The Decepticon dropship rattled as it soared through the skies of Cybertron. Its angular frame and battle-worn plating spoke of the countless missions it had carried out during the height of the Great War. It was a marvel of a vessel—something that should have made Uzi ecstatic to ride within, as it was a craft she'd only read about in datanet archives and heard of through audio logs. In fact, she should have been bouncing off the walls in absolute bliss. She had visited the Decepticon capital of Cybertron, met actual Decepticons, and was set to join their ranks. She was going to bring the entire colony into the Decepticons' fold and make her father proud because she ultimately did something to help the colony.

And yet her mind just continued to linger on what recently happened.

On Overlord and the carnage he unleashed upon Kaon. How Megatron, The Megatron , possibly knew how dangerous such a drone was and still kept him around. There had to be an explanation. There simply had to be—

"I'm gonna go talk to the pilot." Thad's sudden voice pulled Uzi from her thoughts. She watched as he stood up and walked toward the back of the dropship. She tried to call out to him, to stop him, but he had already peeked into the cockpit. "Hey, man, sorry to bug you. I just wanted to know if there was any idea how long it'll be until we reach Kalis?"

Looking past Thad's shoulder, Uzi could see the Decepticon that piloted the dropship. He was a tall drone, his frame imposing and built for combat. The military helicopter alt. mode was unmistakable as his gunmetal armor was practically fused with the vehicle's parts, giving him a rugged, chaotic appearance. It was as if he'd been assembled from the wreckage of battlefields—it made it hard to tell where the drone began and the armor ended. The pilot, Grindor, didn't immediately respond to Thad's question. His attention was focused on the array of buttons and switches on the control panel. When he did answer, his gravelly voice cut through the rattling of the dropship like a bullet through a sheet of paper.

"Soon. We're taking the slow way. I've got the autopilot locked onto Kalis, but we're flying through Autobot airspace. That means I'll be staying up here to keep an eye out—especially since we're entering angel territory."

"And by 'angel', you mean—"

Grindor's optics flicked over his shoulder, fixing Thad with a glare sharp enough to make the boy flinch. "I mean the drone-eating, unkillable freaks the Autobots keep as pets. The ones you all somehow managed to slip past…apparently."

"Yeah, totally figured as much," Thad stammered, trying to sound confident but failing miserably as he could feel the harsh suspicion thrown at him. "We, uh, definitely knew about them and avoided them on purpose. It was a smooth oper—urk!"

Before Thad could finish the obvious lie, a massive hand seized him by the back of his vest and yanked him away from the cockpit, causing him to land flat on his back. When he looked up, he saw another Decepticon looming over him. This one was even more disheveled than Grindor. His beige armor was jagged and uneven, as though it had been hammered together in a scrapyard. Despite its crude construction, Thad recognized the bot's alt. Mode—a military minesweeper. Though he wished to admire the details or comment on such a alt. mode, the bot snarled. His voice, practically nothing more than a gurgling growl, vibrated through the entire cabin.

"You better not be leading us into some kind of Autobot trick, boy," the Decepticon, Bonesmasher, hissed. His glowing red optics narrowed dangerously as he leaned closer to the boy. "If you are, I'll rip your spark out through your exhaust port."

"Uh, that is kind of gross, man—"

Thad barely managed to choke out a response before the bot grabbed him by the front of his shirt and began hoisting him into the air like a ragdoll. "You hear me, brat?" The Decepticon barked, shaking the younger drone slightly for emphasis. "That goes for all of you. If this is some kind of setup, I'll personally make each and every one of you—" Before the brute could finish, a red flash lit up the cabin, followed by a violent jolt through the entire dropship. The vessel itself groaned under the sudden shaking, its metallic frame creaking ominously.

"Oi, Bonesmasher, get in here!" Grindor's rough voice barked from the cockpit. "We just hit massive turbulence! I need a second set of hands on the controls, now!"

The drone growled, clearly annoyed at having his threat interrupted. He glared down at Thad one last time before tossing him aside like a piece of scrap metal. Thad yelped as he flailed toward the floor, but before he could hit the steel again, a pair of hands caught him by shoulders.

"Whoa, good catch, Z," Thad said shakily, smiling as Uzi hauled him back to his feet with surprising ease for her size.

"Don't mention it," Uzi replied flatly, brushing dust off his vest with quick, irritated movements. "And don't call me Z… You okay?"

