Where There Is Smoke

Rated T for language and anything else I might have missed.

Talking:

"English or other Earth language"

"Cybertronian"

"Talking on the phone or recordings"

:comm. link:

[Texting]

'Thought'

(Bond talk)

** (Bumblebee speaking in beeps) **

Spark feelings

Druatch

Flash back or change of time or place

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.'s, Solarlight belongs to Techna96 and is used with her permission.

Time changes:

Nano-klik=1/2 a klik. Klik= less than a second. Breem (cybertronian minute) = 8 minutes. Cycle=hour. Joor (cybertronian hour) = 6 hours. Solar cycle=day. Megacycle= 1 week. Orn= 13 days. Groon= 1 month. Deca-orn = 3 months. Stellar cycle= 1 year. Vorn=83 years

When Smokescreen walked into the training room Arcee was setting up a punching bag with a sour look of her face plates, like she was beating herself up over something before she beat up the giant sand bag that was suspended by a chain.

Arcee heard him enter the room and stopped what she was doing but didn't look at him. "You sure you want to be around a crazy bitch right now?"

Smokescreen frowned, knowing she was talking about herself in a self-loathing tone and not liking it one bit, then smiled and shrugged. "Well, if one shows up I'll be sure to let you know,"

Arcee looked up at Smokescreen with surprise as he went around to the other side of the punching bag to hold it in place for her to hit it.

She looked away from him before turning her focus on the punching bag. "You're not still mad about what happened earlier?"

Smokescreen let out a mock scoff. "What, me, mad? Who says I was mad?"

Arcee just took her anger out on the punching bag; not hitting it as hard as she had Starscream in the mine but just enough where the bag nearly slipped from Smokescreen's grip.

Smokescreenlet her get a few hits in before saying. "Lioness, I wasn't mad, I was… well in all honesty you scared the energon out of me,"

She looked at him with an "Is that supposed to impress me?" look and he backpedaled.

"I mean… uh…"

Arcee took up her fighting stance and said in a serious tone. "Smokescreen, step away from the punching bag for a breem,"

Smokescreen held up his servos and backed away a reasonable distance and winced as Arcee let out a war cry and attacked the punching bag like a berserker until the bag itself fell to the ground with a thud and a puff of dust from whatever was inside it.

Neither of them moved as the dust settled and Arcee cycled air through her vents. After waiting a moment to let her calm down a bit, Smokescreen carefully stepped closer to put a servo on her shoulder.

"Arcee…" he stopped when he realized she was shaking.

Arcee gritted her denta and whispered. "It's not fair…" She turned towards Smokescreen, raising her voice. "It's not fair! Bots like Starscream, Megatron and Airachnid get to go about their lives, lying, cheating and killing bots just because they can! While good bots like Cliff, Tailgate and everybot else that was lost in this damn war are just… gone…"

Her voice broke and coolant pooled in her optics so Smokescreen grasped her other shoulder to get her to look at him and said. "Shh, let it out,"

Arcee looked up at him with uncertainty and Smokescreen gave her a reassuring nod as he moved so if anyone came in they would see his back plates sooner than they would see her.

"I've got you covered,"

Arcee leaned into his chest as she hugged him but she didn't cry and she started to pull away right away so Smokescreen held onto her. "You know, you really don't have to be 'little miss tough femme' all the time,"

Arcee looked up at him and slowly, regrettably, removed his arm-servos from her. "Yes, I do…"

Smokescreen just stood there numbly and watched as she walked away, not knowing what else to do or say until she was gone. "Not with me,"

He kicked at the ground and went out to the main area to wait with the others.

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About an hour after they left, Bumblebee called the base to let them know the mission was a success and to ask if Ratchet wanted to finish whatever he was doing with the Techno-dragons before or if they could just leave.

