Author's Note – Cybertronian time measurements: vorn = 83 Earth years, stellar cycle = 1 Earth year, deca-cycle = about 3 Earth weeks, solar cycle = 1 Earth day, joor = about two Earth hours, breem = 8.3 Earth minutes, astro-second = .498 Earth second.

Disclaimer – "Transformers" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Hasbro, Takara, and any other related owners/distributors/producers. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.

"Paid in Full"
by DragonDancer5150

Chapter 3 – Nothing but Trouble

Tail end of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California
Two hours earlier

"Nothing…"

"Uh-oh, here we go," Trailbreaker heard Sparkplug murmur under his breath, groaning softly. The robot-turned-Toyota-camper truck grinned to himself at the human settled comfortably in his passenger seat for the drive back to base, their patrol shift almost over for the day. In the year or so since the Autobots had met them, the Witwickys had gotten to know their Cybertronian friends pretty well, including all their quirks and faults. Trailbreaker knew that the portly, middle-aged mechanic had since developed the same tolerance for Huffer's pessimism that the Autobots had cultivated countless vorns ago.

Still, someone had to humor the guy. "Okay, I'll bite," Trailbreaker called over his speakers to the construction-orange mini truck cab ahead of him. He amplified his voice a bit more than usual to be heard over the air currents as they navigated the rocky, winding road. "What's wrong, Huffer?"

"What? You can't tell?" the construction engineer asked. "It's the Decepticons! They've been too quiet lately, and our patrol hasn't turned up anything yet. I'll bet no one else has found anything either."

Trust Huffer to turn no news into bad news, the Autobot defense strategist thought with a sigh. "C'mon, buddy. They're probably just still too pooped after the last time we trounced their transistors to be causing any trouble again just yet."

Sparkplug leaned forward to snatch up the handset of Trailbreaker's CB-radio so that he too could be heard by the other Autobot. "That's right. Hey, if it'll make you feel better, we can ask Bumblebee when we get back if Teletraan One's picked up anything."

"Bumblebee?" Huffer sounded surprised. "Isn't he in town with Spike and Chip?"

"Nope. Prime said he wanted him to monitor Teletraan One today – it was his turn or somethin', I guess." Sparkplug shrugged, not that Huffer could see it. "Bluestreak took'em instead."

"Oh? Hmph. Lucky them. That motormouth'll have them both wanting to pull out his vocal modulator before they ever make it to the grocery store!"

Huffer meant it as a complaint – he meant everything as a complaint – but Trailbreaker just laughed. "Yeah, probably . . . and between the two of them, I'll bet they'd manage it too!"

"Easy bet," the construction engineer grumbled. The two vehicles had reached the rocky, uneven ground on the opposite side of the volcano that was their home, and Huffer braked to a halt just as he rounded a bend. "Hey, Sparkplug, you sure Bumblebee's supposed to be on watch right now?"

"Yeah, why?" the human asked as Trailbreaker pulled up just behind the mini cab on the narrow access road.

"'Cause him and Wheeljack are right below us heading out on the south trail into the forest."

"Huh. Well . . . let's follow 'em," Trailbreaker suggested. "Maybe Prime or someone else called for backup."

"And the more, the merrier, right, guys?" Sparkplug put in.

"I got a bad feeling about this," Huffer fussed in a low voice as he started forward again.

"Oh, quit bein' such a stickshift in the mud, Huffer! C'mon, before they get too far ahead!" Trailbreaker gunned forward just enough to softly bump into the back edge of Huffer's trailer hitch.

"Hey, hey, hey! Watch where you're sticking that fender!"

Trailbreaker responded with another good-natured laugh, and the two sped off after their companions. However, the custom racecar and even his VW bug companion were faster and had quite the head start. It didn't take long for the slower Autobots to lose sight of them.

"Aw, hexagonal nuts," Trailbreaker muttered at length. "Where you suppose they were headed?"

"You're asking me?" Huffer retorted.

Sparkplug sighed. "Come on, you two. There's not much out here, really, so not too many places they could have gone. A couple of campsites, maybe. Oh, and that Air Force base about ten miles out."

"An Air Force base?" mused Huffer. "You think maybe that's where they were going?"

"Possibly. There's really nothing else out this way, not for almost seventy miles."

Trailbreaker agreed. "I say let's go for it. Worst that could happen is we're wrong and we head back to base."

"Worst that could happen, Trailbreaker," Huffer pointed out darkly, "is that we're right."

Ten minutes later, Trailbreaker and Sparkplug were both forced to agree. The trio stopped behind a stand of trees outside the military base's perimeter fence just in time to watch, helpless, as a sorely-outnumbered Bumblebee fought to free Wheeljack from the Decepticons only to fall captive himself.

"Oh, I hate it when I'm right!" Huffer fretted. "What're we gonna do?"

