AERIALBOT BASE: Concur Mountain, Aixel Valley - North America
6:30 PM, May 10th 2021

Soft footfalls could be heard trickling down the hallway past the front emergency medical ward. The hallway was on the left of the lab's side and burrowed further underground towards the inner caverns of the mountain where most of the Autobots rested or trained. On the lab's right was another hallway leading to the mountain's peak where the AAT were stationed for most of their stay.

The Mountain Base was by far the largest Autobot base in North America and could well and truly house just over two hundred Cybertronians. However, it was rare that all the Autobot forces were gathered here at once. For most of its time, it acted as a recon base, medical training facility, and the Aerialbots' home. The peak was high above the thick, grey clouds and a vast valley that ran for miles in every direction - it was a perfect ' crow's nest' for the team. So naturally, it became their permanent home here on Earth while their Autobot allies came and went.

The default leader of this base was a nervous yet well-experienced Aerialbot commander by the name of Silverbolt. He and his comrades had arrived on Earth not long after the reawakening of the Ark's passengers back in the 1980s; they had first been sighted in 1978. Operating for long periods of time on their own. Silverbolt had grown close to his team and even appointed his partner, Nightstalker, as his second-in-command should anything happen to him. Beneath her was Air Raid. Their medics consisted of Inferno, one of the very few permanent residents who could not fly, and the twins - Fireflight and Firefly. Slingshot was their weapon specialist. Though their team had many more adversaries, not all of the AAT were permanent residents like their Aerialbot counterparts. Springer, Blacklight, and Blades would make the trip once a year for mandatory sky training and battle techniques. Sundown was Air Raid's partner and his go-to when slag usually hit the fan. Not that the Aerialbots had ever seen much battle, however, they were structurally prepared for it nonetheless. The team had bonded over countless battle simulations, and devastating scenarios and gone over every protocol.

But nothing could've prepared them for this.

Crystal heard the barely audible noise of someone sniffing, another poor soul whimpered just before she turned the corner, and pricked her optical ridges up a little as she quietly stepped out from the hallway into the main lobby.
It was large, though it could not physically house two hundred Transformers. The famous Autobot insignia was painted in black on the ground. The 'shed' door was open and she glanced briefly out at the darkening sky approaching the base. The mouth faced East, so in order to see the sunset, one would have to be above at the peak where the AAT usually took off and landed whenever they did fly in and out of the base.

Crystal knew this place well because she'd been living here for the past four weeks. This had been her only place of recognition and familiarity. She'd not been allowed outside, especially on her own, or on any missions or too far away. It was through no fault of her own; her team was just very paranoid about her getting lost - which had happened before. She couldn't deny that the mountain was beginning to wear off its initial charm by this point but now was not the time to bring up such grievances.

They had lost someone.

Crystal peered from where she stood at the entrance to the left hallway, dubbed 'The Quarters', usually where the non-flying Autobots stayed. The AAT rooms were closer to the peak in case of an emergency.

Her soft optics scanned the crowd in front of her with neutral curiosity. In front of her, she could easily recognise most of the shapes - wings - from the AAT; half of them were gathered in the lobby. Silverbolt had his helm bowed and was quietly speaking to Elita-One when they suddenly caught her optic. Silverbolt gave Elita a rather uncomfortable look and stepped away to be swallowed back up into the crowd. Crystal inhaled deeply and held it there as she watched Elita shoot her an unhappy glare before the big, pink femme quietly approached her.

"I thought you were in stasis?" Elita raised an optical ridge as she hissed lowly once she reached the smaller femme.

Crystal didn't mean to play dumb, she really tried her best to memorise everything that had been dumped on her. Millions and millions of years' worth of history and context to be tidily consumed in the span of a few, short weeks just seemed unfair to her. So when she stared blankly at Elita, she frowned as the other vented and pinched the bridge of her nose, her other servo gripping her hip, before rephrasing her sentence.

"I thought you were sleeping?" Elita reopened her optics to narrow them down at Crystal.

"Oh," the lavender-coloured and grey femme couldn't yet differentiate between Cybertronian and English. She wished that Elita could just be a little more patient with her. "N-no, I couldn'..."
Crystal shook her head before a soft wail called her attention back to the crowd.

Elita, however, quickly shot forward an arm, and with an ugly scowl upon her face she ordered: "Go back to your room."

Crystal stared up at the arm pointed over her left shoulder for a moment before her own optics stared up at Elita's. "Why?"

She wanted to know what was going on and genuinely didn't mean to come off as annoying, however, she shrank back slightly as Elita growled. "Because I don't have time to deal with you right now!"

Elita tried her best to keep her vocals to a whisper, but the bots closest to them had turned with curious gazes and were beginning to listen in.

"Look," Elita failed to drop her hostile stance as she kept her voice low. "I'm busy dealing with something and I don't need you in my way, asking every question under the sun. Just go back to bed and I will tell you everything tomorrow, ok?"

"Do you promise?" Crystal's face-plates softened with worry.
She had always found Elita to be too swift with her harshness and as a result, she didn't trust the older femme. She had never asked this question to Elita before, however, the crying had her genuinely concerned about what was going on.

"Yes!" Elita scowled. "And I want you to stop hanging around the humans! You're acting too much like Sari and Miko!"

A depressed whir sounded as Crystal looked away. She could also feel the antenna on her shoulder blades lowering in defeat. "Ok."

