Fate Calls

by Sci-Fifan95

In life, the only certain thing that applies to us is death. We cannot escape it. We cannot outrun it. It is a fate that finds us all. However, He plays chess. And you don't find out until too late that He's been playing with two queens all along.

24. Energy Pulses

Well, this chapter took longer than I thought it would. But, like I said last chapter, this one just kept going and going. And I am happy how it turned out, so hopefully it will be worth the extra wait. Sorry about that.

Anyway, you how I said last chapter that I got more reviews for the previous chapter than I ever had gotten for a single chapter? Well, it has been reset again. Lol. Thank you all for reading and leaving feedback, it makes my day every time. :) And Fate Calls is now over one-hundred reviews! :D This calls for cookies! *Gives you all cookies since he is in a cheerful mood* Again, thank you all for reading and reviewing. :)

One other thing, you may or may not have noticed, but I have rewritten each of the time and place notices in Fate Calls in bold. It draws your attention to where I have listed the time on place of each chapter, and it looks better, I should have done it a while ago, but only got around to it between this chapter and the last. At least I have fixed it now, though.

Thanks go to Crystal Prime for beta reading.

jayna prime - I am glad you liked it. :)

TimeLordBud - I personally think of it as a decent read *that's how I am*, but thank you very much for thinking so highly of my story. And that is what I have been trying to do since Crystal Prime started to beta read for me, I realized that just having every episode the exact same, except throwing my OC in there, would be boring. And the world is boring when everything is the same. Haha.

Autobot Shadowstalker - I'm glad you liked it so much. :)

*Looks at work you say is good* I consider it decent. *Looks at last time he updated* I don't do a good job of doing that, do I? Lol.

KayleeChiara - I know. Writing a book like Michael Bay writes his action would get boring after a while, as much fun as writing those scenes are. So, I am trying to find a balance between character development and action, hopefully I will find it soon.

Other than Crystal's story, It's A Prime Adventure, Fate Calls is the first one I have seen her in, but I know for a fact that there are other fics she's in, I just haven't read them. And I noticed that the Autobots were getting a lot of new arrivals, but the Decepticons weren't. So, I had the Decepticons get their own reinforcements, it gave me the chance to introduce some new types of Decepticons that I had ideas for.

*Man in a black suit and dark sunglasses sits down in front of you* *In a Tommy Lee Jones voice* Whether you are correct or not is irrelevant, Sci-Fifan95 has classified all information related, or unrelated to future chapters of his story. *Pulls out neuralizer and activates it* SciFifan95 thanks you for your continued feedback, as well as says thank you for enjoying his story so much. *Gets up and walks away*

*Blinks* Anyway, thank you for reviewing, and I hope you enjoy this next chapter. :)

Sky's Limit5 - Yup! He's hearing voices in his head. Haha.

Yeah... The twins... *Sigh* Hopefully, they will be good at comic relief. Lol.

And you don't need to wait anymore! At least for this chapter. lol.

TransformersAndJesusFan - Thanks. :) I really enjoyed writing Jazz, he's such an awesome character. And that would explain why Megatron's crazy, wouldn't it?

pfolk - Thank you. I did say it was ironic you asked that last chapter. Haha.

Hehe. Perhaps, it would lead to an interesting conversation, that's for sure. And a showdown between Shadow' and Ironhide? That would be quite the sight. Lol.

And thank you, I thought it would be interesting to add a little history to the story. But might I ask why are you telling me to not be afraid and use my own ideas? I already try and use every original idea I come up with, if it works with the story that is. And I have several ideas in mind that I haven't seen on this site before, I just have to get to them.

And Christmas stories can be fun to read, I do not read many of them on here, but they can be fun to read.

HanamiKaze - Sorry I didn't update very quickly, I have updating slowly the last few months. But you don't have to wait anymore for this chapter, at least. And I am glad you are enjoying my story.

guest - Why thank you, random kind person who doesn't have an account! And I plan on it!

falloutaki - You know what? At one point, I thought Fate Calls was going to be too long if it was one-hundred and fifty thousand words, now, I honestly don't even know how long it will go for, but I am not even close to finishing it at this point, it's too much fun to write. Haha.

One thing, can you please not say that Crystal Prime isn't writing her story as well as mine? I view her as a sister, and I honestly found that to be very rude of you. Please don't do that again.

TerraPrime - No idea if you are reading this, but I am sorry you had to read through the first ten chapters, I am far from proud of those chapters, even after I Crystal Prime and I have improved the grammar of some of them and are working on the others. Haha. But thank you.

Darth review - Actually, the phone Bulkhead destroyed wasn't the only communication source to the outside world. If it was, then the Autobots wouldn't be able to talk to Agent Fowler through the computer, which they do several times throughout the series.

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. I only take credit for this story and my OCs.

---

December 23, 2012 2:34 P.M

Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada

More than a jour had gone by since Ironhide, Arcee's sisters, Jazz, Smokescreen, and the twins arrived on Earth.

Since then, Springer had finally gotten out of the med-bay. He hadn't made a rude comment toward Arcee since he recovered, in fact, he hadn't really said much at all since he had been out of the med-bay, and the majority of what he said was to Bulkhead or Ironhide. The only thing he said to me in the two solar-cycles since Ratchet let him out of the med-bay was a short, 'Frag you.' And he glowered at me whenever we were within twenty meters of each other since he said that, which I usually returned with a cold stare. But, even though I had made an enemy of Springer, I was perfectly fine with him hating me as long as he didn't make rude comments toward Arcee.

Another noteworthy event of the last jour was that I had gone through the process of telling our new arrivals of my origins and who my creators are.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had called slag the moment I had finished telling them, and they only accepted my words as the truth after Optimus confirmed my story. Judging by the look in the optics of the twins when they finally believed me, they couldn't wait to prank the son of two members of the Thirteen. I have since put seven layers of encryption on my door to deny them access to my quarters.

Ironhide, Chromia, and Elita reacted in a similar way to how Moonracer did when I told her and Prowl back in June, asking questions and being genuinely curious.

Flareup hadn't said very much to me since she found out about my origins, I think she was intimidated to talk to me because of who my carrier and sire were. But I had recently been able to get a couple of casual conversations out of her, she was still very shy when I was around, but it was progress.

Jazz wasn't surprised at all when I told him. He just said that he had always thought the Thirteen were an ideal, guidelines to live by and nothing more, and then he had walked away without another word.

Smokescreen's reaction was... Interesting. The moment I had finished speaking, the white and blue mech bombarded me with questions about the Thirteen, and what Cybertron was like during the Age of the Primes, the time period before the Golden Age that has been lost to history. Even though I had made it clear that I was born a human and had only been a Cybertronian for a little over ten jours, he apparently thought that since I was the son of two of the Thirteen, I wielded similar amounts of power that they did, and that I was ancient beyond count. Unfortunately, Smokescreen was, despite my repeated insistence that I didn't wield any mythical powers or was older than time itself, or even a Prime for that matter, rapidly becoming my fanboy like he was for pretty much everyone else. I tended to avoid him when I could because of that.

But unfortunately, informing our new arrivals of my origins wasn't the only noteworthy event of the last jour.

We had been losing skirmishes more frequently since the Decepticons got their own new arrivals in the form of the Dark Matter, the name Optimus told me the Adversary-class was called when I informed him I heard Shockwave was in command of the vessel.

And unlike when we would go through long periods of time in which we did practically nothing, we had been far from idle since the Dark Matter arrived. If we weren't having a skirmish with the Decepticons over a hidden cache of weapons, we were fighting for control over energon, something we were starting to grow in desperate need of.

While we had recovered enough energon in late June to last us an orbital-cycle, that was when there were only eight of us, now there were eighteen of us. And the ten Autobots that had joined us on Earth since then were causing our energon stockpile to dwindle at an alarming rate. In fact, we were so low on energon, that Optimus was now taking the Energon Harvestor off my shelf and using it on energon deposits in each of our skirmishs. So, even if we lost the deposit, we would still get some energon out of the battle.

But the last few solar-cycles had been quiet, with only one skirmish between the Decepticons and us.

So Ironhide, not wanting to waste the lull in Decepticon activity, had finally decided to test me to determine if I was fit to be the Autobot's heavy weapons specialist. To test me, he challenged me to a shooting contest down in the Safe, which was where the two of us were at the moment.

"Nice shot, you're not too bad at this, kid." The Wrecker officer complimented as I handed him the Magma Frag Launcher I just used to hit a target drone that was behind a wall about six-hundred meters away.

"Your sparkmate's sister was the one who trained me, it isn't possible for Arcee to train someone without them becoming a decent shot with pretty much every type of weapon." I said, deflecting Ironhide's compliment easily while the Wrecker officer aimed the Magma Frag Launcher at the Safe's ceiling as he lined up the shot I had just taken. He and I were just starting to play 'E-N-E-R-G-O-N', which was basically the Cybertronian equivalent of H-O-R-S-E. Except that instead of using a basketball, you played using weapons, and you picked a different weapon after every player attempted to copy the shot of the first shooter.

"Ya can't ever give yourself credit, can ya?" Ironhide asked, just before he fired the Magma Frag Launcher and hit the target drone in the chest area with the sticky grenade-like explosive.

