"Okay Rest-Q, lay it on me. How's our body count?"

Rest-Q sighed, shaking his head. He had spent the past hour trying to patch up the wounds of anyone who was still online from the town fight. But the results were not very pretty.

"Bad. Dreadbot, Roadblock, Berserker, they're all dead. Inferno, along with the dispatched team to rescue that little boy have also been killed," Rest-Q marked on a clipboard.

Spitfire groaned. "How's the rest of our ex-Cons?"

"Mohawk's getting patched up, Rigs is trying to take his frustration out on some exercise equipment, and as for Nitro? He's done nothing but gaze at his friends corpses."

The captain frowned, hearing the news. "What about Blitzwing?"

"Blitzwing's doing okay, but he's just sitting by himself and arguing with his faces. Kind of freaky."

"Well, do whatever you can to patch them up, I better check up on everyone else," Spitfire ordered, walking out of the room as calm as she could be. Arcee and Strongarm were outside waiting. A solemn of silence fell as he looked up to the worrisome faces of the femmes. They could tell it wasn't good, just from how Spitfire looked.

"Okay, this is officially a code red situation," Spitfire ordered. "We need to get those satellites fixed and fast, Optimus needs to know what's going on."

"What about Sunset? Doesn't she need to know about this?" Arcee asked.

"She's taking a vacation, and she needs it more than ever. We're not just gonna call her and drag her out of a much needed break," Spitfire answered.

"Ma'am, you said it yourself, this is a code red. This isn't some random Decepticon prisoner loose, we're talking about a new team, an army, possibly. We need everyone's arms here."

Spitfire thought for a second. "Ugh, you're right. Alright, well someone's going to have to travel and find her before the Decepticons plan their next move, if we even know what their next move is. But something still doesn't make sense, I said loud and clear that we weren't supposed to call for backup, or do anything to try and keep them from escaping. What even happened--"

"--What do you mean its my fault!?"

That scream came from Flareup, who was seen arguing with Blastwave, yet again. Arcee and Strongarm rolled their eyes, not this again, they thought. Blastwave was trying to argue back with every hand-signal he knew, which Flareup knew instantly just from the anger on his brows.

"You're the one who said we can't let them escape!" Flareup argued. "... Okay, yes I told them to jam their signal, but we couldn't let them leave!"

"WHAT!?"

The new recruits froze. Their shoulders tensed up, and they slowly looked to see a seething Spitfire. Arcee and Strongarm had their arms crossed, equally upset faces shared.

"You... YOU TWO DID THIS!?" Spitfire screamed.

Flareup and Blastwave took a step back, flinching from how loud she was yelling.

"... Are... Are you kidding me right now? No seriously, are you FUCKING KIDDING ME!?" Spitfire shouted. To say she was mad was an understatement. She was furious! More than any other point in time. "You... IDIOTS!!! Why did you call them, did you not understand there was a human's life at stake!? Do hostage situations mean nothing to you!?"

Spitfire's face was red, and if she could, her hair would have burst out in a raging fire. Steam was coming out her ears and her nostrils were flaring. Panting heavily, she raised a hand up and started to stomp away.

"Excuse me, I need to take my rage on something else!"

Spitfire closed a door behind her, trying to scream as much as she could. The sound didn't stay contained, they could hear it escape the room. Arcee and Strongarm jolted from the scream. How loud could a human be? Well now they had their answer.

Needless to say, they were less than happy when they looked at the sources.

"What?" Flareup asked, confused and even a little worried.

"You two put an innocent's life at risk, an innocent we could have rescued!" Arcee berated.

"Pyra was going to get away, we had to stop her!" Flareup protested.

"Before she killed her hostage?" Strongarm pointed out.

"Sacrificing one human is--"

"--Is NOT acceptable," Strongarm interrupted, firmly. "I know you're new here, but you need to get this through your processor. We work to take down Decepticons while preserving every human life. Its not just Sunset's rules, its Optimus Prime's rules. We don't take unnecessary risks, like the one that you two just pulled a few hours ago!"

And Strongarm stomped away, leaving the new recruits by themselves while she went to go take her anger elsewhere. Arcee stood and glared at them for a brief second before turning herself around and leaving them. She wanted to blow off some steam as well.

Blastwave, in the midst of all this threw his head back and scrunched at his face with his claws. Then he stared down down at Flareup with a huff.

"Don't give me that, you wanted to keep them from escaping just as much as I did!"

Blastwave growled.

"Well you wanted to take down Decepticon tailpipe too, don't go blaming it entirely on me," Flareup stomped away. Furious, disappointed, and a little hurt, admittedly. Her first day on the job, and already something went wrong.

