Running Wild

by Acidgreenflames

After being shot down by Autobots, Thundercracker's trine is forced to leave him behind. With no way home, he seeks shelter in an empty horse trailer, and its owner is less than thrilled… RATING CHANGED

10. Peace Through Blood

Chapter ten

Important Information

"..." Speaking

:...: comm. link

'...'bonded speech

'...' thinking

Astrosecond- 2.5 earth Seconds

Klik- 150 earth seconds/ 2.5 earth Minutes

Orn- 150 earth minutes/ 2.5 earth Hours

Joor- 60 earth hours/2.5 earth Days

Metacycle- 17.5 earth days/2.5 earth Weeks

Vorn- 10 earth weeks/2.5 earth months

Stellercycle-30 earth months/2.5 years

Breem-slang for a moment/minute.

Night Cycle: star down to star up

Day Cycle: Star up to star down

Authors Note: Okay guys I know it's been a while since I've updated, but I have a very long chapter to make up for that!

As always, a massive thank you to Brighter Than The Sun, Sunny. As always she finds my silly mistakes and points them out.

Thank you to Wanderling, Loveme-hateme, LightOurDarkestHour, Demonsufer, peppymint, TsukiyomiNeko, Iwanita, Brigitte LP and HorseLover314 for reviewing! You all make my day to know you enjoy my story.

As always a pre-view of the next chapter will be up on Live Journal soon.

Warning: Little bit bloody. Little bit gory. Death of unimportant OC's.

Disclaimer: I own only my OC's, nothing else.

()()()

An empty high rise parking garage served as the rendezvous point for the three missing mech's to meet up with the rest of the Nest team, when the initial search of Los Angeles turned up nothing. The plan was to join up with the others, give what small amount of information they had discovered, which really was only the locations of where Thundercracker was not, and give Prowl enough time to come up with a proper search strategy.

That was the initial plan once Jetfire had landed on the outskirts of the city, and the shuttle was to wait patiently for the others to return, presumably with a snarling unhappy seeker in tow.

Everything should have been going according to Prowl's plan, if only he had considered Sideswipe's mischievous nature when he was board. Really, the tactician should have seen this coming, or at least seen Sideswipe's boredom making him do something stupid.

But he hadn't.

He had thought that the mission would have kept the frontliner's nature to a minimum until they had made it back to the relative safety of the base. It had been a tactical error.

One Sideswipe would no doubt pay for.

Door wings arched high, creating a sharp 'V', Prowl's blank, always controlled face bore into Sunstreaker and Hound. Anyone who knew Prowl would know that his face never revealed anything the police cruiser was feeling. His door wings, however, would present an array of emotion, if one knew how to look.

Hound could not read the signs, taking Prowl's high wings and emotionless face as a sign of anger; dropping his gaze to his green pedes, his hands fidgeting in front of him. Sunstreaker, on the other hand, knew the signs well enough to know that Prowl was scared. Scared for his stupid older brother like a creator would be, scared that something would happen to him while he was alone with some unknown human on a joy ride.

The gold armoured mech could tell this simply looking at his door wings and the slight tremble that caused them to shake ever so slightly. There was also a very slight shift in his weight as Prowl pinned the frontliner and the tracker with his cold look.

Sunstreaker wanted to comfort the tactician, place a hand to his shoulder; a reassuring touch to let him know that Sideswipe would be fine and they could all put the crimson warrior on a massive guilt trip that would last for days. Not to mention Prowl could punish him by putting him on cleaning duty in the medbay, where Ratchet would be glad to put him through his paces, for the next few weeks.

However, Sunstreaker knew they all had their part to play in front of the rest of the army and comfort would only come in the safety of quarters, with Jazz and his moronic twin. Leaning back, putting all his weight onto one leg, Sunstreaker crossed his arms over his chest with a scowl.

"What do you mean, he allowed the human to take him?" The voice was cold and thin with just a hint of the anger and fear that lay below the surface. It was a tone that caused the tracker beside the golden warrior to fidget even more; the white and blue spy that stood behind the SIC, servo's twitched as though he longed to take a green servo and squeeze it to give comfort.

Just like the others, he too had his part to play in the eyes of others.

"I. I don't know Prowl. He was gone when I got there." Hound said quietly, his soft blue optics down cast.

If at all possible, Prowl's door wings came just a fraction higher and beside him Optimus Prime crossed his massive arms over his chest. The Autobot leader sighed and narrowed his optics at the ground, not wanting to project his own anger on any who didn't deserve it.

"Why didn't you stop him!" Lennox snapped from beside the Prime, his small face scrunched in anger, his hands tight on the M-16 he carried. He was just as worried as the others, but hid it well with anger.

Venting an exasperated sigh, Sunstreaker sneered, "And do what Lennox? Transform and hall his sorry aft back! That would have gone over well with Mearing and Morshower. Then we would have to explain to the human that took him that the Lamborghini, that she was stealing, is in fact an alien and that she would have to move on and pick another car." The golden frontliner snarled at the human major, "I maintained cover."

Lennox sighed, rubbing at his eyes, "Alright fine." Another hard sigh, "What do we do?"

"Strip his armour and let him rust out in the city?" Sunstreaker answered lightly with a casual shrug of a shoulder.

Prowl, Optimus and Lennox all gave him hard looks, but Epps gave a hard snort, "I'll second that."

A few of the other Nest members shifted uneasily, but Epps confidently pushed his way through the throng of soliders to the commanders. He cast a glance over his shoulder at the men under his command, "Buck up boys. 'Ya knew that we were chasing seekers, and that problems were going to happen."

The Sergeant picked his way to the commanders, coming to stand beside Optimus, "I'm worried about 'Sides too. But he's a big mech that can take care of himself, this changes nothing. Besides," He grinned now, "When we do find him, we will strip his sorry aft of his armour and leave him to rust out here. In the meantime, what do we do?"

Lennox and Optimus sighed, good ol' Epps. The one to always calm down both Autobots and humans when tension was running too high, getting everyone back to focus on the problem at hand.

Prowl's door wings lowered back a fraction, "Give me a moment, while I figure out the best way to search the city."

Hound edged around the planning commanders and quietly slinked off to stand with Mirage. The tracker and the master spy itched to hold each other, thankful the other was unharmed; instead they clasped forearms, and Mirage cultured voice quietly rang out, "Welcome back Hound."

"Thanks Mirage."

Preceptor sat alone near the rear of the group, quietly stroking the butt of his rifle, looking almost sad as Hound and Mirage reunited, where able to touch each other. His black servo floating up to brush against his tracking monocle with a gentle sigh, the scientist turned sniper lost in some memory of the past.

Jazz slipped away from his special ops mechs in favour of standing next to Prowl. He was close enough to provide comfort as their EM fields meshed together, yet far enough away that no one would comment; only certain humans were privileged to know that the second and third were bonded, and that was the way they wanted to keep it.

Epps, however, gave the saboteur a knowing smirk, having once walked in on the pair when Prowl forgot to lock the door to his office, "Ah'm sure 'Sides will be fine. He should be able ta handle a single, human femme for a little while. Ah'm not too worried. 'Sides, the chances of him actually finding Thundercracker are like what? Less than five percent Ah bet."

"Under one percent actually. The chances that this particular girl, a single girl amongst thousands here in the city, will be able to lead Sideswipe to Thundercracker are so astronomically small, that I almost deem it an impossibility."

Jazz's visor brightened for a moment as a slight smirk crossed his grey faceplates, "The impossible only has ta happen once Prowler."

()()()

Little Lucy was sitting happily on Thundercracker's knee, her small arms crossed over her chest with an air of superiority as her three cousins stared in shock at the Decepticon.

Aleyah was at the top of the stairs, leaning on the railing, with her head cocked to the side, inspecting the alien with great interest, but saying nothing; almost as though she were worried she might insult the seeker again.

Callie was down on the first floor, standing next to Thundercracker's knee; she had pulled the bench over and pushed all Danny's tools to one side so that Mia could sit on it, while her blonde cousin pressed an ice pack to the back of her head.

Despite the knot on her head, Mia was staring with wide-eyed shock at the seeker; her mouth hung open like a fish as she tried, and failed, to form words. Occasionally her slim hand would come up to point at the seeker in her shock, only to float back down to her lap, saying nothing.

Much to both Thundercracker's and Callie's chagrin, Liz was sitting at the top of the stair case, almost optic level with the seeker, shooting question after question at Thundercracker in rapid fire succession. Everything from what his planet was like, to what flying was like, and did he have programming…shot at him from the tiny human.

"If you have a processor, which essentially acts as your brain, do you have," Liz paused in her question, excitement dancing in her brown eyes, as she considered her words, trying not to insult the seeker any more than they already had, "like, an emotional processor? You seem to have emotions, if I were to judge it based on your reactions when we thought you were just a robot."

Thundercracker sighed and gave a flick of his wing. He tolerated the girl's bombarding questions only because he knew it made Callie happy to see him interacting with her family, "We have an emotional cortex, just as I'm sure you have a part of your brain that controls your emotions. We do have the ability to shut it down. However, our spark will find a way to essentially bypass the bypass and force us to feel. That can take years to happen, so when the back lash does happen, it's rather destructive, especially if you've had that block up for so long. It's just easier to learn to control your emotions and expressions."

"Does it happen often? Leaning to control your emotions?" Liz asked, nothing but curiosity in her soft brown eyes.

The seeker snorted, "No. Most mech's can be read like an open book. It's why so many wear visors and faceplates at all times, they can't form what you would call a 'poker face'." His own face and voice serious.

Liz hummed another question already at her lips when Aleyah threw her own at the Decepticon, "I've got a question. Why are you here? On Earth? It's not like anything exciting ever happens here."

The greying seeker frowned at her, shifting a little in a sudden nervousness. He shouldn't be nervous or worried; he technically wasn't lying to them, merely keeping them in the dark about certain facts...well major facts, but facts none the less.

Luckily for Thundercracker, Callie had sensed his unease, taking it as something too painful to talk about rather than the guilt he actually felt for lying, "He's from a fraction called the Decepticons." she told her cousins, Mia's wide eyed stare slowly becoming normal once again.

"We're lead by a mech called Megatron." the seeker mumbled, optic down cast, purposely not elaborating.

"They've been at war with the Autobots for centuries." Callie added as she pulled the ice pack from her cousin's head to inspect the bump, "You're going to have a lovely goose egg Mia." she added with a shrug.

"What do you mean war?" The green eyed girl asked, her worried gaze going from her blonde cousin to the Decepticon.

Callie shrugged as she reapplied the pack, "The Deception's are freedom fighters," she explained, not noticing the seeker's sudden twitch, "The Autobot counsel wanted to keep all the lower cast Cybertronions where they were, despite the horrible conditions. So the Decepticons rose up against them, fighting for a better future. The Autobot's leader, Sentinel Prime was unhappy with these uprisings, I guess. So he obliterated Thundercracker's home city of Vos." She paused in her story before adding, "They destroyed the nurseries first."

Liz frowned, "Nurseries?"

Callie nodded, "It's where they housed baby seekers, seekerlings. Sentinel had them all destroyed, which threw the planet into a war that has lasted, well, like, forever. The Deception's were forced off world, and have basically been on the run ever since. The Autobots chased them here, and Earth has become almost like a final stand...I guess."

Another bolt of guild speared Thundercracker's spark, which he desperately tried to drown out; he refused to feel bad for lying to Callie. He refused!

He had no choice at the time and he was so close to getting back to the Nemesis to screw it all up now. He would leave with Callie and her family thinking he was a hero, and he would continue to watch over her. Make sure these people from Boston left her well enough alone.

It was the harsh reality, he had to deal with whether or not he liked it. He'd come to the bitter conclusion that he couldn't take them to the Nemesis and he couldn't stay. This wasn't a fairy tale, Decepticon's didn't get happily ever after, and that was just the way it was.

He still had no idea what he was going to do if Megatron ever managed to surpass Optimus Prime and take over this planet. He'd cross that bridge when they got to it.

Shoving down hard on his guilt, Thundercracker gave the girls a firm nod, agreeing with Callie.

