So we're at over 2,500 views and almost 50 reviews! That is pretty awesome! Anyways I just wanted to let you all know how well the story was being received! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!

Almost immediately after activating the electromagnetic disruptor I noticed something was wrong. My HUD, AKA my only way of activating and deactivating my body functions such as comm. link, and what I was now using was gone. I could no longer see it. This meant that I had no idea how to change back either. "Uh oh..." I gulped.

Sides cocked his helm to the side curiously. "What's wrong Clare?"

"Umm my HUD disappeared. How do I change back without it?" It was freaking gone! Like so gone that it was like it had never been there! What the heck was I supposed to do now? Was there even a way to change back without the HUD? Somehow I knew that at this point even if there was I wouldn't be able to figure it out.

"Oh scrap." Sides mumbled. "Your new upgrades must have glitched for some reason. Slag! This means that we have to take you to Ratchet."

My jaw dropped, not that he could see it, as I sputtered. "What?! He'll squish me with that wrench!"

"No he won't. He'll probably hit me with it but I'm used to it." He bent down to scoop me up in his servos with a smile meant to reassure me obviously. "Everything will be ok Clare. I can still sense your heat signature so as long as you stay close there should be no problems."

I would have nodded if I had not remembered that he could not see it... Instead I slumped down into his chassis and pressed my face against it. "Ok." I mumbled grumpily.

We walked briskly towards the med bay with dread welling up inside...well inside me at least. Sides looked pretty worried though so I figured that he was was probably imagining his soon to be wrenching courtesy of Ratchet. I wondered if Ratchet would be angry about this little mess we just caused? Somehow I got the feeling that he would not be pleased.

Sides walked into the med bay and called out. "Ratchet? Clare had a little accident."

There was no response. I saw Sides furrow his optic ridges as his optics dimmed down signalling that he was using the comm. link now to ascertain where Ratchet had gone to. I sat there nestled safely in his servos while he conversed or whatever.

It was while he was doing that the med bay doors slid open revealing Sunstreaker. He took one look at Sides standing there and raised an optic ridge at him. "Sides what the slag are you doing standing here? Ratchet, Ironhide, and Optimus went to apparently meet some new arrivals or something."

"HI SUNNY!" I yelled startling him ya know since I was invisible and all. He scowled.

"Where the slag is Clare?" Then his optics shifted and zoomed in on the space where I was being held, and his helm tilted in towards me as well as he sniffed at me. "What the slag? Clare?"

"Yup!"

"Do I wanna know?" He sighed and leaned back against the wall for once not even looking angry, instead he just looked exasperated.

Sides optics brightened back up. "I didn't even know that there were any new arrivals coming. Why didn't Optimus tell us?" He pouted. One of his fingers, AKA digits, came up to play with my invisible hair like it was the coolest thing ever. "And what are we supposed to do with Clare until Ratchet gets back?"

Sunstreaker shrugged. "I just found out about the new arrivals too, but I don't think Optimus knew until today when we picked them up on our scanners. Apparently they were coming in hot too so they left to meet them. As for Clare, well she's stuck until Ratchet comes back. Luckily Jazz is due back any klik now, he'll know what to do with her."

I pouted. "Everyone wants to get rid of me..."

"What do you expect?" Sunstreaker smirked at me. "You're annoying."

I gasped and pointed an accusing finger at him. "AM NOT! And I'm pointing at you right now you buttfuck!"

Sides shook his helm. "What is with all of these words you use?"

"I'm just cool that's what's up with my words!" My body flopped back to sag against Sides' chassis as I lay there slumped in defeat. What the heck was I supposed to do until everyone came back so that Ratchet could fix me? Would Sides leave me behind if he wanted to go and do something? "So what do we do until Ratchet comes back?"

"Well I'll keep you with me until Jazz comes back." Sides shrugged. "Then we'll take it from there." He turned to his twin after lifting me onto his shoulder. "Did anybot tell you how far out the new arrivals were? How long do you think it will take?"

Sunstreaker shrugged, and you know what I noticed when he did that? That he looked exactly the same as Sides when he did that! Oh I was getting off track again when I had to listen to Sunstreaker. "They weren't far out actually. From what I was told they were near the military base on the mainland that sees to our air travel needs. So maybe a groon."

An hour?! I was going to be stuck like this for an hour?! I growled and smacked myself on the forehead repeatedly. An hour of being stuck invisible?! What if I got lost or something?!

"Clare don't hit yourself." Sides laughed at me moving to make me stop beating on myself. His first attempt missed as I was freaking invisible, but the second attempt he was actually able to grab my arm gently and put it down to my side. "We'll figure something out! And look at it this way!" His look turned devious and from the corner of my eye I saw Sunstreaker tense. "You're invisible. That means we can prank everybot on base and get away with it!"

