After Scythe left the next morning, Echo sat the twins down to once again discuss forming a trine. He offhandedly mentioned his bond with Alfa when the twins suddenly interrupted him.
"Wait! You already have a sparkbond?"
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"Hhhh, Primus help me…" Echo sighed, dragging his servo down his faceplates. "I did tell you," he said to them, clearly annoyed that they hadn't been paying attention. "Back at the river. You just weren't listening, and you obviously weren't paying attention last night either. Scythe asked about that too. Is it going to be a problem? Are you two having second thoughts now?"
The twins shrank a little while Echo lectured them but now they seemed to be seriously considering his question.
"So will it be like getting two partners for the price of one?" Indent asked.
"No," his brother replied. "We won't be able to feel greenie through the bond. Only Echo."
"His name is Alfa, Gearslip," Echo corrected. "Not 'greenie'. If you are going to trine with me, you will need to respect my sparkmate."
"Yes, Echo. Sorry."
"Now, is the sparkbond going to be a problem?" Echo asked again. "Alfa does not really like the idea of you forming a trine with me because you two are strangers, not to mention Decepticons, but he left the decision up to me because it is my spark in play. I have already decided to trine with you. Because, honestly, all I see is a couple of younglings in need of some direction."
"Younglings?!"
"Echo, how could you say that about us?"
"So, what is it going to be?" Echo asked, not hiding his amusement at their indignation.
The twins huffed and pouted and refused to say anything for a bit. But finally they settled down and Gearslip sighed.
"To tell you the truth," he said, "we've actually been looking for someone to trine with for a long time."
"There have been a few other bots we met who would have been good partners," Indent added, "but none of them felt right, ya know?"
"That is, until we saw you."
"Yeah. Sorry about attacking you but we wanted to know how strong you were."
"We didn't expect to get our afts kicked that bad though."
"I can and will do it again if necessary," Echo pointed out.
"Do you think maybe you could train us to fight like that too?" Indent asked.
"Where did you learn anyway?" Gearslip wanted to know.
"I got formal training when I joined the Autobots' Special Operations unit," Echo told them. "Even though I was just a communications officer, they made sure I had all the training of a field agent."
"YOU WERE SPEC OPS!?" they shouted in unison, leaning forward, optics bright.
"Holy scrap!"
"That is so cool!"
"Please form a trine with us!"
"And teach us how to fight too!"
"Very well," Echo replied with a chuckle. "I'll take that to mean you are fine with Alfa and you promise to let me have my alone time with him."
"Yes, Echo," they said. "We promise."
Scythe was gone for nearly two orbital cycles when she suddenly popped back up.
"Guys, guys, guys!" she exclaimed as soon as she appeared. "You have got to come check out this place I found!"
"It is pretty impressive," admitted Leech.
"Well, if Leech is impressed then it must be good," Char said.
"Hey! What do you mean by that?" Scythe demanded.
"You get excited over some silly stuff, Scythe," Bolthex said.
"Oh, whatever." Scythe waved them off. "You guys just don't know how to appreciate the beauty in the little things."
"Sorry. I find Echo more attractive than you," Alfa deadpanned.
"Oooooh!" said the twins.
"Oof!" added Delta.
"Well, that's just fine," Scythe shot back. "Echo is smaller than you."
"Nice comeback," commented Fritz.
"Alright, you two," Echo interrupted. "That's enough. Scythe, you wanted to show us something?"
"Yes." She zipped up to sit on Echo's shoulder. "Everyone, gather around. Link servos or whatever and teleport with me to these coordinates." She shared the coordinates with all of them.
"Wait. Teleport?" asked Indent.
"What are you talking about?" Gearslip questioned.
"Come here," Echo said, grabbing each of them by the arm.
Alfa laid a servo on Echo's other shoulder while the other four bots gathered around them and then everyone teleported together.
The destination was a dry cavern that was enormous even compared to Alfa who was the tallest out of all of them. And it was so long that Bolthex's high beams barely even penetrated the darkness at the other end.
"Oh!" said Fritz and Delta.
"You're right," Char agreed. "This is impressive."
"Isn't it?" Scythe dropped off Echo's shoulder and moved to stand away from everyone. She raised her voice so it echoed. "I was thinking we could move the base here. There's plenty of space, and since it is pretty far underground, it is naturally shielded."
"I'd reinforce the shielding anyway," Bolthex said. "Just in case."
"Wait, hold on," Gearslip interrupted, still slightly reeling from the transfer.
"What the heck? How did we just…?" Indent demanded, holding onto his brother.
Scythe looked up at Echo. "I see you haven't taken them to see That yet."
"I was making sure they could be trusted," he replied.
"Can they?" she asked.
"I think so. But again, I'll leave the final say up to you."
"You are taking this 'Scythe is the leader' thing very seriously." Leech crossed his tails while Scythe put her servo on her hip.
Echo shrugged. "I made a promise. And That is a very serious issue."
"In that case, we can take them to see It after we get back."
"You mean, we'll be able to teleport too?" asked Gearslip.
"You gotta show us how to do that move you used before," said Indent.
Scythe looked questioningly up at Echo.
"I've been teaching them how to fight better," he told her.
"Ah. I see," Scythe replied. "By the way, did the bonding go ok? Trine bonds don't show up like spark bonds do."
"Oh, yes. The bond has finally settled and we were able to form a trine without any problems."
"Excellent. And congratulations."
"Thank you." Echo grabbed each of the twins by an arm and pulled them closer. "I'll make sure to look after them properly."
"Ugh. You're making us sound like sparklings again," complained the twins.
Scythe and the other bots laughed.