Chapter 5

She had finally settled into a routine. She had been here and entire week and a couple of days now and knew exactly what was expected of her, which wasn't very much, but enough to keep her occupied.

Onslaught had informed her that the next supply ship would arrive in a month since they got new supplies every month.

The meals were still awkward but everyone seemed to show up. Marie had been afraid that Vortex would stay away just to try and starve her, but he seemed to stay out of her way so she tried to stay out of his.

But every morning, she would wake up and take a bath before putting on a brave façade and go eat breakfast. There Swindle would try to sell her a new pair of overpriced shoes or other things that every human would need. She swore that bot could sell you your own mother if he tried hard enough!

From there she would take a cup of coffee and go to the control tower to make sure everything ran smoothly. Of course they already did, but it was more so she had something to spend time on. Since Onslaught never came to check on her she would play a game or two of Tetris.

When she was done there she would go to her room to fetch a few datapads and go back the tower for monitor duty. She was sure that the combaticons laughed a bit behind her back since she got all the shitty jobs. But she held her head high and didn't care all that much, in less than a month she would be gone! So it didn't really matter.

When noon came by she had learnt that Onslaught meant it when he said all had to be present when they ate. A few days ago she had decided to skip lunch since she didn't feel hungry. The team had not approved of that and Onslaught had ordered her to clean three the automatic guns, which were gigantic and stood outside in the blazing sun.

She thought that she was going to die.

But of course it didn't end there; she had to endure all the glares she got as dinner finally came around. Luckily for her, by then she was so hungry and covered in dirt, that she didn't really care about the looks she got as she wolfed down her food.

Now she wasn't the only one who had tried to skip a meal, Swindle, Vortex and Brawl were also guilty of this. Swindle and Brawl hadn't done it to starve the others, Swindle blamed it on a client he had been working on and Brawl said that he had been cleaning his gun and lost track of time.

Vortex didn't give an explanation but just took the punishment. But he chose to skip dinner. They had all gone to bed hungry that night and the way that everyone downed their energon, even Onslaught, told her that she was not the only one who had been too hungry to sleep.

After that it was as if they had come to a silent agreement that everyone just showed up.

After lunch she would take a walk while reading, maybe have a chat with Merlot, though she still felt awkward when he didn't answer. Somehow she managed not to bore herself to death before dinner. The combaticons stayed to themselves and it seemed that anything they had any interest in doing was down the east wing. They still stayed clear of the cameras though she had no idea how something that big could disappear like that.

She had made it a habit to call her sister just before she went to bed, to get the daily update. Sadly she had run out of beer so she was forced to just sit and listen and get even more jealous. Her sister really liked her team and seemed to get along with them just fine.

Marie had to admit that she felt a bit lonely here on the secret base in the middle of nowhere. The combaticons were out on mission most of the time and most of the time she was in the communication tower keeping an eye on their readings. She could see if any of them got hurt and how badly it was. She could hear them over the radio as they moved, they were mostly just fighting but Marie couldn't help but smile, none of them would take the others crap, all of them equally stubborn and they only really listened to Onslaught.

As another week passed they were gone more often and on those days she was permitted to eat by herself. They explained that they were out on energon raids, that they raced the Autobots every time a new deposit was found. Sometimes they were there first; sometimes they would have to fight for it.

One something changed however. She was in the tower as always watching their readings, they were on yet another raid, the Autobots had already moved the energon to a facility nearby where thay were waiting for pickup. The gestalt had already infiltrated the building but suddenly Brawl cursed loudly, his readings flared for a moment before returning to normal. The entire radio was quiet for a moment before he vented loudly

:: Onslaught I have a problem sir, the doors just shut on me and won't open:: he said explaining the situation. Marie closed the gap between the radio and herself, bringing her personal laptop into her lap.

:: Can't you break it down?:: she heard Blast off say referring to the thing Brawl was best at.

:: Negative, it won't budge:: While the team was debating about how to get him out or mocking him for walking into a trap, Marie used Brawl's tracker to find his location. A few minutes later she had successfully hacked the building and was unlocking the door; smirking to herself she put on her own headgear. "How's that?" she asked with a bit of vanity dripping off her words.

The radio was quiet again before Brawl was back, laughing as he fired his gun at something. :: You did that?:: He asked and Marie took a moment to bask in the praise. "Sure, just hacked the building and opened the door."

:: You were listening in!:: Vortex's voice said accusingly.

