Chapter 18

What do YOU do during Algebra II?

... Write Transformers snippets... -shifty eyes-

It's usually my Transformers tiem... XDD

That's right, I'm still alive. I blame the long wait on school.

Don't expect the new story to pop up soon (if at all) after Wishing Star wraps up.

. Get the Transformers DVD two disc set for the special features. One disc has only the movie (DISSAPOINTING).

And um... ignore the plothole in this chapter... GWAH.

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"Move the operations inside! We'd be stupid to let our soldiers sit out in the rain when they didn't need to." Humans in uniform clothing marched in organized formation to the large hangar in order to dry off and not catch a cold. They could remain mobilized in the hangar with lookout from the tower outside. Ironhide on the other hand remained outside in the open, standing with hands on his hips and watching the sky. Rain was pouring down on them, and it didn't look like it would stop any time soon. Not to mention the daylight was fading quickly. The rain could atleast help to clean out the dust in his gears.

"Ironhide to Bumblebee. How ya holding up?" These conditions were not ideal for deffenders. And they were on their own out in the field. Well... Ironhide had human military support.

"We drove Mikaela home, and Sam is inside his house. No suspicious activity." Bumblebee's slightly gargled voice responded. Ironhide remained quiet for a few moments as he checked up on the weather. It was a pretty big storm, and would probably last all night.

"Alright... I don't know how long the humans can hold up. I'm going into recharge so I can keep watch later tonight." The weapons-savvy 'bot let his optics scan the dark sky again before turning to walk into the hangar with the humans.

"Roger." Huh. Cute. He was adopting human terminology.

"Out." Ironhide closed the communications link.

There was a sudden, loud booming noise from behind him and Ironhide reacted quickly; engaging both of his plasma canons as he whirled around, "..." Nothing. Optical scans picked up a tear of lighting ripping through the sky far away, soon followed by a loud clap of thunder. Just Earth weather. He waited a few moments before disengaging his weapons and turning to walk back into the hangar. Will Lennox was at the large opening, waiting for him. His face was schooled with a serious expression.

"Jumpy?" He asked after a moment, voice raised to clear the sound of the rain.

Ironhide just 'hmphed' as he stepped over the human and into the large shelter, which sounded like he'd stepped into a roaring subwoofer from the rain pelting at the metal roofing, "You can't never be too careful." Ironhide found he had to raise his voice a little as well. Commander Lennox turned and took up a brisk pace to walk alongside the Autobot, who flexed his muscle cables and rattled his gears a little to try and dislodge some water.

"That's true. How is everyone else?"

"They're doin' fine for now. 'Bee is keeping a sharp look out over Sam, and the Twins are on watch with Optimus and Ratchet. I'm going into recharge, so wake me up to watch for the later half of the night." Ironhide stretched a little in emphasis, metal joints in his back and fingers popping ominously.

"Roger."

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"This is Decepticon Thundercracker radioing Autobot Earth base. Copy?" Moisture gathered and crystalized on a military marked jet's wings, forming ice to coat gears and prevent optimum maneuverability. Energon lines finally felt the touch of cold, and the Seeker lowered his altitude to avoid the extreme temperatures.

"Copy. Autobot Optimus Prime recieving. What's your position Thundercracker?" The lower altitude didn't stop the moisture. But the thing that was worriesome was the static build-up in the dark clouds.

"Twelve minutes due north-east of your position. Coming in to negotiate as requested."

"Recieved. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker will escort you inside."

"Negative; breaks Decepticon protocol. I wish to talk outside."

"... Very well. I will speak with you outside. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe will be with me."

"Affirmative. Barricade and Skywarp will join me later."

"Noted. Over."

"Over."

The communications link closed.

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"You shouldn't be so distracted. You'll get a chance to talk with your wingmates after Optimus is finished." Starscream was under Ratchet's watch in the medical bay. Again.

The panel with all of his notes was getting harder to concentrate on since his processor was running all sorts of simulations of possible outcomes.