My eyes widened as that revelation hit me. "YEAH WE CAN! LET'S GO AND PRANK THE SOLDIERS!"

"Yeah let's do it!" Sides cheered and together we tore out of the room like a bat out of hell.

Immediately an idea hit me. "Sides let's go grab a white sheet from my room!" He turned in that direction and suddenly took off at a much faster and smooth pace. I looked down at his peds and instead of being how they normally were there were now wheels on them instead. Since when could he do that?

He didn't give me time to question it when he slid to a stop in front of my door and sat me down. "Hurry up Clare!" He gently pushed me inside.

I bounded inside and grabbed a white sheet off of the bed and ran back over to him so that he could lift me up onto his shoulder again. We turned and raced past Sunstreaker who was following after us for some reason. I waved at him temporarily forgetting that he couldn't see me. When I remembered that I just shrugged, 'it's the thought that counts.'

We took off down the hall towards rec room where a mess of human soldiers were making a ruckus. "Ok Sides sit me down and watch! They're gonna piss themselves!" I cackled madly, shrugging the white sheet on over my head I moved forward into the room.

All heads snapped up in my direction as I opened my mouth and unleashed my best imitation of a ghastly wail. "OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH..." Several of them scowled at me, others backed away as if I was insane, and the rest just looked like they didn't know what to think. Epps, who apparently stayed behind when the bots and Lennox went to greet the new arrivals walked over and put his hands on his hips.

"Real funny Clare. Take it off." He looked amused not mad as he reached out and yanked the sheet off of me.

Almost immediately the room was filled with rather girlish screams from at least fifty human men. Epps leapt back and released his own rather feminine scream as a throng of soldiers rushed by to get out of the room and away from the ghost knocking him over in the process. Before they could all get out I ran around the room shaking the tables and throwing silverware and cups while keeping up my ghostly moans and screams.

"Oh my fucking god it's a ghost!"

"Dude I can't handle this I have phasmophobia!"

"I'm asking for a transfer tonight!"

I listened to the screams and shouts of the fleeing men until they disappeared leaving me in the silence of the now empty room. In half a second I was bent over laughing hysterically as Sides stumbled into the room and fell onto the wall for support as he too laughed his aft off. "Oh my god! Oh my god! Did you see that shit Sides?! Epps screamed like a little girl!" My hysterical laughter picked up again as soon as I was finished talking forcing my ass to hit the ground because I couldn't keep myself upright anymore.

Sunstreaker walked in smirking. "Even I have to admit that was funny."

I choked on a laugh and started kicking the table I was sitting near wildly causing it to topple over. I stumbled to my feet and somehow made my way over to fall onto Sunstreaker who was the closer of the two. "Epps...screams...like a...little girl! Didju...see that...shit?!" I choked and sputtered unable to catch my breath.

"Yeah I saw it."

Sides and I finally calmed down after a few kliks of our maniacal laughter. I grabbed my sheet and tied it onto my neck like a cape as I worked to catch my breath. Maybe being invisible wasn't so bad after all? It was actually freaking cool as hell! "So what do we do now?"

It was silent as Sides stared at me. "PRANK WAR!" With that he had turned on his peds and rushed out of the room.

"Ummm I thought he was supposed to keep an optic on me because of my little predicament?" I couldn't resist the urge to giggle at his boisterous aft though. He was adorable and funny on top of being handsome. Call me crazy but I think that I was starting to have a little crush on him. Not that it would ever work out because there would be no just taking one of them, pursuing Sides or him pursuing me would end up with me having to take Sunstreaker as well. And while I would accept that and do my best to care for both, well Sunstreaker did not like me. So yeah, no way would it ever work out.

Sunstreaker shrugged. "That's the least of our worries Clare." He leaned down and picked me up with his ever present scowl on his face. "We should be more worried about what pranks he's going to hit us with." I found myself being deposited on his shoulder as he walked out of the room.

"Hey you're actually talking to me after what happened earlier! Sides said that you would pout and ignore me for a few days at least."

His scowl deepened. "I do not pout femme."

"What you're doing right now could be considered pouting." I pointed out. His suddenly stormy blue optics shot in my direction. I hastened to back track before he tossed me onto the floor and left me to my own devices, AKA Sides' all out prank war. "But then again it looks too masculine to be a pout."

"That's what I thought." He muttered.

I clutched at his helm fin as we walked to ensure that I would not fall if his twin came out of nowhere and pulled a sneak attack of some kind. "So what do we do about Sides? Wanna team up and weld him to something?"

