AN: You know what's more annoying than writer's block? Having ideas out the wazoo, but all of them being on areas that are later in on the story! It's been a little over two weeks, I know you guys must be dying for your injection of TC. Good news: Christmas break starting Friday! One of my reviewers threatened me in a very humorous way, so I thought it time to update. BARRY TURNED AGAINST ME ;_;

Reviews: 19 in total! Woohoo! Thanks a bunch, guys, I love getting responses from you all. Thanks to everyone who reviewed!
Kit Williams: Sparkling size: Big enough to grab and hug Miles, like I have in the one chapter. So about a child's size, if not a bit bigger. Anywhere from 8 to teens, I guess.
Sharta: I honestly laughed at this, so thanks a lot! But now you can't kill me anymore, so there!

Chapter 46
Bears, dogs, and groundhogs

Miles had looked everywhere, but he just couldn't find what he was searching for. The mess hall, Barricade's appointed bedroom, outside, the human rec-room, Orion's room, and anywhere else that he could think of. Finally he ventured into the Autobot rec-room, seeing Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Skyfire's holoform, Sam, Epps, Mikaela, and Wheelie. In the corner of the room was a large cardboard box, this being about as big as Bumblebee, though it's larger side was against the ground.

"Where's Barry?"

"He did not tell you he was leaving?" Skyfire's holoform asked, currently sitting next to Mikaela. He had expected that the ex-con would, being the teenager's Guardian.

Miles simply stared.

"Soundwave, the Cassetticons, and Barricade all went to meet up with the others. Apparently a Decepticon, one of Barricade's old team, wished to meet with him, and the other Decepticons here on base, to decide which side he should be on. The designation is Ground Hog." Optimus told him, everyone else knowing already. Sam had even been woken up to be told.

"Old team?" Mikaela asked, looking at Sam to see if he knew. He just shrugged.

"The Race Track Patrol, right?" Miles questioned, getting a nod from Optimus. "Barry mentioned it before, briefly, and he never really explained it."

"It was mostly ran before the beginning of the war, and the early years when we were still on Cybertron. Basically it's like human race tracks, without any rules. As fast as possible, no restrictions. Bets could be made, and it was big among fighters, gamblers, and racers alike. Megatron closed it down after so long, not liking the damage it was doing to his Decepticons. To make sure it stayed down he selected Barricade, the leader, as a Scout, and kept Barricade with him." Optimus explained, Ratchet nodding beside him.

Bumblebee gestured to the box, "That is for you. Barricade said you weren't allowed to open it until five minutes before we plan to communicate with them."

Four surprised humans, and one minicon, turned their heads to the box. Silence for just a moment, and Ratchet was grinning. He loved it when you could practically see a human's wheels turning.

"I think Cade's defective. You need to get a new 'con, Miles." Epps grinned.

Miles ignored Epps, "When can I open it?"

"We'll be contacting them at 3:30 p.m., so you may open it at 3:25 p.m. It is 7:45 a.m. right now." Bumblebee told him, trying not to grin. He could just see what was coming, and he wasn't disappointed.

"But that's forever from now!" Two voices whined, Sam joining his best friend in doing what teenagers did best.

Skyfire looked at the two, obviously interested by their capability to talk in unison. Bumblebee merely snickered.

"What are you two doing?" Skyfire inquired, attempting to peer down at the piece of paper Sam was writing on.

"Trying to make sure Miles doesn't drive himself bonkers before the appointed time." Sam replied, grinning.

The two were in the cafeteria, mostly ignored lunches beside them. Miles was leaning against Sam, and both were focused on a single piece of paper.

"We're listing all the Cybertronians on base, thinking of the ones who might be coming, and then adding in humans." Miles explained better, knowing that leaving the Scientist hanging would just result in more questions.

"Why?"

Sam shrugged, "Why not? We're bored, and it gives us something to think about. Then we can compare it to the known forces of the Decepticons on Earth, and who might be coming."

Skyfire sat down in front of the two teens, nodding. It made sense.

"What do you have so far?" The Scientist asked.

"The Cybertronians on base: Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Jazz, Bumblebee, First Aid, Blaster, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Skids, Mudflap, Inferno, Red Alert, Prowl, Blurr, Trailbreaker, Orion, Grimlock, Swoop, Snarl, Barricade, Soundwave, Ravage, Ratbat, Laserbeak, Wheelie, and you. Twenty eight in total, only one of those, Orion, incapable of fighting. It would be preferred that Ratbat not have to, but if needed he can. Grimlock, Swoop, and Snarl would need to be trained." Sam read off the list, glancing up at Skyfire.

