Sorry for the wait! Got a job last year and then started real college. Art classes can be so demanding. Anyway, I got the chapter done. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers. I just play with them. I only own my OC's.

Time:

Astro-second = 1.258 Earth seconds

1 nanocycle/nanoklik = 10 seconds

1 cycle/klik = 60 nanocycles/nanokliks 120 seconds

Breem = 15 kliks 30 minutes

1 joor = 1.3 Earth days

Solar cycle/orn = 24 joor 31.557 Earth days

Vorn = 10 orn

Groon = 8 vorn

Orbital cycle = 12 groon 83 human years

Deca-cycle = 10 orbital cycles

Centi-cycle/Mega cycle = 100 orbital cycles

Meta cycle = 1,000 orbital cycles

Communication:

:: comm. link ::

- Bondmates/sparkmates -

~: creator/creation bond :~

: sibling bond :

~ spark twin bond ~

Thoughts/memories/flashbacks/dreams/singing

[symbiot/symbiot carrier]

= telepathy =

Seeker Cant

~~~~~SSSsssSSS~~~~~

Play. An essential part of a child's development as well as the building of bonds between people. It reduces stress and connects people together. Even if it is an electronic game or hide and seek, we all need a little down time to have fun. Sometimes it has to be the mud puddle.

I think the bots need to play more. Even the Cons. The first of the sparing rings is nearly done and then Bots and Cons can start to mingle without the constant fighting and have the ring to settle disputes. But without casualties.

Quite honestly, I hope it works …

~~~~~SSSsssSSS~~~~~

Jetstorm was on a roll this orn. He had beaten Warpath three times already and was on his way to beating him a fourth time. The two of them had decided that they would play the racing game 7 times and the loser got to clean Ironhide's guns next vorn.

Warpath was punching away at the buttons on his controller. The two of them were neck and neck, on the last straight stretch of road. Warpath swerved in an attempt to knock Jetstorm of course. Jetstorm had been waiting for that move, watching Warpath out of the corner of his optic. He used a boost he had been saving to speed ahead right at the last second to get out of the way and across the finish line.

"Yes!" Jetstorm cried, fist pumping the air.

Warpath groaned loudly and tossed his controller across the table that was between the couch and the holovid screen. He leaned his arms on his upper stabilizers. He was going to have to stop accepting the youngling's challenges.

"Found it!" a bot shouted from the storage closet on the left side of the room.

Jetstorm turned to find Sideswipe digging around in the closet. The mech stood as tall as Jetstorm's brother, Bladestream, and was a deep red with black high lights with sensory horns on the top of his helm like Jazz. Sideswipe turned away from the closet and stepped over the mess he had made around the entrance. He had another controller in his right servo.

"Found what?" Warpath groused.

"One of the missing controllers. Now all three of us can play."

Wind Dancer came up to Sideswipe. "Are there any more controllers, or do you have just three?" she asked, scrunching up her face in a worried expression.

Sideswipe grinned and gave his controller a toss, placing his other servo on his hip-strut.

"If you really think you can keep up with us, there's more this came from."

Wind Dancer's optics lit up and her wings wiggled in such a way that it reminded Jetstorm of Bladestream's dog, Nanook, back on Earth. That dog never wagged his tail, he wiggled it.

"Where?!" she asked, excited about being able to play too.

Sideswipe traded which servo was holding the controller and pointed to the closet he had just raided. "There is a black box in the back right corner. Can't miss it."

"I'll set it up for four players." Jetstorm said, pressing buttons to go to the main menu.

"Your little tournament with hafta wait," Ironhide said, walking over to the couch, "The convey just got back with energon an' it's all servos on deck."

"What?!" Sideswipe shouted.

"Yes, sir!" Warpath said, getting off the couch. "Where's the convoy?"

"Hanger B, east side." Ironhide turned to Jetstorm, "You too, kid."

Jetstorm stared at Ironhide's retreating back plates. "Why me? I'm not an Autobot."

Ironhide turned to face Jetstorm. "Ya live here, don't ya? You refuel from the same energon I do. The rest o' yer fam'ly are helpin' out, too. Git off yer aft and come on."

Jetstorm opened his mouth to tell Ironhide that he didn't know what an aft was, so how could he get off of it, Ironhide cut him off.

"An' don't tell me ya don't know what that is or I'll gladly show ya an' you'll still hafta bring in energon." He walked out of the rec room without another word.