Thad waved off her concern with a casual shrug. "Eh, the only thing that hurts is a little bit of my masculine pride. Nothing new." His gaze drifted toward the cockpit, where the two Decepticons sat at the controls. Their gruff attitudes and sharp movements exuded tension, even from a distance. "Though, I wouldn't mind if our pilots worked on their hospitality skills a little. Making me really miss the Combaticons."

The comment earned a faint smirk from Uzi. "You and me both."

The two of them made their way to the rear of the ship's cabin, where Lizzy and Doll sat on a pair of uncomfortable-looking metal benches bolted to the interior walls. Lizzy was leaning against a small viewport—very much bored out of her mind, with how she was gazing out towards the expansiveness of Cybertron's cloudy night sky. Doll, on the other hand, was methodically sharpening a blade, her expression still as calm and unreadable as ever while the rhythmic scrape of metal echoed in the small cabin. If the violent jolt from earlier had bothered them, neither weren't showing it. Which meant that now was as good of a time as ever to bring up the subject.

"Hey, are we ever going to talk about the red flashing thing?" Thad would ask, as he would flop down on a bench opposite of the two female drones, Uzi joining his side. "Because that's like the third time it's popped up, and, not to complain or anything, but it's kind of weirdly convenient."

Doll's lips curled into a faint, knowing smile as she continued working on her blade. "(Is it truly wise to question something beneficial? Maybe what Lizzy said is true—we have a Guardian Sentinel watching over us.)"

Lizzy scoffed at the idea. "Suuure," she said, her words dripping with sarcasm. "A Guardian Sentinel, sent by Primus to look after us all as a cosmic babysitter." The two shared a chuckle at the idea, before Lizzy would turn her head to look at Thad and Uzi. "Honestly, who knows? Maybe one of us is a secret Outlier—oh, even better…a Point One Percenter—and we don't even know it."

The absurdity of her suggestion made Uzi laugh. "Oh yeah, because that is just something that we would…" Her words began to trail off, as she would notice Doll's smile fade away, it was replaced by a somber type of look.

Before she could make a comment about it, Thad interjected, the brows within his visor rising upward as he glanced between everyone and asked. "Wait, what's the difference between an Outlier and a Point One Percenter again?"

The rest of the group collectively groaned at the question.

"Thad, please tell me you're kidding?" Lizzy asked, almost hopeful that the question was some kind of joke. Only to see him helplessly shrug his shoulders, his cluelessness written all over his face. "Oh, come on . My dad gave us a huge test on this, like, not even a week ago."

"Wait, I thought the test was about Earth's Russian Revolution in the solar cycle of 1917. At least, that's what the test looked like when I copied off of Doll during it."

Doll, who had been still sharpening her blade, set it aside with a look of disappointment. "(That's because there was a fill-in-your-own test on the back of it…which, honestly, how do you not even check the front of a test handed to you?)"

Breathing through his teeth for a moment, Thad would admit sheepishly, "I'll be honest, I was kind of rushing through it."

Uzi lightly elbowed him in the arm, as she smirked at him. "Way to bring the grade point average down—you're really leaning into that jock stereotype."

Lizzy with a grin, jumping in. "Oh, and what was that about stereotypes, rebellious, angsty unpopular girl that that only wears dark clothing?"

"Bite me, Mean Popular Girl!" Uzi shot back, glaring at Lizzy for a full second before turning her attention back to Thad. "Okay, listen up. Outliers are Drones with...abilities. No one's completely sure how they came around, but it seems like they can just do things no one else can. Think of it like a 'manufacturing error' in their bodies, where something extra gets added in. Like with Braidon."

Thad's eyes widened in surprise at the mention of one of their classmates—the one whose head had a habit of literally being caught on fire. "Braidon's an Outlier? I always thought he just had bad luck or was thinking too hard."

"Uh, have you met the guy?" Lizzy asked, raising a brow within her visor. "Trust me, there isn't much going through his head most of the time. How do you think Uzi was able to hack him so easily once."

"First off, it wasn't easy—it still took effort, it isn't like anyone can just learn how to use the Cortical Psychic Patch to hack into someone's sentience," Uzi retorted, holding up a finger for emphasis. "Second off… yeah." Uzi would drop her finger as she could concede the other point. "He's really dumb. I mean, I could say that about a lot of drones we know, but whatever." She gave a dismissive wave of the hand as she went back to the topic. "The stress I induced by hacking into him triggered his outlier ability."

