Disclaimer: I own nothing of Transformers, who are legally owned by rights and paperwork by Hasbro/Takara, blah, blah, blah.

All the world shall be your enemy,
You with the thousand enemies.
And if ever they catch you,
They will kill you.
But first, they must catch you;
Digger, Listener, Runner,
You with the swift warning.
Be cunning, and full of tricks,
And your people will never be destroyed.
-Watership Down.

Chirp, Chirp, Cricket:

"They did it to you too?"

Bumblebee, now a mere five feet tall and surprisingly very clean after being tossed out of Cold Mountain sopping wet, stood before Sari with a bashful sort of smile as the kitten gave him a thrice over with her gorgeous eyes.

"Uh, not exactly," The yellow mech coughed, bending over to pet Sari on the ears. He'd felt them before, of course, but now her fur sent delicious thrills up his back struts. Not to mention the purrs that resonated from her as his thumb pressed over a special spot, "I actually, um…asked…Sureshock to do this."

"…Why?"

"I… Well, the others aren't doing very well, and since I've always been, you know…"

"Short?"

Bumblebee cycled his vents and put on an exaggerated fake smile, "Yeah, that. I thought, since I've always been a little smaller than the average 'Bot, I could show them that being small doesn't mean you're helpless."

"Try saying that like you mean it," Sari laughed, pawing Bumblebee's fingers playfully.

Broken Rosebush:

Careful optics travelled and observed the movement of his fingers as Frenzy completely ignored the staggering amount of blood decorating his silver paintjob when he pulled the wire he'd stitched through an unhealthy expanse of flesh. When the mutilated tissue touched with the usual a bubbling squelch, the little hacker set to work again; this time moving from the lower back to stitch up the ripped skin of the young woman's shoulders.

Perhaps, and this was a small perhaps, he should be grateful he didn't have to work around that Primus awful amount of pitch black fur that would have been obscuring the lining of rotted out flesh had Sureshock's partner not been knocked out. He was never grateful for anything, but he should probably be grateful for this. At least at the moment, Alexis wasn't snapping or growling or being her usual bull-bitch self; right now she was just an unconscious body that needed to be put back together like a ragdoll abused by too many over-grown toddlers.

Of course he still had to be careful. Starscream, the flyer who bitched more than, well, this bitch, liked the little fleshling and would be sad to lose his confidant and Sureshock had threatened to tear off his upper limbs if he screwed this up in any way whatsoever. Barricade would hopefully fight off at least Starscream, but frankly, Frenzy was less worried about a Seeker with anger issues and more worried about the Mini-con who (insert disbelieving snort/twisting feeling in stomach) had orchestrated the shrinking of a handful of both Autobots and Decepticons, volunteered to help his partner hunt and kill animals twice his size and wasn't loyal to anyone but his gestalt mates and the little organic Frenzy was trying to fix.

Frenzy grumbled and went back to work, 'Now all I have to do is maneuver around the old stitches, blood and puss.'

Mission Impossible:

Yellow optics twitched with the act of trying to suppress the laughter that had the potential to send Sentinel into another hate spewing rant and the other…ahem…dwarfed Autobots into a heavy bout of indignation. In all his long life, he never thought something could make him smile so wide under his face mask or brighten his day like this sort of thing. True, it was at some of his best soldiers' expense but it was nice to feel happy again.

Ultra Magnus, standing bare inches from Sentinel and his presence the only thing that was keeping the blue plow from decking Sparkplug as he stood on Prime's knee atop the medical berth, was in as much of a foul mood as all the other miniaturized mechs but he spoke calmly and levelly to the younger Autobot that was technically his commander, "Optimus, I'd like to enquire as to what has been going on these last few days. What has happened to make the five of us like this?"

"Human magic," The semi said simply, shrugging his shoulders in a way that Ultra Magnus took to mean that he was quite used to these sorts of things happening lately, "Some of the Mini-cons have been receiving lessons on it from…persons I don't know very well. It's not dangerous, though."

