Flashback starts;
A long time ago back in Cybertron during the war, Cybertronian femme was running as she was on her way to reach her partner in a specific rendezvous point. When she thought that she had taken the right direction, she had suddenly realized that she took the wrong direction and which made her stumble upon a Decepticon patrol unit.
"Scrap." Arcee cursed as she halted to a stop.
"Hold it right there, Autobot. Hands in the front." One of the vehicon troopers ordered as the Decepticons started aiming their weapons at Arcee.
"Careful with what you wish for." Arcee told them before pointing her hands in front of them and switched them to her guns and started to shoot at some of the Decepticons.
Arcee starts running around while shooting at her enemies as she takes down some cons with her shots. When she is close enough, she starts hitting them with her hand to hand combat skills. She was able to take down five cons on her own when one of them took her by surprise and pinned her down. Just like that, she has two Decepticons holding both her servos behind her back to make sure she doesn't get away.
"Not so tough now huh? What do we do with this one?" One of them taunted before asking another one.
"What we did with the other Autobots who thought they had a chance against us. We kill her." The second one said.
The Vehicon that was standing in front of Arcee, started charging and pointing his gun at her as Arcee glared at the Decepticon.
"Let's see if you can get up from a direct shot at your spark." The Vehicon said as he was about to shoot while Arcee glared at him.
The Vehicon is about to shoot at Arcee when he suddenly gets hit by a shot directly to the chassis and that hits him directly in his spark. The other Vehicons were all shocked and surprised about what happened as another Autobot came to help his partner.
"Oh hey, guys. Nice party you're having here. Do you mind letting go of my friend here?" Arcee was relieved to see that Tailgate made it on time.
The Decepticons start shooting at Tailgate as he starts moving around while shooting. Not willing to wait and be the one getting rescued, Arcee started getting free of her captors as she started to hit some cons back as both her and Tailgate started regrouping to form a better defense.
"If I had to guess, I'd said you got lost again." Tailgate said as he punched a Decepticon on the face plate.
"Yes, well, at least I didn't make a show out of all this like you usually." Arcee replied back as she switched her servos to her blades.
"You're welcome." Tailgate said as he knew that Arcee thanked him before grabbing two coins by the helm and hitting them with each other hard.
"That wasn't a thank you." Arcee told him as she pushed back a con using her blades.
"I didn't need your help. I had it all under control." She said as Tailgate shrugged with a small grin.
"Says the one who was about to get shot." Tailgate told her.
When it seemed that Arcee and Tailgate had the upper hand, Decepticons reinforcements had reached their location to aid their fallen comrades.
"Let's try to talk about this later. You take one group, I'll take the other." Arcee said as Tailgate smirked.
"You read my mind." Tailgate said as he brought out his weapons.
The Decepticons start shooting at both of them as Arcee starts attacking one group while Tailgate takes down the other group. They both took down a great number of Cons as Arcee used her agility and her sharpness while Tailgate used his strength. They were both able to hold their ground to the point of decreasing the numbers of the Decepticons surrounding them. Suddenly Arcee got hit from behind pretty hard, so hard that she was down. Tailgate saw it and threw a con that was heading towards him to where Arcee was so that it would hit the con that shot her down along with some others. Tailgate started running toward Arcee to see how she was.
"You okay?" He asked in concern as Arcee winced but nodded.
"I'll live." She said.
"Still ungrateful I see." Tailgate said as he started shooting from behind.
"You missed one." He said as he rolled his price playfully.
"Show off." Arcee said before Tailgate lends his servo to her.
"Here." He said as he lends his servo to her to help her up.
Arcee accepted the offer and took his servo and just like that he helped her get back up.
"You know I can handle myself right?" She said as she put her servos on her hips.
"Yeah but a helping hand can always be useful. After all, we're partners. Right?" Tailgate told her.
"Arcee. Arcee. Arcee."
Arcee could hear the echo of a voice calling her name three times as she started coming out of her thoughts.
Flashback ends;
"Arcee." Cliffjumper called her name again since she didn't respond when he called her three times.
Arcee shakes her helm as she snaps out of her thoughts or her trip down memory lane.