Ratchet responded with "If they are trying to get out of a medical appointment with me, tell them I will hunt them like Turbofoxes to the ends of this planet until I get the results I'm looking for,"

A few minutes later, The Techno-dragon's stepped through the ground bridge and Ratchet noticed Bumblebee wasn't with them. "Where is Bumblebee?"

Greenblades looked at the medic. "He will be along later, he told us to come back to let you all know,"

Silverbullet snorted in frustration and amusement. "Turns out 'Ladiesman' and all the others involved in the whole 'info leak' know each other and this whole scenario was just a ploy to get Bumbleebee's attention,"

She threw her servo in the air. "They wanted to have a little reunion but couldn't actually call Bumblebee so they did every other thing they could to get him to come looking for them. Seriously, they could have just called the mech for Primus sake, instead of wasting our time when we could have… oh…"

Silverbullet collapsed as her legs buckled; Greenblades caught her just before she hit the floor.

Ratchet knelt next to them and examined the Techno-dragoness and found she had fainted. "Get her on a med. berth, quickly,"

Greenblades did as he was told and was relieved when Silverbullet stirred when she was set on the med. berth, but then Ratchet tried to shoo him away. "Out of the way, let me examine her,"

Greenblades looked at Ratchet, suddenly very defensive for some reason. "If you think I am just going to leave her like this…" his optics suddenly flickered and he had to lean against the med. berth. "What's… What's happening?"

Ratchet scanned both Techno-dragons and found they both had low energy levels and high fevers. He pointed to Greenblades. "You, on a med. berth." Greenblades climbed up next to his mate.

"No, not the same one…" Ratchet stopped when Silverbullet woke up and both Techno-dragons gave him "What are you going to do about it?" looks and he waved them off as he turned around to get something from a cupboard. "Never mind,"

While Ratchet rummaged for a stronger scanner to get better scan readings than the one in his arm-servo, Smokescreen came into the main area and saw the commotion going on and went to the humans' area to ask what had happened.

"What's going on? What did I miss?"

Jack looked over at the med. bay and then up at Smokescreen. "Silverbullet fainted, then when Ratchet told Greenblades to leave so he could examine her, Greenblades got all riled up. But then he started to fade too so now they're both getting a check-up,"

"Oh, ok," Smokescreen looked at the Techno-dragons and then realized something. "Wait, when did they get back?"

Raf looked up from his laptop. "Just now, Silverbullet was saying how the whole 'info leak' they were investigating was staged to get Bumblebee to come to some reunion with some old friends from when he first landed. Then she collapsed and… you know,"

"Oh, so where is 'Mr. Popular' now?" Smokescreen looked around for the yellow scout.

"Still in New Jersey," Raf returned his attention to his laptop. "Having a party with his other human friends,"

The other humans and the Praxian noticed the bitter edge to the boy's tone and tried to console him.

Jack looked over at Raf. "Raf, he didn't know what he was going to find when he got there. As far as he knew he might have had to arrest this 'Ladiesman' guy and his friends,"

Smokescreen nodded his agreement. "Knowing Bumblebee, if he did know that was how things were going to turn out he probably would have found a way to bring you with,"

June looked over at Raf. "Even though you're not old enough to go to those kinds of places anyway," she gave Smokescreen a pointed look and the mech looked over at the med. bay as though whatever was happening over there was suddenly the most interesting thing in the room.

Miko flopped back against the couch next to Raf. "Although it would be cool if he did sneak you into the club with him,"

Raf looked down at his laptop, knowing the others were just trying to cheer him up. "But then he'd get kicked out too," he glared at the laptop screen and mumbled "Because I'm too young to do anything,"

While everyone sat in awkward silence trying to think of a way to dispel the sour mood that had befallen the room, Smokescreen continued to watch the med. bay, now actually curious as to what was going on.

Ratchet finished his examination and was now explaining something to the Techno-Dragons in hushed tones.

Smokescreen increased the sensitivity of his audio receptors to hear better and was able to catch the last part of the conversation.

