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Description
CURIOSITY KILLED THE SWEEP

The sun was high in the heavens, and the light glinted off several Sweepcraft that were making their way towards the coastline at the tip of Argentina.

Scourge transformed, signaling his minions to do the same, and landed on the rocky beach.  “Spread out and scout the area,” he ordered, “If there is any Autobot activity here, let me know, but do not be seen.”

Dredclaw nodded, and he and the other Sweeps slowly wandered off to their tasks.  All except one.

“Deadfall, GET MOVING!” Scourge growled.

“Do I HAVE to?” Deadfall whined.

“Yes.  You HAVE to,” Scourge said harshly, “Or am I going to have to let Singe light a fire under your aft?”

“All right, all right, I’m going,” Deadfall muttered, and reluctantly joined his brothers.  As the other Sweeps each picked a direction, he made a beeline for a brush-filled area.

“If I know him, he’s going to find a secluded area and curl up and go right to sleep,” Sunder groaned.

“If he does, I’ll rouse him, and you all have my permission to do the same,” Dredclaw grated, “That lazy son of a Chaos Bringer…”

“Should I keep an eye on him, then?” Sunder asked the Sweep Executive Officer.

“No,” Dredclaw stated, “No sense in further reducing our scouting range.  I’d rather have you find out what’s out there than babysitting our slacker of a wingsib.”

Revenant briefly glared in Deadfall’s direction before wordlessly shaking his head and continuing on his way.  The silent Sweep was just as disgusted by Deadfall’s lazyness as Scourge and the others were—but he felt it was up to the commanders to deal with such matters, unless they directly impacted on him.

Revenant and Singe were assigned the quadrant to the north, furthest away from where the Sweeps had first landed.  Bloodwulf and Geist took the northwest, and Sunder and Dredclaw took the South.  Deadfall was supposed to take the Southwest, which Scourge himself would also be scouting, but most of the others guessed that the Sweep leader would be doing most of the work.

“Why did we even bring him along anyway?” Singe complained, “It’s not like he ever does anything.”

“It was either this, or another mission led by Galvatron himself,” Dredclaw stated, “And our Emperor is far less merciful than either myself or Scourge when it comes to Deadfall’s shiftlessness.”

The Sweeps parted company, knowing that they had to meet back at the landing site in a few hours.  Although they left in pairs, they separated even further, to cover more ground.  Sunder found himself alone on the beach, while Dredclaw combed further inland.  So far none of his sensors registered anything remotely Autobot-related.  All he could smell was the tang of the salty sea air, the odor of rotting fish, and the smell of a mammalian carcass decomposing in the sun.  But a few minutes later, he smelled something else.  Oil. That might mean Autobots—or at least, human activity.  He followed the scent, for lack of any other clues, and came to a part of the beach where it started to get sandy rather than rocky.  A two tonne bull Elephant Seal carcass lay on the beach, absolutely covered in crude oil.  It looked as though it had washed up, although the beach itself was pristine and no trace of an oil spill was evident anywhere nearby.

Sunder was slightly hungry—he had energon rations with him, but the oil the seal was covered in was tantalizing.  He didn’t believe in letting perfectly good fuel go to waste, so he began lapping up the oil.  As he was getting his fill, one of his fangs sliced open the creature’s hide, and he tasted the blubber.  He found it was tasty enough to make a meal of as well, and soon the carcass was stripped of skin and the underlying fat layer quickly disappeared.  He didn’t bother with the meat, because there wasn’t time.  He continued on his patrol without incident.

Geist and Bloodwulf were headed back towards camp, having finished their patrols without incident.  “I think I hear snoring,” Geist remarked.

“So do I, and I know exactly who it would be,” Bloodwulf growled, flexing his talons.

“I’m going to scare him so badly, he won’t be able to sleep for a week!” Geist cackled, rubbing his hands together.

“No, let me,” Bloodwulf rumbled, and headed off towards the sound.  He disappeared among the scrub, dropping to all fours.  Geist followed after him, and suddenly he heard a sharp growl, and then a yelp.

“Let go of me, you oaf!  Can’t a guy get a decent nap around here?!” Deadfall cried out plaintively.

Bloodwulf emerged from the thicket, holding Deadfall by the collar.  “Let me catch you napping again, and you’ll wish Galvatron himself were here to put you out of your misery,” he snarled.

“Okay, fine,” Deadfall whimpered.  Bloodwulf let him go and Deadfall picked himself up, grumbling all the while.

Back at the landing site, the scouts were starting to filter back in.  Revenant and Singe were already there, and Dredclaw and Sunder were in sight.

“Hey, does it look to you like something’s wrong over there?” Singe said suddenly, pointing at the incoming pair.