"Yeah, what is it?" She asked as she turned to him.
"Do you mind helping us here? Those Energon cubes are heavy." Cliffjumper asked as he pointed to the whole team bringing in some energon cubes from the mine at Oregon.
Arcee along with Cliffjumper, Hot Rod, Smokescreen, Bulkhead and Bumblebee were in charge of carrying the Energon cubes to the storage facility in the base as Ratchet was taking care of counting the number of Energon cubes stored before Miko spoke up.
"Hey, doc. Think we can take a pic with us beside one of those cubes?" Miko suggested as she took out her phone but Ratchet gave her a look that clearly says no.
"Out of the question. Human biology and Energon don't mix well. If you touch a single cube, your body could suffer irreversible consequences." Ratchet told her as Miko gave in and put her phone away.
"Okay, okay. But why can Emily be the only one to touch them?" Miko then asked Emily to set the Energon cube she was carrying down as she looked at her.
"Maybe that's because I have Energon in my biological system. I'm practically immune to it." Emily told her as Miko pouted.
"No fair." She said while crossing her arms.
"Trust me, Miko. You don't wanna be close to one. Those cubes are really heavy." Emily said as she moved her arms a little.
"Less talking, more working here. We need those cubes saved and stocked for future use." Ratchet said as Emily saluted.
"Aye-Aye, Captain Ratchet, sir." Emily joked but he only grunted at that and went back to work as Emily raised an eyebrow.
"What? I did say sir. It wouldn't kill you to crack a smile once in a while, you know." Emily said with a grin.
"Man. Those Energon cubes are getting heavier with time. Good thing we have you, big guy." Hot Rod said as he was carrying some while Bulkhead was carrying the most as Bulkhead smiled at him.
"Yeah, well, You know me. I'm the strongest there is." Bulkhead said as he set down the energon cubes he was carrying.
"That's a lot of Energon." Jack said as he saw the stacks of cubes.
"The more, the best. We need to step up our game against the Decepticons." Smokescreen said as he grinned.
Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Hot Rod were finally done with putting the first stock of Energon cubes so that Smokescreen can take to the storage room.
"I think that's enough for the first pile." Hot Rod said.
"Right. Better stock this pile before captain Ratchet here makes me walk the plank." Smokescreen said as he laughed at his joke as Ratchet rolled his optics.
"Good one." Miko snickered.
"Yes, yes, very amusing. Now get a move on, rookie." Ratchet said grumpily while counting the cubes on the datapad he's holding.
"Yes, sir." Smokescreen nodded as he started moving the carriage full of Energon cubes to the stockroom.
"Well, that was the first pile and there's still the second one." Emily said as she saw the next pile.
"Take a break. I'm still waiting for Optimus' call." Ratchet told her since he didn't want her to strain herself as she nodded and went to the couch.
"Want some water?" Raf asked as he offered Emily a bottle of water as she nodded.
"Thanks, Raf." She said as she accepted the water bottle and started to drink as she sighed at the fresh drink.
"I needed that." She said with a small sigh as Miko looked at her.
"Are you telling me that moving those huge cubes worn you out?" Miko looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah. They're pretty heavy." Emily said with a small grin.
"Well at least for now you're on break." Jack said with a shrug.
"Like most of us. When I joined team Prime while those with whom I work are still busy, I was hoping for some action. It has been a while since I fought some cons." Hot Rod said as Bulkhead agreed with him.
"Like all of us." Bulkhead agreed with him as Bumblebee whirred to say that it has been a while since the last Decepticon activity.
"Bee's right. Things have been pretty quiet. Worst of all, it's totally boring. I miss using my fists." Cliffjumper agreed with Bumblebee since the last time they encountered the cons was when Jack and Smokescreen went to that race.
"What makes this even weirder is that we haven't heard from Megatron in quite a while." Bulkhead agreed with the two as Hot Rod looked at them.
"Megatron. Last I heard, the little girl there kicked his tailpipe pretty good." Hot Rod said as he was told by Bumblebee that Megatron was beaten pretty hard by Emily.
