A/N: Hey! I have an update! Finally, huh? I seem to be taking a good amount of time getting these lately. Ironically, despite the length of time it took me on this one...I actually got much of this done yesterday. XD Anyway, before we go on to the chapter I have a few things to say:

First is that I may or may not be writing the next few days, so that will delay my next update for It's a Prime Adventure. The reason for this is simple. I have a friend arriving here tomorrow and I will be spending the next few days making her feel at home here and stuff. I'm going to catch her up with Prime season 3, she's gonna have me watch The Lord of the Rings, I am going to have her watch G1, and we're also likely going to watch some NCIS, maybe some other things too.

The second thing I need to mention is very IMPORTANT to those of you reading this particular story. I have reason for doing what I am about to say I'm going to be doing. And here it is; this story is not going to be updated until I reach a certain point in Your War, Our Battle. I will still be writing this story, do not worry. Once I finally the story truly kicked off this will be one of my favorite stories to write, so why would I quit, especially this early in the game when I simply haven't gotten the chance to completely deviate from the book? No, I am not quitting on this story. It is simply that in the next chapter some things will be revealed that I don't want you guys to know yet until I have those things revealed in Your War, Our Battle.

Why does it matter? Because it does. Anyone who can guess why what happens in one story matters to the other story gets a virtual cookie. ;P And maybe an attempt at fanart of your choosing, just don't expect it to be awesome. :P

So while I won't be posting on this story for a while, I will be continuing to actually write it and maybe I'll put up a challenge in my author's note of YWOB to see if anyone in interested in getting a sneak peek. MAYBE. Not guaranteed. As much as I don't want to reveal certain things to you in this story(especially those of you who also read YWOB) yet, I can't simply put this story down for a while. So I will be writing on it, just not posting until I have gotten through chapter 17 of YWOB. You will see why that chapter specifically when it comes that time. ;)

Anyway, moving on. Enjoy the chapter! :D

Chapter 8: Meeting Megatron

Journal Entry #76 Unhappy

It's how I felt every time Orion mentioned his desire to meet with Megatronus, who was apparently now named Megatron. The new name made me shiver more than the last one. Something about it reminded me of what a cartoon artist would name a villain. I still didn't believe that the mech Orion was so keen to meet was really someone he wanted to know.

Jazz shared my concern over this even. The way he saw it, he figured Megatron was planning a revolution. Of the war variety. I wasn't sure what he planned, but I believe if he did want a revolution, he should give trying the peaceful way a chance before starting a war. The thought of war brought up those weird dreams I had told Trion about. And those made my stomach churn.

The fact Orion wanted to go alone also made my stomach churn. He was going to the heart of Kaon. From what I understood, the bots there weren't exactly friendly.

~Mina Castina

"I don't think you should go," I told my large red and blue friend. "Something about Megatron gives me the creeps. What if he decides to hurt you?"

"He won't," Orion reassured me.

"You don't know that!" I protested, holding my hands in the air dramatically. "He could be planning mass murder as we speak!"

Orion stared at me for a moment in confusion. "Why are you so against me meeting him?" he asked after a few moments.

I dropped my hands to my side and flipped his question over in my head. "I'm not sure," I said. "But something about him makes my stomach churn. I just don't want you to go and then get hurt."

Orion sighed. "I will return, Minah," he replied. "Going to Kaon to meet with Megatron is not a sentence to offlining."

"I'm not worried about you dying," I said. "You're a big bot, you can take care of yourself."

"Then what are you worried about?" he asked.

"I'm worried he might lead you down a path that you will regret later," I said, looking up at my friend with tears in my eyes. "Just because he's spitting out good ideas and nice words doesn't mean you really want to know him."

Orion looked startled by my statement and I wasn't fully sure he caught the last part of it. After a moment he carefully scooped me up and brought me close to his face, nuzzling me slightly as I hugged him the best I could.

"I will not change my being, Minah," he said. "If I see he is going down a path I do not wish to follow, I will not follow."

"Ok, OP," I said, pulling back and wiping my tears. "I trust you. I trust your judgement. Go if you must. But you better come back."

"I will," he promised, nuzzling me a bit more before the door chimed and he went to answer it, me still in his servo. The door opened to reveal Ariel and her sisters, who had agreed to stay with me while he went to Kaon, since both the older ones had the day off.