Sunstreaker snorted. "Maybe. Primus knows that it might help straighten him out." We continued walking down the corridor to the supply rooms for some reason, probably to raid what supplies Sides had left behind. Or maybe Sunstreaker thought that Sides would never think to look for us here. The large golden mech took me into a storage room and sat me down on the floor. "Grab anything that looks useful."

Nodding briefly I turned and grabbed paint of various colors, adhesives, titanium cables, a welding torch, and some gas for it. Turning I handed them over to Sunstreaker who did that weird thing the bots did where they held stuff in front of their chassis and it just disappeared. "How come I can't do that?" I pouted. So not fair.

"You probably can. Ratchet just has to show you how to activate your subspace." He muttered distractedly as he took stock of what we had. After looking the rest over he nodded and supspaced it. "Ok we're good. Let's head to the living quarters and set up a spring trap for him there."

"In pink! Then we can knock him out and paint my little ponies all over him!" I got out in a rush after being deposited on his shoulder again.

"My little ponies? What the slag is that?" Sunstreaker grumped as we left the room and started down the corridor again. For some reason I had the strongest urge to laugh when he actually said my little ponies. It was probably the image of such a masculine, good looking mech saying something so feminine and emasculating.

"Umm it's a tv franchise about little ponies in all kinds of girly colors. Can you imagine if he woke up painted helm to ped in girly looking ponies in various colors?" Then again I wasn't very good at painting so maybe it would be better if Sunstreaker did the ponies. "Maybe you should paint the ponies actually. You are better at painting than I am."

He sighed stopping in the middle of the hall so that he could look up what they looked like. It was obvious to me when he found what I was referring to because his entire expression changed to a giant cringe. Then within seconds it morphed into a smug smirk. "Payback for that time that he painted me in my recharge." His optics brightened as we set off again.

"So how do we knock him out?"

Sunstreaker grunted. "Well if you can distract him for me I can get behind him and take him down. That's if you do a good job. If not he'll know something is up."

Well that was easier said than done! "Well how should I distract him?"

"Figure something out." Sunstreaker growled. "I'm not going to hold your servo through all of this femme. Either figure something out or the prank will fail."

I glared at him before remembering that he could not see it. My expression quickly fell into a pout. It kind of sucked being invisible sometimes especially when you wanted to glare at someone and they couldn't see it.

We walked down the hall in silence after that, brooding. I tried to think of what to do to distract Sides so that we could enact my awesome plan, Sunstreaker scowled and grumbled the whole way, and I was still stumped on what to do. Maybe I could let him prank me and while he was busy laughing or gloating Sunstreaker could take him down from behind. That might work! Hopefully whatever prank he pulled wasn't too damaging to my poor little body.

"He's coming this way." Sunstreaker's voice broke the silence.

My head snapped up eyes shooting around wildly. "Ok put me down and let me distract him." I whispered only loud enough for Sunny to hear.

He sat me down and moved into a room to hide. I stood there with my cape draped down to my feet shaking with nerves as the red menace stalked into view with a wicked smirk. That smirk was like the perfect combination of scary and sexy I tell you. I blushed like mad and backed away from his approach so that there was room for Sunstreaker to get behind him. "Sides what are you doing? Don't do anything hasty ok?" I stammered. Fuck acting nervous for the sake of it! I really was nervous!

That smirk transformed into a full out wicked grin. "Don't worry Clare." He cooed at me as he slid forward on his wheeled peds his servo snatching a small paint bomb from his subspace. Well it was small to him! The damn thing would cover me completely! "I'm just going to cover you in this nifty little invention you showed me..." He slid closer to me. "Then I'm going to stick this on you."

My eyes widened in horror when he pulled out a skimpy two piece bathing suit. "WHERE DID YOU EVEN GET THAT?!" No way was I going to put that thing on and prance around with my bits showing! My poor little virgin mind was already shorting out at the thought!

"Well I can't tell you that...it's a secret." He skated a few feet closer to me forcing me to move back to keep the distance... "Now let's see just how pretty that protoform is."

I shrieked in terror as he dashed towards me and like an idiot I turned and took off running like a maniac in the opposite direction. "NOOOOOOOOO! YOU FILTHY PERVERT! YOU'LL NEVER GET ME IN A TWO PIECE SWIMSUIT EVER!"

In my frenzied attempt to get away from him I did not even register the loud bang or startled curse coming from Sides. I kept running actually until I ran smack into something hard which sent me sprawling back on my ass. Familiar silver paint was the first thing that I saw upon opening my eyes, those normally visor covered optics wide and staring at the space where I was. "Opi!" I shouted in relief.

