A/N: Sorry it took me so long to get this up. A broken wrist and pain medication is not conducive for writing anything that is remotely coherent. We're entering the 'calm before the storm' and things are getting pretty fragged up for everyone. The song at the beginning is Lacuna Coil's 'Angel's Punishment' and the snippet of song Bluestreak tries to hum is Green Day's 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams'. As always creative criticism is welcomed and I like to know if you guys like/hate the story. So please Rate and Review and hold on to your seats as we enter the Autobot's own Hellish Twilight Zone.

Story Arc 5

Chapter 37 - Curiosity

Destruction
War - To fight in defense, forgotten words of friendly hate
War - Destruction
War - Destruction
I don't know why, a soul deceased, a broken hope, a choking breeze
War - Destruction
War - Destruction
Can't you take me away from your lies?
Destruction
Dark paradise collecting souls to analyze
War - Destruction
War - Destruction
The bitter blood of children's cry, inside the truth, far from my sky
War - Destruction
War - Destruction

----

"What do you mean we have to round up the horde?" Skywarp watched the fleeing Autobots from his vantage point in the sky, slightly disappointed that he could not pursue their retreat.

"Megatron said they scattered like glitch-mice and he wants us to bring them back to him." The snarky tone in Starscream's voice was thick with disgust. One of these days he was going to make the decisions and then Megatron could play fetch for him.

"If they attack everything then how are we supposed to gather them up?" Thundercracker tried to keep the annoyance out of his voice, but it still seeped through. Why were they the ones to fix every situation that the other Decepticons screwed up? "And how come Soundwave wasn't sent to round up his troops?"

"Because that psychic sycophant has his lips wrapped around Megatron's tailpipe." Skywarp frowned at how unfair it was.

His wingmates regarded the black and purple jet for a moment. "That's an awfully big word for you, 'Warp." Starscream smirked as he teased Skywarp, even if what the Seeker said was the biting truth.

"Slag off, 'Screamer." Skywarp crossed his arms over his cockpit.

"Calm down, 'Warp." The Air Commander put his hands on his hips with a sigh. "Here's the plan. We each take a street with those things on it, fly low and try to get them to chase us back towards our 'glorious leader'."

"Do you think that will really work?"

"Do you have a better idea?" Starscream glanced at his two wingmates who looked just as disgusted at the chore in front of them.

"I do." Skywarp looked down at the streets around them, his mischievous red optics spying one of the metal monstrosities below. He took aim at the creature and shot at it with his Vulcan cannons, ripping through its face and severing the neural net. The horde stood still for a moment before tumbling into a pile of scrap metal. The black and purple Seeker sniggered as he turned to Starscream and Thundercracker. "See? Problem solved."

Starscream tried to look annoyed at Skywarp's actions; Thundercracker looked away as he tried to stifle a twisted giggle. The Air Commander's lip twitched as his resolve melted away, while he tried valiantly to not giggle at the goofy grin plastered across Skywarp's face. Upon hearing the red Seeker's muffled attempt to not laugh, Thundercracker lost it and busted up laughing. Starscream cleared his throat loudly. "We can't destroy all of them. Megatron won't believe that the Autobots took out that many of those things, or worse, that we did a half-afted job on rounding them up."

The other two Seekers nodded as their giggles died; Megatron would think they screwed up the job.

"So who takes what street?" Thundercracker was not thrilled about getting so close to those things that could easily pull him out of the sky.

"I'll take the middle, you two pick a side. We'll drive them back street by street, I guess." Starscream looked at the human built streets below; some of the streets would be a real test for most fliers to maneuver through, but not for him or his wingmates. The Seekers were the best of the best; no human-made obstacle course could hope to pose any challenge for them. "Keep the radio open, keep your optics open and stay out of their grasp. Let's try to not stray too far from each other, just in case."

The three Seekers transformed and dove down for a street to 'sweep' the things back to Megatron; all traces of humor were gone and quickly replaced with thoughts of throwing their 'glorious leader' to his own horde.

