AN: I only own my OCs.

Playback: Um, something feels like it is going to happen.

Lockdown: Is that a good feeling or a bad one?

Playback: I don't know.

Kiva: Well, that's not good.

Authoress: I call hiding in the nuclear bomb shelter! *runs and hides with bots following*

AN: Please look at my Poll on my profile!

Ch. 34: Recruitment Drive

"Watch where you are moving that!" Sentinel growled as his troops moved the stage out of the city. Only one solar cycle until the first of Alliance energon would spilled on its surface. He couldn't wait. Their energon spilled would only be the first of oceans that would compile as the Virons took back Praxus and, hopefully, finally took Kaon. It was high time that the rebels get knocked off of their pedestal and this would be the big event that would start it.

"Sorry sir." Flarespot.

Sentinel normally didn't accept apologies from bots, unless they had a very good reason. But, his mood was to upbeat this solar cycle to yell at the bot for apologizing. Instead, he simply said, "Just keep moving. I want this set up before dark falls. That way, the Alliance will know that there is something big happening."

Flarespot nodded and continued to help move the massive stage, along with fifty other Virons. The stage would be able to hold up to seven Alliance prisoners at a respectable distance from each other and still allow the Virons who were in charge of the executions to be on the stage. The stage had been a marvelous idea and he was glad when he had thought about it.

"Sentinel, how are we going to know that the Alliance will even watch this?" Nightfreeze asked.

Sentinel knew that the mech's question was a valid one. But, he had that covered. "I have used every single communication frequency that the Virons have to broadcast this event and so the Alliance will either see it or hear it. There will be very few who will be able to not hear the slicing of my blade as it cuts into their necks."

The bots who were moving the stage chuckled at that and Sentinel joined in. It was a common past time to imagine how they were going to torture the Alliance. So many different variables had to be made just right for the perfect scenario and he had gotten pretty close to a perfect one. Of course, the perfect one would be if Chaom was a close part of it but, last they heard, the mech was to reclusive to have much of an impact on anything that they did.

When they finally arrived just on the edge of their border, Sentinel smirked. "Move the stage closer to Kaon."

The bots looked at him in shock before Toxic Root asked, "Why? The stage is right on the border as it is. If we move it any closer, then we will be in Alliance territory."

Sentinel nodded. "Exactly. Being that close will add to the pain that the Alliance will feel when their youngest members are offlined. Now," He then motioned over the border. "move the stage closer."

The mechs pushing the stage nodded before resuming their task. Sentinel smirked before walking with them, eager to get preparations finished for the big event.

"Shut up in there!" Ransack yelled as he passed by their cell.

Chala smirked. Their personal plan was going brilliantly. When they had awoken in the cells, the four of them had been bored and hadn't known what to do. Then, Zinnia suggested that they do something that her brother did when he wanted to annoy her creators so they would let him go out. The sang. Well, Miltersaw would have to sing off key but the Virons just hated singing period. From the way that they Virons who had to guard them had been reacting so far it was no wonder that Playback had done a concert all that time ago. The Virons really hated it.

"Hmm, what should we sing next?" Shadow Fall asked.

"How about the song that gets on everybot's nerves?" Sunblast asked.

Ransack's optics grew wide at the suggestion and said, "If you sing that I swear that I will come in there and rip your vocals out!"

Chala smirked at him. "Um, no you won't because Sentinel said that we are not supposed to be injured until our execution and that means that you can't stop us from singing." While she wasn't one hundred percent sure that Sentinel had said that, she was willing to trust Playback's bet that he had.

From the reaction that Ransack gave, she knew that she was right. "How did you know that? You four were out when he said that!"

Shadow Fall smirked. "We have our ways." He then turned to them. "Sunblast, that is the most bland song and there isn't any variation. We have to be more creative."

Chala agreed. While she knew that the song that Sunblast suggested would do the job of annoying Ransack, they had to make sure that they would not get bored by it as well. But, that still left the problem of trying to figure out what song that they would use next.

"Wheels on the bus?" Zinnia asked.

Sunblast shook his helm. "Nah, that might get too complex for Ransack's helm."

Ransack stopped in front of their cell and banged on it before saying, "You four shut yer traps now! Good thing you will be just a memory after tomorrow."

Chala smirked. While she knew that his comeback was supposed to shut them up, it had actually given her an idea. "Hm, memory? Well, I think that I know the perfect song that we should do."

