DMK: ...well... hope the rewrite isn't too bad so far. I can't believe I sucked this much at writing... v.v ::coff coff:: anyway... here's the third chapter, rewritten!

Chapter Three

Optimus hadn't seen what Megatron was busy firing at, but after a second glance he also saw the head of a crouching Transformer. The laser rounds careened towards his target quickly. When the 'Bot stood up, Prime seemed surprised. It was a shock-white femme.

From where he had been standing, near the ship, Smokescreen also saw this newcomer. He thought for a second, and gave a quick glance to his right shoulder. Liftor was still powerlinked to his crane, longarm cannon at the ready. The Skyboom Shield was mounted on that very same cannon. He gave this some thought, but after only a moment, he brought his cannon to bear, aiming at the female Transformer. "Comin' atcha kiddo! Catch!"

Aurora glanced in the direction of the voice and saw the glowing yellow shield as it was fired at her. She braced for impact. In a flurry of movement, she gripped the Minicon weapon in one hand and blocked Megatron's missilefire almost a split-second later. The rounds ricoched off into the sky harmlessly.

"Smokescreen?! What's the deal?!" Hotshot shouted to his friend. "We don't even know if that femme's a 'Bot or a 'Con! You coulda just handed our only defense against the Starsaber over to the bad guys for all we know!"

Smokey glanced at him out of the corner of his optics and answered plainly, "Yeah, I sorta thought about that... But answer me this: why would she want to shoot down old rotor-rear over there?"

"Who wouldn't?"

Smokescreen just glared at him.

Hotshot held up his hands in defeat. "Alright, alright, fine, forget I said that."

Megatron, meanwhile, growled. "You'll pay for meddling in our affairs!" He roared up at the white femme. Then, he turned to face the other Autobots, wearing a sly grin on his face. "But first... since you have no defense... I'll destroy all of you! Leader-1! Powerlink!"

At his command, the small Minicon connected himself to the front of Megatron's gun turret, causing several smaller cannons to swing forward. The Leader of the Decepticons cackled, and began firing upon the Autobots, his turret spinning like a huge revolver. His henchmen, the ones that were conscious, anyways, joined in not long after.

"You fools! Do you honestly believe you can withstand my superior firepower without that Shield to hide behind?!" Megatron goaded ofer the roar of the laser fire. "Surrender, and I'll execute you all quick and painlessly!"

'The Skyboom Shield...' Aurora thought to herself, looking down at the weapon she held clenched in her hand. 'To think, I'm holding it...' She was now a bit surprised to actually possess one of these lengendary weapons. Looking down at the Autobots below, she gave a frown. 'Yes, I'm a pacifist... but Autobots help other Autobots, and I'm the only one who can help them right now!" With resolve in her optics, she jumped over her small rock bunker and slid down the mesa's face, gaining momentum as she did this.

"Too easy!" Megatron cackled with glee. "Come now, Prime, is this the best you can do?" He again broke into maniacal laughter, savoring this battle to no end.

He was, however, too engrossed in what he was doing that he neglected the blur of white and red that came careening down the hill towards him. Aurora slammed, shield-first, into him. Shouting a string of colorful curses, Megatron sailed several body lengths away and landed flat on his back, groaning. The Decepticons stopped, speechless. And when the Autobots had finally stopped shielding their faces and realized what had happened as well, they too, were shocked. The battlefield had again come to a standstill, nobody moving.

Until Megatron began to get to his hands and knees, furious that he'd just been humiliated by a femme. "You foolish female! How dare you interfere again! To think I was going to just abduct and reprogram you, but now-" He gripped the largest gunbarrel on his tank turret and aimed it for her. "You shall perish!"

"Try it, Megatron!" Aurora hated fighting. However, when she remembered... her anger flared.

"You'll regret those words, wench!" Without another moment's hesitation, Megatron activated his tank turret once more, causing it to swing wildly and fire laser rounds at random. Aurora tried her best to hold the shield up, but even under such strain she was having trouble. Digging her feet into the ground, she was forced back, inch by inch, when a rogue round struck her knee joint.

Aurora gave a startled and pained yelp as she staggered backwards. For a moment, she was precariously balanced on her good leg, but Megatron continued his onslaught, throwing her center of gravity off. She began to fall. As she did, however, she hit something hard.

Or rather, somethings. Two Autobots, the one named Hotshot and another, a navy and white one, had taken hold of the shield and had kept Aurora from opening herself up to an attack. Megatron frowned at this, still firing wildly. "Fire at will, men! NOW!" The other Decepticons took the command to heart and started attacking once more. Aurora's saviors strained under the fire, and so the femme got to her functional knee and tried her best to help.

"Anytime now, guys!" She heard Hotshot call back to his teammates. In response, they drew their weapons and returned fire, pushing the Decepticons back.