The other Sweeps trained their gaze in Dredclaw and Sunder’s direction.  For some reason, Sunder wasn’t keeping up with the Sweep XO.  Suddenly he collapsed facefirst into the ground.  Dredclaw stopped suddenly, then turned and bent down over his fallen comrade.

“SUNDER!” Dredclaw shouted.  There was no reply—and no movement, either.  Scourge himself quickly headed towards the pair, with the others in tow.

“Revenant, get out your medical scanner!  Find out what’s wrong with him!” Dredclaw ordered.

Revenant rumbled softly, and did as he was told.  He passed the scanning device over his fallen wingsib a few times, then shook his head.  “Poison,” he said simply.

“What is going on here?” Scourge wanted to know.

“I’m not sure,” Dredclaw replied, “But something seemed amiss as we were heading back this way.  Perhaps he encountered something on his patrol that made him ill.”

“If that is the case, then I want you to find it,” Scourge commanded, “And quickly!”

Dredclaw nodded.  He glanced at Revenant, but the other Sweep’s face—with its characteristic ‘dead look’--was as unreadable as ever.  “Take good care of him, Revenant,” Dredclaw said, before turning back in the direction he’d come from.

“Bloodwulf, Singe—go with him,” Scourge added, “Make sure he does not succumb to whatever it was, as well.”  He turned to glare at Deadfall, who had already curled up and fallen asleep, again.

Both Singe and Bloodwulf nodded, and Bloodwulf uttered a growl, before taking off after Dredclaw.

It wasn’t long before the trio discovered the partially eaten Elephant Seal.  There was still a smell of oil in the air, and a few drops of it were still evident on the sand.  “Sunder, what did you do?” Dredclaw groaned, as he inspected the remains.

When Bloodwulf arrived, his mouth began watering.  Although Sunder had removed most of the blubber, a small amount remained.  Without thinking, the Sweep moved towards the carcass, intending on devouring what was left of the blubber.

“What are you doing?” Dredclaw snapped, pulling his wingsib away from the seal carcass, “For all we know, this is what made Sunder collapse!”

“We should burn it, then,” Singe said decisively.

“Indeed, but not before we take some evidence,” Dredclaw decided.  He got out a small container, and gingerly used a sharp rock to scrape some of the blubber off the seal and into the container.  He also collected some sand that still contained some of the oil, closed the lid, and then nodded at Singe.  “Try not to set yourself on fire in the process, okay?”

Singe powered up his flamethrower and aimed it at the carcass.  In very short order it smelled like roasting meat, which nearly drove Bloodwulf crazy, but in a few more minutes the body was reduced to ash, and the surrounding sand had vitrified around it.  Dredclaw threw some more sand on the ashes, instructing Singe to keep pouring on the heat.  If there was a contaminant in those ashes that was dangerous to Decepticons, he wanted it sealed off so it could do no further harm to any of them.  The tides would deal with the smouldering mess later.

When Dredclaw and the other two returned to camp, Scourge ordered him and Revenant to get ready to leave--he was to carry Sunder back to New Crystal City, to the medbay, and Revenant was to try to find an antidote.  The Sweep XO transformed, and Bloodwulf helped Revenant load Sunder into Dredclaw’s cargo hold.  Revenant was monitoring Sunder’s vital signs remotely, and shaking his head before he too transformed and followed Dredclaw.

Sparing no time, the pair of Sweepcraft streaked across the sky at full speed.  Time was of the essence.  They touched down at the spaceport and transformed, and with Dredclaw still carrying Sunder, they rushed to the Medical Ward.  There were only a few injured Decepticons in the ward today, with some nameless faceless medics attending to them.  Revenant picked a bed and motioned for Dredclaw to deposit Sunder upon it.  Then the Sweep-medic worked quickly to open his patient up, in order to see what exactly was wrong.

“What has happened to him?” Dredclaw wondered.

Revenant wordlessly pointed to a fuel line in Sunder’s exposed inner workings.  Something had reacted with the energon and turned solid, creating a blockage.  Sunder was fully fuelled, but not getting the energy he needed to his systems.  Revenant rumbled softly, rigging up an electrical energy source to wire in directly into the poisoned Sweep’s systems.  It would keep him alive while the problem of the fuel lines was resolved.  Once his patient was stabilized, Revenant turned towards Dredclaw.  “Did you find what it was?” he asked.

Dredclaw got out the container that contained the sample of oily sand and seal blubber.  “Right here,” he stated.

Revenant took the container and headed for the laboratory.  He opened the sample container and took a reading with his own scanners.  Growling softly, he scanned it for a few minutes before turning back towards Dredclaw.

“Have you identified it?” Dredclaw asked.

