Okay so..let's see if I can actually stay on track this time ^^: I got bitten by a plot Bunny HARD so Lifeline got to go on hiatus...again ^^:

Let's just get this train rolling shall we. If you have anything to say about this story please let me known in either a review OR a PM :D


By the time the party got back to the salvage yard it was early afternoon. The team had to take mostly back roads in order to get around; especially with the cops investigating the fighting that took place.

Orion, Kat, And Sophie sat in the garage that Hound had occupied the night before. Kat had just been released from the hospital when Orion got the call. Orion had picked Sophie up from the library and they headed over.

"Do you think they found Hound's buddies?" Sophie asked.

"He was pretty vague but he said "we found something" Orion flipped through the texts on his phone. Kat leaned up against her husband, her wrist was in a brace and she had a pair of crutches.

"I just hope that they're all right..." She said worryingly.

"Relax Kat, I'm sure that with Hound there's not a lot of trouble they can get into." Sophie said with a wave.

The door to the garage slid open and Hound drove in, hauling the trailer that contained the in stasis Wheeljack. Behind them came a 1969 dodge charger. It was bright yellow with back racing stripes on the top and the sides.

The car's engine roared as it pulled into the garage, causing the three humans to jump. Bre and Anthony hopped out of Hound as he transformed to robot mode. Hound turned toward the charger and gave it a look.

"Don't go scaring the humans Bee." He said.

"Scare nothing I think my heart stopped." Orion said. "I didn't know that charger engines could get that loud!"

"I think they have their own engines." Bre said as she walked over.

"So you guys managed to find two of Hound's buddies?" asked Sophie.

"Yeah, though Hound says that he doesn't know the guy under the tarp that well." Anthony said.

"I mostly know Wheeljack by his reputation, and the blasts that his lab caused every fortnight." Hound said.

Unsurprisingly he saw the humans eyes go wide when he said that. Wheeljack had a reputation of being a destructive weapons designer at best. At worst his weapons had accidentally taken out entire squads of Autobots.

Hound was wary about letting him near the humans; but he had little choice in the matter. He uncovered the tarp and he heard the humans gasp in shock. Wheeljack's condition was bad enough for a Cybertronian. But for the humans it was almost nightmarish to behold.

Kat began to wonder if they were doing the right thing; now more than ever. The condition Wheeljack was in spoke volumes to not only how well built the Autobots were. But also the brutality of the war they were fighting. If that was the nature of his wounds.

"You found him this way right...please tell me that you found him this way." Sophie said nervously.

"Its how we dug him out alright, though I wouldn't be surprised if that other fella had a hand in it." Bre said.

Kat, Sophie and Orion turned to look at Bre, and then they looked toward Hound. It was then they noticed the numerous small damages to his armor. A couple of dents and scratches but nothing like Wheeljack.

"Who was the "other fella?" Orion asked.

"That would be Soundwave; he attacked us right as we were digging Bumblebee out of the ground." Hound said. "He's the head of the Decepticon communications; he's practically their communications hub."

"Wait so you guys actually got attacked?" Kat asked.

"Yep and boy was it one of the weirdest fights I've ever seen" Anthony said.

"The blue guy was launching tiny people and animals out of his chest!" Bre shouted. "I think that goes a bit over the bar of weird."

"The blue guy was doing what!?" asked Kat.

"Is...that...normal for your race?" She turned toward Hound. She got a shrug in response as Hound tried to formulate his answer.

"Certain bots have certain talents, like I can project holograms, Sari can hack, and Bumblebee has his stingers." He said, gesturing toward the charger. The charger was still sitting idle, its engine running.

The car's door popped open and Sari came out, skating on some deploy-able wheels. Sophie blinked as she recognized her as the smaller bot they had carried yesterday.

"Come on Bumblebee, you can't just sit around in vehicle mode all day." She said teasingly. She rolled over toward Bumblebee and bashed her fist onto his hood.

"Make something of yourself you lazy pile of bolts." She said in an authoritative tone.

The response given was another deafening roar from Bumblebee. Sari stumbled back and the humans were forced to cover their ears. Hound huffed and rolled his optics. Wheeljack continued to remain inert.

