Chapter 25 ~ "The Next Morning…"

The next morning came quickly, Mosa had already gotten up from the bed, cleaned up, and dressed; she placed a thick thermo blanket over VolFogg, just in case. She sat by the bed at her desk, a mug of energon by her as she worked on her monitor, working on whatever information she had.

A couple of hours later, VolFogg finally stirred. Muttering softly to himself, he activated his optics, blinking and reaching up to rub them. Blearily, he raised his head, looking around. It took a moment for him to remember where he was and what had happened the previous night.

Mosa looked up from her monitor, smirking. "Well look who's up..." She took a sip of her energon. "How are you feeling?"

"Strange." VolFogg sat up, noting that his armor was still missing and looking around for it. "That was... a most interesting evening." He looked at her again. "And you?"

"A bit relaxed myself..." she giggled, "That was fun... you did good for your first time." She had pulled a second cup of energon up and gave it to VolFogg, then sat down next to him, "Your armor is..." she looked on the floor, "Ah, here we are..." She picked it up and gave it the purple bot.

"Thank you." He sipped at the energon, taking his armor and reattaching it. "I guess that was a compliment... thanks." He smiled slightly, finishing the energon. Checking his chronometer, he blinked. "I should be getting back to the others..."

Mosa blinked, then laughed. "Oh right, I forgot that your friends would be missing you now wouldn't they..." She scratched the back of her head, then stood up. "The Ambassador must be missing his right hand ninja right?" She smiled and led him to the front door.

VolFogg chuckled. "Something like that... and then there's my teammates, who are not going to be happy about this." He smiled again, a fuller smile, then stepped outside and transformed to his police car mode. Flashing his lights to her once, he sped off, heading back to the ship.

Mosa waved goodbye, hugging her arms and looking warmly in his direction as she leaned against the doorframe; she sighed then went back up into her apartment.

Meanwhile...

Scavenger looked at the doorway, seeing the door swish open and the purple ninja bot walk in. The older mech growled, "And just where the hell have you been?" he sneered.

"Out," was all the ninja mech would say, "I ran into Mosa again, and we went to her residence to wait out the rain." He tilted his head, hearing two pairs of footsteps coming in his direction.

Scavenger looked at the purple ninja bot, "Did you at least get any leads on our bounty head?" he grumbled.

"Unfortunately, I didn't... I was looking for traces when I ran into her and the rain started." VolFogg braced himself as two streaks of black-and-white appeared out of nowhere, pouncing on him with identical shrieks. A moment later, the twins disappeared again, taking their team leader with them, scolding at the top of their lungs.

RaiRyu looked after the twins and VolFogg from his place in the living room, "Where was he all night?" he looked over to his twin, who was playing video games with HyoRyu as EnRyu watched.

The green twin shrugged his shoulders, "Not sure..." he clicked at the controls, "Maybe he found the bounty head..."

****************

VolFogg found himself being bodily dragged back to his quarters, being scolded the whole time by the twins. He tried to get his feet under him again, but they sped up just enough to keep him off balance. It was clear they were Not Happy with him at the moment. Once they reached his quarters, he was tossed onto his berth, sat on, and then thoroughly interrogated.

VolFogg squirmed, but the twins were determined that they were not moving. Twin green glares burned into his wide optics. They were seriously angry with him. And that meant they probably weren't going to let him out of their sight for the foreseeable future.

He was (somehow) able to get away from the twins, allowing himself to freedom for the rest of the night.

****************

Around two days went by, and Scavenger's plans were getting poor results; they tried the high-star restaurants, they tried the parks and the neighborhoods in uptown, but still no luck. However, VolFogg was having quite the opposite...

VolFogg kept managing to sneak off to see Mosa, though losing his twin shadows was next to impossible. They always found him again, glowering at him and hissing at the femme. Usually he managed to keep them at bay until after he and Mosa parted company, though on several occasions they found him right in the middle of it.

Optimus was lying back on his berth, reading over a rather adulterated magazine when her heard his door swish open. Scavenger walked in with RaiRyu in tow, the younger mech looking at the blue and silver bot curiously.

Scavenger smacked his forehead. "You idiot put that away..." He was covering RaiRyu's optics.

Prime had adjusted himself and put his 'special' magazine away, sitting up on his berth, "What is it?" he asked looking at RaiRyu.

