Well, today is dreadful outside, and tomorrow sounds like it's going to be worse. I'm proudly Canadian, so for me to say that can be considered somewhat epic. My four-by barely managed to get me home from the gym this morning. No work day! Yay! So yes, early update today, and probably tomorrow as well. Stupid snow. Anyway, as always, reviews would be very much appreciated, and anything that you recognize, and maybe a few things you don't I do not own.

I think I'll go skiing on the back fourty now *looks out window* Eww, or not.

Chapter 131 - Friendship

(WPOV)

Will strode past the entrance bay and heard a multitude of engines. He grinned and walked back, just in time to watch the entire unit roll in and transform.

"And then," Ratchet was laughing, obviously continuing his story. "and then that scrapping idiot went and bridged himself right into the middle of the Cardinal!"

"He didn't!" Mikaela shouted back to him incredulously.

"He did!" Jolt howled gleefully, Lena laughing on his shoulder, she had tears in her eyes she was laughing so hard. "So there the lot of us are, standing around, and Fendie says: 'Well, do we follow him?'"

The entire unit promptly began howling, even Optimus was laughing.

"It don't do to speak ill of the dead," Ironhide rumbled calmly as the laughter died down. Ratchet turned to the Weapons Master in amusement. All of the bots turned to look at him. "Except for Magda." Ironhide added innocently.

The entire group of bots began laughing again.

"Alright, now are you gonna tell us how you met?" Chromia demanded with a grin.

"Yeah alright," Ironhide snorted.

"Story time? Are humans allowed?" Will called up to them.

"Central!" Ironhide called out gleefully. Every present human cheered and scrambled for the central ahead of the bots.

Will grinned and settled into his usual spot on the catwalks, his legs dangling over where Ironhide's shoulder usually was.

"Right, you want to start it off Ratch?" Ironhide asked cheerfully.

"No, start with the why you came in in the first place," Ratchet snorted.

"Right, so this was back when I was still a youngling," Ironhide began with a grin. "I was out on patrol with Weapons Master Bladesing, a new apprentice, completely full of myself and thinkin' I was the best built bot this side of the Well." he grinned around himself and settled down in his spot with his usual grunt. "Oomph! So we were out on patrol, and came across some bots fixin' for a fight. Well, Master Bladesing immediately told me to fall back. But there I am, barely twenty vorn old and firing right beside him. Now Old Bladesing, he was one of the best. And by the best I mean he was one of the best Masters I've ever had the honour of knowing. When I met him he was over two thousand vorn old and still goin' strong. I have no doubt that if he were still alive he would still whup my sorry aft."

"Whoaaa..." Will murmured.

Ironhide grinned up at him.

"I had the honour of absorbing his spark's energon when he offlined, by then I'd thought I'd known everythin' he did. He'd taught me barely half of his knowledge by the time he passed to the Well of All-sparks, the other half he passed to me."

"Huh?" Jacobs asked in a confused tone.

"We call it the Passing of Legacies," Optimus rumbled calmly. "When the full knowledge of one is passed to a pupil, more often than not to that bot's favourite pupil."

"Which is how Ailee taught me," Arcee added calmly. "Her knowledge passed directly to my own spark."

"Oh, cool," Jacobs grinned.

"Anyway, so there's old Bladesing, ducking and dodging about, letting off shots and hitting his mark every single time. Dispatching them bots and all the damage he managed to rack up was to scratch his own paint. Me though, here I am standin' stock still and arrogant the way I always did, firing off shots, catching maybe half of my targets 'till the last bot standin' blasted my slaggin' leg off."

"Ooohhh..." Will grimaced. Ironhide snorted.

"So Bladesing dispatched the last bot, turns, looks at me with a frown, picks up my leg and catches me by the chest-plates." Ironhide snorted. "He then dragged me for about three clicks, straight into the Med-bay, lifts me up onto the berth, turns to Ratchet and says-"

"Do me a favour, patch this scrapping hero up enough so I can beat some sense into him," Ratchet continued the story with a snort. "Just put his scrapping leg back on and don't bother with the fancy drone-shit.' So I turned and that was the first time I laid eyes on Ironhide of Sigma three, he'd finally caught hold of his leg and was trying to put it back on himself!"

Ironhide and Ratchet promptly looked at each other and began howling.

"Then of course, Ratchet snatched my leg up and hit me with it," Ironhide hooted. "He said-"

"You're in my med-bay now," Ratchet stated flatly. "If you want your leg back in one piece you're going to scrapping well let me do it properly, or I'm going to offline your motor controls and re-attach it to your aft.' Well then Ironhide just started swearing at me, telling me just how much he did not want to spend hours sitting around waiting for me to get around to putting his leg back in place. And of course all the while he was breaching energon all over my floor, which I had just finished cleaning, by the way."

