Chapter 3

They were just rounding the building, and the twins were getting sick and tired of patrols. However, they couldn't exactly argue with their leader, or else…well, it would just be bad. Why they refused to just stop listening to him was unknown to them. All he ever was, was a pain. He was arrogant, and he was a total jerk. Caught up in his thoughts, Jetstorm wasn't expecting the ray that clipped his brother's side, a jolt of pain running through his circuitry as the true agony Jetfire was feeling washed over him through their bond. Transforming, he gripped the right side of his chestplating, just under his shoulder, as he winced. His brother had done the same as him, but he was barely hovering in the air by the jets on his pedes, his body leant against the side of the building that seemed to go on forever.

Brother…Jetstorm flew over to his twin, positioning an arm around his brother's waist as he supported him, but just barely. A deep, evil laughter drifted on the breeze surrounding them at the high altitudes, and both heads lifted before their optics widened. How did their scanners not detect him? His servos were placed on his hips, his maroon colored body straightened as he stood proud.

"Now, I thought you two were going to make this difficult," Starscream mocked them. "It seems I was wrong. You two can't possibly be made from my codings; you're too weak!"

"I am thinking we are not being made from same codings too because we are being much better looking you are!" Jetstorm shot back. Starscream growled, and another ray was shot at the twins, but they quickly flew upwards, evading the attack, but Jetfire was taking enough damage by just moving, so there was no way they would be able to use Safeguard. They kept flying though, doing their best to get away. Jetstorm stopped, turning around to see Starscream closing in on them, but he was flying slower than usual. He was playing with them. He turned to Jetfire whose servo was gripping the area over his chestplating that had been stripped of metal, the energon blood seeping through the spaces between his digits.

Please go…Jetstorm begged his brother. You are being too wounded to be fighting. Calling Jazz, and be telling him that we are needing much assistance! Jetfire shook his head rapidly, becoming dizzy as he did so. He gripped his side tighter, the energon coming faster.

I am not leaving you! He yelled through their bond, his optics offlined as he hissed, boring through the pain that was traveling through his wiring. It was just one blow, but there was more punch behind that blast; it was something bad, and he wasn't leaving his twin to fight by himself. Jetstorm let out a groan,

Brother, please! I cannot be watching you and be fighting at the same time! You are needing to get to safety…I will be being fine! Jetfire nodded his head reluctantly, just about to fly off when he watched his brother's optics widen like before. Brother, be watching out! He turned his head slowly, and Jetstorm did the only thing he could think of. He pushed his orange twin to the side, and the blast connected full blast with his chestplating, and he crashed onto the roof below him. His vision was blurry, but he could barely make out his twin as he fought Starscream head on, firing his flamethrowers at the seeker at close range. It was too close, and Jetfire was too weak to keep going. He stood up, his stabilizing servos threatening to give way. He ignored the pain in his broken frame; he ignored the pain his brother was transferring to him not by his own choice and took off into the sky. He wasn't going to let that Decepticon hurt his brother any further. Starscream had his back to him, and his servo was wrapped around his brother's neck. He could feel exactly what his brother was feeling as the servo tightened.

Jetstorm was letting the anger he was feeling blind him, and he slammed his servo into the seeker's wing, the metal of his servo digging through the circuitry of Starscream's wings. A scream broke through the gentle wind as he yelled out in agony. One of the worst things that could ever happen to a seeker or flying robot was having their wings broken. However, he had learned how to handle flying with one wing; one would think it was impossible, but he had learned. He kept his grip on Jetfire's neck before spinning around, Jetstorm's fist breaking free from the metal confines of his wing. He slammed the orange bot into his twin, and they both went flying backwards, and activating his null rays, he set it to its highest setting, aiming at the two Autobots who had found their balance as they hovered. He fired. The agonizing screams that ripped past the twins vocal wiring was beautiful to him, an evil grin spreading across his faceplating.

Starscream had fixed his null rays to where it would just keep a continuous ray going, and as he hovered closer, the yells and shouts got louder, and it pleased him. Finally, the screams began to fade as the twin's voices became hoarse, and their vocal wirings gave out. Stopping the ray as soon as they quieted, Jetfire and Jetstorm fell out of the sky, landing hard on the ground in the alley below. He flew down to the building just above them, gazing down at their broken frames as they writhed on the cold, wet ground, their bodies trembling under the pain. Beep. Beep. Beep. His optics wandered to the scanner on his arm as another dot appeared on the screen. Where did that come from? He thought to himself. From the energy signal, he could tell it was another Autobot, and considering the fact that this bot was somewhere in the sky, it had to be that femme they kept around: Eli. She and the twins were the only ones who could fly, so she was the only suitable choice.

Hopping down into the alley, he hid in the darkest corner he could find but still had a perfect view of the twins. "Jetfire! Jetstorm!" The femmes high pitched voice echoed off the walls of the alley, "Where are you two?" He could see her standing atop the building he had vacated not only cycles before. Not receiving an answer, she hopped down from the building, landing hard on her pedes as she hit the ground. Starscream watched as her eyes widened at the sight of the energon blood on the ground, following the stream to where he knew the bodies of those two Decepticon wannabes to be.