Bumblebee's front began to fold inward and the sides of his front folded outward. The front of the vehicle came down on his waist and seemed to snap around as a large blocky belt. The sides of the front came out with the doors attached to them. The doors formed into shoulder guards as the arms formed. A wheel covering the elbow on both arms. The sides came down near the hands and for a brief second glowed with electricity.

The roof of the car split apart and began to form two wing like appendages on his back. The rest of the car folded downward with the wheels forming the basis of his feet. Hound noticed that Bumblebee's head was still the same. Round with horns, only now a small face plate covered his mouth.

Bumblebee spun around and slammed his fist into the garage floor. Only inches away from where Sari was standing. His optics narrowed dangerously at her and he moved his face in closer.

"Hey it got you up didn't it?" Sari asked.

The humans once again found themselves speechless. Bumblebee was looking to be a pretty volatile bot, even around his own teammates! As Bumblebee looked them over, Orion felt some unease as Bee just stared at them.

"Is it something that we did?" He asked openly.

"No, Bumblebee's always been a rather private bot." Hound said.

Bumblebee crossed his arms and nodded before leaning up against a wall. For a minute or so it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Kat took the opportunity to get a better look at Wheeljack. As she moved around the trailer, she noticed a small light going off on his chest.

Orion noticed it too and walked over to his wife. From what they had seen, there wasn't a light like this on Bumblebee and Hounds' chests. Orion reached over and placed a hand on the armor the light was coming from. Hoping that whatever it was wouldn't blow them up.

What they didn't know until later, was that it was a trigger. Wheeljack had it installed in his chest so if he went into stasis, he would wake up if someone touched it. A wave of energy surged over his body and his optics activated.

Than he started screaming.

The loud Cybertronian wail was already hurting Hound and Bee's audios. But for the humans it was deafening to listen too. The sound was akin to steel being cut for five hours straight, condensed down into a single minute.

"What did you guys do?" Anthony called out from over the wail.

"This is why we don't press random buttons." Sophie muttered.

Wheeljack tried to jump to his feet, only to face plant on the ground. His screaming stopped due to the impact and he let out a moan. He struggled to his elbows and whipped his head around.

"Where the scrap am I, this looks nothing like the ship!" He shouted.

Once again the humans were forced to cover their ears as Wheeljack yelled in Cybertronian. He tried to stand again, only for what was left of his leg to snap off. Wheeljack cried out in pain again, only for Bumblebee to slap him across the face. Wheeljack's world went spinning for a few seconds as Hound glared at Bee.

"Was that really necessary?" He asked angrily.

Bumblebee gave what barley amounted to a shrug as he walked over to Wheeljack. Sari sighed and made her way over to the humans, all of whom were covering their ears.

"He's done screaming guys; you can stop." She said.

"I can still hear the ringing!" Sophie shouted, causing Sari to jump back.

"Human ears are a bit sensitive like that." Bre said.

"I see, which is why Hound had me adapt to earth language last night." Sari said.

"Wait you were asleep, how does that work?" asked Anthony.

"There's this thing that happens when you sleep for a while...it's called waking up." Sari quipped.

"Sarcasm from the alien robots, great." Kat said with a laugh. Sari blinked in confusion.

"What the scrap happened to me; no better question is where the frag are we?" Wheeljack asked was Hound set him against a nearby wall.

"We made it onto the target planet Wheeljack, we're safe." Hound said, hoping Wheeljack wouldn't flip out.

"Okay...but I do have a couple of questions...and by that I meant a LOT of questions." Wheeljack said. Hound rolled his optics as Wheeljack picked some dirt from a wound.

"What the frag is this stuff and why is it all over my insides?" Wheeljack demanded.

"The natives of this planet call the substance dirt; it makes up the ground of the planet." explained Hound. "It was where we were buried for after the ship crashed."

"...We were buried?' Wheeljack asked in a whisper. Hound gave a nod and raised an optic.

"How long were we buried?" He asked.

"According to my chronometer...514 stellar cycles." Hound said.

Wheeljack stared at him for a small moment. Hound stepped back as Wheeljack's optic began to twitch slightly. He looked toward the humans, Sari and Bumblebee with a nervous chuckle.

