Author's Notes:

My-dear-fan girl: I know I already replied to you, but after I did so, I went back and realized that I am really, really loose lipped! Thank you for calling me on it. As I told you, I'll include a spoiler warning from now on, and in general try to quite spoiling everything in the first place! (smile)

KiseraCrystal: Sorry. (pats) I guess I just should have kept my mouth shut. I'll try to from now on.

Lina Ben: Thank you.

Chapter 4: Grimlock

Sari smiled up at the old, broken down building. "This is perfect."

Bumblebee walked up to her and cocked his head. "Perfect for what?"

"Your base here in the city. You guys can't really stay out in Lake Erie." she explained. "This will make you closer to the action." It would also bring them closer to her, but she didn't say it aloud.

Optimus walked over to the large doors. "It looks a little . . . Rundown. Are you sure your father won't mind?"

"Well, yeah. Dad got this place in a merger awhile ago but was unable to find any financially feasible way of using it. The structure wasn't suited to the kind of factory he needs and it's in an industrial zone so he couldn't really use it for housing like that warehouse he had over in Lansing." Sari further explained.

Bumblebee joined Prime by the door. "Wow, looks like a real fixer upper."

Optimus nodded. "We don't have any money, so how are we going to make this place work for us? It's just the right size for our Handlers, but our Companions will need all the same basics as a human."

She smiled. "I've got you guys covered. My dad gives me a humongous monthly allowance, but I never go out so I rarely spend any of it. According to my bank, I have nearly five-point-five million in my account. It'll be no sweat for me to pick up the tab for you guys."

Optimus and Bee shared a look. They were still new at figuring out Earth currency, but they both knew that five million was a hefty chunk of change by Earth standards. "You're sure you don't mind?" Optimus inquired.

She held up a finger. "Just as long as you guys allow me to renovate a set of rooms so that I can spend the night sometimes. I'm still a little too young to move out, but I'd love to be able to spend the weekend with you guys."

Optimus smiled. "I'll have to talk to Ratchet, Prowl, and Bulkhead, but I think they'll like it."

The creature skulked about in the alleyway, trying hard to remember what it was that he had forgotten. He knew that it was something important, something really important. As he paced, he listened to the conversations around him from the tenant housing.

" . . . You never listen to me! Always going out for the next . . ."

"I don't know honey, we've got enough to start looking for a house in the suburbs."

" . . . I need to find a new job . . . This one sucks . . ."

" . . . Things are looking quite grim . . ."

" . . . Jefferson Davis Rawlings I will lock . . ."

It was then that he found a name for himself. "Grim . . . Lock. Grimlock. Me Grimlock!" he said aloud. Then he chortled in glee. He had a name!

But it wasn't just a name that he'd forgotten. He'd forgotten more. "What has me forgotten?" he asked aloud. "Has me Grimlock forgotten what am?"

Just then someone entered the alley. It was a young boy with curly brown hair and brown eyes. His white skin suddenly went whiter when he noticed Grimlock. He ran the other way screaming, and Grimlock ran after him. "Wait you little thing! Do you little thing know what me Grimlock is?"

Once he was in the street the traffic stopped completely, mostly because they now had a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a naked man in the middle of the road. Grimlock barely noticed as he looked around for the child. He paced around the street crying for someone to tell him what he was. "Wait! What am me Grimlock? What am me?"

None of the humans responded with anything useful. They were all screaming and running from him. He grew impatient. "What am me?!" he roared.

"Hold it!"

Grimlock whirled towards the voice. He knew that voice! He just didn't know from where though. "Do you thing know what me Grimlock am?"

The police officer was close to wetting his pants, but he stood his ground as the T-Rex and the naked guy walked toward him. "I sa-sa-said to hold it! Now stop moving!"

Grimlock stopped. He cocked his head. He knew this little thing . . . This man! That's what these things were! They were men! And the ones with the little things stuck on them were women! He was remembering.

Then her heard a high pitched, wailing sound. The shaking officer in front of him nearly fainted in relief. Back up was on the way. It arrived in the form of a rather pissed off ambulance. "What's the hoopla?" he asked as he transformed. He then took in the sight of Grimlock.

Grimlock realized with a start that here was someone just like him! "Do you bot know what me Grimlock is?"

Ratchet-Companion cocked an eyebrow and Ratchet-Handler added in a movement of his jaw. "You're obviously not a student of proper grammar."

Grimlock didn't get the sarcasm. "Stu-dent of pro-per gram-ar?" he sounded out.

Ratchet shook his head. "Prime, you won't believe this."

"What is it Ratch?"

"The 'dinosaur' thing? It's a Cybertronian."

Slipstream stared at Skywarp with an expression of glee. "For once your idea was a good one. We can have Sunstorm, Ramjet, Thundercracker, you, and me distract those Auto-dweebs while Starscream makes off with the Allspark!"

Starscream smiled at his female clone. "Perfect."

Thundercracker snorted. "One problem oh-great leader!"

Sometimes Starscream wished he'd known that giving out pieces of his spark would give each clone a piece of his own personality. It was perfectly fine to let everyone else deal with his egotism, but he shouldn't have to deal with it. "What is that?"