---------------------

He was lying on a pile of concrete, asphalt and debris from where the street gave way underneath their feet, the fallen buildings filling in the hole behind them, cutting them off from the horde and the blue Seeker. "Ugh. What is that smell?" Sunstreaker scowled as his optics came back online. "'Sides? You okay?" The yellow warrior tried to look around for his red twin in the rubble; he couldn't move his neck and an onslaught of searing pain flashed across the right side of his body. Some thing got fragged in the fall. He winced as he tried to brush some of the concrete from his chest plate. "'Sides?"

There was a groan to his left and the sound of rubble falling as Sideswipe crawled out of the mess. "I'm here, Sunny." His azure optics lit up and surveyed the area where they had been deposited. The sewer. Great. Sunny is going to go ballistic when he realizes where we are. He stood up and looked around as he tried to find a way out of the mess. It was dark, dank and definitely smelled awful. He turned his attention to the torn up concrete and metal pile; they weren't going to exit the way they came in, who knew how much of the street was covered with the rubble from the buildings. No, they had to move along and find another way out of there. The sound of running water echoed down the dark and dank passage way. There had been so many water mains broken in the city from the destruction the horde had caused, maybe if they could find the source of the water they could leave the sewer. "Come on, I think if we follow the sound of the water we can get out of here."

"The whole place, wherever we are, is wet and it smells. Why do you want to find more water?" Sunstreaker groaned and started to do a full body scan. He couldn't see very well in the dark and something was pinning his hand and shoulder down painfully.

"I thought you'd need a bath, Sunshine. Now shut up and help me find where the water is coming in." Sideswipe sidestepped a few rats that scurried for cover away from him. He put his hands on his hips as he peered down the tunnel searching for a manhole cover. The human-sized hole wouldn't fit The Twin's extra large bodies, but at least it would give them an idea of how far the crushed buildings extended.

Sunstreaker's optics drifted to his right hand; some of the metal rebar from the building had pierced through the soft metal in his wrist. That was going to hurt. He tried to reach across his body to pull the rebar from his wrist, but as his body turned something bumped painfully against the side of his chin. Confused, he reached up to feel what was causing the pain. The full body scan was completing as his fingers touched his wet neck and the source of the pain. In the fall into the sewer, he had landed on girders that once held up the building and the rebar that was used to brace the walls. Most of it was crushed under his weight due to his tough polymer armor laced with the nanites; but some of the offending metal missed his armor and pierced his wrist and shoulder… and the right side of his neck. Sunstreaker's optics widened as the energon bubbled from the wound. The twisted piece of metal had missed most of his major systems, but had nicked one of the main energon lines. "'Sides?"

Sideswipe was faced away from his brother on the pile of rubble. "I think if we can find a manhole cover, we can use it to get out of here. I'm not sure how much of the street was covered by the buildings, but-"

"'Sides?"

"A lot of the water mains were broken. If we can find where that running water is coming from-"

"Sideswipe."

"I think we can get out of here-"

"SIDESWIPE."

The red warrior turned towards his brother half-annoyed. "Yes, Sunny. I know this place stinks, but-" Azure optics went wide in horror from seeing his twin impaled on the girder. He was on his knees at Sunstreaker's side immediately, his optics fixed on the piece of metal that jutted from the yellow warrior's neck. "Holy slaggin' Primus." He reached into his brother's subspace pocket and yanked out the first polishing cloth his fingers touched, quickly putting it over the hole where the energon was leaking.

"Think you can pull it out?"

Sideswipe moved to his brother's right side while still keeping the cloth over the wound; the girder was a crushed and twisted mess underneath Sunstreaker's body. His mind started to race out of control. They were stuck in the sewer under a couple of tons of destroyed building, with at least one Seeker up above with who knows how many of the horde, and they were at least ten clicks away from Ratchet. "Radio Ratchet and try not to move, Sunny. I'll have to cut you free."

