As soon as Blitzwing, Jazz and Cometblast went back to the training room, all the pupils crowded around them.

"So, what is happening, Comet?" Outback asked first.

"Comet are you all right?"

"What did the medic say?"

"It is all right, really" Cometblast said, and, kneeling in front of the master "sensei, everyone, I am carrying two Sparklings"

"What did she say?"

"Sparklings, wonderful!"

"Carrying?"

"Oh wonderful!" everybody smiled in relief and joy.

"This I really didn't expect" a green Minibot exclaimed. Wasp, after being recognized as innocent, had undergone a psychiatric visit by a veteran of Great War's order, Kup, to be sure about the period in the stockades not to have really impaired his mental state. Wasp's insanity was a pretense, since when Skydancer had secretly revealed Wasp's innocence, and used her mother Starsun's connection and managed to make Wasp be transferred in a lower level prison. The princess in disguise had suggested Wasp to act insane, while she was controlling Longarm Prime in Boot Camp, to whom she was on: in this way, the spy could feel falsely safe from suspects and the two Minibots , and maybe accidentally bring himself out of the open, or the two Minibots would be able to find a way to unmask him. Wasp had accepted the plan, and he and the princess in disguise had kept in contact secretly, using a Polariusian device that Cybertronian equipment could not detect.

When finally Shockwave had been exposed, Wasp had been freed, visited and recognized as sane. But some bots were not sure about him not to keep a grudge against Skydancer: after all, because of her plan he had not been recognized as innocent immediately, and had given up his dream to enter the Elite Guard. Then, Jazz had proposed Wasp to train as a Cyberninja on Polarius for at least one year as a proof with many aims: to allow him make up some training and let him experiment the Cyberninja arts as an integral part of Elite Guard training; to use Cyberninja techniques in controlling his mental state and feelings, and possibly in proving other bots he was sane; and to put Wasp to the test, giving him the chance of training as a Cyberninja for Elite Guard or choosing to do anything else, such as a full time Cyberninja if wasp wanted. So, Wasp was now a temporary member of Cyberninja on Polarius and was waiting to come back to Boot Camp in some orb cycles.

"Congratulations to you"

"HAHAHAHA VE NEED A KOLLECTIVE HUG" Blitzwing in his Random mode exclaimed, hugging his sister and another pupil. Some other Cyberninja suppressed a chuckle for this attitude.

"Hey be careful or you will crush the Sparklings!" his Bondmate exclaimed.

"Outback is right, but thank you all, thank you" Jazz answered.

"I am very happy for you Cometblast" the master said, smiling.

"Thank you master, thank you all"

"Did the medic tell you to stop training?"

"Actually not sensei, he allowed me to train in a lighter way and avoid heavy efforts, I still can train by my servos and arms…" she answered, and later, she was in the Femmes' training room, kneeled, pretending to hit something by her sai daggers

At the end of the training, the four brothers and sisters-in-laws went back to the house they shared and switched their computer on. A Mech appeared.

"This is the transfer station of Polarius. How may I direct your call?" he asked.

Jazz asked to be put in contact with the Autobot base on planet Earth, in Detroit, and after some minutes (from Polarius to Earth the contact was not very easy to get), on the screen the four robots could see the face of Optimus Prime, Ratchet and a Polariusian blue femme, as tall as Bulkhead. Some sun rays were enlightening the base, meaning it was morning still, while on Polarius the sun had set.

"Azure, Lady, Optimus Prime" Outback first greeted bowing her helm a little, greeting the second in command of Renegades before and their Autobots allies after.

"Ah Outback, and there is not you only! What do I owe for this call?" Azure asked smiling while Bulkhead, a white Polariusian Femme named ClearStar and red one named Rouge were appearing and greeting.

"Hello to you all" Cometblast greeted "I have some wonderful news for you all: I'm carrying"

"Carrying, really?!" Optimus' face would become a ghostly white if it could, and Ratchet was not less surprised. The two Polariusian Femmes, Rouge who was one of the hardest fighters among the Renegades and ClearStar the medic, looked at Comet and then each other with open mouths. Bulkhead disappeared from the screen and a crash of metal was heard, meaning he had fainted.

"Hey vat's te matter?" Blitzwing asked.

"You told us that you will have Sparklings, I can't help thinking I saw the Great War and we are still in a war. First, it is a so big surprise to me that have not seen many Sparklings for so much time. Secondarily, we are still in a war and do you remember that Decepticons kidnapped Comet?" Ratchet said, while he and Clearstar were trying to make Bulkhead come back online.

"It's true I hadn't thin about this!" Comet exclaimed." what shall we do if Decepticons…"

"Don't be afraid Comet, there is me and Outback and Blitzwing for you" Jazz tried to comfort her "And on Earth too, Optimus is doing a so good work"

"The Renegades are the best, no wonder they were sent here against Megatron" Optimus added, and Azure felt flattered. The seven Femmes had captured Megatron and sent him on Cybertron, but Starscream and Lugnut had escaped, so that Azure, ClearStar and Rouge had remained on Earth to help Optimus in finishing the work, because any Decepticon could use a Transwarp, would be able to arrive on Earth to look for Allspark; not to speak about the possibility that Lugnut and Starscream could find some more pieces of Allspark and use them to build another Space Bridge too.