Ratchet was cleaning some of his medical tools as he stood infront of the large cabinet that contained more sharp objects than anything Starscream had ever seen. He avoided opening it since he was absolutely positive it was booby trapped to fling every sharp object it had at any intruder that wasn't Ratchet. Which was what had happened when Sideswipe had snuck in to rearrange all of Ratchet's tools in a 'welcoming' prank. Sideswipe then had to be treated by a rather pleasantly grim doctor.

Thus Starscream came to one of the first rules to live by while stuck in an Autobot base: NEVER push the medic.

"I'm not distracted! ... I'm trying to think if anything else in this Primus forsaken place that needs upgrades, if not downright repairs." He grumbled, looking down at the panel and scrolling by all of his notes.

"... Well, you're probably going to get back to more familiar surroundings soon enough." Ratchet examined his lazer scalple carefully before replacing it and looking at some of the other instruments. He could hear Starscream 'humph'.

"I look forward to it. The ammount of... concern in this base is stifling."

Ratchet paused his cleaning to look back at him.

"... I'll never understand how you can all actually work together."

Starscream looked up sharply from the report panel.

"You mean us Decepticons? We work together in a sophisticated, strict military hierarchy." He snipped haughtily. To which Ratchet responded:

"...Nevermind. Forget I said anything." He didn't need to fight with Starscream.

The medic turned around and put away the already pristine heat clamp. He scanned the shelves for anything that gave even a slight hint of needing to be cleaned, which was absolutely not needed since every square inch of Ratchet's work area was spotless. The mother of this new OCD for cleanliness was the human discovery of biological germs, which induced sickness, death, and all around bad things. With the exception of yogurt. And cheese. There was practically a religion surrounding cheese.

"... Even if this peace treaty is succesful, Autobots and Decepticons will never be able to coexist socially. We are too different."

There was an odd silence in which Starscream felt he was undeniably correct as he tried to start on the electronic pad again, and Ratchet frowned as he tried to think of some way to counter it, or atleast find fault in the (slightly random) statement. It was a subject that was constantly at the back of all their processors as of late anyway.

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"Ironhide! IRONHIDE!" Something small and hard connected with his shoulder, bouncing off weakly as his systems came to life. All at once he sensed bustling activity around him; human troops running to their respective positions. Panic swirled through the tense air, caused by all of the slightly hurried hustle and bustle. It was the excitement before a battle.

Ironhide looked down as he sat up quickly and alertly, "Commander Lennox?" His question didn't need to be voiced; the alert and professional tone that held underlying excitement said it all. He watched as the human gave one quick nodd.

"Four bogies on radar, ETA one minute." Nothing more needed to be said. No explanation about how talking to them had failed, or about how no pilot in their right mind would fly in this weather, or that no one was schedualed to arrive here, let alone a group of four. The barrels of Ironhide's plasma cannons engaged and spun, standing and taking long strides to the opening of the military hangar.

"I knew we couldn't trust those 'cons!" The weapons specialist grumbled loudly to no one in particular. He rushed to the open runway, keeping clear of the human jets taking off to the skies as he skidded to a halt, planting his feet and looking up at the stormy gray mass above him.

Ironhide opened up a communications link to the Autobot base and got no response.

Optimus was outside with the Twins talking with Thundercracker.

No one was in the main control room.

Ratchet couldn't hear the unanswered message from his seat as he delved into human music.

Starscream did not look up from his report panel.

Ironhide tried again, and got no answer.

He tried again.

No answer.

He could see far off in the distance the formation of Decepticon jets.

"Frag it all!" He cursed, moving his position to the middle of the runway in a clear spot, opening a communications link to the only other Autobot he could reach.

"Bumblebee! Keep your optics sharp and canons ready; there's some real foul play going on." Ironhide couldn't get a clear shot of the Decepticons at this range, let alone with the human jets weaved in with them. The formation had broken apart to combat the jets, scanning their forms to camoflage and cause further confusion.

"Ironhide, I'm going to break cover." A huge risk regularly not even worth considering.

"Be careful. It looks like Decepticon backup has arrived. I've got four seekers here." Seekers that were utterly murdering human jets with their bare hands.

