I was thinking about starting a forum just so I can further hear your opinion/suggestions/requests/whatever of this fic. If you'd like I will start one.

Chapter 11:

Sirens wailing as he sped down the highway Ratchet tried to make up for the lost time he'd used while caring for Stalker. Optimus wanted him to be there in case the twins were damaged from the fight they must've been in. If Ratchet wasn't so keen on the message his patient had given him he would've told his commander he'd needed to stay rather than go. It was only the twins.

"Ratchet to Optimus."

"Go ahead Ratchet."

"Stalker seems to have jarred his memory enough to give you his message. He told me that the Decepticons have been gathering on the opposite side of Earth's satellite. They've been smuggling in supplies onto Earth for something."

There was a moment of silence.

"Anything else he mentioned?"

"Shadow and Stalker managed to sabotage half of the latest shipment half a year ago before planet fall. But it wasn't the supplies that were really the problem, it was the leader of the operation."

"Starscream?"

"He didn't say anything about that coward, this one was Turantula."

"Did you just say 'Turantula'?!" Ironhide jumped in, "I thought that son of a glitch went down with Tyger Pax!"

Prime's engine revved, but it was more like a growl, "This is bad."

At last Ratchet caught up with the group, "This is not bad Optimus, it's horrifying! You've seen the dangers that can be concocted by that abomination!"

Unfortunately Bumblebee didn't share his elder's worry but he trusted their opinions. Whenever they said someone was bad enough to fear he feared them.

"What did Turantula do at Tyger Pax?" Bee asked.

"Something you'd best not know for now, Bumblebee." Optimus increased his speed and his fellows followed suit.

O

The twins touched down sending dirt, rocks, flames and stardust pluming every which way on the farmland which they'd chosen to fall. Clicks, hisses and whirs filled the air as the two relinquished their cometary form.

"Ugh…" Sunstreaker whined as he crawled out of the pit he'd created, "That wasn't fun." He glanced down in distain at his scratched gold colored armor.

"No duh!" from the crater barely a hundred yards away a red Cybertronian pulled himself up. He glanced around, scanners brimming with new information, "Wow…" he marveled at their new surroundings.

"Ratchet better have survived, the patchworks I do aren't as good as his."

"What is he a beauty 'Bot to you?" Sideswipe snorted.

"No." Sunstreaker pulled out two blasters from subspace pockets. His optics were trained on the pursuer still making planet fall.

Flames suddenly spiraled as the Decepticon barrel rolled and transformed into an F-22 fighter plane.

"Ho slag!"

Sideswipe tackled his twin back into the pit in which he'd come just in time to be missed by Starscream's missile barrage.

"This is really starting to annoy me! Come 'ere you slaggin' coward!!" Sunstreaker released several plasma shots but the Decepticon nimbly avoided them in his aerial dance of destruction.

"Look who's the ones hiding in a hole!" Starscream flipped around coming in for another round of missiles.

"Frag my guns are overheating! Of all the times!" Sunstreaker growled he looked at his brother who only bore the same result. They both were radiating heat from the friction of the atmosphere, so it would be safe to assume eventually Starscream's weapons would give out. Except eventually wasn't soon enough.

Starscream had a lock on his targets and was about to fire until his wing was struck by a pulse plasma round. Snarling curses, Starscream turned on Ironhide who was grinning on the ground.

"Time to get your wings clipped!" the black armored specialist hissed as he fired again.

Optimus pulled up to the twins, dust flying everywhere in thick clouds, "Sunstreaker! Sideswipe! Find alternate vehicle modes now."

"Local camouflage?"

"Now!"

Immediately the gold and crimson Autobots searched the vehicle database and both chose the Dodge Viper SRT-10 each with their respective colors. Ironhide was joined by Ratchet in the attempt to ground Starscream. Even though the numbers weren't exactly fair in this game of war, Starscream's ability to fly gave him an extensive advantage.

An alarm went off, telling the 'Con that his systems needed to cool. They couldn't take the stress he'd placed upon himself. Starscream grunted in annoyance, his inner workings were already vibrating in pain from planet fall.

"Thundercracker! Have you located the runt yet?"

Bumblebee caught the encoded signal and immediately began breaking the firewall at full capacity.

"Well I know where he is, I just need to find out exactly where." The other 'Con responded. The plane type alien was circling Tranquility scanning every nook and cranny that could hide a signature.

"It might be too late to kill him but do so anyway. While you're at it contact Barricade and see if you can't flush out that fem." Starscream broke from the fight having better things to do than to be sent to the Pit.