Sparkplug threw open Trailbreaker's door and hopped out. "We're gonna go save 'em! C'mon! Before the Decepticons get away!"

Huffer transformed to root-mode and gave the human an incredulous look. "We?" he asked.

Trailbreaker finished his own transformation in time to catch the look on Sparkplug's face. Ah…good point, the expression seemed to convey, but then the human grimaced in determination. "Maybe I can distract them or something so you guys can get in close."

"Are you wing-nuts?" Huffer cried. "We can't take on all of them just by ourselves! They'll scrap us for sure!"

Human courage and resolve never ceased to amaze Trailbreaker, and he was always thankful for this one's help. This time, however… "I'm afraid Huffer's right, Sparkplug."

"I am?" Huffer asked with a start, obviously surprised not to be argued with for once.

Trailbreaker ignored him, still addressing Sparkplug. "If Wheeljack and Bumblebee alone couldn't take these guys on, I don't know that me and Huffer would fare any better, even with your help." Not even at full power, which Trailbreaker wasn't. He'd neglected to charge up and top off his tank before leaving on patrol, and now feared that if he went into combat, even if they could extract themselves and their captured friends, the others just might be towing his fuel-consuming tailpipe home, which would only make them all easy targets for the Decepticons all over again. He cursed his handicaps as he'd done countless times before.

"They're getting away!" cried Huffer, the anguish in the Minibot's tone echoing Trailbreaker's own even as it pulled his processor back to the immediate situation.

The defense strategist had to catch their human companion from darting forward with a growl to stop them. The three could only watch, spark-sick, as Megatron rounded up his mechs and took off, Soundwave carrying a static Wheeljack while Ramjet and Skywarp jetted off with Bumblebee strung and struggling between them. Only then did Sparkplug relent, defeated. Trailbreaker let him go. "We've got to get back to the Ark. We may be the only ones who know they were out here."

"How do you figure that?" Huffer wanted to know, gazing miserably after their captive friends.

Sparkplug nodded, scowling. "Yeah, surely they'd have told someone."

"If anyone else knew, you think those two'd have been out here by themselves?"

Huffer shrugged. "Maybe Wheeljack's got another deal with the humans and was bringing them one of his devices, and they got jumped."

"But if that's what it was," Sparkplug said, his chin in one hand, "then why did Bumblebee come too? He was supposed to be back at base."

"And you can see into those hangers from here." Trailbreaker pointed through the fence and across the runway to the aircraft buildings on the other side, swarming with human military personnel who had turned from the fight to try to clean up the mess left behind. "Those are F-15 Eagles, the same kind of aircraft as the Seekers' alt-modes. I'll bet those Decepti-goons were here for repair parts."

"And Bumblebee found out from Teletraan One, and they came out here to investigate?" Huffer concluded dubiously. "You really think those two would be stupid enough to come out here by themselves?"

Trailbreaker had to admit that it was an idiotic thing to do, but then, Wheeljack – may Primus watch over their beloved "mad scientist" – had been known to do some pretty idiotic things in his time, and Bumblebee wasn't exactly faultless of risk-taking and pulling the occasional crazy stunt himself. The little guy always had been stuck on a groundless need to "prove" himself among his brethren. Now, Trailbreaker just hoped it didn't get him killed.

Rather than answer, Trailbreaker folded back down into his vehicle mode and opened his passenger door for Sparkplug. "C'mon, guys! We need to hurry back and radio Optimus Prime!" Huffer's comm. didn't have built-in encryption, and his own had been on the fritz since a battle two weeks ago. Neither Wheeljack nor the Autobots' maintenance specialist Hoist had figured out exactly what its glitch was, and their medical officer Ratchet had been too busy to look. Trailbreaker didn't want to risk giving away their position, let alone what they knew, to any Decepticons still in the area. They'd just have to hurry back to report in person.

The trio rolled into the base to find that Prime, as well as a few others, had returned from patrol ahead of them.

Sideswipe, Beachcomber, and Windcharger intercepted them as they arrived. "Have you guys seen Wheeljack or Bumblebee?" Windcharger asked without preamble.

Sideswipe was practically prancing with worry. "They should have been back by now!"

"Oh, we saw them all right," Huffer told him. "Up to their drivetrains in Decepticons!"

Both Sideswipe's and Beachcomber's optics flashed in alarm, and Windcharger gaped at him. "What?"

Trailbreaker hadn't slowed down, only swerved around the three mechs, and he called back, "Hurry up, guys! We'll report once for everyone!" He noted the other Autobots taking their alt-modes to keep up, and the five sped off together.

When they reached the main control room, Sparkplug jumped out almost before Trailbreaker had pulled to a full stop. "Optimus Prime, we've got a problem!"