"So he patched me up, a bit, took my leg over to his workbench and began fussing over it," Ironhide snorted. "The two of us were howling at each other by then of course. I was calling him a rusty plated old scrap heap-"

"To which I was calling him a half-stanced little youngling rip – of course he was already bigger than me, but the point stood, at the time he was still on his first cannon, and by then I already had my normal two-" Ratchet broke in with a snort.

"You had your cannons before Ironhide!?" Jacobs demanded.

"Well, yeah, I'm one twenty vorn older than he is," Ratchet shrugged. "I was a full medic when he was still an apprentice. The only reason I was still in my apprenticeship bay was the fact that Medic Spanner always had something more to teach. At that point, he and I were experimenting together, finding the fastest, most efficient and highest quality for which to put bots back together again. We were the premier Medic centre in Iacon."

"They'd still be the premier med-bay if the city hadn't been demolished," Ironhide rumbled irritably. "But anyway, that was how we met, Ratchet finally put my leg back on and I peg-legged my way out of there-"

"Because he'd irritated me enough that I welded his knee joint into the open position," Ratchet snorted. "I knew I was going to catch the pit for it, but it was completely worth it."

"So the second time I came back into that med-bay, was because I was walking around so badly that Bladesing dragged me in there a second time. Literally, he knocked me on my aft and dragged me into the bay." Ironhide snorted.

"So he came in, threw Ironhide onto the berth and rounded on me. He said-"

"Alright fine, muck about with the fancy drone-shit, I will not have my apprentice walking around lookin' like a scrappin' fool!" Ironhide continued for him.

"So I rolled my optics at them both and unfroze Ironhide's knee. It didn't take long, he'd almost worn through the welds as it was," Ratchet snorted.

"We didn't see each other for four vorn," Ironhide continued with a grin. "Then what do you know, Bladesing and I got assigned to start up patrol duties in a new sector and I thought I'd seen the last of this blasted medic. But not two orn into our new patrol I caught a blast to the shoulder intended for my master. So he dragged me into the med-bay, a-gain and who's standin' there glarin' at me?" Ironhide laughed.

"Once again, Ironhide of Sigma three, getting dragged in by Weapons Master Bladesing, dripping energon all over my clean floor," Ratchet snorted. "So we started up again, I didn't detach his arm, so there the two of us were, he's calling me a rusty old tin bucket and I'm calling him a half-rate hero."

"And Bladesing just stood there with his arms crossed, laughing at the both of us," Ironhide laughed. "We spent the next fifty vorn doin' that, we wouldn't see each other for a couple of vorn-"

"Eight vorn at the most, and then the time came when you were coming into my med-bay every three orn or so," Ratchet chuckled. "Whether you were dragging Bladesing or one of your unit behind you, or if it was Bladesing dragging you in. What I never understood, 'Hide, was of all the medics at that base, you were always bringing them into me."

"Well, you were Ratchet, I knew you," Ironhide chuckled, reaching out and clapping a hand on the old medic's shoulder. "Bladesing and I had your number, you didn't take any scrap, you welded my knee in the open position, yeah, but my leg was in better condition than I'd started with. We sorted that out the second time we'd left your med-bay."

Ratchet smirked at the weapons master.

"And then, upon my two hundredth vorn, I became a full Weapons Master upon Master Bladesing's offlining. He passed me his knowledge, and I began trainin' bots." Ironhide stated with a small smile.

"It was a shock, the first time I saw Ironhide as a full master," Ratchet snorted. "We were rather fast friends after that, he had Bladesing's wisdom, then, far easier to get along with. Oh he still calls me a rusty old tin bucket, but he had the right to by that point, I was getting rather rusty."

"Because you weren't takin' care of yourself," Ironhide snorted. "You became a part of Sentinel's unit not long after that. And I stood with you when you bonded Nova-"

"It was a testament to how mature you'd become when you didn't verbally threaten anyone who could potentially deny our binding," Ratchet snorted. The both of them looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"It wasn't long after that-" Ironhide began.

"-Another fifty vorn-" Ratchet added.

"-that we met Megatronix and his spark-brother Orion Pax," Ironhide stated with a smile. "I trained them together, and watched as Megatronix and his brother practically absorbed the information."

