Sky Dancer

By: PhantasmBabeIvory

Chapter Five

The decision to evacuate the mortal inhabitants from each and every colony was not an easy one to reach. While Optimus was satisfied that none of the humans in Ocean City had been harmed during the attack, it bothered him that the two other colonies to be assaulted had been razed to the ground and the population of each had suffered some heavy casualties. It was nothing short of a miracle that Ocean City hadn't been likewise devastated; for the most part, it hadn't been much better defended than the other two.

Strange as it seemed, there appeared to have been a change in tactics agreed upon amongst the invading bots somewhere between Mars and Earth.

Following the 6 PM review of the attacks that had taken place that afternoon, Optimus turned towards everyone who was assembled in the conference room, dividing his attention between his men and the human inhabitants. "Unfortunately, we have no reason to believe that the assaults are going to stop at what you've all just seen," he announced. "We don't yet know what these new bots are or what they hope to gain, but it's my firm belief that we Transformers can't guarantee the safety of any human colonists should this happen again."

Optimus paused briefly, then continued with a sigh, "Until further notice, I'm calling for an evacuation. I'll leave it to each and every one of you if you'd like to vacate to elsewhere on Earth or to Cybertron."

Optimus had expected this to get a rise out of a certain reckless boy, but he was still surprised when the protest came. "You can't be serious!" Kicker blurted out, getting to his feet despite his mother's urging for him to settle down. In all likelihood, the fact that his father was stationed on Cybertron almost guaranteed that the rest of the family would be journeying there, which might be why Kicker was so riled. "You can't force us to leave our own planet!"

Optimus quietly told the humans they were dismissed, though he did request for the three members of the Jones family to stay for the time being. "This is not the time or place for an argument, Kicker," the Autobot commander said sternly. "We are merely trying to do what's best for all involved parties…"

Kicker refused to be deterred from squabbling, as evidenced when he turned to look at his Mom and sister. "You can't agree to these terms," he said brashly, and completely stepped out of line with his next statement. "Earth is our rightful home, and the Transformers are going to take it away from us if we let them!"

Optimus' optics narrowed, and he took a step forward, feeling this had gone far enough even as he reached towards Kicker. Thankfully, the boy's mother remained silent as the Autobot leader lifted her son away from the balcony seating area, the back of Kicker's shirt pinched firmly between his enormous fingers.

Ignoring the squawks of protest coming from the latter, Optimus focused on Miranda and Sally. "I hesitate to ask this, but I'd like to request that Kicker stay here with us," he said, surprising both of them. Since Optimus had no wish to alarm them by revealing the attempted kidnapping of their son/brother, he invented a false excuse. "We cannot allow our mining operations for the Energon to be put on hold, and it would help to have someone around who can detect it."

Miranda took a few seconds to absorb this, then gave a solemn nod. "I doubt I can get my son to agree to leave here without a big fuss," she said with a deep sigh, a touch of sadness in her eyes.

Optimus offered an appreciative nod, then lifted the struggling teenager into view of his optics. "As for you," he said in a strict tone, keeping with the ruse, "any failure to adhere to our rules will guarantee that you be sent to Cybertron to be with your family."

Kicker yelled out something about how Optimus had no right to make him leave Earth, proving he hadn't exactly been listening to the short conversation between the commander and his mother. These words, however, did seem to register after a moment, as the teenager ceased his struggling and turned his head to regard Optimus with wide eyes.

"What did you say?" Kicker asked, sounding so bewildered that it earned a laugh from everyone in earshot…

As Optimus had requested, Starscream and Alexis were on their way back to Ocean City at daybreak, with their "child" in tow. Starxis was still at that stage where he didn't want to be without either his mother or father at all times, but they hoped that he might be outgrowing this soon. After all, if these battles against the predatory bots, and whomever was orchestrating them, were going to continue, then sooner or later, it would be too dangerous to have the youngling caught in the middle.

One of the last sights that Alexis had expected to see, as she and Starscream made their final approach, was a line of cars on the bridge leading away from the colony. If she was counting right, it looked as if each and every human in Ocean City was leaving.

