Author's Note: I've been searching for new video game music to help me think about my writing (it helps), and I found a most interesting soundtrack. Mega Man X3 has a lot of great songs, and I noticed one that seemed too perfect for this fic. It was called Gravity Beetle, and the tune captured the mood I wanted for this fic perfectly! Truth is though, there were a lot of bug themes in that particular game. Just thought it was a neat coincidence :)

Chapter 10

Unrefined Behavior

When the Insecticons looked down at the docks of the oil refinery they saw the other Decepticons hard at work. There were stacks and stacks of delicious looking glowing cubes of energon! The clones were already there, but hanging back. Shrapnel almost felt as if the clones were afraid to get too close to the Decepticon soldiers.

The trio quickened their pace to get to the cubes and to the clones! Their clear wings were buzzing louder than any of them could remember! It was too good to be true! A real team, a real family, and real energon!

They landed before Megatron, who was casually leaning against a smoke stack. He wore a smug smirk that said victory was assured. With his kind of power it was. Now this was a leader they could get behind!

"You've been busy in our absence absence…" Shrapnel observed as he looked at the stacks of translucent energon.

"Yes, and I'm sure fighting Autobots has given you an appetite," Megatron replied with a knowing smile.

The trio nodded in unison like a line of schoolchildren awaiting permission to go outside and play. Their large bug-eyed optics stared up at Megatron with a look that one could almost mistake for innocence. They had been waiting for so long…

Megatron pointed to a large boat docked in the water next to the building and said "Gnaw a hole in the side of that tanker and drink your fill of cool, refreshing oil!"

They didn't waste another second as they quickly flew to the tanker and ripped away the protective shell of rusted metal! They knew it wasn't energon, but they didn't care! The feeding frenzy had taken over their logic processors and all they felt was hunger! The oil graced their palates with its creamy embrace, and their cares melted away like the black liquid they were consuming. Bombshell was even careless enough to blow fire out of his nozzle; earning some rather sharp words from Shrapnel. Such was the bliss and airy playfulness of their feast.

They didn't even noticed when Skyfire showed up out of the blue to spoil their party! They were so focused on their meal that they didn't realize there was fighting going on around them!

Bombshell was the first to see Skyfire flying toward them at an incredibly fast pace!

"It's that crazy jet again!" Bombshell exclaimed in hopes his brothers would stop feeding and notice something was wrong.

Skyfire then whooshed past them, his wing nearly grazing the oil tanker, and knocked the Insecticons off their perch on the side of the boat! They all fell in the water half-dazed, but Bombshell knew a second before everyone else what was coming; he just didn't believe the Autobot was really that suicidal.

"Careful you fool! You'll set the whole place on fire!" Bombshell yelled up at Skyfire as the jet made his way back to the fray of the chaotic battle.

That was too close! If Bombshell or Shrapnel had been exhaling fire or electricity when Skyfire knocked into them they could've set off the oil in the water! Sometimes Bombshell wondered if Autobots even had processors!

Kickback spit water out of his mandibles while Shrapnel actually drank some more! They were wading in the water like bath toys and trying to figure out what they should do next. It was a surprisingly boring near-death experience to almost be engulfed in flames by an Autobot nearly igniting oil. They looked at each other, each wondering what they should do next.

"My vote is to get back up on the tanker and keep eating," Kickback said first.

"We can't do that," Bombshell explained patiently, "The battle will cause this whole place to explode. If we're on that tanker when it blows then we're all goners."

"Then maybe we should leave leave," Shrapnel suggested in a surprisingly subdued tone.

"I don't think we should," Bombshell reasoned, "Megatron has not given us what we were promised yet. Besides, he and the others have been good to us. We should defend them against the Autobots and their treachery."

Shrapnel thought about that for a minute. He didn't really hold any special loyalty to Megatron, but he realized something else Bombshell hadn't thought of yet. Their clones were all here, and there was no way they could evacuate all of them alone, so their best bet to protect their new progeny was to stay here and fight the Autobots to drive them away from the refinery.

