A/N: Hey, guys here is the unbetaed chapter, I had to upload using html on my phone so its not perfect. I'm sorry for any spelling or grammatical errors. I won't have internet access for awhile so it'll be hard for me to update. Hope you enjoy it, took me forever to find my muse for it. Disclaimer: Hasbro/Takara own TF, I just wish I did.
Engines grumbling in vexation, Skyfire marched into the Fired Circuit. An assortment of mechs and femmes (almost all grounders) hung around the back-end alley bar, not really in the slums yet far enough from places like the Iacon Science Academy where he knew he could get some privacy. He just wanted to waste the energy from his afterburners to his pent-in rage in the sloth served as high-grade there, just a place he unwounded often when things back at the Academy turned rather ugly. He was not a violent mech, and he would not resort to violence no matter how angry he got. The newly appointed dean and most of the professors treated him like a subclass Cybertronian, even though he was not of the war build models, they still despised him for being one of the few fliers attending. And there was not much he could do about it. Which, made matters worse. He let himself sulk in an empty booth away from where most of the hubbub occurred around the holo screens. They mostly played races, one or two were dedicated to the Arena fights in Kaon. Bots who sat round those screens bet credits with each other over winners, and made noises contrary to when they either won or lost. Definitely not a place where he would catch one of his colleagues at, which lightened his mood considerably. That was until he noticed a pair of wings familiar to him, strutting towards him.
"Slag!" Skyfire hissed under his intakes as he downed the rest of his high-grade. His optics traveled from the wings to face he knew all to well, his lab partner was coming towards him and they hardly got along. A very opinionated yet somewhat shy and awkward femme seeker, he would have seen her as the ideal mate if it hadn't been for her fiery temper tantrums when things didn't go her way and the fact that she was more ostracized than he was. Skyfire didn't need to add fuel to the fire, he had it bad enough. Yet here she came up to his spot, denta glinting off the low lighting in a smirk and crimson optics blaring bright with mirth.
"Well what do we have here? Skyfire, I did not take you for the kind who hung around a dump like this." She taunted him.
"A pleasure to see you too, Starscream. Pray, tell what brings you here to my boring side of corner? You, yourself do not seem like the kind to hang around these parts either."
"I come here on accord of my trinemates, you never met them have you?" And like a magic trick, two other bulkier and slightly taller seekers appeared next to Starscream's side. One remained aloof while the other beamed at Skyfire with a devious glint in his red optics. Starscream continued, "This, Skyfire are my trinemates and brothers, Thundercracker and Skywarp. TC, 'Warp this is my lab partner in the Academy, Skyfire. The only shuttle former in the Academy."
"Sooooo your the shuttle that Scree here keeps blabbering on about all the time! She never shuts her vocalizer up about you! Always, Skyfire this and Skyfire that-"
"SKYWARP!" Starscream squawked indignantly at the the other seeker, he flashed her smile then winked at Skyfire. A few of the mechs sitting closer to them watched the interaction dully. Starscream lunged forward to attack, but before she could Thundercracker took a hold of her wing and pulled up at it. Her thrusters left the ground, she squirmed in his grasp, and hissed to him, "Put me down this instant, Thundercracker! That is an order as your Winglord and trine leader!"
"I will if, and when, trine leader, you control yourself in public." He stated coolly as he continued to have a glaring contest with Starscreamer. The edge of Thundercracker's lip plates quirked upwards. She crossed her arms and pouted like a youngling. Skyfire couldn't help but chuckle at the manhandling done by his partner's trinemate. She immediately broke eye contact from Thundercracker to glare daggers in his direction. She squawked at him,"This is not funny, Skyfire! Tell him to put me down, now!"
"He is your trinemate. You tell him."
"ARGH! I will get you for this Skyfire! And you Thundercracker! Let go of my wings! Now!" She commanded.
Thundercracker shrugged and replied with an even bigger smile, "If you say so Screamer." He let go of her wings and she fell onto her aft. She growled at him before getting back up on her thrusters.