---

While everyone else was trying to get settled down, Sour Sweet who had recovered from her unstable breakdown, was in the midst of trying to get back into shape. She carefully paced on a treadmill, trying to get used to walking again. Since her legs were a little hurt from the crash, the doctors had wrapped up a lot of bandages around her ankles almost up to her knees.

Her hands held onto the bars as she walked, looking at the show she had playing on the TV. Betamax probably would have loved it, she thought.

The timer on the treadmill went off, and she hit the button for a cool down.Once she slowed down, she stepped off the treadmill and took another sip of water. A knock on the door got her attention.

"Its open," she called out.

The doors slid open, and on the other side was none other than a familiar yellow bot.

"Sour Sweet?" Bumblebee greeted.

Sour, for once, couldn't help but smile. "Bumblebee."

"When Spitfire said that a random woman came into the base, I wasn't sure who it was. But seeing you of all people, makes it a lot better," the young scout complimented, "Oh, and I got a towel for you. Fleetfoot said you were trying to work up a sweat."

"Thank you," Sour accepted the towel, wiping her face clean.

"I don't usually say this, but I gotta say, you look pretty good. And I must admit, its really nice to see an old friend again."

"We barely talk to each other. Besides, you already got a human partner."

"True, but still though, its nice seeing a friend again. I take it Smallfoot's loving your new look as well? ... Where is Smallfoot, actually?"

Sour let out a sigh, disappointingly, shaking her head. "Smallfoot is... she's in... she's... she's in a better place."

A circuit in Bumblebee's spark sizzled. "What...? No..."

Sour nodded, confirming.

"Oh gosh... Oh, Smallfoot..." Bumblebee gasped, letting this news sink in. "W-What about... didn't you adopt a child, what about him?"

Sour frowned and looked to the scout with another heavy look. Bumblebee didn't even need to be told to understand.

"Oh Sour, I'm so sorry... I didn't know," Bumblebee said. "I-If you don't mind me asking, what happened?"

Sour's face scowled. "Decepticons."

Bumblebee groaned. "Of course. Anyone you recognized, maybe someone we fought a long time ago? Stunticons? Combaticons? Shockwave? Soundwave?"

Sour shook her head. "Not someone I know. Two cars, they called themselves Shatter and Dropkick. I thought they were new Autobots, until I saw the horde of clones behind them with Decepticon marks."

Bumblebee rubbed his chin with his thumb, "Those two sound familiar... Wait. Were they red and blue?"

"Yeah, they were. And one of them was female."

Bumblebee's fingers snapped. "I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"You heard the alarms, right? About Pyra Magna, and the Decepticon releasing?"

"Yeah, I did," Sour said, laying back on a bench, lifting some barbell weights. "Ran into Steve as well, really love that guy."

Bumblebee chuckled and rolled his eyes, "Yeah, we all love that guy. But anyways, Nitro and Blitzwing mentioned two of the Decepticons with Pyra... both of them with traits that kind of match the Decepticons who attacked your home."

Sour blinked. "Huge shocker, what else is new?"

"If those Decepticons attacked your home... and then came to get some more from jail..." Bumblebee thought out loud. "Ugh, no! I got nothing! Unless..."

The bug turned his head back to Sour. "Did they happen to know your name?"

"Yeah, they did, very odd. And creepy!"

Bumblebee thought back again. "Sounds to me whoever these Decepticons know a lot more than what they're packing."

"Hey Bumblebee? You coming?" A voice called.

Sour put the weights down and looked to where Bumblebee was being called from. A head popping from the side of the door, looking for him.

"Jazz needs you right now, ASAP."

"I'll be right there, Sunstreaker," Bumblebee replied.

"Okay." Sunstreaker said before popping his head away. And then returned back for a split second, noticing Sour. "Sour Sweet?"

"Who else could it be, Steamer?"

"Right... Still though, nice to see ya," Sunstreaker clicked with a wink before going away.

Bumblebee shook his head. "Ay... look, Sour? I don't know what these Decepticons are planning or if they even have some relation with Megatron, but we're gonna stop them."

"You helped blow up a god the size of a planet, didn't you? This shouldn't be hard."

"Yeah... hopefully," Bumblebee replied. He turned around, waving as he walked out.

"Oh, and Bumblebee?"

Bumblebee turned around, to be greeted with Sour's slowly rebuilding smile.

"If you find Shatter and Dropkick, bring them here so I can kick their asses personally. Hard."

Bumblebee grinned and nodded. "I promise. See you later, Sour."

A single transform, and Bumblebee left the exercise room to meet up with those who had called for him. Sour, chuckled and shook her head, watching him leave. Turning her attention to a small table, she opened up a container with some ice, pouring it into her glass cup.

Taking a sip of the cold icy water, she reached into one of her pockets, and unfolded a picture. In that picture, she could see herself, Smallfoot, and Betamax all together smiling and making silly faces in a carnival-like setting. She smiled, looking at the memory, and pressing her thumb against the image of her lover.