Scavenger rubbed a hand on RaiRyu's head. "Sparky here wanted to ask you something..." He nudged RaiRyu who was clutching to his dragon.

RaiRyu curled into himself. "Could I... um... Could I come with you guys when you head out for another hunt?"

Prime blinked, his optics narrowing, "No…" he said sternly, "Absolutely not."

Scavenger scratched the back of his head. "Prime, he maybe young but he's mature enough to fight on his own..." He looked Prime straight into the optics. "You said it yourself when we were on that frozen waste land of a planet, he was able to fry that bounty head." He patted a very disappointed RaiRyu. "Even through all the trauma he went through he's still able to at least fend for himself."

"And he's part of a combiner, don't forget," Goldymarg commented as he walked past, trying to keep his massive shoulders from scraping the walls. "I have fought alongside GekiRyuJin, and he is a formidable fighter. RaiRyu and FuuRyu together are a force to be reckoned with. Nowhere near my level, of course, but highly formidable."

The blue and silver bot looked between the massive orange bot and the elder mech looking down at him. He sighed, golden optics opening to look at RaiRyu, "All right," he said defeated, "You can go…"

RaiRyu smiled. "This is great! FuuRyu is gonna be so psyched!" He hugged Prime warmly. "Thank you Optimus!" He then left the room with Scavenger closing the door to Prime's room.

Scavenger grinned down on the yellow bot. "See, I told you it would work..." He chuckled. "Prime's a sucker for younglings..." RaiRyu snickered, heading to the common room to tell his brother the news.

Optimus sat down and huffed, giving the elder mech a flat look as he sat practically defeated on his berth. "You slick bastard…" he grumbled, staring at the elder mech. He soon heard another set of footsteps enter the room…

Prime's optics twitched as he felt the bubbly blue bot wrap his arms around him, "Swipes..." he darted his optics down to younger bot, "What are you doing?"

Sideswipe smiled cheekily, "I think somebody needs a hug!"

He felt Sideswipe squeeze harder and Prime had to pry him off and dart out of the room before the blue bot could catch him, "By Primus how Hot Shot lived with this I have no idea!"

Meanwhile…

VolFogg was undergoing yet another ear-blistering scolding from GunDober and GunGlue, and they were forcing him to take a disinfectant bath. Which consisted of them holding him down, peeling off every piece of armor in reach, and applying brushes to his entire frame. He'd already given up trying to get away; he'd already discovered that it was impossible.

"Are you two about done?" VolFogg groaned, looking over his shoulder at GunGlue and GunDober. They eyed him for a moment, then nodded, and he dragged himself out of the bath, standing on wobbly legs, almost falling over from exhaustion. The twins had to practically carry him back to his quarters, ignoring the smirk from Goldymarg.

GunGlue ducked out of the way just as the two darted past, shaking his head. He looked at his twin over VolFogg's helm, both of them rolling their optics in unison. They maneuvered the purple mech into his quarters and lifted him onto the berth, curling up on either side of him and draping their arms across his back.

Just before VolFogg could shut down his optics, he received a text message from a familiar femme. It said, "Think you could meet me tonight ninja boy?" XO added at the ended with her love.

VolFogg could barely keep his optics open, he was so exhausted, and the twins were seeing to it that he wasn't going to move anytime soon. He was forced to send an apology just before his exhaustion finally caught up with him, and he passed out.

Another two days had passed, still no such luck. Even bringing FuuRyu and RaiRyu along, they couldn't find anything close to capturing the female bounty head, and all the while VolFogg's visits became more frequent.

Mosa tapped a finger on the purple bot's chest, they were lying in bed after one of their "rounds", she smiled, "I hope I'm not making you any trouble with your teammates..."

VolFogg snorted. "They are not happy about this at all. Though I am not absolutely certain why. It might be because we are the three parts of a combiner. Or it might be for some other reason entirely."

Mosa was lying against VolFogg. "I hope they don't think ill of me..." she said softly, "I don't mean any harm... well your interface has been through some stuff so I don't know about that..." She grinned playfully.

VolFogg had turned off his comnlink, not wanting to have the GunMachine twins screaming his audios off whenever he was out. He looked at Mosa curiously. "They're not really talking... they've fallen back on their own language for the moment. But they're not happy about me being here."