"Sweetlin'?" He questioned warily bending down to scoop me up. "Wha' happened ta ya?"

"Oh well I activated this thing called an electromagnetic disruptor and it kinda turned me invisible, and well my HUD apparently glitched so I can't turn myself visible again! So I'm stuck like this until Ratchet gets back!"

"Ya 'ave one of 'hose? Dat's cool." He grinned and put me on his shoulder. "So wha' are ya runnin from?"

"Oh Sides..." My eyes widened when I remembered Sunstreaker and my plan! "Opi we gotta go back that way! Come on!" I pointed for a moment forgetting that he couldn't see it, I growled when I realized this and pushed his cheek. "Back the way I came!"

"Ahright ahright! Jus' let meh ge' movin." He took us back to the spot where Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were.

When we got there Sides was laying on the ground unconscious with Sunstreaker rushing to paint him pink. "Come on and help me femme!" He snapped when he noticed Jazz standing there with my sheet hanging off of his shoulder. "If we don't hurry he'll wake back up!"

"Sit me down opi."

Jazz nodded and sat me down on the floor near Sides' helm, but the slight widening of his smile had not escaped my notice. Nor had the sudden feelings of pure unadulterated joy coursing through our bond. [I like it when ya call meh dat.]

Relief shot straight through to my spark. [So I can call you that all the time?] I asked hopefully.

[Yup of cou'se ya can mah spark. Ah am yo'r opiluck so i's only natural dat ya call meh dat.]

I grinned widely, not that anyone could see it and joined Sunstreaker in painting Sides dark purple. My happiness and joy was like a tangible force seeping out of me and into my only father figure. His acceptance had just made me so happy that I couldn't help myself. It might not seem like much to anyone else but to me he had given me the single greatest thing that anyone had ever given me, a real loving parent figure. And this time I felt for sure that I would not be abandoned by him. Not ever.

[No' eva.] He promised.

My giddiness only grew to the point that I was almost trembling as Sunstreaker and I quickly and efficiently painted Sides pink with my little ponies scrawled all over his front armor. I laughed wickedly as Sunstreaker gave a dark chuckle of malicious pleasure. It made a cold shiver creep down my spine making me tingle.

In what seemed like no time at all we finished our little project and stepped back. "It's perfect." I gasped in awe with tears brimming in the corner of my eyes. "This...is a real kodak moment." I sniffled dramatically.

"Now to take still pictures for blackmail use." Sunstreaker gave a feral grin and the rapid dimming of his optics signalled that he had taken several still photos in succession. "If he ever thinks to paint me in my recharge again I'll use these as leverage to make him rethink it."

Jazz looked back and forth between the two of us in amusement. "Poo' Sides."

My mouth opened as I went to respond only to freeze when Sides groaned and shifted indicating to us that he was coming out of recharge...or unconsciousness, whatever you want to call it. An evil grin spread across my face as anticipation coursed through me.

He sat up rubbing at his helm while looking around curiously. "Uhhh what the slag happened?" The pink gleam from his armor caught his optic literally in half an astorsecond. The next thing any of us knew he gave a startled shout and jumped to his peds. "WHAT THE FRAG?!"

Laughter bubbled up inside of me causing me to double over with hysterical cackles. "Oh my god! This was the best prank ever!" My legs went out from under me sending me tumbling to the ground where I proceeded to roll around and kick my feet like a maniac. "Tha-that's what you get for trying to glue a skimpy bikini on me!"

Sides whipped around to glare at me at the same moment that Jazz murmured, "Bikini? Wha's dat?"

"This means war Clare!" He suddenly lunged at me making me squeak as he was suddenly sprawled over me with his knees on either side of my invisible legs. Before anyone could react he smeared me in the purple sticky paint he had stored in his subspace, and then too fast for anyone to even hope to stop I found myself plastered onto the top of Sunstreaker's helm.

"SIDESWIPE!"

"SIDES NO!" I cried as my chin and front became stuck to Sunstreaker's helm. Literally I could not move an inch unless I wanted to tear my skin off.

Said bot grinned evilly at our new predicament. "Paybacks my femme are a glitch."

Before I could react Sunstreaker roared and launched himself at Sideswipe. I screamed as the body I was stuck to crashed into Sides sending them both crashing to the floor where they proceeded to roll around like barbarians with me stuck in the crossfire.

A jarring impact sent horrible vibrations through me when Sides slammed his fist into Sunstreaker's cheek. I squealed and forced myself to keep my eyes open so that the sticky paint wouldn't glue them shut as well. But it was freaking scary being this close to two giant titans brawling when I literally had no way to get away, BECAUSE I WAS GLUED TO ONE!

