Hi, guys! I'm back with the next chapter! This one's gonna be a bit longer than my normal ones, too!

Shadescribe - Glad you're hanging in there! Also, yes - Soundwave is going to be popping up, but you're gonna have to wait a couple chapters for him to actually made an appearance. If I'm able to post chapters over the next couple weeks, though, that shouldn't take too long!

Anyway, here we go!

Chapter 14 – Corpses in Copses

Maria's POV

I looked out the window of Wildfire's vehicle mode as we drove out of the Ground Bridge and came out on what looked like was supposed to be a highway. Large holes and dents pockmarked the road – there must've been a battle here at some point – and the ground looked like it was in a state of disrepair.

And, in front of us…

"That's Kaon?" I leaned forward in the seat, looking up at the tall, dark spires that were ahead of us. "Looks like a dark citadel."

"It was infested with Dark Energon for a while," Wildfire muttered. The hologram's eyes narrowed as she leaned over the steering wheel and the car sped up. "I didn't see much of this place after I left early on. Didn't think that I'd really ever come back, either."

"You really didn't mention it when I came up to see Iacon's rebuilding over spring break," I commented, sitting back as we entered the city. Wildfire's vehicle mode bounced against the ground, which jutted up in random directions and made her slow down in order to avoid debris. "Did the war ever get to Kaon?"

"Not like this. The morons Shockwave left behind have been causing trouble and ripping up everything; I think Bulkhead might have had the crew that was working here a little bit ago pull out so they didn't get hurt."

"Then are you sure it's a good idea for you to be here alone?" Joshua spoke up from the back of the vehicle.

"I know these streets like the back of my servo," Wildfire scoffed in reply. "And besides, those bozos aren't going to do anything right now – the sun's coming up; they only tend to come out at night."

I looked out the window again and caught sight of light streaming in through the dark, almost obsidian black metal towers that rose up around us. "Are we really that close to Iacon?"

"Well, they're on the same half of the planet, but it does take a few cycles to get here when just plain driving." Wildfire muttered something else under her breath – something about half a day when forced to slow down for the sake of a tank. "Normal mechs and femmes didn't exactly have access to Ground Bridges before the war; they're probably going to be around a lot more now, though."

"That's good." Joshua nodded in approval. "It'll save time."

Wildfire grunted in reply. "Yeah."

None of us really talked much as we got deeper into Kaon. I spotted some places that were still mostly untouched, including city streets and a couple places where Megatron had put up statues of himself – probably not too long after the war started.

Thinking about Megatron got my mind wandering back to the mech himself, and how he'd looked and acted in the Hall of Records when Joshua and I got there. I couldn't help but feel like he still carried himself in the way that he did when I caught sight of him on Earth, but there was something else there, too.

Problem was, I couldn't quite put a finger on what it was that had changed about Megatron besides his appearance and the fact that he'd actually asked us – members of a race that he hadn't really seemed to care about before – for help. My only guess was that having the Cybertronian god of destruction and chaos in his head last year must have tightened a few bolts that had gotten knocked loose or something.

Wildfire came to a sudden stop. "We're here, you two."

I shook myself out of my thoughts and slipped out of Wildfire's vehicle mode, my metallic feet hitting the metal ground with a clang that sounded unnaturally loud. Kaon was…quiet. Maybe too quiet.

And that made me uneasy.

"There isn't anyone who's actually managed to move into the city yet and stay, is there?" Joshua asked as he stepped out of Wildfire's vehicle mode.

"Nope. Not unless you count Shockwave's nocturnal experiments." Wildfire shifted into her more humanoid form as I looked around at where she'd stopped: there were tall, misshapen skyscrapers around us that I couldn't really see the tops of, and we were right in front of a large set of doors on one building that looked like they'd been forced open, if the dents in the metal that looked like where fingers had gripped were any indication.

"Really didn't think I'd be coming back here so soon after finding Megatron," Wildfire muttered. "The Mini-Cons should be around here somewhere. Watch your step; Jazz and I made sure there weren't any more Dark Energon crystals growing around here, but that doesn't mean there aren't other things waiting around here."