"You all may want to cover your ears..now." He said. The humans did as they were told right as Wheeljack belted out a very surprised.-

"FIVE HUNDRED STELLAR CYCLES!?"


Crash site of the Nemesis.

For Starscream and Barricade, it had been a surprise when Soundwave came back and reported failure. Though what came next wasn't as much of a surprise anymore.

Soundwave was hurled out of the bridge while a bellow of rage echoed across the ship. Megatron was furious; he was trapped on an alien world with limited supplies. But to make matters worse, the Autobots had returned as well.

"All I see around me is failure!" He roared.

Megatron stormed from the bridge and past Soundwave. Soundwave sighed in relief as Megatron's wraith passed over him.

"My troops appear to be incapable of getting anything done; simply because we're on an alien world." Megatron said to no one in particular.

"We are warriors, conquers, no matter what planet we are on we should still fight!" He said.

Barricade and Starscream watched as Megatron ranted and raved like a mad man. Starscream was enjoying watching Megatron act insane. Barricade was trying to act indifferent but was ready to start running if Megatron turned said wraith onto him. A battle ready Decepticon he was, but he was no fool.

"Perhaps we should consider reviving Thundercracker and Skywarp; then we could dominate the autobots from the sky." suggested Starscream.

"It's only three Autobots Starscream, we have enough warriors." Megatron growled. "I've seen most of you kill five times as many Autobots in fights."

"That doesn't mean that they're easy to beat. Barricade said.

Megatron sent a glare toward Barricade, who gulped and then stepped back.

"Forgive me Lord Megatron..." He said while bowing.

Megatron just sneered and looked at Soundwave. He strode over and delivered a hard kick into Soundwave's chest.

Before he knew it, Soundwave found himself crashing onto his back. Megatron walked over to him and sneered while bending over and whispered something to him.

"Prove that you're still a warrior Soundwave, take me down." Megatron challenged.

Soundwave looked at Megatron hesitantly. He may have been beating him up but Soundwave was no traitor.

"I will not fight you Lord Megatron." Soundwave said.

As a reward for his loyalty, Soundwave was yanked to his feet and hurled across the room. He crashed into a nearby wall and collapsed again.

"Then you are a bigger coward then I thought." Megatron spoke in a disappointed tone.

"Lord Megatron, you ordered him to be loyal and he is-" Barricade said.

"I ordered him to fight me and he refused, how is that loyalty Barricade?" Megatron growled.

Barricade stared at Megatron before stepping back. As much as he hated the beatings Soundwave was receiving, he didn't want to receive one of his own.

Megatron sneered dismissively at Barricade. He was a coward, despite trying to hide it; it was obvious to Megatron. His gaze settled on Starscream who hadn't spoken a word.

Something about the whole situation with him still rubbed Megatron the wrong way. It was all too suspicious that Starscream had a stasis pod ready in case of a crash. But Megatron wanted more proof before he scrapped him.

He'd wasted energon on Starscream already; he didn't want it to go to waste.

"Starscream, I want you to fly out where Soundwave fought the Autobots." He said. "In case anymore lie below the surface, I want the hill destroyed."

"As you wish Lord Megatron." Starscream gave a curt nod and smiled.

Megatron glared at Starscream and then huffed. He turned and walked away from the three Decepticons and into the bridge. He planned on trying to scan for more Autobot signals.

Starscream chuckled to himself at the display. Once again Decepticons were getting beat up and talked down too. The difference was it wasn't him this time.

"What are you pulling Starscream?" Barricade asked, snapping Starscream back to reality.

"Whatever are you suggesting Barricade, I'm simply following Lord Megatron's orders."

"Yeah right Screamer we know you." Barricade sneered.

"Maybe you do and yet maybe you don't." Starscream said as he turned on his heel.

"I can tell that you're up to your old tricks Starscream." Barricade accused. Starscream suddenly began laughing as he spun around.

"Oh believe me Barricade, I'm not planning anything." Starscream said and he walked off with a sneer.

"For now I'm just biding my time..."


The Salvage Yard.

It had taken them a while to get Wheeljack calmed down; he was mostly in a panic about the idea of being in stasis for so long. While he was a warrior he was still a scientist. Sometimes that side showed more than others.

