Author's note: It was nice to write a Transformers story again. Lost Mechs was such a long time ago, nice to get back to my first fandom. This story is set just a couple years before the G1 movie and focuses on another one of my favorite characters, Wheeljack, I do hope you enjoy.

The Lonely Inventor

"Seekers incoming!" Ironhide yelled out, warning his fellow Autobots as Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker flew overhead to attack. "Prowl! Trailbreaker! Wheeljack! Tracks! Shoot 'em down with your shoulder cannons!" He ordered.

"You've got it 'Hide!" Wheeljack jumped up enthusiastically. "I've been working on a new rocket for my launcher, it locks onto a target's energy signature and-"

"Just shoot, Wheeljack!" Prowl interrupted him firing one of his rockets, damaging Skywarp's right tail fin.

"Oh, yeah right." Wheeljack said with his enthusiasm slightly diminished. He fired off his rocket and missed, which made Starscream laugh.

"Stupid Autobot! If it weren't for gravity you wouldn't be able to hit the ground!" He laughed firing down at the Autobots. Suddenly, the rocket he had fired changed directions and followed Starscream. "What!?" He said in astonishment as he tried to outrun the missile, his attempt was futile as the missile collided into his thrusters sending him downward towards the Autobots.

"Take cover!" Ironhide ordered as the Autobots scattered, all but one. Huffer's leg had been trapped by rubble, to make matters worse, Starscream was going to crash directly into him.

"Help! I'm stuck!" He yelled out. Just as it looked like Huffer was toast, a translucent yellow orb surrounded him, deflecting the crashing Starscream.

"I've got you little buddy!" Trailbreaker hollered.

"You always did enjoy waiting 'til the last second." Huffer said remarking at how near he was to death.

"A simple thanks would suffice." Trailbreaker grinned.

"Alright you two, we've still got a battle to win, Trailbreaker, Groove, get Huffer out of the rock, the rest of you, attack!" Ironhide commanded. The rest of the battle went without error and the Autobots prevailed against the Decepticons, on their way home they enthusiastically celebrated their victory.

"Good work troops, Prime 'll be glad to hear this battle was a success." Ironhide complimented the troops as they drove.

"Remember when I clipped Thundercracker's wing and he flew right into Ramjet? Primus was that rich!" Sideswipe laughed.

"That was all well and good, but I thought my attack on Blitzwing was the highlight of this battle." Tracks added.

"What about when Starscream thought I missed, then it turned around and hit his thrusters! Bet he won't be transforming right for a little whle huh?" Wheeljack chuckled.

"Not to mention that that little stunt almost killed me." Huffer muttered and some of the others murmured agreeing with the tiny bright orange semi.

"He's got a point, a little warning would have been nice." Ironhide agreed, though at the same time sounding more sympathetic toward Wheeljack than Huffer was.

"Well I mean, I did try and tell-" Wheeljack was once again cut off.

"Thank Primus Trailbreaker stepped in there, great work back there Trailbreaker." Prowl commended him.

"Here here!" Ironhide agreed, soon the others agreed.

"Yeah... here here." Wheeljack said to himself. When the Autobots returned to base, they all met back up with their friends and family members. Ironhide and Optimus quickly started chatting with Jazz, Tracks and Sideswipe met up with Sunstreaker, Huffer complained to Gears about his near death experience, Groove and his fellow Protectobots mingled, Trailbreaker and Hound started joking around, and Prowl joined Optimus and Ironhide. Meanwhile, Wheeljack went to business working on his arm that was damaged in the battle talking to himself.

"I tried to warn them." He muttered. "Just shoot, Wheeljack! Nobody cares about your work, no no." He muttered. Sparkplug happened to overhear him while he was working on his tow truck, the Autobots had decided to let him do some of his garage work in Autobot headquarters since he had better access to tools there.

"You've got somethin' on your mind Wheeljack?" Sparkplug asked, Wheeljack turned from his work and sighed.

"It's nothin' Sparkplug." He said turning back to his work.

"Doesn't sound like nothin', you never talk to yourself while you work." The human said standing up.

"Look Sparkplug, I don't think you'd really get it." Wheeljack said without looking up from his work.

