"Fixit, what are you doing?" Bumblebee asks as he and Grimlock walk up to the Alchemor. They just got back from investigating some Decepticon activity and searching for any signs of what happened to Strongarm and where she could be. When they got back into the scrapyard the first thing they saw was Fixit frantically searching through the database.

"Ah, Lieutenant, you're both tack, lack, BACK. I just got a signal from Strongarm and then it disappeared again," Fixit responds as he keeps searching.

"Really? Where?" Bumblebee asks as hope rises that they'll finally find her.

"That's what I'm searching for... Aha got the location. She was in a forest a few miles from a sawmill," Fixit says as he brings up the location.

"Great, let's go!" Bumblebee says as he gets ready to transform and head out. But before they could a ship came flying in and landed. Bumblebee recognized the ship right away, it was Ultra Magnus' ship. The reinforcement has finally arrived.

The three go to welcome their visitors as the platform on the bottom opens up and the 'Bots inside descend from the ship. Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Wheeljack, Bulkhead, Knock Out, Smokescreen, and Ratchet were all there. Bulkhead joined in after hearing what happened and insisted on joining to find the femme who's like a niece to him.

Smokescreen was the first one off the platform as he ran up to Bumblebee, "Where is he!? Where's my son!?" He asks frantically as Knock Out joins them. 

"Before I take you to him I must warn you, you're not gonna like what you see. His condition had worsened over the past four days. We had to hook him up to machines to keep him active," Bumblebee says grimly before leading the way to Med Bay. Smokescreen, Knock Out, and the others follow him. 

When they reached Med Bay, Smokescreen's and Knock Out's sparks almost ceased, they saw what Bumblebee was talking about. Sideswipe was hooked up to all sorts of machines to keep him functioning, there were braces around his wrists to hold them together and cables and wires were attached to his spark chamber.

Knock Out looked over his son as Smokescreen started crying, "Primus, his wrist joints were dislocated and I see the inner circuitry damage you were talking about." Knock Out walks over to Smokescreen and hugs him trying to console him. It's rare to see his mate like this and he hates seeing him this way, "It's alright, Smokes. Ratchet and I will save him."

Smokescreen looks him in the optics, "I know you will."

Knock Out gives him a peck on the lips before turning to face Bumblebee, "Mind telling us which 'Con did this?" 

A loud clanking noise sounded throughout Med Bay as Bulkhead pounded his fist into his servo, "And who took Strongarm? I'm itching to give them a beating they'll never forget."

"As we all are," Magnus added in.

"I won't know for certain until Sideswipe wakes up, but I suspect it's a Decepticon named Steeljaw. He's a Wolf-Con that we had a couple of run-ins with so far and proving to be very tricky to catch. Sideswipe and Strongarm were actually the first ones to counter him. We had an encounter with him at a dam shortly before Strongarm went missing and Sideswipe became injured. Which is why he's number one on my suspect list."

"Have you got any leads yet?" Wheeljack asked.

"We actually just got Strongarm's signal and were just heading out to investigate when you guys arrived," Grimlock replied.

"Bumblebee?" Arcee questions, giving the hint that introductions are needed.

"Right, sorry. This is Grimlock and that Mini-Con is Fixit," Bumblebee introduces.

"Hello," they all greet.

"Ahem!"

Bumblebee looked towards the noise to see Denny and Russell, "Oh, and this is Denny and Russell, our human comrades."

"Hi!" The two humans greeted.

"Hello. Nice to see human faces again," Arcee greeted with a smile as she thought of Jack, she missed that boy and wondered how he was doing. They all miss their human partners and would like to see them again, but for the time being, they need to focus on the task at hand which is getting Strongarm back.

Bumblebee looks at Smokescreen and Knock Out, "Russell is a very close friend to Sideswipe, he's been helping Sideswipe and the others learn about Earth. He has been by Sideswipe's side the whole time he's been unconscious."

Smokescreen and Knock Out look down at the human child and smile, "Thank you for being there and helping him. We appreciate it," Smokescreen said.

"Any friend of Sideswipe is a friend of ours," Knock Out added.

Russell gave them a two-finger salute, "No probs. It's what friends are for."

"Now that we're all acquainted let's head out and search for Strongarm," Wheeljack says as he starts walking out of Med Bay.

"Yeah, let's get going before we lose our opportunity to find her," Arcee says in agreement as she follows her mate. The rest follow them out of Med Bay except Smokescreen, Knock Out, Fixit, and Ratchet.

Knock Out looks at Smokescreen, "You should go with them, Ratchet and I will take care of Sideswipe. Find the Decepticon that did this to our son and beat his aft." 

