Robots (No Longer) in Disguise

by ForgottenAlias

Well scrap. Some Con just blew the secret on Earth, leaving a mess for the Autobots to clean up. Team Prime is busy restoring their home world, so the burden of keeping the peace falls on Heatwave the Rescue Bots. It's all servos on deck for this mission, whether the Rescue Recruits are ready or not. Heatwave isn't even sure he is. Then again, how much could actually go wrong?

3. Chapter 3

Author's Notes: Here we are again! Seeing how our fair heroes deal with a ridiculous series of Decepticon related unfortunate events, all while keeping it under wraps or risk multiple treaties going to the Pits! But no pressure, I'm sure a bunch of Decepticons who were just violently awoken from deep stasis to find themselves crash-landed and stranded on an alien world will totally listen to reason from a group of random Autobots who keep insisting that, no really, you can trust us, we are here to help despite EVERYTHING to the contrary you believe about Autobots!

Good luck Heatwave and the gang….

Please follow and leave a comment to let me know what you think, and of course enjoy!

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Part 3

It's just a few hundred Decepticons

Location: Griffin Rock Council Building

Chief Charlie Burns

Charlie was well versed in sitting straight, hands folded in front of him on the table, totally stone faced. It worked well when questioning witnesses, or trying to tease out which one of his kids was right in an argument. When listening, he tried exuding a calm and attentive persona. This moment was no different. Even with the three government officials sitting across from him, wearing pristine suits and cold expressions.

The three representatives from Washington took turns talking to him (at him) about this Cybertronian threat and mentioned more than once how important it was to contain the panic. They had also requested to speak with Charlie and all the Burns' before they even met the Bots, hence the tense meeting currently taking place. Along with Mayor Luskey, all his children sat at his side, mostly listening. All his children, save for Cody, who was still with Wedge back at base.

The official's cold, downright rude request to not speak to the Bots until the humans spoke first would have normally put Charlie off. But in this once in a lifetime situation, it was a God send. Said situation, was a Decepticon, who had popped out of the ocean not five minutes before the government officials stepped off their boat. They assumed he had jumped ship into the sea before the crash.

Charlie hadn't learned much about the Con, only glimpsing him for a minute before he and his kids had to RUN to the docks and greet (distract) their Washington visitors all the way to the Council building. The Con was tall, well armored, almost resembling a shark with his build and coloring, and was spitting mad. From Charlie's short interaction with the shark looking Decepticon, words did little to pacify him. All available Bots were now 'dealing' with him, the last Charlie saw, they were trying to wrestle him into a still working stasis pod. So, behind Charlie's stone-cold expression, he was sweating into the pits of his uniform.

Currently, they were in one of the larger meeting rooms in the left wing of the Council Building. It was the farthest from the hustle and bustle of local government business going on nearer to the mayor's side of the building, so the three visitors requested it. Less risk of people overhearing what they shouldn't with the door closed, and the blinds to the long window along the far wall drawn. But not totally shut. Because Charlie quickly noticed after sitting down, through the slits of the blinds from this particular room, one could sort of make out a corner of the beach across the road. The three officials had their backs to the window, thankfully. Because from his vantage point on the other side of the table, he was able to glimpse the occasional Bot, scuffling with the seething Decepticon. It made concentrating rather challenging.

"To get to the point," said the only female official of the group, gray hair straight as a razor and lips pursed just as thin. "The Autobots were given sanctuary on this planet on the condition they could protect it from Decepticon threat while also maintaining a covert presence. They have failed in both regards. It's the reason our superiors took so long reaching a final decision, regarding the Rescue Bots. We have been overwhelmed by global events, so response time has been lacking."

Charlie nodded along, forcing his eyes not to wander to the window behind the three Agents for what he was sure would be the tenth time. "I sympathize with your positions. I'm sure these past few days haven't been easy in Washington." It seemed a nice, neutral thing to say to assure the three he had been listening, and not half watching a silent bot brawl out the window behind them.

The woman, who Charlie had teased out was named Agent White, gave his sentiment a nod of approval. "It's been nothing short of a struggle keeping the population at large from descending into anarchy. The Autobots assured us that they had the Decepticons under control, and yet here we are. We've been made to look utterly foolish. That's why we were hesitant to take up this offer, even with Special Agent Fowler's recommendation." She shuffled through the immaculately organized documents spread across the table; the file they were produced from labeled TOP SECRET. "But we can't argue with results. This town has responded very positively to a Bot presence. We have been studying it from a distance for some time. Would you say that the population here on Griffin Rock has remained peaceful after the secret was revealed a few years back?"

Charlie caught the tail end of Chase in the window, handheld up with unmoving authority towards the charging Decepticon on the beach. Chase was then tossed into the water, his authority apparently not meaning much to the Decepticon who just bowled him over.

The Mayor gave an exaggerated cough, trying to drowned out any possible noise the Bot sized splash could have made. He followed the gesture up with an equally nervous laugh, dabbing the perspiration from his brow. "It's been heaven on Earth! Really, after the initial shock, folks really warmed up to the Bots. They're basically family!"

Charlie felt Kade at his right, smile already forming despite the very serious topic at hand. "Yep. Everything's been jawsome since the Bots have been here. No matter how out of sand situations get, they can sandle anything."

Charlie's frown deepened behind his mustache. It hadn't been the first time Kade had slipped in ocean related puns during this hour-long meeting. His seat did have the best vantage point to watch the fight in the shallows between Bot and shark likeness Con. Charlie was thankful the government agents seemed to be ignoring Kade, or deemed him to just be a lunatic. Either conclusion was better than them turning around in their chairs and seeing the chaos for themselves. Charlie had assumed Kade would run out of ocean puns by now. No such luck, apparently. This had been the longest hour of Charlie's life.

"We're glad you've avoided any large incidents related to the Cybertronian presence in this area." One of the two men said. Charlie already sensed the 'but' that was coming fast on the tail end of that statement. "But, even with the Autobot presence being non hostile since their arrival, we have maintained a weary watch on all their activity. And now we are in this situation."

"Well, we can't blame our Bots for the action of a few idiots." Dani was quick to offer in the Bot's defense. It was a bit more confrontational than Charlie would have wanted her to be, but it was more coherent than what Kade had been contributing. And Graham, seated at the far end of the table, had spent the hour in terrified silence, watching the window, and trying not to whimper.

"True," agreed Agent White, her eyes narrowing. "But see the situation from our perspective. All Cybertronians, no matter the shield they currently wear, are of the same race with the same abilities and destructive power, and there for, are categorized as one potentially threatening force to the human race."

Charlie tried to maintain his stone expression in the face of the rather blatant disrespect for Chase's and the other's loyalties. But being confrontational wouldn't help their case.

"Well, this meeting has taken a fishy turn…" Kade noted under his breath, but nowhere near quiet enough to go unheard. Dani gave her brother a swift kick in the shin under the table.

Charlie jumped back in before Kade felt the need to add anything else. "What my son means is, we may not understand the intricate details of the Autobot and Decepticon war, but we have worked alongside the Autobots for years. We can personally attest to their loyalties to Earth. They have been willing to lay down their lives multiple times to save humans."

He stiffened as the Shark Con came back into view from his vantage point. The monstrous Con was making a mad dash away from the beach and towards the town, maw wide open, three rows of metal fangs on display, even from this far distance. Whirl and Blades, both in copter mode, came down fast in his path. Both held one half of a fishing net they must had grabbed from the docks. The net dropped onto the Con and they pulled hard, uprooting him and stopping his charge. They flew back out of sight, the Con already chewing through the net. Hotshot was right behind them, waving a pair of stasis cuffs over his head. It would be the fifth pair of cuffs they had attempted to clasp onto the Con. The other four were presumably in broken pieces, scattered around the whole front half of the island.

"Lots of commocean on the beach today." Kade added with a casual air. Dani kicked him again. He winced, but then with a mischievous smile, and ignoring Charlie's silent smoldering glare of warning, he asked his sister innocently, "Why so crabby?"

The agent on the far right bristled, some distant crash outside drawing his attention. He started to turn to the window.

Charlie blurted the first thing that came to mind. "We don't have much reason to worry about further interference from the Decepticons from what I've heard." It was hopefully one of the most convincing lies he had ever pulled off. And by some preposterous miracle, it worked. The man turned back towards the table with a frowned. "I assume that's why you wanted to talk to us humans first? To make sure there isn't any crossing loyalties to the other perceived hostile Cybertronians?" All three answered with curt nods. "Then these are definitely the Bots you'll want on the job. They're mission is to assure the safety of all, not just their own kind. If we are worried a wide scale panic will bring about danger for innocent people, our Bots will assure everything runs smoothly to avoid a panic at all costs."

The female agent's scowling expression relaxed by an inch. "As it is one of the only options, we have available, we will indeed proceed to the next stage. That will require us to speak to the Rescue Bots in person." She and the other two started gathering their paperwork. Charlie felt the stress start to build up in his body all over again. He wasn't the only one. Dani winced, trying not to look out the back window. The Mayor fake coughed again and dabbed more sweat from his head so his hair piece didn't slip off. Graham let out another breathy whimper.

