"I don't know how I could have allowed this to happen," Skydive said for about the millionth time.

"My love, it's not your fault," Swordslash told her. He was using his sword to hack through the undergrowth surrounding the cave lair as they looked for the runaway Fireblast—of course, she wasn't there, but they didn't know that.

"It is my fault," Skydive insisted, sounding like she was going to cry. "We had that huge fight before she left—you were there. I called her a jealous wench, don't you remember? I was out of line when I said that. I never meant it. How could I have said that to my own sister?"

"She's got to be somewhere," Swordslash replied, grunting as he flung his sword at a particularly thick branch and fiercely split it in two. "We just have to keep looking. She needs that more than your worried processor."

Skydive shot a laser at some undergrowth nearer to her and Swordslash helped her step through. When they reached the edge of the trees they realized they were at the shore of Lake Michigan, with Detroit on the other side—and as of yet, they hadn't seen a single sign of Fireblast.

"If only…" Skydive felt hot tears stinging her optics as she told her husband-to-be, "If only I could hold her close one more time—and tell her how much I love her—I could never ask for a better sister than Fireblast. Why did she have to leave?"

"I don't know, okay?" Swordslash put his sword away and wrapped Skydive up into his arms. "Please don't cry, my love. We will find her, no matter how far away she is."

"Then let's go." Skydive's voice was determined as she turned herself into a jet plane and flew across the water, with Swordslash, in helicopter mode, following closely after her.

…

"What…what are you doing?" asked Microdigit, quietly approaching his new colleague.

"Just doing some experimenting," Fireblast replied nonchalantly. She reached for a chemical that was sitting by her test tube and poured it into her concoction, watching carefully to see what its effect would be. "This is—this is called chemistry, isn't it?"

"Yes." Microdigit smiled. "I'm glad you enjoy it as much as I do."

"Look at this potion I made," said Fireblast, pouring her concoction into a small cup. "See…it doesn't do anything, does it?"

"I don't think so," the nerd-bot replied, watching interestedly.

"Well, look what I got it to do." Fireblast took the active ingredient out again and poured it in, setting off a small explosion.

Impressive, thought Microdigit, and he said, "You know, you seem pretty intelligent. If you don't mind me asking, what did you get on the DAT?"

"I never took it," Fireblast told him airily. "Decepticons only have to take the Decepticon Aptitude Test if we go to college—if I went to college, I would need to take it to graduate, but I don't plan on going to college."

Microdigit looked shocked. "Elite Guard law says that every Autobot is required to take the Autobot Aptitude Test." And then, a little proudly, "I am currently in the top 1% in the Science section, top 10% in Math, and top 30% in Reading."

"Is the AAT as hard as they say it is?"

"It was a joke," Microdigit told her, shaking his head.

"Have you ever considered the fact that it was easy for you because you're so smart?" Fireblast asked, teasingly brushing one servo against his cheek.

Microdigit tensed up at the feeling of her fingers softly touching his faceplates. It felt sort of…well…hot. Fiery, even. For want of a better word, that is. Guess that's why I only got top 30% in Reading…I KNEW I should have studied more…

Meanwhile, Fireblast was thinking, Is it just me or is he…BLUSHING?

Feeling a little mischievous (not to mention flirtatious), Fireblast gently took the nerd-bot's servo in hers. "What's the matter, cutie? You okay?"

"Um…yes…" Microdigit was blushing even more now. Did she just call me 'cutie'?

Fireblast was still holding his servo, inducing a…very strange feeling he didn't quite understand. This young femme had only been on the ship for a couple solar cycles, not even a week, but recently, whenever one of those black-and-green wingflaps softly brushed against his shoulder as they worked at the lab table together, or when she held his servo, or when their optics met, or even when she smiled…

The nerd-bot shook his head. What was going on here? The two of them talked about things he was familiar with, like their experiments, which were going well—she was good at science, and she seemed to love it—or that nasty virus still wreaking havoc on Cybertron, or the AAT and the DAT…but when she acted like this, touching him and saying these not normal things…well, that was something he wasn't so familiar with. For now, Microdigit thought, I prefer to stay with my lab work.

"Okay, so…how did you manage to do that?" asked Microdigit, trying to bring the subject back to solid ground.

