Chapter 3: Gearing Up For The Heist

The next day, Wrangle and the twins were inside one of the spare rooms the Academy gained from Citadel Secundus. A lot of these rooms had pretty much been converted into guest rooms for when other bots came to visit the Academy for more than one day, some with more than one stasis pod. Such was the case with the room Wrangle and the twins were in. They were going over the plan they were discussing in the prologue. Wrangle had even brought the layout of the Iacon Vault with him when he and the twins arrived.

"Alright, you guys remember the plan, right?" asked Wrangle.

"Yep." said Blinker. "Break into the vault, get what we're after, and get out."

"Good." smiled Wrangle.

"But, I did have some questions about it." said Ripple.

"What are they?" asked Wrangle.

"Well, first of all, how are we even going to get inside?" asked Ripple. "And what if someone sees us?"

"Hey, he's right." said Blinker. "I don't think we ever discussed that."

"That's about to change." reassured Wrangle. "From what I've heard, one of our new friends, "Hoist" I think his name was, is pretty handy with tools, and even has his own workshop for tinkering with gadgets and inventing stuff, so I'm thinking we could ask him to design some kind of gadgets for us to use in our upcoming heist."

"Works for me." shrugged Blinker.

"Yeah." agreed Ripple.

Just then, they heard footsteps.

"Someone's coming!" gasped Wrangle. "Quick! Hide the plans!"

With that, they hastily stashed their plans in a closet in that same room. Just as they were closing the closet, the door buzzer rang.

"Come in!" said Wrangle.

The door opened and Whirl came in.

"Hey, Wrangle." Whirl greeted with a slight smile on her face.

"Well, well, look who finally decided to come and say "hello" to their old buddy." said Wrangle.

Wrangle then turned to the twins.

"Would you guys excuse us, please?" he asked. "Whirl and I would like some "catching-up" time."

The twins nodded and went on their way. Wrangle then invited Whirl to sit next to him on his stasis pod, which she did.

"So, Whirl, how've you been?" Wrangle began. "It sure has been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, it has." replied Whirl. "How've you been?"

"Just fine." said Wrangle. "You?"

"I've been great." said Whirl. "Ever since I came here, I've become really close to all my friends here, especially Hot Shot."

"Oh, yeah, I've heard you two are an item now." Wrangle said. "I just wanted to say, congrats."

"Thank you, Wrangle." said Whirl. "By the way, Wrangle, can I ask you something?"

"Sure." nodded Wrangle. "What's on your mind?"

"Are you, you know, still mad at me?" asked Whirl.

Wrangle was confused. Of course, he knew what Whirl was talking about, but didn't want her to know that.

"Mad at you?" he asked. "What for?"

"For getting you expelled from Police Academy all those years ago." said Whirl.

"Oh, yeah, that." chuckled Wrangle. "Don't worry, I'm not mad at you anymore."

Whirl was surprised.

"You're not?" she asked. "But what about what you said about getting back at me?"

"I only said that out of anger." replied Wrangle, who was obviously lying. "Besides, I realized how stupid I was back then and decided to turn my life around for the better. I wasn't so sure about trying to get back into Police Academy because of what I did, so I decided to join a different law enforcement school."

"That sounds nice." said Whirl. "What school did you end up joining?"

"The Academy of Cybertronian Law Enforcement." replied Wrangle. "And there, I actually started hitting the books and really pulling my own weight when it came to homework assignments. That's actually where I met Blinker and Ripple."

"I guess the other guys were right all along." Whirl thought. "Maybe Wrangle has changed for the better after all."

"So, what about you, Whirl?" Wrangle then asked. "What have you been up to since we last spoke? I mean, aside from the boyfriend stuff with Hot Shot, that is."

"Lots of things." said Whirl. "Earth is a very cool planet from my experiences. I think you might like it, too."

"Yeah, I guess I might." agreed Wrangle.

Just then, Whirl noticed that the Autobot insignia on Wrangle's left wing looked like it was starting to peel off, and she could make out a speck of purple under it.

"Uh...Wrangle, I don't mean to alarm you, but one of your logos is peeling." she said.

When Wrangle looked and saw his peeling logo, he hastily stuck it back into place. Whirl could tell that he was a bit distressed as he did so.

"That's strange." Whirl said to herself. "Why did he act like that? It was like he didn't want me to see what was underneath the logo."