"…I still think you should remain in the med. bay for the time being,"

"Ratchet, we've been through this before, we'll be fine. Besides, from the sound of things you're about to get another patient that needs your help more and we don't want to be in the way,"

Ratchet started to protest but Greenblades stopped him. "You have enough to worry about Ratchet, let us handle this… and if I have to kidnap my own mate to make sure she is safe from all the kittywampus activity this base is known for I will,"

Ratchet struggled for a counterargument but sighed in defeat. "How would you prefer I explain this to the others?"

"Tell them about the energy dampeners in case the 'Cons try to use them again but not about everything else. Keep it need-to-know,"

Smokescreen tried to listen for more but Miko let out a victory shout, obviously having beaten Jack at a game, and made him cringe at the noise that assaulted the increased sensitivity of his audios.

"In your face Jack!" Miko was oblivious to anything going on around her as she did her little victory dance.

Jack tossed the controller onto the table in front of them and slumped back against the couch. "Yeah, yeah, I'll catch up to you eventually Miko,"

"Dream on, Darby!"

Smokescreen returned his audio receptors to their normal sensitivity—so he no longer felt like someone was trying to pry them out of his helm every time someone close to him spoke too loudly—just as the Techno-Dragons stalked out of the med. bay with Ratchet trailing behind them.

Miko saw them go over to the ground bridge and ran over to the railing. "Hey, where are you going?"

They stopped and slowly turned towards her like two teenagers that got caught sneaking out of the house and said. "We'll be back, don't worry,"

Miko looked about ready to pout, just like she did when she found out Wheeljack was leaving the first time. "You're leaving?

Silverbullet nodded. "Afraid so, kiddo," then she hissed and pressed a servo to her chest while the other clutched her helm.

Greenblades steadied his mate and explained. "The Decepticons did something to us when they had us on the Nemesis to keep us quiet, at first we thought it was sedatives but now…"

Ratchet took over explaining. "I just examined them and found that, in addition to a myriad of other ailments, the Decepticons had implanted energy dampeners into their processors during their time imprisoned on the Nemesis,"

Arcee came into the room at that point, having heard part of the conversation from the hall. "How do we know whatever that thing is isn't a tracking devise? They could be leading the 'Cons here,"

"I already checked, the implants are not tracking devises, they redirect energy from their systems and releases it in small sharp bursts to activate a modified stasis, leaving them aware and mostly mobile but lethargic at best,"

Blaster tapped his helm. "Basically, the lil thing-a-ma-beepers in their helms makes them tired all the time so they couldn't use Circuit-Su against the 'Cons and made it harder to fight back when they tortured them," he frowned. "Ah can't believe Ah didn't notice it sooner,"

Ratchet sighed "Neither can I,"

Miko tapped her head. "Can't you just take the little thing-a-ma-jigs out?"

Smokescreen pointed at her "That's what I was going to say,"

SIlverbullet reached up and started to remove her helmet. "Yeah, can't we just open our helms and rip them put like really big ticks?"

Ratchet looked disgusted by the suggestion. "No you may not! This sort of thing requires surgery,"

Greenblades frowned "Lucky for us, we can wait for such surgery. However you have a critical patient inbound who cannot. Which is why we will return to our island in the meantime; it would be best if we conserve what energy we have and we will only be in the way if we take stasis naps here in the common area, now won't we?"

In the end, the Techno-dragons left, promising to come back when they could.

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An hour later

"Can we leave yet?"

For the past hour Bulkhead and Smokescreen—being impatient young bots—had been playing their paraphrased version of the human game "Are we there yet?" and each time, Ratchet—being the grouchy older bot—answered them as patiently as he could.

"No, not yet?"

"Can we leave yet?"

Ratchet grit his denta, he was about two seconds from clocking Smokescreen—who had asked the dreaded question two thirds of the time it had been asked. "No…"

"How about now?"