Revenant nodded, “It is a rare substance that breaks down when dissolved in energon, then slowly but surely solidifies it.  It is used by bounty hunters to poison and disable Transformers.”

“Is there any treatment; any antidote?”

“There is…but it is difficult to acquire,” Revenant rumbled, “Attempting to purge Sunder’s fuel lines without the antidote might be dangerous.  The most likely place to find the antidote is Monacus.”

“Monacus,” Dredclaw echoed, “I’d better have a little talk with Brigand, then.”

****

The Sweep XO managed to find Brigand in his quarters inside the Sanctum.  The Greedy One was busy counting credits from his latest black market deal.  “Brigand, a moment, if you please,” Dredclaw rumbled.

“You’re not going to get on my back about this, are you?” Brigand asked warily, taking the chest of coins and stuffing it under his recharge bed.

“No, not this time,” Dredclaw stated, “Brigand, what I am about to ask of you is of extreme importance.  Sunder was poisoned on our mission—and the substance used to poison him is the same kind used by the lowest of bounty hunters.  I need your help to secure some antidote.”

Brigand cocked an optic brow at his doppelganger, a smirk creeping across his face.  “How exactly did the poison get into his systems?” he asked.

“A carcass of a marine mammal was coated in oil that apparently had the poison in it,” Dredclaw replied, “And Sunder was nearly joined by Bloodwulf in the Medical Ward—thank Unicron I was able to stop him before he could ingest any poison.”

Brigand stroked his beard thoughtfully.  He well knew the appetites of his wingsibs, and it was no surprise to him that either Sunder or Bloodwulf would attempt to eat something strange.  “Now there’s a tactic I haven’t heard of,” he mused, “It would appear from what you’ve told me that whoever did this was deliberately targeting Sweeps.  I doubt Sunder was the intended target, however.  Perhaps they had hoped to snare me.”

“I can’t imagine why,” Dredclaw said, a hint of sarcasm in his gravelly voice, “But the fact remains that we need the antidote, and I want you to procure it for us.”

“And what will I gain in return?” Brigand asked, folding his arms across his chest.

“Brigand please—the life of one of our Wingsibs is at stake.  If you forgo the profit on this one, I promise I’ll make it worth your while later,” Dredclaw said firmly, “Who knows—perhaps we’ll even find out who was trying to do you in.  Isn’t that worth more than any amount of credits you could squeeze from a mark?”

Brigand sighed heavily.  “Very well,” he conceded, “But you owe me one.”  He pointed a pink talon at his Commander.  “I had been treated to a concoction not long ago that contained seal blubber.  Unpoisoned, of course.  It was quite tasty.  It was part of a business deal that went sour—I don’t think they appreciated my sneaking into their warehouse and making off with all of their inventory.  But they deserved it—they backed out on the amount they were going to pay me for distribution.”

“So then you have a suspect in mind,” Dredclaw asked, “Excellent.  Now, take me to where we can obtain some antidote.  Time is of the essence.”

Brigand nodded and the two Sweeps headed for the spaceport.  They transformed and launched, their ion drives glowing brightly.

****

Scourge wrapped up his patrol of the area without further incident—other than scolding Deadfall for falling asleep again--and returned to NCC with the rest of the Sweeps.  Immediately upon landing, he headed for the Medical Ward.  When he got there, Revenant was busy monitoring Sunder’s vital signs and shaking his head.

“How bad is he?” Scourge asked.

“Stable,” Revenant said simply, “Dredclaw is going to fetch the antidote so I can purge his fuel lines.  Without it, significant damage could occur during the purge.”

Scourge nodded, then went up to the medical bed where Sunder was lying motionless.  “Don’t you dare expire on me,” Scourge whispered, “You hear me, Sunder?”  Although he couldn’t be sure, he thought he heard a weak, barely audible growl in response.

The other Sweeps were gathered in the Sanctum, sipping their energon rations and either looking at the day’s reports, or doing various weapon maintenance, or in Deadfall’s case, having a snooze.  Singe sighed.  “Ahhh, if only it had been me to ingest the poison.  I bet that I would have felt the most exquisite pain.”

“If it’s pain you want, Singe, that can be arranged,” Bloodwulf growled.

“Oh yes please,” Singe said eagerly, his optics lighting up.

“I don’t think Sunder was in any pain,” Geist piped up, “I think he was unconscious.  That would have been quite the disaster for you then, Singe—not being able to feel anything.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Singe realized, “Ah well.”

Deadfall wasn’t quite asleep in his bunk.  “Well as long as he’s unconscious, he can’t be hovering over us, ready to rat us out, at least,” he murmured.

Some of the other Sweeps murmured an agreeing sentiment.

****

Two Sweeps touched down on Monacus, just outside the city.  They transformed, looked about warily, then proceeded to the business district.

