Author's Note: Thanks to I am Blueberry and Riptide2 (I know right!) for reviewing the last chapter! Enjoy and I own nothing but my OCs. Tune in next week to read Chapter Five; If You Give A Crab A Machine Gun

What It Takes To Live- Fliers

"Granny: Sweet tea and cookies! We have to do something!

Wolf: I know. The song was catchy but the choreography was terrible"-Hoodwinked

One thing Diego Garcia now had in abundance were fliers. The majority were Decepticons but two of them were Autobots. The plus side was that Diego Garcia had its own personal air force. On the other hand Seekers weren't known for their mental stability. Skydive and Fireflight were the only Autobot aerials and they were still young. The horrors of war had left them vastly untouched. Interra and Nieva had been hurt deeply by the loss of their sister, trine member, and triplet. Tavianna had been close them so every once in a while they would slip into a period of melancholy. Still Reverb kept Nieva plenty busy now and Interra helped when she could.

Shadow and her brothers had also escaped the war mostly unscathed; physically. Mentally there was hidden trauma. The Decepticon ranks had not been a safe place to raise younglings All four of them had seen many of their comrades and, in Shadow's case her mentor, killed in a brutal showing of Megatron's temper. Still they had came out of it well enough. Blackout as well had come out physically unscatched but he still carried the guilt of those who he had killed. Even though he wasn't a true Seeker he was accepted as if he was one and part of their small, aerial gathering.

Jetfire had come out well enough considering who his mech creator was. Ramjet's betrayal and Sunstorm's death had hit him hard but Jolt stuck with his new friend through all the ups and downs as did Skysong, who had already been Jetfire's friend before the war had pulled them apart and now she was also soon to be Jolt's sparkmate. Starscream of course was Starscream which the Decepticons claimed explained a great deal. The Autobots were beginning to realize that it was true. Starscream was nothing if not sarcastic and a little bit quirky. After observing some of the chaos that consisted of the Decepticon lifestyle none of them were too surprised about that. They were slightly surprised that Starscream was in a category all to himself but they accepted it.

That left Thundercracker and Skywarp to be accounted for. Thundercracker was also an enomaly. He had escaped war fine mentally and holding only a little physical damage. His twin, on the other hand, was another story. Skywarp may have lost his sparkmate but he hadn't lost his ability to prank people. He was also proving time and time again that he had no sense of self preservation. As TC had so eloquently put it once, "Skywarp just likes explosion and chaos. That's why he has problems with peace. No explosions and not enough trouble." Unfortunately that meant Skywarp created chaos.

The Autobots were shown the true nature of Skywarp's self preservation one sunny afternoon just hours before Keller's next debate. Shadow, Chromia, and Arcee had been talking after a run on the proving grounds and Elita had just joined them. Optimus and Ironhide were currently running the track now while Ratchet was keeping a close watch on them.

BOOM.

Everyone in the vicinity winced. "What the frag was that?" Chromia asked, climbing up from the ground. She had dove down the instant the massive blast had rang out, war instincts still fully intact. That was when the sound of a machine gun rang out and they saw a tree go down.

"Scorponok," Shadow said, an odd look on her face. Then they heard a sound between a cackle of laughter and a yelp. "And Skywarp," she added as an afterthought. Starscream who had come over to see what was going on groaned.

"BLACKOUT," he yelled before taking off into the air. Shadow followed him while the Autobots followed on the ground. What they saw made left them torn between sympathy and hysterical laughter. Skywarp was currently trying to avoid getting speared by a furious, pink Scorponok.

Blackout took one look at the pair and moaned, "Oh slag no."

"Unfortunately yes," Thundercracker responded, sounding like he was trying not to laugh. "Just get him calmed down."

Blackout sighed and ducked into the fray. If there was one thing you could say about Decepticons it was that they weren't cowards when it came to confronting their own. In a matter of minutes Scorponok was subdued and being taken back to Decepticon base to get neon pink paint off of his body. Skywarp was being dragged to the infirmary by a curse spitting Flashfire. It seemed that medics everywhere were all the same.

Now that the entertainment was gone the crowd scattered back to where they were before but the rumor flew like wildfire. Before the end of the day everyone knew what Skywarp had done to Scorponok. Similarly everyone knew what the scorpion mimic had attempted to do to Skywarp for revenge. It was the most exciting event all week.