Part 4
Autobot by Autobot, Twostoke won them all over. The twins were next on her list after Ratchet. Nobody actually witnessed the victory, but everyone knew it had occurred when the twins stopped radioing Bluestreak at all hours of the day and night to come and collect his cat from their quarters.
Prowl was next. Though he tried to ignore the feline she waged a hard fought campaign, first forcing him to pay attention to her with the time honoured cat tradition of seating herself on the datapads he was working on and then trying different ways of enamoring him to her via various methods of persuasion. The one that finally broke his resistance was when she would find him on nightshift in the control room, climb up his arm and curl up on his shoulder, purring and leaning against his helmet.
After a few weeks Smokescreen started a betting pool as to who would be won over by the feline next and how long her current 'project' would last, along with regular debates over how hard the task would be. Some 'bots, like Jazz, Hound and Bumblebee, were shoo-ins and hardly worth the time to discuss. But by the time her third month at the Ark rolled around it was generally agreed that Red Alert was to date her greatest challenge.
"BLUESTREAK! Get this, this thing out of my monitor room!"
The aforementioned Autobot winced and clapped both hands over his audios as the overly excitable Security Director screeched into his radio over a general frequency. Several other Autobots also tried to muffle the sound as it echoed over their radios too.
"What's she done?" Bluestreak asked as he turned and headed in Red Alert's direction.
"She's in a restricted area, that's what!" Was the indignant retort
"Aw c'mon man, she's just tryin' t' be friendly." Jazz's voice broke in.
"Yeah, lighten up a bit, will ya?" Sideswipe added.
"It's not like she can read your files or anything." Sunstreaker finished.
"This creature is a security risk!" Red Alert declared. "Just look at how she's affecting the performance of several officers. It's a Decepticon plot I tell you! A conspiracy to weaken us in preparation for an attack!"
The link immediately exploded into static as several Autobots, both those who had spoken and the ones who had been listening in, burst out laughing. Red Alert was not impressed.
"You'll see!" He predicted. "You'll all see soon enough!"
"Yeah, sure." It was Ironhide this time. "Just don't blow a transistor over it again or Ratchet will have your fender."
"Ratchet's already been compromised and…hey! No, get off of that! Ghaaa! BLUESTREAK!" There was a crash of something falling and a yowl before the link was abruptly severed.
The gunner broke into a run, hoping to get there before the paranoid officer turned the Ark's unofficial mascot into crisp-fried feline, or worse. Thankfully, some of the other 'bots were closer and he arrived just as Ironhide was leaving the monitor room, a hissing and fluffed up Twostroke cupped in his hands while Inferno tried to talk Red Alert down.
"Better keep th' lil' missy away from Red fer a bit." Ironhide advised as he handed Twostroke over. "Ol' Red Alert's just 'bout ready t' have her thrown in th' brig fer interrogation."
"But, she's a cat. How can you interrogate a cat?" Bluestreak asked, confused.
"Ah dunno." Ironhide shrugged. "But you know Red. He'll find a way."
Twostroke however, had her own ideas.
Much to the Security Director's dismay she started following him all over the Ark, staying just out of sight. Her transponder beacon had a five meter radius, so the increasingly harried officer was almost continually alerted by his systems to her presence. It didn't help that he'd tagged her transponder code as a Level 3 security alert so every time she strayed within range she set off his internal alarm.
In desperation he appealed to the command team for the removal of the cat. Unfortunately they had very little sympathy for his plight.
"Sorry dude," Jazz had said, "But you brought this on y'self. Two's stayin'."
"There would be a riot if she were to be evicted." Prowl had added.
Red Alert knew that they were right. Quite a few of the more violently-inclined Autobots had grown to like the cat, not to mention Ratchet, and they would all be more than moderately upset if Twostroke happened to suddenly vanish.
It was about a week after the appeal to the other officers when Red Alert was checking the external sensors, his tabby-striped shadow close behind. She had perched herself on the housing of an infra-red scanner that Red Alert was inspecting when she suddenly started hissing and yowling, all her fur standing on end.
"Now what is it?" The frazzled Autobot demanded, glancing up at Twostroke. That was when he realised that she wasn't looking at him, but something else. "Eh?" Red Alert looked in the direction she was facing, training his scanners on the area. A low shadow slunk along the edge of a ridge. Red Alert recognised it immediately. "Intruder Alert!" He yelled into his comm. "Ravage spotted at sensor 23B!"
"Copy that. Bluestreak, Hound and Powerglide have been diverted to your location." Prowl radioed back. "ETA two minutes."
The warriors arrived quickly on the scene, flushing out not only the metallic feline, but his master and four brothers to boot. Unfortunately Soundwave and his cassettes escaped, but Twostroke had earned another notch for her collar.
Twostroke's next 'projects' however, were far more nerve-wreaking for her owner.