at each other with excitement. Then they all turned around in a flash and started digging down into the dirt. Epps watched their digging frenzy. He was positive the only thing that would make them happier at the moment, would be if they were digging up a flower bed. Topspin, who was closest to the corner of the barn dug the fastest. The more dirt he flung up behind him, the faster he dug, until his paw scratched the wall when he was expecting more dirt. Topspin whimpered just a little. He looked at the bleeding pad on his paw. To his surprise, he still spilt energon, even in organic form.
Then he noticed the wall. He scratched a section of the wood out of place. Topspin inched just a little closer to the crack in the wall and suddenly inhaled an overwhelming amount of energon scent. He scratched at the wall with his other paw to see just what was on the other side of the wall. But he never discovered what it was. The first thing he heard was Epps' surprised scream. When Topspin turned around, Epps was gone. The remaining Wreckers were surrounded by humans. The humans strangled Leadfoot and Roadbuster by their necks with restraining poles. The two Wreckers fought with all their might to break away from the restraining poles. They even lunged out to attack the humans, but the poles kept the humans just out of the Wreckers' reach. Before Topspin could react, the loop of a restraining pole was pulled over his head and around his neck too! The humans had them all captured now, with no chance of escaping.
:Autobots! Wreckers are being attacked by enemy humans and Epps is gone!: Leadfoot called. His transmission was cut short when a human pulled more forcefully on Leadfoot's neck. He jumped back, but kept running for the barn, absolutely refusing to be dragged off to where ever they were taking them! All of a sudden, more barking echoed over the Wreckers. It was Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, coming to the rescue with Sergeant Briggs not far behind. The twins were howling a battle cry as they charged at the humans. The enemy humans prepared themselves with a sedative gun. One human took aim at the closest dog and fired. The moment Sideswipe took the hit, he became paralyzed and tripped over his feet. He was knocked out cold before he hit the dirt! Sunstreaker slid to a stop and rushed over to Sideswipe.
"Sides! Get up!" Sunstreaker cried. A couple humans approached the twins. Sunstreaker stood over Sideswipe defensively and snarled viciously at the humans. They were just about to attempt to capture the twins, when Paul Briggs came running towards them. He pulled out a hand gun and threatened to shoot if they touched his dogs. But one human was a faster shooter than Briggs, and shot Briggs in the chest! Sunstreaker flinched when he saw one of the few humans he trusted, collapse. He would have ran to see if Briggs was alright, but as Sideswipe's brother, he swore to protect Sideswipe before anyone else. Sunstreaker stood his ground over Sideswipe. But the humans were hardly phased by Sunstreaker's warnings. They easily looped a restraining pole over Sunstreaker's neck and pulled him away from Sideswipe. It wouldn't have been so easy if Sideswipe wasn't unconscious. Since he was, Sunstreaker was suffering from the tranquillizer as well. Sunstreaker wasn't directly shot at. So he wasn't feeling the full effect of the sedative. But because of their twin bond, Sunstreaker felt a portion of what Sideswipe felt when he was sedated. Sunstreaker suddenly became very tired and dizzy. He let the humans take him away from Sideswipe. Though he pleaded in his spark not to be taken away from Sideswipe, he didn't have the energy to defend either of them.
The humans carried Sideswipe back behind the barn. Sunstreaker drowsily followed. The Wreckers still fought against the humans with every step. Leadfoot stopped trying to contact the rest of the Autobots. The pain in his processor when he connected to comm links and got brutally choked at the same time was too much to bare.
Sergeant Paul Briggs and Eric Briggs are my OCs.