Blackout was about to give up. Hook was…harder to deal with than Thundercracker had let on. Not that he'd expected it to be easy. Just…not hard this way, is all.

Hook had no problem with doing something sub rosa. Don't tell Megatron? No problem. (Which boggled Blackout's mind, speculating how many things the engineer had done before without Megatron's knowledge.) Had no problem coming back to repair.

But the Fratalyzer was a problem. Hook wanted to know all sorts of stuff Blackout had like no idea about. Charge capacity. Cubic volume. Desired output measures. Blackout got really tired of saying "I don't know" and "Maybe." He felt dumb. And stupid. And useless. And big. Hook was barely the size of Barricade, but even, if that was possible, scarier.

"Surely," Hook said, blandly, "Someone knows."

Blackout frowned. "Can't comm them-mine is fried," (saving Autobots o frag don't ask how) "and anything ship-originated would be traceable."

Hook had eventually thrown up his hands in frustration and ordered a list of items to wait for them in the hangar. Which had made Blackout think…oh frag. How are we getting back to the moon? Apparently Hook had decided a small jumpshuttle. Blackout considered-not that he was given any say in this or anything-but the shuttle was just big enough to get he, Starscream, Barricade and possibly Soundwave off the moon. If need be. Maybe they could just dump the Fratalyzer and go. You know, with Barricade NOT sitting right next to him to tear off his audio. Barricade didn't forget why he was mad.

Blackout had tried to contact Thundercracker on the ship's comm, but…he was out of range. Huh. Guess he didn't care so much.

Hook plopped himself in the back of the shuttle with a bag of equipment. "You fly," he said.

"Uhhh, don't really think you want that," Blackout said. After his less-than-ace piloting skills with the Autobot pod, he wasn't eager to get behind the stick again.

"I don't know where we're going," Hook said. "I'd have to activate the astrogation and…"

"Trackable. Right." Blackout sure was tired of feeling dumb. It didn't help that Hook had…even less interpersonal skills than Barricade. At least Barricade was funny. Hook was just…creepy. But, whatever. A mech never got anywhere by complaining, right? Well, unless you were Starscream. But everyone else, complaining was uncool. Or Barricade. He complained a lot, too. But it was hard to take him seriously because his complaints were funny. Okay, come to think of it, Blackout was the only mech he knew who didn't complain. And he didn't want to start. He sighed, frustrated at himself, and settled himself behind the jumpshuttle's controls. Hook was…was he talking to the fratalyzers? Sounded like it. Weird. Hook was just straight up weird.

Blackout didn't mean it in a bad way, though. Everyone was a little weird, right?

He powered up the throttle and lifted the ship off the hangar floor. He hated to admit he was kind of looking forward to seeing the others again. Even if it meant Barricade ripping his arm off.

***

Barricade muttered to himself, shaking off Prowl's hands. "Can get up just fine."

The main console blinked angrily. Right. Like it was his fault. Fraggin' Autobot ship. Fraggin' bad landing into the side of the fraggin' mountain. He glared at Optimus, pretty sure the all-sterling Autobot leader had only let him fly because he knew this would happen. Set up to look bad. Barricade snarled.

"Hey!" a voice came through over the ship system comm. "Anyone going to tell us what happened?"

"Sorry, Ironhide," Optimus said. "We pulled the ship out of the mountain so that we can begin repairs to the navigation system."

"Yeah well you did an excellent job navigating us right onto the ground. Which idiot did the flying? Was Prowl's cortex fritzing again?"

"Barricade did."

A long silence. "Well, that explains everything, really," Ironhide said. "Only surprise is he didn't manage to blow us up in the process."

"If I still had some neptunium," Barricade snapped, "Be sure I'd've tried."

"Ironhide, Barricade!" Optimus barked. "We must work together."

"Yeah, I am working together," Ironhide muttered. "Just offering my new teammy a little constructive criticism about his flying."

"That's IT!" Barricade glared at the audio speaker. His optics flashed white.

A crashing sound over the speaker, followed by muffled cursing.

"I'm gonna fraggin' offline you, you filthy 'con!" Ironhide swore.

"What?" Barricade asked, innocently.

"Ironhide?" Optimus asked. "What happened down there?"

"Fraggin' defibrillator attacked me. ATTACKED ME."

Barricade shrugged. "Sounds like someone's a little delusional."

Prowl frowned. "Barricade, you forget that I saw you in the mines."

Barricade sighed. "Fine. You didn't mind when I did it to Short Stack back there to save your aft."

"I was incapacitated."

"Sure. That's your excuse."

"Barricade!" Optimus barked. "We are cooperating. We were wrong in not warning Ironhide that the ship would move. He has a right to be upset." He raised his voice to the comm pickup. "Ironhide, I regret that we forgot to warn you."

"Oh slag, seriously? You Autobots are pathetic. No idea how you carry on a war with all this sensitivity nonsense. We sure don't worry about it on my side."

"Nonsense," Prowl said. "I saw you and Starscream in the mines. Both of you were extremely considerate of the other's plight."

