Disclaimer: I only own my OCs. Vox belongs to a friend.

Lizzie: *chuckles darkly* Oh, this will be fun. *smirks*

Skywarp: *nods* Dangerous...but fun. *smirks*

Frenzy: *confused* What's going on? Why don't we know about this?

Rumble: *nods* Yeah! What are you two up to?

Authoress: *nervous* Um...if they don't know about this...then I think I'm going to hide...far away. *hides*

Ch. 7: Little Surprises

Skywarp's 1st P.O.V.

I smirked as I moved silently. Never, in all my wild imaginings, would I have pictured that I would be cooperating with an organic, that was so small that I could crush her if I was not careful, to pull something off this crazy. Revenge would be sought against us but this was too much fun and I would not be left out of an operation this difficult to achieve but reaped such hefty rewards! Never before had this been attempted and to do this now, especially in this specific location, was really going to be one of my top three most amazing feats ever.

Glancing toward the human now working on the table, I decided to make sure that I was doing my part right. "So, you want this activator to be on the side of Soundwave's work table?"

Lizzie, in turn, nodded while she placed an activator near the entrance to Soundwave's private wash-racks, and the one that she shared with Rumble and Frenzy. "Yeah. Just make sure that this won't hit anything of Soundwaves. The angle has to be just right or we will have him coming after us as well as the twins. This can only affect Rumble and Frenzy. Only."

Yeah, the two of us had really gone off the deep-end and had decided to lay a prank down for two of the most accredited pranksters on the Nemesis…and in the Decepticon army in general. Here we were trying to prank them and, while the prank itself was relatively simple and had been done to other bots before, Lizzie felt like this was the only way that we were going to be able to pull off pranking the twins without them avoiding the traps and turning the tables on her. It wouldn't affect me since I really wasn't allowed in the room without supervision anyways.

On that first night cycle we were here, Sounders had not been happy that I had gone to his room and found Lizzie there sleeping on a berth of her own. Honestly, I had been so excited and surprised that Soundwave had a little human pet that I had to show my big brothers immediately. Originally, I had warped in there because I wanted to set up a little greeting prank on the twins and I knew I only had a short amount of time to do that. But, seeing Lizzie had distracted me so I had grabbed her and warped back to the bridge and showed her to everybot else.

That's when the rest of us found out that Lord Megatron knew that Lizzie was on the ship and that she was on a rough trial period to prove herself to be of use to the Decepticon cause. At first, I doubted that she would be of any more use than being Soundwave's pet, which I would so be playing with, but over these past solars I found that she really had a sharp fleshy processor on her. Lord Megatron had noticed it as well and had started giving her lessons after the incident in the throne room two solars ago. She had just finished her lesson for the solar fifteen clicks ago and, as soon as the lesson was done, I was ordered to come and pick her up.

When I had picked her up, she had sprung the idea of this prank on me, since Rumble and Frenzy were with Soundwave on the bridge working on who knew what. I had immediately loved the idea and had teleported into Soundwave's room with her. We had then started to put up this trap and, now, we were almost done.

Looking down and not seeing Lizzie, I realized that she must have gone to the washracks to set up the final stage of the trap. Everything had to be perfect for this trap and, from experience with working other pranks with Lizzie now under my wings, I knew that she would make sure that everything worked out just right. After the prank that we did on my brothers the other solar, which they were still chasing me for, we had been able to get Breakdown and Skyquake covered in gooey slime and frag were they upset. But, we were able to run from them until they calmed down. Vox was supposed to be a part of that prank too but he had seen through the trap and had bailed.

When Lizzie walked out of the washracks, I offered her my servo and, once she got on it, I lifted her up before saying, "Okay, so now where?"

She seemed to think on that for a click before snapping her digits together. "Why don't you take us to rec room? Seems like it would be fun and not many bots will be in there, if any. Most have been ordered to work on improving the engine quality by Lord Megatron. Also, we can steal the big screen and watch this prank go off in hi-def."

My grin widened at her response and so I nodded before activating my teleportation programming before warping both myself and Lizzie to the rec room. Once we were there, I wasn't surprised to see that only three drones were in the room. G-3RG and 8r-4DY, or Greg and Brady respectfully, were lobbing with each other on the far side of the room and Joe was lounging stretched out on the couch, seemingly knocked out cold.