Sunstreaker reached out and started smacking Sides' helm into the floor before Sides retaliated by stiff arming him so hard that he fell to the side.

He rolled right over onto my right leg nearly crushing it, or maybe he did. I released a pained shrieking sound that sounded almost like metal grinding against metal as I felt my limb almost being flattened.

Immediately several things happened in quick succession. First: the angry roar of an engine drowned out the growling that the twins were doing. Second: Sides' helm whipped in my direction with concern shining in his optics. And third, and probably the most surprising: Sunstreaker quickly reached back in a flash since he could not look at me and gently touched me to see if I was ok. At least that was what I was thinking.

As much as I was thinking when my leg was literally crushed and hurting like a mother fucker. I whimpered fighting back tears that threatened to leak from my eyes as the sound of my leg sparking due to the injury reached my ears...audios.

"Look at what you two did!" My father growled angrily. "You crushed her leg!" His servos tried to pry me off of Sunstreaker but stilled when I released another pained whimper when my skin pulled not so pleasantly. I could clearly feel his anger and protectiveness bleeding through over anything else at the moment. "And now she's stuck to Sunstreaker so I can't even look at it!"

I couldn't see Sunstreaker's face but Sides did actually manage to look guilty. "I didn't mean for that to happen Clare. Are...is it bad?" He shifted closer to us peering at my paint covered sparking leg even though it was hard to see anything with the thick purple liquid coating it.

It felt like something had even torn through the skin and it hurt like hell! I didn't tell him that though. "It's not so bad." I tried to make it sound like I wasn't trying not to cry, but my voice came out nothing more than a pained whisper. Jazz slid in through the bond to help take some of the pain away but it was still strong.

"Ratchet an' da o'hers are almos' here. We shoul' take Clare ta da med bay an' meet 'im dere."

Sides helped Sunstreaker up gently touching me to comfort me as we started walking to the med bay. I gritted my teeth with every step Sunstreaker took, each jostling me and making my already throbbing leg throb even more. Well if I had learned one thing it was never to underestimate Sides' resoursefulness...or Sunstreaker's explosive temper. To do so was to get hurt in whatever chaos erupted afterwards.

As we walked I could only look where Sunstreaker walked since my chin was glued onto his helm. For the most part he looked straight ahead, only at one point changing the direction of his gaze and that was when we walked past the hangar where the others were pulling in. I took in the familiar forms that I knew, along with the three small motorbikes that I did not. One was blue and that one stayed close to Ironhide. Another was purple, and the last was an orange color almost pink it seemed. Sunstreaker quickly looked away in what seemed like disinterest as Ratchet transformed and stomped over to us.

"Move it Sunstreaker!" He snapped. It did not escape my notice that he was still covered in paint from earlier. But I didn't laugh about it.

I don't think that anyone wanted to anger the CMO anymore than he already was because there was not one single complaint or argument between that moment and the one where we arrived at our destination.

In a flash Ratchet was dousing me in some stinky chemical to eat away at the glue holding me to Sunstreaker, who whined that it was also eating away at his paint. I think Ratchet would have smacked him if it hadn't been for me being in the way.

The stuff worked fast but it kind of irritated my skin and made it itch. I didn't like it but it wasn't like I had any choice in the matter. Ratchet pried me off as soon as I came loose, surprisingly gentle too. He sat me on the berth closest and stuck me with another needle.

My vision immediately started spinning...before going dark.

The next time I woke up the first thing I took notice of was my HUD, which I could see again. The second thing that I took in was the fact that I was visible again. The third was that my leg was covered in a thick gauze. And the last was that there was quite a few bots in the room. Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Jazz, Ratchet, and three smaller more feminine looking bots who I had never met before. But they were staring at me curiously and chirping and whistling to each other. I stared at them. They started at me.

They must be the motorbikes I saw earlier...er motorcycles. Their colors certainly fit. Actually they seemed very pretty, slender, and graceful balancing on their single wheel ped. I cocked my head to the side and waved awkwardly.

The purple one slid forward slightly and cocked her helm at me. "You are a femme bot." It wasn't a question.

"Ummm I guess?" I murmured awkwardly. "I actually just found out! Funny thing huh?" Oh crap I was rambling again!

She smiled at me so gently that it surprised me and chirped at me. Something about the sound had me releasing a softer chirping sound in response. Her smile grew as she slid forward and reached out to hesitantly touch me. "You must still be quite young to respond to that sound."

