Cliffjumper had thrown a supportive wink at Nightstalker when they returned from their forgive-me-back ride, and by that time Nightstalker had a glow about her. It was evident especially when Bumblebee came to meet her eagerly, but he slowed, optics dilating.
*Nightstalker* he chirped curiously, optics shuttering at her. *What's up? You look . . . good. I mean—* A flush of energon touched his cheeks in embarrassment. He waved his hands while a slightly giddy smile played at Nightstalker's lips. *You looked great before, I'm sure! It's just, now . . . I dunno, I might sound kinda stupid, but you're kinda radiant in a way*
Nightstalker bit her lip, eyes twinkling playfully. "I am," she whispered secretly to him, leaning forward to him. Bumblebee bent down a little, taking in her secret with sealed lips. "Cliffjumper—he—he—" Nightstalker felt a wash of peace soothe her, and she let out a tranquil sigh. "He forgave me," she whispered to Bumblebee, finding her hands taking the bigger mech's in her own.
Bumblebee's optics dilated the widest and bluest she had ever seen, such unique eyes and so adorable it tore her spark out. *Nightstalker, that's great!* he said excitedly. He swept her up in the bear of a hug, making a rare giggle slip from her vocals. *That's awesome! We should celebrate—* The excited mech suddenly gave a depressed whir, door wings drooping a little as he glanced over his shoulder at the assembling Autobots. *Oh . . . We can't. I've got a mission. Even the kids are going—we've got to get the Energon Harvester before the Decepticons do.*
Nightstalker blinked in confusion as Bumblebee sat her down at the far end of the missile silo. "What's an Energon Harvester? Does it do what it's named after?"
Bumblebee nodded. *That's exactly what it does. But it can take energon directly from living bots too.*
Nightstalker's spark skipped a beat. "Dear Primus . . ."
Bumblebee nodded again, glancing over his shoulder to the others. *Yeah, and it's in a museum. The kids are going to go in and steal it since we're all too big to sneak around*
Nightstalker bit her lip in worry, and she caught Bumblebee in an anxious hug. "You be careful, hear me?" she whispered.
A soothing toll echoed from Bumblebee's damaged vocals. *Of course I will* However, he was momentarily distracted by her fingers playing over the top junction of his wings, and a low, rumbling bleep dragged out slow. *Primus . . . Nights, when you do that, I feel like I could purr like a cat*
A small smile played at her lips. "Fli-Ni used to do it for me," she said, fingering the upper-base of his wings. It was a spot between her shoulders that had been exploited by Fli-Ni many times to get her to do what he wanted.
*Like this?*
Nightstalker heard an answering sigh escape her lips when Bumblebee returned the tender gesture. Bliss captured her from the gentle feel of his fingers kneading the responsive base of her wings between her shoulders, and she relaxed into him.
A tinkling laugh left Bumblebee. *Could I get you to do anything like this?* his mischievous voice intoned.
Nightstalker lifted dubious optics, cracking one open to look at him. "Possibly. What is it?"
*Could you steal Ratchet's wrench?*
Both Nightstalker's eyes snapped open. "His . . . wrench?"
Bumblebee threw a suspicious glance over his shoulder to see the medic was preoccupied before whispering, *I bet everyone would like it. You saw what he did to Cliffjumper today . . . He's a menace with that thing*
The disgust in Bumblebee's voice was adorable, and Nightstalker bit her lip, looking towards the back of the medic. "I thought I wanted to stay on his good side?" she asked with a lively twinkle in her optics.
Bumblebee's optics dilated seriously. *Ratchet HAS no good side*
Nightstalker had to stifle a giggle at that, and she grinned. "Okay," she said in a hushed whisper to him. "I'll do it! I'll have that wrench by the time you get back from your mission—"
"ALL RIGHT! A MISSION!"
Both Bumblebee and Nightstalker laughed hearing Cliffjumper's eager voice bellow out his success. Bumblebee smiled down at Nightstalker. *Looks like Cliffjumper's going with us*
She nodded. "It'll be good for him," she said, giving a slight shrug. "He's a bit stir crazy, and all his annoying traits are starting to come out my way since he's too scared to provoke Ratchet."