I blinked at that. "Dark Energon crystals?"

"Megatron did poison the core with Dark Energon during the war," Joshua commented. "It would make sense that that would have…side effects."

"Oh." I nodded. "Okay then. That makes sense. So, what – we go in there and try and find the Mini-Cons?" I nodded to the open doors.

"If you're going in there, I'm staying with you," Wildfire replied. "There may be no Cybertronians around, but that doesn't mean that this place isn't dangerous. I know my way around from before the war – stick with me, and we'll be fine." She started towards the torn-open doors with her head held high, Joshua and I following after her at a swift jog. In moments, we were past the doors and inside the dark, quiet building, Wildfire's loud footsteps and our quiet, fast ones echoing throughout the room.

"Abandoned buildings like this are creepy," I muttered.

"Says the girl who went into every haunted house from Kanto to Unova," Wildfire responded with a snort.

"Because there were Pokémon in them! This place is completely abandoned!" I motioned to the large, metal room that we had entered, the hallways branching off, the warped and twisted metal that was lying around that looked like misused and disused weapons… "And it looks like a metalworking shop that fell apart from the inside. What happened in here?"

"I don't know, but it definitely looks like—"

SCREEECH!

The loud noise caused the three of us to stop short and wince.

"WHOO-HOO!"

"…trouble," Wildfire finished with a grumble.

Joshua and I turned at the sound of the whoop, systems almost instantly going on the alert as we tried to find where the source of the noise was coming from.

"LOOK OUT BELOW, BIGGIE!"

I looked up sharply just as what looked like a miniature blue and orange race car shot itself – no, himself - off a twisted piece of metal and practically came flying down towards us, transforming into a Cybertronian's humanoid form as he went.

Wildfire held out a hand and caught him before he could collide with her chest. My eyes widened when I saw that her fingers actually barely made their way all around his middle. "Thrill Check, how long have you been up there?"

"Not long," the little Cybertronian practically chirped in reply. "You mind putting me down? I wanna do that again!"

"Not if I'm not standing here and you could get your brains blown out against the wall," Wildfire replied shortly. "You may be Cybertronian, but you're armor isn't as thick as mine."

"The better to be small, slick, and quick!" Thrill Check wriggled out of Wildfire's grip like an eel and leapt off her hand as she moved to grab him, and he landed on the ground next to me with a loud clang that made the ground shake a little.

"Whoa!" I scrambled back into a defensive stance, looking up at Thrill Check as he turned and looked at me. He may have been a Mini-Con, but that didn't mean he was as small as I was in comparison to Wildfire. He must've been six and a half feet tall at least!

Thrill Check's yellow eyes blinked in curiosity when he caught sight of me, and a grin spread across his face. "Well, hey there! I haven't seen a Cybertronian like you before! What are you doing here with tall, fiery and short-tempered?" He jabbed a thumb in Wildfire's direction, and she scowled down at him in response.

"Uh…she's kinda like an older sister to me," I replied carefully. "I'm Flare-Up."

Thrill Check's eyes widened at that. "What, seriously? I thought you'd be bigger."

I frowned at that and stood a little straighter. "Judge me by my size, do you?" Sparks of fire flickered on my shoulders for a moment, causing the Mini-Con's eyes to widen even further. I smirked at his reaction. "Big things can come in small packages. Humans can be known to remember and forget that sometimes."

"Depending on whether or not we're facing against giants," Joshua added as he came over. "I'm Spark, Jolt's partner in the lab."

"Another shortie!" Thrill Check laughed. "And I thought we were the smallest things in the universe!"

"Nope." I grinned. "And there are creatures even smaller than us!"

"Wha – seriously? How small?"

"Small enough that they have to be seen with special kinds of lenses and machines called microscopes," Joshua replied. "They can't be seen with the naked eye."

"Whoa…. That's wicked."

Wildfire snorted. "Science. Ugh."

Thrill Check looked up. "Yeah, the gladiator can't do science!" He hunched over and let his arms dangle, then jumped around with a frowning expression. "Ugh. Me fight. Me punch. Me kill."