"You," Barricade said, "shut up. Before I'm forced to remind you how sexy you are."

Optimus cleared his vocalizer. He did not want to revisit this. Maybe later-he suspected it would be a good laugh later. But right now, they had bigger priorities.

****

Starscream frowned, feeling Thundercracker's eyes take in his damaged face, and more, register the concomitant lack in his capabilities. No depth perception meant he was more or less ground bound. "It has been," Starscream said, "an exceedingly trying mission."

"Yeah, I gathered as much from the copter."

"Has he made it to the base yet?"

"Flew him in myself, so his beacon wouldn't register. That pod, though…we're going to have to explain it sooner or later."

"Scavenger," Starscream said. "He is my explanation for many things that look like junk. Just as I blame everything that looks too crazy on Wildrider."

"That must be some mental rolodex you have there, jet," Sideswipe muttered. "I take responsibility for my actions. Keeps it simple."

"Simple is as simple does," the jet retorted.

"Will you PLEASE stop arguing?" Ratchet looked more than usually aggrieved. Probably because he couldn't decide which of the mechs in front of him deserved to be hit with a wrench first. "We have a ship to fix." He turned to Thundercracker. "Any word on a catalyzer?"

"I told Blackout to get Hook. He'll know what to bring."

"Eugh. He'll bring it in three different sizes."

"Well, the good news is it'll be fixed forever."

"That is NOT good news, Thundercracker: we are talking about an enemy ship."

"Frag." Thundercracker turned to survey the damaged vessel. "Not sure even Hook can get this thing going again." He turned back. "I can help you with astrogation if it needs to happen," he offered.

"That would not help Blackout and Barricade," Starscream said. "Nor Soundwave, though I am still unsure of his status. Would you be able to pull his mission specs?"

"Not without the right codes. In a bit maybe." Thundercracker shot a dark look at Ratchet and Sideswipe.

"I suppose I shall once again act as the natural leader that I am," Starscream said, abruptly. "We do no good to the ship from here." He trudged across the grey-brown rubble of the moon's surface.

Thundercracker frowned, shrugged, and turned to follow Starscream-their longer legs outpacing the Autobots. "Want to tell me what's bothering you?"

"The time is entirely insufficient to catalog the series of indignities and disasters I have suffered through on this mission."

"Brief update as to what we still face."

"Soundwave is..unreliable. Barricade requires handling-please allow me to do the handling. And we are forced to collaborate with these Autobots."

"Why forced? I told you, you and I can jet out of here whenever. If you want, we can grab Barricade: though I seem to recall he kind of hates being flown. Chances are we can intercept Blackout and the catalyzer and head off on our way, leaving these losers to their loserdom."

Starscream sighed. "We, alas, cannot. They know too much."

"So…we're waiting for a double cross?"

"I am hoping instead that we find out enough about them that they find it worth their while to forget what they found out about us."

Thundercracker blinked, slowly. "Oooookay. But sabotaging the ship would be easier."

"There is easy, and then there is," they both spoke the last part, like a secret joke, "the Decepticon way."

****

Barricade shivered, the first of the hallucinations floating just out of range of his optics. Ha ha, he told himself. Hope it was worth it, that little prank on Ironhide, because you're going to pay for it now. He looked anxiously between Prowl and Optimus-both of them were elbow deep in the main computer. Barricade took a few steps back, hoping it wouldn't look too obvious if he let himself slip, slowly, to the floor. He hated this. He could call the jet to knock him out again. He hated asking for help. No. He could pull himself through this. It wasn't that bad. This wasn't stronger than him. Bigger than him.

He fought, pushing the hallucination further away, like trying to blow away a mist or fog. It skirled around his edges of control, tendrils reaching in. No. He pushed back harder. Frag, Blackout, where are you? He felt a chilly premonition: they were all going to die here. Soundwave would try something again. Soundwave didn't like losing. Liked it even less than Barricade did. The fact that he hadn't tried anything, even during the defibrillator thing, confirmed to Barricade that the satellite was Up To Something.

A whine tried to claw its way out of his vocalizer. He stifled it.

Optimus looked back over his shoulder. "Barricade? Are you all right?"

"M fine," he muttered. The words didn't come out as angry as he'd wanted. Didn't have that 'back the frag off' punch he was hoping for.

Prowl looked back at Barricade. His optics were a little too discerning. Barricade summoned a sneer just for him. Special gift, just for you, Prowlypants, he thought. "Optimus," Prowl said, slowly, "Being underground, none of us were able to use solar recharge. Perhaps we all could use some energon."

"Yes," Optimus said. "Probably all of us could use a break. We need to make sure that those in the med bay get some energon as well." He nodded Prowl off to the task. He turned to Barricade, dropping to one knee in front of him.

"Barricade?"

Barricade glared at the visage of the concerned Autobot leader crouched awkwardly in front of him, this was the last thing he needed, false niceties. "Didn't think our relationship had progressed that far Prime." He growled his optics flicking over to where Optimus was knelt down on one knee.