“So where is this antidote?” Dredclaw asked.

“This way,” Brigand replied, leading his wingsib down an alleyway that contained several warehouses.  He stopped at one in particular, pausing to scan it for life forms before approaching the entrance.  Reaching into subspace, Brigand produced a key—one that had obviously been stolen—and opened the lock.  The door slid open and they both went inside.

The interior of the warehouse had boxes upon boxes, all stacked in neat, orderly piles.  In one of the far rows, Brigand opened one of the crates and extracted a few vials.  “This is what we’re looking for,” he stated, “I should bring some extras, for Revenant to study and perhaps duplicate.  Or for future use, at least.”  He handed one of the vials to Dredclaw at the Sweep XO’s insistence, and pocketed at least 8 more vials before replacing the cover on the box.  Once that had been done, Brigand suddenly bristled nervously.  “We’d better get out of here,” he said, his voice quavering with fear.  He and Dredclaw both heard footsteps approaching the door.

“Yes, yes, I saw them go in here,” a loud, rather whiny voice piped up from outside.

Brigand uttered a short, sharp, growl.  He reached for his Vulcan rifle, and Dredclaw readied his own weapon.  “The wall.  It’s our only chance,” Brigand whispered, “They’ll have too many guards out front, and they have weapons that can disable Transformers in a single hit.”

Dredclaw sighed heavily and pointed his weapon at the wall, firing in tandem with Brigand just as Security got the door open.  A hole big enough for both Sweeps to dart through was blasted open, and they wasted no time making their escape.

“STOP, THIEVES!” one of the Security guards shouted, to no avail.  The pair was out of range, having already transformed to Sweepcraft mode and blasted off out of there.

“That was a close one,” Brigand said, just as they cleared the atmosphere and hit their FTL drives.

“Closer than I would have liked,” Dredclaw rumbled.

****

Upon returning to NCC, Dredclaw immediately delivered the antidote to Revenant.  The medic-Sweep nodded silently and got right to work, injecting Sunder’s fuel lines.  Dredclaw, Brigand, and Scourge all watched in amazement as the substance dissolved the goop that had clogged Sunder’s fuel lines.  Revenant had it set up to draw the dissolved substance back out of the comatose Sweep’s body, and when that was complete, he infused the lines with fresh untainted energon.  Moments after that, Sunder’s optics lit up again, and he groaned.  “What…..happened?” he murmured.

“You poisoned yourself,” Scourge informed him, “I do wish you’d be more careful.  You and Bloodwulf both.”  The Sweep Leader sighed heavily.

“Yes, I was careless.  I didn’t think to scan the potential meal very closely,” Sunder said, shamefaced, “I shall be more careful in the future.”

Scourge turned to Revenant.  “Any recommendations?” he asked.

“Restrictive duty,” Revenant replied, “The poison may have lingering effects.  Five days.”

“Do I have to spend that time cooped up in here?” Sunder asked, a hint of complaint in his voice.

“No need,” Revenant replied, “But report to me every 12 hours for examination.”

****

“Hey, get out of my bunk!” Sunder growled at Deadfall.

“Okay, give me a break.  I thought you were going to be in the Medical Ward for awhile, and your bunk is more comfortable than mine,” Deadfall grumbled.

“Probably because of all the time you spend in it,” Dredclaw rumbled.

While Sunder was busy evicting Deadfall from his bunk, Brigand entered the Sanctum.  He wandered over to Sunder’s bunk and whispered, “You owe me.”  Sunder’s optics went wide and he looked questioningly at Dredclaw.

“I don’t think Revenant could have saved your life without Brigand’s help,” Dredclaw informed him, “He was instrumental in getting the antidote.”

“So what exactly do I owe you?” Sunder asked Brigand, narrowing his optics.

“Oh, not much.  Help me with my next little sale, perhaps.  And of course you’d be obliged NOT to report it to Scourge.” Brigand said offhandedly.

Sunder sighed.

Geist looked up from the datapadd he’d been reading.  “So, how did the seal taste?” the scary-Sweep wondered.

“It was quite good,” Sunder replied, “Almost like the smoothest high-grade motor oil—only smoother and less heavy.  It was almost like…that stuff the humans use, I believe they call it butter.”

“Good enough to be worth getting poisoned over?” Geist added.

Bloodwulf rumbled something unintelligible.

Dredclaw clapped Bloodwulf on the shoulder.  “Don’t worry.  We’ll have a special hunting trip.  You and Sunder can have all the weird earth fuel you want—and we’ll make sure it’s not poisoned.”  He crawled into his own bunk and was soon fast asleep—the day’s events having took their toll.  As he dropped off to sleep, he heard dual purrs coming from both Sunder’s and Bloodwulf’s bunks.