Thad tried to process what he was being told. "Wait, so, his outlier ability is… his head randomly catching on fire?" He held his arms out questionably, especially when he saw Uzi and Lizzy both nodding their heads in confirmation. "Oh, that just sucks."

"(What is there to be expected? It is a 'mutation'.)" Doll interjected, all while she returned her sword to her back, with her other blades. "(The abilities vary greatly but are all seemingly random. It is quite rare to find an Outlier with something that could be described as 'beneficial'. But, there are some stories of such drones.)"

"And… Point One Percenters?" Thad tilted his head in somewhat worry.

Uzi took a breath and leaned back into her seat. "What makes a drone an Outlier is their body. There are actually treatments that can be done to take away the 'extra parts' that cause them. What makes a drone a Point One Percenter is their spark." She placed a hand over her chest, right above where her own spark chamber would be. "Our sparks are... well, normal." She shrugged. "They're small, blue, and they rely on our bodies to function properly. A Point One Percenter's spark—or a superspark as they are sometimes called—"

"That's a dumb name," Lizzy interjected, rolling her eyes.

"Who asked you?" Uzi shot back, before continuing. " Anyway, their sparks are…" She paused, as if to search for the right words. "Calling them 'strong' would be an understatement. They're so powerful that they'd end up burning themselves out most of the time."

She moved her hands, clasping them together as she explained further. "When it comes to making protoforms, there's a sort of adaptation process. The spark forms the body, and the body forms to reflect the spark. That's how we were all born—kinda. But if the spark is too much for the body... boom ." Uzi opened her hands, mimicking an explosion. "And that's not even mentioning the radiation they give off."

Doll leaned forward from her seat and spoke up. "(Imagine trying to hold your newforge child, only for him to fry both your circuits and his, just because of how his spark was made,)" She clicked her tongue and slowly shook her head. "(That is why they're called Point One Percenters—because that is the chance that they would ever survive to be full formed drones.)"

Uzi nodded in agreement. "They're a super rare breed, to the point that hardly any are documented. Back when the Senate was in power, they tried to track and control them, pulling them into their inner circle whenever they could. And if you want a more recent example, we just met one. Overlord."

"Vector Sigma…" Thad muttered, while he placed a hand over his hat in shock. "So that's why he's so tough. I mean with how the Combaticons and those bug dudes were attacking him, he barely looked bothered most of the time. Can he even be killed?"

Lizzy shrugged. "That's something I am sure a lot of bots wonder about. Maybe just dropping a really big bomb could work?" She offered.

"(It's possible to kill a Point One Percenter,)" Doll replied, showing an odd interest in the conversation as she would tap her chin in thought. "(But it's not easy. The simplest way would be to have another Point One Percenter fight for them—pit them against each other. Let them fight it out while you stay far, far away. And if you can manage it, maybe drop a really big bomb on top of both their heads—just to be safe.)"

Uzi seemed to take a breath as her optics would turn upward to the ceiling. She became quieter as she spoke, her voice tinged with guilt. "The Combaticons knew what they were getting into when they stayed behind to help the Insecticons. I mean they talked about maybe getting more help but, I can't help but feel that maybe we should ha—"

"Hey!" Lizzy interrupted her sharply, stomping her foot against the metal floor with a resounding clang that echoed through the cabin. "Knock that off. Remember what Onslaught told us—there's no 'maybe' when it came to that Overlord guy." She jabbed a finger in Uzi's direction, her tone as blunt as her words. "We did the best we could, and you know what that was? Staying alive. Besides, you didn't exactly help matters last time I checked."

Her optics narrowing into a glare. "Please, try and explain why, of all the things you could have done, did you think it was a good idea to shoot the giant murder-bot in the face?"

"I thought tha—" Uzi began, only to be cut off.

"No, you weren't thinking." Lizzy gestured to the entire group. "You saw that we had the numbers, that we had weapons, and you decided, 'Oh, I'll shoot him while his guard is down.' Except if it was that easy, we wouldn't have walked through several abandoned streets filled with dead Vechicons, would we?"