Wildfire snatched Thrill Check up again and held him close to her face. "Do you want me to offline you, pest?"

"Wildfire!" I frowned up at her.

"It might not be a good idea for you to do that," Joshua added.

"Yeah, Wildfire," Thrill Check grinned and stuck his tongue out – a silver, flexible bit of metal that looked like it was made of a bunch of interlocking parts.

Wildfire's eyes narrowed.

"It wouldn't be a good idea if you antagonized her, though," I added. "I mean, Wildfire can get to be pretty mad if you push her too much."

Thrill Check looked down at me, frowning. "How do you know that? You been on the receiving end?"

"No." I folded my arms across my chest. "I've heard about Decepticons who have gotten the receiving end of it."

Thrill Check blinked at that, then looked over at Wildfire, who grinned wickedly at him. "Uh…oh."

Wildfire put Thrill Check down on the ground again. "Where are your buddies, then? You usually don't travel alone around here."

Thrill Check moved away from Wildfire's feet, looking unnerved. He scowled up at her. "Why do you want to know, anyway? Biggies like you aren't interested in us."

"We are when you start causing trouble when we're trying to put this place back together," Wildfire replied. "It's either you doing the day, or Shockwave's runaway experiments at night, and we haven't had any luck with figuring out how to stop either one of you."

"Back togeth—oh! You could have just said that you weren't with the Reforged!" Thrill Check slapped himself in the forehead. "Duh! We would have left you alone then, you silly biggie!"

Wildfire frowned. "I'm not so sure about that…."

"Reforged?" I turned the focus away from Wildfire and more on what Thrill Check had just said. "That's what they're calling themselves? Like they've been…remade?"

"Probably." Thrill Check shrugged. "I don't really think about stuff like that very much. I just like being able to mess with the stuff they put up! Let's see what they think when they're stuff doesn't go like they think it's supposed to for once!" He threw back his head and let out a bark of laughter.

"I'm getting the feeling that you guys just don't like large Cybertronians in general," I commented worriedly. "Does that mean that you're…not at all interested in getting involved in rebuilding the planet?"

Thrill Check looked at me sharply, his smile fading into a frown. "Look, I want to help put this pile of bolts back together just as much as the next mech, don't get me wrong. It's just that the biggies liked using us like tools, and none of us want to go back to that. One day it's screwing in bolts in tight places, the next it's spying on some guy you don't like and blowing up amusement park rides." His expression darkened. "I lost good friends to that fiasco in Six Lasers. So yeah, I'm not too fond of the biggies. You won't be either, when they start using you." He nodded to Joshua and I. "And if you're as smart and as powerful as you say you are, you'd do the right thing and stay out of their business."

I frowned at that, my mouth shifting a little into a straight line. "Wildfire'd never do that, and besides, I've already got something that's keeping me busy. There's no way that the Cybertronians would be able to get in the way of that."

"And there is the chance that they might end up getting dragged along," Joshua added.

"I've already gone on more than enough adventures with you, and I don't think that I'd be able to now," Wildfire grunted. "Rebuilding Cybertron is going to be more than enough trouble, what with everything that's been going on here right now."

"Yeah, that's true." I nodded in agreement. "Hopefully, things will smooth out soon. I'd like to come up here and not have to worry about something going on that's disrupting getting everything rebuilt."

"What in the Pit are you talking about?" Thrill Check raised an eyebrow – or, what could be counted as an eyebrow among Cybertronians.

I opened my mouth to respond, but then a loud noise from somewhere deeper inside the former coliseum.

CRUNCH.

Thrill Check stiffened at the noise as Wildfire instantly shifted into a defensive battle stance, bringing out one of her built-in cannon-like blasters and aiming it in the direction that the noise came from.

"We're not alone in here," Wildfire muttered, her eyes narrowing. "You three – get out of here. Whatever this thing is, something tells me it's bigger than you three might be able to handle."

CRUNCH.

"If you think that, then it's bigger than you, too!" Thrill Check responded quickly.

I turned and looked at the Mini-Con in surprise. "You know what that noise is?"