"Hey watch it, Hot Head. I might be small but you don't want to get on my bad side." Emily told him as she gave him a small grin.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to disrespect you." Hot Rod said as he remembered that Bulkhead told him that Emily practically threw Ratchet through the ground bridge when they had to deal with the Scraplets as Bolty chirped.
"So back to the Big M. Any ideas of where he is now?" Cliffjumper questioned as Bumblebee shook his head since he didn't know.
"Who knows. With any luck, he went back into space." Bulkhead said as Miko tried to think.
"Maybe he's looking for another way to revive another army of undead zombies." Miko said as everyone just looked at her weirdly as Emily gave Bolty a snack.
"What? It could happen." Miko told them.
"Either way. Things have been pretty calm. Considering that we're talking about the Decepticons and they're always planning something. What do you think, Arcee?" Cliffjumper said before asking Arcee but didn't get a response as she seemed to be distracted for some reason.
"Arcee? Arcee?" Cliffjumper turned to her and called her again as she snapped out of her thoughts.
"Huh, what?" Arcee asked as she looked at him.
"Whoa, Arcee, are you okay? That's the fourth time you've spaced out like that today." Jack said as he was concerned about her.
"Is everything okay?" Emily turned to her as she was concerned.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a bit distracted. Things have been pretty calm lately and it's hard to adapt to such a climate." Arcee said as she leaned against the wall.
"As warriors, you must enjoy the peace while it lasts. While it's true that things have been improving, I feel that the Decepticons are planning something. And whatever it is, we must be ready to face them." Ratchet said and just as he finished, the comm links started ringing and they saw that it was Optimus calling.
"Ratchet, do you read me?" Optimus asked.
"I hear you, Optimus." Ratchet said as he and the others came to the main room.
"I need you to open a ground bridge. Wheeljack and I are bringing the recent supply of Energon." Optimus said as Ratchet nodded.
"Understood. Stand by for a ground bridge." Ratchet said as he started to put the coordinates.
"So much for enjoying the peace." Bulkhead said as Emily stood up and stretched her arms.
"Time to get back to work." She said eagerly as Ratchet was done putting in the coordinates to the ground bridge.
"Optimus, we're ready to receive." Ratchet said.
"Understood, Ratchet." Optimus said as he turned off the comm link.
Ratchet started lowering down the lever to the ground bridge to activate it.
"Ground bridge online." Ratchet said as the ground bridge activated and opened up.
Wheeljack and Optimus enter the base in their vehicle mode as Optimus was carrying his trailer with the Energon cubes from the mine inside it before Optimus unattached himself from his trailer as both of them transformed to unload the cubes.
"Fresh Energon. Ready to be used for battle." Wheeljack said as he patted the roof of the trailer.
"Good luck with that, Wheeljack." Hot Rod said with a smirk.
"Aren't you a fine one to talk to? Optimus did assign you to take over my guard shift today." Wheeljack said as he smirked back.
"Yeah and hopefully. I might get more action than you, old bot." Hot Rod said with a playful smirk.
"Keep talking, Hot Stuff." Wheeljack said with a grin as Optimus approached Hot Rod.
"Hot Rod. I appreciate you for having decided to help us guard the Energon mine." Optimus said with a gratitude in his voice as Hot Rod nodded with a smile. Anything to help his friends.
"My pleasure, Prime. I know how much your team needs it." Hot Rod said as Optimus nodded. He guessed right.
"Remember. If you see something, call us immediately. Do not engage the enemy until all human personnel are in a safe place. If the Decepticons try to storm the mine, you must wait until our arrival. Losing a mine might be a great risk. But we cannot afford to lose even a single Autobot." Optimus said as he doesn't want to lose another close friend of his.
"I understand and trust me. I'll keep an optic out for any Decepticon." Hot Rod said with his iconic smirk.
"Just try not to blow the mine sky high." Arcee warned him.
"I'm a careful guy." Hot Rod said as Wheeljack raised an optic ridge.
"Not from my previous Wrecker experience." Wheeljack chuckled.
"That was a long time ago. Anyway gotta go." Hot Rod said as Miko approached.
"Hey, Hot Rod. If you face some cons, be sure to beat some for me." Miko said with a grin as Hot Rod grinned back.