Description
CURIOSITY KILLED THE SWEEP

The sun was high in the heavens, and the light glinted off several Sweepcraft that were making their way towards the coastline at the tip of Argentina.

Scourge transformed, signaling his minions to do the same, and landed on the rocky beach.  “Spread out and scout the area,” he ordered, “If there is any Autobot activity here, let me know, but do not be seen.”

Dredclaw nodded, and he and the other Sweeps slowly wandered off to their tasks.  All except one.

“Deadfall, GET MOVING!” Scourge growled.

“Do I HAVE to?” Deadfall whined.

“Yes.  You HAVE to,” Scourge said harshly, “Or am I going to have to let Singe light a fire under your aft?”

“All right, all right, I’m going,” Deadfall muttered, and reluctantly joined his brothers.  As the other Sweeps each picked a direction, he made a beeline for a brush-filled area.

“If I know him, he’s going to find a secluded area and curl up and go right to sleep,” Sunder groaned.

“If he does, I’ll rouse him, and you all have my permission to do the same,” Dredclaw grated, “That lazy son of a Chaos Bringer…”

“Should I keep an eye on him, then?” Sunder asked the Sweep Executive Officer.

“No,” Dredclaw stated, “No sense in further reducing our scouting range.  I’d rather have you find out what’s out there than babysitting our slacker of a wingsib.”

Revenant briefly glared in Deadfall’s direction before wordlessly shaking his head and continuing on his way.  The silent Sweep was just as disgusted by Deadfall’s lazyness as Scourge and the others were—but he felt it was up to the commanders to deal with such matters, unless they directly impacted on him.

Revenant and Singe were assigned the quadrant to the north, furthest away from where the Sweeps had first landed.  Bloodwulf and Geist took the northwest, and Sunder and Dredclaw took the South.  Deadfall was supposed to take the Southwest, which Scourge himself would also be scouting, but most of the others guessed that the Sweep leader would be doing most of the work.

“Why did we even bring him along anyway?” Singe complained, “It’s not like he ever does anything.”

“It was either this, or another mission led by Galvatron himself,” Dredclaw stated, “And our Emperor is far less merciful than either myself or Scourge when it comes to Deadfall’s shiftlessness.”

The Sweeps parted company, knowing that they had to meet back at the landing site in a few hours.  Although they left in pairs, they separated even further, to cover more ground.  Sunder found himself alone on the beach, while Dredclaw combed further inland.  So far none of his sensors registered anything remotely Autobot-related.  All he could smell was the tang of the salty sea air, the odor of rotting fish, and the smell of a mammalian carcass decomposing in the sun.  But a few minutes later, he smelled something else.  Oil. That might mean Autobots—or at least, human activity.  He followed the scent, for lack of any other clues, and came to a part of the beach where it started to get sandy rather than rocky.  A two tonne bull Elephant Seal carcass lay on the beach, absolutely covered in crude oil.  It looked as though it had washed up, although the beach itself was pristine and no trace of an oil spill was evident anywhere nearby.

Sunder was slightly hungry—he had energon rations with him, but the oil the seal was covered in was tantalizing.  He didn’t believe in letting perfectly good fuel go to waste, so he began lapping up the oil.  As he was getting his fill, one of his fangs sliced open the creature’s hide, and he tasted the blubber.  He found it was tasty enough to make a meal of as well, and soon the carcass was stripped of skin and the underlying fat layer quickly disappeared.  He didn’t bother with the meat, because there wasn’t time.  He continued on his patrol without incident.

Geist and Bloodwulf were headed back towards camp, having finished their patrols without incident.  “I think I hear snoring,” Geist remarked.

“So do I, and I know exactly who it would be,” Bloodwulf growled, flexing his talons.

“I’m going to scare him so badly, he won’t be able to sleep for a week!” Geist cackled, rubbing his hands together.

“No, let me,” Bloodwulf rumbled, and headed off towards the sound.  He disappeared among the scrub, dropping to all fours.  Geist followed after him, and suddenly he heard a sharp growl, and then a yelp.

“Let go of me, you oaf!  Can’t a guy get a decent nap around here?!” Deadfall cried out plaintively.

Bloodwulf emerged from the thicket, holding Deadfall by the collar.  “Let me catch you napping again, and you’ll wish Galvatron himself were here to put you out of your misery,” he snarled.

“Okay, fine,” Deadfall whimpered.  Bloodwulf let him go and Deadfall picked himself up, grumbling all the while.

Back at the landing site, the scouts were starting to filter back in.  Revenant and Singe were already there, and Dredclaw and Sunder were in sight.

“Hey, does it look to you like something’s wrong over there?” Singe said suddenly, pointing at the incoming pair.