Prime turned from a conversation with Prowl, Ironhide, Red Alert, and Sunstreaker, the last of whom looked like someone who feared he might be in deep trouble without knowing for certain if he actually was. Prime's azure-blue optics found the human. "Sparkplug? What is it?"

Trailbreaker answered before the human could, transforming to root-mode as he did so. "It's Bumblebee and Wheeljack – they've been captured by the Decepticons! I'm sorry, Optimus Prime. There wasn't anything we could do."

"I knew those two were headed for trouble!" Huffer cried.

Red Alert gasped in dismay. "Oh, that's no good at all!"

Trailbreaker saw Prime stiffen in alarm, optics flaring, even as more cries of worry and outrage passed through the rest of the company like a breeze before a gathering storm. The Autobot commander hesitated only an instant, then raised a hand for silence and addressed Trailbreaker. "If there had been, I'm sure you would have done what you could to help." His gaze took in all three. "Tell me what happened."

"We were just coming back from patrol," Sparkplug explained, "when Huffer spotted them heading away down the south road into the forest. We followed them out to the Air Force base, but by the time we'd caught up that close, they'd both already been captured."

No thanks to me, Trailbreaker thought bleakly. If I weren't so slow, maybe we coulda gotten there in time to help! He knew that Huffer had been pacing him rather than reaching the base as fast as he could have. It was a sound thought – better to arrive with your backup than ahead of it – but still…

"That sneaky little runt told me they were just going out to test one of Wheeljack's crankcased ideas and they'd be right back! Three breems, tops!" Sunstreaker complained, his tone petulant. "Not our fault if they were stupid enough to think they could take on Decepticons by themselves while they were at it."

Sideswipe nodded. "We had no reason to check Teletraan One for activity until they didn't return. Bumblebee must have already shut off the alarm before he came to find us."

"Why would he do that?" Prowl wanted to know. "There's no logic to such an action."

"Is there logic to anything Bumblebee does?" Huffer pointed out. "Or Wheeljack, for that matter?"

Windcharger snickered. "Put that way . . . yeah, they do make a pair, don't they?"

"They do both seem prone to trouble, each in his own way," Beachcomber mused.

"Huffer!" Sparkplug admonished at the same time, sounding surprised at the comment.

"Autobots!" Prime rumbled, his deep, resonant voice sharp to halt the brewing argument before it could break. Everyone quieted instantly, and the Autobot commander shook his head. "I'm sure Bumblebee thought he had a good reason, Prowl, Huffer. For now, though, we can't worry about that. We need to concentrate on finding and rescuing him and Wheeljack."

"But how?" Sideswipe demanded. "We still don't know what the Decepticons' plans are. They could be anywhere right now."

In response, Trailbreaker watched Prime step over to Teletraan I's controls. He and the other Autobots watched as the supercomputer's little satellite deployed at Prime's command, rising from its storage compartment to float up through a tunnel in the ceiling that led outside. That accomplished, he turned to his men. "Sky Spy will go out over the ocean and try to determine if Wheeljack and Bumblebee were taken to the Decepticons' main headquarters. Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, stay here and monitor Teletraan One. The rest of us will break up into our patrols and scout the region again. As Sideswipe pointed out, it's possible the Decepticons have set up a temporary base somewhere on land, depending on what their current plans are, and if they have, that will be where they've taken our friends."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Ironhide growled.

Prime nodded. "Sunstreaker, radio the patrols who are still out there. Update them on the situation. If they discover anything, they are to radio in immediately with their location and what they've found. They are to hold their position and not act until backup arrives. Contact the rest of us as soon as you know anything." He paused for Sunstreaker's nod of acknowledgment, then turned to sweep his gaze across the rest. "That goes for all of you as well. We don't need any would-be heroes adding to the captive count. Understood?" A murmur of acknowledgment rippled through the gathered Autobots. "All right, then. Transform and roll out!"

Trailbreaker hesitated as the others folded down into their alt-modes around him. "Optimus Prime," he commented quietly, shame coloring his tone, "I . . . I'm afraid I need to stay behind as well. My reserves are low." Again. "I need to recharge before I go back out for anything."

Prime had paused his own transformation at Trailbreaker's tone. Gaze on the ground, Trailbreaker couldn't make himself meet his commander's optics as the other regarded him for a moment. Then Prime was putting a supportive hand on his shoulder. "You have done well, Trailbreaker. Go take care of yourself."

Trailbreaker nodded. "Thanks," he murmured, then pulled his gaze up to Prime's, covering his leader and friend's hand with his own. "You guys take care out there, too. And bring those two home safe, all right?"

"Count on it." With that, Prime stepped back and transformed, his Combat Deck rolling up behind him at the summons of a silent radio signal.

Trailbreaker watched the gathering drive out, then turned to head for the recharging stations, his spark heavy in his chest. Please, Primus, watch over everyone. Let Bumblebee and Wheeljack be all right.