Her questioning of Demolisher at the front entrance revealed that an evacuation had been put into effect until further notice. In the next instant, the hard-edged bot was announcing to Starscream that Optimus had requested to meet with him, alone, as soon as he arrived.

Left to her own devices, Alexis chose to wander around the city to see if she could find her new partners. She hadn't gone far when she spotted Ironhide and Kicker milling around the giant dome on the second level. Even as she approached them, she spared a glance at the glass bubble-like structure to her left and recalled the times she had viewed the marine life from this very window, when the city had been submerged.

Paying scant attention to Ironhide's grumblings over being assigned as a baby-sitter, Alexis focused on Kicker, whose full attention seemed to be on a handheld communicator in his palm. After a second, she stopped to listen, catching the sound of a familiar feminine voice though she couldn't see the picture on the device's monitor.

Alexis hadn't had very many dealings with Misha, the one that Kicker was communicating with, but she knew enough of the girl's background to recognize that Misha was quite ambitious for being only sixteen, despite her timidity.

Though Alexis knew that Misha was an orphan, she had never found out what had happened to the girl's parents. For the most part, Misha had been raised, collectively, by the human inhabitants in another Transformer-constructed colony -- Desert City. (Alexis grimaced every time she reflected on how unimaginative the monikers given to all of Earth's newest cities were.) Even at age nine, Misha had known she wanted to be a scientist herself when she grew up; the reason that she and Kicker were even acquainted was due in part to her being a great admirer of his father.

Alexis gathered by listening that Misha had elected to stay in Desert City, along with a select few other human scientists. She couldn't begin to guess at Misha's reasoning, nor did she catch what it was, but Alexis' attention was drawn by the fact that Kicker was arguing the point. The newly-born Transformer was startled to hear something like concern in his voice; she was not used to Kicker showing regard for anyone else's feelings or well-being.

Alexis threw a glance towards Ironhide, noting that her fellow recruit was off on some tangent having to do with "unfair treatment" before focusing back on Kicker. The teenager was folding the communicator closed with a sigh, indicating that Misha had ended the conversation, leaving no doubt that she would be changing her mind in regards to the evacuation.

After a brief moment, Alexis cleared her throat to draw Kicker's attention. The instant he saw her, his features were drawn up into a scowl. "Don't tell me you were eavesdropping on that!" he blurted out.

Alexis held up her hands in a calming gesture. "There's no need to get defensive, Kicker," she said peacefully, wondering why the prospect of whether or not she'd been listening was getting him so riled. Though she suspected that he might have some hidden feelings for Misha, she continued as though she was completely in the dark. "We're not stopping you from talking to a friend if you want to."

Kicker seemed to calm down slightly at that, though he didn't lose the look he was giving her. Crossing his arms, he said, in a somewhat derisive tone, "Fair enough."

Alexis took a step closer, gazing down at him with sympathy. Though she wasn't sure that he'd be interested in what she had to say, she threw it out anyway. "I don't care what you think of me, Kicker, for choosing this life for myself. I shouldn't have to explain the reasons behind it either… But the fact remains, I was a human being just like you. The first time I saw a Transformer -- and it didn't matter if it happened to be Megatron or not -- I was scared too."

Alexis paused, then was inspired to continue off of the look he gave her that indicated she'd struck a chord. "But I learned early on that you can't limit yourself to what's there on the surface… Underneath the veneer, there is not even one personality trait amongst the Transformers that doesn't mirror what you'd find in humans, if you look long and hard enough. If that wasn't true, then I would never have some to call any of those 'giant metalheads,' as you put it, my friends."

For a moment, it seemed as if her words might be getting through to him, but Kicker's next action reminded Alexis that she shouldn't have expected too much too soon and that it was unlikely that ten years of fear and/or hatred could be cast away just like that.

Adopting his usual arrogant attitude, Kicker turned on his heel, resting both hands (fingers interlocked in an equally-cavalier manner) on top of his head. Even as he began to walk away, he turned his head slightly to the side, calling out to Alexis' fellow cadet who'd been more or less ignoring her and Kicker throughout the whole exchange.

"Hey, Ironhead!" Kicker deliberately baited his other guardian, though Alexis couldn't entirely fault the teenager for doing so. "Aren't you supposed to be baby-sitting me?"