"We also expect Bluestreak, Tracks, Mirage, and some of the femmes to be arriving at some point. Namely Arcee, who counts as three for some reason. Not to mention the rest of First Aid's group, the Protectobots. Streetwise, Groove, Hot Spot, and Blades." Miles added in. "So that would make thirty-six plus, and thirty-five able to fight if needed. Then there's also Ground Hog, who may or may not be joining us."

Sam nodded, "The orga-humans on base: Miles, Mikaela, Trent, Maggie, Glen, Will, Epps, Fig, Graham, Sarah, Annabelle, and myself. This is based on who's here the most, not counting the other NEST members who are kind of like background fuzz."

"The Decepticons we have down are," Miles continued, "The one Megs and Screamer answer to, Megatron, Starscream, Shockwave, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Hook, Ground Hog, Motorhead, Rollerforce, Ramjet, Thrust, Dirge, Motormaster, Dead End, Breakdown, Drag Strip, Wildrider, Mixmaster, Scrapper, Onslaught, Reflector, Vortex, Scourge, and Swindle. We know that Menasor can be formed, and that's twenty-five in total. More is rumored to be coming."

Skyfire leaned back in his seat, thinking. "Menasor will definitely be a threat unless we can get all of the Protectobots here. We do not know much about the mystery mech, but if Megatron answers to him, then he is obviously very powerful. I do believe I heard his name tossed about, though. The Fallen. I have already informed Optimus Prime of this. The Seekers will be a problem for the ground mechs, and we do not have many Dewingers in stock. If the Aerialbots arrive, they will be easier to manage, but I heard rumors that all had been destroyed long ago."

"Wheeljack will hate that," Sam sighed, taking a sip of his apple juice.

Skyfire simply nodded. At the beginning of the war, with most of the Seekers on Megatron's side and more and more of the Autobot Seekers dying out, Wheeljack had helped to create the Aerialbots. Basically Seekers, but rid of the Seeker coding to all but each other. It was rumored that their sparks had been fresh from the Allspark at that time, which helped explain their behavior, but those were just rumors.

There was silence for a few minutes as Sam continued to scribble little notes down on the piece of paper, Miles occasionally stealing the pencil to add something in. Skyfire decided it was safe enough to voice one of his other questions.

"What could Barricade possibly be giving you?"

Miles grinned, "Sam thinks it's a life sized plush doll version of himself, Bumbebee holds the opinion that it's an elaborate plan to finally get rid of my annoying aft, Ratchet just laughed, Epps agreed with Bumblebee, and I'm not sure what I think. Stuff keeps going around in my head, but I have no idea."

"And it's driving him crazy." Sam said, smirking.

"Damn Barry can still surprise me. That's not fair." Miles groaned, letting his head slump on to the table dramatically.

Six minutes to 3:30 p.m., and Ratchet, Bumblebee, Optimus, Skyfire, Epps, Will, Graham, Sam, Miles, and Orion were all gathered back into the Autobot rec-room. Miles was safely on Optimus' servo, the Prime giving him a small boost up so he could open the box easily. Optimus had his helm turned the other direction, pointedly staring at Ratchet, half to annoy the easily annoyed medic, and half so that Miles could be the first to see his present.

"3:25!" Sam said, perched on Bumblebee's shoulder.

Miles opened the cardboard box, and he stayed silent, just staring inside.

"Well?" Epps urged. He had a running bet on Will with this thing, something along the lines of Barricade finally accepting he has a good spark, and he wanted to know.

Optimus could feel Miles slipping off his servo, and everyone could see and hear him land in the box. After a few seconds there was choked sound, as if he was forcing himself not to laugh at something he found funny.

"Epps, you were wrong. He's not defective, just a fragging aft!" Miles called from the inside. Optimus fished him back out when he asked, and Miles held up a tiny deck of cards. "They have dogs on them."

They all looked, Will, Epps, Sam, and Bumblebee laughing. Ratchet merely rolled his optics while Optimus grinned. Orion laughed because others were laughing, feeding off their joy.

Poor Skyfire and Graham were thoroughly confused, however. The entire Mason incident had to be explained to them, and how Barricade had finally gotten around to getting Miles back, basically by completely screwing with his mind.

