Sorry for the waiting. Lately I haven't had much inspiration for story writing… But I found a trick to it. If I read the reviews of the story then somehow it sparks me up to make another chapter. That's how supportive you guys are, especially after the crappy time I've just had. All stories were saved on a flash drive. I had my laptop on the edge of the bed, which was clearly a bad idea when my foot had a muscle spasm. The laptop fell and the flash drive broke in half… So smiles and hugs; this chapter is for you!

Oh, and someone had asked why Starscream wasn't on the list, so this'll clear it up for ya.

Chapter XVII

Skywarp and Thundercracker walked into the med bay, chuckling at the simple technology the humans had offered the Autobots.

"Is this what the humans call Stone Age?" Skywarp laughed.

"This is what they could offer," Ratchet glared. "If we even try to upgrade anything to our level, it'll overload."

"That's weak!"

Ratchet growled and reached into a drawer. He took out two stickers and handed them to the Seekers. "Put them over your brands."

Thundercracker looked at the sticker: An Autobot symbol.

"You guys don't brand?" he asked.

"Of course not. You brand bulls, not Cybertronians."

The Seeker's wings seemed to slump and he put the sticker over his Decepticon branding. Skywarp, on the other hand, was having second thoughts. He had been in the Decepticon ranks for so long that he was not sure if he should switch so suddenly. But he knew he was nothing without Thundercracker, and he didn't want to go back to that annoying excuse of a wingmate Starscream. If he went on his own, what could he do? So he placed the sticker over his emblem and stared at it. Red was definitely not his best color.

"Perfect. Now go meet with Optimus Prime. We're going to leave in a little while to confirm you two as Autobots to the Senate. Keep your patience with them."

"Which mean don't be a smart aft, Skywarp," Thundercracker said, looking at his purple look-alike. The latter rolled his optics and walked out. Autobot or Decepticon, you can not expect someone to change how they act. Especially Skywarp. It was in his programming to be a nuisance.

Soundwave sat alone outside of the city limits, under the shade of a tree. Ravage was the only one who sat next to him, knowing there was something on his master's mind. He decided not to talk first so it would not seem that he was probing or even being a little nosy. All he did was stare up at the ex-Decepticon, waiting for him to speak out. Even Soundwave knew this, because of that bond he shared with his cassettes. Not the bond they had that was dubbed as telepathic, but the one that was more organic; a bond of hearts.

"Do you remember if Barricade was on the list?" Soundwave said, breaking the maddening silence.

There were too many names that I didn't have time to check over the feline replied. Why?

"I remember Barricade was an Autobot. He also arrived with the others to Earth a few months ago. Could he still be here?"

Either that or he's up there near the moon with Starscream.

"If he was still there, and was on the list, he would have come with the Seekers."

Then he's either here or dead.

Soundwave looked down. He tried to ignore the thought that his old sparring partner could be dead. Of course the battle at Mission City, as told by Ironhide, was a violent one. Every Decepticon present had died except for Starscream, who had managed to flee. Yesterday, when he had asked if he had seen Barricade, the grunt answered with a blunt no. Soundwave had even asked a senator on his vacation if there was anything about Barricade, even if he was a hostage somewhere. The senator, seeming very angry, said no as well and not to call him again. Thinking he might have been hiding something, Soundwave hacked into the government's mainframe last night. Optimus Prime had gotten a call from the entire legislative branch about it and tried for hours to apologize. After the chaos ended, he sent Soundwave out on patrol in case Starscream or his new henchmen decided to show up again. Now the blue officer was left so bored he was thinking too much.

"He cannot be dead," Soundwave mumbled. "I know Barricade. He is not one to die so easily."

.

"Ah…Ahh…! Achoo!"

"Are you okay, Mr. Barricade?"

The giant mechanical man looked down at the small girl sitting on the ground. She finally woke up from her coma two days ago and already she had such respect for him. He might have been the one to save her life, but to call him as if he was some kind of friend? What could come from humans next?

"Yeah, I'm fine, Harriet," he muttered. "It was just a sneeze."

"My big brother told me sometimes when you sneeze someone's talking about you."

"That's a bunch of bull slag you humans made up!" Six Speed commented. "A sneeze is when some germ gets in your olfactory sensors and tries to blow it back out! Honestly, you're so stupid."

"Am not!"

"Are to!"

"Six Speed?" Barricade groaned. "I hate to interrupt your heated debate, but could you just let the girl have some imagination while she's still got it?"

