The sound echoed as the three bots remained frozen in place, examining the creature that was airborn. Dreadwing, still suck to a tree, gritted his denture, recognizing this as a bad sign. Arachnid gave a smirk as though she had finally turned the tides unintentionally. Tarn however had no idea what he was looking at. This creature resembled nothing he had seen before. It didn't seem organic nor native to this planet. He couldn't make this work. They had to gain distance.

Tarn rushed to Dreadwing and cut him free. "We should retreat," he suggested.

"If we do, Megatron will have our heads," the blue seeker replied.

Instantly the creature fired upon them, moving in. The spider backed up from them and aimed her own blasters at them. The two now were preparing for the battle as the enemy was zeroing in on them. Fight or flight? Either one was deadly and had disaster results.

"Insecticon," Arachnid spoke aloud, "obey your queen! Slay these fools!"

The two braced for impact and battle. Unsure if they were going to last any longer than an hour with this beast.

Starscream's ped steps echoed in the cavern as he and the two strange bots wandered in deeper. His optics watching them closely. They may have been friendly at their first meeting, but there was always room to betray. In the end, he decided to play along until he deemed it time to move on.

The narrow tunnel opened up to a large room with a device that was planted dead center of the room. It was a machine with three tanks, two at top and one at bottom. The two on top were filled with energon and toxic energon. The bottom one was filled with an unknown substance that seemed . . . different. It was thick and liquid like energon, even had a red base like red energon, but it's color was like the rainbow that shimmers in oil and tar. It was sickly looking, and it looked like there was a ton of it. The small pink Cybertronian approached a console and entered a code that allowed a tiny hatch to open and deliver a small container that she attached to the wrist of her left arm.

"Now then," she said sweetly, "let's get down to business. Specifically on rules and guidelines that you have to follow."

The seeker stopped in place with a confused look. "What sort of rules?"

"They're easy," she answered, "there are only four, and they are very easy." No one interjected her as she continued. "Rule one, you are only allowed access to two energons we have stored. One being normal energon, and the second being our shiny prize, Neon Energon."

Starscream glanced at the shimmering sludge that floated inside the tank. That stuff was energon? It didn't look like any energon he had seen before. It even looked more toxic than the tox en that was stored nearby it.

"Why so specific," he asked.

"Now don't take this the wrong way," she replied with a twirl, "but your reputation tends to make us concerned. Like what if you take our Tox En and use it against us? Or even more so, use it to kill people we need to stay alive?"

"It sounds as though there is no virtual reason for it," Starscream commented, "we do have a shared enemy, why not use it on him in a surprise attack?"

"Because it would be no fun!"

Her friendly smile twisted the seeker in a way he wasn't sure if he should trust or not. The small pink bot was purely acting as though this whole plan of theirs was a game where the one who dies loses and the one who lives wins. Even then her approach to the topic was shifty if not unsettling.

"Now, rule two," she continued, "my master will sometimes ask for specific orders to be fulfilled by his servants. That now includes you. Meaning if he has orders, you listen. If you disobey, he won't like it."

A question also stirred in him as he continued to remain there. "When will I meet this master of yours?"

"Live long enough and you just might meet him. Rule three, no one must know about us. Unless we decide to reveal ourselves or a special order is given, me and Cog must be a secret between the three of us."

There was no reason to follow that up with a comment. Starscream saw a few reasons why it would benefit them, and it was certainly an advantage to keep this alliance under wraps. Especially with the power they were willing to share with him was something that he wanted to make sure was his trump card for this whole war.

"Last but not least, there are individuals like us that would be against our little game," she said, "and they must be kept alive for the entirety of our alliance."

"Pardon me," the seeker asked, "but why alive? What purpose do they serve?"

"That is for me to know, and for you to learn soon enough. For now, I think there is something else we need to situate before we move on with our plans." With the snap of her left hand, a stalactite and stalagmite shifted and changed to take form of a statue of a Decepticon insignia. Cog, the large mech, walked up to it and smashed it to pieces. "We need to make sure you know how to use this stuff."

"RRRRAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!"

Tarn made his battle cry as he charged head first into the Insecticon, hoping to knock the thing over. Instead all it did was jump to avoid and land from behind and hit him. The Decepticons were scared and badly damaged as they faced the beast. Arachnid merely sat to the side as she watched the fight rage on. Though it would seem as though they would not last any longer if they stayed more than intended.

"Tarn," Dreadwing panted, "we . . . must gain . . . distance . . . if we are to call . . . a groundbridge."

"With what little strength we have," Tarn asked.

Dreadwing was leaking majorly from his side, causing him to be weakened to the point of being sidelined for the rest of the fight. Tarn was thankfully less damaged, but still running out of ideas. He was now resorted to lashing out at all that stood in his way. If he were to die here, that imposter would take his place and his empire as his own. That was not a result he was willing to leave behind. Pulling out his swords, he charged again, now making more deadly cuts at the beast, landing a few blows. Arachnid merely smirked.

"It would seem as though you are a tough one to crush," she said turning her smile into a scowl, "almost too good of luck if you ask me."

She repositions herself to enter the fight while the Decepticon was occupied. He continued to fight with all his might, his optics flaring a brighter red than usual. It was then, when he saw his chance, he was blinded by the attack by Arachnid, causing him to get skewrd right in his shoulder. He gasps as the leg dug deeper into the mech, aiming closer to his spark chamber. The Insecticon took hold of his arm in order to keep him from attacking back. There was no other path for him now. He was being forced into his own death.