"Listen Wheeljack, I raised a teenage son, I think I can get whatever's keeping you down." Sparkplug chuckled.

"I guess you've got a point." The Autobot chuckled turning toward him. "I dunno, maybe I'm just being silly." He said, still not revealing what was bothering him.

"I didn't ask if you were being silly, I asked what was wrong." Sparkplug said, seeing through what he just said. "Look Wheeljack, if you don't wanna tell me that's fine, just know I am here to talk if you want." He said.

"Thanks Sparkplug." Wheeljack said, there was a bit of silence for a moment before Wheeljack spoke up again. "Hey Sparkplug, do you think I'm... I dunno, odd?" He asked.

"Odd?" He asked. "Do I think a giant robot who turns into a sports car and builds crazy inventions is odd? Well, kind of." He admitted. "But frankly, I think all the Autobots are odd, not just you, when I was a kid, hell, even when I was an adult I never thought one day I'd be working alongside giant alien robots to defend my planet." He chuckled. "So really for me, it isn't just you that's odd, this whole thing is odd. And it's been what? nearly twenty years since you all arrived."

"I knew a human wouldn't get it." Wheeljack said dryly. "What I meant was, I feel like some of the other bots don't really, well..." He began.

"Like you?" Sparkplug asked.

"Yeah, that." He nodded. "Sure, Prime always comes to me when he needs a Cosmotron or some invention like that... but after a long day, I feel like I don't really have any friends with all of them, I feel kind of like an outcast." He admitted. "And I just sort of figured it might be because I'm a little odd." He said.

"Well Wheeljack..." Sparkplug began. "I'll admit, you are a little different from the other bots. But that's not a bad thing, I mean, I think you're alright, I think of you as a friend."

"Thanks Sparkplug." Wheeljack said. "Hey, you mind giving me a hand here? There are some hard to get at spots in my elbow joint."

"Sure thing Pal." Sparkplug said getting on the lift. "Maybe what you should do is try and make some friends, take the first step." He suggested.

"I'll give it a shot." Wheeljack said. "Don't know what good it'll do."

"With a pessimistic attitude like that you an' Huffer might get along well." Sparkplug chuckled to himself.

As the days went by, Wheeljack made attempts at conversation with his crew it awkwardly trying to fit in with younger bots like Sideswipe or sharing gripes with Huffer and Gears, no matter what he tried, he didn't seem to fit in, until one day, he was outside the base, thinking he was by himself when he heard a loud startling crash. He jumped up in surprise, what was it? Decepticons? He armed his pistol and stealthily walked towards the sound.

"Easy boy! Easy!" The voice said from around the corner, when Wheeljack looked, he saw Hound and the Dinobots, he was... playing with them? He watched Hound rip a dead tree out from the ground. "Who wants it? Who wants it? Go get it!" He threw the tree a very impressive distance and all five of the Dinobots went charging after it. Wheeljack chuckled to himself and approached Hound.

"What's this?" Wheeljack asked. Hound turned and looked at him with a smile on his face.

"Hey Wheeljack! Hope you don't mind or anything, but the Dinobots looked a little lonely, so I took them outside and we started having some fun." Hound explained.

"Don't mind at all!" Wheeljack said. "Glad they're outside having fun without causing too much destruction, though I gotta admit, I never expected them to act like this."

"Neither did I really." Hound admitted. "Guess it's the prehistoric and simplicity of their minds." He suggested.

"That makes sense." Wheeljack nodded as they watched the five fight over a tree.

"Makes me sad really." Hound commented, Wheeljack turned to him.

"What?" He asked.

"The way these guys are treated." He said. "None of the other bots want to be friends with them, Optimus doesn't really trust them, most the other bots are still scared of them, but they all want them when a battle gets tough with the Cons, nobody wants to take the time and get to know them." Wheeljack nodded, not really seeing that before, but everything Hound said made sense. Come to think of it, Prime doesn't really trust him for his track record with inventions, most the other bots are scared of whatever he does next, but then they all come to him when they need something from him.

"I guess you've got a point." Wheeljack spoke up. "So what made you decide to be friends with them?" He asked.

"I felt bad." He said. "I wanted to see how they'd react to it, and maybe get a chance to prove that they're 'more than meets the eye' so to speak." Wheeljack groaned at the usage of that phrase, that's right, they even get sick of that reference.