Jetstorm sighed and put the controller down. "Come on, Wind Dancer, let's get this over with."

Wind Dancer half stepped, half leaped, over the stuff Sideswipe had strung all over the floor, wings twitching in irritation. "Sideswipe really should clean this up. Prowl made Sunstreaker do it last time he made this mess."

"What we really need, is to have Wing Saber organize the thing. That way we can actually find the controllers when we need them." Jetstorm said, still upset with Ironhide.

The two managed to catch up with Ironhide and Wind Dancer had to almost run to keep up with the mechs.

Upon arriving at the hanger bay, Jetstorm looked for his other siblings, but only found Bladestream and Wing Saber. Stardust was nowhere in sight. According to the bond, she wasn't anywhere near the hanger either.

This upset Jetstorm greatly. Wing Saber was in the large ship putting giant energon cubes on small dollies. She should know where Stardust was.

He jogged up the ramp and over to Wing Saber.

"Wing Saber."

Wing Saber was in the process of unlocking the wheels of the dolly. "Hmm?" she asked, her wings going up like husky ears at attention.

"Where is Stardust? Ironhide said that we all were supposed to be here. And I don't see her."

"She's with Ratchet, helping him figure out where the energon is to go and how much goes where."

Jetstorm huffed. "She's not that good at problem solving."

His older sister gave him a look that said "watch your tone". "Maybe not, but she is Ratchet's apprentice … protégé. Maybe he'll teach her a thing or two." She said, going back to unlocking the wheels on the other side of the dolly.

Jetstorm rolled his optics. "Doubtful."

There was a crash farther back inside the ship. Both Seekers looked towards the source of the crash to find some energon cubes had fallen over. Jazz peeked out from behind one of the fallen cubes. "Hey Storm? Would ya mind givin' meh a servo oveh 'ere? These cubes are a mite large fuh meh ta move safely."

That was just funny to Jetstorm. He smirked. "That's just cause you're short." he teased. He walked over and began to stack the cubes back up. But seriously! Jazz failed to mention that the cubes were heavy!

"Ya gotta be small ta do my job, mech!" Jazz said, proudly.

Jetstorm felt warm amusement coming from Wing Saber. Jazz pushed a cube to Wing Saber and she took it and put it on another dolly.

Jetstorm heard the sounds of another ship coming in. He saw more mechs heading for the incoming ship. Jazz jogged over to the ship's entrance. "Anotheh shipment o' energon!" he said, clearly happy about the ship's arrival.

"How much energon is there?" Jetstorm asked.

"A lot. Ah scouted out an energon mine the Cons had. Ah thought that it was gonna be a small mine, due ta the energon spike ah found, but it turned out ta be huge! We caught the Cons off guard an' we were able ta confiscate the mine. There's gotta be at least 10 ships of energon."

Jetstorm sighed. They were going to be at this all orn long. There wasn't going to be any time to play with Warpath now!

"Awww, don't fret, Storm! We'll git the energon all unloaded behfore the night cycle."

"Hope so."

A couple of Autobots came up the ramp and took the energon cube on the dolly. Bluestreak ran past the bots and got Wing Saber's attention. "Do you have any more of those wheeled things? Sunny's asking for one. He's complaining that the cubes will scratch his paint."

Wing Saber scrunched up her face and turned to count the dollies that were stacked off to the side against the wall of the ship. Then she cocked her helm and counted on her digits and gesturing. Probably counting the dollies that weren't here.

She grabbed two dollies of the stack. "Take these. I do want them back, okay? I don't have many of them."

Bluestreak took them and cheerfully said his thanks before running back down the ramp.

"Storm!"

Jetstorm turned to Jazz.

"Can ya start gettin' the cubes on top o' the stacks an' bring them ta ya sisteh?"

Jetstorm chuckled. "You're short."

Their teasing continued throughout the orn. They emptied the ship they started on and emptied four more before word went around that all the ships were unloaded.

Jazz said that it would have taken a lot longer if Bladestream and Wing Saber had not made all the dollies. Bladestream got stuck making dollies all orn long instead on unloading and moving energon cubes.

They were finished with all the work with a joor or two of daylight left. That meant that he could play with Warpath and Sideswipe!

He went to the rec room. Thankfully, there wasn't anyone using the holovid screen and the controllers were still here. He turned the screen on and began to set it up a four-player game.

Someone touched his shoulders and yelled, "BOO!"

Jetstorm jumped and turned around as Wind Dancer giggled.