"Sunstreaker to Ratchet." There was static over the channel as Sideswipe activated his energon dagger.

"Sunstreaker to Ratchet. Come in please."

Sideswipe carefully cut his twin's hand free from the girder first, pulling the remaining rebar out through the wound. He then lifted Sunstreaker's shoulder up gently, wincing along with his brother as the weapon sliced through the metal. He didn't let the metal cool or show any slack before he removed the piece from his shoulder.

"Sunstreaker to Rachel. Can you hear me, Angel?" There was nothing but loud static as his optics met Sideswipe's. "I think all the stuff we're buried under is causing interference."

The red warrior nodded meeting his brother's optics. He pulled a few more polishing cloths from subspace, "I need to cut the final piece."

Sunstreaker set his jaw. "Just do it, 'Sides."

He slid his hand under his brother's neck and cringed as his fingers touched the wet girder; the rubble beneath Sunstreaker's body was saturated with energon. Sideswipe cleared as much of the sticky debris away as he could from around the metal while not taking his optics off of his brother's face. Moving his hand to clutch the girder, he cut the offending piece of metal quickly. He pulled the metal out and had it tossed to the side as he put the cloths over the wound.

The yellow warrior allowed the briefest flicker of pain to cross his face, something that only his brother would ever witness. The worried look his brother gave him told him that things were as bad as the full body scan had indicated. He put his hand on the cloth; it was already damp from the flow of energon. He pushed himself up. "Let's get out of here, it stinks and I'm sure that fall scratched up my paint."

A small smile flickered in Sideswipe's optics. If Sunny was still able to joke about his paint job, then maybe... He helped his twin to his feet with a grin. "You can't get scratched up anymore, or did you forget that?"

"As bad as this place smells, I'm positive there is something here that is ruining my finish."

Sideswipe looked around the tunnel again and found a manhole cover with some light accentuating the rim. It was hopefully a way out for them, but he was worried about the ten click walk to Ratchet. He helped Sunstreaker over to the flickering light around the lid. Reaching up, he lifted the lid; flames washed around the cover as the fire above the manhole burst into a small explosion with the release of methane from the sewer gases. Sideswipe dropped the lid back into place and rubbed his singed hand as he checked his GPS system and groaned. They hadn't gone far from where they fell into the sewers but the fires in the city had spread. "Feel like a run in the heat, Sunshine?"

His yellow twin glared at him as he subspaced a drier cloth for the wound in his neck. "Is that your nice way of stating that you took us into the burning part of the city?"

"I didn't take us there, the fires caught up to us."

"You're slaggin' kidding, right? Those fires were at least five clicks behind us!"

"Check your GPS. We haven't moved towards the fires, they came to us." Sideswipe looked at Sunstreaker and the amount of energon that was oozing past the cloth and down his neck. He needed to get them out of the sewers and back to Ratchet quickly.

"Great. Just fraggin' great. So you want to run through the fires now? We don't even know how far we'll have to go to get out of them!"

"…Sunny, 'Sides? If you can hear me, please respond." The radio punctuated with static crackled to life with Rachel's voice. "Can either of you hear me?"

Sideswipe grinned as another slightly muddled message came over the radio. "I don't know, Ratchet. It says the signal is reaching them, maybe something happened?" Rachel sounded worried.

"Give me that." There was more static before Ratchet's voice boomed over the radio. "You two Pit-spawned glitches better answer your radios right this instant!"

Sideswipe didn't take his optics off his brother. "We can hear you two just fine and we're okay, sort of."

"Okay my aft. My slaggin' excuse for a brother got us stuck under the fires in this Primus-forsaken stinking tunnel!"

They could hear Rachel's voice muffled over the signal as she fought Ratchet for control over the radio. "The fires have moved that far in the city? Is there any way you can get out?"

Sideswipe made a rude gesture to his brother. "We don't know how far past our position the fires have moved."

"Let me see if I can get a better reading from Sky spy. Ratchet! Will you quit that!"