Her voice was so soft and strong at the same time that it momentarily distracted me from what she had said. It took me a moment to say anything to her. "Umm I guess so." I trailed off not knowing what to say to her. Maybe my name would be a good place to start? "I'm Clare in case no one told you that."

"My designation is Arcee." She turned and hopped up onto the berth gracefully seeming to jump from prodding at me like I was the newest toy, to gesturing at the other two femmes who still hadn't moved. "The blue femme is Chromia."

The blue femme nodded at me. She actually looked kinda serious and threatening like Ironhide.

"And the other femme is Flareup. We are triplets."

"Really?" I jolted when she picked me up like a baby and held me in her arms like one even. The other femmes giggled, yes even Chromia and approached us.

"Yes I am the oldest sister. Chromia is the middle sister, and Flareup is the youngest."

When the other two started touching me and looking me over like a cute little puppy or something it made me feel kind of like how I felt when Jazz held me. Kind of like they were older sisters fussing over the little sister or something. Did they treat all femmes like this? "Umm am I really that unusual to look at?"

They didn't even falter in their touching or clicking and cooing. "Your armor is so soft and squishy. How can it possibly protect you during battle?" Chromia poked at my stomach and frowned. "We must get you suitable armor to wear."

"Umm that's just skin...not armor. I don't have any." Her touch kind of tickled. I had to bite my lip to keep from giggling.

All three of them looked at me in surprise before Chromia whirred in frustration. "No no that simply will not do. How are we to teach you how to defend yourself with armor like this? You need a new set."

Defend myself? My eyes drifted over to Jazz one of my eyebrows lifting up in silent question. When he only smiled nervously I figured that he was not going to answer me in any way. I turned back to the fawning femmes with a frown. "What are you talking about?"

All chattering stopped when Arcee turned back to me. "You must be taught how to protect yourself." She responded like I should have known that. "We are at war and all femmes will be targeted including you. When Optimus told us that you were only just out of your youngling frame and thus untrained we offered to oversee your training."

My jaw dropped. "Ummm but I don't even live on base."

Now it was their turn to have their jaws drop. I jumped when Chromia released a series of angry whirs and clicks directed at Ratchet. He returned her angry clicks with his own while the rest of us just sat there confused, or maybe I was the only one that was confused. When Chromia turned to me and I found myself on the receiving end of that anger I found myself wanting to shrink in on myself. "That is not acceptable! You are young and untrained!"

"Well yes I know that. But-"

She cut me off. "I am going to speak to Optimus and my sparkmate about this!" With that she was speeding out the door in an angry whirl of color leaving me to stare after her warily.

"Note to self: do not anger the blue chick." I muttered. Everyone present minus the femmes chuckled at me for my comment.

"No I would not advise it Clare. However she does have a point about you not being able to defend yourself." Ratchet wandered around to my side and plucked me out of Arcee's hold so that he could set me down and check my leg.

OMG! When he peeled the bandage off literally all my skin was gone! I released a startled yell in turn startling Ratchet who was looking me over. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY SKIN?! IT'S COMPLETELY GONE! THIS REMINDS ME OF THAT ONE SCENE FROM THE TERMINATOR WHERE ARNOLD LITERALLY TEARS THE SKIN ON HIS ARM OFF RIGHT IN FRONT OF THAT MILES TYSON GUY AND HE'S LIKE WTF?!"

Ratchet optics narrowed. "How did you expect me to repair the damage without removing it?"

"YOU RIPPED MY SKIN OFF?! SHIT RATCHET THIS ISN'T SAW!" Funnily enough I didn't feel pain from my obvious lack of skin...

"I have a saw." He trailed off confused and irritated. Oh my god there were cables and stuff like moving and shit! AND HE WAS LOOKING AT THEM LIKE THAT WAS NORMAL...WELL MAYBE TO THEM IT WAS! BUT TO ME IT LOOKED LIKE I HAD WORMS LIVING UNDER MY SKIN!

"That's not what I...I know that! It's a movie series with this fucked up guy that like makes his victims mutilate themselves to escape from his game! It's totally messed up! I was just saying that my leg looks like something from one of those movies!" Ewwww things were moving like worms! I could even see blue stuff pumping through the tubes and cables and shit... I poked one curiously making its wiggling even more pronounced. "Oh my god it's...like a giant worm."

Something collided with the top of my head making me yelp. "It is not a worm femme. It's an energon artery cable."

Had he just hit me with a wrench?! I looked up at the wrench in his servo incredulously. "Did you just hit me with that?!" I heard snickers from over in the direction of the other mechs probably from Sides and Sunstreaker.

