"This is an outrage!" Thundercracker ranted.

"It's a lot more outrageous than you know," Slipstream said, heaving the stunned Autobot femme onto a bench in their apartment-by-conquest.

"You were not supposed to bring it here!"

"Sir," Slipstream said, with more irritation than respect, "What about hearing your subordinate's report before taking out your unfounded anger on us?"

"Thundercracker," Skywarp said, trying to reassure their leader. Slipstream had a point.

Thundercracker growled in irritation. "Why is the Autobot here?" He groaned out.

"You will love this." What, was she Ramjet now, with the sarcasm and lies? Thundercracker braced himself for the news. "This Autobot claims she and Ramjet are in courtship."

"Truly outrageous!"

"Maybe he likes her colors," Skywarp suggested timidly. From what he could see, the Autobot was white and red with some gray parts, much like Ramjet was.

"What is this 'Courtship'?" Dirge demanded, "Why is the understanding not mine! How is it even Skywarp knows?"

"What do you mean 'even Skywarp', Little Brother?" Skywarp demanded.

"You're young. You don't know because your protocols have not been triggered. It's in your code, too, but you will not be conscious of it until its your time," Slipstream explained calmly.

At that, Thundercracker glared suspiciously at their sister, and realizing this, Slipstream glared back, daring him to ask. Thundercracker realized that Slipstream was right. Neither of them would know any more than Dirge unless the protocols had activated at some point. He was absolutely not going to openly admit to Slipstream at what point his protocols had initiated, or whether he was actively in courtship. Slipstream was no less eager to confess to Thundercracker, though she assumed Skywarp and Thundercracker had triggered each other at some point, even if she was not 100% certain how they had each responded to the activation.

"It is possible to have the protocols active without actually being in courtship," Slipstream said defensively, "It doesn't mean anything, just that there was enough potential compatibility, even a very small amount, to initiate."

"I know who it is," Skywarp sang.

"You do not!" Slipstream snapped, "there's no one!"

"I want to know!" Dirge cried out.

Skywarp hopped, startled as Scalpel tapped a claw against the inside of his canopy. The others could not hear Scalpel speak from inside the cockpit, but Skywarp had internal audio receptors within his cockpit. "Oh, the Autobot is online!"

The others shifted position in sync, even as Skywarp made a quarter-turn. Red Alert was lying across the bench, propped up on one elbow, and seemingly studying them. She was not operating at 100%, but she was alert enough to understand that she must have been struck with a weapon that temporarily deactivated her electrical systems enough to put her into stasis. She also realized, listening to the Seeker clones and watching their mannerisms, that her theory regarding their development was as good as proven now. They were all physically mature, but emotionally quite young and inexperienced.

Red Alert also noticed that there were four of them. Since none had Starscream's colors, he was supposed to be dead anyway, and she knew the other two were still in the prison, she could only conclude that one of these had not been identified by the Autobots on Earth. Her guess, based somewhat on the intelligence report, but mostly on observation, was that the teal and gold one was new. He definitely acted and was treated like one who was younger than the rest.

"Her designation is 'Red Alert'," Skywarp said, relaying the information from Scalpel. He could just feel the Autobot's optics focus on him, and shifted slightly to put himself behind Thundercracker's right wing.

Thundercracker and Skywarp commed privately; Skywarp explaining that Scalpel knew of this Autobot and that she and Starscream had been acquainted when they were both younglings, before the war. Thundercacker wanted to know how Scalpel knew. 'You remember Scalpel insisting Starscream knew him at some academy? This Autobot was there. Scalpel says she is one of their scientists.'

"She used to have another alt-mode," Skywarp said aloud, "but it is her."

"Did Starscream give all of you the same installation files?" Red Alert asked, speaking Decepticon.

"My installation files included updates. I have the most!"

"Glitch," Slipstream said, "she's our prisoner. Don't answer her."

"I can speak and process some Decepticon. Do any of you speak Cybertronix? Many traders speak it; the language is said to combine some parts of Decepticon, Autobot and Ancient Cybertronian roots. I know a little more of it. I do not suppose any of you are entirely fluent in Autobot."

"Why would we wish to learn such an inferior language?" Thundercracker posed. "If you are not able to answer my questions, I will just have one of them dive your memory and take the information." He gestured toward Slipstream and Dirge, who in his thinking were too willing to make hardline connections to inferior mechanisms. Thundercracker considered such things dirty.