"Hi!" Arcee chirped up at me and I smiled and waved at her.

"Hey 'Cee!" I said happily.

"Hello Orion," Ariel said with a shy smile.

Orion returned the smile, looking equally shy. "Hello," he said.

The group exchanged some words in Cybertronian before Orion deposited me in Ariel's servo, their servos brushing each other. I found myself smirking in amusement as I heard Ariel's cooling fans kick on quietly, their equivalent of a blush.

I smirked up at Ariel as soon as Orion was gone. "Ariel's got a crush~" I nearly sing-songed.

Her cooling fans picked up a bit as Chromia laughed and Arcee giggled was they walked further into the apartment.

"I do not," she protested in embarassment.

"Hey, I wonder if you have had any crushes before, Mina," Chromia grinned.

"Me? A crush?" I asked and then thought about it. "Nope."

Arcee giggled. "Not even a little one?" she asked innocently.

"Well, I had this little crush once...but it was on a fictional character thus it does not count," I replied.

Chromia laughed at that. "You sure are strange, kid," she said.

I grinned as Ariel gently let me off on the floor before she and Chromia took a seat on the couch.

"So, anybot have any ideas for what to do?" I asked.

"I want to play a game!" Arcee said, smiling.

"Sure! What kind of game?" I asked.

"What kind of games did you play as a kid?" Arcee asked curiously.

I smiled. "Well, my personal favorite was hide-and-seek," I said.

"How do you play it?" Arcee asked.

"Well, one person is designated as 'it' and that person closes their eyes, or optics in your case, and counts to a hundred while the rest of the people playing hide," I explained. "And after the 'it' person finishes counting, they start looking for the others and the first person they find is 'it' next."

"Ooo! Can we play?" Arcee asked.

"I'm up for it," I said and then looked to the adult bots. "You two want to play?"

"Nah, we'll watch from here," Chromia said.

"Ok," I said and then looked to Arcee. "You're it."

"Aww," Arcee pouted playfully before climbing onto the couch with her sisters and closing her optics.

I grinned and as she counted, I darted off to find a hiding place.

~Kaon City Outskirts, Normal PoV~

It was definitely a different atmosphere around Kaon than it was back in Iacon. The closer he got to the city, Orion had watched the scenery change from what appeared to be groomed and civilized to rugged and broken land. Orion imagined the Badlands were once an industrial area instead of the wasteland it was now.

Kaon itself was sprawled across a plateau three times the surface area of Iacon. A cloud of smoke and heavy metal compounds hung perpetually over it from the factories in which mechs toiled. The best way Orion could describe Kaon was that it was like an endless tumble of blackened rubble, imense mechanical structures collapsed in on one another, and newer generations of the same built over top of them. It looked as if it had been bombed and pieced back together by blind bots. Overall, the sight made him glad he had left his new little friend behind with Ariel and her sisters rather than bring her along.

Orion remained in alt mode until he reached the senter of the city where roads were tangled and conduits and catwalks were hung over them. It was near impossible to see where you were in Kaon without the satelite and Grid interface. There were no land marks or any clear way to tell where you were. There was no sense of space in location, unlike in Iacon where there was always something to tell you where you were in relation to where you were going.

Orion could not imagine living here from the time he had been sparked, but he supposed he would have been so used to it that he would know how to find his way.

Orion made his way to the building that Megatronus had described to him. The building was a pyramidal black monument, squared at the top for a landing pad. It served as a workshop for blackmarket parts to replace commonly damaged sensory arrays. Underneath the workshop was a gladiatorial arena where mechs fought to the death.

At the side door stood two mechs. One of them was black and white and was a couple anos shorter than Orion. The other was enormous, about four or five times Orion's own mass, tall and bulky with a single optic and carrying a mace the size of Orion himself. All three optics staring him down were a bright red, the same color as Minah's "blood" Orion had seen when the small femme had cut herself on those flimsy sheets she writes on. How she had managed to do that still escaped him.

"Match entrance is on the other side," the small one said.

"You must be Barricade," Orion said and then looked at the larger one. "And Lugnut, right? Megatron told me you two would be here. I am here to meet him."

"Just strolling through beautiful Kaon to meet the boss, huh?" Barricade asked, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Funny. The boss never said anything about that to us."