Wheeljack had also downloaded the English dictionary as well, so the human's ears would stop bleeding every time he spoke. That last bit though was no doubt exaggeration on Bres part.

The humans and bots now sat in the garage, having to decide what to do next.

"Maybe we should assign the different bots to partners?" Sophie suggested. "In order to protect us from Decepticon attacks."

"I don't think the cons will come looking for you just yet." Hound said.

"Yeah they won't know unless they see you actively helping us." Wheeljack chimed in.

Anthony coughed a little bit and looked away from Bre. Bre rolled her eyes at her brother and gave a sarcastic laugh.

"The only humans that the Decepticons know about are Bre and Anthony." Hound said, looking at the brother and sister.

"Well you guys are already staying here so that's no problem." Orion said.

"But if the Decepticons are returning then we need bot power." Wheeljack stated.

"They're can't be that many Decepticons left active." Kat said hopefully. As much as she was thrilled to have meet aliens, the idea of intergalactic warfare was a bit much.

"If they survived then there's a chance that others survived." Orion said.

"It's wishful thinking but Megatron's tough to kill." Wheeljack said.

"Have you tried before or did you hear that from someone?" Kat asked.

"Megatron's tough alright, one time I hurled a grenade at him... he caught it and then chucked it back." Wheeljack frowned at that memory. Mostly how he'd spent a deca cycle in repairs.

"That sounds like he has good reflexes." Kat said. "Trust me when I say that no one is invulnerable."

"Though you can be surprised what you can live through." Sophie quipped.

"Well we still need the bot power, regardless if Megatron's active or not." Hound said and then he looked at Wheeljack.

"Do you think you have anything that can-?"

"I always carry an energon detector with me, as well as long range scanners, several emergency beacons, a few of my...deadlier weapons..." Wheeljack began to list off all he kept in his subspace.

He was stopped when Bumblebee walked over and smacked him upside the head. Wheeljack moved to tackle the young bot, only for Bumblebee to step out of his reach.

"Those two are fighting like siblings..." Orion commented.

"I'd more say like Bumblebee is just very aggressive." Kat said. Despite his cute sounding name, it was clear that Bee could sting.

Hound sighed with a shake of his head. Bumblebee used to be a cheerful young bot. Always talkative, playful, and sometimes unable to hold his tongue. Which many suspected was why Prowl had assigned him to patrol Darkmount. Either to make him take the war seriously or to just get rid of him.

"Bumblebee this is not the time for such antics!" Hound walked over and pushed Bee and Wheeljack away from each other.

"If we want to survive then we need to find Energon, and find our comrades." He stated.

"While also protecting the humans?" Wheeljack asked.

"You got it Jackie." Hound said.

"Don't call me that."

Bumblebee rolled his optics and shoved Hound away from him. Hound stared back at him in alarm as Bumblebee got into a fighting stance. Hound could tell that the years in stasis had done some effects to Bee's personality.

"Okay Bee, since you got so much energy, how about you take the first patrol." Hound suggested.

He got the expected response from Bumblebee. The scout stared at him for a second before his winglets and optics flared up like a bird.

"Is he going to attack Hound?" Anthony asked, sliding his sister's barrel away from Bee.

Bumblebee glared at Hound for a brief moment before he transformed back into his charger altmode. He gunned his engine and with a roar, drove off into the night.

"Okay, I know Bee could get into a mood but he wasn't like that before." Sari said.

"Hmm, looks like my theory about prolonged stasis affecting the personality was correct." Mused Wheeljack.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Kat.

"During stasis it's just you, you're mind and nothing else so you either relive memories or create your own worlds." Explained Wheeljack.

"You mean like a dream?" asked Bre.

"Kind of, in a dream you don't experience much control, in stasis you control anything." Wheeljack said. "Bumblebee's been reliving the thing that made him bitter nightly for a while now."

"So...how many nights are in 514 years..." Kat gasped. Reliving a bad memory could be bad enough, but reliving it time after time was brutal.

"I don't know if I want to scold the kid for slapping Wheeljack or hug him." Sophie said.

"He just needs to blow off some of that extra steam..." Hound said.

