If Swift suspected that Lancer's words to Sunburst had been all talk, their next meeting laid her doubts to rest. And he wasn't the only unexpected mech to show up - their meet-up attracted a sizable crowd, enough that Swift worried they'd be too noisy for the library. As it was, they were getting some sour looks from the librarian as they pushed tables together and rounded up chairs… but at least the patrons seemed content to ignore them.

"Lancer, good to see ya!" Firebolt greeted as the purple mech settled into a chair between Harmony and Stardust. "Glad you came around!"

"Where's your sigil?" asked Stardust, raising an optic ridge at the patch of roughened paint on his shoulder. "You didn't…"

"He did," Swift replied. "Right in front of Starburst and her retinue. It was glorious."

Stardust laughed and slapped Lancer's shoulder. "Good on you, pal! Sounds like we could all use to follow in your footsteps."

"Oh no, I ain't removing mine yet," Hornet protested, raising his hands. "Dad'll kill me if he sees me without it. I'm shocked Hook let you get away with it!"

Lancer shrugged. "He wasn't happy, and I got chewed out for it. But he didn't demand I put it back on, at least. And my uncles don't seem to object - Pit, Mixmaster said he was proud of me for sticking up for myself!"

Swift shuddered. Judging by the stories she'd heard from her mom, having Mixmaster be proud of you wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"So what's on today's agenda?" asked Ricochet - or Clawstrike, as he was apparently calling himself this week. "We finally going to do something besides a bunch of talking?"

"We're trying to support people who want to go factionless," Echo reminded him. "It's not like we're planning to storm the capitals demanding they abolish factions entirely."

"Yeah, but… it feels like just talking about how much it sucks that Cybertron's still split into factions doesn't help," Ricochet/Clawstrike protested. "We can't just run our vocalizers until our heads spin - we have to DO something!"

Steelwing snorted. "Well, we know which one's the Stunticons' kid."

"Hey, don't knock my parents," Ricochet/Clawstrike retorted. "They're awesome, even if everyone thinks they're insane."

"Wasn't knocking them," the carformer assured him. "Just noting that you're a lot like them - you prefer action over talk."

"I'm kind of surprised you're here, Aunt Steelwing," Swift confessed.

Steelwing raised an optic ridge. "What makes you say that?"

"It's just… I mean…" She squirmed in her seat, wondering if she'd just manage to shove her foot into her mouth. "You worked undercover for the Decepticons for a long time…"

She nodded. "And I'm proud of the work I did for the cause. But that doesn't mean I can't come to this meeting and hear what you kids have to say." She turned to her conjux, a blue-and-gold Seeker, and rested a hand on her arm. "Besides, to be honest, I'm mostly here because Windsheer wanted to come. And she generally has a good sense for when a cause is worth following."

"Awww, I'm flattered, hun," said Windsheer, beaming. "I owe you for this."

"You don't owe me anything," Steelwing assured her with a smile. "But the mech formerly known as Ricochet asked a question, and I second it. Do we have an agenda for this meeting, or is it going to be more support-group chitchat?"

Firebolt let her gaze sweep the gathering - around twenty mechs, mostly students but with a few adults and a lone Autobot mixed in. Then she looked at Swift and flashed a daredevil grin.

"Not-Ricochet has a point," she noted.

"Just call me Clawstrike, geez," Ricochet/Clawstrike grumbled.

"Whoever you are right now, you have a point," Firebolt went on. "We've done enough talking. It's time we took some kind of action. That we showed Cybertron that our ideas aren't all just talk - we want to do something about it!"

Swift's tanks clenched as she realized just what Firebolt was talking about. "I thought we were going to hold off on this for awhile."

"We can't just sit on our good ideas forever," Firebolt shot back. "Sooner or later we have to actually implement 'em!"

"What idea?" demanded Hornet, optics gleaming with excitement. "Don't leave us hanging!"

Firebolt's grin widened. "A rally."

Ricochet/Clawstrike made a face. "Like a car rally? I guess that'll get my dads' attention..."

"Not THAT kind of rally," Harmony replied, chuckling. "More like a protest. We go someplace public and hold signs, and raise awareness for our cause."

"Isn't that what the chat channel is for?" asked Lancer.