"No, I can't." I replied, shifting my attention away from Ironhide and to the pile of weapons that were lying next to us as I thought about what gun I would choose next.

I saw Ironhide shake his helm out of my peripheral vision, but he dropped the subject. "What's your weapon of choice gonna be this time?" He asked.

I was silent a moment before I picked a weapon up from the pile that had a rectangular barrel and a cylinder-like magazine behind the trigger. "What's this called?" I asked as I turned back to Ironhide. I had seen it before, when Ironhide transferred all the weapons he had sub-spaced that were from the ship, but I had no idea what it was called.

"That's a Path Blaster, one of the most common and reliable weapons in the second half of the war." Ironhide said, smiling at the weapon I had picked up. "And it packs a hell of a lot of firepower for something that's officially classified as a pistol."

I raised an optic ridge at the last thing Ironhide said and looked at the weapon I now knew was called a Path Blaster. "This cannon was classified as a pistol?" I asked incredulously, even though the Path Blaster did kind of look like a human handgun, or as close as Cybertronian weapons could get to looking like human weaponry, it was still more than half the length of my servo.

Ironhide chuckled. "It is. I don't know who decided that, but I'm sure they had never even fired the thing for themselves." He said, then looked out at the range. "That gonna be your weapon of choice of this shot?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yes, I think it will be." I said with a small smile. I hadn't fired it yet, but I had a feeling I was going to like the Path Blaster.

"Alright," Ironhide said, then gestured to the shooting range. "Call your shot."

I looked at the various objects spread out in front of us as I considered what target I would shoot.

There were a number of target drones out on the shooting range, but that was an easy shot, and this was a contest, so I immediately ruled out a target drone as an option. The building I had blown up way back in February had finally been rebuilt, but it didn't have any targets on it, so that wasn't an option either. And the hulks of human tanks and cars suffered from the same problem.

Looking beyond most of the targets on the shooting range, I finally spotted a suitable target to shoot, a car engine partially hidden behind a wall about twice as far away as my previous shot with the Magma Frag Launcher.

I pointed my middle and index digits at the car engine and called my shot. "Partially hidden car engine from twelve-hundred meters, with the Path Blaster."

Ironhide looked at where I was pointing and nodded his helm after he saw the car engine. "Any special conditions of the shot?" He asked.

"No, just fire normally." I replied as I grabbed an energy cell from the open ammo crate next to the pile of weapons and inserted it into the Path Blaster's cylinder-like magazine.

"Alright, fire whenever you're ready," Ironhide said, then took a step away from me to give me room to fire.

After Ironhide stepped back, I took aim at the car engine and fired. Immediately after I pulled the trigger, the Path Blaster's barrel moved back to absorb the recoil of a ball of highly-compressed magma shooting out of its muzzle at supersonic speeds and flying toward the car engine at the precise point where I was aiming.

Unfortunately, I didn't take as long to aim as I should have, and my shot went high and to the right, burning a large, circular hole straight through to the other side of the wall within half a micro-klick.

Ironhide stared at the hole in the wall for a moment, then turned to me. "You missed. That's an 'E' for you, kid." He said, stating the obvious fact with an amused smile.

"I am aware of that," I said, giving the Wrecker officer a brief look before I put the Path Blaster back on the pile of weapons with a sigh. Although I had missed my shot, and that I had only fired one shot with it, the Path Blaster was already one of my top two of my favorite weapons, coming in a close second to my Ion Displacer.

After I put the Path Blaster back, Ironhide looked out at the shooting range without choosing a weapon from the pile.

I raised an optic ridge at how he didn't pick a weapon, but I mentally shrugged. It wasn't against the rules of E-N-E-R-G-O-N to use a weapon you had installed to your own systems, you just had to make sure the other player, or players, could use the same weapon. And we had a Riot Cannon and a Thermo Missle Cannon in the pile of weaponry next to us, so he was free to use the cannons on his servos.

A micro-klick after he looked out at the shooting range, Ironhide pointed a digit at a group of three tanks that were a relatively short distance away. "Three tanks from two-hundred meters, with the Thermo Missile Cannon," he said, then powered up the cannon on his left servo.

I looked out at the tanks, then looked at Ironhide. "Any special conditions?" I asked.

The Wrecker officer looked over at me and smiled. "Yeah, ya can't look at the target when you fire." With those words, he raised his left servo and fired his Thermo Missile Cannon, sending three missiles toward the trio of tanks without looking away from me.

Each of Ironhide's three missiles found their marks. Two missiles hit the treads of the tanks they hit. And the last missile blew the turret of its intended target clean off with an impressive fireball, reducing the tank to a twisted hulk of metal.

I blinked several times at Ironhide's show of marksmanship, he hadn't even given the tanks a second glance after he called his shot, and he still managed to hit all three of his targets. It would be an understatement to say I was going to have trouble copying his shot.

"And that," Ironhide said, bringing me out of my thoughts. "Is how you do that."

Blinking one more time at Ironhide's shot, I glanced at the Wrecker officer. "Well, you're certainly not going to hold anything back for later in the game, are you?" I asked, then reached over and picked up one of the Thermo Missile Cannons from the weapons pile.

"Whether I'm on the battlefield or not, I never hold back, kid." Ironhide said. "What's the point of holding your abilities back when you know you could do more?" He asked rhetorically.

I answered his question anyway. "Because you don't want to show all your cards at once," I said as I picked up three missiles from the ammo crate and started to load them into the Missile Cannon.

Ironhide gave me an inquisitive look. "What does that mean?" He asked.

"It's a human expression. It means to keep your true capabilities hidden so that your opponent underestimates you. When they underestimate you, they become cocky, and you can surprise them when the time is right and land the one critical strike you need to win the fight." I explained. "Usually the expression is used in the human card game 'poker', but it can apply to many different situations, combat included." I concluded as I finished loading the Missile Cannon and looked out at the three tanks, trying to memorize their positions before I fired.

"So, you basically fake being a terrible fighter long enough for your opponent to become confident that they're going to win without any trouble, and then you take them out while their guard is down?" Ironhide asked.

"Essentially," I answered. "That's why you don't want to show all your cards at once, so to speak. It is better to fight an overconfident enemy than it is to fight a cautious one."

"Hmm," Ironhide hummed thoughtfully. "That's a pretty smart tactic, kid." He said, optics going distant for a moment as he considered my words, but he shook his helm after a moment and gestured to the targets. "I think that's enough discussing battle tactics for one shot. Fire when you're ready."

I gave Ironhide a nod and gave the tanks one more brief look, turned my helm away so I could copy Ironhide's shot, then started to pull the trigger of the Missile Cannon.

"Miss!" Springer's voice suddenly yelled at the precise moment I finished pulling the trigger.

Surprised by Springer's unexpected appearance, I jerked my servo and caused the missiles I just fired to lower than I intended for them to go. And the three missile impacted the Safe floor a mere fifty meters in front of Ironhide and I, showering Ironhide and I in sand and freshly-made molten glass.

Once the debris from the missile detonations finished falling on Ironhide and I, I turned and sent an annoyed look toward Springer, who was standing in front of the elevator with Bulkhead.

"What was the point of that?" I asked the green Triple-Changer, making sure to keep my tone civil despite my severe dislike of Springer.

"To get you to miss," Springer hissed in response, speaking directly to me for only the second time since he was released from the med-bay. "I thought that was pretty obvious."

"It was also unnecessary and stupid, Springer." Ironhide said as he brushed off the sand and molten glass off his shoulder-joints and looked over at Springer.

The hateful glare Springer was giving me changed to an irritated look, and he shifted his gaze to Ironhide. "Yeah, it was unnecessary. But the thing is, I don't give a frag when it involves Shadowstreaker." He said, saying my name as if it was a curse. "But how was it stupid of me to cause... Him, to miss?" He asked, glancing away from Ironhide and giving me a brief scowl, which I returned with an icy stare, before he looked back at the Wrecker officer.

Ironhide frowned. "Springer, Shadowstreaker was holding a loaded Thermo Missile Cannon. And he was pulling the trigger at the exact moment you yelled. What if his reflexes took over and he turned the Missile Cannon on you for sneaking up on us like you just did?" He scolded. "You'd be offlined right now, that's what would have happened. And that's why it was stupid of you to yell as Shadowstreaker was shooting."

Springer snorted. "Well, then. I guess I'm lucky Shadowstreaker prefers to punch his fellow Autobots instead of shoot them." He said with a glare directed me at, then turned and walked toward the sparring ring. "I hope you get turned into scrap, Shadowstreaker." He called over his shoulder-joint.

My left optic twitched at Springer's comment. "And I hope you lose just as badly as the last time you were in the sparring ring." I retorted with a bit of anger in my tone. My words caused Springer to send a scowl my way and take a step back toward me before Bulkhead, who was walking next to him, sent me an apologetic look and pushed Springer into the ring, then quickly started to spar with the taller Wrecker, which forced Springer's attention to shift away from me.

Once Bulkhead distracted Springer, for which I was going to have to thank Bulkhead for doing, I set the Thermo Missile Cannon down on the weapons pile and started walking to the elevator. "Either you win or we'll pick this up another time, Ironhide. I need to get out of the Safe for a while." I said as I reached the elevator and pressed the button for ground level. And a moment later, the elevator started to move and I left the Safe.