"It was obvious that Megatronix was destined to be a Prime," Ratchet snorted. "The two of them learned so quickly, but Orion, Orion went everywhere, learning everything that I, Ironhide, practically every bot on every base we wound up on wound up talking to him. That is of course, when he wasn't bridging off to go find someone else to pester into teaching him."

Will watched with a grin as Optimus innocently refused to meet anyone's eyes.

"Sneaky little scrappin' bastard," Ironhide added baitingly.

"I was in my adult body by then," Optimus rumbled airily. "And I am still bigger than you, Master Ironhide."

"Yeah, and Bladesing was smaller than me," Ratchet added with a snort. "It didn't stop him from dragging Ironhide's sorry aft into my med-bay every couple of orn. I swear to Primus, he spent more time trying to beat some sense into Ironhide than he did blasting Decepticons!"

The senior officers looked around at each other and began howling with laughter.

"SPILL!" Jacobs howled.

"Right so there was this one time..." Ratchet began with a broad grin.

(MPOV)

I sat down in the med-bay and smiled around myself. My mentor had excellent taste in surroundings, and as much as I adored flying around and scouting, sometimes it was nice to simply take med-bay duty and tinker. It was the time to become more familiar with the new arrivals, the time to maintain the bots around me.

Not that anyone was well and truly scheduled for maintenance, the post-landing checkups had been done already.

Perhaps a few bumped heads, scraped knees, maybe Wheeljack.

Probably Wheeljack.

Although he had taken rather enthusiastically to my suggestion that he use his holoform and perform small-scale tests before building the large scale inventions.

After all, small-scale test, small-scale explosion... mostly.

I sat back and shook my head ruefully. Last week's explosion had been interesting, Wheeljack had singed the hell out of his holoform, and rather than winking it back to a healthy state, strode all the way across base wide-eyed and burned into the med-bay.

Needless to say the humans kept their distance from his lab now.

"Lady Prime?" Wheelie's voice called out.

"Quit calling me that, Wheelie," I snorted, searching for where his voice was coming from. "Same person, different body, now where the scrap are you?"

"Air ducts!"

Immediately, I looked up toward where his voice was coming from.

"Didja get stuck or something?" I grinned.

"No..."

"Did you take damage?" I immediately demanded, searching for him in earnest now. "Wheels where are you in the ducts?" I began scanning the area, locating him near one of the vents. A flick of a cable popped the cover off, and Wheelie's optics peered down at me. Another scan proved his struts rather badly bent up. "Wheels what happened!?" I demanded worriedly, carefully reaching as far into the duct as I could, tiny hands clamped onto my finger, and I gently pulled him out.

"I didn't time my drop into the second level right," Wheelie grumbled as I delicately settled him into my palm. "Knocked out my comm."

Carefully, I scanned him again, a good charge and his nanites could fix the damage in moments.

"Well at least you're not too badly damaged," I murmured soothingly, gently offering him a couple of small neurals for him to grab onto. "A good charge and you'll be right as rain."

Wheelie immediately grabbed onto the neurals, and I began directing the energon through the neurals. In my palm, Wheelie began to grow somewhat, his struts straightening and a nice shine returning to his metals. The little scrap drone heaved a deep, contented sigh and stretched out on my palm.

"Thank Primus you survived," he muttered drowsily. I couldn't help but smile down at him, gently carrying him to the drone-sized med-berth hanging suspended above the human sized cots. I gently used a couple of cables and deposited him on it.

"Get your rest," I murmured gently. Wheelie nodded cheerfully and his optics darkened. I glanced at the monitor as it automatically began surveying his condition and nodded to myself. A good recharge and he'd be good as new. Tiny vibrations rippled through his frame, the Cybertronian parallel of snoring.

Down for the count. I allowed myself a quiet chuckle and returned to my workbench, picking up my tinkering again. The doors opened, and two spark-hums entered, one I recognized easily. Prowl. The second less so. I glanced up and saw only Prowl. Perhaps my audios were acting up.

"Prowl," I nodded to him calmly.

"Lady Prime," he stated formally.

"Quit calling me that, I'm Kae," I responded. It was automatic.

Prowl simply nodded, he tended to do that, and offered me a data-pad.

"Optimus wishes me to give you these reports, as well," the enforcer stated calmly. I accepted the data-pad and scanned it. Munitions reports, the status of our energon stockpiles, inventory of supplies, personnel reports, status of personnel... it matched my own logs as they stood.

"And I do..." I murmured, looking up at him.

"It needs to be signed off, Lady-"

"Kae," I interjected. "Now where do I sign?"

I could have sworn Prowl almost cracked a smile.

"Spark-signature," he informed me patiently.

"Uhh..." I muttered.