"Haha! Slick! These human's ain't half bad in designing." Sunstreaker was still spouting off in Cybertronian. Ratchet kept his distance trying to delay the inevitable. In routine he scanned the twins and found that they'd received a good deal more battle scars since they'd been apart. The damage was internal and it appeared they'd tried to patch themselves up. Not a half bad job, crude, but effective. The emergency vehicle thought.

The squealing of Bumblebee's tires interrupted the reunion as the Camaro did a 180 and high tailed it straight back to Tranquility.

"Bumblebee! Report!" Optimus called as he followed, the rest followed with slight confusion.

"I just decoded Starscream's call, Arcee and the others are in danger! Apparently Thundercracker has been circling the city looking for them!" Ratchet took the lead, his sirens causing the human traffic to part so they could travel faster.

OO

Clinging for dear life to Arcee's back as the motorcycle wove through the falling debris, Diana couldn't help but think she was going to be sick after this.

Ahead the doors opened at Arcee's signal but another explosion shattered the pillars above sending cement, tubing and wires cascading down in a thick wall. The fembot growled, revving to top speed. Diana had to close her eyes against the wind resistance.

Thundercracker spotted a pink blur fly out of the dust cloud, "There you are!" he angled toward the earth, "Hey Arcee! Care to switch factions? It'll make this a lot easier."

Arcee screeched to a halt, unceremoniously dumped her cargo and transformed, "In your furthest dreams Thundercrack-head!" she aimed but stopped when the plane flew behind a row of buildings.

"Now that ain't nice!" he pouted, "I'm tryin' to be pleasant, Arcee, 'cause I don't think Barricade will be so gentle."

Arcee whipped around at the sound of crumbling rocks and fired as Barricade lunged over the rubble. She was forced to dodge roll his blade-like digits. The smaller Transformer evaded the grunt nimbly causing him to yell in frustration.

Stalker pushed Diana back into an alcove, "Stay out of the way!" he ordered before joining the fray. Diana stomped her foot and gritted her teeth, she hated being so useless when it came to the battles. Her blood boiled with the urge to fight. She glanced around trying to spot something of use in the rubble.

Arcee dodged Barricade's swiping claws and released a flurry of shots but only grazed his shoulder. Snarling in annoyance he lunged and managed to smacked the other off her feet. She rolled only to be hit with a shockwave from one of Thundercracker's missiles. For a moment she couldn't move, stunned by the impact.

"Fool! Turantula wants her alive!" Barricade hissed.

"They're sonic wave missiles! Don't go blaming me for your damage!" the other snipped before angling for another turn on the fight. Arcee struggled to orientate herself as the big black and white cruiser stomped over to her.

Before he reached her however the 'Con screeched in agony. Stalker's cloak dropped as he dug his claws into his enemy's helmet. He jumped away when the other reached for him and crawled to the 'Con's back, tearing away at the thick armor trying to reach the spark chamber.

At last coherent Arcee snarled in Cybertronian and fired at Barricade's head, "I'm gonna take that bucket of bolts off this time!"

She expected him to back off but instead he sprinted forward with surprising speed, turned on a dime and smashed his back against her.

"Ugh!" the fembot was pinned against the wall by his massive bulk. Rocks showered down from the crumbling supports, denting and scratching the Transformers up.

Stalker had vanished, whether he'd been squished or had jumped off to escape the impact Barricade didn't care. He reached around and grabbed one of Arcee's arms crushing her cannon in his powerful grip. She grunted in the effort trying to throw him off her but his power was simply greater than hers. Barricade's grinned sadistically when he saw her second canon had been destroyed on impact. He was too close to kick, his closeness frightened Arcee but she refused to give him the satisfaction. She strained her power beyond its limits trying to escape his tight grip. Her struggle seemed to only make Barricade laugh more.

Stalker scrambled across the boulders and launched himself at Barricade's back again.

In mid-flight he was intercepted by Frenzy who clicked in triumph, sending both of them tumbling down the wall of concrete shrieking, shredding and clicking insults.

"Hey! Bucket head! Remember me!"

Barricade had been so distracted with scaring Arcee that by the time he looked up Diana had jumped off the second floor and stabbed him in the shoulder with a glowing rod. Screeching in anger already feeling the energy dampeners' effect, he grabbed the organic and flung her against a pile of rubble.

"Dia!" Stalker cried but couldn't run to his partner's aid for Frenzy had latched on to his back and their grappling match started anew.

Barricade struck Arcee across the face when she tried to stop him, knocking her unconscious, "As you humans would say: 'An eye for an eye'. Except you can't regenerate yours." He growled deeply as he made his way toward the stunned human.