"Why do the Autobots want to keep the other classes down?" Liz asked gently, her small head tilting to the side.

Shrugging a blue shoulder guard, Thundercracker replied, "They liked things the way they were. For them, everything was fine. Better than perfect really, while so many others had nothing, were left with nothing, and no one wanted to help them. It was easier to sweep them under the rug like dirt then deal with the issue. If you ever speak with a mech from the streets, they'd tell you all about it."

"Did you grow up on the streets?" Callie asked, her soft blue eyes looking up at him.

"No," came the hesitant reply, "But I know a few mechs that had. The council never cared about them. For most, the first time someone gave a damn about them, their wellbeing, was when they joined the Decepticons. The Autobot Council would have let each and every one of them deactivate on the street rather than help them."

Aleyah snorted, leaning heavily on the railing, "Sounds like our government."

Thundercracker could hear the bitterness and anger in her voice. He knew that she was thinking of the police that left them to their fate after Callie had given them the information they needed for the car thief ring, "Yes. Many of your own leaders share many similarities with the Autobot Council. You, however, were lucky to have a family to watch out for you, to take care of you."

Aleyah managed a smirk at him, "I suppose. But Danny's still a pain in the ass."

Callie snorted at her cousin, hearing the playful tone, "Where is Danny? I figured she'd be here by now."

The others exchanged looks and a shrug, "Dunno, she left a while ago. Didn't say where she was going, just that she was going out." Mia explained, seemingly coming out of her shell, no longer staring up at the seeker in shock.

Callie seemed to freeze, her dark blue eyes narrowing, becoming harder, "She didn't say where she was going?"

The seeker frowned, his metal brow furrowing, "Does that matter?"

Liz scrunched up her small face as she looked up at the seeker, looking a little worried, "Well. Generally it's when Danny doesn't tell us where she's going that she does her...more exuberant activities."

Frowning at her, Thundercracker didn't quite understand why she danced around the issue until Callie piped up, her voice hard and angry, "Don't bother Liz. He knows that Danny steals cars. No doubt the little idiot is off doing just that!"

Even Thundercracker winced at Callie's hard tone, not used to hearing such an angry, scathing tone from the usually gentle human. Mia squirmed beneath her cousin's hand, "I'm sure Danny's just looking for the men from Boston. She said they were closer to the garage yesterday and she's probably just worried they'll find it. She's probably just leading them back into the city so they don't find us."

The more Mia spoke the stronger her voice got, the more confident she became in her opinion. Danny wouldn't be so foolish, so brash to steal a car after she and Callie had several fights on the issue and deciding that they would go straight after Boston.

Thundercracker gave Mia the same look as Callie did; a disbelieving look and a raised brow, "You don't actually believe that, do you?" he asked, not bothering to hide his own disbelieve at Mia's naivety.

The green eyed girl gave the seeker a weak smile, causing him to roll is optic with a disgruntled sigh, "Unbelievable." he grumbled, crossing his arms over his blue chest plates, "No survival sense in you."

The sudden sound of a high powered engine revved on the other side of the bay door, causing the girls to jump at the sudden noise, and Thundercracker's wing to twitch.

Callie's dark blue eyes narrowed at the bay doors, "Aleyah, what is that?"

"Sounds like an engine of a sports car." Thundercracker said softly, his tanks twisting in worry. There was no way the Autobots could have found him here, it was impossible. It couldn't be possible, the odds were against them, not him.

"Aleyah, check the window. What's out there?" Callie asked, her voice low and angry.

The black haired girl pushed herself off the railing, walking to the window at the end of the little corridor. Pressing her small hands against the brick work, she peered outside and laughed a little nervously, "Holy shit!" another nervous laugh, "You're going to be so mad Callie!"

Sighing heavily, Callie leaned her hip against work bench, pressing her hand to her eyes, "What did she take?"

Another laugh came from Aleyah before she responded, "A red lambo."

Callie groaned as an impatient honk came from the other side of the bay door; the blonde rubbed at her eyes and she muttered darkly under her breath. Behind her the seeker had tensed, his frame going ram rod stiff.

No. nononononono! There was no way. There was no way that pit spawned, jet judoing, crimson bastard of a Lamborghini could be on the other side of that bay door, there was no way that he could have found him.

'But Danny's a car thief.' The seeker thought to himself as panic made his tanks drop and twist, and Callie practically threw herself away from the bench and stomped angrily to the bay door, 'She couldn't have stolen the slagger! There's no way he would have allowed that! There's no way! It can't be poss-'

Callie angrily shoved the tin door up and scowled at the red lambo with all her might, hoping that it would combust with her anger; the moment Thundercracker spotted the crimson sports car, most coherent thought stopped and he took a sharp intake of air in his panic. The only words that made any logical sense in his helm were 'No slagging way...'

Liz, looking worried for completely other reasons, turned her attention back to the seeker, "You okay Thundercracker?"

As Danny drove the Lamborghini into the garage bay, the seeker gave the smaller blonde a tight nod, "Fine." he said in a tense, controlled voice as his black servos began to shake.

Liz gave him an odd look then glanced at her cousin and sister, feeling a fight brewing between the two, "Don't worry. Once Callie calms down everything will be okay."

"Mhmm." the blue seeker muttered, not really paying attention to the human in favour of staring nervously at the lambo, who no doubt already sensed him sitting there. Could sense how weak his body had become since being shot down.

He knew it was Sideswipe, there were too many dings for a car that nice and the plating shone in a way that Earth metals never could. It was just that...it seemed so impossible for the Autobot to find him, especially when he was so close to getting back to the Nemesis.

Callie pulled down on the chain to close the bay door and locked it behind Sideswipe, unknowingly locking the injured Decepticon and volatile Autobot inside with the humans; Thundercracker couldn't stop the flinch when he heard his human lock the door, sliding the bolt into place.

Fear ate at his tanks as he stared at Sideswipe; if the frontliner started a fight now, he would surely loose and most likely be deactivated because of his injuries. More importantly, however, if the Autobot attacked him in such a confined space, the girls and their softy, squishy bodies would more than likely be killed in the cross fire. That was unacceptable to Thundercracker; he had promised to keep Callie and Lucy safe and he refused to fail again. Refused to fail like he had failed in Vos.

The seeker just thanked Primus that it wasn't Sunstreaker that had been stolen.

As Danny cut Sideswipe's engine she easily climbed from the lambo's frame, grabbing her bag, coat and tool as she did. Pressing the scissor door closed behind her, her gaze went right to the damaged seeker; her brows furrowed in confusion and her lips pulled down into a small frown.

"Sooo, what's with the broken robot in the garage?" Danny asked slowly as she looked Thundercracker up and down, and the seeker couldn't help but wonder what he looked like through her eyes; missing a wing, armour cracked, dirty and dying, an optic still not working, a massive hole in his side, and energon slowly weeping from his wounds.

Again, subconscious with his appearance, the seeker moved his servo to cover the gaping wound in his side and shifted his attention back to the real threat in the room. He wondered how long it would be before Sideswipe blew his cover.

"What's with the fucking Lamborghini! Don't think ya bought it Danny, did you!" Callie snapped, her small hand waving wildly behind her to point at the seemingly innocent Lamborghini.

Still not taking her eyes from the damaged seeker, Danny walked to where Callie had moved the bench, dropping her things unceremoniously beside Mia' thigh. The older cousin walked slowly back to where Sideswipe sat, never taking her brown eyes from Thundercracker; the car thief made her way back to the lambo and perched herself on the hood of the car.

"I think I asked first." Danny said gently, but firmly, "What the fuck is with the giant robot?" she crossed her arms over her chest as she continued to stare at the seeker.

Callie growled lowly, pressing her hands to her hips and pulled out her 'mom voice'. "This is Thundercracker. He's an alien robot from another planet. What the hell's with the car?"

Danny finally tore her eyes away from the seeker and gave her cousin a wide eyed look, "An alien?"

"Yes. An alien."

Danny blinked slowly at her cousin, her face blank, "Seriously? That's the best you can come up with? An alien robot? Not a cyborg from the future? Not an ancient guardian that's lay dormant for centuries? An alien robot is what you're going with?" the sarcasm dripped from her voice like thick mud.

Callie sighed, "Not again." her hand flying up to her face in what humans called a 'face palm'.

"No, Danny, it's true! He's an alien, from Cyberton. He has a spark and everything!" Liz said excitedly from the top of the stairs.

Danny raised a shaped eyebrow at her sister, "Isn't Cyberton a word from a Black Eye Peas song? Really, you guys couldn't have come up with something better than that?"

A soft giggle left Liz as a shy smile spread across her small face, "That's what I said too. But it's true Danny! Thundercracker is an alien!"

Danny's brown eyes blinked up at her smallest sister, giving her a disbelieving look, "Kay...yeah. Guys this shit isn't funny. How much did you pay for it?"

Aleyah laughed suddenly from her position by the railing, "HA! That's what I said Danny would ask!"

Danny's un-amused gaze moved from Liz to Aleyah, shaking her head, her burgundy pony tail swinging behind her head, "This isn't funny Aleyah," Danny's firm voice wiped the smirk from her sisters face. The black haired girl knew when her older sister was dropping into her own street savvy mind set when they were dealing with bad situations.

"We have people from Boston who are trying to kill us," Thundercracker let out a snarl at her words before he could stop himself, to which Danny ignored, "have any of you remembered that? They will not hesitate. You all know that, we have dealt with people like this before, and your fucking joking around about aliens?"

With the exception of Callie, the other girls sunk into themselves at their sister's angry words; their shoulders hunched and their heads lowered as if in shame. Even Lucy seemed to scoot back further along Thundercracker's leg as though to hide from her irate cousin.

Callie, however, stood her ground, "He's a real alien Danny. Whether or not you believe us, is not our problem. My concern is where did you get the lambo?"

Thundercracker winced at the girl's angry tone, momentarily forgetting about the impulsive frontliner in favour of watching the little melodrama playing out below him.

"Where the hell do you think I got it? Went to a dealership, found one that was a little fucked up and bought it? Nooooo! I stole it." Danny gave a hard little snort, "Where did I get it. Unbelievable."

Callie finally reached the end of her tether, her vast amount of patience snapping all at once; no one could anger the blonde quite as much as Danny, but the burgundy haired girl had a knack for it.

Snarling, the blonde slammed her small fists onto Sideswipe's already dented hood; she opened her mouth as though to snap back at Danny, said car thief looking rather unruffled by her cousin's sudden outburst, when Sideswipe reached the end of his own rope.

Before Callie could rip into her cousin, the Lamborghini's V-twelve engine suddenly roared to life, revving high and angry, causing the blonde to gasp and remove her hands from his hood. Danny's confused eyes looked down at the hood, although she looked more annoyed than confused and didn't bother to move.

Thundercracker snarled, gently removing Lucy from his knee and placing her behind his metal body to keep her safe should Sideswipe attack; he came to his knees, pressing the flat bottom of his pede against the wall behind him so that he wouldn't fall back onto the small girl.

Sinking back so that his aft sat against the back's of his heals, the seeker gently snarled, "Callie come here, quickly. Mia you too." His voice was gruff and tight as he extended a servo to the girls; Liz and Aleyah were at the top of the stairs and would be safe there.

Mia jumped from the work bench the same time Callie began to back away from the Lamborghini, whose engine rumbled unhappily; Danny still didn't move, her lips pulled down into an annoyed frown, "Piece of shit." She grumbled.

Callie, however, started to look fearful at the vehicle, as she backed away towards the seeker, her guardian. She and Mia backed all the way to stand behind the blue jet with Lucy; Mia grabbed at the smaller girl, pulling her to her lean body.

"What-what is it TC?" Callie asked, fighting the tremble in her voice.

"An Autobot." He snarled, still not raising his weapon as long as Callie's cousin stood between he and the Autobot. 'Damndamndamndamn!' the seeker thought to himself, worry knotting his tanks. He hid it well though, snarling at the crimson car.

Panic flooded Callie's dark blue eyes; looking away from her seeker, her annoyance forgotten in exchange for dread, "Danny get away from that car! It's dangerous."

