Sideswipe and Sunstreaker both drive in a dune, snickering and laughing while they try to out speed each other. The two were going stir crazy while being cooped up in the base. Prime was hesistant in letting the two go on patrol together. Mainly because the two were known for causing more trouble that way. In the end, it was unanimous, only to get them outside and away from the others. Letting off steam was the best way to keep them calm.

Finally, Sunstreaker transformed out of his vehicle mode and tackled Sideswipe, causing him too to transform into his own robot mode. Sides got Sunny in a headlock once they got up.

"Say uncle," Sideswipe said.

"Over my dead chasis," shouted Sunstreaker.

"Say it!"

"OWOWOWOWOW Wait! Wait a click!"

"Nice try, but ya gotta say it."

"Fine! Uncle!"

The red Autobot finally releases his grip. "See, no harm, no-"

"Shh!"

Sunstreaker stood up as he ran over to a rock for cover. At first, Sideswipe wasn't sure what to make of his actions. Then he heard it. A scream? Explosion? It was far too small to be a Cybertronian. No, it was a human no doubt. He rushed behind a rock as well, following his brother's lead. The two creep closer and closer to the noise. Smoke starts to come into view signaling them there was a fight ahead. Each pull out a blaster or riffle, preparing to aim at any enemy that would appear.

Coming upon the source of the noise, a large cave is in their sights. Equipment and rails show signs of a mining operation. Humans run around, trying to hide from laser fire. It follows up to three, mischievous seekers, who look pretty bored. Skywarp, Thundercracker, and Starscream. What a day they were about to have. The twins look at each other eagerly, planning their attack. Once agreed, they get into position with Sides preparing to charge out.

"Go on, scram ya vermin," shouted Skywarp.

"'Vermin'," questioned Thundercracker.

"Trying something new. Like it?"

"Stick to the traditional smack talk, making words up isn't exactly your style."

"How about you both shut up and get the mines prepared for extraction," barked Starscream, "Megatron will be waiting for us to give the all clear before we-"

Fire comes from the sides as Sunstreaker stood on a higher ground, raining fire on them. Skywarp goes for the shot, but gets tackled by Sideswipe before he could fire. Thundercracker rushes over to pull the red Autobot off of Warp. Starscream transforms into his jet mode and flies upward to shoot the yellow Autobot down. Sunny dashes to cover, attempting to take aim at his wings. Behind him, Skywarp appears and knocks his weapon out of hand. The two start to fight, giving Starscream the chance to assist Thundercracker who was being pinned by Sides. Transforming back to his robot mode, he pulls the Autobot off of his comrade and flies off.

"Take care of the other one, I'll deal with this one," Starscream shouted.

Understanding, TC dashes off. Sides takes aim and shoots near Starscream's face plate, causing the two to land. Sides stands up and aims his weapon at the seeker who begins to stand up and face him.

"Should have gotten back up while it was still an option, Screamer," said the red Autobot.

The seeker smirked as it seemed they engaged in conversation. "I could say the same, Autobot. Two against three is usually a poor choice in tactics. Is Optimus truly too busy to babysit his own mechs for one hour?"

"Funny, I could say the same for you and Megatron. I highly doubt he would trust you with an operation like this without supervision."

"Funny. Forgive me if I have forgotten to laugh. I'm more interested in your demise."

The two charge at each other as they rush at each other with all they had. Their hands slam right into each other with the clang of metal rumble like thunder. Pushing back, all of their strength went into it. Their glares made contact, either growling or snickering.

"If ya know what's good for ya," Sideswipe snarled, "you might as well run off before I rip off those wings of yours."

"You sound confident for someone who is doing this alone. Not even Sunstreaker could save you now."

"A load of bull, as the humans say. Your sorry aft has been beaten on many occasions, and you honestly think that you have a chance of defeating me."

Breaking connections, Sides gives a hard kick into Starscream's side, pushing him back. While the seeker stumbled back, the Autobot pinned him to the ground and aimed his pistol right at his forehead. Silence at first claimed the scene. It didn't take long though, before the conversation continued.

