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Life with the Autobots and Minicons was something that the children would never take for granted, after all, no one could admit to being friends with larger than life aliens on a personal level and actually helping them out in some situations was something that they’d trade for the world. Still, when there wasn’t a stasis panel to retrieve or energon to search out, things around the Ark fell into a peaceful, if a bit boring, lull. Annie loved chatting with Bulkhead and Grindor, but she also tried connecting with some of the other bots when they actually gave her the time of day. When she wasn’t doing that, she was screwing around with Gina doing things that could give her brother a heart attack. Like building weapons.

You may scream now.

The girls were in the Minicons’ quarters in the west wing of the Ark, using Roll Bar’s work table as their little work station. Annie was Gina’s little assistant in testing out the capabilities of energon in terms of making human scale weapons for them to use (defensively of course), without Autobot supervision. Because that’s just asking for trouble.

“Gina, I know this is a little late to be asking this,” Annie said as she watched Gina try to fit processed energon into a gun that looked like it was stitched together. “But when the hell did you learn how to make guns?”

“Technically, it’s not a gun, it’s a blaster, and Rollbar helped me design most of it so we have something that can use energon for ammo.” Gina said, using a laser burner to weld together the delicate components that would be crucial in turning the energon into offensive energy. “He’s the one who taught me the basics. It’s pretty interesting to learn how the whole energy weapon thing works. Most of the science behind it is actually pretty doable for humans if we had the proper technology.”

“I don’t like you fooling around with weaponized energon, Gina.” Sureshock said. She was acting as their designated overseer to make sure to pull them out of the fire if things went south. “One wrong move and-“

“I know, I’ll get a firsthand account of what goes on in Wheeljack’s room. Don’t worry, Sureshock, as someone who deals with raw hephaestium in her free time, I know the dangers of tinkering with volatile minerals.” Gina said haughtily.

Unfortunately she chose that moment to take her eyes off her work to smirk cockily at Sureshock, which led to her adding too much heat to one of the containment bottles, causing it to explode in her face and burst into smoke in Gina’s face. The girls jumped back and Sureshock rushed to check Gina over, but the blonde waved her back.

“I’m fine! I’m fine. Just caught off guard.” Gina coughed and waved away the foul smelling smoke. “Damn, that’s rancid. Didn’t think burnt energon could smell that bad.”

“How about we take a break before we set something on fire.” Annie said. Sparkplug ran into the room and looked at the girls.

“What happened? I heard someone scream.” He asked.

“Just a slight malfunction with the blaster, nothing serious.” Gina sighed, rubbing her face clean. Sureshock shook her head and waved Sparkplug over.

“Sparkplug, I don’t like having the children fool around with Minicon weaponry. Heaven forbid if they shoot themselves or others accidentally.”

“I know, but they’re responsible kids. They know better than to swing a gun around like that.” Sparkplug looked at the girls as they were cleaning up the mess Gina made. “But they need something to keep them safe on missions. Your team won’t be with them all the time and Micronus help us if any of the Mini-Cons gets hold of them. Scalpel could’ve seriously wounded or even killed them back at the museum if things had gone differently. I’m not going to let them get hurt on my watch.”

“You know the Autobots won’t condone us giving the kids energy weapons.”

“I’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. And for the record, I don’t recall the kids being under Autobot protection 24/7.” Sparkplug said. “They’re our responsibility and we’ll do what needs to be done to ensure their safety.”

In another part of the Ark, Darren and High Wire watched Wheeljack and Bulkhead work on making some upgrades to the new hybrid energon/hephaestium synthesizer that the former made. It was a large, unattractive looking piece of machinery that looked like a glorified engine with a bunch of visible glowing power lines running in and out of its sides.

“So this is supposed to synthesize energon from hephaestium without passing on the bad side effects?” Darren asked.

“That’s the idea.” Bulkhead said. “The stuff’s everywhere, but we can’t ingest it without going into a downward spiral of pain and misery, so we need to purify the stuff before drinking it.”

“But you guys already have plenty of energon in storage. I thought you guys were good.”

“Yeah, for now. But when the fighting starts, half of that energon goes into repairs and medical supplies. The other half goes to us. We need to ration our energon on every mission or risk running out and slowing our performance on the field.” Bulkhead explained, plugging in the power cable from the ship’s power lines. “Using natural resources to synthesize artificial energon is a must if you want to be on top of your game in supplies.”

“But the problem is that the stuff tastes like slag.” Wheeljack remarked. Once he was done with the final checks, he gave Bulkhead the thumbs up. “Alright, Bulk, let her rip.”

Bulkhead flipped the power switch and the synthesizer activated. Darren and High Wire watched anxiously as the machine rumbled a bit like an actual car engine, drawing power directly from the hephaestium stone hooked into it to create liquefied processed energon in the cube at the end of the dispenser. Darren wondered how that process worked as he saw the cube slowly fill up with multicolored liquid that he knew was processed energon. Wheeljack waited for the cube to fill halfway before shutting the machine down and pulling it away, holding it up to Bulkhead.

“Whoa, you’re making me drink that?” Bulkhead gulped.

“I already had my trial by fire. It’s your turn to be the test petro-rabbit.” Wheeljack said.

Bulkhead groaned but didn’t refute his comment. He took the cube and made a quick prayer before chugging the energon down in three huge gulps. When he was finished, he wiped his mouth and looked at Wheeljack expectantly.

“Well?”Wheeljack asked.

“Well what?”

“Do you feel any different?” Wheeljack pressed. “Any side effects? Nausea? A sore tank?”

“I…don’t feel all that different actually. Huh, I was expecting something exploding in my fuel pump or something like that. Can’t say the taste is anything to be excited about.” Bulkhead grinned. He rolled his shoulders a bit and flexed his hands. “Actually, I feel a bit better right now. I don’t feel very tired either. Hey, maybe it is working!”