Shrapnel nodded once to show he was in, and the Insecticons flew up to see where they could be useful in the fight. They saw three Autobot's hiding behind a stack of crates waiting for their chance to attack the Decepticons. Shrapnel recognized the Autobot leader, the armored minibot that humiliated him, and the race car that shot at him and Bombshell. They were the perfect targets!

The Autobots had their backs turned to the Insecticons. They didn't even notice as the trio of bugs snuck up behind them! The Autobots turned around just in time to see Shrapnel pull his pistol out of subspace and aim for the trio of off-guard mechs! He fired one of his shrapnel grenades (surprisingly not named after himself), but the Autobots leapt out of the way just in time to avoid getting fried!

The Insecticons and their clones then started attacking whatever they could find! It was absolute madness on the battlefield as they could no longer tell what they were firing on! There were punches, kicks, and flying leaps as combatants from both sides tried to gain the upper hand! Someone actually set the water on fire when they shot the oil still floating freely from the holes in the tanker! Bombshell mentally shook his head and thought I told you so.

Just as it looked as if the Autobots might win, however, Kickback noticed something that would assure their victory...Rain clouds! Most Decepticons were superstitious and believed rain was back luck, but the Insecticons knew better. Shrapnel's electric powers were always magnified when there was a thunderstorm in the sky! He would electrocute every Autobot in their midst and let his clones feast on their bodies!

Bombshell also saw where this was going. Shrapnel wanted lightning, and waiting for it to happen by chance was risky. He knew his commander would need all the power he could get if they were going to stop the Autobots, so he fired on the clouds with one of his charge bombs!

Soon, the sky was painted with blinding light as the lightning poured from every direction in the clouds! Shrapnel held out his antennae as wide as they would go and braced his body for the electric charge that would soon engulf him! He felt raw power, and knew at that moment that nothing could stop him! He fed energy into the clones and still had a surplus for himself!

He attacked the Autobots with careless abandon and taunted them as he struck them down with lethal force! The fact that the Autobots were still standing was surprising, but Shrapnel felt it could be easily rectified. He zapped at them a couple more times and laughed with glee when they went tumbling down!

Then, he saw one of the minibots trying to run him over in its alt mode. That was just adorable! It was pathetic! The little yellow minibot trying to stop Shrapnel seemed laughable at first, but then when Shrapnel struck him he noticed that the Autobot was unaffected!

"Something's wrong wrong!" Shrapnel exclaimed as the little volkswagen drew ever closer.

That was when he realized what had happened...rubber tires! The other Autobots had obviously figured this out as well, because they were riding on top of each other, robot modes on top of vehicle modes, to be able to repel the assault while still being able to strike back at the Insecticons! It was an absurd fight that would've been laughable if they weren't caught in the middle of it! Bombshell noticed out of the corner of his optic that Megatron was firing on the oil tanker, and Optimus Prime was trying to keep it from destroying them all. He started to have doubts about following Megatron, but that would have to wait until the fight was over.

Shrapnel, in his fury over being bested, sent his clone army to surround the yellow car and the human trapped inside! He sent every clone they had, and knew he would relish them tearing the little Autobot apart!

Then, something happened. The black Autobot that had interrupted his light waves before used the exact same trick again on Shrapnel to dislodge the energy beams he was using on the clones! This was disastrous! The clones were too young, and they couldn't handle being severed from their queen in the middle of a battle!

Sure enough, once the connection was severed they were easy pickings. In fact, the force field itself contained enough power to destroy every last clone!

"No! Our clones are doomed doomed!" Shrapnel cried out as he watched their poor offspring offline before they even had a chance to live.

Shrapnel then ran over to his allies to see if they could salvage this mission. They were both gawking at Optimus Prime as he threw the tanker at Megatron; thus handing the Decepticon leader a humiliating defeat.