Well, I was known for being annoying.

Walking up to Joe, Lizzie thankfully being quiet, I put my helm right next to his audios and smirked before blowing an outtake directly into them. Joe, of course, jolted up-right and shook his helm slightly before turning to us and frowning. "Thanks a-lot you two. I was actually enjoying my recharge for once." He then sat up and motioned toward the general are of the med bay. "Med-bay's actually quiet for once this solar and so I get to go on break, for once, and I can't even relax for it."

Lizzie shrugged at that before placing her servos on her hips. "Sorry Joe, but Skywarp and I would really like to watch history being made on the big screen in hi-definition and this screen is the only one we can access right now to accomplish that."

Joe, in return, looked at the two of us skeptically. "What did you two do?"

I sat down before letting Lizzie sit on my shoulder, and turned on the screen and typed in the necessary sync data for our camera by the trap while answering him, "We are pranking the twins."

It was probably due to how simply I answered his question that Joe's jaw-plate almost fell off in shock and Lizzie almost fell off of my shoulder due to laughing at his reaction. Yeah, I was psychotic, proud of it, and Lizzie seemed to be in the same ship I was. Pranking the twins, if it worked, was going to be a masterpiece that would be talked about for ages to come. I'm pretty sure we would be immortalized as gods of pranking when,

"Hey something's happening." Lizzie interrupted my thoughts as she motioned to the screen.

The three of us glanced up at the screen as we could see the twins enter Soundwave's room from their vent. That was one bit of relief. If Soundwave would have been with them, then he might have tripped one of these first traps and throw everything off that we were planning. Rumble and Frenzy saw the first trap that we laid and immediately disabled it. The three of us could see them laughing at that. "Well, it was a nice try you two. But, they are legends here." Joe sighed as he leaned back.

Lizzie and I looked at each other and smirked before I decided to break the news to Joe. "Oh, the fun is just getting started."

He sat up quickly, his optics glued to the screen, and so I turned back to watch. The twins had just found the disk to go into the wash racks. Since that was out of the way, we changed the camera to the one in the washracks and waited for the real magic to happened. It was really funny to watch them search everywhere for any sort of activator. But, even I didn't know how Lizzie had set up this final part of the prank. She said it would be best if I didn't know. I didn't argue because I wanted to be surprised as well. I knew what was going to happen, but I just didn't know how it was going to happen.

After about ten clicks of the twins searching the wash rack from top to bottom, they finally relaxed and, as they reached for the nozzle, I felt confused. Wouldn't the prank had gone off by now? Glancing at Lizzie, I was about to ask when I saw her smirk grow. Well, even though she hadn't technically earned her spot among the Decepticon yet, she definitely had the dark smirk down. It was kinda scary coming from her. Really.

With her look, I immediately looked at the screen and I smiled broadly as I saw why she was smirking. Somehow, Lizzie had put the activator inside the spout and now the twins were being soaked in the fast-drying paint. Pink paint. The twins were screaming and trying to make their way to the nozzle. But, the floor was soaked in the paint and they kept slipping in it…which meant that more of the pink substance was getting on them.

Letting out a laugh, I glanced at the two next to me and saw that they had different reactions than me, though Lizzie was grinning as wide as I was. Joe's jaw-plate was almost completely unhinged in shock as he watched history being made before his optics. Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that the mech was already sitting, I bet that he would already be on his way to crashing in shock.

Then…then there was Lizzie. She was standing on the back of the couch and was doing some sort of victory dance. She looked really happy that her strategy had worked and I was glad that it had too. With the training that she was getting from Lord Megatron, I was sure that she was going to earn her place. She was different. I studied humanity once I decided that I was going to give Lizzie a chance and, honestly, there wasn't much to be impressed by. But, she was something…different. She knew when to say things and how to act. I mean, she was even calling Lord Megatron 'Lord Megatron'. Most humans, from what I read, were stubborn beings who didn't know how to confirm to something if they weren't in charge of it. But, Lizzie was already calling our leader Lord Megatron and she was able to keep her on unique personality while doing so.