The resulting look on Ironhide's face was so priceless that Alexis very much wished she'd had a camera handy…

It was nothing short of amazing that Alpha Q had stolen the amount of Energon that he had, his multiple personalities had gotten embroiled in such serious conflict once the asteroid colony had been hit. Even Nonchalant had joined in for a change, siding with Brainiac when it came to arguing against the taking of lives to achieve their ends. Laser Happy, however, refused to be swayed until his "brothers" threatened to take him apart. (How they would have achieved that was beyond Sideways, but the warning had seemed to do the trick.)

Aside from that big argument, there was so much indecision and change in tactics going on that it made Sideways' head spin. Near as the latter could determine, the decision to abduct Tidal Wave was made on the spur on the moment; Laser Happy seemed convinced that they could use the amount of firepower that the big guy possessed.

Then, once the attack on one of the Earth bases commenced, Spazz had kept going on and on, in his usual frenzied manner, about how they needed to capture some human boy. Sideways couldn't even begin to guess at what that was about, but he had figured that it was better not to waste energy in trying to figure out Alpha Q's motives.

The good news was that the stolen Energon had helped somewhat in repairing Unicron's fractured body. Though the dark god was still a long way off from being fully restored to his former glory, Megatron was a different story.

At this moment, Sideways stood before the imprisoned Decepticon leader, hoping that he wasn't wasting his breath as he threw out one comment after another that would hopefully direct Megatron to tap into the supply of Energon (however minute) coursing through Unicron's body. After ten minutes, when it seemed this wasn't producing results, Sideways turned away with a sigh, and his optics grew wide when he saw that Alpha Q had ventured into this chamber, so quietly that the rogue bot hadn't even heard him.

Laser Happy's face was at the forefront at this moment, and his tone was more furious than Sideways had ever heard it. "How dare you plot against us!" Laser Happy barked out. "We will not share that which we have acquired!"

Then, from Brainiac, "Thank Primus you are without solid form, Sideways, else we would not hesitate to destroy you!"

Spazz was next to throw out some angry comments. "Did you think just because we remained within Unicron's spark chamber that we could not see what you were up to?!"

Sideways relaxed his stance, his smug demeanor returning. While it hadn't readily occurred to him that Alpha Q had been watching his every movement the whole time, he now saw an opportunity to manipulate the situation in his favor. Gesturing towards Megatron, he said, "Do you even know who this is, or how much it would benefit you if he were revived?" After a short pause, he went on with, "From what I hear, you're hoping to coerce one of Megatron's men into working for you. What better way to sway Tidal Wave over to your side than by promising to give him back his fallen leader?"

Spazz looked, if anything, confused by this logic and thus allowed Brainiac to speak in his stead. "We need no aid from the one who helped annihilate our planet!" the latter stated. "Do you honestly expect us to trust you, Sideways?"

Sideways snorted. "Right… You need no help," he echoed. "The way I see it, your strategies didn't work out so well the first time around, or else you would have captured more of the energy source you so desperately needed."

Alpha Q paused once more at this declaration; the silence was broken when Nonchalant chose to chime in. "The conspirator does have a point, my brothers," he said in a detached voice. Nonchalant could always be counted upon to be the most objective. "We are too disorganized to be left to our own devices."

A smug smile began forming beneath Sideways' faceplate, he was so sure he'd convinced them that they needed his services. His hopes died with the next statement.

"We must have Scorpinok!" Laser Happy blurted out in an excitable tone.

Even as Sideways was left reeling and/or wondering who the heck Scorpinok was, Spazz was jumping in with, "But we don't have nearly enough Energon to revive our fallen comrade! We must have more!"

"Then we shall acquire more," Brainiac said. In the next instant, Alpha Q's entire frame tilted backwards, allowing his interior heads to gaze towards the ceiling. "Go, my pets!" Brainiac shouted, undoubtedly speaking to the predatory bots that made up Alpha Q's army. "Do not stop until the Transformers' lunar colony has been completely cleaned out!"

