hey, so here is chapter five...

i haven't updated in a while, sorry about that! i was working on my other story.

I'm gonna try to make this a little longer than previous ones... btw, in this story, foreheads touching is like a cybertronian kiss...just so you know.

thoughts

'song lyrics'

autobot comm line

enjoy!

I stare upwards as I listen to the very soft sounds of Mikaela attempting to suppress her laughter. Primus, please kill me now...

I glance down at the girl. "I admit that if this was someone else, it would have been funny. But picture if it was you."

She falls silent and I raise a ridge. She makes a face. "Ouch..."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry, that just kind of surprised me, you and Bumblebee just acted...I don't know how it works with you guys, but you guys acted kind of the way that we act when we're...like...together. Ya know?"

"Vaguely. I am...new, obviously, to human custom."

"Well, duh." She hesitates. "If you don't mind me asking..."

"I most likely will not."

She nods. "So, how does it work with you guys?"

"Relationships?" She nods again. "Well, when a mech finds a femme that that he has a physical attraction to, they do not act on it as your kind does. You do not know when you find your Sparkmate. We do, in a way. It is part of the mech's programming to be more attentive to that particulat sense, at least, to detecting it. It is not always correct, but we realize this quickly, under most circumstances. When we find our Sparkmate, we feel it. It is not always certain. Sometimes, the feeling is mistaken. It usually is not. The mech has the core programming to detect it, so there is usually a courting process so that the mech can properly convince a femme that... Well, do you understand?"

"I...think so."

"How does it work with your species?"

She laughs. "We can never tell if we find a 'soulmate'. I don't know if they even exist. We date whoever we're attracted to, and if we really like them, we'll get married. Sometimes, it doesn't work out, and you have to break off the marriage, it's called a divorce."

"That is...less than efficient."

"Yeah, maybe. But it's the only way."

"And you are...attracted to Sam, correct?"

"Somewhat. He's really nice. Kind of a geek, but that might not be a bad thing."

I quickly research 'geek', not wanting to have to ask her. I nod.

She sighs. "I don't want to have to make the first...real...move. You know?"

"I guess I understand. I have never had to..."

"Yeah. Do you have a...um..."

"A Sparkmate?"

"Uh, yeah, that. If you don't mind me asking..."

"It is fine. I do not have a Sparkmate. There was only a handful of mechs close to my age aboard the Ark, and none of them...were right."

"The Ark?"

"Our ship."

"Oh."

We fall into a brief silence. I vent my intakes. "Do you wish to return to the others?"

"You mean, back to the warehouse?"

"Or back to Prime and the others. Either."

"I don't care. I mean, I wouldn't mind seeing Sam again..."

"Would you like to return, then?"

"Will you stay there?"

"No...I do not believe I will. I would like to make sure Jazz is alright, even if it means..." I vented my intakes. "I would have to inform Ratchet and the others anyway. If neither of us return, they would most likely worry. There are still some...creatures, per say, that came into existence when Sam dropped the Allspark that are still online.."

"Huh. So... What are we doing?"

"If you wish, I can take you back to the main...camp, and then return to the warehouse."

"Um...sure, I guess."

I nod and transform.

I dropped Mikaela off with the others. I stand outside of the warehouse, hesitant to enter. I press my lip components together. I have to do this sometime...

Does sometime have to be right now?

I sit down just outside the door. I really don't want to go in there. I'm scrambling my Spark signature, so hopefully they don't know I'm here...

I cycle air through my vents. Primus...

Resting my helm in my servos, I groan softly and stand up. I proceed to stare at the door with apprehension.

I can always comm Ratchet...

I scoff. No. I will not comm Ratchet. I am not going to succumb to embarrassment.

However, I also am not going to go in just yet. I just...ahem...don't feel like it.

My thoughts are broken into by the slightly overly loud voice of Bumblebee coming from inside.

"Primus, fine!"

I hear footsteps, and I move back slightly, worrying that someone might be coming outside.