"I see your point." Wheeljack said.

"What about you?" Hound asked. "Got any friends?" He asked.

"Sure." Wheeljack said. "There's Sprakplug, Ratchet and I are... well... we know each other." He said.

"Oh come on!" Hound said. "You've got to have more friends than that, you've saved our afts too many times with those inventions of yours I figured you'd have may more friends."

"Not really." He said.

"Come on, you're pulling my leg!" Hound said.

"Nope, I dunno, back on Cybertron I never really bothered, I was drafted to come on this mission, and mostly I keep to myself I guess." Wheeljack explained.

"I see." Hound said. "Is that really why?" He asked. Wheeljack looked at him quizzically.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked.

"Easy, I've seen you the past couple days. You're trying to talk to bots you don't really talk to, you're worried nobody likes you." Hound said.

"What? No." Wheeljack lied. Hound could see right through his lie though.

"Look Wheeljack, it's okay to tell me. For what it's worth, I think you're a good bot." He said.

"Well thanks Hound." Wheeljack said. "I guess you're right, I just don't feel like most the others like me."

"Why's that?" Hound asked, Hound knew the answer, he just wanted Wheeljack to admit it.

"Well I mean, Optimus thinks I'm some crackpot mad scientist, most the others always think I'm bound to mess up or blow them to bits, they keep their distance, I see it." Wheeljack said. "Then, despite all that, they come to me when they need a crazy device for whatever bind their in, but after the dust has cleared nobody comes and talks to me, asks me how I am, no no." He shook his head. "I dunno, it would be nice to have a friend with the Autobots." He admitted.

"Well Wheeljack, you've got one." Hound smiled a little and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks Hound." Wheeljack said.

"Besides, Team Magnus is coming in tomorrow to help construction on Autobot City tomorrow, maybe you'll meet a new friend then." Hound said.

"We'll see, looked at the crew manifest when we got the announcement, know anybody on the list? I didn't." Wheeljack made conversation.

"I knew Roadbuster back on Cybertron, otherwise that's it, whole lot of new faces." Hound said. "You?"

"I heard plenty of stories over the years about Kup, but that's all." He replied.

"I just hope they realize that they are the visitors here, that we're the ones that are in charge. Prime's not going anywhere any time soon." Hound said.

"None of us are." Wheeljack said. (Wrongo...) Soon enough, the Dinobots came charging back, Grimlock had overpowered the others and was not the proud owner of a dismembered tree.

"Good work Grimlock!" Hound congratulated him.

"Me Grimlock best catcher!" He said proudly.

"You sure are big guy." Hound smiled.

"Good work Grimlock." Wheeljack applauded him.

The next day, a shuttle landed outside Autobot Headquarters. Optimus Prime made all the Autobots stand outside and welcome them, the original crew, Skyfire, the Dinobots, the crew from '85, the Protectobots, the Arielbots, everybody was there, including Spike, Sparkplug, Chip, Carly, and even Spike and Carly's kindergarten aged son Daniel. Ultra Magnus stepped out first and shook hands with Optimus Prime.

"Good to see you once again my old friend." Optimus Prime said.

"Likewise Optimus, I'm happy to be working with you again." Ultra Magnus nodded.

"Why don't you introduce your crew?" Optimus asked.

"Alright." He nodded, one by one, he introduced his crew. Hot Rod, Kup, Arcee, Blurr, Springer, Roadbuster, Whirl, Topspin, Twin Twist, Bulkhead, Broadside, and Tigertrack.

"Welcome to Earth." Optimus welcomed to them. "I look forward to working alongside you, we were not prepared for this many new faces, so you will have to share rooms with some of our other troops for quarters, there were some groans from both sides before Prowl hollered at the Ark crew to be quiet and Kup did the same for his men, Prowl and Kup exchanged friendly nods afterwards. Arcee raised her hand hearing this news.

"Excuse me, Optimus, for obvious reasons I request my own quarters." She said.

"Request granted." Optimus nodded.

"Wonder what bot has to move out of his room after that request..." Gears muttered.

"The room arrangements are as follows, Arcee will receive her own room, meaning Gears will be moving to Trailbreaker and Bluestreak's quarters." Ultra Magnus began.