As Alpha Q turned to vacate the chamber, seemingly heading back to his primary hub of operations, Sideways was shaking his head in disbelief, wondering, How in the world did I not see that backfiring on me…?

Most Transformers (whether they be Autobot or Decepticon) would be feeling quite apprehensive over the possibility of an imminent attack, especially when facing an enemy that they knew nothing about.

The main security chief of the colony on Earth's moon had no such qualms. Whether this was due to his own eccentricities or because it had been far too long since he'd been engaged in a real battle, Cyclonus was being unusually chipper while most of his fellow soldiers seemed to be experiencing varying degrees of anxiety.

Even as the last shuttle (transporting the remainder of the human colonists off planet) was launched, Cyclonus was drawing attention from more than one bot who thought he was nuts with the cheery statement, "So long, soft-bodies!" For the most part, Cyclonus had seemed to get along alright with the humans, but this declaration sure suggested otherwise.

Later on, it was never known if Cyclonus' random firing of laser blasts up into the sky (part of his giddiness over a potential battle) inspired a return volley or not from the predatory bots that seemed to come out of nowhere. Even as a good-sized number of the metallic jaguars and falcons circled around the eccentric bot in a threatening manner, Cyclonus lost enough of his resolve to nervously utter a single phrase.

"Uh-oh…"

In putting together a defensive team to hopefully salvage the moon base, Optimus was forced to leave one of his aerial soldiers behind at Ocean City. Though he hated having to do so, he didn't feel that a battlefield was a good place for Starxis to be right now, regardless of how capable the youngling had proven to be in the past. And, seeing as Alexis might benefit from the experience, Optimus elected to take her along on what he hoped would be a successful campaign.

The first hitch to this plan originated when Kicker showed up at the Warp Gate, having somehow acquired a space suit and helmet (though the three Mini-Cons he called friends may have obtained it for him), and demanded they take him along. The fact that Kicker threw out Optimus' earlier mandate that he be teamed with Ironhide and Alexis (and that it should not have been said if he was not going to participate in future fights) made the Autobot commander wish he'd not phrased it the way he had.

Though the teenager's sudden drive to join in on a fight that wasn't his bothered her, Alexis allowed Kicker to climb onto her hand at Optimus' order. He'd be sequestered within her cockpit once she switched forms, on the other side of the gate.

As Optimus, Jetfire, and Hot Shot had learned during the assault on Ocean City, the army of predatory bots were remarkably easy to take out. It was their sheer numbers that was the problem; there were so many that completely stopping the pilfering of the mines was near impossible.

Looking around at the devastation that had been laid down on this colony made Optimus glad that he'd ordered the evacuation when he had. Near as he could tell, the invaders had gone back to their take-no-prisoners way of doing things, judging by the Transformers strewn about that had been either killed or severely damaged.

Given that Alexis was in the air, with Jetfire nearby to spot her in case she needed it, and doing quite well at eliminating the raptors even in her jet mode, Optimus saw no problem in his team focusing their attention on the ground troops. However, the next hitch came about before the Autobot leader and Hot Shot were even aware of it. Sometime while they had been distracted with taking down all nearby jaguars, Ironhide had taken off on them and was nowhere in sight when they looked for him.

Alexis provided an answer to this when she and Jetfire came in for a landing, saying in passing that she had seen Ironhide disappear down into the mines before turning her attention to the boy who'd just vacated her cockpit. Looking slightly incensed, she said, "Learn to listen next time, Kicker… I did not need you fighting me when it came to navigating."

Choosing to ignore that statement for the time being, Optimus ordered her and Kicker to go after Ironhide, saying that he, Jetfire, and Hot Shot would be along as soon as the invaders/thieves on the moon's surface were taken care of.

Getting inside the mines was no big challenge, given that Alexis and Kicker were being covered by the three more seasoned vets. Once in the steel corridor, Alexis kept her optics and audio sensors peeled for any sign of the enemy, holding her rifle at the ready. She could have used her quarterstaff-type weapon, but the gun was more sufficient when it came to eliminating targets as quickly as possible.

She and Kicker moved at a steady pace until they reached an open elevator shaft. Tilting forward, Alexis peered down into the blackness, and the sounds of fighting (though faint) reached her from a great distance below. No doubt, that was where Ironhide was.

