Chapter Six

"Anyone find anything?" Hot Shot asked.

The rest of the Spychangers all replied with a unanimous "No"

The spychanger leader sighed, they had nothing to go on and were unable to communicate with Raincloud. What had happened to the femme while she was investigating the Decepticon activity? Had she been discovered? Did she try and fight them on her own? Why didn't she or why hadn't she contacted them? There were too many questions and no answers to any of them, well there were potential answers to two questions but still left out the main questions. Judging by the 'holes' and debris a battle had taken place, which would suggest that Raincloud had been discovered by the Decepticons and tried to fight them off but there was no clue to what had happened to her after the fight.

"Do you think she could have been captured by the Decepticons?" WARS asked.

"Could be a possibly." Ironhide replied.

"Or it could be that X-Brawn was right and her communications got damaged." Mirage said.

"TAI, this is Hot Shot." Opening communications to base.

"Hot Shot, have you found any sign of Raincloud?"

"I'm afraid not." He replied. "It seems that she was discovered by the Decepticons and a battle took place." He explained.

"But we haven't found anything that would indicate what happened to her afterwards." REV added.

"I see." Optimus stated.

"Then it's quite possible that she could have been taken by the Decepticons." TAI said.

"We have received no message that the Decepticons are holding her captive." Optimus said clearly thinking the situation through. "Is there anywhere she could hide out if she was damaged?"

"If she were able to transform then she could have driven off into the jungle." Crosswise theorised.

"But we've found no tire tracks that lead into the jungle." WARS pointed out.

"Is there anything that would suggest that Ultra Magnus was there?" Optimus suddenly asked.

"Magnus?" Ironhide said slightly surprised.

All the Spychangers looked at one another in slight surprise, they were all so pre-occupied in looking for traces or clues to Raincloud that it didn't occur to them that Ultra Magnus might have 'helped'.
One by one they began to shake their heads 'no'.

--

Raincloud had to admit, walking without her door wings was more difficult than she'd thought it would be. Granted that they were still attached but since she wasn't receiving data from them they might as well have been non-existent.
It was hard enough to walk in a straight line let alone keep up with her….'protector', every so often she'd bump into a tree or trip herself up, and Ultra Magnus' snide comments about her being a 'useless femme' that couldn't do anything but get in the way weren't helping matters.
It surprised her actually that he stuck around to 'help' her, she half expected him to go off and leave her to fend for herself and yet, there he was a little ahead of her. Where they were going she had no idea but she was hoping it was back to the others. She suddenly tripped again landing flat on her face, she growled inwardly, she was so going to payback the Decepticon who shot her door wing, making her eat dirt every so often.

"Get up Femme." Came Ultra Magnus' cold uncaring voice.

"For the last time Ultra Magnus, my name is Raincloud."

"Whatever. Get up, we have a long way to go."

Instead of getting up like the other times she simply sat cross-legged before him in a slight defiance.
"How would you like it if I called you Slaghead instead of your name, huh." Her voice remaining calm as usual but having a slight hint of annoyance in it, so slight that you would only notice it if you knew her as well as Freespirit did. Although he tried to hide it she saw the anger in his optics, "See. You don't like it anymore than I don't like being called 'Femme'." She reasoned a satisfactory smirk making it's way onto her face.

He turned and continued on walking, "You want to stay here then that just fine with me. I don't need a useless femme following me around. Find your own way back."

"Find your own way back." She mimicked as she stood up, bad idea as she just fell right back down again. It appeared that her systems had had enough of bumping into things and tripping over and just refused to take another step without her door wings. She groaned slightly "The least he could have done was reconnect my door wings before leaving." She tried in vain once again to get up but it was no use her systems just refused to 'work' without those door wings.
She sighed, "Now I really am useless."

"So you finally agree." A voice said surprising her.

She looked over, "I thought you already left… Slaghead."

She was right, he did leave, but… and he didn't know why, he was… compelled to come back and make sure she was all right, that she could manage on her own. From what he had just seen there was no way she'd be able to make it back. He walked over to her and went to go behind her.

"What are you doing?" she suddenly asked turning to face him.

"Sit still." He commanded and went behind her once again, and once again she turned to face him.

"You expect me to stay still while you do goodness knows what behind me. What do I look like… a sparkling?" she said rhetorically.

"Yes. Now stay still."

Again she ignored him and kept turning so she was facing him, eventually he grabbed her by the shoulder and held her while looking at her back. She struggled against his grip not trusting whatever he was doing to her.

--

Rapid Run walked into the command centre after hearing about what happened to Topaz.
"How's Topaz doing, TAI?" he asked the hologram.

"Koji says that she should be conscious in a day or two." She replied.

The bullet train sighed in relief. "Any idea why she went off like that?"

"Prowl believes it has to do with what Ultra Magnus said."

"Ultra Magnus?" Midnight Express asked as he and Rail Spike both walked in.

The hologram gave a nod, "Apparently on their first… encounter with him he said that both Freespirit and Raincloud didn't belong on the battlefield and should leave."

Rapid Run smiled behind his faceplate, "If Prowl thinks that a silly comment like that would upset Spirit then he doesn't know her as well as he thinks he does."

