The female's name was Strongarm, and for the majority of the journey closer to colder waters, she was quiet, only uttering a few words when they ate fish. Hot Rod, bored of the long journey, decided that meal time would be the perfect time to suggest a game, and he chased Jazz around Ultra Magnus and Prowl, nipping at the other calf's flukes. Jazz did not appreciate the game one bit. Prowl gathered the calf under him and growled at Hot Rod lowly, stopping when Aleta swatted at him lightly.

"He's just a calf. You can't blame him for wanting a little fun."

Prowl's lips dropped back over his jagged teeth and he sighed, nodding. "I know..."

Ultra Magnus ate thoughtfully. Ratchet and Prowl were not interested in Strongarm, even though she was beautiful, and she was not interested in them. Ultra Magnus himself wasn't even interested, but he had felt minor tuggings toward Aleta. The female was playing with Jazz, teaching him how to jump out of the water. Prowl watched possessively.

Ratchet was on Ultra Magnus' back, treating the punctures he had put into the bull's skin. "A mussel for your thoughts?"

Magnus winced at the thought of the mussels. Ratchet preferred them over fish, thank Primus, but Magnus would eat tuna any day. Give him eels for all he cared, just not a single mussel. A broken tooth marked his struggles with the mussels. "Why are you not attacking Strongarm?"

"Because she is part of the pod now." Ratchet replied absently, completely absorbed in laying seaweed over the wounds that would probably heal by the next morning.

"But you attacked Aleta," Magnus whined. He hated how he sounded like a confused sparkling, but he was confused and he was desperate for answers.

"Oh. That." Ratchet finished treating the mech. "I was ensuring the growth of our pod by...you know..." The medic dropped below the larger bull and rubbed his chest where the net had rubbed his skin raw.

"What do I know?"

He stopped then and looked at him. "You've never...?"

Magnus scowled. "I don't understand! Would you just say it?"

But he refused. He avoided the question entirely and instead curled up back on Magnus' tail. Aleta swam down to him with Jazz and Prowl. Hot Rod cuddled into his shoulder.

"Are we ready now?" Prowl asked.

"I'm ready if you are," Magnus said and he beat his flukes a little rougher than usual. Ratchet patted his skin this time instead of digging his claws into his skin. Ultra Magnus gave a soft whine only Hot Rod heard.

But their journey was cut off when harpoons started shooting down at them. Prowl was hit through his flukes and the harpoon, connected to a rope, started pulling him towards a ship that had appeared.

"Magnus!"
Ultra Magnus dropped Hot Rod and swam after him, slashing his claws through the rope. Prowl struggled in the water. Every movement to his tail made him yelp in pain. Ultra Magnus drug Prowl closer to him and coaxed the mech to hang onto his flukes. Ratchet curled around Jazz and Hot Rod, snarling up at tiny figures with black skin and large visors over their faces, their mouths plugged with a black, shiny object that fed a tube. Bubbles trailed up to the surface. Green fins on their lower appendages kicked steadily as they moved closer and closer to Ratchet.

Strongarm was netted, and Aleta who had bravely attempted to save her, was tangled in a new net. Ultra Magnus found himself, yet again, too slow to save his pod. Ratchet was caged and lifted and the only thing Ultra Magnus could do was let harpoon after harpoon pierce his hide and blubber before pulling him up and onto the ship where he laid, his organs pressing against each other, his heart...his lungs. He wheezed, thrashing. Hot Rod was in a tank, his cries muffled by the glass. Jazz thrashed weakly beside him, almost protected by Prowl, who had fought the humans. Strongarm was already fading, his hands limp and her eyes dim. Ultra Magnus closed his eyes as one massive tear rolled down his face.

And then darkness.

ooo

Their tiny boat was no match for a whaling ship, but eventually, flashing Mer Guard flags and badges, the ship halted and surrendered their catch.