Moving quickly, Alexis allowed Kicker to climb onto her hand once more and repositioned so he was held gently but firmly against her chest. It relieved her to no end that the teenager wasn't making a fuss, now that they were in the thick of things. Perhaps Optimus' statement that he would not force Kicker to evacuate along with his family had eased the boy's hatred by some small degree, not to mention the words she'd offered him.

Taking a deep breath, Alexis stepped into the shaft, drifting downwards as quickly as she dared and prepared herself to fire at any predatory bots that came at her from above or below. She needn't have worried, given that none was forthcoming. Still, it bothered her that no attempt was being made to abduct Kicker, this time around.

For an instant after she'd touched down on the ground at the bottom of the shaft, Alexis truly believed that Ironhide had done well for himself, without her help. There were a number of the metallic jaguars surrounding him, but most appeared to be down for the count. Those that were left standing were being made short work of.

On second glance, she could see something was off in regards to the forms of the predatory bots; she had seen enough of them during the attack on Ocean City to have gotten a good impression as to how they should look. The main difference here was that a majority of them now seemed to have acquired an odd extension at a small raised circular port at their backs.

At first, Alexis couldn't make sense of the three-dimensional, garishly yellow geometric shape that each jaguar was sporting like some sort of fashion accessory. She got her answer from Kicker, as the teenager said in a low voice, "That's Energon." Kicker looked up at her, and, seeing her confusion, added, "The video feeds from yesterday revealed as much. They have some internal mechanism that molds it into that form for transport, after they collect enough… From what I can tell, they have enough left over, stored inside them, to generate two more of those shapes."

Even as Alexis felt some relief that the downed bots could be transported back to Ocean City to extract the mineral from them, Kicker tensed up when he saw Ironhide, finished with his assault, was carelessly reaching for one of the Energon molds on the fallen jaguar nearest him. "No!" Kicker yelled out, leaping down from Alexis' hand and running towards her fellow cadet. "Don't touch it, Ironhide!"

As if startled by the warning or by hearing his name, Ironhide turned in their direction. However, he didn't pull his arm away, and before either Kicker or Alexis were even aware of it, his hand had reflexively closed around the mineral. Unfortunately, this was a serious mistake, which both of his companions were aware of. Energon, in its raw form, was too dangerous to be handled by a standard Transformer; the bots (called Omnicons, for reasons Alexis didn't really understand) who were mining it at each of the colonies had been specially built to manage that very task.

The resulting jolt to Ironhide's system was so intense that it propelled him backwards by several feet, instantly rendering him unconscious if his darkened optics were any indication. Much to Alexis' surprise, Kicker ran towards their fallen comrade, seeming concerned.

A few seconds later, her attention was drawn by the angry snarls that sounded behind her; Alexis barely had time to turn before another of those jaguars was upon her. She fell under the force of its lunge, but instantly focused on keeping its jaws away from her face, as well as maneuvering her gun into a position where the shot was sure to connect.

Even as this was going on, Alexis could see, out of the corner of her optic, that there were two or three more of the predatory bots present here. When she saw that they were moving to run past her, she redoubled her efforts to dispatch the one that was atop her. However, she stopped, though very briefly, and turned her head to look at Ironhide and Kicker when she heard the sound of a gun being fired.

That boy sure does like kicking things, Alexis thought lightly, as she saw the gun attachment at Ironhide's shoulder pointed towards the jaguars that had been coming at him and Kicker. Given that the latter still had one foot raised/outstretched near the same area, Alexis correctly guessed that the weapon had discharged automatically after Kicker had helped in "aiming" it. Luckily, one of the predatory bots had been taken out by this maneuver.

Unfortunately, the other was still on the move. Knowing there was no way for Kicker to employ the trick a second time, Alexis frantically shoved her own opponent away, rolling to her side and focused on going to the boy's aid.

A second later, she found that she needn't have bothered, as several laser blasts coming from the vicinity of the mine's entrance made short work of the remaining enemy bots. Turning her head, Alexis let out a sigh of relief when she saw that Optimus, Hot Shot, and Jetfire had come just in time.

