Chapter 11: Insufficient Recharge

"Link talk"

"Comm link"

'Thoughts'

Flashback narration

"Flashback speech"

'Flashback thoughts'

Okay peeps, I've returned and I wanted to apologize for the long break for chapter 10 and 11. Also, yes, chapter 10 was posted in Indonesia. I'm back in SG now and I hope y'all enjoy this action-y filler chapter. Note: Nightstar DOES get cranky from lack of sleep, so here we see her grumpy side. Read on!

Me: Wukawukawukawukawuka! 8D

Hellion: Please, no! *cries*

Me: KAWAII! *glomps*

Hellion: *screams like a femme and runs away*

Me: I only own my OCs and Hellion Prime owns Hellion! Transformers is Hasbro's, damn them… HELLION! GET BACK HERE AND LET ME GLOMP YOU TO DEATH! *chases after him*

Note: The poll is closed, and I'm glad for everyone's feedback on my OCs! You know who you are… Well, it appears that the score is: Nightstar, Nova, Icewhip and Shadow: 0 votes while Crystal and Butterball: 1 vote each.

Once again, THANK YOU to Hellion Prime for allowing me to use your OC for a cameo! Please read his stories "Blazing Defender: Flames of Wrath" and "Blazing Defender: Beginnings"!

The next solar cycle, Nightstar was working in the Med Bay without her mentor. Earlier, Ratchet had received a ping and he had to leave. Nightstar had only managed to catch the words "slagging twins" and "making Prowl glitch", which was enough for her to understand what had happened.

Unfortunately, she wasn't in a good mood at the moment.

She hadn't had a good recharge last night and as soon as she woke up, the lack of sleep had already begun to affect her mood negatively. Almost immediately after Ratchet had left, Nightstar had had to break up a fight between Grimlock and Snarl and patch them up afterwards. Both Dinobots had been highly vocal about what they thought of having a femme treat them. The mechs soon left the Med Bay after being patched up, but sporting new dents in their helms from Nightstar having to beat the randy thoughts out of their processors.

Next, Hot Rod had come to visit under the excuse of having to pass Ratchet a report. The flame decaled mech insisted that he had to pass it over to Ratchet personally, choosing to wait around Nightstar's workspace as she took inventory of the various medical supplies. As she moved around the Med Bay, she couldn't help but notice that Hot Rod's optics were rather… riveted to her aft and she had to chase him out of the Med Bay with her wrench, telling him to "Go and find Ratchet yourself since you have so much time to sit around and stare at me ya lazy mech!"

After that, Bluestreak came in looking like a wreck. Apparently, the Terror Twins had seen fit to use paint bombs for their next prank victim and had conveniently forgotten that the bombs used to be grenades which contained metal shards that could pierce through armour. Nightstar had a Pit of a time trying to locate the miniscule shards while Bluestreak busily chatted away. Initially, his talking was cute, but it soon began to grate on her nerves. Many times she had been tempted to knock him out with her wrench, but she only just managed to restrain herself.

The straw that broke this cyber camel's back struts was when Tracks and Bumblebee came in from patrol.

Both of them had somehow gotten into a scrap with the Decepticons but were able to escape mostly unscathed. Since Bumblebee was the one with more serious injuries, she had decided to fix him first. As she was busy repairing a rather delicate circuit, Tracks had decided that he had had enough being ignored and began bitching about how his paintjob was ruined, why Nightstar should have attended to him first and how he was more important than the yellow scout, among other things. Her nerves were shot from lack of recharge and previously having to deal with Bluestreak, and the selfish things Tracks was spouting only fanned the flames to the fire growing deep inside her.

Currently, she was trying to tune him out to fix Bumblebee. Said scout had a frightened look on his face plates as Nightstar darkly muttered various torture methods. Of course, the yellow mech did not know that her animosity was not directed towards him.