"You sure?" Orion glanced over at Lugnut. He thought he understood. Lugnut was one of those who would watch whatever happened until one of his superiers told him to act. "He must've told you, Lugnut."

Lugnut looked surprised that anyone was talking to him. "Could be," he grunted. "I don't always..."

"Shut up," Barricade snapped, lightly smacking the larger mech's shoulder. He glared at Orion. "You don't know what the boss said to who."

"I know what he said to me," Orion replied, leveling a calm stare at Barricade.

It was a standoff, tension filling the air at a palpable level. Barricade couldn't stand to be shown up in front of Lugnut, which would make him easy to manipulate. Or would it? He could be making it easy on purpose to test Orion. The possibility reminded him that Kaon was a long, long way from the Hall of Records in Iacon.

"Listen," Orion said, growing a bit tired of standing here and debating whether he was here to see Megatron or not. "How about I just wait here with the big guy and you go ask the boss? Easy, right?"

"I don't need you to tell me what's easy and what isn't," Barricade growled, but he was already heading inside. "Lugnut, don't let this mech go anywhere."

Mech, Orion thought. He's got to put me in my place. It seems that gladiators wear their sparks on their sleeves. He wondered if he should have reacted more to the insult or if a reaction would've been too provocative. Then he started to think that maybe he was being too deliberate, overthinking everything he did and overanalyzing everything others did.

What else would he do? Megatron would've said. After being told he couldn't think and analyze for his entire existence, and now he had a chance to do so.

Orion Pax couldn't disagree with that assessment. And on the heels of that thought came another. He might've even said it before Megatron.

It occured to Orion that he was on the verge of becoming a revolutionary. It was, after all, a revolutionary act just to be meeting with Megatron, whose reputation was quickly spreading. There were rumors around the grid that Sentinel Prime was becoming "concerned" and the High Council was "considering action". If he himself continued with his present course of action, he too might draw the attention of the Council.

It was hard to imagine. A lowly data clerk catching the attention of the most important beings on Cybertron.

Still...what else could he do? Even Minah, who was wary about Megatron, didn't believe he should just do nothing. Every Cybertronian deserved the right of self-determination. Orion Pas believed this with all his spark. Megatron believed it as well, that was why he was here.

As if summoned, Megatron loomed in the pyramid's doorway. Barricade stood behind him, glowering darkly, possibly about being proved wrong.

"I see you've met some of the indigenous semi-intelligent life," Megatron said in way of greeting. He clasped servos with Orion. "It is good to see you in person, my friend."

"And you," Orion replied. Friend. There was a word he had not used often. Perhaps only with Jazz and now Minah. Perhaps he would use it to describe the other bots he had come in contact with thanks to Minah's arrival in time as well. He was not entirely certain yet if the word could be used to describe Megatron.

Inside, the pyramid was largely hollowed out. It was criss-crossed with girders and catwalks, seating surrounding the sides. It appeared as though only the farthest corners were used for manufacturing now.

"We have a separate aerial tournament that takes place here," Megatron explained. "I fought here one. I fight mostly underground, though."

"You're running it all now?" Orion asked.

"Barricade takes care of all the cycle-to-cycle details, and Shockwave handles keeping the gladiators healthy and putting them back together."

Far off in the dimness, Orion heard the skitter of tiny pedes he always associated with Minicons. He titled his helm slightly to be sure he wasn't hearing things, causing Megatron to chuckle.

"Soundwave spies on everyone," Megatron said in way of explanation. "Even me and especially you. This is how he demonstrates his loyalty."

As Megatron gave Orion a tour of the pyramid, they fell into a conversation. There were training rooms where he saw several mechs going through exercises. Most of them had red optics, but two caught Orion's optics as they passed. Two mechs, red and yellow, had blue optics, making them stand out among all the mechs who were clearly native to Kaon and similar cities. They glanced over and for a brief moment their optics met before Orion had to turn his attention away as Megatron led him else where.

Aside from the training areas and the main room, there was also a vast machine shop in which weapons, armor and parts were manufactured under watchful optics of experts.

"This all is for the gladiator pits?" Orion asked, glnacing over at his tour guide.

"It might be," Megatron replied non-chalantly. "Depending on what else might require the services of a well-trained fighting force."

