Steeljaw had to gather his thoughts, and let his old pack mull over everything he just said on their own. He walked out of the galley and left them to their own devices.
.
. .
. . .
"So…" Underbite trailed off, tapping his claws against the floor.
"That was different," Fracture inputted.
"Agreed," Saberhorn said. "Steeljaw is certainly not himself."
"What was your first clue?"
Saberhorn hummed, not dignifying his response with words. Both he and Fracture went back to drinking.
"Hey, where'd the other one go?" Underbite suddenly asked. Everyone looked in Phantomjaw's corner, noticing that he is no longer there.
"He must've snuck out without us noticing," Fracture guessed. "Considering how Steeljaw reacted, I can only assume that's something normal or whatever."
Underbite scoffed.
"Can't believe he actually has a brother."
"Sounds like there's a lot about Steeljaw we don't know about," Saberhorn murmured, earning agreement from the others.
"No kidding!" Fracture sneered, then looked to the only Con who hasn't spoken since Steeljaw's leave. "You're awfully quiet over there, Thunderhoof. Everything alright?"
.
. .
. . .
"Thunderhoof?"
.
. .
. . .
The mob boss remained statuesque.
Not moving.
Not making a sound.
Nothing.
Just standing there, as silent as can be. This level of reservation from Thunderhoof of all mechs unsettled his companions.
"Thunderhoof!" Fracture snapped, removing his mini-cons from his lap before rising and approaching the Cervicon. "You experiencing stasis lock or something? Answer us!"
Fracture reached out a servo, about ready to jerk Thunderhoof back into the waking world…
"He's hiding somethin' from us."
Thunderhoof's words stopped Fracture in his tracks.
"Yous all saw it, too."
The other Cons shared a look.
"You're gonna have to be more specific," Underbite said.
"When I asked him why he's been acting not like himself," Thunderhoof clarified, genuinely concerned – not that he'll ever admit it. "The second time, it was as if I was about to hit a nerve."
"How so?" Fracture questioned.
"I…I don't know! That was just the feelin' I's got, okay?"
"Mmm… Interesting," Saberhorn hummed, pondering the information and what it could all mean.
"What's interesting?"
Startled, the mechs swerved around to see Steeljaw standing in the open doorway. A resounding nothing followed his question, not that he was expecting an honest answer.
"Alright, then. Moving on. We need to run some things by you all as a group before we separate to explore the planet and come to a final decision. Let's go."
Steeljaw turned around and beckoned his old pack mates to follow. Thunderhoof and the others disposed of their nearly empty cubes and trailed behind their former leader. It wasn't until they were out of the room and halfway down the hall that they noticed something missing.
"What happened to your new acquaintances, Steeljaw?" Saberhorn was the first to ask.
"I told them to go on ahead without me," Steeljaw answered immediately.
"May I ask why?"
Steeljaw just shrugged.
"And they were perfectly set to leave you alone with us?"
"Do they seriously trust you that much?" Fracture questioned.
"Don't they know all the destruction that we could cause?" Underbite further questions.
"Yes, maybe, probably," Steeljaw answered bluntly, his irritation slowly returning…
But his irritation was nowhere near on the same level as a certain mech's.
"Okay, that's fragging it!" Thunderhoof snapped.
Before anyone else could do anything, Thunderhoof rushed forward, grabbed Steeljaw, and shoved him against the wall.
"Yous are going to tell us what the frag is wrong with you while no one else is around! Last thing we need is a bunch of soft-sparked bots keeping us from finding the answers we're looking for!"
Keeping up with current events, the Cons were further surprised. Instead of becoming angry, like they were expecting, Steeljaw emitted an aura of fear, along with a show of rattling plating, flattened ears, and tail tucked between his legs, just to name a few.
Thunderhoof never saw Steeljaw scared before.
None of them have.
Ever.
Thus leading them all to silently yet simultaneously come to the conclusion that something really bad must have happened to affect Steeljaw to such a severe degree.
