Hey there everyone! Welcome to the newest chapter of Growing Up AlleyBot. Soundtrack wise; I'd recommend Fragments. It's a Red vs Blue song on YouTube that I think fit's Nightfire perfectly in this chapter.

Warning: This chapter's probably the darkest one I've written to date. There will be blood and injury and Nightfire being the nasty piece of work he is.

Hope you like it!

Ch.17

(Three vorns later; edge of the Manganese Mountains)

The crank-bear stilled as it approached its cave. It had taken this path to and from its cave several times and yet … deep in its primitive processor it could tell something was off this time. It was right. The giant mecha-animal barely had any time to turn its helm when a midnight black and blue shape smashed into it with a savage roar. The bear didn't stand a chance, its neck was crushed by its assailant's powerful jaws before it could even try to mount a defense.

Nightfire stood over the dead crank-bear, energon splattered across his face. He grinned; this was a good kill, one that would provide enough energon to feed him and his family for at least a few days. Crouching down he grabbed the carcass and slung it over his powerful shoulders before making his way back to the camp he shared with his brothers and sons. Since their dramatic escape from the Autobot base in Iacon the seven mech's had taken to a nomadic lifestyle, clashing with the Decepticons and avoiding Autobots as they went. They had run into small packs of AlleyBots, but Nightfire and his brothers had agreed that they wouldn't ever join up with one so they moved on. They weren't suited for the pack lifestyle anyway, they were too self-reliant and damaged. Staying on the move had ended up becoming their only option.

A dark growl rumbled out of Nightfire's chest and he narrowed his optics behind his visor. He was sick and tired of living his life on the run, always hunted, never a moments rest. Bounty hunters had pursued them for the better part of a vorn thanks to Prowl's wanted notices. That was until Nightfire and Sunstreaker had decided enough was enough and, after tracking three of the more persistent hunters to their camp, had slaughtered them.

To make matters worse, about two orns after they'd left the Autobots Jazz had shown up with a message from Optimus. How the Autobot TIC had found them no-one knew but he'd happily left almost as soon as he'd handed over the datapad with Optimus's message. Then again, that may have been due to the dark threat of dismemberment if he even peeped a hint about their location. The datapad had only contained a highly encrypted com-link number and a request for either Nightfire or one of the Twins to use it. As it turned out, the number was a previously unknown com-link number for Optimus. Once contact had been established between Nightfire and Optimus, the Autobot Commander explained why he had Jazz track them down. Nightfire had almost exploded from sheer rage when Optimus explained that he wanted to hire him and his family to take out Decepticon installations and the like, with the occasional sabotage, infiltration and prisoner rescue on the side. They would, of course, be well paid for their services. Nightfire had to admire Optimus's nerve … the older Prime must have been either drunk on high grade or simply too trusting to hire him and his family. The sheer cheek of the other mech's request had made even Sunstreaker choke on his energon; though that might have been because it was very low quality energon that Nexus had 'acquired'. Knowing they'd die without decent energon, ammo and medical supplies, Nightfire had had no alternative but to agree, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

As he made his way over the ridge overlooking their current camp Nightfire's audios picked up shouting. He vented harshly in annoyance; it sounded like Nova and Nexus were at each-other's throats … again. Nightfire couldn't figure out how the two siblings could fight so viciously all the time and yet forgive each other after a short period of sulking by the loser of whatever argument had started the fight in the first place. Last time it was Nova sulking because Nexus had won the argument on where he should steal the next set of medical supplies from. But by the sound of it, Nexus was losing this time. Rolling his optics behind his visor Nightfire entered the camp, dropping the crank-bear carcass by the fire.

"Alrigh' yew two brea' i' up. C'mon, ah go' dinner."

The two bickering siblings almost immediately ceased their squabble as they ran to go convert the carcass into processable energon for dinner. Shaking his head in amusement Nightfire walked over to sit by Sideswipe; the red Twin looking up from cleaning his blades.

"Dem two stop figh'in'?"

Nightfire hummed in amusement, wings relaxing as he stretched out.

"Fer now. Wat star'e' i' dis time?"

Sideswipe shrugged, he didn't know and he lacked the capacity to care. Frowning he set down the rag he was using to clean his blades and handed a datapad over to his brother.

"Go' anotha job fro' Optimus. Yew migh' wanna tak' a loo', see if ya wanni' or no'."

