Sparky: Hello readers, and welcome to...THEY JUST DON'T CARE ANYMORE! Chapter 25. Well, first of all-o, the Author tells me to tell you that he does not own The Transformers, and he sure as hell don't own any of the characters that are associated with The Transformers either.

Author: Damn you Universe!

Sparky: Anyway, he would also like to-

?-?-?: Why do you bother to do the work of a fool?

Sparky: Huh? Who's there?

?-?-?: I am the evil found in man's heart. I am the suffering of humanity. I am pure darkness incarnate!

Sparky: Oh, hi Ashlyn.

Ashlyn: Hey Sparky.

Author: Hey, an e-mail! I'll just open it and-! Oh God damn it! Ashlyn, stop rick rolling me! Urk!

Ashlyn: I told you, only Sparky can call me that.

Author: Ok, ok! Fine, stop rick rolling me Demi."

Ashlyn: Fifty bucks.

Author: Grumbling. You mercenary.

Ashlyn: Yeah, see, that's exactly what I am, in fact, most of us are. Me, Errol, my sister...we're all mercenaries.

Author: Well, Aqua's not-

Ashlyn: Excluding Aqua, everyone else is a mercenary.

Sparky: Uh...ok then...anyway, without further...non related crap, please enjoy the following story!

In some random city, the Autobots and the Decepticons were absolutely wrecking up the place. Menasor and Defensor were grappling with each other, Cliffjumper was beating the everloving shit out of Skywarp and Hauler was ripping Dirge apart through the use of his crane. Yep, normal day.

"Give up Autobots!" Galvatron screamed as he rammed Red Alert's head into a wall.

"Never! You'll have to beat Red Alert a lot more than that for him to give up the fighting!" Inferno exclaimed.

"Dear God nooooo! Make it stop!" Red Alert cried as Galvatron repeated his head slamming technique.

"Yep, a whole lot more than that." Inferno repeated.

Not far away, Optimus Prime was wrestling with Scourge.

"Maybe this will teach you Decepticon bastards not to cut the line in the movie theatre!" Optimus snarled as he mercilessly pummelled the hapless Scourge.

"Wait, I wasn't even there and-! Oh God! The agony!" Scourge cried.

"DEVASTATOR SMASH!" Devastator boomed as he rumbled up to Prime.

"Eep!" Starscream's ghost squealed, before running off.

"WHAT A FREAK." Devastators muttered "NOW, TO KILL PRIME!"

"Bah! Go ahead if you think you're bot enough! I bet you don't got the bearings for it, you lily livered-! Urk!"

The battle between the two was promptly ended when Devastator simply stepped on Prime.

"What? Prime's down?" Jazz asked in shock.

"Aha! I now claim leadership of the Autobots!" Grotusque cried "All kneel before the might of Grotusque!"

"Wait, I think he's still alive..." Perceptor pointed out.

"Oh no he's not." Grotusque countered.

"No, actually I'm pretty sure he's alive." Perceptor replied.

"Are you sure? Because I can come over there and check." Grotusque suggested as he cocked his rifle and strode over.

"Jeez, he doesn't look so good, we'd better get him back to the base." Hauler murmured.

"What, and retreat? Never! I'll die before I retreat" Fireflight protested.

In response, Goldbug shot him, stunning everyone.

"What? Well don't like at me like that! He practically asked me to do it!" Goldbug protested.

"Ah...right...let's just...let's just get their carcasses back to base..." Jazz said, shaking his head.

Back at the base, Optimus was laid out on a metal slab, Perceptor and First Aid by his side. Watching from the sidelines were Jazz, Hot Spot, Silverbolt, Ultra Magnus and Sandstorm.

"Well First Aid, will he make it?" Hot Spot asked.

"Hmmm, difficult to say at this point...it could go either way..." First Aid replied, not turning to face them.

Suddenly, someone burst into the room. They all turned around and saw Hot Rod standing in the doorway, wearing sunglasses.

Striking a pose, Hot Rod whipped of his sunglasses "Fatheeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrr!" Hot Rod screamed.

Breaking into a run, Hot Rod dashed over to Optimus...before unceremoniously shoving him off his slab. A startled First Aid tried to calm down Hot Rod, but Hot Rod slapped him away. Annoyed, First Aid slapped him back, and well...it all just went downhill from there until Hot Rod stood over First Aid's smouldering body.

"What the hell just happened?" A confused Silverbolt asked.