"Skywarp. Report to the bridge with Lizzie. Lord Megatron has given his permission for her to come and explore the mine we are going to go to. Beware of the twins." Soundwave contacted me through private message. I could almost hear the smirk in his message.

He knew that we were going to offline at the servos of the twins.

I glanced down at Lizzie and she was glancing up at me curiously. Joe was still stuck in shock. "What's going on?" Lizzie asked me as I moved my servo next to her.

Once she was on my servo, I lifted it up and moved to walk out of the room. But, when I got to the door, I paused before turning to Joe. "Hey Joe. Might want to snap out of it soon. It's getting close to the time when Knockout and Breakdown go out for one of their cruises. Don't think Knockout will appreciate you being on duty with your jaw-plate unhinged like that."

I then smirked before walking out the door with Lizzie. Once we were a little down the hall, Lizzie tapped her finger on my servo. "So…what's going on?"

"Well, Lord Megatron gave Soundwave and I permission to take you to a mine with us so you could see what it was like. Of course, it won't be just the three of us. There will be two more bots with us." I started slowly.

I could almost feel Lizzie tense when I said those words. She then let out an audible gulp before she glanced up at me. "So…that means we are having the twins with us."

Yep. That meant that we were going to offline. Whelp, it was so worth it in the end. Pranking those twins successfully was a miracle in itself and Lizzie got it down perfectly.

It wasn't long before we got to the bridge and, once we were inside, I had to hold back a chuckle when I saw the twins. They were sitting on Soundwave's shoulders and they were still bright pink. Guess Soundwave wasn't going to let them rinse off until later. This was perfect! When I got next to Soundwave, I glanced at the twins. "So, what happened to you two? Did you mess up setting one of your traps?" I teased them.

To my surprise, they laughed before jumping onto my shoulder next to Lizzie. "Don't worry you two, we aren't mad." Frenzy let out in a laugh before both he and Rumble sat down next to Lizzie.

Rumble nodded at that. "Yeah, I mean you got us good. Of course, that means that we will be getting you back eventually. But, we are going to need time to plan out what we are going to do for this. So, you two are good in the mine." He then smirked. "Plus, the boss said that we couldn't do anything while we are down here."

I could see relief from Lizzie and I felt it too. At least we were safe for a bit and the twins took the prank in good fun. Of course, we were going to have to watch our backs for their revenge prank. I had never seen a revenge prank from the twins, since no one had ever pranked them before to my knowledge, and I could only imagine what sort of vengeful response we were going to have. But, since we weren't going to be at risk of any trouble in the mine, then I would just relax for now. No sense being all up-tight. If I was, I would end up like TC or worse…Screamer!

Shuddering at that thought, I stood at attention, slightly, as Soundwave opened the bridge. Hopefully, this could be fun. I was excited to see what sort of stuff we could find in an energon mine on Earth. But, we would find out now.

Soundwave's 1st P.O.V.

I let out an internal sigh as I glanced around mine JC-3902. While I knew that Lizzie was going to be an asset for this phase of the Decepticon plan, she was starting to really shine…and she was being taught by the twins. Pranks. It was difficult enough to keep track of the pranks that Rumble and Frenzy would orchestrate, now with the help of Lizzie and Skywarp, but I had somehow lost track of Lizzie and Skywarp long enough for them to set up a prank against the twins in my room. I didn't see how they set up the prank but I had seen the two of them leave my room and end up at the rec room doors.

Now, Skywarp and I were analyzing the production output and I couldn't help but wonder what other surprises would come about due to Lizzie's stay on the ship. Before Lizzie had come on the ship, life on the Nemesis had become rather predictable. It made life quite mundane really. But, I fell into habits and that was not something that I had wanted to do. The lull of every single click of existence that appeared before Lizzie's sudden…apparition on the ship. Yes, that sounded about right.

It was hard to say that she appeared on the ship because then that would mean that we knew where she had come from. From the research that I, along with a few others on the ship, had undertaken about her, I could see that she was born in a town called Tranquility, Nevada. It was a middle-sized town here in Nevada that had an average population for a human town. It probably wouldn't have much information on it if it wasn't for the fact that the largest technologies corporation in America had its headquarters in said small town.