Charlie's phone rang, along with Dani and Graham's. Charlie glanced at it under the table. It was from Kade.

/Oh BUOY./ The text read simply.

Charlie stuffed down that annoyance and shoved the phone back into his pocket. Ignoring the annoying pun that accompanied the text, Kade was right. From what he had glanced from the window, the Decepticon prisoner hadn't been apprehended yet. Heatwave had told them to stall for time, but he wasn't sure if he could drag this already tedious meeting out any longer. "Was there, um, any other topics you wanted to discuss with us in private, before we speak to the Bots?" It was the first thing that popped into his head.

Agent White tucked all their files away before locking them in the heavy-duty briefcase it traveled in. She adjusted her suit tie. "No, Officer Burnes, I believe we have covered everything. All that is left to do is to debrief the Autobot rescue team. I assume they are still waiting outside?"

"Of course…" Charlie said, forcing a smile. "Unless an emergency called them away." Dani had to yank Graham out of his chair so he could follow. Charlie took point to lead the way, making sure to walk as slowly towards the door to the outside hallway as humanly possible. He pretended to straighten his uniform before he went to open the door. He took that moment to press his Commlink on his collar three times in rapid succession. He prayed Heatwave would get the urgency behind that silent signal and understand they were out of time.

They were back in the bright open hall of the Council Building, headed for the main entrance where the Agents were under the impression a group of Bots stood obediently, awaiting their return. At least five rapid fire beeps came back through his Commlink. He assumed Heatwave was responding in kind. It wasn't the one beep they agreed on to explain everything was fine. They needed to buy more time.

Charlie looked wide eyed to the Mayor. Luskey was slow to catch on, but once he did, the shorter man all but jumped in the way of the main entrance. "Have any of you been up to this part of Maine before? Just because it's getting cold doesn't mean us Mainers lock ourselves away until the thaw! We have a bunch of great local street fairs I think you folks would love to see! We are about to set up for the Christmas extravaganza! You three in the holiday spirit?"

Agent White's frowned deepened. "Agent Gibson and Agent Furman are both Agnostic. And I'm practicing Jewish."

The Mayor let out another far too nervous laugh. "Well… We also pride ourselves for being culturally inclusive here on Griffin Rock! I'm sure we could find a few stands that'll brighten up your day!"

"Didn't Doc Green have that whole Kwanza stand last year?" Dani added quickly. "Loads of fun there, I learned so much…"

The Mayor jumped on Dani's lifeline like it was the last evacuation helicopter out of a warzone. "Y-yes! That's right! Splendid display it was! He used a fleet of solar powered drones to make different holiday themed symbols in the sky! Of course there was the occasional Christmas tree and stocking, but I know I saw a Menorah in the line up!"

Charlie thought Graham tried to laugh along, but it came out as more of a choaking croak. "YEP… Something for everyone here on the old Rock Griffin… Christmas trees, Menorahs, Kwanza hats, and drones. Lots of science, for, ya know, folks who don't subscribe to the whole 'God' thing."

The agents were unamused. Kade was behind them and out of sight, leaned against a pillar and looking like he was about to puke from holding in his laughter.

"We're here on business only, unfortunately." Agent White growled, headed for the door with her two cohorts. Charlie pressed his Commlink a few to many times, silently demanding if they were ready.

About ten frantic beeps came back. Charlie had to fight off the tell-tale signs of a stroke. Nope. No such luck.

Charlie rushed forward to grasp the doorknob first. "Please, allow me to get that for you… Oh, I just remembered something I meant to ask!" He turned around, hand clenched firmly around the Agent's only means of escape. "My team will be an active part of the upcoming missions, right? I assume other humans will trust the Bots more, if they see them working alongside human partners."

The agent, one of the two agnostic ones, rose a brow at that, and glanced at his other two associates. Agent White answered, as was usual. "We haven't been given that information, but I would assume, no. Those in Washington have only authorized-"

"What?" Kade blurted, either from legitimate indignant surprise or adding to the time buying chaos that was this conversation. "We have to be there for the Bots! We're a team after all! Aren't we supposed to show the world a unified front? Sure can't do that without us!" He tisked his tongue and looked to his family past the Agents. "I have a lot of bad emoceans about this plan."

"We recognize your concern." Agent White tried to compromise. "We will… Ask our superiors to edit the plan, AFTER we speak with the Autobot Rescue Team."

She was quick, faster than Charlie was ready to fend off. With a not so polite "No, allow me," she bumped him away from the door and threw it open.

Charlie's mind was blank, unsure what else he could do to stop the three, other than tackle them. He froze, realizing that may not be necessary.

Most of the Bots were lined up at the bottom of the Council Building steps. And no Shark Decepticon in sight. That didn't mean the group looked inconspicuous. All the work they had done to buff out dings and polish their armor for the Official's arrival was clearly a wasted effort, thanks to the Decepticon.

None of them had remnants of ash or dirt from the Alchemor crash lingering on their frames, but that was only because each one of them had been grappling the Shark Con in the ocean. Now they were all varying levels of dripping wet or crusting with seaweed and looked like they had JUST arrived in front of the Council Building.

Heatwave risked a look at Charlie, sending a single, confirming beep through their Commlinks, accompanied with a tired smirk. Charlie pursed his lips. Smartass.

"Busy day?" Agent White assumed, looking the Bots up and down.

The remaining Recruits shrunk under the woman's scrutinizing gaze. Though, ever the diplomate, Heatwave jumped to take over the questions. "I apologize for our lacking appearance, Special Agent. There was a maritime emergency call we had to respond to just before you arrived. We didn't leave to clean up, as you directed us to wait here."

The Agent nodded, seeming to buy the excuse. Charlie winced when he noticed her giving the Bots a curious stair, then silently counted them. "I was under the impression there were nine Rescue Bots stationed at this location. Where are the other four?"

Heatwave was ready for that question too. "Again, my apologies. One of our Rescue Recruits sustained an injury during the maritime call, and he required assistance back to our base and further medical attention. So, Recruits Wedge and Medix, along with two of my own men, Chase and Boulder, will not be joining us."

"Hu." The one male agent whispered to the other. "Who thought robots could get hurt?" It was the most expressive Charlie had seen any of the government agents since they had arrived. He also assumed the excuse was less about Wedge's injury, as Heatwave described, and more likely about the Decepticon. Only Medix was needed to treat Wedge back at base. And Boulder and Chase were less helpful in medical situation compared to say Heatwave or Blades. They were more than likely still dealing with the Decepticon, just somewhere not here, in front of the Council Building or on the beach. WHERE the Con was now, Charlie almost didn't want to know.

"Very well. I'll trust you to pass along all important details to the remainder of your team." Agent White told Heatwave.

Heatwave nodded assuredly. The Agent again unlocked her briefcase and retrieved a data stick. "This contains the restricted numbers of our superiors, who will want to speak with you personally, Heatwave. It also includes all preapproved statements you will utilize if we determine it is necessary for you to talk to the public directly."

Heatwave didn't bulk at the concept of preapproved messages, as they had previously determined they needed to be as agreeable as possible. And that was even before the Decepticon ship crash landed. He held out his open palm, which the Agent dropped the data stick into. He gently wrapped his fingers around it without crushing it, then shifted the data stick away into a subspace compartment. "We've collected all that we need, including statements from the residence, and your… Teammates. You will hear from our superiors after I submit my report. Expect their response by tomorrow."

"We'll await their response eagerly." Heatwave assured. "I promise, everything will be smooth sailing."

"HA! Good one!" Kade exclaimed with amusement.

The Agents, along with everyone, human or Bot, all looked at him. Charlie lingered his stair long after the Agents shrugged off Kade's theatrics, slowly shaking his head at his oldest son.

"We'll be in touch." Agent White promised.

"I'll escort you folks back to the docks! So, our brave rescue team can get back to work." The Mayor insisted.

Though noticeably annoyed, none of them complained as they walked back down the sidewalk to the docks with him.

Kade waved. "Sea ya later!" He said with a grin.

Even without a table to shield the attack from view, Dani kicked Kade in the shin again.

"Ouch! Why are you krilling my vibe, Dani?" He growled, rubbing his shin tenderly.

"Kade." Charlie huffed. "You're grounded."

Kade startled. "But I'm a grown man."

"Doesn't matter. You're still grounded."

Kade hesitated. But then he said, because he couldn't help himself apparently, "Don't shell me what to do, dad."

The Agents vanished around the corner with the Mayor, and what remained of the Rescue Recruits all collapsed to the sidewalk with a long suppressed groan of pure exhaustion. Heatwave and Blades didn't look to be in much better condition.

"Sooo how did it go?" Dani ventured.

"We, kind of caught him…" Whirl sighed, splayed out on the sidewalk, basically laying on top of Hoist. "Hope he's still 'caught' though. We had to rush back here to make the meeting."

"Boulder and Chase are holding him near the crash site while Fixit tries to repair a stasis pod to shove the Con into." Heatwave groaned. "We need to head back up to make sure he's still contained. To him, stasis cuffs were little more than an inconvenience at most."

With that in mind, they returned to the crash site as fast as possible. Charlie could tell the younger Bots were trying very hard not to complain, but they were obviously spent. He was sure Heatwave knew it too, but they were already down Wedge and Medix. They couldn't afford to lose anyone else.