"Slag! Megatron, we're not going to win this!" Starscream shouted, covering his head with his hands. "We've got to retreat!"

The Decepticon tyrant growled, grudgingly accepting this fact. He threw his head back and shouted, "RETREAT!" His voice boomed over the roar of the firefight, and within seconds the bulk of the attacking 'Cons were warping back to their base. However, Megatron stayed behind for a few moments, glaring daggers at Aurora. He hissed a warning: "Mark my words, female, you will regret the day you humiliated me."

And, in a blink, he was gone.

"Ohh yeah!" Hotshot cheered happily as he ran back to a younger mech and gave him a high-five. "Who da bots? We da bots!"

"You know it!" The other one grinned happily. "We showed them, bro!"

The navy mech who remained standing by the kneeling Aurora gave a disgruntled sigh at their childish behavior, but then turned to her. "Are you alright?" He asked, helping the femme to her feet slowly.

"I'm alright," She responded confidently. "It only looks like superficial damage to the joint and musclecables, the armor's what took the hit. Nothing I can't fix with a quick rewire and some sautering."

"Ah, so you're a medic, are you?"

She gave a slight nod. "Somewhat." Then, after a small pause: "Thank you for saving me, er..."

"My name's RedAlert. And you are?"

"Ensign Aurora Borealis, warrior i.d 9709." She said in an official tone, trying to stand as straight as possible as she introduced herself.

Optimus had heard their exchange, and chuckled at the femme's formality. "At ease, soldier," he told her kindly as he and the rest of the Autobots approached her. Flanking him were soldiers that she had heard stories about back on Cybertron. If anything, Aurora felt humbled to even be in their presence, considering her mundane life as a medic and soldier back home.

Hotshot was also grinning at the newcomer, glancing at her sidelong. His 'bro' who was standing beside him, peered closer at her, and something clicked. "...Aurora Borealis?! Aurora, Aurora?!"

She looked to the mech, and after recognizing him, her face brightened. "Sideswipe?! I don't believe it! What on Cybertron are you doing here?!"

"I could ask you the same thing!" He responded in his habitually happy voice. "If ya really wanna know, I'm helping with this war," He stated proudly, puffing out his chest. "I'm one of the greatest warriors around, too!" He didn't notice Hotshot or Blurr stifle snickers.

Aurora snickered out loud. "Yeah? How many rounds does it take for you to hit a target nowadays, then?"

Hotshot was staring blankly at the two. "So you two know each other?"

"Yup!" Sideswipe chirped happily. "We went to class together at the Autobot Academy! Though..." His happy expression had changed to that of someone slightly embarassed.

"What? Did ya flunk out while she got all the good grades?"

Looking embarassed, he nearly fell over. "N-No!"

Aurora gave a tiny chuckle. "Uh-huh, sure I didn't, Mr. 'I-graduated-at-the-bottom-of-my-class-because-I-was-so-busy-partying-and-corking-off'! You know old Teacher Kronos passed you only because he was tired of you, Spurr, and Boomer desecrating the campus!"

The rest of the team began to chuckle and laugh at Sideswipe, who hunched over a little. He emitted a high-pitched whine. "'Rora! Did you have to say that?!"

As the round of giggling ceased, Hotshot stated flat-out, "I like you, Aurora, you're not half-bad! I was afraid all the medics were as dry as RedAlert over there but I guess not!" The said medic grumbled and crossed his arms at Hotshot's jest. "Anyway, the name's Hotshot, nice t' meetcha." He stuck out his hand to her, and she shook it.

"Nice to meet you, too." She said with a smile.

Optimus cleared his throat then, and the two looked to him. "It's a pleasure to make your aquaintance also, Aurora, though I do need a bit of an explanation as to what you're doing here without any sort of warning."

"Oh, yes...that..." She shifed from her good to her injured leg, forgetting it had been damaged. With a small crackle and a shower of sparks, she gave a small grunt of pain and instantly placed the majority of her weight back onto her good foot, throwing her off-kilter. As she pitched sideways, an arm shot out and took a firm grip on her arm and pulled her back upright. It was RedAlert. She gave him a grateful but sheepish smile, and he grinned slightly in return.

"How about after we get her repaired, sir?" he broke in, analyzing the injury from where he was standing.

Optimus nodded. "Of course," he answered kindly. "Let's get going, shall we?"

All of the Autobots nodded in agreement: they each had some sort of injury that needed attention, and were glad to get the opportunity to fix them. Each of them reverted to their vehicle modes, and in an instant, they had left the desert behind.

TBC

DMK: Alright, that's the last one! Whew! Now, to get on to newer material... mwa-hahahaha, hope it wasn't too bad, the only thing I didn't rewrite was the last paragraph, but then again I'm a lazy bum. So sue me. :P Anyway, have fun and let me know how you liked this!