Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers. Hasbro does. I just play in their verse.

A/N: The reason for the early update is that I'll be gone all day tomorrow.

Last Time:

Although Red had his back turned to the Seeker, he could sense the repressed shudder at the sight of the visitors. Interesting, so, not only do I have to convince Prowl that the Seeker's the Chosen and Ratchet that the rumors about the Glitches were all true, I also have to play referee between the Chosen and the others in this little conspiracy. Fun. Red ran an intake cycle, reset his sensors, and opened the door, ready for the hardest fight of his very long life.

Ratchet was in his Med-bay running a routine inventory. He knew it would still be the same as the last inventory he made the day before, but he couldn't help it. They had come into his med-bay. They had touched his equipment. They, they- He was just getting a good head of steam going, full of indignant fury at those who had invaded his, his, med-bay, when the Com-call came in.

::Yes?:: He snapped not caring who had comed him, be it Prime or Megatron himself. They were about equal in his optics at this point.

::Ratchet, can you come to my quarters? I need to speak to you.:: Red Alert's voice said, slightly tinny, but still recognizable. Ratchet leaned back from the replacement servos he was sorting; surprised that Red would com him. It wasn't that they hated each other, they just didn't interact much past what was needed in the lone of duty. Curiosity peaked, he responded.

::I'm doing an inventory now, but I can come afterwards.:: he replied, and was about to return to his work when Red Alert responded with an almost panicked tone to his vocalization.

::I am afraid I need to talk to you now.:: Ratchet reset his optics in shock at the tone Red Alert put on the last word. Ratchet was mad now. First he had his med-bay infiltrated, and now Red Alert was going to order him around? He had probably been in on it! Ratchet was about to tell Red Alert just where he could stuff his orders, in precise and graphic detail, when Red Alert comed in one more time before shutting down the line and entering a restricted zone where no coms were able to enter or exit.

::Got to go, just get here soon!:: Oh, he'd be there soon, and when he got there…

Despite his intentions to the contrary, by the time Ratchet had made the long trek to Red Alert's quarters, he had cooled down enough to let curiosity take precedence over his anger. Just what did the other mech need of him? Well, he thought as he entered the restricted zone, I'm about to find out. Steeling his reserve, he walked to the door and pressed the chime. It was not a minute later when the door swished open, revealing Red Alert and the Starscream clone. The Starscream clone? Ratchet re-set his optics, but, sure enough, there was the clone, standing in the middle of Red Alert's quarters, with all apparent freedom. If it had been any other mech the Red Alert, Ratchet would have called security immediately. Had it been any other situation, he would have pulled his rifle from his sub-space and demanded answers. As it was, he just accepted Red Alert's offer of a seat and asked, "Just what is going on here?"

Red Alert looked at him seriously and said, "I only want to go over this once. Can you wait until Prowl arrives?" Ratchet, in fact, did not think he could wait much longer, as there was a criminal in the room! But, never-the-less, he said that he could. Thirtyu minutes later, he was seriously considering taking his words bark and demanding an explanation, when he heard the door chime. For a second, he almost thought that he had imagined it, but, no, Red Alert was standing up and walking to the view-screen to see the mech outside.

Prowl stared at the two mechs walking away from him. Well. That was odd. With a mental shrug, he turned to find Jazz. It had been a while since Red had addressed him in Cant, so he wanted to find out the reason why as soon as he could. Walking quickly, he turned a corner and found an interesting sight. The twins were attempting to convince Bluestreak to do something for them. It took all of .342 seconds for Bluestreak to spot him, then another .105 to send him a desperate look, prompting Prowl to step in and, according to Blue's doorwings, 'HELP ME ALREADY!'. Prowl stepped forward. "Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Bluestreak, blocking access to the energon dispenser is prohibited." The twins startled and turned. As they turned, they let enough space to pass between themselves and the wall that Bluestreak could pass though. After he had managed to persuade the twins to leave, he turned to Bluestreak and asked, "What was it this time?" Bluestreak shuffled from pede to pede before answering.

"The usual, you know, if I could help them with their latest prank. Did you see their last one? I thought it was rather unfair of them, actually, I mean, there was no need to paint Tracks pink. Sure, he took the last of…." And so on, and so forth. Prowl let the words wash around him, they were comforting in their familiarity. But, soon he found himself asking Bluestreak if he had seen Jazz. It took Prowl another three minutes, but he had successfully managed to extract the information needed. Feeling mildly victorious, he made his way to the rec room, where Bluestreak had seen Jazz not an hour before.

An hour later, Prowl was standing in front of Red's door, waiting for him to open. It had taken him five minutes to get to the rec room, ten to discover the jazz was not, in fact, in the rec room, fifteen more to find him on the ledge above the Ark, another eight minutes were spent convincing him to do the job, and then it had taken him twenty minutes to go from the entry to Red Alert's quarters, leaving the tactician feeling drained. The door swished open, and Prowl walked in, asking, "Red, what is this all abou-" Later, he would blame his low energon levels for the fact it had taken him that long to notice the convict standing free in the middle of the room. "Red, just what is going on here?"

All Red could see were the doorwings flared high above the other mech's head. "Well, there's a very good explanation for that, and I'll tell you if you just sit down." Oh, Primus save me!

Starscream grinned, This'll be fun!