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Part 2

Skydive awoke in his quarters. He climbed out of his restoration chamber excited about something.
“Computer what is today’s date?” he asked.
“October 21st 2008” the computer replied
“Perfect.” He said to himself.
He walked out of his quarters. He walked down the corridor and into the rec room. A place were Jazz like to refer was to just ‘Chill.’
“Yo’ Divers C’mere!” It was the suitably irritating voice of Slingshot.

“I wish he wouldn’t call me that.” Thought Skydive as he ambled over towards the small crowd, which slingshot was a member. Slingshot sat with Airraid, Powerglide, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Bluestreak, in a quite serious huddle, jets on one side and cars on the other. Skydive looked around the room. Blaster and Warpath were talking to one another, Shortstop and Windcharger were sitting at another table playing cards, Hoist and Grapple were also in the room.
“We were just discussing the merits of wings over wheels.” Powerglide explained. “Care to join our side.”
“Yeah, being a jet beats being a ground ridden slow poke any day, right Divers?” Slingshot said obnoxiously.
“You’re just blowing out of your afterburners, Slingshot. Being a car is much better than being a jumped up paper dart like you.” Sideswipe snapped angrily.
Skydive noticed Slingshot's fists clench, and braced himself; this was about to get ugly. He was familiar with this age-old discussion. It was usually just friendly rivalries, the Autobot equivalent of the "My Dad's stronger than your Dad" game, but today Slingshot seemed tense. Then a haughty voice piped up, clearing the tension and deflecting it toward a new victim.
"I believe it to be better to have the best of both worlds." It was unmistakably Tracks. As usual, Tracks was sitting alone at one of the tables, with a data pad in one hand and a steaming cup of oil in the other.
"Who asked you, Tracks?" spat Sunstreaker, saying Tracks' name with such venom it seemed more like an insult than a name.
"I was just saying that I get the best of both worlds, the freedom of a jet combined with the stylish lines and sheer finesse of my vehicular mode," Tracks had put down his cup and pad and swivelled his chair to face Sunstreaker.
"Finesse? Pfft! Please, a Corvette with finesse?" snickered Sunstreaker mockingly.
The tension was palpable. The formally gung-ho bunch of jets and cars had backed off now, watching with morbid interest as the two Autobot warriors entered their confrontation. Warpath and Blaster had ceased fire, but Windcharger and Shortstop, who could usually only be roused from their regular hexagonal card game by a full scale Decepticon attack, hadn’t taken heed of the situation. Skydive had seen the two overly vain Autobots get bitchy before, but this time it looked like the gloves were off.
"Oh, my vehicle form is far more stylish than your bumpy yellow rolling mid-life crisis, you over strung jumped up canary go-cart!"
"I am not canary yellow, you bad sci-fi movie reject! Come over here and I'll rip off your ridiculous wings! Red go-faster stripes? Oh please!"
Tracks leapt up from his chair with a fearsome roar and into a full on fly kick aimed at Sunstreaker's head. Sunstreaker ducked, and as Tracks sailed over his head he struck back with an uppercut, sending Tracks crashing to the ground with a terrible clang. Tracks got up and stared in horror at the brand new Sunstreaker's fist shaped dent in his chest hull. He bombed forward and retaliated with a dragon kick to Sunstreaker's own torso, followed by two swift lighting punches. Tracks had been watching cheesy martial art films with Rahul, and had picked up a few moves. Slingshot sat back in his chair smiling.

While the fight was going on Windcharger and Shortstop was still playing their card game.
“I’ve got ten on Sunstreaker.” Windcharger said without looking up.
“Easy money. You’re on.” Shortstop replied also without looking up.
Arcee and Firestar were disgusted with the fight and they left the room.

“Men.” Arcee said walking out the door.
The cheers from the crowd drowned out Skydive's utterances into his communicator as Tracks bitch-slapped Sunstreaker to the ground. Sunstreaker transformed as Tracks went to put the boot in, speeding quickly behind his opponent and transforming back to robot mode, landing a powerful blow to the left side of Tracks' head with his emerging forearm, buckling Tracks' face plate and bending his missile launcher inwards, much to Sideswipe's whooping delight. Tracks reached for his face in pain, as he did his left wing grated down Sunstreaker's victorious figure, removing a large strip of paint. Practically the entire audience gasped as Sunstreaker's optics narrowed.
They all knew that Sunstreaker was going to go nuts now that his paint job was ruined. Windcharger and Shortstop still hadn’t looked up from their card game. Sunstreaker lowered he arms and his grin faded. He got so infuriated, he tackled Tracks and broke a table in the process. The table happened to be the table where Windcharger and Shortstop were playing their card game. They still hadn’t looked up.
“Got any twos?” Shortstop asked.
“Go Fish.” Windcharger replied.
Without looking away from his hand, Shortstop reached down and picked up a card off the floor.
Sunstreaker took a step towards the cowering Tracks, when a large, booming voice filled the Rec Room like a nuclear powered sonic boom.
"Stop this NOW!"
  In the Rec-Room entry hatch stood the imposing figure of Optimus Prime, his face as angry as Jupiter thunder, backed up by a bemused looking Ironhide.
"Man, o'man, Ratchet's gonna have a field day with you two," quipped Ironhide. Prime shot him a look at him that could down a Decepticon jet at 4000 yards, causing the playful Ironhide to back off a step, holding his hands up in mock surrender.
“We are in deep slag now.” Sideswipe whispered to Bluestreak.
Optimus Prime had made it clear on more than one occasion that fighting would not be tolerated within the Autobot ranks. It had happened only twice before since the Autobots arrived on Earth, not counting the activation of the Dinobots or the frequent slaging matches or near misses. Prime had looked over to see Slingshot quickly wipe his smile off of his face. Once Blades and Slingshot had come to blows, Blades had actually sliced Slingshot's arm clean off during that one, then one week later Cliffjumper had delivered Slingshot yet another sound beating. So it came as little surprise to Prime to see Slingshot amongst the guilty looking fight fans in the Rec Room. Slingshot was a troublemaker. He had even driven the usually good-natured Ironhide to nearly belt him before. Prime knew this was due to Slingshot's insecurities, something that Prime had attempted to fix before, with apparent success. But Slingshot was not the perp this time; much to Prime's surprise, that dubious honor belonged to Sunstreaker and Tracks. He would deal with those two soon enough, at the moment they were in the capable hands of Ratchet and First Aid after Ironhide had dragged them, kicking and screaming in Sunstreaker's case, off to the repair bay. But for now it was the turn of the fight fans to be on the receiving end of a patented Optimus Prime stern lecture.

For nearly ten minutes he lectured them on the ethics of allowing such violence to occur, before confining them all to Headquarters and removing their Rec-Room privileges for a month, much to the chagrin of Windcharger and Shortstop, which earned them a threat of Prime suddenly becoming aware of the "secret" gambling that went on. Prime was well aware of the gambling matches that occurred in the ranks, and although he didn't really approve of it he allowed it to continue, as it was good for morale. The angry Autobot leader then dismissed his sullen troops, gesturing subtly to Skydive to stay behind.
“Thank you, Skydive,” the Autobot leader placed his great hand on Skydive's shoulder. "That was most appreciated. Of course, none of that applies to you, but I'd stay out of Rec-room for a while.”
“Yeah, low profile job. Say, Prime..." Skydive used Prime's name in the extended questioning tone that belied that he wanted something.
Yes," sighed Prime wearily. He had heard that tone earlier that day; from someone he did not usually hear it from, that Autobot more readily lavished Prime in a steady shower of low whining.
“I was wondering if I could, erm; head out into the city today, Y'see....”
“Save it, you can go.” The Decepticons would likely still be licking their wounds after the first Lyacon incident a few weeks ago, so Prime reasoned it would be safe to have so many Autobots out at the moment, besides, the newly repaired Protectobots were on standby if any thing untoward occurred.
“Thanks Prime!” Skydive chirped like a child who had finally been let out to play.
“What's got him so excited?” Prime pondered this for a second before realizing that he had more important things to deal with
“Uhhh,” he groaned out loud. “Now for Tracks and Sunstreaker.”
Skydive skipped through the corridors of Autobot HQ with all the joy of Omega Supreme after winning an hour of happy time alone with the unarmed Constructicons
That's if Omega Supreme can feel joy, realized Skydive. He was trying to think if anybody could be in a better mood than himself right now, and had so far only come up with Perceptor having a fire side chat with Einstein and Alpha Trion, and Fireflight on a date with Moonracer. He then realized that he shouldn't be thinking that particular thought as he was always wary of telepaths, and Fireflight wanted that kept secret. Telepaths freaked Skydive out, that's probably why he hated Soundwave so much.
Oh wait, that's because Soundwave is freaky giant Decepticon creep who tried to rip off your arms one time, realized the now ruffled Skydive. Telepaths wigged him, Soundwave wigged him more.
And so, with telepath paranoia eating away at his good mood, Skydive ran into his friend Swoop, which instantly cheered him up. Swoop was just exiting the Dinobot closet as Skydive passed it. He smiled as he noticed Skydive.
“Skydive!" chirped Swoop, waving.
Skydive was one of the few Autobots that treated Swoop with any civility, and actually socialized with the cheerful Dinobot. The two would practice aerial maneuvers together, Skydive attempting to copy Swoop's meteor like bombing runs whilst teaching his friend the finer points of evasive flight patterns
“We go do fancy flying now?” Swoop need to stretch his wings after having been cooped up for too long.” Swoop sounded hopeful, and Skydive hated to
disappoint him.
“Sorry Swoop, I'm going into town.”

An idea flashed through his mind
“Say, wanna come with?”

“I've just got off the horn with Huffer; He says your replacement parts will be ready within the hour, though matrix only knows why you two knuckleheads deserve them so quickly."
Ratchet walked into the main repair bay from his office. His news seemed to sail over the brooding pairs' heads, Tracks lightly nodding his shattered head, causing First Aid to hold it still while he worked on it, and Sunstreaker completely ignoring it, sitting with his arms folded and looking seriously pissed.
“Hello? Earth to Sunstreaker? Actually, should that be Cybertron to Sunstreaker? I can never tell....” Ratchet saw his attempt at humor was going nowhere; Sunstreaker's scowl not deviating from its southerly position. “Scrap you then, for crying out loud,” Ratchet's good humor had faded now, melting back into his usual cranky disposition.
“How long is he going to keep that up?” inquired First Aid?
“I haven't the foggiest, but one time after he had been drag racing with Sideswipe and got a tiny scratch in his paintwork, he sulked for two weeks.”
“Will you kindly watch what you are doing?” It was Tracks. Ratchet wasn't sure if First Aid had made a slip up, or if Tracks was just sick of hearing about Sunstreaker, but he didn't care. He carried on his conversation with First Aid all the same
The loud guffawing of the two medics was just white noise to Sunstreaker. He didn't even notice the loud, indignant cry of protest from Tracks. He was angry. Imagine that stuck up corvette insulting his perfect bodywork, and then have the audacity to actually ruin it!
I bet he's just jealous, the fuming Sunstreaker concluded. He twitched with anger when he thought about how Tracks was being fixed first, granted the extensive damage he had caused to Tracks was far greater than the superficial hull damage Sunstreaker had received, but that wasn't the point to the vain yellow Autobot. He lifted his folded arms to reveal the long, wide scratch in his paintwork. If he were human he would have broken down and cried.
Optimus Prime entered the repair bay with the heavy burden of his responsibilities weighing down on his mighty shoulders. He expected squabbles to break out in such a ragtag mismatched group as the Autobots, but not for them to develop into life or death brawls between formally close friends. Tracks and Sunstreaker were very similar individuals, perhaps too similar. They had formally gotten on well, their constant claims that each was the better looking developing into a friendly rivalry that transferred into an excellent working relationship, one that even rivaled the one between Sunstreaker and his own brother
But a while ago a bitter gulf had grown between the friends. Each now viewed the other scornfully, and for no apparent reason, certainly not one Prime could put his finger on. Even Smokescreen, Prime's usual link to the inner workings of his troops, was stumped on this one. After about a minute of looking over the damage done to the two, Prime spoke up
“Any body feel like giving me an explanation?”

