Thunder Cracker prepared for take off, rolling his shoulders, arms and back to to ensure they were all lubricated well. Dirge and Ramjet followed suit both strangely smiling. Thrust brought up the rear with a doom and gloom expression that made even Dirge look happy.

'Whats got your burners smoking?' The blue jet asked, shaking his leg and rolling the joints in it.

'Nothin' Thrust said with a sharp vocal edge which made Thunder Cracker glower at him. Thrust ignored his brooded gaze and roughly rolled his own limbs, hoping if he didn't do it right he would just drop from the sky.

Skywarp sauntered onto the airstrip, followed by a disgruntled Starscream, the latter clearly had better plans than a common Energon raid. As Skywarp passed behind Thunder Cracker, he ran a finger on the blue jet, from wing tip to wing tip and hissed as if the mech was burning hot. Thunder Cracker's glare turned to the purple jet as he passed behind from one side to the other and his anger at Thrust disrespect subsided.

'Hurry up' Starscream shrieked 'When I found out the one who convinced our great leader to send an Energon raid against the Aerialbots, I'll personally delivery them to the enemy with SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED!'

'Ready Commander.' Thunder Cracker said, as he stood behind Starscream, making the right side of the commanders triangle formation. He then transformed into mode.

'You're always ready.' Starscream said will a roll of his optics as Skywarp followed the blue jet, taking Starscreams left side and transforming. 'Dirge, Thrust, Ramjet: Formation already.'

'Yeah yeah' Dirge and Ramjet said in unison. Ramjet took left flank, Dirge centre back, Thrust grumbled some more but then took right flank - each transformed shortly after the other.

'Finally...' Starscream said and transformed.

'WAIT!' Rumble ran as hard as he could to beat the jets take off, familiar datapad in hand. He hated how Soudnwave wouldn't let him go sooner, he had to do his chores! and in doing so almost missed their take off.

'What are you doing?' Starscream said and transformed back into robot mode.

'I'm coming too.'

'Let me rephrase that: What are you doing to help?'

'Soundwave said I am providing data collection of the mission'

'Thats what a mission report is for.'

'But Soundwave said.'

'Oh, Soundwave said. Soundwave said.' Starscream mocked 'How are you getting to the flight spire storage facility? Its on a platform in the sky.'

'Soundwave said you're gonna fly me.' Rumble whined, desperate to get on this mission. He just had to see Thrust in action. If he were as good as his brothers, as he often claimed then Rumble needed it.

'Oh did Soundwave say that?' Starscream seethed at the thought, put a hand to his internal comms and opened a signal 'We'll just see about that'

-in flight-

'Wooohooo' Rumble cheered, in robot form, astride Starscream in jet mode. If Starscream wasn't mad before then he was seriously pissed off now. The hitching mech was eager to start the battle, and asked many questions of the plans for the mission. Starscream was silent however Thunder Cracker provided him the intel. Thunder Cracker admitted he wasn't confident leaving Air Raid with Thrust alone and Rumble chuckled, even conveniently offered to provide support.

'Ladies and Gentleman...' Starscream said out of the blue 'This is your captain speaking. We are about to hit some major turbulence. Please fasten your... oh so sorry...'

'What do you mean?' Rumble asked and looked at the skies 'It looks-WOAH! Hey!' The seeker commander ducked and dived out of formation as if possessed by glitch or fatal virus. The other jets flight never even flinched out of rank. Rumble grumbled 'Hey! Cut it out Screamer! I almost fell off...'

'That was my intention.'

'TARGET SITED' Thunder Cracker called to break the chatter.

'YES!' Rumble said with too much glee before he corrected it with a gruffer voice 'Lets kick some Autobot after burners!'

'Mission plan, stage one seekers...' Starscream bellowed.

Dirge urged his engines to purr with his fatalistic melody, executing stage 1 of the mission plan perfectly. Ramjet however charged forward with pent up energy, knocked Skywarp out of his way and rammed, head first, into a firing Silverbolt.

'No you idiots! I said-'

'Great! We're fragged!' Skywarp screamed as he realised their plan was already slumped, his fear suddenly warped him somewhere at random.

'That's just Prime!' Starscream said and transformed onto the spires platform amid an array of laser fire from the defending Aerialbots. Rumble jumped clear of the commanders land site and scuttled over to a worried looking Thrust - Who was hiding behind a pillar.

'Your time to shine!' Rumble said and pointed to a robot mode Air Raid, hiding behind a defense wall and shooting at the small Decepticon incursion. Thrust watched him carefully, Rumble wrote this down. Thrust sneaked to a defense wall nearby, Rumble wrote this down and then followed. Thrust then managed to get on the side of Air Raid out of his vision. Rumble wrote this down. Thrust looked to a platform above them. Rumble tapped this into the datapad. Thrust stepped outside of the defense wall, Rumble wrote-

'WOULD YOU STOP TYPING!' Thrust yelled down to the little blue mech. Air Raid turned around at the outburst and fired at Thrust who seethed angrily at his constant ill luck. He quickly transformed and jetted away.