"Optimus?" It couldn't be a worse time for him to be missing from the computer room; he couldn't be warned.

"Can't reach him. We're on our own." Ironhide couldn't help until he got one of the jets on the ground, or atleast more near it with no human jets in the way.

Two jets broke away from the aireal dog-fight to turn their attention to the rest of the government base, letting loose missiles to destroy other jets and buildings. The radio tower was taken out in a blazing fireball. There were no screams of horror, only scrambling organized movements, some humans going to almost useless steel cable harpoons. Ironhide charged one of his cannons and took aim, firing and missing as the seeker blazed by overhead. Locked and loaded, a harpoon was fired at too far a distance, the spinning cable expending itself as it reached its transformed target. The Decepticon grabbed the harpoon in the air without a problem, turning it in his hand and throwing it like a spear back to the ground, followed by a rain of bullets for good measure.

"Slagging coneheads..." The Autobot grumbled, plasma cannons whirring to life as he recognized Thrust and got a bead on him from behind.

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"Bumblebee! What-?! What are you doing?!?!" Sam had thrown himself out of bed and to the window when he heard his guardian transforming, looking at him in shock as he stood to his full height. What would his parents think? Good grief!

"Sam, get to a safe place." Bumblebee turned his head sharply to the human hanging out of his window, arm morphing into his energy canon and his helmet mask dropping down over his face. The Autobot's optics turned up toward the sky and he flexed his door-wings, alert for any incoming Decepticons.

"Wh-? Bumblebee, what are you talking about?!" Even if he was arguing, Sam grabbed up shoes that had been tossed near the window, still in his boxers and sleep shirt. He rubbed at the sleepy crusts in the corners of his eyes hurridly, looking at the door to his room as he waited for some kind of sound that signaled his parents had gotten up.

A sudden lightening flash revealed a formation of four flying in the sky, optics zooming in quickly for details. Bumblebee's cannon whirred and glowed blue as he moved out of the driveway, taking no care to where he was stepping and kicking down half a brick wall as he moved to the middle of the street. What he needed was a clear area with no humans, somewhere he could fight and keep the humans safe; out of the way.

The thunder boom followed and seemed to sweep around him, wind battering trees in the center divider of the street. A missile had be launched.

Bumblebee dodged and rolled back, trying to keep as far away from the houses as possible. The missile hit and blew up in the street, taking a huge bite out of the asphalt and tossing dirt away from the center divider. Debris flew and crashed through windows of houses closest to the blast, shattering them, beating up plantlife and chipping at the stucco walls.

"Autobot!" He could hear the distant cry of hatred through the pounding rain as the Decepticons quickly approached and transformed, firing more missiles at Bumblebee. Dodging them was tricky, since he didn't want to dodge one and have it hit a human house behind him. Bumblebee did his best to shoot some of the missiles down, watching as the seeker landed and cracked the pavement under his feet. The same happened with the other three jets.

This was no place for a brawl. Thinking quickly, Bumblebee placed his hand infront of his face as the Decepticons raised their weapons to lock onto him, thumb touching his nose as he wiggled his fingers and immitaded a sound like a raspberry. All four Decepticons just stared at him as the Autobot taunted them.

"Catch me if you can, Deceptislags!" Bumblebee turned and smacked his aft at them before running off down the road, leaving the baffled and antagonized mechs in his metaphoical dust. Cries of rage quickly followed as they ran after him, firing weapons at the Autobot and missing as the smaller dodged them, turning back and firing his canon in return fire. There was no way he could transform to outrun them, because they would transform then and catch up to him without even trying. The only thing he could do was remain in robot form and lead them out of the neighborhood, to some place uninhabited. Then, even if he lost, no humans would be caught in the crossfire.

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"This is Cyclonus, radioing Scorpinok, you copy?"

The scorpion-like mech looked up to the sky, rotating his pincers and clicking them impatiently. Optic enhancement locked on a helicopter flying in from far away.