A thrill sparkled through Orion's circuits then. "My idea is that we advance our cause by spreading the concepts of freedom and self-determination," he said, almost eagerly. "We talk, we argue, we convince. Sentinel Prime is slow to react; the High Council with dither endlessly unless a problem walks directly into their chamber and demand to be solved. I don't think armed insurrection is going to be necessary."

"Maybe that's what it looks like from Iacon," Megatron replied.

"It does," Orion said firmly. "You came up through the gladiatorial ranks. Every problem looks to you like it can be solved through fighting."

"And every problem looks to you like it can be solved through reading," Megatron replied.

"Sounds like a compromise is in order," Barricade interrupted. He had just caught up with them after running some errand. "And around here, Orion Pax, compromise means agree with the boss."

"Whoa there," Megatron stopped Barricade. "This is a scholar from Iacon. He's not an ore hauler or smelter you can threaten. Orion Pas is a friend. He is my friend, and the movement's friend." He locked optics with Barricade, whose ruby spotlight gaze was the first to drop.

"Understood boss," Barricade said. "No offense meant."

"None taken," Orion replied.

"Still," Megatron said, getting the conversation back on track. "We have talked and talked and talked of freedom. It is time to act. Some Cybertronians who are loyal to me are out searching for artifacts of the Primes across Cybertron. If it is granted we find them, then that will be a sign our cause is just. And others..." He trailed off, as if uncertain of how to go on, or if he should in present company.

"Others what?" Orion prompted.

"Our ideals have taken root in different ways, my friend," Megatron replied. "Some of the more combatative and fiery citizens of Kaon do not believe that ideas spread by talking. They believe they are spread by action."

"Then we need to distance ourselves from them before they do anything stupid," Orion replied immediately. "Violence at this stage will be counter-productive."

"Counter-productive? Not wrong?" Megatron asked, sounding a bit surprised.

It took Orion a moment to notice that the great gladiator was teasing him. "Of course, wrong," he replied. "Megatron, if a bunch of firebrands go around Cybertron destroying things and putting our names on those acts, our ideas will be tarnished as well. We'll be written off as radicals. We'll be defined by the worst excesses of our followers."

"Perhaps," Megatron said. "Another way to look at it is that if we truly believe in self-destermination and free will, we must respect the right of our followers to disagree with our methods and choose their own."

In a philosophical sense, of course, this was true. Orion knew, however - he could tell, could feel it right down to his Spark- that their philosophical discussion was not going to stay philosophical for long.

A time was going to come when he would have to insist on doing things his way. But that time had not come yet. Not here, on Megatron's home ground, among Megatron's followers, who did not yet know that many of Megatron's ideas in fact came from Orion Pax.

Of course, the reverse was also true.

"So, you are with me, librarian?" Megatron asked.

Orion looked around at the inner circle gladiators and other low-caste Cybertronians. He did not fit in here, yet he found he was not afraid.

"I am with your ideas," he finally replied. "They are my ideals as well."

"Excellent," Megatron said, a grin spreading on his face. He turned to the gladiators, who had paused in their work to watch them. "Cybertronians! My friend Orion Pax! Together we will lead all sentient citizens of Cybertron to a new age, a restoration of our former greatness!"

"MEGATRON! MEGATRON! MEATRON!" the gladiators around them shouted.

Megatron leaned closer to Orion as the chant washed over them. "Soon they will chant your name as well," he said.

"As long as they hold to the ideals," Orion replied. "They can chant whatever they want to."

Megatron laughed. "We need a name for our movement and its followers," he said. "Something in line with what other great movements in Cybertronian history have been named."

Orion had been thinking of that as well. He had considered it as long as he took seriously the idea that he may affect the history of Cybertron in some way. The archives at Iacon were full of long gone and forgotten movements that incorporated their beliefs in their names, one-word distillations of complete philosophies...

"Autobots," Orion supplied. "For we seek autonomy, and see it as our basic right."

"Interesting. I, too, had thought of a name," Megatron replied, but he didn't elaborate.

After a few moments, Orion got an alarm on his internal sensors. His optics widened briefly as he recognized what it was and turned to Megatron as his optics returned to their normal size.

"I am afraid I will have to end our visit, my friend," he told the gladiator-turned-revolutionary. "Something has come up that requires my attention back in Iacon."

