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Chapter 8

"Uhhh," Hot Shot groaned as he put too much pressure on his left leg. When he was falling he'd managed to turn enough that his leg mostly absorbed the impact. He tried his best not to look at it since his leg now resembled a crushed coke can. He was leaning heavily against the wall of the canyon supporting himself with his good leg.

"Slagging rat bastard," Hot Shot cursed. "Had to throw me into the one valley in this damn desert you can't get a decent signal in."

Hot Shot dragged himself along at a slow crawl, berating himself every step of the way. How could he have not have seen that Spindle was an evil bastard. Sideswipe might be a little shy but he didn't run in terror from anything. Actually Sideswipe could use a little bit of cowardice, he wouldn't get so beat up in battle if he were a little more reserved.

Damnit, if he hadn't let his guard down then Sideswipe wouldn't be alone with Spindle. And Rad was somewhere unknown, alive Spindle assured him, but not necessarily unharmed.

Why did that slagger take Rad though? Spindle's main focus Sideswipe, that was obvious. So what part did Rad play in this plan? Sideswipe and Rad had some weird connection, an understanding Optimus had called it. But how would Spindle know about that? He'd only been on Earth a few hours when Rad disappeared.

Hot Shot's pondering was cut off by his comm. link crackling to life.

"Optimus! We've finally managed to get through to Hot Shot!" Red Alert called.

"What happened to him?" Optimus asked

"He's hurt. He says Spindle threw him over a cliff," Red Alert answered.

"What!?" Optimus yelled.

Sideswipe sat staring at his hands. He was going back to the way things were before he left Spindle. He was going to be Spindle's little pet so that his friends were safe. Primus his life sucked.

Sunny was gone. So was Hot Shot. Rad was had been missing for nearly forty-eight hours and if Spindle had been telling the truth about him being still alive he wasn't very likely to be in very good shape. There was also no guarantee that Spindle wouldn't just kill the boy and be done with it.

"Sit up straight. We're about to dock," Spindle ordered. Out of habit Sideswipe obeyed. Looking out the front window of the skiff Sideswipe saw the ship that would be taking him back to Cybertron. It was big, black, and ominous. Exactly the kind of ship someone like Spindle would use.

"He wasn't really acting any different than he has since he arrived, just being a stuck up jerk," Hot Shot explained, as he sat on the repair table in the infirmary. He then grimaced as Red Alert hit a raw nerve with his laser scalpel while trying to salvage what was left of the crushed leg.

"Did he say anything before he pushed you that might give us any idea of what he planned for Sideswipe?" Optimus asked.

"No. But he did mention Rad," Hot Shot said.

"What about Rad?" Carlos asked. Carlos had some how managed to get in despite Optimus' order that all the kids be kept out until Hot Shot's leg was fixed.

"Spindle said something about Rad not being any use to him dead," Hot Shot told them.

"So you think he's the one who kidnapped Rad?"

"It would make sense. But Spindle couldn't have been working alone. He was in the base when Rad disappeared," Optimus said. That gave them another problem. How many men did Spindle have working for him? At least one, that was for sure, but how many could Spindle convince to follow him and abduct a boy from right outside an Autobot base. Especially the base the Autobot commander was working out of.

"Rad's alive then, right?" Carlos asked in a small voice.

Optimus looked down at the boy afraid to answer and give him false hope. "It… It's a possibility," He allowed.

"This information does us very little good if we don't know how to find where Spindle's taken them," Red Alert commented, not looking up from his work on Hot Shot's leg.

"Blurr's been running scans for any strange energy signatures within a certain distance of the planet. Autobot or Decepticon," Optimus told them. "He'll check in with me as soon as he—"

"Optimus?" Jetfire's voice came over the comm. link.

"Yes, Jetfire?"

"Umm… Was Blurr suppose to take off through the warp gate a few minutes ago?"

Optimus felt his left optic twitch. "No Jetfire, he was not."

"Oh… Oops."

Blurr looked around the corner before hurrying down the corridor. Coming to this place alone probably wasn't the best idea, but Prime and the others would definitely frown upon what he had planned for Spindle. Plus energy signals on this ship were dropping like flies and that could mean that Sideswipe was in danger.

He rounded another corner… only to trip over the mangled remains of some unknown Autobot. After falling flat on his face he let out a moan of embarrassment, thankful no one saw his display of clumsiness.

"Blurr?"

Or not.

Blurr looked up to see Rad standing in front of him, the boy was a little worse for the ware, but for the most part unharmed.

"Not exactly who I was hoping for," Blurr sighed.

"Your not exactly who I was hoping for either," Rad said, with a small smile. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"This is Spindle's ship right," Blurr asked…sorta.

"Yeah. At least that's what he told me anyway," Rad said pointing to a yellow mech that Blurr hadn't noticed before.

'How'd I miss that paint job?' Blurr wondered. Then something else hit him. This mech looked like a yellow version of Sideswipe.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked, not very politely.

"Sunstreaker," the mech replied.

AN: R&R

Xandra: Decent cliffhanger if I do say so myself.

Ceidre: Your cliffhangers suck.

Brigg: Selene, it might not be a good idea to piss Xandra off.

Ceidre: She's a short, evil bitch. She deserves it.

Xandra: And you're a mediocre skank.