Author's note. Have to admit, this chapter is inspired by Rugrats, I mean, you can't imagine four Sparklings trying to escape from a play pen without thinking of that cartoon, can you?

Enjoy and please review.

Skyfire's POV.

Skyfire trembled as he was carried through the Nemesis corridors by Starscream. Normally, the white Seeker would be dragging him along, but he was still too ill to be walking long distances. Unfortunately while necessary, this only served to infuriate Starscream even more, meaning he'd be worse to live with.

He held tightly to the Seeker's neck, not willing to look him in the optic, especially when every time he did, he was given a horrible glare. Hook had assured the little Shuttle before Starscream had taken him away, that the Seeker was under strict orders not to harm or mistreat him.

This however didn't make Skyfire feel any better, Starscream would just resent him even more. And Starscream could be very inventive when it came to exacting revenge. And the thought made the little Sparkling shiver with fear.

"What is the matter with you?" Starscream spat as he felt the shiver. He was still fuming over being made to take care of this worthless brat of Skywarp's.

"Are you cold?" he snarled before sneering. "Or are you frightened, little Sparkling?"

"No," Skyfire whimpered softly. "It....still hurts."

"Does it now?" Starscream said in a voice dripping with malice. "What a shame."

"Why are you so mad?" Skyfire asked but his question caused Starscream to stop dead, and force him away from his neck so he could look the little Shuttle right in the optic.

"Why am I mad?" he hissed menacingly. "Because I do not tolerate betrayal, my old friend, and not only did you betray me, you made me look like a fool after I saved your worthless aft from the ice. Without me, you'd still be there, unloved and forgotten."

Skyfire started to cry as Starscream spoke his cruel words, making the white Seeker sneer in contempt.

"Stop that snivelling," Starscream snarled, giving him a shake. "I will not put up with such weakness, any more of that and I shall give your aft a good warming."

Skyfire abruptly stopped crying, but more out of fear than anything else. As he hiccupped, Starscream sneered once more, before slinging him against his shoulder once more and setting off to his quarters. Poor Skyfire trying to suppress his sobs as he was taken, ny the furious Seeker.

The Sparkling's POV.

"We have to get out of here," Ironhide declared as he paced about the play pen the Sparklings had been placed.

"How we going to do that with Soundwave watching," Ratchet said moodily as he fiddled with a rubber wrench, apparently somebody's idea of a joke.

The four Sparkling's glanced over at one of the Rec Room tables where the silent blue Mech was still sitting. Despite the fact that he wasn't directly looking at them, they could still tell he was carefully keeping an optic on them. There was defiantly no way they could do anything with him around.

"We gotta think of something," Ironhide persisted and the two Femmes nodded.

"Surely he's not going to hang around here all day," Elita said as she idly doodled on a data pad.

They might have actually enjoyed themselves, there were looks of nice looking toys and stuff. But none of them could stop worrying about Skyfire, they just knew that he was in trouble. But the question was how were they going to rescue him?

"Hide, sit down," Chromia hissed. "I doubt Soundwave will leave while you look like you're going to try something."

With a growl, Ironhide plonked himself down, looking thoroughly moody. Ratchet passed him a ball, and Ironhide started chucking it at the play pen wall, letting it bounce back to him.

The others sighed, they felt the same way, utterly frustrated. They tried to look busy but their minds were on other things, namely how were they going to get out of this mess. What horrible torture could Starscream be putting their friend through, oh it was almost too much to bare.

"Finally," Ironhide hissed, as Soundwave stood up, sent a stern look in their direction and calmly walked out the door.

They all jumped to their feet, but as they did so, a couple of Decepticons walked into the room and they froze. But luckily, they weren't bothered by the Sparklings in the corner, they only seemed concerned with drinking some Energon while watching human TV on the big screen on one wall.

"Perfect," Chromia smirked as they went over to the where the two ends of the play pen joined.

Ratchet withdrew a small screwdriver he had swiped from Hook's Med Bay, and he went to work. Five minutes later, he had picked the lock and the Sparklings were free. They looked over to where the two older Mechs were but they were totally oblivious to everything but the show they were watching.

So getting on all fours, the Sparklings carefully crawled for the entrance, ready to leap out of sight if the Decepticons looked their way. But they didn't, and in no time at all they were outside the Rec Room. Jumping to their feet, the immediately hurried away from the room, not stopping till they were round the corner.

"How are we going to find Skyfire?" Elita whispered.

"Maybe we should split up," Ratchet suggested.

Ironhide shook his head.

"Ah think we should stick together, ah reckon it'll take the four of us to rescue Skyfire,"

"Shhh," Chromia said gently. "We don't want them discovering us."

"When we find Skyfire," Elita said, as they started creeping along. "When we get him, we can sneak back here and go back into the play pen. Those two will never know we're gone."

"And pound Screamer if he's done anything to Skyfire," Ironhide said, smashing a fist into palm.

And with that, the Sparklings set off to find their captive friend, determined to rescue him no matter what.

Author's note. What fun and mayhem do the Sparklings get up to now that their free? Find out in the next chapter. Till then.