He unlatched his helmet and got out along with Dani. He had to hitch a ride with Blades and Dani since Chase was, engaged. And he soon saw that Chase was very much still engaged, seated on top of the sharp toothed Decepticon, who was busy spewing every venomous curse word he knew. The Con was also cuffed with the special stasis cuffs Heatwave had explained once, but it did not knock him out as it was intended too, more than likely damaged in the fight like the other sets. So, he was only half paralyzed, but still very much awake, and somehow even angrier.

"Imma chew through each and every one of your Autobot helms, you wire rusted, Functionalist scrap eaters!" The Decepticon informed them all, thrashing on the ground and making Boulder have to stop helping Fixit and jump on top of him behind Chase.

"Charming." Dani said, keeping a safe distance next to Blades.

"Why is he so pissed again?" Kade huffed. "Isn't the war over? Can't we explain that to this one along with the other jail birds?"

"Like we haven't been screaming that fact at him for the past hour!" Blades said indignantly.

"He- GAH- doesn't believe us." Chase explained further, trying to maintain some semblance of control over the cuffed prisoner. "He has already accused me of lying regarding the subject, in not so many nice words. The very nerve to think I would claim anything but the truth." Charlie frowned, but still walked over to be somewhat in the Decepticon's line of sight. "Chief, please refrain from- AH – getting any closer!" Chase warned.

Charlie acknowledged the warning with a nod, then looked back down at the Decepticon. "What's your name?"

The Decepticon flung his head around from trying to bite Chase to glare red optics at Charlie. "Who's askin' ya organic land filth!"

"Chief Charlie Burnes, of Griffin Rock. The island you're on. I'm sure your confused and shaken up from the crash, but your tirade has put many locals in great danger. If you can just calm down-"

"Course I'm 'shaken up'! You ever wake up from stasis and find out you're crashin' from orbit?!" He snarled between fanged teeth.

"I can't say I've ever had that experience, no." Charlie offered. "But we're here to help. You're only restrained because you're a threat to yourself and others. If you calm down, we can explain what has happened during your long sleep and it will sort everything-"

"YEAH RIGHT!" The Decepticon spat a laugh. "You gonna say what these jokers been sayin' about the war being over! And Imma say to you what I've been sayin' to them! I don't believe their lying, Autobot afts!" He unleashed a roar, thrashing and trying to unseat Boulder and Chase. He was almost successful.

"See?" Blades grumbled.

Charlie sighed. He turned his focus away from the Decepticon to the other newcomer. The smaller Cybertronian Fixit was halfway leaned into a stasis pod, patching the broken connections as fast as his little shifting hands could manage. Charlie assumed that pod would be where they would be sticking this Con until they could figure out how to calm him down, or convince him they weren't lying. Fixit also appeared to be multitasking, using one of his wheeled feet to scroll through a screen of fast-moving mugshots. "HA! Found tim- Him!" He jumped out of the still sparking pod and rolled over to the group with the screen and a smile. "Our Con's name is Hammerstrike! Skilled with aquatic based modes and combat."

Hotshot made a hollow snorting sound from his vents. "Yeah, we figured that out ourselves."

"What kind of music does he like?" Whirl asked randomly. "We could play some to calm him down."

"I hate music!" Hammerstrike snarled right back.

"What was he in for?" Kade asked. "Aside from the bad attitude?"

"For my loyalty to the cause, if you have to know you nosy fleshling!" Hammerstrike snarled, trying to puff his chest out in a show of defiance despite two other bots sitting on top of him. "Autobots don't care if you a criminal or just a Con sympathizer! They take anybot they don't like the look of!"

Fixit scrolled down through the document. "It says he was arrested on three counts of aggravated assault, five counts burglary with a deadly weapon, both integrated AND otherwise, Triple kidnapping, making terroristic threats against a local government body, illegal possession of the bomb making materials for said terroristic threat… oh, and loitering."

"None of that has been proven in court." Hammerstrike said quickly in his own defense, tone taking a hard turn towards the litigious.

"Did they even NEED the loitering charge?" Hoist asked no one in particular.

Whirl gave a shrug. "I guess if he was really standing in the way…"

"That doesn't matter." Heatwave said sternly.

"Well, it might, Professor, if it was bad enough to add to all the other stuff." Hotshot said.

Heatwave rolled his optics. "What I meant was, all of those crimes will have already been expunged under the new Autobot and Decepticon treaty… As long as it doesn't break all over again. Hammerstrike, whether you believe us or not, we're sending you back to Cybertron. That can either be calmly and through a Spacebridge, or in a stasis pod. Your choice."

"They were shippin' us like cargo back planet side anyway!" Hammerstrike snapped. "You might as well smelt me, because they gonna do that when I get home anyway. And I'mma fight every nanosecond until some Autobot executioner shoves me into that smelter, and I'll do my damndest to take as many of you land lovin', Functionalists down with me!"

"Stasis pod it is then." Heatwave said, shaking his head. "From there, we'll try and convince the other Decepticons that we find by any means necessary. Remember team, this couldn't have happened at a worst possible time. Humanity's first impression of Cybertronians cannot be a bunch of half feral Decepticon inmates."

"So, what's the new plan?" Charlie asked.

Heatwave hummed, still observing Hammerstrike struggling in his restraints. "Round up as many of these Cons as possible, try and convince them about the treaty, and if not, pod them. Then we can ship them off to Cybertron and let the Cons deal with their own."

"But, we aren't warriors." Blades pointed out with a whimper. "It took almost our whole team just to get Hammerstrike on the ground. These are armed Decepticons who will be very hostile to anybot wearing the Autobot shield."

"And some of them might be hurt." Whirl pointed out. Everyone looked at her, and she shrugged. "Medix isn't here, so I thought I'd say what he'd point out if he were. But the Con's that didn't Bridge or fly off the ship may need help too. Maybe we need more help than what we have here?"

"What do you recommend?" Heatwave asked.

"Um, how about Team Prime?" Hotshot pointed out as if it were obvious. "They could take down an army of Cons while in recharge!"

"But they are on Cybertron, trying to stop a war from reigniting." Heatwave reminded them all." We can't drag them back here unless every other option has been exhausted."

"Plus," Boulder began, grunting against Hammerstrike's continued struggles. "If a Decepticon were to get hurt at the hands of an Autobot, that could really harm the new treaty's chances." His faceplates took a new downward trajectory. "Especially after the 'incident' at the treaty signing back on Cybertron a few weeks back. I would think that one Decepticon Lord is still bitter about it."

"Nothing we can do about what's already happened." Heatwave said. "We can only try and keep more tragedy from happening here."

"Well then you're all already scrap because I can't feel my damn servos!" Hammerstrike snarled.

Chase gave the Decepticon a pointed look. "Perhaps you should have thought of that before you walked the lonely road of an outlaw."

"Imma bite those lights right off yo shoulder joints copper." Hammerstrike snapped back.

"What if we contacted the Cons on Cybertron?" Hoist said.

"And why would we do that?" Hotshot retorted.

Hoist shrunk a bit under everyone's demanding gaze. "I mean, if these Decepticons don't believe what we're saying about the treaty, then wouldn't they believe their own?"

"Not a bad idea." Whirl said.

"But isn't the one Con leader banished from Earth forever?" Hotshot reminded them. "And also, ya know, the kill all Cons on sight thing is still an order for the World Governments. Maybe not a great idea to bring more Cons here, on top of the ones we already have."

"Then we just try and gain trust here." Heatwave said. "We will try everything we can to make these Cons believe us, treat them if we need to, but above all, keep them out of sight from humanity."

A rustling in the bushes around the ridge snapped everyone's focus away from the conversation.

"I think the ship woulda crashed around here… See if anything useful is left we can use…" Muttered the Bot who emerged from the foliage, trailed by another. Both Cybertronians startled, taking in the many Autobots staring back, two of which sat on a cuffed Con. Both newcomers wore the Decepticon emblem.

"Hey, two more!" Whirl exclaimed, pointing her finger directly at them. "Maybe these two will like music?"

"Aw scrap…" One Con whimpered, taking an instinctive step backwards. Charlie zeroed in on the smaller of the two Decepticons. His shoulder had been thrown together in a makeshift sling, exposed wires giving off the occasional spark. That same Con's yellow optics were fading in and out. He was obviously hurt from the crash. The other larger of the pair had fared better but was still just as startled.

Heatwave must have spotted the injuries too, because at once, he put both hands up slowly, trying to appear as none threatening as possible. "It's ok. We're here to help. Just come over here so we can talk…"

Hammerstrike let out a shout from the ground. "They're the fuzz! Run brothers!"

The two new Decepticons yelped, dashing back into the brush.

Heatwave growled but gave chase regardless. Everyone who remained behind turned to glare at Hammerstrike. The Con attempted a shrug. "Oops." He appeared far from apologetic.

---

Autobot Rescuebot Academy

Wedge

Consciousness trickled back slowly. So that must mean his set time to recover in stasis was done, finally. It had been necessary for him to recover so he could get back in the game, no matter how much time it wasted. So, he hadn't put up too much of a fuss when Medix insisted on it. And even now, only half awake, he did feel better, the dizzying motion in his helm gone. It was worth losing time.