"Here lies a great man! A great man!" Hot Rod cried, motioning to Optimus, still on the floor.

"He's not dead you jackass." Jazz seethed, the annoyance creeping into his voice.

"Well, in any case, as the team's former leader, I reluctantly accept command of the Autobots...Right, I'll see you all on Monday." Hot Rod said, beginning to stroll away, until Sandstorm stopped him.

"Wait a second, why should you get control of the Autobots? You're an idiot!" Sandstorm exclaimed, glaring at his new "leader".

"Because, I owned the Matrix and led the Autobots into a golden age when I was the leader, ergo, I lead." Hot Rod replied.

"Golden age?-! You blew up twelve planets you idiot!" Sandstorm exclaimed.

"Yes, but I had a very good reason...there were a small number of Decepticons there...like, a really small number...not worth it dude." Hot Rod answered.

"And then you went and insulted all the survivors, saying that Cybertron was a better planet than there's!"

"Well, it totally is!" Hot Rod said with a shrug.

"You utter bastard." Jazz muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, that's no way to talk to your leader man...I'm docking your pay." Hot Rod told Jazz.

Jazz cursed "Son of a bitch!"

"Right, I'm off, see you all on Monday." Hot Rod said again as he walked off.

Sandstorm was trembling with rage "Dude, we cannot let that jackass be the leader!"

"Well, what do you propose we do?" First Aid asked as he struggled to get to his feet, still smoking.

"First Aid, you Perceptor and Ultra Magnus working on fixing the lesser of two douche bags, Scattershot, you're made up of Unicron bits, and Hot Rod hates Unicron, so you find some way of stopping him from assuming command, same goes for you Hot Spot. Silverbolt, I'll need you to...to...You know what? You can just go get hammered." Sandstorm told the Aerialbot.

"Wahoo!" Silverbolt cried, thrusting his arms up into the air.

"And I'll stick with you." Jazz concluded, turning to Sandstorm.

"Sure, but I need to call in some help, I know a guy who'd have the parts we need to fix Optimus." Sandstorm replied.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Octane asked as he sat down next to Sandstorm, Arcee and Jazz.

"Oh no..." Jazz muttered.

All four of them were aboard Octane's space freighter, cruising along through space...yep.

"Octane, we need some parts to fix Optimus, do you think you have them?" Sandstorm asked.

"I might, what's wrong with him?" Octane questioned.

"Devastator crushed him." Arcee replied.

"Huh, crushed him eh? Well, that'll probably cost extra..." Octane said, turning his head and holding out his hand.

Jazz sighed and handed him a sack full of Octane actions figures.

"Sweet, just let me check my inventory..." Octane said, before walking over to his computer and turning it on.

Suddenly, a picture flashed up.

"Hey, what was that?" Arcee asked.

"Uh, nothing!" Octane reassured her.

"Was that-? Was that a picture of me?-!" Arcee exclaimed.

"...No..." Octane denied quietly.

"You son of a bitch." Arcee glared at Octane.

"Eep!" Octane...eeped.

"OK, embarrassing photos aside, do you have what we need?" Sandstorm asked.

"Yep...but of course, I'm going to need some extra payment...For repairs, you understand..."

"What repairs, this place looks fine?" Jazz asked.

In response, Octane punched his computer screen, shattering it.

Jazz sighed.

Back on Earth, Hot Rod was making his way towards the Autobot Throne of Leadership, when suddenly, the Technobots and the Protectobots jumped in front of him.

"Gah!" Hot Rod cried out in shock "Oh, it's you guys...what the hell do you want?"

"We want to talk about our pay." Nosecone replied.

"Pay? What pay? You guys don't get paid! You've never been paid!" Hot Rod snapped.

"What? No pay? Well then, I think this calls for a strike!" Streetwise exclaimed.

"Strike! Strike! Strike!" The others chanted.

"What? I can't deal with this now, I've got a throne to ascend!" Hot Rod tried to tell them.

"No throne until we get our pay checks! Men, form a human wall!" Lightspeed cried as he and the others joined arms to block Hot Rod.

"Hey, this isn't fair you sons of bitches! Come on!" Hot Rod protested, struggling to get by.

Back in space, Octane was piloting his ship back to Earth.

"Right, well, we should be there any minute now!" Octane told the others as he set the ship on autopilot "Assuming of course nothing unexpected happens to slow us down or else stop us in some way!"