"Copy." His tail twitched and lashed a little behind him, knocking aside the burning remenants of a safari jeep. It had taken quite a while for him to fix his tail after the end had been blown off by those flesh-bagged carbon monkeys. Now he relished using it again. Behind him was the evidence of that usage, with an entire safari reservation building in flames and pieces. Flaming pieces.

"I'm taking you back to the Deoxys. If we don't get the others back, someone has to debrief us."

"Affirmative. I'm more than ready to get off this dirtball of a planet. But it is rich in resources for making energon." He added in an afterthought. Scorpinok's sharp legs clicked and shuffled accross the dusty ground as he waited for Cyclonus to land.

"We'll look at that after we get rid of the Autotrash."

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"Optimus, lookout!" His leader was already three steps ahead of him, jumping and dodgerolling to the side as a missile landed where he had once stood. Optimus reached back for his long rifle as his optics looked up at the sky. A formation of five seekers was illuminated by a flash of lightening, followed quickly by a crack of thunder. Skywarp was at the head of the formation.

"The frag is this?!" Sideswipe had his own rifle out and pointed at Thundercracker, who just turned his head to look at him expressionlessly before jumping back and pointing guns at the three of them.

"This meeting thing was a load of slag! I knew it!" Sunstreaker growled, raising his gun and shooting at Thundercracker. The seeker dodgerolled to the side to avoid the hit, backing up more as he opened fire. He was echoed by the formation of five jets behind him, all divebombing the three Autobots. They had to move.

"We can't fight them out here, move inside!" But gunfire suddenly splattered from behind them, turning to see Barricade standing between them and the open hangar. Sunny cursed loudly.

"The slaggers got us cut off!" They ducked more fire and Optimus charged forward, long sword unsheathing from his arm.

"No choice! Charge him!" The twins followed their leader's order, turning back to fire at the jets as they ran. Consistant heavy fire forced the formation to break up and veer apart. Optimus's long legs had carried him to the hangar first, where he clashed with Barricade head on.

"Optimus!"

"Go! Get inside and warn Ratchet!" The order sped them forward, but didn't stop them from coming in close to the fight in order to punch and shoot Barricade off balance, giving Optimus the upper hand to grab the mech by the arm and throw him to the ground as he twisted and broke the Decepticon's elbow joint, using his sword to slice the arm off just above the broken elbow. A glowing green substance spurted out of the severed limb, mixing reluctantly with the pounding rainwater as Barricade screamed.

Both twins entered the hangar, optics set on the door that would lead them inside. Nothing was in their way; something that would soon change. As they almost got to the center of the hangar, the thin roof was crashed through by two seekers, who immediatly met the twins in close combat. Without missing a beat, they engaged and bowled into their enemies head-on, taking them down and wrestling with them on the floor. Two more seekers crashed through the roof behind the fight, moving forward to join in before they were hit from behind by something very large and heavy. Barricade's war cry from behind them gave each a good guess as to who it was. Unfortunatly, any morale gained by the knowledge was shot down when Optimus stabbed his sword down into one of the seeker's wings, slicing accross the back and torso. With his other hand, he grabbed the second seeker by the shoulder and rolled ontop of him, then over again to throw him aside with the centrifugal force. He made a decent dent against the inner wall of the hangar.

Optimus sat up quickly and narrowed his optics at Barricade, gears twitching in irritation as he formulated the best approach to this situation. Skywarp and Thundercracker were flanking the science officer, stepping infront of and around him since he wasn't moving forward. Both seekers had their weapons aimed at the Autobot Prime. They fired.

"Sunstreaker, Sideswipe!" Optimus dodged to the side, Sunstreaker rolling over so he was under the Decepticon he was fighting with, Sideswipe sitting up and pushing at his enemy. Both seekers were struck in the back with friendly fire, screaming and allowing the Twins the chance to throw them off and continue their assault. They hadn't counted on fire from the side, the Decepticon that had been flung by Optimus having gotten back up and firing at the Autobots. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe returned fire, trying to get out of the bullet hail as they moved. Every one of their enemies had decided that raining down artillery was the best course of action, and the three Autobots weren't faring well under the constant fire power.