Though he was jarred from the rather peaceful, flux free darkness by the Energon curdling wail.

Wedge startled, optics flying open despite him having a few more kliks left to let the pod fully cycle him through activating protocols. The scream carried on, muffled from outside his pod, but clearly in a great deal of distress. He didn't recognize who it was, but that didn't much matter. Someone needed help. He pressed hard into the control sequence on the inside of the pod, normally only used for emergencies, which this was.

The Stasis pod beeped angerly at his tampering, warnings flashing on the glass. He ignored it, though it did summon Hoist. Why not Medix or Blades, the medics? And why was Hoist not rushing out towards who was screaming!?

Wedge finally got the pod door open, the sudden pressure shift making his helm start spinning all over again, as he didn't give it time to cycle. But that was a secondary concern as the agonized shouts became crystal clear with the pod door no longer in the way.

He went to get out of the pod, and the heavy bulk of his one ped almost pulled him down onto the floor. He would have smashed faceplate first if Hoist hadn't rushed up and caught him. "Wow! Easy Wedge, not so fast!" he chastised.

Wedge looked down to determine what had caught his ped. Nothing had. Instead, a heavy metal brace was welded over his knee joint all the way down to his heel strut, locking his ped in a straight, immobile position.

"But, I was in stasis to recover…" Wedge protested.

"And Medix said it wouldn't be enough." Hoist explained. "While you were still out, he took a second round of scans, and saw it needed extra time to heal."

Wedge glared at the caste past his optic ridges, angry at himself for his previous failures all over again. This meant he couldn't transform. He was still worthless to the team.

Then the scream rang out again, and Wedge forced himself to focus. Self-loathing could come later.

"Who is hurt?" Wedge demanded of Hoist, starting to limp his way towards the source of the screaming. "Are the others already helping?"

Hoist let out a groan, which was odd enough for Wedge to turn back around to look at his friend's tired expression.

"Trust me, the Con doesn't need any more help."

Wedge hesitated. "…Con?"

"You've missed a LOT in the last few hours." Hoist said, remaining just as cryptic as he had been since Wedge stumbled out of stasis.

Leaning on Hoist for help, they arrived at the Academy's Medical Lab. It was ground zero for the source of the screaming. And boy did the screamer not lose any steam during the time it took them to head over. The door slid open, and the shriek nearly pierced Wedge's audio receptors straight through. It took him exactly one second to find the source.

Apparently, while Wedge had been out, the team had transformed the medical lab into a makeshift triage unit. That wasn't totally unreasonable. There had been a crashed ship. There would be plenty of injured. But what Wedge was having a hard time wrapping his processor around was Medix and Blade's patient. He was conscious, that was good, and screaming, so his voice box was in good working order too. But he was currently strapped to the exam table, thrashing against the restraints as if his life depended on it.

"Primus help me! I swear I'll go straight! I'll go sideways! Anyway you want me to go if you get me out of this!" The bot wailed towards the heavens.

At first, Wedge was about to ask why they hadn't dampened the poor bots pain receptors yet… clearly he needed it. But then he noted how Medix and Blades were doing nothing to elicit pain. The bot was already hooked up to a sensory dampener. He must have just been panicked, totally out of his processor from the shock.

And then Wedge stalled, finally noticing the Decepticon shield on the center of the wailing bot's chest plates. Hoist hadn't been joking about a Con… But, who was he?

Wedge couldn't ponder that, or much of anything else as the Con carried on his pleading. "Please! Just let me go! I don't want to die! I ain't ready to get snuffed! I just want to go hoooome!"

"For the hundredth time." Medix huffed through his vents, having to readjust his servo x-ray to take another scan. The Con had been thrashing to much before to produce anything more than a series of blurred blotches. "You aren't going to die. Not from your injuries, or from us. Please calm down, and refrain from moving!"

"Oh, you gonna die." Yet another unfamiliar voice stated very matter of factly.

Wedge, the Decepticon strapped to the table, and everyone else in the room all shifted their gaze upward. It was the first time Wedge noticed the other 'patient'. Faceplates silver and shark like, denta fanged and a Decepticon emblem soldered onto his thick neck cables. And that was as much of the Decepticon Wedge was able to study, because the rest of him was strapped, welded, and then duck taped to the wall, obscuring the entirety of his chassis from view. The last addition to his restraints was probably Whirls idea and was slapped on at the end for good measure.

The Con on the table, much less restrained than his Shark like counterpart, gazed at the other, silent and optics wide with renewed horror. The Shark con elaborated. "I'm sure we all are gonna get hunted down and snuffed. The Energon's already in the water, they just need to sniff us out. You and me are caught, so might as well give up all hope now. In fact, if you have something in particular that you want 'em to smelt ya down into, I'd put in that request now. These 're Autobots, remember. We never were gonna make it back planet side for one of their dummy trials."

The Con on the table managed a near inaudible squeak of pure terror, voice box maybe to overexerted to force out any more taxing sounds. "Ya know, I had this associate," The shark Con started, ignoring all the Autobots glaring at him so he could carry on with his story, wherever it was going. "Back on Junkion, great bot, cut me loads of deals on ammo. But anyway, he had a client, who had a drinkin' buddy, who had a split Spark sister. That sister got snatched up by an Autobot prison ship, much like the one we was on. Never heard from her sorry aft again."

So apparently, that was the end of the tale, and it got exactly the reaction everyone assumed it would. The Con on the table let out another audio splitting wail, voice box having recovered from the short respite. Through the terror, the doors to the medical lab burst open, Whirl throwing herself inside. "I found it! This should work to calm the patient down!" She rushed over to the panicking Con, a box of human instruments cradled in her servos.

"Did those instruments come out of my human museum?" Hoist complained by Wedge.

Whirl waved off his concern, plopping herself down in a chair next to the patient on the table. "I'll put them back, don't worry! This is for a worthy cause!"

"Torture instruments I'm guessing?" The shark Con said, straining to get a better vantage point from his place strapped to the wall.

"I have literally NO pain tolerance!" The screaming Con cried, trying to move as far from Whirl and her box of 'torment' as he was physically able. "They start on me I'll break like a twig!"

The shark Con nodded along encouragingly. "Good thing ya got me to coach ya through it then. I'm basically a torture pro. The trick to torture is to disassociate from the pain right away. I'd start on that now, bud. That little blue one next to ya is the wild card… She is gonna start on ya hard. Think of a place you'd rather be. Whatcha come up with?"

The patient on the table wept. "ANYWHERE ELSE NOT GETTING TORTURED!"

"No torture!" Whirl assured with a grin, not deterred by the screaming chaos in the slightest. "Just nice, relaxing rhythm to calm that terrified processor of yours! I assume you like music at least? Unlike, others?" She asked, flashing a pursed expression at the Shark Con.

"I am… so confused." Wedge admitted to the room. Even the two Cons risked a glance his way.

The Shark Con snorted from his gill like vents. "Well, at least I'm in good fragging company."

"Everything's braced, Professor." Medix reported to Blades. "I'll scan our OTHER patient, and ok him before we transport them for stasis-"

"Primus NOT AGAIN!" The screams started anew, even despite Whirls persistent tapping of a tambourine. "They can't put me back under! The last time they done that I woke up CRASHING! And that wasn't even the first fragging time I survived crashing from orbit! How many times is this gonna happen to me?!"

"Yeah, next time we just ain't wakin' up." The Shark Con added while attempting a shrug through his bonds.

The other Con started to openly weep, Whirl, placing a reassuring hand on his uninjured shoulder. Then her optics brightened with a new idea. "Oh! You'll like this instrument! Humans teach their young children how to play it to spread joy to everyone who can hear it. I think they call it a Recorder?" She retrieved the small little plastic tube, holes drilled down the instrument where a human would rest their fingers.

Whirl struggled to get a good enough angle with her much larger fingers as Blades finally came to help Wedge onto an exam table of his own. "You've missed a fair bit, to say the least." He explained with a forced smile. "The ship that was crashing was a Decepticon prison ship called the Alchemor. When it crashed, all the Con's in stasis got out and are scattered everywhere. The only Autobot passenger we found so far was one of the caretakers, a Minicon named Fixit. He's helping us try and find them."

Wedge attempted to process all that, watching Blades as he readjusted his broken ped into a more mobile caste. "Wait… But, the order for human militaries to shoot all Cons on sight. If Con's get hurt, will that effect the treaty?"

"Absolutely." Blades vented a sigh. "Hence the urgency."

Wedge blinked. "And Cybertronians are supposed to be presented to humanity as non-threatening, peace bringing entities." He glanced up when a small form lumbered into the room. The Academy dummy, Bad Luck Chuck, clad in a nurse's hat, meandered over to the Shark Con strapped to the wall. "One a scale of one to ten, how is your pain?" Chuck asked innocently through his monotone voice box.

The Shark Con snarled, all three rows of fanged teeth on a deadly display. Even restrained, he attempted to kick at Chuck. "Noted! The doctor will be with you shortly." Chuck assured, patting the Con on the same thrashing ped over the straps.