Nightfire took the datapad from his brother, scanning what was typed on it briefly. He was annoyed that another job had come through so soon; Niner, Ironwill and Sunstreaker weren't back from the last job they'd been sent. Still, no point in turning it down. He hummed thoughtfully as he studied the briefing. A suspected Decepticon training camp, a small one according to intelligence reports. And surprisingly close to where they were currently camped. That was if Intelligence had got it right this time. Nightfire frowned, he didn't want to end up in an ambush like the last time Intel had got it wrong. But then again … the chance to take out several Decepticons and ensure there were fewer places for the scum to train more recruits sounded fun. Nodding he handed the datapad back to his brother.

"Ah'll do i', won'' tak' more den a few days. Ah'll se' ou' tamorro'."

Sideswipe shrugged, accepting the datapad back and resuming his earlier task. As he started to renew the lethal edge on his blades he sent a sideways glance at his brother.

"Gotta com offa 'Will. Dey'll be bac' by tamorro'. Mission wa' a succes' so dat's anotha paychec'."

"Nice. Nee' more supplies anyways."

Grinning Nightfire stood, lazily making his way over to where Nova and Nexus had finished getting their dinner ready. It was surprisingly easy to convert mecha-animals into energon that their tanks could process, even if it tasted like slag. Snagging a cube from Nexus, ignoring his outraged squawk, Nightfire chugged it down. He grimaced at the appalling taste but it was nice to have a full tank again. He shoved Nexus away when the younger mech tried to get the cube back and laughed as the youngest triplet toppled over with a yelp. Scrambling away Nexus easily stole his smaller brother's cube and downed it before Nova could protest, gagging as the foul tasting energon hit the back of his throat. Nightfire shook his head and smirked; he may have been irritated about this job but at least it was bringing in enough credits that they wouldn't have to be drinking this sludge for a few orns.

_PAGE BREAKER_

Nightfire left early the next morning, swiftly winging his way towards the co-ordinates of the supposed Decepticon training camp. In all honesty he was just looking forward to killing a few Decepticons; training camp or not. The last few missions that had been sent to them hadn't needed his specific skill set so he was bored out of his processor. Destroying a training camp full of Decepticons was a good way to break the boredom. After two days flying Nightfire landed on top of a small cliff overlooking the co-ordinates. He army crawled his way to the top and peered over. He grinned darkly at what he saw. Intelligence was only partially right; there was a Decepticon training camp. But what they hadn't bothered to add was that the camp was smack in the middle of a small Decepticon settlement. He could see mechs and femmes of all ages going about their lives like the war didn't even exist. Their naïve belief that because they weren't on the front lines meant they could just act like nothing was wrong disgusted Nightfire to his core and a dangerous growl rumbled up from his powerful chassis. Anger slowly building, he swiftly skated towards the settlement, intent on killing every single one of them.

They never saw him until it was too late. The lightly armed, obviously inexperienced sentries were the first to fall; their corpses barely hitting the ground before he crashed into the next mech to cross his path. He grinned at the wide opticed mech as the Con scrambled desperately to remove the giant AlleyBot's claws from around his neck cables.

"P-p-please *cough* we haven't done anything…"

Nightfire's cold, emotionless visored glare cut off the Con's protests.

"Shaddup. Yer a Con; ah don' nee' anythin' else."

He let go of the Decepticon's neck as he spoke; enjoying the relief in the mech's optics. What an idiot. The Con's anguished death wail as Nightfire's fangs tore his throat out were music to the AlleyBot's audios. The betrayal and confusion in those fading ruby optics did nothing to stir any remorse within the tall mech. Nightfire looked up from his kill at the sounds of shouting and footsteps, energon dripping from his jaws. A deranged grin twisted his features as what appeared to be the entire settlement surrounded him. One Con; a tall seeker femme, aimed her blaster at Nightfire.

"I don't know who you are or where you came from but you can't just come in here and start killing us. You going to come in quietly or must we use force?"

Chuckling quietly Nightfire stood, head bowed slightly. He looked the seeker femme directly in the optics and grinned darkly as she took a few steps back; terrified by the rage and insanity that shone through his visor.

"Jus' fer dat … yew die las'."