"Ya give up, Autotrash?!" Skywarp cackled, moving in as he fired. They were going to be turned into 'swiss cheese' at this rate. Bullets were chipping away at their armor and bodies, crippling them.

Optimus looked back at his two soldiers, "Go!"

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe broke away and ran toward the hangar door, knowing Ratchet still needed to be warned. But having four missiles launched at them by Thundercracker and Skywarp, the Autobots threw themselves flat onto the floor. Sensors picked up the rush of wind overhead as the missiles missed their targets and hit the door to the rest of the base, the multiple blasts managing to tear a gaping hole in the door. Missiles were launched at Optimus before the weapons fire ceased and the five Decepticons advanced. The seeker Optimus had sliced into wasn't moving.

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"What in Primus's name was that?" Ratchet looked up, standing as the distant sounds of an explosion reached his audio recievers, the white lighting in the base suddenly flicking off and being replaced by a dark, flashing red. Starscream was looking around at the ceiling in some form of curiosity and confusion. A calm, female human voice began to come from the intercom,

"Main door breach. All personel please move to red alert codes of action."

Ratchet was up in a micron of a second, walking to the door with worry weighing heavily on his mainframe. He glanced at the Decepticon patiently sitting on a medical table with a tablet of notes in hand, looking innocently at the medic. The female voice was speaking again with more instructions.

"All personell report to your superiors for instructions."

"Stay put." Ratchet spoke sternly and pointed at the only other mech in the room, who maintained his innocent and somewhat attentive stare. The medic's optics flashed in warning before he opened the door and left the medical bay.

As soon as his foot entered the hall, Ratchet broke into a run, able to hear the quiet beepings of the main computer, tell tale signs of someone trying to communicate with them. Guilt had settled itself quite snugly on Ratchets shoulder, digging in its claws deep into his spark. He'd let himself get too comfortable, and hadn't been alert. What had happened while he was not paying attention? Ratchet opened the door to the main control room and ran over to the computer, accepting the transmission. Ironhide's voice blasted forth.

"ABOUT FRAGGIN' TIME! All chaos is breaking lose out here Optimus, are you alright?" There was a loud background explosion, Ironhide grunting as he dodged it.

"Optimus isn't here." Ratchet felt his energon go cold, "He's outside talking with Thundercracker..."

"WHAT?! For how long!?!? Primus damn it all, I'm dealing with FOUR seekers right now!" Ironhide raged.

"Ironhide, I'm-" There was a tap on his shoulder, and Ratchet paused as he turned his head to see who was behind him. Optics sighted Starscream swinging a heavy bar of steel directly at his head before be blacked out.

There was an empty clattering sound as Starscream dropped the bent length of steel, stepping gingerly over the offlined Autobot to the computer panel. As soon as the door to the medical bay had closed, he'd gotten off the table and disassembled it with incredible quickness.

"Ratchet? Ratchet what was that?" There was another explosion in the background of the weapon specialist's communication link. Starscream stepped forward, unable to hold back the evil smirk curling around his features.

"The person you are calling is unavailable. Please leave your name along with your message and number after the beep."

"Starsc-?!" Beep. Starscream closed the communications link and silence reigned. It was hard to stifle the laugh clawing to get out, and it felt like his grin would split his face in two. Primus that had been sweeter than the finest energon.

Casting a glance down at Ratchet, Starscream paused, then turned his sights up and walked to the door that would lead him outside. It could have been the longest walk he'd ever had, and the sight of the blasted door heightened his attention. He could hear the Autobot twins in the hangar, along with the familiar cackle of Skywarp.

"Optimus doesn't have a say in this." More laughter followed, cruel and mocking. It looked like his 'rescuers' had arrived. Starscream reached out and gripped the charred and twisted steel, pushing it open more and stepping through. The laughter had completely stopped as soon as the creak of metal reached their audio recievers.

Smoke was filtering through the air, and bullet holes and missile blots filled the hangar. It looked like a complete and utter mess. Both Autobot twins were on the ground, wounded and weakened. The great Optimus Prime was lying on the ground as well, just as battered as Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, with Skywarp and Thundercracker both standing around him with missile launchers aimed. Sideswipe was the first to talk, his voice clinging at the edge of desparity.