Uzi opened her mouth to respond but stopped herself—her jaw tightening shut. Because she knew Lizzy was right. She hadn't been thinking. Fueled by righteous indignation and Megatron's written words echoing within her head, she'd acted on impulse, and she hated that Lizzy could see that. "...What was I supposed to do?" Uzi asked, her voice turning soft, as it was filled with her frustration. "Just stay behind the adults and pretend to be scared?"

"Oh, don't try to be tough," Lizzy countered, once more rolling her eyes. "We all had our servos quivering. The guy was like three times our height, and made a whole team of commandos virtually sweating the entire time. It's normal to be scared—"

"I was scared!" Uzi shot up to her feet, the sudden movement startling everyone as she stomped forward and loomed over Lizzy. "I was scared out of my mind—until I saw the bodies!"

Her shout caused the whole cabin to go quiet, as everyone saw her hands balled into fists at her sides, trembling with the weight of her emotions. "My spark felt like it was going to tear itself apart because I thought there was a target on my back—on me!" She struck her palm against her chest for emphasis, her optics brightening with a mix of anger and regret. "But then we saw the Vehicon. Drones who fought even though they weren't built for it and it's my fault they are dead!"

She grew fiercer, her words grew heavier. "I wasn't scared anymore when that happened. I was angry! "

Uzi closed her eyes to try and regain control of herself, but it didn't help. The chaotic images of the battle, the nearly empty streets of Kaon, and Overlord's mocking laughter all replayed in her mind like a relentless recording.

Uzi wondered how a monster like him could not only walk the streets freely but hold a position of authority? A warden? Of a prison? Her teeth grinded at the thought as he was a Con-killer—by his own admission. And worse still, everyone seemed to have accepted it. No, more than accept it—they let him thrive. He was treated like a weapon to be pointed, a tool to be used…

No.

What was truly worse, was what she'd remembered seeing in the bar. This wasn't the first time Overlord had done this. They all acted as if it was a regular event. He had taken to the streets before, killing for…what? Fun? Spite? Because no one could stop him?

Rage began to stir within Uzi once more at just the thought of it all. It was becoming familiar at this point.

"(Cousin,)" Uzi's optics snapped open as Doll's voice broke her thoughts. When she turned her head, she was met with Doll standing at her side, a hand placed over her shoulder. "(I understand your anger.)" She was trying to be calm, soothing even.

It did nothing but piss Uzi off even further.

"(You wished to stop him before more harm could be—)"

"No!" Uzi shoved herself away from Doll's touch, her voice explosive as it shook with a fury that made Thad and Lizzy flinch. "I don't just want to stop him! I want to kill him!"

Doll recoiled slightly from the outburst, but kept her stance firm. Refusing to step away, as she would look into Uzi's optics. She saw how bright they became from sheer hatred. Were they colored red, they would look similar to what Doll sees in a mirror.

"I want to put him in chains! I want to drag him through the streets of Kaon like the rabid animal he is!" Uzi's voice grew louder, more unrestrained as her words dripped with venom. "I want to make an example of him!" Her entire frame now was trembling as if her body could barely contain the rage coursing through her circuits—green sparks shot across her body, her safety was turned off. "He's not a Decepticon—he's a bully! He thinks that just because he's strong, he can do whatever he wants! That he can laugh in the faces of the lives he destroyed!"

She turned and stomped towards the nearby viewport, her movements sharp and erratic. "I want him to feel helpless. I want the entire population of Kaon, everyone who ever cowered in fear of him, to see what he really is!" She raised her fists and slammed them onto the plexiglass. "A pathetic bastard ! A mockery of everything that is our cause!" The large Decepticon symbol sewed along the back of her hoodie made it clear what she meant.

"I want him to suffer. I want him to regret every terrible thing he did." Her voice slowly began to lower—dropping into an eerie calm. "And then…I want him to die. Alone. In darkness."

The cabin grew deathly quiet once more, the only sound the faint hum of the dropship's engines…and the low static bursts, as sparks still formed across Uzi's body. Doll stood frozen, her hands left limp at her side as she was unsure of how to respond. Slowly, she exchanged an uneasy glance towards Lizzy and Thad, neither daring to speak as they both looked visibly worried. Uzi remained at the viewport, her fists still trembling against the glass. Her optics stared straight ahead, unfocused, as if she was lost in her own fantasies. Possibly imagining the scene she'd just described. "...It'll happen." She said, "I'll make it happen." A low chuckle could've heard, as her shoulders shook. "I managed to hurt him. I made his visor creak. If I can hurt him, I can kill him. I'll show the Decepticons that drones like him aren't needed…and they'll thank me for it." Her hands would open up, as they are slowly pulled down to her side. There was the audible click of her safety, and the surge of green sparks that appeared around her body were gone.

