Jade and Bullet gave each other a glance as they folowed the mech down another step of stairs and into a darkened tunnelway. "Watch your step." the mech warned. Bullet made a startled sound as his foot hit the bottom step and slid. Jade caught his arm. The mech turned to look at them, then continued on.

"Shh." the mech held up a hand. After a moment, he said "Okay." and they continued on through the tunnels. Jade noted as they walked that the tunnels were getting lighter. Dim lights lined each side of the tunnel, at the floor, casting long shadows as they walked. "How do we know he's not a Decepticon?" Jade whispered to Bullet, who shrugged.

"I am not a Decepticon. I am a member of the group known as the Kinta'ari." the mech responded. He suddenly stopped, and Jade and Bullet nearly careened into him in the near-darkness. They had arrived at a dead end. A wall with an arch-shaped indention in it. (Like many of the other walls in this... place). Jade scrunched up her face, listening to the distant sound of water (or something, it didn't have to be water, she noted) dripping. "We're in the sewer, aren't we?" she asked, disdain clearly coloring her voice. Their 'guide' merely shrugged. "If you wish to call it that, since the conditions are similar to your Earth's see-wors." he tried to pronounce the alien word correctly.

The mech turned to them, yellow optics blinking in the darkness. "Whatever happens, don't try to pull out any weapons, and don't run." he said. "Huh?" Bullet looked confused. Till something moved in the shadows behind him. Actually two things, and they came right out of the shadows. Two totally black fliers, with optic and vocaliser coverings. "Sh' ta klen-da?" the first one said to the second one, pulling out a long, curved wicked-looking knife. The small mech simply folded his arms. "No klu'tan ke'vennot ti'quo." The mech looked at his companion and frowned behind his vocoder mask. "utsaan." he put the blade away.

"Don't mind the shadowgaurds." the small mech waved a hand in the air vaguely. "They're just here to keep out the riffraff and stuff." Jade perked an optic ridge at the closest one. He scooted in a hair closer. She backed up, bumping into Bullet. "oops, sorry." she whispered to him. The small mech, who they still couldn't see very well, went to the wall of the dead end and rapped out a code. There was a grinding noise and it slid back, revealing a set of stairs. Bullet glanced behind them before following their guide through the doorway, and noticed the two fliers had dissapeared back into the shadows of the corridor.

once they were down the steps, the door (or wall, whichever it was) slid back into place with a dull-sounding thud. Once they got down the steps, however, the hallway they entered was well, lit. The small mech, they could now see he was yellow in color, with teal blue sidepanels. Jade wondered what crapyard those had come from. Then again, none of the mechs she had seem were in very good condition. The little mech looked like the blue plates were doors of some kind, but she wasn't about to ask. They hurried down a hall and into a small room where the remains of a pressure-tube transit system ran. He keyed in the code and a car swooshed out of where the tube dissapeared into the wall. It slid to a stop, and the top sprang open. "Come on." the little mech hopped into the front seat. Jade gave Bullet a very nervous look. The mech had red optics. She knew that meant a Decepticon. For all they knew, he could be leading them into a well-planned trap. But both jade and Bullet wondered why a decepticon would save them from the wrath of the persuing seekers on the surface just to lead them into a trap underground. Bullet got in first, Jade following after nervously. "Hang onto your driveshafts." the mech chirped. The lid of the car snapped shut, inches from the top of Bullet's helmet. He scooted down in his seat. The tube's lid shut, and the rest of the tunnels were a blur.

About ten minutes later, after having gone vertical, on an angle, and Bullet suspected upside-down, even, the car slid to a halt. The lids popped open and the mech hopped out. Instead of wearing the same smile he was earlier, his face was one of pure business, without a hint of happiness. All serious. Jade frowned. Bullet's hand closed around his percussion rifle in his subspace pocket, just in case. The bulky mech at the door stood at attention. "welcome back." he said, optics never straying from straight in front of him. The black mech had red armor seams, and orangish yellow optics. The little yellow mech nodded. "Uh-huh. So how about you let us in?" he folded his arms. The taller mech glanced at him. "Let me call in and check to make sure." he gave Bullet and Jade a dubious glance.