Danny rolled her brown eyes, ignoring her cousins and sisters panic, "Alright guys, this isn't funny. Turn that," she jabbed an angry finger at Thundercracker "thing off. The car probably just has bad wiring. I did have to hot wire it to get it started, it's just a glitch somewhere, that's all."

Liz, who had retreated with Aleyah to the mouth of her door, gave Danny a terrified look, "Danny we are being serious! Thundercracker is an alien and so is that Lamborghini. It's evil, get away from it!"

The car thief snorted, ignoring the angry revving beneath her, "What, is it going to go all 'Christine' on me? Run me over?" Danny rolled her brown eyes, the sarcasm still dripping from her voice.

"Danielle May McCormick! Get your sorry, skinny ass over here before you get killed!"

"Oooo, bringing out the full name now Cal? Don'cha think your taking this prank a little far? I mean, really if this was a real alien, could I do this?" The brown eyed girl then balled her small hand into a fist and raised it.

"Danny, wait!" Callie cried out, but to no avail; Danny's small hand came down as hard as it could onto the hood of the crimson lambo.

Everyone present, Thundercracker included, gasped in unison as her small hand left an equally small dent in the already dented hood. Even Sideswipe stalled for a moment as he comprehended what just happened, his engine cutting out for just a moment.

Rage from the frontliner rolled off his crimson frame in thick waves as he snarled, "That's it!"

The angry voice from beneath Danny caused her brown eyes to widen in shock as the car began to vibrate; the small human practically leapt from the hood of the Lamborghini as Sideswipe transformed. The frontliner came up onto his knees, having to duck because of the size of the building, guns already drawn, powered and ready to fire.

Reacting, purely on instinct, Thundercracker raised his arms, his shoulder mounted weapons humming with power, his dark servos balled into firsts. 'Two shots,' the seeker mused darkly to himself, 'two shots and I won't have the energy to fight.'

The Autobot and Decepticon snarled and glared at each other, neither moving so much as a piston in fear of starting a fire fight that would kill the humans, something both Cybertronions could agree they did not want to happen; neither willing to admit it.

Not much shocked Danny anymore, she had seen too much. Been through too much to be shocked easily, but the car thief stood between the two aliens, guns hot and ready to be fired, in frozen shock. Her shoulders dropped low, her eyes wide, mouth dropped open as she stared at the crimson frontliner in what could only be described as dumb founded shock.

"The fuck?" she managed to get out, her brown eyes not leaving the angry faceplates of Sideswipe.

From behind her, Callie snapped at her cousin, "I told you they were aliens! Now get over here!"

Danny didn't move, instead continued to stare in shock at Sideswipe, "That's a fucking robot!" the girl gasped, her hand waving wildly at the Lamborghini.

"Yes Danny, I can see that. Now get over here!" Callie said, trying to calm down.

Danny didn't move, still too stunned for her brain to function properly and tell her to get down, "I drove that thing here!"

"Him! You drove him here, now get out of the way." Callie said easily, her own inner calm coming out.

Instead, Danny made a strangled little noise, "What the hell..."

Ignoring the small human in favour of glaring at each other, Sideswipe and Thundercracker never took their optics from the other, "Hand over the humans Thundercracker. No need for them to get hurt." the crimson frontliner said calmly, his anger just below the surface.

"Rot in the Pit Autobot. There's no way I'm handing Callie and Lucy over to your clumsy servos." Thundercracker replied easily, as his processor began to spin again. 'Not now.' he thought desperately to himself as he forced himself to focus on the frontliner.

A snarling growl left the frontliners throat, his lip plates rising to bare his denta at the seeker, "You already killed three humans, release the girls or so help me..."

The threat hung stale between them; Thundercracker knew that he would never win a fight in his condition, they both knew it, but Sideswipe would never endanger the lives of innocents.

Tension mounted between them, both Cybertronion's frames were still and tense, ready to attack should the other make a wrong move. Oddly quiet, gentle snarls were exchanged between the two, neither willing to back down and neither willing to attack fist, risking the humans; Danny, suspended between them, still in a deep state of shock, unable to move.

Thundercracker needed to protect the girls, even from the Autobots; so determined to protect Callie and Lucy, thus protecting their cousins, the seeker didn't even realize that he didn't think about himself. He didn't matter, protecting the girls, who had spent the past few days protecting him, were what mattered.

To return the favour they had so graciously given him.

"Give me the girls, no one has to get hurt." Sideswipe hissed, his servos never wavering.

"Go frag yourself Autobot." Thundercracker responded calmly, despite the warning messages that continued to pop up in his HUD. Eons of practice kept the seeker's face pulled in an ugly snarl, refusing to show the enemy any sign of weakness.

Callie, meanwhile, stood in shock and worry by the seekers leg; she worried for her cousin, who still hadn't moved and she worried for Thundercracker, who was still so hurt. She had to do something, draw the Autobot's attention away for a moment, get Danny away from him.

Talking a deep, calming breath, Callie looked over her shoulder at Mia and Lucy, "Keep Lucy here, stay hidden."

Mia shot a scared look to her older cousin, her face pinched because of the emotion, "Why hasn't Danny moved?"

It dawned on Callie that Mia was so frightened because Danny had literally shut down, frozen in place; not even in their darkest hour had her vibrant cousin done that. Even hurting, bleeding out on the floor in the one place that should have been safe, Danny hadn't frozen like this. She had done what she always did, react.

"There's a pair of giant alien robots about to shoot this place up. We just have to give her a little jump start is all. Now stay here." The blonde said soothingly; she slipped around the stair case with neither Cybertronion noticing, slowly making her way to the work bench.

A sharp snarl from Sideswipe drew the blonde's attention back to the potentially volatile situation, "Enough Thundercracker!" the frontliner sneered, "Release the humans. Now or so help me..."

The blue seeker, with his damaged armour, merely snarled at the Autobot, refusing to answer the threat. Callie scrunched her face up in confusion; it almost sounded like the red mech was worried about them. But why? He wanted to obliterate her world.

Shoving those thoughts and her confusion away, she slowly picked up a wrench from Danny's bench, took careful aim and threw it with all her might at the obsidian helm that adorned the crimson mech's cranium.

The wrench spun in the air in a way that would have made Ratchet proud, and clanged sharply against the frontliner's helm, before clattering to the floor. Ever so slowly, both the Decepticon and the Autobot turned their faces away from each other to look at the small, stupid, human. Neither could hide their shock at the small creature's audacity.

Danny didn't even twitch.

Callie tensed for a moment, her small body going ram-rod stiff and ready to move should the Lamborghini decide to shoot her. She half expected him to turn his weapons on her after throwing the wrench at him, but that was what she wanted. If the Autobot turned his weapons on her, it would give Thundercracker an opening to take the crimson mech down.

Much to her surprise however, the Autobot just stared at her in shock, his light grey jaw dropped in disbelief. Risking a glance over her shoulder Callie looked at Thundercracker; the seeker mirrored the crimson mech's look of disbelief.

Thundercracker knew that Callie had a tendency to do dumb things, but even this was more than just slightly suicidal. It was Sideswipe for Primus-sake! He could easily kill her, as easily as Thundercracker could. Only thing was, the Autobot wouldn't. His crazed brother might have, Sunstreaker had little love for humanity, but Sideswipe wouldn't harm something so weak.

Callie, however, didn't know this. Had no idea that out of either of the twins, Sideswipe was the calmer of the two, saner of the two and less likely to attack a human should he be attacked in such a foolish manner.

It dawned on Thundercracker than that Callie was trying to help him, trying to save him from the Autobot. He felt a flair of annoyance for a moment, after all he was supposed to be protecting her and not the other way around, but he quickly squashed that thought code.

Callie was trying to help him defeat the frontliner. Drawing his attention in an attempt to act as a distraction so that Thundercracker could get a clean hit in. It was a rather good idea with only one major fault; if Thundercracker let a shot off, Sideswipe would go down shooting in order to protect himself and thus the potential for the girls to be injured would increase dramatically.

Then he would also call to his brother for help, and there was no way in the Pit that Thundercracker had the strength to deal with the 'dandelion of death' as Skywarp liked to call him. Sideswipe, at the very least, could be kept calm enough, sane enough to speak with. Perhaps even bargain with?

Callie, meanwhile, began to feel a little bolder now that she hadn't been shot down by the Autobot. The blonde straightened to her full height; her shoulders came back and her small head came high.

"Get out of my shop." Callie said firmly, calmly, to Sideswipe.

The crimson Autobot blinked at her, not sure if he really believed what she had just said. "What?" he managed dumbly as he glanced between Thundercracker and the small blonde. His blasters never left the seeker's damaged chest plates.

"I said, get out of my shop." she said again, her voice a little more firm.

"Callie, get back!" Thundercracker snarled, his body tensing out of pure instinct. He couldn't help it; he had seen Sideswipe kill mechs that were easily twice the frontliner's size. Despite knowing that the Autobot would not intentionally harm Callie, Thundercracker refused to allow himself to relax even marginally so long as the crimson mech was even near his humans.

Guns still pointing at Thundercracker, but his shoulders beginning to loosen in his shock, Sideswipe just stared at her, "W-what?"

Thundercracker was horrified when he saw Callie pick up another wrench and throw it at the other mech's head with all her human strength; Sideswipe was prepared for the second 'attack'. He tipped his helm to the side allowing the tool to sail safely over his shoulder, never taking his weapons from Thundercracker's frame, his blasters bobing with his frame as he moved.

"Are you crazy! What are you doing? I'm trying to save you!" Sideswipe snarled at her confusion coloring his tone.

Maybe it was the clang of the wrench hitting the tin door behind Sideswipe or the anger in his voice, but whatever it was, it caused Danny to twitch. Her brain working hard to catch up with the crazy events going on around her.

Thundercracker started at his small human in shock, and was again thankful that it had been Sideswipe that had been stolen. Sunstreaker would no doubt have slagged Callie the moment she threw that fist wrench in a fit of rage and it would have forced Thundercracker to react to protect her.

But really, he shouldn't have been that surprised. Callie had more or less done the same to him the first time they had met. The seeker had only hoped that the blonde would have the sense to stay quiet and hidden with the Autobot so close. How wrong the blue mech was.

"Do I look like I need to be saved!" She snapped back at the crimson mech, reaching for another tool.

Danny slowly turned to face her cousin, her expression softening into mild surprise, "That's...that's an alien."

Everyone ignored the burgundy haired girl as she stated the obvious; instead Sideswipe snarled at the human again, "He killed three people!"

"Fuck you Sideswipe." Thundercracker snarled, not bothering to elaborate. He had no reason to justify his kill to the Autobot.

At the seeker's snarling words, Callie angrily grabbed an odd looking tool; it was silver dome shaped thing with a flat bottom and three long hooks adorned the edges of it.

Shifting his attention back to the seeker, Sideswipe bit back sarcastically, "Oooo using human curses now are we Thundercracker? Spend that much time slumming it?"

Callie snarled in indignation, raising her hand that clutched the odd tool, ready to throw it at the cocky frontliner.

Danny's brain, however, decided that that moment was a perfect time to unfreeze; her muscular body jerked back into reality, her blank eyes quickly filled with deadly awareness as she stared at her cousin. Throwing her hands up in front of her like a shield, the human snapped an almost panicked "NO!"

Callie froze at her cousin's words, her hand raised above her head with the tool in hand; turning her attention back to her worried looking cousin, whose brown eyes were focused on the tool in her hands, "What?"

"Don't throw that!"

Callie paused, giving her cousin a dumb founded look, "Why not?"

"That's a puller!"

"A what?" Callie asked, her arm lowering, both Cybertronions staring at the pair in surprise, their arms lowering at the strangeness of the situation and Sideswipe knew that no one would believe him when he got back to base.

"A puller," Danny repeated, slowly approaching her cousin like she would a wild animal, "The hooks attach to a clutch of a vehicle and it pulls it apart without damaging the clutch. It's a rather specialised tool and that makes it expensive. So...let's put it down. Nice and slow." The human came to stand beside her cousin, keeping her voice soft. Reaching out, Danny carefully took the tool from her cousin, "Let's just give it to me. There we go."