"Who told you my designation, really?" Red Alert asked, "The young one said he had updates, which may only imply memory of events after the rest of you were brought online. If he had information about the past, he would have recognized me outside. But it was this one," she tipped her head to Skywarp, "Who informed the rest of you. So? Who is feeding you information? Is it Starscream? Is he really dead?"

"Yes, He's dead!" Slipstream said angrily.

Thundercracker and Red Alert both turned to look toward Slipstream, as Dirge moved close and tried to embrace her. Thundercracker had noticed recently that Slipstream refused to say their creator's name. She kept saying 'He', 'Him' and 'His' with strange inflection. It was starting to be annoying. There was no Decepticon funerary custom that prohibited speaking the name of the deactivated. Sometimes the names of traitors were stricken from records and went unspoken, but Starscream had been traitor to Megatron, not his clones. Slipstream had served Megatron for a short time. Thundercracker had learned of it since their reunion. "Did Megatron trigger your courtship protocols?" He asked in disgust.

Slipstream brushed Dirge off, as she answered. "No! As if! I'm not that masochistic, I mean, any more than the rest of you," Slipstream hissed. She shivered at the disturbing images of Megatron trying to be close to her. "I told you. It's no one!"

Thundercracker still did not understand their sister's strange attitude toward their creator's name. 'Maybe you should leave the room.'

'I didn't do anything wrong!' Slipstream commed back.

'It is not punishment. You brought the prisoner in. Take a short break. You have permission to use the wash facilities. We will not disturb you.' Thundercracker said the order aloud for the benefit of the others, "Good work on capturing the prisoner. Permission to go off duty. I relieve you of the prisoner."

"Thank you, Sir," Slipstream said. The others watched as she dragged the spare parts into the private chamber.

'Dirge!' Thundercracker commed.

'Sir?'

'I can tell that you know. What is wrong with your sister?'

'My sister will be angry if I tell you.'

'I am your leader now.'

'My leader. Yes, Sir, Slipstream is grieving.'

Thundercracker noted the Autobot still watching them. He glanced at Skywarp. 'Slipstream is grieving?'

'I believe it likely. She is actually sad that Starscream is dead.'

'She did not even like him!'

'Ah, TC, I think that was just Slipstream being evasive.'

'Dirge, Slipstream is truly sad that Starscream is deactivated?'

'We sang a lament for him, Sir.'

Thundercracker nodded. Well, that explained a few things. His superior intellect had been so very with the mission he had just not noticed. He would have noticed eventually, of course.

"Autobot," Thundercracker said finally.

"Ramjet calls me 'Red', You may address me as Red Alert, or Doctor, if you like."

"Red Alert," Thundercracker said, irritated, "Starscream is in fact dead, and as he was our creator, whatever else we think of him, we are understandably grieved that Autobots caused his deactivation with their AllSpark meddling, so show respect, if you mean to remain unharmed."

"But, I actually do respect your creator. I did know him, a long time ago. But, how is it that you young Seeker clones know about that, yet did not recognize me yourselves?"

"We are not obligated to answer your questions, Prisoner. Now, explain this outrageous claim that our brother is courting you."

"Believe me, I think it is crazy, too. However, it is true. Ramjet communicated his intention, I acknowledged his intentions toward me, and then I gave him permission to begin courting me."

"Maybe he was lying?" Skywarp asked, though he did not believe this himself. He was only hoping there was some other explanation.

Thundercracker shook his head, then fixed his optics back on the medi-bot. "She would not know of it unless someone who was a Seeker told her about it."

"It wasn't Starscream, perhaps?" Skywarp offered.

"Not Starscream," Scalpel said.

"No. I suppose not," Skywarp said then.

"Then, unless it was Sunstorm, which is unlikely if she is claiming Ramjet is the one courting her, we must conclude that Ramjet's protocols really did activate, for how else would one of our brothers know enough to even make up a lie such as wanting to court an Autobot."

"What a glitch," Skywarp said.

Thundercracker scoffed. It seemed as ludicrous to him that Ramjet would fixate on an Autobot, but he already held Ramjet as a malfunction in his mind. Of all his brother Seeker clones, Thundercracker had never liked Ramjet. There was no reason; he just didn't. At this point, he probably even liked Dirge better, and Dirge did annoying things like jump on others, demanding things that he wanted.

"He's not glitched," Red Alert said, "There's nothing wrong with his processor."