Diana tried to breath, tried to move. The impact had knocked the air out of her lungs and she probably had fractured more than just her arms this time. She rolled over trying to crawl to the other side of the pile she'd landed on. The sound of several blades rubbing together behind caused her heart to jump to her throat. Well that's just great… I can't out crawl a titan! Diana heard a stumble behind her and knew that Ratchet's device was taking effect. She forced herself into a sort of half crawl half run despite the begging her body did to stop for the pain was so great.

Frenzy managed to pin Stalker on the other's back but had to jump away when he released two blades from his chest area. The two flipped to their feet, guns drawn, eyes blazing and spines on end. Slowly they circled each other. They completely ignored Thundercracker when the flying 'Con made a landing near Arcee.

"Chaos is as chaos does." Stalker told the 'Con.

"W-what the frag i-is th-that supposed to mean?" Frenzy snarled. They continued to circle each other, waiting, searching for the right moment to strike.

"What's your ultimate goal Frenzy? Surely you don't want to be serving someone else for the rest of your life, I mean especially with the Allspark gone. Why bother following orders for nothing but death, destruction and mayhem?" Stalker ignored Frenzy's mechanical growl, "Tell me Frenzy: do you want to be seen valuable for only your uses?" Stalker's attention strayed for a second to his friend and Frenzy took the chance to shoot him. The Autobot caught the movement in time and dodged most of the direct hits in time but was forced to retreat further away.

Diana was about to clear the pile's summit when she felt her leg crushed by a giant bladed hand. She screamed in anger and pain as Barricade lifted her up to his face. The cruiser was trembling terribly, threatening to give out at any moment. His hate filled red eyes bore into hers.

"Diana! Let go of me you slaggin' pit spawn!" Arcee landed a powerful kick to Thundercracker's hip when he tried to pick her up, cracking his armor.

"Ouch! Why you little-!"

Suddenly without warning all of the Transformers were enveloped by a scream echoing through their processors. This scream wasn't heard with organic ears, so Diana was quite surprised when Barricade gasped and dropped her. He fell back and held his head trying to block out the scream. It wasn't painful… it was terrible, it was joyful it thundered through their sparks like Primus had reached out and gripped them all.

"W-what's happening?!" Stalker squealed in fright, writhing in ultimate discomfort. He felt like something was wriggling inside his spark and brain, it didn't hurt but at the same time it wasn't supposed to be there.

Thundercracker yelled and took off, flying as fast as he could like he was trying to escape the scream. Barricade followed suit, dragging himself away from the wreckage and transforming barely giving Frenzy time to latch onto his bumper. Stalker whined and fell forward, curling into a tight ball.

Pain pulsed through Diana's body, making everything seem hazy and dreamlike. She lay where Barricade had dropped her, her view of the Autobots upside down. Time passed in both fast forward and slow mo, one minute she was watching them writhe in whatever was causing them distress, and the next people were examining her and putting her on a stretcher.

"S-stalker? Arcee?" Diana croaked, blood and dust clogging her throat.

"You'll be ok honey," the paramedic wiped her forehead with a cool damp cloth, "We're gonna get you to the hospital now ok?" the woman's consoling voice was getting on Diana's nerves. She tried to struggle but pain screamed through her soul and body.

Tears streaked down her face, "Where are they? Where?!" shit the Autobots were using that place as a storage unit! What if the firefighters find their stuff?

Nobody told her anything, they just repeated overused phrases of reassurance that only infuriated the young lady even more.

"Where's my friends!" her voice cracked.

"There's no one there, there's nothing." Another paramedic said. Despite being restrained by the neck brace, Diana caught out of the corner of her eye a few men with tell tale dress code features. A pinch caused her to look and see that she was being injected with morphine.

Ah fuck… this is not good… she started to feel light and happy as the drug pushed the concern for pain far into the darkest places of her conscious mind. I hate drugs… she thought as sleep tickled the edges of her mind.

The fire fight had attracted a lot of unwanted attention for the Transformers.

O

Six vehicles entered Tranquility, each calling for their two comrades they'd lost contact with. Bumblebee seemed particularly irritated by the lack of information of their whereabouts. His engine revved loudly as he sped down a side road broadcasting for Arcee and Stalker. Unfortunately it had still taken the group two hours total to get back to Tranquility. It had taken all of their will power to stay coordinated with each other, all they'd wanted to do was run away from… from what? It was such a confusing and frustrating sensation that had beget them. It called but repelled, comforted yet disturbed them. Bee growled in anger.

Come on come on come on…. Bumblebee thought while broadcasting. If you were taken I'll… well I just…

As he drove, a movement on the side of the road caught his attention. At first he thought it was an organic rodent but then the hunched form stumbled out into the middle of the street. The Camaro slammed on his breaks barely ten feet from Stalker and opened his passenger door. The attachment slid in, his head hanging.

