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 the swirling vortex cleared around them, they were once again aboard the Nemesis. The Autobots looked around and, seeing they had appeared in a dark room filled with monitors readied their weapons in case of an ambush.

Knockout stepped out from behind what appeared to be the ship's ground bridge controls. "Whoa, whoa, let's not get hasty here,"

Breakdown reached out and whapped Bulkhead and Wheeljack across the helm. "Knock it off," he reached over to do the same to the other two but only got Smokescreen before Ratchet took a very big wrench out of subspace and tapped it against his palm.

"Try it, I dare you,"

Breakdown considered for a moment and then shrugged. "Knockout bridged us up here. He's the only other Cybertronian that knows about this. Now let's get Solarlight out of here before Soundwave figures out something is up,"

He opened the door to the room and looked both directions to make sure no one was in the halls before gesturing for the others to follow. "Come on. Remember, be ready to act like we're throwing you out if we get caught,"

The Autobots followed Breakdown to the Decepticon med. bay while Knockout brought up the rear.

The red mech saw fit to strike up a whispered conversation with Smokescreen since he still trailed the group. "Well, good thing the med. bay is also on this floor, that way we won't be stuck with you Autobots for quite so long,"

Smokescreen gritted his denta and smiled at Knock out. "Ah, come on Knockout. Wouldn't you miss us?"

Knockout was quite for a moment but then smiled like he was up to something. "So, you and that two-wheeler getting along? If not I could always take her of your servos…"

Smokescreen spun around and punched Knockout right in the face plates, making the others turn around to see what happened and Knockout scowled. "Oh, is that how you want to play it?"

Ratchet got between them to break up an imminent fight. "Alright you two, break it up. We're not here to fight. We're here to tend to Solarlight, understood?"

Smokescreen hung his helm and grumbled something that almost sounded apologetic while Knockout just shrugged, uncaring.

Ratchet shook his wrench at the other medic. "So help me, Primus, Knockout, if this is a trap or we are caught aboard a warship in the process of evacuating an injured Cybertronian I will reformat you into one of those rotary buffers you hold so near and dear so you may tend to others' paint jobs rather than your own,"

Knockout stood up straighter and nodded quickly, not wanting to test the other medic. Once Ratchet turned around however, Knockout smirked. "Do you really think you would be able to find her on this ship without us?"

Wheeljack looked over his shoulder. "We could always stuff you two in a closet and knock on doors until we find her,"

"You mean like what you did with Hardshell? Yeah, I heard that turned out so well for you… a little girl ended up having to save your skid plate,"

Wheeljack snarled at Knockout and started to reach for his swords. "How in the Pit did you…"

Breakdown suddenly jumped back and held out an arm-servo to prevent anyone from walking around the corner they had come to. "Shh, Someone's coming,"

Everybot flattened themselves against the wall and tried to blend into the corridor as best they could and a couple of Vehicons walked passed them, chatting amongst themselves. No one dared make a sound until the two were gone and Breakdown checked if the coast is clear.

Once the halls were clear again, the group continued until they reached the med. bay. Breakdown kept watch while Knockout let them Autobots in and everyone holed themselves up in the med. bay.

While Bulkhead, Smokescreen and Wheeljack watched the two present Decepticons like hawks, Ratchet looked around at the sorry state of the Decepticon med. bay; most of the tools were either placed in bins or hung on the walls like torture devices being displayed in an interrogation chamber and the one berth, along with several of the work surfaces, were stained with the energon of past patients.

"If the state of your med. bay is a testimony to your skills as a medic it's a wonder your troops are still functioning,"

Knockout scoffed. "And I suppose it's my fault that our illustrious leader pools all of our resources towards the war effort and everything else, including medical care, is just an afterthought,"

Breakdown snorted. "Yet he didn't have a problem with summoning our afts halfway across the galaxy when he was in intensive care,"

Bulkhead helm snapped up as he remembered why they were there. "Speaking of which, where is Solarlight?"