Sure enough, the door opens to easily reveal Bumblebee, whose bright yellow paint contrasts harshly to the dim light. He closes the door behind him and cycles air through his vents in aggravation.

"Ratchet's a slagging..." He trails off. "I can see you, y'know."

I huff and step forward.

"Next time, you might want to offline your optics. Just a hint."

Although I'm trying to be annoyed, the statement brings a smile to my face plates. "I'll try that."

He nods. "Have you been sitting here this whole time?"

"No, I brought Mikaela back to everyone else... I just got here not too long ago."

"That's strange, we didn't even notice..."

I smother a smirk. "Really?"

He gives me a searching look. "Yeah..."

I vent my intakes. "So...what's up?"

"Ratchet told me to come out here because... Well, I think you hit your head on something, and Ratchet was working on Jazz, he told me to find out what it was..."

I shrug. "It was probably me. I didn't notice anything around here..."

"Yeah."

I sit back down, leaning once more against the side of the warehouse. He sits beside me. Neither of us speaks for a moment.

"You grew up on the Ark, right?"

I glance over at him. "Yeah. It was an...interesting experience."

He laughs in a slightly cynical manner. "Yeah. I was onlined about a vorn before we left Cybertron."

"I was onlined about a quarter vorn before we left."

"Your creators still on it?"

I don't respond for a moment. "Ah, no, actually... Ratchet and Ironhide found me in the wreckage of Tyger Pax."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

I shrug. "I don't remember them all that well. You know how it is."

The Cybertronian processor doesn't 'forget'. Old memories fade slightly, prominent ones remain clear, but all can be restored in a very simple procedure.

Bee nods. "Yep. I don't really remember my creators either. Both of them were Autobots..."

I rest my head on the wall, tilting it to look up at him. He's staring off into space, clearly lost in thought. I exhale.

Suddenly, he turns to look at me. His optics bore into mine. "Silvercrest..."

My body temperatures start to rise. "You can call me 'Crest."

I touch the fore-front of my helm to his. Just for a second. A powerful shock travels down from the spot. I lean back into my original position, pressng my lip components together.

His optics are wide. A twinkle appears in them. He appears content as he leans back against the wall.

"So...", he begins,"Do you want to go back inside?"

I shrug. "Not really."

I notice that his optics portray most of his emotions. He looks...happy.

"Neither do I."

Ratchet sighs as he deactivates the blowtorch. Jazz looks a little better, but he can tell that he's not completely fixed.

"Well, you're good for now."

"For now?"

Ratchet smiles grimly. "For now."

"Where are..."

"Bumblebee and 'Crest? No idea."

"Huh."

Ratchet doesn't reply, simply running another scan.

"Am I gonna..."

"You'll be fine." I hope...

Jazz sighs "If you say so."

The door opens. Silvercrest appears, followed almost immediately by Bumblebee. She's fidgeting with her servos, looking a little...guilty. Ratchet raises a ridge, glancing over at Jazz, who is smirking slightly as Bumblebee tries (and fails) to appear...casual.

"Where's the girl?"

'Crest glances us. "Oh, she wanted to see Sam, I took her back..."

Ratchet nods. "Alright. How's your shoulder?"

She glances down at it. "It tingles a little, but it's fine."

"It should do that. And your leg struts?"

Bee shrugs. "I don't know. I can walk?"

"Well, that can't be a good sign.",Silvercrest mutters sarcastically.

"Knew it."

The shot that Silvercrest had taken to the shoulder while fighting Devastator was now just a rapidly shrinking indent in her armor. The weld-marks on Bumblebee's leg struts were now just faint lines, as if they'd been drawn on.

Ratchet rolls his optics. "Well, this 'walking' thing aside, I think you'll be okay. None of us have ever heard of it before, so just keep your visual sensors online, okay?"

'Crest laughs, and Bee salutes him. "Will do, Doc-Bot."