“Bulk, let me run some tests first before you-“

“I gotta go, Jackie! Almost time for recon duty. See ya!” Without another word, Bulkhead fast walked down the hall with a noticeable pep in his step. Wheeljack rubbed the back of his head in worry.

“Oh dear.” He muttered. Darren and High Wire were of the same mind.

“Is Bulkhead going to be okay?” Darren asked.

“Honestly, I’m afraid he’s a bit too okay for one mech.” High Wire remarked.

XXXXXX

The next day at school, the children were out in the front yard having a much needed discussion about something important that just came up.

“You’re making weapons?” Darren asked, making a face. As in, real weapons with the supplies the Minicons gave you?”

“Yup.” Gina didn’t even look ashamed at admitting it.

“Gina…we’re not even old enough to look at x-rated videos-“

“Speak for yourself.” Annie muttered.

Darren gave her a look and continued. “What makes you think that the Autobots are going to let us have guns on us?”

“First of all, Sparkplug supported my decision, and was the one who told me how to make them. I’m not making giant plasma cannons or anything, just human-sized blasters made under Sureshock’s supervision.” Gina said.

“The Autobots have a rule that forbids them from sharing cybertronian technology with other races, and that means us.” Annie said.

“So Sparkplug offered to show us a loophole with some help from the Minicons. A completely terra-made blaster built using cybertronian specs.” Gina continued. Darren wasn’t liking how calm she was explaining this. “An exploitable loophole we can use without pissing Prowl off.”

“Like we’re gonna tell him anyway.” Annie snorted.

“Do you two hear yourselves? You’re making alien guns! That kind of thing can blow up in your face, and net time, it won’t just be smoke.” Darren said.

Gina sighed and placed a hand on Darren’s shoulder. “Darren, we need this. If we’re going to be risking our lives finding Minicons, we need to have some protection other than the Street Action team. You saw what happened in the museum-that could’ve gotten bloody really fast. I still have cuts on my arms from Scalpels attack. He could’ve easily skewered any of us and we wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop him. Don’t worry, we won’t be carrying them around with us every day, just on missions. Sparkplug offered to hold the weapons for us when we’re off the clock.”

Darren didn’t look convinced, but he nodded anyway. “Okay, but…I signed up to help rescue alien refugees, not carry around alien guns like I’m going to do a drive by.”

“Well then, just shoot at the bastards shooting you and everything will be fine. Not that you need one anyway.” Annie huffed and took out her soda. “Hero.”

“Well, look at the time! Lunch is almost over.” Gina said loudly before Darren could make a scathing remark towards his sister. “I’m going to get my math book before the kids rush back inside. After-lunch traffic is the worst.”

“Sure, we’ll be here…trying not to kill each other.” Darren muttered under his breath.

Gina shook her head and made her way back into the school to get her books for her next class. She loved being friends with the twins, but it hurt to see them act so hostile towards each other, especially when it was over the matter of Darren’s powers. It disturbed her at how easily they got into fights these days. They’re twins; no pair should argue that viciously.

Though, she supposed she could understand Darren’s hesitation. His father had fought in a war and died from it, and it affected his family really badly. It would make sense to be very hesitant to be getting any more involved with the alien war going on right under their noses. They agreed to rescue the Minicons, not actively fight with weapons. But Gina wasn’t giving this up. If they were going to get up close and personal with Leader-1’s team every mission, they needed something to protect themselves when Goldfire was duking it out in their stead.

When she made it to her locker, Gina was surprised to see Penny standing there waiting for her. Rolling her eyes, she opened it and got her books.

“Hello, Penny.” She said coldly.

“Gina.” Penny said smirking.

“What do you want?”

“Just seeing if you’re ready for the robotics fair that’s coming up.” Penny said. Gina was lucky that the locker door was hiding her upper body, because she froze solid upon hearing that. “I haven’t seen or heard of what you had planned for the fair. Getting cold feet?”

“Me? Pah! Perish the thought.” Gina grinned, inwardly sweating.

“Good, I want to see your best creation for when I beat you fair and square.” Penny said and walked back down the hall, looking like she already won. “I hope you’re prepared or I’ll be severely disappointed!”

“Of course I’m prepared.” Gina said. “I’m totally prepared.”

XXXXXX

“I’m totally ****!”

Sureshock winced at bit as Gina’s panicked exclamation rattled the underground workshop. She was sitting on the spare bed near the work table watching Gina pace back and forth in panic.

“Gina, what’s the difference if you’ve forgotten or not? You’re a wiz at this kind of thing. Whatever you build, big or small, you’ll impress a lot of people.” She said.

“But it’s not about the people, it’s about beating Penny at her own game.” Gina sighed. “We’re constantly trying to outdo each other in all fields of science, from chemistry to astrophysics. Robotics is actually my weak point and she’s been shoving it in my face since that science fair two years ago. I don’t have time to make something good enough to beat her robots. She makes robots that are taller than a man and can fight, Sureshock!”

“Calm down, I have faith that you can make something just as good as hers. You’re the smartest human I know.” Sureshock said.

“I’m one of the only humans you know.” Gina said.

“Doesn’t mean it isn’t true.” Sureshock replied.

Gina crossed her arms and thought long and hard. As skilled as she was at robotics, there was a lot of testing and calibrations to consider when making a robot, especially a large one. Rush jobs did not go well with robots, and Gina had only two days until the robot fair. There was no way she could make something that complex in that short amount of time. Her eyes glanced over Sureshock, and something clicked in her head. A smile spread across her face and she looked at her Minicon partner.

“Sureshock, saddle up. We’re heading over to Darren and Annie’s house. There’s something I need to ask High Wire and Grindor.”

Sureshock tilted her head. “About what?”

“Oh,” A grin spread across Gina’s face that would’ve made a lesser man cry. “Just their opinion on an idea of mine.”