"Primus… Humans can't see these guys." Wedge moaned. "How many are on the run?"

"Well, we have two right now." Whirl said merrily. "What did Fixit say?"

"Almost two hundred." Hoist groaned.

Wedge resisted the urge to crawl back into his stasis pod. "This is a bad flux…"

Blades patted Wedge on the back plates assuredly. "And now you're all caught up to where we are!"

"Ah! I got it!" Whirl exclaimed. "And now blow!" She ex-vented hard into the little plastic tube, serenading the Con on the table and all others present to a single, sharp, high-pitched note that put the screams from before into relative perspective.

The door rolled open, sweeping in a shuffling commotion into the already hectic med bay.

From his own berth, Wedge pressed himself into the wall to remove his injured self from the fray. His professors Heatwave and Chase had another much larger bot in a sort of helm lock. Even grappled by two bots and servos cuffed behind his back the massive Decepticon thrashed with everything he had left.

"Scrap me if y'er gonna Autobot scum! I'm sick of lookin' at yas!" he snarled, straining to ram his heavily armored helm into Heatwave's.

Heatwave managed to dodge the blow, which Wedge noted would have been a devastating one if it had landed.

"War's over!" Heatwave and Chase snapped at the same time.

"That's the fourth time I think we've mentioned that." Blades noted for Wedge's behalf.

"No, Crumplezone?!" The Con on the berth gasped.

It was enough for the struggling Bot in Heatwave and Chase's grasp to finally stop thrashing and look up. "Scrap, Ransack... Autobot scum, let him go!"

"That is not possible. He's hurt. And I'm assuming you are too if you were dragged here." Medix grumbled.

Whirl stopped her incessant playing for a moment to gasp joyfully. "Oh yay! These two know each other? Reunion! Let me switch tempo." She started playing a botched version of what Wedge thought was the human song about twinkling stars. Though it was hard to tell. He had a feeling he would still be unsure even if he was more familiar with the song.

"They hurt you?" The Decepticon named Crumplezone had to yell to Ransack over Whirl's song. "If they laid a servo on ya I'll peel their plating off."

"They was just about to start torturing him." The shark Con butted in. "I'm guessin' that's what the audio splitting device is. A bit of psychological torture to break our boy in."

Wedge was sure he saw Crumplezone's normally yellow optics flash red. "Imma smelt every last one of ya!"

Heatwave had to basically sit on the Decepticon to keep him down. "How are those stasis pods coming?!"

Boulder came hustling into the room, one of their own stasis pods over his shoulder. "Not done yet, so we'll just start using ours. It should buy us some time… Let's just hope none of us get hurt in the meantime. Hoist, help me start setting these up."

Hoist left Wedge's side to rush to assist Boulder. Wedge scanned the room, feeling at least ten levels of useless. Blades had left him too, helping Medix with Ransack, who was still whimpering out for his friend even in spite of Whirl's continued serenade.

"Um, Professors?" Wedge had to repeat himself a few times, so he was heard over Whirl's playing. "Is there, anything I can do?"

Heatwave didn't even look up from his struggling adversary/patient. "No, you'll just get hurt."

Wedge nodded, sinking down onto the berth. He must have looked pathetic, because even busy wrestling a Decepticon onto a medical berth, Chase of all bots noticed his gloom from across the room. "Hotshot could use your help, Wedge. He -ach!- hasn't reported in."

Wedge almost leapt off his own berth at the prospect of something useful to do. "Of course! What is it you need me to help him with?"

"Finding backup." Heatwave shoved the Con down, securing the final strap.

Wedge blinked at that. "I thought we couldn't call Team Prime for back up."

Heatwave shook his helm. "Not Team Prime. It's… Just ask Hotshot, we've already debriefed him."

Fair enough, his professors were too busy to explain much else. And Wedge was good at winging things. He tried to maintain a confidant gait free of a noticeable limp despite the bulky cast doing everything in its power to hinder his efforts.

Wedge wasn't even out the door before he heard Boulder send Whirl after him. "You go too, Whirl. Ask Fixit when the stasis pods will be ready… And we have all the help we need here with Medix and Hoist… I um, don't know if the Recorder music is helping."

The screech of the recorder finally stopped mid shout. "Fair enough Professor! Next time I'll try the bagpipes."

Then before Wedge could fend it off, Whirl was holding onto his right servo, helping him limp along. "Here to help, buddy!" She promised.

He grimaced at her. The Recorder aside, he had been afraid Boulder may have sent her with to help him in particular. As if he didn't already feel lower than the Pits.

But he didn't complain. With Whirl's help, it was faster. They arrived at the Academy's common's room and found a nearly unrecognizable mess of stasis pod pieces and ship part clutter. Wedge took in the hoard with wide opticed wonder. He and Hotshot had just cleaned the commons room before this whole fiasco went down… Scrap sure could take a turn when one was in stasis for a few hours.

Amid the chaos was a blur of muttering and frantic sparking movement. There was a small bot Wedge had never seen, throwing together a stasis pod out of chard pieces of other pods. This must have been Fixit. Good. He looked just as scattered as the mess they now occupied.

"How about this one?" Came the tired, but still somehow hopeful voice of Cody. "Autobot, Huffer?"

Wedge followed the voice to its source. Their human friend was perched on one of Hotshot's hovering Cubes, back to the room and focused on a data screen mounted into the wall.

Hotshot emerged from under a panel, his own data pad clutched under a servo. He glanced at Cody's selection. "Nope. Looks like a whiny narc." He vanished back under his hoard.

That left Cody visibly confused. "What does that even mean?"

Hotshot came back out. "It's all over his faceplates. He'll totally squeal to Team Prime. Plus, his bio made me clinically depressed. He'd be a total buzz kill." Then he sank back under the scrap.

"Um, how's it going?" Wedge dared to ask.

Cody spun around on his makeshift chair, and Hotshot burst from his pile.

"He lives!" Hotshot had to shout too loudly. His grin soon shrank as he zeroed in on Wedge's cast. "Will you be able to transform with that on?"

Wedge frowned. "No. I'm helping in other ways."

"What other ways are there?"

Cody hopped off the cube and powered it down at the same time, managing it to hit Hotshot in the helm with perfectly timed accuracy. Wedge guessed it was intentional. "What's important is he's back! Now he can help us look for a consultant, as Heatwave put it."

"A what?" Whirl asked.

Hotshot frisbeed two data pads to Wedge and Whirl. "A nice way of saying what the Professors don't want to. A soldier! We need someone who is familiar with fighting Decepticons. Bonus points if they can keep their Autobot affiliation a secret so the treaty isn't put at risk if anybot gets hurt. So far, Me and Cody have had zero luck."

Cody turned to give Hotshot a pointed look. "That is debatable, but I'll admit, I don't know half of what I'm looking for."

"And you think Hotshot does?" Wedge countered with a smirk, fiddling with the data pad.

Cody looked back to Wedge and shrugged. "By the way, my family is buying time with government officials, but there are already loads of Decepticon sightings all over the planet. So far, not one Decepticon has bought the war is over… Short answer, we need help, no matter where it comes from."

The door to a stasis pod slammed. "HA! Then it's a good thing you have your new friend Fix lit- kit- IT! I've finally got these three pods working, so our guests in the Med Bay won't be a problem anymore."

Hotshot made an obvious scoff. "Wouldn't have been a problem at all if you hadn't crashed the ship on top of us during the literal worst time in this planet's history."

"I think I made it very clear!" Fixit said with a glare aimed Hotshot's way. "I didn't crash the ship! An unknown error resulted in the ship crashing!"

"And you were one of the stewards, right?" Hotshot asked.

"Yes?"

"And your one job was to make sure an unknown error didn't happen in the first place?"

Fixit pursed his lip plates. "Among, other things. Yes." The glass of the stasis pod behind him cracked, then shattered. The minicon's already teetering confidence crashed completely. "Oh bolts…" He vented, getting back to fixing the same pod all over again.

Wedge took a seat on the nearest pile of debris next to Cody, Hotshot and Whirl. He got ready to start the arduous task of searching through Autobot soldier databases looking for anybot open for freelance work. He nudged Cody. "Um, thanks for hanging back, and staying with me. You didn't have to."

Cody beamed up at him. "I wanted to. It's what friends do."

Wedge nodded, refocusing on his work. It did not take long before he found it just as tedious as Cody and Hotshot must have for the past few hours. The names and faceplates blurred together. They sent private com after private com. If they were answered, they were declined. No one wanted to risk upsetting the already delicate balance of the treaty by basically arresting Decepticon convicts on a neutral world. Those who did were asking insane prices or refused to not use nonlethal techniques in their capture methods. Some candidates they didn't bother contacting at all, deeming them worthless all together. Wedge fought the urge to bury himself under the piles of stasis pod pieces like Hotshot.

"How about this one?" Cody offered. He sent the profile to everyone's screens. Wedge had to squint against his blurring optics to make out the still standing Autobot profile picture. "Cadet Strongarm." Wedge read out loud. "Police bot… Impressive tracking skills, looks to do everything by the book. That'll make Professor Chase happy. What's the catch? There always is one."