"Red Solo Cube?" Shadow Fall asked.

Chala shook her helm. "Nope. One Hundred Cubes of High Grade on the wall."

The others smirked and nodded. Ransack, though, looked anything but happy. "Don't you fragging Alliance bots dare,"

But, he was too late as they began to sing. The mech yelled at them to shut up but there was no way in the Pit that they were since the Virons couldn't hurt the four of them until the next solar cycle, and even then, the pain wouldn't last long if Playback failed. Being executed would go quickly. This torture was so worth whatever Ransack thought he was going to do about their singing.

Malice felt like something was going on. Only a few clicks ago, she had received a private message from Slipknot saying that he wanted all rebels to meet at the warehouse. Well, at least she was pretty sure that it was Slipknot. The sender actually hadn't signed the message but the message had the same kind of wording that Slipknot would use.

Hearing the door chime go off, signaling that somebot had entered her home, Malice said, "I'm in here!"

It was a few clicks later when Malice saw her bondmate, Balm, and Stormfire walk in. She was surprised to see Balm and Stormfire. They were usually so predictable in their actions and she couldn't see a reason for them being at her house.

"Balm, Stormfire; what are you doing here?" Malice asked.

But, before they could respond, two more voices spoke up. "What are we? Rotten low grade?"

It was then that Malice noticed Frenzy and Rumble standing next to Balm's legs. "Sorry you two. Didn't see you." She then looked at them before asking again, "What are you four doing here?"

Balm motioned to all of them before saying, "We all got a message saying to meet at the rebel warehouse. Pandemonium suggested that we come to pick you up because we figured that you had gotten one as well."

Malice nodded but she was confused. Glancing down at the twins, she asked, "Why did you two get a message?"

"Well, we happened to join the rebels the solar cycle that Playback was run out so we are official members." Frenzy answered.

Malice sighed. Of course they had. That was right when Playback had been planing the attack on Polyhex and, from what Malice knew from her talks with Balm, that had been where said femme had been born. The twins would want to help Balm get her home back from the Virons since they weren't born on Cybertron.

Thoughts of Earth had her wondering how the planet was fairing since they were all last there, which had been just after Pandimala had helped them chase the Virons out the first and last time. Isaac Sumdac had passed on and they had all gone to his funeral. The funeral was all over the news and Sari, though she had been appointed to take up his role, had given it to some of her dad's close friends to run since she was going to be living on Cybertron.

"Well," Pandemonium started, pulling her out of her thoughts. "I say we had better get down to the warehouse and see what the matter is. Who knows how many of the rebel members were contacted. That place is going to be crowded."

Malice nodded and they all walked outside and the fliers lifted off before carrying the others to the warehouse. The trip wasn't too terribly long and, when they arrived, Malice could tell that her mate had been correct in his assumption. The place looked like it was going to be packed.

"I hope that we can fit. It seems like all of the rebel members were contacted." Malice commented as they all landed on the ground.

The others nodded and squeezed their way inside. The building was packed and Malice couldn't tell who had called them. Maybe one of the bots who were here almost constantly would know.

"Plume!" Malice yelled to the intelligence femme as she finally saw her. Plume would most likely know what was going on since she was here more then most bots.

Plume noticed her and walked over before saying, "I have no idea what is going on if you are going to ask."

Ok, the femme was either psychic or she had already been asked that a lot. Malice was going for the second one. "Did Slipknot call us?"

Malice was surprised when Plume shook her helm. "No. He was one of the first bots to ask me what is going on."

Malice nodded and went to ask them femme another question when, suddenly, the lights went out. That wasn't a good sign. The lights almost never went out.

"Ok, who forgot to pay the electric bill?" Rumble asked, earning a few chuckles that seemed to calm everybot down.

Malice smiled. She hadn't spent much time with the twins lately and forgot how they could bring a mood up. But, her concentration on that subject was interrupted by one of the monitors that hung from the ceiling coming down and lighting up. Then, on the screen, a message appeared.

What is to come next is highly sensitive. If you think you will not be able to keep what you see a secret until told otherwise by us, then please raise your servos and we will wait for you to leave before going on.

Great, now whoever had called them was acting vague. The bot, or bots, wouldn't say what was going to be revealed and expected them not to tell, no matter what it was. Malice was half tempted to leave but her curiosity won over and, from the looks of it, so did the curiosity of every single bot in there, because not one servo went up.