The other Sweeps trained their gaze in Dredclaw and Sunder’s direction.  For some reason, Sunder wasn’t keeping up with the Sweep XO.  Suddenly he collapsed facefirst into the ground.  Dredclaw stopped suddenly, then turned and bent down over his fallen comrade.

“SUNDER!” Dredclaw shouted.  There was no reply—and no movement, either.  Scourge himself quickly headed towards the pair, with the others in tow.

“Revenant, get out your medical scanner!  Find out what’s wrong with him!” Dredclaw ordered.

Revenant rumbled softly, and did as he was told.  He passed the scanning device over his fallen wingsib a few times, then shook his head.  “Poison,” he said simply.

“What is going on here?” Scourge wanted to know.

“I’m not sure,” Dredclaw replied, “But something seemed amiss as we were heading back this way.  Perhaps he encountered something on his patrol that made him ill.”

“If that is the case, then I want you to find it,” Scourge commanded, “And quickly!”

Dredclaw nodded.  He glanced at Revenant, but the other Sweep’s face—with its characteristic ‘dead look’--was as unreadable as ever.  “Take good care of him, Revenant,” Dredclaw said, before turning back in the direction he’d come from.

“Bloodwulf, Singe—go with him,” Scourge added, “Make sure he does not succumb to whatever it was, as well.”  He turned to glare at Deadfall, who had already curled up and fallen asleep, again.

Both Singe and Bloodwulf nodded, and Bloodwulf uttered a growl, before taking off after Dredclaw.

It wasn’t long before the trio discovered the partially eaten Elephant Seal.  There was still a smell of oil in the air, and a few drops of it were still evident on the sand.  “Sunder, what did you do?” Dredclaw groaned, as he inspected the remains.

When Bloodwulf arrived, his mouth began watering.  Although Sunder had removed most of the blubber, a small amount remained.  Without thinking, the Sweep moved towards the carcass, intending on devouring what was left of the blubber.

“What are you doing?” Dredclaw snapped, pulling his wingsib away from the seal carcass, “For all we know, this is what made Sunder collapse!”

“We should burn it, then,” Singe said decisively.

“Indeed, but not before we take some evidence,” Dredclaw decided.  He got out a small container, and gingerly used a sharp rock to scrape some of the blubber off the seal and into the container.  He also collected some sand that still contained some of the oil, closed the lid, and then nodded at Singe.  “Try not to set yourself on fire in the process, okay?”

Singe powered up his flamethrower and aimed it at the carcass.  In very short order it smelled like roasting meat, which nearly drove Bloodwulf crazy, but in a few more minutes the body was reduced to ash, and the surrounding sand had vitrified around it.  Dredclaw threw some more sand on the ashes, instructing Singe to keep pouring on the heat.  If there was a contaminant in those ashes that was dangerous to Decepticons, he wanted it sealed off so it could do no further harm to any of them.  The tides would deal with the smouldering mess later.

When Dredclaw and the other two returned to camp, Scourge ordered him and Revenant to get ready to leave--he was to carry Sunder back to New Crystal City, to the medbay, and Revenant was to try to find an antidote.  The Sweep XO transformed, and Bloodwulf helped Revenant load Sunder into Dredclaw’s cargo hold.  Revenant was monitoring Sunder’s vital signs remotely, and shaking his head before he too transformed and followed Dredclaw.

Sparing no time, the pair of Sweepcraft streaked across the sky at full speed.  Time was of the essence.  They touched down at the spaceport and transformed, and with Dredclaw still carrying Sunder, they rushed to the Medical Ward.  There were only a few injured Decepticons in the ward today, with some nameless faceless medics attending to them.  Revenant picked a bed and motioned for Dredclaw to deposit Sunder upon it.  Then the Sweep-medic worked quickly to open his patient up, in order to see what exactly was wrong.

“What has happened to him?” Dredclaw wondered.

Revenant wordlessly pointed to a fuel line in Sunder’s exposed inner workings.  Something had reacted with the energon and turned solid, creating a blockage.  Sunder was fully fuelled, but not getting the energy he needed to his systems.  Revenant rumbled softly, rigging up an electrical energy source to wire in directly into the poisoned Sweep’s systems.  It would keep him alive while the problem of the fuel lines was resolved.  Once his patient was stabilized, Revenant turned towards Dredclaw.  “Did you find what it was?” he asked.

Dredclaw got out the container that contained the sample of oily sand and seal blubber.  “Right here,” he stated.

Revenant took the container and headed for the laboratory.  He opened the sample container and took a reading with his own scanners.  Growling softly, he scanned it for a few minutes before turning back towards Dredclaw.

“Have you identified it?” Dredclaw asked.