Pointing at Skyfire with a blue claw, she snarled,"Your inviting us to drink some energon with you! You owe me that much!"
"I do not owe you anything."
"Yes, you do! Remember two mega-cycles ago, you had to be rushed to the infirmary due to a nasty virus that invaded your systems and I had to do your research and you still got credit for it."
"Fine, since I seem to be the only sensible one. Have some high-grade, it is on me."
"That's better." Starscream said. She sat in the cushioned seat next to Skyfire while her trinemates placed themselves in the seats across from them.
They spent the rest of their time, in the Fired Circuit chatting away as the high-grade loosened them up until they were all overcharged. From that point on, Skyfire blacked out.
"You can online your optics now." Stated a voice, as dull orange, was the first thing Skyfire saw from coming out of stasis. The blurry outline of red and white moved around towards the corner of his vision. He noticed the detail of the red chevron attached to a white helm become clear first, and then everything followed. It was all just another memory purge.
"Well, your firewalls are up to speed. You have all the lasted software updates and virus protection available." Ratchet stated while Skyfire propped himself on his elbows, "I think your good, Skyfire. Now off with you!"
"Thank you, Ratchet-"Skyfire was interrupted from his gracious thanks when something caused the medbay to shake rather vehemently at the foundation of the bedrock.
Ratchet growled through clenched denta, "Wheeljack! I swear I'm going to weld his arms to the berth if he comes here dismantled again! Or reformat him into a human pleasure toy!"
"Well we better hope he does not come in that way then." Skyfire chuckled lightheartedly. He had no idea what a human pleasure toy looked like, but Ratchet would keep to his word if Wheeljack did come into his medbay as spare parts. Now that would be a sight to see.
"He better not! Go and check on him, Skyfire." Ratchet remarked. He stood leeringly over Skyfire's form with a wrench in one servo. His wings shuddered as the wrench came closer to his head.
Skyfire nervously commented, "I'll do it right away, Ratchet. You can um…put the wrench down. There is no need for right now."
"If you don't get your aft out of here in the next microsecond, I'll do the same to you!" Ratchet threatened, waving the wrench in Skyfire's faceplates.
"Yes Ratchet." Skyfire immediately got off the berth and stumbled towards the medbay door; his gyros were still slightly off kilter. They would return to normal functioning soon enough - hopefully soon enough to where he could easily hide in a storage closet from the medic if he found the ARK's eccentric engineer scrapped from another one of his explosions. If it hadn't been for Prime, Wheeljack would have been the death of all them on the ARK; not only him, but one of those devious twins and their pranks, or the Decepticons could fall in that category. As he blundered through the hallway to Wheeljack's lab, another shock shook the ARK.
What could he possibly be doing in there? Skyfire asked himself. He reached the door, keyed in the codes on the keypad. The door immediately opened, smoke (and were those flames?) coming from inside the threshold. Skyfire placed a hand over his faceplates and tried comming Wheeljack through the main line. No answer! He shifted over to a private frequency that they both had established when they weren't able to talk due to contradistinctive duties. Skyfire calmly inquired :Wheeljack? Come in. Are you alright?:
:Ugh…I'm not that great Skyfire. My pedes have melted to the floor and second blast ignited a chemical fire. Slag!:
:What is it Jack?:
:My pedes will have to be sawed off. My comlink is malfunctioning. You better hurry and get Ratchet. And also maybe Grapple and Hoist too.:
:I will be right back Wheeljack, don't move.:
:Ha ha I wish I could.: Wheeljack nervously chuckled through the line. Skyfire then contacted both Grapple and Hoist and told them of situation. Yet, when he tried Ratchet, he found the line encompassed in static like Wheeljack's. With no other option, he quickly paced himself back to the medbay – the large wings structures on his back clattered against the metal of his armor from his agitation. Ratchet's foul mood would definitely darken at the news of Wheeljack, and he would be on the receiving end as the messenger.
Gulping some sticky lubricant inside his mouth, he reentered the medbay. He found Ratchet and Prime in a far corner discussing something, grave from the looks of Ratchet's expression.