XXXXXX

“Bulkhead, are you sure you’re okay?” Wheeljack asked his friend.

“Jackie, I said I’m fine. Why do you keep asking me that?”

“Because you’ve been running around the ship nonstop and its starting to make me worried.” Wheeljack replied. “Not to mention you’re pushing fifty miles on the treadmill.”

Indeed, the large Autobot was currently running almost fifty mph on a treadmill in the training room, not even looking winded as he easily matched a pace that would’ve sent him flying. Wheeljack wasn’t even going to try to deduce how Bulkhead was able to do this with his stocky legs. The machine itself looked like it was going to collapse under Bulkhead’s constant thumping along the rails.

“Nothing’s wrong, Jackie. I’m just working off some extra steam. That energon’s got me all fired up and I feel like I could take on an entire Seeker armada.” Bulkhead said without missing a beat in his run.

XXXXXX

Gina wasted no time in hunting down High Wire and Grindor when she got to her friends’ house. Leaving Sureshock outside, she quickly dragged the two Minicons into the garage to explain her plan to them, which they reacted to negatively.

“No.” High Wire said firmly. “Just, no.”

“Come on, High Wire, don’t do me dirty like that.” Gina whined.

“I have to go with High Wire on this one, Gina. This plan of yours-“

“Evil scheme.” High Wire corrected Grindor.

“Evil scheme of yours is both stupid and risky.” Grindor said.

“Please, just think about it. I’m desperate here, and the robotics fair is only two days away. I don’t have time to make a super awesome robot to wow everyone and get a one up on my rival. So since you’re, like, robotic and all-“

“We’re not robots!” Grindor yelled.

“I thought you two could maybe…do a little pretend for me.” Gina finished sheepishly.

“And how come you didn’t go to Sureshock about this?” Grindor asked.

“Because she knew Sureshock would not only say no, but also tell the others about it.” High Wire said. “Gina, you know why we can’t do this. The risk-“

“No one would believe that you’re anything more than cool looking robots. And you both know I will never spill the beans on you guys.” Gina sighed. “Please, it’s just for one day. Pretend I made you and follow whatever commands I give you with my remote. That’s it. No one will question why you’re so advanced because everyone’s used to my cookie creations.”

High Wire and Grindor looked at each other, seemingly having a private conversation before they nodded and looked back at the girl.

“We’ll follow your lead.” High Wire said. “But if things start looking bad, we’re leaving the fair immediately.”

“And none of us will breathe a word of this to the Autobots.” Grindor added.

“Yes! Banzai!” Gina hollered. “Penny ain’t got **** on you guys!”

‘Primus, I’m already regretting my decision.’ High Wire thought miserably.

XXXXXX

‘I’m getting too old for this.’ Ironhide thought with a scowl as he ducked under a large fist, only to get hit in the nose by another.

Ironhide was sparring with Bulkhead late in the night, with most of the team asleep in their quarters. It was Ironhide’s turn for watch duty, and Bulkhead, unable to even close his eyes for more than a few seconds before getting up again. So the big green mech sought out Ironhide to work out his frustration and extra energy with a little sparring match. Normally Ironhide would be all for beating down the younger bots and proving his stuff, but it was late in the night, and fighting Bulkhead was never an easy feat. Now that the mech was on overcharge, it was just getting annoying.

“Come on, Hide! I thought you were a vet!” Bulkhead taunted, slapping away a punch and thrusting out his rotund belly into Ionrhide, knocking him back. “I’m barely breaking a sweat here!”

“Don’t get cocky, lunkhead.” Ironhide growled. He rushed forward and reared his arm back for a hard face punch. “Smack talk like that gets you dropped!”

Bulkhead dodged the punch and grabbed Ironhide’s arm, throwing the red Autobot over his shoulder and into the wall. The noise was loud enough to cause Wheeljack and Arcee to rush into the room to investigate.

“What’s going on in here?” Arcee asked.

“Hey, Cee! You just missed me kicking Hide’s aft for the thousandth time.” Bulkhead grinned.

“We’ve only had three matches, you bastard.” Ironhide groaned.

“Bulk, it’s the middle of the night. Please just lay down or something before you wake up Optimus.” Wheeljack begged his friend.

“Or Prowl, heaven forbid.” Arcee muttered.

“But Jackie, I feel way too hyper to even stand still. I’m feeling like I can take on the world and not even Megatron can stop me!” Bulkhead exclaimed.

“Seriously, Bulkhead, settle down and go do something less noisy and strenuous.” Wheeljack said. “Preferably something that doesn’t involve making Ironhide your number one enemy.”

“Too late for that.” Ironhide grumbled as he stood up.

Bulkhead shrugged and walked past Wheeljack to leave the room to get some energon. When he was gone, both Ironhide and Arcee glared at him.

“What?” He asked.

“You know what.” Ironhide growled.

“What did you give Bulkhead to make him this hyper?” Arcee asked. “He’s like Blurr hopped up on red energon.”

“All I gave him was a sample of the hybrid formula I made from diluted hephaestium mixed with regular energon. The effects started almost immediately, but I didn’t think they’d last as long as it would.”

“Well, fix him so we can get a decent night’s recharge!” Ironhide growled. “I’m getting sick of hearing his large ass lumber through the damn halls.”

“Yeah, that’s going to take some time.” Wheeljack coughed into his hand. “You see, the energon is taking its sweet time draining out of his system. It’s taking longer than normal energon, which was the whole point of the experiment. At this point, he’ll have to exert a great amount of energy to flush it from his system.”

“Then get to it, braniac. I’m getting sick of Bulkhead’s slag.” Ironhide roughly pushed past Wheeljack and left the room.

“Wheeljack, maybe you should find a way to help Bulkhead before he gets hurt.” Arcee said. “You know better than to test out your experiments on living subjects.”

“I know. I’ll try to make sure Bulk doesn’t get into trouble, but nothing short of a brawl will make him…” Wheeljack trailed off when he suddenly had an idea. “I got it!”