Before any words could be said, about three dozen more of the metallic jaguars seemed to appear out of nowhere at one of the side corridors. Though they seemed only to be making a run for it instead of stopping to fight, Jetfire soon raced after them, determined not to let them get away with whatever amount of the Energon they had stolen.

In the next moment, Alexis and Kicker were beginning to explain what had happened, under Optimus' inquiries, when Ironhide suddenly rolled to the left, repositioning himself so he was on his hands and knees. What he said, when Hot Shot asked if he was alright, suggested he had been conscious long enough to have heard the assessment of his two teammates.

Sounding ashamed of himself, Ironhide said softly, making a few of them strain to hear, "I failed… I put us all in danger."

Wordlessly, though still feeling for her fellow recruit, Alexis rose to her feet and was seen reaching to take one of the fallen jaguars into her arms while being careful not to touch the geometric mold at its back. When Optimus looked at her quizzically, she told of her idea to take the invaders that had been dispatched back to Earth to salvage what remained of the Energon at this colony. "There wasn't much here to begin with," Alexis reminded. "And odds are, they would have cleaned us out, there were so many of them."

"Agreed," Optimus said with a nod. A quick look around allowed him to spot a mining cart, which he was quick to go for and move into the center of the cavern. "We'll transport them back to the Warp Gate in this."

While Alexis, Optimus, and Hot Shot were working at this task (and Ironhide was just plain feeling sorry for himself), Jetfire returned to report that the group he'd been chasing had gotten away; a number of the metallic raptors that had somehow gone undetected had swooped in to carry the ground-based predators away from the battlefield. Jetfire said he had tried pursuing, but they had escaped through one of their own portals before he could catch them.

It wasn't much longer after this that the five Transformers and the human boy were emerging from the mines with two loaded carts in tow. Now that the battlefield was quiet and empty, Alexis had the opportunity to look around, though she felt something akin to queasiness as she took in the sight of one casualty after another. Looking toward Optimus, she asked, "Were there any survivors?"

His shoulders slumped as if he were carrying a very heavy weight on them, Optimus looked back at her. "I don't believe so," he replied, sounding tired. "But then, I'm not entirely certain, given that not everyone's accounted for."

"What…?" Alexis started to say, and broke off when Jetfire turned to look her way.

"I didn't see Cyclonus amongst the casualties," Jetfire responded, surprising her slightly as she hadn't known the eccentric bot was stationed here on the moon. "I'm not sure what that means, but if I have to hazard a guess…"

Alexis' optics widened. "You think they might have taken him just like they did Tidal Wave?" When Jetfire nodded solemnly, she bowed her head, mind reeling. This doesn't make sense! she thought wildly. If it's true, then why would the Decepticons be the only ones to be targeted?! Unless… Surely, this new enemy couldn't be seeking to reorganize them into a single team!

Until they were back on Earth and reviewing the video feeds on fast forward, Alexis wasn't given any cause to think otherwise. Though it bothered her and Optimus that Cyclonus had seemed to have unwittingly instigated the severity of this attack, it also appeared that the eccentric bot hadn't been abducted or killed as they'd thought.

However, his true fate did nothing to put them at ease.

Roughly ten minutes before Optimus and his team had arrived on the moon's surface, Cyclonus had broken away from the predatory bots that had been attacking him personally. Though the metallic jaguars and raptors seemed to lose interest in him once he'd gotten airborne, Cyclonus stopped to watch them for about thirty seconds until a large group of them emerged from the mines. As soon as they had begun to disappear through whatever portal they used to teleport, Cyclonus had switched to his copter mode and took off after them at full speed.

From that point, there was no way to track where Cyclonus or his quarry had gone.

Having followed Optimus, Alexis, and the others into the communications center while they were en route, Starscream quietly asked for the feed to be shut off. After a few seconds, Hot Shot complied, and all the screens went dark.

Alexis threw a solemn glance at Starscream, though she didn't dare ask, out loud or telepathically, if he was okay. She doubted anyone would be after losing two comrades in two days. But then, Starscream had more of a camaraderie with Tidal Wave and Cyclonus than anyone else in this room.