The relative calm of the Athens City skyline was about to be shattered. Swoop and Skydive burst into the city at tremendous speed; the two daring Autobot air warriors zigzagged through the skyscrapers like flitting UFOs on a B-movie style rampage
Skydive streaked toward one of the colossal Human structures, as if on a collision course. At the last possible second he entered into a dramatic vertical climb, shooting up the side of the building and leveling out into a horizontal path, much to the amazement of Swoop. His Pterosaurian friend jetted to his side.
“Me wish Swoop could do that! That awesome Skydive!” squawked Swoop in child-like awe
"Thanks, I'll have to see about teaching you that. It's all in the timing of the lateral thrusters, you see..." Skydive stopped as he noticed that they were passing their destination. "I'll show you later, but for now, we're here." He transformed to robot mode, entering a gentle hover. Swoop did the same.
“C'mon, down here.”
The two Autobots flew down to the street, landing outside a rundown looking store. The sign in the window said "Hartley's Military Antiques- For all your combat needs!"
The faded sign was written in distinctly 60's style lettering, not that Skydive noticed that. A grizzled looking old man emerged from the dirty little store, holding in his hands a DVD. He removed the cigarette he was smoking from his mouth and began to cough violently for a few seconds, before snorting back the thick mucus he had shaken loose and opening his mouth to speak.
Skydive knelt down and held out a hand. The man set it in Skydive’s hand.
“Thanks, Jake.” Skydive said.
“No problem, Skydive.” Jake replied. “I saw one of your friends enter the bar across the street. I don’t know his name. He is red and blue, if that helps any.”
“Not really but we’ll find out who it is.” Skydive replied.
“Ok then, have fun.” Jake said.
“I’ll talk to you later Jake. Take care.” Skydive said as Jake walked back into his store.
Skydive and Swoop walked across the street wondering who could be over there.
“What’s in the box?” Swoop asked.
“Its old footage of dogfights from 1939 to present.” Skydive replied.
“Who is over there? Me Swoop wants to know.” Swoop said
“I don’t know. It sounds like Optimus Prime but why would Prime be in a bar?” Skydive wondered.
The two Autobots walked in and to their surprise the red and blue Autobot they were seeking was Gears and he was singing Karaoke. Not only was he singing Karaoke, but also the song he was singing was “I Will Survive.” They both started laughing. Gears noticed them.
“Oh damn.” Gears thought to himself.
The two walked over to the singing Autobot.
“Hey Gears, how’s it goin’?” Skydive said with a smile.
“If you tell anyone about this I will rip out your circuits and make you eat them.” Gears said.
“Our lips are sealed.” Skydive said.

“Good” Gears said.
“Well, I don’t know about them though.” Skydive said pointing to the back.
Apparently Eject and Rewind and snuck into the bar and observed Gears little secret.
“Eject, Rewind! If either of you say one little word I’ll rip out your word processors.”
The two cassettes made the motion of zipping their lips. Then they both laughed. Then they darted out the door.

“Remember when Popular Mechanics magazine did that feature on the Autobots in ‘03?”
First Aid had drawn quite a crowd of Autobots in the Rec room. He had come straight from the repair bay to divulge the juicy details of the after events of the brawl. He had already tossed the scraps of knowledge he had on the injuries to the ravenous huddle like meat to a pack of wild dogs, and was now moving onto the reason why they fought in the first place.
“Yeah,” recalled Jazz fondly, “That photographer really caught my good side,” he chuckled
”Oh, and which side would that be?” asked Mirage, he sounded deadpan serious, but every one knew he was playing. Jazz reacted with a playful tap to Mirage's shoulder.
“Anyway,” continued First Aid, “Remember how Tracks got a whole double page all to him self...”
“... And Sunstreaker didn't.” Jazz was getting the picture. “Man, I bet that really bruised his ego. That explains why those two have been waltzing round like Peacocks in heat for the past few years”
“And Prime spent the best part of an hour getting this out of them?”
Asked Hotspot, he sounded most disappointed
“Yeah, apparently Tracks has really been rubbing it in lately.”
At this point the Rec-room doors opened and Eject entered. He called for attention, but nobody listened
“Hello! Guys! Gears sings karaoke! Guys!” None of the assembled Autobots paid a blind bit of notice to the tiny Eject; they were far too engrossed in their established conversation
“Well, if you aren't going to listen to me, I'll just tell you any way! If you don't listen, you don't know!” Eject proceeded to explain the situation in detail, giving precise details of Gears' activities and future whereabouts. But nobody listened. At least not anybody who he could see. Exasperated at the lack of attention he was receiving, he left for a much needed recharge cycle, unaware that some one had been doing to him exactly what he had been doing earlier. Some one hidden in the support beams. Laserbeak.

Megatron sat and looked at the repair reports in disdain. Decepticon headquarters was in shambles, and a quarter of his forces were still out of commission. In times like this Megatron looked for a scapegoat to vent his anger on, it was the only way he could maintain his self-control. He looked down at the Reflector third that had handed him the report. He considered his next action before having his chain of rather malicious thought interrupted by a familiar and welcome voice
“MEGATRON,” it was Soundwave. “LASERBEAK HAS RETURNED”
“Excellent!” Megatron anticipated a similar state of affairs at the Autobot camp.
“Report.”
“THE AUTOBOTS ARE IN A BATTLE WORTHY STATE”
“What! After the trashing we gave them?”
Soundwave sensed Megatron's anger, and tried to proceed with caution
“LASERBEAK ALSO FOUND THAT THE AUTOBOTS HAVE DISCOVERED A NEW ELEMENT ON AN ASTEROID IN THE TIGRUS SECTOR”
“What kind of element?” Megatron's anger was growing
“ELEMENT AT FIRST SEEMED TO HAVE INTRIGUING BIO-CONDUCTIVE QUALITIES DUE TO UNUSUAL MICROBES FOUND GROWING ON IT. ELEMENT WAS SUBSEQUENTLY FOUND TO BE USELESS BY THE AUTOBOTS.”
“Is that it?” Megatron sounded calmer
“TWO AUTOBOTS WERE INVOLVED IN A SERIOUS BRAWL”
“Ha ha, Prime's having a little difficulty keeping the rabble in check, eh?"
Megatron felt much better, and proceeded to dismiss Reflector.
"Was that all he found of interest?”
“AN AUTOBOT WILL BE APPEARING IN A HUMAN DRINKING ESTABLISHMENT FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. APPEARANCE IS ONLY MINOR, AUTOBOT OF LITTLE SIGNIFICANCE”
Before Megatron could respond, Starscream entered the main control room. His presence was felt by all, the various Decepticons stationed at the control consoles all looked up immediately at his arrival. Starscream had a reputation, one he was extremely proud of, as someone to be watched
“I have just come back from Trypticon and had a little talk with Shockwave, almighty Megatron,” the condescending sarcasm was apparent in Starscream's voice. “...And he isn't a happy little lamb-bot”
“I don't remember killing you and allowing you to become a humble messenger,” Megatron dug at Starscream as he walked over to a communication console
“No, that's still Soundwave's lot," retorted Starscream, directing a malicious glance at Soundwave. "I was just filling in while he collected his homing pigeonoid.” Soundwave narrowed his optics at Starscream, who responded with an evil grin
“Shockwave, report," Megatron activated the monitor, conjuring up the bizarre visage of the Decepticon custodian of Trypticon
“Megatron,” there was a distinct tone of agitation in the usually emotionless voice of Shockwave. "Those accursed Autobot witches have attacked Trypticon again and destroyed his transforming cog” he stated coldly. “I require more troops to annihilate them.

As Shockwave continued his report to Megatron, Soundwave received two eject requests amongst his in-vision diagnostics. They were from Rumble and Frenzy. Usually Soundwave would ask why his cassettes wanted to eject, but he was weary and low on power, so decided to let his miniature helpers go unmolested for once. He pressed his eject button, and Rumble and Frenzy spewed forth from his chest pack like rectangular missiles, transforming in midair into their almost identical robot forms
“Thanks Soundwave!” called Frenzy as both he and Rumble made a quick dash for the exit
“Kids today...” tutted Starscream sarcastically
“Oh this is gonna be sweet!” said the excitable Frenzy to his brother.
Both tiny Decepticons had taken to the air, and were jetting through the corridors of the Decepticon base at considerable speed. As they flew, they passed a porthole, which showed a barnacle encrusted Mixmaster scrubbing algae from the hull. The Construction chemist had a face that could send a Sharkticon running for its maker, though there were several barnacle growths around it
“Yeah," chuckled Rumble. "If we can get out of the base
It was a little known fact amongst the Decepticon ranks that the Spy cassettes whilst inside Soundwave could interface, both for communication purposes and to learn of another's findings on a spy mission. Rumble and Frenzy had done this when Laserbeak returned, learning of Gears' little star turn and making a basic plan in order to have a little fun. Their plan was simple. Get out of HQ, get to the karaoke bar, and do a little heckling.
The pair arrived outside the docking tower access port. The "port" was actually a large hanger; complete with everything needed to maintain the Decepticon air force. Rumble clipped the entry panel, opening the doors with a serpentine pneumatic hiss. The pair ventured in, marching in sync with their characteristic tough-guy strut. Expecting to find the hanger empty they were thrown to find a vehicular Vortex being loaded by two sentinels.
“Oh slag, what are we gonna do now?” Frenzy was worried. Megatron had imposed a strict curfew on the Decepticons, confining them to base unless they had permission from the head honcho himself. The pair had planned to sneak out unnoticed, something that had now been scuppered. Rumble was however, unfazed. He was slightly brighter than Frenzy, and had already worked out how to turn this situation to their advantage

Gears shuffled on stage, muttering inaudibly to him self. He aligned his optics to the monitor as the music started, before he noticed a glint of metal in the crowd. Skydive and Swoop waved at him from the audience, the grins on their faces wider than the Vos canyon on Cybertron. Gears froze. He noticed the manager gesturing at him emphatically to start singing. Fear had corrupted his logic center; he had no idea what to do. So, he started to sing
“F-first I was afraid, I was putrefied- I mean petrified, thinking I could never live with out you by my slide...”
“His singing was terrible and off key, yet Swoop and Skydive cheered and whistled, empowering Gears. Suddenly, he felt good, his confidence grew
“And then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong,”And I grew strong....”
“Not strong enough, Autobum!" a high-pitched squeaky voice called from the back of the bar. Rumble and Frenzy had just joined the party

“No encores for you!” screamed Frenzy, un-shouldering his blaster and taking aim at the stage.
Rumble did the same, before firing. A steady stream of highly charged plasma particles spewed forth from the barrels of both cassette warriors’ guns toward the stage like purple streaks of lightening. Gears leapt clear just in time, the blasts hitting the speakers, causing the pumping disco music to die as if it was the beginning of the 80's
The human customers scattered, whilst the Autobot customers decided to evict the noisy troublemakers. Swoop and Skydive both shot up, drawing their weapons and returning fire on the mini Decepticons. Rumble and Frenzy backed off, still firing, their shots destroying most off the fixtures off the club, much to the horror off the cowering manager. Suddenly the roar off a powerful engine filled the club.
Gears had transformed to armored transport mode, and was bowling through the remaining furniture on a direct collision course with the Decepticons. They blasted away at him, their shots bouncing harmlessly off of his reinforced hull. He ploughed into them with an almighty metallic crash, entering into a tailspin, which sent all three titanic Transformers crashing through the club wall, and into the street
Gears transformed as Rumble lunged at him, knocking Rumble to the ground with one blow from his mighty fist. Suddenly a foul screeching noise filled his audio sensors like a thousand screaming shrike bats, causing him to drop to the ground in agony. It was Frenzy, who began to advance toward the helpless Gears menacingly.
“Hey Frenzy!" Gears' Autobot comrades had joined the fray, Skydive calling out to the grumpy minibot's attacker. "Why don't you cool off some?" He fired a liquid nitrogen rocket at Frenzy, freezing him as solid as a plutonian glacier
Rumble picked him self-up. "Why do Autobots always make such bad puns?”

