I'd just like to say that the friendship between Skids and Smokescreen will stay just like that: friendship. I admit that I tried to make it into something more but they certainly had something to say about that.

And with this chapter, this mini-arch is completed (yeah!).

Disclaimer: I do not own the Transformers. I'm just borrowing them for a bit.

8 -- Excited

"The frontiers were sort of wide open. It was that sense of excitement that we really wanted to spark in everybody else wherever we went." -- Bill Gates

When Smokescreen sauntered into their quarters looking all the world like the proverbial cyber-cat that had finally eaten the proverbial laser-hawk, Skids shrugged it off as the gambler winning a large bet on a couple of suckers who now owned nothing but their armor on their backs. Well, for once, he was somewhat right. But mostly wrong.

"Pack your bags, my good gentlebot," the mech said in a voice that bludgeoned to death the snobbish, high-class Tower accents, "for we are leaving this Pit of a hole."

It took a second or two for Skids to translate the horrible accent to recognizable Cybertronian. "…we are being transferred to another base?"

Smokescreen, thank Primus, dropped the ridiculous accent as he responded, dropping to look under his berth for items long lost and forgotten. "Yeah, I got the ping today after I did some favors for some mechs I know. We're going to one of the bases closer to Iacon, Zeta-something-or-another. I know that it's ten times better then this scrap heap." He paused in his fruitless search for reusable items to look at him over his door-wing. "…What's the matter with you?"

The theoretician snapped out of searching through his databanks to frown down at his roommate. "I do not recall ever being pinged with such news. Perhaps only you are being relocated." The last part was said with poorly concealed sadness colorizing his voice. He didn't know what he would do if Smokescreen ever left him to his own devices. Though Skids was loathed to admit it, he had come to depend quite heavily on his only friend in these turbulent times.

He returned the frown and sat up from his uncomfortable position half under the berth. "Huh, that is weird…Oh well, it doesn't matter." And just like that his trademark smile appeared as he stood up to pat Skids's shoulder reassuringly. "Even if you didn't get a ping, I got a ping for both of us. And if that isn't good enough, I'll make sure to smuggle you on board. I know mechs that know mechs that know some more mechs."

Skids snorted in amusement at his friend's choice of words. "Oh, I do not doubt that in the least." An uneasy pause. Then, carefully, "Are we really being transferred? It is not a fluke?"

"What did I just say? Even if it is a fluke, which I know for sure that it's not, I'd still make sure that we'd leave this scrape pile of a base. I don't know about you but I'm sick of this place and could use a change of scenery."

His fear smoothed over with reassurance, Skids permitted himself to feel eager - thrilled, really - at this news. It hadn't been to long since he had been stationed at this base but he had always felt he hadn't belonged, especially around the warrior types. "Do you know when we will be departing?"

"The next shuttle out of this place, actually," was the tactician's reply with another smirk, "so I need to go finish some business of mine before we ship off. I'll be back to help you lug all of your data pads to the shuttle." And with an affectionate flick to his windshield, Smokescreen sauntered out in very much the same manner as coming in.

Skids made sure that his roommate was out of audio range before allowing himself to jump out of his chair, shout an enthusiastic "YES!" to the empty room, pumping his arms up into the air before proceeding to calm down and rustle up a box large enough to place his sizeable collection of data pads in. The barely held back smile plastered all over his face spoke volumes of how happy and eager he was to leave and start anew. Maybe there would even be scientists at the new base? Even if there weren't, he would still have Smokescreen and that was enough for him.