Just then, Whirl heard her comm chirp, and when she answered, she learned the caller was Chase, who told Whirl he needed her help with something. Whirl responded accordingly, and after saying goodbye to Wrangle and that she would talk to him later, she left, and Wrangle commed the twins and told them they could come back, which they did.

"Alright, she's gone." said Wrangle. "And she still has no idea what we have in store for her."

"Great." said Blinker.

"So...when are we going to talk to that "Hoist" guy?" asked Ripple.

"Since you brought that up, I guess we should do it now." said Wrangle as he got up. "Come on, let's go."

And so, they left the room, and soon found Hoist in the lounge, sketching out another painting on a new piece of canvas.

"Hey there." said Wrangle as he and his friends went up to Hoist. "Hoist, right?"

"Yep." nodded Hoist. "What's up, Wrangle?"

"Me, Blinker, and Ripple want to ask you something." said Wrangle.

"Okay." said Hoist as he set down his things. "What is it?"

"We were wondering if you could invent some gadgets for us." said Wrangle.

"I suppose I could." shrugged Hoist. "What sort of "gadgets" do you need?"

"We need a grappling hook launcher, a laser cutter thing, and a mind-erasing device." said Wrangle.

Hoist was surprised at these requests.

"What do you need those things for?" he asked.

"Oh, no reason." said Wrangle.

"Yeah, no reason at all." added Blinker.

Ripple just nodded. Hoist could sense that something fishy was going on, but decided not to question it.

"Well, alright." he said. "I'll see what I can do. Follow me."

With that, Hoist took Wrangle and the twins into his workshop, where he began sketching out blueprints for the things Wrangle and the twins had requested. Once the blueprints were drawn out, he began gathering up the tools, materials, and parts he needed, then got to work building them. Eventually, they were ready.

"Alright, here they are." said Hoist.

"Ooh, can I try out the laser thing?" grinned Ripple.

"Sure." said Hoist. "Let me just find something to use as a target."

With that, Hoist began looking around for some object Ripple could use to cut with the laser. Blinker was annoyed at this.

"But I wanted to try it out!" he argued.

"Well, I asked first!" Ripple fired back.

"I thought of it first!" Blinker continued. "Now give me that!"

Blinker tried to grab the cutter from Ripple, but in the process, the laser went off, and its red beam sliced through a wrench on a tool rack, sending the severed portion falling to the floor with a clang. Hoist heard this and was most annoyed.

"Blinker! Ripple!" he shouted. "I needed that!"

"Oops." said Blinker.

"Sorry, Hoist..." added Ripple.

"Apologies aren't necessary." said Wrangle. "And here's why."

Wrangle then held up the mind-erasing device, which he then zapped Hoist with, and Hoist's expression changed from anger to confusion.

"What as I mad about?" he asked.

"Excellent." Wrangle thought. "The mind wiper works!"

Wrangle then spoke out loud again.

"Thank you, Hoist." he said. "You're very helpful."

"Um...you're welcome?" replied Hoist. "I'm sorry, who are you again?"

"I'm Wrangle, remember?" Wrangle said.

"Oh, that's right." laughed Hoist. "Silly me."

"Anyways, we better be going now." said Wrangle. "Come on, guys."

And with that, Wrangle and the twins gathered up their new toys and left the workshop, leaving Hoist behind. It should go without saying that Hoist was pretty confused and suspicious about their plans.

"Something tells me Wrangle and his buddies are up to no good." Hoist said to himself. "I better be careful around them. In fact, I'm now beginning to reconsider my first thoughts about them."

Meanwhile, Wrangle and the twins were back in their room and were continuing the discussion of their plan.

"Alright, now that we've got these, here's how we'll carry out our plans." said Wrangle. "First, we'll use the grappling hook to get up on the roof. Next, we'll use the laser cutter cut a hole in the roof to get inside. Once we locate our prize and grab it, we'll use the grappling hook again for a quick getaway."

"But what if we get caught?" asked Ripple.

"That's when the mind wiper will come into play." said Wrangle. "We'll use it to make whoever catches us forget they ever even saw us."

"Oh, right." said Ripple.

"Oh boy, this is gonna be so epic!" grinned Blinker.

"Yes, it is, Blinker." said Wrangle. "Yes, it is."

End Of Chapter 3