"Sure thing, kid. See you guys later." Hot Rod said before he transformed and drove through the portal.
The portal then closes as Ratchet turns it off.
"Transport complete. Now let's get back to work." Ratchet said as everyone nodded.
"Right away, Ratchet." Bulkhead said as he started to unload the energon cubes with the others from Optimus' trailer.
"Well. Time to get back to work. Do me a favor, guys. Give Bolty his lunch. It's in my backpack." Emily said as she stood up as Miko perked up. She always wanted to feed Bolty
"Can I do it? Can I? Can I?" Miko asked as Jack look to her
"No way, Miko. Too dangerous. Bolty could bite you by accident." Jack told her.
"It's okay, Jack. Just keep an eye on her. Make sure she doesn't get hurt." Emily told him to calm him down.
"Okay. But if something happens, it's your fault." Jack said.
"Yeah, yeah. Just do me that favor please." Emily said with a small smile.
"We're on it. Let's go, dude." Miko said as she ran to where Emily's bag was.
"Hey wait!" Jack yelled as he ran after her so she wouldn't get hurt as Emily turned to Raf.
"Hey, Raf, why don't you go help them? We both know how Jack can be overprotective." Emily told him as Raf nodded.
"I got it." He said and ran after the two as Emily joined the bots with piling the energon cubes in the storage room.
"Between unloading and stocking all this Energon and getting shot at. I'd prefer getting shot at." Wheeljack said as he helped them.
"You're not the only one." Cliffjumper agreed with him.
"Chin up, Jackie. I'm sure something will come up." Bulkhead said as he tried to cheer him up.
"By then I'll be rusty already." Wheeljack said.
Bumblebee beeps to ask if they should have asked for Smokescreen to get back with the Energon carriage since going back and forth can be tiring.
"Nah, it's best if we pile what we can. You know how Ratchet can get cranky when we don't work fast." Emily said but Ratchet was able to hear that.
"I heard that." He said from where he was.
"Do Cybetronian get old?" Emily whispered to herself and the others.
"On Ratchet. I'd say he's about Yoda's age." Bulkhead said as he chuckled slightly.
"I heard that too, Bulkhead." Ratchet said again since he heard that as Wheeljack turned to Emily.
"What's a Yoda?" He asked in confusion.
"It's a Star Wars character." Emily said but only got a look from Wheeljack since he doesn't know what she's talking about.
"He's old, green, short, and walks with a cane. Oh, nevermind." Emily tried to explain but gave up eventually.
"I'm back. The Energon is stocked and safe for good." Smokescreen said as he came back with the energon cart.
"Great. Because we brought some more." Wheeljack said before pointing to the cubes that he and Optimus brought back from the mine at Oregon.
"You're kidding." Smokescreen said in disbelief.
"You know the drill, Smokey. Pack'em and stock'em." Bulkhead said as Smokescreen nodded.
"I got you." He said as the Autobots started piling the cubes in the cart.
While everyone was piling the cubes, Cliffjumper couldn't help but stop when he noticed that Arcee was a bit down as if something was distracting her.
"Is everything okay, Arcee?" Cliffjumper asked again as Arcee turned to him.
"I'm fine, Cliffjumper. You don't need to worry about me." Arcee told him but Cliffjumper wasn't for it this time. He knows that something was bothering her.
"I'm afraid I'm gonna have to disagree with you." Cliffjumper told her as he crossed his arms.
"Why's that?" She asked as she raised an optic ridge.
"I can see it in your optics." Cliffjumper said as he looked at her as she looked confused.
"What's with my optics? They're the same as always." Arcee said but Cliffjumper knows her better than that.
"Come on, Arcee. I know you well enough to know something is not right with you." Cliffjumper said as he wanted to know what's bothering.
"And we both know that I like having my own space." Arcee said as she crossed her arms.
"Yeah but we both know that this is your way of proving that something's distracting you." Cliffjumper said as Arcee sighed. He got her there.
"Well... Maybe there is..." Arcee admitted before Cliffjumper had an idea.
"You know what? I got just the thing. If piling some Energon Cubes doesn't help you out, maybe some training will do the trick." Cliffjumper suggested as Arcee smirked at that.