Hot Shot was the first to break the silence that had taken hold of everyone, sparing a brief glance to the remorseful Ironhide at the far wall. Looking up at Optimus, he asked, "It's not going to stop, is it, sir? Even if we don't know why, we might be facing the onset of another war."

Optimus bowed his head slightly. "That just might be the case, Hot Shot," he responded, though he stopped to catch Starscream's optics with his own even as he said this. His next statement sounded a little cryptic, causing Alexis to wonder at its significance. "Which means our lives are no longer our own."

Curious, Alexis looked towards the love of her life, intending to mentally ask him about this, but Starscream beat her to the punch. I'll tell you when we're alone, was all he offered. Now's not the time.

Alexis accepted that with a sigh, then turned to focus on Ironhide and Kicker, both positioned near the door. "That also means we no longer have time for games." She paused, then took a step towards her two teammates and looking so incensed they didn't dare look away from her.

Using her most impassioned voice to let them know she wasn't kidding, Alexis said, "The purpose of the three of us being a team is that we have to work together if we hope to survive at all! That means no more acting independently, second-guessing each other, or picking unnecessary fights! And Ironhide -- I don't care what your problem with me is, but it stops now! This is not a competition, and the battlefield is not a place for soldiers to try to outdo each other!"

Though it slightly surprised her, Ironhide had the decency to look compliant. Perhaps the fiasco down in the mines had had a greater effect than she'd thought. For a long moment, he said nothing; maybe he needed the time to let her words fully sink in. At last, he nodded, saying simply, "I'll try."

After getting a similar agreement from Kicker, Alexis threw another glance at Starscream (concerned that he seemed to be making an effort to keep her from hearing his thoughts) before looking to Optimus and asking to be dismissed.

Once they were in the hallway some distance away and no one else seemed to be in hearing range, Alexis turned to gaze at Starscream questioningly. "Are you going to tell me what's going on now, or make me guess at it?"

Starscream sighed, lowering his gaze. "The reason Optimus asked to speak privately with me when we got here this morning is…" He broke off, and looked so conflicted on how he should phrase it that Alexis stepped closer, taking his hands in hers and saying that she'd understand, whatever it was.

Squaring his shoulders, Starscream quietly continued with, "Being who we were, and because the war was over, Optimus had no problem in making certain allowances for us. But with a new enemy out there that we know nothing about… Until this situation is resolved, one way or another, no soldier in this city is going to get any special treatment. Not even us."

Alexis took a few seconds to absorb that, then took half a step closer, touching the side of his face. "It's okay," she said soothingly, the resolve in her tone letting him know she meant it. "This doesn't change anything… We still have countless centuries ahead to be together. With any luck, this new war is only a temporary one. And, barring any life-threatening surprises like the one Unicron hit us with last time, odds are we'll be alright and we'll come through unscathed."

Starscream smiled warmly, simultaneously giving a short laugh. Inclining his head towards hers, he whispered those three little words she never got tired of hearing…

Until he'd heard this being called Alpha Q (the name spoken of by Sideways) actually speaking of his personal plans, Megatron's interest in returning to the land of the living had been very slim. If anything, he'd been too tired to care about what Sideways or anyone else wanted of him. The only reason he'd want to regain his strength was so he could be granted the peace he'd sought to begin with.

Oddly enough, it was Sideways' suggestion that Tidal Wave be fed a promise to earn his loyalty that ate away at the former Decepticon leader the most.

Megatron had learned quite a bit during the conversation between Sideways and Alpha Q; it was fortunate that they seemed unaware that he could hear them. The news that Sideways was nothing more than a ghost and likely out to serve his own ends just as much as he had a decade prior told Megatron that his supposed ally could not be trusted or relied upon.

Still, he had to thank Sideways for planting the idea in his head on how to grow in power. To this end, it was perhaps fortunate that Megatron was embedded within Unicron's body; it would allow him to siphon off some of the Energon that he could feel coursing through the dark god. However, it would take time for Megatron to fully make his comeback, as he didn't want to call attention to himself too early by stealing a noticeable amount of this power source.

And, Primus willing, Megatron would soon have the chance to break free of his prison… and take his revenge on those who dared plot against him…