At that moment, in Decepticon Headquarters, Megatron, Galvatron and Weapon were devising a plan.
“We’ll send Shortstop into the forest to face another Lyacon. In the forest, he can’t use his vehicle mode as effectively as in the city.” Galvatron said.
“I like the forest idea but I don’t think that would matter much.” Weapon said.
“Shortstop is an Autobot and he’ll try his hardest not to destroy his surroundings. But who will you send?”
“I know exactly who I’ll send. I’ll send Savage.” Weapon replied.
Soundwave lifted his hand to the side of his head. He kept it there for a few moments then lowered.
“Something wrong, Soundwave?”
“RUMBLE AND FRENZY SNUCK OUT OF DECEPTICON HEADQUARTERS AND HAVE ENGAGED IN BATTLE WITH THREE AUTOBOTS.”
“Such incompetence. Must I do everything myself?” Megatron said.
“Lets take care of these Autobots.” Weapon said.
Megatron nodded. The docking tower rose, the door opened and a fleet of Decepticons took to the air to take on only three Autobots.

Meanwhile, back in Athens, Dustin and Sarah were just leaving a movie theater. They walked out of the theater with an arm around each other. Sarah held her head up against Dustin’s body as they walked to Dustin’s transforming car. He was enjoying his time off; he didn’t get much of it with the Lyacons in town. Dustin hit the unlock button on his remote, then opened the passenger door to let Sarah get in first, and then he walked to his own side and got in.
“So what did you think of the movie?” Dustin asked as he turned on his car.
“It was a good movie, I really liked it.” Sarah replied while fastening her seatbelt.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”  Dustin said.
He pulled out of the movie theater parking lot at headed home.  The ride home was a quiet one. Just as Dustin was about to say something, he noticed that Sarah had drifted to sleep. He decided to let her sleep. She has gone through a lot in the past couple of months.
“Poor girl, she needs her sleep.” Dustin thought to himself. He arrived at his house minutes later. He went over to the passenger side, opened the door and pulled out Sarah. Without waking her up he carried her to the bedroom and placed her in the bed. He pulled the sheets over her and then kissed her on the head. He quietly left the room and went into the living room and turned on the TV.  He had to see if his football team the Pittsburgh Steelers were still undefeated. And they were. Just then his communicator watch beeped.
“This is Shortstop. Go ahead Prime.”
“Shortstop, the Decepticons have engaged Gears, Skydive and Swoop at the Athens Karaoke Bar. You’re the closest I need you to transform and we’ll meet you there.” Prime instructed.
“Got it. I’m on my way, Chief.” He replied.
He walked back to the bedroom and whispered into Sarah’s ear.
“I’ve got to go to go save the world. If you need me call me on my wrist comm. I’ll be back later. I love you babe.” He said as he kissed her on her forehead.
Sarah made a noise; Dustin wasn’t sure if was in acknowledgment or if she was just dreaming. He just let her sleep as he left the room and headed for the karaoke bar.

Dustin arrived at karaoke bar. The building was destroyed. He jumped into the air and transformed into Shortstop. The battle was still raging but his comrades were severely outnumbered. He pulled out his duel pistols and started firing.
“Hey guys mind if I join?”
Moments later the other Autobots arrived. They all transformed into their robot mode. They joined in as well.
“Aerialbots merge to become Superion.” Ordered Silverbolt.
They landed, connected together and formed the mighty transformer.
“Stunticons merge to become Menasor.” Motor Master yelled.
The Decepticon land force connected together. The two getsalts fought each other. The battle raged. Plasma bursts from one side, Photon charges from the other.

Jazz ran up transformed into his Porsche mode; his speakers slid out and started emanating light and sound to disorient the Decepticons. The Decepticons covered their audio preceptors. They all stumbled around in agony until Savage came running out of the woods and pounced on Jazz. He lifted his claw to make a swipe into the Autobot, but Shortstop came running and tackled Savage.
“So you’re the Autobot I’m going to tear apart?” Savage said in his growling voice.
“Well you got the first part right. But I think I’ll be the one that will be doing the tearing apart here.” Shortstop said arrogantly.
“We’ll see about that Autobot.”
Savage turned around and ran into the woods and disappeared. Shortstop ran after him. The fight continued without the two warriors.

Shortstop walked cautiously through the woods. He looked around with every step he took. As he stepped through the woods he was being watched by Savage.
“I can see you Autobot. Can you see me?”
“Obviously not since you are asking me this.”
“You sarcasm will not save you, Autobot.”

The Lyacon charged at the Autobot. Shortstop turned around just in time to see Savage attack. Shortstop strafed to the side but was hit in the shoulder by Savage’s paw. He watched Savage circle him. Then he attacked again. He jumped on Shortstop. The Autobot lost his footing and fell over. Savage pinned him down.
“Now Autobot you will die.”
Shortstop struggled to gain some sort of advantage. Then he transformed into his vehicle mode and sped out from underneath of Savage. He transformed back into his robot mode and readied himself for another attack. Savage attacked again. This time Shortstop pulled out his spoiler and used is as a shield against the ex-Predacon’s attack.  He hit Savage across the face with it, knocking him over. Savage got up and stared down the Autobot.
“You think you have what it takes to beat me, Autobot?” Savage growled.
“Yeah I do.”
Savage charged again. This time Shortstop pulled out his duel pistols stuck them together, flipped them around and hit Savage in the face with the handles. The Lyacon withdrew his attack and stumbled around. Then faced Shortstop and charged. He pounced on him; he drove his claw into the left shoulder joint of the headmaster.  Shortstop punched Savage across the face then used his foot to push his enemy off of him. Savage attempted to get up but Shortstop kicked him in the face.  The Lyacon fell over. Shortstop looked at his wound. Sparks flew out of the exposed circuitry.
“Damn, that hurt. I’m going to feel that in the morning.” Shortstop thought to himself.
He looked over to his fallen enemy. Savage started to get up; he collapsed and lay there. Shortstop raised his spoiler to make a final blow but his arms wouldn’t let him do it. He lowered his weapon and placed it on his back. He then picked up the fallen Lyacon and carried out of the woods. As he returned from the woods, the other Transformers stopped fighting to see what the headmaster was up to.

The Decepticons, noticed that they had lost this fight, left the scene.
“What are you doing?” Cliffjumper said.

“I couldn’t just leave him there. I think when I bashed him in the head it messed up his personality and identity components and now I think we could repair him as an Autobot.” Shortstop replied.
“Ratchet, transform.”
The medic did as he was told and Shortstop placed the injured Lyacon inside. The victorious Autobots returned to their base, with the exception of Gears, Swoop and Skydive, they went to another karaoke bar to finish the song.
At the Autobot base, Shortstop was full of himself. Why wouldn’t he be? He had just beaten two Lyacons: The Decepticons that never lose.
“That’s two of them that I have beaten.”
He raised his arm and dropped his hand as if he were shooting a basketball one handed.
“Count it.” He said with a smile.
Meanwhile in the repair bay, Ratchet and Wheeljack were working on Savage.
“Can you repair him?” Prime asked.
“It can be done. I just feel weird repairing a Decepticon.”
“He’s no longer a Decepticon. He is an Autobot now.” Prime stated while looking at the black panther.
“This gives me an idea. Prime, with your permission I would like to create new Autobots. Only this time they’re animals and are able to take on Predaking.” Wheeljack said with sound of a child asking its mother for a new toy.
Prime pondered the thought for a moment.
“Hmm, animal Autobots. You have my authorization.”

Sunstreaker sat and sulked. He was perched atop of a hill overlooking Autobot City, watching the sunset. The burning light of the Earth's sun caught his newly redone paintwork, and reflected off of it with the magnificent glowing brilliance of a supernova.
“Wow, I'm just the greatest”, thought Sunstreaker with a smile. His spirits were lifted. He took a deep sample of the cool twilight air with his factory sensors. It's good to be online, he realized with another smile
“Hey,” a voice came from behind him. It was Tracks. "Nice up here, is it not?"
Sunstreaker's smile faded as he proceeded to ignore Tracks. The light of the sunset reflected off of Tracks' body now, directly into Sunstreaker's optics. He put a hand up to shield them with a sigh of annoyance.
“Oh, sorry about that. Look...” Tracks stopped as Sunstreaker raised his hand.
Looking into the flaming tangerine sky had made Sunstreaker realize that life was too short for petty arguments over magazine centerfolds. After all, there were plenty of other magazines, and he knew he was the better looking.
“Save it,” Sunstreaker extended his hand with a smile. Tracks shook it, returning Sunstreaker's smile. Tracks the noticed a dust cloud in the distance on the road leading to Autobot City. Scanning the horizon he found the cloud to be from Gears, with Skydive and Swoop overhead
“Say, here comes Gears. Do you want to race down to the bottom to ask him about that Karaoke thing Eject has been telling everyone?” he asked Sunstreaker
Sunstreaker answered by transforming and bombing down the hill at top speed, crunching various sticks and twigs under his super tough tires as he went

“Hey wait!” called the irritated Tracks as he transformed. Gears was in for a very bad night...

Part 3

Dustin awoke from his sleep, cold. It was mid-January and the heater hadn’t kicked on yet. He looked at his clock; it was only 9:35. He sighed; he hated waking up because he was cold or the neighbor’s dogs were barking or even the fact that the Decepticons were attacking.  He looked over at his sleeping fiancé. He watched her lie there. She looked so peaceful. He ran his fingers lightly over her face. He lay back down and continued to watch her. She slowly opened her eyes and noticed that he was watching her. They gazed into each other’s eyes. She shifted herself closer to him. He wrapped his arms around her and ran his hands up and down her arms to warm her up.  He held her close; he kissed her.
“Hungry?” he asked
She nodded.
“Good.  ‘Cause I’m going to make you breakfast and you are going to just lay there in bed.”
Dustin hopped out of bed walked to the door way, stopped walked back to Sarah kissed her then continued down to the kitchen and started cooking. Sarah just smiled, leaned back and pulled the covers over her head. She lied there thinking about the upcoming wedding. Of course the wedding was in September but she was a girl and she thought of that day since the day she was born, and of course she never thought she’d marry an Autobot. She was excited, but she was also excited about that night. She and Dustin were invited to a banquet. The banquet was in Shortstop’s honor and all the things he has done for the world. Her mind shifted from the banquet to the wedding. She just smiled at the thought of her marrying an Autobot. She closed her eyes and fell back asleep.