At 3:31 they made the connection, a little distracted by explaining everything and trying to kill their own amusement. The line was straight to Barricade and Soundwave, and Miles was naturally the first to speak as soon as Bumblebee indicated that they could.

"Aft."

"You didn't like my present? I'm hurt." Barricade tried to sound slightly hurt, but a smidgen of smug was sneaking through.

"I loved the box, but you seemed to have left your playing cards inside of it. Want them back?"

A snort, "No thanks. You can keep them."

"If you two are done," Soundwave cut in, pausing. Neither Barricade or Miles spoke up, though a tiny growl could be heard. "Prime: Ground Hog returning to base with us. Query: What would you have us do?"

"Disable his weapons, for the time being. Shorten his comm range to a five mile radius, that will cover the entire base. If he needs to leave we can link it to certain mechs, most likely Barricade. Have him checked over by Ratchet, given energon, and then allow him to meet the organics. Barricade, I would like to request that you stay with him when he meets them, and goes for energon. If he wants to see Orion he is not allowed to be alone with him, and someone else has to be within a grabbing distance. Ratchet can handle Ground Hog on his own."

"The Deluxe Decepticon Welcoming treatment?" Barricade asked sarcastically, "You got it."

Ground Hog had just been released from Ratchet's tender care, sporting several new dents and scratches, but passing the standard bill of health for a Cybertronian, if not in need of a good drink of energon. He had just arrived on Earth the day before Skyfire had left with Sam and Miles, and had spent all of that in stasis being worked on by Hook. After finding out that Barricade was with the Autobots, of all things, he had snuck off when everyone was more interested in another fight between the SIC and leader of the Decepticons.

He had found the traveling group of Autobots, and had declared peace towards all of them, asking to speak with Barricade, Soundwave, or both. The group had waited in a rarely visited forest for the two ex-cons, and then had begun to move once more when Ground Hog had decided that he would give Decepticon-Neutrality a try.

Ground Hog was walking next to Barricade, talking to his old team leader in Cybertronian, when he noticed an organic heading towards them. He had never seen one of the dominant organics up close before, and stopped to pay the thing more attention. Barricade stopped beside him, looking down at the organic.

"Hey, Ground Hog, I'm Miles." Miles grinned up at the newcomer, "Nice to meet an old friend of Barricade's." The teen figured he could avoid using his preferred nick name for Barricade for a bit around the newest arrival, thinking he deserved that much after his little prank.

"He's a friendly socket." Ground Hog commented, smirking at Barricade. He didn't even bother using Cybertronian, nor did he bother to respond to Miles.

"They are not sockets, Ground Hog. That is something you are going to have to learn fast if you want to have a peaceful stay here. Each of these organics have more to them than appears. I already told you how they took down some of us in Mission City."

"Smart sockets, then." Ground Hog replied, reaching down and picking Miles up by the back of his shirt.

Miles naturally struggled, "Barry, teach your friend some manners!"

"Barry?" Ground Hog laughed, dropping Miles in his other servo. "You're soft on this one!"

"Ground Hog, put him down." Barricade growled in warning, watching him poke at Miles again. Ground Hog was usually the well behaved one out of their old team, playing medic whenever they needed it.

"Why? Is it your favorite little socket? Does it entertain you when you're bored? Don't tell me you're starting to develop that special taste for socket relations." Ground Hog smirked, not paying any attention to the organic starting to move on his servo. This would prove to be a mistake, the mech crying out more in shock than in actual pain, a moment later.

Miles had reached into the gap that revealed some of the inner workings of Ground Hog's wrist, most usually used by medics or himself to patch anything up. The teen had grabbed a handful of sensitive wires, along with an energon line, and pulled hard. It was enough to shock Ground Hog into dropping him, not bringing him any huge amount of pain. Barricade had caught the teen effortlessly.

"He, you dumb aft, I'm a he, though I do have a name. I could have yanked out that main energon line, and believe me, Ratchet would show you even less pity than he did the first time around. And I get that having your old team leader and friend being on the opposite side, and then joining the opposite side yourself, may be a big change and you may be questioning your own decision, but no one or mech is going to put up with a bad attitude for long, so you better suck it up soon. This was your decision, and now you're going to have to deal with the consequences like the big mech you are. This happens to mean learning how to play nice with us tiny organics." Miles ranted, glaring up at Ground Hog.

Ground Hog simply stared back in surprise, before turning red optics to Barricade. "I can see why you like him."