"Maybe we picked the wrong allies…" Bombshell finally expressed his doubts as he watched the silver mech flail in the water.

"We Insecticons need no allies allies!" Shrapnel declared resolutely, "We shall preserve ourselves!"

Shrapnel was right, Bombshell realized. They had lived alone on this planet for millions of years. They didn't need rescuers! They didn't need Decepticons! All they needed was each other and the wits that had helped them adapt to everything thrown at them!

That was when Bombshell noticed the energon cubes were unguarded. He flew over and a mere astro second later the other two followed him.

"We earned this energy!" Bombshell exclaimed as he and the others started digging into the solidified cubes. Nobody needed to explain it to them.

They ate quickly; realizing the Decepticons would never give them their fair share if they asked for it. They knew they would be chased away soon, but it almost didn't matter. While they weren't starving anymore, the battle had used up quite a few reserves, and this pure energon was the first they'd had in ages! It was glorious!

Soon, they were spotted by the Decepticons and forced to fly away! Megatron and his goons probably wanted to kill them, but the Insecticons had more fuel in their tanks and managed to get away from their pursuers within the hour.

Going back to Bali so soon would be dangerous, so the Insecticons sat around a campfire they made near the border of Yemen and Saudi Arabia. They had flown out of their way, but it was worth it to get away from the wrath of Megatron.

As they sat around the fire nobody wanted to talk.

Kickback was still reeling after the fight with the Autobots. He hated them! They tried to hurt him and his friends! They were monsters, and they would pay! He just knew they were trying to invade their planet and steal their food! He wished he could shoot their leader right between his smug optics! He couldn't remember ever hating anyone this much before, but then again he wasn't sure he ever had a reason to.

Bombshell was mostly just confused. He had seen a lot of stupidity on the battlefield from both sides that day. That Skyfire was so reckless, and Megatron nearly blew them all up for no good reason! Optimus seemed smart enough, but he was far too soft sparked. Bombshell just silently shook his head and tried not to think too hard about the idiocy of their strange bedfellows. He wouldn't be surprised if Megatron's last words were "What does that button do?"

Shrapnel, meanwhile, was inconsolable. He stared into the fire and lost himself in its embers. The warmth did nothing to stop the chill that was settling in his spark. This went on for a while, but then finally Kickback noticed something was wrong.

"Hey Shrapnel, what's wrong pal?" Kickback asked, "You're not still in pain from the Autobots attacking you, are you?"

"No…" Shrapnel said so quietly he could barely be heard, "It's just...They were alive alive. The Autobots killed our clones clones…"

"Yeah, so?" Kickback asked, "We'll just make more."

"Don't you understand, Kickback?" Shrapnel snapped viciously, "We created created! Those were sparklings sparklings! The Autobots killed our children!"

"Trailbreaker," Bombshell suddenly cut into the conversation.

"What?" Kickback asked obliviously.

"The Autobot that murdered our clones," Bombshell elaborated, "His name was Trailbreaker."

They sat in silence for a few minutes and mentally chewed on that information. For those few minutes the only sound came from the desert wind and the crackling of their fire. Bombshell and Kickback waited for Shrapnel to speak first. They felt it was the most respectful thing they could do. After all, he was their commander. If those clones had lived then he would've been their queen. He had lost more than any of them that night.

When Shrapnel said nothing, Kickback couldn't stand it anymore. He had to say something!

"Don't worry, Shrapnel!" Kickback said consolingly, "When we find the Autobots responsible for this we will rip their limbs off and feed them to our new clones! We will make them rue the day they ever messed with the Insecticons!"

Shrapnel thought his young friend sounded far too eager, but he was still grateful for the support of his comrade. Kickback was right. They would be alright, and they would see the Autobots punished for daring to turn their lives upside down! They were Insecticons, and if there was one thing they could do it was meet a challenge.