Ratchet's muffled voice barked at the young woman in the background. "I will once I'm sure you didn't do yourself damage by your stupid stunts. Consider yourself lucky for being human, if this had been one of the others… You should have stayed back at the Ark!"

The Twins grinned at each other as they listened to poor Rachel fend off an over protective Ratchet.

"Hey, I found them, and they said they're okay and as soon as I talk them back this way… Don't you throw that at… EEEK!" There was a dull thud over the radio of something hitting what they hoped was the ground.

"You better not have hurt her, Ratchet." Sunstreaker growled over the radio to the medic.

"You two glitches better be in working condition." Ratchet growled back at the yellow warrior before he turned and barked at Rachel again. "And as soon as you get them back here, you ARE going back to the Ark, Rachel. Got it?"

A shaky sounding Rachel came back over the radio. "Sky spy is showing that the fire has moved almost four clicks past your position."

"Four clicks is a long run." Sunstreaker glared at his brother

"Is there another way out of here, Rachel? The way we came is blocked by the street and a few buildings."

"Checking… Okay, there is a smaller passage about fifty feet to the south of where you are. If you two run down that passage for about two thousand feet there is a side tunnel in the sewer. Follow that for two clicks to the east and you should be in front of the fire, but if the fire is spreading that quickly, you'll need to move fast."

Sideswipe grinned at his twin as he helped him to his feet and opened a private channel to Ratchet. "Ratchet? Sunny is hurt pretty badly. When we fell through the street some pieces of a girder pierced his neck."

"Is he leaking a lot of energon?" Ratchet stopped barking as his tone turned serious.

Sideswipe maneuvered his brother in the direction Rachel gave them. "Yeah. I think it nicked one of the major lines. His shoulder and hand were damaged as well, but not as bad as his neck."

"How fast can you get him here?"

"Are we still ten clicks away from you?"

There was some mumbling in the background. "About seven if you follow Rachel's directions."

"I doubt Sunny can transform, so it will be a bit of a walk, but not impossible."

"Prime and Ironhide are too far away from you to help, so you're on your own. Just try to keep moving and have him shut down all unnecessary systems to converse energy."

"Got it."

"And as long as you two are underground, you'll be out of radio contact. Rachel is trying to remedy that, but still try to get out of there as fast as you can." The channel started to fade with static as they moved away from the manhole.

"On our way, Ratchet." There was nothing but loud static now. Sideswipe poked Sunstreaker. "Come on, bro. Let's get out of this stinking hole."

------

Five sets of glowing blood red optics watched the two large mechs head off down the tunnel leaving a shimmering and sweet tasting trail behind them. The five horde fell upon the glistening trail, clawing and licking the sticky substance off of the ground. They pushed and clamored over each other, ultimately fighting for the delicious energon left in the wake of the two warriors. Claws punched through faces, pulling out the wiring that made up neural nets; survival of the fittest degrading into the murdering of their own for the sticky energon treat.

The five quickly turned into two as they followed the pair at a distance through the sewers. The limbs of the weaker horde found their way onto the winners of the fight, adding bulk and mass to them. They snarled and clawed at each other as they lapped up the energon, greed and the urge for staking out their territories taking over their survival instincts. Optics never leaving the other as they scuttled along, the horde made quick work of the trail. Non-verbal communication through body movements developed into 'my side, your side' as the two mechs pursued the two warriors.

They had seen the fighters in combat before the sky fell upon them. They wanted to be strong like the fighters they followed. Strong was good. Strong meant survival. Survival to become stronger was to destroy the smaller ones. The smaller ones made them stronger; therefore they had to kill the smaller, weak ones.

----

Once my nose had stopped bleeding and Ratchet had stopped, for the most part, prodding me with tests and badgering me for details, I started fiddling with the strength of Sky spy's scan over the city. I had gotten a lock on The Twin's before the headache and me having a close encounter of the horde kind, and now I was trying to re-establish the telemetry and hopefully get a radio signal to them.