'Oh no you don't Decepticon scum!' Air Raid said though reveled in the fact that the con was running 'No-con gives me the slip!' He promptly transformed and took off after Thrust. Rumble stayed well hidden but watched exactly where the flew then typed "Run away so they chase you." right after "Speak words of love and beauty"

The red and black con transformed and landed higher in the spire, where no Autobot was and exhaled in relief. He lost Air Raid half way up, during a cunning double shift. Thrust, rolled his joints calmly but stopped when he heard Air Raid transformed and land nearby. 'Oh for the love of...' A voice piped up through the comms.

'Thrust. It's Rumble-'

'I know its you.'

'Oh right... I have the perfect spy position here. Just keep your comms open for me because I'm out of audio sensor range so I wont interfere with your masterful plan.'

'Oh that's wonderful news...'

'I thought so too.'

Thrust sighed, clearly Rumble didn't get the sarcasm. However a deal was a deal. If Dirge and Ramjet could snare Flamewar and Slipstream, how hard would it be to get Air Raid? A stupid autobot?

Thrust watched as the enemy inched closer, he took a snippet from Ramjets lead and added his own flair, devising the best opening line. With his vocals in loud speaker he called to the Aerialbot on his trail.

'Is that space armour you're wearing?' Thrust asked mockingly.

'What?' Air Raid said, puzzled.

'Because your aft is out of this world!' Thrust jumped onto a crate to reveal his position, hands on hips and an arrogant smirk plastered onto his faceplate.

'Come again?' Air Raid aimed his gun but didn't fire, wanting to give the con the chance to answer.

'Maybe you got a shovel?' Thrust taunted again, proudly. 'Because I am digging that aft!'

'Have you a loose bolt somewhere?'

'Nope' Thrust lied and folded his arms. 'Wish you could see the angles I get when you pin me.'

'Really?' Air Raid asked, intrigued, and unloaded his gun back into his arm. The Aerialbot then jumped onto the crate with Thrust like they were old war buddies.

'You have to cover that aft more often,' Thrust pushed on 'Its a real distraction. You got a skirt or something?' he chuckled at his own insulting joke but Air Raid only stepped closer.

'That depends. You got oil?' Air Raid purred in response, his voice grumbling seductively.

'Yeah...' the con said, obviously he had oil - this Air Raid was a real dumb one.

'Because...' Air Raid said, stepping closer to Thrust 'We're gonna need-' He looked down his enemies body, inspecting every fine feature then returned his gaze back to Thrusts face and added '-A lot of it' spoken with a devious.

'Why?' Thrust asked, more and more this Autobot was talking in riddles and he wondered if Thrust had loose bolts?

'I'll wear the skirt, but you're gonna have to lift it. Nice and slow.' Air Raid sniffed the air and vented it out over Thrust.

['Oh Primus!' Thrust thought, fear rising deep within his spark 'Air Raid ...' He exhaled deeply, feeling the Autobots own warm draft against his face 'Air Raid... wears SKIRTS!']

'HOLY PRIMUS!' Rumble enthused 'Thrust is a natural!'

'What do you say...' Air Raid whispered near Thrusts audio sensor 'We play your little names game.'

'I'd say you're the one with a few bolts-'

Thrust paused. Air Raid had placed a hand on his chest, tenderly. Very tenderly. Too tenderly. His hand then moved ever so slowly down the cons chassis, Thrust's processors jammed in overdrive. It would appear he hadn't got Air Raids drift earlier. Thrust backed away slow from the teasing hand. Panic rose higher than ever and his instincts to run took over.

'I uhh...' Thrust stuttered 'Gotta... with... primus...'

'Whats the matter Thrust?' Air Raid held up a hand to stop Thrust from leaving, but the con already jumped backwards just before he could get a hold. 'No. Thrust wait!'

'Oh Primus. Oh Primus. Oh Primus...' Thrust cried and ran to the spires edge, Air Raid once again giving chase. Thrust had to get out of there. Fly free. Return home. Anything! So long as he wasnt near Air Raid. Ever again! For once luck was with him. He saw his fellow seekers retreating, Dirge had of course located Rumble - Thrust suspected they both saw his own cowardly retreat but couldn't yet understand their expressions, Rumble might have looked pleased.

The seekers made a hasty retreat, minus Skywarp - who still hadn't been located. Starscream billowed a thick black smoke while Ramjet sparked profusely from his weapons drive. So their mission was a complete disaster, Thrust expected their commander would gloat 'I told you so' for months to come. Dirge, with Rumble riding, sided up to Thrust and laughed.

'That.' he said 'Was awkwardly easy.'

'Jealous Dirge?' Thrust brimmed with pride 'I am a master after all.'

'Why did you fly away?' Rumble asked, tapping furiously into the datapad.

'All a part of the grand scheme...' Thrust lied and that was enough for the little mech.

Air Raid followed the seekers until Silverbolt called over his commslink and ordered his return. Reluctantly he landed back next to their leader, his optics rested solely on the retreating red and black con jet. His spark felt heavy at Thrusts departure, and he sighed sadly.

'Air Raid?' Silverbolt asked 'You don't still have a crush on Thrust do you?'

'Hah!' Air Raid pretended to laugh but chose, respectfully, not to answer him.

-author notes-

Hope you enjoyed. Sorry for the delay. I only write at work (Mon-Fri) as I didn't have my PC set up but I got a laptop now anyway.