"Not everyone uses public chat channels," Swift reminded him.

"Plus, you'd be surprised what mechs are okay with so long as it stays on the information networks or in the chat channels," Harmony replied. "We don't want them to see the factionless movement as just something the young mechs talk about on the channels. We want them to see that it's a real issue, and that it's worth talking about face to face as well as on the networks."

"Are you guys sure about this?" This speaker wasn't one of their friend group, but a green cassette-carrier who gently petted a white wolf-shaped cassette-con as he addressed the gathering. "If we go public with this, we're bound to get backlash. Remember what happened at the Tyger Pax protest a few cycles back. And that was over a tax hike, not something as controversial as factions."

"The Tyger Pax protest only got violent because some member of the Autobot Council paid a few mechs to cause trouble and discredit the protesters," Harmony replied with a roll of her optics. "He's since been stripped of his position."

"Beatbox still has a point," Windsheer reminded them. "Mechs aren't just going to stand by and politely watch your rally. They may not start a riot, but they'll probably find some way to throw abuse your way. Even if it's just calling you names."

"They already do that on the channel," Hornet replied. "We just let 'em talk, unless they start getting abusive or throwing out threats. Then they get banned."

"Believe me, it'll be worse when they're standing in front of you instead of hiding behind a screen," Windsheer told him.

"We'll just have to take that chance," said Stardust. "Won't we?"

Firebolt nodded, but by the gleam in her optics Swift could tell she wasn't done. "We should also take a page out of Lancer's book and show them we mean what we say. Sometime during the rally, we should tear off our own sigils."

Swift's optics rebooted. "Wait, we never talked about this-"

"Don't use me as an example-" Lancer began, hunching his shoulders as if hoping to hide from the sudden attention.

"Are you nuts, Dad'll kill me-" sputtered Hornet.

"I work for Shockwave, do you really want-" Beatbox cut in.

Firebolt thumped her fist into her palm. "Look, guys, are you fully in for this, or is it just a bunch of talk? Because we can talk and talk and talk all we want, but if we're going to convince mechs we're serious about wanting to let go of faction and just be Cybertronians, then we have to show them we mean it! And that means we can't keep hiding behind Decepticon or Autobot sigils even while we advocate for unfaction-ism or whatever we're going to call it! And what better way to show that than to do it in front of a crowd?"

Swift knew Firebolt had a point - and honestly, it did feel hypocritical to encourage mechs to look beyond factions when she still wore a Decepticon sigil herself. That didn't stop her tanks from churning nervously, however. Her own parents might not be as angry as Hook had been or Onslaught and Shockwave were bound to be, but she knew they'd be incredibly disappointed in her. Especially since Glory had rescued her specifically to ensure that she would stay true to her Decepticon heritage rather than be CPU-washed into an Autobot.

"So who's in on this?" Firebolt asked. "Who's ready to rally to the cause?"

Stardust groaned. "Bad pun, Firebolt."

"Shut up, every pun is great," Firebolt retorted. "Who's up for a rally?"

Hands went up, and Swift wasn't sure whether to be thrilled or dismayed that roughly three-quarters of the gathered mechs were in favor of the rally. She tried to push her misgivings aside, though. This wasn't about what she was comfortable with; this was about their cause and how best to spread it across Cybertron. And like it or not, the rally was their best bet.

"Guys, the library closes in five minutes," Echo reminded them.

"Ugh… okay, next meeting we'll plan the time and place for the rally," Firebolt replied. "In the meantime, everyone think of some catchy slogans for our signs. Keep 'em clean - no one will take us seriously if they're full of profanity."

"Hey, profanity's fun," Ricochet/Clawstrike retorted, smirking as he pushed himself to his feet. "But I'll think of something."

As mechs gathered their things and headed for the library doors, Steelwing turned and gave Swift a little smirk. "So this is what you've been up to after school, huh?"

Swift nodded. "Don't tell Mom and Dad, please."

"I won't," she replied. "But I'd tell them yourself before too long. You have a right to your privacy, but at the same time I'm sure they want to know what's going on in your life."

Swift frowned behind her mask. "I dunno… they've been obsessed with getting a new sparkling from Vector Sigma lately. Sometimes it feels like… never mind."