Cyber Tronics Technologies. CEO Paul Riley Muskogee. From what I was able to find, he personally hired Lizzie Xantara Val two stellar cycles ago to be a secretary attendant to him. From the reports that I found that were about Lizzie, it seemed like she was more than suited for her post and her boss always gave her high reviews on her performance. According to the files that I was able to find on Lizzie, she was supposed to be on a vacation of sorts and wanted to get away to a settlement even smaller than her own. But, then she just vanished from all records and didn't reappear again until she was on our ship. Something strange was going on with her but, for now, we had to groom her into an asset for our cause.

I was surprised when Lizzie was able to get Knockout to tell her a basic version of his past. Of course, I knew that there was much that the mech didn't tell her, but what was even more surprising to me was Lizzie's own reaction to it. She seemed surprised, that was expected, but then she had turned almost understanding of his plight. Nothing in her files suggested that she would feel any sort of understanding to what we went through during our fight with the Autobots, but the look that she carried for a time after that had been genuine. How could she have such an understanding when nothing in her files suggested otherwise?

"Seems like the energon readings are pretty low for this mine." Skywarp commented, dragging me out of my thoughts.

I glanced at the report, and I realized that, while he was correct, there was something strange about the mine. The energy readings that the mine was outputting were immense, suggesting a large supply of energon. However, it seemed like we had almost drained the mine of its energon but those readings remained. It was strange but, if we did not find the source of these energon readings soon, then we would have to pull most of our resources from this mine and abandon it. I knew that the Decepticon cause could not afford to forgo even the smallest quantity of energon in our fight and it would not be right to abandon this mine. But, the wasted resources in locating the energon, since we had yet to find it, would drain more of our resources than we had to spare.

"Energy full blast. Mine barren wasteland." I communicated with Skywarp to show my own confusion with the situation. While the energy readings were still high, the energon readings themselves were almost non-existent and would force us to leave the mine. We compensated for many different energy readings on Earth and, for the signals to be this high…something told me that there was still a large amount of energon here. However, without sufficient proof at my disposal that I could present to Megatron, then we would have to count this mining operation as almost concluded.

Going to type said item into my report, I was stopped by Skywarp suddenly tapping my shoulder. Slowly, I turned to him and waited for him to speak. "Hey Soundwave, have you seen Lizzie and the twins? They haven't checked in with me yet and I can't see them here in this room."

Lizzie and the twins? I took a quick glance around the room, since I was more observant than Skywarp was, and realized that he was right. So, I pinged for the signals of the twins. The signals showed that they were right below us…just under one hundred feet below our current position. What were they doing down there? I assumed that they were with Lizzie but it was dangerous for humans to go that far underground. The dangers that she could face were increased exponentially and, as her Guardian appointed by Starscream during Megatron's absence, then it was my job to make sure that her well-being was taken care of until something could be decided about her fate.

I pinged their signals on my screen for Skywarp could see and he looked just as confused as I felt…of course I would not be letting him know that I was confused. It was best if everybot continued to think that I was all-knowing and all-seeing. Word of that would continue to travel to the Autobots and they would continue to be ever weary of my presence on the battlefield…during the rare times that I was out on the battlefield.

"Hey boss," Rumble started to speak over the comm frequency that I shared with all of my symbiots. We had a bond we could talk over as well but the frequency was easier to use when we found ourselves working. Before Lizzie's arrival, I used it quite often with them when I would work on the bridge for extended periods of time. "we found this cool path down here that's not much bigger than we are and we're crawling through with Lizzie. She seems pretty exci…" I felt worry as he suddenly cut out and, at the same time, the two signals that I was tracking on my visor vanished without a trace.

While Skywarp looked worried, I knew that he could not feel nearly as worried as I was. These were my symbiots and my human ward. If something happened to them down there it would be my responsibility. Not only did I stand the possibility of losing both of the twins, but I would lose Lizzie as well and, given that Lord Megatron was taking personal time out of his busy schedule to train Lizzie in being a strategist, then he would be very upset with me since, if she died, the time he spent would have been wasted. None of us liked waste, but Lord Megatron hated it most of all. Waste was not something that you could recover. Once it was spent, then it was over with.

"Hey boss bot you there?" Frenzy communicated over our shared bond.

"Yes, what has happened?" I answered my symbiot before asking him why the communication line went down.

