{Are we going to head back today? Or shall we wait till tomorrow?} Alfa asked over the comm as he drifted lazily next to Echo.

{Hmm.} Echo thought about it as he moved with an air current. {Let's wait till this evening at least. There's still more to see… here?} He ended with a question mark as his radar started beeping. {What is…?}

{Echo, look out!} Alfa suddenly cried.

{Whoa!} Echo rolled sideways to avoid the incoming missile. {What in the-?!}

{Damn,} Alfa cursed as the attacker(s) came into view behind them. {There's two of them and I can't tell who they are after. Break off. You go left, I'll go right, and we'll see who they chase.}

They broke off as planned. Both of the attackers followed Echo.

{Damnit!} Alfa swore. {Echo, they're after you!}

{I can see that, Alfa,} Echo replied, outmaneuvering another missile. {A little help here would be nice.}

{Take them down into the canyon. I'll be right there.}

Echo headed into the canyon. Maneuvering was tight in some places, even for his smaller flight frame, but his pursuers seemed to be handling it pretty well as they were keeping up with him, despite their larger frames. No, check that, they were gaining on him.

"Scrap!" he swore and then switched to comms. {Alfa, where are you?}

{I'm coming. I'm above the canyon, behind you.}

Echo noted Alfa's position as he turned sideways to fit through a narrow gap between two large rock formations. As he straightened out on the other side, he found that only one of his pursuers had followed him through while the other had gone over the top and was now above him and getting a little ahead. The canyon just so happened to widen out from there so Echo had no way to escape as they closed in on him from above and below. Or at least that's what they thought when they suddenly tried to sandwich him. He teleported back to Alfa at the last second, leaving his pursuers to crash into each other. Confused and disoriented by the disappearance of their prey and the sudden collision, they were thrown off course and went spiraling out of control. They ended up crashing into the wide river at the bottom of the canyon.

{What do we do now, Alfa?} Echo commed.

{We need to find out why they are here. And more importantly, after you.} Alfa replied.

{Alright.}

{We're going down. Stay close to me.}

Alfa and Echo flew down and transformed to land on the rocky bank. While Echo stayed one step behind Alfa, they both brought their blasters out and trained them on the twin flyers as they stumbled out of the river, dented and dripping wet.

"Who are you two and why are you after Echo?" Alfa demanded. "Did Starwake send you?"

"Who the slag is Starwake?" one of them snarled, trying to shake off some of the wetness.

"Shove off, greenie," snapped the other. "We don't want to fight you."

"Yeah. We're here to fight goldie dots over there." They pointed at Echo. "He's a softer target."

"Is that right?" Echo growled as he put away his blasters and stepped forward. "Well now that we're on the ground," he smashed his fist into his palm, "Alfa, stay out of the way."

"If you insist," Alfa replied, lowering his blasters and taking a step back. Across their bond, he added, Kick their afts, Sweetspark.

While the twins had held the advantage in the air, it turned out that they were no match for Echo, who had formal servo-to-servo combat training, on the ground. Not to mention, he made good use of his ability to teleport as he appeared behind one of the twins and kicked him into the other, sending them sprawling across the rocks.

"You still want to fight?" Echo asked with his servos on his hips when they made no move to get up.

"No!" one groaned. "We're good!"

"Sorry for attacking you!" mumbled the other.

"But we do have a question," they said as they finally started to get up.

Echo crossed his arms over his chassis as Alfa came up beside him. "What's that?"

The twins suddenly threw themselves at Echo's peds and cried, "PLEASE FORM A TRINE WITH US!"

"Huh!?"

Echo sighed. "And that's how I ended up with these two hanging off me. They said they won't leave me alone until I agree."

"A trine?" Scythe asked. "That's a type of bond, right? Can you do that even though you've already…?" She looked up at Alfa.

"Yes," Alfa confirmed. "It is possible since it is a different type of bond."

"Are you fine with it, Alfa?" she asked.

"Truthfully, I am a bit hesitant, but it is Echo's choice."

She turned back to the smaller mech. "Echo?"