"Windcharger! Get your sorry aft over here now!" I cringed as Ratchet's 'pleasant' demeanor went from ballistic to meltdown.

The red minibot scowled as he left the front of the bunker where he had been shooting at the oncoming horde. "Ratchet, you need me here with the others."

"We'll manage without you and your lack of body armor needed for this fight. Now quit arguing and get yourself and Rachel back to the Ark, and that's an order."

"You need as many able-bodied mechs that you can get, and I'm still an able-bodied mech." Windcharger crossed his arms over his chest plate as he tried to look formidable to the towering medic.

"You won't be an able-bodied anything when I get through with you. I gave you a direct order. You're going to take Rachel back to the Ark and both of you will sit patiently in the med bay until I come back. Got it?"

"You need me to fight and you need her," he jerked his head in my direction, "to help you out."

"I don't need the trouble you two are causing me and I-"

"I've got them!" I whooped loudly as my wireless Teletraan 1 got a lock on The Twin's location and a weak radio signal.

"Rachel to Sideswipe, please respond." There was some crackling static, but Teletraan said they were receiving a signal. "Rachel to Sunstreaker, please respond. Sunny? 'Sides? If you can hear me, please respond." Why weren't they responding? "Can either of you hear me?"

"Well?" Ratchet's attention had slipped from Windcharger to me.

"I don't know, Ratchet. It says the signal is reaching them, maybe something happened?"

"Give me that." Ratchet grabbed the wireless microcomputer from my grasp and yelled over the radio frequency that was The Twin's private channel, "You two Pit-spawned glitches better answer your radios right this instant!"

"We can hear you two just fine and we're okay, sort of." Sideswipe's voice held an edge of concern.

"Okay my aft. My slaggin' excuse for a brother got us stuck under the fires in this Primus-forsaken stinking tunnel!" Sunstreaker sniped back over the signal.

"Give me the wireless back, Ratchet." I made a mad grab for the device, but he wasn't about to give it back. So I did the best I could under the circumstances… I grabbed onto the angry medic and yanked my earpiece off the wireless Teletraan. "The fires have moved that far in the city? Is there any way you can get out?"

"We don't know how far past our position the fires have moved."

Ratchet had given up on control over the device and I sat back down, only to have Ratchet start checking my eyes again. "Let me see if I can get a better reading from Sky spy. Ratchet! Will you quit that!" I tried to push the light away so I could focus.

"I will once I'm sure you didn't do yourself damage by your stupid stunts. Consider yourself lucky for being human, if this had been one of the others… You should have stayed back at the Ark!" He had grabbed my once wounded hand and started to examine it again.

"Hey, I found them, and they said they're okay and as soon as I talk them back this way… Don't you throw that at… EEEK!" I barely ducked in time to avoid an oncoming tool that I saw him throw at me.

"You better not have hurt her, Ratchet." Sunstreaker growled over the radio.

"And you two glitches better be in working condition." Ratchet growled back to him before he turned on me. "And as soon as you get them back here, you ARE going back to the Ark. Got it?"

"Sky spy is showing that the fire has moved almost four clicks past your position." Ratchet was looming over me and I could see the furious glow in his blue optics.

"Four clicks is a long run."

"Is there another way out of here, Rachel? The way we came is blocked by the street and a few buildings."

"Checking." I ran a quick search and found a working map of the city's sewer systems. "Okay, there is a smaller passage about fifty feet to the south of where you are. If you two run down that passage for about two thousand feet there is a side tunnel in the sewer. Follow that for two clicks to the east and you should be in front of the fire, but if the fire is spreading that quickly, you'll need to move fast."

"Got it, Rachel." The radio link dissolved into static.

"Keep in mind that you'll be out of radio contact while you're underground, okay? 'Sides? Sunny? Guys?" I laughed nervously as I turned to Ratchet. "I should have mentioned earlier that they'd probably move out of radio contact."

Ratchet was looking off to the side, his optics narrow as if he was lost in a troubling thought. He suddenly turned to me. "How far away are they from us if they follow your directions." The medic's tone was that eerie calm before the storm.

