"Where did you come from Steele?" Bulkhead asked the young, baffled mech as Ultra Magnus prepared the ship for take off. Miko, out of the Apex Armor, stood behind him watching Steele cautiously. Steele, on the other hand, was more baffled why everyone was staring at him. "I thought only Miko and Tobit were on the surface?"

"What I wanna know is what happened before we got to you two?" WheelJack jumped in, standing next to Bulkhead.

For a moment, neither of the boys spoke. Steele felt more like he would be in trouble if he spoke first,especially since the adults were tense when they got on the ship. He risked a glance up at Bulkhead, then he quickly looked away. The tension grew heavy and dense, and Steele kept his head down, and his mouth valve shut unless he was spoken to directly.

Tobit, on the other hand, had a lot of questions he wanted to ask Steele, and the adults. He didn't really know what to say, however, he knew WheelJack and the others wanted an explanation to Steele facing Starscream and nearly won. So, he decided to search for a loophole in Bulkhead's question in hopes of avoiding the question. "Well...we were, we just bumped into pipsqueak here on the way." Tobit paused, playfully elbowing Steele with a forced grin. Bulkhead glanced over at a preoccupied Steele, sitting quietly in a corner. He looked up startled when Tobit wrapped his arm around Steele's shoulder pads. "My kid brother appeared out of nowhere, and just in time, too."

"Fill us in on the battle stuff later, kid." WheelJack walked up behind Bulkhead with hard, expressionless optics. He tried to keep his attention on both mech's, but it was difficult for him to not glare at Steele expecting him to suddenly turn into that fighter. Tobit cowered down slightly seeing WheelJack's firm expression, he knew both he and Steele were in for a lecture. "What I wanna know is-"

"Tobit, why is your mouth valve covered in energon?" Ultra Magnus interrupted, getting up from his seat and turned to face the Tobit and Steele. He paused, studying Steele who kept his dangling down like he was about to go into power down mode. For a few moments, Ultra Magnus was struggling to hold back the intimidation stare he would give to those under his command. At the same time, he was shocked to find the youngest sparkling had some how sneaked aboard, and somehow managed to defend himself against Decepticons like a well trained warrior. Looking at Steele now, it was hard for him to see the small bot even holding up the sword and shield, let alone use it in defense.

Tobit's smile quickly dropped and his optics shot down to his landing pads in shame, he had completely forgotten the energon mess around his mouth valve.

"Oh...um...yeah, about that..." Tobit chuckled nervously, swaying back and forth, rubbing the back of his helmet as he described his encounter with the Vehicon, and how he saved Steele. Of course, he made sure to sound as boastful as possible. However, so he wouldn't be in any more trouble than he already was, he kept what he had seen past firing at the Decepticons to himself. He hoped Miko wouldn't say anything either, but she has kept her distance from Steele since she hopped out of the Apex Armor.

"You faced a Decepticon on your own?" WheelJack asked, a hint of impressed in his words. Ultra Magnus and Bulkhead were silent. Bulkhead just wasn't certain how to react; it was incredible that a small bot like Tobit had managed to fight and survive without any of their help. But he didn't exactly want to influence him. Ultra Magnus, on the other hand, fought back his pride in his youngest grandsparkling. Tobit reminded him of a younger WheelJack; impulsive, full of pride, always looking for trouble. Something he wasn't ready to deal with again.

"If you wanna put it that way, I guess all three of us did." Tobit grinned proudly at Steele and Miko. "And we didn't use an ion blaster. I gave him the sword and shield, he looked pretty bad arse."

"Language." Ultra Magnus and Bulkhead said simultaneously while WheelJack was trying to hide his smirk.

"And we took down Starscream and his goons! Pretty impressive if I do say so myself."

"Do you even know how to use an ion blaster?" Bulkhead exclaimed, wondering which was more shocking; learning Tobit fought a Decepticon or that Tobit knew about ion blasters.

"Well, yeah-"

"Whoa...wait...wha... h-how do you know how to use an ion blaster?" Bulkhead asked in wide optic disbelief. He didn't wait for Tobit to answer before he continued. "Wait, don't tell me. Jackie?"

Tobit hesitated, then nodded. Bulkhead glared icey daggers at WheelJack. Realizing he was caught, WheelJack rolled his optics, landing on Tobit.

"I told you not to rat, tattle tale." WheelJack scolded. Tobit chuckled softly, WheelJack wasn't really scolding him, he was just trying to ease the tension Bulkhead had towards him. WheelJack turned his attention back to Bulkhead.

"Jackie," The heaviness in Bulkhead's tone was intended to make WheelJack cringe, or at least have him acknowledge he was in trouble. "What are you doin' teaching him about weapons? He's a little young for that isn't he?"

WheelJack's optics glowered heavily at Bulkhead's question. Energon boiled inside him, he took a few moments to gather his thoughts before he spoke. "Ya can't be serious, Bulk."

"Well, yeah! I'm serious! Tobit's not even a decade old!"

"And we weren't even a decade old when we fired first ion blasters. In fact, we were younger when we got those blaster as gifts from your carrier." WheelJack's words were hot and spiteful. Of course, he didn't want to mention Bulkhead's carrier. Actually, he had a lot of respect for her. But he had to make a point.