"He's too big to tow." The man that spoke was looking at the large, bulky mer. He was a medic to the mers, and he loved them almost as much as Isla, the leader, did. "He's experiencing some internal crushing, but I think he'll bounce back. Which means we could just hook a rope around his middle and let him swim after us."

"Let's get him in the water," Isla said. She lifted the baby mer out of the weaker mer's arms. "How's that scaled female?"

The medic walked over to the pretty, frilly cow. A young team of volunteers were pumping water through her gills. The cow was watching them with wide eyes, her mouth open around a hose. Her upper body rested almost comfortably in a girl's lap as she stroked her head. "Looking good."

"She's not thrashing," someone commented. "It's like she understands we're not going to hurt her."

Isla stroked the little calf's head, pouring water down on his sticky skin. The calf livened up softly, making gentle noises down at the bull at her feet. A wet towel was laid out on his side to keep his skin hydrated. His fingers were curled around her ankle, his eyes pleading.

"Strange." Isla knelt and laid the calf next to the bull, who immediately threw his arms around the tiny thing and held him under the blanket. "The bull and the calf are different species, but they act like they're related."

"Bull, you said?" The medic and the rest of the team were pulling the large mer into the water, down the ramp and into the sea. The bull thrashed weakly, helping them whether it wanted to or not. But when he hit the water, instead of swimming off, he looked at them all quizzically and down at his bleeding back. "Bulls like him tend to be alone until they find some cows. They don't get cuddly with younger generation bulls."

"Huh."

The mer they were least worried about was the octomer, who had discovered a pouch of mussels on one of the volunteers and was currently eating as if he hadn't seen food in months. He let anyone touch him, and even let them play with his tentacles.

"He looks just like Tarn," someone laughed and Isla smiled at the comment.

"Let's get these mers back to Fins and Hands, guys. Roll out."

ooo

Ultra Magnus let them hoist him into the large tank. When he was in the water, he wiggled out of the sling. The tank was huge and contained another pod.

The mer, smaller than he but a good foot bigger than Prowl, charged him, lashing his tail side to side. Gills worked angrily and Ultra Magnus trumpetted his song of fear. The mer changed direction to attack his reflection.

Ratchet landed in the water next and immediately clambered onto Ultra Magnus' back, his frills fanning out in fear. A large purple mass was lounging in a cave, tentacles waving lightly in the current of a filter discharging clean water.

Aleta curled herself into Ultra Magnus, staring at the other mers in the tank. Her gaze was drawn to a small school of five purple and green fish protected by a similar-colored mer. He swam lazily and the fish nuzzled up against his sides, belly, and hands. "This is a strange place..."

Hot Rod and Jazz came with Prowl and Strongarm in a cloud of bubbles. The black and white mer shook himself a little before gazing around and sighing. "Welcome to tank life..." Prowl moved slowly and mostly by moving his hands, his flukes wrapped with purple fabric, still apparently tender. Magnus felt the same kind of substance sticking to his back, but the coloration was green. Ratchet was investigating it.

"They appear to be healing our hurts and putting us into a controlled environment to monitor our progress."

Aleta showed the octomer her wrapped hand. She had lost two fingers from fighting with the whalers. "Is this healing our hurts?"

"My apologies for your loss."

Aleta's response was interrupted by a new mer, his tail flicking furiously back and forth. His scales were black with splashes of white, not unlike Prowl's colorations. He didn't look like the silver mech that bluff-charged Magnus, but he took a stance to guard his little pod anyway.

"Welcome, friends! Please, don't be scared. My name is Rewind." His tail was tattered, some of his fins both missing and shredded. But his expression was cheerful, though laced with ugly scars. "I see how Megatron greeted you. He is a new addition, and is still working out the kinks of living in a tank such as this..."

"Tank?"

"A glass structure containing water and creatures of a person's choice," Prowl offered, cutting Ratchet off. The medic stared at him, his mouth open. That had never happened before.