"Yes I did." He sat his wrench down beside me and rewrapped my leg in some fresh gauze. "Well femme it seems that you will have to stay on base for at least a few more days thanks to your immature prank war. Your relays were almost crushed along with most of the joints. But that's what happens when a twenty foot tall mech rolls on a minibots leg." He slanted a look at Sunstreaker who actually managed to look sheepish.

"The prank war was sooo not my idea!" I protested with a pout. No! Now I was stranded on the base for even longer! I was going to fall even further behind in school! Aunt Judy might even extend my sentence! But it wasn't like I could do much chores with a bum leg. "And it was an accident Ratchet! Sunstreaker didn't mean to roll over onto my leg."

"Be that as it may Clare, if they had been acting responsibly your leg would not have been crushed."

I glared at him reaching for his wrench while he was distracted. Once I had it in my hands I waited until he finished tying my knot and went to lean up then... BAM! I brought it down on top of his helm hard enough to leave a good sized dent. He stumbled back in surprise and clutched at his dent with wide furious looking optics. "Payback for hitting me with it." I stuck my tongue out at him.

We stared at each other while everyone else just stared in shocked amusement, me thinking that maybe smacking him was not such a good idea when an absolutely furious expression morphed his facial features. Then in a split second he rushed me and grabbed at his wrench. I squeaked and held to it wrapping both arms and my one good leg around it as he tried to shake me off. "AHHHH HE'S GOING APE! SAVE THE LITTLE PEOPLE FIRST!"

He tried to grab at me but with surprising speed I scurried down his arm and over his shoulder. "FEMME!" It was all but an angry roar as he grabbed for me again when I scrambled down his back plates like a freaking monkey.

"Do unto others Ratchet!" I slid down onto the floor and hobbled over to hide behind Sideswipe who was closest to me. Said bot scooped me up carefully grinning like mad. Probably because I had wrenched Ratchet thus giving him a taste of his own medicine.

"Don't do anything hasty Ratchet." Sideswipe made sure to cover me as much as he could with his servos. "She's hurt. If you hit her you'll only make it worse."

Ratchet hardly seemed to look away from me long enough to acknowledge Sides. He was practically filling the room with hot air from his vents. "All of you get out of my med bay!" He suddenly roared and launched a wrench at Sideswipe.

I squeaked in surprise when Sides dodged by tucking tail and running out of the room. The hallway passed by in an incomprehensible blur until it all came to a stop when we made it to a room in the living quarters. He quickly slid inside but left the door open. It only took me a moment to realize that he had done that because his twin was right behind us. The door slid shut once all three of us were in the room.

It was quiet...and then both of them exploded with laughter. "You-you hit Ratchet with his own wrench!" Sideswipe howled. He fell onto a large metal couch laughing hysterically. Sunstreaker carefully sat down on the other side shaking his helm at his twin.

"No one has ever done that before?" I sat up as best I could with my leg so stiff and throbbing.

"No! Nobot has ever dared to try and turn Ratchet's wrench on him!" Sideswipe sat up maneuvering me so that I was sitting on his lap with proper support for my leg. His optics shined brightly as he peered down at me.

"Well he deserved it." I defended myself. In my opinion he did deserve it at least.

Sides' grin only widened even more. "He did. Still it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen."

"Agreed." Sunstreaker nodded.

I shrugged my shoulders carelessly. "Well like I said he deserved it."

My mind wandered back to what Chromia had said earlier about training and stuff. I wasn't sure that I had what it takes to be a soldier of any kind if I was being honest with myself. What if she insisted on it and I got forced into it? I couldn't see myself shooting anyone or harming them for no reason or even to defend myself. Hitting Sam was one thing since it was all in good fun or to admonish him for being stupid, it was another thing entirely to fight against others who could actually fight. Not only that but who had thousands of years of fighting experience. How did a sixteen year old girl...er femme even stand any sort of chance? It made me nervous to think about.

"Hey Sides?"

His optics had never once strayed from me while I sat here mulling things over in my own head. "Yeah Clare? Is something bothering you?"

I was honestly embarrassed about voicing any insecurities in front of them because they were so strong and skilled...and me? I was just a femme that had been abandoned. Who didn't know the first thing about fighting in a war. "Umm..." I chickened out last second and spat the first thing I could think of. "Where did Jazz go?"

He shuttered his optics in a blink obviously not expecting that question. "Blocked the bond?" He questioned.

Not really... I just didn't want to admit to being scared of training and fighting, at the same time I also didn't want to lie to Sides. "I didn't check...I just wondered why he didn't come too." That was at least kind of true.

"I think he needed to talk to Optimus about something. It shouldn't take long though Clare it's pretty late after all."

"Oh." A quick check of the little clock on my HUD told me that it was actually after ten o'clock. So yeah it was pretty late.