After a short ride in the elevator, I reached ground level and I turned left and headed for the washracks to get all the sand and still-molten glass off my frame, but I hadn't even taken three steps before I stopped and stared at an unusual sight further down the hallway.

Optimus and Elita-One were, for no apparent reason, standing in the middle of the hallway, with their backplates turned to me and their helms looking up at the ceiling for some strange reason.

Furrowing my optic ridges at the strange sight of Optimus and Elita randomly standing in the middle of the hallway, I put my trip to the washracks on hold for a moment and walked toward the two Autobot officers.

As I got closer to Elita and Optimus, Elita, likely having heard me walking toward them, turned around and looked at me as I approached.

"Shadowstreaker, do you-" She started to say, but then seemed to notice I was covered in sand and glass and got a curious look on her faceplate. "Why are you covered in sand?" She asked, tilting her helm slightly to the left to accompany her curious look.

"Ironhide and I were playing a game of E-N-E-R-G-O-N," I said as Optimus turned to look at me as well. "Springer snuck up behind us and yelled so I would miss when I was firing a Thermo Missile Cannon. He succeeded. And I shot the ground in front of us instead of my intended targets. The explosion from the missiles showered Ironhide and I in sand."

Optimus frowned slightly at that. "Surprising someone who is holding a Missile Cannon is not a wise course of action. Springer is fortunate that you did not accidentally shoot him." He said, voice carrying a tone of disapproval along with his trademark calm.

"Ironhide said the same thing, he even gave Springer a short lecture about why he shouldn't have done that," I said to Optimus, then looked at Elita. "What were you going to say before you asked why I'm covered in sand?" I asked.

Elita looked up at the ceiling directly above Optimus and her. "I was about to ask you what the purpose is for this branch. What is it?" She asked, giving me a brief glance before looking back up at the ceiling and pointing a digit at what she was looking at.

Following the direction of Elita's digit, I looked up at the ceiling... And immediately put on my best poker face.

The object hanging above Optimus and Elita was cleverly hidden behind a support beam, making it impossible to spot unless you were walking toward the Safe or the ops center instead of away from them. And, as Elita had said, it was a branch. A branch with long, green leaves and red berries.

The branch hanging above their helms... Was a Mistletoe.

I stared at the Mistletoe for a moment before I looked back at Elita and Optimus. "That's, ah... That's a Mistletoe." I said slowly, struggling to keep myself from laughing at just how hilarious this situation was.

"What is a Mistletoe?" Optimus asked with a confused look on his faceplate.

"It's, ah... It's a plant that grows attached to trees or shrubs." I explained. "A lot of humans hang them up in their homes as a simple Christmas decoration, a very popular religious and cultural holiday at this time of the orbital-cycle. And, for reasons that humans do not even know for certain, the Mistletoe has an unusual tradition when an unrelated man and woman stand under one..."

"What is the tradition?" Optimus asked.

Elita followed up Optimus' question with one of her own before I could respond. "And does this tradition having anything to do with why everyone laughs and walks away without a word when they see Optimus and I standing here?"

I covered my mouth with a servo to prevent the laugh that almost worked its way out of my throat, but it still managed to get through as an amused snort, which caused Elita and Optimus to give me a perplexed look before I quickly mastered myself and answered.

"The tradition is that... Well, the man and woman have to stand under the Mistletoe until they share a kiss. And if they don't, they will both stay single for the next orbital-cycle." I said with the straightest look I could manage, even though I was rolling on the ground with laughter on the inside.

Optimus and Elita's faceplates were completely and totally blank and expressionless, as if the real Elita-One and Optimus had been replaced with statues while I was explaining the tradition of the Mistletoe. And their cooling fans activated so loudly that it was almost like there were a couple of stationary tornadoes were standing in front of me.

I tried my best not to laugh, but I couldn't keep a smile from forming on my faceplate. "Are you malfunctioning?" I couldn't help but ask a voice filled with mirth, repeating the question that three different Primes had asked me since I had left my original reality.

My question seemed to bring Optimus and Elita out of a daze, and they both shook their helms like they were brought out of a daydream. But they didn't look at each other, just kept their gazes focused on me.

"Well," Elita said after a moment. "I guess we know why Jazz reacted the way he did when he saw us here, don't we?" She asked, directing her question at Optimus without looking at him.

"Indeed." Was all Optimus responded with.

"How did Jazz react?" I asked Elita, some of the amusement I was feeling being replaced by curiosity.

"Once he saw us, he snapped his digits and said something about 'Not gettin' da right mech and femme', not sure what he meant by that." The rose red femme replied with a shake of her helm.

My poker face returned instantly and all traces of amusement left me, I had a bad feeling I knew the reason Jazz said that. "I wonder what he meant by that," I said in an even voice that revealed nothing about how I was reacting on the inside.

Elita shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it was because he was trying to get a different mech and femme under this Mistletoe," she said, then locked optics with me and gave me a knowing look.

I narrowed my optics at the rose red femme in suspicion, she knew. She fragging knew. How she knew, I did not know, but Optimus, Jetfire, Jazz or even Springer could have easily told her, or she could have reached the conclusion I had feelings for her sister just from her own observations.

"Perhaps," I agreed with Elita, then quickly stepped around Optimus and her and started walking in the direction of the washracks again. "But, whatever he meant to do, you two are the ones stuck in there now." I called over my shoulder-joint, taking a little satisfaction in hearing their cooling fans activate again before I stepped around the corner and left Optimus and Elita standing under the Mistletoe.

Once I stepped around the corner and was out of Optimus and Elita's sight, I looked up at the ceiling and started searching for other hidden Mistletoes as I continued on toward the washracks. If Jazz had hung up one Mistletoe, it was highly likely that the saboteur had hung up multiple Mistletoes up around the base. After all, it was simple logic when you were trying to catch a mouse, the more traps you set up, the more likely the mouse will get its head or tail caught in a trap. Or, in this case, more likely to get me caught under a Mistletoe with Arcee.

About a klick after I left Optimus and Elita standing under the Mistletoe, I reached the washracks and spotted my first Mistletoe, at least since I started to actively search for them, hanging from the ceiling right in front of the door to the mech's washracks.

Jumping up lightly so I could reach the ceiling, I grabbed the Mistletoe and threw it on the ground before letting the door open for me and entering the empty washracks. I stepped into a stall and turned the water on, instantly showering me in about two-hundred gallons of water per klick.

I looked down at my chassis as the water flowed over me. It seemed like the sand was washing away without any trouble, but the molten glass was, much to my annoyance, rapidly cooling and either shattering and falling off my frame, or stubbornly sticking to my armor.

'Well, at least glass is easy to remove,' I thought, reaching over and grabbing a metal brush next to me and beginning to scrub off the glass that was sticking to my armor.

After I scrubbed off the glass that had refused to fall off my frame, I put the brush back on the side of the stall and took off the first layer of my left shoulder-joint armor to make sure sand hadn't found its way in between my armor layers.

Sand, when left for a long period of time, was terrible for Cybertronian gears. And the fact sand was so tiny compared to... Well, pretty much everything, made it very difficult to get out of the internal components of Cybertronians. I had learned that the hard way after I had jumped out of the Decepticon stealth frigate. And since my left shoulder-joint had been seriously injured in the past, getting sand in the gears of that shoulder-joint would be much worse than it normally would.

But, luckily there wasn't any sand between my armor layers. So, I replaced my outer layer of shoulder-joint armor, turned the water off, stepped out of the stall and let the door automatically open before I walked out into the hallway.

As I stepped out into the hallway, I caught a flash of silver out of my peripheral vision and I turned my helm to the left to see Jazz leaning against the wall next to the washrack.

"Ah see dat ya tore down da Mistletoe Ah hung up," the saboteur said, glancing down at the Mistletoe on the floor before looking back up at me. "It took me a long time ta set dat up, just so ya know."

I gave Jazz an emotionless look. "You are trying to get Arcee and I under the Mistletoe," I stated matter-of-factly, knowing that was his exact intention from what Elita said.

"Ah'm just tryin' ta get ya movin' in da right direction," Jazz replied, not even trying to deny my statement as he pushed himself off the wall and walked toward me. "Since ya obviously aren' plannin' on makin' da move yourself."

"That is because there's nowhere to move, Jazz." I said, turning around and starting to walk in the direction of the ops center.

A look of understanding crossed Jazz's faceplate. "Ah see, you're in da 'There's no way she's inta me, and Ah don' wanna weird her out, so Ah'm not gonna make a move' phase, aren' ya?" He asked with a knowing grin.

My left optic twitched at how Jazz seemed to be able to get very accurate information from the simplest of statements. "Yes, yes I am. And I intend on staying in that phase." I responded as we rounded the corner and entered the hallway where Optimus and Elita had been caught under one of the Mistletoes Jazz set up, but were now nowhere in sight, likely having walked in different directions after I left them here.

"Da spark wants what it wants, Shadowster'," Jazz said, then turned around and started walking back the way we came. "It's a fearful CPU dat gets in da way. And ya've made it my mission ta make you overcome dat fear." He said over his shoulder-joint.