Knockout nonchalantly jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Back room,"

He went over to one of the back corners of the room and opened a secret door there. "It's not like we could keep her in the main part of the med. bay, someone would have found her. It's been hard enough sneaking enough medical supplies to keep her alive, let alone finding a good place to hide her. Thank Primus this store room is 'medical personnel only',"

They walked into the storeroom behind Knockout and looked around in the dim room; there were shelves full of medical supplies, cans of paint and wax and other such items while in the back of the room was a Cybertronian life support unit next to an old beat up med. berth.

There on the med. berth laid a small femme with the same coloring as Breakdown except her faceplates were the same color as Bulkhead's. Upon closer inspection they saw that she had little helm horns that looked almost like pigtails.

Wheeljack pointed to the femme and whispered to Bulkhead "That her?"

Bulkhead nodded "Yeah, that's her,"

Smokescreen started to move in for a closer look but was stopped when a lithe medium sized Cybertronian canine with helm finials that resembled pointed ears and big purple optics jumped out from behind Solarlight and growled at him.

The Knockout and the Autobots all jumped in surprise, Knockout recover quickly—having seen this happen before—but the 'Bots were all still surprised.

"A Turbo-fox?" Wheeljack leaned in closer, as if daring the creature to try anything on him. "Where did that come from?"

Breakdown slowly reached out for the Turbo-fox. "Easy, Scraplet," he waited until Scraplet the Turbo-fox let him scratch behind his helm panels. "He's Solarlight's pet, they've been inseparable since she found him as a sparkling,"

While Breakdown kept the Cyber-animal distracted, Ratchet examined the prone femme hooked up to the outdated life support machine and whispered. "Alright, we're going to have to move quickly now, this could turn for the worst before we even know it,"

Knockout pressed a few keys on the monitors Solarlight was hooked up to and looked at Bulkhead. "I'll assume you're going to be the one to carry her, big fella,"

Bulkhead nodded again and started to reach out for his sister but Breakdown stopped him.

When he turned to glare at the other mech Breakdown just glared back at Bulkhead, all seriousness. "Don't think this changes anything, as soon as this is over we go back to where we were before. If I ever see her on the battlefield I'm taking her back, understood?"

Bulkhead saw that Breakdown wasn't kidding and, not wanting to lose his little sister after just finding her again, nodded before carefully lifting Solarlight into his arm-servos.

To his surprise, the femme stirred and opened her optics to look at him. "Bulk…"

Bulkhead smiled down at her. "Hey, 'Light,"

Solarlight looked up at him sleepily and looked around. "Am I dreaming?"

Bulkhead chuckled "No, you're not dreaming,"

Solarlight's optics widened "Am I dead?"

Bulkhead shushed her "No, you're not dead. It's really me 'Light,"

Solarlight smiled and barely held back an audible cheer as she hugged her bigger brother as best she could from her current position.

Scraplet growled at the unfamiliar mech holding his mistress who reached out to scratch his helm. "Hush, Scrappy,"

Scraplet calmed down and made a thrumming noise as he leaned into his keeper's servo, almost losing his balance as she pulled it away so she could sit up.

Solarlight looked around and saw that there were other mechs there, some of whom she had never seen before. "Um, what's going on?"

Breakdown winced before leaning down to Solarlight's level. "'Light, I need you to go with Bulkhead,"

Solarlight smiled—of course she would go with Bulkhead—but it went away when she looked at Breakdown. "Aren't you coming with us?"

Breakdown hesitated before shaking his helm. "Sorry, kid, somone's gotta make sure no one follows you out of here,"

Solarlight's lip component trembled as she hugged Breakdown. "I'll miss you,"

Breakdown stiffened before awkwardly patting her on the back plates. "Miss you too,"

Knockout made a fake gagging noise. "Gag me,"

"Don't tempt me," Bulkhead glared at him.