"Training? You and me? Last time I remembered, you weren't no challenge at all." Arcee told him as Cliffjumper faked being hurt by that.
"Ouch that hurts. But being hurt won't save you this time. So what do you say?" Cliffjumper said before asking her.
"Okay fine. Maybe some training might help." Arcee said as she agreed with him before a voice spoke up.
"If you want, I can join you guys." Emily said.
Both Arcee and CliffJumper looked down and saw that Emily was there as she was looking up at them.
"Sorry I couldn't help but overhear what you guys were saying. It's my romance alert." Emily said sheepishly as Cliffjumper raised an optic ridge at that. A what now?
"What's a romance alert?" He asked in confusion.
"Oh, well, to me, it's kind of a sixth sense that goes crazy for romantic ships like yours. Just so you know, I do love the CliffCee ship." Emily said but both Cliffjumper and Arcee were still confused by this. A CliffCee ship?
"Okay." They both said with confusion.
They then heard something loud was dropped as Bulkhead had dropped some cubes by accident as Hot Rod moved out of the way.
"Watch it, big guy." Hot Rod said.
"Settle down, Hot Head, it was an accident." Bulkhead told him as he picked the cubes up that he dropped.
"Looks to me like you're getting rusty huh, Bulk?" Smokescreen teased him as Bulkhead gave him a look.
"I'm still good enough to kick your tailpipe, rookie." Bulkhead said as Cliffjumper laughed slightly at that. Better help them.
"I think I better go help the others before someone gets hurt." Cliffjumper said to Arcee as she just nodded.
"Yeah, sure." She said slowly.
Cliffjumper starts joining the others to make sure no one gets hurt and leaving both ladies to talk with each other before Arcee turns to Emily.
"What was that?" She asked her.
"What was what?" Emily asked back as she looked up to her innocently.
"You know? That whole romanced alert nonsense. What was that all about?" Arcee asked again as Emily rubbed the back of her neck a bit.
"Sorry, I was just trying to help you guys a bit." Emily said as she shuffled her feet slightly.
"What for?" Arcee asked as Emily gave her a deadpanned look.
"Oh, come on. You don't think I didn't realize what's going on. It's obvious that you want to try and get his attention." Emily said as Arcee looked a little surprised by that.
"Who me? What for?" Arcee said as she tried to come up with an excuse but Emily just gave Arcee a "are you serious" look as she was not falling for Arcee's ignorance this time.
"What, really? If this is what we talked about a while ago, I can tell you right now that it has nothing to do with it." Arcee told her as Emily just put her hands on her hips.
"Nice try. You're gonna to get up pretty early in the morning to try and fool me. Come on, admit it. You think about him is the only reason why you're distracted." Emily told her as Arcee had to stop a blush from appearing.
"No, it's not." Arcee denies it but Emily won't stop.
"Yes, it is." Emily said.
"No, it's not." Arcee starts pulling the cart of Energon cubes to the others as she and Emily continue to banter playfully.
"Yes, it is." Emily said.
While the Autobots were still taking care of the Energon, Ratchet was monitoring the scanners to try and check for any suspicious activity that could involve the Decepticons. Fortunately things were still quiet out there but the doctor knew that this peace wouldn't last very long and seeing that made Ratchet feel a bit worried as Optimus walked toward him to try and see what worried him so much.
"What troubles you, Ratchet?" Optimus asked as concern was in his voice as Ratchet turned to him.
"Well, as you've known, I've been monitoring any possible Decepticon activities. So far nothing. Normally I would say that this moment of peace is quite profitable but not knowing what the Decepticons are planning is worrying me." Ratchet told him as Optimus had to agree with him but they must be prepared just in case.
"Me too, old friend. Whatever their plan is, the best we can do for now is to prepare ourselves." Optimus told him before walking back to help the others.
Somewhere on a part of Earth, the Nemesis was flying over the lands as usual as Megatron and some of his best warriors had left to carry a secret mission and now that this mission was complete, he was about to come back. Wanting to give a proper welcome, Starscream was walking around the ship and ordering the whole crew to make sure everything was perfect and organize for Megatron's return.
