"'Tex," Swindle, from his position propped against one of Astrotrain's Indian-style crossed legs, hummed. "How come Astro' and I have got worms in our system - Astro' didn't even touch any - but you don't. When you carried them here?" Swindle narrowed his optics at the smiling, rotor-less copter. "Oh, but I do have some in my armor, too!" He grinned, and visibly shivered. "Tingly~"

They gawked at him, before Astrotrain scooted away from the Copter, Swindle doing the same. He propped himself - again - against Astrotrain's legs and eyed his Gestalt Brother, before returning the the task of attempting to purge his circuitry of the gooey organic infestation. He had found out - first hand - that overheated systems that are the result of panicking, don't mesh well with worms. In fact, no, it does. Which is why Swindle now has a nice, gooey mesh of sticky organic slime in his wiring, making his joints stick, gear jam, and over all just making him feel gross.

Astrotrain had been "infected" - as the triple changed had dubbed it - by Swindle. It was an accident, hence the reason Swindle isn't currently slagged. But he, too, discovered the result of overheated systems and slimy organics. And was currently ignoring Swindle in favor of trying to get his own organic goo from his own circuitry. Which - in a case similar to Swindle's - was not going well. And he proved so when he pulled a loose panel of his arm off, and it stretched a nice, messy trail of organic with it.

Swindle glanced up, paused, and found he couldn't look away. Astrotrain seemed to be having a similar case, he looked horrified at the slime as it slowly collapsed on itself, slowly slinking it's way off his armor and to the ground, leaving behind a trail of blue, red, and silvef goo. Both heads slowly fallowed as it made it's way down, touched the ground, and slowly broke off slimy strands to collapse there in a rather large pile of glowing, colorful goo.

"EEWWW!" Swindle flailed, shifting away from the mess and practically crawling into Astrotrain's lap. "That's so wrong!" He shrieked, face twisted in disgust and horror. Astrotrain shifted to look to the side with a face that said he was about ready to purge his tanks. "How did I even get enough to cause such a mess in me from a simple touch?" He shifted fully away from it as well, Swindle now sitting on his right leg, rather than against them. He made a hiccuping sound, then cleaned out what was left of the goo in his arm before placing the panel back with a sickeningly loud squelch.

Swindle made a gagging sound, Astrotrain swallowed some Energon threatening to come up, and Vortex cackled.

"That's na~asty~" He giggled as he pulled one of the longer worms out from under his own armor and dangled it between in index finger and thumb, watching as it squirmed. Before tossing it towards Swindle and Astrotrain, who quickly scrambled to get as far away from it as possible, ignoring Vortex's laughing at them as they did so. Swindle - tired of Vortex already - scooped up the "mud" that is the planet's ground, and pitched it at Vortex. Too busy laughing to notice, the rotor-less copter got a face and mouth full of the greenish-brown muck.

He choked for a moment, still giggling. The sound from his giggling through the muck made it sound more like he was gargling the stuff, rather than laughing through it.

Astrotrain scooped up his own muck, along with the "worm goo" he'd just prized from his armor, and pitched it angrily at the laughing Combaticon. It landed with a splat, as the copter went tumbling backwards. Astrotrain smirked, shaking the remains of the goo and muck from his hands as Swindle busted out laughing. Vortex flailed for a few moments, before finally getting the sense to try and clean the muck from his face. He reached up and scooped some off with his hand, the goo forming a long strand that trailed down with his hand.

It made a pop as he slung it off to the side.

Swindle halted in his laughter, placing both hands over his mouth as he made a strange, strangled sound. He spun around, Astrotrain having the sense to quickly move out the way as he grabbed onto the rock for support, leaned over, and purged his tanks. Vortex shook his head, smirking at his Gestalt brother as he continued to clean his faceplate off. Astrotrain patted the smaller mech on the back awkwardly, able to understand the feeling, having felt sick only moments ago himself.

Swindle stood straight, wiping some of the Energon from his lip components as he turned back around.

Vortex chose that time to sling some more of the much and good off, it hit the rock near Swindle, splattering green-brown, silver and purple over the two nearby.

Swindle hiccuped and spun back around.

Authors Notes: We learn two things this chapter. One, Vortex is a creeper (of course we all already knew that, I'm sure). And two, Astrotrain doesn't seem to mind people using his legs as cushions. But considering his size and all, it probably happens more often than we think it does. That or he just doesn't care, or is two concerned with the goo in his systems.

Promise next chapter they will get their revenge on him for this.

Disclaimer: Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.