"I do not believe you!" Thundercracker announced.

Red Alert sat up, and seeing the movement, Skywarp trained his right null ray on her. "What do you really want?" Red Alert asked. "Are you going to shoot me? Let me go? Just keep me here?"

"Maybe we'll use you in a prisoner exchange to get our brothers out," Skywarp said.

"This Autobot is annoying. I think she is toying with us. Maybe Ramjet, malfunction that he is, did fixate on her, but that does not mean she has any genuine feeling for him. She could have just said she accepted the courtship as a means to manipulate her prisoner. Therefore, there is no reason to show her any consideration."

"Can I have her?" Dirge asked. "Let me have the Autobot. I'll take her memories, and then I'll crush her spark."

"No!" Thundercracker said. "I already let you have one. I will say who can do what to the prisoner." He looked down at Red Alert again, "Yes, we killed an Autobot. Did you think us new sparks? Younglings? We have all seen battle. We've fought Autobots and Decepticons." He then addressed his two subordinates, "Our mission is the important thing. I do not care if Red Alert is potential kin or not. But I am not so desperate and dishonorable to harm a disarmed prisoner, unless she gives me reason."

"Shall I guess?" Red Alert asked. "You want to get your brothers out of prison."

Thundercracker laughed. "Do you take me for some idiotic excuse for a leader who reveals all his plans to the prisoner so that they may escape and ruin everything?!"

"Have you even taken a prisoner before?" Red Alert asked, "Skywarp, that's this one here, if I am not mistaken, already said you might use me as a hostage to bargain for Ramjet and Sunstorm. Obviously you do want to get them out. I do not see why you would otherwise have come all the way to Cybertron, which is in Autobot control, and abduct a medi-bot right from the prison access road! You cannot seriously expect me to believe that all coincidence."

"Well, of course that part is obvious. You are a scientist after all, you must be intelligent and educated enough to see that much. Do not, however, expect that I am going to detail our mission plan for you."

Red Alert shook her head. "Starscream used to make the same kind of mistakes. He also was intelligent and educated, but he had a hot temper, and he too often let it get the best of him and fixated on some grudge or was blinded by his emotions, and failed. That is why I am a medi-bot respected by the Council and he ended up a lackey to Megatron, whom I understand has little use for intelligence, education, or scientists, except if they build him really interesting weapons or devices to overthrow Autobots. I am sure Megatron thinks of the lot of you as nothing but flying war-builds. He doesn't appreciate your culture, or your elegant forms, he just views you as fodder for his thirst for more power. You could give him the AllSpark itself and he would toss you aside as soon as he had it."

"Foolish Autobot, I am neither Starscream nor Megatron. I do not intend to repeat the mistakes of either. Now, what cell or cells are Ramjet and Sunstorm in, and how far are the cells from the outer wall, and on which side of the building?"

"They are both in Cell 216, it is along the west side of the building. The wall itself is typical construction; I am not a constructobot to know the actual measurement. However, you cannot break though the wall directly into any cell any more than the prisoners can dig their way out, because there are forcefields."

"It is not for you to know how we may or may not use the information." Thundercracker called to Dirge, "Dive the prisoner, we do not want her broken, understand, just dive her memory enough to see if she is telling us the truth."

"The truth will be mine," Dirge said eagerly.

Slipstream heard a knock on the door, after she finished washing, and then heard one of her brothers call her name. They all had the same range to their vocalizers, but she found it easy to tell them apart by their tone and word choice. Thundercracker spoke rather formally and in a haughty, imperious tone. Dirge, depending on whether he had what he wanted at the moment, would either whine, or sound somewhat distracted; he also was more likely to spice his speech with jargon and use possessive terms. Skywarp had a cowardly mode in which his voice was low and sometimes accompanied by a stammer; he also had what Slipstream thought of as a coy mode, in which he showed a lot more bravado and sounded nearly like their creator.

"Skywarp?"

"Yes, may I come in?"

"Alone," Slipstream called.

Skywarp entered the so-called officer's quarters and saw Slipstream seated on the edge of the berth, reattaching armor to her left leg. He assumed she must have unplugged the armor to wash thoroughly; as her helm was still missing and her right leg was bare down to the protoform layer with exposed struts, cables and ports. She had the same type of photovoltaic filaments on her head that he had. The filaments were made of a type of spun glass and appeared black at the root and white at the tip, although they were actually colorless and transparent.

