Old Friends, New Problems

Chapter 5

#Scrap yard, after the attack#%Rem's POV%

Rem was silent as she worked. After M.E.C.H. had retreated, and the wounded moved into the makeshift med bay, Rem went to work on repairs. She started by removing those Unicron cursed stasis grenades! Then sealed the hole they had made in each 'Bots's chassis. Rem was currently working on Bumblebee - she had finished with Grimlock an hour ago; the yellow and black mech was still unconscious, and would stay that way for several more hours. Rem and the others she had brought with her would be long gone before that. Switching her welder off, Rem slid it into its slot on her tool belt then activated her visor. Several messages popped up on her HUD when she finished her scan: Damage: Repaired. Status: Stasis locked. Time remaining: Four hours and fifty-six minutes. Rem nodded and hummed in satisfaction, turning her visor off, she slid off Bumblebee's chassis and jumped to the floor. Her work was done here, time to collect Brimstone and Atti and go home before Atti got into trouble.

CRASH!

Atti's laughing soon accompanied the sound, as did some shouting from Strongarm. Rem groaned and rubbed her temple in annoyance. Too late, she thought walking towards the noise. She pinged Brimstone to let him know that she was on her way; she got an affirmative ping back. When she got there, the sight that stood before her was enough to make her let out a small chuckle. Atti was pinned on her back by Brimstone's left pede, whilst Strongarm and Sideswipe were being held upside down by both of their pedes. Walking over, smirk still on her face, Rem nodded up at Brimstone in welcome, the Dragonformer nodded back, and knelt down beside Atti's head.

"So," she started. "What did you do this time?"

Atti turned her head to look at Rem, red optics narrowed. "Nothing to warrant this!" She hit Brimstone's pede to make her point.

Rem shrugged before standing. "Should've stayed out of trouble like your sire told you to, then Brimstone wouldn't have to do this."

Atti responded with a humph, and turned her head away, grumbling. Rem's smirk turned into a small smile, then all together dissipated.

"Brimstone," she said, looking up at the Predacon (well, half-Predacon). "Put them down, and let Atti up, we're leaving."

The mute mech nodded, and lifted his pede, Atti back peddled a few steps before jumping to her pedes and brushing herself off, then he dropped the two in his servos - both landed face-first in the dirt at his pedes, groaning.

Giving the two Autobots one last look, Rem turned and walked towards the gate.

"Wait!"

Rem stopped and looked over her shoulder, and saw Russell running towards her. Before the child could reach her, however, Brimstone stepped between them. Rem walked forward until she was standing beside Brimstone, reaching up and putting a hand on his ankle.

"What do you want, Russell?" she asked, looking at him.

Russell looked at her, and said, "Why're you leaving?"

"We did what we came to do," she said. "Now, if that's all you wanted, we'll be going."

Turning around, again, Rem pinged Soundwave for a ground bridge, and started walking, only to stop when a thought struck her. Looking back over her shoulder at Russel, Rem said, "And don't worry about M.E.C.H. coming back, we'll know if they'll try anything."

The boy had more to say, she could tell, but before he could, a large ground bridge appeared in front of them. Shooting Strongarm a small glare, Rem ran into the portal with Brimstone and Atti following close behind.

-#$- (Bumblebee's POV)

Bumblebee groaned when he finally came online. He had such a processor ache. Reaching a hand up to his head, he rubbed the back of his head in hopes of alleviating some of the pain. No such luck. Sitting up, Bumblebee looked around and saw that he was alone in the med bay. With last night's events fresh in his mind, Bumblebee slipped off the med berth, and headed out into the scrap yard.

"Lieutenant Bumblebee, it's good to see you plup!-sup!-UP!"

Turning, he saw Fixit wheel out of the old restaurant and over to him.

Bumblebee nodded and smiled down at the minicon. "It's good to be up, Fixit. Where is everybody?"

"Sideswipe and Strongarm are out on patrol, Denny Clay and Russell went into the city just a short time ago, and Grimlock is helping me fix the gate."

"What about, um... you-know-who?"

Fixit's cheerful smile disappeared, and was replaced with a frown.

"Rem and her cohorts left shortly after she finished with your repairs."

Bumblebee looked down at Fixit curiously.

"Rem brought others with her? How many?" he asked.

Fixit scratched his head for a moment, then his optics brightened.

"Two young bots, a purple femme and a brown mech. By the looks of them, I could tell they were around the same age as Cadet Strongarm and Sideswipe."

"Did she ever address them?" he asked next. He had a hunch that the purple femme was Atti, but it was best to make sure. And he wanted to know who the brown mech was.

Fixit nodded, and said, "Yes, she did. Several times I heard her address the purple femme as Atti and the brown mech as Brimstone."

Again, Bumblebee nodded. Yep, he was right. "What did Brimstone look like?"

"Well," began Fixit. "He was very tall for someone his age, abnormally so, he was the same height as Grimlock! He's a dark brown and black with white accents and amber optics. Light silver-gray face, and white detailed wings on his back."

"Was his frame rugged or smooth?" Bumblebee's voice was almost a whisper. The mech Fixit was describing almost sounded like...Predaking. Could the young mech be the Predacon's creation? If so, then it wouldn't be hard to find the young Dragonformer.

"Smooth."

Bumblebee nodded, "Thank you, Fixit. I'm going out for a drive, comm. me if there's trouble."

He didn't give the minicon time to answer, Bumblebee ran to the gate, passing a wide-opticed Grimlock, and transformed, taking of towards the woods. He shifted through his old contacts until he found the one Rem gave him when they had fist met, and dialed it. No sound, but no static, either. Which meant Rem hadn't deleted it, but had, rather, deactivated the audio function. Which left him with the messaging function. Bumblebee quickly sent some coordinates, and prayed that Rem got them, then sped off to the meeting place.

He had questions, and he was going to get them.