Thundercracker looked more smug than usual. "We don't know where the Autobots have stashed it."

The other clones glanced around at each other while digesting this. Starscream felt his irritation ratchet up. "You're right, but it shouldn't be hard to find out where their base is. They will have it there."

Slipstream nodded. "First, we keep blitzing them to find out where their base is, and then we launch our attack."

Starscream smiled at her. "Yes."

Sunstorm nodded vigorously. "Excellent plan master! Excellent!"

Slipstream didn't let it show how much Sunstorm's sycophantic dribble irritated her. Out of all of them, she was possibly the only one who knew the real dynamic of their group. Starscream had asked her what aspect of his nature she was, and she'd told him not to ask. The truth was, she was his femininity, his intuition and cunning. She turned to stare at the planet Earth from her perch in the Nemesis's command center. Some human women hated when their gender was said to be cunning and manipulative. She smiled wider. They hated it because they knew it to be true. Males - both homo sapiens and Cybertrona - used brute strength and intimidation to get others to do what they wanted. Females used manipulation and cunning. However, some of both genders had a little extra pinch of the other mixed in. Thus you had Starscream harboring enough of a feminine side for it to be a prominent aspect of his nature.

She turned back to the others and smiled at the group. "I'm going to my rooms."

Sunstorm, Ramjet, Skywarp, and Thundercracker just nodded. Starscream waved her away. She sashayed past them and out of the command center. Once out, her Companion sneered. Starscream thought he was the lord over them all, but he was wrong. He was weak not because of what he had in his personality, but what he lacked. He'd survived being in the Decepticons because he was manipulative, sycophantic, cowardly, and a liar, but he'd never truly succeed because he did not allow room for error. He didn't allow in his pea-sized brain and oversized processor the thought that his clones might not want to serve his every whim. He didn't even entertain the notion that while each had an aspect of his nature, they contained more.

Thundercracker was the egomaniac, but he was a cunning egomaniac. On more than one occasion Slipstream had observed him utilizing a skill that many Cybertronians never thought to develop: total independence between Handler and Companion. Thundercracker's Companion could do one task while his Handler completely did another, yet whenever any of the others were around he acted like neither part of him could work without the other. Cybertronians all had some independence between Handler and Companion, but only to a certain point. Thundercracker could allow his two halves to be doing two tasks that took completely different sets of skills.

Skywarp was the coward, but Slipstream knew that he was an exceptional liar as well. Ramjet had been honest - which in Slipstream's mind was completely different from telling the truth - once in his life, and that was the time that Skywarp fingered him for swiping Starscream's Energon goodies. Starscream had thought that Ramjet was lying still and Skywarp had gotten off scot-free. This created a war between the two clones. Several times she had to "suggest" that Starscream not allow Ramjet and Skywarp to work together as a team. Skywarp worked better with blustering Thundercracker anyway. The egomaniac got a kick out of "protecting" the coward's tailpipe.

Sunstorm was the sycophant, and he sucked up to everyone. She was convinced that out of all of them, he was the only one that truly liked Starscream and was loyal to him. She had sex with Starscream and led him around by his Companion's genitalia, but she would change allegiances at the drop of a bolt if it meant her continued survival. Sunstorm flattered everyone he came into contact with, but his words were infused with sincerity when he spoke of Starscream. She was the only one that his compliments sounded forced. She was convinced that he knew her to be leading Starscream on, and that meant that he was also an excellent judge of character. Slipstream had no idea how he'd gotten that particular trait. Starscream showed that he had very little of it.

Ramjet the liar also had a keen understanding of how others thought. Slipstream had actually caught him telling the truth on more than one occasion, although both times were limited to tormenting Skywarp. However, it still meant that he knew how to use his lies to manipulate others to do what he wanted. This could have dangerous results for anyone who did not share Ramjet's agenda. She realized that Skywarp would be the first one he turned on, but she could be a very close second.

Slipstream entered her rooms. They were done in her signature teal and purple, and were probably the most comfortable on the ship. She knew that they used to be the quarters of the Decepticon Blackarachnia. Slipstream walked over to her desk and took out the Handler-sized holo-album. She flicked through it. The first holo was of three Cybertronians, two mechs and a femme. She'd seen the second mech when they'd watched the human broadcast of the welcome of the Autobots. He was a handsome one, she'd give him that. She wondered how Blackarachnia knew these three Autobots. Surely she'd never been friends with the little Autobot leader?

If Slipstream had known the answer to her question was yes, she would have laughed cruelly. As it was, the subject of her musings was watching the scene unfolding in the seamier part of Detroit with a bit of pity. For the first time in a long time she felt bad for someone other than herself. She'd watched the poor beast bleating like a lost lamb - to use a colorful Earth simile - and it struck a chord. He was another hybrid like herself, an abomination that never should exist.

Blackarachnia had landed on Earth nearly twenty years before. After escaping the Nemesis she had followed the trail as best she could to find the Allspark. She could care less about Megatron. Even after becoming a Decepticon she had still felt revulsion whenever she looked upon him. She was a Decepticon merely because she knew that Decepticon scientists were more worried about how to crack the space bridge technology rather than dismantle a freak like her.

