Chapter 9 ~ "Off to Polyhex we go!"

There was knock at the door the next morning, "All right kiddies! Wakey Wakey!" It was Prime. Optics alike flickered and winced as the doors to their rooms were opened and the lights turned on, a series of moans were heard. "Ah hush yourselves..." Prime tossed a few packets at each of the bots, "There's your breakfast boys, we're on a tight schedule today so hurry up and eat your breakfast bars!"

The pile of black, white, and purple on the berth went from completely still to a blur of movement in seconds. It was never a good idea to startle a sleeping ninja, much less three at once. GunDober barely managed to pull back his Iron Collar while GunGlue held his triple-bladed weapon at the ready, gun barrels glinting. VolFogg was in a battle stance, both boomerangs ready to throw. It took a moment for them to get their bearings and remember exactly where they were, and figure out who had just startled them awake.

Scavenger had tossed them a few packs of energon bars, "Eat up, we need to get to Polyhex and restock at the market before we head out for the Silver-Star colonies..." No matter what they were doing, they always found the old yellow-eyed mech smoking his pipe.

VolFogg eyed the old mech as he put his boomerangs away. "Doing that is not recommended. All three of us are still on a hair trigger. The twins are not called the 'GunMachines' for nothing." The twins both nodded affirmatively, putting their weapons away.

Scavenger shrugged, "Suit yourself, but don't be complaining that you're hungry later..." he was heading down the hallway, watching as Prime and Sideswipe were getting the rest of the bots up. They all shuffled in at the control room of the ship, some munching on their breakfast some not; Megatron sat in the chair with a hand on his forehead and mask somewhat dirtied, "Damn the high-grade..."

VolFogg appeared out of nowhere, giving Scavenger a sharp look. "While I can handle these bar-things without a problem, my teammates cannot. As you might have noticed last night, they do not have features like the others. They cannot ingest energon like you can."

Scavenger growled, "Well there always other ways, besides that was their first time even... consuming energon. It's like that with everyone's first time," he looked back at the ninja bot, "Now get your asses over here, you guys need to get ready."

The Gun Robots dropped down from overhead, landing behind and to either side of the purple mech. Two green optic shields fixed on the old mech, and GunGlue let out a whirring sound.

Within moments, they were heading for the streets of the city; they had to take the monorail towards the city of Polyhex seeing as it takes a few hours to go and get back. Prime took a swig of his bottle of energon; he passed to Megatron who was still on his hangover. The eight Yuusha were sitting near their new 'guardians' in their own seating cabin with a window that looked over the landscape of Cybertron. The twins sat close as Mic was sitting close to Prime and 3 ninja bots were in their own little group.

Prime looked up to the bots, "You're all going to love the market, but fair warning: you all need to stay close so none of you get lost..."

Megatron smirked, "Riiight, especially when Polyhex was the hell-spawn city during the war..."

VolFogg was looking out the window at the passing landscape. "Such a strange planet," he mused without looking away from the view. "So different from the world we are used to." GunDober looked over at Prime, making a snorting sound.

Scavenger smirked towards the ninja bot. "Pretty much, it's purely built for organisms like us..." They were traveling over the lake of the green energon springs, "Not particularly like Earth but its pretty good." A bell rang, indicating the next stop, Scavenger puffed a smoke and got up from his seat, "Get ready for rush hour..." the monorail entered into a station, which slowly came to a stop.

Mechs and femmes alike were allowed to get off, the Guardian's crew they filed out at the station's gate.

The ninja team stayed close to each other and to the others. The Gun Robots were content to let VolFogg lead the way, staring around at the sights. They had never seen anything like this before.

Prime looked back at the group, counting the heads and smiled when finding that everyone was here, "All right, you all know the rules..." He began to lead them down a large hallway towards an opening that had light shining through the doorway. Once passing through, the crew found themselves looking over a hustling-bustling market just FULL of Cybertronians big and small.

"Like the markets of Tokyo," VolFogg commented after a moment. "Only much larger." He surveyed the market for a long moment, glancing back to make sure the twins were still there. Both black-and-whites were trotting along after him, staying close while still managing to stare.

Scavenger tapped Prime's shoulder, "I think we could get the cargo faster if we split up... I'll take the ninja trio."

Prime nodded, "SideSwipe can go with Mic to pick up the energon reserves and Megatron can take HyoRyu and EnRyu."

Scavenger smirked, "That leaves RaiRyu and FuuRyu in your care..." he watched as the Autobot nodded and went ahead to collect the groups.

VolFogg looked at Scavenger for a moment, then walked after him. GunDober whirred softly, and GunGlue chose to remain silent. "Where are we going, and why?" the purple mech wanted to know.

Scavenger looked down at purple ninja, "We gotta stock up on weapons supplies, be much faster if we split up and gather everything rather than going everywhere as one big group..." The old mech checked his account as they passed a few stands selling certain amounts of alien produce and artworks, "I hope I have enough creds..."

"Ah." Volfogg thought for a moment. "Given time and materials we can produce our own ammunition... these two use a special kind of projectile in their machine guns."