Smokescreen looks back at Sideswipe before nodding and running out to catch up with the others. He knows his mate and Ratchet will save Sideswipe so he doesn't need to worry, and he also really wants to get his servos on the Decepticon that hurt his baby.

Once they all were outside they transformed and headed out to find the location Fixit had given them. "It's really nice to see you guys again," Bumblebee says to his old teammates as they drive along the road.

"It's really nice to see you again too, 'Bee," Bulkhead responds.

"Just wish it was under better circumstances," Arcee added, "What happened exactly? How was Strongarm taken and why?"

"As I said, we had just had an encounter with the 'Con criminal Steeljaw, he's a dangerous Decepticon who is very conniving. He's become the leader of a small group of Decepticons with only two members, probably three now, and he's been looking to expand it so he can take over this world and make it his empire."

"Sounds a bit like Megatron," Ultra Magnus pointed out.

 "Yes. Anyway, we were heading back after dealing with him when a tree fell in our path and blocked us, so we went to investigate. Sideswipe went one way, Strongarm went another way and I went another. After a few moments of searching and finding nothing, I told Sideswipe and Strongarm to meet me back at the road. Sideswipe returned but Strongarm didn't. I called her comm but got no response so we went to look for her. 

A few minutes into the search I suddenly heard Sideswipe scream out in pain followed by Strongarm screaming out his name, her voice was coated in worry. I knew something was going on. I went running to the location I heard the screams coming from, running into Grimlock along the way. But when we got to the location all we found was Sideswipe laying on the ground unconscious and bleeding out, there was no sign of Strongarm anywhere."

"We wanted to look for her, honest we did," Grimlock cut in, "But we had to get Sideswipe back to the scrapyard so Fixit could work on him." 

"He always worries he's gonna get into trouble for something he did or didn't do."

"I'm hitched to you, 'Bee, I can hear you," Grimlock points out.

"Don't worry, Grimlock, none of us is upset with you. I'm sure you did your best and still are," Arcee says assuringly.

"Yeah, you've done a great job," Smokescreen adds. Grimlock perks up and wags his tail.

"Anyway...," 'Bee continued, "...we did some investigating after we got Sideswipe to the scrapyard but found nothing. We didn't find any leads or anything to indicate where Strongarm could be or what happened to her until her signal suddenly popped up on Fixit's monitor just before you guys arrived."

"So, her signal is your first and only lead since she went missing?" Arcee asked.

"Yes."

"Why hadn't her signal appeared before?" Wheeljack asked.

"Not sure. I suspect that maybe the 'Con used some sort of signal block to keep her hidden. Maybe she somehow escaped and that's why we could see her signal."

"And you think this Steeljaw might have her?" Arcee asks.

"Yes. Though I'm not sure why he might have taken her. I thought that if it was him that took her then we would have heard from him by now, maybe using her as a bargain for the release of his fellow 'Cons. Though it could be that he's been questioning her and trying to get information on us or where we're keeping the other 'Cons or something. But seeing as we haven't heard from him since he took her I'm not so sure."

"Doesn't really matter, if he is the one that took her he's gonna be scrap metal when we get to him," Wheeljack stated with venom in his tone.

"He sure will. Nobody kidnaps our daughter and gets away with it," Arcee added with venom as well.

"I can't wait to get my servos on him if he's the one that hurt Sideswipe," Smokescreen says with complete hatred for the 'Con.