I turned forward on his lap so that I was able to look around the room. There was a small table in front of the metal couch thing which now that I looked at it was actually pretty crude looking. It was obvious that it was a quick put together by either the humans or bots, the same could be said for the table. Other than that there was two berths in the corner near the far wall. All in all the room was pretty empty.

It was while I was looking around that I noticed Sunstreaker staring at me. I raised a brow at him in silent question.

He frowned at me. "You're worried about what Chromia said earlier."

My chest felt like someone had shoved an end of a metal stick into it then shoved the other end into a light socket electrocuting me. That's how nervous and uneasy him being able to tell what I was thinking and feeling made me feel. "N-no." I stuttered.

"There's nothing wrong with feeling that way." He went on to say right over my weak protest. "You're young and everything you thought you knew has changed. You can't live in the peace you existed in before and you know this."

I deflated instantly feeling like a total idiot. "Yes I know...Sunnysideup."

"Don't call me that." He growled as Sides snickered at him. "And this is serious Clare. You need the training that Chromia is insisting on. You don't have to be frontline or anything like that, in fact you're not built for it. But you need self defense training and maybe some weapons training to utilize. That way if it comes down to it you at least have some skill to rely on of your own."

"Gee thanks for the awesome words of encouragement Sunnyboy." I mumbled dejectedly. The way he said that kind of made me feel like some kind of failure or something. I didn't know how to fight or shoot or anything that would make me anything but a hindrance to anyone around me. "So I'm going to have to learn?"

"Yes. I'd bet on Optimus agreeing with Chromia. On weekends when you're here I'd expect them to take you for at least a few groons a solar cycle for weapons training and servo to servo training. For that you'll most likely be with the triplets seeing as how they are more your size. They'll work with you at a pace that you can handle so don't worry too much. You'll either be good at it right away, or you'll be talentless and have to work really hard to even be passable."

With each word I found myself feeling more and more hopeless. Getting down on myself wasn't really something that I did...but there were things that existed outside of my comfort zone, those things being sex and physical violence. Maybe if I wasn't going to be trained to fight giant alien robotic beings who were thousands and thousands of years old it would be different. I was ok with fighting people when I had to, giant alien robots were another thing altogether. "But I don't even know anything about weapons or fighting." I trailed off dejectedly.

"That's ok Clare!" Sideswipe gave me an encouraging squeeze on the shoulder. "It works a little bit differently than how humans learn to fight. What will happen first is Ratchet will do another processor upgrade where he will install combat data packets, and data packs on weapons and the proper way to utilize them. Then once they have settled you can sort through the data and learn different moves and fighting techniques from what he downloaded to your processor. The hard part is learning when to use certain maneuvers and techniques in the field. That is what Chromia and the other femmes will spend the most time teaching you! It's all about learning to implement what you know and when. The rest comes with experience."

"I doubt it's that easy." I tried to smile but I'm sure that it came out as more of a grimace. So I had to go through another processor upgrade before I could even start learning. Something told me that Chromia would be a strict and serious teacher too.

"I'll help you when I can." Sides offered. "Anytime you need advise you can come and ask me."

My smile turned into a more genuine one. "Thanks Sides."

Maybe just maybe I would be ok. I hoped so at least.

Sides seemed to be encouraging and I was sure that Jazz would help me when he could.

Yes maybe things would be alright. They had to be...

I hoped they would be.

R&R! I hope you guys liked the prank war and everything! So the Arcee triplets are in the story now as well! I know that in the movie it was Elita-1 and not Flareup but I really wanted to change it so that Flareup was the third sister. So there! Now for some reviews!

1234Devyn- Lol! Yeah she's amazingly funny! And yes I will keep writing!

cmfanreidsgirl- Lol definitely will have her use it to prank Skids and Mudflap after I bring them in!

DinahDeath- I will thanks!

HearstGuardianSol- So she kinda got her just desserts lol. And nope no plane for a few chapters! XD

SoulGlitch- I love those ending words lol. What's the worst that could happen XD! Well I guess we know how bad they can get!

himelove22- Lol well it wasn't her painting Sunny all sorts of different colors but I hope that Sides getting painted pink with my little ponies on him was good enough XD. And I am thinking about what other mods I want to have Clare use later. I was thinking the magnetic manipulation like Jazz. Can you imagine all the trouble she would cause with that?!

Muirgen79- Thanks!

Izzy-dragon-rider- Nope no relation to Mirage. In my mind more than one bot can have certain abilities. Clare just was born with the electromagnetic disruptor only she just never knew about it. And yes everyone should run for their lives XD!