Revenant nodded, “It is a rare substance that breaks down when dissolved in energon, then slowly but surely solidifies it.  It is used by bounty hunters to poison and disable Transformers.”

“Is there any treatment; any antidote?”

“There is…but it is difficult to acquire,” Revenant rumbled, “Attempting to purge Sunder’s fuel lines without the antidote might be dangerous.  The most likely place to find the antidote is Monacus.”

“Monacus,” Dredclaw echoed, “I’d better have a little talk with Brigand, then.”

****

The Sweep XO managed to find Brigand in his quarters inside the Sanctum.  The Greedy One was busy counting credits from his latest black market deal.  “Brigand, a moment, if you please,” Dredclaw rumbled.

“You’re not going to get on my back about this, are you?” Brigand asked warily, taking the chest of coins and stuffing it under his recharge bed.

“No, not this time,” Dredclaw stated, “Brigand, what I am about to ask of you is of extreme importance.  Sunder was poisoned on our mission—and the substance used to poison him is the same kind used by the lowest of bounty hunters.  I need your help to secure some antidote.”

Brigand cocked an optic brow at his doppelganger, a smirk creeping across his face.  “How exactly did the poison get into his systems?” he asked.

“A carcass of a marine mammal was coated in oil that apparently had the poison in it,” Dredclaw replied, “And Sunder was nearly joined by Bloodwulf in the Medical Ward—thank Unicron I was able to stop him before he could ingest any poison.”

Brigand stroked his beard thoughtfully.  He well knew the appetites of his wingsibs, and it was no surprise to him that either Sunder or Bloodwulf would attempt to eat something strange.  “Now there’s a tactic I haven’t heard of,” he mused, “It would appear from what you’ve told me that whoever did this was deliberately targeting Sweeps.  I doubt Sunder was the intended target, however.  Perhaps they had hoped to snare me.”

“I can’t imagine why,” Dredclaw said, a hint of sarcasm in his gravelly voice, “But the fact remains that we need the antidote, and I want you to procure it for us.”

“And what will I gain in return?” Brigand asked, folding his arms across his chest.

“Brigand please—the life of one of our Wingsibs is at stake.  If you forgo the profit on this one, I promise I’ll make it worth your while later,” Dredclaw said firmly, “Who knows—perhaps we’ll even find out who was trying to do you in.  Isn’t that worth more than any amount of credits you could squeeze from a mark?”

Brigand sighed heavily.  “Very well,” he conceded, “But you owe me one.”  He pointed a pink talon at his Commander.  “I had been treated to a concoction not long ago that contained seal blubber.  Unpoisoned, of course.  It was quite tasty.  It was part of a business deal that went sour—I don’t think they appreciated my sneaking into their warehouse and making off with all of their inventory.  But they deserved it—they backed out on the amount they were going to pay me for distribution.”

“So then you have a suspect in mind,” Dredclaw asked, “Excellent.  Now, take me to where we can obtain some antidote.  Time is of the essence.”

Brigand nodded and the two Sweeps headed for the spaceport.  They transformed and launched, their ion drives glowing brightly.

****

Scourge wrapped up his patrol of the area without further incident—other than scolding Deadfall for falling asleep again--and returned to NCC with the rest of the Sweeps.  Immediately upon landing, he headed for the Medical Ward.  When he got there, Revenant was busy monitoring Sunder’s vital signs and shaking his head.

“How bad is he?” Scourge asked.

“Stable,” Revenant said simply, “Dredclaw is going to fetch the antidote so I can purge his fuel lines.  Without it, significant damage could occur during the purge.”

Scourge nodded, then went up to the medical bed where Sunder was lying motionless.  “Don’t you dare expire on me,” Scourge whispered, “You hear me, Sunder?”  Although he couldn’t be sure, he thought he heard a weak, barely audible growl in response.

The other Sweeps were gathered in the Sanctum, sipping their energon rations and either looking at the day’s reports, or doing various weapon maintenance, or in Deadfall’s case, having a snooze.  Singe sighed.  “Ahhh, if only it had been me to ingest the poison.  I bet that I would have felt the most exquisite pain.”

“If it’s pain you want, Singe, that can be arranged,” Bloodwulf growled.

“Oh yes please,” Singe said eagerly, his optics lighting up.

“I don’t think Sunder was in any pain,” Geist piped up, “I think he was unconscious.  That would have been quite the disaster for you then, Singe—not being able to feel anything.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Singe realized, “Ah well.”

Deadfall wasn’t quite asleep in his bunk.  “Well as long as he’s unconscious, he can’t be hovering over us, ready to rat us out, at least,” he murmured.

Some of the other Sweeps murmured an agreeing sentiment.

****

Two Sweeps touched down on Monacus, just outside the city.  They transformed, looked about warily, then proceeded to the business district.