Ratchet shakes his helm, turning away from the pair to find Jazz struggling with laughter. His ridges shoot up. "How mature of you."

"Since when have I been known as 'mature'?"

Ratchet shrugs. "I don't know... Maybe when you graduated?"

"Please. Half the 'bots the Academy spits out don't know the first or the second or any other thing about fighting."

"Obviously. Sentinel Prime is proof of that."

The day after that, after a brief flare-up, as Ratchet puts it, in Jazz's predicament, the TiC is declared fit for duty and we leave the city. We will be escorting Megatron's shell to a vessel that will be departing from San Diego, and then to the Laurentian Abyss, which is where it will be dropped. Optimus has temporarily handed over the shard of the Allspark to a few scientists. We will retrieve it afterwards, but we do not want it anywhere near the offline Decepticons.

We depart soon afterwards, having only to wait for said scientists to arrive. We pull out, heading west towards San Diego, which is a city in southern California.

I am slightly ahead of Optimus, in between the lanes, and he is in front of Bumblebee, and in between Ironhide and Ratchet. They begin to converse on the comm line.

I think it may have been unwise to leave the shard with those humans.

We only just left. We can still retrieve it, if you want us to.

I think...that that would be best. Human scientists, so far, seem to be a little...too exploratory, when it comes to some things. And Professor Vine worked with Sector 7...

Bumblebee cuts in. I'll go.

Alright. You probably are fastest. Silvercrest, accompany him.

Okay.

I pull back and switch around a U-turn, pulling up just behind Bumblebee.

He activates a private comm link. Don't bother trying to keep up...

I can literally feel a smile over the link. I won't have to try. Don't hurt yourself, eh?

I pull even with him my holoform smirking slightly. He speeds up. I do, too.

Not bad. You know, for someone who isn't me.

Oh, really? Well, you're not doing bad, you know, for having an engine like that. I have a feeling that would get to him.

You're gonna get it.

Then why am I in front of you?

I sever the link, grinning wickedly at the Camaro. Bee speeds up, pulling slightly ahead of me. I draw even.

They have limits on the speed here, and I don't think the...those people with the cars like Barricade would really like pulling over a car with no driver. And, we don't have any Earth currency.

Bee slows down, and I do as well, remaining just next to him. His holoform activates, a young blonde guy, and he glances at me. "I still win."

I roll my eyes and ignore him, not wanting to really go there. Because...it would kind of go back and forth for light years...

We arrive back at the bast not too long afterwards, only to find that it isn't as we left it.

There is the broken corpse of a Decepticon, Wreckage, I think, lying just outside a plane. Starscream is rampaging around, killing every human that enters the range of his visual sensors. I curse, activating my cannon.

Bee already has his own weaponry out, rushing forward, shooting the occasional plasma discharge.

A few humans are running towards us. I shoot, but if anything can be said about Starscream that isn't an insult, it's that he's tough. I hear Bumblebee yelling to the approaching group.

"Taker cove- Agh!" I glance over. Bumblebee is now on the ground, injured, but still attempting to shoot. Starscream shoots him again. I growl. Only a punkass Decepticon fights as dirty as that. Attacking the weakened opponent.

"Hey, Shitstream!", I yell up to him, "How 'bout you come over here, and fight like a mech?"

He was suddenly, like, right in front of me. I replaced my cannons with Energon blades and started to regret my insult. Starscream is a little taller than Ratchet, and much larger, whereas I am about fifteen feet tall. My opponent is probably about two and a half times my size.

Bee is nearly in stasis, moaning slightly with the occasional cough-like noise. I begin to take on SiC.

I block a blow, the force enough to do a little damage in itself, and aim a hit at his knee. He hits my arm, causing me to miss. It continues on like this for a few minutes before I land a considerable hit on his lower chassis, and he backs off, and being the Deceptiscum that he is, he doesn't want to risk anything else and transforms and flies off. I turn to Bumblebee, muttering obscenities under my breath.