"Yup! And it's one of the nastiest Reforged grunts that I've ever laid my optics on! I'm getting out of here!" Thrill Check leapt into the air and transformed into his race car mode, then zipped across the floor of the area and out of sight with a screech of his tires.

"If there are any Autobots in the area who can pick up my signal, I could use some help in Kaon," Wildfire spoke aloud suddenly. "One of the Reforged is awake in the middle of the day, and it sounds like this one is too dangerous to let it wander around. I haven't run into it yet, but I'm going to do what I can to keep it from causing too much more damage to the city. A little help restraining the monster would be useful!"

I heard a crackle of static in my ears as the sound of crunching metal became even louder, and the ground shook beneath our feet. ::I read you loud and clear, Inferno. I'm on my way with backup::

Wildfire grunted. "You'd better hurry, because I think this guy could rival Grimlock in size."

"Who?" I asked in confusion.

"No one important right now." Wildfire shifted her stance again. "Get behind me, kids. This is gonna get messy."

Joshua and I didn't argue; we scrambled back behind Wildfire and moved back a good distance, diving behind what looked like the remains of some kind of cannon as a large, purple and black Cybertronian entered the room from one of the adjoining hallways.

If the mech had been human, he would have been horribly pumped on steroids: he looked so unbalanced in the upper half of his body that he probably would have toppled over if his feet didn't look so disproportionally large. There was a Decepticon symbol on his chest, but it looked like it had been slashed through – maybe a Con who'd been left behind during the war and ended up joining the ranks of these "Reforged" Thrill Check had mentioned. His face, though, freaked me out the most: while he did technically have a jaw and a mouth, most of his head was taken up by a large, glowing red optic with a cracked lens.

"Shockwave?" I asked with a slight squeak.

"No…Lugnut?" Wildfire sounded shocked.

My eyebrows rose at that. "Wildfire, you know this guy?"

"Knew." Wildfire shifted her stance as the Cybertronian – Lugnut – came to a halt directly across from Wildfire. "I knew him."

Joshua and I exchanged looks at that.

"Sounds like she might have considered him at least somewhat of a friend before the war started," Joshua commented.

"Maybe." I looked back at the hulking brute, who hadn't moved from where he was standing yet.

Lugnut unhinged his jaw with a slight shake of his head. "ROOOAAAAAAA!"

I squeaked as the ground under my feet shook and rattled in response to the noise, ducking behind the blaster a little more as Wildfire winced, but stood firm.

"You've definitely lost your head," Wildfire muttered. She raised her cannon-like blaster and fired.

The resulting blast of fiery red energy hit Lugnut right on his ruined Decepticon mark, but it didn't look like it did anything to hurt him.

"Strong defense," Wildfire and I muttered at once. "Great."

"He has to have a weak point," Joshua remarked thoughtfully as Wildfire started charging up her cannon again.

"I'd say go for the legs," I responded. "The armor around his knees doesn't look all that strong from here."

"They could be coated in a new alloy that's stronger than the average Cybertronian's armor," Joshua replied.

"Only one way to find out, though," I pointed out.

Lugnut bellowed again, then lifted a leg and started moving forward at a slow pace – all the metal on his upper half must've made it hard for him to move quickly.

Wildfire released another blast, this time aiming for the knees – she must've been listening to Joshua and me at least a little, or she came to the conclusion herself.

Brrzt!

Sparks traveled up Lugnut's leg for a moment as the blast hit, and he stopped short for a moment and let the sparks disappear before he lifted his leg again and kept moving as though nothing had happened.

"Tch." Wildfire disengaged her Buster and threw her arms out to her sides. Two large swords extended from her wrists, just above her hands, which she clenched into fists. "Energy field. I'd heard Shockwave was experimenting with that during the war – must've short-circuited his brain."

With that said – probably for our benefit – Wildfire dashed forward suddenly, moving around the wreckage of broken weapons and headed straight for Lugnut even as he continued to move forward slowly. She ducked under an arm that came forward for a punch and slashed at his legs with a snarl.

Shhhrring!