"Feels like what?" Steelwing raised an optic ridge. "That they no longer have time for you and are pushing you aside to make room for a new kid?"

She flinched, cleanser building up in her optics. Those very thoughts had crossed her CPU, but to hear someone say them aloud made them seem so harsh.

"Steel, dear, you could've put that a little less bluntly," Windsheer pointed out. "Poor thing looks like you just hit her!"

Steelwing sighed. "Sorry, kiddo. I'm so used to being blunt with your father that I forget that some mechs do better with a gentle approach."

"It's okay," Swift replied softly. "It's… it's kind of true, though. All they seem to think about is the new baby, even though they haven't even gotten key access yet."

Steelwing sighed and patted her arm. "They still love you, Swift. Promise. They're just excited about the new sparkling. Once your sibling's home and settled, they'll calm down." She turned to Harmony, who was meticulously stacking her datapads and doing her best to pretend not to eavesdrop. "Who's this?"

"Harmony of Iacon," Harmony greeted, dropping all pretense and extending her hand. "I'm a friend of Swift's, and I've been representing the Autobots during these meetings."

"Nice to meet you, Harmony." Steelwing took the hand and shook it. "Steelwing of Digilex, and this is my conjux Windsheer of Vos. We're family friends of Swift."

"Well, any friend of Swift's is a friend of mine, I hope," Harmony replied.

"Of course!" Windsheer replied brightly. "Hey, see if you can convince any Autobots to join the rally, okay? We'd love to see more representation from all over Cybertron, not just here in Polyhex."

"I'll see what I can do," Harmony vowed.

Windsheer nodded, and she laced her fingers through Steelwing's before the two of them headed out of the library.

"I like those two," Harmony noted. "So… was Steelwing special ops or something?"

"Kind of," Swift replied. "During the war she was an infiltrator. She would disguise herself and join Autobot cells or squadrons and try to break them up from within. Apparently she still has a few Autobot personas she can assume when she needs to, though she hasn't had to do that since the Knights of Cybertron were active cycles ago."

Harmony whistled. "Is everyone in your family some kind of super-soldier?"

She blushed. "I've never really thought of them as super-soldiers. They were just family. And honestly, every Decepticon family is going to have soldiers or ex-soldiers in it."

"Fair point." Harmony grinned. "So… mind if I walk you home? Return the favor from last time?"

She blushed but smiled, retracting her mask. "I'd like that. Hopefully this walk isn't as eventful as last time, huh?"

"Well, I didn't see the creep in the library today, so we're probably okay," Harmony assured her. "All the same, let's not take the most direct route."

Swift nodded, and she motioned for Harmony to follow her out. She didn't feel quite bold enough to follow Windsheer's lead and take her hand… so was pleasantly surprised when Harmony took the initiative. Her own hand dwarfed the carformer's, but Harmony didn't seem bothered by that.

"Um… fair warning, Wildfire might want to inspect you thoroughly first thing," Swift told her as they headed for the transport station. "He's pretty protective of our home."

"Oh… is he a bodyguard or something?"

"Close. It's… better if I show you."

"That bad, huh? Don't worry, I don't scare that easy."

Despite her assurance, Swift just hoped Wildfire didn't scare Harmony off for good. Having two infamous triple-changers in her family was one thing, but a borderline-homicidal drone protector was something else entirely. Though truth be told, she was less worried about Wildfire's reaction than her parents'. Neither of them were ever more than polite towards any Autobots - what would they think of their daughter bringing one home?

Swift's fears that neither Wildfire nor her parents would welcome Harmony turned out to be unfounded… though her fear turned to annoyance on one count.

"Mom, Dad, I'm home!" she called out, leading Harmony into the apartment. "I've brought a friend!" Might as well rip off the medical patch and get this over with…

"That's nice!" Glory called back from the living room. "Sorry we can't chat more, we're going over chassis plans with Knock Out."

Her fuel tank gave a familiar twist at that, and she tried not to let her disappointment show in her voice. "Oh… okay. We won't bug you, then."

"Thanks for understanding," Glory replied. "Hello, whichever one of Swift's friends is out there! Help yourself to whatever snacks you want!"

"Thanks, Swift's Mom," Harmony called back.