"Dammit." Gears moaned.

"Tigertrack is with Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Hot Rod is with Jazz and Cliffjumper, Kup is with Ironhide and Ratchet..." Ultra Magnus went down the list, now Wheeljack had been fortunate enough to have his own room ever since his arrival, even after the new additions along the way, he hoped he'd be as lucky this time. He wanted to make friends, but did not want to share rooms.

"And finally, Bulkhead with Wheeljack." Ultra Magnus concluded. The disappointment was obvious in Wheeljack's face, and he didn't even have a mouth. Wheeljack looked at his new roommate. He looked like if Grapple had a love-sparkling with Hound in a way, a big outer jaw hung on his face and he had a big goofy grin.

"Hiya roomie!" He said cheerfully. "You wanna wrestle for the top bunk?" He bellowed with laughter. "I'm just kiddin. I'll letcha have it!" He chuckled.

"It's uh... separate beds big guy." Wheeljack said uncomfortably as Bulkhead had tightly wrapped an arm around him.

"Even better! I've got a feelin' I'm gonna like you Wheeljack, Wheeljack, ol' W.J., Jack McWheel, Wheelie Jackson, Jackie..." Bulkhead started coming up with nicknames for his new roommate.

"Please just call me Wheeljack." Wheeljack said with a small tinge of anger.

"You got it Pal!" He chuckled. "Wanna show me to the room?" He asked.

"I'll lead the way..." He groaned, as he passed by Hound and Sparkplug smiled and gave him thumbs up, Hound mouthed "try to be friendly" to him. Wheeljack scoffed quietly, he was in no mood to be friendly. That night at the welcoming party, Bulkhead was telling Wheeljack all about himself.

"So anyway, they wanted me on this mission because I happen to be a whiz with Space Bridges, originally I'm from an Energron farm about 60 kliks from Iacon, pretty little place." He went on and on, Wheeljack was barely paying attention however. He saw Trailbreaker passing by and quickly grabbed him.

"Trailbreaker! Buddy! I want you to meet my new friend, err... Blockhead!" He said.

"It's Bulkhead." Bulkhead said. "But good to meetcha Trailbreaker! Put 'er here!" Bulkhead extended his hand to shake, Trailbreaker extended his and they awkwardly shook, Trailbreaker was quite drunk and had next to no idea what was going on.

"Hiya Bulky!" Trailbreaker stammered. "I'm... I'm... -hic-... Trail... Trail..." He turned to Wheeljack. "Trailcutter, right?" He asked.

"No, it's Trailbreaker." Wheeljack said.

"Oh yeah! Hiya Bulky, I'm Trailblazer." He stammered, still wrong.

"Anyway... Trailbreaker! Why don't you tell Bulkhead here about your force-fields! Hold onto your hat Bulkhead, this is interesting!" Wheeljack said leaving Trailbreaker with Bulkhead. As he snuck through the crowd he was stopped by Hound.

"And where are you going?" Hound asked.

"I dunno, guard duty, change my oil filter, build another Dinobot, a female Raptor to even out the team. Anything but have my audio receptors yacked off by Bulkwad over there." He said.

"Come on Wheeljack." Hound shook his head. "Remember what you told me yesterday? About how you felt others wouldn't give you a chance? Well, right now, you aren't giving him a chance."

"Yeah well..." Wheeljack tried to think of an excuse. "Fine." He made his way back.

"You're the one who wanted friends Wheeljack!" Hound called over the noise. Wheeljack approached Bulkhead, who was now encouraging Trailbreaker to chug.

"Hey Jackie! Lookit Trailbreaker here! I've never seen a bot haul back that much high grade! Chug! Chug! Chug!" Bulkhead cheered.

"Yeah, that's ol' Trailbreaker alright." Wheeljack nodded. "And it's Wheeljack. Please just call me Wheeljack."

"That's Wheel-Well for you, actually he's not always so... -burp- tightly wound." Trailbreaker stammered.

"Wheeljack Trailbreaker." Wheeljack corrected him. "I've been under some stress recently."