"No Decepticon could defeat me. Not even Megatron has a chance against me."

Starscream snickered. "Oh really. Tell me, what is the one thing that Autobots have in common?"

Humoring the seeker, Sideswipe thought about it, keeping his aim right on it's mark. "Hope . . . bravery . . . actual aim." He kept listing things while the seeker merely looked at him with a sinister smile.

"Weaknesses," Starscream finally said.

A shrill, static scream echoes through the valley. Sideswipe looked up in the direction of the noise. It was definitely familiar to him. Sunstreaker was no doubt the one screaming. Distracted by it, he now was making a choice of whether or not to leave the seeker behind to check on his brother.

"Sunny, what's going on," he said into his comm, no reply, "Sunny, respond."

Nothing came. He was actually nervous now. Looking down at the seeker, he noticed he stopped struggling. In fact he was calm.

"What did you do?"

From his back, Sideswipe felt arms pull him off of Starscream. Unable to see who it was, the red Autobot did his best to break free by struggling and attempting to hit him. But before long, Sideswipe's vision began to warp and tingle. Something was messing with his processor as it was now foggy and out of focus. He ceased his struggle and was more concerned about his own central balance. As soon as the moment happened, it vanished as soon as the person behind him let go.

Sideswipe stumbled forward as his processor reset and his vision returned. Now he was in another location, one that was different from where he was originally. This was confirmed by the change in fauna and formations of the land. It was in fact, an open grass patch in the middle of a small forest. Teleportation. Skywarp. Of course. He was about to run off after the seeker, but stopped in place after he felt a crunch under his ped. Looking down, he saw something horrifying.

Lifting his ped, he saw the shimmers of metal and the colors of yellow and black appear in sight. It was an arm. Sunstreaker's arm. Stepping on it had cracked it as it was quite in a poor state with energon leaking a puddle, wires scattered, even a few nuts and bolts. Sideswipe stumbled back, venting heavily to calm down. He could have sworn it had only been a minute at least, how could they have . . . been so . . . quick.

Examining it further, he saw a trail of energon lead him into the woods. With a nervous and anxious filled spark, he ventured. He quickly made a beacon before he entered into the shadows as he knew that he was gonna need back up in case this was an ambush. He heard not too far from him the creaking and clinking of metal, tearing and breaking, making his pace speed up. The trail soon became a more than energon as there was other things found in it. A few more scattered bolts, a couple of shrapnel shards. Even . . . oh primus . . . an optic.

Rushing to the end, ignoring the other parts he saw, his result was far more fearsome than one would assume. As a small break from the trees and branches had granted a small opening again, this time a large boulder stood in the center. Lying right on the side of it was a mutilated Sunstreaker. The energon glowed bright as it revealed his empty optic sockets and missing lower jaw. The chest torn with a slash mark of a blade, revealing his still barely beating spark. His right arm was crinkled and bent, unlike his left which was in no way shape or form there at all. Which was the same case for his legs.

The Lamborghini slowly stepped closer only to collaps on his knees. The longer he stared, the more he wanted to tear up the ground and scream to the heavens. But all he had left was the decencey to at least crawl right up to his damaged brother and use his servos to cradle the faint spark. Though it did not take long before it flicker and fade once it was an inch out of the chamber.

"S . . . sun . . . oh Primus."


Standing tall, looking over the red Autobot, Starscream smirked at his state. It was only a minute since Skywarp shoved that thing into the back of Sideswipe's helm and it was already rendering him helpless. Granted, it took a minute of watching him act out and running around crazy before he crawled up by a rock and crumbled apart. The seekers had no idea what the bot was seeing, and frankly they did not care, as long as the bot was unaware he was still in front of the seekers about to die, it worked for them.

"To think that such a thing would work so well," Starscream chuckled, "guess Shockwave should consider this a successful test."

"The other one is being guarded by TC as we speak," said Skywarp, "we should really just terminate them now instead of wait for the big M to show up."