Upon noticing that Bumblebee looked like he was about to lubricate himself, she forced a smile on her face plates as she attempted to ignore the blue mech on the medical berth behind her. "Sorry Bee. Just…rather distracted by the glitch sitting behind us," Nightstar whispered sheepishly, feeling slightly bad for scaring the wires out of the poor mech.

Tracks happened to overhear her statement, and his ranting stopped for a moment as he struggled to comprehend the fact that Nightstar had called him a glitch. Sadly, his silence was only temporary as he began a whole new speech on how audacious the femme was and just why wouldn't she just hurry up and fix him already? Bumblebee shot her a sympathetic look as he tried to stay still to make her job easier. Giving him a grateful look, she completed her repairs while trying not to think of her berth. Ah… Her soft, soft berth… And how much she would like to sleeeeep…

However, Tracks just couldn't bear to keep his mouth shut.

"Of course, you have to be saving the best for last. How about you fix me up in my room? What do you say…doll?" Tracks attempted to end off with a sultry purr but it became a pathetic sounding squeak when Nightstar whirled around, her doorwings flared up and her optics a dark red- almost black but not quite yet.

"Just SHUT THE FRAG UP!" Nightstar yelled in anger as she swung her wrench at him. The tool sank into the metal wall, brushing past his wing strut. Tracks flinched, more worried about his paint job than anything else. Even with the livid medic standing in front of him, he screeched about how difficult it would be to get the exact same shade of color for his touch-up paint as he had just finished his last batch. Bumblebee noted the exchange and quickly made himself scarce, scurrying out of the Med Bay to call Ratchet.

Nightstar was highly tempted to carry out one of the torture methods she was muttering earlier, her processor toying with one of her favorites. Her fist tightened on the canister of paint thinner she had drawn out of subspace some time ago, and she began to wonder just how frightened the mech was of getting his paintjob scrapped.

Before she could fulfil her plans, she heard the Med bay door slide open and something poke the Energon line at the back of her neck.

Everything went black.

"Nightstar? Nightstar? Are you alright?"

Nightstar returned to the land of the living and noticed Ratchet standing over her. She sat up and turned her helm to face him, completely forgetting about her little tirade before she was knocked out. "Wrenchie Claus! You're back!"

Ratchet vented, tapping his wrench on her helm none-too-gently. "Watch your tone, youngling."

"That tickles!" Nightstar laughed, swatting the offending tool away. Ratchet gawked at her, wondering why she appeared to not feel any pain.

"What is this I hear about you nearly offlining Tracks?" Nightstar sweatdropped but kept quiet, not wanting to answer his question.

"It's true!" Tracks burst through the Med Bay door, unable to keep quiet and eavesdrop any longer. He then proceeded to dramatically retell his brush with near-death, making the details far too preposterous for Ratchet to believe. Nonetheless, Ratchet decided to clarify the subject with the other party.

"Is this true?" Ratchet turned to Nightstar. She turned her helm away, her cheeks turning blue from the embarrassment of losing her temper in front of her patient. However, she still refused to answer.

Just then, First Aid decided to come in for the shift change. "Hey Ratchet, I-" He never finished his statement, quickly jumping out of the way of a fleeing Nightstar. She was going so fast that she kicked up a dust cloud, and when the dust cleared there was not a single trace of her left. "Um… What did I miss? Do I need to know?" First Aid asked, not missing the way Ratchet's optics dimmed.

"Fragging youngling. I'm going to have to talk to her one of these cycles…" Ratchet muttered before turning to the Med Bay wall to check over the damage that was done.

"I'll take that as a no." First Aid vented before checking on Nightstar's reports. 'Um, let's see… All the medical supplies are accounted for…'

'Phew! That was close! I wonder what the twins are doing…' Nightstar hummed to herself as she walked along the corridor towards the communications room.

WARNING: ENERGON LEVELS AT 25%

'Huh. I guess visiting them will have to wait. Now, where was the way to the main lounge again…?' Nightstar's thoughts were interrupted when some mech bumped into her, causing her to fall. The mech's frame looked similar to Optimus's, but his paintjob was in orange and crimson. His optics were also shaped differently from the leader of the Autobot cause. Dual flamethrowers were attached to his arms and there was a fang poking up from his bottom lip.