“So almighty Megatron, what brilliant plan do you have for the Autobots today?” Starscream said with his usual sarcastic tone.
Megatron was still being tormented by the ghost of Starscream. Megatron walked around the Decepticon control room, planning and waiting.  He would probably join the Autobots if that would get Starscream out of his system.
“Nothing that concerns you.”
“Nothing is right, Megatron, you don’t have a plan. You just have those stupid Lyacons here. And all you are going to do is just send one in and get slagged by that putrid Autobot, Shortstop. Forget this I’m going to annoy Zarek and the other headmasters at the Scorpinok base.”
Starscream walked through the wall and headed for the other Decepticon base.
“Man he gives me the surges.” Rumble said.
“Why won’t he just die already?” Megatron said to himself.
“He is dead but his ghost”

Rumble didn’t have the chance to finish his sentence without being kicked across the room by his leader.
“Soundwave activate Laserbeak. Send him to spy on Shortstop.”
“LASERBEAK EJECT OPERATION RECONNAISSANCE”.
The subordinate tape deck released Laserbeak and sent him to Shortstop’s house.

Laserbeak arrived at Dustin’s house. He landed on a tree branch. The branch almost gave way. Real birds took off out of the tree and a squirrel jumped from that tree to a neighboring tree. A camera slid out from the top of the Decepticon’s head. He began recording. He recorded Dustin walking up to the upper level of the house and serving Sarah breakfast.  Sarah looked excited. After he set the tray on her lap, he walked to the other side and sat on the bed. He leaned up against the headboard. He watched Dustin pick up his watch communicator and talk into it. He leaned over and kissed Sarah, and then he got up and left. Laserbeak followed him to Autobot City. Laserbeak stayed high with the clouds so not to be seen. Dustin arrived at Autobot City and transformed into Shortstop. Laserbeak secretly followed the headmaster into the base. Shortstop walked down the corridor. He stopped and turned around as if he heard something. He saw nothing then continued on his way. Laserbeak continued to follow. Shortstop entered the war room.  Laserbeak flew up to the support beams and perched himself there to spy on the Autobots.
“Shortstop, we picked up some Decepticon activity near your house. It disappeared when we contacted you.” Wheeljack reported.
“That’s not surprising.” Shortstop replied.
“Did you see anything unusual when you left?” Prime asked.
Shortstop tried to think of anything but nothing came to mind. He shook his head.
“You think the Decepticons are up to something?”
“They’re always up to something.” Prime replied.
Shortstop sighed.  The door opened then closed. The three Autobots looked back and saw nothing.
“Wheeljack set Laser Cannon Alpha to Sector 001 and fire.” Shortstop ordered.
Wheeljack looked at him.
“Just do it.”
Wheeljack pressed a buttons on the console. Outside of Autobot City, the laser cannon moved and fired. The three Autobots looked on the screen to see if they hit Shortstop’s target.
“Magnify.” Prime ordered.
Wheeljack pressed another button and the image on the screen got bigger. It was Laserbeak. Just then the photon blast hit the Decepticon spy. Laserbeak flew off leaving a trail of smoke all the way back to Decepticon Headquarters.
“How did you know?” Wheeljack asked.
“Well I heard something in the corridor on my way to war room. Then the door opening and closing on its own. I figured either Metroplex was malfunctioning or we had a spy and I picked the latter. And of course I knew the firing coordinates of the front hatch.”
“Good job.” Prime appraised.

Laserbeak returned to Decepticon Headquarters.
“LASERBEAK HAS RETURNED, MEGATRON.” Soundwave reported.
“Good, playback Laserbeak’s findings.”
The damaged cassette flew into Soundwave’s chest. Soundwave transformed into his cassette player mode and attached himself to a monitor. The monitor’s screen popped on and a summary of the images Laserbeak recorded flashed on the screen.
“Nothing of any importance.” Megatron said.
“All of it is important.” Weapon said. “We need to find his weaknesses and apparently his fiancé is his biggest weakness.”
“I could have told you that.” A voice said from behind them.
They looked behind them and saw Starscream standing there, leaning up against the wall.
“I could have also told you that those two are going to a function that the flesh creatures call a ‘banquet’ in honor of the Autobot. You could attack him there. The Autobots will more than likely restrain themselves from fighting with all of the flesh creatures there.”
Weapon nodded in agreement. Starscream looked over at Megatron to see if he approved of the idea. Megatron stood there for a moment thinking then nodded. The plan was set. They’ll attack Shortstop at the banquet.

Optimus Prime stood at the big screen monitor with his hands behind his back. Shortstop walked into the room.
“Hey Optimus whats up?”
Prime slightly turned towards Shortstop then turned back to the screen.
“I’m waiting for the Decepticons to strike.”
“Do you think the Decepticons are going to try and crash the party tonight?”
Prime nodded.
“Figured.”
The two warriors stood there watching the screen for a moment.
“The banquet is at 18:30 and its 17:30. I’m going back to my place and get ready. With your permission of course, Prime.”
Prime nodded. Shortstop walked out the door and out of Autobot City. He transformed into his vehicle mode and sped off.

He later arrived at his house. A couple of lights were on. He could see Sarah’s shadow in the bedroom window. He walked in and up to the bedroom. He pulled off his body armor lied it on the floor. Sarah walked out of the bathroom wearing only a towel.
“Damn you look hot.”
Sarah blushed. Dustin walked over to her, held her chin and kissed her.
“I’m going to get ready.”
“Ok Hun.”
He pulled off his shirt and walked into the bathroom. Sarah looked at him and couldn’t stop. She smiled and continued to get ready.

“Who are you sending now?” Galvatron asked.
“Holocaust.” Replied the Lyacon leader.

He pressed a button on his right forearm.
“Holocaust report to me at once.”
Moments later a big ogre looking Decepticon walked in.
“What is your bidding, my master?”
“Boy is somebody is whipped.” Rumble said.
Holocaust walked over and kicked the Decepticon cassette across the room. Rumble got up and stumbled around abit.
“Man I can’t win today.”
Frenzy grabbed hold of his brother and kept him from falling over.
“It is your turn now.” Weapon said.
Holocaust nodded.
“Decepticons, take to the air.” Megatron ordered.
The docking tower rose out of the water and the Decepticons left to battle the Autobots.

The Autobots arrived at the banquet. Shortstop hadn’t arrived yet.
“Where is Shortstop?” Asked Ironhide.
Just then Shortstop pulled in.
“Oh there he is. Took him long enough.”  Bluestreak said.
“Sorry we’re late. We got a little preoccupied.” Dustin said.
Dustin was wearing a blue button up shirt, with black pants and a black tie. Sarah was wearing a red button up shirt, with a black mini skirt and black knee high boots. She wore her hair down for the event.  They all entered the building. The building was big, three rows of tables running parallel to each other. The Autobots lined up along side of the walls.  A table and a podium were set on the stage. Dustin and Sarah sat at the head table next to the podium. Everybody was seated and a middle aged guy walked up to the podium to begin his speech.
“Thanks for coming.” The man started to say.
“Don’t mind if we do.”  Megatron said as he destroyed the farthest wall away from the podium.
“Damn can’t we have one good moment without them messin’ it up for us?” Shortstop thought to himself.
“Autobots protect the humans.” Prime ordered.
People scattered as they tried to get away from the Decepticons. Dustin grabbed Sarah by the hand and guided her out of harms way. They got to Dustin’s car. He opened the trunk to put on his exosuit.
“Man, I feel like batman.”
Sarah giggled. Dustin finished putting on his exosuit. He kissed her then put on his helmet. He jumped into the air and connected with the body.
“Alright time to go to work.”

He walked around to the other side of the building. Dirge ambushed him. Shortstop struggled with Dirge on his back. He reached behind him grabbed Dirge by the vents of his jet part of his body and threw him into a wall. The Autobots fired their weapons at the Decepticons who were doing the same. Optimus was facing off against Megatron.  Prime threw a right hook, Megatron dodged it. Prime spun around and hit Megatron across the face with his forearm. The Decepticon leader stumbled. Just then a gust of wind came up overwhelming the warriors. They all covered they’re optics. Then a huge Decepticon landed in the middle of the fighting. He was much taller than Shortstop. Two vents came up to the side of his head. Rockets lined up the side of him. He didn’t walk normally; when he walked he looked like he was trying to march.
“I’ve got him. Everybody stand back.” Shortstop said arrogantly.
He took off running at him and jumped in the air. He smacked into the chest of him and slowly slid off. Shortstop stumbled around.
“Man that didn’t go as well as planned.”
Holocaust lifted his hands above his head, clasped both hands together and brought them down on top of Shortstop. The Headmaster fell to the ground. Holocaust walked to Shortstop. Shortstop was on the ground on his hands and knees. Then he looked back and kicked Holocaust in the knee. He grabbed the foot and picked up the headmaster, swung him around and threw him into a building.
“Oh I like him.” Megatron said.
Shortstop transformed and sped towards the Lyacon. At the last moment he transformed, kept both feet together and kicked Holocaust in the face. The Lyacon finally stumbled. Shortstop aimed his arm lasers at him and fired. Holocaust kept stumbling back. Then he pulled out his duel pistols and continued to fire. Holocaust fired rockets at the Autobot. At the last moment, Shortstop pulled out his spoiler and used as a shield and repelled the rockets. Then he used the spoiler as a boomerang and threw it. The boomerang flew through the air and right through Lyacon’s arm. The arm fell to the ground. Holocaust looked at the disconnected limb. Then the boomerang came back and sliced through the other arm. Holocaust looked at the other fallen arm. Then looked at his attacker. Who jumped into the air and used the spoiler as a sword and sliced right down the middle of Holocaust. The Lyacon split into to pieces and fell to the ground. Sparks flew out of the ruptured circuits. Shortstop started to walk away.
“Some warrior.” Megatron said.
“Just wait.” Weapon said holding a hand up.
Shortstop heard something. He turned around to see the pieces connecting together.
“Oh damn it.” Shortstop sighed.
The body was almost complete. While it was coming together it was transforming. It transformed into a self-standing rocket launcher. It aimed itself at Shortstop and fired. The rocket nailed him in the chest. The Autobot went flying through the air. He fired another rocket. Shortstop blocked it with his forearm. The rocket went flying into the air and then started to descend. The rocket came back down and hit Holocaust. Holocaust transformed back into his robot mode. Shortstop charged at him, firing with his arm lasers. He then transformed into his vehicle mode and ran into Holocaust. The Lyacon grabbed a hold of the car and threw it on its top. Shortstop transformed back into robot mode to find that Holocaust had gotten on top and put his hands around his neck.
“Die Autobot. It’s a pity you Autobots die so easily or I might have a sense of satisfaction now.”
While on the ground, Shortstop was trying everything he could to get the big oaf off of him. Then he saw her. Sarah came into view.

“I promised her I’d always be there for her. I promised her that we would get married and I’m not going to break that promise.”  He thought to himself.
Shortstop threw a right hook that connected with Holocaust’s jaw.  The impact jarred the Lyacon and he stumbled off of him. Shortstop got up. He pulled out his spoiler again. He looked at it then stared down Holocaust, who began to run at him. He cocked his arm back, then threw it forward and let go of the boomerang. The boomerang sliced through the torso of Holocaust. The two pieces fell to the ground.
“Not again.” Shortstop said as he aimed his arm laser at the head of his attacker and fired. The head exploded. Just to be sure the body still wouldn’t come back together he fired at the remaining parts, they too exploded. Nothing was left of the Lyacon.
He turned to the Decepticons and held up his middle, ring and pinkie fingers.
“That’s three Lyacons you sent after me and that’s three Lyacons I sent to the scrap heap.”
Infuriated Megatron flew off. The other Decepticons followed their leader. The other Autobots engulfed their victorious companion. Sarah stood to the side so the joyful Autobots wouldn’t step her on. Shortstop transformed back into vehicle mode and Dustin came over and hugged Sarah still wearing his exosuit.
“You gave me the strength to defeat him.”
“I know, somehow I sensed what you were feeling.”
She kissed him then hugged him again.
“So much for the awards banquet.” She said.
“Eh, I never liked banquets that much anyway.”
“Alright Autobots, lets roll for home.” Prime said as he transformed into his semi form and rolled out.