"That was different time, things are...just not the same." Bulkhead went silent for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain. Back when he was living with his carrier and WheelJack was living with them as a sort of Sparkling Foster Care, they were given weapons for means of defending the ground beneath their landing pads. How WheelJack was given a grenade, Bulkhead had no clue. He remembered what life was like as a sparkling on Cybertron; constantly watching his back, always had some kind of weapon hidden somewhere on his husk, rarely ever left the house without his carrier. Things back at home were much more restricting, terrifying and bloody. Tobit and Steele have no idea just how lucky they are to have this life. "Jackie, we were living in constant fear, we always carried weapons whether we wanted to or not. Besides, my ma didn't give you a blaster. That was your dad before another deployment with my dad."

"Why do you say we are lucky?" Steele asked, finally lifting his head up.

"And you're saying that war has ended?" Tobit added, raising an eye brow arch knowingly.

"Well..."

Bulkhead became speechless again, it was one thing explain the time differences to one sparkling, much harder to explain to two with very different and yet similar questions. They had a point, but he certainly didn't want to admit it and have this go to their head.

"I can see we've made our point." WheelJack broke the silence, patting Tobit's shoulder pad. "Thanks for the help, kiddo."

"Jackie!"

"Cut it out, Bulk." WheelJack walked past Bulkhead and Ultra Magnus to the front of the ship, watching the sky pass by them in the window. "Don't sound like lil' mama, I got a lot to explain to her already."

"But...wait, you don't mean me?" Tobit asked in a panicked tone, his optics wide in fear. He had hoped that he would be allowed to join on this mission with the Wreckers, and his mother would be kept in the dark. Ever since they lost the base, Bianna has become much more protective of her sparklings. Especially Tobit since he was considered the 'baby'.

"The dents and holes in your head is gonna raise some concern." WheelJack answered over his shoulder pad. "And I'll have to talk to Smokescreen and Tier, they're gonna wanna know where Steele's been for the last half a solar cycle."

"But why tell mom everything Jackie?" Tobit began thinking of an innocent excuse, anything to ease his mother's rage and his punishment. "Can't I say I fell down a cliff or something without mentioning Decepticons?"

"Take it from me, Toe, moms are good at sniffing out a lie."

"But what if she grounds me? What if I can't ever go with you guys again?"

"That is a risk we will have to take." Ultra Magnus finally spoke, turning back to his seat at the front of the ship, pressed a button on his ship, and the ship picked up pace slightly. Then he spoke over his shoulder pad. Bulkhead turned his attention to the mess Tobit caused attempting to reach any of the weapons earlier. "And there are some concerns to bring up with one carrier."

Tobit groaned like a teenager grounded from his video games for the weekend. Sighing, he flopped down on the floor next to Steele with a pouty expression. Steele slid closer to Tobit, so that the adults wouldn't hear him. He leaned closer, and kept his voice level at a whisper. "The adults are staring at me since we got back on the ship, Tobit. It's a bit unsettling, weird. Did I do something wrong?"

The question felt like a load of bricks in Tobit's fuel tank. He sighed heavily, leaned against the wall and rubbed his faceplate. He focused on the ceiling, he couldn't bring himself to How could he answer this question without hurting Steele's feelings? Without him thinking he's a monster or some kind of a freak?

"WHOA!" Tobit screamed, suddenly shooting forward, and stumbling over Steele. Then he heard a blast, a loud bang, and Tobit and Steele were shot back into the wall. Tobit stumbled onto his landing pads, pressing against the wall for support. Bulkhead quickly scooped up Miko, holding her close to his chest plate while trying not to fall over himself.

"Brace!" Ultra Magnus shouted, preparing his ship for battle and then veered sharply to the left. Tobit screamed and tripped over Steele, both struggled to hold their bodies still while the ship was being hit from all corners and Ultra Magnus was steering the ship left and right. WheelJack jumped back and wrapped his arms around Tobit and Steele, keeping them still.

Tobit and Steele stared at each other in utter horror. Another blast rocked the ship, causing both boys to yelp in fear and shut their optics. Tobit remembered the ship was still flying over one of Earth's oceans, and thanks to his Earth Lessons, he knew many of them were hazardously deep and, most of it, unexplored. Neither one of them wanted to know if they sank or float, worse, stuck at the very bottom of an unexplored part of any ocean. Tobit had seen his fair share of 'monsters in the sea' movies, and didn't want to experience first hand if those creatures existed. He could feel the ship moving faster under his landing pads, Steele's loud whimpers and cries, Bulkhead and Miko's screams WheelJack's strong arms protectively wrapped tightly around him was his only comfort. Steele gasped and cowered deeper into WheelJack's chest plate as if to hide from all of it. Tobit's system turned ice cold, his optics watching every corner of the room.

We're gonna die, we're gonna die, Tobit cried in his thoughts.

Finally, things gradually calmed down. The blasts had ceased, Bulkhead and Miko had stopped screaming, and the ship began to fly much smoother. Tobit felt brave enough to open his optics and look up. Steele was still whimpering and trembling, but his optics were opened and he was still in WheelJack's arms.

"I think it's alright now." WheelJack whispered, unwrapping his arms. He dashed over to the monitors and began scanning the ship for a damage report. Steele cowered into a wall, slid down and wrapped his arms around his knee pads. Bulkhead set a nauseated Miko on the ground and went to aid WheelJack. Ultra Magnus was at the front of the ship, piloting the ship. Tobit slowly walked up to him, expecting another attack with each step.

"We're ok now, right gramps?" Tobit asked Ultra Magnus, standing next to him. Then his optics went wide in shock.

The base was gone.