"Of course, my friend," Megatron replied. "Allow me to see you out."

~Meanwhile, Mina's PoV~

I peaked out of my hiding place to check on my surroundings. I saw Arcee across the room, searching the area on the other side of the couch her sisters were chatting away on in their native language.

We had played several games of hide-and-seek and have yet to get bored. Arcee had a lot of energy and the game gave me an excuse to explore the apartment more thoroughly in search of hiding places. I had felt a little lazy this round, however, as I was starting to get hungry and tired from all the running around. As such, I had simply ducked into the hole in the wall that I had discovered early on in my stay here.

I giggled as Arcee looked around, looking a bit lost. After the first couple times she had found me within a few minutes, we had made it a rule that she couldn't use her scanners to pinpoint me. She had to search for me the old fashion way, the way we humans did it. She pouted at first, but then started to enjoy the game more now that it was challenging.

I was so intent on watching as Arcee futilely searched underneath the couch, causing her sisters to shift out of her way, that I didn't notice the rat-like creature sneaking up behind me until it was too late. I felt something pulled me back by my shirt and squeaked in surprise, reaching for the edge of the hole only to miss it. I called out for Ariel and Chromia, but by the time they discovered my location, whatever had a hold of me was already retreating back down the hole, my shirt, and by extension me, still in its jaws.

I growled as I saw the optic of my friend widen as it grew more distant and the owner tell the others what she had seen.

I twisted as best I could, my shirt twisting and becoming more uncomfortable as I got to where I was awkwardly running next to the large rat-like creature instead of being dragged along on my back. I triped a few times, but steadied myself using the rat-thing's side.

The rat glanced over at me with a red optic as it ran and then suddenly careened into a wall, slamming between it and the wall.

I felt my breath leave me before continuing to be dragged. I wasn't sure if it was some creature that thought I smelled delicious or if it was some kind of small bot that had some other reason of dragging me away from the apartment, but I wasn't about to go without a fight. I kicked out at the rat-thing's side, only now realizing that we were outside now.

The rat-thing let out a squeak of pain and lost its grip on me, sending me sliding along the ground, scraping up my back and then front a little bit when I rolled over, landing on my belly before the rat grabbed me with its tail.

Disoriented, I tried to pry the tail from around my waist to no avail. For a moment I thought I was going to be mechanical rat chow until suddenly I found myself, and the rat-thing, lifted into the air. I heard the tell-tale clicking and whirring of a bot speaking as I was gently pulled from the rat-thing's tail and looked up to find myself looking into curious and concerned red optics. I blinked as I tried to regain control of my breathing, finding that I was slowly starting to fully grasp the fact I was just kidnapped by a rodent.

The new mech clicked and whirled again before looking over to another mech with red optics as it spoke to him, taking the rat-thing from the mech holding me and staring it down. I blinked at the two, noting their different eye color from what I was used to and the frame difference, as these two both had a set of wings on their backs.

The one holding me was mostly purple and black, though had some silver on him as well. His companion was blue and white, with a bit of red on him. The blue one turned his attention to the small rat-thing and began to click at it suspiciously and it replied, making me realize it was a really small bot rather than an animal of some sort.

The purple and black one began speaking to me in his language, but I had only managed to learn a few words from Orion and the others, I couldn't make sense of anything he was trying to say. From his look of disappointment, I could tell he realized I wasn't understanding him, but that I was trying, which encouraged him to keep trying to talk to me.

It took me a little bit to realize we were walking and when I did, I had to fight the urge to panic. I thought for a moment before remembering that Orion had gotten a mini-tracker from Wheeljack for me in the shape of a watch-like device. It wasn't on all the time, but I could activate it easily enough, which I did when I realized we were a good distance from the apartment where Chromia was just exiting, likely leaving Ariel and Arcee behind.

~Meanwhile, Normal PoV~

Rattrap was not a happy cassetticon. Unlike Soundwave's other minicons, he did not enjoy the act of spying. Yet here he was, sent on a spying mission for Soundwave...again. He even had to venture all the way to Iacon. Granted Laserbeak had given him a ride, knowing the smallest of the minicons would've taken mega-cycles to reach Iacon on his own. This mission had to be done during the time Orion Pax was in Kaon meeting with Megatron.