Ultra Magnus looked at him. "You have been in one before?"

"I was born in one." Prowl looked away. "I'd rather not talk about it." To ensure no one prodded him further, he tucked Jazz to his chest and he moved further away from Magnus and the others

Rewind just smiled as warmly as he could manage. He wasn't sure how these new arrivals would fit into their pod here... "I see you are injured. The humans take lovely care of us. Always have. And..." He looked at Aleta's hand and tutted, gently taking it. She let him. "I am sure you will look even more beautiful when this wrap is gone."

"I sent you to be nice, Rewind, not to flirt," scolded a orange, red, and white mer. He didn't have flukes or a tailfin. Instead, he had a coiled tail and tiny fins that worked to move him forward, as well as his hands. Gills worked steadily and the mer extended his hand to Magnus when he arrived. "Welcome. I am Chromedome."

"What are you?" Aleta touched his coiled tail in wonder.

"Just a mer," he chuckled. "Though I do resemble some of these..." He swept his arms out to indicate the tiny things following him, and they did indeed resemble him. "My trainer calls them seahorses. I think they are rather cute."

"Trainer?"

"Ah. For certain events, the humans call on certain ones of us to do certain things to raise donations of green paper. That substance keeps our tank running and the rescue-mers coming in." He nodded at the fabric wrapped around the new arrivals. "It is why you are here. For whatever reason, Isla thought you could not be released in your current state, so you will stay here until you heal or until you pass."

Ultra Magnus saw this Chromedome's missing fin and he noted how he leaned to one side and worked to keep his body staighter. He sighed and nodded. "Then we stay?"

"Yes." He smiled then. "We are not all bad... I really think you will enjoy your stay here."

ooo

Isla watched her mers interact with the new ones. Her arms were crossed and her eyes were narrowed when Megatron charged the large mer, but he was caught up, once again, with his reflection. She had to figure out how to change that. He was a very pretty, very wounded mer. When he was taken, he had taken several blows to the head to get him off one of the crew members, resulting in Megatron's instability. His trainer, Nick, had a lot to work with, but so far, things have gone optimistically. The only wound Nick ever got from Megatron was a cut when the mer dug his claws into his hand a little to hard and Nick jerked his hand away.

While she watched her mers and her new ones interact cautiously, she thought of her mers.

First to come to her was little Rewind, a blinded, whimpering bundle of scales. He had a run-in with humans as well, but not in the worst ways. Teenagers had found the little thing struggling in fishing line tangled around his face. It would have been okay, since it was wrapped around his head fins and didn't hurt him, but then he got the line stuck on rocks and he had tore off. The thin line dug into his face, scarred his eyes, and made the little thing hysterical. He was Isla's little baby, and she knew he always would be.

Mixmaster had been abandoned by his school for unknown reasons and had replaced it with the fish that they resembled. Every attempt made to put him with a new school failed, so Mixmaster was left to guard his school of fish. He even hand-fed them.

Tarn had been saved much like the new mers, but instead of being released, he refused to reunite with his own kind. He trailed the boat all the way back to their base, climbing in and seating himself by his trainer. They carried him cheerfully back to his home and played a long game of Find the Fish.

Perceptor was much like Mixmaster, only his schools refused him from the time he was born. The school had been monitored by Isla's friend, and she had cried when her favorite calf was ignored by his mother. So they went out and rescued little Percy, bringing him back and settling him with the collected mers. The tank was slowly upgraded to include the Rockies, the Caves, and the Deep to suit all species of mers. A community was formed, and Isla saw the beginnings of a pod.

Skyfire was saved just in the nick of time. He was still thrashing when Isla arrived on the boat. She watched as the crew tried to hurry up and open the mer's abdomen to take the favored organs and to let her have the rest, but she pushed the men out of her way and held the wound closed while her team went back for her medic, Jones. Skyfire favored him ever since. His scars were ugly, since he thrashed all through the stitching and had pulled his stitches dozens of times, and his scars bothered his pod when he returned. They isolated him and he was left alone until Jones went fishing and came back with the catch of the day: Skyfire, who had lept into his boat in an act to get what he wanted. A friend.