After a few clicks, the screen showed a new message.

Very well then. Now, whatever happens, don't shoot the bots that come out.

Oh fun. That meant that they were mad at whatever bot had called this meeting. That list was awful shot and that meant that Malice knew who had called the meeting, and she wasn't thrilled to be with the mech.

But, to her surprise, the first to walk out were not Playback and his friends, though they did follow the first two bots. No, the first two bots were the last two bots that shocked everybot into, probably, not shooting Playback and his friends. There standing before them, and not in Viron servos, were Lockdown and Kiva.

Lockdown was glad when the crowd didn't fire on Playback with everything that they had. Of course, it was probably helped that he and Kiva were there and not with the Virons. It seemed like their ploy had worked even better then he had hoped. He had figured that the intelligence bots would have seen through their video overfeed. But, since he could see Remcy out in the crowed and the mech looked shocked, Lockdown would take that as a no.

"No, before all of you shoot my friends behind Kiva and I, I want to say a few things." Lockdown started.

But, before he could continue, Chem, who was there along with the rest of the Guardians, asked, "How did you get away from the Virons Lockdown? We saw them take you."

Lockdown smirked. "Yes, you saw the Virons take me. But, that didn't happen. Thanks to the help of Flintlock, Toxica, and Caliber; Kiva and I made it look like we were taken by the Virons so you all would get off of Playback's aft."

"Why are you with that traitor?" A voice called out that he couldn't identify.

Lockdown sighed. "Well, that would happen to be because he is not a traitor. He was not given a chance to explain himself, or at least as much as he can."

"What do you mean by 'as much as he can'? Why can't he tell us everything?" Another unidentifiable voice called out from the crowd.

Lockdown was about to answer but, before he could, Playback stepped forward. "I believe that I am the best one to answer this." The room went deathly silent before Playback said, "I cannot say where I got the dagger from because it is a part of my plan to help destroy the Virons and I cannot risk the Virons learning about it. Now, I know that none of you would willingly tell the Virons about my plans, but there are bots like Trojan who can rip the information from your processors and I do not wish you to have to carry the burden of what is in my helm. I know that my word does not mean much to you all right now, but I swear that I will rip out my spark as well as those of my three friends behind me that I did not take this from Pandimala's chassis nor did I kill her for them. I swear on Primus and the Allspark that I will do this if I am lying."

The room was silent for the longest time and, at first, Lockdown feared that the bots would not trust in Playback again. That would make their current situation very dangerous. The six of them were greatly outnumbered by the bots out there and Lockdown knew that they would have to run if the rebels decided to attack them.

When Pandemonium walked up onto the stage, Lockdown froze. This situation felt like it could go either way. If Pandemonium didn't support them, Pandimala's sire, then none of the bots down there would.

"Playback, I have listened to what you have said and gone over it in my helm," Pandemonium started before he paused. Lockdown now felt like his circuits were going to blow from the anticipation. "and both Malice and I have decided...that we will fight with you once more. You reasoning is sound. But," Lockdown had let out a sigh of relief but now felt like taking it back, "Once we kick Sentinel's aft with this master plan of yours, I want to know everything about you."

Lockdown glanced at Playback as the mech nodded. Of course Playback would tell them, but they wouldn't need told if everything went right.

Playback then turned to the crowed and Lockdown saw that the crowd was nodding its assent. Good. That meant that they had more help. "Ok then bots, welcome to the rebels version two. I need you all to get weapons and get some quick training in because tomorrow is going to be the big solar cycle."

"What happens tomorrow?" Balm yelled out from the crowd.

Lockdown smiled but let Playback answer. "Well, tomorrow we save Chala, Zinnia, Sunblast, and Shadow Fall from their upcoming executions and we hit the Virons with a major blow that they will NEVER forget."

Authoress: Oh, I can feel the tension building.

Playback: So can I. This is going to be very interesting.

Lockdown: Yeah, especially since we have an entire army pretty much at our disposal. Of course, the Virons still outnumber us slightly.

Kiva: Only in numbers dear. Our processor power will make the odds go in our favor.

Lockdown: So true darling.

AN: Oh, the next chapter will be one that you may or may not have seen coming. What I do know is that it is going to be an awesome surprise. I wasn't even planning on it at first but I'm glad that I am now. There is going to be so much confusion for the bots...well, until then, drop a review in to say whatever you wish, just nothing too bad if it is. =D