"Of all the losey...why couldn't Ravage do this?! She's better at this sort of thing," Rattrap grumbled to himself as he crawled through the glitchmice tunnels, seeking out the right apartment.

When he found the right exit, he glared to himself. Apparently Orion had expected this kind of treachery and set a guard to watch the small entry-way. How Orion would know he would use the glitchmice tunnels was beyond him, but there stood evidence, even if it was looking the wrong way. He would have to dispose of this guard if he was to get his job done.

As Rattrap edged closer, he realized this was not another minicon as he had originally thought. This thing, this creature, had a different smell than his fellow Cybertronians had. It didn't smell of metal and it also didn't look to be made of metal ores and other things. It was...organic. But that couldn't be. Organics were merely a myth his creators told him bedtime stories about, because Cybertronians didn't leave Cybertron and wouldn't know of such things.

Then Rattrap had another thought. Nothing organic lived on Cybertron, thus this was obviously an alien. He didn't know much about aliens, except that at one time Cybertronians fought a war against an alien race. If Orion was keeping an alien, the boss needed to know and Rattrap would have to prove it. The only way he could think to do that was bring the organic to him.

Rattrap snuck up on the organic, who seemed to be distracted by something inside of the apartment. He was able to grab the organic easily enough and started to drag it with him back toward where he had come from as fast as his little legs would let him.

A side glance at his captive revealed the organic had twisted itself to run instead of being dragged, which put it in a position it would be able to fight him. To fix that, he slammed the organic, and consequently his side, into the wall of the tunnel. The organic seemed to black out for a little bit and it wasn't until he was outside that it gave him anymore trouble, delivering a kick to his side and causing him to release it to give a yelp of shock.

Growling, Rattrap wrap his tail around the tumbling organic as he continued to run, grinning in victory as the act gave him a better hold on the organic. He continued to run, only to yelp when a servo plucked him off the ground and took his captive from him.

"Well, well, look what the cybercat dragged in," his captor said, as he separated the organic and Rattrap.

"Skywarp, careful, that one looks fragile," another mech said, walking up. He took Rattrap and let himself fall back to talk to the little spy.

"What are you up to, Rattrap?" Thundercracker asked.

"Hello?! Do you not see the alien in your brother's servo?" Rattrap replied, gesturing to the other seeker.

Thundercracker glanced over at Skywarp and the little organic being sitting in his servo, clearly shaken, but trying to understand what his brother was trying to say to it with what seemed to be a look of concentration.

"I see it, but why were you dragging it around with your tail?" Thundercracker asked. "Where did you find it?"

"What's it matter where I found it?" Rattrap asked, rolling his optics. "It's an alien, and last time an alien was on Cybertron, it wasn't friendly."

Thundercracker considered this. Yes, aliens had been on Cybertron before. No, they hadn't been friendly. If memory served, Thundercracker remembered reading in his studies that the Quintessons had wanted to enslave all of Cybertron to do their bidding. However, he knew also that they couldn't jump to conclusions based on that one widely known piece of Cybertronian history. It was, after all, a lesser known fact that Cybertronians once were friends with aliens offworld.

"That doesn't mean this alien is unfriendly," Thundercracker noted out loud, watching as the alien continued to try to understand Skywarp, to no avail of course. "It doesn't seem hostile at least."

Rattrap made a snapping noise with his retrorat-like denta. "Just wait," he said. "It'll turn out to be just like the Quintessons."

Thundercracker somehow doubted that. Still, it would be nice to know just what the organic was doing here and where it was from.

"Hey! You gonna let me go? I got to get back to the boss before he misses me," Rattrap broke Thundercracker from his thoughts.

Thundercracker sighed and let Rattrap onto the ground. And raised an optic ridge when the tiny mech followed. "What?"

"My prisoner?" he asked.

"Is staying with us," Thundercracker said.

"What?!" Rattrap demanded and Thundercracker sighed.

"In case you forgot, Rattrap," he said sternly. "It is our duty to handle things that might threaten Cybertron, not yours. The alien stays with us. Now scamper back to Kaon where you came from."

Rattrap made that snapping noise again before scampering off as told.

Thundercracker watched the rodent go briefly before sighing and picking up his pace to rejoin Skywarp. He looked at the organic as it waved its servos in the air to quiet Skywarp. Once it had his brother's attention it said one word, pointing to itself.

