This chapter is SHORT, and for that I apologise. This story is fun, but at the same time I feel it's more trouble than it's worth at times.

Plus, you know, I have to work on an essay about Dante's Inferno for one of my courses, so this is really all I had time to get done. I promise next one to be longer! Please don't hate me!

oOo

"Primus, Perce, how the frell do you get so knotted up in here?" Sunstreaker complained, as he was so apt to do, while he untangled some of the wires where the once-femme's arm met the body.

"It's an unlicensed frame, so it isn't - ow - out of the ordinary for there to be - ow - issues. Ouch, Sunstreaker, please be gentler! I wasn't made to make use of a form like this one!"

"Quit whining," the golden mech growled, though he did ease up on how tight he was pulling on the microscope's internal wiring. "I still don't get why you don't just go to Hatchet about this."

"Because he'd put me on anaesthesia and then I have no way of knowing what would happen next. If something went wrong, if he had to put me into forced stasis lock..." here Perceptor trailed off, pursing his lips together and hesitating, before adding, "Bodies can be changed and upgraded. Sparks cannot."

"There's no real reason for him to take a look anyway," Sideswipe, who was seated on the floor nearby, shrugged nonchalantly. "You worry too much."

"No, I worry precisely the correct amount. One can never worry 'too much'," the ex-femme argued. "Ow! Sunstreaker!"

"Shut up and quit squirming before I hit you," was the golden mech's only reply.

Perceptor only glared in return, wisely choosing not to reply vocally.

oOo

Meanwhile, Wheeljack wasn't in a much better mood. He hated not knowing things; it was a side effect of being a scientist, after all. Had he not minded being out-of-the-know, he would have been a carpenter or something. But he was an engineer as well as, it seemed lately, a detective.

Now there was a funny thought - Wheeljack and Red Alert, private eyes. He almost chuckled to himself, if not for the fact that it would have earned a rather scary glare from the aforementioned security director.

"What are they doing now, hm?" Red Alert muttered, though more to himself than the engineer.

"Huh?" the Lancia followed the Lamborghini's line of vision to one of the many monitors, showing Perceptor's lab - the microscope was in there much more often than he was in his private quarters. There, on the monitor, another Lamborghini appeared to be fixing something in the aforementioned microscope's shoulder, while a third sat on the floor nearby, chatting as he was so apt to do. It was entirely unheard of for Sunstreaker, of all Autobots, to be doing something like that - repairs, maybe? A massage? - for anyone.

"Perhaps planting a bug?" the paranoid SD continued muttering to himself. "The twins plan to listen in on our next strategy meeting? I knew it..."

"Hang on, Red, let's not jump to conclusions like that yet," Wheeljack said, earning a surprised look - apparently, the SD hadn't expected to be heard.

"Why shouldn't I put forth theories?" Red Alert asked sorely. "It's more than you've done."

"Hey, none of that! At least I tried t' talk to the guy!"

"And that went over wonderfully, didn't it?" the SD challenged.

Wheeljack shifted uncomfortably, knowing Red Alert had a point. The delivery of said point had been mean-spirited, sure, but it was still a point. "There's gotta be someone else we could ask before we jump to such conclusions."

"I say we have Ratchet inject them all with truth serum."

"Someone less drastic?"

The Lamborghini pouted. "Who else could you trust enough not to be working with them? The only mechs who would be of any use to our cause have been publicly accused of betraying the Autobot cause, and with good reason!"

The engineer sighed. He knew Red Alert meant well, but working with him on this was extremely tiring. How did Inferno put up with this? "Maybe - just maybe - they can help us, though. Perceptor's not talking to anyone right now but those twins, so they're obviously not working with him. Let's just try it, okay?"

Red Alert deepened his pout. "Very well. I suppose we could go to Prime if they betray us... I was thinking you might try Skyfire, or Mirage. After all, Mirage was a Tower Mech, and has that whole invisibility thing. And Skyfire attended the Science Academy later than you did, did he not?"

Actually, Skyfire had attended around the same time as Wheeljack, but he had gone back as a mentor when the younger Perceptor had attended, so Wheeljack neglected to correct the Lamborghini, instead nodding, setting out to find one of the two suggested.

-TBC-

This probably won't be very much longer. I'd never intended it to get very long. My best friend has been extremely helpful, as have a few reviewers both here and on deviantart, and for that I am extremely grateful.