"You have never signed a data-pad?" Prowl demanded. I looked up at him and almost cracked up at the incredulous look on his faceplates.

"I've been a bot for the sum total time you have been on earth," I reminded him with a snort. Prowl shook his head and extended a cable.

"Simply a point two rell surge of energon leaves your spark-signature," he stated patiently.

"Riiight," I murmured with a smile, following his example. "Was there anything else today Prowl?"

"No Lady-"

"Kae!" I stated in exasperation. "You'll call Optimus by name but you won't me?"

Prowl shot me a bemused glance.

"Very well, Lady Kae." He turned and left, and I rolled my optics at his back.

That left three spark-hums in the room. Me. Wheelie. And the half-stranger.

"Whomever you are," I stated patiently, looking toward the hum. "Show yourself."

Mirage materialized out of thin air, staring at me incredulously.

"How did you know me to be here?" he demanded.

"I can hear you," I smiled gently, his frown grew deeper. "What?" I murmured in concern.

"If you can hear me, others may," he stated with a deep frown.

Silence. I pursed my lips in thought.

"Noise cancellation?" I murmured, Mirage looked at me curiously. "Well, your spark hum can't exactly be stopped... what about disguising it?"

The mech's optics brightened.

"Is that possible?" he asked curiously, striding to sit across from me at the workbench.

"It's worth a shot," I murmured, leaning forward. "Perhaps a small speaker, playing the direct opposite frequency of your spark..."

"What would that do?"

"It's possible that the frequencies would then cancel each other out, at least it would to a Cybertronian audio receptor..."

Mirage grinned at me, I grinned right back and rose.

"Where are you going?"

"Materials," I murmured, eyeing up Ratchet's aptly termed 'wall of stuff'.

"Now?"

"No time like the present."

Wheelie never stirred for the three hours Mirage and I spent with our helms together, the speaker was easy, the coding? Marginally difficult. Five minutes to build the apparatus, the rest of the time? Tweaking.

Finally, Mirage stood with the tiny emitter tucked beside his spark chamber. He cloaked himself and activated it. For all intents and purposes I couldn't find him.

::. Where am I?.:: Mirage sent over the primary.

::. Planet earth.:: Ironhide's voice snorted.

::. Running an experiment uncle.:: I sent fondly, letting him feel my amusement.

::. What are you up to, my Kae?.:: my Optimus sent fondly.

::. Improving my stealth.:: Mirage responded gleefully. ::. Now see if you can find me!.::

I smiled and rose, offlining my optics and focusing my attention on my auditory receptors.

I could hear everything, and nothing.

Wheelie's snores, the hum of Ratchet's diagnostic tools, the tick of the clock...

"Well if I can't hear or find you, what are the chances other people are?" I asked the air around me, onlining my optics. I looked down and almost jumped out of my exo. Mirage was grinning at me, two feet away.

I couldn't help but grin right back at him.

"Go try it out," I encouraged him with a snort. ::. All call, Mirage is testing out the furtherance of his stealth, try to find him.::

Mirage grinned further and cloaked himself, the only tell of his departure the med-bay doors opening of their own accord. I smiled and sat back on my bench, returning to my projects again and listening as the unit began clearing our headquarters, looking for the spy. Another hour and my little-brother strode into the med-bay.

"=Hey Big-Sister!=" he chirped cheerfully, plopping down onto the bench beside me and tucking himself under my arm. "=Whatcha workin' on?="

"=Just tinkering Little-brother=" I chuckled, leaning down and nuzzling my helm against his.

"I should like to declare you my friend." Mirage's cultured voice announced. Bee and I both started, turning to look where his voice was coming from.

"You snuck behind me!?" Bee demanded with an incredulous grin. "You never-"

"Managed to shadow you without you catching me," Mirage smirked.

"You've created a monster!" Bee promptly sotto-whispered to me, Mirage simply smirked all the more.

"As my friend, I wish to see if your systems are compatible," Mirage announced calmly, stepping toward me. I looked at him somewhat warily. "Not for interface, but for ability," he added patiently. I relaxed. "She is a good mate to our Prime, Scout."

Bee was grinning beside me. I rolled my optics at the both of them.

"How so?" I asked calmly.

"I have noticed your current need to drive to the airport before taking flight, can you not launch from the ground?" Mirage asked patiently.

"Not without giving away our position," I stated patiently.

"I wish you to use my cloak."

I stared at him.

"When you are invisible, you can go anywhere," Mirage re-iterated patiently, bringing a holoform online of a rather simple appearing generator. "I wish you the same freedom you have improved upon me."