Astrotrain ignored Swindle as he climbed up, yeah, completely ignored the little bugger. Even when he accidentally used the triple changers helm as leverage up to the top of his busied himself with watching Vortex try - and fail - to get muck out from between his gears. It was amusing, not that it wasn't him in that situation. The wingless copter-former flailed his right hand in an attempt to dislodge some goo and muck from it, only succeeding in splattering it all over his helm.

Then again he didn't find it funny when it was Swindle, either. He frowned at that, he'd always had a sort of..."soft spot" for the smaller mech. He didn't know why, maybe had something to do with his love for "small and cute things". That's probably what Blitzwing would tell him. After laughing in his face about having a soft spot for anyone - especially a Combaticon. And especially Swindle. So few liked Swindle, which was understandable. In fact, the only few who did seemed to be the Combaticons (excluding Brawl, who would shoot you if you even hinted a possible like for his little brother which everyone obviously knew he had in there somewhere), Starscream and his Trine (which is understandable, kind of), Soundwave (which makes no sense...at all...whatsoever...), Shockwave (which, again, makes no sense. Everyone assumes it has something to do with a possible trade/sell they might of had. Or because Swindle tends to be as much of a creeper as Shockwave sometimes), and himself.

Oh, and don't forget Soundwave's brats. They tend to like Swindle too, though Rumble and Frenzy for dealing purposes (they had to get their prank supplies from somewhere), Ravage just...acts like...well no one if sure, really. That cat's so bi-polar. Ratbat is small and cute. Small and cute mechs seem to stick together. Plus Swindle thinks he's small and cute, and Swindle likes small cute things too. Lazerbeak? No one knows. Because Swindle tends to tease him a bit. He doesn't ever seem bothered.

But then again Lazerbeak likes Starscream, too. That bird's just wacky.

Astrotrain was now frowning, glaring at the ground. Come to think of it, ever sense Swindle took that hit to the head and became more...well...emotional. He's been liking the mech a bit more. Plus he hadn't really tried to..."swindle" him lately. In fact, the most he did when they bumped into each-other was a cheerful "Hiya" or a grouchy "Watch it", that or nothing as all as he continued on his way. The Jeep had also taken up calling him "Astro", which wasn't unusual considering his long name. But most mechs would have been punched out for saying it to his face.

Except for Blitzwing, Starscream, or Shockwave. Blitzwing let him call him "Blitz'", do he let him call him "Astro". Starscream would null-ray him. Null-rays to the face hurt. A lot. And Shockwave is already creepy enough to make everyone too creeped out to care what they call him, in fear that he might stalk them and plot his revenge. Plus he's on Cybertron, a bit beyond arms reach. And he's creepy! Creepiest creepy creeper of all of the Galaxies creepers!

Creepy enough to not mess with!

The only 'Cons or 'Bots he doesn't completely creep our are Megatron (and Megatron has given signs of being creeped out by him before...), Starscream (the dude can't be creeped out by anything, it seems), and Soundwave (actually...Soundwave has stated once before that Shockwave kind of unnerves him). And of course Swindle. But Swindle, like Starscream, isn't really easy to creep out when it comes to others bots. Besides, if he admitted that someone creeped him out, word might spread and ruin business for him. So even if Shockwave did creep him out, he would never admit or show it.

He was pulled from his thoughts when something bounced off his head. Without much thought on it, he reached out and caught the small rock in his hand. With a frown he shifted and looked up to tell Swindle to stop hitting him in the helm. He didn't get the chance, a pede suddenly landed him square in the face, blocking view from his optics. But as soon as it touched down it was off again, he felt the mech land on his right knee, before again the weight was gone.

Now irritated, Astrotrain looked to see Swindle's retreating back.

"Swindle!" Vortex, who had been trying to clean some muck from his neck joint, jumped when Astrotrain yelled, looking over at them. "IT'S HUUUUGE! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIIIIE! IT'S GOING TO EEEEAT US! I DON'T WANNA BE EATEN!" Swindle screamed, running as fast as his legs could carry him in his weakened state. Astrotrain stood up, stumbled forward, and set a confused expression on Vortex. Who shrugged, made a face, twitched, and was suddenly running after his brother without a single word to the triple changer.

Astrotrain blinked, confused, and watched the two retreating forms. One was a (surprisingly) fast moving Swindle, the other was Vortex little ways behind, stumbling around for some reason.

Both seemed in a hurry.

Astrotrain sighed, and started walking in their direction. A chill ran down his back, and he paused. That feeling seemed familiar, he didn't like it. And he had the feeling he shouldn't look. But, of course, he did anyways.

Ever so slowly, he turned to look over his shoulder. And up. At the large creature hovering menacingly behind, small beady black eyes locked on him, the silver creature shifted to the side, reminding Astrotrain briefly of an Earth Snake he'd seen on television once. He didn't need much else aside from what sudden memory clip to get his legs moving. He ran quickly after the others, the creature letting out a sound similar to a hiss (yet again, a snake comes to mind) and started after them.

Mucky ground rumbling beneath it.

He could hear Swindle's screaming over their comm. frequency.

::Primus I think I preferred the ones that melted into icky sticky goo under my armoooor!::

He had to agree with that. At least they couldn't swallow him whole.

Authors Notes: ...I don't even remember writing this chapter...

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