Swift waited a moment, sure that Glory would ask who she had brought home - Harmony's voice didn't match any of her other friends' and had a definite Iacon accent - but when Glory made no remark she sighed and let it drop. Of course Glory and Blitzwing were too obsessed with their plans for another sparkling to care who she brought home. She should have expected that by now, though it didn't hurt any less.

"Thanks for walking me home," she told her guest.

"No problem." Harmony smiled. "Though who's this Wildfire character you've told me so much about? I half-expected some hulking monster covered in guns to greet us at the door."

"He's probably in my room," she replied. "He's not nearly as fierce as he used to be. Did you still want to see him?"

"Of course. You can't hype him up as much as you have and leave me hanging like this."

They were halfway to her quarters when Swift realized just what she was doing and halted in mid-step. Was she really taking the femme she had a crush on to her room? But she shook her head and kept walking before Harmony could ask what the holdup was. It wasn't like that, she told herself - she was just showing her Wildfire, it was a perfectly innocent visit.

Wildfire was stretched out on her bed like a turbohound, optics dim and a snore rattling his vocalizer. As Swift shut the door behind her and Harmony his audial receptors twitched, and he raised his head to regard her.

"Hey boy," she greeted, smiling as she held her hand out to her beloved pet. "You're getting kinda lazy in your old age, aren't you?"

Even in his equine form, Wildfire gave her a sour look before sniffing lightly at her fingers. "Not lazy. Protect Swift still." He slid off the berth and trotted to Harmony, dipping his head to snuffle at her feet.

"Oh!" Harmony froze, gazing down at the drone as he circled her and sniffed her thoroughly from the waist down. "I didn't realize Wildfire was a pet!"

"Half-pet, half-bodyguard," Swift explained. "He's a drone, and he's programmed to protect sparklings, though he's also loyal to those he considers family. He has a robot mode, but he spends almost all his time like this unless he's in a fighting mood. Wildfire, this is Harmony. Be nice to her, she's a guest."

Wildfire gave Harmony one last sniff, then grunted and nudged his muzzle into her hand. "Guest. Safe guest."

"Well, it looks like he still does his job, old or not," Harmony noted, petting his nose. "Do you mind if I have a look at him? Will he allow that?"

"If he trusts you enough to let you pet him, then that should be okay," Swift replied. "Just stop when he asks you to."

Harmony nodded, and she ran her hand along the underside of Wildfire's jaw. The drone shuttered his optics and let out a purr at the attention, his tail swishing from side to side.

"Who designed him?" she asked, sliding her hands over his neck and shoulders as she examined him. "And what made them decide on an animal alt mode?"

"Shockwave," Swift replied as she sat down on the bed, "and he actually used to belong to my mom. She says that Shockwave thought a sparkling would be more comfortable with a bodyguard if they looked more like a pet than a guard."

"That makes a lot of sense." Harmony gently lifted Wildfire's foreleg, inspecting the hoof. "The workmanship is superb! I've never seen an equine mechanimal before, but I've dealt with mecha-moose and cyberelk before… they have cloven hooves, though…"

"You deal a lot with animals?" asked Swift, cocking her head to one side.

"Mm-hmm." She ran a finger along the inside of the hoof, as if checking for embedded debris. "Hoping to make a career of it."

Swift's brow furrowed. "I thought you were trying to get into medical school."

"I am," Harmony replied, lifting the other hoof. "But Iacon's medical university doesn't just focus on mechs. It has a veterinary program, though they take on a limited number of students every semester, so competition's fierce. The more experience I get with mechanimals, the better."

Swift had never realized that there were medics who dealt solely with animals before - whenever Wildfire had been injured before, Hook simply dealt with his repairs. Though Wildfire wasn't quite a mechanimal, she supposed. And while pets were popular among Autobots, not many Decepticons kept them for whatever reason. Maybe it was just hard to take proper care of a pet when you were in the military.

"Wildfire's not really an animal," Swift pointed out, even as the horseformer nosed Harmony for another pat. "But you're welcome to look him over if you think it'll give you experience."

"Thank you!" Harmony set Wildfire's hoof down and gave his nose another caress before standing back up. "Nice room, by the way. Digging the Cityspeakers posters - are they actually signed?"