"Mina? What does that mean?" Skywarp asked, looking confused.

Thundercracker sighed. "I believe it means that's its designation," he said. "Best place to start in communication is getting to know who each other are."

"Oh!" Skywarp said in realization.

For the rest of their walk to where they were supposed to meet up with their trine leader and brother, Starscream, Skywarp attempted to get the little alien to understand who he was. Of course, the hyper-active seeker still forgot to try to communicate his designation first.

It was a long walk.

It was a few kliks after they arrived at Maccadam's Oil House and settled at a booth far away from prying optics that they were joined by their brother. Starscream looked intriqued when they introduced him to the organic and they eventually got the organic to understand their names, after a few mishaps and Skywarp teaching it to call their trine leade "Screamer", which irritated the head seeker.

It was when they were discussing what to do with the organic that they were interrupted by a red, blue and silver mech.

"Excuse me," the mech replied.

"OP!" the organic suddenly blurted out in surprising clarity and ran over to the edge of the table, making Thundercracker worry it might fall off. It seemed to be perfectly aware of the edge, however, and stopped just short of it to chatter to the mech.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Starscream asked, narrowing his optics.

"Forgive me," the mech said. He told the still chattering organic something in a foreign language before focusing in on the three seekers. "I am Orion Pax, a data clerk in the Hall of Records."

"What's your connection to the organic?" Thundercracker asked.

"A friend and I found her a few jours ago," Orion replied. "Since then we have learned to communicate with her."

"If you know how to understand her, as you call it," Starscream said. "What did it say when you walked up?"

"She was telling me how she came to be here," Orion explained. "For she is supposed to be back at my apartment with some friends I left to watch over her." He sent the arganic a stern look and it seemed to look rather sheepish as it ducked its helm. "Something about a 'rat-thing' and then getting picked up by you."

"Rattrap," Thundercracker sighed. "We picked him up dragging this one along in his tail."

"Hm," Orion replied and looked down at the organic, a thoughtful look on his face. "But how..." He trailed off and began talking with the organic, who replied back quietly, looking down slightly, kicking at the table beneath its organic pedes.

"A glitchmice hole," Orion said, returning to Cybertronian. "Apparently she was playing a game with one of my friends and was using it as a hiding place, only to be dragged away by this Rattrap."

"Leaves the question of why he was there in the first place," Starscream replied.

"Hey, isn't Rattrap one of Soundwave's minicons?" Skywarp asked.

Thundercracker watched as realization dawned in Orion's optics.

"Megatron," he said quietly, probably intending them not to hear him. The name, however, had an obvious affect on the organic, as it stiffened and looked up at Orion with a look somewhere between concern and suspicious.

As the two held another brief conversation in the organic's language, Thundercracker couldn't help but wonder what the gladiator had to do with any of this. He had a feeling deep in his spark, however, that things were soon going to change and he could only hope that the little organic now climbing into Orion's servo wasn't the cause of anything bad, as it was clear Orion wouldn't allow them to take it with anything less than a fight. That was what he gathered from how close he held the organic anyway, and the organic seemed quite content to sit against the mech's chest.

None of the three believed it was a threat anyway, so the two left Maccadam's without any hassle, except that he kept them informed if possible.

Journal Entry #77: Well That Was Interesting..

Well then, I guess I've had my adventure for the week. So apparently the rat-thing that had dragged me off was a mech named Rattrap and was a spy for Megatron, which made Orion realize that the gladiator was expecting him to betray him. It was a fact that made him uneasy, as if Megatron did not trust those he called friends, it did not speak well of his own trustworthiness.

And the three mechs I had met as a result of my kidnapped experience were Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker. They were part of Sentinel Prime's protection detail, though until recently Starscream had served only as as Air Commander of the Seekers, now he served as that and the Prime's personal bodyguard. From what I heard about the current Prime, I kind of felt sorry the poor mech had to put up with him.

On the way back home, we met up with Chromia and the three of us returned to the apartment. It wasn't long before the hole in the wall was patched to prevent anymore spies from attempting entrance and once that was done, I ate and then retired for the night, deciding my day had been adventurous enough without waiting up to hear about Orion's trip to Kaon.

~Mina Castina