He hit the comm switch. "Cable is back with our visitors." he rumbled, deep voice echoing in the cavern. "Excellent." a smoothe tenor answered. "Let them in." The mech said, and the comm switched off. The red mech grumbled then keyed in the code for the door. The pair heard the sound of a deadbolt sliding back, and the door swung open. Cable, Jade had heard him called, didn't wait for the two to go first. He walked right in and down the pristine white hallway.

Halfway down, a short tank-type with a mottled green, tan, and black paint job stood across from a black and purple seekerfemme. "Where were you?" the mech grunted. Cable shrugged. "Had to go looking for 'em. They got lost." The femme shook her head and snorted. "Figures. Earth-bots can't find their own drive shafts with..." her sentence died when she saw the look Bullet was giving her. "Never mind. Orbit is waiting for you."

Cable nodded and the three passed. At the end of the hall, the door swung open, held by another tank, but this one with four large tires instead of treads. "Heya mucker, we still on for that game of cards later?" Cable grinned. The mech in question made a coughing noise behind his vocoder mask. Cable glanced over. "Oh, right." he ducked his head. The stout silver mech in the middle of the large room gave him a halfway glare. "Nevermind."

The door shut and Bullet glanced around. The room was at least two stories in height, with a walkway all the way around the edge, and stairs coming down from the back of the room. He suspected there were more rooms there than just what he could see, the open areas on the right side. Jade, meanwhile, was trying to figure out what the lead-colored mech in front of them turned into. He didn't have any seeable alt. mode. He looked old. And by old, she meant Alpha Trion. Well, not that ancient, but still, not as young as the other mechs running around the place. A small aqua colored femme came up, a tan and yellow mech next to her. The mech's armor was tan in the middle, lined with a cream colored stripe on either side and yellow on his sides, kind of in an hourglass shape. "we will take care of our friend." the femme said politely. "Uh.. right." Jade motioned to Bullet, who pulled out the glowing blue box and handed it to the mech. Both silently walked away.

"Ah, so glad you made it in safely." a black flier with a blue optic band walked in. "Thank you Cable, you can go now." he made a shooing motion with one hand. The minispy glared, but went. He stopped halfway to the door. "Hey, you're going with us later, right Gunlock?" he asked. The flier simply turned to give him a silent look. Cable glanced at Jade and Bullet, nodded shortly, and dissapeared out the door, as if understanding the flier was trying to say "Don't discuss it in front of the visitors."
Up close, Bullet could see the mech was actually dark blue, dark green, and black colored, with a camoflauge print to it. Or maybe it was how the light reflected on his armor. He couldn't be sure. The flier folded his arms. "Well?" he asked.

"Well what?" Bullet relplied patiently.

"How did you get into the prison and get out of it with that." he pointed to the next room.

Bullet shrugged. "We impersonated Megatron and Starscream, so nobody asked who we were." he said.

"Well I can *see* that." the mech snorted. "How did you get out without tripping any alarms?" Before Bullet could reply, Jade cut in with "We couldn't." She recieved a look from Bullet for it. "What my friend is trying to say is that we barely escaped, but your friend... Cable, showed us the way underground, to safety."

The flier nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer.

A light on his wrist blinked and something beeped. "I'm being paged." he stated, and turned on his heel. Jade watched him leave.

"Is it just me, or did he feel...creepy to you, too?" she asked, eyeing the leaving form. Bullet shrugged. "I think it was just you." He took a couple steps to look around. "This place is huge." he looked up at the upperstory. Jade nodded. "Yeah. It's no wonder that mech led us here, they can probably put whoever that was we rescued back in a chassis real quick." Bullet smiled slightly. "Yeah, I don't think it's that easy, though. You know a personality component is kind of like a person's soul." he looked back at her. "There's no telling how long it'll take." he watched another mech hurry past. "But if Backdraft knows how we can get everyone home, it'll be worth it." he turned back to face her. She nodded. "Right." And they waited for someone to come tell them what was going on, or for the base commander, like they had been told in the hallway.