I could feel a pause on his end before Rumble jumped in. "Well, Lizzie says that we lost signal because of carbon deposits around here and frag was she right! This whole area down here is piled with the stuff. According to her, carbon dampens signals and, with enough of it, can hide a signal completely. Sorry if that…holy frag!"

Carbon deposits. That explained the sudden loss of their signals and caused me great relief. They were alright. I would have to make sure I scanned our other mines for the substance so we could remove it. Once I got the twins and Lizzie back to me, I would have to make sure that we removed the carbon in here. That could be what was interfering with our energon scans. The energy scans would circumnavigate the carbon deposits but the energon ones would not have the same capabilities.

However, there was Rumble's outburst at the end that I had to address. "Rumble, situation report." I ordered the symbiot.

It took him a few clicks to respond. "Boss bot, tell the miners to dig down another hundred feet. We just hit the jackpot!"

I knew that Rumble would not give me a false report so they must have found something important enough to divert the mines main work force back in here to dig down to their current location. So, I immediately found appropriate clips before contacting the drones in the mine. "All units. Report to my location. Prepare to dig 100 feet below the floor of the mine." Lord Megatron's recorded voice echoed throughout the comm lines. Even Skywarp, who heard it since he was next to me, flinched as our Lord's voice rang out. Since I was using Lord Megatron's voice, he knew that I was serious.

It wasn't long before the workforce here in the mine had relocated to the main hub here and started to dig down. Whatever the twins and Lizzie had found, it had better be big if we were diverting these resources to find it. Lord Megatron was supposed to come here himself to collect Lizzie to take her back to the Nemesis for her lessons. When he arrived, I needed to have a reason to present to him as to why the miners were diverted to the main hall again.

I had a feeling that Rumble, Frenzy, and Lizzie would be staying near whatever they found so I sent out an extra command for the miners to proceed with caution so we wouldn't risk any of them. While I had a feeling that what we were about to see would be important, it would not nearly be important enough to justify the offlining of Rumble, Frenzy, and Lizzie.

Megatron's 1st P.O.V.

When I exited the ground bridge to our mining operation at Mine JC-3902, I was surprised. The location that I exited at should have been occupied by miners currently working on the remaining energon that the scans picked up in this mine. But, there was not one miner to be found in sight. Soundwave and Skywarp were currently at this location and so I made my way to the central hub of this mine. If they were anywhere, they were there and I had to find out just where the miners were at.

I knew that there had not been an attack, since Soundwave would have reported that immediately. But, at the same time not much would explain the absence of the drones. While I would expect this from somebot like Skywarp, this was highly unlike Soundwave. He was very precise in informing me on changes in the mines…and in anything really. The only times in my memory core when Soundwave did not immediately report to me was when he was taking a chance in something. After the endeavor, whether it succeeded or failed…of which usually the former was true, he would immediately contact me with the details.

If that was the current case, then I realize that I might be walking into Soundwave taking a chance on something. This would be quite interesting and I was curious as to just what Soundwave would be taking a chance on. The only other time, recently, where I had walked in with Soundwave taking a chance was when he kept the information on Lizzie's presence from me until she fell through the grate. He was still taking that gamble, actually, but I was starting to see what Soundwave was betting on.

Lizzie was making leaps and bounds when it came to her current training with me. While I had originally decided to train her in strategy to see if I could cause her to slip up, I was impressed that she was evolving as the training went on. The first lessons that I had shown her, the battle of Polyhex, was a simple battle and I used that to gauge her responsiveness to Cybertronian battle conditions. With only minor mistakes, she took to the battle decently enough that I decided to allow more difficult battles to be a part of our training for the future.

The previous solar, we had been going over the battle of Praxus, one of the contended battles of the war, and she had been able to point out details in the fighting style that even my top strategists had not been able to find. At first, those details seemed unimportant and so I had asked her why she had picked them out. She had then gone on to explain that those details allowed the Autobots to gain an advantage at the Hall of Stars that Praxus boasted before the war. During her mock role in the battle, before she had pointed out the mistakes in the actual footage, she had been able to navigate the troops where, while the battle was still undecided, she lowered our casualties while also allowing us to retain more of Praxus' land than what we would have.