I came to a halt and looked back at Jazz's retreating form. "No matter how many Mistletoes you put up, I'm not going to get stuck under one. I'll just going to pull them down." I said.

"Ah'll remember dat," Jazz said as he rounded the corner and entered the hallway he and I just came from, but poked his helm around the corner before he had been out of my sight for a micro-klick. "And by da way, ya might wanna look up." He added with a smirk, then pulled his helm around the corner and disappeared for good.

After Jazz left me standing in the hallway, I looked up at the ceiling and let out an annoyed sigh at what I saw. I was standing directly under the Mistletoe Optimus and Elita were just a few klicks ago. And, knowing Jazz, he had probably walked away when he did because he knew, as a result, I would end up standing in this exact spot as I watched him leave. He was a master manipulator like that.

Sighing again at how Jazz had likely played me, I jumped up and grabbed the Mistletoe and threw it on the ground, then turned and continued to walk toward the ops center.

I had only taken a few steps before I came to a halt as Ratchet opened a communications channel with everyone on base.

"All Autobots, report to the ops center." He said through the channel. "Shadowstreaker, bring the Energon Harvester from your quarters, we're likely going to need it." He added, then closed the channel with that short message.

After Ratchet closed the channel, I continued to walk in the same direction I had been until I reached my quarters and punched in the lengthy password to open my door.

Once I had entered my password, the door automatically opened and I stepped into my quarters and made a beeline for the shelves on the left side of the room, where the Energon Harvester was sitting in between the picture Wildwing drew for me and the wrench I recovered from the long-abandoned Soviet Cold War base.

I reached the shelves and picked up the Energon Harvester, then turned around to exit my quarters and head for the ops center, but I paused a moment to look at all the souvenirs I had collected, most of which I had added recently, thanks to the Adversary-class orbiting somewhere over Earth.

The shelves on the right side of the room were filled with all the souvenirs I had collected through combat. Most of them were fragments of armor that I had taken from offlined Decepticons that I had collected just to remind me of a particular skirmish, but there were a few more significant souvenirs. Such as a broken flamethrower I had taken from a Pyro I fought with, and a massive, double-headed, jet black and crimson red battle axe that a Brute I offlined had been using instead of the usual hammer.

The shelves on the left side of the room were filled with all the souvenirs I collected that held sentimental value. There were far fewer objects on the left shelves, because of how often we had skirmishes with the Decepticons. But, I had been able to add a few items on the rare occasions when we were able to harvest a small deposit of energon without fighting the Decepticons. Like an ancient Roman Gladius I found in a remote area of Italy. As well as my personal favorite, an old Revolutionary War musket I discovered buried in the backwoods of Virginia, more than likely having sat there for more than two-hundred orbital-cycles after a British soldier or American revolutionary accidentally left it behind as they moved through the woods.

I smiled slightly at the sight of the musket, I wasn't planning on it being in my possession for long.

A mega-cycle ago, I had accidentally overheard Elita and Chromia asking Arcee what she wanted for her creation day next mega-cycle. Arcee had said she would adamantly refuse to accept any gift she was given, saying that there were more important things to focus on than giving her a gift for living to see another creation day. Elita and Chromia insisted on an answer, and Arcee had finally just told them, in her own words 'Just get me a gun from the armory, or something.' It had been a bogus answer. Arcee had clearly just wanted her sisters to stop asking her at the time. But, her answer had given me an idea.

And that idea involved cleaning the Revolutionary War musket up until it looked as good as it could for a gun its age, and then giving it to Arcee as a birthday present. It might not be practical or have any real use, but, as Arcee's partner, I couldn't not give her something for her birthday. And I certainly wasn't going to go down to the armory and grab a weapon to give to her, that was just being lazy. Besides, Arcee loved guns of all kinds, even the ones she couldn't use. The musket was a perfect gift. And I had finished cleaning it earlier in the cycle, which in turn happened to be the cycle Elita and Chromia mentioned was Arcee's birthday.

Reaching over and grabbing the musket from my shelf, I sub-spaced the inert weapon, stepped out into the hallway with the Energon Harvestor in my servo and locked my door again before heading for the ops center.

A few micro-klicks later, I stepped into the ops center and saw everyone crowded around the workstation, excluding Jack, Raf, and Miko since they were on the catwalk.

Jazz, who had most certainly gotten here before me because I was retrieving the Energon Harvester, turned to look at me when I stepped into the room and stood next to Arcee. "There ya are. Ya almost missed da Doc Bot's briefing," he said, then immediately ducked to dodge the wrench thrown at his helm by Ratchet.

"Don't call me that!" The white and red medic said with a little extra irritation in his tone, clearly hating the nickname Jazz called him.

"Hey! That's my line, Hatchet!" Sunstreaker said from where he and Sideswipe stood next to the humans.

Ratchet gave Sunstreaker a slight glare. "Don't call me that, either!" He half-yelled, then hit Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, even though the red twin hadn't done anything, in the helm with a pair of wrenches.

Optimus sighed lightly and pinched the bridge of his nose-plate. "Enough," he said in a firm tone, cutting off any response the twins might have said to getting hit in the helm. "This is not the time for a meaningless dispute over nicknames." He gave Jazz and the twins a look before shifting his attention to Ratchet. "Why have you called all of us here, Ratchet?" He asked.

Moonracer answered Optimus' question instead. "Over the last ten klicks," she said as she typed a command into her part of the workstation, causing the main screen to focus Contiguous United States and highlight our base with a red circle. "We have been getting hit by energy pulses in five micro-klick increments." She typed another command into the workstation, and the main screen added blue, radar-like pulses that were originating somewhere to the west of us.

"Have you determined where the energy pulses are emanating from?" Prowl asked from where he stood next to Optimus.

"Or identify what type of energy the pulses are giving off?" Jetfire added from where he was standing next to Ironhide, Elita, and Chromia.

"We were able to track the origin of the pulses to a remote area in the state of Colorado," Ratchet answered, typing a command into his part of the workstation and causing the main screen to highlight a small area in south-west Colorado. "As for the energy the pulses themselves are emitting, it is similar to the energy readings a deposit of energon would give off when it is uncovered, albeit far stronger than any energon deposit I have ever detected." He said, voice carrying a faint tone of uncertainty, clearly not sure about something.

"You don't think an energon deposit is causing the energy pulses," I said, more of a statement than a question.

Ratchet answered like I had asked a question. "No, neither of us do." He said, looking over at me and gesturing between Moonracer and himself. "The energy pulses an energon deposit gives off are very weak and as unique as a human fingerprint, no two pulses are the same. These pulses are the exact opposite, each pulse is identical and incredibly powerful. Powerful enough that Moonracer and I have detected a small disturbance in our power grid every time a pulse passes over the base." He explained.

"So, will I actually need this?" I asked, holding up the Energon Harvester.

Ratchet shook his helm. "Likely not. I was hoping our equipment was wrong and the energy pulses really were from an energon deposit, but Moonracer and I have gone over the data several times, and we don't think it's coming from energon." He responded.

Nodding at Ratchet's words, I sub-spaced the Energon Harvester as Optimus spoke.

"If the energy pulses are not originating from an energon deposit," the Prime said with a thoughtful look on his faceplate. "Then what is emitting the pulses?" He asked.

Ratchet paused for a long moment before he looked at Optimus. "I have no idea," he finally said as he gave the Prime a helpless shrug, clearly as confused by the energy pulses as he was.

"Then let us find out, Ratchet," Optimus said. "Ratchet, you're on ground bridge duty. Lock onto the location you have determined the energy pulses are emanating and open the ground bridge. The rest of you, you're with me." He instructed as he snapped his battle mask over his faceplate and walked over to the ground bridge.

We all nodded at the Prime's orders, and all of us except Ratchet joined him in front the ground bridge.

After we moved next to Optimus, Ratchet typed the coordinates into the workstation and opened the ground bridge.

And a moment later, we all stepped forward and disappeared into the green portal.

---

December 23, 2012 4:13 P.M

Somewhere in Hinsdale County, Colorado

When I exited the ground bridge, I immediately noticed how cold Colorado was. Granted, it wasn't even close to how cold Antarctica was, but I knew just from how the air felt that it was a chilly ten degrees below zero, a harsh climate compared to the mild winter of southern Nevada and the regulated temperature of our base.

Looking around, I saw that the area around us was picturesque of what most people thought of when talking about Colorado.

The sky was perfectly clear, and was just starting to turn pink as the solar-cycle began to come to an end. And we were standing on the bank of a crystal-clear lake that was surrounded by a forest of Douglas-firs and sitting between two massive, snow-capped mountains.

The ground, while rocky and frozen solid, had very little snow covering it, but that wasn't surprising, given how Colorado's climate was semi-arid.

"So, where are we headin', boss bot?" Jazz asked Optimus, bringing me out of my observations.

Optimus didn't answer, and instead looked at Moonracer, who was looking at a data pad she had brought with her. "How far is this location from the origin of the energy pulses?" He asked.

"Not far," the green and white femme replied, sub-spacing the data pad and pointing a digit at the forest off to our left. "Whatever's causing the pulses is about three kilometers in that direction."

Optimus looked at the forest for a brief moment before making a forward motion with his servo. "Move out, Autobots," he said. And with that simple order, he started to walk toward the forest.