"Jetstorm! Jetfire!" She bolted over to the unconscious twins, kneeling down besides Jetfire as she touched his shoulder plating. The panicked look on her face was amusing to see, the worry mixing with the emotion. He quietly stepped out of his corner, making his way over to the pink femme bot on the ground. "Jetfire…" she lightly pushed on the orange twin's frame before turning to the other, "…Jetstorm, please wake up! Don't be offline, please…" He stood a few feet behind her,

"They're not offline…yet…" Eli spun around, and Starscream brought out his servo and struck her. She flew a good two feet before landing on her side. He didn't even give her enough time to react as he wrapped his servo around her neck, constricting the wiring that made up the area. He lifted her off the ground, her pedes dangling in mid-air. He lifted his null rays to her chestplating while he charged them for another blast; a blast that was to be delivered at point blank.

"Starscream…" He smirked, and the light grew brighter before the ray demolished the plating on her chest. She fell unconscious, her head lolling back and her body going limp. He dropped her to the ground, and her body crumpled at the contact, the metal scraping across the dirt covered cement. The maroon colored seeker walked back over to the twins, picking them up into his arms before he flew into the sky. She could die for all he cared. She was going to slowly bleed out, and it wouldn't be long before she'd offline. It would be good for him; one less Autobot in the universe to offline.

Forty-five cycles later

"Has anyone heard from Eli?" Optimus asked as he walked into the main room, his servo over his audio receptor as he tried to call the only femme on his team. Several of the bots in the room shook their heads, muttering things like, "She took off this morning," or, "She should be back soon." Prowl, who had his arms wrapped around a certain white ninja bot, looked over his shoulder plating and up at his leader from his position on the floor,

"Come to think of it," he said, "No one's heard from the twins either. Sentinel sent them on another patrol, and Eli disappeared when we went to go talk to him about how he's overworking the twins. Of course, he didn't listen and slammed the door in our faces…"

"Wait, we?" Optimus questioned, his servos up as he attempted to stop to the ninja from explaining further, "You and who?"

"It was me, Jazz, and Ratchet," he answered, "Come to think of it, Ratchet did appear last just cycles after Eli disappeared…" Heads turned to look for the medibot, but he wasn't in the room. Optimus dismissed himself, heading towards the hallway before making a right. He brought his servo up to knock on the door to the medbay, but it slid open before he could, and the red and white medibot stood in the doorway.

"What is it Prime?" he asked, his tone slightly peeved, "I'm busy…"

"I was just wondering if you knew where Eli went…" Ratchet stood up straighter,

"She isn't back yet?" Optimus shook his head, "What about the twins?" Once more, he shook his head.

"Where is she Ratchet?"

"I told her to follow the twins on their patrol today because Jetfire wasn't doing too good when Sentinel assigned them another megacycle of patrol," the medibot explained, "That way, if something went wrong, she could call me, and I could get to them as quickly as I could."

Checking his internal chronometer, Optimus let out a sigh, "They should be heading back here in a bit. If they're not here in fifteen cycles, we are going out there to look for them." Ratchet nodded. Prime turned around to leave the medibot to his duties when Sentinel stepped into his line of vision, and he was yelling into his comm.-link.

"-you'd better answer right now, or I swear to Primus, I will separate you two glitches for the rest of your function!" He hung up, looking up at the red and blue bot not too far from him, "The twins aren't answering their comm.-links. I think they're just trying to ignore me, so when they get back, they are in a lot of trouble!" Optimus looked over at Ratchet,

"Those two would never ignore you Sentinel," he stated, his gaze still fixed on his medibot, "They are too well trained that they would never do anything like that." He turned his head to the side, catching the other leader's optics on him, "And Jetfire and Jetstorm aren't the only ones not picking up. Eli hasn't been answering her link either…this can't be good." Running down the hallway, back to the main room, he stopped in front of the computers and controls, his digits flying across the keys.

"What's going on bossbot?" Bumblebee asked as he pressed the pause button on the controller in his servos, temporarily stopping his game. Optimus didn't respond and focused on the computer screen as he attempted to locate the three missing bots from their team.

"Optimus, what's wrong?" Prowl was no longer sitting on the floor and was standing by the red and blue robot at the controls, his gaze drifting over the information his leader was typing in.

"Eli and the twins are missing…" Sentinel let out a low groan,

"They aren't missing Optimus," he said, leaning against the doorframe at the entrance to the room, "The twins are just getting back at me by ignoring me, and Eli…well, she's just naturally disobedient, so I would doubt she would ever listen to you. If she had a better leader like me, she'd know better than to disobey…" Prime ground his dental plating before lifting his optics from the keyboard and up at the other Prime in the room.

"Let's assume you're a better leader than me," he reluctantly stated, "That means that the twins would never dare ignore you. You're their leader, remember? We both know these two, and they do everything you ask them to. They would never even think about not answering one of your calls. Something has to be wrong…and if Eli followed them and something wasn't wrong, she would answer the transmission, but since she's not…I can only assume something happened out there."

"Found her…" Prowl pointed to the small dot on the screen that had formed over the digital Detroit map, "…but the signal is feint. That only happens when-"

"-the spark is fading," Optimus finished the thought. "We have to go…now!" Everyone nodded, save one very angry leader, "Autobots, transform and roll out!"