Description
Part 2

Skydive awoke in his quarters. He climbed out of his restoration chamber excited about something.
“Computer what is today’s date?” he asked.
“October 21st 2008” the computer replied
“Perfect.” He said to himself.
He walked out of his quarters. He walked down the corridor and into the rec room. A place were Jazz like to refer was to just ‘Chill.’
“Yo’ Divers C’mere!” It was the suitably irritating voice of Slingshot.

“I wish he wouldn’t call me that.” Thought Skydive as he ambled over towards the small crowd, which slingshot was a member. Slingshot sat with Airraid, Powerglide, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Bluestreak, in a quite serious huddle, jets on one side and cars on the other. Skydive looked around the room. Blaster and Warpath were talking to one another, Shortstop and Windcharger were sitting at another table playing cards, Hoist and Grapple were also in the room.
“We were just discussing the merits of wings over wheels.” Powerglide explained. “Care to join our side.”
“Yeah, being a jet beats being a ground ridden slow poke any day, right Divers?” Slingshot said obnoxiously.
“You’re just blowing out of your afterburners, Slingshot. Being a car is much better than being a jumped up paper dart like you.” Sideswipe snapped angrily.
Skydive noticed Slingshot's fists clench, and braced himself; this was about to get ugly. He was familiar with this age-old discussion. It was usually just friendly rivalries, the Autobot equivalent of the "My Dad's stronger than your Dad" game, but today Slingshot seemed tense. Then a haughty voice piped up, clearing the tension and deflecting it toward a new victim.
"I believe it to be better to have the best of both worlds." It was unmistakably Tracks. As usual, Tracks was sitting alone at one of the tables, with a data pad in one hand and a steaming cup of oil in the other.
"Who asked you, Tracks?" spat Sunstreaker, saying Tracks' name with such venom it seemed more like an insult than a name.
"I was just saying that I get the best of both worlds, the freedom of a jet combined with the stylish lines and sheer finesse of my vehicular mode," Tracks had put down his cup and pad and swivelled his chair to face Sunstreaker.
"Finesse? Pfft! Please, a Corvette with finesse?" snickered Sunstreaker mockingly.
The tension was palpable. The formally gung-ho bunch of jets and cars had backed off now, watching with morbid interest as the two Autobot warriors entered their confrontation. Warpath and Blaster had ceased fire, but Windcharger and Shortstop, who could usually only be roused from their regular hexagonal card game by a full scale Decepticon attack, hadn’t taken heed of the situation. Skydive had seen the two overly vain Autobots get bitchy before, but this time it looked like the gloves were off.
"Oh, my vehicle form is far more stylish than your bumpy yellow rolling mid-life crisis, you over strung jumped up canary go-cart!"
"I am not canary yellow, you bad sci-fi movie reject! Come over here and I'll rip off your ridiculous wings! Red go-faster stripes? Oh please!"
Tracks leapt up from his chair with a fearsome roar and into a full on fly kick aimed at Sunstreaker's head. Sunstreaker ducked, and as Tracks sailed over his head he struck back with an uppercut, sending Tracks crashing to the ground with a terrible clang. Tracks got up and stared in horror at the brand new Sunstreaker's fist shaped dent in his chest hull. He bombed forward and retaliated with a dragon kick to Sunstreaker's own torso, followed by two swift lighting punches. Tracks had been watching cheesy martial art films with Rahul, and had picked up a few moves. Slingshot sat back in his chair smiling.

While the fight was going on Windcharger and Shortstop was still playing their card game.
“I’ve got ten on Sunstreaker.” Windcharger said without looking up.
“Easy money. You’re on.” Shortstop replied also without looking up.
Arcee and Firestar were disgusted with the fight and they left the room.

“Men.” Arcee said walking out the door.
The cheers from the crowd drowned out Skydive's utterances into his communicator as Tracks bitch-slapped Sunstreaker to the ground. Sunstreaker transformed as Tracks went to put the boot in, speeding quickly behind his opponent and transforming back to robot mode, landing a powerful blow to the left side of Tracks' head with his emerging forearm, buckling Tracks' face plate and bending his missile launcher inwards, much to Sideswipe's whooping delight. Tracks reached for his face in pain, as he did his left wing grated down Sunstreaker's victorious figure, removing a large strip of paint. Practically the entire audience gasped as Sunstreaker's optics narrowed.
They all knew that Sunstreaker was going to go nuts now that his paint job was ruined. Windcharger and Shortstop still hadn’t looked up from their card game. Sunstreaker lowered he arms and his grin faded. He got so infuriated, he tackled Tracks and broke a table in the process. The table happened to be the table where Windcharger and Shortstop were playing their card game. They still hadn’t looked up.
“Got any twos?” Shortstop asked.
“Go Fish.” Windcharger replied.
Without looking away from his hand, Shortstop reached down and picked up a card off the floor.
Sunstreaker took a step towards the cowering Tracks, when a large, booming voice filled the Rec Room like a nuclear powered sonic boom.
"Stop this NOW!"
  In the Rec-Room entry hatch stood the imposing figure of Optimus Prime, his face as angry as Jupiter thunder, backed up by a bemused looking Ironhide.
"Man, o'man, Ratchet's gonna have a field day with you two," quipped Ironhide. Prime shot him a look at him that could down a Decepticon jet at 4000 yards, causing the playful Ironhide to back off a step, holding his hands up in mock surrender.
“We are in deep slag now.” Sideswipe whispered to Bluestreak.
Optimus Prime had made it clear on more than one occasion that fighting would not be tolerated within the Autobot ranks. It had happened only twice before since the Autobots arrived on Earth, not counting the activation of the Dinobots or the frequent slaging matches or near misses. Prime had looked over to see Slingshot quickly wipe his smile off of his face. Once Blades and Slingshot had come to blows, Blades had actually sliced Slingshot's arm clean off during that one, then one week later Cliffjumper had delivered Slingshot yet another sound beating. So it came as little surprise to Prime to see Slingshot amongst the guilty looking fight fans in the Rec Room. Slingshot was a troublemaker. He had even driven the usually good-natured Ironhide to nearly belt him before. Prime knew this was due to Slingshot's insecurities, something that Prime had attempted to fix before, with apparent success. But Slingshot was not the perp this time; much to Prime's surprise, that dubious honor belonged to Sunstreaker and Tracks. He would deal with those two soon enough, at the moment they were in the capable hands of Ratchet and First Aid after Ironhide had dragged them, kicking and screaming in Sunstreaker's case, off to the repair bay. But for now it was the turn of the fight fans to be on the receiving end of a patented Optimus Prime stern lecture.

For nearly ten minutes he lectured them on the ethics of allowing such violence to occur, before confining them all to Headquarters and removing their Rec-Room privileges for a month, much to the chagrin of Windcharger and Shortstop, which earned them a threat of Prime suddenly becoming aware of the "secret" gambling that went on. Prime was well aware of the gambling matches that occurred in the ranks, and although he didn't really approve of it he allowed it to continue, as it was good for morale. The angry Autobot leader then dismissed his sullen troops, gesturing subtly to Skydive to stay behind.
“Thank you, Skydive,” the Autobot leader placed his great hand on Skydive's shoulder. "That was most appreciated. Of course, none of that applies to you, but I'd stay out of Rec-room for a while.”
“Yeah, low profile job. Say, Prime..." Skydive used Prime's name in the extended questioning tone that belied that he wanted something.
Yes," sighed Prime wearily. He had heard that tone earlier that day; from someone he did not usually hear it from, that Autobot more readily lavished Prime in a steady shower of low whining.
“I was wondering if I could, erm; head out into the city today, Y'see....”
“Save it, you can go.” The Decepticons would likely still be licking their wounds after the first Lyacon incident a few weeks ago, so Prime reasoned it would be safe to have so many Autobots out at the moment, besides, the newly repaired Protectobots were on standby if any thing untoward occurred.
“Thanks Prime!” Skydive chirped like a child who had finally been let out to play.
“What's got him so excited?” Prime pondered this for a second before realizing that he had more important things to deal with
“Uhhh,” he groaned out loud. “Now for Tracks and Sunstreaker.”
Skydive skipped through the corridors of Autobot HQ with all the joy of Omega Supreme after winning an hour of happy time alone with the unarmed Constructicons
That's if Omega Supreme can feel joy, realized Skydive. He was trying to think if anybody could be in a better mood than himself right now, and had so far only come up with Perceptor having a fire side chat with Einstein and Alpha Trion, and Fireflight on a date with Moonracer. He then realized that he shouldn't be thinking that particular thought as he was always wary of telepaths, and Fireflight wanted that kept secret. Telepaths freaked Skydive out, that's probably why he hated Soundwave so much.
Oh wait, that's because Soundwave is freaky giant Decepticon creep who tried to rip off your arms one time, realized the now ruffled Skydive. Telepaths wigged him, Soundwave wigged him more.
And so, with telepath paranoia eating away at his good mood, Skydive ran into his friend Swoop, which instantly cheered him up. Swoop was just exiting the Dinobot closet as Skydive passed it. He smiled as he noticed Skydive.
“Skydive!" chirped Swoop, waving.
Skydive was one of the few Autobots that treated Swoop with any civility, and actually socialized with the cheerful Dinobot. The two would practice aerial maneuvers together, Skydive attempting to copy Swoop's meteor like bombing runs whilst teaching his friend the finer points of evasive flight patterns
“We go do fancy flying now?” Swoop need to stretch his wings after having been cooped up for too long.” Swoop sounded hopeful, and Skydive hated to
disappoint him.
“Sorry Swoop, I'm going into town.”

An idea flashed through his mind
“Say, wanna come with?”

“I've just got off the horn with Huffer; He says your replacement parts will be ready within the hour, though matrix only knows why you two knuckleheads deserve them so quickly."
Ratchet walked into the main repair bay from his office. His news seemed to sail over the brooding pairs' heads, Tracks lightly nodding his shattered head, causing First Aid to hold it still while he worked on it, and Sunstreaker completely ignoring it, sitting with his arms folded and looking seriously pissed.
“Hello? Earth to Sunstreaker? Actually, should that be Cybertron to Sunstreaker? I can never tell....” Ratchet saw his attempt at humor was going nowhere; Sunstreaker's scowl not deviating from its southerly position. “Scrap you then, for crying out loud,” Ratchet's good humor had faded now, melting back into his usual cranky disposition.
“How long is he going to keep that up?” inquired First Aid?
“I haven't the foggiest, but one time after he had been drag racing with Sideswipe and got a tiny scratch in his paintwork, he sulked for two weeks.”
“Will you kindly watch what you are doing?” It was Tracks. Ratchet wasn't sure if First Aid had made a slip up, or if Tracks was just sick of hearing about Sunstreaker, but he didn't care. He carried on his conversation with First Aid all the same
The loud guffawing of the two medics was just white noise to Sunstreaker. He didn't even notice the loud, indignant cry of protest from Tracks. He was angry. Imagine that stuck up corvette insulting his perfect bodywork, and then have the audacity to actually ruin it!
I bet he's just jealous, the fuming Sunstreaker concluded. He twitched with anger when he thought about how Tracks was being fixed first, granted the extensive damage he had caused to Tracks was far greater than the superficial hull damage Sunstreaker had received, but that wasn't the point to the vain yellow Autobot. He lifted his folded arms to reveal the long, wide scratch in his paintwork. If he were human he would have broken down and cried.
Optimus Prime entered the repair bay with the heavy burden of his responsibilities weighing down on his mighty shoulders. He expected squabbles to break out in such a ragtag mismatched group as the Autobots, but not for them to develop into life or death brawls between formally close friends. Tracks and Sunstreaker were very similar individuals, perhaps too similar. They had formally gotten on well, their constant claims that each was the better looking developing into a friendly rivalry that transferred into an excellent working relationship, one that even rivaled the one between Sunstreaker and his own brother
But a while ago a bitter gulf had grown between the friends. Each now viewed the other scornfully, and for no apparent reason, certainly not one Prime could put his finger on. Even Smokescreen, Prime's usual link to the inner workings of his troops, was stumped on this one. After about a minute of looking over the damage done to the two, Prime spoke up
“Any body feel like giving me an explanation?”