"Why use it on us?" The much older mech asked, servo tightening on his tall, proud hammer in frustration. He was not a fan of being made a fool of by such small beings and despite his seemingly endless patience; he could only take so much more of this. Or hold Sentinel back, for that matter.

"Uh," Optimus hesitated, looking down at Sparkplug nervously and then to the door where he just knew the other more animalistic, insensitive and downright scary Mini-cons were listening in on their conversation.

"You're annoying," Sparkplug finally spoke, shocking not only Optimus, but the other mechs on the berth as well.

"Sparkplug—" Optimus started but was unable to continued when the yellow Mini-con went on in a voice that spoke nothing if not the truth, Ultra Magnus and the others getting more indignant by the second.

"Sureshock was the one who placed the Maliargum around the base for Hot Shot and Blurr because one was careless with not only his brother, but with the humans as well and the other has no respect for us Mini-cons. Bulkhead was an accident, but he's learning a lot in this form and you two," Here Sparkplug's voice seemed to darken for a second as he pointed at the Magnus and Sentinel, eliciting a snarl from the younger of the two, "Are a couple of the worst mechs we've ever met, and that's including the Decepticons."

"Now see here," Sentinel started, taking a step forward. He didn't get far as not Ultra Magnus or Optimus, but Bulkhead gave him a swift whap to the helm to make him shut up and pay attention to what Sparkplug had to say.

"It's true! You bully the humans and Mini-cons, dismiss them if they offer plausible suggestions in battle and have no respect for any of us. This is as just a punishment as any we could possibly give you and I'm not changing you back until you've learned your lesson!"

With that, Sparkplug ignored the shocked looks on everyone's faceplates and jumped off Prime's knee to head outside the med bay, a sort of swagger in his walk.

Can't Touch This:

The cold water—if it really was water, like Grindor said—ran steadily over Carlos' tan hands and slowly, almost tauntingly, the blood washed off his hands but clung stubbornly to his nails and knuckles. Obviously, he needed to take a different approach or this would never come fully off. He'd been standing by the creek for the last hour and only his hands were semi-done. He still had to somehow get the red stains off of his upper arms and chest.

Picking up a moderately rough stone that hadn't yet been run smooth by time and moving water, the warrior got to work on trying to get the blood out. It hurt like hell and his fingers became itchy when the stuff still wouldn't at least rub onto the stone and he felt the vein in his temple start to pulse painfully.

When he decided the stone he was using wouldn't cut it, Carlos got up, walked past Grindor and got the roughest, sandiest rock he could; some little ants skittered off and onto his skin, making their way away from the young man that had disturbed what was probably their home. All eventually dropped to the ground before he resumed his spot beside the creek and began rubbing his skin raw.

Get Out Alive:

Metal clangs were heard as they padded the earth they ran over as Hot Shot and Blurr followed Rad swiftly, the stag lifting his head to look at the darkening sky every few moments. Thick black clouds were swarming the sky and he was getting even more anxious as he called behind him for the two of them to hurry up before they all drowned.

Deciding it would be safer in vehicle mode, the dwarfed Autobots switched to their car forms and caught up with the red elk, Hot Shot calling over the sound of thunder that echoed through the Blaze Gorge canyon, "Why do we need to go so fast? It's just water!"

Rad caught his breath for a second and called back without stopping, "You've never been in a desert rainstorm, it's very dangerous!"

Blurr just missed swiping up against a low overhang of rock as a pure, bright slice of lightning lit up over them and Hot Shot smashed into one of the boulders Rad had leapt over, his hair bristling as he could hear and smell some light sprinkling of rain starting out behind them. If they didn't make it back to base soon, they would be as good as dead. The elk wanted no such thing to happen to him or his friends, and with some luck they would make it before the he could actually feel the water up his pelt.