She watched with some interest when the ambulance arrived. "Ratchet." she murmured to herself. She had also seen the broadcasts.

Ratchet and the creature faced off for a few minutes. She watched as Ratchet slowly circled him, trying to see if there was any obvious flaws in his armor. Then another Autobot arrived. Simultaneously her blood and energon ran hot and cold. Optimus. Back when she'd known him, he had been Optimus Major, a rising star in the Elite Guard Academy. Sentinel used to hate that he had still been a Minor when Optimus had made it to Major, and then to Prime right before that ill fated trip . . .

Blackarachnia shook her head. It was no time to dwell on the past and the pain. Optimus had betrayed her, left her to her fate. Anger rose up to replace the heart wrenching pain that swept over her. She had to find out where the Autobots were hiding. She had to find the Allspark.

Optimus Prime stared at the man and mech as Ratchet got into position on their other side. Prowl arrived with Bumblebee and Bulkhead in tow. "So this is the problem?" Prowl asked.

"Yes." Prime answered. "I'm not sure how this Grimlock got here, but he is here. He doesn't claim an affiliation though."

Prowl ruminated on that. All Cybertronians were affiliated. "No insignias?"

"Not even the Decepticon sigil." Optimus replied.

The ninja was stumped. "Is it possible that he was marooned before the war? Back in the Golden Age they did send out exploration vessels."

"Somehow, I don't think so. He keeps asking if we know what he is." Optimus said slowly.

Grimlock turned and stared at the newcomers. "Do you bots know what me Grimlock is?"

"That's probably the most grammatically correct thing I've heard him say." Ratchet muttered.

Prowl stepped forward. "You're a Cybertronian." he said.

Grimlock immediately liked this one. He was calm. Grimlock liked calm. "Cyb-er-tron-ian?"

"Yes. Cybertronian. Are you an Autobot or a Decepticon?" the calm bot asked.

Grimlock-Companion furrowed his brow and Grimlock-Handler sat heavily on his haunches. He reached up to scratch his head, but his Handler's diminutive limbs couldn't make it. "Me know not what those are."

Prowl looked back at Prime. "He's not lying."

Prime shook his head. "Then we'll take him back to the new base. Sari said that she'd have the electricity up before the day's out. He can stay there while we figure out what to do about him."

Ratchet-Companion walked over to an old woman who was standing on her apartment building's stoop holding a blanket. "Ma'am, may I borrow that blanket?"

The woman looked to be in her second or third century of life. She smiled at him. "It's what I brought it out for. I watched the entire thing, and all I could think about was how heartbreaking that poor young man was. Running around looking like he was five and lost his mama. I decided to try to come calm him down when I saw you show up."

Ratchet didn't grin often, but he felt the temptation. "Mighty nice of you ma'am." he said with a small flash of teeth.

The decrepit matron actually giggled.

Sari smiled at Grimlock as she handed his Companion some hot chocolate. She turned back to Bumblebee as the young bot finished up his story.

" . . . And then the woman giggled! Like Ratchet was some sort of Tracks!" he ended with a laugh.

Sari cocked an eyebrow. "Who is Tracks?"

"He was an infamous womanizer back during the war." Ratchet explained sourly.

Sari smiled. "Why so glum Ratchet? You do have quite the following you know."

"What?!" the medic snapped.

"Yeah. I set up an internet poll on my blog that went viral." she explained. "Turns out a lot of the older women and even a sizable number of young ones find you hot. One even commented that you reminded her of a TV character from the early century named House."

Ratchet-Companion turned red and looked down. "Humph." The word was said with no bite however.

"What about the rest of us?" Bumblebee asked. He hopped up on the new concrete couch made for the Handlers. The Companions only had some cushions to sit on as of yet.

Sari smiled wider. "Well, Bulkhead has the smallest following, but I think his fans are going to be the best."

"Why do you say that?" Bee asked with a squint.

"They're the kind of fans that won't mob him when he moves around. Mostly he has the single moms and working moms. They mostly admire how dependable he seems. They all value that in a man." she explained. "Bulkhead also has a lot of heterosexual men who think he's cool because he's all muscle."

"Okay. What about Prowl?" he asked as he handed Grimlock a napkin.

"Prowl has a wide range. His core fan base are the Goths, anime fans, and young boys. They like ninjas." she said with a sly look in her crush's direction. Prowl didn't show any reaction to this fact.

"And Optimus?" Bee continued.

"Optimus has the second largest following according to my poll. His core fans are the younger women, between the ages of seventeen and thirty, most of which are single. He also has the most men, with most being heterosexual with a sizable homosexual portion." she explained. "Next to yours Bee, he's got the fan group that I think will be the biggest problem."

Bumblebee sat up straight. "Why do you say that?"

"Because you have the most fans, and your core fan base constitutes the most obnoxious fans." she said, making a face. "You've got the tweens."

Grimlock looked up from his hot chocolate. "Me Grimlock don't want be you."

Prowl's head snapped up. Something was off. "Why do you say that Grimlock?"

He shrugged. "Me have tween sister. They annoying."