"Where's Ratchet?"

Starscream's mouth slowly curled into a smile. An unreadible smile, "You'll meet him again soon enough." The statement envoked hesitant chuckles from the surrounding Decepticons.

"I knew we couldn't trust you!" Sunstreaker raged, trying to push himself up to get Starscream.

"Oh stow it, Autobot." The Decepticon seeker waved a hand at Sunstreaker, telling him to shut up, then looking up at Barricade, who seemed to be lacking a limb, "... You look like slag."

Barricade just growled and waved his severed arm at him, "Shaddup, 'Screamer. What's with the paintjob?" making Starscream tilt his head to the side a little. There was a moment of silence while they all seemed to wait to see what would happen next. The mech they had come to 'save' had been saved. They had the complete and utter advantage to win the war right here and deliver the final blow. There was only one thing to do now.

"...All right, we're leaving." Starscream just turned and started walking toward the hangar entrance. Everyone was silent as they stared at him, mouths agape at the strange flippant behavior. Same old Starscream, with his moods changing from one end of the spectrum to the other in a micron of a second. But leaving behind an oportunity to eliminate the Autobot's Prime made no sense.

"Wh-what?! What are you talking about? We've got Optimus Prime here. Optimus. Prime. Did they mess with your processor while you were here or something?" Skywarp yelled at him, turning his back on the Autobot leader as he waved an arm at Starscream. His leader just paused to look back at him, then looked over at the other three seekers, who were covering the Twins. He waved a hand at them, motioning for them to lower their weapons. They did so, after a moment of unsure silence and glancing at one another. Barricade's crimson optics blazed.

"Starscream, what do you think you're doing?"

"Yeah! What gives?!" Skywarp set his hands on his hips, looking like he was about to throw a temper tantrum. Thundercracker remained still though, gun still aimed at Optimus. Starscream just turned to look back at the two Decepticons.

"Did you hear me? I said we're leaving. You need repairs anyway," He guestured to Barricade, "before you run out of energon." there was a puddle of it on the floor. Everyone was staring at him like he'd blown a gasket. Including the Autobots.

"... No. We are going to finish this. Thundercracker, shoot him." Barricade growled with finality, turning and looking at Thundercracker, waving a hand in a guesture that told him to fire. Starscream raised up a hand quickly.

"Belay that order, Thundercracker. I'm the ranking officer here, and you will all listen to me." His optics glowed brightly and dangerously as he advanced on Barricade, machine gun in his arm emerging and spinning emptily. Hungrily.

Lacking an arm, Barricade took a step back, but only one, standing his ground after that. Skywarp had lingered back a little, waiting to see what would happen here. With one quick movement, Starscream snatched Barricade's arm from him, moving his face close to the other Decepticon's, "Listen closely Barricade; I'm taking the position of Leader for the Decepticons; I'm most qualified. If you don't like my methods, then I'll just have to report that you died in battle." He waited for his meaning to sink in. It did. And Barricade's optics visible dimmed as he backed down. For now. Starscream stepped away from him, still holding his arm.

"All right, we're leaving. Call back the other Decepticons." He knew for a fact that there were other Decepticons on this planet. Ironhide had said so.

"But-" Barricade stepped forward, feeling anger build in him again. Starscream just turned around quickly and smacked him with his own arm.

"LEAVING. NOW." He screeched, pointing violently at the hangar entrance in emphasis. The three seekers behind him quickly moved to follow the order. Skywarp skirted around Starscream (out of easy striking distance) to leave, Thundercracker taking away the missile launcher pointed at Optimus briskly as he followed his friend. Barricade remained rooted on the spot, having turned his head quickly after being struck. With his own arm.

The science officer's optics glowed a bright red, and his fingers flexed and clenched, body have started slightly to leap at Starscream, but then pausing and rethinking. He was at a serious disadvantage right now. Barricade's optics calmed to a smouldering broil, visual contact with Starscream not breaking. I'm going to get rid of you.