Swift nodded. "By the game designers. They were gifts from my uncle Astrotrain - he got them at a gaming convention last cycle." Astrotrain didn't buy her gifts very often - he showed his affection through other means - but when he did he tried to make them meaningful. Uncle Swindle might spoil her with gifts almost every time they met, but Astrotrain seemed to favor quality over quantity.

"Nice uncle." She nodded at a smaller poster hanging at the head of the bed, one that showed two of the game's characters - a sleek jetformer with translucent blue-and-red armor and a bulkier truckformer with dark green plating - posed together amid swaths of deep violet fabric, holding hands and gazing at each other adoringly. "That doesn't look like official art, though."

Swift ducked her head, blushing. "I… commissioned that. I… kinda ship Calypso and Gaia."

"Hey… don't be ashamed of it. I think it's cute." Harmony laughed softly. "I always thought Calypso would be more attracted to Sumanis the Weaponsmith, though. There's SO much unresolved romantic tension between those two."

"Sumanis is a jerk, though," Swift replied with a little scowl. "He needs a kick in the skidplate, not a lover."

"Hey, he's a softie under the jerk facade. Remember how he rescued the sparklings of the Unicron cultists and kept the Council from executing them?"

"Yeah, I guess… that doesn't mean he's relationship material, though." A giggle pushed its way out of her vocalizer. "I didn't know you played the Cityspeakers games!"

It was Harmony's turn to blush. "I… don't play them. I'm hopeless at video games. I just watch playthroughs of them."

"Hey, that's okay," Swift replied. "I admit I like the story better than the gameplay. Especially since the combat system's kind of clunky. And the characters are really fun - they feel like actual beings and not just images on a screen."

"So I noticed." Harmony nodded at the picture of Calypso and Gaia, chuckling. "It's very cute, though. Do you read any of the fanfic?"

"I… I actually write some of my own. Mostly pairing stuff. You can guess which pairing."

"I'm guessing not Alternian General/Unicron Cultist," Harmony laughed. "I don't read much Calypso/Gaia, but if you let me know your username I'll give them a whirl."

"Oh… you don't have to read them just because I wrote them. Especially if they're not your thing…"

Harmony rested a hand on her arm. "Swift… I'm interested in your stories. And even if it's not a pairing I support, I'll give it a shot. Promise."

Swift smiled back. "Thank you, Harmony… you're sweet."

"Just wanting to support a friend. And curious to see how your pairing works out." Harmony patted her arm. "Should I leave you be? I don't want to overstay my welcome."

"Actually… I'd love it if you stayed," Swift replied. "I like talking to you… and I don't have any friends with similar interests. Just my uncle, and he's more into the fighting aspect of the games than the story."

Harmony moved her hand down to Swift's, resting her smaller hand in her palm. "Well… I'd love to short your audials out with talk about Cityspeakers, and our favorite pairings, and Wildfire and veterinary school and your parents and anything else you want to talk about. I don't know if you've noticed, but… I like you, Swift. A lot."

Swift wondered if her cheek plates were as blazing hot as they felt. "I… I like you too, Harmony. And I'd love it if you stayed. Will your mom worry, though?"

Harmony shrugged. "I'm an adult. I can look after myself." She squeezed Swift's hand. "So… you're not a fan of Calypso/Sumanis. Anyone you DO see Sumanis with?"

Swift smirked. "In all honesty, he's too in love with himself to be paired with anyone."

"Ooooh, you like clone pairings, huh?" She laughed and darkened one optic in a wink. "Sumanis/Sumanis is a new one."

"No, that's not what I meant," Swift retorted, though she couldn't hide her smile. "Maybe if he went through something that matured him a little, he'd be fit for a romantic partner, but until then he's better off just sticking to his forge."

"Mmmm, Sumanis/His Forge. Kinda kinky." Harmony laughed. "Okay, I'm teasing… but still, let's talk about how we could make Sumanis more mature and fitting for a partner."

Swift nodded, and she settled in for a discussion. This wasn't quite how she'd imagined spending her evening, but it suited her. And if it allowed her to get closer to Harmony - and forget, for just a bit, her frustration with her parents - then she was far more than okay with it.