Chapter 2: A Cold World

Sideswipe glanced at the energon ration and huffed. He was running out and needs some before he starved himself to death. None of the autobots knew that Sideswipe was hiding in a cave not far away from Optimus Prime's base. He was a lone wolf, or that's what his friends mostly called him. He had some mud on his red armor that he needed to clean immediately, or he'd look like Unicron himself.

Any autobot would have wondered why Sideswipe was the way he was. He was good with the femmes, kept his armor polished, and had great fighting skills. But he didn't like to hang out with people at ALL. He grabbed a dirty cleaning cloth and started to wipe the mud, which unluckily made him even more dirty.

There was a little stream by his cave so he decided to come out of his hiding space and and wet his cloth. "I hope no one sees me. I'll be damned to the pit if a human catches me, even an autobot." He looked both ways out of the cave and scanned the area. Nope, no humans. He quickly went over to the stream and wet up his cloth.

Finally, now he can clean his armor and stop living like a wild animal. "I think this is perfect!" Someone called out nearby. "What the frag!" Sideswipe exclaimed surprisingly. Sideswipe's aft was doomed if he didn't get to his cave right away. He started to quickly dash for his cave when he saw a decepticon standing near the entrance of it.

"Hey Motormaster! Look what I found in here!" shouted the decepticon. Sideswipe hid behind a large rock. Then he spotted another decepticon, except he was black and a tint of purple with yellow optics. "What do we have here!" said this Motormaster guy. The other decepticon who was gray with purple wings looked at Motormaster, "Good energon. Not much but it will feed a good bunch of mechs."

Motormaster transformed while the other decepticon started to store the energon in his trailer. "Alright, let's get this to the Nemesis, Megatron will be glad that we have a nice store." the purple and gray mech said. Motormaster started to drive off but then heard a crack. "What was that? Come out fleshy so I can squish ya!" The gray and purple mech looked around and saw something with a tint of red.

"Hold on, I'll check it out." Sideswipe had two options, to fight or flee. The gray and purple mech got his fire blaster ready. "Motormaster, Blitzwing, come in!" Blitzwing stopped in his tracks, "What is it Starscream!" Motormaster shouted. "Megatron needs both of you immediately. As his second in command I command you to come as quickly as possible!" Blitzwing rolled his optics, "We're coming now. Tinfoil turkey…"

"What did you just call me!" Starscream shouted through their comm link. Blitzwing huffed, "Nothing, Starscream."

Motormaster drove off while Blitzwing transformed into a jet and left. Sideswipe let out his breath and laid against the rock, thanking Primus that he didn't lose his spark. He sighed and got up checking for more unfortunate surprises. He went to his cave to see that he had no energon, the decepticons took everything. They were a bunch of no good thieves.

Sideswipe laid down on the caves wall. He began to go deep in thought. He was an autobot warrior, a loner. He missed his brother dearly. If Sunstreaker saw me, he thought, he'll probably think I'm some neutral, not an autobot. Why am I hiding? Sideswipe was going to die seeing that he had no energon and that the decepticons were probably going to come back again trying to steal more energon. "Might as well work with Optimus Prime. I'm doin' this for you Sunstreaker. I'm going to find my way back to you."

Sideswipe transformed into a sleek, red Mustang that obviously needed to get cleant immediately. "Now if only I had Earth money," he said to himself, "I could stop by the car wash."

Flashdrive was still laying down on the med table. She didn't care about her health anymore, she just wanted to know where her friends were and what happened to them after the crash. Just then she spotted Optimus Prime in the doorway and an orange and white mech beside him. That's not who I think it is… she thought. "Hello Flashdrive, I see you've woken up." It was Ratchet, Ratchet the Hatchet!

"Ratchet! It's me Flashdrive, from the autobot boot camp! Remember, my best friend was Hot Rod!" Flashdrive happily told him. Ratchet had to think about it, "No, not the troublemaker!" Ratchet shouted. Flashdrive got up and gave Ratchet a huge hug, "Man, everybody on Cybertron misses you! Well not everyone, but the young bots!" She exclaimed excitedly. Ratchet smirked, "I'm surprised you're not in the brig for doing something stupid with Hot Rod." He jokingly said. Flashdrive chuckled and made a cute face, "Guess I'm too precious to lock up." Ratchet chuckled and Optimus Prime smirked.

"Well what's up doc bot. Am I healthy or am I dying?" Flashdrive asked. Ratchet and Optimus looked at each other with worried faces. "Well it's good, and bad." Ratchet answered her. Flashdrive frowned, "Please, start with the good part." Ratchet cleared his throat, "Well, the good part is you're not dying," Flashdrive relaxed and smiled, "The bad part is, is that you're losing energon." Flashdrive shook her helm, "But it doesn't make sense, so I'm dying?" Ratchet smiled a bit and then got down to explaining.

"Look youngster, I'm the one who graduated from med school, I think I know what I'm talking about! Anyway, you're not dying because we're taking care of you. See that tank," Ratchet pointed to a tank that was beside her berth, "It is keeping your energon from not pouring out of you. When you got into your little accident something punctured through your armor really bad. You should be grateful it wasn't your spark. That tank has to stay with you through this Earth week. If you take off the bandage that's on your wound, that's it. So if you feel dizzy or you think you're going to fall out come straight to me, immediately. So, are we clear cadet?" Flashdrive nodded. "Good, remember no missions for her Optimus. At least not this week." Optimus nodded, "Understood." Ratchet smiled, "Good! Not get out of my med bay I've got utensils to clean from your messy energon."

Flashdrive got up and walked out the med bay stopping to say, "Thanks old mech. You're awesome for your age." Ratchet grunted and mumbled under his breath, "No good youngsters have no intelligent minds." Flashdrive laughed walking down the base halls.

Working on chapter 3. I know some of you are waiting on Flashdrive and Sideswipe to meet. Let me know how I'm doing and if you like my story.