"Eh, Steeljaw, you alright?" Thunderhoof asked, loosening his grip on the Lupicon a little. The mech averted his gaze, refusing to look the other in the optics.
"Why would you ask that?" Steeljaw hissed.
"Because…"
Thunderhoof vented. He was really regretting what he was about to say next.
"You ain't yourself, and it's not exactly the most settling thing in the universe to see someone like you be so damn scared of something."
That immediately caught Steeljaw's attention. His piercing golden gaze searched the blazing red pair staring right back at him. He neither saw nor sensed any sort of deception.
"You really mean that," Steeljaw whispered, just barely loud enough for the others to hear.
"Don't think that changes anything between us!" Thunderhoof firmly stated, although he was smirking as he let go of Steeljaw. "I still hate you."
"Likewise."
Steeljaw tried to move away, but found himself in the same predicament with Thunderhoof that he had when he and Phantomjaw reunited: no longer pinned… no longer being touched… but unable to go anywhere due to being penned-in.
"Is there any reason you're still close?" Steeljaw questioned.
"Yous still need to answer my question," Thunderhoof replied. He moved a servo back to gesture at the small, silent crowd of fellow Cons behind them. "We all wanna know."
Steeljaw kept his mouth shut.
"You want our help? Yous are gonna have to start trusting us with stuff."
"Easier said than done…" Steeljaw vented and shook his helm. "But fair, I suppose."
Unfortunately, – or rather fortunately, in Steeljaw's case – before Steeljaw could bring it in himself to tell the others what happened, Fodder and a Vehicon approached them, telling them to hurry up before Slipstream comes down and drags them to the meeting herself. Not wanting to piss off the femme, the Cons obliged.
.
. .
. . .
At the meeting, Thunderhoof and company are reminded of what is going on and how they fit into the grand scheme of things. For this part of the mission, they are split into teams and sent off on their merry way to explore and collect data. After much debate, the teams are as follows…
Team 1 – Steeljaw, Phantomjaw, Thunderhoof, Acid Storm – are to patrol within the immediate area of the ship, which includes forests, rolling hills, and large rock formations.
Team 2 – Bumblebee, Fodder, Saberhorn, Slipstream – are to patrol the deeper parts of Team 1's area.
Team 3 – Knockout, Moonracer, Fracture and his mini-cons, Ion Storm – are to patrol the large bodies of water and the accompanying beaches.
Team 4 – Starscream, Nova Storm, Underbite, Sunstorm – are to scout the mountains and seek out any potential mines that may contain Energon deposits, veins of precious metals, or both.
Everyone else will stay on the ship.
.
. .
. . .
"Well, I'll give this planet one thing – no weird little humans," Thunderhoof admitted as he followed Steeljaw through the forest.
At first, they were accompanied not just by their other two team-mates, but a whole other team entirely. Now, it's just the two of them. It was the other team's job to go on ahead deeper into the depths of this new world. Phantomjaw and Acid Storm decided to split off from Steeljaw and Thunderhoof, most likely sensing the tension between the old team-mates and figured it best to give them some space to sort out whatever it is they're having a problem with.
"Mhm."
"Yous still going to talk, right?"
"Now? Shouldn't we wait for the others?"
Thunderhoof smirked and pointed a digit at his temple. Steeljaw perked in realization.
"Oh! They're listening over the commlink?"
SABERHORN: {If it's not much of a bother, old chap.}
FRACTURE: {Not like we're going to be talking or anything. We're leaving that to you and Thunderhoof.}
UNDERBITE: {And don't block us! We want to hear everything!}
Steeljaw couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his vocalizer.
"Okay, okay, you all sure are persistent!"
His expression soon turned grim when the subject matter was once again thrust upon him, but he pushed his worries and fears aside for the time being in order to retell the tale of his trauma to Thunderhoof, Saberhorn, Fracture and the mini-cons, and Underbite.