"But imagine how pleased he would be if we give him two prisoners to which he can torture as he pleases. Surely that would prove more useful than just finishing them off like this. It would be boring."

Warp had to agree that it was a boring thing to just kill them here and now. However, the seeker was not willing to just babysit these two while they were induced in some sort of nightmare fabricated by these . . . whatever Shockwave called them. Still, he knew there was no arguing with Starscream when he was determined like this. Grabbing the Autobot, he teleported over to TC, which was keeping his ped on Sunstreaker, who was intact and curled up on the ground, mumbling to himself.

"What took so long," Thundercracker said.

"You know that I usually lack motivation, TC," Skywarp said, tossing Sideswipe over to the other Autobot.

TC rolled his optics and sighed. The two stood guard and made sure that the two would not escape. It did seem weird that the two would not answer to any threats he made or feel any of his hits or kicks. They were both unresponsive as the device had shut down such systems and kept them in this terrified state, living their own worse fears. It was then the two seekers taking watch noticed a rumbling of engines. Perhaps this was Megatron and the others. No, not even close.

Coming over a mound was the Autobots Optimus Prime, Wheeljack, Cliffjumper, Ironhide, and Hound. They made their charge onto the Decepticons attempting a rescue. Without asking how they knew of their operations, the Two groups clashed and fought. While Optimus and Ironhide took the front, Wheeljack, Hound and Cliff rushed over to the wounded soldiers.

"What in Cybertron did they do to them," asked Hound.

"Something I don't wanna get," Cliff remarked.

Wheeljack took a look around them and spotted the device. "Looks like these two are under some sort of simulation. They don't know what their seeing isn't real."

"Can you get them out of it," asked Hound.

"I'll have to bring them back to base. It would be risky doing it here."

Nodding, the group each try to carry them while hailing down Optimus and Ironhide. They had to make swift work of this and get them out. Skywarp and Thundercracker knew full well that they would hear no end to it if they lost the two prisoners. With that in mind, the seekers did their best to push back. However, Skywarp was getting cocky as he went in to cut down the three Autobots who were carrying the twins. Cliffjumper made his move and grabbed one of Sideswipe's swords and swung at the seeker. The blade sliced through the shoulder as Skywarp's arm fell to the ground, spilling the energon all around. TC reacted and gave a sonic boom to gain distance as the two fled.

"After them," Ironhide shouted.

"Leave them be," Optimus said, "we have injured Autobots. We need to bring them back to base before the other Decepticons come for us."


The medic room was in a bustle while Ratchet and Wheeljack worked on Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. It took them a bit before they finally placed them into stasis due to their unstable state. The twins were truly lost on their illusion. But after deducting possibilities and examining the devices closely, it was then they were able to find a way to disable the devices. Though it took time for Wheeljack and Ratchet to go through wires and circuits before they could fully turn it off and remove it.

Wheeljack smiled when he pulled out the one from Sides, quickly moving over to help Ratchet in his attempts. The collective sigh of relief that absorbed the room was relaxing and reassuring to anyone nearby.

"There we go," said Ratchet, slowly pulling away the device. Upon closer inspection, it was a small disc that had clamps on it's opposite sides.

"Gotta hand it to Shocker, he is one sneaky genius," Wheeljack said, "taking that apart was hard."

"You're telling me," Ratchet sighs, "all we gotta do now is wait for them to wake up."

A groan inturrupts them as Sunstreaker and Sideswipe start to squirm, wavering between online and stasis. Once they slowly sit up, they commit to one and look around. The two looked over at Ratchet and Wheeljack with confused expressions.

"Wh-what happened," Sunny asked.

"What are we doing back at-" Sideswipe was about to finish his statement until he noticed his brother was next to him. "Sunny . . . you're alive! And in one piece!"

Sunstreaker was shocked by the hug and embrace of his brother. "One piece-dude, you were melted in a volcano! How are you alive?"