Knockout rolled his optics and pressed a few more buttons on the monitor. "Alright, disconnecting the life support and starting the two hour count down in three… two… one,"

Knockout hit a button and Solarlight went limp in both Bulkhead and Breakdowns servos.

"Solarlight? Solarlight!"

Ratchet scanned the femme. "She's in stasis. We'd better hurry,"

Bulkhead scooped the still femme in his arm-servos and carried her to the door with Scraplet right at his heels; the little Turbo-fox wanting to make certain his mistress was safe with this new mech.

Wheeljack opened the door for them before going out into the hallway to check if the coast was clear.

Once out in the hallway Wheeljack took point while Ratchet walked alongside Bulkhead with Scraplet on the other side and Smokescreen brought up the rear.

Smokescreen saw that Breakdown was going in the opposite direction and glared at him. "If you rat us out…" he leveled his blaster at the blue mech.

Breakdown was unimpressed. "Megatron would kill us all and then turn us into Terrorcons that he could have complete control over with Dark Energon. How stupid do you think I am?"

Breakdown walked to the end of the hallway and peeked around the corner to see if anyone's coming before whispering back. "You've got less than a breem before I start slagging you again, get your aft moving,"

Smokescreen glared at him for a moment before following the others to the ground bridge control room. Just as they got the portal open however, Soundwave came around the corner and they all jumped through at once to avoid capture.

Luckily they didn't bridge right into the base so when they stepped out of the portal in the middle of the desert Ratchet immediately called the base for a ground bridge. :Blaster, we need an emergency ground bridge, NOW!:

Another swirling green portal opened up a moment later and they ran through it just as a troop of Vehicions came through the one they just exited.

"Move, move, move!"

The Autobots ran through the ground bridge just as the Vehicons opened fire on them so Smokescreen and Wheeljack fired a few retaliation shots back before following Bulkhead and Ratchet through the portal which immediately closed behind them.

Once he was through, Smokescreen looked around at the others—Bulkhead and Ratchet immediately took Solarlight to the med. bay, Wheeljack stood off to the side coming down off the rush of battle and the others looked at them—and after a moment he just smiled and blurted out. "Whoa, if I'd known things were going to go that smoothly I would have checked the vaults again while we were up there,"

Clang!

"Ouch," Smokescreen covered the spot on his forehelm where a flying wrench hit him in the middle of is chevron.

"Don't even start," Ratchet turned to examine Solarlight to make sure the life support machines were hooked up correctly only to see a protective little Turbo-fox on the med. berth, growling at him. "Don't you start either,"

Miko ran over to see what was going on. "Is that Solarlight? Is she ok? What happened on the Nemesis? Ooh, where did you guys get the robot puppy? He's so cute!"

Ratchet grumbled about needing to get some work done while lifting the Turbo-fox down to the floor so Bulkhead answered his charge's questions. "Yeah, this is Solarlight. We got her off the ship okay, but we almost got caught by Soundwave when we were leaving,"

He pulled Scraplet closer to him so Miko could see and so he wasn't nosing around Ratchet's ankles while he worked. "This is Scraplet, Solarlight's pet Turbo-fox,"

Miko looked at the Turbo-fox and then up at Bulkhead. "Why name him Scraplet?"

Bulkhead shrugged. "I dunno, ask 'Light when she wakes up," he looked over at his sister, lying motionless of the med. berth. "I was kind of wondering that myself,"

Ratchet grabbed the tube used to induce stasis for surgery. "Well, you're just going to have to wait a little longer. I'm going to keep her under until I finish her repairs," he grumbled as he looked her over. "By the Allspark, most of these would have been simple fixes if they had been dealt with when they first happened. Did they even bother to fix anything?"