"There ain't no stress that some high grade can't get rid of." Bulkhead smiled handing a quart to Wheeljack. Little did he know that the only way high grade could get rid of what was stressing Wheeljack out would be an overdose of it, and looking at the size of Bulkhead, he wasn't sure it was possible for him.

"I'll pass, I drink by myself." Wheeljack said politely.

"Primus only knows how! He doesn't even have a mouth!" Trailbreaker laughed.

"Why is that anyway?" Bulkhead asked. "And what's up with the glowy-ear-things?" He asked.

"Face was damaged by an experiment I was working on." Wheeljack explained. "These were just a design choice I liked." He motioned to his bright blue audio receptors. "How about that jaw?" Wheeljack asked. Bulkhead then removed it to reveal he had no bottom half of his regular jaw, the sight was rather disturbing.

"Cooh huh?" He said without the bottom half, he slammed it back on and began to talk normally again. "A bad sucker punch from a Con did that, the medic didn't have parts for my model so this little beauty was made!" He chuckled.

"Interesting." Wheeljack said, starting to warm up to the big friendly Autobot. After the party when the base settled down Wheeljack's warming up to him quickly chilled once more, the moment he settled down into stasis for recharging, a loud rumbling shook the quarters causing a wrench on Wheeljack's shelf to fall down and hit him hard in the head.

"What the...?" He sat up angrily, looking across the room at his roommate, deep into stasis and snoring quite loudly, so loud the entire room began to vibrate. Wheeljack stood up and grabbed the wrench, he debated whacking his noisy roommate directly in the head but refrained, though the thought amused him.

"Guess I'm off to see if Teletraan is taken, might treat myself to a movie night." He said quietly leaving the room, luckily, there wasn't another bot around so the supercomputer was his. He put on a movie and relaxed in the large accompanying chair. It was one of his favorite movies, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. As he watched, he couldn't help but realize how similar he was to Steve Martin's character in contrast to Bulkhead being like John Candy's. "I feel you Steve." remarking his character's discomfort through the film. Around just a little past half way through the movie, just when Steve Martin was going to curse out the car rental worker, the phone system in the computer started to ring. "Great. Who could this be?" Wheeljack pondered, pressing "Accept call".

"Optimus? Jazz? Ironhide? Anybody?" The voice asked, it was Spike.

"This is Wheeljack. What is it Spike?" He asked nervously, Spike sounded pretty scared.

"There's been an accident, I'm okay but I'm worried about my Dad, Carly is at home asleep with Daniel and I couldn't get a hold of Chip, I need someone down here as fast as possible, he doesn't look good." Spike told Wheeljack.

"Sparkplug? Oh no..." Wheeljack said to himself. "I'm on my way!" He told Spike before rushing out of the base, he had traced the location of the call so he knew exactly where to go. Wheeljack drove as fast as he could down the road, it had been raining heavily that night, perfect night for an accident. When he got to the scene, he could perfectly see what happened, the car had hydroplaned into a telephone pole, smoke emitted in large dark clouds from the hood and the windshield was shattered.

"Over here Wheeljack!" Spike waved. Wheeljack approached the scene, Sparkplug was stuck in the car, Spike couldn't get him out. Wheeljack got down on one knee and ripped the hood from the car, he carefully removed an unconscious Sparkplug and laid him on the ground before transforming. "Get him in! You get in too, we've got to get him to the hospital before it's too late!" He ordered, when Spike carefully laid his father back, fastened him in, and got in for himself, Wheeljack was off like a rocket to the hospital. When they arrived, two medical workers took Sparkplug out and rushed him inside, Spike rushed after them, leaving Wheeljack alone in the parking lot. He sighed, feeling nervous for his friend, and drove back to base.

Three days later

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered today to mourn the loss of Stanislas "Sparkplug" Witwicky, friend, father, and once husband was taken from us just two days ago after a fatal car accident." The minister began, Spike, Carly, Daniel, and Chip had all attended, along with other friends and relatives of Sparkplug, Wheeljack also attended to pay his respects, he tried to draw the least amount of attention to himself so as to make sure not to disturb grieving family. "Stanislas had also been an aid to the Autobot cause, which began nearly twenty years ago right here in Oregon." Not long after arriving in the hospital, they had lost him. Spike alerted Optimus as soon as it happened, who relayed the message to Wheeljack as he knew the two were close. Wheeljack was sure to attend. After the funeral, he met up with Spike and Carly.