"About seven clicks. Why?"

"Is there a way you can establish radio contact with them while they're underground?" His hands were on his hips as his blue lit optics bore a hole through me.

"Not right now, but I can try to fix that."

"Then fix it. I want to keep in constant contact with them."

"Okay." I accessed Sky spy with the wireless Teletraan and tried to increase the power behind the radio signals, focusing on The Twin's specifically. Suddenly, the microcomputer beeped loudly at me; it had made a lock on Bluestreak. I looked up at a worried Ratchet with a grin. "I just found Bluestreak."

"Well, get a radio signal to him too." Something was bothering Ratchet, something other than me and Windcharger showing up.

I tried to pinpoint the young gunner's exact location; he wasn't that far ahead of Optimus Prime and Ironhide. I watched the three mechs make their way down one of the main thoroughfares, but Bluestreak was moving much slower than the others and I hoped he wasn't hurt.

"Rachel to Optimus."

"Optimus, here. What is it Rachel?"

"I've got a lock on Bluestreak, he's about six clicks ahead of you."

"What about Prowl?"

"I don't know. Bluestreak's signal is the only one showing up."

"We're following a trail of energon towards him."

"His signal is moving slowly. Maybe he's got Prowl?"

Another beep alerted me to another presence in between them, something much, much bigger. "Also there is something big between your and Blue's position." My breath caught in my throat as the larger blip on the screen was closing the distance between it and Bluestreak quickly. "And it's moving fast."

"We'll try to intercept it before it gets to Bluestreak."

-----

Bluestreak looked over his shoulder; he had the odd sensation that they were being followed and not by the human F-15's. He hefted Prowl's weight and tried to walk faster. It was up to him to protect the damaged Prowl from whatever was trailing them. They had been walking steadily eastwards for a few hours without any sign of Seekers, horde or Autobot. Someone had to be looking for them by now. Bluestreak kept trying to reassure himself. Prowl had shut down almost all of his systems in a final bid to reserve what little energy he had left, just barely keeping awake to help the gunner get them to safety.

Bluestreak looked around again; the street was a broken mess of glass, concrete and empty vehicles. Darkened windows from still buildings leered at them as the two limped past. The only sounds in the city around them was the distant rumble from the F-15's, the explosions from the bombings and from the fires, and the sound of running water from broken pipes and water mains. The empty human city was definitely creepy.

The young gunner tried to shake off the feelings of being followed and the eerie glares from the broken windows by humming to himself.

I walk this empty street on this boulevard of broken dreams
Where the city sleeps and I'm the only one and I walk alone

Okay, maybe not a good idea to hum that song right now. He sighed and looked about again; maybe it was just his overactive imagination playing tricks on him.

The F-15's came around again and Bluestreak angled Prowl to another frail shadow. Afternoon was spreading across the city, and with the clouds from the fires and from thunderstorms, the shadows had darkened somewhat. As they waited for the jets to pass over, Bluestreak saw something out of the corner of his optics scurry away. His only sidearm was up and out instantaneously as his well-trained optics searched the area for the intruder. There was a flicker of light hitting metal on a pile of rubble about two hundred meters to their left: horde, and it had seen them. Azure optics narrowed as he aimed for the creature. The moment its face came up he fired and sent it falling to the street. Eight more appeared from the mess and tore into the fallen monster. Bluestreak shuddered; they were being followed.

"Sorry Prowl, but we need to move faster." He mumbled to the quiet mech. He leaned down and hoisted the Tactician up using the fireman's carry. With Prowl carefully situated over his shoulders, Bluestreak dared to look back at the horde. They were watching him carefully but not moving from where the mech had fallen; blood red optics boring holes through the young Autobot in eerie curiosity. Ugh, those things are so creepy. Bluestreak turned and started running down the street with a prayer to Primus that they wouldn't run after them.