This allowed Thad to breathe a little easier as he would give a look toward Lizzy, a silent plea for help as he would gesture at their classmate. To somehow talk to her. Lizzy could only give him back a shrug as she looked completely lost at what she could possibly offer—then, she looked toward Doll, who continued to simply stand in place and stare blankly at Uzi.

With the tension growing ever so dense that it could cause someone to bluescreen—Lizzy decided to try her hand in solving this the best way she knew how. By instigating.

"...So," Lizzy began, leaning a bit further away from Uzi as she tried talking to Thad and Doll as normally as possible. "She's obviously turning into a super villain." She paused, giving Uzi a chance to make some kind of retort. Only silence followed. Not a good thing.

"I know we kind of accepted her being evil and all, but I can't help but wish that someone could maybe talk to her a little, someone that she's kind of known for her whole life. You know, before we make it back to the colony and she blows it up or something. Hmmm…"

Doll rolling her eyes at her best friend's 'subtlety'. "(I can take a hint.)" The Russian speaking drone took a breath, and blinked her optics to mentally prepare herself. It was time for 'family-bonding'. "(Give us some space.)"

"Say less." With little to no warning at all, Lizzy abruptly stood up and then grabbed Thad by the arm, she then yanked him along—maneuvering them to the far side of the dropship, near the cockpit. All the while ignoring Thad's half-hearted protests

This gave Doll the levity she needed to walk up to stand beside her cousin. The two of them looked out through the viewport of the dropship, towards Cybertron's cloud covered night sky.

At first there was silence...and then there was a single question.

"(Cousin, do you remember our grandfather?)"

"You think it's a good idea to leave them alone?" Thad mumbled, his voice low as he and Lizzy sat on the floor near the front of the cabin. Beside them, a headphone-wearing drone tinkered diligently with an open panel just beneath a large screen. "We know how Uzi usually gets. But this time it seemed, well… That was the angriest I've ever seen her. And she gets mad a lot."

"Ehh," Lizzy's eyes flickered with subtle conflict as she took a glance back toward the pair. "Doll's the best person she can talk to right now. I mean, they are family. It's not like they'll actively try and kill each other." She paused, tapping her knee absently as if considering her next words carefully. "Granted… they weren't exactly close growing up. I think the only time I can remember them hugging was when, you know…" She twirled her wrist in a vague gesture, attempting to be delicate with her words for once.

It didn't matter as Thad blurted the memory out without a second thought. "Oh, right. When Doll's parents were killed."

The words hit with the same energy as a thrown energon cube, and for a moment, neither spoke. Lizzy slowly turned to him, her optics narrowing as her expression shifted into one of quiet disbelief. By some miracle, Thad would hold a similar look for himself, as he held a hand over his face. As if realizing just how tactless he was the moment the words left his mouth.

"...remind me to have Doll kick my tailpipe later."

Lizzy sighed and shook her head, as if it would physically push back her secondhand embarrassment. "Yeah, when Doll lost her folks. That's probably the only time I ever saw them being… I wouldn't say friendly, but you know—decent to each other."

"Hard to believe it's been three years," Thad said, as his mind drifted through the memories. "You think Doll's okay? I mean, after what happened last time she went outside, I was honestly surprised when she agreed to leave and help me get Uzi back home. Then again, this whole trip has been one big surprise after another. So I guess it's fitting."

Lizzy chuckled at him and spoke with a teasing smirk. "Aww, what's the matter?" She reached out and ran a finger lightly along the medic-pak strapped over Thad's shoulder. The slight pressure made the boy wince, the sting from the earlier grazing blaster shot still fresh across his soft metal. "I thought you were made of sterner stuff."

"Yeah, well," Thad replied with a weak smile as he lightly brushed her hand away, "I don't exactly want to test my metal again anytime soon." His smile faltered, though, as his gaze shifted toward Uzi and Doll at the viewport. The words tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop them. "I can't thank you both enough for coming along with me. I know this wasn't supposed to go this far, especially with—"

His sentence was abruptly cut off when Lizzy leaned closer, catching him off guard. He froze, unsure of what to expect—until he saw the gleam in her optic and the unmistakable movement of her Hasbro as she held it up in the air. "Look sharp," she chirped with a mischievous grin as the camera clicked.