"Spike... I'm sorry, I could've gotten there quicker, I could've saved him." He said apologetically.

"No Wheeljack, this isn't your fault, it was out of our control." Spike reassured him. "I'm sure going to miss him..."

"Yeah, so am I kid." Wheeljack sighed.

"By the way," Spike began. "Dad would've wanted you to have this." He said grabbing an old wrench. "It was his... his favorite." He held it out for him. Wheeljack took the small metal wrench.

"Thank you Spike." Wheeljack held the wrench up. "I'll take good care of it."

"I know you will." Spike nodded.

"Listen, I've uh... I've probably better get back. They need me for um.. engineering." Wheeljack excused himself, transforming and driving off back to base. He technically wasn't lying, they did need him, he happened to be one of the very few engineers among the Autobots, his team for the project consisted of him, Grapple, Hoist, Perceptor, and... Bulkhead. Wheeljack was truly not looking forward to this at all, spending Primus knows how long working with Bulkhead. He almost wished he had hydroplaned off a mountain road that night. One day however, as they were working, Bulkhead surprised him.

"Hey Jackie, I'm working on the radiator for the Space Bridge, do you have any cyber sprockets you could spare?" He approached him.

"I've got some in that box over there." Wheeljack pointed without looking away from his work. "And please, it's Wheeljack."

"Easy Bulkhead." Perceptor said walking by. "Wheeljack recently lost a friend."

"You wanna tell the whole city?" Wheeljack said with an irritated tone.

"My apologies Wheeljack." Perceptor hurried off. Bulkhead just stood behind the irritated engineer, Wheeljack noticed this and turned around.

"I told you they were over there didn't I?" He asked. "I ain't grabbing them for you."

"You lost a friend huh?" He asked, almost as if he didn't hear what Wheeljack just said.

"Yep. Sure did." Wheeljack said coldly.

"Gee, I'm sorry to hear that, he was that little human fella wasn't he?" Bulkhead asked.

"I guess that's a way to describe him." Wheeljack muttered.

"I'm sorry Jackie." He sat down next to where Wheeljack was working. Wheeljack turned and looked quizzically at him, he wanted to say: "It isn't break time and I'm in no mood for conversation." But he refrained.

"If it's any consolation, I know how you feel." Bulkhead confided.

"You do huh?" Wheeljack said, still working.

"Yeah, miss 'em every day." Bulkhead shook his head and looked down. "Oh Nautica..." He sighed.

"Nautica?" Wheeljack asked, suddenly interested. "You knew Nautica?" He asked.

"Know her? Jackie, you don't know the half of it." He said. "Wait... how do you know her?" He asked.

"We studied around the same time at the Cybertron Academy of Science." He explained. "And you?" He asked.

"She was... well... she was my sparkmate." He sighed. "Way before the war started, I met her after getting discharged from the academy, we got hitched, settled down on a nice Energon farm, we even had a sparkling! Lickety-Split." He showed Wheeljack a holographic picture resembling a family portrait of Bulkhead before he got his big jaw, Nautica, and their little sparkling. "Then... well... I'm sorry, you don't wanna hear any more." He said. Wheeljack turned away from his work and slowly sat down next to the big green Autobot.

"I never said that." Wheeljack said. "You can tell me."

"Well, it all goes back to one night, just as the war began." Bulkhead said.

Millions of years ago, Cybertron

"Oh Bulky, you worry too much." Nautica smiled reassuring Bulkhead that the Decepticons would want nothing to do with an out-of-state Energon farm. "We'll be okay." She wrapped her arms around him and kissed his helmet.

"I'm sure you're right hon." Bulkhead smiled.

"Of course I am." She smiled. "It's getting late, time for recharge." She yawned.

"One of my favorite parts of the day." Bulkhead chuckled, getting up from where he sat to go to their room. "What would I do without you?" Bulkhead smiled as they turned in for the night, everything was perfect for him, he was happy, she was happy, they had something perfect. A few hours into the night, Bulkhead was awoke by the sound of jets flying over the homestead, very close to the ground at that. Nautica was awoken by this as well.

"What was that?" Nautica yawned.