While everyone took a couple steps away from the med. bay to let Ratchet focus on his work, Arcee checked her internal chronometer. "It's getting late, better take the kids home,"

Raf looked up, realizing he didn't have a ride home. "Bumblebee isn't back yet,"

June looked up at Smokescreen and tilted her head towards Raf. Smokescreen caught the drift. "Come on, Raf, we'll give you a lift,"

Raf gave the Praxian a thankful smile and went to stand next to June while Miko looked up at Bulkhead expectantly.

The green mech, however, looked torn between looking after his sister and seeing to his charge who he thought of as a little sister.

Miko realized he didn't want to leave and looked up at the other bots hopefully. "I could always sleep on the couch,"

Ratchet glanced at her. "Isn't it a 'school night' for you humans?"

Smokescreen seemed to see their dilemma as he transformed into vehicle mode and opened his front and rear passenger doors. "Hey Miko, I was going to see how fast I can hit that turn by the Esquivel's place. Want to come with?"

After a few minutes of consideration and an encouraging nod from Bulkhead, Miko got into the backseat of Smokescreen's alt. mode next to Raf. "How fast did you say you were going to be going again?"

"Smokescreen…" the "don't even think about it" was obvious in June's tone even though she didn't even actually say it.

Smokescreen huffed and slumped down on his axles. "Yeah, yeah, yeah,"

He shut his doors and let Arcee and Jack go first while he waited for his passengers to fasten their seatbelts and took off out of the base.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

About an hour after the humans were brought home, Ratchet used his CMO status to pull rank on Optimus and Bulkhead to send them to their berths for recharge, leaving him and Blaster—and by default Rewind—the only ones on base still awake.

Ratchet looked at Blaster, who stood vigil at the communications hub. "Heard anything from Bumblebee?"

Blaster shrugged. "Ah called to check on 'im while you were out getting' Solarlight an' he said he was gonna make sure his lil friends got home safely befo' he came back,"

Blaster looked at Ratchet and saw that the medic had obviously had a long day. "Why don't ya turn in fo' the night, Ratch'? Ah'll wait up fo' 'Bee,"

Ratchet grumbled for a moment but agreed—mostly because the telepathic Communications officer would be able to see through every excuse he could use to stay up later and counter it with a reason not to—and turned to go to his office to recharge on the cot he kept there so he could keep a scanner on his patient in the med. bay.

"Don't stay up too late. If he isn't here by… what time do night clubs on Earth usually close?"

"Last call is usually at two a.m. fo' most places," Blaster knew this because he had had a few gigs at night clubs.

"If he isn't back here by then bridge him back, not up for negotiation,"

"'Kay, G'night," Blaster got a grumble in return as Ratchet shut the door to his office behind him. `

Once he was finally alone, Blaster took out his syringe and injected a dose of pain killers into his processors. 'Telepathy, both a blessing and a curse. At least it's quiet now, no noise, no random thoughts being tossed around like darts for me to deflect,'

After an hour of sitting around bored, Blaster's own thoughts drifted to his friends and team mates. 'Hmmm, haven't heard from Tracks in a while…' he looked around to make sure everyone still on base had turned in for the night.

'One quick call wouldn't hurt, could it?' Blaster brought up a comm. frequency and when he heard it connect he said cheerfully. "Hey Tracks, how ya been mech?"

There was a groggy sounding growl on the other end of the line. :Do you have any idea what time it is here?:

Blaster smiled "Ah c'mon, Tracks, you're only two time zones away. Which means it's only about two hours later there than it is here,"

Tracks huffed. "Blaster, it is one in the morning! I need to be up for work in a few hours, this better be important.:

Blaster became serious, something that rarely happened and only when scrap was about to hit the fan. "Ah heard rumors that things are startin' ta heat up over there. Can't a bot make sure his bro's ok?"