He scowled. "Don't do that, Wind Dancer!" She should know better than to come up behind someone and startle them.

"Just did." she said, coming around the back of the couch and flopping down on it. "Are Warpath and Sides coming?"

"They should be. If they don't get pulled into battle."

He and Wind Dancer picked out there vehicles and waited for the other two to show up. They talked about trick and secrets in the game before Warpath and Sideswipe finally made their appearance.

"Where were you two?" Wind Dancer asked.

"Your sister decided to double check every energon storage room and count the cubes. There were a couple missing from one of the vaults. Had Prowl and Ratchet making everybody searching for the missing cubes." Sideswipe grumbled, searching for the controller that he had earlier before finding it on the table. He grabbed it rather roughly and dramatically collapsed on the couch on the other side of Wind Dancer.

Wind Dancer looked up at uch on the other side of wind before finding it on the table. the red frontliner. "Which one?"

"The lighter blue one with the crystal flower in her …" Sideswipe face became puzzled as he tried to find the words to describe the wires that hung from their helms.

"Hair." Jetstorm grinned.

Sideswipe gave him a slightly disgusted look. "That's what you call it? Sounds organic."

Jetstorm shrugged. "We grew up on an organic planet. Our creators never had any. They didn't know what to call the stuff, so we just called it what the native life forms called it."

