Chapter Eight: Incoming Transmission!

"Bond talk"

"Comm link"

'Thoughts'

Swiftstreak: I got a jar of dirt; I got a jar of dirt; I got a jar of dirt; and it's missile-guided!

Nightstar: I wanna jar of derp; I wanna jar of derp; I wanna jar of derp; with tomato sauce provided!

Megatron: WHAT IS THIS SORCERY?

Nightstar & Swiftstreak: Nova has a mop, Nova has a mop, Nova has a mop, and it's double-sided!

Me: DIE PIG-SMELLIE! *jumps out of the shadows epically* TARGET SIGHTED! TALLY HO! *whacks him with the mop*

Megatron: AAAAAAHHHH! *runs away*

Me: GET BACK HERE! *chases while throwing salted nuts and sandwiches at him*

Nightstar & Swiftstreak: Nova does not own anything you recognize except for her OCs.

The next solar cycle, the femmes were busy at their jobs. Nightstar was happily learning from (and annoying) Ratchet with her constant stream of questions; Icewhip was working with Prowl; the twins were keeping their optics on the radar and communication links for any incoming enemies or transmissions. Crystal was busy learning about various things from Blaster.

Of course, the fact that neither one of them was near enough to keep an eye on Crystal did not settle well with Nova and Icewhip. So, they asked (threatened, really) the twins to take care of her and immediately report to them as soon as Crystal showed any signs of discomfort.

"So, if I wire it like this I'll be able to get it to work?" Crystal asked softly as she rewired the circuits in front of her.

"Almost. If you use the red wire to cross over the blue one…" When Blaster reached over and tried to show Crystal how to do it, their servos accidentally brushed against each other. Both of them blushed deeply, cooling fans kicking in at the same time.

"Sorry!" Crystal squeaked, jumping a little. Her spark pounded wildly as she thought, 'Dang it! Why does my spark act like this when I'm near him? He's kinda cute… BAAAAHHH! He's just my mentor! But…I've never felt like this before…'

"Got all this?" A yellow elbow nudged black armour as silently as possible.

"Nightstar had better be happy with this or I'll tell Nova and Icewhip." Shadow shifted slightly, trying to get a better angle to record the scene going on before sending the recording.

"New pranks here we come! I hope her insanity is still intact so we can get back at Ironhide!" Swiftstreak cheered silently.

"INCOMING TRANSMISSION! INCOMING TRANSMISSION!" The twins fell off their chairs in shock at the sudden interruption while Blaster and Crystal separated.

'Slag it.' Blaster thought as he accepted the transmission.

'I'm getting a bad vibe… Ooh! The twins finally got the recording I need! Now to see if my hunch was right…' Nightstar barely contained herself from squealing in delight and shoved a stuffed rabbit in her face to stop the noise.

Ratchet merely looked at her, sighed, and went back to polishing his wrenches. Both of them were taking a short break from teaching and learning. To be honest, Ratchet found Nightstar a competent but trying student. He had stopped throwing wrenches at her joors ago as she had managed to dodge each and every one easily.

Suddenly, Ratchet stood up drunkenly; wrench dropping on the ground. Nightstar looked at him worriedly, knowing that he was acting very out of character before noticing that his optics looked as if they were covered with translucent pink film. "My sweet Prime, I shall meet you in the main lounge…" Ratchet slurred before stumbling out of the Med Bay.

'That's strange, he hasn't had High-Grade recently… Well, I'd better listen to my mentor!' She entertained herself by thinking of which pairing she would do for her next drawing as she strolled behind the red and white ambulance.

"Check." Prowl smirked inwardly as Icewhip optics flickered over the holographic chessboard. She had managed to tear him away from his work after a couple of joors on the pretext that he was overworking himself. He had challenged her that if he won, he would go back to work and she would not be able to do anything about it. However, if she won; she would be able to say that she had beaten him.

Icewhip's servo wavered slightly, as if uncertain before moving her queen.

"Checkmate. I believe this is over." Icewhip crossed her arms over her chassis and watched Prowl's optics widen. Clucking her glossa, she shook her finger at Prowl's shocked expression. "Never had anyone beat you? I'm not surprised. You're really good at this. There were a few times I thought I'd lose. Why didn't you move back then? It would have been easy to take out my rook."

'Because you were distracting me.' Prowl thought, not daring to say it out loud. He was afraid that Icewhip would take it the wrong way and sever their new friendship. He realized what he had just thought about and very nearly fritzed at the new emotions that were threatening to shut down his logic center.

"Prowl?" Icewhip waved a servo in front of his face plates, worried that she was not getting a reaction.

"My angel, my Prime. You will marry me, ne?" Prowl left the office, a bewildered Icewhip walking behind him.

Optimus watched silently as Nova curled herself up on the chair she was sitting on, humming softly while she typed the reports. He was still thinking about the drastic change in her behaviour the previous cycle. When she reported to his office, she had returned to being the shy but adorable femme that he had met on the first cycle her team arrived there.

Unbeknownst to them both, Elita was grinning widely and sharing a live video feed with Nightstar, whom she could clearly hear squealing from her end of the comm link. "Glad you like it. You're such a-" Elita paused in the middle of her sentence, an ugly scowl marring her face plates before ending her conversation with the medic.

All of a sudden, Optimus felt an intense pulling at his spark. 'That… That's strange. My spark is telling me to go to the main lounge… I-" He was cut off abruptly. It was as if a pink film had descended over his optics, clouding his vision. He stood and made his way out of the office, barely noticing Elita following closely behind him.

Nova looked up at the sound of the office door sliding open and watched as Optimus and Elita walked out. 'Hmm… Must be something important.' She thought, going back to her work. Out of the blue, she remembered something. 'Both of them were walking like they were overcharged on High-Grade. That's funny.' She shrugged and passed it off as sudden fatigue, burying herself in writing the reports.

Without warning, a scream echoed through the halls, followed by a loud crash.

Nova's helm snapped up, easily recognizing the voice that belonged to Nightstar. 'What caused her to scream like that? It's not her usual scream of happiness. It sounded like she was… afraid. But nothing frightens her enough for her to scream like that! Nothing except for-'

"Oh."

DAN DAN DAAAAAANNNN… Cliffie! Sorry for the short length! I felt that I needed to end it off here. Please R&R!

-Love, Nova