"I promise Smallfoot. I won't let you or Betamax fade away just like that. I'll stop them. I promise."

---

“As far as we know, Pyra Magna was seen leading the Decepticons and freeing them from jail. Maybe its really her, maybe its not, but one thing's for sure. Whatever her motive or plan is, she means serious business. She’s no Megatron, but she’s got something planned for sure,” Jazz said.

The others nodded in agreement. Jazz had moved Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, and Tracks into a separate room for a private meeting. A meeting for a new plan, to be more specific.

“But what is she planning, that’s the big question,” Bumblebee asked.

“We don’t know. But we won’t find out if we don’t stop her. But first thing’s first; we need to get Sunset back, she needs to know what’s going on.”

“But I thought she needed a vacation?” Sunstreaker asked.

“Vacation or not, this is a serious situation requiring the upmost support from everyone involved,” Tracks added.

“Let’s not forget, she’s out in the countryside, all on her own, and all she's got is Trailbreaker. If they track her down…”

Everyone let out a sharp hiss, understanding the gravity of the situation.

“So let me see if I can break this down; we’re small in numbers, we released a bunch of super-criminals for the bad guys, and now we’re considering leaving the base on the off chance we don’t get attacked again, to get help,” Sideswipe summarized.

“Better than doing nothing,” Bumblebee quipped.

“Let’s take a vote. All in favor of getting Sunset back, say Aye.”

Everyone agreed with a single ‘Aye’.

“Then its settled. We move now. Make sure your weapons and guns are loaded, we’ve got to find her fast.”

"Not without me, that is."

All five of their heads turned, a new voice called. Someone none of them had expected.

"Wheeljack?"

The scientist stepped up. "I've done all I can to help around here right now. But I think I would be more useful if I joined you guys in case Decepticons arrive. Besides... you're going to need someone to take the fall for 'dispatching without a notice'."

The group blinked.

"Well alright, sounds okay to me. You guys?"

The group nodded.

"Then lets get going, time's a wastin'!" Jazz ordered.

---

Back on Decepticon Island, the rest of the Decepticons were continuing to get settled in to their new surroundings. They hadn't received word from Barricade or Blackout, but Tempest wasn't worried. Frankly, she didn't really care as long as they got their job done.

"So," Grubber began, while taking a bite of a sandwich. "Food's all unpacked. Want a sandwich?"

Tempest rolled her eyes. "Later. I need to make sure Blackout and Barricade return with a mission accomplished."

"But shouldn't we just move on with the big plan? I mean, what are we even going to do now, you got Decepticons."

Tempest peeked down. "I will let everyone know what our next plan is as soon as we have word..."

On the monitors, a new signal began to beep. Tempest looked towards the screen, and flipped through the controls, looking for the source.

"A new signal. Excellent... Bludgeon."

The samurai heard her call, and quickly ran to the silo where he was called.

"We have a new Cybertronian signal. Only one energy signature, looks as if its in a large farmland somewhere. I would suggest you handle this one with discretion," Tempest ordered. "As in, do not let yourself be seen by anyone. If its another Decepticon, bring him in. If its an Autobot... I think your weapons will do the talking."

Bludgeon gave a single bow. "Once I arrive, I will give them your words. But I cannot go alone. Perhaps I may borrow a few warriors to tag along?"

Tempest rolled her eyes. "Fine."

Bludgeon grinned. "I will collect some warriors... then I will be ready to depart."

Bludgeon put his swords away and walked out of the silo, looking for his selected choices. And right at that moment, Tempest got another new message on screen, this time coming from Barricade and Blackout. She hit the reply button, and they came through.

"What is it?"

"Tempest, we have some good news... and bad news. The good news is, the Autobot that our troops were after, he's dead."

"Spare me the hopeful demeanor, what happened?"

Barricade cleared his throat. "Our Vehicons... they're dead. But here's the kicker, I don't think any of them died from that Autobot. They were all over the swamp like something out of a human horror film, or game or something."

Tempest calmly waited, thinking. "Do you have any clue as to who could have done it?"

"None of us do. But I have a hunch saying its from a Transformer, albeit... predatory."

"Very well. Return back to base at once, I'm opening the bridge."

"Roger that. Be there soon!"

Tempest removed her finger from the reply button, turning off the transmission. And a single button pressed turned on the Groundbridge so the two Decepticons could return back. Tempest turned around and observed the glowing green portal to await their arrival. While she was glad an Autobot was down, she did get a truthful, honest feeling that something wasn't right. Was there someone else hunting down Autobots like her? Or could there be someone out there with much more darker ambitions?

Next Chapter: Chapter 17: Magic Fight Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 33 Minutes