Removing the tool from her cousin's hand and pulling the puller close to her chest, Danny heaved a relieved sigh. The burgundy haired girl turned and placed the puller back onto the work bench, decided that she didn't like just where it sat, and carefully nudged the tool with her fingers so that it sat in the middle of the work bench.

"That's better. Here, use this." Danny said as she reached for, ironically, another wrench, "wrenches are a dime a dozen and I can get more very cheaply. Throw that. Not the puller."

Callie stared at her cousin for a moment before turning and winging another wrench at Sideswipe, which again missed. Danny raised an eyebrow at her cousin, her mouth pouting in disappointment, "You throw like a girl."

With that, Danny picked up another wrench. Sideswipe snarled at the humans, "Stop throwing wrenches at me!"

The car thief blinked up at the mech and dropped the tool back onto the bench. Calmly, she picked up a screwdriver.

Both the ariel and ground mech sputtered at Danny's foolishness, neither really expecting her to throw the new tool. Merely picked it up as a saucy way of rebelling. Both were proven wrong when the screwdriver was suddenly thrown through the air, spinning end over end, hitting the frontliner square between the optics with the handle end of the tool.

"Nice toss." Callie commented, hands on her hips, smirking at the Autobot.

Danny shrugged, "Eh, I hit him with the wrong end and I was aiming for his eye. Could have been better."

Callie shrugged, causing Sideswipe to snarl again, "Stop throwing tools! I'm here to help you!"

"Get over here Callie." Thundercracker snarled, pointing angrily at the ground by his knee.

It seemed, however, that once Callie and Danny were reunited, her confidence grew in leaps and bounds and she ignored her guardian in favour of mocking at the Autobot.

It was Danny, who said in a too calm voice, "If your here to help, why are you pointing a gun at us?"

"I'm pointing a gun at him!"

"That's our direction. If you were to fire, you'd kill us too, twit." The car thief canted her head to the side, her pony tail falling to one side, "You're not so good at this game are you?"

Callie snorted at Sideswipe's dumb founded look, "Where in the Pit did you find these humans!" the frontliner snarled, addressing the seeker.

Calmly, Thundercracker shrugged, "Nebraska."

"Nebraska? What...but you killed those people out on I-15. Vaporized their truck, wiped them off the face of the Earth. Why are they not afraid of you?" Sideswipe asked suspiciously, missing a key fact.

Callie was more than happy to fill in the blanks, with a snort the blonde said, "Yeah, vaporized them after they tried to rape me! If you're so concerned about that, where were you then? "

Danny froze at her cousin's words, turning to face her, "Wait, what!"

Callie ignored her cousin, continuing to glare at Sideswipe, "Hmmm, Mr-Holier-Than-Thou, he saved me. Killed those people to do it and your know what? The world is a better place for it. So tell me, why the hell would I be afraid of Thundercracker?"

The seeker, having lowered his own weapons, felt a burst of pride from his spark over the fact that Callie still thought him a hero. That tiny voice of doubt in his helm cruelly asked how long it would last now that the Autobot was there. He would surely tell his dirty little secret.

Sideswipe, despite having a seeker within reach, stared dumb founded at the human, his weapons hanging loose by his sides, yet still charged and ready to be used should the need arise, "But. He's a Decepticon." the disbelief in his voice was palatable.

"And you're a dirty Autobot! Now go away." Callie said calmly to the frontliner while he just stared at her in disbelief.

Thundercracker's processor spun again, his equilibrium chips unable to tell which way was up or down. His tanks heaved and constricted painfully in their emptiness, but he managed to stay up right, his scowl in place.

"Not too bright this one." Danny said, straightening her head. She turned her attention back to Callie, calming once she knew that the people who had tried to hurt her cousin were dead, "So, I'm starting to believe in the whole alien thing." Callie snorted at her cousins comment, "But what's with the whole Autobot, Decepticon thing? I feel as though I'm missing a key piece of information here."

Callie snarled again, her dark blue eyes narrowing angrily at the crimson Autobot. Thundercracker felt tendrils of dread wrap around his spark suddenly, despite his rolling tanks and couldn't help but find the irony that it had been Danny that would be his undoing.

"The Decepticons are freedom fighters. See, the Autobots," Callie snarled with a tip of her blonde head towards Sideswipe, "were run by a council. This council wanted to keep all the poorer mech's down and out. Wouldn't allow them to move up in the world. Kept them poor, kept them under them."

Dark blue eyes shifted to angry brown, "This council ran Cyberton, keeping everything for themselves, kept the best for themselves, while their people starved."

Even Sideswipe flinched at her harsh, angered words, despite how tame they really were. It had been so much worse then she could ever describe; Sideswipe himself had grown up in the Gladiator Pits of Iacon, an Autobot run city.

They had grown up in the pits, their creators too poor to care for them, had sold them to one of the pit bosses. It was during their time in the pits that both he and Sunny had been rented out by Shockwave, a onetime Autobot supporter, so that the not quite scientist could experiment on them and their bond. The experiments had been hurtful, agonizing really, and had in the end turned up very little for the scientist to use.

Between Shockwave's experiments, the nearly nightly fights and being forced to attend to the pit bosses special needs, the twins had also suffered greatly under Autobot rule. Nearly just as badly as any Decepticon and if it hadn't been for Optimus, the twins most likely would have ended up wearing the Decepticon insignia.

Sideswipe suddenly shoved those thoughts away, no use dredging up the past. Not when a deadly Decepticon was trapped with him in a confined space with humans that he was desperate to save. He hated watching innocent creatures suffer. He tried to be the hero he nearly didn't have.

Everything she said was true about the Autobots though, it was something that they were not proud of. It was something that every mech who wore the red insignia vowed to never let happen again, to promise they would do better when the war ended. It was an ideal that Sideswipe clung to despite his outward mischief.

"So what happened?" Danny snarled, her own anger at other's pain rolling off her in waves; she could relate to these other beings.

"The Deception's revolted. Lead by a Decepticon named," Callie paused to think for a moment, only hearing about Megatron for the first time, "Megatron. He lead the Deception's into a revolution. Tried to make a better future for the lower classes."

Sideswipe shuttered at Callie's tone, almost like hero worship. Of course, a lot of Cybertronions had felt that way at first, before Megatron had lost his way, lost his mind, plunging their people into a never ending war.

"So you know what the leader of the Autobots did?" Callie asked gently, her anger bubbling to the surface even hotter, mainly because it had caused Thundercracker pain.

Whereas Callie burned hot when she was that angry, Danny went cold; it made her more efficient when doing things that normal people would cringe at, "What?"

"Sentinel Prime" Callie sneered the name, "ordered the city of Vos, Thundercracker's home, to be burned to the ground. And you know what they hit first?"

Danny crossed her arms and gave her cousin a cold look, allowing her to continue, "They hit the nurseries first." It was Thundercracker's turn to flinch at Callie's words, with the flash back to when they found Skywarp still fresh in the Deception's processor, "thousands of infant and young seekerlings burned, wiped out of existence by douche bag's like him." Her blonde head tipped to Sideswipe, making the frontliner actually flitch away from her accusing words.

"Then, as if that weren't enough, the Autobots drove the Deception's from their home on Cyberton," At those words, Sideswipe froze, his face contorting in confusion at the wrong information she had been told. Another flash of guilt and dread squeezed the seeker's spark, "and chased them all the way here. Earth has more or less become a final stand for them. Their last chance for freedom."

As Callie finished her -partially incorrect- tale both humans turned to glare angrily at the Autobot. Gone was the playful sass that both had adorned before, replaced with hard anger and seemingly righteous hate towards the frontliner.

Sideswipe blinked at them with blue optics, first focusing on Callie, then Danny and back to Callie again. He blinked again before bursting into fits of laughter at their too serious faces, which only made them scowl more up at him.

He couldn't help it though; the girl with curly hair had come around with the little one and standing on the stair case, both watching him with wide eyes. The small blonde one and the dark haired one both stared wide eyed at him from the top of the stair case, while the ones called Danny and Callie scowled up at him darkly. As though either of them could actually hurt him.

The best, however, was Thundercracker's face; the light blue seeker was glaring energon daggers at the frontliner. His mouth was cut in an ugly frown on his faceplates, nasal structure scrunched up in his anger, and his single, crimson optic was narrowed in hard on Sideswipe. The frontliner, however, could easily see the underlining, silent prayer that he would keep quiet about what really happened on Cyberton near the end. Who had really chased who off world.

That was what caused Sideswipe to burst into fits of hard laughter that he had no way of controlling. Every time the frontliner came even close to calming down, one glance at any one else trapped within the confines of the garage would set him off again and fresh laughter would erupt from the Autobot.

"I really don't see what's so slagging funny Autobot?" Thundercracker muttered, his tone almost a sulk.

"You!" Sideswipe managed, "Don't see why this is slagging funny? Really!"

More bubbles of laughter burst from the frontliner, the crimson mech leaning back on the tin door behind him, making the metal bow.

"Does your species not possess the ability to leave things unbroken!" Callie hissed as Danny winced a little at the popping of metal. Her angered tone just made Sideswipe laugh harder.

Callie shared a look with Danny, and the blonde didn't like the uncertainty in her cousin's eyes. Brown eyes shifted back to the big Autobot, "Why is this so funny to you? I hardly find bombing a city and killing...seekerlings?" a subtle shift of her eyes and a small nod of confirmation form Callie had Danny continuing, "so funny."

Reaching up with one servo, the one that didn't hold his weapon, to wipe away the tears of dark mirth, Sideswipe levelled at look at the humans, "Because I can't believe that you actually accept that slag."

Danny's brow furrowed in confusion, "Slag?"

"Crap. Shit. Nonsense." Sideswipe translated, sending a dark look to the seeker, "Because everything after the fall of Vos is a load of slag."

Callie narrowed dark blue eyes on the Autobot, "You're lying."

"Oh but I'm not." The crimson mech snarled, his dark look pinning Thundercracker, "What happened to Vos is a black eye to the Autobot cause, something we all regret. Do find it funny though, that you didn't tell them about Praxus."

A snarl from the seeker had Sideswipe grinning, "Not so innocent are you Decepticon?"

"What's Praxus?" Danny asked slowly, as Callie continued to glare at the Autobot.

"Praxus," Sideswipe hissed, "was a neutral city on Cyberton. A completely neutral city that wanted nothing to do with this war! It was the Decepticon's that burned Praxus to the ground, killed just as many door-winger sparklings that day, as seekerlings. Thousands of Praxians died that day, and I only know of three that survived the attack, because the 'Con's thought it would be a great idea to use an EMP weapon. Anyone caught outside, their sparks guttered out in an instant."

A snarl from the seeker made Sideswipe smirk, "What? All fun and games when you're the only one who's telling lies? Or did you just forget what happened to Praxus? Point is, the Decepticon's aren't as innocent as Thundercracker has made them out to be."

"What happened to this Sentinel Prime character? He still leads the Autobots?" Danny asked after a moment of strained silence, not ready to believe either the Autobot or Decepticon. Callie snorted taking a step back towards Thundercracker, still believing his side of the story without question. The act made Thundercracker's spark twist; he had to find a way to protect her.

"Well, that may be the only point that we agree on. Sentinel Prime, and most of his council were assassinated after the attack on Vos. Can't say I was overly upset about it." There was nothing but bitter truth in the frontliners words, and it was a known fact that if not for Optimus, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker would have probably been Decepticons, "But when Optimus became the Prime, things changed."

Sideswipe paused when he saw Callie's confusion at his leader's name, and it caused the frontliner to snort, "Didn't even tell you about Optimus Prime, did he?"

Callie glared at Sideswipe, taking yet another step towards Thundercracker, showing her loyalty to him. Danny held firm where she was, "Who's this Optimus Prime?"

"Autobot leader. Took over after Sentinel was dead." Sideswipe started but was cut off by Thundercracker's snarl.

"He's just as bad! He wanted to re-build the council, keep things just as they were." The seeker snarled, true anger raising.

Blue optics narrowed in on Thundercracker, "You are so full of slag seeker, it's actually disgusting! Of course Optimus wanted to create a new council! Someone needed to run Cyberton!"

"Yes, Autobots!"