Joshua and I winced at the noise as Wildfire moved back quickly and away from Lugnut as he tried to slam a fist down on her head. Then she circled around and slashed at his legs again, moving quickly in and out in order to avoid his fists.

"His legs are probably well-armored," Joshua noted, frowning. "Wildfire's going to take a while in order to cut the cables down there, and who knows what Lugnut is able to do at the moment."

"Well, all he looks like right now is a giant wall," I commented, frowning. "I don't like the look of his upper half, though. Depending on what's up there, he could have a bunch of weapons that could blow anyone off their feet."

"Maria…." Joshua's voice took on a warning tone. "Do you know how much of a chance that what you're saying is actually going to happen and catch Wildfire off-guard?"

"Uh…." I swallowed as Wildfire went in for another swipe at Lugnut's legs and retreated back a longer distance than she had been before. "Pretty high?"

"ROOOOAAAAAA!" Lugnut threw his arms back – no, shifted his arms back behind him as his chest plates opened, revealing what looked like a large number of missiles embedded in his chest.

"Slag!" Wildfire cursed. She lunged to the side behind a large slab of metal that looked like it had been torn up from the floor at an odd angle, practically becoming a red and orange blur.

Lugnut jolted suddenly, and there came a blast of smoke and a high-pitched squeal of noise as one of the missiles came flying out of his chest and honed in on Wildfire's position. A blast of flames came up from her hiding place in retaliation—

FWOOM!

- and Wildfire suddenly zipped out from her hiding place under the cover of the explosion and dove behind another large slab of metal.

"He doesn't have a Spark," Joshua noted. "Hm."

I looked at him sharply. "What do you mean?"

"According to Cybertronian biology – or, their equivalent of it, since they aren't organics—"

FWOOM!

"—their Sparks, souls, life sources, however you like to call them, is usually stored in the center of their chests." Joshua gave me a pointed look. "Like where your core happens to be, for example."

I blinked a couple times at that as another explosion went off. "That's…ominous. Does that mean that thing's a walking corpse?!"

"This thing better not be running on Dark Energon or so help me Primus I am going to have words with the next Reforged I find on the ends of my swords!" Wildfire yelled from across the room.

"ROAAAAA!"

BOOM! FWOOM!

"Oh stuff it, you two-ton walking bomb!"

I couldn't just sit there and let Wildfire continue to move from shelter to shelter, taking missile fire from this walking corpse. I started to move from our hiding place, summoning my Buster as I did.

Joshua grabbed my left arm. "If you go out there, you will be killed. Stepped on or shot at, it's more likely that you're going to find yourself offlined than if you stay put."

I winced at that, not really wanting to even consider the idea.

"Maria, think with your head and not with your core." Joshua's voice started to take on a warning tone. "I know it's been easy for you to charge into things, but you have to remember that you can be killed. This isn't a game."

I moved back into the half-crouching position that I'd taken up before next to Joshua, my cousin still holding onto my arm in case I bolted. I probably wasn't going to, though. Vague memories of what had happened before I'd been turned into a Reploid were slipping in and out of focus – what happened right before I woke up in Light's lab specifically. "Then what can we do?"

"Right now, nothing. I've been trying to consider ways that we can shoot it without getting its attention, but I don't know how sensitive its peripheral senses are. We'll just have to hope that the backup Wildfire sent for comes in soon."

I huffed, but I didn't move as Wildfire continued dodging explosions left and right, throwing fireballs at the-thing-that-used-to-be-Lugnut in order to try and catch some of the missiles early before they could detonate too close to her.

FWOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"ROAAAAAAA!" The giant mech thrashed around wildly in the cloud of smoke that had erupted with the explosions, almost as though he was trying to put out the fires that had erupted in his chest, spinning slowly on one foot like some suped-up ballerina trying to balance on a spinning pottery wheel.

"Well, that did something." I grinned, peering up over the twisted piece of metal we were hiding behind. "Go, Wildfire!"

"What are you two doing, staying out in the open?!"

I turned my head to look behind us and blinked when I saw Thrill Check sitting in his car mode a short distance back from us.