"I am fine with it," he replied. "I just need your permission."

"Eh? What's the pipsqueak got to do with this?" the twins asked.

The hint of murderous intent that had been lingering in the air since Scythe arrived suddenly became palpable. And it was clearly directed at the twins.

Oh my! Leech mused watching the twins shrink closer to Echo.

Oh my, indeed. Scythe sent back. She still wasn't used to the others being so protective of her.

"Gearslip, Indent, let me tell you something," Echo said, tone commanding. "Scythe is the commander here and if she doesn't like you, she could cut you guys down in an astroclick and there is nothing I could do to stop her. So introduce yourselves properly and show some respect."

They hesitated.

"It's alright," Echo assured them, gentler this time. "I am not going anywhere."

They finally let go of Echo and stepped forward. They just stood there looking down at Scythe and made no move to get closer to her level.

Slightly annoyed that she was having to strain her neck cables to look up at them, she sighed. "Hhh. Alfa, let me borrow your shoulder." The tall flyer obediently stepped closer and let her climb up. Once she was comfortably perched, she looked at the twins again. "Okay. Go ahead."

"I am Gearslip, and this is my brother, Indent," said one.

"We are split spark twins," added the other.

The only visual indication that separated the two was the color of their highlights. They were both mostly cream colored but the one who introduced himself as Gearslip had deep purple highlights while the one called Indent had deep blue ones. However, at a distance, the two colors looked the same so telling them apart was impossible until they got close.

"I see that you are Decepticons," Scythe said. "This is a Neutral group. If you want to join Echo, you will have to leave Megatron's command."

"Huh?"

"Aren't you guys Decepticons too?"

"They were before they decided to join me," she replied. "Except Echo, he was an Autobot."

"No way!"

They looked back at Echo.

"You kick aft pretty well for an Autobot."

Echo crossed his arms over his chassis. "Was that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Alright, what about the rest of you?" Scythe asked, looking around at Char and the others. "It sounded like you were airing some complaints when I walked in."

Bolthex spoke up first. "I don't know if you noticed, Scythe, but this place gets a little crowded when everyone is here. And now you want to add two more bots to the mix? We're going to need a bigger place."

"Bolthex is right," said Char. "It has gotten a little crowded around here."

"It makes it difficult to work," Fritz added.

"Hm, I see. So you'll all be fine with this if we find a bigger place?" Scythe asked.

There were affirmations all around.

"But Echo better keep them out of trouble," grumbled Bolthex.

"I'll do my best," Echo sighed, "but I have a feeling that trouble likes to find them."

"Hey now."

"Not true. Well, maybe sometimes…"

Gearslip elbowed his twin.

"Alright then," Scythe said, amused. "We're in agreement. It is up to you now, Echo." Echo nodded at her. She nodded back before turning to Bolthex. "Bolthex, how far have you gone into this cave system?"

"Hmm. Several kilometers in every available direction, I believe," he replied. "There are lots of branching tunnels. But in several of them, I could only go so far due to my size."

"You are pretty big, Bolthex," jabbed Delta.

"Shut it, Delta," Bolthex snarled back. Then he looked back at Scythe. "Why are you asking, Scythe?"

"If we need a bigger space, that's as good a place as any to start looking," she said with a shrug. "You got a map?"

"You're going to go exploring? In the dark? By yourself?" Fritz asked, repressing a shiver.

"Yeah, why not. It'll be fun."

Leech groaned. "And damp and disgusting."

"The comms will also get sketchy down there so be careful," Bolthex informed her.

"Of course-"

"Wait, Scythe," Delta suddenly interrupted. "You're not leaving right now, are you?"

"Well…" Scythe made a show of thinking it over. "I mean I was actually thinking of leaving tomorrow. You know, since everyone is already gathered."

"Slag yeah!" Delta whooped, throwing his fist in the air. "Party time!"

"Party?" the twins asked.

"It just so happens that we celebrate the anniversary of our gathering around this time," Echo told them.

"Take it outside," Bolthex ordered. "I don't want anything broken this time."

"Yesss, Bolthex!"