"I heard what happened to you and Rung," Starscream called as he watched from the roots of the tree.

I waggled my broad hand at a terrified cybercat that was huddled in the branches, and I took a step forward. The new branch I put my mass onto crumpled, and I caterwauled as I fell to the ground as a streak of red and white. I groaned a bit, and Starscream ambled over and stared down at me.

"Geez, slow your roll, old man." Starscream aided me in standing up. "Your back will totally fall apart if you keep hurting yourself like you do."

He took off, using the jets on his feet to launch himself into the summer air. Starscream had arrived after me when the call came in about some stupid pet wandering yet again into a tree and becoming to afraid to get back down. I had already started the rescue, and the young girl and her mom were watching from their front yard a few meters away. Starscream scooped the animal up before landing gracefully in front of the smiling daughter. She hugged the trembling cybercat close to her chest.

Starscream walked back over to me. "People need to train their pets. We could be saving lives right now."

"I agree," I replied. "but you made someone very, very happy today."

Starscream angled his head to look back at the youngster twirling about with her animal friend. "Eh, whatever. Anyways, you and Rung?"

"Yeah, we're together now." I pressed my hand upon the small of my back as I strolled back to the aged firetruck. "Maggie doesn't like it."

"Well, yeah, of course." Starscream crawled into the passenger seat, his legs kicking about as he pulled himself in. These seats are made for Cybertronians who are a bit taller than us. "He's probably jealous."

I rolled my optics before I clambered into the driver's chair, starting the engine. "Jealous of what?"

"Oh, love." Starscream made sarcastic goo-goo eyes at me. "He's lonely and anxious. Of course he's gonna be a bit salty about it."

"Magnus thinks we should be following the rules. It's nothing about his opinion."

"Those rules are just his mouthpiece for his opinions." Starscream flung his boxy feet up onto the dashboard as I navigated out of the suburban neighborhood. "Don't like somethin'? Just find a rule that you can use as leverage."

"Magnus has always been that way. His opinions are the rules. He doesn't think for himself, and that is why people don't like him."

"Oh, Rattie -"

"Ratchet, not Rattie. Where the hell did that nickname even come from?" I do a tight left turn, and I smirk a bit as I hear Starscream's little head bang mildly against the window.

"Oh, we all have nicknames for each other. Like how you call Magnus 'Maggie' behind his back? Yours is Rattie. Mine is Scream. Roddie for Rodimus. Rung is practically a nickname already. And Paranoia for Red Alert."

"Why not Reddie?"

"Cause he's almost as anxious as Maggie."

"But it's not cool to make fun of him like that. He's obviously got something up with him."

"Yeah, yeah. We all know. Anyways, as I was saying, people do like him. Especially the people at the Firefighter Association. They can't get enough of him there because he's such a 'by the book' captain."

"It's annoying." I felt my foot go down a bit on the gas, trying to release some frustration building up inside of me.

"It is, I agree. But we were all forced to go to this station."

Okay, so a couple years ago, me and a bunch of other dudes got kicked out of our stations because we were seen as "hazardous fighters". I am careless and injure myself all the damn time, Starscream is unhinged, and Rodimus has some leadership complex. Red Alert is of course paranoid and it makes him unpredictable, and Rung was too timid to get into the fires. He and I were positioned at the same stations before we were transferred. Magnus recently had his entire team wiped out because of a chemical fire, so he needed a new team and fresh start. He's still pretty shaken up about it, so it is treated as a taboo subject.

I think he goes to therapy, but a rule robot like him might think he doesn't have emotions.

Anyways, Ultra Magnus functions as our life coach/leader/father, or something like that. The only person he has managed to "save" is Rung, but even that's on a low level. He will only get in the scene when someone else is going to accompany and protect him, and that someone typically is me.

I pull into the garage of the fire station, and I slip out the door. Red Alert is nibbling on the tips of his fingers as he listens to a phone gripped in his hand. He is huddled next to the housing attached to the wall.

"Do they need a dispatch?" Starscream calls.

"No, but I want to be here when they do need one," Red Alert replies.

Ultra Magnus steps out of his office after hearing us arrive home, and he spots Red Alert pressing the phone to his audio receptor. He gently removes the handset from his trembling fingers, and the cord bounces about as our captain hangs it up. He whispers something to Red Alert before Red Alert briefly nods and vanishes into the break room.

"Boys, mission accomplished?" he inquires.

"Yup, we got the cat," Starscream replies as he kicks a deflated basketball around on the ground. It's a slow day today.

"Good, good. Ratchet? My office please."