When did Miko join in? Ratchet spun around and shouted. "NOT YET! We have another hour and a half before we absolutely have to be there and no, Miko, you can't come with!"

He glared at the girl in question as she groaned and was shepherded back to the human's area by Bulkhead.

Miko crossed her arms and grumbled "Can't go to Cybertron… Can't storm the enemy warship…"

Bulkhead looked down at Miko. "Miko, it's too dangerous for you to come with us,"

Miko looked up at him pleadingly. "But I went with when we got Silverbullet and Greenblades, that turned out ok,"

Ratchet frowned and spoke up. "Silverbullet and Greenblades were able to fend for themselves and we didn't have a time limit. This time, however, we have little more than two hours to retrieve a critically injured and ill Cybertronian femme from behind enemy lines and get her back here and hooked up to life support,"

Jack looked up. "Wait, injured and ill, what happened to her?"

Ratchet looked at Bulkhead as though asking permission and the green meh nodded and said "Solarlight has always had a defective ventilation system, her vents would sometimes close up and she couldn't cycle air like she need to in order to keep from overheating unless they were opened manually,"

Bulkhead shrugged "Sometimes it was triggered by something, like dust or smog or she was just pushing herself too hard and her systems were over whelmed, other times it was completely random and scared the slag out of all of us,"

June looked thoughtful. "Asthma," Everyone looked at her and she clarified. "Sounds like a human illness called 'asthma',"

Ratchet quickly made a mental note in a databank in his processors where he stored all of the information of human biology. 'This may be useful later,'

Bulkhead nodded "Yeah, but the injured part is new to me too,"he looked to Ratchet for clarification and the medic brought up Solarlight's medical file; he had updated his records and made a file of Solarlight's medical history for later reference.

"It says here she sustained damage when a warehouse exploded and collapsed on her. From the looks of things her recovery has been hampered by a lack of medical supplies but it sounds as though she has been getting by. Miraculous as it sounds,"

Smokescreen looked at the screen. "Wait? This 'Solarlight' has bad vents, had a warehouse explode and collapsed on her and she's still online after all these years on life support?"

Jack whistled. "That is one tough little asthmatic kid,"

Bulkhead went over to the ground bridge. "Screw waiting, I'm going there now,"

Smokescreen launched himself off the wall he was leaning on and jogged after the ex-Wrecker. "Me too,"

Ratchet started to protest. "Wait…"

Miko ran down the steps to ground level and to where the bots were standing in front of the ground bridge. "Let's go!"

Ratchet put his servos on his hips. "Miko, unless you want to be sent home you are staying here and that's final!"

Miko kicked at the ground and crossed her arms when Ratchet turned to go to the ground bridge since Bulkhead was waiting to activate it until they were sure Miko wouldn't follow them.

Wheeljack picked up the crestfallen girl in his servo. "Ah, c'mon Doc, let the kid come with us,"

Ratchet frowned at Wheeljack. "No," he turned around and started to leave but stopped when he realized Wheeljack just said "us". He turned to shake his digit at Wheeljack. "And you're not coming with either, Wheeljack,"

Wheeljack gave the medic a "bring it on" smirk and said. "Try to stop me, Sunshine,"

Ratchet returned the smirk and, faster than any of them thought he could move, grabbed Miko from Wheeljack before punching him in the faceplates so hard he took a couple steps back .

Wheeljack held his jaw and looked at Ratchet. "You hit like a bitch," he swung at him but Ratchet ducked and before either of them could continue Blaster got between them.

"Children, children, can we please focus here?"

Ratchet and Wheeljack looked at the joking mech and the latter said "Who are you calling children?"

Ratchet went to set Miko back on the humans' platform. "We are older than you Blaster, if anyone should be calling anyone a child it's us,"

Miko looked up at Wheeljack. "Wait, you're older than Blaster? Dude, how old are you guys?"