The relative calm of the Athens City skyline was about to be shattered. Swoop and Skydive burst into the city at tremendous speed; the two daring Autobot air warriors zigzagged through the skyscrapers like flitting UFOs on a B-movie style rampage
Skydive streaked toward one of the colossal Human structures, as if on a collision course. At the last possible second he entered into a dramatic vertical climb, shooting up the side of the building and leveling out into a horizontal path, much to the amazement of Swoop. His Pterosaurian friend jetted to his side.
“Me wish Swoop could do that! That awesome Skydive!” squawked Swoop in child-like awe
"Thanks, I'll have to see about teaching you that. It's all in the timing of the lateral thrusters, you see..." Skydive stopped as he noticed that they were passing their destination. "I'll show you later, but for now, we're here." He transformed to robot mode, entering a gentle hover. Swoop did the same.
“C'mon, down here.”
The two Autobots flew down to the street, landing outside a rundown looking store. The sign in the window said "Hartley's Military Antiques- For all your combat needs!"
The faded sign was written in distinctly 60's style lettering, not that Skydive noticed that. A grizzled looking old man emerged from the dirty little store, holding in his hands a DVD. He removed the cigarette he was smoking from his mouth and began to cough violently for a few seconds, before snorting back the thick mucus he had shaken loose and opening his mouth to speak.
Skydive knelt down and held out a hand. The man set it in Skydive’s hand.
“Thanks, Jake.” Skydive said.
“No problem, Skydive.” Jake replied. “I saw one of your friends enter the bar across the street. I don’t know his name. He is red and blue, if that helps any.”
“Not really but we’ll find out who it is.” Skydive replied.
“Ok then, have fun.” Jake said.
“I’ll talk to you later Jake. Take care.” Skydive said as Jake walked back into his store.
Skydive and Swoop walked across the street wondering who could be over there.
“What’s in the box?” Swoop asked.
“Its old footage of dogfights from 1939 to present.” Skydive replied.
“Who is over there? Me Swoop wants to know.” Swoop said
“I don’t know. It sounds like Optimus Prime but why would Prime be in a bar?” Skydive wondered.
The two Autobots walked in and to their surprise the red and blue Autobot they were seeking was Gears and he was singing Karaoke. Not only was he singing Karaoke, but also the song he was singing was “I Will Survive.” They both started laughing. Gears noticed them.
“Oh damn.” Gears thought to himself.
The two walked over to the singing Autobot.
“Hey Gears, how’s it goin’?” Skydive said with a smile.
“If you tell anyone about this I will rip out your circuits and make you eat them.” Gears said.
“Our lips are sealed.” Skydive said.

“Good” Gears said.
“Well, I don’t know about them though.” Skydive said pointing to the back.
Apparently Eject and Rewind and snuck into the bar and observed Gears little secret.
“Eject, Rewind! If either of you say one little word I’ll rip out your word processors.”
The two cassettes made the motion of zipping their lips. Then they both laughed. Then they darted out the door.

“Remember when Popular Mechanics magazine did that feature on the Autobots in ‘03?”
First Aid had drawn quite a crowd of Autobots in the Rec room. He had come straight from the repair bay to divulge the juicy details of the after events of the brawl. He had already tossed the scraps of knowledge he had on the injuries to the ravenous huddle like meat to a pack of wild dogs, and was now moving onto the reason why they fought in the first place.
“Yeah,” recalled Jazz fondly, “That photographer really caught my good side,” he chuckled
”Oh, and which side would that be?” asked Mirage, he sounded deadpan serious, but every one knew he was playing. Jazz reacted with a playful tap to Mirage's shoulder.
“Anyway,” continued First Aid, “Remember how Tracks got a whole double page all to him self...”
“... And Sunstreaker didn't.” Jazz was getting the picture. “Man, I bet that really bruised his ego. That explains why those two have been waltzing round like Peacocks in heat for the past few years”
“And Prime spent the best part of an hour getting this out of them?”
Asked Hotspot, he sounded most disappointed
“Yeah, apparently Tracks has really been rubbing it in lately.”
At this point the Rec-room doors opened and Eject entered. He called for attention, but nobody listened
“Hello! Guys! Gears sings karaoke! Guys!” None of the assembled Autobots paid a blind bit of notice to the tiny Eject; they were far too engrossed in their established conversation
“Well, if you aren't going to listen to me, I'll just tell you any way! If you don't listen, you don't know!” Eject proceeded to explain the situation in detail, giving precise details of Gears' activities and future whereabouts. But nobody listened. At least not anybody who he could see. Exasperated at the lack of attention he was receiving, he left for a much needed recharge cycle, unaware that some one had been doing to him exactly what he had been doing earlier. Some one hidden in the support beams. Laserbeak.

Megatron sat and looked at the repair reports in disdain. Decepticon headquarters was in shambles, and a quarter of his forces were still out of commission. In times like this Megatron looked for a scapegoat to vent his anger on, it was the only way he could maintain his self-control. He looked down at the Reflector third that had handed him the report. He considered his next action before having his chain of rather malicious thought interrupted by a familiar and welcome voice
“MEGATRON,” it was Soundwave. “LASERBEAK HAS RETURNED”
“Excellent!” Megatron anticipated a similar state of affairs at the Autobot camp.
“Report.”
“THE AUTOBOTS ARE IN A BATTLE WORTHY STATE”
“What! After the trashing we gave them?”
Soundwave sensed Megatron's anger, and tried to proceed with caution
“LASERBEAK ALSO FOUND THAT THE AUTOBOTS HAVE DISCOVERED A NEW ELEMENT ON AN ASTEROID IN THE TIGRUS SECTOR”
“What kind of element?” Megatron's anger was growing
“ELEMENT AT FIRST SEEMED TO HAVE INTRIGUING BIO-CONDUCTIVE QUALITIES DUE TO UNUSUAL MICROBES FOUND GROWING ON IT. ELEMENT WAS SUBSEQUENTLY FOUND TO BE USELESS BY THE AUTOBOTS.”
“Is that it?” Megatron sounded calmer
“TWO AUTOBOTS WERE INVOLVED IN A SERIOUS BRAWL”
“Ha ha, Prime's having a little difficulty keeping the rabble in check, eh?"
Megatron felt much better, and proceeded to dismiss Reflector.
"Was that all he found of interest?”
“AN AUTOBOT WILL BE APPEARING IN A HUMAN DRINKING ESTABLISHMENT FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. APPEARANCE IS ONLY MINOR, AUTOBOT OF LITTLE SIGNIFICANCE”
Before Megatron could respond, Starscream entered the main control room. His presence was felt by all, the various Decepticons stationed at the control consoles all looked up immediately at his arrival. Starscream had a reputation, one he was extremely proud of, as someone to be watched
“I have just come back from Trypticon and had a little talk with Shockwave, almighty Megatron,” the condescending sarcasm was apparent in Starscream's voice. “...And he isn't a happy little lamb-bot”
“I don't remember killing you and allowing you to become a humble messenger,” Megatron dug at Starscream as he walked over to a communication console
“No, that's still Soundwave's lot," retorted Starscream, directing a malicious glance at Soundwave. "I was just filling in while he collected his homing pigeonoid.” Soundwave narrowed his optics at Starscream, who responded with an evil grin
“Shockwave, report," Megatron activated the monitor, conjuring up the bizarre visage of the Decepticon custodian of Trypticon
“Megatron,” there was a distinct tone of agitation in the usually emotionless voice of Shockwave. "Those accursed Autobot witches have attacked Trypticon again and destroyed his transforming cog” he stated coldly. “I require more troops to annihilate them.

As Shockwave continued his report to Megatron, Soundwave received two eject requests amongst his in-vision diagnostics. They were from Rumble and Frenzy. Usually Soundwave would ask why his cassettes wanted to eject, but he was weary and low on power, so decided to let his miniature helpers go unmolested for once. He pressed his eject button, and Rumble and Frenzy spewed forth from his chest pack like rectangular missiles, transforming in midair into their almost identical robot forms
“Thanks Soundwave!” called Frenzy as both he and Rumble made a quick dash for the exit
“Kids today...” tutted Starscream sarcastically
“Oh this is gonna be sweet!” said the excitable Frenzy to his brother.
Both tiny Decepticons had taken to the air, and were jetting through the corridors of the Decepticon base at considerable speed. As they flew, they passed a porthole, which showed a barnacle encrusted Mixmaster scrubbing algae from the hull. The Construction chemist had a face that could send a Sharkticon running for its maker, though there were several barnacle growths around it
“Yeah," chuckled Rumble. "If we can get out of the base
It was a little known fact amongst the Decepticon ranks that the Spy cassettes whilst inside Soundwave could interface, both for communication purposes and to learn of another's findings on a spy mission. Rumble and Frenzy had done this when Laserbeak returned, learning of Gears' little star turn and making a basic plan in order to have a little fun. Their plan was simple. Get out of HQ, get to the karaoke bar, and do a little heckling.
The pair arrived outside the docking tower access port. The "port" was actually a large hanger; complete with everything needed to maintain the Decepticon air force. Rumble clipped the entry panel, opening the doors with a serpentine pneumatic hiss. The pair ventured in, marching in sync with their characteristic tough-guy strut. Expecting to find the hanger empty they were thrown to find a vehicular Vortex being loaded by two sentinels.
“Oh slag, what are we gonna do now?” Frenzy was worried. Megatron had imposed a strict curfew on the Decepticons, confining them to base unless they had permission from the head honcho himself. The pair had planned to sneak out unnoticed, something that had now been scuppered. Rumble was however, unfazed. He was slightly brighter than Frenzy, and had already worked out how to turn this situation to their advantage

Gears shuffled on stage, muttering inaudibly to him self. He aligned his optics to the monitor as the music started, before he noticed a glint of metal in the crowd. Skydive and Swoop waved at him from the audience, the grins on their faces wider than the Vos canyon on Cybertron. Gears froze. He noticed the manager gesturing at him emphatically to start singing. Fear had corrupted his logic center; he had no idea what to do. So, he started to sing
“F-first I was afraid, I was putrefied- I mean petrified, thinking I could never live with out you by my slide...”
“His singing was terrible and off key, yet Swoop and Skydive cheered and whistled, empowering Gears. Suddenly, he felt good, his confidence grew
“And then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong,”And I grew strong....”
“Not strong enough, Autobum!" a high-pitched squeaky voice called from the back of the bar. Rumble and Frenzy had just joined the party

“No encores for you!” screamed Frenzy, un-shouldering his blaster and taking aim at the stage.
Rumble did the same, before firing. A steady stream of highly charged plasma particles spewed forth from the barrels of both cassette warriors’ guns toward the stage like purple streaks of lightening. Gears leapt clear just in time, the blasts hitting the speakers, causing the pumping disco music to die as if it was the beginning of the 80's
The human customers scattered, whilst the Autobot customers decided to evict the noisy troublemakers. Swoop and Skydive both shot up, drawing their weapons and returning fire on the mini Decepticons. Rumble and Frenzy backed off, still firing, their shots destroying most off the fixtures off the club, much to the horror off the cowering manager. Suddenly the roar off a powerful engine filled the club.
Gears had transformed to armored transport mode, and was bowling through the remaining furniture on a direct collision course with the Decepticons. They blasted away at him, their shots bouncing harmlessly off of his reinforced hull. He ploughed into them with an almighty metallic crash, entering into a tailspin, which sent all three titanic Transformers crashing through the club wall, and into the street
Gears transformed as Rumble lunged at him, knocking Rumble to the ground with one blow from his mighty fist. Suddenly a foul screeching noise filled his audio sensors like a thousand screaming shrike bats, causing him to drop to the ground in agony. It was Frenzy, who began to advance toward the helpless Gears menacingly.
“Hey Frenzy!" Gears' Autobot comrades had joined the fray, Skydive calling out to the grumpy minibot's attacker. "Why don't you cool off some?" He fired a liquid nitrogen rocket at Frenzy, freezing him as solid as a plutonian glacier
Rumble picked him self-up. "Why do Autobots always make such bad puns?”