"I don't know..." Bulkhead stood up. "But I'm gonna find out." He left the room, as he walked through the hallway, the door of their sparkling's room opened.

"Daddy? What's happening?" Lickety-Split asked.

"I don't know sweetheart, go back to bed." He said. As he made his way outside, he saw a trine of Decepticon seekers and a large blocky blue Decepticon outside, stealing resources, Bulkhead approached them calmly.

"Pardon me gentlemechs, is there something I can help you with?" He asked. The light blue seeker with a silver chest and red trim turned and looked at him.

"Yeah, you can help by goin' inside and pretendin' you didn't see nothin'." He scoffed, the red, white, and blue one turned and approached the seeker.

"Thundercracker, no need to be rude." The seeker's trine leader, Starscream said. "Good evening, I am air commander Starscream, your farm is now property of the Decepticons, by order of Megatron." He said before turning and getting back to work.

"What?" Bulkhead asked. "Wait a minute pal, my family has owned this farm for centuries! You can't just..." Bulkhead was interrupted by the black and purple seeker.

"Look, tubby. You heard Starscream, now get outta here. C'mon, eviction notice posted. Scram!" Skywarp spat.

"Tubby? Listen pal, you all have no business here. Now get outta here before I call the police." Bulkhead said with a bit of anger.

"The police?" The three seekers exchanged looks before laughing hysterically. The blue robot with a large window in his chest approached Bulkhead.

"Your farm has been seized, leave now or we will be confrontational." His cold, robotic voice said.

"Listen radio head, I'm not going anywhere." Bulkhead growled.

"Bulkhead?" A voice called, Bulkhead turned to see Nautica and Lickety-Split standing on the porch. "What's going on?" Nautica asked.

"Get inside now!" Bulkhead hollered to her. Starscream grinned menacingly, he pointed at the two and Skywarp and Thundercracker flew to them and grabbed them, holding their arm blasters against the heads of the two.

"Don't touch them!" Bulkhead yelled. "They didn't do anything."

"Very well, let them go." Starscream said slyly. The two seekers did as he said, releasing them. Bulkhead breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, now, I'm sure we can talk things out-" Before Bulkhead could finish, Starscream hit him with the force of a rocket with an uppercut, sending him flying up and crashing down hard, breaking his jaw.

"Talk things out now, pathetic farm bot." Starscream grimaced. "Torch the house and kill the others!" He ordered. The two seekers and Soundwave nodded, Soundwave dispatched two small robots, one red and black, the other blue and purple.

"No survivors." He ordered, the two cassette bots nodded and charged into the house. Moments later, the two exited with sadistic grins on their faces, Skywarp nodded at Thundercracker, and the two shot fiery rays at the structure, bringing it to flames.

"Good work, Skywarp! Thundercracker! Soundwave! Let's get out of here!" Starscream ordered as they took to the sky, leaving the house to burn with the dying bodies of Nautica and Lickety-Split inside. Bulkhead got up slowly and ran toward the house, barging through the door, he tried to call their names, but he could barely talk on account of his jaw, in the den, he saw them, he charged through the flames to try and save them, when he got there, he was mortified. Lickey-Split was dead the moment she was shot, and Nautica was too far gone.

"Bulkhead...?" She asked weakly, Bulkhead tried to talk, but the words couldn't come out, she put a finger over his mouth. "It's... It's okay Bulky... Leave, leave now, I'm not going to make it... You still have a chance!" She hugged him tightly, her wound still spraying. "I love you..." She collapsed dead to the floor. Bulkhead cried out in agony before running out of the house, picking up the dead shells of his sparkmate and sparkling. The following morning, he buried the two in the field, placing the broken piece of his jaw over their final resting place. He knelt and said a prayer to Primus for his loved one and his child, and left his destroyed homestead for good.

Back in the present

"Sometimes, I just wish I had known that the last time I was together with them would be the last time." Bulkhead sighed, having revealed his story to Wheeljack. "I'm sorry, Nautica always seemed to like my outgoing and cheery personality, but I know it's not for all bots, I shouldn't have made you uncomfortable." He apologized. "I just, I never got close to anybody after Nautica and Lickety died, I just thought it was time to make a friend, but I know sometimes I can be a bit... much." He said. Wheeljack felt a sharp pain in his spark as he said that. He had never bothered to try and get to know him, he just saw him as a big, bumbling, annoying Energon guzzler, he never thought about any other parts of him.