"He offered a seat to Megatron as well!" Sideswipe snarled, "It was your leader that refused! It would have been fifty, fifty. Autobots and Decepticons! And before you even try to say that the same council members would have been on the new council, anyone who was deemed unfit to rule was removed from the council."

"But allowed to live!" Thundercracker snarled back, his tanks lurching again, "They committed so many crimes, so many atrocities and Prime let them live!"

"And you know where they went! To the fragging Decepticons! Look at Shockwave; he sat on the council under Sentinel. He did terrible things to his own people, and yet Megatron still, still accepted him into the fold. If the Decepticon`s actually win this Primus-damned war, that one-optic freak will be back in charge. So don't you give me that crap!"

Thundercracker snapped his jaw shut with a sharp snap and felt his shoulder mounted weapons humming with energy out of habit at being attacked, even verbally; Sideswipe took the powering of weapons as a threat and once again powered up his own weapon. The gun in his servos vibrated a little as it released its own hum of energy.

Thundercracker disliked Shockwave too, but the waves of pure hatred that rolled off the Autobot actually stunned the seeker a little.

"So...wait." Danny's softer, confused, voice came from beneath the two Cybertronions, drawing their attention back to the small human, "What happened between Megatron and Optimus?"

Again, Sideswipe gave her a bitter smile, "Optimus Prime offered a seat to Megatron. Asked him to rule Cyberton with him, make things better, do it right the second time around. No more suffering, no more starving and no more war. It was slagging bucket head that turned him down, said he wanted it all. Megatron got greedy, and we are all suffering the consequences."

The seeker snarled at the frontliner`s words, not likening how close to home they hit; it was something that Thundercracker had thought about all the time. Things the seeker would go over and over in his mind every time Megatron beat Starscream into submission, every time his wing mate was shoved into the Hole. Every time his bonded was damaged, Thundercracker wondered if it would be better with the Prime or what could have been.

"It was the Decepticon's that forced the Autobot`s off world, not the other way around." Sideswipe finished with a snarl.

Shifting his attention from Danny to Thundercracker, the frontliner canted his helm, "What I don't understand, Decepticon is why these human's know anything about us at all. Why would you talk with them if all you wanted was to get away from us? Why use them, get close to them only to screw them over later. You and I both know that Megatron wants Earth for its resources, and that he will enslave the human race. What then Thundercracker?"

"You're such a liar." Callie snarled from her position in front of Thundercracker, her hands balled into fists and she stood a little taller in an effort to make herself look bigger; Danny on the other hand, didn't look so convinced that her cousin was right.

The lambo-former snorted, "What are you going to do Thundercracker, when Megatron finds out? You must know he will find out, it's only a matter of time. Or maybe Starscream will sell them out. Are you going to be the one to kill them? You seem to be fond of them...in a creepy Decepticon kind of way, so are you going to vaporize them? Offer a quick death to your pets?"

Callie snarled at the Autobot's words, while Lucy looked confused, frightened, at what was going on. All too aware at the tension in the garage, far too aware.

The frontliner's words were cruel, designed to hurt the seeker, and the words hit the mark hard, but the frontliner wasn't done, "Or maybe your trine will kill them? Crush their bones and squash their fragile bodies between their servos? I bet Skywarp would have a ball with that. Maybe you'd feel their bone snap between their digits through your little trine bond. Maybe he'll play in their blood, that sort of thing. If your wing mates do it, I'm sure you'll feel the back lash of the enjoyment they'll get out of it. That what you want?"

Callie snarled, "You. Are. A. Liar!"

His spark twisted painfully in its casting, knowing his time in the sun was just about up. At least, he found a way to keep Lucy and Callie safe. The slagging Autobots would always protect weak creatures like humans, would protect his humans now that he could not.

Never taking his optics from the seeker, the frontliner smirked, "Lying am I? Ask him! Ask him if I'm lying, if he only used you to get here in a pathetic desperate attempt to escape."

Callie suddenly spun around, her blonde hair flying around her head like a whip, as she turned to face the seeker, a look of firm determination, "Well?"

Thundercracker felt his shoulders droop before he could actually comprehend that they fell, and for a moment he wilted in on himself; chin falling to his chest, spinal struts bowed out and his arms hung limply to his sides as a sudden wave of hurt washed over the seeker. He couldn't bring himself to look at her for a moment, couldn't see the look of trust that Callie no doubt held.

His posture surprised the frontliner and had him instantly on edge, ready for an attack, not trusting the seeker.

'This must be done. Only way to keep them safe.' the seeker thought bitterly to himself, and for a moment he curled his servos into fists as a sudden rage ran through him. He didn't trust the Autobots and he instantly hated the plan that had formed in his processor, but he was out of options, out of time and that burned worse than any kind of acid.

Squaring his shoulders, body tense, he straightened up and schooled his faceplates into an easy sneer while his tanks churned with guilt, "The Autobot is right." The jet started coldly, a tone he had yet to use directly at her, "I only used you to get away from Nebraska because I didn't want to be captured by the Autobots and you failed at even that."

The blonde flinched as though he had struck her, her whole body jerked and she took an involuntary step back as her jaw dropped in shock as hurt and betrayal filled her dark blue eyes.

He could practically see her heart constrict and break at his cruel words, and it nearly killed him. Nearly caused his resolve to waiver and crumble, making him want to apologies for his hurtful words, explain in gentler tones his side of things.

It made Thundercracker's spark constrict painfully in its casting to know he could not, "W-what?" Callie managed in an unusually small voice.

"You heard me." The seeker said in the same cold voice, despite the hurt that rose like bile in his spark and he leveled a glare at her, "I used you. I don't care about you or Lucy. You were just convenient for escape."

"You're lying." Callie said quietly as liquid filled her eyes, and it made Thundercracker's resolve waver all the more. He looked at her with crystal clear vision and cursed his processor; of course it would clear for this so that he would be forced to remember it with such clarity.

Forcing his every building guilt down hard, he gave her a flat look and all but snarled, "No. I'm not. I am a Decepticon Callie, I'm here to destroy and rule your world. I am a bad guy," the words were bitter on his glossa, but he forced himself to continue, "and I will kill you and Lucy if I must." Another lie to protect her, to push her away and it made him want to purge.

"You want to live? Leave with the Autobot, human." he told her coldly, never giving any out ward indication of the turbulent emotions he felt, "I will not hesitate to end you."

He did hesitate, however, and the fact the humans still lived was the proof of that. Sideswipe gave the seeker an odd look, not really sure if this was all a trick or if something else was going on here. He wished Prowl was there, the tactician would know what to say and do to get the blonde human away from the seeker.

The tears from Callie's eyes finally welled, sliding slowly down her tanned cheeks and it nearly broke Thundercracker right then and there; when had be become so weak? What had this small human and her sister done to him? Once, he would have brushed her tears aside as nothing, would not have cared that she wept. Now though, he despised to see her cry and being the cause of it? It nearly killed him, just like it had when Skywarp wept.

Her small head dropped as did her shoulders. Her lower lip caught in her teeth to stop it from trembling, biting hard enough to break the skin.

From where he knelt, he couldn't see her face; see the way her blue eyes shifted back and forth behind her tears as she thought and considered all the information. Her chest heaved and her lungs hitched in a soft sob as she fought hard to keep her composure as she thought about the events of the last few days. Thundercracker didn't see her sadness suddenly melt into awareness and dark acceptance as another sob wracked her thin frame.

She was still hurt by what he had said, her small heart had curdled at his harsh words, but it didn't add up. If he hadn't cared, why save her like he had? Sure she had given him a ride to supposed safety, but if he cared nothing for her, why defend her with such viciousness? She had seen his face just before he killed those men, had seen the blinding need to do violence in order to protect her. It didn't add up.

Why even talk to her if he was just using her? Why talk about his family or show her his spark for that matter? Callie's dark blue eyes narrowed through her tears and her mouth pursed into an angry pout.

Casting a glance over her shoulder, Callie saw that Danny had taken a step towards Sideswipe; drawing lines that Callie didn't like. Slowly she turned her attention back to Thundercracker tipping her face up to look up at him. His face gave away nothing as he glared down angrily at her, but his body was too tense to be completely telling the truth; his wing trembled slightly with his edginess.

Squaring her shoulders and forcing her breathing to slow, Callie looked him in the optic, tears still falling from her dark blue eyes, "So Decepticons are here to take over Earth?" her voice was rougher than she would have liked.

"Yes." He hissed angrily at her in truth.

"And enslave humanity?" A soft sob broke from her chest, and even Sideswipe felt a little bad for the girl.

"Yes."

"Destroy our planet?"

"Yes!" His voice raised in his irritation.

"Kill the Autobots?"

"YES!"

"You care about me and Lucy?"

"Yes! I mean! No. Go with the Autobot human, my patience grows thin." He snarled at her, angry that she had tripped him up.

A smug smirk grew through her tears, "You are so transparent its pathetic Thundercracker."

His weapons began to hum with power for the third time as a warning to Callie and from his peripheral vision the seeker could see Sideswipe raise his own weapon in response to the unspoken threat.

"Callie, get away from him. He's dangerous." Danny said, taking a step towards her cousin, worry etched in her features.

Scrubbing the tears from her cheeks, the blonde shook her head, "No he won't. If he was going to hurt me, he'd have done it by now."

Hiking his wing even higher, Thundercracker snarled at the blonde, "Don't tempt me Callie."

Liquid still danced in her blue eyes, but she held firm in her defiance, "You're not a bad guy Thundercracker."

The words felt like a knife to the spark and for a moment surprise and hurt fluttered across his face before he regained control; he was a bad guy who had done terrible things. He just needed to prove to her that it was true.

"Callie," he snarled, watching as Danny took another step towards the blonde and Sideswipe had his blaster leveled at the seeker's chest plates, "go with the Autobot. You mean nothing to me and I will kill you. Do you really want Lucy to have to burry you as well?"

The blonde didn't even bother to try to stifle the wince at his nasty words or the look of hurt that crossed her face. She just took it and volleyed back her own brand of nastiness, "Do it then. If you think you actually can."

"Don't tempt him girl." Sideswipe growled, holding his weapon steady at the seeker.

Her shoulders shot back and her chin jutted forward in defiance, she ignored Sideswipe, "You do bad things Thundercracker, have done bad things but you're not a bad guy."

The seeker snarled at her and in a flurry of movement, Thundercracker dove forward, slamming massive fists on either side of her soft, easily breakable body, causing the Autobot to hiss unhappily and he twitched as though he were going to lunge at the seeker.

The cement on either side of Callie's soft body cracked and buckled, sending pieces of debris flying into the air. It nearly gutted him to do it, but he needed her to go with the Autobot.

Callie didn't even flinched, but tears still danced in her blue eyes; behind her Danny let out a strangled gasp and shot to her cousin, stopping short of the seeker's fists. Her taunt body was suspended between reaching past the invisible barrier to grab her cousin and not knowing if that would anger the seeker even more.

"Thundercracker, so help me!" the crimson Autobot sneered, "If you don't back off I'll rip your other wing off!"

Never taking his optic from the blonde, the seeker snarled, "Stay out of this Autobot."

His comment made the human's grin grow, her tears become less, "I told you, you wouldn't be able to do it."

The seeker snarled at her, but she pushed on, plainly ignoring him, "I've seen your spark Thundercracker." Sideswipe gasped behind her, "You've done bad things. That doesn't make you a terrible being."

"Why are you making this so fragging hard! Just go with the slagging Autobot like a normal person would! I am here to take over your planet, do the sensible thing and leave!" he snarled back, real anger rising to the surface; why did she have to be so slagging stubborn!

Callie, however, had dug her heels in and she was going to get her answer's, "No. I know you care about us, otherwise you wouldn't have vaporized those men. Decepticon or no, you wouldn't let anything happen to us if you could help it. That makes you better. It makes you good. So why are you doing this!"

Blinking at the human, Thundercracker sighed in aggravation and leaned back, putting his servos over his faceplates, "What is wrong with you! Why couldn't you just be normal and run to the Autobots like everyone else!"

"No! You don't get to blast into our lives, make us actually care about you then drop us like this."