"Work faster. Lord Megatron is due to come back any second. I want this ship to be perfect for his return. Make sure every square of this ship is spotless." Starscream continued to shout out orders as Knock Out and Breakdown were watching on the sidelines.
"The ship isn't the only thing that needs some cleaning around here." Knock Out joked as Breakdown let out a laugh at that.
"If I were you, Knock Out, I wouldn't be laughing right now unless you want Lord Megatron to know about your little... incident." Starscream warned him as Knock Out gulped at that.
"Oh, yeah right... sorry for that." Knock Out apologized before Soundwave signalled them to tell them that he detected four Decepticons' life signals were heading to the Nemesis and they knew that it was Megatron and the others.
"Thank you, Soundwave. Now let's give our leader a proper welcome." Starscream told him before they left to the hangar.
Outside of the ship. Megatron along with Dreadwing, Skyquake and Airachnid flew on the landing platform before they transformed and entered the Nemesis and when they got inside, they were being welcomed by two squads of Seekers standing in formation.
"All Hail Megatron!" They all chanted as Megatron had to smirk at this. It never gets old.
Megatron walked by them as he was heading to where Starscream was standing as he was accompanied by Breakdown, Knock Out and Soundwave.
"Lord Megatron, it is so great to have you back." Starscream said with a respectful bow.
"Starscream, I see you have taken good care of things during my absence." Megatron said as he was impressed that there was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Indeed, my lord. I do hope that my direction will have proven to be satisfactory." Starscream said as he stood back up as Airachnid spoke up.
"Be careful, Starscream. You might fry a neuron net while trying to impress our master." Airachnid teased him as Starscream gave her a small glare.
"Forgive me, dear Airachnid, but I believe I have kept everything in a fashionable order. After all, our liege did trust me with the temporary command of his army." Starscream said as Airachnid hissed slightly.
"If you keep talking like that, your temporary command will end after I snuff out your spark." Airachnid hissed threateningly but Megatron sensed the incoming fight.
"Airachnid, stand down!" Megatron growled at her as Airachnid stopped.
Airachnid looks towards Starscream who is smiling gleefully at the sight of her not wanting to disobey Megatron's orders as she just rested on glaring at him.
"Yes, Lord Megatron." Airachnid said with a nod as the group walked around the ship.
"What's the status of our current situation?" Megatron asked as they entered the main room.
"It is going splendid, my lord, even if I do say so myself. Our Energon deposits are growing at a very impressive rate." Starscream informed him.
"And what about the Autobots?" Megatron then asked Starscream knew that Soundwave had been keeping an optic out and so far the Autobots seemed to be laying low.
"I am pleased to report that they have not detected any of our moves." Starscream told him as he hummed slightly at this.
'As hard as it is to believe, the Autobots have no idea of our current activities. To be honest, things have been kind of quiet around here." Knock Out told him as Megatron then went into thinking.
"Lord Megatron, since the Autobots are unaware of what we're doing. Shouldn't we prepare a counter attack?" Dreadwing suggested as Skyquake agreed with him.
"We should trap Optimus and the rest of those wretched Autobots and destroy them once and for all." Skyquake said but Megatron gave them both a look that shut them up.
"Do not worry. Optimus and the Autobots will get what is coming to them. But that will be when I say so." Megatron said before Soundwave's visor lit up and showed them that he had detected some weird signal.
"What is it, Soundwave?" Megatron asked curiously.
Soundwave starts showing them a map of where the signal is coming from as the others were curious.
"What's that?" Breakdown asked.
"It's a signal." Starscream replied as Knock Out took a closer look.
"Yes but not an ordinary signal." Knock Out said as Airachnid quickly recognized it. Guess it survived.
"Indeed it's not. I do believe I know that signal." Airachnid said with a smirk.
"How could you know?" Starscream asked her in confusion.
"You do remember the Harbinger right?" Airachnid questioned as she put her servo on her hips.
"Yes. The ship that crashed here on earth eons ago. What does it have to do with any of this, might I ask?" Starscream said as he remembered his research on it.
"Simple. The ship had a second cargo." Airachnid said with a sinister smile.