"Can't say the same for Raincloud." Rail Spike said.

"Surely Rain wouldn't believe such a thing." Midnight said.

Rail Spike turned to Midnight Express, "Oh? If I said to you that you were useless and that you didn't belong on the team, how would you feel?"

Midnight Express sputtered for a moment unsure of what to say at Rail Spike's comment.

"Don't worry, Midnight. Spike didn't mean that, but that's probably how Rain was feeling." Rapid Run explained, to which Rail Spike gave a nod.

"Where is Raincloud anyway?" Rail Spike asked.

"Missing." TAI answered sadly.

"Rain's missing?" Midnight said slightly surprised and also relieved that Rail Spike didn't mean what he'd just said.

"She went to check out some Decepticon activity, and it looks like she was spotted. The Spychangers are out looking for her right now." TAI said.

Midnight Express grumbled something incoherent.

"So where's Optimus?" Rapid Run asked, not having seen the Autobot leader anywhere and ignoring his team-mate.

"He's gone to see Koji and Topaz."

"The Autobot Brothers?" Rail Spike asked, wondering why the base was so…'empty'.

"Knowing Prowl, he'll be with Topaz." Rapid Run said.

"Right. Side Burn and X-Brawn are looking into what happened to the energy reading I picked up."

"The one Rain was checking out?" Midnight asked, and received a nod in reply.

--

Raincloud walked though the jungle trying her best to dampen the pain her left door wing was sending her, she was quite surprised when Ultra Magnus re-established the link to them, and so was unprepared for the amount of pain she received. She didn't know what surprised her more though, the fact that Magnus helped her 'though' that pain or the fact that he was just ahead of her 'helping' her get back to the others. Suddenly Ultra Magnus stopped and said a few moments later "Wait here." And activated his jet pack. Raincloud watched him fly off not knowing what to make of the situation. You know she thought I'm beginning to think that under all that plating of yours Magnus, you're a really nice mech. She chuckled to herself but decided to keep on walking, otherwise all she would be able to think of was the pain in her left door wing. She kept her sensors on high alert not wanting to have any more surprises. The ones I've had today are quite enough.

So when Ultra Magnus came back to tell her he'd spotted two of the Spychangers she was nowhere in sight, he sighed partly in frustration. "Femmes." He muttered. He thought about going after her and then wonder why he was being so… 'nice' to someone he considered to be useless. If she kept heading in the direction they were going before he 'left' she would more or less run into the Spychangers anyways. He activated his jet pack once more and started to head off only to stop to look back for a few moments.

--

"You okay, Mirage? Ironhide asked his friend as they searched for Raincloud. Mirage looked at the pickup truck with a confused look. "You've been…" he began searching his processor for the right word "More than concerned since we began to look for Raincloud."

"Aren't you worried about what happened to her?" Mirage countered with a question.

"Of course I am. We all are." Ironhide replied.

"Then I don't see the problem, Ironhide." The formula one car said as they continued to look for the MG.

"Come on, Mirage. We've known each other a long time." Ironhide began.

Mirage gave him a look that said 'your point being.'.

"You have more than friendship feelings for Rain." He answered the look.

Mirage chuckled, though Ironhide could have sworn that it had a nervousness to it.

"And how'd you'd come to that conclusion."

"Let's see, how do I put this…" Ironhide said pretending to think as they continued to walk "It's obvious." He stated bluntly.

Mirage was never so thankful in his life to have a faceplate so Ironhide couldn't see the way his mouth fell open at that statement.

Seeing Mirage wasn't going to say anything Ironhide continued, "Ever since that mission you and Rain went on to rescue Prowl and Freespirit you've been… One, overly happy whenever Rain was about, even though you tried to hide it." He began counting the 'reasons' off on his fingers "Two, always wondering where she is. Three…"

"Okay okay." Mirage finally said looking down at the ground hoping his friend couldn't see the embarrassment he was feeling.

Ironhide chuckled and clapped the race car on the back, "Don't worry about it, Mirage." He said still chuckling slightly "I'm sure none of the others have figured it out… yet."

Mirage felt both relieved and nervous about that statement, he was about to say something when another voice said "Haven't figured what out yet?" he looked up and saw, "Rain!" he couldn't help but notice the expression on her face was slightly pained. "Are you okay?" he asked hurrying over to her but trying to make it look like he was walking. He obviously failed as he heard Ironhide chuckle behind him.

She smiled at him, "As fine as one can be when they've been shot in the door wing."

"Hot Shot, we've found Raincloud." Ironhide said contacting the spychanger leader.

"Is she okay?" he asked.

"She's been shot in her door wing." Mirage reported.

"Take her back to the rendezvous point. I'll contact Optimus." Hot Shot said closing communication.

"Can you transform?" Ironhide asked.

Raincloud shook her head, "And before anyone asks I don't have communications either."

The three walked towards the rendezvous point unaware that they were being watched. Ultra Magnus hovered above them just out of their sight but close enough to see and hear them.

At least… she's safe. He shook his head to dismiss thought before heading in the opposite direction.