Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Playback: It is, strange on Earth right now.

Toxica: How do you know what is happening on Earth right now?

Playback: I can loop into their internet from any distance.

Flintlock: So, what is going on?

Playback: It is raining, a lot.

Penelope-Toxica

Lennox-Flintlock

Epps-Caliber

Pandimala-Playback

Ch. 13: Close Call

Megatron growled as he primed his cannon. These Virons had the bearings to come into their city while his son was fighting in their accursed coliseum. He was going to make them pay for all of the damage that they had done to the Alliance over the stellar cycles. While they had done many things before, their transgressions started when they attacked Pandimala for the first time. When they did that, it started the stockpile of evils that they had committed. Now, now was the time to take some retribution.

"Scrap!" Megatron snarled as something slammed into his cannon arm. Glancing down, he was shocked to see that his cannon was encased in ice.

"STOP!" A very familiar femme voice snarled at them all.

Before he could even register what was happening; Chala, Zinnia, Sunblast, and Shadow Fall created a protective circle around the four Virons. Chala, the one who had snarled at him and had shot his cannon, was standing defensively in front of the faceless mech.

"Shadow? How…I mean…you were fighting in the area." Megatron stammered. His son was not only well, but had somehow escaped the Viron coliseum and was now here. But, he still had to move his son and the others out of the way so they could take care of the Virons.

Luckily for him, Ultra Magnus took over. "Shadow Fall, Zinnia, Chala, Sunblast; I order you all to move yourselves out of the firing line. These Virons cannot be trusted."

But, to Megatron's shock, Shadow Fall shook his helm and said, "No."

"I won't ask you again young mech, any of you. Move from the firing line." Ultra Magnus ordered.

Their kids must not see the true danger of the Virons that were behind them. Megatron had to help get them out of the way.

But, of course, Chala shook her helm and, to his surprise, growled at Ultra Magnus before saying, "Drop your hammer and open your audio receptors for once Magnus. How the frag do you know that they are Virons? Because, I don't see a single allegiance marker on any of them. Do you?"

While he didn't like her tone, Chala had a point. They had all just assumed that these bots were no good and he himself had almost shot a hole through the faceless one. If Pandimala was still online, she would have had his helm on a silver platter for that. One of the main things that she had emphasized was that they should always make sure that a bot was an enemy before fighting one, or risk creating an unnecessary one.

But, Megatron could see that Magnus was not liking Chala's tone or what she was saying. "Watch your tone young one."

Megatron did not want any fighting breaking out so he put a servo in front of Magnus before saying, "Let them speak Magnus. They did just escape the coliseum for Pit's sake."

Magnus stared at him for about thirty nano-clicks before nodding slowly. He then turned back to the young bots and said, "Speak your peace. You have earned that much. But watch your tone."

Chala was fragged off. These bots, who had actually known her grandcarrier, were breaking one of her most drilled lessons. They had just assumed that Playback and the bots next to him, who she assumed were his friends, were Virons when, in actuality, Playback had saved them from certain offlining.

But, before she could say a thing, Zinnia stepped forward. "These bots, they aren't Virons."

The entire place went silent as Zinnia moved to stand next to Chala. Chala knew that this was hard for her friend to do. Her friend hated speaking to a few bots as it was, let alone a whole crowd of angry bots out for energon.

Chala could see that Zinnia was shaking as she said, "Playback, he saved us from the coliseum. We were supposed to fight him. But he refused to fight us. And…well…since he refused Sentinel..." Zinnia's nervousness was starting to take over but she continued. "Sentinel…he made him help us fight a…a…a predacon."

She then went silent and Chala knew that Zinnia was done talking. But, the gasp that came up from the crowd told her that the pause was a good thing. She knew that they knew that fighting a predacon usually meant certain offlining. Yet, they had escaped and the faceless mech behind them was the reason for it.

"How did you four survive? And how did this mech help?" Ultra Magnus demanded.

Chala was half tempted to give a half-aft response to the leader but, since he was allowing them to talk, she took in a deep intake. "Well, before we actually fought the predacon, Nightfreeze froze the arena floor. Luckily, the five of us got onto the gate in time. Once the predacon was out on the field, Playback got onto the ice and glided across it. He fought the predacon while the rest of us got off the gate and made our way across the ice. I was the first down and as I walked over to help, I saw that Playback was tricking the beast in using its fire breath to unfreeze the arena for the rest of us. To make a long story short, Playback got on the predacon's back and took its head off. Playback and I then took off our inhibitors before we flew out of the arena."

"If you and he flew out together, why did he end up here before you and away from you?"

"I can answer the away part." Playback stated.

All weapons turned on him and Chala shook her helm. But, she knew that the bots surrounding him would not fire unless he took a step forward. "Don't move and they won't fire." Chala whispered to Playback. She didn't want the mech to get hurt.

The mech simply nodded before saying, "While the five of us were on our way back, we were attacked by a Viron in a helicopter form. I dropped Zinnia and Sunblast off on top of one of the buildings here before I went back to fight the bot off. The bot ended up being a femme techno-organic hunter and she was not too happy to leave. I then flew over this area and I was quite upset to see that you were restraining my friends rather painfully so I intervened."

Chala nodded and took over. "To answer your other question, sir; the reason that the rest of us were late was because I…kind of had a rough landing with Shadow. I had to call Zinnia to help get me out of the wires that I got tangled in. So, she and Sunblast came and helped me out before the four of us made our way back here, where we found you all about to shoot Playback and his friends."

The area was silent for a click before Megatron stepped forward. It would have been really ironic for Megatron of all bots to be stepping forward and not Magnus if it had not been for his son being one of the ones with her. He stopped when he was close to the mech before he asked, "I am going to assume that you are Playback. What faction do you hold?"