"I. Am. Here. To take over your planet! Why can't you get that through your head?" He asked angrily, dropping his servos to glare angrily at her.

Tension raised between the Deception and his human charge as they glared at each other; ironically Thundercracker couldn't decide if he was glad that she wasn't crying any more or not. Danny cleared her throat suddenly, and neither even bothered to turn towards her.

"Yeah, Callie. Let's step away from the psychotic alien and come over here." Danny said in a placid voice.

Callie whirled, narrowing her eyes on her cousin, "Do not patronize me Danny!"

Brown eyes blinked at Callie, "I'm not patronizing you. But let's be realistic here. He's here to take over our world. Not play nice. Let's just let the Autobot take him and be done with it."

Sideswipe snapped, "It's not that easy."

"Well either way, lets step away from the psychotic alien. Shall we?" Danny said, reaching to pull her cousin away from the seeker.

"He's not psychotic!"

Danny gave her a flat look, "You brought home a fucking hostile alien."

"So did you!"

"But at least he's not trying to take over the bloody world. Did you miss that part? The whole taking over the world bit?"

"I did not miss anything Danny!" Callie sneered back, jerking her arm out of her cousins hands, "I just. I want to know why! Thundercracker is not inherently evil. Not in the way you are thinking."

"Okay, yeah. And stalk home syndrome much?" Danny said sarcastically; behind her Sideswipe lowered his weapon again, completely confused by the afternoon events and the new drama playing out below them.

"This is the weirdest slag I've ever dealt with. Fragging crazy humans." Sideswipe muttered wide eyed.

"I do not have stalk home syndrome. I just want to know why he's acting like this! Okay yeah, he's here to take over the world, but then why save us? Why talk to us? It makes no sense, unless Thundercracker actually cares about us. He's not the evil creature you are making him out to be!"

"You barley know me." The seeker snapped.

The girls ignored him, giving their attention instead to Sideswipe, who was giving the seeker a sideways look. Danny squinted up at the Autobot, frowning, "Alright then lambo, why do you think that Thundercracker here is pushing my cousin away. Besides the obvious answer, of course, that he's a freaking psycho path trying to take over the world and never cared about Callie in the first place."

Callie shot her cousin a hard glare, scowling at her with hard blue eyes.

"Too protect you from Megatron. If he ever found out that he even liked your cousin, old bucket head would have you killed just to destroy the weakness in his seeker."

There was stunned awe in the frontliners voice at the revelation as a look of trumpet came over Callie. Stunned, Sideswipe softly said, "You actually care about them. It makes the most sense, that's why you're pushing her away so hard."

For a moment every one turned to stare at the seeker, causing him to shift uncomfortably when Sideswipe suddenly pointed and burst out laughing again. "Oh, oh sweet Primus! You actually like them."

More laughter bubbled up from the frontliner as he continued to point at the seeker. Hiking up a greying wing and burning with humiliation Thundercracker snarled at the Autobot, "Shut up!" the seeker didn't think his pride could take much more of a beating. How wrong he was.

Sideswipe just made the frontliner laugh harder.

"So, wait. Are we in danger because of this?" Danny asked, giving the seeker a dark look, "Like. From your leader or something?"

Still laughing, the crimson frontliner managed to get out, "Oh Primus yes! Megatron will find out, it's only a matter of time. He always finds this slag out."

"It's why you need to go with the Autobots. They will keep you safe." Thundercracker said firmly, darkly, scowling up at the Autobot. He loathed the idea at having to send Callie and Lucy with Sideswipe of all mechs, but he was out of options.

"What about you?" Callie asked, the quiet members of her family heads bouncing back and forth between the two sides of the room as though they were watching a tennis match.

Thundercracker managed a shrug, suddenly feeling weak again and fell back onto his aft.

A snort from Sideswipe drew the girls attention back to him, "Who cares. We're going to take him in with us and interrogate him. And you will be coming with us until we know you are safe."

Both Callie and Danny turned to give the frontliner a sour look, "What makes you think that we'll go anywhere with you?" Danny asked, her sarcasm back.

"You wanna die?" Sideswipe asked lightly.

"Not really. But how do I know that we'll be any better off with you!" She snapped back.

Giving her a flat look, Sideswipe sighed, "Because we're the good guys here."

"Good is a very relative term." Danny hissed back as the sound of a car pulling up to the garage filled the momentary silence.

The new noise had everyone in the garage freezing where they were for a moment, listening to the new noises.

"You expecting company?" Thundercracker asked darkly.

"No, You?"

"Not that kind of company." The seeker said quietly.

Danny rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically, "They're probably just here to have their car fixed. This is a garage after all, not an alien hotel." she turned and walked to one of the windows across from the Shelby, "This shit is so much worse than what happened in Orlando."

"This is nowhere near as bad as Orlando."Callie replied softly, her eyes down cast and sad.

"You brought home an evil hostile alien whose psychotic warlord leader may want to kill us when he finds out you were nice to him. This is way worse than Orlando-o-o Shit." Danny froze by the window, her eyes wide and the two Cybertronions could hear her heart begin to pound in her chest, "GET DOWN!"

Callie frowned at her as Danny bolted away from the window and tackled the blonde to the ground like a line backer; up on the second floor Aleyah and Liz dove into Liz's room while Mia quickly picked up a sombre Lucy and vaulted over the side of the stairs railing. The curly haired girl flattened herself out along the floor, pressing Lucy under her.

"What in the Pit are you do-" Sideswipe was cut off as a rain of bullets tore through the windows, sending glass shattering to the ground. More bullets ripped through the weak tin door of the building and the echoes of the shots could be heard outside; bullets slammed into the side of the Shelby's crimson paint, effectively destroying it. Bullets pinged off Cybertronion armour, sending bullets ricocheting in different directions.

The noise was deafening as bang after bang of full automatic weapons going off in quick succession and the suddenly loud whizz of bullets filled the air; small sparks ignited as the small shards of metal bounced off armour and tools.

Acting purely on instinct, Thundercracker threw himself sideways, landing awkwardly on his winged side and back to the door. He curled as best he could around Mia and Lucy's shaking frames as bullets continued to tare through the tin door, pinning off his battered armour.

Straining to turn to check on Callie, the seeker was relieved to see that Sideswipe had done the same, his massive ruby form wrapped around Callie and Danny; the burgundy haired girl had her cousin pinned beneath her, her arms wrapped around both their heads in a weak way of protection. Aleyah and Liz had managed to crawl further into the room, but there was nothing Thundercracker could do to protect them.

The noises seemed to go on for eternity as more and more bullets tore through the tin door and windows with a horrifying rat-a-tat-tat-tat, until it suddenly stopped as quickly as it started. Bright clean sunlight filtered through the holes in a disturbingly pretty way; an uncanny silence filled the void of what used to be noise and the seeker could hear six human hearts beating hard and fast in their chests.

The Shelby was destroyed, completely ruined from the attack; bullets had shattered the windows and ripped through the thick metal panels, leaving gaping black holes in its once pristine paint job. A puddle of fluid was quickly forming beneath the car's front end in a very worrisome way.

For a moment, no one moved, not even dared breath or cycle air. Thundercracker shifted so that he lay on his elbows, one arm stretched out to protect the girls. Lucy and Mia didn't move a muscle, the small blonde buried her head into Mia's forearm, hiding her face from the world; her small hand clamped over her ears in an attempt to stop the noise as Mia pressed her curvy body down onto the nine year olds in an attempt to protect her.

"Lucy?"The seeker called out as quietly as he could, afraid to speak to loudly and disturbed the eerie silence.

A small shifting from the petite creatures beneath him and two small faces tipped up to look at him. Worry pinched both sets of faces, but the seeker was disturbed by the lack of fear in both faces, but especially Lucy's.

It meant that this sort of situation occurred enough that she was no longer afraid when it happened. Wriggling out from Mia's hold, Lucy slowly crawled towards the seeker, knowing she would be safest with him; again Thundercracker was distressed to see her keeping low so that she would not be hit should they begin to shoot again. Someone would have had to teach her to move like that at some point.

"I'm okay TC." The nine year old paused and glanced over to her cousin, "Come on Mia. We'll be safer with TC." She whispered.

"But...but he's a bad guy." Mia stressed green eyes wide on the seeker.

Huffing a gentle sigh, Lucy glared at Mia, "Na-aw! TC's a good guy. He protects us."

With that, Lucy finished crawling to the seeker, settling under his chin and the Decepticon knew he was lost as the warmth returned in his spark. He quickly crushed it though when he thought she just didn't understand what was going on...

But that wasn't right either. Lucy was far too intelligent not to get a gleam of what was happening around her. She had also spent too much of her young life growing up around ruthless humans not to know what was going on.

"B-but." Mia squeaked out.

"Mia!" Lucy hissed, keeping her voice low, "They are trying to shoot us. Thundercracker will protect us!" it was tone of voice that Callie would use when asking a question, when she already knew the answer, and the seeker knew that was where Lucy had learned that particular tone from.

The green eyed girl blinked up at the Decepticon then looked down at Lucy, "Alright." Army crawling across the ground Mia slithered towards the seeker, coming to curl with Lucy under his chin. He could smell the slight fear coming off the older girl as Lucy curled into her cousin; he didn't like that fear and he would make these men pay. One way or another.

The distinct sound of clips being ejected and reloaded filled the disturbing silence, prompting Danny to lift her head and tuck her arms under her body so that she could come up onto her elbows, "Everyone okay?" her gentle voice called out.

"We're alright." Mia called from under Thundercracker's strong frame.

"Liz, Aleyah?" Callie called, not moving from her spot yet.

"We're alright." Aleyah called down, keeping to the vary back of the room where it was safest.

Callie nodded, coming up onto her elbows like Danny had and the cousins shared a dark look, emotions flying over their faces too quickly to read. Worry, fear, anger and hate flashed over their small faces and were the only emotions that the Autobot caught between the dozen others that flashed.

Above the girls, Sideswipe tensed as a rough male voice was heard, "Think we gott 'em?"

"We need to check." Came a deep reply that was cold as ice. These men were just doing their job, they cared nothing for the lives they were about to end, and everyone in the garage knew it.

Danny sighed softly, sounding more tired than worried and she gave her cousin another meaningful look. The blonde rolled her blue eyes and nodded, knowing what her cousin was asking through years of working and living together. Suddenly the two were moving, staying close to the ground, they crawled away from Sideswipe; Callie crawled to one of the work benches and Danny to the big red tool boxes.

"What in the Pit are you doing!" Sideswipe hissed as he came to his knees, shoulders hunched and thighs taunt, ready to lunge in case he needed to get between a volley of bullets and the girls again.

Thundercracker turned his helm in time to see Callie reached under the bench, her small hands probing past the lip, searching for something. The seeker's spark constricted in worry when he saw that she was so far from Sideswipe, and knew that she was in even more danger should the men from Boston start shooting again.

Danny, who was crouched beside the tool box, swung her head towards the Autobot and pressed her finger to her lips. Irritation was written clearly on her small face from him talking.

The brown eyed girl turned her attention back to whatever she was searching for behind the red box, her own hand searching for something.

It was Callie who found what she was looking for first; two soft clicks of clips bring forced open and a 12-gauge shot gun fell into her waiting hands. Her small hand disappeared back underneath the bench, probing at the lip and with another soft click she pulled a small box of slugs out, setting them on the floor.

Thundercracker watched in frozen horror as his jaw dropped and his tanks twisted as she loaded and cocked the weapon with the cold efficiency of someone who has done it before. He watched, in the same frozen state, as Callie crawled back towards Danny, Shotgun and slugs in hand. He watched as her soft, friendly fetchers hardened into something else; her big dark blue eyes becoming blocks of cold ice.

He recognised the look on her face as the same one as veteran soldiers got prior to going into battle. It was cold knowledge that death would soon be following their actions.

Danny pulled her hand from behind the tool box, a glock held firmly, as she reached underneath the tool box and pulled out the magazine for the weapon. Slamming it home, Danny coolly took off the safety and cocked the weapon.