"What's going on out there?" Slipstream asked. She would think twice, at least, before letting Thundercracker or Dirge see her when not fully armored; it was considered inappropriate for Decepticons to appear so before other soldiers. It was weakness. She and Skywarp had helped each other with some maintenance in the past, and seen each other without full armor. That was before Thundercracker had allowed Skywarp to remain close to him, which seemed such a long time ago, now.

Slipstream had actually seen Him, partially bare of armor, just once; she did not like to think about that anymore.

Skywarp saw Slipstream shiver and then lift the armor for her right leg. "Thundercracker is sorry about that thing that he said to you. He won't tell you."

"I know." Slipstream plugged the armor into her right leg.

"Anyway, he got the Autobot to give us some information. I am confident I can get in, but we expect there will be alarms and internal gates or doors, and I am not absolutely certain I can get the three of us out. I have warped two before, so I probably could do it, but there's no way of knowing beforehand. I'll just waste energy doing test runs."

"So, we still need a way for the rest of us to get inside."

"Exactly, plus, Dirge brought up the point that Ramjet and Sunstorm would have been disarmed, and maybe their comms or other systems deactivated. So, they may not be in a condition to help, when I reach them. Dirge thinks maybe there is on site storage for prisoner's effects."

"Of course he does, but he also has a point. Null rays were His invention. The Autobots have already had too long to study them, not to mention the medi-bot probably downloaded all their programming. If she did not yet make an off-site back-up, then I may be able to delete that data from their system, if I get in."

"Dirge already tried diving her...."

"I should have done it. That's part of my duty. And, he's likely to keep some portion of the data for himself."

"Ah, yes, that is why Thundercracker wishes you to return to duty and try diving her. She gave Dirge some resistance. He was able to confirm things she told us as true, but not to get anything further."

"I concur with Thundercracker. Please let our leader know that I will make the attempt. Have Red Alert sent in here. You can come back in to watch that nothing bad happens. Have the others wait outside."

"W-what could go wrong?" Skywarp asked, timid again.

"It's just I haven't dove an Autobot before. I can hack their systems of course. I've cracked some of their encryption codes so far. Their data nets are easy, all pure machine language without encryption. Earth systems are no problem. Still, a conscious Autobot is different. The one Dirge dove before was already in stasis. And, you said she put up resistance. I'm sure there's possibility of some kind of feedback or traceback and other defenses."

"It's not really my specialty."

"That's why I am Information Officer," Slipstream said brightly.

Skywarp gave a nod as he opened his private comm to Thundercracker, relaying Slipstream's plan. "Thundercracker says he will send her in." Skywarp went to stand near the window, where he could watch the prison, while still being hidden by the wall.

Red Alert walked in. They had not bothered to place her in restraints, but then matters were complicated by her claim to be potential kin. "Did they tell you why you were to come?"

"No, but I suppose they thought it fitting the femme interrogate the other femme."

"That's got nothing to do with it. I expect a medi-bot to know better. We all have the same plugs and ports. It's just an adaptation to better assimilate with species having sexual dimorphism."

"Which resulted in gender dimorphism independent from the mechology of reproduction," Red Alert continued. "At least some of you got the codes for science aptitude."

"Actually, we each possess all the donated codes, we simply do not each make identical use of our various inherited traits and aptitudes."

"Which allows you to each fulfill distinct roles within a group, rather than compete with each other for the same position."

"As you are no doubt thinking, we still do argue over a great number of things, but we have proven an effective team thus far, new to it all, as we are."

"I am truly fascinated, but exhilarating as this conversation is, I am here to be interrogated."

Slipstream gestured to the empty section of the berth beside her. "Have a seat."

Red Alert sat as was suggested. She was not certain what to expect. She had resisted the young one she now knew was designated Dirge, but it had taken effort and caused her processor to strain. She wondered if this was part of the good trooper/bad trooper tactic that Clamp Down had explained to her. After Dirge's greedy forceful manner of diving her memory for information, they were going to have the femme pretend to be caring and helpful and expect this make Red Alert suddenly vulnerable and willing, like a hostage developing Simfur Syndrome?

"Your designation is Red Alert," Slipstream said. It was not phrased a question. "My Designation is Slipstream, I am Air Commander and Information Officer. Skywarp is there, just to watch, in case there are side-effects. The others will not enter."

Red Alert gave a nod. Was the femme, Slipstream, trying to play at being bad trooper now?

