This story is a sequel to my previous work, Opportunity Knocks

Oh, and y'know how the relic hunt was an important plot…? Yeaaaah I hate that plot. I will be ignoring it entirely for the rest of my fanfictions. So don't be confused that it's never mentioned again.

Thoughts and criticisms are encouraged and appreciated.

"Ugh! You're still here?"

Knockout looked away from the file in his servo and glared down as the little pink headed girl stepped out of Bumblebee- a base full of Autobots with millenniums worth of Decepticon blood on their servos, and it turns out the one whose company he could stand the least was a human? It hardly made sense… but he couldn't help it; the thing was as subtle as a red rust infection.

Mostly the Autobots did him the favor of pretending not to notice him off in the corner and he returned the favor by minding his own business, but this obnoxious little organic… she just wouldn't stop harassing him.

"NO." he began sarcastically, "I've actually left already- This is a holomatter projection I left behind just to annoy you."

"Yeah? Well, it's working." She said, slamming Bumblebee's door.

"BEEEzooooooBBZZZZZZZRRT"

"Miko, Bee says don't forget your stuff in his trunk." Raf called to her as he hopped out of Bee's other door.

"Oh right!" she mumbled, quickly going back around the yellow car.

It had been five days already. Five days Knockout had been dealing with this awkward tension- and though the human had been the worst offender, she definitely wasn't the only one. Her pal Bulkhead was obviously just as offended by his presence as she was; he was just more subtle in how he showed it: the awkward half glances, the passive aggressive remarks, the hostile grumbling under his ventilations- honestly, it was getting old.

To make matters worse Bulkhead was also healing from his own encounter with the Decepticons, so he was resigned to the base all the time. And they had to share the tiny space alloted for Ratchet's medical area while they were recovering, making it even more awkward. And his little pink headed friend would show up every afternoon at the same time and keep the big oaf company; usually at the expense of any peace and quiet that may have settled on the base while she wasn't around.

Knockout watched Miko a moment longer wondering what sort of amusement she had planned today. Deafening music? Messy arts and crafts? One of those ghastly car wrecking spectacles on their television?

Whatever it was, she'd be sure to annoy him somehow during it. As Miko popped open Bumblebee's trunk, Knockout pulled his gaze away and went back to sharpening his digits with the file he'd stolen out of Ratchet's toolbox.

Miko came back around Bumblebee with a burlap tote bag over one shoulder and two lidded silver buckets in her hands, "I thought we could do some uh…" she glanced over at Raf, "What did you call it?"

Raf looked over from where he and Bumblebee had settled in by the couch, "Appropriating a human cultural custom for Cybertronian use."

"Yeah. That."

Bulkhead tilted his helm slightly, "Uhhh… what?"

Miko held up one of the buckets in her hand, "I'm gonna paint your nails!" she said with a wide, enthusiastic smile, "I used to do it with my dad when I was little. It'll be fun!"

"Heh, sure Miko. Whatever you say." Bulkhead said, returning her smile as the little human started unpacking the bag. She pulled out a paint roller and a few trays for paint and started setting up along the floor in front of Bulkhead.

Knockout glanced down at her again; she had begun trying to pry open one of the paint cans and was having a hard time of it. As he was just about to look away, she finally managed to pop off the lid, but the force of it caused her to drop the can and send paint splattering across the floor.

Knockout pulled his legs out of the way just in time, and the pink pigment splashed across the ground where his pedes had been just a moment before. "HEY! Watch it you little frizzrat!" he snapped, glaring down at the human.

"What did you call me?"

"A frizzrat." Knockout repeated, settling his pedes back on the floor, careful of the wet paint, "It's a pest. Kind of like you."

Miko glared right back at him, but then suddenly her expression became quite sly and she quickly turned back to Bulkhead. As she did she kicked her foot out, sending the paint can flying and clattering against Knockout's ankle and splashing pink everywhere.

"Whoops!"

Knockout stared down at his pink pede for moment before his optics darted back to Miko, flaring in a rage, "AUGH! YOU FRAGGING LITTLE-!" He cut himself off and continued in a mumble, clenching his servos as he struggled to contain his anger, "If I wasn't surrounded by Autobots right now, I'd-"

"You'd what?" Miko interrupted, "You'd squish me? Well go on! I'd love to see you try!"

"That's enough you two!"

Knockout looked up and saw Ratchet had turned away from his computer to look back and, though he had addressed both of them, he was staring daggers at Knockout. He returned the look, but only for a moment. It wouldn't do him any favors to be on his doctor's bad side right now… not any more than he already was at least. Turning away, he pushed himself up and stomped off towards Ratchet's supply storage and began rummaging through it for something to clean his leg with.

He finally settled on a semi-clean oil rag, sat down on the floor, and commenced with trying to salvage his paintjob. "Ugh. I swear, if this hideous pink stains my finish…"

"Pssh. You don't know what you're talking about." Miko paused in continuing to set up one of the trays to sass Knockout again, "Pink isn't hideous- it's the best color!"

"Pink clashes with red, numb nodes." Knockout said, only glancing up from his work on his ankle. "As if you'd know anything about color coordination. Have you looked in a mirror lately?"

Miko was visibly offended by this last remark and started trying to stutter out a snarky response. Bulkhead, who had seemed to be enjoying Miko giving Knockout a hard time, finally decided to step in; he reached down to encourage her to continue with the paint, "Come on, Miko. Just ignore him-"

"WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?" she suddenly blurted out.