----

It peered out from behind a building as the one picked up and carried the other one. It had been watching them for a while, mimicking their movements of dodging into buildings when the noisy things went by overhead. The one was obviously injured. But instead of waiting for, or hastening, the death of the wounded, the other was taking care of him. It found this behavior odd yet… comforting.

They ducked out of the shadow and started to run down the street. It meant to follow, but stopped when it saw a handful of dull gray mechs spill from the building. It dropped to all fours and growled at the smaller ones. They stopped in their tracks and looked back with two growling in defiance. The two were quickly destroyed by the others, who then came and sat at the feet of the bigger one. It cooed at them and shuttered its optics, sending the comforting image of the two mechs to the others. They warbled back and stood up. They would follow the bigger one, because they were curious and wanted to see the more of the comforting images of the two.

----

The blue Seeker took off, oblivious to him and the swarm of horde he was fending off. He subspaced his sidearm and fought the bloodthirsty monsters that came for him; shots from the weapon punctuated the scraping of metal hitting the pavement and crawling to the next functioning mech. He ripped the throat out of one horde with his dagger in his deadly dance; drive and swing, rip and tear. The things were piling up at his feet, but he was barely keeping them back. And soon he would be overrun with them all clamoring for his demise.

He was forced back towards the mounds of rubble, fragments of concrete crumbling under his feet. A quick tally of the swarm that threatened to overtake him gave him some hope that it wasn't as bad of a situation as it could have been. Fifty of the horde shouldn't be too much of a problem, except that they had him cornered and were crawling over each other to get at him. The odds weren't in his favor, but he relished in that notion. He could count a few situations where the odds were worse and he came out of those in one piece.

He slashed at a couple others with a grin, effectively taking them out of the fight. The recombiner technology was working overtime, trying to save the few horde that hadn't fallen yet to his hands. Another wave climbed over their fallen and he started to carve through them, severing their neural nets and gutting their twisted programming. Off to one side of the newest batch of horde, two of the monsters fell backwards without his offered 'help'. He watched them out of the corner of his visor curiously. Blood red optics were wide as they witnessed their comrades falling from his deadly dance. They started to babble frantically, with one actually reaching out to pull at the leg of one that took that moment to leap at him. It recoiled as the monster fell to the ground in its final pathetic twitching. The two scuttled away further from him, now babbling loudly above the scrap and screech of metal limbs trying to find their way to a new functioning mech.

A handful stopped their push and moved away from his dip and thrust attacks. The two off to the side had stood up and moved further back with the others. As the final frenzy of horde trickled to a stop, Jazz glanced at the horde that stood back and watched him. The recombining limbs crawled back towards them, garnering the attention of a few while the others kept their optics on him. He took aim at the nearest one, but it started to babble madly, its optics wide with… fright? Jazz took a step forwards, his weapon still on the babbling mech and the small group took a step backwards. The mech next to the one who was babbling, stepped forwards and put its arms out in front of the others. Jazz moved his aim to that monster and it shuttered its optics, turning its face downwards and cringed. The babbling one looked from Jazz to the cringing mech quickly and then did something that truly puzzled the Saboteur: it tilted its head and warbled at him. A few of the others mimicked the almost submissive position of the warbler, while the first mech opened its optics and gave him the most pitiful look Jazz had seen in a long time.

He took another step forwards only to have the strangely acting horde take another defensive step back. What in the Pit was going on with these things? Another step forward was rewarded with another step back. He dropped his aim from the mech with its arms out and the thing gave him a look of pure relief. He scanned the air above quickly, wondering if these puppets had a 'master' controlling their responses to him. A rapid evaluation of the area gave no hint of another mech besides the horde.

Jazz lifted his weapon again and the group cringed and whimpered. He raised the muzzle to the sky and fired twice rapidly into the air. The handful of the horde scattered before him like glitch-mice from a turbo-cat. They scuttled away quickly, whimpering and crying out as they disappeared. Jazz subspaced his energon dagger and put his hands on his hips as he tried to puzzle out exactly what had just happened.