The shot was perfectly imperfect. Thad had just started to turn, his face caught mid-expression—a mix of confusion and an awkward attempt to flex his arms in a half-hearted pose. Lizzy's smugness dominated the foreground, her pride in the candid disaster plain to see. With a burst into laughter, she showed him the results. "Oh, this is awful. The lighting? Horrendous. And the angle? Ugh, don't even get me started. Plus, look at my hair—it's a mess!" She cried out dramatically, though her optics sparkled with amusement as she fiddled with the photo, scrolling through filters and trying—and failing to salvage the shot. Giving a theatrical sigh, she added, "Guess we'll need a do-over. I mean, I'm way behind on my photo log for this trip anyway."

Thad gave a chuckle due to sheer disbelief. "That's your big worry? What, no captions either? 'Almost died, might treat myself later to some snacks'?"

Lizzy smirked, but her focus stayed glued to the screen. "Priorities, Thaddy. If I don't document this disaster for posterity, did it even really happen? You know the old human saying, 'pics or it didn't happen'."

Whether it was her sheer absurdity or the charm of her playful dramatics, Thad couldn't help but play along. Leaning into her personal space, he peered at the photos Lizzy was scrolling through on her Hasbro. Images of their journey flashed past—moments outside the Spire, snapshots of them navigating Cybertron's battle-scarred surface, and even blurry, poorly-lit pictures of Thad and Doll that Lizzy had obviously taken without their knowledge.

"You know," Thad mused, his voice taking on a mock-serious tone as Lizzy flipped to another poorly composed shot, "it's kind of a crime we didn't grab a souvenir while we were at Kaon. I mean, a whole new city, and we didn't even hit up a gift shop. Tragic, really."

Lizzy snorted, her lips twitching into a grin as she shot Thad a sideways glance. "Don't remind me. A keychain or a mug would've at least made this whole mess feel a bit more worth it—other than that energon chip. And the worst part? I didn't even get a picture during our first shootout! Can you believe that?"

"Missed opportunity," Thad said, mimicking her exaggerated dramatics with a hand to his chest. "The lighting was perfect—shots flying, us screaming. Real mood-setter."

"Right? And that giant freak bot! I didn't even try to get a photo of that disaster."

Thad nearly doubled over in laughter. "Pretty sure he wouldn't have fit in the frame anyway. But hey, he seemed like the type who'd strike a pose if you asked."

Lizzy swatted his arm. "Please. The guy was all about theatrics—probably would've asked for a good side angle. But I did take a few shots while we were at the bar, stuffing our faces like we hadn't eaten in decacycles. The colony's going to think we were pigging out."

"Well…" Thad started, a sheepish smile forming across his face. "We kind of were—" He stopped mid-sentence, clapping his hands together as realization struck. "Oh, man! They're never going to believe us when we tell them about the Insecticons."

An actual groan escaped Lizzy's lips as she threw her head back. "Slag, I could've totally snapped a shot of those disgusting bugs fighting that Overlord guy. Can you imagine? Primus, those things were gross. Since when did Mini-Cons get that big?"

Thad shrugged. "Honestly, they're not that bad compared to some of the bots with beast modes at home." Lizzy looked away at such a comment. "I know I prefer them over the big guy. At least they're supposed to be creepy. Him? He's way worse. Why do they even keep him around? He's basically a—"

Before Thad could finish, a somewhat plain voice forced its way through their exchange. "Oh, I can tell you why we keep Overlord around," spoke the nearby tinkering drone, his tone steeped in cynicism. "Because this army thrives on stupidity and an undying, unholy love of chaos."

The speaker was a dour-looking Decepticon, his angular frame perpetually hunched as if weighed down by his own pessimism. His chipped brown armor and his visor with red optics somehow managed to radiate disapproval. The oar-like appendages jutting from his back added a strangely nautical, yet utterly out-of-place air to his appearance.

He tugged his headphones off with exaggerated slowness, before turning his gaze toward the teens. "I mean really," he continued, his words filled with sheer condescension, "you think Kaon is a good place to visit? What's the plan next—take a scenic stroll through the acid flats? Or maybe go sightseeing in the Sea of Rust? Cause I promise you, they'll be just as fun."