Arcee jumped at his exclamation. “W-what? What happened?”

“The perfect way to make Bulkhead lose his energy!” Wheeljack would’ve smiled if he had a mouth.

XXXXXX

Every year, the Tranquility science center would have a robotics fair to showcase different roots created by brilliant young minds in the area and show their engineering prowess. It wasn’t a competition and there was no prize money, but from the viewpoint of those taking part in the fair, it was a matter of showing what you can do, gaining bragging rights, and notoriety. Basically, it was a battleground for nerds. The park where it was taking place was jam packed and full of young participants with their own robotic creations. There were booths set up for participants to show off their robots, with crowds gathered in front of the more impressive ones.

Gina led the two Minicons through the crowd with a big smile on her face, taking some pride in the surprised looks on people’s faces as they looked upon her “creations”. These people had no idea that there were two live aliens walking among them, and the irony of it was enough for her to smile through her nervousness. This was a massive risk she was taking, and if anyone had their suspicions, then things were going to go south fast. But her pride as a scientist and a girl kept her going through with the plan and hoped that the Autobots didn’t find out about this.

High Wire and Grindor were taking this chance to look at all the new sights. It was nothing special to them, but walking around in their natural forms and having people gawk at them for only a few seconds was a surreal experience. None of these people knew he was no ordinary robot, and he wanted to keep it that way. Grindor, however, was more worried about what Darren and Annie would think if they found out about this.

“Annie’s gonna tear me a new tailpipe.” Grindor said through their internal comm. “She may not look like much, but she can throw a punch if she’s angry enough. And I have little reason to doubt that she can’t punch through solid metal if she learns about this.”

“Two days later and now you’re worrying about this? Grindor, it’s too late to be having second thoughts.” High Wire said. After a moment, he added, “And besides, you should be more worried about what Sureshock would do to us if she catches wind of this.”

“Here we are guys!” Gina said as they came upon their designated area in the fair. It was just a small space between two other exhibits, one with a tiny dancing robot with amazing flexibility and another with a perfect robotic replica of a tarantula. “You guys doing okay?”

“What do you think?” Grindor grumbled.

“Don’t be like that. I know this makes you uncomfortable, but just follow the plan and let me do the rest. You’re doing great already.” Gina whispered to the two Minicons.

“Gina?”

Gina looked over her shoulder to see Kevin walked through the crowd with a hot dog in hand. The tall boy gave her a wave, which she returned. “Hey, Kevin! Wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“Penny dragged me here to unveil her masterpiece as she calls it.” Kevin chuckled. “And I didn’t think you were going to come either. Penny said that you were fresh out of tricks in your magic hat.”

“Hmph, shows what she knows. I was just making finishing touches on my two newest creations.” Gina stepped aside and waved to the Minicons. “Tada!”

Kevin blinked at the two Minicons, just now noticing them. He got closer and leaned in to inspect them, and High Wire had to keep himself from leaning back when Kevin got a bit too close. Looking the little mechs up and down, Kevin couldn’t help but ask, “You made them?”

“Yup! That’s all me.” Gina said proudly. “They started as just a little pet project that just got out of hand.”

“That’s amazing detail. I can see you put a lot of work into them.” Kevin praised. He raised an eyebrow at the vehicle parts on the Minicons. “But what’s with the vehicle parts? You just weld them on or something?”

“Oh that, uh,” Gina didn’t take that into consideration. Thankfully she was quick on the draw for an explanation. “It’s just a little artistic touch I added for effect. Since Darren and Annie weren’t using their old bikes and stuff, I decided to use the spare parts to put on these little guys. Doesn’t hurt to be creative.”

“If you think that’s creative, then I’m a martial arts master.” A cocky voice laughed behind her.

“Hello, Penny.” Gina sighed as she faced her “archenemy”. Penny walked out of the crowd with that same self serving smirk on her face, which only grew as she set eyes on the Minicons. “Good to see you’re still here.”

“And it’s good to know you’re still finding ways to embarrass yourself. What in god’s name are those things?” Penny chuckled.

“They’re Mini-I mean, they’re my little fighting machines, made by yours truly. What of it?” Gina grumbled.

“What of it? Girl, those things look like you welded them together from junkyard scraps.”

‘I’m gonna kill this glitch.’ Grindor thought.

‘I mean, your technological skills are less than mine, but I thought you’d at least put up some effort for the little kiddies coming here for the show.” Penny laughed.

“Penny, tone it down.” Kevin admonished. She waved him off.

“I’ll have you know that these little guys are the most advanced bots in my arsenal. They’re a combination of practicality and art and no one here has created anything like them or ever will.” Gina smiled haughtily. “So you can take your petty insults and shove them where the sun don’t shine…sista!”

‘Ohh! Burn!’ Grindor cheered mentally.

Penny hardly looked impressed, though her eyebrow was ticking a little. “If that’s the best you can do, then I was wrong to be so concerned. I can hardly upstage you when there’s nothing to upstage.”

“Stop your pointless boasting and show me what new toaster you’ve cooked up for the kiddies.” Gina said. Penny smirked and pressed a button on her watch.

Gina raised an eyebrow at that, but then her confident expression plummeted as she saw a large form lumbering through the crowd. It was a robot, but totally different from the Minicons; its armor was dark purple and rigid like a samurai’s armor, centered mostly around the shoulders and chest. Its head sported a samurai helmet with a kanji symbol on the side, and yellow eyes that glared down at Gina. Its most defining feature was that it was almost twelve feet tall and built like a boxer with large steel fists.

‘What the hell?!’ High Wire and Grindor thought.

“Gina, I want you to meet Zeus, my first generation combat robot.” Penny said proudly. “Took me a year and a half and a lot of allowances for the components to complete him, but I finished him just last week. My pride and joy into the world of robotics. What do you think?”