Scavenger smirked, "Good to know, but we need special ammunition if we're gonna be going after bounty heads..." they came upon a warehouse, the sign written in Cybertronian letters: "Universal Ammunition market". The old mech smirked and went inside…

VolFogg and his team followed Scavenger, remaining in a group. All three looked around with wary curiosity. After a moment, VolFogg decided to check in on the others, tuning into the special Yuusha comm frequencies.

Scavenger had spotted a few good stands, asking the mechs or femmes who were selling about the cost and what if he could make a good deal. He was able to get a few goods: a few boxes of black shells and fire explosives; he was going to go visit the next row of stands when he heard a very familiar insane-filling laughter. His optics twitched, "Oh no..." he turned around slowly, "Please dear Primus don't let it be HIM."

GunGlue looked at the old mech curiously, letting out a soft, questioning chatter. VolFogg stiffened slightly, optics turning in the direction of that laugh. GunDober shifted nervously, easing closer to his brother and team leader.

And unfortunately it was HIM standing at a weapons stand a few feet over was the helicopter-con known only as Cyclonus with Demolisher right next to him. The orange-face, green-optic maniac had spotted the old mech, "Well lookey, lookey here!" he giggled madly, "It's the old coot! And just where the hell have YOU'VE been these past 5 years?"

Scavenger groaned.

"Someone you know?" VolFogg murmured, eyeing the strange mech warily. He could practically sense GunGlue and GunDober tensing behind him, prepared to either combine or unleash hell from four barrels should they have to.

"Just an old... very annoying soldier..." Scavenger looked up to Cyclonus, "I've been busting bounty heads and training, what ELSE would I be doing in this time of peace?"

Cyclonus snorted and Demolisher had rolled his optics, "Ah you're just as boring as usual, and yet you get some suckers to train eh?"

Scavenger growled, "They don't need the training, and you know damn well know I can pull your spark out in a micro-second if I wanted to..."

Cyclonus wooed and laughed again, "Yeah, yeah whatever old timer!" he happily walked past Scavenger with Demolisher following and they headed out of the market.

Scavenger growled and groaned, "Why do I even bother..."

"A very irritating mech," the purple ninja observed, watching the pair leave. GunGlue relaxed, making a rude sound in the direction of Cyclonus and Demolisher. GunDober snorted.

Scavenger sighed, "Very, it was worse having to work with the guy back in the war..." he grumbled, "Lets hurry up and go, I don't want to be here when the crowds get heavy..."

Prime himself was having a hard time; hiding his identity was one thing, but constantly getting puzzled stares from civilians was getting uncomfortable. They had already gotten their supplies, FuuRyu and RaiRyu were each carrying a box as well as himself, he called in Scavenger, "You get the stuff?" there was an answer at the other end, "Oh PERFECT! Figure he would be there...ah well at least you got the stuff..." he looked back at the twins after turning off his comn, "Lets go boys..." they were heading towards the center of the market, unaware of dark optics that were following them closely…

The ninja team followed Scavenger, moving in the nearly silent trot they'd perfected. Despite their size they could be very quiet when they wanted to be, quieter than others thought they should be. They moved through the crowd after the old mech with some ease, ghosting past other mechs without really being noticed.

Prime sighed, finally seeing the center of the market where a large fountain was placed with statues in the middle... resembling him and Megatron before his upgrade. Oh how convenient, he groaned, trying to hide his face as FuuRyu and RaiRyu were following him. They were unaware that someone was following them from behind and was creeping ever so closer to the young bots.

"We'll take your word for it," VolFogg told Scavenger. "Even from that brief encounter we could tell that he was the type who can drive someone right up the wall with very little effort."

Optimus couldn't shake the feeling they were being watched. But every time he looked back he saw no one out of the norm. He passed by the fountain keeping his head low and the two younglings close to him. He didn't like this...

RaiRyu was trotting along, trying to keep up with the box of supplies in his hands, "Wait up!" his brother and Prime was moving too far ahead. He growled and tried to move faster when he tripped over a cracked stone top on the sidewalk and fell, dropping the box on the ground. He grumbled and picked up the box, dusting himself and looked around… oh no, "Fuu??" he couldn't find his brother anywhere.

GunGlue's rotors whirred and he glanced upward, wanting to be airborne. Being a flyer he didn't like being on the ground all the time. VolFogg touched his shoulder lightly, a silent promise that he would get a chance to fly, then increased his pace slightly to trot next to Scavenger. GunDober made a nervous sound, looking around, as if sensing something.

Optimus stopped and looked back. "Where's RaiRyu?" He looked back and forth and didn't see him. "Oh no…RaiRyu?!" he became frantic. He saw Megatron, approaching and Shoved Fuu over to him. "Megatron watch him, RaiRyu is missing." He then took off into the crowd shouting the yellow bot's name.

RaiRyu was looking around frantically, about to go off and search for his brother by himself when he felt a hand placed on his shoulder. He turned around and found himself looking up at the face of dark mech with red optics, his body cloaked with a raggedy black clothe. The mech smiled, a greasily smiled that seemed to make RaiRyu shutter; "Who..." RaiRyu was stopped cold, "...are you?"