“So where is this antidote?” Dredclaw asked.

“This way,” Brigand replied, leading his wingsib down an alleyway that contained several warehouses.  He stopped at one in particular, pausing to scan it for life forms before approaching the entrance.  Reaching into subspace, Brigand produced a key—one that had obviously been stolen—and opened the lock.  The door slid open and they both went inside.

The interior of the warehouse had boxes upon boxes, all stacked in neat, orderly piles.  In one of the far rows, Brigand opened one of the crates and extracted a few vials.  “This is what we’re looking for,” he stated, “I should bring some extras, for Revenant to study and perhaps duplicate.  Or for future use, at least.”  He handed one of the vials to Dredclaw at the Sweep XO’s insistence, and pocketed at least 8 more vials before replacing the cover on the box.  Once that had been done, Brigand suddenly bristled nervously.  “We’d better get out of here,” he said, his voice quavering with fear.  He and Dredclaw both heard footsteps approaching the door.

“Yes, yes, I saw them go in here,” a loud, rather whiny voice piped up from outside.

Brigand uttered a short, sharp, growl.  He reached for his Vulcan rifle, and Dredclaw readied his own weapon.  “The wall.  It’s our only chance,” Brigand whispered, “They’ll have too many guards out front, and they have weapons that can disable Transformers in a single hit.”

Dredclaw sighed heavily and pointed his weapon at the wall, firing in tandem with Brigand just as Security got the door open.  A hole big enough for both Sweeps to dart through was blasted open, and they wasted no time making their escape.

“STOP, THIEVES!” one of the Security guards shouted, to no avail.  The pair was out of range, having already transformed to Sweepcraft mode and blasted off out of there.

“That was a close one,” Brigand said, just as they cleared the atmosphere and hit their FTL drives.

“Closer than I would have liked,” Dredclaw rumbled.

****

Upon returning to NCC, Dredclaw immediately delivered the antidote to Revenant.  The medic-Sweep nodded silently and got right to work, injecting Sunder’s fuel lines.  Dredclaw, Brigand, and Scourge all watched in amazement as the substance dissolved the goop that had clogged Sunder’s fuel lines.  Revenant had it set up to draw the dissolved substance back out of the comatose Sweep’s body, and when that was complete, he infused the lines with fresh untainted energon.  Moments after that, Sunder’s optics lit up again, and he groaned.  “What…..happened?” he murmured.

“You poisoned yourself,” Scourge informed him, “I do wish you’d be more careful.  You and Bloodwulf both.”  The Sweep Leader sighed heavily.

“Yes, I was careless.  I didn’t think to scan the potential meal very closely,” Sunder said, shamefaced, “I shall be more careful in the future.”

Scourge turned to Revenant.  “Any recommendations?” he asked.

“Restrictive duty,” Revenant replied, “The poison may have lingering effects.  Five days.”

“Do I have to spend that time cooped up in here?” Sunder asked, a hint of complaint in his voice.

“No need,” Revenant replied, “But report to me every 12 hours for examination.”

****

“Hey, get out of my bunk!” Sunder growled at Deadfall.

“Okay, give me a break.  I thought you were going to be in the Medical Ward for awhile, and your bunk is more comfortable than mine,” Deadfall grumbled.

“Probably because of all the time you spend in it,” Dredclaw rumbled.

While Sunder was busy evicting Deadfall from his bunk, Brigand entered the Sanctum.  He wandered over to Sunder’s bunk and whispered, “You owe me.”  Sunder’s optics went wide and he looked questioningly at Dredclaw.

“I don’t think Revenant could have saved your life without Brigand’s help,” Dredclaw informed him, “He was instrumental in getting the antidote.”

“So what exactly do I owe you?” Sunder asked Brigand, narrowing his optics.

“Oh, not much.  Help me with my next little sale, perhaps.  And of course you’d be obliged NOT to report it to Scourge.” Brigand said offhandedly.

Sunder sighed.

Geist looked up from the datapadd he’d been reading.  “So, how did the seal taste?” the scary-Sweep wondered.

“It was quite good,” Sunder replied, “Almost like the smoothest high-grade motor oil—only smoother and less heavy.  It was almost like…that stuff the humans use, I believe they call it butter.”

“Good enough to be worth getting poisoned over?” Geist added.

Bloodwulf rumbled something unintelligible.

Dredclaw clapped Bloodwulf on the shoulder.  “Don’t worry.  We’ll have a special hunting trip.  You and Sunder can have all the weird earth fuel you want—and we’ll make sure it’s not poisoned.”  He crawled into his own bunk and was soon fast asleep—the day’s events having took their toll.  As he dropped off to sleep, he heard dual purrs coming from both Sunder’s and Bloodwulf’s bunks.