The two froze in place as they looked at each other, examining for marks or even scratches. Any sort of signs that their claims were true. Instead, they were unharmed. Wheeljack stepped forward with one of the devices in hand to show.

"None of that happened, twins," he explained, "those seekers slapped this on the back of your heads and created those illusions you saw. From the sounds of it, they were terrible."

Sides looked down, venting slowly as he remembered his experience. "Sunny was . . . dismantled. Taken apart. I . . . I felt so sick as I . . . "

Sunny sat by him and gave him a gentle hug. "It didn't happen. None of it was real. You didn't melt in lava, and I wasn't taken apart. We're still here."

The two fell silence as they held each other close. Relief slowly came over them as they took a moment. Ratchet and Wheeljack decided this was best time to leave them be as they took the devices out of the room. They knew Optimus would need to be informed of what this was and how to prepare for it. Knowing the Decepticons, they would use this on the rest of the Autobots while they could. It would spell bad news for them all if Shockwave had more than these two.


"YOU LOST THE PROTOTYPES AS WELL AS THE PRISONERS!"

The seekers shrunk back from Megatron's angered shout. The small Decepticon army that appeared to begin mining the cavern came swiftly after the Autobots retreated. Giving Starscream little time to find a rock to hide behind from his "leader". A report was demanded instantly and it lead to unpleasing results.

"Megatron," Starscream began, "we did our best, but I fear that-"

"It was our fault, sir," Thundercracker interjected, "Skywarp and I were the last line to stop the Autobots."

Megatron frowned at the seekers as TC stepped forward. He clenched a fist, only to step away from them with a growl. Shockwave approached the group with his optic staring them down.

"I would suggest you three would fix yourselves back at the base," he said, "Knockout will have a look at you."

Starscream rolled his optics. "Hey, we at least got to test your stupid gadget, and it worked. Show a little-"

"Perhaps you misunderstand me. You lost my prototype 'Anarchy Disks', lost two prisoners that could help us win this war, and failed to even keep this location secure. If I were to show anything, anger would be the only logical emotion to show."

"Like you have those."

Swiftly, Shockwave grabbed Starscream and flipped him around, jamming another disk in the back of his helm. Pushing the seeker back, Starscream stumbled only to barely stand his ground. Shockwave left him to the device as he walked off towards Megatron. Skywarp and Thundercracker step closer to Starscream to see if he was able to resist the device. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Starscream began to see a dark room. No details other than the metal floors and table just out of sight. Reaching out to it, Starscream was curious to see what was on the table. Closer he got, he saw blue, purple and red parts laying around. However, what he saw next was surely nightmare fuel. It was Megatron with a welding tool, building something. The form was of strange proportions as there were three legs, three cockpits, four arms, five wings, and two heads (one was literally two halves of a head welded together). It looked horrifying as the subject lurched to life and stood up in a zombie like state. Eying the seeker, it stumbled over to him with Megatron snickering.

" . . . " the thing mumbled, static and slurs echoing, " . !"

Behind Starscream were arms that reached out and started to pull on his parts. Megatron slowly approached the seeker with a sinister grin, reaching for a sword that glowed a violent red. It swung around before it went in to stab him. Suddenly, Starscream saw it all leave his sight as he snapped back to reality. Venting heavily, the seeker looked over to Thundercracker, holding the device in servo, and Skywarp, still missing one of his arms.

Straightening up, Starscream looked at them and frowned. "Let's go. Skywarp needs to repair his arm."

The three slowly walked off as they headed to the base. TC and Warp were both silent as they pondered what could have spooked their trine partner so easily. As for Starscream himself, he was occupied by his own words.

Tell me, what is the one thing that Autobots have in common?

"Weaknesses," the seeker mumbled.


A gift to a friend! This was something I thought might be fun to write considering how I now view the seekers and twins. It's like sibling rivalry! It's perfect! Anyways, this was just a one shot and I do not plan on expanding it. But if I do choose to use the Anarchy Disk again, it might be for something interesting. Well, hope you had fun!

I'm rising up and rolling out!