Knockout stopped in wiping at the paint and looked up. Miko and Bulkhead were looking over at him now, somewhat expectantly. It seemed like they actually wanted a real answer this time. Glancing over, he noticed that Ratchet as well as Bee and his human were watching out of the corner of their optics. He opened his mouth to respond, but after saying nothing for a few seconds he closed it again and went back to rubbing his ankle.

He could just say the 'Cons were still looking for him and it was too dangerous, or that he hadn't quite regained enough strength to fight on his own yet. And those would both be true… but there was something else. Something he couldn't quite put his digit on… but he wasn't about to express any of that to this obnoxious little human.

Rather, he grumbled a quiet "Whatever…" and continued with cleaning himself.

Miko, seeing she wasn't about to get an answer, glared at him a minute longer before turning back to Bulkhead in a huff.

"Hey! Hey Nine! Check this out!"

MH-09 watched irritably as his partner, MH-10, tipped his right wheels up and began grinding them along the rocky wall along the side of the road they were on.

"Would you stop fooling around?" Nine growled, "We're on a mission."

Ten laughed and et his wheels fall back onto the road. Then he slowed down so they were driving side by side, "Oh, lighten up!" he said, "I'm just having a bit of fun- It's not like they seriously expect us to find Knockout."

Nine hated having to admit that was true- only getting orders as vague as "Find Knockout" just made it all the more obvious. High Command was clearly working hard on its own method to locate the traitor, but for now they'd just scattered a few dozen squads across the planet to make the soldiers feel like they were doing something helpful. All it made MH-09 feel was that he was wasting his time…

Still, the Vehicon had to concede that just driving along the quiet mountain roads with his partner and not worrying about getting a command every ten minutes was somewhat pleasant, even though they weren't accomplishing anything.

They drove on silently, side by side for awhile longer, just taking in the scenic mountain landscape and enjoying the winding curves of the road… then Ten spoke up again:

"Whoa! Nine, I'm picking up… A-are you getting this too?"

Nine hadn't been paying attention, but he quickly went to check his internal monitors; he slowed down considerably when he saw the signal coming through on his scanners. "What? But… That's impossible!" he mumbled, "How could we be picking up his signal?"

"Uhh… Wow, this is serious isn't it?" Ten mumbled, "Should we report into MH-01 and tell him that-?"

"Tell him what?" Nine interrupted, "We're not actually supposed to find anything out here- He'll just think we've fried a circuit!"

Ten hesitated for a moment but then quickened his pace, speeding around the turns in the road. "I know! We'll investigate ourselves." he called back, "Then we'll know for certain and we can call in without sounding like we've got a screw loose."

Nine seemed hesitant but regardless, he hurried after his partner.

The two Vehicons hurried around the turns in the mountain road, speeding along, trying to catch up with-

"There! Up ahead!" Nine shouted. Sure enough, farther ahead of them on the road was a large blue SUV.

"Wow, it really is him- It's Breakdown!" Ten raced ahead, "Come on! Let's get his attention!"

"Whoa wait a second, this doesn't feel right-" but before Ten even heard Nine's protest he was honking his horn as he came up behind the SUV.

"Hey! Hey Breakdown! It's me, MH-10!" he shouted, continuing to honk his horn, "Have you been alive this whole time? What the slag have you been doing? We've missed you around the canteens!"

The mirrors on the car tilted back, taking in the two purple cars behind it… then suddenly it sped up and began pulling away from them.

"Wha-? Hey where're ya going?" Ten called after him and started to follow.

"Wait! Ten stop- Something's off about this!" Nine yelled, but Ten wasn't listening and he continued chasing after the SUV.

Nine tried to hurry after him, but he was suddenly distracted by something catching his audio receptors. He turned his focus up and realized two helicopters had appeared and were flying low overhead… he was really starting to get nervous now. Rather than keep yelling he turned on his comm link, "Ten?! Ten, stop chasing him and get back here!"

For a moment a crackling static came across the connection, but then it was quiet. Now Nine was positive something was wrong. This time he tried to call up MH-01, but he was met with the same static- now it was obvious; their comm signals were being scrambled! He mumbled a curse and jammed down his accelerator. Whatever was happening it was serious- he had to get Ten to notice too.

As he approached his partner and was about to shout a warning to him, the SUV suddenly slammed its breaks and swerved around to face them. The Vehicons stopped quickly as well to avoid a collision. After a moment of silence, the SUV began to move with the sound of gears whirring and plates shifting until finally it reformed revealing that it was, in fact, Breakdown.

Ten transformed into his robot mode as well and took a step forward to greet his fellow 'Con. Nine followed suit and quickly grabbed Ten's arm to stop him… as the 'Con looked back he finally noticed the helicopters hovering behind them.

"Before we continue, I just want to personally thank you two for revealing yourselves-" The Vehicons stared back at Breakdown again as he spoke, but not in Breakdown's voice. "We were just about to start tracking a few of you down. How kind of you to save us the trouble!"

Not a second after he finished the sentence, the helicopters each shot a small grey canister towards the Vehicons which latched onto their backs, sending a massive electrical charge through the pair. Their agonizing screams didn't last long, as they were very quickly offlined and collapsed in a heap on the road.

"Very good, sir. Shall we call for transport?"

Silas raised a digit to the comm link on the side of his helm, "Yes, and make it quick." he replied, then he gave a short nudge against Ten with his pede, "We'll strip down and process this one for parts… and the other will make an excellent first addition to our army."