"Uh, Bulkhead what's the matter?" Sari's voice could be heard, and she ran to help him.

"Don't worry Sari, he just had a strong emotion, we Cometblast has just told us that she's pregnant" ClearStar answered while she was shacking Bulkhead a little.

"A child? Oh wow congratulations!" Sari cooed, and then she greeted Comet, Blitzwing and their respective Bondmates.

"Congratulations, yes, but I must tell you that they are twins: Comet what did the medic told you about facing pregnancy?" Ratchet asked.

"To be careful about the amount of Energon, why exactly?"

"Because twins mean more than Spark to give energy to" ClearStar said "an excessive amount of Energon, produced by your body, can overload your circuits if they impaired.. But it it's improbable that this could be affect you Comet, you were healthy when you entered the Royal Guard, thank Yoketron… here he is coming back online"

"Anything broken?" Rouge, who had a crush for Bulkhead , asked, and Cleartsar smiled, shaking her head.

Bulkhead opened his optics and immediately exclaimed "Wow Jazz, congratulations!"

"Thank you: tell me about you now, how is going on Earth?"

"I do not complain" Azure said "we found two Allspark shards in a mine out of Detroit, last week they had caused an explosion that had lead police to call us too, and it was a so hard fight with Lugnut, but we finally managed to take them. Shadowstriker called me a megacycle ago and told me that you too are training hardly"

"We are, I can't help thinking Decepticons and the war now, I want to be ready" Jazz said.

"We will not disturb you any more, if you have anything to do…" Outback said

"We were just training Outback" Azure said "But maybe Comet wants to have a rest, she looks a little tired"

"A little Azure, we will call you later"

"Goodbye!" Blitzwing too greeted, followed by his sister and Jazz, and the screen switched off.

"Uh Ratchet" Sari asked "I was wondering, now that Cometblast is pregnant, how are you robots born?"

A little embarrassing: Sari had been a child until two years before, but surely after so much time she had not a child's mind any more. So, Ratchet and Clearstar explained that Mechs ad Femmes produced small particles of metal and energy; that in the interface (meaning the sexual intercourse) these cells united and formed a new structure, in a special hollow organ in the Femmes' abdomen near the spark chamber, that this union caused the creation of the Spark and Protoform of the future robots, and that some wires allowed its feeding, in contact with the Spark; that at the end of pregnancy the robot was expelled like in humans; Femmes had two organs on their chest too, that produced a special Energon to feed the newly-sparked robot, until it could drink normal low-grade Energon. The two medics had managed to read some data of human biology and medicine in those two years, for any eventuality, so that now they could compare the processes they were explaining to the human ones. Sari was so surprised and interested: in this too, Cybertronians and Polariusians were so similar to humans! A part of this the tutor-bot had taught her, in a science lesson that professor Sumdac had uploaded, and it was a little like what the adults told the children "dad's seed met mom's egg"

After a last hit of sai daggers, Shadowstriker, Prowl and Skydancer bowed to their waist, and the lesson finished. They went out of the room of Royal Palace where they trained and went to their rooms. They had moved to Polarius about one stellar cycle before, after having worked in Optimus' team for some months more, and just after their formal wedding. Skydancer had been chosen as a successor by her aunt Queen Moonrunner, when she was still a Sparkling, and her coronation was scheduled for less than a year after the Renegades' arrive on Earth, but actually she and Prowl were not on the throne yet. When Bumblebee had managed to prove Wasp's innocence and expose Shockwave, the princess in disguise had been brought in a trial for complicity in a calumny: when she was on Earth, she knew that the real Decepticon spy was not Wasp but Shockwave, and had not cleared him of the accuse for so much time; at the trial, she and Wasp explained that Wasp's insanity was a pretence, and that not revealing Shockwave immediately was a plan by them, who in this way wanted to avoid Shockwave to discover that Bumblebee was still on to him at the Boot Camp. So, Bumblebee's complicity with Shockwave was only a pose, and she had got a decreased sentence: instead of being arrested like Wasp, Skydancer had seen her coronation being put off at least until Shockwave would be captured. So, Prowl and Bumblebee had being spending all their life on Polarius getting ready to become Queen and Prince Consort: they had been attending lessons of politics, economy, heraldry, law, Polariusian history, dance, good manners, and Prowl had asked to add some lessons of martial arts and natural sciences, because he was curious to know the world of organics on Polarius and didn't want to abandon his old occupation as a Cyberninja, at least as self-defense. He and Skydancer, together with the Royal Family, had often visited many schools, hospitals, research centers on Polarius.

Prowl and Skydancer were going to their berthroom to get polished a little, considering that they would meet Queen Moonrunner later, when a white and water green servant reached them out of the training room, and bowed to her waist.

"Your Highnesses, there is a call for you from the dojo of Articus" she said.

"Thank you Seafoam" Skydancer said and she and Prowl entered the throne room, where a screen switched on. Prowl immediately opened his subspace and put there his visor, that now he wore only during the training, because etiquette didn't allow him to cover a part of his face, and they greeted Jazz and Blitzwing joyfully.