Wheeljack smirked "Old enough to know better, still too young to care,"

Blaster rolled his optics. "Well, since nobot wants to answer this question Ah'll get it out of the way,"

He pointed at each bot. "Ratchet would be in his late forties or early fifties in human years, Prahm an' Wheeljack would both be in their early forties with Wheeljack being a groon, or month, older than Prime. Ah'd be in my mid-thirties, Bulkhead would be somewhere in his late twenties early thirties. Arcee is a groon older than Smokescreen, both o' them would be in their twenties. 'Bee is… what nineteen or somethin'?"

Raf looked up at Blaster "I thought you said you worked at the daycare Smokescreen and Arcee went to when they were little,"

Blaster smiled at him and pointed at Jack. "An' Jack works at the K.O. Burger, does that make him old?"

"What does that have to do with…" Miko looked like she just had an epiphany "Oh, high school job. That makes more sense now,"

Then she saw the bots were leaving and looked at Bulkhead pleadingly. The ex-Wrecker saw the look she was giving him and sighed before going over to the humans' area.

Miko looked hopeful until Bulkhead said. "Miko, you need to stay here,"

Miko started to protest but Bulkhead smiled and cut her off. "I'll introduce you to Solarlight when we get back. I just don't want to have both of my little sisters on the Nemesis if this turns into a firefight,"

Miko stared after him as he turned and followed the others through the ground bridge, too dumbstruck to try to follow him.

"He… called me his little sister…"

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In Death Valley,

When they stepped out of the ground bridge, the first thing they did was around for signs of an ambush.

Finding none, Wheeljack settled into a more casual stance. "So, which way to the warship?"

Ratchet huffed. "Breakdown doesn't have the authority to plot course for the Nemesis, the only reason it would be here is if this whole escapade was a trap,"

Bulkhead looked up at the sky. "Which means he's either bridging 'Light down here to us or he's bridging us onto the Nemesis to bring her back down here,"

After another fifteen minutes of waiting, Smokescreen huffed and looked around. "How much longer?"

Ratchet grumbled before answering. "Well, thanks to the impatience of certain bots, we have another hour before we are actually supposed to be here and since we don't have any leads other than this rendezvous point we are just going to have to wait until they come to us or…"

Wheeljack stretched and pretended to yawn obnoxiously. "Well, if you mechs want to sit on your afts while we wait go ahead. I'm going to have a look around,"

Ratchet glared at him as he walked away. "Wheeljack, Agent Fowler said this place is part of a park, we need to stay out of sight in the event humans pass through here,

Wheeljack turned to look at the medic waved him off. "Calm your pistons, Doc, I won't let any squishies see me. Besides, it's better if we have a look around before the 'Cons get here in case this is a trap so we know the layout and if the fraggers planted explosives here ahead of time,"

Bulkhead and Smokescreen looked at the Wrecker as he went around the rock formation they were using as cover and then at each other.

"He's got a point," Smokescreen looked around, mostly for something to do.

Bulkhead shrugged and looked around, intent on spotting the ground bridge portal as soon as it opened.

Smokescreen peered into a small hole in the ground and saw something was propped up against the side, partially covered in dirt "Hey guys, I think I found something,"

The others looked at him as he started digging. "What did you find?"

"I don't know," Smokescreen pulled out the object he had found. "Looks almost… AH! DEAD BODY!"

Smokescreen threw the "body" away from him and Bulkhead screamed when it hit him on the shoulder.

He knocked it away from him only to see a rotten log at his peds.

Bulkhead glowered at Smokescreen who, damn him, was laughing at him. "Ah, I'm just messing with you, Bulk,"

Wheeljack also laughed. "A little jumpy today, Bulk?"

The green mech was about to retort when a third laugh was heard. They turned towards the source and saw Breakdown perched on a ledge above them. "Good to see some things haven't changed,"

The Autobots were surprised to see him there. "Breakdown,"

The blue mech jumped down and landed in the middle of their group, making the ground shake and a cloud of dust rise up.