"Ah, found it." Hotshot huffed. He clicked on something in intentionally small print. That pulled up another profile, where a smug red faceplate greeted them. "Looks like the cadet has a ward of some kind. Sideswipe. Where she goes, he goes. Either some training program or parole program. Maybe both…" He scrolled through some of their pictures, where they were actively arguing in many of them.

"I have a feeling they would fight more then they would catch Cons." Wedge pointed out. "Oh wait, the red guy says something about Optimus." He added, catching the Prime's name while scrolling through the bio. Seeing the esteemed name made his Spark jolt with happy memories twinged with sorrow.

Everyone fell silent as they read the bio. Wedge's whole expression soured, and he was not the only one.

"'It is an unpopular opinion,'" Hotshot read Sideswipe's words out loud, a prominent growl in his tone. "'But I think the old Prime, or 'Pops' as I called him was kind of past his PRIME. It's a good thing he retired to the All Spark when he did, so he didn't wash up with the rest of them like Zeta or Sentinel.'"

"Ew." Whirl stated just as heatedly. With nothing else needing to be said, everyone swiped the profiles of Strongarm and Sideswipe away. It left everyone scrolling and stewing in silence.

Hotshot scoffed again. "I bet the idiot didn't even KNOW Optimus. What in the Pits did he know? He wouldn't even be standing on Cybertron if not for Optimus' sacrifice… Scrap him."

"Some people aren't worth the time-of-day Hotshot." Cody tried to assure him.

More silent scrolling, then Hotshot was suddenly snickering. "Can you guys believe I didn't used to listen to anybot but myself when I was first forged?"

Wedge didn't even bother looking up from his data pad as he snorted from his vents. "Really, you're usually so humble?"

"I know, I'm like a deep multileveled titan!" Hotshot agreed. "I could have been the biggest Cube player in history. No bot expected me to do anything BUT look out for myself. But Optimus did. I still don't know what he saw in me. But he took a chance and believed in me. I only wish I could thank him. I never got the chance to."

Whirl lowered her data pad, her optics sympathetic. "He knows how you feel. I promise he does."

Hotshot shrugged, going to scroll again. In reality, Wedge thought he was using the data pad as a prop to hide behind.

"Optimus found me out in some nowhere galaxy, when I was still a Con." Wedge added.

Whirl and Cody looked up, though Hotshot remained hidden.

Wedge smiled at the memory. "It was a long while after my teacher at the time, Rivet, sent me away on some nonsense errand. When I was caught my Optimus's unit, I was terrified. He was a Prime, and the leader of the Autobots, and I was just this small Constructicon. I thought he was gonna flatten me, throw me into a cell to rot forever, or launch me into the nearest black hole. But… He sat me down and we just… talked. For like, hours. Maybe It was how scared I looked, cuz I was really scared. But, he wanted to know about me, my life, my dreams. He took me under a servo back to his base, wiped my record clean, and sent me off to the Academy with a fake background to protect my identity… He saved my life.

"Rivet sent me away to protect me from the war… Optimus found me and gave me back my whole life. If it wasn't for him, I may have ended up being a prisoner on the Con ship that crashed here, with you guys hunting me down." He chuckled a bit at that last thought.

"Optimus saw the potential that was already there." Cody pointed out. "He didn't give you a life. He helped you find it. And that's what made him such a fantastic leader. One worthy of being remembered. He would be proud of all of you. "

"And even if you were still a Con," Whirl pointed out. "We would find a way to become fast friends, no matter the scenario or parallel timeline."

Wedge just rolled his optics, trying to fight off the encroaching smile. He glanced Hotshot, who was still hiding from the outpouring of emotion behind his data pad. "Come one Hotshot, no shame in shedding optic lubricant. If the oil's flowing let it flow."

"Primus…" Hotshot managed a barley audible whisper.

Wedge rose an optic ridge at the odd outburst from his teammate.

Slowly, Hotshot lowered the data pad, a truly disturbing smile spread across his faceplates. Without further explanation, he shared his to the other's data pads. Wedge glanced down at the new bio. He had to do a double take, almost recoiling in alarm at what he saw, not at all ready for the bot it described. Hotshot however, laughed in pure triumph. "He's perfect!"

---

Location: Griffin Rock Beach

Heatwave

The crimson Decepticon was nearly to the water's edge, a literal hoard of Energon he swiped from the crash site stacked and wobbling in his bulky servos. He was also abandoning the twisted wreckage of what used to be Jerry's unoccupied truck he had appropriated as a ride, until a sharp turn and the laws of physics caught up to him. "Better luck next time blokes!" He laughed over one shoulder, just before Boulder slammed into him from the side.

Instead of falling prone, the Con's chassis burst into six minicon Spiderbots, all scattering into the sand. "Crickey! Really?! Not even a helms up before the surprise T-bone!?" At least three of the six Spiderbots exclaimed. The others were busy scooping up their stolen Energon or struggling to get off their backs.

Heatwave wasn't the only one in pursuit who was thrown from the sight. This had not been in the debriefing. "Fixit! You failed to mention this was a Combiner!"

The spinning wheels of Fixit screeched to a halt right by his side, sinking into the sand and fumbling with his prisoner manifest. "Ah! Sorry, had him mixed up with somebot else… This one's Chop Shop! And yes, he is indeed a Combiner… Oh and he has a pinger – singer – Stinger!" Boulder yelped, jumping back and out of the way at the late warning before the red electricity raced out of the closest spider's many legs. "In my defense," Fixit yelled as Boulder struggled to remain out of the electrical attack range. "The debriefing was, well, brief."

"I got one!" Hoist insisted, truck alt mod swerving to lasso his hook around a minibot. He pressed his throttle, dragging the now confused and airborne Spiderbot down the beach away from the others. "Now he can't transform into his bigger form!"

The familiar sound of transformation rang out as the Spiderbot minicons stacked back together. The massive crimson Decepticon Chop Shop stood, the only difference being he was now missing his right arm.

Medix hovered in his copter mode, and even over the noise of his beating rotors Heatwave could hear his sighing vent of exasperation. "Interesting theory, Hoist, but I detect a flaw in it."

Chop Shop swatted one servoed at Medix and Blades when they hovered to close. "What are you coppers botherin' us for? We want off this worthless rock. You want our dumb afts off too. We want the same damn thing so what are we missin'?"

Chase came out of his transformation, snatching away an Energon cube from Chop Shop's grasp and then jumped back out of his stinging range. "That would be believable, if you did not take Energon and then steal a truck as a getaway vehicle."

Chop Shop slashed at him, trying to regain the cube. "Hey! That stash was from a crash site and was free pickin's! I didn't see no Autobot sign on it!"

"That's because the Autobot insignia fell off in the crash." Fixit explained.

Chop Shop gazed down at the orange Minicon, as if just noticing he was there amongst the brawl. An optic ridge rose over his four optics. He glanced at his missing limb, then back at Fixit. A dark grin spread across his features. "Little tike, you may come in handy.

Fixit froze, yelping in alarm as Chop Shop reached out to grab him.

Heatwave blasted Chop Shop with every ounce of water he had left in his reserved tank, which happened to be enough to send the massive combiner flying back into a puddle of sandy water and gurgling curse words. He took that moment to scoop Fixit up and away from the Decepticon. Fixit clung to him, still trembling and laughing nervously. "Thanks… Ha, that had the potential to be comically inconvenient."

"That's it!" Chop Shop snarled, struggling to get up with only one servo and still dripping wet. "No more playin' around Autobot scraps! Get ready to zap!"

Heatwave let Fixit down and shifted away his water cannon. "Fair enough. Try me first. Only fair. If you zap me but I don't drop, you can keep the Energon and we'll even fly you off world personally on our ship." He held out a servo for the Con to grasp onto with an electrified appendage.

The offer threw Chop Shop to say the least. He soon recovered, instead sporting an evil smile. "I'll take that bet, idiot." Red electricity activated from his palm, then exploded down his servo, conducting out of control along his sopping wet chassis and at the puddle he stood in. Chop Shop convulsed, splashing back into the water as his electricity extinguished. The combiner fell apart into a pile of five twitching Spidebots.

With the electricity no longer a threat, Heatwave went to check on Chop Shop's status. The Combiner's individual parts twitched, a miserable groan emanating from a few of them the only audible thing Heatwave was able to make out. He, or they, were still online, but in need of a doctor. Heatwave started the prosses of clasping cuffs on all of them. "This is getting out of hand." Heatwave stepped out of the way as Medix and Blades took over.

Boulder shuffled over, helping to pull the individual bots that made up Chop Shop out of their puddle. "And this was only the last one on Griffin Rock… Well, last six, that we know of. Some have already found a way to mask their life signals. Fixit, how many exactly are we dealing with again?"

The minicon again referenced the manifest on his servo again. "Well, so far we have captured Hammerstrike, Ransack, Crumplezone, and the six Minicons that make up Chop Shop. That leaves us with," he paused to do the math. "Two hundred and ten!"

Even busy with patching up an unconscious Spiderbot, Blades let out a devastated and drawn-out moan. A dramatic response, but Heatwave could relate to the feeling.

Chase crossed his servos as he observed the unconscious cons in the sand. "Primus… I have a feeling this task will become repetitive fast."