At her rakish grin, Bumblebee laughed again, much more hearty this time. *That sounds just like Cliff!* He hugged Nightstalker once more for good measure as Optimus called him over. *I promise I'll take you out scouting for energon with me, next time! It'll be fun!* He ran off towards the antsy group, waving towards Nightstalker. *See you soon! We'll steal some energon from the back too, to celebrate!*
The ground bridge had blasted open, but Ratchet suddenly whirled around with fire in his blue optics. "Oh no you won't!" he barked at Bumblebee who just transformed down with trouble-making laughter. "You'll keep your grimy hands out of the energon reserves—" But the scout was already through the bridge, and Ratchet could only huff as the rest passed through.
He turned a particularly fierce gaze on Nightstalker. "And don't you be giving him any ideas," he threatened lightly, and a brow rose.
Nightstalker just felt her wings fluttering rapidly with the overwhelming urge to fly, and she crossed her arms, hugging herself tightly. "Primus," she pleaded to the god, ignoring Ratchet, "I'm so happy I could—I could fly right here in the base!" Giving a laugh, Nightstalker twirled once to herself, the desire to fly blinding her sensors because this was the happiest she had been in a long time.
Still happiness can be short lived. Trust things to get sticky for the Autobots and they did when two Decepticons, Breakdown and Knockout showed up to preoccupy the Autobots while Soundwave sneaked around the back. Soundwave took the Harvester from the humans and fled, the other 'Cons on his tail. To make things just a mite harder, Miko had been taken in by security.
Optimus had told them that in all likelihoods, Starscream was going to use the Harvester to gather energon as quickly as he could from the planet's otherwise un-minable deposits. The warning was to approach with extreme caution—Starscream wouldn't hesitate to use the Harvester on any of them.
Nightstalker had to chuckle to herself though when Cliffjumper was yipping about going out again, and Optimus had to give the soldier a firm reminder to be careful. Cliffjumper had subdued himself some, but there was no hiding the slightly flippant tone.
Otherwise of other things . . . Bulkhead wanted to bust Miko out of the museum, but they had to rely on Fowler for human laws. Currently though, he was on an "extensive training retreat" or some mess, and was unavailable. In other words, the guy was on vacation.
Thus, after much worried pacing from Bulkhead and a broken piece of equipment for the distraught Ratchet, he muttered, "I wish I'd never taken Miko to the—" His eyes widened. "The Harvester isn't the only thing we found at those ruins!" he suddenly burst.
Both Ratchet and Nightstalker frowned. "I'm sorry?" Ratchet asked.
"Starscream's not dumb!" Bulkhead asserted, eyes narrowing. "No matter what kind of tool he has! He'll take the easy route."
Bulkhead swiftly explained that the Decepticons had found a generous energon reserve in Greece, and the thought had slipped his mind with Breakdown attacking and the Harvester. Simply put, this was where Starscream would gather up all the energon with the energon harvester.
"Bulkhead, I've gotta go with you," Nightstalker said, looking up at the hulking bot. "You'll need help."
Bulkhead shook his head though as the ground bridge opened up. "Not a chance, Nights. You can't fight yet. You need some serious training before you get out in the field. Don't worry. I can handle it—breaking things is what I'm GOOD at."
Turns out, Nightstalker had nothing to worry about—Bulkhead WAS good at breaking things, and he broke the Energon Harvester spectacularly. He was weak from extreme loss of energon, but Ratchet got him back on his feet easily. Agent Fowler finally picked up and Miko got off scot free from the museum, especially when they put the phony Energon Harvester back in the original's place.
When all the Autobots had collected in the silo again, Nightstalker flicked her orange optics to Ratchet and back to Bumblebee and Cliffjumper on the opposite end of the base. "Hey, Bee."
Both mechs looked up, and with a mischievous grin splitting her face, Nightstalker lifted Ratchet's wrench and wagged it at them. Bumblebee's optics dilated wide with amazement; Cliffjumper's jaw literally popped open. Bulkhead's eyes widened. "How did—?"
Cliffjumper had his hand over the former wrecker's mouth so quickly he didn't get a chance to say more. Arcee even lifted a brow at her accomplishment, and Nightstalker ignored whatever face Optimus was making. Peering back at Ratchet, he hadn't taken notice of anything yet or even the fact that she had filched his wrench directly from him. She grinned back at Bumblebee and Cliffjumper.
She made several small gestures in a threat to throw it at Ratchet. Cliffjumper bit back a big smile and pumped his fist several times for a go. Bumblebee gave her a shy thumb up, but his optics were dilated wide open with liveliness. Filled with sudden daring, Nightstalker turned and took aim at the medic's unsuspecting helm.
"This one's for you, Cliff," she cajoled playfully to him.
Winding up, Nightstalker threw the wrench with all her might. The bang echoed out loudly and Ratchet shouted, a hand flashing to his aching head.