“Why does it look like a Nipponese boxer?” Gina asked without thinking.

“He’s a combat robot, Harpy. He fights, so I built him up to be a fighter.” She replied. That was when Penny got an idea. “Say, how about a little match between one of your little bots against my champion over here? That’d make for a decent show.”

“F-fight him? That thing?” Gina blinked up at the menacing looking robot that looked like it was modeled after a comic book character (and she pretty sure it was). While she knew the Minicons were strong in their gestalt form, Goldfire, individually, they were pretty lacking. Not that she would say that out loud.

“Yeah, why not? I’m sure despite their shoddy construction they’ll at least know how to fight.” Penny smirked. “You did program them to fight right? You’re at least competent in that regard, right?”

‘Oh damn.’ Kevin sighed.

“I am competent in that field, Penny. Thank you for asking. Now allow me to accept your challenge with grace, unlike that huge lumbering brute you’ve built, these little guys can kiss Zeus’ ass from here to Olympus in half an hour!” Gina took a stance and pointed a finger into Penny’s startled face. “Let’s do this! Your bot versus my bot! I’m betting 50 dollars that your tin can won’t even last against mine.”

‘No, Gina.’ High Wire groaned internally. Not even an hour and things were already getting out of control. ‘Maybe I can get Grindor to call up Annie and-‘

He looked over at Grindor, who was cracking his knuckles. There goes that idea.

XXXXXX

“Prime, we’ve got an energon signal in the Great Plains.” Prowl reported, his eyes quickly skimming the monitor in the computer hub. “And sat links show that the Cons are already on the scene. Three of them.”

“Can we get an ID on them?” Optimus asked.

“No, at least not yet.” Prowl answered. “I’ll send Ironhide and-“

“We can handle it!” Bulkhead’s bellow startled Optimus and Prowl as he appeared in the doorway with Wheeljack. “The two of us can handle them just fine!”

“Bulkhead…are you all right?” Optimus asked slowly.

“Never better, boss. Just give us the go ahead and we’ll secure that energon no problem!” Bulkhead said exuberantly.

Prowl narrowed his eyes and looked at Wheeljack, who gave him a pleading look. Prowl looked at Optimus, who was silent before nodding his consent.

“Very well. Bulkhead, Wheeljack, you will deploy at once to disrupt their mining operation.” Optimus said. “Get to the ground bridge and-“

“Already on it!” Bulkhead whooped before running down the hall, shaking the floor with his massive footsteps. Wheeljack chuckled nervously and backed away.

“I’ll…keep an eye on him. We won’t be gone long.” He said before running after Bulkhead.

Optimus and Prowl stared after them in silence before looking at each other. “I wonder what that was all about.” Optimus said.

“Whatever it was, I hope it doesn’t disrupt the mission.” Prowl said and turned back to the computer. “We have enough bouts of madness on this ship as it is.”

XXXXXX

Despite what propaganda vids tell you, the life of a Seeker wasn’t all that exciting. If you weren’t a member of Starscream’s immediate squadron, then you were most likely a part of some wayward outpost or base where you would be sent on sporadic flight missions. It wasn’t all explosions and glory and patriotism, as Thundercracker was now experiencing.

Watching Knockout drill into the side of a canyon for a cache of energon that may not even be useful to them was incredibly dull, and trying to hold a conversation with Lugnut was really infuriating.

“You lie!” Lugnut bellowed.

“I’m totally not lying. These creatures were almost as large as Omega Supreme and one of those little bastards thought I was some remote control toy.” Thundercracker said. He was passing the time with his fellow Con by telling the big lug a story of one of his most embarrassing missions to an alien world. “Now, Thrust and Ramjet were as useless as you’d think they’d be in this situation, and Slipstream, the little glitch, was too busy laughing to do anything for me as I was being pulled and twisted like some damn action figure.”

“Ha! That would’ve been something to see.” Lugnut laughed. “Not every day when you see an almighty Seeker being treated like a toy.”

“Laugh it up, but you’ll be singing a different tune when you run into a big baddie like Superion and he starts pullin’ on those huge arms of yours.” Thundercracker grumbled.

As they chatted, Wheeljack and Bulkhead watched them from the cliff right above their position. Wheeljack had to keep his friend from jumping in on them and blasting willy nilly. The big green Autobot was already shifting in place like a kid wanting to go to the bathroom.

“Can we get ‘em now?” Bulkhead whispered. “I’m getting twitchy.”

“No yet, Bulk. We got to wait for them to uncover the energon.” Wheeljack said. “Just sit tight and wait for my mark.”

“I’m tryin’, but its torture.” The former Wrecker whined.

“Look, I’m just saying that as cool as those exploding bomb hands are, they blow up in your face more often than not.” Thundercracker said. “Seriously, I’ve heard about your time on Viruna. All it took was one little poke and you almost lost that arm.”

“I’m not replacing my POKE! They are my weapons which deliver righteous fury to Lord Megatron’s enemies!” Lugnut shouted.

“Yes, yes, I know. You won’t shut up about them.” Thundercracker rolled his eyes.

“If you two don’t mind,” Knockout said as he stopped the drill and glared back at them. “I’m trying to work here you lazy bums! Its bad enough I have to work in the middle of this paint peeling heat, I don’t need you two morons caveman grunting interrupting my thought process!”

“Your thought process centers only around what kind of wax job you’re getting this evening, Knockout.” Thundercracker retorted. “Now, the energon.”

“I’ve just hit a vein, and it looks pretty deep. I think we caught a good one here.” Knockout said bored. Then he noticed that it was getting darker. “Hold on, why is getting dark around here? It’s still noo-“

Knockout never got to finish his sentence as a large green jeep fell on him, smashing his body into the ground. Bulkhead came descending on him like a meteor and his weight mixed with the velocity of his fall nearly turned Knockout into a pile of compacted scrap metal. It took Thundercracker and Lugnut a few minutes to process what happened before they drew their weapons on him.