Optimus shifted and knelt down completely in front of the acerbic 'con. This was going to be difficult. His joints ached and from what he could tell there wasn't a part of his armour that didn't hurt in some way, not to mention he hadn't recharged since the mission began. That and the combined energon loss and attempted hack of his cortex had worn him down. He now felt he was on the last teetering edge of his patience as well as his sanity.

"Look I know this is difficult for you."

"Got no fraggin' idea."

Optimus sighed, Barricade was going to have an answer for everything no matter how hard he tried to play nice. Right now he didn't see that he had any other choice. "I just want to help. Is there… anything I can do?"

"Can stuff yourself in a smelter." Barricade decided that would be both entertaining and a good riddance. Was the Autobot going to take him up on his suggestion, not fraggin' likely.

Optimus dropped his gaze and pinched the bridge of his nose wearily. "Look Barricade." His voice took on a more commanding note, despite the lack of authority he was feeling at that very moment. "I didn't do this to you. I am genuinely concerned for your well being while you're on my ship and errr not trying to hijack it." He added hastily.

"Charmed." Barricade shot back with a glower.

"Just can you tell me what it is, that's wrong. What I can do?"

"Already given you a suggestion: you didn't fancy turning yourself into a tin can for me."

"That would be rather counterproductive to our current situation, don't you think?" He sincerely wished Prowl would hurry back with the energon. His SIC at least seemed to have some inkling of what was wrong with Barricade and he, as usual, was getting nowhere.

He moved a short distance away from Barricade and sat himself down gingerly. Barricade watched him suspiciously, not entirely comfortable with the whole 'let's be friends' vibe Prime was giving off. A small part of him wished that Prowl would return sooner rather than later, he at least didn't ask impertinent questions about things that weren't any of his slagging business.

"I honestly sometimes wonder how we've managed to fight for so long."

Barricade was taken aback by the random statement. "Mutual dislike and boredom." He stated blandly, not really wanting to get into a debate about the finer points of a war that no one really remembered the cause of in the first place.

Optimus laughed quietly. "You're probably quite right." This was better at least he could engage in pointless conversation when he had to.

"How you've managed to command that bunch of miscreants you call an army for so long is probably the more fascinating question." Barricade shot back, suddenly wanting a distraction from the hallucinations that were beginning to plague him once more.

"Patience, practice and not without making an example out of one or two along the way." Frag, GO AWAY. Stop staring at me. The energy of trying to appear all…normal was really starting to wear on him.

Barricade huffed at that statement. "Sounds like a Megatron tactic."

"Ah no, luckily I have Prowl to set the examples for me." He smirked. "He is far more… creative than me when it comes to appropriate reprimands."

Well, that sounded just lovely. Barricade forced himself still as a shudder wracked his frame. "Way to delegate." Barricade spoke even quieter now, his optics focused on the floor with fierce intensity.

Optimus noticed the tension in Barricade's frame and continued the menial chatter in a hope that it would distract him from whatever it was that was bothering him. He carried on talking until Barricade relaxed again a few moments later.

"You ok?"

Barricade just glared at him and was thankful when a cube of energon was held in front of his face. He glanced up to see Prowl standing over him holding out the energon cube. "Fine."

"You need your strength."

"M' fine," he repeated, irritably.

"The slag you are." Prowl snapped thrusting the cube into Barricade's hands before turning on his heel and handing the other cube to Optimus.

"Gettin' under your plating sexy bot?" He summoned up a burst of strength to inflect his voice. Wasn't going to show weakness in front of these slaggin' Autobots. What they don't know…they can't use against me.

Prowl shot him a dark look and vented a cycle of air. Optimus frowned at him, noticing for the first time the newly formed dents in his armour plating, and the faint splattering of energon contrasting his monochrome paintwork.

"Prowl what happened?"

The black and white mech met his leader's frown with a weary; - I'm-on-my-last-fraggin'- nerve - glare. "There was an incident in the med bay."

"What?" Optimus winced as he pushed himself to his feet. "Why wasn't I informed?"

"There was no time." Prowl held out his hands to placate his increasingly agitated leader, at least he wasn't the only one losing his last shred of patience on this Primus forsaken mission. Prowl swore silently to himself that he wasn't ever going to volunteer for any more missions and was going to lock himself in his office for the remainder of their time on Earth. "Ratchet has been informed; he's on his way to the med bay to tend the injuries now."

Optimus's optics spiraled outwards in sheer disbelief. "Injuries? What in Primus's name is going on Prowl?!" And why was he suddenly being left out of the loop?

"Please Sir I can explain."

Barricade chuckled darkly as he sipped at his energon. It made a change to see the unflappable Autobot, well flapping. Certainly more entertaining than feeling the wet haze grasping at his cortex again. Suddenly, drinking the energon seemed like a bad idea. Fueling his systems. He needed a reboot. But he would NOT stoop to asking them. He put the cube aside.

Optimus towered over his SIC, his hands firmly planted on his hips. He had, had enough. Either they were going to learn to cooperate for their mutual benefit or he was going to off line the lot of them in a fit of temporary insanity when he finally snapped.

"Well you better start."

****