At that moment, in Decepticon Headquarters, Megatron, Galvatron and Weapon were devising a plan.
“We’ll send Shortstop into the forest to face another Lyacon. In the forest, he can’t use his vehicle mode as effectively as in the city.” Galvatron said.
“I like the forest idea but I don’t think that would matter much.” Weapon said.
“Shortstop is an Autobot and he’ll try his hardest not to destroy his surroundings. But who will you send?”
“I know exactly who I’ll send. I’ll send Savage.” Weapon replied.
Soundwave lifted his hand to the side of his head. He kept it there for a few moments then lowered.
“Something wrong, Soundwave?”
“RUMBLE AND FRENZY SNUCK OUT OF DECEPTICON HEADQUARTERS AND HAVE ENGAGED IN BATTLE WITH THREE AUTOBOTS.”
“Such incompetence. Must I do everything myself?” Megatron said.
“Lets take care of these Autobots.” Weapon said.
Megatron nodded. The docking tower rose, the door opened and a fleet of Decepticons took to the air to take on only three Autobots.

Meanwhile, back in Athens, Dustin and Sarah were just leaving a movie theater. They walked out of the theater with an arm around each other. Sarah held her head up against Dustin’s body as they walked to Dustin’s transforming car. He was enjoying his time off; he didn’t get much of it with the Lyacons in town. Dustin hit the unlock button on his remote, then opened the passenger door to let Sarah get in first, and then he walked to his own side and got in.
“So what did you think of the movie?” Dustin asked as he turned on his car.
“It was a good movie, I really liked it.” Sarah replied while fastening her seatbelt.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”  Dustin said.
He pulled out of the movie theater parking lot at headed home.  The ride home was a quiet one. Just as Dustin was about to say something, he noticed that Sarah had drifted to sleep. He decided to let her sleep. She has gone through a lot in the past couple of months.
“Poor girl, she needs her sleep.” Dustin thought to himself. He arrived at his house minutes later. He went over to the passenger side, opened the door and pulled out Sarah. Without waking her up he carried her to the bedroom and placed her in the bed. He pulled the sheets over her and then kissed her on the head. He quietly left the room and went into the living room and turned on the TV.  He had to see if his football team the Pittsburgh Steelers were still undefeated. And they were. Just then his communicator watch beeped.
“This is Shortstop. Go ahead Prime.”
“Shortstop, the Decepticons have engaged Gears, Skydive and Swoop at the Athens Karaoke Bar. You’re the closest I need you to transform and we’ll meet you there.” Prime instructed.
“Got it. I’m on my way, Chief.” He replied.
He walked back to the bedroom and whispered into Sarah’s ear.
“I’ve got to go to go save the world. If you need me call me on my wrist comm. I’ll be back later. I love you babe.” He said as he kissed her on her forehead.
Sarah made a noise; Dustin wasn’t sure if was in acknowledgment or if she was just dreaming. He just let her sleep as he left the room and headed for the karaoke bar.

Dustin arrived at karaoke bar. The building was destroyed. He jumped into the air and transformed into Shortstop. The battle was still raging but his comrades were severely outnumbered. He pulled out his duel pistols and started firing.
“Hey guys mind if I join?”
Moments later the other Autobots arrived. They all transformed into their robot mode. They joined in as well.
“Aerialbots merge to become Superion.” Ordered Silverbolt.
They landed, connected together and formed the mighty transformer.
“Stunticons merge to become Menasor.” Motor Master yelled.
The Decepticon land force connected together. The two getsalts fought each other. The battle raged. Plasma bursts from one side, Photon charges from the other.

Jazz ran up transformed into his Porsche mode; his speakers slid out and started emanating light and sound to disorient the Decepticons. The Decepticons covered their audio preceptors. They all stumbled around in agony until Savage came running out of the woods and pounced on Jazz. He lifted his claw to make a swipe into the Autobot, but Shortstop came running and tackled Savage.
“So you’re the Autobot I’m going to tear apart?” Savage said in his growling voice.
“Well you got the first part right. But I think I’ll be the one that will be doing the tearing apart here.” Shortstop said arrogantly.
“We’ll see about that Autobot.”
Savage turned around and ran into the woods and disappeared. Shortstop ran after him. The fight continued without the two warriors.

Shortstop walked cautiously through the woods. He looked around with every step he took. As he stepped through the woods he was being watched by Savage.
“I can see you Autobot. Can you see me?”
“Obviously not since you are asking me this.”
“You sarcasm will not save you, Autobot.”

The Lyacon charged at the Autobot. Shortstop turned around just in time to see Savage attack. Shortstop strafed to the side but was hit in the shoulder by Savage’s paw. He watched Savage circle him. Then he attacked again. He jumped on Shortstop. The Autobot lost his footing and fell over. Savage pinned him down.
“Now Autobot you will die.”
Shortstop struggled to gain some sort of advantage. Then he transformed into his vehicle mode and sped out from underneath of Savage. He transformed back into his robot mode and readied himself for another attack. Savage attacked again. This time Shortstop pulled out his spoiler and used is as a shield against the ex-Predacon’s attack.  He hit Savage across the face with it, knocking him over. Savage got up and stared down the Autobot.
“You think you have what it takes to beat me, Autobot?” Savage growled.
“Yeah I do.”
Savage charged again. This time Shortstop pulled out his duel pistols stuck them together, flipped them around and hit Savage in the face with the handles. The Lyacon withdrew his attack and stumbled around. Then faced Shortstop and charged. He pounced on him; he drove his claw into the left shoulder joint of the headmaster.  Shortstop punched Savage across the face then used his foot to push his enemy off of him. Savage attempted to get up but Shortstop kicked him in the face.  The Lyacon fell over. Shortstop looked at his wound. Sparks flew out of the exposed circuitry.
“Damn, that hurt. I’m going to feel that in the morning.” Shortstop thought to himself.
He looked over to his fallen enemy. Savage started to get up; he collapsed and lay there. Shortstop raised his spoiler to make a final blow but his arms wouldn’t let him do it. He lowered his weapon and placed it on his back. He then picked up the fallen Lyacon and carried out of the woods. As he returned from the woods, the other Transformers stopped fighting to see what the headmaster was up to.

The Decepticons, noticed that they had lost this fight, left the scene.
“What are you doing?” Cliffjumper said.

“I couldn’t just leave him there. I think when I bashed him in the head it messed up his personality and identity components and now I think we could repair him as an Autobot.” Shortstop replied.
“Ratchet, transform.”
The medic did as he was told and Shortstop placed the injured Lyacon inside. The victorious Autobots returned to their base, with the exception of Gears, Swoop and Skydive, they went to another karaoke bar to finish the song.
At the Autobot base, Shortstop was full of himself. Why wouldn’t he be? He had just beaten two Lyacons: The Decepticons that never lose.
“That’s two of them that I have beaten.”
He raised his arm and dropped his hand as if he were shooting a basketball one handed.
“Count it.” He said with a smile.
Meanwhile in the repair bay, Ratchet and Wheeljack were working on Savage.
“Can you repair him?” Prime asked.
“It can be done. I just feel weird repairing a Decepticon.”
“He’s no longer a Decepticon. He is an Autobot now.” Prime stated while looking at the black panther.
“This gives me an idea. Prime, with your permission I would like to create new Autobots. Only this time they’re animals and are able to take on Predaking.” Wheeljack said with sound of a child asking its mother for a new toy.
Prime pondered the thought for a moment.
“Hmm, animal Autobots. You have my authorization.”

Sunstreaker sat and sulked. He was perched atop of a hill overlooking Autobot City, watching the sunset. The burning light of the Earth's sun caught his newly redone paintwork, and reflected off of it with the magnificent glowing brilliance of a supernova.
“Wow, I'm just the greatest”, thought Sunstreaker with a smile. His spirits were lifted. He took a deep sample of the cool twilight air with his factory sensors. It's good to be online, he realized with another smile
“Hey,” a voice came from behind him. It was Tracks. "Nice up here, is it not?"
Sunstreaker's smile faded as he proceeded to ignore Tracks. The light of the sunset reflected off of Tracks' body now, directly into Sunstreaker's optics. He put a hand up to shield them with a sigh of annoyance.
“Oh, sorry about that. Look...” Tracks stopped as Sunstreaker raised his hand.
Looking into the flaming tangerine sky had made Sunstreaker realize that life was too short for petty arguments over magazine centerfolds. After all, there were plenty of other magazines, and he knew he was the better looking.
“Save it,” Sunstreaker extended his hand with a smile. Tracks shook it, returning Sunstreaker's smile. Tracks the noticed a dust cloud in the distance on the road leading to Autobot City. Scanning the horizon he found the cloud to be from Gears, with Skydive and Swoop overhead
“Say, here comes Gears. Do you want to race down to the bottom to ask him about that Karaoke thing Eject has been telling everyone?” he asked Sunstreaker
Sunstreaker answered by transforming and bombing down the hill at top speed, crunching various sticks and twigs under his super tough tires as he went

“Hey wait!” called the irritated Tracks as he transformed. Gears was in for a very bad night...

Part 3

Dustin awoke from his sleep, cold. It was mid-January and the heater hadn’t kicked on yet. He looked at his clock; it was only 9:35. He sighed; he hated waking up because he was cold or the neighbor’s dogs were barking or even the fact that the Decepticons were attacking.  He looked over at his sleeping fiancé. He watched her lie there. She looked so peaceful. He ran his fingers lightly over her face. He lay back down and continued to watch her. She slowly opened her eyes and noticed that he was watching her. They gazed into each other’s eyes. She shifted herself closer to him. He wrapped his arms around her and ran his hands up and down her arms to warm her up.  He held her close; he kissed her.
“Hungry?” he asked
She nodded.
“Good.  ‘Cause I’m going to make you breakfast and you are going to just lay there in bed.”
Dustin hopped out of bed walked to the door way, stopped walked back to Sarah kissed her then continued down to the kitchen and started cooking. Sarah just smiled, leaned back and pulled the covers over her head. She lied there thinking about the upcoming wedding. Of course the wedding was in September but she was a girl and she thought of that day since the day she was born, and of course she never thought she’d marry an Autobot. She was excited, but she was also excited about that night. She and Dustin were invited to a banquet. The banquet was in Shortstop’s honor and all the things he has done for the world. Her mind shifted from the banquet to the wedding. She just smiled at the thought of her marrying an Autobot. She closed her eyes and fell back asleep.