"A second cargo? That is impossible. The ship manifest clearly indicated there was only one cargo onboard which was the Immobilizer." Starscream told her as he was confused that he didn't know that the Harbinger had a second cargo within it.
"True. Although the crew had been ordered to keep this second cargo a total secret." Airachnid said as Starscream raised an optic ridge at this.
"On whose authority?" Starscream asked but the answer made him snap.
"Mine of course." She said as she examined her claws but was giving Starscream a smug smirk.
"What?! How dare you abuse your own authority to tell the crew of the Harbinger to carry a second cargo without proper permission?!" Starscream yelled at her but Megatron just rolled his optics at him. Typical Starscream.
"I gave her permission." He told him as Starscream stopped at this and made Megatron smirk at that.
"Oh forgive me, my liege. I was not aware that you had given Airachnid proper permission for-" Starscream tried to come up with an apology. He was not informed after all!
"Spare me your excuses, Starscream." Megatron growled at him before Knock decided to ask the question that's in his and the rest of them are having.
"My liege, if I may ask, what is that second cargo?" Knock Out asked curiously as Megatron just smirked.
"Let's just say it has something that would've helped obtain victory against the Autobots during the war. Unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to use it since our home world was devastated by countless battles." Megatron told him.
"Yes. But as fortune would have it, This cargo landed on a place inhabited by hidden Autobots. If we retrieve it, we would finally turn the tide of the war in our favor. Lord Megatron, allow me to retrieve this special cargo for you." Airachnid suggested as Starscream stepped forward.
"Lord Megatron, if I may, I don't think Airachnid is the proper element to retrieve said cargo. This honor should be given to your second in command-" Starscream started but Megatron cut him off again with a sharp glare.
"No. Airachnid shall go and retrieve this cargo." Megatron told him.
"But-" Starscream started to protest but one glare from Megatron shut him up since Starscream didn't seem to agree with his words.
"As you wish, master." Starscream said begrudgingly with a bow and stepped back to the others.
"I shall leave immediately." Airachnid said as she started walking to the doors before Megatron stopped her.
"Airachnid, are you sure you don't need a Decepticon escort to help you on your mission?" Megatron asked her as Airachnid turned to him since his voice almost held genuine concern and that was a little thoughtful of him.
"Thank you, my liege, but I think I can handle this on my own." Airachnid reassured him as he nodded.
"Very well then. You know what to do." Megatron dismissed her as she turned back around.
"Yes, I do." She said as she walked out to start her mission on retrieving the cargo.
"My lord, why didn't you insist on Airachnid so she would take an escort with her?" Dreadwing asked with curiosity in his voice as Megatron turned back to the screens.
"Because, Dreadwing, she knows far more about this cargo than we do. Soundwave, keep a close eye on her. I wanna be aware of every detail." Megatron said before ordering the silent con to send out Laserbeak.
Soundwave just nodded silently and sent out Laserbeak to follow Airachnid to the location of the cargo while a question ran through them.
What was in the cargo? And how can it help them win the war?
Meanwhile back at the base, the Autobots had just finished piling the Energon cubes.
"Finally done. Maybe now we can do something a bit more fun." Wheeljack said as he rotated his arm a little to remove the soreness from them.
"Tempting but I already have something to do with the others. Which reminds me, I'll be right back." Emily said before she ran to where the trio were as Cliffjumper approached Arcee.
"You coming, Arcee?" He asked as Arcee turned to him.
"Why? Are you so eager to get knocked down?" Arcee asked with a smirk as Cliffjumper gave a sarcastic look.
"Very funny." He said as they both started to go to the S.A.F.E.
"Where are you guys going?" Bulkhead asked in confusion as Cliffjumper turned to him.
"Arcee and I are gonna get some training. Can you guys handle this?" Cliffjumper told him as Bulkhead gave a thumbs up.
"Sure, go ahead, we got this." Bulkhead said as Cliffjumper nodded.
While Arcee and CliffJumper were walking to the S.A.F.E room and the rest was finishing piling the cubes, the kids were taking care of feeding Bolty as the poor guy was very hungry since he wouldn't stop jumping to try and get some food.
"Easy there, Bolty. We'll give you food very soon." Raf said as he was trying to keep Bolty calm.
