AN: Just here to say I will refer to Makeshift as Wheeljack until he´s discovered and that now you can read about the Makers on my profile. Happy readings!
Their bridge led them straight to Wheeljack but there was no Decepticon welcoming committee when their got there, or rather, there was one but already offlined. When they jumped out, their blasters ready to shoot out the sparks of the offending Vehicons, the last enemy was being taken care of by Wheeljack with a swift skewering motion.
"I taught him that." Bulkhead stated proudly to his teammates.
Wheeljack sheathed his swords and started heading over to his supposed rescue team. "Ever think I might need a hand here."
"What, and spoil the show?"
Arcee put a servo on her hip and pointed at a nearby Vehicon. "You missed one."
The wrecker didn't even bothered to stop walking to shoot the Decepticon that was attempting to get up, going right past the now offline bot as if it was just another normal day for him. "If this is all you got, that planet's in bigger trouble than I thought." He said.
Bulkhead did a double take but only for a split-second. "Jackie!" He ran up to his longtime friend and picked him up, hugging him in a vice grip. The other watched with amused smiles as the scene unfolded in front of their optics.
Wheeljack laughed and let himself remain in his friend's grip. "Watch the finish, you old wrecking ball."
Back at the base all optics focused on the reopened groundbridge and on the now four Autobots that came running through from the other side just in time for the control panel to short-circuit and shut down the green vortex. The bots looked behind them and almost sighed in relief, if they'd been caught inside they may have not been able to come back out the next time the bridge was opened.
Ratchet let out a sigh in resignation. That time a punch would not do the trick and that only meant more work for him. Maybe he should let Doomsday take a look after all, even if just to lessen some of his workload. She was a Maker but also a Forger, a bot gifted with the creation talent of Solus herself, sparked to build and take apart anything she came across.
Bulkhead pulled Wheeljack aside and guided him to Mayhem. "Jackie, come here. Meet my other best buddy, Mayhem. She can wreck with the best of us."
"Hiya." The heavy-duty femme waved in greeting.
The newly-arrived wrecker was surprised to see a seeker and it was then that he realized he'd missed the other bots already at the base. He looked around to see more flyers, among them a sparkling and, out of all things, a triple-changer.
"Did I hit my helm when I landed or something? Hey, docbot, am I seeing straight here?" Wheeljack called to Ratchet who only waved a servo in dismissal at his questions.
"I'm afraid so." The medbot could only hope the wrecker would not fuel to the fire that was the constant noise but gave up as soon as that thought took form. A wrecker that didn't make noise was like a clock that didn't tell time, no such thing existed.
"So, what are ya? Ex-Cons?"
"You make it sound like we're escaped prisoners or something. Did you even look at the symbol?" Mayhem pointed to the black stylized hammer on her armor.
"Well I'll be… Makers. This place just got a whole lot more interesting. So, you keeping Bulkhead out of trouble?"
"I try, but trouble finds us anyway."
"We're gonna get along just fine." He then noticed the Autobot leader approaching him and turned to greet the taller mech. "Optimus Prime. It's a privilege."
"Likewise, soldier. What have you to report from your long journey?" The Prime offered a smile. It had been too long since they'd found fellow Autobots, online ones even for that matter, and had the opportunity to make small-talk.
"Been bouncing from rock o rock, searching for signs of friend or foe. Now, I find both." Wheeljack gestured to Bulkhead and Mayhem.
"We are few, but strong. We have suffered losses, but we have grown. And we would relish welcoming a new member into our fold."
"I would be honored."
"Then let's get this party started." Bulkhead patted Wheeljack on the back, almost making the mech loose his balance from the excessive force wreckers were known to use. The mechs then bumped chassis and laughed, as if it was the old days back on Cybertron.
"Oh, joy." Ratchet knew he may as well give in and ask for help because otherwise no work would be happening on the desperately needing groundbridge. "Doomsday, how's about some help here. Just remember this is a groundbridge, not a weapon."
Doomsday was looking flabbergasted at the wrecker but regained composure at the medbot's words, but didn't even think of retaliating the insult. "Oh, erm… yeah… sure. I'll… erm… I'll be right over." Why hadn't Wheeljack recognized her?
It hadn't been long before the 'party' had started and lasted through the entire day. When wreckers celebrated they were known to get rowdy soon enough but at Ratchet's insistence (aka threats) they'd kept their fun mostly away from the equipment, both working and broken.