Sideswipe shrugged and picked out his vehicle.

~~~~~SSSsssSSS~~~~~

Sideswipe watched as Jetstorm went through the options and set them up for a four-player race with about twelve other computer controlled racers. He thought that Jetstorm would choose solo racing, but he chose two-player team racing where Jetstorm and Wind Dancer were on one team while he and Warpath were on another.

"What tracks do we want?" Jetstorm asked.

Sideswipe leaned forward. "Have you unlocked the Velocitron tracks?"

Jetstorm made a confused face.

Sideswipe held out his servo. "Here, give me the controller."

Jetstorm handed him the controller and Sideswipe left Jetstorm's mode and went into his own. He had unlocked all the main planets and their tracks, but none of the secret ones. He didn't have the patience for it.

"You want a challenge? These tracks a chalenge? main planets and their tracks, but nne of the jetstorm are based off of the real race tracks on Velocitron. The entire planet is built around racing." He said, selecting some of the more simple tracks on Velocitron.

Wind Dancer sighed beside him. "I wish we had wheels. Then we could race for real."

Sideswipe froze and stared at the youngling. He never heard a Seeker wish for wheels. As a matter of fact, no Seeker in their right processor wants wheels at all.

Jetstorm looked at her. "Well, Bladestream has wheels. Maybe Ratchet can give us some."

Sideswipe stepped in, "I wouldn't recommend it. You can't just ask someone to do surgery and slap some wheels on. Seeker and grounder coding and protocols are very different. Triplechangers have very unstable CPU's and they were created that way."

"Well, Shockwave gave Bladestream his wheels and he turned out fine. Ratchet says that his processor is just as stable as any Seeker or grounder."

Sideswipe optics widened. Shockwave was really involved with their creation? He had heard rumors that these Seekers were experiments of Shockwave's, but he didn't believe them.

The look that Wind Dancer gave her brother said that he was probably not supposed to reveal that. And for a good reason. Most bots around here would view them as Decepticon spies if that got out, even if they were only younglings. It wouldn't be the first time the Cons used younglings as spies. But he chose not to address that now.

"Shockwave would make sure his pets were stable, both in frame and in processor. The instability common to triplechangers would be a flaw to Shockwave. Not everyone can make the programming blend like that. I don't think it's a good idea."

Warpath scoffed. "You actually think something like that is a bad idea? Since when do you think something's a bad idea?"

"Hey!" Sideswipe said defensively, jabbing a digit at himself, "I do use my processor once in a while."

"Yeah right." Warpath muttered with a smirk on his faceplates.

"And this isn't some prank! You don't mess with a bot's programming!"

"Can we play the game?" Jetstorm asked, upset by the delay.

Sideswipe sighed and gave his old controller to the young Seeker. He would be player one for now. He was about to hit the start button when he heard someone calling Wind Dancer.

He looked over his shoulder and saw Wing Saber, the eldest of the neutral Seekers.

His spark fluttered in its casing. He always liked femmes and Wing Saber was no exception. Sunny won't admit it, but his brother appreciated her paint job. Even Sideswipe thought that it was a wonder. She was a little stocker built than most femmes, but that only added to her beauty. And her optics were the deepest blue he had ever seen.

"I've finally finished some more glass beads. They're pink, not purple, but I was wondering if you wanted me to put them in your hair?" the blue femme asked, a single wing cocking, looking like the audios of a petro-puppy.

"Do you have any more blue ones?" asked Wind Dancer, turning around to see her sister better.

Wing Saber looked in the box she was holding, raising one of her optic ridges. "I have a few …"

"Enough to alternate the colors?"

Wing Saber gave the youngling a sympathetic look. "No." she said, with a small shake of her helm. "I'd have to make more."

Wind Dancer seemed cool with this. "That's fine. Can you put them in while we play?"

Wing Saber shuttered her optics a few times. "I guess I could. But you'd have to be incredibly still. And I'd need you to sit in a different chair."

"Okay," she turned to Sideswipe, "DON'T start yet, I'll be right back." She said as she ran off to find a more appropriate chair.

"I'll go get a brush and comb." Wing Saber said, turning to leave the room. She didn't get very far before she noticed the open closet. She stared at it for a while, wings constantly moving with thoughts unheard, probably wondering who made the mess.

Sideswipe's spark skipped a beat. The way the light bounced off the plating of her wings made him want to touch them.

Wing Saber spun around and looked at him with wide optics and wings high as though she had been startled.

"SIDESWIPE! Start the game!"

Sideswipe looked at Jetstorm with indignation. "I can't without Wind Dancer! She'll be back soon anyway." He turned to look back at Wing Saber, who was now giving him a confused look with one of her wings cocked sideways. She left the room, looking back over her shoulder at him before disappearing around the wall.

Sideswipe's comm link went off. :: You like her, don't you? ::

He turned to Warpath. :: You won't be able to get close. Her brother won't allow it. Even if you did manage to talk to her without him near, she'll refuse your advances. Not everyone gets hooked on you, Sides. ::

Before Sideswipe could give a retort, both Wind Dancer and Wing Saber had returned. Wind Dancer set up the chair on Sideswipe's left. She ran in front of the screen to retrieve her controller before running back to the chair and sitting in it. Wing Saber placed the box she was holding on the back of the couch as well as a spray bottle and a few other strange objects.

:: What, do you know from experience? :: Sideswipe asked, watching Wing Saber touch different parts of Wind Dancer's helm and frame, silently asking her to adjust herself for Wing Saber to best do her job.

:: Others have tried, Sides. Even Mirage. She rejected him rather violently. I always thought Seekers were always in the mood. :: Warpath said, deciding to talk to the younglings about the track they were about to start.

Wing Saber picked up the spray bottle and pulled the trigger, misting the top of her sister's helm. Sideswipe, being in the line of fire, get wet, too. He examined the wetness. It was probably coolant or cleanser mixed with a bit of something else, something that smelled sweet. He couldn't place what it was, though.

"We can start now." Wind Dancer said matter-of-factly, giving him an almost deadpanned look.

"Right." Sideswipe adjusted himself, leaning forward with his controller just beyond his knee struts. He hit the start button.

Like he had said before, this was a simple track. What he didn't say, was this was an actual track on Velocitron designed for beginners. Not all the tracks in the game were on Velocitron, but a few of them were.

As soon as the green lights signaled the start of the race, his car sped ahead of the other cars, but Jetstorm's was not far behind his. Wind Dancer was a close third and Warpath would have been fourth, but he hit a few computer controlled racers and then hit the wall.

The first few turns were a breeze for Sideswipe, but he realized after the first lap that Jetstorm was good. The youngling was much better than he had anticipated. He was going to have to up his game.

The good news was, Sideswipe knew all the shortcuts and tricks. The bad news, was that Jetstorm and Wind Dancer were fast learners. They started to copy his moves during the second and third tracks. Sometimes they would stumble and it would cost them time, but when done correctly, the two youngsters excelled. Wind Dancer more so than Jetstorm.

Suspicious, Sideswipe snuck glances over his shoulder to see if Wing Saber was paying any attention. He was right. While Wing Saber was braiding Wind Dancer's hair, her optics would shift to the screen half the time. What was odd, was that Wing Saber would start to shift her frame with each bend of the tract. If Wind Dancer crashed or took a nosedrive off the tract into a ditch or abyss, her faceplates would scrunch up or wince. He suspected that Wing Saber was giving Wind Dancer hints to get ahead.

A flash on the screen caused him to panic. His car was heading straight for the non-walled edge of a curve on a thin stretch of road. He over compensated, sending his car careening off the other side of the track, plummeting to the ground with a spectacular crash. He winced as everyone groaned. Jetstorm giggled as Sideswipe's car was placed back at the last checkpoint, dead last. Pride hurt, he pulled out all the stops to gain ground.

He did not win that track, but he did win the next three before losing in second place to Wind Dancer. Now he was really convinced that Wing Saber was helping.

"Done." said Wing Saber, packing up her stuff. Sideswipe looked at Wind Dancer's hair and his jaw dropped. Nine perfect braids each adorned with pink beads less than a digit's length in between them were pulled back, making Wind Dancer look like a princess. The pink accented well with her light purple paint.

Wing Saber looked at him with mild amusement. "What? I've been braiding hair since I was a youngling. Got tired of waiting on m' sire to do it."

"Tiahred!" Wind Dancer said, spinning around in the chair, poking fun at how Wing Saber pronounced the word, grinning from audio to audio.

Wing Saber glared at her out of the corner of her optic, wings lowering slightly in irritation. She completely ignored her sister's comment, she closed the lid on her box and twirled her brush.

"I'm gonna head back-"

"Bay-ack!"

Wing Saber frowned "-to the garden. Hopefully, I –"

"Ahy!"

Wing Saber's left wing twitched as her vents let out a long suffering sigh. Wind Dancer and Jetstorm were overcome with giggles. Even Sideswipe found himself grinning. "- won't have any visitors today."

"Visitors?" asked Sideswipe.

She turned towards him, faceplates a little anxious. "Soundwave paid me 'n Bladestream a visit last orn."

Sideswipe scowled. "What did the Con want?"

"Don't know. He stared at us for a while and took off. Don't know what he wanted and I don't particularly care."

And with that, she walked out of the room, muttering something he couldn't catch.

Sideswipe frowned at her retreating form. She was hiding something. He would have to talk to Prowl about it. It wouldn't be the first time Cons posed as neutrals to get Autobot intel.

"What other tracks are there?" asked Jetstorm. Sideswipe shook his helm. Never in his existence had he seen Seekers who loved racing.

"Here, Velocitron has all kinds of terrain. Cybertron also has some, though not as wide of a variety."

He went back to the planet menu and selected Cybertron. He handed Jetstorm the controller. "Wanna pick the one?"

The young mech took the controller and sifted through the tracks, wings aflutter with excitement.