While Bolty was waiting to be fed, Miko was rummaging through Emily's backpack and couldn't find the food that she had brought for the little guy.
"Where are those bolt thingies? I can't find them anywhere. Also Ems has too much art stuff." Miko said as she kept seeing lots of art and drawing materials.
"Let me have a look." Jack stepped up as he started looking through the bag before he found it.
And just like that, he found the bag of bolts that Emily had brought for Bolty.
"There it is." Jack said as he pulled it out.
When Bolty saw through the plastic bag that there was a huge pack of fresh bolts for him to eat, he got so eager to eat that he tried to reach for it but Raf was able to grab a hold of him, trying to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone.
"Wait, Bolty!" Raf yelped as Bolty was trying to get to the bag of bolts.
"Whoa, Raf! Don't let go of him!" Jack said in surprise as Miko was trying to look for the bowl.
"I'm trying to." Raf said with struggle.
Emily finally reached the others and saw they needed help with Bolty and so to help them out, she whistled to call Bolty.
"Bolty. Come here." Emily called him.
Bolty soon calms down at the call of Emily before he starts scurrying to where she is as he jumps on opening her hand and starts nuzzling her cheek.
"Who's a little cute Scraplet? Yes, you are. Are you hungry, little one?" Emily said before asking as Bolty started jumping as a yes as she laughed.
"Alright then." She said with a smile as Jack approached.
"Here." Jack said with a small smile as he gave her the bag of bolts.
She starts filling Bolty's bowl so that he can start eating and get his fill as Miko watches him chow down and enjoy his meal.
"I guess the little guy was really hungry." Miko said as she watched him with a smile.
"Yeah sorry about that. I should try and be more responsible when it comes to feeding him. He can go crazy when he's hungry." Emily said as she sat down with a sheepish look.
"You're telling me. One more second and he could've eaten my hand." Jack said with a smirk as she smirked back before Miko noticed something.
"Hey, what's that?" Miko asked as she found something inside Emily's backpack and pulled it out.
"Oh that. It's a chessboard." Emily said as Miko gave it to her.
"Oh, a chessboard." Jack said as he recognized it.
"I love chess. But I always have a hard time playing it." Raf said as he pushed his glasses back.
"Ah man. That has gotta be the most boring game in the whole universe." Miko said with a puff on her cheek.
"It's not that bad. This game helps you develop strategy." Emily said with a shrug.
"Yeah sorry but I'm not a huge fan of boring games." Miko said just as Ratchet approached.
"What's going on, kids?" Ratchet asked as they turned to him.
"We're talking about a game." Emily answered him.
"Again with your video games are you?" Ratchet asked but Raf shook his head.
"Not that kind of game, Ratchet. A board game." Raf told him.
"Like this one." Emily said as she showed it to him as he eyed it curiously.
"How are you supposed to play with a box made out of wood?" Ratchet asked as Emily couldn't help but chuckle.
"You don't play with the box but rather with what's inside the box. Here, let me show you." Emily said before she opened it so Ratchet could see what's inside as he saw what looked like little figures.
"What is this game of yours called?" He asked.
"Glad that you asked. This game is called Chess. It's an ancient game played by mankind for a very long time. It's a game that reunites both strategy and intelligence into one. Each side has to take out as many pawns as they can but the true goal is to try and defeat this Pawn that is known as the king." Emily explained as she took out a black and white colored pawn.
"Well, I think this game is absurd. How can a game of pawns reunite both intelligence and strategy? What a waste of time." Ratchet said as the kids then had an idea on getting Ratchet to play with them.
"Well, that's too bad. I thought this game would catch your interest. I mean you're very intelligent but then again maybe this game is too complex for you." Emily said with feign disappointment in her voice
"You should know, young lady, that I don't need to prove to anyone that I'm intelligent. I have already proven my intellect. Besides, I found this game of yours ridiculous." Ratchet said as Miko smirked.
"Sounds to me like you're scared, doc." Miko said with a grin as Ratchet turned to her.
"Is that so? Very well. I shall play this little game of yours." Ratchet said the kids smirk at each other as they set up to start playing Chess with Ratchet.