The rest of us fell in step with the Prime and continued on in silence. At least, until Smokescreen opened his mouth a few micro-klicks later.

"Alright! My first mission with Optimus Prime! This is going to be epic!" The white and blue mech said, tone almost giddy with excitement as he got into a fighting stance and threw a few punches at the air and moved as if he was dodging punches, like he was fighting an invisible opponent.

I looked over at Smokescreen and raised one of my optic ridges an inch, a hardly noticeable movement to sentient beings of our size. "Why do you do that?" I asked.

Smokescreen paused in his mock fight long enough to look over at me. "Do what?" He asked in return, then looked away from me and continued his fake punching and dodging.

"Pretend you are fighting a non-existent opponent," I said. "You've done it on every mission we've both been on, and all you end up doing is getting yourself distracted from the actual mission."

The white and blue mech stopped mid-punch, and lowered his servos after a moment. "Yeah, sorry about that," he said, tone a bit embarrassed for a moment before going back to his usual cheer. "I just can't help but be excited. I mean, I'm on a mission with Optimus Prime! That's like fighting alongside one of the Thirteen!" He looked ahead at Optimus, who I knew could hear him, but was pointedly ignoring him and focusing on the terrain in front of him instead, then looked at me. "Or more like two of the Thirteen! Since you're-"

"Stop right there, Smokescreen," I interrupted in an annoyed voice. He just wouldn't accept the fact that I wasn't special, I was just a soldier like he was, only a lot larger. "We have been over this many, many times. I am not ancient, I am less than a quarter of a vorn old. And even though my creators are two of the Thirteen, I am not, in any way, shape, or form, any different from a normal Cybertronian Triple-Changer."

Judging by the excited look on Smokescreen's faceplate, he didn't get the message. "You're the son of two members of the Thirteen! That makes you a Prime by extention-"

"No. It. Doesn't." I interrupted again, putting emphasis on each word as my left optic twitched slightly at what the smaller mech said. "Genetics have nothing to do with what makes a Prime. If it did, than there would be a lot more Primes than just Optimus."

"Shadowstreaker is correct, Smokescreen," Optimus said, not turning around to look at the white and blue mech. "Becoming a Prime is not passed down from creator to creation. There are far greater, and trying, requirements to be a Prime than merely being related to the Thirteen."

Smokescreen looked like he wanted to argue with the words of Optimus and I, but he just sighed and lowered his helm dejectedly, almost like he was a human toddler who just found out a character from his favorite comic book wasn't real.

Arcee, who was walking next to me, noticed this and opened a comm-link with me. "I don't think I've seen Smokescreen sad before." She said, looking straight ahead and not giving any indication she was speaking through a comm-link. "Did you really have to crush his admiration like that? I deal with his... Interesting, moments all the time."

"That's because you, and everyone else, are famous on Cybertron," I replied through the link, taking her lead and looking straight ahead. "The only reason he acts like a fanboy to me, is because he can't accept the fact I'm not a Prime that's ancient beyond count, or even a Prime, for that matter. I've told him many times that I'm not what he thinks, but he never gets the message, I had to make sure he got it this time."

I saw Arcee nod marginally out of my peripheral vision. "A fair point," she conceded. "But you still could have let him down easier than you did. Even though he doesn't act like it, I can tell he's a sensitive mech."

"I probably could have," I admitted. "But I had to make it clear that comparing me to a Prime isn't acceptable."

"'Isn't acceptable'? You sounded like his sire, just now," Arcee said, humor shining in her optics as she looked to her right to glance at me before looking ahead again.

I paused. What I said just now did kind of make me sound like I was Smokescreen's sire, ironic considering how I was a tiny fraction of his age. And now that I thought about it, Arcee has kind of been talking like she was Smokescreen's carrier, which I definitely going to have to point out to her.

"I did kinda sound his sire," I said after a short moment. "Which would make you his carrier, since we're partners and you've also been acting like his carrier since you started this conversation." I pointed out, giving Arcee my own amused look before looking ahead again.

Arcee paused like I had just done, then nodded with a a hint of a smile on her faceplate. "I guess it does," she said, voice carrying a tone that reflected the smile on her faceplate.

I gave Arcee a brief, dry look. "Well then, congratulations, Arcee. We've had a sparkling," I joked, ignoring the warm feelings that flooded my spark at my own words. I needed to find a way to keep my spark from fluttering at the most random times.

"I just wish he looked like one of us," Arcee joked back in her own dry tone, then closed the comm-link with that.

Chuckling to myself, I shook my helm slightly and looked around at the surrounding forest for any sign of Deceptions, only to come to a near-complete halt as a thought came to me.

'Were Arcee and I just... Flirting?' I asked myself with a stoic look on my faceplate, but very confused internally. I had seen from afar a number of my friends flirt with girls when I was still a human, but I myself had never done so, because I never had been interested to have a relationship with any of the girls I met while I was a human. So, I had no way of knowing what flirting was actually like. But, if Arcee and I had been flirting just now, that meant...

"No... Couldn't be," I said to myself, shaking my helm at the brief, ridiculous thought of Arcee being interested in a relationship with me, and increasing my stride to catch up with the others, who were now about thirty meters in front of me.

After falling in step with my fellow Autobots, I matched their pace and looked around the forest, in search of Decepticon activity, until the Douglas-firs started to thin out.

Once I noticed the trees becoming thinner and thinner, I looked ahead and saw that we were approaching the edge of a cliff, with the sounds of Cybertronian machinery carrying up from below. The Decepticons had had clearly beaten us to whatever was causing the energy pulses.

We all took a few more steps toward the edge of the cliff, then, following a command Optimus didn't need to utter, we went flat on our tanks and chestplates and crawled the rest of the way to the cliff's edge.

I reached the edge of the cliff just before everyone else, and I carefully moved my helm forward until I could see down the cliff.

As expected, Decepticons were at the bottom of the cliff. And there were a lot of them.

Directly beneath us, there were several Decepticon mining drills digging into the base of the cliff, clearly in search of what was causing the energy pulses.

A few dozen meters away from the mining drills, in a small canyon, a mixture of average Decepticons soldiers and Insecticons were moving to and from different areas of the canyon where mining drills were being used to search for the origin of the energy pulses.

And in the sky above us, seekers were patrolling the canyon in a wide circle. Fortunately, there weren't any Brute Seekers or Annihilators in their ranks, but their numbers more than made up for that fact. There were three squadrons, that I could see, meaning that there were at least seventy-two seekers patrolling the skies.

In all, I estimated there were between two-hundred and three-hundred Decepticons on-site, which meant we were outnumbered by a minimum factor of roughly twelve. That wasn't impossible for us to overcome, but it certainly wasn't going to be easy, especially with the presence of the mech that was standing among the Decepticons in the middle of the canyon.

The mech was colored silver, and stood at sixty feet in height, towering over all of us, even Optimus. His shoulder-joints were spiked like the hull of a Decepticon warship. A Fusion Cannon was attached to his right servo. And his optics were crimson in color, and, even from this distance, were alight with arrogance and anger, as if he felt like all sentient beings should bow to him and obey what he told them without question.

And he likely got that obedience from those that followed him, because he was one who fired the first shot of the war that reduced Cybertron to a dead world. Because he had glassed planets and destroyed entire sentient races for little reason other than stockpiles of energon and for his twisted sport. Because he was the worst war criminal in the history of the Cybertronian race. Because he was Megatron.

I saw Optimus' optics darken at the sight of his rival out of my peripheral vision. "Megatron," he whispered, voice somehow carrying both sadness and anger as he looked at the Decepticon leader. The Prime looked at Prowl. "What are our options, Prowl?" He asked.

The black and white strategist looked at the Decepticons and didn't respond for several micro-klicks. "Normally, we would have an advantage over the Decepticon forces in the canyon for we currently hold the high ground, but our advantage is rendered moot, due to the presence of Insecticons on the ground and the seeker squadrons patrolling the sky." He finally replied. "Our lack of numbers is also a matter for concern."

"But what we lack in numbers, Sunny and I more than make up for in quality," Sideswipe said in an arrogant tone.

Sunstreaker glared at his twin. "Don't call me that!" He said in a quiet, angry tone, then smacked his brother in the back of the helm, causing a verbal squabble to break out between them.

Prowl ignored the bickering twins. "We have two options, Optimus. One is waiting for the Decepticons to uncover the object emitting the energy pulses and taking it from them, but due to our lack of numbers, there is an eighty-five point six-three percent chance the Decepticons will escape before we can recover the object." He said. "The other option is to attack while we have the element of surprise and hope to uncover the object after the fighting and ground bridge back to base, but there is a sixty-one point four percent chance we will be overwhelmed by the Decepticon forces before we are able to uncover the object."

Optimus was silent for a long time, and he didn't get a chance to reply, because a Decepticon miner called out from below, causing all of us to look down again.

"Lord Megatron! I think I've found it!" The miner in the drill directly below me cried over the sound of the drills his fellow miners and himself, looking back at the Decepticon leader and waving a servo for him to approach.

Megatron looked toward the miner. "And why do you think that, miner?" He asked.