“So almighty Megatron, what brilliant plan do you have for the Autobots today?” Starscream said with his usual sarcastic tone.
Megatron was still being tormented by the ghost of Starscream. Megatron walked around the Decepticon control room, planning and waiting.  He would probably join the Autobots if that would get Starscream out of his system.
“Nothing that concerns you.”
“Nothing is right, Megatron, you don’t have a plan. You just have those stupid Lyacons here. And all you are going to do is just send one in and get slagged by that putrid Autobot, Shortstop. Forget this I’m going to annoy Zarek and the other headmasters at the Scorpinok base.”
Starscream walked through the wall and headed for the other Decepticon base.
“Man he gives me the surges.” Rumble said.
“Why won’t he just die already?” Megatron said to himself.
“He is dead but his ghost”

Rumble didn’t have the chance to finish his sentence without being kicked across the room by his leader.
“Soundwave activate Laserbeak. Send him to spy on Shortstop.”
“LASERBEAK EJECT OPERATION RECONNAISSANCE”.
The subordinate tape deck released Laserbeak and sent him to Shortstop’s house.

Laserbeak arrived at Dustin’s house. He landed on a tree branch. The branch almost gave way. Real birds took off out of the tree and a squirrel jumped from that tree to a neighboring tree. A camera slid out from the top of the Decepticon’s head. He began recording. He recorded Dustin walking up to the upper level of the house and serving Sarah breakfast.  Sarah looked excited. After he set the tray on her lap, he walked to the other side and sat on the bed. He leaned up against the headboard. He watched Dustin pick up his watch communicator and talk into it. He leaned over and kissed Sarah, and then he got up and left. Laserbeak followed him to Autobot City. Laserbeak stayed high with the clouds so not to be seen. Dustin arrived at Autobot City and transformed into Shortstop. Laserbeak secretly followed the headmaster into the base. Shortstop walked down the corridor. He stopped and turned around as if he heard something. He saw nothing then continued on his way. Laserbeak continued to follow. Shortstop entered the war room.  Laserbeak flew up to the support beams and perched himself there to spy on the Autobots.
“Shortstop, we picked up some Decepticon activity near your house. It disappeared when we contacted you.” Wheeljack reported.
“That’s not surprising.” Shortstop replied.
“Did you see anything unusual when you left?” Prime asked.
Shortstop tried to think of anything but nothing came to mind. He shook his head.
“You think the Decepticons are up to something?”
“They’re always up to something.” Prime replied.
Shortstop sighed.  The door opened then closed. The three Autobots looked back and saw nothing.
“Wheeljack set Laser Cannon Alpha to Sector 001 and fire.” Shortstop ordered.
Wheeljack looked at him.
“Just do it.”
Wheeljack pressed a buttons on the console. Outside of Autobot City, the laser cannon moved and fired. The three Autobots looked on the screen to see if they hit Shortstop’s target.
“Magnify.” Prime ordered.
Wheeljack pressed another button and the image on the screen got bigger. It was Laserbeak. Just then the photon blast hit the Decepticon spy. Laserbeak flew off leaving a trail of smoke all the way back to Decepticon Headquarters.
“How did you know?” Wheeljack asked.
“Well I heard something in the corridor on my way to war room. Then the door opening and closing on its own. I figured either Metroplex was malfunctioning or we had a spy and I picked the latter. And of course I knew the firing coordinates of the front hatch.”
“Good job.” Prime appraised.

Laserbeak returned to Decepticon Headquarters.
“LASERBEAK HAS RETURNED, MEGATRON.” Soundwave reported.
“Good, playback Laserbeak’s findings.”
The damaged cassette flew into Soundwave’s chest. Soundwave transformed into his cassette player mode and attached himself to a monitor. The monitor’s screen popped on and a summary of the images Laserbeak recorded flashed on the screen.
“Nothing of any importance.” Megatron said.
“All of it is important.” Weapon said. “We need to find his weaknesses and apparently his fiancé is his biggest weakness.”
“I could have told you that.” A voice said from behind them.
They looked behind them and saw Starscream standing there, leaning up against the wall.
“I could have also told you that those two are going to a function that the flesh creatures call a ‘banquet’ in honor of the Autobot. You could attack him there. The Autobots will more than likely restrain themselves from fighting with all of the flesh creatures there.”
Weapon nodded in agreement. Starscream looked over at Megatron to see if he approved of the idea. Megatron stood there for a moment thinking then nodded. The plan was set. They’ll attack Shortstop at the banquet.

Optimus Prime stood at the big screen monitor with his hands behind his back. Shortstop walked into the room.
“Hey Optimus whats up?”
Prime slightly turned towards Shortstop then turned back to the screen.
“I’m waiting for the Decepticons to strike.”
“Do you think the Decepticons are going to try and crash the party tonight?”
Prime nodded.
“Figured.”
The two warriors stood there watching the screen for a moment.
“The banquet is at 18:30 and its 17:30. I’m going back to my place and get ready. With your permission of course, Prime.”
Prime nodded. Shortstop walked out the door and out of Autobot City. He transformed into his vehicle mode and sped off.

He later arrived at his house. A couple of lights were on. He could see Sarah’s shadow in the bedroom window. He walked in and up to the bedroom. He pulled off his body armor lied it on the floor. Sarah walked out of the bathroom wearing only a towel.
“Damn you look hot.”
Sarah blushed. Dustin walked over to her, held her chin and kissed her.
“I’m going to get ready.”
“Ok Hun.”
He pulled off his shirt and walked into the bathroom. Sarah looked at him and couldn’t stop. She smiled and continued to get ready.

“Who are you sending now?” Galvatron asked.
“Holocaust.” Replied the Lyacon leader.

He pressed a button on his right forearm.
“Holocaust report to me at once.”
Moments later a big ogre looking Decepticon walked in.
“What is your bidding, my master?”
“Boy is somebody is whipped.” Rumble said.
Holocaust walked over and kicked the Decepticon cassette across the room. Rumble got up and stumbled around abit.
“Man I can’t win today.”
Frenzy grabbed hold of his brother and kept him from falling over.
“It is your turn now.” Weapon said.
Holocaust nodded.
“Decepticons, take to the air.” Megatron ordered.
The docking tower rose out of the water and the Decepticons left to battle the Autobots.

The Autobots arrived at the banquet. Shortstop hadn’t arrived yet.
“Where is Shortstop?” Asked Ironhide.
Just then Shortstop pulled in.
“Oh there he is. Took him long enough.”  Bluestreak said.
“Sorry we’re late. We got a little preoccupied.” Dustin said.
Dustin was wearing a blue button up shirt, with black pants and a black tie. Sarah was wearing a red button up shirt, with a black mini skirt and black knee high boots. She wore her hair down for the event.  They all entered the building. The building was big, three rows of tables running parallel to each other. The Autobots lined up along side of the walls.  A table and a podium were set on the stage. Dustin and Sarah sat at the head table next to the podium. Everybody was seated and a middle aged guy walked up to the podium to begin his speech.
“Thanks for coming.” The man started to say.
“Don’t mind if we do.”  Megatron said as he destroyed the farthest wall away from the podium.
“Damn can’t we have one good moment without them messin’ it up for us?” Shortstop thought to himself.
“Autobots protect the humans.” Prime ordered.
People scattered as they tried to get away from the Decepticons. Dustin grabbed Sarah by the hand and guided her out of harms way. They got to Dustin’s car. He opened the trunk to put on his exosuit.
“Man, I feel like batman.”
Sarah giggled. Dustin finished putting on his exosuit. He kissed her then put on his helmet. He jumped into the air and connected with the body.
“Alright time to go to work.”

He walked around to the other side of the building. Dirge ambushed him. Shortstop struggled with Dirge on his back. He reached behind him grabbed Dirge by the vents of his jet part of his body and threw him into a wall. The Autobots fired their weapons at the Decepticons who were doing the same. Optimus was facing off against Megatron.  Prime threw a right hook, Megatron dodged it. Prime spun around and hit Megatron across the face with his forearm. The Decepticon leader stumbled. Just then a gust of wind came up overwhelming the warriors. They all covered they’re optics. Then a huge Decepticon landed in the middle of the fighting. He was much taller than Shortstop. Two vents came up to the side of his head. Rockets lined up the side of him. He didn’t walk normally; when he walked he looked like he was trying to march.
“I’ve got him. Everybody stand back.” Shortstop said arrogantly.
He took off running at him and jumped in the air. He smacked into the chest of him and slowly slid off. Shortstop stumbled around.
“Man that didn’t go as well as planned.”
Holocaust lifted his hands above his head, clasped both hands together and brought them down on top of Shortstop. The Headmaster fell to the ground. Holocaust walked to Shortstop. Shortstop was on the ground on his hands and knees. Then he looked back and kicked Holocaust in the knee. He grabbed the foot and picked up the headmaster, swung him around and threw him into a building.
“Oh I like him.” Megatron said.
Shortstop transformed and sped towards the Lyacon. At the last moment he transformed, kept both feet together and kicked Holocaust in the face. The Lyacon finally stumbled. Shortstop aimed his arm lasers at him and fired. Holocaust kept stumbling back. Then he pulled out his duel pistols and continued to fire. Holocaust fired rockets at the Autobot. At the last moment, Shortstop pulled out his spoiler and used as a shield and repelled the rockets. Then he used the spoiler as a boomerang and threw it. The boomerang flew through the air and right through Lyacon’s arm. The arm fell to the ground. Holocaust looked at the disconnected limb. Then the boomerang came back and sliced through the other arm. Holocaust looked at the other fallen arm. Then looked at his attacker. Who jumped into the air and used the spoiler as a sword and sliced right down the middle of Holocaust. The Lyacon split into to pieces and fell to the ground. Sparks flew out of the ruptured circuits. Shortstop started to walk away.
“Some warrior.” Megatron said.
“Just wait.” Weapon said holding a hand up.
Shortstop heard something. He turned around to see the pieces connecting together.
“Oh damn it.” Shortstop sighed.
The body was almost complete. While it was coming together it was transforming. It transformed into a self-standing rocket launcher. It aimed itself at Shortstop and fired. The rocket nailed him in the chest. The Autobot went flying through the air. He fired another rocket. Shortstop blocked it with his forearm. The rocket went flying into the air and then started to descend. The rocket came back down and hit Holocaust. Holocaust transformed back into his robot mode. Shortstop charged at him, firing with his arm lasers. He then transformed into his vehicle mode and ran into Holocaust. The Lyacon grabbed a hold of the car and threw it on its top. Shortstop transformed back into robot mode to find that Holocaust had gotten on top and put his hands around his neck.
“Die Autobot. It’s a pity you Autobots die so easily or I might have a sense of satisfaction now.”
While on the ground, Shortstop was trying everything he could to get the big oaf off of him. Then he saw her. Sarah came into view.

“I promised her I’d always be there for her. I promised her that we would get married and I’m not going to break that promise.”  He thought to himself.
Shortstop threw a right hook that connected with Holocaust’s jaw.  The impact jarred the Lyacon and he stumbled off of him. Shortstop got up. He pulled out his spoiler again. He looked at it then stared down Holocaust, who began to run at him. He cocked his arm back, then threw it forward and let go of the boomerang. The boomerang sliced through the torso of Holocaust. The two pieces fell to the ground.
“Not again.” Shortstop said as he aimed his arm laser at the head of his attacker and fired. The head exploded. Just to be sure the body still wouldn’t come back together he fired at the remaining parts, they too exploded. Nothing was left of the Lyacon.
He turned to the Decepticons and held up his middle, ring and pinkie fingers.
“That’s three Lyacons you sent after me and that’s three Lyacons I sent to the scrap heap.”
Infuriated Megatron flew off. The other Decepticons followed their leader. The other Autobots engulfed their victorious companion. Sarah stood to the side so the joyful Autobots wouldn’t step her on. Shortstop transformed back into vehicle mode and Dustin came over and hugged Sarah still wearing his exosuit.
“You gave me the strength to defeat him.”
“I know, somehow I sensed what you were feeling.”
She kissed him then hugged him again.
“So much for the awards banquet.” She said.
“Eh, I never liked banquets that much anyway.”
“Alright Autobots, lets roll for home.” Prime said as he transformed into his semi form and rolled out.