"Where's Arcee?"

The 'Bot blinked and looked up, "I don't know… it was… it was so stupid."

"What?" Bee insisted.

"After… after what happened we… we just ran our own ways. Just run on and on." His chuckle was hallow, "Just like – just like when Shadow died. All I could think about was getting away. This time was no different." His golden eyes harden and his spark flared hot with anger, "Frag! I left Diana! What kind of partner am I?!" Bee flinched when he felt Stalker kick his dash board.

"It… it'll be alright my friend." Bee hoped he sounded more confident than he felt, "It'll be easy to track which hospital she ends up in."

"That's not the point, Bumblebee!" Stalker clicked and growled, clenching his blade like fingers so tight his joints hurt.

"I – I know."

"Well if you know then shut up!" the attachment reached for Bee's door handle, intending to go out and find his friend on his own.

"Wait!"

Stalker stopped and looked up.

Bumblebee wasn't sure, but he thought he'd detected a Transformer's signature somewhere nearby. But whoever it was, was masking their faction signature. The Camaro inched forward slowly. There was movement on a side street as the Transformer revealed itself. Bee's glimmer of hope was utterly snuffed out when he saw it was a blue and yellow Chrysler ME 412 and not a pink and black Buell motorbike.

OO

"With all due respect Commander! We should not allow them to take Diana to the local hospital! She's bound to be questioned and these humans don't know the meaning of healing injuries!" Ratchet's aggravation was contagious. Optimus knew that the girl was on the wanted list for the agents from the many calls he'd intercepted from the agents in the area. But it wasn't like they could just barge into the hospitals and demand to take the girl back into their custody. There was also the facts that they'd lost contact with Arcee perhaps one of the last fembots, Stalker was still yet to be accounted for, the Decepticons were planning something terrible and there was the matter of the call that had enveloped them with chaos. Optimus had a feeling that it wasn't the last time they'd hear it.

The commander's musings were interrupted when his back bumper was shoved.

"Commander!"

"I understand, Ratchet!"

"Um… excuse me?" Sideswipe sounded like a young adult male with the personality he'd chosen, "What's the significance of this human female?"

"Yeah can we be in the loop, sir?" Sunstreaker revved.

Ratchet made a sound that might've been a snort, to a human it was more like a backfire of an engine, "Diana Shae is the human who's risked her life to bring us our comrade Stalker, she wants to continue to help us. But now with her on official records she's bound to attract the governments' attention."

While Ratchet explained the situation to the twins, Optimus busied himself with tracking the origin of the scream. It was difficult, for the resonance had been all over the place creating loop holes.

"Ratchet? What all was stored at Hoover Dam?"

The ambulance blinked his lights a few times as he brought up the list of supplies cross referencing them with locations, "Energon, medical supplies, armaments, various miscellaneous items and of course…"

"…"

The twins pulled forward a few inches, all their interest captured. Despite their inquiries neither of the elder Transformers answered them.

"Why do you ask, sir?"

The flame painted semi pulled back, forcing Ratchet to back up as well to make room, "I just received word that Stalker has been found by Bumblebee. They are going to find and retrieve Diana."

"How? They can't - ."

"They have the reinforcements they need to do this job. For now we will check on Hoover Dam. My research has given me the possibility that that signal might've originated from there." The semi moved on down the street with his three comrades in tow.

"And with Turantula floatin' around he's bound to be curious about the phenomena." Sideswipe said. He and his brother had managed to destroy the shipment of supplies the Decepticons had been managing. So it was most likely that their enemies would be looking for easy replacements.

"I thought you said the war was over, Commander." Sunstreaker moaned.

"The war for the Allspark ended, yes."

"Some 'Cons just can't let go of the chaos they've grown so accustomed to." Ratchet growled. He couldn't fathom why Optimus would suspect the signal's origination was from the dam. There was nothing there that could. Then again, he didn't know anything about it. But he trusted his leader as he had many times before.

OOO

WAAAHH!! I don't know why but I'm just not satisfied with how this chappie turned out! Why am I still posting it you ask? Because I know if I don't my brain will go dead… it's complicated so don't ask.

Maybe it's the lack of sleep… note to self: don't write a fanfic chapter on not good sleep quality. Causes lack of creativity. –goes to bed-

!!!!ANNOUNCMENT!!!!!

Should any of you wish to see conceptual art of Sparkle and Diana, I will be posting it soon on my Deviant Art account (soon as I can filch the laptop to scan them). I believe I have my account on my profile link but if not go to and look up 'Dynnzel'. I haven't designed Stalker yet because… being that he's a lot like Frenzy… and Frenzy's complicated as it is. I'll get back to you on that.