"We're almost to the location Fixit gave me," Bumblebee informs them as they drive through the forests. Arcee, Wheeljack, Bulkhead, Magnus, and Smokescreen all look around enjoying the view they missed so much, it had been so long since they left Earth and they missed everything about it. Seeing the forests brought back so many memories.

~~~~~~~~~~

They finally arrive at the location, transform, and look around, "She's not here," Arcee says with sadness in her tone.

"Well, Fixit did say the signal disappeared. But I wonder what she was doing out here," Bumblebee says just before they hear the sounds of engines. They all look to see Thunderhoof, Underbite, and Fracture pull up.

The three Decepticons stop a few feet from the Autobots and transform, "Eyo, what are you all doin' here?" Thunderhoof asks as he gets ready for a fight.

"Looking for my cadet!" Bumblebee says with a hardened glare, "Did Steeljaw take her?"

"He did. Though we don't know where either of them is right now. We went out scouting for other 'Cons, and when we returned both her and Steeljaw were gone. We assumed she tried to escape and he went after her, but they haven't returned so we figured something must have happened," Fracture explains.

"What does Steeljaw want with her?" Arcee asks as she steps forward.

"He's attracted to her and was determined to mate with her. So he took her to make her his," Thunderhoof responded.

"WHAT!?" They all exclaimed in unison.

"Strongarm will never be with a 'Con like him! He'll never have her!" Arcee yells with anger, she knows her daughter would never fall for a Decepticon.

The three let out a laugh, "Steeljaw doesn't need her to agree to be with him for him to claim her. He's already marked her," Fracture says with a big evil grin.

Wheeljack pulls out his katanas and points them at the 'Con, "You better take that back and say that you're lying!"

Fracture just widened his grin, "But I'm not lying."

"He's not, Steeljaw did mark her," Underbite added. Thunderhoof just nodded in agreement.

Bulkhead pounds his fist into his servo, "He's gonna be turned into scrap when we find him!"

"This news changes things," Bumblebee says as he tries to process everything he just heard.

"How so?" Grimlock asked in confusion.

"Because he's marked her and when a Wolf-Con marks a femme or a mech you can not separate them, if you do the marked femme or mech could offline," Ultra Magnus replies.

"Is he the one that hurt Sideswipe?" Smokescreen asked the three 'Cons.

"Don't know, he didn't say," Thunderhoof replied with a shrug.

Arcee's spark was breaking, her daughter had been marked by a Wolf-Con and she could die if they take her away from him. She couldn't listen to any more of the conversation, it was reminding her too much of what she went through with Megatron, so she went walking around to search for any evidence of what could have happened.

"There are a lot of tire tracks," she says getting the attention of the others. "Which means Strongarm and Steeljaw weren't the only ones here," she added as she continued to look. She came across a piece of metal lying on the ground which seemed to be broken off of something. She squats down to pick it up and examine it.

"What you got there, babe?" Wheeljack asks as he walks over.

"Looks like part of a device used to knock out bots. Like something M.E.C.H used."

"But isn't M.E.C.H all dead?" Bulkhead asks with confusion.

"Yes, they are," Bumblebee responds.

"What's M.E.C.H?" Grimlock asked. He and the 'Cons were confused as they never heard of them before and didn't understand who they were.

"M.E.C.H was a group of humans led by a guy named Silas that found out about us and tried to experiment on us to understand how we worked," Bumblebee explains. "They even stole my T-Cog one time. They were a very dangerous group that had just the right tools to render us helpless."

"You think this M.E.C.H might have them?" Grimlock asked.

"As we said, they're all dead. Silas killed them, then he was killed later by the Decepticons."

"But it seems there's someone that's using their tech, which means bad news," Arcee added.

"Yes. But who?" 'Bee questions as he ponders who the new human threat could be.

"Well, if they took Strongarm we'll find out as we squash them," Wheeljack says as he continues to examine the device they found.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The mysterious man had left to take care of some business, leaving Steeljaw and Strongarm alone in their cell. Steeljaw is yelling, demanding that the human come back and explain more of what is going on, and demanding their release. Steeljaw backs up and prepares to ram into the bars to break them, when he does he gets electrocuted. The bars had an electric field around them to keep them from breaking out.

The electricity forces him back and he falls back on his aft. Strongarm just stood there and watched him, when he was knocked back she just rolled her optics and muttered, "Idiot."

Steeljaw heard her and started growling as he got back up, "This is all your fault!"

"My fault!? How is it my fault!?"

"If you didn't escape we wouldn't have been out there for them to catch us!"

"If you didn't kidnap me in the first place I wouldn't have had to escape and be in that spot!"

Steeljaw's growling increased as he started showing his fangs a bit, "If you would stop torturing me I wouldn't have kidnapped you!"

"How am I torturing you!? I don't even want anything to do with you! I just want to get back to my team where I'm away from you! And I assure you when I do get back to my team I will lock you up and get you out of my life even if you are my mate!"

Steeljaw's spark breaks after hearing that which causes him to become even more outraged than he was already. He grabs her and slams her against the wall with a roar, "Don't test me, Cadet! I assure you, you will not like the outcome!" He states in a threatening tone as he continues to growl and show his fangs.

Strongarm looks into his rage-filled optics as fear starts to take over, she doesn't want to move because she is afraid he might maul her if she moves so much as an inch. But Steeljaw started calming down after he sensed her fear and he backed away, still looking at her. He then turns away and heads to another part of the cell to sit down.

Strongarm watched him for a moment, still scared he might attack her and maul her to death. But she soon gets the courage to move and she goes over to the part of the cell where the Energon is, she takes a cube, sits down, and starts drinking it. The two sat in silence on different ends of the cell.

Unknowingly to them, they were being watched. A devilish grin forms on the guy's face, "This is interesting. I do believe I found something good to torture these two, and it will help me learn more about them."