"Do what?"

"Cause this mini-explosion," Microdigit clarified, pointing to Fireblast's potion.

"Oh," she replied. "Well, all I had to do was experiment with certain chemicals—mostly it was just the active ingredient I was working with—but basically, I just had to observe the way they reacted with each other to—"

"Do you like doing this?" he asked, cutting her off.

"Yeah, I do," Fireblast told him sincerely. "I've never felt this alive since…since ever. If I manage to make a new potion I feel like I'm actually…you know…worth something."

"Of course you're worth something." Microdigit picked up a test tube and looked through it, feeling confused again. "Who told you otherwise?"

"Nobody, but…" Fireblast hung her head and sighed. "Trust me; I don't fit in at all where I come from. Here, I feel like I do fit in."

Fireblast closed her optics, remembering her old life. All the experiences were still vivid in her memory. Skydive always showing off…Megatron ignoring her…the feeling of being left out and even hated…the humiliating way she always dropped out of the air and crashed into trees when practicing her flying…of course, it was physically painful to crash into things, but Fireblast was always much more concerned with her pride.

"Not that I know the Decepticons very well, but…" Microdigit shrugged. "Maybe they do appreciate you, and just, you know, have a really odd way of showing it."

"I don't think so." Fireblast shook her head—that couldn't be true. It was nice of this mech to try to cheer her up though. She smiled a little and rubbed his shoulder. "Thanks anyway, Microdigit."

Wha—? Microdigit tried to bring himself back to the present situation, but he was feeling a little short of breath. There was just something about her that he couldn't figure out. Why did his name sound so…wonderful when she said it? Whenever Ultra Magnus or Jazz or Sentinel said his name it didn't sound special. Why did he feel this strange way whenever he was around her?

Whatever "this strange way" meant.

Fireblast was still smiling at him and—wow…she really was pretty when she smiled. Beautiful! Of course, there were plenty of femmes in his old school who were beautiful, but…she was…different, somehow. Those femmes had smiles that implied, "Look at me, I'm so great, worship me". That kind of smile. Fireblast's smile was just…well…a good smile. And unlike most of the femmes at Microdigit's school, Fireblast actually had a CPU that was fully functional, which was what he liked best about her.

"So…do you want to finish with our work?" he asked, feeling more than a little uncomfortable.

"Yes, of course," she replied, in her normal voice again.

Feeling relieved, Microdigit grabbed a test tube and some of Fireblast's potion. "I want to experiment with this more! It's ingenious!"

For maybe fifteen cycles, the two of them enthusiastically blended chemicals together, using Fireblast's potion. Finally, Fireblast set the glass containing her potion down and yawned.

"It's getting a little late," she said. "If we're going to make any real discoveries, we need our stasis. Why don't we call it a solar cycle?"

"Oh…um…okay," Microdigit replied. "You're right."

"I look forward to the morning," whispered Fireblast.

At this moment, she wasn't sure if she was just playing or if she was actually attracted to him a little, since there was nothing more annoying than dating a mech who was stupid. Or mean. Microdigit was awkward, yes, but he was nice enough, and very smart, which was something Fireblast looked for in a mech.

Starscream (who had graduated from some university in Crystal City) sometimes talked about the Decepticon Aptitude Test, which he'd had to take to graduate. Apparently, it was far from easy. If Microdigit thought the DAT's Autobot counterpart, the AAT, was a "joke", then how dumb could he really be?

And not to mention…Fireblast had noticed long ago that Microdigit panicked when she flirted with him like this, and to be honest, she found it kind of cute. He was just so unbelievably innocent.

And this evening was no exception—in fact, Microdigit was panicking more than ever as his colleague grasped one of his servos again, with that teasing smile still on her lips. Even worse, she touched his head then moved her fingers down to his shoulders, stroking gently…he tried to ignore the odd feeling he always got in his lower regions whenever she acted this way, but that was getting more difficult by the second. Oh, why does it have to be this way? I probably look so stupid to her!

"I-I look forward to the morning, too," Microdigit told her, wincing at how his voice shook.

"Goodnight, then." Fireblast smiled again and squeezed Microdigit's servo once more before she headed off to her room (for now, her room was actually the guest room).