The silo erupted with howling laughter at Ratchet's black disdain. Nightstalker clapped a servo over her smile, giggling hard as he narrowed a glare her way.
"I believe that's yours—!" Unable to control it now, Nightstalker fell into uncontrollable laughter and ran out of the main hangar and down the halls before any of Ratchet's wrath could hit her. She heard feet behind her, and realized that she wasn't alone. Glancing over her shoulder, Nightstalker saw Cliffjumper and Bumblebee following with blinding speed as they all darted for safety from Ratchet.
Nightstalker ran straight into her room laughing so hard her sides began to hurt. Whirling around to greet them, she hit smack into Bumblebee's chest. With a small grunt, they both went sprawling across the floor; another surprised yelp and Cliffjumper landed on top of them in a disorganized mess of arms and legs splayed in knots.
Hysterical now, all three of them lied on the floor howling with laughter, optic lubricant streaming down their cheeks. Bumblebee had one of her wings pinned a bit painfully, but Nightstalker didn't care—she was laughing too hard to care. Not to mention she was probably on one of his—unless that was Cliffjumper.
Their silly giggling eventually started to trail off, but Cliffjumper ruined it. "Dear Primus . . . Nights, Bee, did you guys see his FACE?"
Just the thought of it sent them all rolling again, and when Nightstalker could finally catch her breath again, she lightly kicked Cliffjumper for good measure. "Stop it," she giggled. "I was just getting control.
*Nights* she heard Bumblebee whine, *that was me!*
She frowned. "Sorry." She kicked at Cliffjumper again, making purchase with metal again.
*Nights!*
Nightstalker groaned in irritation. "Sorry! Jeez, Cliff, where are you?" Nightstalker swindled an arm up and smacked at a red shoulder situated in front of her. "There," she said confidently.
"Ow," Cliffjumper said in mock hurt. There was a wiggle as they all tried to find themselves. "I'm right here. No need to lose me."
It soon occurred to Nightstalker that she was pinned beneath both mechs, but primarily Cliffjumper . . . who was also somehow covering Bumblebee too. But his arm was beneath her . . . ? Nightstalker heaved a groan, trying to arch from beneath them. "Jeez, Cliff, move your fat aft!"
"Make me."
Nightstalker's optics blinked wide, and she narrowed them at his petulant tone. "Cliff, get off."
"Na-na-na-boo-boo," he teased, poking his glossia out at her. "Nightstalker can't move me!"
"Don't tempt me," she muttered, squirming more beneath the two mechs.
"I'd like to see you try," Cliffjumper jeered, blue optics sending the challenge to her.
Before Nightstalker could think to act, a sudden thrust removed the pressure from her pinned wing and Cliffjumper yelped when he was suddenly thrown off. Bumblebee tinkled with laughter, helping Nightstalker sit up. *See? She barely had to do anything at all!*
Cliffjumper growled playfully, spreading his hands. "Why you little—" With a roar, he leapt at Bumblebee. Nightstalker squeaked, lunging away when Cliffjumper tackled him to the floor and began to wrestle, but she cried out, "Stop! Stop it! You'll spill the energon!"
"Energon?"
*Energon?*
Both mechs stopped immediately, optics pinning to the two cubes on Nightstalker's berth. Both leapt up with hoots of triumph, slapping Nightstalker's slim shoulders and grinning at her.
Bumblebee plopped down first with a happy croon. *Nights, you are amazing!* He took a cube for himself while she took the other.
Cliffjumper's optics popped. "What? Where's mine?"
Nightstalker shrugged, swirling the drink in his face. "Get your own. This was supposed to be a two-bot party until you crashed it." She grinned at his ruffled feathers.
"No fair!" he burst, sitting next to her with a frown. "I can't sneak or steal worth a spark plug. Can't you just get me one if you're so good?"
She poked her tongue out at him. "Make me."
He narrowed his eyes before giving it up and rolling them in exasperation.
*Where did you learn to take things like that?* Bumblebee asked her. *Did Ratchet even notice?*
Nightstalker grinned, sitting next to him and gripping the other cube. "When Fli-Ni and I were on Kaon he taught me all I needed to know about stealing things. I could take money from full grown mechs and they'd never know it!"
Cliffjumper barked with laughter. "Forget where you learned it, how did you manage to take his wrench and steal energon both?"
Nightstalker grinned and took a swig of the energon, lounging back comfortably.
"And that," she clarified with a smug smirk, "is a trade secret."