"Oh, so you're taking her side?" the Mini-con hissed, glaring at his master. "If she keeps saying crap like that she'll never be smart!"

"I have a B in school, thanks," Harriet snapped.

"B stands for bonehead."

To Barricade, if the little girl could turn into some kind of wild thing unknown by nature, she would have ripped off Six Speed's head if he did not pick him up in time. He gave him a few scowls in Cybertronian, to protect little Harriet's ears from gathering such rude insults and spread them. Six Speed only crossed his arms and looked down, being rebellious.

"Sometimes I don't feel like your partner," Barricade growled. "I feel like your fathering unit."

He put him back down. Harriet walked over next to the Mini-con and gazed.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"For what?" he spat.

"For fighting. My mom told me you should apologize after you fight."

Barricade chuckled, sounding more like thunder than an actual laugh.

"I guess that means you have to say sorry, too."

"I don't have to apologize to her! I did nothing wrong!"

The police car stared at him, not taking his answer.

"Fine…" Six Speed looked at the short girl. It was strange, but he stared to get a feeling inside him. Did humans have some kind of power over robots that he did not know about? He got rid of the thought, knowing it was ridiculous to even believe such fragile creatures could have such control. "Sorry."

Harriet smiled. Of all gestures to do, she had to smile! The small robot cursed at himself when he felt that little feeling he had towards the girl grow a bit. It was bad enough he had to take care of the damned creature. Now he had to love it too?

"Mr. Barricade? I'm hungry," the little human said. He automatically froze.

He had no human money to speak of, and obviously does not carry human food around in subspace. He knew he did not want to give her garbage out of the dumpster to eat, that would seem cruel. There was also the option of pretending to be a beggar, but that would cause too much humiliation to him (as if protecting a human was not embarrassing enough).

As if reading his mind, Six-Speed said "Want me to go mug someone?"

"Well, I-" Barricade stopped himself to consider it. Six-Speed was a natural at thievery; quick and thorough. "Find someplace dark. And don't take too long."

Six-Speed smirked, happy that he did not have to completely let go his Decepticon expectation, and ran away. Harriet sat down on a cement block.

"Do you have any games?" she asked. Barricade just looked at her in response. "Never mind…"

The giant police car laid down and looked up at the orange sky. He made sure to drive three miles radii clear of civilization, even interstate highways. He had lived around others his entire life, and being out in the open it felt so different. He almost cursed at himself knowing that whatever this feeling was it was changing him, making him… human.

No! Primus Above, not human! There was no way a robot could be turning into a human, physically or mentally. It was impossible!

…Still.

.

"So they found out, did they?" the snake of a temporary leader grinned.

"Are you talking to yourself again?" Bombshell groaned. "That's strange even by my standards."

"I'm talking about Thundercracker and Skywarp," Starscream said, glaring at him. "They found out about the Rebirth project."

"Never heard of it," Kickback mumbled, crushing an empty energon cube against his head.

"That's because you three weren't even there when it was made." He typed on the keyboard to try and track his brethren. But a large red word stretched across the screen, in Cybertronian letters that were translated as "denied." Starscream slammed his fist on the board, cursing to his god, realizing they may have already swapped over to enemy lines. "Those traitors…"

Suddenly he felt nostalgic. He remembered when he had met that overgrown, spiked mech called Megatron. He remembered said mech giving him a position as a scientist, so he had quit at Iacon and followed Megatron over to the other side of the planet. He built the Rebirth machine, not knowing its purpose. He hacked into files, searching for the reason this monstrosity was built. Reading through those files he felt a sense of admiration for Megatron's audacity, if not bravery, for rebelling Iacon. Later the admiration turned into disapproval, thinking the mech was too old to run an entire army. He would follow along with this insanity and wait for the perfect moment to take over.

And the perfect moment turned out to be some small, insignificant, hormonally raged teenage boy destroying the very life force of Megatron and the All Spark along with it. Such an outrageous fool! To be killed by someone weaker than him, smaller than him. The "glorious and undefeatable Lord Megatron" went against his own rule. Starscream almost laughed at it.

"So what do we do now, boss?" Bombshell said, breaking through the Seeker's thoughts.

"Give me time to think…"

xXx

So what have we learned so far? We found out that Autobots don't brand, Barricade's a babysitter, Six Speed won't admit that Harriet's adorable, and Starscream is the genius behind Rebirth. :O