The miner seemed to fidget under Megatron's steely gaze for a moment before he looked at the control panel for his drill and shut it down. "Well, um. I've hit an air pocket, and my instruments are going crazy." He answered as he pointed at several areas of his control panel that were likely digital gauges.

That seemed to get Megatron's attention, and he started to walk toward the miner without saying another word.

As Megatron walked toward the base of our cliff, Optimus looked at each one of us individually. "This is our only chance to recover the object before the Decepticons," he said. "Autobots, drop down on top of the mining drills and get into that air pocket as quickly as you can," he looked back down the cliff. "I will deal with Megatron," and with that, he stood and jumped off the cliff.

Without hesitation, we all stood and jumped off the cliff as Optimus had.

Arcee and Smokescreen, who had been lying prone next to me, landed on the control panels of the drills directly below where they were on the cliff, while I landed with a slam on the engine block between the drill and the control panel.

After landing on the engine block, I deployed my Scatter-Blaster and pointed it at the miner. "Get. Out." I said coolly, unintentionally quoting Robert Patrick as I aimed at the Decepticon.

"Frag you, Autobot!" The miner yelled with as much of a hateful look as the faceplate of an average Decepticon solider could muster, and reached under the control panel and pulled out an Ion Pistol he had hidden apparently hidden.

I fired a dozen pellets of weaponized energy at his chestplates before he could aim the pistol at me. But instead of ripping his chestplates apart, my shot merely scuffed his paint and make insignificant dent in his armor.

'What the hell?' I thought. At this range, a Scatter Blaster would have made a larger dent in my armor than it did in this Decepticon miner's armor. That wasn't good. If this low-ranked miner had armor at least on par with my own, than the Decepticons had gotten a serious upgrade.

The Decepticon chuckled at the result of my shot. "Ha! I guess this new armor really is as strong as Shockwave-"

That was as far as the miner got, because I picked him up by the neck and put the muzzle of my Scatter-Blaster right against the Decepticon's chesplates and fired a half dozen shots as fast as the Scatter-Blaster would fire. And only on the fifth shot did my Scatter-Blaster finally penetrate the Con's armor and send tiny metal fragments flying, then my sixth and final shot entered the miner's spark and offlined him instantly.

I dropped the now-offlined Decepticon back in the chair of the drill and quickly picked up one of the fragments of the miner's armor and sub-spaced it. Ratchet and Moonracer would certainly want to take a look at it under a microscope.

After I picked up the fragment, I looked left and saw that Arcee must have had trouble with the miner in the drill she landed on as well. But, judging by how the Con's helm was almost cut off, she had simply slashed the miner's throat with one of her servo-blades. And now she was already on her way over to me to help me move the drill I was standing on, with Ironhide, who hadn't landed on a drill, following closely following her.

"Move the drill off to the side as much as you can," she instructed Ironhide and I. "I'll crawl into that air pocket Shadow's miner mentioned and see if I can get whatever's causing the energy pulses."

"Got it," I said quickly, and then turned and pushed against the drill with all my strength as Ironhide wordlessly followed Arcee's instructions and joined me. Out of all the Autobots on Earth, Ironhide and I were two of the strongest physically, with the Wrecker officer noticeably stronger, but slower, than Optimus, while I came in a distant third behind the Prime.

But, even with the combined strength of Ironhide and I, the drill only moved a few feet. Whatever metal the drill was made out of, it was really fragging heavy. And as soon as we moved the drill and took a step back, the drill corrected its path and blocked the way again, Ironhide and I were going to have to hold the drill in place in order for Arcee to get through. But luckily, the few feet Ironhide and I managed to move the drill were just enough for Arcee to fold her wing-like appendages against her backplates and squeeze herself past the drill and into the air pocket beyond.

As Ironhide and I pushed against the drill and Arcee crawled into the air pocket, I looked around to see how everyone else was doing.

The twins had their swords deployed and were hacking and slashing at one of the miners who refused to leave their drill, but the swords of the twins were having little effect on the Decepticon, so their fight was likely going to last for a while.

Smokescreen was also fighting with the miner of the drill he landed on and was shooting him repeatedly in the chestplates with his servo-blaster, but he was having the same problem as the twins. His fight was also probably going to last a while.

It seemed that Arcee, the twins, Smokescreen, and I were the only ones who had trouble with the Decepticons operating the drills they landed on, because Optimus was standing between Megatron and the cliff, while everyone else was either teaming up to move a drill sideways to give them cover, or already taking cover behind a drill and aiming their weapons at Megatron.

The Decepticon leader gave a vicious grin at the sight of Optimus standing in front of him. "Optimus," he said, voice carrying a tone of false friendliness. "It has been so long since I saw you last, brother," he spit the word out like it was poison. "Our reunion should not have taken as long as it has."

Megatron's statement confused me. He and Optimus were brothers? That didn't make any sense. I mean, yeah, they were brothers in the live-action movies, but I had known Optimus for almost an orbital-cycle and he hadn't given any indication that he and Megatron had ever been anything but rivals and mortal enemies.

I stopped my line of thought and focused on helping Ironhide keep the drill from moving and closing the gap Arcee used to get into the air pocket, this wasn't the time to wonder why Optimus hadn't mentioned he and Megatron were brothers. Besides, it looked like Optimus was about to respond.

"We stopped being brothers the moment you bombed the Six Lasers Over Cybertron and offlined dozens of innocents." The Prime said as he gave Megatron a steady look. "And we became enemies the moment you shot Halogen in the High Council Tower." He finished, then deployed the sword in his right servo and crouched slightly in a fighting stance.

Megatron laughed, an awful, yet genuinely amused sound when Optimus deployed his sword and got ready to fight. "Optimus, do you take me for a fool?" He asked with a grin like the one he gave the Prime before they started their conversation, a grin that quickly disappeared with his next words. "Are you hoping I will fight you one-on-one while your pathetic Autobots recover what we have both come to take?" The Decepticon leader looked over at Ironhide and I.

Knowing we were rapidly running out of time, I comm-linked Arcee. "Arcee, how's it coming?" I asked, putting an urgent tone in my voice so she would know to hurry.

"A klick or two and I'll have it out, why?" She asked in return, clearly not able to hear the conversation between our leader and Megatron.

"Because we don't have a klick or two, Megatron's about to unleash hell on us," I replied as I had the servo grips of my Nucleon and Ion Displacer in preparation for what I knew was coming, while I heard Ironhide's Riot Cannon hum to life as the Wrecker officer prepared as well.

"Got it, doubling my efforts." Arcee responded, then closed the link with that.

While I was talking to Arcee, Megatron continued. "No, Optimus. I will not allow you to distract me from taking my prize, not when I have an army of Decepticons with me." Megatron turned and looked at the Decepticons behind him, who looked more than eager to fight us, then back at Optimus. "Crush them!" He barked, then deployed a great sword from the wrist of his right servo and charged at Optimus, who charged right back.

All hell broke loose at that moment.

The seekers, who had continued to patrol the skies as Optimus and Megatron spoke, unleashed the first wave of weapons fire. They launched several missiles a piece at the cliff above us, turning the upper half of the cliff into little more than pebbles as literally hundreds of missiles impacted the rock face and detonated with the explosive force of roughly twenty Tomahawk Cruise Missiles, and causing huge slabs of rock to fall from the lower part of the cliff and land either on us, or between us and the Decepticons, giving us limited cover.

The second wave of weapons fire came from the ground-based Decepticons. And countless bullets of energy, globs of plasma, missiles, and even a few old-fashioned kinetic penetrators flew through the air and riddled the rock just above our helms, the rocks that had fallen from the cliff, and us, on occasion.

The twins were both hit a number of times by several types of directed energy weapons, and they both went down with several holes in their frames that bled energon, but they didn't seem to be severe since they were able to crawl behind a drill so Moonracer could patch them up.

After the second wave of weapons fire died down slightly, everyone who wasn't injured, treating the injured, fighting with the leader of the Decepticons, or keeping a mining drill from trapping the femme I was in love with in an air pocket returned fire with their built-in weapons.

Compared to the storm bullets that had come from the Decepticon side, our return fire was quite simply pathetic, and it was made even worse because of the fact that it seemed like every Decepticon was fitted with the same armor as the miner that I offined. But, I did see at least one Decepticon fall under the combined fire of Prowl, Jazz, and Bulkhead. Only about two-hundred and ninety-nine to go.

Chromia, who had taken cover behind a drill off to the left of Ironhide and I, came under fire from a pair of Insecticons and due to the volume of fire they were sending her way, she couldn't return the favor with her own weapons.

When Ironhide saw this, he looked over at me meaningfully, clearly asking me if he could go and help her.

"You don't even need to ask!" I yelled over the roar of combat around us. "Go, I'll be fine!"

Ironhide didn't need to be told twice. After making sure I had a good grip on the drill, the Wrecker officer ran off toward where his sparkmate was pinned down with a battle cry, firing several shots from his Riot Cannon as he went, managing to offline one of the massive Decepticons when two of his shots hit the same area of the Con's chestplates and entered his spark.

As Ironhide offlined the Insecticon and he and Chromia started to team up on the other one, I struggled to keep the drill from trapping Arcee in the air pocket by myself. When Ironhide was helping me, it was a fairly easy task, but now it was incredibly hard. For every inch I pushed the drill forward, it pushed me back three, meaning that the air pocket was rapidly closing.