"Anything that moves or breathes is going to get their attention!" the Mini-Con hissed at us. "Come on – I know a safe place to hide where—"

"I'm not leaving Wildfire behind," I cut him off. "Besides, I'm pretty sure this is somewhere up near fighting demigods when it comes to the stuff I've faced. We'll be fine."

Thrill Check spluttered at that. "D-demigods?! Just what kind of alien are you?!"

"The World-Jumping kind."

There came a crackle of static over the comm system. ::Inferno, we're moving into the former colosseum::

"About time," Wildfire shot back. "This thing's gonna go haywire any minute."

::Duly noted::

"Just get your aft in here before I'm forced to run out there and drag you in myself!"

There came the sound of loud, normal Cybertronian-sized footsteps behind us, and I turned my head in order to see who was coming in. My eyes widened instantly as a grin crossed my face when I saw the three figures who had arrived.

The mech in red whistled, his eyes practically sparking as a wide grin crossed his face. "Man, that's a real piece of work!"

"Looks like he's been gutted," noted the black and white mech with a frown. The door-like wings on his back twitched. "We're going to have to move quickly if we're going to restrain him."

"Restrain nothing!" Wildfire barked back as she dodged another explosion. "This thing's got no spark! Now get over here and help me turn this thing to slag before it takes my head off!"

"Now that's something I can get behind!" The red mech leapt forward, his grin becoming even wider – if that was even possible – and grabbed onto Lugnut from behind and scrambled up to wrap his arms around the giant purple former-living-Cybertronian's neck. "Literally! Sunny, help me out here!"

The other mech who had yet to speak – and also had his armor colored a burning yellow – stiffened as his expression contorted into one of annoyance at the red mech's yell. "I thought I told you not to call me that!" He lunged for Lugnut and slammed into the backs of his legs, causing the larger mech to jolt back and nearly cause the red mech to be sent flying.

"Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, stop your bickering for a moment!" Wildfire snapped.

"Yes, ma'am!" the two mechs responded quickly.

I smirked a little at the twin Cybertronians, remembering how they'd been around when I had come up for spring break during the school year. Sunstreaker had been fussing about my armor's color style for a couple hours, while Sideswipe really, really wanted to see what could happen if I helped him set off a couple fireworks indoors.

Needless to say Prowl and Wildfire weren't very pleased with us when they went off in Sideswipe's apartment and flew into the one next door.

BOOM! CRASH!

I shook my head quickly, coming out of my memories as Lugnut went falling to the ground onto his back, the open part of his chest releasing a large cloud of smoke.

"Ha ha! Yeah!" Sideswipe jumped back, grinning widely and sending a fist up into the air in triumph. "We got him!"

"And now I've got soot all over my armor!" Sunstreaker complained, brushing at the black streaks that went across his armor. "Wildfire, be more careful with your ability next time!"

"You can't tell me what to do," Wildfire responded with a short huff. She looked over at Prowl. "Why didn't you join in? We could have used your help."

"I would have only gotten in the way," Prowl replied. "You three work in sync quite well."

Wildfire huffed in response, folding her arms across her chest. "Well, thanks for coming to help. I wasn't about to let Maria and Joshua jump in and get themselves squished."

"Maria had been considering it," Joshua called over as he moved out from behind our hiding place.

"Like I was just going to stand by when you needed help," I responded as I followed after him. "But getting squished isn't a very good idea."

"It sure as the Pit isn't," Sideswipe replied. He blinked. "Hey, is that a Mini-Con with you? Man, you're even smaller than him!"

I looked back, blinking in surprise when I saw that Thrill Check had transformed to his humanoid form and followed us out from our hiding place. "Uh, yeah." I cocked my head to one side. "Thrill Check, what are you still doing around? I would have thought you'd have slipped out of here as soon as Sides, Sunny, and Prowl got here."

"Don't call me that," Sunstreaker muttered.

Thrill Check blinked at that. "U-uh, well, I wanted to see this all the way through. Nothing more thrilling than seeing one of those monsters go down, right?" He grinned, but it was a little shaky, and didn't seem to quite reach his eyes.

Joshua raised an eyebrow at that.