Sideswipe's jaw dropped as he watched the femmes preparing their weapons; there weren't many human femmes on base and the crimson frontliner had never really met any of them with the exception of Mearing. That female scared the living slag out of the Autobots as much the Nest soldiers, and even Mearing didn't use a weapon.

The United State's Director of National Intelligence couldn't even load a weapon as well as either of the young humans here, and to Sideswipe, that made them much more valuable as allies.

Watching in astonishment, Sideswipe could only think that television never portrayed human femmes like this. Normally they were weak, flighty creatures that always screamed for help and waited to be rescued. Not loading a 12-guadge and a glock with cool efficiency.

Sideswipe watched as Danny shifted around so that she crouched beside the door, putting all her weight on the balls of her feet; as Callie came to crouch in the same position in front of the tool box they heard footsteps crunching into the gravel outside, the shooters coming closer.

Danny put her head down, her bangs covering her eyes as her head began to bob and Callie could see her lips moving, singing silently to a song in her head. It was a nervous twitch the blonde knew, but one that Danny deliberately used to make other people think she was bat-shit crazy. In reality it was something that would help her calm enough to think clearly.

The crimson mech shifted, coming to kneel behind the humans and harshly whispered, "This is ridicules! Move."

Callie's blonde hair flew behind her head as she whipped around to glare at Sideswipe, throwing her hand up and finger to her mouth to hush him. Danny just rolled her eyes and shook her head, forcing herself to concentrate on the footsteps coming ever closer.

The damage was already done, however, and the men outside paused. The same voice from before quietly said, "I just heard something. Someone's alive in there."

That time even Danny tossed the frontliner a dirty look. She rolled her eyes and shook her head at the crimson mech, mouthing the word 'idiot.' Both girls heads turned back to the door as they heard first two then three footsteps coming closer to the door.

Callie pressed a hand to Danny's shoulder to give it a hard squeeze; the brown eyed girl swallowed hard, forcing herself to breath with deep, easy breaths.

The footsteps got closer as the gravel crunched beneath unseen feet. Both Thundercracker and Sideswipe tensed, not entirely sure what was about to happen but had a pretty good that it was going to be very bad.

Danny settled the gun between her knees, the muzzle pointing down to the ground her head down, listening to the footsteps. Callie took a deep breath, her cold blue eyes focused on the door, waiting for it to open.

Then the Cybertronions heard the door handle turn, they both tensed and had to fight the urge to send power to their own blaster to get into the middle of the fight. They managed to resist however, thinking that they would only make things worse.

Everything else seemed to happen in slow motion; as the steel grey door opened, swinging inward to hide the car thief, Danny shifted her weight back, falling onto her heels as she slowly stood. Years of experience kept her graceful movements silent.

The first man, who was at least a head taller and could have hurt the girls with ease, came around the door, his stubby SMG leading the way. His dark, cold hazel eyes fell on Callie first as she stated crouched on the ground.

She looked unafraid as Thundercracker thought his spark was going to jump from its casting as his fear spiked; he prepped his shoulder mounted weapon, ready to use it the moment he raised that damned gun.

He never had the chance.

As his dark, cruel smile split over white teeth, his hazel eyes sparkling with nasty intent, Danny stepped from the shadow of the door. So intent on watching Callie, who watched him with uninterested board eyes, that he didn't notice the other girl.

Raising her arm straight and true, Danny raised the glock, her eyes cold and her will set, she nuzzled the weapon to the back of his head. Due to the height difference, the angle was tilted up, but that mattered little to the car thief.

There was a flash of fear and realization in the would-be-killers eyes and Danny pulled the trigger before he could turn his weapon on the car thief. With a loud bang that echoed off the walls of the garage, a bullet tore through the skull and brain matter, ending his life in a mist of blood and bone.

Danny dropped back into her crouch as the body fell heavily to the ground with a dull thud; a second man came rushing around the door when he heard the gun shot, his own SMG raised, dark eyes hunting for the shooter.

He didn't stand a chance as Callie pressed the butt of her weapon against her shoulder and calmly too aim for the man's chest; absentmindedly she saw him raising his weapon, but it never registered as a threat in the blondes mind as she pulled the trigger. The blast from the shot gun jerked hard against her shoulder, but she ignored it as she watched the slug slam into her attacker; the man fell back from the shot that ripped into his chest, spattering more blood and bone into the air and he was dead before he hit the ground.

Blood pooled around the two dead bodies as Callie and Danny stood as one, moving to the door, their weapons raised and ready to be used. They quickly came around the steel door, coming face to face with a very shocked, frightened kid. Couldn't have been more then eighteen.

The two weapons were shoved into his face, his frightened brown eyes widening with crippling shock; behind him his fourth companion had deemed the 'mission' a failure and was hauling ass back to his plain white car, leaving the kid to his fate.

The girls shared a dark look before turning their attention back to the kid; his slight frame trembled with fear, his pupils dilated as his gaze never left the two black holes of the barrels that bore into him like evil eyes.

Thundercracker turned and straightened up, more than willing to intervene should the male human try anything stupid, but he couldn't stop the core deep shock he felt just then. It felt as though his turbo boosters had just given out and he was plummeting to the earth. When in the Pit had Callie learned to use a gun! Apparently she had left some key points out as well.

Risking a glance at the Autobot, the seeker saw that he was as tense as himself, his crimson body ready for action, but his face showed the same shock as he felt.

A soft, trembling voice brought the jet's attention back to the humans. "Please..."

"Shut up." Danny snarled, never taking her eyes from the weapon that hung loose in his own hand.

Shoving her gloved hand out, Danny gave a hard demand, "The gun. Now."

His hands trembling, the boy passed the small hand gun to her waiting hand; Danny clicked the safety on and tucked her hand behind her thigh. Sill holding her glock in the kids face, Danny said calmly, "You listen and listen well boy. You tell Neil that it was Paul that hired me. Deal with him, not me. Next time I so much as think one of you Boston ass holes are even in the same city as me, I'm coming after him. Understand?"

The kid's head bobbed up and down, tears nearly falling from his brown eyes. Danny frowned and Callie kept her shot gun pressed into her shoulder; she'd had too many situations go awry because she relaxed too soon.

"Good." Danny said, lowering her glock, "Get out of here. And do yourself a favour, get away from Neil before he gets you killed."

The kid blinked once at the girls before turning tail and ran as though he was being chased by monsters. The girls could hear his sob of relief when he saw that his companion had waited for him, and the kid practically threw himself into the passenger seat. The white car took off, the passengers not once looking back for their missing companions.

Callie let out a relieved sigh, the tension draining from her taunt body like water as Danny quietly closed the door.

Turning to face her cousin as she clicked the safety on her glock, Danny let out a soft sigh, "Welcome home Callie." she muttered darkly. Her cold brown eyes shifting over to the fresh...problem they would have to deal with.

Callie's blue eyes suddenly blazed with anger as Danny sifted the glock to her other hand, resting it along the weapon she had just taken; without warning the blonde stalked up to her cousin, punching her in the side of her face, her small tanned fist colliding with Danny`s nose while she examined the new problem.

The car thief stumbled back a bit, but didn't lose her footing, her gloved hand coming up to her face at the sudden attack.

"Ghezz! Callie, what was that for!" Danny hissed, "Seriously man, you hit like a freaking girl!"

Callie's face scrunched up in anger and again she was stunned by how easily Danny could ruffle her proverbial feathers, "This is entirely your fault!" the blonde hissed.

"Granted." Danny shrugged, now examining her fingers for blood.

"If you had just left things well enough alone, we could have stayed here. I told you not to take that job in Boston. I told you!" Callie said angrily, tears suddenly coming to her dark eyes as realization set in, "I'm sick of this! I don't want to be afraid that I'm going to get shot anymore Danny! I don't want to have to kill anyone anymore because they want to kill me first! I am sick of this!" It was a desperate plea to her cousin that took all the anger out of her.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Danny finally softened, "I know, and I'm sorry. But right now, we need to deal with this." Danny's head tilted to the two corpses on the floor.

Callie heaved a sigh, stalking back to the bench, dropping her shot gun onto the table. She leaned over the work bench, pressing her palms into the rough wood; her shoulders hunched and her head dropped low in a sign of grief. Grief that was not directed towards those who tried to murder them in their home, but grief for the safety that had been lost to them, yet again.

Danny allowed Callie her moment of sadness, allowing the blonde time to raise her head with a deep sigh. She turned to the door, not looking at her cousin or the Cybertronions, not yet ready to face Thundercracker, "I'll get the burn barrel and gasoline. You get the tarps, bleach and a bucket."

Danny nodded, "I'll get the rags too."

Callie nodded, then disappeared outside. Danny took a deep breath, dropped her own weapons on the work bench and stalked passed the bloody messes on the floor and then the two large warriors that sat stunned on either side of the garage.

"Can I come out?" Lucy asked when she saw her cousin storm passed.

"No." Came Danny's firm reply, her eyes forward as she walked to the Shelby. She disappeared behind the car, and began shuffling around with the storage that lined the walls. Lucy pouted and muttered quietly that no one ever let her see.

Mia, still staring up at the seeker, still a little worried at being so close, muttered "It's to protect you hun."

It just made Lucy pout more and cross her little arms in irritation, "Never let me see."

Callie chose to ignore her sister as she dragged a large, steal barrel into the garage, a small jerry can tucked under her arm, Danny came out from the storage area, two tarps tucked under one arm and a red bucket with a bottle of bleach, rags and a mop in the other.

The car thief stopped to look at the side of her car and she sighed, "Well. Shelby's dead."

Carefully placing the barrel in the middle of the garage, Callie turned to face her cousin, "Are you kidding me! Who cares about the car, let's just be glad that no one's dead. How about that!"

Danny shrugged and continued her way back to her cousin, "I am happy that no one's dead. Means it's okay to mourn the car."

Callie rolled her blue eyes and shook her head, focusing on the easy banter with her cousin. It was easier to focus on that then the sadness that they would be moving yet again, "There is something so wrong with you."

"Let me count the ways." Danny sighed as she dropped her own items onto the table, tilting her head to crack the bones in her neck.

As Sideswipe watched the small car thief pick up a tarp and lay it out flat on the ground and Callie slipped on her own gloves and began to wipe the prints off the guns with a rag, the frontliner turned his stunned gaze to the seeker, "Nebraska?"

"Yes." The seeker said calmly, not entirely sure what to make of the situation. Callie, his sweet, innocent, defenceless, Callie had just killed a man. In cold blood. Didn't even blink. It wasn't so much the violence that stunned him, and most likely Sideswipe, but the fact that it had been his seemingly innocent charge that had done it.

Where in the Pit did this slag come from?

The frontliner paused with whatever he was about to say, to watch Danny set the second tarp down beside the first, still folded up, and then walk to collect the two SMG's for Callie to clean, "You know they're not right."

"I'm beginning to get a gleam of that idea." The seeker said gently, carefully watching Callie as she spun around to scowl at him.

"I can hear you." The blonde snapped, "I'm still the same person TC."

"Can you give me a hand here?" Danny butted in before Thundercracker could respond.

Nodding, the blonde walked over to her cousin, coming to stand by the head of the man that she had shot. The two girls bend down, Danny looping her arms around his legs and Callie curling her arms under his arm pits, and they lifted his dead weight from the floor.

The girls moved the body with difficulty and lay it on the tarp; blood soaked into Callie's tank top. She firmly ignored it and moved to the second body as Thundercracker snorted, "You just killed someone! I didn't even think you could use a slagging weapon, never mind kill someone!"

As Danny and Callie crouched to pick up the second body, the burgundy haired girl snorted, "Please. Callie was just involved in our operation as I was. I dealt with the theft part of it, but Callie was a smuggler. She and Frank could move anything just about anywhere."

"Yes, but unlike you," Callie said softly as she lowered the second body beside the first, "I was never proud of it."

The blonde then moved on to finish wiping her prints from the guns, after first duping her gloves in to the barrel and slipping on a pair of disposable ones on.

Danny shrugged, looking up at Thundercracker, "Yeah well, Callie can throw down with the best of 'em. Trust me."

With that, Danny covered the bodies with the second tarp before moving to collect the red bucket that had previously been emptied of its contents and headed out side. The others could hear water running out side before Danny came back in, the bucket only a quarter full.