"Hello to you all Jazz, what is the matter?"

"Milady, Milord!" Outback greeted. Prowl felt embarrassed by so many manners, and Skydancer too was a little flattered: after all, she was not Queen yet, the Renegades had always treated her like a normal Femme not like a pampered noble.

"Prowl, hello! We wanted to tell you that I am carrying!" Cometlast said joyfully.

"WHAT!"

Prowl immediately fainted, a thing that froze Bumblebee, both for fearing he had hurt, and because she had never seen the self-controlled Prowl fainting.

"HAHAAHHA! JUST LIKE US!" Blitwing laughed in his Random mode, which caused the other four robots to glare him.

"What is the matter Milord, are you ill?" Seafoam's voice was heard out of the door, and a blue turbo fox too entered quickly and immediately went to sniff Prowl.

"Ah Seafoam, it's only an emotion, Cometblast told us that she is carrying, help me with him please… down Aki, down, please Seafoam help me with her!" she added, seeing that the turbo-fox had began jumping around her and Prowl.

"How embarrassing" Outback said, but finally Prowl came back online, and congratulated Jazz warmly.

"I really did not expect this, Jazz: I wish you all the good luck in the world, for this fact. Be good Aki I am fine!"

The servant took the turbofox and began to stroke her, which calmed the animal. Prowl in the meanwhile stood up helped by his Bondmate, and they both smiled to their friends.

Blackarachnia and Blitzwing had escaped, Scrapper's and Soundwave's traces were lost, Shockwave had escaped not to be arrested and was hiding in Cybertron, and the two Decepticons could not even call for other ones in the galaxy because they had not the tachyon transmitter of the Elite Guard because the Renegades had managed to take it away. Actually, Starscream was not fond of freeing Megatron, but maybe he had no choice if he and Lugnut needed some help on Earth and maybe Polarius. Some nights before, Starscream was flying over Detroit and had some humans speaking about a Porter C. Powell, a businessman who worked on robots, and once had managed to take successfully his rival Sumdac's business; one of the humans who worked with him was a Prometheus Black who had tried to use studies of biology to defeat Sumdac's robotics and had become a criminal; another one was a Masterson, who built robots that can control other ones. At this point Starscream had understood who this Masterson was, because once professor Sumdac had used a Headmaster unit on the Decepticon. Maybe this human could have powerful enough means to face robots on Cybertron. So that Starscream and Lugnut had decided to try: that night they transformed, flew over Detroit and saw a white limousine; they had learned that these cars were often used by wealthy or important humans, so the two Decepticons followed it, until it stopped in front of Sumdac Tower; the man that went out of the car was called "Mr. Powell" by the chauffeur, so that the two robots looked for nobody to be passing, transformed and immediately showed Powell their project.

"You would like me to follow you on your planet to free one of you from jail?" Powell asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Lord Megatron is the hero of the Decepticon liberation against the Autobot tyranny!" Lugnut interrupted him.

"Quiet Lugnut, you'll call the humans' attention! Autobots that you in Detroit call heroes exterminated us for hundreds of years and exiled us from Cybertron! Not to speak that little time ago they destroyed this city"

Powell actually remembered this last part, that had lead humans not to trust Autobots like before , Sari Sumdac too had been seen by someone transforming in a robot and destroying buildings . What if even what Starscream was saying was true?

"How shall we go to your planet? And what if I need to go out of any vehicle?"

"We transform in airplanes, and have no problems in flying out of this planet and can contain all the Headmaster units you want. On Cybertron atmosphere contains some oxygen and our living metal interacts with it in a no dangerous way, like on Earth: you will be able to survive like we do on Earth, trust us Powell"

"What advantage could I have if I help you?" the other one continued.

"First of all, we learnt that you work with robots: we will be able to pass you all our knowledge about biology and weapons of our race, for your business and to protect you city from evil Autobots. We easily extract energy in a specific extremely powerful form that we call Energon, from any sources, a form that we will share with your business, with so few credits. And this united to the biology of Autobots will help you against them, one of your colleagues called Prometheus Black did experiments in biology too, it would be useful, wouldn't it?"

"It's true…" Powell answered, reflecting, more and more surprised.

"Besides, we learnt that one of your rivals is someone who betrayed us: our mighty leader Megatron arrived here badly wounded, Isaac Sumdac built him back and then tried to kill him together with our terrible enemies Autobots. Do you think you will accept? You scratch my back and I scratch yours as you say"

Powell reflected.

"Barricade, here is Megatron speaking. Barricade can you hear me?" the Decepticon leader tried to contact one of his soldier by their comm-link

"Barricade here my lord"

"I need you for a special mission. Collect anyone to reach the Trypticon jail and I will tell you secretly the whole thing"

"Very well milord"

"Remember not to speak anyone about this mission, just call who you can to free me and get ready for the Decepticons' revenge. I cannot tell you anything else, I could be discovered"

A mission for Barricade only? What mission could it be, and why only for him? Was Megatron giving a particularly high bounty?