"I am NOT going to that pathetic, pitiful, rodent-infested mud ball of a planet!" a deep, gravelly voice declared. Bullet and Jade lookedover at the seeker that walked in. He was primarily gloss black in color, with blinding orange, red, ash grey mixed in. His tailfins (on his ankles) were decorated with flame decals, as were his heel thrusters. While his legs were as black as his forearms, his toes and knee gaurds were bright red. The nosecone (of his jet mode) was decorated with a sharp-toothed... Well, it kind of looked like a shark. While his chest and upper torso armor were black, his intakes were ash grey. The same color as his vocoder mask. His dark red visor, coincidentally the same shape as Razor's, was framed by his black helmet.

Jade quirked an optic ridge at the tiny orange stripes circling the seekermech's antennae, which faded to red where they were attatched to his helmet. "Kind of like a wasp." she thought with amusement. Which all amusement fled when the mech snarled "What're you looking at! Haven't you ever seen a seeker before!" She looked away. The mech sneered Don't need some half-byte glitch gawking at me like I'm some kind of energon goodie." Bullet gave him a look, but let it go.

"Actually, Backdraft," a smooth voice sounded from the doorway, "I believe you should be thanking Jade and Bullet for rescuing you from that Decepticon mind-prison." A short mech walked into the room. He was a light pearlescent grey in color, with metallic deep blue panels on his legs. His blue visor glowed brightly as though he were amused. And again, Jade noted the shape of his visor. "Must be common to the Kinta'ari to have that shape." she mused, glancing at Bullet. He didn't seem to notice. "Orbit." the gloss-black seeker, Backdraft, grunted in greeting with a nod. Orbit simply turned to flip on a nearby monitor.

Bullet heard Backdraft mumble "At least I had some peace and quiet till I was 'rescued'. He glanced at Orbit to see if he had heard, but the mech gave no acknowledgement of the comment. "Funny," the Megatron lookalike thought, "That kind of reminds me of something Mic would say." and shook the thouht out before it could go any further. He didn't need to be thinking (or worrying) about how they were going to get back to Earth. Not right now, at least. Right now, they had a mission to complete, and information to get.

"So, what is this place?" Jade asked, glancing around.

"This is one of our many bases underground." the mech stated.

"So, uhmm, how did you know we wren't, you know, Decepticons?" Jade shrugged, giving Bullet a glance. The grey mech didn't even spare the effort to look up from his monitor screen. "We were informed of your arrival." a smirk appeared. "even before you left Earth." Bullet made a suprised sound. Jade gave Orbit a suprised look. "You know we're from Earth?" stupid question.

"Of course." Orbit chuckled. "Where else would you be from?" he finished whatever he was doing and switched the monitor off, turning to face the pair, a light smile on his face. "Razer and Dusk sent us a message, actually." he admitted. Her glanced at Backdraft, and his smile faded. "Backdraft, a word with you." he motioned to the seeker, and headed for the doorway. "We will be back momentarily. I'm sure you two are tired, and need energon. Landspear will show you to the commisary." he motioned to a brown and green young-looking mech. Then walked out, a grumbling Backdraft following.

"Well, come on then." THe young mech waved a hand. Jade noted that he looked rather... fmailiar. Bullet nodded. "So, what did you say your name was?" "Landspear." came the reply. "Although I've been thinking about changing it to something, oh I dunno, neater?" Jade noted he didn't know what "cool" would mean, being Cyberttronian, but understood. "Oh, like what?" Bullet was trying to make light conversation.

"I don't know." the mech looked thoughtful. "Strider? Springer?" he glanced back, blue optics dancing with mirth. "I'm telling ya, I'm getting jokes up to here." he flattened a hand at about chin height, the shook his head, continuing to walk. "Then again, I don't think that would be an appropriate name. I've been wanting to get out of this stupid drill tank alt mode. Carbide said since I got the assembly, someday I could become an aerial type." another glance. "Not a seeker or anything, but a rotor-lift type. "Oh, you mean a helicopter!" Jade cut in. "uh... yeah. That." Jade blinked She *knew* he looked familiar. Especially because of that head-fin-thingy. But the green mech she was thinking of *was* a helicopter allready, and just so happened to be a member of a very specialised (and very dangerous) group of Autobots called the Wreckers.

She blinked, then whispered to Bullet "Does he look familiar to you?" Bullet glanced at the mech then looked back at Jade. "No, why?" The femme shrugged. "No reason." she looked to her left at the wall, mumbling something about Springer's evil twin. Was he trying to tell them something. She shivered at the thought of the Autobots having found the Kintaari underground. She didn't know what the Autobots would do, since the Kintaari on Earth were currently scheming for a way to get rid of them. Not to mention raiding power facilities like Decepticons.