"Come on, Jackie, show me what you got!" A ball of crumpled metal flew through the air and Bulkhead caught it with ease, having only skidded back a few feet. "Nice lob!" He threw the ball at Mayhem but something was off.
"Boo! Throw it like you mean it, not like you're petting it!" Mayhem stuck her glossa out and passed the ball to the white wrecker with enough force to make him fight for balance and turned back to the green bot. "Like this, you big lug!"
"You sure could wreck with the best!" Wheeljack laughed and turned to Silverbot. The triple-changer had settled for siting down and watching the game with an amused expression and declined all invitations to participate. "You sure you don't wanna join in? Someone your size could give a kick to the game."
"No thanks, I'm good." Silverbot shook his helm and put his servos up. He knew the supposed 'kick' would no doubt result in untold damage, if he knew his luck with the game.
The ball was passed around the three heavy-duty bots with more shouts and increasing strength under the watch of amused Makers and Autobots alike. It had been a long time since any of them had watched the game being played, ever since the war had broken out all public recreational activates were canceled and where once transmissions of lobbing games were transmitted there was either static or information about which city had fallen next.
Arcee took her optics from the game once gain to look at Silverbot and finally caved in. "I thought you'd like lobbing." He had the perfect frame type for it. Tall, heavy-duty, so strong he could probably knock his opponent on their aft in the first throw.
The triple-changer raised an optic ridge with an amused smile. "Because of my size?"
"Mainly, yes."
"Yeah…" He suddenly became awkward. "When you're two to three times bigger than the other sparklings no one really wants to go against you. Well, except your crazy sister."
"Heads up!" Mayhem threw the ball at Silverbot, almost as if the universe was trying to prove a point.
"Gah!" Silverbot caught it microns away from his faceplate and almost felt his spark leave his body. "Just like now." He lowered the ball to look at his sister with a frown. "I said no thanks or do you need mom to calibrate your audio receptors?"
"Come on! For me?"
"Humor the ladybot just once." Wheeljack encouraged him. Triple-changers were always rare to come by, most had lived and perished in the battlefields previous to the current war and the ones who'd lived through would meet their fate as gladiators.
Silverbot sighed and looked at Arcee. The two-wheeler smiled and gave him a nod of encouragement. If the three bots could cut loose and enjoy life for at least a little while why couldn't he as well? The tall mech seemed to agree as well and weighed the ball in one hand, throwing it up in the air a few times to get the feel of it (and making a certain someone impatient) before drawing back his arm and throwing the ball with enough force for Mayhem to skid back and hit the wall hard enough to leave a dent. Every one of the Autobots gasped but the Maker only started laughing and held the ball high above her helm, making Ratchet let out a relieved sigh and go back to work. If someone was going to give him a spark-failure that femme was high up on that list.
"Woohoo, yeah! Now that's more like it, big brother! Come on Bulk, it's your turn!"
The three heavy-hitters went back to the game, although two were a little uneasy knowing now what the femme was capable of. Bumblebee beeped with anxiousness at Radical but the sparkling reassured the yellow bot that she was alright and apologized for the panic. It was easy to get scared at that sight but Mayhem was the exception to a lot of rules, mainly the ones concerning having judgement and not possessing fighting skills.
Arcee almost had to pick her metaphorical jaw off the floor at what she'd just witnessed. She'd never seen the mech on the battlefield besides the spacebridge incident but back then she'd been more concerned with the incoming hordes of Vehicons. That coupled with his desire to separate himself from the stereotypical violent nature of triple-changers, seeing him use that much brute force on his sister none the less made a shiver go down her back strut. "Wasn't that supposed to hurt?" She pointed at the seeker who should not be moving without being in some sort of pain.
"Maybe, but with her I doubt it. You should have seen us as sparklings, when we had a disagreement we just fought until one of us won and no, I didn't always win. Solus, was mom angry every time we showed up with dents." He then thought of a way to shift the conversation subject. "Anyway, where's Optimus?"
"Went for a drive. Primes don't party. And Solarflare?"
"Went to her berthroom, she doesn't do parties either. At least not anymore."
"They're missing some great action, I tell you that." From her perch on the walkway above Airachnid watched with barely-contained excitement the newly-arrived wrecker.
"Didn't mom tell you to-"
"Yeah, yeah. The optics can eat too, you know." She waved her servo in dismissal. "And I wouldn't mind taking a bite out of him." The spider-femme then pointed at Ratchet. "Or him. I'm not picky."