I opened a comm-link with Arcee again. "Hurry up, Arcee! I don't know how long I'll be able to keep the drill out of the way!" I said through the comm-link, ducking my helm as the seekers came for another pass and launched another wave of missiles at a lower portion of the cliff than the last time they passed over, sending more boulders tumbling down the cliff and falling down around us.

"The fragging piece of slag's stuck!" Arcee yelled in reply, and closed the comm-link like she had done earlier.

Once Arcee closed the link, I looked around for someone or something to help me keep the drill from trapping Arcee.

There were a couple boulders off to the side that were giving me pretty good cover from the Decepticon weapons fire, I was getting hit by the occasional glob of plasma or bullet of energy, but it was nothing my armor and auto-repair systems couldn't handle. But, the boulders were too far away from me to let me prop my pedes against, or help me keep the drill in place at all, so they weren't an option.

Looking at the small gap between the drill and the side of the small tunnel it had created, I saw that there might just be enough room for me to prop my backplates against the drill and use my pedes to keep the drill out of the way.

Without delay, I moved closer to the side of the tunnel, making sure to keep as much pressure against the drill as I could. When I was as close to the tunnel as I could get, I turned around so my backplates were against the drill and braced my pedes against the side of the tunnel and pushed.

The dramatic increase in strength that my pedes allowed me to use against the drill allowed me to push the mining machine back to the position it was in when Ironhide was helping me and hold it in place. I didn't know how long I could keep the drill in place, but hopefully I could keep it there long enough for Arcee to get out.

After I braced myself against the tunnel wall, I looked over toward Optimus to see how he was doing against Megatron. The moment I looked at the Prime and the Decepticon leader, I was instantly amazed.

Optimus and Megatron were not far from where they had their brief stand-off. They were fighting alone, because no one in their right CPU would have dared to come between them. Their frames were a blur of silver, red, and blue as they punched and kicked at each other. Their swords were almost invisible due to how fast they, hacked, slashed, and stabbed at each other, while dodging and blocking their opponent's attacks.

In essence, their battle was as awe-inspiring and terrifying as the two bots fighting it.

My observation of the battle between Optimus and Megatron was interrupted when Arcee comm-linked me. "Finally got the fragging thing and sub-spaced it. I'm on my way out." She said, then closed the link without waiting for a response.

A micro-klick after Arcee comm-linked me, I looked down and to the left and saw the blue and pink femme pull herself out of the air pocket and then crawl out into the battle just a few feet away.

Once Arcee was clear of the drill, I let my pedes go limp and rolled away from the mining machine as it covered the air pocket, and took cover behind one of the boulders directly in front of the drill.

"We need to get out of here. Like right now!" Arcee yelled to me as she took cover beside and deployed her Photon Burst Rifle and blindly fired around the rock.

"Agreed!" I yelled back. "You call for a ground bridge, I'll let Optimus know we've got what we came for!"

Arcee nodded opened a communications channel to base as she fired a few more bursts around the boulder. "Arcee to base, we need a ground bridge, now!" She shouted, then closed the channel without waiting for Ratchet to respond.

Once Arcee closed her channel to base, I opened a comm-link with Optimus. "Optimus, we recovered whatever's causing the energy pulses, the ground bridge will be here at any moment," I said, then, knowing he was a little busy at the moment, closed the link with that.

No sooner had I closed the channel, did a ground bridge appear off to our far left, right next to Ironhide and Chromia, who quickly got into a defensive position to cover the escape of anyone who retreated through the green portal.

After the ground bridge appeared, I looked at Arcee. "You're carrying the object, that means you go first." I said, then pulled my Nucleon and Ion Displacer off my backplates.

Arcee nodded once. "Give me some covering fire," she said as she turned toward and ground bridge and bent her pedes in preparation for a sprint.

"On it," I replied as I leaned slightly and blindly fired a long burst from my Ion Displacer around our boulder, sending hundreds of ion bolts toward the mass of Decepticons and causing their fire to ebb for a brief moment. But a brief moment was all Arcee needed.

The instant I started to fire my Ion Displacer, Arcee was already moving toward the ground bridge. She rolled from one boulder to the other, sprinted through areas that had no cover, and vaulted over everything that got in her path until I saw her reach her sister and Ironhide and disappear into the green portal.

After I saw Arcee enter the ground bridge, I looked to see how everyone else was doing.

Optimus and Megatron were still battling each other with all they had, but Optimus was starting to intentionally give a little ground so he could keep Megatron's attention away from us while he slowly got closer to the ground bridge.

Everyone except Optimus were still firing at the Decepticons, but they had clearly seen the ground bridge. And they were slowly making their way toward me by having a few bots lay down covering fire while the others moved up, and then the ones moving up would get into cover and give covering fire to the bots originally firing moved up.

My fellow Autobots repeated this process until they were so close that Prowl and Bulkhead had to take cover behind the same boulder as me.

"Shadowstreaker, fire your Nucleon at the canyon floor, the smoke and dust from the explosions will allow us to advance without being seen." Prowl ordered as he leaned out of cover and fired a few bursts from his Photon Burst Rifle.

I acknowledged Prowl's order by leaning out from behind the other side of the boulder and firing my Nucleon at floor of the canyon. My shot exploded spectacularly and caused a cloud of smoke, rock, and dust to be thrown up in the air, nearly completely blocking the Decepticons on the other side of the canyon from view. I fired another shot at a different area of the canyon floor, and another, and another, until the entire area from where we stood to the ground bridge had so much dust in the air that what light from the Sun remaining in the cycle was almost obscured from sight, and prevented us from seeing more than ten meters in front of us.

After the dust hung over the area for a couple micro-klicks, my fellow Autobots stopped firing their weapons and waited for the Cons to lose track of where we were.

And sure enough, the Decepticons soon stopped firing their weapons as well, leaving us free to get to the ground bridge, for the moment anyway.

Prowl tapped me on the shoulder-joint after the Decepticons stopped firing. "Go, Shadowstreaker, we'll follow after you." He said quietly, obviously not wanting to give away our position now that the battlefield was almost completely silent, other than sound of the continuing fight between Megatron and Optimus somewhere in the dust cloud.

Nodding, I stepped out from behind the boulder and made my way as quietly as I could in the direction I knew the ground bridge was, with my fellow Autobots following behind me.

Other than the noise of Megatron and Optimus battling, the canyon was locked in a tense silence as we crept through the dust cloud. But it seemed that Prowl's plan was working like a charm, and not a shot was fired in our direction.

A few micro-klicks of sneaking through the dust cloud later, the light from the ground bridge became visible and quickly materialized in front of us, with Ironhide and Chromia still in a defensive position on either side of it.

I stepped off to the side to allow everyone else to enter the ground bridge once we reached the green portal.

Prowl went in first, followed closely by Bulkhead, then the twins, who were being supported by Moonracer and Bumblebee. Springer was the next one to enter the ground bridge, and I ignored the glare he sent my way as he walked passed me, Jazz followed him, then Jetfire went through, and Flareup followed him, then Smokescreen followed her.

I waved Elita, who was the last Autobot in line to enter the ground bridge, forward, but she shook her helm.

"I'm not leaving yet," she said firmly, and then turned toward where the sounds of the Prime and Megatron in battle were coming from, clearly having more than just a professional concern about Optimus' safety.

I didn't attempt to argue with Elita, Ironhide and Chromia weren't leaving either, and I wasn't going to leave without making sure Optimus was as well, and I would have done the same with if I hadn't seen one of any of my fellow Autobots enter the ground bridge. Even if Springer was the one not with us. Sure, he and I got along as well as oil and water, but that didn't mean I was going to leave him to be offlined by Decepticons. That wasn't how I was.

The four of us only had to wait for a few micro-klicks, because out of the dust cloud came the sound of a fist punching a faceplate, which was followed by the solid thump of a heel kick and a pained cry from Megatron.

The running frame of Optimus slowly formed out of the dust cloud a micro-klick after Megatron cried out, and the Prime came to a halt next to Elita.

Once Optimus arrived, Ironhide and Chromia finally moved from their defensive position next to the ground bridge and entered the green portal, and they were followed by quickly followed by Elita, then Optimus, and finally me.

Just before I stepped into the ground bridge, I heard Megatron give an enraged yell at the fact we managed to escape, but it was cut off when I finished stepping into the green portal and disappeared.

---

December 23, 2012 3:47 P.M

Autobot base, outside Jasper Nevada

After I exited the ground bridge, I saw everyone besides Springer, who was leaning against the wall with a look of disinterest on his faceplate, and Optimus, who was walking a few meters ahead of me, had been facing the ground bridge and waiting for the Prime and I to step out of the green portal.

As soon as Optimus and I stepped out of the ground bridge, Ratchet shut it down by entering a command into his workstation, and then turned and started to walk toward the med-bay. "We can have our debriefing in the med-bay, while Moonracer and I repair these two," he said, pulling a wrench out of sub-space and hitting the twins in the back of the helm as he passed them on his way into the hallway.

"Watch the paint," Sunstreaker said in a weaker voice than usual, clearly in severe pain from his injuries, as well as those of his twin.