A green femme jogged over as they entered the big commons room. "Hey, Sp-" she glanced at the group. "Spear." Jade swore inwardly. Yup, they were in trouble now. She'd know that Princes-Leia-eared-Helmet anywhere. "Hi." Jade smiled. "Fake it, fake it." she thought. Bullet, of course, was none the wiser as to what was going on. "Hi, I'm..." she glanced at Landspear. "I'm Strobe. What's your names?" she glanced at Bullet.

"Jade."

"Bullet."

the femmejet glanced around the large room, which kind of resembled a school lunchroom, with tables in the center of the room, and some energon dispenser lined up on the far wall.

"Well, come on, we should get you some energon. You guys are hungry, right?" Both nodded. The brown and green mech pulled out a swipe card.

"Well, see you later spr-" the femme shrugged it off like it was a slip of the tongue and said his name wrong. "Nice meeting you." she nodded to Bullet and Jade with a smile. Landspear watched her leave. "You know," Jade commented, "You *would* look in green." she gave him a smile.

The P.A. system came on, and Orbit's voice echoed through the large almost-empty room. "Marauder teams one and two, house of Koeleth-Nor to the main command center." Jade glaced upward, as though looking for the source of the disembodied voice. Landspear groaned, though there was no real dismay behind it. "They apparently expect me to be in two places at once." he said apologetically. He handed Jade the swipe card. "Here, I have to go. You just swipe the card and press the button for what you want." Bullet nodded. He started to walk away, but stopped and turned long enough to add "Don't lose that, now. That's the only way to you can get energy, kay?" he said.

"Kay." The two watched him walk out. Bullet looked at the card. "Well, I guess we should get something then, huh?" Jade held it out to him and he took it, going over to the first dispenser. He handed Jade the first cube then took the second one for himself, subspacing the card. Jade eyed her cube then looked at Bullet.

"What, afraid it'll bite you?" he quipped. "No." jade eyed him. "Oh, you want me to take the first sip?" he asked teasingly. "I thought one of Megatron's cronies would test his energon first, not the other way around." he teased raising it to his lips anyway. "Oh, ha-ha." Jade deadpanned, taking a drink of her own. "Hm." Bullet looked at his cube. "Takes kind of fizzy, like... Mountain Dew." he commented, tkaing another drink. After another couple swigs, Jade said "I wonder what they're up to. They called a bunch of people to the command room." she started for the door.
"Uh, I think they wanted us to wait here for them. Or Orbit, at least." Bullet pointed out.

"Oh come on, Bullet, they're not gonna shoot us or anything if he go back." Jade gulped the last of her cube and set the empty container on the counter by the door before walking out. Bullet hurriedly finished his cube and set it next to hers before jogging to catch up. "Heyt, wait up!" she paused a moment, and the two continued on towards the command center, which they'd just came from a few minutes ago.

((And no, Landspear isn't Springer, I don't think. hee. I kind of wanted him to be his own person. Maybe younger sibling or something.
I got caught up in the moment, and the buny bit and wouldn't let go. Even if the bots did discover the Kintaari, they wouldn't do anything to hurt them. Not after having seen the city and knowing how many neutrals are taking refuge there.

Oh, and yes, by the way, that WAS Arcee. *evil-sounding cackle* She'seasy to spot, even with an alternate paint job. XD. I have no idea why she'd be there. I heard somewhere (watching season 3 of G1) that Arcee is Springer's protogee of sorts. They're really close. Not neccesarily romantically, either. I got more of the feeling their relationship was plutonic, or like a brother/sister thing.

Sorry, I'm rambling. More soon.

Oh, P.S. I didn't remember Bullet and Jade's guide being Cable. Heeee! This chapter on were written after the RP series, so the Marauders (Driveby's team) were allready established. It was a great deal of fun for me to go back and write what the Marauders were like before the RP series. Needless to say, they've changed. Snerk. and there were two teams instead of one. But you'll read about that either in the next chapter or the one after that. One or two of the people in Driveby's Marauders came from the other Marauder team. why? just... because. It'll be ficced later.