He exploded forward, blades extended. Panicked, several Decepticons fired on him, their shots scorching and denting his heavy battle armour. Energon flew as Nightfire's swords gutted two mechs when he dashed between them. Even as they fell he was on the next Decepticon; this one a femme. Her death cries soon joined the other dying as he angrily slaughtered Con after Con. A stray shot blew the munitions store sky high, the flames reaching the energon stockpiled outside what appeared to be the Mess Hall. As the cubes ignited the fires spread and soon the settlement was burning around Nightfire and his opponents. Behind his visor, Nightfire closed his optics; fighting to his own internal song. Sunstreaker had once observed that watching Nightfire fight, even to the death, was like watching him dance to a song only he heard. Nightfire had to agree with his more artistically inclined sibling. Fighting was simply a deadly, savage dance to him as he easily flowed from one move to the next. He remembered seeing a painting Sunstreaker had once done of him fighting. When he had first seen it, he had wondered if the terrifying grace that Sunstreaker had shown in the piece was really what bots saw when he fought. Right now though, all that Nightfire really cared about was destroying not only the training camp, but the entire settlement.

As he'd promised, the seeker femme was still standing after he finished off the last mech, dropping the Con to the ground to choke on his own energon. She stared at him, crimson optics wide in horror. Nightfire just stared back, a lot more relaxed than he had been earlier despite the energon pouring from various injuries.

"You … you killed them … all of them. Why? What had we done"?

Retracting his energon stained blades back into his arms Nightfire sneered at the femme.

"Yew an' dem otha's are Con's. Dat's all da 'scuse ah nee'. Mah femme wa' kille' 'caus' o' dis war an' ah won' sto' 'til ah kill ev'ry las' one o' yews an' dis war's ove'."

He didn't even bother listening to the femme's response. Growling dangerously he charged forwards, only to be thrown back as a null ray blast struck him in the face. He picked himself up, shaking his head and snarling dangerously at the femme. The blast had shattered part of his visor and the dead, white optic and the scars surrounding it were clearly visible. He smirked at her shocked gasp.

"Your … your optic. You're … you're blind; aren't you?"

Angry and insulted Nightfire spat some congealed energon onto the ground.

"Wat's i' ta yew?!"

"I …"

Nightfire had had enough. Not even allowing the femme a chance to answer he barrelled forwards again, this time taking care to dodge as many of the null ray blasts as he could. He got right up in the femmes face, snarling darkly, and smashed his fist into her chest. She crashed to the ground, gasping in pain as her horrified optics stared up at the hard faced AlleyBot. Shaking his head in anger Nightfire lazily drew his energon bow, testing the string before taking aim. The bolt not only killed the femme, it blew her helm clean off. As her smoking corpse crashed lifelessly to the ground Nightfire looked around the burning settlement. He tipped his head to one side slightly when he saw one heavily reinforced building was still standing. Skating over Nightfire blasted the door open and stepped inside. His optics widened in surprise … this was not what he'd been expecting.

The building was full of sparklings and mechlings, their blood red optics wide in fright. Setting his jaw angrily Nightfire gestured towards the door.

"Ou'sid'."

After ensuring the building was now empty he turned to the terrified group of young mechs. One young mech in particular caught his attention, possibly because he appeared to be the oldest. He glared down at the quivering mechling; visor cold and unfeeling despite the crying sparklings that were hidden behind the younger mech's frame. The teens wide crimson optics were filled with terror as the raging fire flickered around them.

"Please. Please just leave us alone. They're just sparklings; can't you at least show them some mercy?!"

Nightfire tipped his head to one side for a second, optic twitching violently, before drawing one of his many blasters and aiming it at the teenage mechs head.

"Merceh huh?! Merceh i' a wor' ah no longe' un'erstan'."

The sharp report of the blaster echoed out, silencing the sparklings cries. Stepping over the now still body of their protector Nightfire looked down on them. He would not spare them; they may one day grow up to threaten his own sons. Holstering his blaster his blades slid back into their positions on his arms, energon still coating their lethal edges. A dark, twisted smirk stretched the scars along his face as he leapt, blades poised for the kill.

_PAGE BREAKER_

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker looked up when they heard wing beats; relaxing when they saw the new arrival was Nightfire. Sunstreaker shrugged and went back to his energon but Sideswipe frowned, staring at his little brother. Nightfire was covered in energon and fresh wounds yet he seemed different somehow. It was almost like something had died inside him. He caught the datapad that Nightfire threw at him and onlined it. Scanning it briefly he looked up in shock at his sibling.

"Nightfire … wat 'ave yew done?!"

Well, hope you enjoyed it. Please read and review