"Bulkhead, I'm sorry." He said. "I shoulda tried better to be your friend, see, thing is, I have a tough time making friends. I've gone the past couple million years thinking that none of the bots really liked me, so I never really bothered trying to like 'em back." He said.

"What made you think none of the others liked you?" Bulkhead asked.

"Well, I've always had this track record for-" Bulkhead cut him off.

"Those crazy inventions? Those things were amazing!" Bulkhead said. "You built actual Autobots that became dinosaurs, an immobilizer, little devices that made the Autobots good guys again? Those sound like pretty great accomplishments to me!"

"How did you know about those?" Wheeljack asked.

"Trailbreaker told me." He replied. "Nice bot."

"Sure is." Wheeljack nodded. "You really think they're amazing?"

"You kidding? Any bot who can always come up with something to save his team's aft has to be pretty amazing!" Bulkhead smiled.

"Gee... thanks Bulkhead." Wheeljack said. "Means a lot, and hey, any bot who can still be nice and friendly as you after... after all that, he's got to be a pretty great bot too."

"Thanks Jackie- Oh... Wheeljack." Bulkhead corrected himself.

"Call me Jackie if you want." Wheeljack said kindly. "What do you say, friends?" He offered a hand to shake. Bulkhead smiled and accepted his request.

Over the next couple of years, Bulkhead and Wheeljack bonded well, it wasn't long before they were best friends, they teamed flawlessly together in battle, they drank and talked together after battles with Hound, Mirage, and Trailbreaker, they were the best of friends, every one of the bots thought so, the two of them together even developed a new, more power efficient form of space bridge. Then, early in the year 2005, Bulkhead was sent out with Seaspray, Tigertrack, and Smokescreen on a mission to form peace treaties between other worlds and completely missed the battle of Autobot City and the encounter with Unicron. When they returned, they were informed of the body count of the attack, when Bulkhead looked through the list and saw Wheeljack's name, he was quite upset, he had lost his family and now the first friend he had made in millions of years. At the memorial ceremony held to remember those lost in the battle he ran into Hound and Trailbreaker.

"Hey fellas, good to see you made it out okay." Bulkhead said to them, putting on a happy face.

"Hi Bulkhead, we're sorry about Wheeljack, he was a good friend of ours too." Trailbreaker said.

"Thanks guys." Bulkhead said. "I'm sorry for you guys too, sorry about Windcharger Trailbreaker, I know you two were pals."

"He went out with pride, taking on three Cons twice his size plus change, it's how he wanted to go." Trailbreaker chuckled slightly. "Sure am gonna miss him though."

"I can imagine." Bulkhead put an hand on his shoulder. "I know I'll miss Jackie every day."

"I believe it." Hound nodded, before looking like he just remembered something. "Oh, by the way, I was going through Wheeljack's workshop and found this." He took a small, human sized wrench out of a compartment in his arm. "This was his old friend's, he left it to him when he passed, I have a feeling he'd want you to have it." Hound dropped the small tool into the palm of Bulkhead's hand.

"Gee... thanks Hound." Bulkhead smiled. "I'll hold onto this."

"I know you will." Hound nodded.

"Say, who want's to head to Maccadam's Old Oil House? First rounds on me!" Trailbreaker told them.

"Sounds good to me." Bulkhead grinned, and off the three went.

Meanwhile, in the well of Allsparks, Wheeljack reunited with the various Autobots that died during the battle and watched over their friends that were still living, he encountered a magenta femme and a small orange sparkling, he reintroduced himself to the magenta one, Nautica, and introduced himself to Lickety, he told them that he had become friends with Bulkhead and longed to one day see him again, and the three stayed together, waiting for Bulkhead to join them, and the day he did, he was more than ecstatic to be reunited with his sparkmate, sparkling, and best friend for all eternity. Till all are one.

I hope you all enjoyed the story! I had fun writing about Wheeljack for a story as he was always my favorite character. I hope to write more stories about Transformers again. Thanks to MadnessJones for helping me come up with the idea for this story.