“Don’t move Auto-“ Thundercracker was similarly cut off when an energo-whip wrapped around his neck and yanked him off his feet. Wheeljack, sliding down the canyon wall, fired a shell from one of his shoulder cannons into the Seeker’s chest, blasting him away from Lugnut.

“Filthy little Autobot! I’ll mount your head on Lord Megatron’s throne!” Lugnut growled, glaring up at Wheeljack. This momentary distraction allowed Bulkhead to transformed and jump up from the crater he left in his fall to slam himself into Lugnut’s chest.

“You can try and fail dingbat!” Bulkhead said before his turned his hand into his wrecking ball and slammed it into Lugnut’s face. “Cause I’m just getting started!”

XXXXXX

“I swear to Primus, Gina, this idea of yours is getting out of control!” High Wire hissed.

“Hush! I’m not letting that little snit insult my honor as a scientist of the practical arts.” Gina whispered to him. She was kneeled behind Grindor pretending to check out the “controls” for his remote. “Grindor can handle that thing no problem. Right, Grindor?”

“I’m gonna kick his ass!” Grindor said.

“See? He’s up for it.”

“His opinion is irrelevant. Gina, you’re going to blow our cover.”

“If things look dicey, I’ll concede and take you both back home. But right now, its robot fighting time!” Gina shouted the last part, stepping back to allow Grindor to face his opponent.

A sizable crowd had assembled around the two robots, with Gina on one side and Penny on the other. Now, this wasn’t a planned event or anything, but the amount of people it drew led to the fair organizers to at least set up a faux ring around the combatants to protect the crowd. Those who got their first got a front row seat to the science fair’s first ever robot fight match. Kevin stood on Penny’s side recording it on a camcorder that Penny had gotten from…somewhere.

“Are you finally ready fine tuning your tin can, Gina?” Penny asked. “Zeus is starting to rust over here.”

“Grindor is always ready for a fight? Ain’t that right, little guy?” Gina asked. Grindor gave her a series of beeps, using his Minicon code language to fake robo-speak.

Penny tested out her controls and had Zeus throw a couple of punches. The large robot moved fluidly that Gina thought it would, making her bite her lip.

‘I have confidence in Grindor, but that thing looks really well made. Penny always had a knack for making robots better than me.’ She thought. With a grunt, she slapped her cheeks to focus. ‘Doesn’t matter! Get your head in the game girl, your honor is at stake here!’

“We’ll send out bots out on three!” Penny yelled over the loud cheers of the people watching. “One…two…three!”

“Onward and upward, Grindor!” Gina said as she pressed a button on her remote and “moved” Grindor forward. The Minicon didn’t waste time in charging at Zeus, who walked forward at an even pace in its robotic stride.

‘He’s mine!’ Grindor leapt up and threw a punch at Zeus’ head, but before he could make contact, Zeus moved faster, leaning back to avoid his fist and punching Grindor in the side.

Gina and High Wire watched in shock as Grindor hit the ground face first and landed on his back. Grindor himself looked shellshocked at being clocked in the face like that and Gina had to make of show of pressing the button to get him back up again. He rubbed his aching side and glared at Zeus.

“That was an embarrassing way to start a fight.” Penny said dryly. “For a girl who likes RPGs, you really know jack about fighting, huh?”

“Frag you, Penny!” Gina yelled. “Grindor, kick his ass!”

‘No, Gina.’ High Wire groaned mentally. He saw Grindor get to his feet and jump at Zeus, who threw a metal fist at his head.

Grindor ducked under it and punched Zeus in the side, denting the armor just under its shoulder joint. Zeus retaliated with an uppercut that caught Grindor in the face and knocked him back. Stunned, he was unprepared for the sudden assault the robot gave him, which were basically a series of boxing punches that hit harder than he thought. Before she even showed Zeus to her friends, Penny made sure to field test her robot using training dummies, downloading basic combat information into its hard drive. That, and the fact its fist were fashioned into stylized boxing gloves made of steel allowed it to hit so hard that even a Minicon could feel it.

“Come on, Gina. I expected better than this.” Penny sighed. “Honestly, next time we have a fair, you should try building a robot that’s not so damn weak.”

‘That’s it!’ Grindor thought. He hit the ground again and rolled to the side to avoid a stomp from Zeus. Rolling to his knees, he spun around and punched Zeus right in its right kneecap, his fist causing the steel plated joint to bend unnaturally and cause the robot to lean on its right unbalanced.

The cheering stopped as they saw the Minicon do what they thought was impossible. Only Gina had enough sense to take a quick picture of Penny’s shocked face with her phone before pressing another button. Grindor leaped to his feet and climbed onto its back, punching Zeus in the side of its head.

“Get off!” Penn growled.

Zeus swayed unsteadily to dislodge Grindor, and when it started punching back at him, Grindor flipped off its back and grabbed one of its arms. Swinging one of his legs around, he kicked one of the joints hard enough to completely shatter the elbow. Penny watched horrified as her precious robot lost an arm that cost almost as much as her dad’s car.

“Come on! Fight back!” She grumbled, pressing buttons on her remote. Kevin bit his lip and inched away from the mad girl.

“Hit it harder, Grindor! Beat it down!” Gina yelled, hopping up and down in glee.

Grindor was having the time of his life as he used the arm he tore off to smack Zeus in the face repeatedly, hitting it hard enough to dent its helmet. When Zeus tried to punch him with his left arm, Grindor ducked under its fist and smacked its arm away and hopped onto its back. Grabbing onto its helmet and pulled as hard as he could. One thing about Minicons you could be sure about, as small as they were, they were still strong. And Grindor demonstrated this for the entertained crowd as he brutally pulled Zeus’ head off and rode the body to the ground.