No one said anything after Sunstreaker spoke, we merely walked in silence as we followed Ratchet to the med-bay.

When we reached the med-bay a short and uneventful walk later, the med-bay door opened automatically and Moonracer and Bumblebee set the twins down on two different medical berths, then the rest of us filed through and picked a spot to stand that wasn't in Ratchet or Moonracer's way. Not an easy task, considering how many of us there were.

"So," Ratchet began once we were all in the med-bay, picking up a medical tool from a table and beginning to work on repairing Sideswipe's injuries, while Moonracer attended to Sunstreaker's. "What was causing the energy pulses?" He asked.

Every optic that wasn't busy repairing the injuries of the wounded turned to Arcee for answers.

The blue and pink femme took a step forward. "This is what the energy pulses were originating from," she said, then opened a sub-space pocket and pulled out a crystal.

The crystal Arcee pulled from her sub-space was orthorhombic in shape, looking like two equally-sized pyramids stuck together. And it was small, only about five feet in length and about half as wide in the middle. But despite its small size, it was shining an unbelievably bright white. It was so bright in fact, that I had to restrict the amount of light my optics were taking in to even look directly at the crystal.

As I looked at the crystal, I got the sense it was old, incredibly old, and powerful, CPU-bendingly powerful. It was immediately clear to me that this crystal was far more than what it appeared to be.

But to Miko, who was sitting on Bulkhead's shoulder-joint with Jack and Raf, it was just something cool-looking, and she was staring at the crystal and didn't seem to care how bright it was. "Oooh, shiny!" She said in typical Miko fashion, eyes wide with wonder and excitement, while also likely trying to figure out how she could find a way to get the crystal from Arcee so she could hold it.

Ratchet turned from his repairs to Sunstreaker and raised one of his optic ridges slightly at the sight of the small crystal in Arcee's servo. "Are you sure that is what was causing the energy pulses, Arcee?" He asked with a tone that was somewhere between amusement and curiosity.

The femme I had fallen for didn't respond, instead, she just put her servo out and let go of the crystal, turning her servo at the last moment to make sure it fell sidesways. But instead of falling to the floor, the crystal fell for about ten feet before it started to hover in place and then right itself so that one of its pyramids was pointed arrow-straight at the med-bay ceiling. After it corrected itself, it started to rotate slowly as its hover changed between ten and twenty feet off the med-bay floor, staying in place as it did so.

Everyone except Arcee stood in a shocked silence for several micro-klicks, and I was shocked along with them. I had done more than a little research on Cybertronian technology, and while it was very common Cybertronians to use anti-gravity fields, it was unheard of for something to have an anti-gravity field without even appearing to be equipped with a device that created such a field, let alone be as small as the crystal was.

After the silence continued for a couple more micro-klicks, Arcee gave Ratchet a dry look. "Yes, Ratchet, I'm sure." She said, tone as dry as the look on her faceplate.

The blue and pink femme's words seemed to break all of us out of our stupor, and Ratchet abandoned his repairs of Sunstreaker for the moment and walked over to the floating crystal and started to scan it.

As Ratchet started his scan of the crystal, I realized something Arcee said in the canyon didn't make very much sense to me and looked over at her. "Wait a klick. If the crystal can hover on its own, then why did you say it was stuck, Arcee? Wasn't it just hovering in the air pocket?" I asked with a confused look on my faceplate.

Arcee shook her helm. "When I found it, it was being held in place by a metallic orb that was producing some kind of magnetic field, it only started to hover when I got it out of the field." She explained.

Her explanation confused me even more. "But how was a magnetic field keeping the crystal in place?" I asked. "Crystals aren't even magnetic."

"I'm just telling you what I saw, I have no idea." Arcee replied with a shrug.

"I do," Ratchet said as he looked at his scanner, causing every pair of eyes and optics to shift to him. "Well, I have a clue." The white and red medic added when he noticed everyone looking at him.

"And what is this clue, Ratchet?" Optimus asked from where he stood next to Elita.

Ratchet typed a command into his scanner and its display changed to a series of charts that only someone like Moonracer or him would have understood. "My scanner says that the crystal is actually made out of a metal alloy it is identifying both as ferrous and non-ferrous, but it is also identifying it as a crystalline solid. It says that the crystal is both a synthetic creation and an organic formation. It is identifying it both as energon and Dark Energon, but also not even energon. It is identifying the energy the crystal is giving off as dark energy, and yet it is also idenfying it as gamma radiation-"

"In a language we can understand, Hatchet," Sideswipe interrupted from his medical berth.

Ratchet sent a glare Sideswipes way for the nickname, but just shook his helm and answered. "The crystal shouldn't even be in existence, and yet here it is. I believe it was created by someone. The question is by who, when, and why." He said, looking down at his scanner again and typing in a few more commands.

"Maybe the Thirteen created it?" Bulkhead offered hopefully.

"Possibly," the white and red medic answered. "But until Moonracer and I can figure out what it even is, anything's a possibility."

"Then the crystal is under your care until you are able to determine its origin and purpose, Ratchet." Optimus said to the white and red medic, then looked at the rest of us. "Autobots, we will continue this debriefing at a later time. Dismissed." He turned around and walked out of the med-bay with that.

After Optimus left, everyone who wasn't a medic or a patient slowly made their way out of the med-bay until only Arcee and I were left.

"Want to go use the combat simulator?" Arcee asked. "Sideswipe and Sunstreaker have been bragging all mega-cycle about how their high scores for partner-based simulations aren't going to get beaten-"

"That's because it's true!" Sideswipe interjected from his medical berth.

Arcee looked over at the red twin briefly befor giving me a smirk. "I think we should prove them wrong, don't you, Shadow'?" She asked.

I smiled. "It couldn't hurt to try, let's go." I said, turning around and walking toward the med-bay door with Arcee following me.

It was a short walk from the med-bay to the elevator, and after we both got in the elevator, Arcee pushed the button for the Safe and the elevator started to move down.

Arcee and I descended into a comfortable silence after the elevator started to move, but I made sure it didn't last very long, because this was pretty much as perfect a time as to give Arcee her birthday present as it got.

"Hey, Arcee." I asked to get her attention, and continued once she turned her helm toward me. "Happy birthday." I said with a smile.

The femme that had captured my spark gave an exasperated sigh. "I haven't mentioned my creation day at all when you're around. How'd you even know it's my creation day this cycle?" She asked in a tone as exasperated as the sigh she had given, but I could tell by the look in her optics that she was more shocked by how I knew it was her creation day than annoyed.

"I accidentally heard Elita and Chromia ask you what you wanted for your creation day," I answered, keeping the smile on my faceplate. "And I'll have you know, I didn't go down to the armory and get you a gun, that's just being cheap and lazy." I added, then opened the sub-space pocket I put the musket in and reached inside to grab it.

Arcee sighed and looked away for a moment. "Why is it that everyone around me wants to get me a present?" She asked, more like talking to herself than speaking to me, and then looked back at me. "Look, Shadow'. It was really nice of you to get me a gift, but I don't nee-" Her speech come to an abrupt halt when she saw me pull the musket out of my sub-space.

I held the tiny, inert weapon out to her. "Happy birthday," I repeated my earlier statement, then set the musket down in her servo.

After I set the musket down in Arcee's servo, she stared down at it blankly, as if she was confused and in complete disbelief, which had me worried. Either she was stunned that I had given her something she couldn't actually use, or she had no clue what the musket was.

When she continued staring the musket until the elevator arrived at the Safe, my smile fell and I cleared my throat to explain. "That's a-

"Revolutionary War musket," Arcee finished for me. "I know. You got it when we found that weapons stach a couple mega-cycles back, you got really excited when you realized what it was." She looked up at me. "You love this antique, why did you give it to me?" She asked with an unreadable emotion filling her voice and optics.

I immediately crushed the urge to say 'Because I love you more', and allowed my smile to return to my faceplate. "You're my partner, Arcee. Sure I love that antique, but I wasn't going to not get you a present, especially one you weren't going to like." I replied, then quickly added. "You do like it, don't you?"

Arcee didn't respond for a long time, she just kept giving me the same unreadable look. Finally, she blinked and looked back down at the musket. "I do like it, Shadow'. I love it, in fact," she said with a smile, though it seemed false, like something she just found out troubled her.

I let the false smile go without asking about it. "Then let's go and see if we can break the twin's high scores, it would be nice to see their egos deflated, even for just a solar-cycle or two." I said, still smiling as I turned and walked out into the Safe and headed for the combat simulator.

Had I still been in the elevator, I would have seen the sad and regretful look Arcee gave my backplates before she sub-spaced the musket and moved to catch up with me.

---

Alright, so Springer's an aft *What a shock*, Jazz has made it his mission to get Shadow' and Arcee under a Mistletoe, the Autobots have recovered a crystal, whose purpose they do not know, Shadow' and Arcee had a semi-fluffy moment, and... Well, I leave that last paragraph to your own interpretation... Though I left a clue about as subtle as a hammer. Lol.

This chapter's credit song is "Saosin - You're Not Alone" It really suits the last scene of the chapter, especially the very end.

So, please be sure to leave a review and thanks for reading. I'll see you soon.