Chala watched nervously as Playback seemed to stare at Megatron for the longest time. The mech then said, "As of right now, we do not hold a faction. But, the reason that the four of us came to Cybertron was to join the Triune Alliance. We heard about you many stellar cycles ago but our journey was a long one. We come from the colony planets on the far side of the known universe. It took us fifty stellar cycles to get here."

"And that is when I found them."

Everybot in the crowd turned and Chala was surprised to see Lockdown. When had he gotten back?

"Lockdown, how did you meet these bots?" Ultra Magnus asked.

"I was on Velocitron and I found these four in the docking bay trying to find a ride to Cybertron. I told them who I was and I asked for their story. I was told the exact same thing you were and I decided to bring them back here. But, when we arrived, the four of them wanted to go exploring so I said I would come back here and get things ready for them. I just haven't had time since I got back to inform you all about them. So, this is my fault and I apologize." Lockdown stated.

The area was quiet and Chala was starting to get nervous. She was not very good with waiting, especially in situations like this one. Everybot seemed to be on edge.

Chala hitched her wings up after the silence went on for too long. "Ok, is somebot going to say something or am I going to have to freeze something else?"

Megatron let out a chuckle before saying, "Well, since Playback here did help you four to escape, I guess we will give him and his friends a chance."

Chala sighed in relief as the tension in the air seemed to vanish with Megatron saying that. Now that one of the leaders had given their approval, the others felt a lot safer around Playback and his friends. Speaking about that…

"Who are you three?" Sunblast asked, beating her to the punch.

The tallest of the three waved before saying, "The designation's Flintlock."

"I'm Caliber." The other mech stated.

Chala then looked at the only femme in the group and couldn't help but stare. As far as she knew, the only bots who had lime green optics were the original members of the Dragon Scouters and the creations of Pandimala and the creations of Anarcum. Of course, their relatives also had the chance of getting lime green optics but no one outside of this group had green optics naturally, until now.

"I'm Toxica." The femme finally introduced herself.

Chala nodded and said, "Well, let's get you all inside and show you around." The newest members nodded so Chala led them inside.

Playback sighed as they were almost done with the tour. Everybot that he had seen looked like they had lost every single ounce of hope that his other half had worked so hard to bring to them. It was spark breaking. There was still one place that had been left unseen by their tour.

"Chala, could you take us to the memorial for Pandimala?" Playback asked.

Chala looked at him in shock before saying, "I guess. No bots really go down there much. Chaom avoids it like Cybonic Plague. The only other bots who go down there are us younger generation, Tana, Balm, Remcy, and Zarron. Their mates will rarely go with them. The loss of Pandimala hurt the Alliance. It hurt us really bad. Sometimes I think that the only reason that the Alliance fought as hard as they did for Kaon was because of the memorial."

Playback simply nodded. He had figured that there would be few bots who ever came down to the memorial. But, he had to see how they had honored his other half. It was vital if he was to restore Cybertron to Alliance control and rid them of the Virons.

"Please?" Playback asked.

Chala sighed before nodding and saying, "Yeah. It's been a while since I've been down there anyways and I need to talk with my grandcarrier."

Playback nodded his thanks and the four of them followed Chala. As they walked down the hall, Playback noticed that he had a private message from Toxica. Opening, he read: What are you planning?

Playback internally sighed before sending: I want to see a couple of things. One, I want to see how they remembered me. Secondly, I want to see if they have my swords. I think I left them on this side of the bridge when it blew up but I'm not sure. If I did, they will be down here.

And you are going to want us to take them back? Great, we just got on their good side. That was from Caliber.

"We're here." Chala stated before opening the door and walking inside.

Playback followed right behind Chala and was slightly saddened at the atmosphere that the room showed. The room was barely lit and he could see the starting of dust gathering. Though, to his relief, it looked like somebot cleaned every so often.

"It's so, gloomy in here." Flintlock stated out loud.

Chala nodded and said, "Yeah, the others think that we should keep this room darker to show respect. But, I think that we should have it brighter. Pandimala wouldn't have liked it to be so dismal. From what I have heard, she would have wanted us to keep this place bright and to keep the hope that has all but disappeared."

Playback was surprised that it was Chala said that. She thought that, since the femme had been raised by Blitzkriea, that she would not want any more fighting and want to stay as solemn as possible. Well, looks could be deceiving.

Glancing to the front of them room, Playback saw that Pandimala's swords were set on a platform that would be easy to access. But, the data pad in the middle of the swords caught his attention. Walking up to it, he asked, "Who are they?" Even though he knew who they were, he wanted to see how much Blitzkriea told Chala about these memories.

"They are Lizzie Val and Nathan Night. Those were the soliforms that Pandimala and Chaom used before they met each other. That data pad is the memory of how they told the other of their love for each other. It is one of my favorite memories." Chala answered. "Well, I had best show you the rec room. That's where we will find most of the bots around here."

Playback nodded and followed Chala out of the room. An idea was forming in his mind and he couldn't wait to implement it. Though, it would be a while before he could. But, once he did, it would change the war against the Virons forever.

Playback: The memorial is not visited as much as I thought that it would.

Authoress: Don't worry. Everything is for a reason.

Caliber: Ok, can you not talk so cryptically?

Toxica: Of course she can't. She is the Authoress.

Authoress: Thank you Toxica.

AN: And, here is the next chapter to this awesome story line! Sorry it took so long but it has been very stressful around here lately. I hope you all can forgive my tardiness. Next chapter is going to be a little calming and then, for Chapter 15, we get some Chaom interaction! =D Until next time though, please review! =D