DMK: Ah, back for more, I see. Well, okay. This chapter is much longer than the last (but just as bad). And I have an important authors note: the little "Hotshot snoring" sequence didn't make much sense because the tf's are supposed to have their own quarters, right? Well, how about this: the Starsaber had been found a couple days before, and the base was still a wreck thanks to the D-Cons, namely their dwelling areas were trashed. Sooooo, they were forced to "camp out" in the main hall until the base was fully repaired. Makes sense, right? Good.

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CHAPTER 6

I came to, in a huge ice cavern. There was enough light to see, and when I saw what I was sitting on, I gave a yelp of surprise.

"Ahhh!"

It was Starscream.

Because of my shout, he came to, and sat up, causing me to slide off his chest plate and land roughly on the icy ground.

"HEY! Give people some warning when you do that!" I shouted at him.

He rubbed his head for a moment. "What?! Where are we?!"

"Because of you, we're trapped in a cave of ice that could collapse at any moment!"

"Me?! A midget like you is pinning the fault on me?!"

"'Midget'?! NOBODY CALLS ME A MIDGET!!!"

Starscream began to laugh as he tortured me, when a rumble shut us both up. "Shhhh!" I said quickly.

"What for?"

"The echoes of our voices- if we make one wrong sound, this whole place will come down."

"It doesn't matter to me," the red and white Decepticon boasted. "I can survive an avalanche if it does collapse."

"I doubt that." I said flatly. "Listen, if you want out of here in one piece, you'll take my advice," I said.

"Why?" he mocked. "I could just eliminate you right now. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't."

I pointed up. "Because. There isn't just ice above us. There are stalactites of rock that can pierce your hide no matter what you're made of, and if you try to pull anything on me, I can always scream..."

He snorted. "Fine. I declare a truce until we are free."

I smiled and nodded. "Then it's settled. We work together until we see daylight again."

BACK ABOVE GROUND...

The sound of an avalanche reached the warring parties' audios. They stopped and turned, and watched the mountain collapse.

"No!" Hotshot exclaimed. "Caitlin was up there!"

UNDERGROUND...

We began walking, but as we moved in one direction, the icy floor below us was full of deep cracks. I entertained myself by trying to jump over them, but eventually I couldn't clear them. I slipped, and fell, painfully twisting my ankle.

"Ow," I muttered. "Darn slippery ice."

The red and white Transformer paused for a moment, looked to the ground, shook his head, and reached down to me. Naturally I flinched, but when I opened my eyes, his hand was simply outstretched to me.

"What?"

"Come on," he ordered, remaining as aloof as physically possible.

I paused for only a moment, and then stepped onto his hand (as best I could with an injured leg), and was then placed on his shoulder. Without another word, he continued on.

"Uhh... thanks..." I said softly.

"Don't get too attached," he stated flatly. "Once we're out of here, we're enemies again, and don't you forget that."

I rolled my eyes. "You don't have to remind me twice. I was just showing you gratitude."

"What's that?"

I nearly fell off of him. "You mean you don't know what gratitude is?! You Decepticons are a sorry lot, aren't you?"

He snorted. "Emotions get in your way when you fight. The Autobots are too soft to accept that fact."

I shook my head. "Un. be. lieveable. And here I was thinking you were one of the only decent D-cons around."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, from what I saw yesterday, you don't blindly follow Megatron like those others."

"You speak nonsense. I follow my leader's orders to the letter."

"No, that's not what I mean. You have a conscience, the others don't. That's why."

"Hn..."

That's when we came into a clearing, with two possible routes. "Perfect." I said flatly. "Just. Perfect."

"So?" Starscream asked mockingly. "Which way, human?"

I snorted. "I would guess left, because there's more light coming from that tunnel, meaning it's closer to the surface. And for your information, I have a name."

"Oh? Well, what is it?"

"It's Caitlin, alright? I'd prefer you call me that over your current choices."

"Fine, Caitlin," he sighed, walking into the left tunnel. "Honestly, I'll never be able to understand you humans."

I sighed also, and mocked him by saying, "Honestly, I'll never be able to understand you Decepticons."

Starscream shook his head in disbelief and walked on. Though the tunnel had shown more light, we were going downhill, moving away from the rays that illuminated our path. Then-

Dead-end.

"B. E. A. Utiful." I muttered, clearly getting frustrated with our luck. ((A/N: Can you guess which movie that's from? I'll give you candy if you guess it right… Hint: it takes place in Buffalo, N.Y))

"Well, now what?" Starscream asked. But this time, he seemed less mocking and more serious.

"We head back, I guess."

Boom! Crack!

"What the?! What the heck was that?!"

"I don't know." I answered. "Wait! Listen."

Faintly at first, a rushing sound reached our ears, and eventually gained volume. I sort of knew what it was, but couldn't quite put my finger on it until-

"Uh-oh."

"What, 'uh-oh'?"

Fwoosh!

In a cascade of icy blue-green, Arctic water gushed into our little cavern. It swirled around Starscream's ankles and within moments was at his knees.

"We're being flooded! What do we do?!"

"Whatever we do we must act quickly- my circuits are starting to freeze over!"

I thought for only a moment. "How strong are your laser cannons?"

"Powerful enough to probably get us out of here."

"Okay..." my mind was racing. "Uh... set me down on that ledge over there and then transform into your jet mode. I can get in your cockpit, you fire those null cannons off, and then we can fly outta here."

"You're trusting me to not abandon you?"

The water was now up to his waist. "I'm holding you to the promise you made back when we fell. Will you betray it?"