"It already has." Heatwave assured him with a growl.

Hoist zoomed by, the single Spiderbot still paragliding from his hook and shouting profanities. "I've got him on the ropes Professors!"

Without looking up from his work, Medix shouted after him. "Please refrain from getting hurt too! We are not going to have access to our own stasis pods soon and the supplies at the Academy are already running low!"

"Trying my best! Gah!" Hoist swerved, narrowly avoiding the still smoking remains of Jerry's truck.

Blades hummed, dusting off his knee joints as he stood. "I'll unhook them. And then we can see if Cody's group has had any luck with that back up, since High Tide and Quick Shadow have gone radio silent on us… I already know I need a break; my rotors are bent so bad I have no idea how I'm still able to get off the ground."

Heatwave was quick to shut that line of thinking down. "Even if we can recruit off world help, we can't afford to take any breaks. Not until we have this situation contained."

Blades moaned. Though he had complained about apparent bent rotors, he persuaded himself to take off after Hoist and his unwilling Minicon passenger.

"Blades is right though." Boulder muttered, more worried than Heatwave was used to seeing him. "Quick Shadow is one thing, but High Tide, Salvage, and Blur never ignore comms. Something may be wrong, or at the very least their long-range communication is down for some reason. And no doubt it isn't a coincidence."

Heatwave balled his fists. It had been one more thing plaguing his processor already, but Boulder had forced it to the forefront. Signals were still making it to Cybertron and back, and their own comms worked fine. But something was interfering with High Tide and Quick Shadow's teams communications. And he hoped that was all the damage it had done. If they ever carved out a spare klik, they would have to go out in search of their fellow Rescue Bots.

A ping in his comm channel reignited the other back of his processor fear, and at that moment, he wished his own communications were down like the others. It was Bumblebee. "Blades, Hoist, quiet down!" he snapped towards the small brawl down the beach. Hoist wasn't able to stop without risking the hostile Minicon latching onto him, so Blades was attempting to yank it off a tow truck doing donuts in the sand at thirty miles an hour.

Blades didn't appear amused. "Why? Was there a noise complaint?" he snapped.

"Comm from Bumblebee on Cybertron!"

Heatwave didn't have to elaborate further. Blades gasped, transformed, and lowered his own hook. He snatched the Minibot and Hoist and booked it away from Heatwave, taking the noise and confused shouts with him.

His finger was just hovering over his audio, ready to answer the comm, when another ping jarred him. This one was much closer, and came through automatically, as he had set it to do so for the recent catastrophes taking place.

/ Professor Heatwave! / Hotshot's excitable voice rattled Heatwave's inner brain pan. / You will not believe who we found! It's like Primus himself found the perfect bot to hunt down Cons for us- /

"Hotshot, stand by!" Heatwave growled, and hung up before the young bot could protest.

Heatwave took a final klik to compose himself, determined it didn't work, and just answered Bumblebee's comm. "This is Heatwave." He said, professional as always, like any other day. He had no idea how much Bumblebee already knew.

/ Hey Heatwave. Sorry for my late report… Things have been less then productive so far on our side. But I didn't want to just leave your team hanging. How are things going with government relations? /

'Primus, he has no fragging clue.' Heatwave realized. That caused a cascade of thoughts to occur to him in an instant. If Bumblebee didn't know about the Alchemor crash on Earth, that meant Agent Fowler didn't either. Which meant that despite the Decepticon sightings on Earth, other government bodies didn't either. How was that possible? Unless… hope rushed through his Spark. Quick Shadow and High Tide may have been radio silent, but they weren't inactive. Their other teammates were tackling Cons around the world just like they were, keeping the panic at bay.

"The situation is… stable, to the best of our abilities." Heatwave said carefully, though became keenly aware something small was knocking on his ped to gain his attention.

He risked a glance down. Yep, it was Fixit, grinning up at him like a maniac. "Is that the famous Bumblebee? I read so much about him and the rest of Team Prime while I was on the Alchemor with nothing else to do. Tell him to come on down and help catch Cons! Ha, imagine the kinds of hijinks me and Bumblebee could get into together!"

Heatwave had to shove Fixit away with a ped so Bumblebee didn't hear him. Bumblebee didn't answer, and Heatwave worried he may have heard something after all.

/ It's a lot I'm sure. Though things are crazy here, I don't envy you guys either. I asked Raf and the other kids how things have been, and they only said everything's 'just fine.' And not that I don't trust them, but I kind of doubt that. I know they don't want us to worry, so they are going to- /

Another ping from Hotshot cut straight through to Heatwave's open comm channel, interrupting Bumblebee. /Really Professor, he's built like a fragging Metrotitan and could probably dish out as much damage! He also returned our comms and says he's in between jobs ever since he- /

Heatwave didn't wait to hear what kind of secret spilling info Hotshot was about to scream over the commlink for Bumblebee to hear, hanging up as soon as his processor caught up to what was happening. He was quick to answer the question he was sure Bumblebee was about to ask. "Sorry sir. That was, um, related to a perspective new member of the team. Hotshot is excited to meet them, as I'm sure you heard." It was not technically a lie, as this mysterious bot Hotshot had called twice about would be joining the team, if only temporarily. Heatwave could only hope Hotshot was exaggerating and their respective contractor was not actually the size of a Metrotitan. Two hundred angry, panicked, and shipwrecked Cons was one thing, but a city sized Cybertronian would be hard to hide from local Governments. "As to your concern about the status here. Things are… just fine."

There was a noticeable pause before Bumblebee managed a laugh. / Fair enough. I'll let you all know if anything major changes. So far, the most frustrating thing the work around hasn't been Soundwave, the one who caused this whole mess, but Starscream… But I guess we could have expected that. /

Heatwave cracked a smile. "He still upset about the whole 'Treaty Signing' incident?"

/ Very much so. / Bumblebee confirmed. / So we're trying to avoid making our new 'allies' any more angry. No pressure, right? /

Heatwave resisted the urge to literally scream, 'You have no idea.' Instead, he settled on, "We know you'll handle anything they throw at you."

They disconnected, and Heatwave vented in relief. So, they still had time to salvage most of this disaster.

Blades returned not long after, Hoist and a few other of Griffin Rock's emergency vehicles right behind him. Dangling from Blade's scoop claw, incased in nonconductive foam was the final Spiderbot, busy trying to kill them all with his gaze alone.

The members of the Burns family, along with Doc Green and Frankie emerged from Hoist's alt mode and the fire truck behind him.

"The foam was my daddy's idea." Frankie bragged while hopping out of Hoist's passenger seat.

Doc Green waved off her praise contrary to his blush. "It's a simple recipe really. I just reversed the charge in the foams molecular particles to allow for perfect electrical absorption. It was a weekend project."

"Imma kill every single one of you fraggers." The Spider minicon promised, appearing far from impressed by Doc Green's explanations. Wisps of red electricity sparked about him, but was devoured out of existence by the foam he was incased in.

"And we are going to do something about that mouth of yours." Frankie growled. "Really, just because you crashed from space does not give you the right to be a total creep."

"We are Decepticons ya fleshling filth!" The last conscious remnant of Chop Shop snapped right back. "We fight to survive and take what we want! No Autobot, or any authority in the universe will be tellin' use what we can or can't say or do!"

Frankie considered that. Then she softened her pursed expression. "You sound like you're lashing out from past trauma… Who hurt you bud?"

The speed at which the Chop Shop bot's deadly sneer dropped into totally gobsmacked look of near horror was almost comical. Then he seemed to be acutely aware everyone was now staring at him, and his hanging jaw hinge snapped shut with an audible click. "That's not… You're…" The fight he once wielded appeared to melt away, the minicon sinking further into the foam. "Shut up… I don't want to talk about it." He whimpered; previous bravado gone.

Chief Burns got out of the driver's seat of the Firetruck. Kade was in the passenger seat, grumbling.

"Why weren't you driving your own truck?" Heatwave wondered, not even sure he wanted to know the back story.

Kade slammed the passenger door. "Apparently, I'm grounded."

Chief Burns disregarded his son's bad mood, getting right to business. "We hear you spoke with Bumblebee." He sidestepped Frankie and Hoist who had their sympathetic focuses on the restrained Con. "Are they coming back to help?"

Heatwave shook his helm. "No, and no matter how much we need help, that is a good thing. Things are going mediocre at best on Cybertron right now, and the last thing they need is what is going on here."

The Chief's scowl only deepened. "Heatwave. The mayor's office has been overrun with calls from government agencies and officials. People are reporting sightings of Cybertronians all over the world."

"And you know how Luskey is." Kade chimed in. "He's just one bad political scandal away from early retirement at the nut house."

The Chief ignored that and pushed on. "We've managed to keep them pacified, insisting the sightings are just from the initial panic from the first Message sent around the world… But people are smarter than that. Things are going to start breaking down, and if someone gets hurt…" He didn't have to finish. That would be a disaster Heatwave couldn't even comprehend.

Then his commlink pinged again.

/Professor! He also will work for like, SUPER cheap! And even better, he has other soldier friends that may join later if we need more back up- /

"Fine Hotshot!" Heatwave snapped into the commlink. "Tell him he's hired, then send him a Bridge!"