"Bee! Are you alright?"

He can't talk much, his vocal processor is sparking wildly, it has been damaged again. He speaks haltingly, an incredulous tone edging his voice.

"He would've...'illed all o...humans. He wa...ll all of the... I wonde...killed Wrecka..."

I kneel by him, slipping a servo under his helm. He looks up at me. I press my lip components together. "You saved them, though. Did a slagging lot more than I did."

He points at Lennox, who is dragging a badly injured soldier out of the flames. "Not...all..."

I sigh. "Are you gonna be okay?"

He nods. "He jus...motion components, and the...cal processor... It jus...fixed, too..."

I smile slightly. "Ratchet will be pissed..."

"You nee...the shard..."

"Okay, be back in a little bit. Stay here, yeah?", I tell him sarcastically as I stand up. He gives me a withering look but laughs slightly.

I walk over to the cluster of soldiers and scientists who survived. I address Captain Lennox. "Is the shard safe?"

He shrugs. "I have no idea. Vine had it, and Vine is dead."

I suppress the urge to snap at him; I know that my irritation isn't directed at him. It's mainly just at this whole slagging day, what with Bee hurt again, the shard missing (at least for the moment), the Decepticons... I sigh. "Well, I need to look for it. With any luck, it's underneath Wreckage's shell..."

He nods. "We can help, to some degree."

I nod slightly in return. "Alright."

Bee addresses me over the comm. Do they have it?

No. Vine had it, and he's dead. We're gonna have to look for it, I'm hoping it's underneath Wreckage.

Starscream could've...

It's possible, but I kind of doubt it. If that was what he was here for, he would've just grabbed it and left. But he didn't leave until he was hurt.

Well, good luck. I would help if I could move.

I smile grimly. Well, the humans want to help. If it's here, we'll find it pretty soon.

I walk over to Wreckage. He's completely offline, a few injuries still sparking. I ignore it as I scan it over and over, not detecting the fragment.

The soldiers and looking around by the sides, trying to see if it's underneath it. I sigh. "Okay, I've never been too good at the heavy lifting..."

I slide my servos underneath the side of his chassis, pressing my lip components together harshly. I slipped back a little bit, my back foot sparking against the asphalt, but I successfully flipped the offline Decepticon over.

And sure enough, the Allspark shard was underneath him. I sigh in relief, picking it up and clutching it tightly. I look over at Bee.

I've got it.

Well, that's good.

I stride back over to him and examine his locomotion components. They're not too badly damaged, just burnt. I hesitate, then activate a nanite enhance. My primary function is as a warrior, I was training under Prowl as a Cyber-Ninja when we left for Earth, and I'll most likely continue that. However, I also trained for a short period of time under Ratchet, and I have a few tools that a field medic would take for granted.

They don't heal completely, but the nanites speed up considerably and the burns nearly disappear, enough so that he isn't immobile. He gingerly stands up, a slight limp in his gait.

I guess I'm back to radio...

I smile slightly sadly. "That sucks."

He shrugs. A random song comes on. 'It's not so bad...'

"You commed Optimus, right?" He nods. "What are they doing? We have another Decepticon to drop."

A random female voice suddenly screamed,"THEY'RE COMING!" I laugh.

"Alright! No need to be so enthusiastic about it..."

He looks indignant. I smile sweetly. He glares.

I roll my optics. "You know you love me."

He rolls his own optics, replying over comm.

Well, at least I don't have to tell Ratchet about all the knew repairs he has to make...

My face plates take on a horrified look. "Oh, Primus, you're right..."

He looks satisfied. I glare at him.

"You've been planning this!"

His optics go wide. He takes on an indignant posture, gesturing animatedly.

Me? Planning? I don't know the meaning of the word!

I raise a ridge. "I think you just insulted yourself."

He face-palms.

okay...so this was a little longer than normal, as promised.

i hope you guys liked it, please review...etc...

Thanks for reading!