Thad blinked, momentarily stunned by the drones words. Lizzy, on the other hand, just sighed with sheer disappointment and muttered, "Way to ruin a moment."

It seemed her comment fell on broken audio receptors as the Decepticon wasn't done. "Honestly, if you think surviving is some kind of accomplishment, don't pat yourselves on the back too hard. Kaon is only your first real step into the war."

The two teenagers shared a glance, as they realized that due to the lack of space to move within the dropship, they were effectively trapped. "You two are giggling about 'souvenirs' and selfies like a couple of protoforms on their first field trip. Just goes to show how little you really know of—"

Thad tried to intervene, his tone polite but strained. "Hey, uh, listen, Negatron. You don't need to go that deep into it, seriously. We were just messing around, coping with, you know…all the trauma from today." He waved his hand dismissively, as if trying to steer the conversation toward an ending.

It didn't work.

The Decepticon, Negatron, barely even acknowledged him. "Oh, sure. That's fine. You two can laugh it up. But let's be real for a second." He gestured around the cabin. "The Combaticons? Just a bunch of knock-offs of a real combiner team. Insecticons? Oversized pests. Overlord? He's one of a dozen walking catastrophes. Don't even get me started on Scorponok—I've got horror stories that would make your circuits delete their subroutines."

Thad rubbed the back of his neck and exchanged another look with Lizzy. "Right…good for you, man."

"This army? It's a joke. Kaon? A junk pile with delusions of grandeur. And us? We're just pawns on a rusted chessboard, waiting for the next disaster to sweep us into oblivion. So yeah, keep taking selfies and pretending it all means something. Real inspiring."

"...You're awfully existential for a guy who transforms into a canoe."

Negatron's mouth opened to once more give a retort, but before he could get a word out, Lizzy clapped a deceptively gentle hand on his shoulder. Her smirk was razor-sharp, and her tone was sweetly venomous. "Aww, Neg, we totally get it—you've got soooo much wisdom to share. But here's the thing…" She suddenly leaned in close toward the older bot, her optics narrowing. "Nobody asked."

The comment seemed enough to catch Negatron off guard. "Uh, well, I'm just doing my part to educate you kids on the real world—"

"Oh, is that what you're doing?" Lizzy interrupted, her voice oozing with a mockingly surprised tone. "I thought your part was, you know, fixing things." She raised her other hand up and dramatically began to slap her hand next to the open panel he'd been working on that was just under the large screen, her smile growing wider. "That's your job, right? Or am I missing something? Because you seem to not be doing it."

Negatron hesitated, his gaze flickering to the communication hardware as he suddenly seemed nervous. "Well, uh—it's a process. It's supposed to connect with the orbital network, but I think—"

"Oh, you're thinking? Great first step!" Lizzy's grin turned almost predatory as she tapped her fingers on his shoulder. "So, I'm sure you'll have it done in no time, like before we get to Kalis, right? I mean, we're so looking forward to meeting this Shockwave guy. It is a Decepticon tradition that we have to meet him, right?"

"I…guess, but I don—"

"No, no, no." Lizzy grabbed his headphones and planted them firmly back over his audio receptors, her optics glinting with cold amusement. "No guessing, Neg. You're a professional. You know . So get back to work. We're all rooting for you. After all…"

Her voice changed, turning down right, cruel as her optics bore into Negatron, for she dropped every bit of her 'mean girl' act and instead spoke with complete and total disgust. "You're named after the best. So you'd better be trying your best. Okay? All. Hail. Megatron. " She practically hissed the last three words, making sure to stress each one as her grip tightened on his shoulder.

Without another word, Negatron hurriedly turned back to the panel and began working with a sudden, frantic energy that hadn't been there before. Satisfied, Lizzy let go of the Con with a pleased smile and leaned back as if nothing had happened. She nudged Thad, pulling him aside to gain as much distance as possible between themselves and the other drone, all the while he would stare at her with widened eyes. "What the hell was that?" Thad would ask in a whisper.

"What?" There was a sly look on Lizzy's face as she attempted to appear innocent while giving a wink. "I was just giving him a little motivation. Sometimes you just gotta speak their language. Think of it as a lesson in Decepticon communications. I learned it while watching some people in the bar."

With a mumble under his breath, Thad held an arm around Lizzy's shoulders. "I should just be thankful you didn't bash his head into the panel or something."

"Who am I—Uzi?"