Once she climbed into her bed she smiled and closed her optics. Microdigit really wasn't that bad a guy. He was sweet, gentle, smart. Fireblast realized, as she snuggled into her pillow and closed her optics, that she had been telling the truth when she said she was looking forward to tomorrow.

…

Microdigit was still in the lab over a megacycle after Fireblast left, with the overhead light turned off. He was trying to focus on his work, but he couldn't. He couldn't get that beautiful smile out of his CPU. And even though she had left so long ago, he could still feel the hot touch of those sharp Seeker fingers on his body.

What did she mean by all this, anyway? Were femmes always this difficult? When she was acting in this strange way…what was she trying to accomplish? Was there some kind of career benefit?

Either way, Microdigit knew that tonight, whether he fell into stasis in the lab or not, he would dream of Fireblast, just like he always did.

"Microdigit?" somebody asked, flicking the light on; the nerd-bot jumped, but then he realized it was just Perceptor again.

"It's almost one in the morning, my friend," Percy said, walking over to his intern. "You need your stasis."

"I-I'm not…not tired!" Microdigit cried, even though yes, he was very tired, so much that he accidentally knocked his arm into what was left of Fireblast's potion, spilling it all over the floor.

"You must try to be less clumsy, Microdigit," Percy said, not in a mean way, but more like an exasperated way as he grabbed a tissue and bent down to clean up the mess.

CLUMSY? What would Fireblast think if she knew he was clumsy—so clumsy that he had spilled her potion?

"I'm ruined!" hollered Microdigit. "Now what am I going to do?"

"Care to explain what you mean by that?"

"That was Fireblast's potion," Microdigit told him. "You see, earlier this solar cycle she made it and we were experimenting with it…"

"Fireblast's not going to get mad," Percy replied, tossing the tissue in the garbage can. "She knows accidents will happen."

"No, what I mean is…I don't want her to know what a klutz I am," Microdigit said helplessly.

"She's known you for all of three solar cycles," Percy reminded him. "How would she have formed any opinion of you yet?"

"I know she thinks I'm a fool," the nerd-bot replied, "because every time I bring her into the lab, you know, we have fun together, but I can tell she doesn't like me. All she does is make fun of me."

"Fireblast's making fun of you?" asked Percy, looking surprised. "That doesn't sound like her."

Microdigit remembered when Fireblast had been teasing him, and how he had had literally no idea what she had been doing—and, come to think of it, he still didn't completely understand it. Miserably, he recounted every bit of what had happened earlier that evening to Percy.

"I just don't know what to do!" cried Microdigit. "I mean, I know something really important happened this evening, but for the life of me I can't figure out what."

"Have you ever had a girlfriend?" asked Percy.

"Unless you count femmes helping their boyfriends cruelly shove me into lockers, no. Why?"

"Well, because I don't think she was making fun of you," said Percy. "She was just flirting with you."

"Um…what does that mean?" asked Microdigit, a little naively.

"All it means is that she's not teasing you to be mean, she's just teasing you because she likes you—that's her more subtle way of telling you. Plenty of femmes do it, and a lot of mechs too…Didn't you enjoy it?"

Microdigit remembered all the times Fireblast had been flirting with him—supposedly. Well, it was confusing, but when he recalled the way he felt when he looked into her unbelievably beautiful optics, or when she touched him in that, um, flirty way, or even when she flashed that stunning smile at him…

"Yes, of course I enjoyed it."

Microdigit didn't know much about this kind of thing, but he did know that even though flirting with his new colleague was an unfamiliar, strange feeling, it was a good feeling.

"So don't worry so much," Percy said. "Besides, if I had to bet on it, I would say she can sense how infatuated you are."

"I'm…infatuated?" asked Microdigit, his faceplates heating up.

"Obviously," Percy replied. "So just go get some stasis so you can work on the cure for that virus tomorrow."

"Can't you just do it?"

"Well, I'm trying to, but I am Ultra Magnus's top science guy, which means I have a lot more to do than just figure out one miracle cure," Percy reminded him.

"Okay, fine, I'll go to bed," Microdigit muttered. "Goodnight, Percy."

"Don't call me that!" yelled Perceptor, which is what he did anytime anyone called him that nickname, but Microdigit just laughed and went on to bed.