Everyone stared at the Minicon holding his opponent’s severed head in the air as a trophy, and they were all silent before cheering loudly. Boys and girls and even adults were hooting and hollering at the impressive robot fight at a science fair that was honestly a bit dull to those who weren’t interested in robotics. Grindor flexed his arms and showed the riled up crowd Zeus’ head.

“He actually did it.” High Wire muttered.

“I…what…” Penny stammered. “How the hell did he beat Zeus?”

“Its okay, Penny. I’m here.” Kevin patted her shoulder and guided the shell-shocked girl over to what was left of her very, very, expensive robot.

“B-But, I programmed him after world class fighter! How the hell did that little piece of scrap metal beat him?” Penny’s eyes started leaking tears as she knelt in front of Zeus’ headless body. “All that work! I wasted two months’ worth of weekly allowance building this damn thing!”

‘That’s a hefty allowance.’ Kevin thought.

“That’s right, Pincher. I win, and you lose. Your Getter Robo ain’t got jack on my Mazinger Z, sucka!” Gina screamed and hugged Grindor as tight as she could. “And they said Burning Justice only existed in anime! Grindor you’re the best!”

“GINA!!!”

Gina and Grindor froze as they heard a very angry yell over the boisterous crowd. Looking back over to where High Wire was, the duo paled as they saw a very displeased Darren and Annie standing there beside the Minicon.

“Oh scrap.” They said in unison.

XXXXXX

“Die Autobot!” Lugnut roared, pulling out his magnetic hammer and swinging it at Bulkhead’s head.

Bulkhead charged forward and swung his wrecking ball, and the two objects slammed into one another with tremendous force. A shockwave rippled throughout the canyon and actually caused the ground to crack under them. Bulkhead jumped back and fired his wrecking ball at Lugnut, hitting the mech in the chest. Lugnut toughed it out, but he wasn’t prepared for Bulkhead rushing into him and slamming his shoulder into his chest. The two mechs fell to the ground and grappled with each other before Lugnut kicked Bulkhead off.

“You’re eager to die, Bulkhead.” Lugnut said, flexing his three fingered hands as they gripped his mace.

“Don’t flatter yourself. You just caught me on a good day, which is bad news for you!”

Lugnut gave a laugh and opened up the panels on his back to release a volley of missiles at Bulkhead, who surprisingly met the assault head on without any regard for his personal safety.

Thundercracker was doing his best against Wheeljack, who was hitting the larger Con with a combination of variable ammo from his arm blasters and shells from his launchers. The blue Seeker couldn’t help but marvel at the unholy arsenal this Autobot was packing. He heard enough horror stories from Skywarp about this guy to know not to underestimate him.

“What’s the matter, Thundercracker? I thought Seeker were always the first ones to strike first.” Wheeljack said, spinning his energo-whip.

“I know what you did to Skywarp. Unlike him, I’m not going to play your games.” Thundercracker said.

“You say that like you have a choice.” Wheeljack replied.

Thundercracker glanced at Lugnut behind Wheeljack and saw that he was having some difficulty handling Bulkhead for some reason. To his partner’s credit, the green Autobot was moving surprisingly faster than he should’ve been with his bulky form. Scowling, Thundercracker decided to throw his partner a bone and boosted forward, gliding on high power jet thrusters as he leapt over Wheeljack and fired two neutron lasers from his arm cannons at Bulkhead. The least he could do is help the dumb bastard out.

“Bulkhead!” Wheeljack ran forward and fired a shell from his shoulder launcher. Moving faster than the lasers, the shell acting as a decoy, letting the lasers hit it on target and exploding into millions of sharp fragments that flew everywhere.

Bulkhead heard his friend’s shout and acted quickly, grabbed Lugnut and forcing him in front of his body to act as a shield. Lugnut howled in anger as he was stabbed dozens of times by tiny filaments that dug into his armor and joints. Painful and irritating in equal measure, and distracted him greatly. Bulkhead gave his partner a grin before turning back to punch Lugnut in the eye.

Wheeljack sagged in relief at the crisis they barely avoided, then he heard the deafening howl of jet engines behind him and looked back to see Thundercracker flying straight at him in jet mode.

“Scrap!” Wheeljack dived to the side to avoid the rapid fire of Thundercracker’s Vulcan guns that tore apart the ground where he once stood. Letting the Seeker pass over him, Wheeljack fired a grappling hook from his left wrist and hooked onto Thundercracker’s right wing. He yelped as he was pulled violently off the ground and was pulled through the air by the Seeker.

‘How the hell did Bumblebee do this with Starscream?’ Wheeljack thought as he tried to hang on for dear life. This was terrifying! Thundercracker noticed his stowaway and tried to shake him off with flashy maneuvers and barrel rolls.

“No free rides, you little glitch!” Thundercracker growled. He spun and turned in the air like an arrow, performing sharp aerial maneuvers no terran aircraft or pilot could handle at such speeds.

After a short while, in which Wheeljack somehow didn’t fall or get scrapped off on the canyon walls, Thundercracker decided on a more direct approach. Flying straight up, he cut his engines and allowed himself to fall downward, pointing his nose straight at Wheeljack, who was positioned right under him. As his grappling hook lost its grip from the move, Wheeljack realized what he planned to do and quickly thought of something.

“This is going to hurt.” He muttered as he prepared to fire his hook again. Just as he saw Thundercracker prime his missiles, Wheeljack fired his hook into the Seeker’s nose and pulled himself upward.

“What are you doing?” Thundercracker asked, not liking what the Autobot was doing.

“Winning!” Was Wheeljack’s reply as he brought out his other cannon and fired a little custom made surprise of his. It was an EMP charge built into a shell that zeroed in on heat signatures. With Thundercracker being the closest heat signature in range, the missile went straight for him, too fast to avoid.

“No-gah!” Thundercracker was hit dead center by the shell and his body was engulfed in a powerful debilitating EMP surge that caused his systems to shut down immediately. Wheeljack grinned as he saw that his plan worked.