"Well yeah, it's not like there is a whole lot to do here anyway" Marie defended.

:: Marie, could you open a path to the center?" Onslaught asked suddenly, interrupting before Vortex could start. :: But Onslaught, she's a human! Any of our hackers are better than her!:: he complained.

:: We don't have any hackers with us and we are losing the building:: Onslaught said sternly. Marie took a deep breath away from the microphone. "The systems are a bit outdated but give me a moment." She said getting a virtual picture of the building.

"Alright, you are here and are going… here" she said more to herself than them.

Suddenly the doors that had shut right in front of their noses now flew open, revealing a path. "You might want to go now; the Autobots will try to shut them again so I'll open the doors as you go along." As if to confirm what she said the door behind them shut, sealing itself.

:: So, just how are we planning on getting out then?:: Swindle asked.

:: How about we figure that out when we get to it:: Blast Off said shutting the con-man up. Marie could sense some sort of guilt from Swindle's side but didn't really want to ask into it, both because it wasn't any of her business and she knew she wouldn't get an answer.

Quickly she got control of the cameras and had now a full visual on the team, and ahead of them. "Just a heads up. There's an ambush of 7 mechs, 50 meters ahead of you" she warned and the commander grunted in response readying his weapon.

The trip to the center, where the energon was stored, went smoothly and as soon as the combaticons came a-knocking the Autobots had lost the building.

It had been three hours since they came back and none of them had tried to talk to her about interfering with the mission. She had helped them, yes, but she had still interfered. The 'copter-former seemed to have a built-in hate for her so she was pretty sure about how he felt about it, but she wasn't quite sure about the others.

She hadn't left the tower, feeling a bit anxious, but it was almost dinner-time and she knew that she couldn't stay away. Not when she finally was being useful.

The walk to the recreation room was a bit too small for her liking but no one said anything as she entered. Swindle and Brawl were already in their seats and gave her a nod in some sort of greeting. She couldn't help but smile and give them a nod in return before sitting down herself.

Blast off stumbled in a few minutes after, Marie noticed how he didn't seem affected by the fight or even looked like he had just been in one. His armor was shining and the way he held himself indicated that everything was as it should.

They waited a few more minutes and as the time flew by Marie fear that they would go to bed hungry again. That was really something she didn't want to repeat, but as the minutes dragged by it became more amore clear that the helicopter wasn't joining them.

"He can't be serious" Brawl said hitting the table in frustration.

Marie exhaled slowly, lying down over the miniature table. "You know, I don't think he's coming" she said stating the obvious, only just holding back the growl of her own stomach, Swindle groaned in agreement.

Onslaught stood up in one stiff, angry, movement. "With the increase of raids at the moment we need all the energy we can get. Vortex can starve on his own." He growled before inserting the code and getting their food. Vortex would answer for this later.

Marie had skipped lunch in favor of watching the readings in the control tower, and now where food was being placed right in front of her, her stomach growled angrily. Some of her 'teammates' eyes her mockingly and she glared a 'shut-up' in return before digging in.

Brawl and Swindle had a conversation while eating but the rest of them were quiet, not really bothered by their own silence. Marie got the hint that none of them was going to mention what happened earlier and for some reason she was okay with that.

It had been accepted and there was no need to talk about it. That was that.

They finished a bit too soon and Marie soon found herself on her way back to her room. She was so excited to tell Aria about th-. But why would she do that? It's not like she did something huge or was even on the mission, she had just butted her way in and beside, Aria surely had something much more exciting to talk about.

As she quickened her pace she was surprised to see Swindle leaning against the wall just beside her door. "Swindle?" she called and stopped a few steps away, he didn't respond and seemed to have dozed off into his own world.

"Swindle" she called again stepping into his line of sight. This time he snapped back to reality. He eyed her for a second and she just waited for him to start, he had been the once to seek her out after all.

"Onslaught isn't going to thank you for what happened earlier, but I think you did good, even if nobody asked you to help." He stated; Marie wanted to smile but held it back seeing that now was not the time.

"I left you a little something in your room, don't thank me just take it." He took a moment to look her dead in the eye before turning on his pedals and leave. Slowly the human entered her room, a huge grin on her face as it shut behind her.

She looked around for the gift and soon enough saw the six-pack on her bed with a datapad on top, probably a note.

As predicted the datapad was a note, she opened a single beer to celebrate today's victory but couldn't look away from the datapad.

"Welcome to the team."