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the ship, and Galvatron's face appeared on the monitor.

"Autobots, traitor, prepare to be destroyed!" Galvatron growled.

Jazz glared at Octane "You had to say it didn't you? You just had to say it!"

In response, Octane shrugged.

Suddenly, several long, hard tubes shot out of the Revenge and pierced the skin of Octane's ship, ejecting Decepticons into it...yeah, I purposefully wrote that sentence that way.

"Right, prepare to die!" Galvatron exclaimed, pointing his cannon at Sandstorm.

"Look, you don't understand-!" Jazz began.

"Oh, I understand! You Autobots are teaming up with the traitors to finish me off! Well it's not going to work!" Galvatron said smugly.

"Actually, we were just trying to stop Hot Rod from becoming the new leader of the Autobots." Arcee corrected.

There was a collective gasp amongst the Decepticons.

"What? Hot Rod wants to lead again?-!" A horrified Cyclonus gasped.

"Dear God no! Remember when he blew up the planet of Booze because we were vacationing there?" Blitzwing asked.

"Or the Planet of Sheer Awesome?" Thundercracker reminded them.

"That settles it! We cannot let Hot Rod take over! As much as it pains me to say it, we must team up with the Autobots!" Galvatron exclaimed.

"Huh, really? Because that will cost all of you extra..." Octane told them, holding out one hand.

In response, Arcee shoved him out of the airlock.

"Problem solved." Arcee said as she dusted her hands off and took the controls of the ship.

"Hey come on! Let me get past!" Hot Rod complained as he struggled to get past the two teams, plus some others who had joined them, such as Air Raid, Skydive, Hauler, Seaspray, Starscream's ghost, Warpath, Grapple and Skids.

"No!" Skydive snapped, kicking Hot Rod in the crotch.

"Argh!" Hot Rod grunted.

"Oh, nice one Skydive." Grapple complimented.

Suddenly, Octane's ship, still attached to the Revenge crashed through the roof of the base. Dirge, who had not been wearing his seatbelt, was thrown out of the windshield and crashed into Hot Rod, killing Dirge instantly.

"Jesus Christ!" Skids exclaimed.

"Ugh...what the hell is going on here?" Hot Rod asked as he struggled to get up.

"We're here to stop you from getting the throne!" Cyclonus cried as he and the others jumped out of the ship.

"Decepticons?" A confused Afterburner asked.

Sandstorm jumped down to join them "It's ok, they're with us."

"Oh...ok..." A still confused Afterburner replied hesitantly.

"You'll never...stop me from getting to that thrown!" Hot Rod snarled as he got up, ran and leapt over the barricade, before running towards the throne.

"Oh no! Somebody stop him!" Arcee cried out in horror.

Thinking quickly, Scrapper grabbed a chain and threw it at Hot Rod, stopping him. Walking up to him, Mixmaster transformed into a cement truck and began pouring cement on the annoying Autobot, trapping him.

"Well, I guess that's one problem solved, now what about Prime?" Sandstorm asked.

"We'll help you repair him." Hook told the others.

"Me too, many hands make light work!" Grapple exclaimed.

"Dude, that is the lamest thing ever." Long Haul told Grapple.

"Uh, sorry, I just-" Grapple began.

"Never mind that now! We've got a Prime to save!" Hauler cried as he joined up with his old teammates and rushed for Prime's room.

Hours later, Prime was back to normal and the Autobots and the Decepticons gathered around him.

"Glad to hear that you didn't let that uppity little bastard take over, little son of a bitch got me killed once." Prime commended the others.

"Yes, well, he's gone now." Cyclonus told his enemy.

"Yes...incidentally, where did you send him?" Optimus asked.

"Someplace where he'll never bother any of us again." Arcee reassured Optimus.

In the farthest regions of space.

Hot Rod sighed as the escape pod that he had been placed into orbited around a black hole. Suddenly, he passed another escape pod.

"Hey...You piss off the Autobots too?" Johnny Evilguy asked as he passed Hot Rod's own escape pod.

Sparky: End of chapter! End of chapter! Ah, well, that's that then! I'm done so now I can enjoy some time off!

Ashlyn: All you ever do is fawn over Jenny and drink at the bar.

Sparky: Well...gotta have something to do.

Ashlyn: Sigh. Just finish it off so we can go.

Sparky: Oh, yeah, right. We all hope that you enjoyed the following fic, don't forget to leave a review, and finally...thanks for reading!