Hotshot sounded to excited to be put off by his bad mood. With a final /You won't be disappointed! / The comm shut down, thankfully for good this time.

Heatwave vented, then looked to the group with tiered optics. "So, we have back up. I'll head back and meet him. Then we can go from there."

"Heatwave." Frankie spoke up. He turned, seeing the girl with a gentle hand placed on the foam incased Decepticon. The minicon was whimpering, apparently at the tail end of some Spark felt breakthrough he, Frankie and Hoist had while Heatwave dealt with Hotshot over commlink. "I get you can't call other Autobots for help, but what about the Decepticons? This is mostly their problem after all."

Heatwave wasn't sure where she was going with the thought. "We already tried that. About a hundred times. None of the Cons we have found believe us that the war is over or we are trying to help."

Frankie just rolled her eyes. "I don't mean these Cons." She gave the minicon at her side a pat. "I mean, like, the other ones on Cybertron Bumblebee is talking to right now. The, good ones."

Chase was quick to butt in. "I submit, there is no such thing as a 'Good Decepticon.' In fact, their deceptive, coning nature is present in their name. They are not subject to change, no matter what planetary region they currently inhabit."

"What about Wedge?" Hoist remined him seriously. "He changed."

In a rare moment of clear embarrassment, Chase stumbled on his words. "I… My apologies. I did not account for reformed or otherwise wiser bots who have left."

Frankie got back on track. "The girl I talked to at Bumblebee's base, Rhea. She is friends with Soundwave. He's one of their leaders, right? Wouldn't he be helpful?"

Blades responded before Heatwave had a chance to. "Um, he's the one who is banished from Earth forever. Agent Fowler said so. Plus, I hear he's scary."

Frankie was quick to fire back. "Who cares if he can't come flying by Earth or is terrifying enough to make puppies cry. What matters is if the Cons here would listen to him if he told them all to chill out and work with us! If every Decepticon stopped actively fighting like their lives depended on it, wouldn't that just be awesome?"

"It would." Heatwave agreed. "But sometimes things aren't that simple. If we contact the leader of the Decepticons, that will get back to Team Prime. I'm not disregarding it, but we need to save that for when we've run out of all other options."

"You blokes are actually serious, aren't ya?" Heatwave and the rest of the group shifted their gaze to the questioning Decepticon. To his surprise, the Spiderbot had been listening just as intently. "If this is a trick, it's a bloody complicated one…"

"It's not a trick." Frankie promised him. "You guys just happened to crash at a really bad time, for Earth and Cybertron. But we'll get through it together, Righty."

"Hu." The Spiderbot, Righty, hummed thoughtfully. "Not used to such optimism. Feels weird. Wait, does that mean Cybertron ain't dead?! What's Kaon like these days?"

Hoist grinned at him. "The whole planet looks great! You'll see it when we get things here under control."

"On another prison ship I guess." Righty assumed.

"Despite many of your records requiring some form of lawful intervention," Chase began, though he was interrupted by Boulder bumping him in the side. Chase vented. "The Treaty is very clear. All prisoners from both sides are to be released and or exchanged to their respective party effective immediately, no matter the perceived crime. Any record you have accrued under Autobot authority has already been expunged. You are all free to go."

Righty looked skeptically down at the foam still trapping him.

"You were attacking us, if you recall." Chase explained. "If we can be assured all of that business between us is done, the restraints can go too."

Righty nodded. "Ok." He said, finally somewhat agreeable. His yellow optics scanned the beach, then winced at the twisted truck and scattered Energon cubes. "Sooo, what about new charges?"

Medix stood up from Righty's unconscious kin and vented. "As the medical professional treating you and the others. I would say any erratic behavior could be explained by the lasting trauma due to the ship crash. I recommend a thorough exam, refuel, and then extensive rest. Doctor's orders. There is no place in that regiment for jail time."

Righty blinked at Medix, then at them all. "That's the nicest damn thing any bloke has ever offered me, or any of us."

Frankie patted him again. "Told ya not all Autobots are bad. I know these guys. They'll make up for the losers you've met in the past." She promised him with a wink. "In fact… Are we all good?" She asked Righty, and Heatwave.

Heatwave grimaced, but she had just put him, and all of Autobot morality on the line with that simple question. He nodded to Doc Green.

The elderly Doctor smiled at Frankie, beginning to fiddle with his foam gun. "A true peace maker, my little Ruth Fry." He zapped the foam with the deactivation agent, and Righty sprung free.

The Spiderbot sprung backwards away from the party, sparking with electricity and hissing, fully expecting the fight to commence again. No one moved. Everyone just waited where they were, staring at him expectantly. Especially Frankie.

Slowly, Righty lowered to the sand, clear confusion flashing behind his optics. His electricity faded. "Bloody strange…" He whispered to himself. But he didn't flee. He kept a wide berth, crawling over to inspect the others of his group. He even offered to help carry them, though he spoke barely over a grudging mutter.

"Hu. How in Solus Prime's forge did you all get him to cooperate?" Fixit asked, observing as Righty helped Boulder and Chase pick up the other Spiderbots and prepare them for transport back to the Academy.

"Talking is a treasure." Frankie said with a shrug. "So, now you have six less stasis pods to worry about fixing. You're welcome." She emphasized that with a knowing pat on Fixit's shoulder.

Fixit pondered that, faceplates scrunching in concentration. "Talking. Never thought of that. Then again, they were all in stasis when I was around them. But still."

Blades started to laugh to himself, in that way he tended to do when something ridiculous occurred to him and he just had to share it. Heatwave winced in anticipation. "Righty and his friends were the toughest we fought so far, mostly because they are a team. It's a good thing all the other Cons are just scattered and working alone. Otherwise, this would be so much worse."

Fixit rolled up between them with a sudden pep in his step, or, wheel, as it were. "Very true! And peeking at the Alchemor Prisoner Manifest, there are more then a few problem Cons that I would have been particularly concerned about teaming up and causing devastating results as a unified front. Looks like we really lucked out!" He smiled up at Heatwave and Blades, waiting for them to share in his enthusiasm.

He only received terrified silence from Blades and a demanding glare from Heatwave. "Who else is there other then what we have dealt with already?" Heatwave growled.

Fixit referenced his servo screen merrily. "Oh, so far so far we have just dealt with the lower thugs and riffraff."

Hoist edge closer to them as Fixit scanned through. "There aren't any… Dinobots on that list, right?" He could only get the question out as a whimper.

Fixit specialized his search. "One." Before Hoist could faint at the concept, Fixit elaborated. "Dinobot Scowl, but by a stroke of luck his stasis pod was one of the few that remained undamaged on the ship, so no worries!" He spun back around to face Heatwave as Hoist vented in relief. "What we are dealing with would be the High ranking Decepticon officers, pirate lords, we had a mob boss on board, a few crime lords, there was an ex-gladiator… But I mean, what are the chances of all of them finding each other and teaming up, right?"

Heatwave felt the familiar stress of his slipping control creeping into the forefront of his mind. It was a feeling only Hotshot could usually extract from him on a mission gone haywire.

Hoist then felt the need to add, "Well, at least there won't be Dinobots."

"Which is such a random thing for you to be afraid of." Medix took a moment to state while walking by their conversation.

And it was at that moment a Groundbridge burst open on the beach. Hotshot leapt out, already an excited, chattering mess. "No more risking our Sparks Professors! Our new guy fits all the requirements and he's super happy to help!" He assured everyone without actual context. He then jumped out of the way of the still open Groundbridge.

Then came the monstrous ped steps through the portal.

Heatwave stiffened, having to pan his neck cables all the way up to fully lock optics with the towering bot that stomped through the Ground Bridge. Besides the initial shock from the intimidating newcomer, there was a glint of something familiar. Then recognition slammed into him as if the Alchemor had crashed directly on top of him. He knew this soldier. He had read about him. His background in the war. His brutal history and tragic run in with Decepticon mad scientists. And more recently, Heatwave had seen him at the Autobot and Decepticon Peace treaty signing, punching the Decepticon Lord Starscream in the faceplates.

"Grimlock." Heatwave had to say out loud, just to be sure he could still talk and wasn't going insane.

The monstrous bot cracked a fanged and horrifying grin that promised nothing but chaos. "'Fraid so, Boss. Now, I hear you got a Con infestation?"

From the short distance down the beach, Heatwave heard the Decepticon Righty burst into a fit of hysterics. "Well frag me! I picked the right time to surrender, cuz no way in the Pits am I even attemptin' to fight THAT."

Hotshot slid into Heatwave's unwavering line of sight in front of Grimlock, not even coming up to the Dinobot's knee joint in height. "Isn't this great? He's perfect because the Decepticons already hate him! He can't do any more damage to the treaty then he already did, even if he wanted to!"

Heatwave didn't have time to unpack any of that, as the loud clank of a bot hitting the sand rang out. Hoist was stiff on his back, mouth agape and optics dark, his faceplates a frozen mask of terror. Heatwave didn't need Medix to tell him Hoist had just fallen into stasis lock rather than remain conscious in the presence of the most notorious Dinobot to ever live.