At the same time, both Decepticons turned and started walking toward the hangar entrance. Starscream was still holding Barricade's arm. He was thinking about keeping it for a little while...

"... Starscream." The Decepticon paused and turned around, optics landing on Optimus, who was being helped up by the Twins (who needed help themselves), "... Thank you."

The Decepticon remained silent before scoffing, "Don't go thanking me yet, Prime, I'll need to talk to you later," He guestured Barricade's severed arm at him, "after you clean yourself up and talk with those fleshbags." Starscream turned around and left after that.

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Two hours later, Ironhide and Bumblebee had arrived to find what was left of the hangar. Both were immensely relieved that no one had been killed, and were furious about what had happened. Everyone had to be treated by Ratchet, who was mercifully the least injured of everyone. He had to be brought around to start though, and he'd been very surprised that they were all still... alive in general. Much praise was on Bumblebee, for the young bot had managed to fend off FOUR seekers all on his own, until they were called back. He was pretty bad off, but bubbling with pride none the less.

Optimus had been very quiet reguarding the situation that had transpired, but soon found himself bombarded with calls from the United States Military, wanting to discuss and be informed of the current situation. Many arguments were had with the humans, and accusations were flung at the patient Prime, who slowly explained everything after the angry shouts had been finished, and answered all the questions fired at him best he could. All of the other Autobots had to be kept out of the room to stop them from yelling at the humans.

Both Sunstreaker and Sideswipe helped to clean up the mess in the hangar, though it wasn't without angry curses aimed toward Decepticons. They also helped to repair the medical table Starscream had dismantled in order to obtain a weapon, which had been used to wallop Ratchet in the face.

Perhaps the one taking this the worst was Ironhide, who was beating himself up for not shooting Starscream when he'd had the chance. He could have just said it was an accident and that would end it… For two days, hardly anyone sighted him around the base at all, and he seemed to have spent a good ammount of time in the shooting range, venting his anger.

It wouldn't help when a communications link opened in the main control room as Ironhide walked in. A visual image came up on screen, and it was Starscream.

"What do YOU want you slagger?" Ironhide had spat before Optimus even had a chance to open his mouth.

Starscream just turned his ruby optics to fixate on Ironhide for a moment, before smirking slightly, "So nice to see you too." He drawled, before looking back at Optimus, "Prime, I-"

"Hey! Don't ignore me! You've got no fragging right to be talking to us!" Ironhide interrupted loudly, plasma canons engaging and barrels spinning out of anger. Optimus turned around sharply, raising a hand.

"Ironhide!"

"It's fine, Optimus." Starscream interrupted the tension between the two Autobots. He turned his attention to Ironhide, "Before you start threatening to shoot my core to ashes, perhaps you should think about how you're all still alive." It had been Starscream that called all of the Decepticons back. Ironhide just glared at him and grumbled something dark and incoherent.

"What do you want?" The weapons specialist managed to grind out in some shadow of a calm voice. Starscream just tilted his head to the side and smiled.

"So glad you could put down you guns long enough to ask. I'd hate to have to come deliver my message in person." Like he'd ever do such a thing to put himself in danger.

Optimus seemed more attentive for the reason Starscream was calling, and he guestured patiently, "Continue." Starscream fixed his optics back on the Autobot leader.

"As leader of the Decepticons, I am accepting your peace treaty."

(Ba-da-da bump-baaa!) End (Bump-adda bump-aaa!)

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So how was it? Perk your intirest? Tickle your funnybone? Take you on a roller coaster? Kept you guessing? Make you want to strangle me? I personally think over a 100 reviews is quite an accomplishment, and it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

And thanks goes out to my sister who sat patiently and helped me figure out the details of the end in this story. Which (with me) generally consists of standing and talking at a rediculously fast and excited pace while waving my arms around violently to illustrate scenes.

So who was that Decepticon that died? Iunno…

You all have my complete and total permission to write spin-offs of this story if you want to complete it. Just make sure you send me the link to your stories so I can read it! XDD

-flees into the dark void, where it shall be long until she is heard from again-