"Hey lambo, can you open the bay door just a little?" Danny asked as she closed the small door behind her.

"Um. Sure." The frontliner said quietly and did as he was asked, having a little difficulty with unlocking the door without breaking the lock, "You can call me Sideswipe."

The car thief paused for a moment as she began to take the lid off the bleach, "Danny." She finally said quietly and then began to pour the corrosive chemical into the water until there was more bleach then water in the bucket. Collecting the mop, Danny began to mop up the floor.

Sideswipe understood then why she asked him to open the door. The smell was terribly strong, mingling with the coppery smell of blood. It was enough to make ones tanks churn.

"What do you mean, 'throw down?'" Thundercracker demanded, his optic hard on the back of the blonde's head. He was angry at her for not divulging this particular secret sooner, it really would have helped him understand her better.

Danny opened her mouth to answer, but Callie beat her to it, "You really wanna play who kept the bigger secret Thundercracker?" she asked calmly, "'Cause, I'm pretty sure that the whole, taking over the world thing, is a lot worse than what I've been doing."

The large jet's jaw snapped shut and he pinned her with a glare. Callie, completely unmoved by his scowl snorted and continued to wipe down the weapons, throwing the rags into the barrel as she finished, "That's what I thought. Now sit there, shut up and let us figure this out."

Sideswipe openly laughed at the seeker as Thundercracker snarled at her in offence; which Callie promptly ignored. She had bigger issues to deal with then a seeker who was...well seeking to throw a tantrum.

Danny quickly finished mopping the floor and the smell of bleach filled the air and stung at both fleshy noses and metal nasal structures. The car thief ignored the smell as she carried the diluted bloody water filled bucket outside and dumped it into the gravel. Using her feet, the girl kicked the gravel around, spreading the liquid out even more.

Coming back in, Danny dropped the bucket into the barrel, mop and all. Watching slightly in confusion, the Autobot and Decepticon watched as Callie finished cleaning the weapons and dropped her gloves into the barrel.

"Aleyah, can you grab us some cloths?" Callie called out, bringing attention to her younger cousins for the first time; the pair were standing by the mouth of Liz's door, looking a little shook up but otherwise okay as they watched their cousin and sister.

Thundercracker's spark twisted again when he saw no fear in their small eyes. This was not new to them either.

The black haired female gave the others a quick nod before moving swiftly down the hall and disappeared into what was Danny, Callie and Lucy's room. When her sister left, Liz leaned against the door frame, her small hands digging into the wood as she watched the others move about.

Aleyah quickly emerged from the room with an armful of cloths, and as she bound down the rickety stairs, Danny and Callie began to stip. They tossed their cloths into the barrel, and both the Decepticon and the Autobot turned their helms to give the girls some form of privacy.

"I grabbed the matches too." Aleyah said softly, placing the box on the table and took a step back.

Once the girls re-dressed, Danny picked up the jerry can of gas, dumping all fluid into the barrel, making sure to soak all their clothing and the plastic objects.

Once the entire bucket was empty, the car thief dropped the jerry can and picked up the matches. She pulled one out and struck it along the gritted side to light it before dropping it into the barrel. Flames erupted from steal container with a whoosh, burning away at any evidence that would have been on the clothing.

"An incinerator would have worked better." Callie said gently as she watched her clothing burn.

Danny shrugged, "We make do with what we have. I'm just glad I wasn't wearing my bomber jacket. I love that thing."

The girl turned away to face the tarps as Callie gave her a rueful head shake, "So messed up."

Danny ignored her cousin, they still had other issues to deal with, "How are we going to deal with this issue?"

"The aliens? I haven't got a clue." Callie said, once again worried about Thundercracker's condition. He was leaning back again, sitting on his pedes, his shocked face focused on her. His armour was greying more so and his vents hitched with the effort to cycle air. Yet, he still shielded Lucy from the carnage just beyond him.

Sighing, Danny tilted her head to her sister, "No I mean the bodies. What are we going to do with the bodies? I think I've got a bag or two of lye outside. We could probably steal a shovel or something so that it won't be linked back to us."

Callie blinked for a moment before slowly turning away from the seeker to look at her cousin, shock written on her face, "You're worried about the bodies?"

"Well yeah. What are you worried about?"

"Oh I don't know. Maybe the giant alien warlord that may or may not want us dead. That small problem." Callie sighed as she reached with her hand to rub at her face.

Danny blinked up at Thundercracker and shrugged, "First of all, that's your fault. You brought home the psychotic alien," that prompted a sigh from the blonde, "and I mean, really. What are the odds that your leader will find out about us?"

The seeker sighed and shrugged, "I don't know. But he will want to know how I made it to Los Angela's when I was shot down in Nebraska. There is very little that escapes from Megatron's notice. I had...not considered him finding out until now."

It was a tough admission for the seeker, he tried not to make mistakes like this and often he did not.

Danny sighed, sounding aggravated, "Well. There you go Cal. There is a very good chance that your little pet's leader is going to kill us and there is nothing we can do about it."

"Pet!" Thundercracker snarled in indignation, he was no one's pet! Not Megatron's, not Starscream's and certainly not Callie's.

Danny ignored the seeker, choosing to continue to speak to Callie, further annoying the seeker, "I can't fix that Callie." The car thief suddenly sounded distressed, worried, "I have no idea how to even begin to fix our little alien problem. But this, this I can fix. At least it's something I can fix."

Callie's shoulders dropped, her position deflating. She caught her lower lip in her teeth as worry filled her blue eyes.

"Then what do we do?" she asked, sounding so small and weak to Thundercracker despite the fact she just murdered a man and covered it up.

Sighing, Thundercracker considered his options; if Skywarp came now, the moment he saw Sideswipe he would start shooting. The Autobot would naturally fight back and everyone would end up dead.

However, if the blue seeker didn't get help soon, he would eventually be meeting Primus. Heaving a sigh, and seeing no other way out, Thundercracker regretfully cracked open the bond with Skywarp again.

"Have you left yet?" The blue seeker asked his mate, allowing his consciousness to wrap around the younger seeker.

Joy and happiness filled Thundercracker, and the blue seeker took it all in. He wasn't sure when he would get to feel this again.

"On my way now! Should be there in a few kliks." Skywarp responded happily, blissfully unaware of Thundercracker's spark ache and pain.

Inhaling deeply, the blue jet braced himself for what was about to come, "Sky listen to me. The Autobots are here and there is no way out. Stay on the Nemesis."

Fear, hurt and protectiveness broke through the bond, "What! NO! No TC I won't leave you now. I'm coming. I'll get you out!"

"And then we will both be damaged. Even if you managed to get me out of here, you would not be able to get us both out unharmed. This way the Autobots will take me back to their base and repair me. Let us use their resources." The F-15 explained calmly to his small mate.

Feelings of anger and rage ripped through the bond next as Thundercracker felt Skywarp's emotions, "That's not fair!" The purple seeker burst, "It's not fair! You're almost home, just let me come for you."

"No Skywarp." Thundercracker said firmly, leaving no room for argument, "You stay on the Nemesis and take care of Starscream. I'll figure something out and get home. Just stay put."

"But!"

"I love you Sky." Thundercracker sighed as he felt the spark crushing defeat from his mate and quickly cut the connection. No need to prolong the pain for either of them.

Heaving another sigh, Thundercracker noticed that everyone in the room was staring at him a little odd. Coming to the conclusion that he must have spaced out enough for them to notice, the seeker shrugged it off.

Turning his attention to the suspicious looking Autobot, "Calling home?" Sideswipe spat.

"Cancelling my ride." Thundercracker snapped back bitterly, "Can you contact Prime?"

Wary and confused, Sideswipe slowly said, "I can."

"Then I have a deal for him. Tell him, in exchange for my repairs and the ensured safety of the human femmes I shall surrender peacefully." He told him firmly, no sign of humour in the seeker's face.

"Why?" the frontliner asked firmly, not entirely believing the seeker.

"I need the repairs, I'm sure even your poor Autobot senses can see that." Thundercracker snarked.

"Watch it." The crimson mech snapped, interrupting the seeker.

Ignoring the Autobot, the seeker went on, "I also wish no harm to come to Callie and Lucy."

The admission was like acid on his glossa and he loathed admitting it to the damned Autobot. A Decepticon would have taken that admission of weakness and used it to black mail him. The Autobots, on the other hand, were too soft sparked and stupid to do such a thing.

Optimus Prime at the very least would see to it that they were protected.

Still suspicious, Sideswipe canted his helm to the side, "How do I know that this isn't a trap?"

"How could I hurt you or Prime? I can barely stand." The jet shrugged, pained by the truth.

"You actually do care about them?" There was pure amazement in the frontliners voice, to which the Decepticon refused to respond to.

He was a Decepticon warrior after all, and Decepticon warriors simply didn't like weak, useless humans.

...only Callie wasn't as useless as the rest of her species.

Heaving an exasperated sigh, Sideswipe gave a shrug, "Alright. I'll contact Optimus."

"Um, excuse me! Do we get a say?" Danny snapped from below, Callie beside her looking uncertain.

The two Cybertronions shared a look and to humour her, Sideswipe said, "Oh sure. But if Megatron wants you dead, there are not many out there who can protect you."

Danny scowled up at him, "What's going happen to us?"

Heaving a sigh, the frontliner gave a blank, annoyed look, "We'll take you to the base where Prowl and Lennox can figure out what do to with you."

"What kind of base?"

"An army base." Sideswipe said sarcastically, as though the answer should have been obvious.

Danny blinked up at him and sighed, "Lemme guess. An army base that doesn't actually 'exist' right?"

The frontliner frowned then, "Well. I guess so. I've never really asked."

"Great!" Danny snapped, "So now we have to go to a stupid non-existant army base, filled with government people and alien robots."

"Danny, please! Just calm down." Callie said, trying to keep her own worry in check. Her cousin opened her mouth to say something, when the blonde cut her off, "What other choice do we have? I mean really? You've even admitted that you have no idea what to do."

Danny made a sour face, "We have never had good dealings with authority. How do we know they just won't off us the moment we step foot on their dumb base?"

Sideswipe actually looked insulted at her words, "Hey, we're not Decepticons man." He paused and shot a "No offence" to the seeker before continuing, "We're the good guys. We'll keep old bucket head away from you."

Giving the frontliner a dry look, the girl sighed, "Riiiiiight. Like I said, good is a relative term and besides, how do I know you're a so called good guy?"

Pressing his servos dramatically to his chest plates, Sideswipe gasped sarcastically, "You wound me."

Danny opened her mouth to snap back, but a gentle hand on her shoulder stopped her. Glancing over her shoulder, Callie muttered, "We have to think of the others Danny. If this Megatron does find us, we will be defenceless against him." She turned her worried blue eyes to her cousin, "We really don't have much choice. It's either we take our chances on the road or we accept their help."

Danny sighed, turning her attention to look at Aleyah and then Liz. Mia still had Lucy tucked behind Thundercracker, not wanting the girl to see what was going on, but the car thief could practically see the worry on her face.

"Alright fine." She said bitterly, not liking to accept help to protect her family, "Call your leader and see if they can help us with this." She jerked her head to the two bodies behind her.

Sideswipe smirked, making the seeker uneasy, "I'll see what I can do."

()()()

Prowl finished explaining how they were going to search the city for the seeker and what they should watch for when dealing with an injured Decepticon, and the tactician was splitting the team into smaller crews when Optimus got a ping from Sideswipe.

His spark constricted in his chest in panic as he accepted the comm. allowing the frontliner to finally make contact with the rest of the unit for the first time since he left his twin.

:Go ahead Sideswipe.: Optimus said firmly, keeping his own worry and anger out of his voice. He needed to be as professional as possible when dealing with these kinds of situation.

:Well boss, I found Thundercracker.: Sideswipe began, and explained the situation to his commander.

All around Optimus the other warriors fell silent one by one at the look of first surprise then shock that over took the Autobot leaders face.

All eyes and optics on him, Optimus was silent as Sideswipe finished his nearly unbelievable story, :Sideswipe, can you run that by me one more time?:

()()()

TBC...