While Lizzie seemed to be moving forward in our lessons, I knew that she still had much to learn before she would be given the chance to prove herself in a battle situation. When the appropriate time arrived, then she would have to use what she had learned and prove to me that she was an asset to my fight here on Earth and, if she was able to do that, then she would become a fully accepted member of the Decepticons.

A light in front of me told me that I was about to enter the central hub of this mine and I would find out where the miners were relocated to. The sound of voices ahead told me that somebot was in control of the situation and I would be more curious as to why I had yet to be informed of any changes.

Stepping out into the central hub, I now saw where the miner work force had been relocated to. Currently, they were slowly drilling down ever further into the floor of the central hub. From the fresh marks on the wall, I could see that there were almost one hundred feet below the original floor of the mine. In front of me, I saw Soundwave and Skywarp watching them closely. While Soundwave did not show any signs of being nervous, I could see that Skywarp was tense about what was going on.

It seemed like it was time that I made myself known. "Soundwave report." I spoke as I walked next to my third in command.

Skywarp let out a shriek and jumped away slightly at my entrance while Soundwave simply turned to me and played a recording of a conversation he had with Rumble and Frenzy. From the sounds of it, they had hit a motherload of energon. This explained why I had yet to receive a productivity report from Soundwave and why he had yet to inform me of his redistribution of the miners to the central hub. He had not personally seen this 'motherload' that Rumble spoke of. If it was not as much of a motherload as Rumble made it out to be, then he would have sent me a negative report including the wasted time of the miners working away from areas Soundwave knew held energon deposits…as light as they were.

"Rumble, Frenzy, and Lizzie below the surface. One foot away from breaking ground." Soundwave reported to me through his clips.

I nodded and turned to the floor where the miners were currently setting up explosives. For this final foot of the dig, they would blast the floor so it would cave in. They couldn't do it before servo since the ground would not have collapsed under the pressure of the explosion. However, if they would have gone farther, then the explosion could trigger the energon underneath to explode and take the mine down with it. That would push productivity loss back even further if this turned out to be a false hope.

It did not take long for the drones to sanction off a portion of the floor for detonation. Once they were all back a safe distance, the one with the serial number 63-N that Lizzie had named Ben flipped the switch and, in the next instance, the charges went off and, at first, the floor held. But, after a few nanos, the floor crumbled down to reveal a cavern that had rested below the ground. My optics widened slightly in response at what they saw. From the section of floor that had been revealed, I could see pink energon crystals covering the walls. This was high-density energon that would require less use of it to actually energize our troops while, at the same time, tasting better.

Movement from a corner of the exposed area moved my sights until they were locked on Rumble, Frenzy, and Lizzie. All three of them were looking up at us and, while they had smiles, I noticed that Lizzie's eyes were locked on me and that they were nervous. She knew that she was still under scrutiny and she was acting accordingly. Time would tell if she would earn her place among my troops. Until then, I would continue her lessons until I no longer needed to.

Lizzie: *laughs* Yes we finally did the impossible! *falls to floor laughing*

Skywarp: *laughing to hard to say anything*

Rumble: *sighs* Well, they got us good. *smirks*

Lizzie and Skywarp: *pause out of nervousnes*

Frenzy: *smirks* You know what they say...Revenge is a dish best served cold...ice cold.

AN: And here it is! I really enjoyed writing this chapter...as much as I can with filler chapters. I'll admit it. I'm not a fan of the filler chapter but this is one that had to happen. We get a peak into Soundwave's thoughts on Lizzie plus some of the research that he has done on her. Of course, he is missing some things but I'm sure he will get it in time.

...And of course we get to see a rare event in the twins getting pranked! Oh I had so much fun writing that scene that it made the whole writing this filler chapter. Of course next chapter will see some filler chapter qualities but we are going to be taken on a whirlwind of adventure and a close brush with death for one of our new bots. While I'm not sure which bot it will be...Well actually I do but you will find out later. *smirks*

Thank you G1ntsuk1 for your review! I hope this chapter is a great continuation of this story so far and I hope you keep enjoying this story!

Now that is all I really have for now. Until later, I hope you all drop a review...even to say hello. Well, until next time, TTYL! *watches as a mystery writer solves mysteries*