"Watch where you're going!" Any good first impression Nightstar had on him immediately turned sour as soon as he opened his mouth.

Nightstar looked up, doorwings twitching in irritation and indignation at being treated like that as she jumped to her pedes. Her lack of recharge didn't help either. She immediately said what was on her processor, exhausting her rather large dictionary as she insulted everything of his that she could think of.

"Why didn't YOU watch where you were going, aft?" she shot back after her 'swear storm' had died down, crossing her arms over her chassis.

Staring at her for a klik, his frame began to rumble. He was clearly trying to hold back his laughter.

"Is there something funny?" Nightstar's lip curled as he burst into full-blown laughter, the low Energon reading popping up on her HUD. Dismissing the warning she tapped her pede impatiently, waiting for his answer.

"You're the first femme to stand up to me! Your swears could even make Ironhide blush!" The mech's lip plates tilted into a smirk.

Just as she was about ask him how he knew Ironhide because she had never seen him around the base before, a swirl of greenish-blue erupted on the wall behind him. A pair of black and purple arms wrapped around the mech's torso and pulled him into the vortex. Once every last trace of 'Mystery Mech' vanished into the portal, the swirl disappeared; leaving Nightstar to ponder her insanity.

After a while, she just shrugged.

"I really have to stop thinking about bacon… Oh hey, shiny things!" The medic picked up the two small gizmos that had appeared on the floor after the strange mech's departure and placed them in subspace. Perhaps she would have time to inspect them later...

After her Energon levels were full, Nightstar happily walked out of the main lounge. She was perked up and felt more awake than earlier. Around the corner, a flash of white caught her optics. Thinking it was Crystal; she hid around the corner and prepared to pounce on the unwitting mini-bot.

Hearing the pede steps draw close enough, Nightstar jumped and found herself…

"Jazz?"

Nightstar found herself in a surprised Spec-Ops agent's arms. Squeaking in slight horror, she attempted to extricate herself from the visored mech grip; only for him to tighten his hold around her.

"Oh Primus! I'm so sorry! I…I'll… Could you just let me leave in peace please?" Nightstar struggled, her face plates turning darker blue with every passing nanoklik. But Jazz didn't budge. Afraid that she had made him glitch, she snapped her fingers in front of his face. Snapping out of his self-made stupor, Jazz gently set her down on the ground.

"It's all right. Ah… Ah'll just go ta th' main lounge now…" Jazz mumbled, looking away in embarrassment. He turned his helm to look over Nightstar's shoulder, appearing to see something in the distance that Nightstar couldn't see. In reality he was watching Nightstar's face behind his visor, committing every aspect of her features to his memory.

"Um… Right! Bye Jazz-chan!" Nightstar began to giggle before slapping a servo over her mouth, amazed that she had made such an innocently girly sound.

"Right…" Jazz's processor was still in the clouds until he processed what she had called him. "Wait… What did ya jus' call meh?" But Nightstar was long gone, having had stampeded down the corridors yelling "Crystal! Imma find you and cuddle you to deaths!"

An unbidden notion popped up in his processor, thoughts of him and Nightstar… alone…

Shaking his helm to clear his thoughts, he silently reprimanded himself. 'There's no way she'll think of you in the same way… Might as well not try…' Venting, Jazz walked into the main lounge.

OHMICHEESYPUFFS! SORRY PEEPS! I just realised this chapter was sitting around for really long on my laptop. I'm so sorry! Thanks for the faves, follows and reviews! Constructive criticism, reviews and fanart welcomed. Just tell me if you DO draw something for this; I wanna see! :D Flames will be used to toast TFA Lugnut.

Lugnut: *struggles* THE ALMIGHTY LORD MEGATRON WILL HEAR OF THIS!

*zaps him with Energon prod* Shaddap you lapdog. Well, I hope I can update soon!