"I just hope that it by doing so he can find the others and doesn't cause trouble." Hound finished.

The room went silent once again. Faced with the current situation the humans had no idea how to react. Their minds were in a billion places at once and going nonstop.

"So do we just wait for the call to action when you guys find something?" asked Orion.

"Yeah no offense but I'd like some warning before an alien blows up my house." Sophie said with a nervous chuckle.

"Well for right now it's only Me, Bee and Sari that are mobile." Hound said.

"I can keep a good optic out, I can sneak around like a cyber ninja!" Sari said enthusiastically.

"I don't know Sari...even with your size I don't think you can blend in." Orion said, placing an arm on the minicon's shoulder.

"Just give me some time, I'll figure it out." Sari said.

"Well until you do I think it'll be safe to do some sweeps, and try to contact any others that might be online." Hound said.

"Yeah...no offense to you guys but I don't think you can fix me up." Wheeljack said. "Though some of your tech maybe useful in repairing my scanners."

"I volunteer as tribute!" Anthony shouted and jumped to his feet.

Bre face-palmed while Sophie and Kat burst out laughing. Hound, Wheeljack and Sari exchanged glances and looked at him in confusion.

"I mean I'll volunteer my services to help, my spare parts are your spare parts." He said again, grinning nervously.

"Smooth bro, real smooth." Bre sighed.

With the decision made, the group split up for the day Wheeljack began to fiddle with some spare parts while Hound saw the humans off. Anthony and Bre went back to their house while Sophie and Kat decided to open the library for a few short hours. Orion acted as Kat's driver as they all left the yard.

"Do you really think we can trust them Hound?" asked Wheeljack.

"Anthony threw himself into the path of Soundwave to try and save me." Hound said.

"Ah, so brave and stupid." Wheeljack said. "Sounds like me when I was younger... and now."

"I'd just say brave all around, they have a lot of courage in their tiny bodies." Hound said.

"So basically fleshy Minicons." Wheeljack chuckled.

"While I don't think they'll appreciate that you're probably right." Hound laughed. The worries of their situation seemed to fade away as they talked. For both it felt good to be in the company of another Cybertronian.

Unbeknownst to them, Sari had snuck out while Hound was seeing the humans off. She had a program within her that Prowl had designed. They had gotten word that the Decepticons had a technology that allowed the use to take on any alt form. Attempts to replicate it hadn't gone far, but Sari had been a test subject.

She couldn't affect her vehicle mode, but her robot mode was a different story. She knew the risks but also knew that the humans needed a protector in case the cons came looking.

She accessed her internal data and activated the program. As she did, her body began to shift and change. It was painless thankfully and Sari focused as her body began to shift and take on an appearance; similar to a human.


Robert Memorial Park.

The police had been unable to find whoever, or whatever it was that further damaged the park. They had ultimately chucked it up to it just collapsing due to the hole already in the hill.

They had sealed the area off to prevent anyone else from getting up there just in case. Their barriers would deter humans from approaching the mountain.

However, the barriers were useless to stop Starscream's missiles.

Derbies sprayed up from the ground as Starscream made another fly by in his new F-22 alt mode. He had circled three times and had fired all rockets into the hillside. Slowly chipping away at it as well was collapsing other sections. After the fourth time he finally accepted that there were no more Autobots to be found. If there were, had had probably destroyed them.

"By this rate Megatron will be chasing his own shadow." He huffed.

Even if there were three Autobots there, they had no doubt just gotten lucky. None of them had moved in stellar cycles and they were a bit low on energy. Once they had a full charge the Autobots would be reduced to smears.

Starscream banked ad flew back toward the direction of the Nemesis. As he flew his scanners suddenly began to ping.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" He questioned.

His scanners had picked up an energon signal, faint but it was very much there. Either it was a small cache or a section of wreckage. Still energon was energon and for once Starscream wasn't picky.

He changed course and flew in the direction of the signal. If there was enough charge then maybe he wouldn't have to wait to finally terminate Megatron.


Alright we got a new chapter :D

I hope it's not feeling rushed but I want to speed it a long a bit. We're going to get a LOT of things moving next chapter ;)

Until next time!