Ratchet frowned at the mech while the others activated their weapons as a precaution. "You're early,"

Breakdown shrugged. "Starscream's throwing another one of his hissy fits and Megatron's beating the scrap out of him, it was the best time to sneak out. What's your excuse?"

Wheeljack held up his servos. "What, no 'Hello'?"

Breakdown looked at Wheeljack and snarled "Why did you bring him here?"

Bulkhead narrowed his optics at his estranged brother. "Hope you don't mind I brought a few friends along," his tone showed that he didn't really care. "Didn't think it would hurt to have some back-up in case we got caught, and a medic to keep a scanner on 'Light until we get her back to base,"

Breakdown growled at Wheeljack as he addressed Bulkhead. "He's the reason Solarlight needs life support in the first place, Bulk,"

Wheeljack saw that everyone was looking at him in disbelief and snorted. "Sure blame it on me, traitor,"

Breakdown stomped up to Wheeljack, standing at his full height to intimidate the shorter mech. "Shut up!" He roughly shoved Wheeljack against the side of the rock face that was behind him.

Breakdown glared at Bulkhead. "I didn't leave just because Knockout asked me too. I had doubled back to try to find 'Light, she had followed us out there and I told her to hide in one of the warehouses. The one his grenade ended up taking out,"

Wheeljack scrabbled at the rock face to catch himself and looked at Bulkhead, whose optics were wide. "She was there? Why didn't you say anything?!"

Breakdown snorted. "I called the others for help but I ended up getting Ultra Magnus, the fragger they put in charge of the unit, and he said that you all were already on your way to evacuate a camp of refugees and one civilian wasn't worth delaying that,"

His look softened from a "raging" pissed off to "pained" pissed off. "So I got a hold of Knockout, since he was the closest medic and a bot I could trust,"

Just then, Breakdown got a call. "Speak of the devil, one klick," he answered his comm. link. "Hello? Yeah, they're here already. Uh huh, okay, see ya,"

He disconnected the comm. and gestured for them to follow him. "Come on, Megatron's almost done beating Screamer to a paste so Knockout's going to distract them while we sneak 'Light off the ship,"

Bulkhead looked at the other mech as he walked away, not knowing what to think of what he had just heard. "You never looked back, did you?"

Breakdown snorted and glanced over his shoulder. "Pit no, next time I saw you guys we were on opposite sides of the battlefield. Now come on,"

Cautiously, the four Autobots followed Breakdown up a narrow path that lead up to the ledge he had been on before.

A ground bridge portal opened up in front of them when they got up there and Ratchet looked at everyone. "Remember, we will have to move quickly once we get to Solarlight in order to get her to the med. bay before her systems go critical,"

"We know," The Autobots all drawled.

Ratchet continued; both to the younger mechs—who he was technically in charge of due to his rank and age—and to himself in a "self-pep-talk" for what was to come. "And we will have to be careful not to get caught aboard the warship. It would not do to stage a recovery mission only to be captured ourselves,"

Breakdown laughed humorlessly at this as he looked over his shoulder at them. "If we do get caught, Megatron will kill us all. No questions asked,"

The Autobots all looked at each other while Breakdown crossed through the portal before following behind him.

Smokescreen was the last one through as he flexed his servos in preparation and enthusiasm for what was to come. "Here we go…"

A.N.: Will they get to Solarlight okay or will Murphy's Law decide to have another laugh at their expense? Find out next time.

Quick shout out to the people that reviewed and/or added; Bluefeather4299 (Guest), Kaleia (Guest), Zanza Flux, Techna96, smokiesgirl, SoulArt, JackFroyo, ask-xeta, JPhing88, Jellybeanshiba, James (Guest) and one unnamed Guest review.

Kaleia (Guest): No, the "seeds" in "the seeds of the future lie buried in the past" is not an "Age of Extinction" reference. It is, however, a quote from an older Transformers series.