"Understand, I actively dislike Autobots as a whole. I find the ones on Cybertron decadent and the ones on Earth too willing to ally themselves to organics who would enslave machines. However, I hold no personal grudge against you, thus far. And if Ramjet is truly courting you, I am willing to consider you potential kin, though you be different in spark and shell. So it is not my aim to harm you."

"But you will, right?"

"If you resist. Mock me if you must, try to get the act over with, and put up a brave face. I understand. I am much better at diving than Dirge. I will slip right through your defenses. It will hurt less if you just give me access, rather than force me to break you."

"If I gave you the access, I would be complicit in your actions. So, try to break me, if that is what you must do."

Slipstream tossed her head, causing the mop of glass filaments to sway cutely about her head. "Fine. Be noble, Autobot." She uncapped the port on the right side of her neck and pulled out the retractable i/o cable. Slipstream then opened the port on the left side of Red Alert's neck and connected the cable.

To dive was to exist as an intelligence in an environment of pure data. But, as all input to the processor was normally data anyway, including data from sense receptors, the processor tended to extrapolate some data into false sensory input during a dive. In other words, Slipstream and Red Alert perceived themselves to exist in a virtual construct, like a great wire-frame expanse.

Slipstream was accustomed to the environment and the change in perception from outer to inner. Red Alert was not accustomed to being dove, or even diving into other systems herself. There was no unifying Cybertronian moral regarding how information was shared, be it hardline or wireless; be it between business partners, friends, schoolmates, or lovers; or what type of data was give, exchanged or received; except that it be voluntary. This meant that what Slipstream was doing was morally gray at best.

Slipstream did not hold to this moral. She felt great interest, perhaps even love for the handling of data and codes. Personal opinion of a mechanism did not matter where information was concerned. To her, a system was a system. She would dive, surf and swim data, navigating as if a fluid being herself, always finding some small gap to slip through. If she did not find a gap existing, she might be like a great body of water against a masonry wall, pressing until the weakest point gave way, even if it allowed her to access only a trickle of data. That small crack could become a wide breech, if she pressed herself enough. Even strong defenses could be worn down given time, eroded by her shifting data, dismantling the defenses a small bit at a time.

Red Alert put up what resistance she could. She drove away, across the virtual wire-frame, relying on her former self-image: a lightly-built white sports model with adaptations for performing long jumps and aerial stunts. She summoned virtual walls to block Slipstream. She set raps behind her. Red Alert tried to keep her secrets: access codes, classified projects, the identity of her kin who was undercover among Decepticons...the emotions and temperament she suppressed in order to function with clinical objectivity.

Slipstream was able to reach all of it. She found paths Red Alert did not expect, small flaws in her defenses which she might exploit, reaching highly protected areas of the central processing unit and memory by going through lightly guarded system utilities.

Slipstream pulled herself out of the dive and gasped, as if she had physically been submerged in fluid and needed air for her atmospheric flight jet engines.

Red Alert, conscious of the outside world, pulled the cord from her neck angrily and collapsed onto the berth.

Slipstream saw Skywarp take a step toward them. "She's not harmed, not physically. She's just very angry with me...or herself."

"Did you get enough?" Skywarp asked.

"Can you watch her? I need to report to Thundercracker.

Slipstream grabbed her helm from the floor and fit it to her head before going to the door. Skywarp saw her go and then looked to the prisoner. Red Alert was gripping at the surface layer of the berth and alternately beating the surface in frustration. If she had claws, she would have been tearing things to pieces, but she just had little round digits.

"Are you going to keep hiding, or are you going to come out and see that our prisoner is undamaged?" Skywarp asked aloud, though he was speaking to Scalpel within his cockpit.

Scalpel snapped his claws in irritation. He was not certain he wanted Red Alert to know of his presence. "Sneaky. Manipulative." Scalpel complained.

Skywarp smiled. "Does that mean you will be coming out, Doctor?"

"Out." Scalpel said finally. He hopped onto Skywarp's right hand when it reached in for him. He saw the Autobot's blue optics fix on him; she started laughing.

It was so funny, Red Alert thought. She had called Perceptor, asking for clearance, so she could access Professor Scalpel's files, in the pre-war academy database, in order to gain further insight into the Seeker clones. Now, the Seeker specialist was right here, with the very Seeker clones she had intended to study, and who were holding her prisoner. It was so funny. It was truly, truly, truly hysterical.