"Flare-Up, Spark." Prowl nodded in greeting down at the two of us. "Are you on another break from your studies, then?"

"Yeah, it's summer break." I looked up at the cop bot, grinning. "I've graduated from high school, so I'm gonna take a year off and look into where I could go for college. Maybe I'll even become a World Jumper full-time – who knows?"

Prowl's eyes flickered for a moment. "Are you sure doing that would be wise of you? You are going to eventually stop, and you are going to need something to fall back on."

"Yeah, I know. But I'm going to see what happens with World Jumping first."

Thrill Check made a spluttering noise. "World Jumping?"

I looked over at the Mini-Con and grinned. "Yeah!"

"That's one reason why the Cybertronians won't be capable of 'using' us," Joshua said with a knowing spark in his eye. "Our occupation is more important, and it keeps us busy."

Thrill Check looked startled at that.

"Is that what you're worried about?" Wildfire came over, stepping over one of Lugnut's extended arms and being careful of the formerly-alive Cybertronian's claws. "Being used? This isn't the Rust Age."

"Yeah!" Sideswipe agreed. "Besides, we're gonna need your help anyway! Can't fit into tiny spaces, and even if the Reploids can, they can't be up here all the time." He motioned to Joshua and me. "They got lives, too."

Thrill Check blinked at that, looking surprised, then frowned. "I dunno…."

"We can't force you to join us," Prowl said. "That's not something that would be wise, and it would mean we were slipping back into ways we didn't want to replicate. Think it over, and when you've reached your decision, don't be afraid to reach out to us."

Thrill Check cocked his head at that, then nodded, turned and ran off, transforming into his vehicle mode as he went. Seconds later, he was out of sight.

"We'd better get back to Iacon and let them know that the Reforged are starting to move during the light hours," Prowl said, frowning. "It wouldn't be wise to have Flare-Up and Spark remain here in Kaon, either. I'll take them back to Iacon – you three scout the area and see if you can find any more hints as to the Reforged's latest movements."

"And what makes you think that you can order us around?" Sideswipe asked, frowning.

"Because until we can get a council properly running here and have more Cybertronians take on responsibilities and have our planet rebuilt, we are severely stretched thin outside of Iacon and will need to run things militarily for now." Prowl's voice was crisp and clearly said that that was all he was going to say on the matter. "Flare-Up, Spark, if you would follow me. I will be waiting outside for you." He turned and walked out of the building with his doorwings held high.

Sideswipe huffed as soon as Cop Bot was out of the building. "What's gotten his gears all bent?"

"He probably wants to make sure that everything is going smoothly to the best of his ability," Joshua replied. "These Reforged probably aren't helping matters." He motioned to the body of Lugnut that was lying on the ground.

"You got that right." Sunstreaker huffed. "And we still don't know where their base is. I'd like to get right in there and show them a thing or two for slowing us down; Iacon's starting to get crowded with all the civilians that are settling in there."

"You two had better head back with Prowl," Wildfire added. "I'm sure Jazz has tons of questions for you two."

"Oh, yeah…." I paused at that, remembering the mech we'd left behind in Iacon.

"Jazz?!" Sideswipe and Sunstreaker looked at Wildfire.

"Coolsville's back?!" Sideswipe asked, jaw dropping.

"I'm guessing this is a recent thing?" Joshua asked dryly.

"Recent enough that we haven't heard of it!" Sideswipe jumped from one foot to the other eagerly. "I know what I'm doing the next time I'm in town!"

"Well, you're gonna have to wait," Wildfire replied shortly. "Kids, get going. It might not be a good idea to keep Prowl waiting right now."

I nodded in agreement, then turned to look at Joshua, only to see that he was starting towards the door already. I looked back at Wildfire quickly. "I'll see you guys back in Iacon!" Then I dashed out after my cousin.

Well, Lugnut showing up was a bit of a surprise. The fact that he was just a walking missile launcher wasn't exactly one that I'd been expecting either.

Whelp, next chapter's probably gonna be going up next week sometime, but I'll have to see how my school schedule works out! I'll see you guys then!