"Take this, bug!"

Looking over, the spider had too little time to react to the swing of hammers that connected with her head and lodged leg that snapped off. Tarn finally had his arm cannon freed as he aimed it at the Insecticon and fired. The beast felt the sting of the beam hitting his cheek and let go. Ripping the detached leg from his chest, he turns to see Breakdown right beside him with a bridge open near Dreadwing that was allowing Decepticon troops pull him in swiftly.

"What . . . what are you-"

Breakdown interrupted the Decepticon as he held up his hand. "Later. Right now we gotta get you out of here."

While the Decepticon was more inclined to finish his own fights, but knew this fight would not be won as of now. Instead, he merely listened to his ally and rushed through the bridge. Arachnid stood up and charged at breakdown with the Insecticon going in for a kill.

"BREAKDOWN!"

"Better luck next time, Arachnid," he replied as he jumped through the vortex, which closed before the spider and beetle could make it through. The two growled in anger as their enemies escape. Though it did not end with so much of a loss as it was something of good fortune that this creature came into her lap. Perhaps she could make good use of it.

". . . wall."

"You got it. Your turn."

"Really?"

"Wanna be bored."

The head stayed silent as to not answer that question. He and Medkit were sitting in the room with nothing to do while Knockout was working on the frame of Copper's new body. This little game was her idea, so why didn't he just shut it down from the start. Boredom. It may have been his second worse enemy ever.

"I spy, something . . . blue-"

"Energon."

Copper groaned at her speed. Of course she was looking over at the canisters laying across the room. It stood next to a bunch of boxes that shared the same blue light. Guess it was the doctor's stash for either emergencies or himself. Though what really caught his attention was the single crate buried underneath that bared a strange eerily purple light. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was definitely sending chills down his . . . non-existent spine. Before long, a sudden burst of activity came into the room as Breakdown rushed in with panic in his optic.

"Knock, we got wounded," shouted the blue mech.

The red mech responded by dropping the project and running into the room. Medkit saw this chance to see what was going on and hopped off the table. Nearly missing her chance with the door, she ran right through. The girl practically ignored all the shouts that came from the head waiting inside the other room as she was looking right at the source of the attention.

Upon two tables were two mechs that were severely injured and broken. Her eyes examined the damage as it looked like they were both about to shut down for good. One was recognized at Tarn, but the other was someone she had not seen. Blue and with wings. It was then she looked down at her key and was beginning her conflict within. While she was able to heal them, she knew they were enemies. Especially considering that she recognized that one of them was Tarn. She felt sympathy for the blue unknown mech lying down injured, but for the Decepticon warlord.

"Let me help," she said, running up to the blue one.

Knockout did nothing to stop her as he was curious how this would go. Medkit did her best to hide her key as she was walking onto the patient. It became difficult as it began to glow, showing where to insert it. Sliding it in the new keyhole, the mech began to fix up like nothing had attacked him. The mech slowly opened his optics as he saw the small human on him. He gradually stood up as he was now fully healed, using his hands to make sure the creature would not fall.

"You . . . must be Tarn's human," he said aloud, "I heard rumors."

She scowled as she looked away. Such poor phrasing. "I'm Medkit." Her tone was harsh as though she wanted to make sure he knew she was mad.

"A lucky organic you are, for him to sympathize with," the blue seeker said, "I would have died if it were not for his sacrifice."

Instantly her thoughts were swirling and clouding. Saved his life? Why? Did he really? No, it must have been for personal gain. But why risk so much, especially looking at his state, he was far too close to death. Since when had he ever shown such protection for anyone other than himself? Looking at her key, Medkit was now even more conflicted. It didn't become her choice anymore as this new mech delivered her to his side for her to heal him. Gotta make sure there were no misunderstandings. Keep up the act girl. Inserting her key, Tarn healed quickly like the other one.

"Dreadwing!"

The thundering voice broke the tension as everyone looked to the entrance to see the large silver mech, "Megatron", walk in looking furious. Knockout and Breakdown both backed up while Medkit remained silent while the situation transpired before her.

"I suppose you both were able to terminate the insect before returning to the warship," he asked, looking down upon the blue seeker.

"No. We had encountered a problem-"

"There should be no excuse for this. To find you both in this state is unacceptable."

Tarn sat up after his healing process was done and looked at the warlord with anger. There was no excuse indeed, but he looked down on them as though they were incompetent. How dare he do so. Especially to their rightful leader.

Breakdown stepped forward and spoke. "There was an Insecticon on Earth, sir." Everyone turned to him as though they were in shock. "Arachnid was able to control it from the looks of it. The two of them attacked them without warning."

Once finished, "Megatron" looked at the two and frowned. Medkit felt nervous as she stepped down from the table and began to walk slowly away. Tarn stood up to join everyone as they all awaited for a reply from their "leader".

"Lord Megatron," a soldier communicated through the comms, "incoming message. They wish to speak with you."

Grumbling, he stepped out of the room and left them alone. A collective sigh of relief enveloped the room. Though it was hard to be relieved when the angered sounds of a head were reaching the other room.

"Seriously, someone just pick me up and bring me in, what happened!?"

Longer than intended, but this was a debate on how to write. Gladly, I am okay with the final result.

I'm rising up and rolling out!