“Now here comes the hard part,” He looked down at the ground almost two stories below him. “The landing.”

Bulkhead danced around Lugnut like Jazz would do as he avoided Lugnut’s frenzied attacks. His armor was scorched and burnt from the micro-missiles fired at him from earlier, but he was still running on overcharge as he pummeled his enemy. Meanwhile, Lugnut was starting to tire out.

“Stand still, Autobot!” Lugnut growled, swinging his mace wildly. “You fight like a coward!”

“And you fight like a color blind gladiator!” Bulkhead grinned.

“Tough talk for a retired Wrecker too dumb and stupid for a suicide squad!” Lugnut retorted.

Taken back by the surprisingly clever reply, Bulkhead growled and changed his other hand into a blaster. He prepared to charge when he heard a cry from above.

“Incoming!”

Bulkhead looked up and saw Wheeljack riding the inert Thundercracker down like a makeshift parachute. He jumped away as Wheeljack also jumped off Thundercracker, letting the Seeker crash into Lugnut, hitting him right on top of his noggin. The two Cons hit the ground hard enough to kick up a cloud of dust. Bulkhead caught Wheeljack and placed him on his feet.

“Whoa. That’s some landing.” Bulkhead whistled.

“I’ll say. Never doing that again. ” Wheeljack said. He looked over at the uncovered energon dig up for them. “Let’s call it in and go home. I’m beat after that flight.”

“Go home? No way! I’m still fired up!” Bulkhead slammed his fists together with an excited grin. “Call up Teletran so we can see who else needs their heads caved in!”

Wheeljack groaned and sagged his shoulders. “This was going to be a long day for him.

XXXXXX

‘I am so screwed.’ Gina thought nervously as she saw Darren and Annie march towards her. The twins had never looked so similar as they did now, green eyes flashing angrily as they prepared to give her a piece of their mind.

Annie grabbed Grindor’s hand and dragged him away, pushing past the still excited onlookers who wanted a close look at the star bot who kicked ass in public. Darren also grabbed High Wire’s hand, but gave some parting words to Gina.

“Meet us in the parking lot. We all need to have a talk in private.” He said and walked away with his Minicon.

Gina sighed and looked down at her feet, knowing that no amount of puppy-dog eyes can help her out of this one. Kevin walked up to her with a despondent Penny carting her damaged Zeus on a large red wagon (she couldn’t even afford a proper trolley at this point).

“Was that Darren and Annie? What were they so mad about?” He asked.

“You don’t want to know. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go salvage a relationship.” Gina said. “See ya, Kev.”

“Yeah.” Kevin said as he watched her go. Whatever it was, it must’ve been bad enough to kill her buzz from winning that fight. Behind him, he heard Penny give a dramatic gasp and scream at Gina’s back.

“Where the hell is Zeus’s head?”

In the parking lot, Gina faced the wrathful scolding of not just the twins, but also her best friend Sureshock, who was so angry she was spewing black smoke from her exhaust.

“How could you be so irresponsible, Gina? What you did was extremely risky and dangerous,” Sureshock said. “Not just to yourself, but also to High Wire and Grindor.”

“She’s right, Gina. This stunt you pulled was ballsy, even by my standards.” Annie said, crossing her arms.

“I know, and I am so sorry for putting the Minicons at risk. I...I just wasn’t thinking.” Gina said, wincing at how lame it sounded.

“No, you were thinking. Just not with common sense.” Darren said harshly. “Do you realize how much risk you could’ve put our relationship with the Autobots and Minicons? If they learned of this, they would never have trusted us again. Prowl would make our lives a living hell.”

“Not to mention Sparkplug. He would’ve been livid.” Annie said.

“You guys didn’t tell him?” Grindor asked.

“No, this is our problem. Gina, you know that dealing with Penny lowers your IQ to that of a five year old with a grudge, you shouldn’t have let this get to you.” Darren said. Seeing Gina’s watery eyes, he sighed and patted her shoulder. “This is the only time you will ever do this. Understand? We can’t risk the Minicons being discovered as more than just robots.”

“I know. And I’m so, so sorry about all of this. I was just…my pride was on the line. And something stupid like that.” Gina explained. “Jinkies, it sounds worse when I speak it out loud.”

“Let’s all just head back home before Grindor’s fans chase us out here.” Sureshock said, turning her front wheel to her teammates. “As for you two, we’re also going to have a talk about giving in to peer pressure!”

“Oh man.” Grindor groaned.

“This is what I get for helping out a friend.” High Wire sighed and reverted to vehicle mode. “It’s just not worth it.”

XXXXXX

“You two look like hell.”

Wheeljack groaned in response to Ironhide’s crass comment as he and Bulkhead slinked out of the ground bridge looking like they ran a marathon through the Sea of Rust without protective gear. Ironhide watched them both slink past a confused Bumblebee as they walked into the shuttle bay.

“Yo Bulk, you up for some sparring? I wanna see how much damage your wrecking ball can take from my axe.” Ironhide said.

“Not tonight, Hide. I’m up for some Zs.” Bulkhead yawned. He slowly walked out of the room saying, “Maybe tomorrow.”

“Fine with me.” Ironhide grinned. He glanced over at Wheeljack. “Looks like your little master plan actually worked. Lucky you.”

“Yeah, lucky me.” Wheeljack sighed. Ironhide then whacked him behind his head, making him bend over from the painful blow. “Ow! What the hell, Ironhide!”

“That’s for making me your test dummy for the past three nights, you son of a glitch!” Ironhide growled and pushed past him to leave the room. “Just for that, you’re scheduled a few rounds in the ring with yours truly. Let’s see your cooky creations save your ass this time around!”

As Ironhide left the room for a much needed drink, Wheeljack rolled his head and sank to his knees in exhaustion. The things he did for friendship. An engineer’s work was never done.