Tracks sighed :I'm sorry for being crude. Hold on, rumors? What rumors?:

Blaster smirked. "Last time our liason was here he let it slip there's a political shit storm a-brewin',"

Tracks huffed and there was a whumpf sound in the background which led Blaster to believe the mech sat down or flopped onto his back. :Yes, tension has been raising among the human governments. Everyone has their own theory as to why but no one was able to prove any of them.:

Blaster frowned. "'Cons are stirrin' up trouble and the world leaders are blamin' each other,"

:Hmm-hmm, though so.:

Blaster heard a drowsy voice in the background ask. :Tracks, who ya talking to?: and then he heard Tracks' muffled voice say :It's Blaster, go back to bed.:

Blaster grinned. "Ya still roomies with Raoul, Tracks?"

Tracks' voice became clear again. :Mute it.:

Blaster was undeterred by the other mech's warning and kept saying "Tell him I said 'hi'" until Tracks' voice became muffled again as he said :Blaster says 'hi',:

The Autobot Communications Officer smiled triumphantly and heard the other voice from before say :He must be high if he's up this damn early.:

Blaster muffled his snickers and heard the sounds of Tracks snorting while his roommate slammed the door.

:So, what can you tell me about the Decepticon activity that has every world leader and all of their inner circles spooked?:

As though Tracks had thrown a switch, Blaster became serious. "We're looking for ancient Cybertronian relics that were hidden here during the early days of the war,"

:Here? On Earth?: Tracks sounded more than a little surprised.

Blaster nodded, even though Tracks couldn't see it. "Yep, turns out the boss bot at the Iacon hall of records picked this planet specifically to hide all the little goodies in their vaults. Don't ask meh why, Ah aint got a clue, but they left a list of coordinates for us to find them with,"

Tracks huffed :If we have the coordinates, why haven't all these objects been found already?:

This time it was Blaster's turn to huff. "Because the coordinates are so heavily encrypted it's like tryin' to diffuse a bomb to get even one solved and who knows how many there are!"

Blaster crossed one arm-servo across his chest and propped his elbow on it and rested his helm on his servo. "Probably a good thing since the 'Cons have a matching set,"

Tracks was quiet for a moment before asking :Is that why we had to storm the enemy warship last time you and I saw each other?:

"Yep, tryin' to get back the relics the 'Cons already managed to get,"

Tracks went quiet again, this time he seemed to be thinking something over, and Blaster thought the call got disconnected. "Ya still there?"

:Hmm? Yes, still here, just… thinking.:

Blaster let both arm-servos cross over his chest. "Wanna talk about it?"

:Perhaps this should wait until Prime is also available, he may want to hear some of this as well.:

Blaster raised an optic ridge. "An' the rest?"

Tracks was quiet for a moment before answering. :I've been here a long time and there's been talk going around that they are thinking of retiring me… again. If that were to happen I have two options, one would be to take my retirement with dignity and start over under a new human guise and re-apply for the job or… if you and the others would have me…:

Blaster saw where Tracks was going with the second option and offered. "You could join us, become a full time member of the team,"

:Yes, that is why I needed to speak with Prime about it. Either way I'm going to put my two-week's notice in before long but if you lot don't need my help… ah, who am I kidding? After what I saw last time it's obvious you need my help.:

Blaster laughed. "No kiddin',"

:Still, I would like to discuss this with Prime at his convenience.:

Blaster checked his chronometer and saw that not even Prime was going to be up for a few more hours. "A'ight, in the meantime I'd better let ya go, get some recharge."

Tracks let out an exasperated :Thank you!: at that and the two exchanged quick goodbyes before ending the call.

As promised, Blaster called Bumblebee at two o'clock, just as the mech called for a ground bridge at the same time. Once Bumblebee got back to base, Blaster filled him in on everything he had missed so Bumblebee could go to the Esquivels'… right after he went to the wash racks.

Something about how "…certain humans can't hold their liquor as well as they think they can…"

A.N.: Quick shout out to the people who reviewed and/or added; nikesilvermoon, Spacelady2012, Kaleia (Guest), up429, noella (Guest), spock is awesome14, I Love Jesus and five unnamed Guest reviews.