Drift was the calf of a mer Isla had tried to save, but the cow would have nothing to do with the tank. She repeatedly smacked herself off the glass walls, struck herself on the fake corals, and even some of the real ones until all that was recognizable was her pregnant belly. Drift was born via operation when the cow finally gave in to her wounds and sunk to the bottom, Drift still struggling in her dead body.

Starscream was a character when he arrived, bitten and bleeding. He only responded to the trainer who dubbed himself Knock Out (real name Tony). Starscream's species were loners, and could technically be released, except that he had become so attached to Tony that when the man left on the weekend, Starscream had lapsed into depression. Not only did Tony now work seven days a week at his favorite job, but he often dove into the water to play with his favorite mer, suit or not. "Clothes can be replaced," Tony had said once. "Not his love."

The pod just grew bigger and bigger after that. Calf Tailgate joined them during migration when his carrier's body made a mishap. Tailgate was born painlessly, and was promptly left in the figurative dust since Tailgate's mother preferred to coast behind the pod. Isla found Tailgate floating on his side, twitching and still red. A small school of fish were nibbling at his cord that connected him to his carrier while he was in her womb.

Soundwave, another solitary mer, was found swimming dangerously close to the shores where humans liked to swim and play, and so Isla took a team down to figure out what was wrong, but the mer retreated. They came back several days, and went home without seeing a frill of the mer, until the last day when the mer had beached himself. The plastic that held single cans together was wrapped around his neck, cutting off circulation. Isla figured that baby Soundwave had fancied the plastic and turned it into a toy, only for him to grow into an adult and for it to be trapped around his neck. The circulation did do it's damage. Soundwave the solitary mer became Soundwave with a ray for a pet, something unheard of. Without his pet, Isla believed, they would lose Soundwave, and rays were a favorite snack of any mer with a mouth. Anything could happen to the little thing if Soundwave turned his back on her.

Chromedome was a calf when he came to Fins and Hands. He had been rescued from a beaching only to have his fin torn off by a too-curious human who thought them to be damaged. With his compromised state and irregular swim-pattern, Isla couldn't release him, even if he was healthy and had mastered keeping himself mostly upright. Rewind had fancied him right from the beginning.

Isla was jolted from her thinking when the large mer twisted himself, angling deeper to investigate his new home. Chromedome and Rewind swam in front of him and the large mer's friends stuck close to him, looking around. The two calves quickly joined the other two calves on the bottom where they lounged in sight of Tarn. The large mer reached out a tentacle to prod the new arrivals before curling them back into his cave. The newly arrived octomer dropped on his two calves and checked them out, turning them around and around until he was satisfied that they had not been harmed. Then he curled himself back around the large flukes of the blue mer.

"Success," Tony cheered as he walked to Isla. "I wondered if it would be too soon to let Starscream into the tank."

They kept Starscream mostly seperated, in the Rockies, because he was unpredictable around Megatron, but lately his attitude toward him had improved.

"It wouldn't hurt. But stay with him, will you?"

"You know I will." He jogged off before she could add a request for him to wear his suit.

Isla took one last look at the tank before she walked to her office to log the new arrivals and she prepared next week's schedule to include the new mers. She chewed on the end of her pen as she thought, looking at the growing stack of bills.

"I hope these guys can help us while we help them." She leaned back in her chair. She loved mers, more than almost anyone. But love didn't pay bills. Money did. She had promised herself that money wouldn't run the show, but it already was. "We need something to help turn this around," she sighed, "or I'm going to lose them, my staff, and everything I've worked for."

She vowed to not let that happen.

It took a different turn than expected, but here you go. X3 Tell me what you think so far. I like it. It's fun.