He looked at me for a moment, and then turned to the nearby ledge. He picked me off his shoulder relatively gently, and set me down on that outcrop.

"Transform!!" He shouted, reverting into his jet form. Then, he hovered above the water, and brought the cockpit of his alt mode around as close to the wall as possible. "Jump!" he exclaimed just as another loud booming tremor rocked the ground.

I teetered precariously on my good foot, and leapt as far forward as I possibly could.

I missed.

I fell quickly toward the frigid water, and landed with a splash. My body convulsed once from the shockingly cold temperature, and I struggled quickly to the surface. "Starscream!" I shouted helplessly. "Help!"

I sank below for a moment, my body quickly stiffening from the cold water. Darn it! I thought in my mind. He ditched me! I may have shouted something like, "You backstabber!", but I was focused on trying not to become a human-cicle, so I sort of don't remember.

Suddenly, a big metal hand scooped me out of the water, and hastily tossed into the air. I hardly cared where I would land, though. I was so cold that I was focused on trying to keep warm, and could barely feel myself land in the red and white jet's cockpit.

"Null cannons... Fire!"

Boom! Boom!

I shook myself out of my frozen state and saw the icy prison around us come crashing down. Screamy fired the afterburners, and we flew out of that cave seconds before we would have drowned and been frozen.

"Yee-hah!" I cried happily, though still shivering uncontrollably. "We're free!"

Starscream laughed his typical evil way. "So what was that about me ditching you?" he retorted in a mocking tone.

"Sorry I jumped to conclusions, Screamy. Maybe there's hope for you bad guys, after all. And, uh, thanks for saving my behind in there."

"Um... what does one say in response to gratitude?"

"Last time I checked it was 'you're welcome'."

"Ah, then you're welcome, I guess."

Awww! I thought. The bad guys aren't really bad! They're just misguided and confused, and-

Sheww! Sheww!

Suddenly, laser fire was lighting up the sky all around us. I looked down, and both Hotshot and Smokescreen were letting lose round after round. "This is as far as I go!" Starscream called out to me, his voice suddenly cold and dark again. He instantly preformed a mid-air roll, dodging near-miss shots, reminding me of my favorite roller coaster back at Six Flags ((A/N: Which is Medusa at Six Flags Marine World ^_^)). Starscream skimmed only feet above the snow-covered ground, and flipped upside-down.

"What the heck are you-!"

"It was nice while it lasted, human!" the seeker crowed maniacally, opening his hatch.

That's when I realized that there was no type of seatbelt whatsoever. "Ahhh!" I cried in shock as I fell from Starscream's cockpit, and landed with a dull thud in the snow. So remember kids: fasten your freakin' seatbelts!! I should have broken my neck from that fall, but the thick snow provided me with the cushioning I needed to make it out in one piece.

"Great." I muttered. I was still a good distance away from the others, and my foot still hurt.

Hey! Cait!

I turned halfway around to see Sideswipe driving towards me quickly, Longarm and Sparkplug not too far behind. I let out a sigh of relief. "What's the stitch, guys?" Internally, I cringed. Ugh! That is the last time I let my friends make me watch a "Kim Possible" marathon, I told myself. I swear, those guys are too old for cartoons… ((Ha!))

We have the Minicon, but we saw you fall. Red-Alert went to find you. Longarm answered.

"Well, I'm here. Let's get back to the others." I hopped on Sideswipe who took off towards the battlefield ahead. In only minutes, the four of us had reached Optimus, who looked down at me in surprise.

"Caitlin? But I thought-"

"I found a way out," I answered confidently. "So, can we ditch this icebox or what?"

He nodded, and then picked me up in his hands, along with the other Minicons. "Autobots! Warp!"

Instantaneously, we disappeared from the Decepticons sight, and reappeared inside the base.

I sighed in elation again. Heat! Warmth! I cried happily in my mind. "You okay kid?" I heard Smokescreen ask me, upon taking a closer look at me.

"Sure, just give me twenty minutes to thaw, and I'll be fine," I responded wryly.

What happened to you? Sideswipe asked me. You're, like, soaking wet!

"I went for a swim in the Arctic," I responded again with sarcasm.

"Hey you guys!" I looked to the huge door to see Rad, Carlos, and Alexis, along with Highwire, Grinder, and Sureshock. "You went on a mission without us?" Carlos asked in a disappointed tone.

"Well, you wouldn't have wanted to come anyway. That Minicon was up in the Arctic."

"Been there, done that," Carlos answered. "You guys got the Minicon, right?"

"Sure did!" Hotshot answered happily. "And we kicked some serious Decepti-booty too!"

Well, that was my first real adventure with the Autobots. It was cool, and I even got to understand the way that the Decepticons think and act. I swear, one of these days, Screamy will turn good. Maybe not in the near future, but eventually. Until then, I'm going to help the good guys any way I can!

TBC

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DMK: Whew! Done! 'Bout slaggin' time, huh? Anyway, The next chapter will probably involve Sideways going from good to bad, and Scavenger going from bad to good. You know, sorta my take on "Credulous" and "Conspiracy". I know this sucked BIG time but hey- we all have our bad days. (Some of us more than others). BTW, don't ask about the reference to "Kim Possible"… I really don't care for that show, and my friends LOVE it. They drive me NUTS about it... -_-;; I had a suggestion to throw a little "Gundam" into the mix, but I don't know. What do you guys think? Alrighty, I'm off!

Hotshot: Why don't you try to finish "IT" while you're at it?

DMK: ::growls:: whatever. Just review this, pwetty, pwetty, pweeze?