Bulkhead threw the ball a bit higher and Wheeljack almost had it before it slipped, hitting the wall further behind and falling down on top of the bridge controls. Doomsday and Ratchet backed away from being crushed by the metal ball that had damaged the same equipment they'd been trying to fix.
Doomsday patted herself to check for 'missing parts' with a horrified look before yelling at the bots involved in the game. "Hey! If you break my mods I don't have enough spare parts to fix them!"
"Forget about your mods, we are trying to perform sensitive calibrations here!" Ratchet chided the Forger and the heavy-hitters. Their groundbridge was more important that whatever changes she'd made to herself. He shuddered to think if he were to examine her what he would find and in the case she ever got seriously injured Solarflare would probably be the only one to work around the extensive modification.
Wheeljack headed over and picked up the ball. "Sorry doc. Guess we're a little charged up. You built this bridge from scratch, huh?"
"I did."
"That's quite a feat of engineering." The mech praised the medbot. It really wasn't every day someone managed to do that.
Ratchet paused for a moment but his pride took over none the less. "Yes, it is."
"Something wrong with it?"
"I didn't care for the way it sounded this last jump. I put it in shutdown."
"What if you need to use it?"
"Oh, I can't disrupt the defrag process without causing irreparable damage."
"So… how long will the defrag take?"
"A few hours, if we're lucky. Maybe longer."
Wheeljack seemed pleased with the answers provided by Ratchet and took the ball back to continue their game. So, they would be unable to use their bridge for the rest of the day, huh?
In the sidelines Doomsday had stayed quiet for the whole exchange and narrowed her optics when the wrecker started asking questions not quite matching the mech she knew. If it had been a weapon of sorts she'd have bought it yet he seemed too interested in the bridge. Something was definitely up with him. She pulled on one of Airachnid's more dissimulated web strings on the nearby wall to get her attention and made a motion for her to come down.
"Ratchet, give me a moment, I'll be right back." The Forger got a noncommittal grunt from the bot and headed over to her friend. "I need you to do me a favor. There's something I want you to do for me and it has to do with Jackie over there."
A grin spread over the spider-femme's faceplates. "I like where this is going. Do tell."
Starscream and Soundwave walked along the halls of the Nemesis, the new Decepticon Lord seemingly never getting tired of the sound of his own voice, the silent officer noted. They were heading towards one of their prisoner cells to check on the newly-acquired 'guest' staying in there, although rather unwillingly if the fight he put up when they'd picked him up was anything to go by.
"The moment Makeshift passed through that groundbridge we lost his tracking signal. The Autobot base is no doubt heavily shielded to prevent us from locating it." They were already expecting it, after so long with no positive results on doing so in the past. "No matter, I have complete faith in makeshift." They reached the end of the corridor where the doors, heavily guarded by Vehicons, opened to reveal the real Wheeljack suspended in the air by energy cuffs. "Our inside man is already inside."
"Tell Megatron he's fragged in the head if he thinks Bulkhead won't sniff out an impostor." Those were the first words the Autobot uttered when seeing the seekers for the first time after having been captured and replaced by that cheap knock-off.
Starscream growled in annoyance. It was getting to his nerves every time someone mentioned his (nearly) deceased predecessor. "Haven't you heard? I lead the Decepticons now."
"You? Ha!"
The seeker swung his arm and tried to stab the defenseless mech but Soundwave restrained his arm. Starscream took back his arm with a yank and regained some composure. "Yes, he may yet be of use. Makeshift is very good at keeping up appearances. He need only fool your friends long enough to open their groundbridge from within so that I may finally learn the location of the Autobot base. And send in my strike team… to stain the floor with the spilled energon of Optimus Prime."
They walked back into the hallway, leaving Wheeljack alone. He needed a plan to get out of there and fast. The Vehicon left guarding him didn't look too bright. If he could get him to deploy his blaster… with the control panel to the cuffs just there… yes, that could work. He'd be out of that ship in no time.
Meanwhile the seekers walked back to the control bridge and Starscream impatiently asked for news but Soundwave remained silent. Time was running out, the longer their plan took to complete the longer their enemies would have to figure out something was wrong with their 'friend'.
"Makeshift still hasn't opened their groundbridge or otherwise transmitted their coordinates. His disguise may be flawless but he won't fool the Autobots forever."