~~~~~SSSsssSSS~~~~~

"It's been two days now."

"I know."

"We have tah give him our answer tomorrow."

"I know."

Silence.

"Are we gonna say yes?"

Wing Saber leaned against the back of the couch, looking at Bladestream, who reclined on its armrest. They were the only ones up at this time. A few dim lights gave Ironhide's living room a soft glow. If it weren't for the lights of their optics, the room would be borderlined too dark to see properly. It was at this time of the night cycle where they could talk in English without getting judgmental stares.

Bladestream stroked his beard, sighing forcefully. His optics became slits as he thought. "I still don't quite trust his intentions. I truly believe that he wants nothing more than to spend time with us, but I just don't see him keeping it from Megatron."

"Yes, but, I don't honestly see him telling Megatron anything like that if he truly thinks that we are key to ending the war as we are; as factionless."

Bladestream pursed his lipplates together, stroking his beard some more. He looked up at her. "Do you want to do this? If you don't then I won't do it either and we can just te-"

"I want to do this. I want to give him a chance. Maybe we can find out what happened to them to have caused Megatron and Optimus to be driven so far apart."

Bladestream stared at her, one optic ridge raised higher than the other, optic shutters blinking a few times. "Do you know awkward that sentence just was?"

"Nope. Don't care." Wing Saber said, grinning.

A pause.

"We gonna tell Optimus and Soundwave tomorrow?"

"Soundwave already said that he'd meet us back at that same spot. I'd assume that it'd be the same time as well. But I think we should tell Optimus tonight."

"He probably is up at this hour if he has paperwork or stuff like that. Might want to bring him energon, too, if Ratchet hasn't been on his case yet."

"I'll do that." said Bladestream, getting off the couch. "You might want to get some sleep while you can. I don't know what's going to go down tomorrow."

"Okay. Night." Wing Saber said as Bladestream left the suite.

~~~~~SSSsssSSS~~~~~

There's that. Feedback is appreciated!