Elita vented yet again and turned her back on Crystal as she swiftly made her way back over towards the crowd.

"Goodnight," Crystal chirped, but it was lost in the crowd standing just a few meters away from her. She looked down as she turned and walked back down the hallway.

In the four weeks that she'd been here, Crystal had struggled immensely to make any friends - human or bot. It was only due to Miko and Sari's outgoing personalities that she had any friends at all. The two had been very excited to show her around and explore her every ability. On the first day, it had been fun. But after three weeks of nothing but learning how to transform had emotionally drained Crystal. Now, four weeks later, she felt as if the world was moving out from under her peds.

She was slowly finding that she didn't exactly fit in anywhere. She couldn't fly so that immediately disqualified her from the AAT. She was still learning how to be a Transformer and with no spare human partners around that barred her from joining the Rescue Bots - that and Heatwave had been incredibly suspicious of her from the beginning. She was too young to be on her own so the Special Forces and Scouting Recon ranks were a no-go, either. So that left her with two options since she didn't know anything about Cybertronian biology either:
- Wreckers
- Prime
These two teams were by far the most that saw any action out on the battlefield. They were all close-knit with each other and had suffered through great losses and well-earned victories long before Crystal had been created. And finally, there was Optimus' paranoia. She didn't understand him too much, other than he was firm that she never leave the mountain alone, or go far. She had overheard a conversation between Optimus and Elita one night and the Prime flat-out refused to get Crystal involved in the fight on the front lines. When asked 'What fight?' Optimus had begun teaching her their history.

Four weeks.
Four weeks and nothing new was beginning to wear her down.
The humans seemed more friendly than anything if she was being honest. Much like their Autobot counterparts, the humans also had their own interests and personalities. But again, aside from Miko and Sari who were more than happy to tell her a few stories, the humans seemed to already have lived their lives of fighting.

Crystal didn't understand where she belonged, just that she existed, and that seemed a good enough reason for the Autobots to keep her around in one of their most secluded bases.

The protoform vented quietly to herself as she headed down the hallway, keeping her purple optics to the ground. She heard a heavy door being pushed open and halted to lift her helm to see who it was. She only caught the shadow of another 'bot disappearing around the corner and without thinking much of it, Crystal ran forward to catch the heavy door before it closed. She didn't say anything as she stood there with the door in one servo and turned her helm over her shoulder to glance back down the hallway. She couldn't see much from here and no other living soul was moving about, so she was completely on her own now. Her shyness had caused her to remain quiet instead of calling out to whoever it was that she'd thought she'd seen.
She then glanced in the direction of where the shadow had disappeared, her optics widening as she saw an entirely new, underground path stretching out before her. Its dark, gaping maw stood silent and with cool air before she leaned back to examine the door.

"It's part of the wall..." She murmured to herself in wonder.

The "door" was a secret entrance embedded into the wall of the long hallway, and the only reason she'd noticed was because someone had snuck out using it without bothering to notice her. She then tightened her grip on the edge of the door and looked back at the darkness staring expectantly back at her.

"I should tell Elita," she frowned as that thought crossed her mind. She knew that something like this couldn't be ignored, however, she also knew that Elita may have still been angry at her or busy.
"It's fine," she said. "I'll investigate it on my own."

With that now being said to no one but herself, Crystal grunted softly as she pushed the heavy door as quietly as she could - just enough that she could fit before she slipped into the dark and earthy hallway behind it. She gasped as she slipped and nearly fell before spinning on her ped to watch in horror as the heavy, secret door behind her suddenly closed.

"Shit!" She cursed under her breath, one of her servos clenched and optics shut. She'd taken a liking more to Miko's curse words than she had to Elita's. Maybe it was due to the knowledge that if any of the Autobots heard her cursing in their language, she'd get a real talking to. Whereas if she swore quietly in English, they'd never be able to tell. But there was seemingly no one around to hear her anyway as she turned her helm right and left but saw only darkness.

Well, which way now? She asked herself with a frown. She was due to go out for an alt-mode soon, however, Optimus' paranoia had delayed her journey. She was completely blind in the surrounding darkness.

"Think, Crys," she muttered to herself, thinking of Miko and Sari - the two cleverest people she knew. "What would they do in a situation like this?"

She blinked before slowly straightening up and putting her arms out. She took careful steps until one of her servos hit the side of the tunnel and she smiled meekly to herself.
I can find a way out, she reassured herself in her mind. Maybe we can follow that Autobot?

We? She frowned and shook her helm at herself. It's just me.
And as that thought dawned on her, suddenly the darkness became more terrifying. She was alone.

Crystal took a few, cautious steps forward, the only light emitted was from the gentle glow of her optics and it wasn't nearly enough to see more than 2 centimeters from her face. She pushed down her worry, stuck close to the wall, and continued forward.

"I'm going to be in so much trouble." She pouted as she continued to walk.
The silence was deafening, but she did not stop walking. The rhythmic thuds of her peds below her reminded her that she was still awake, functional and could hear the slight echoes that she was making. Crystal stammered in her slow walk as her servo bent around something and she came to a halt.

"I can't even access Teletraan-8 down here," the young femme huffed as she tried to link up with the Aerialbots' centralised computer. She knew that not only did it have a map of the surrounding areas; surface level terrain, sky, and underground, but that it also had an emergency comms unit that she'd been shown how to use numerous times should she ever find herself separated from the others. Unfortunately, something was scrambling her network output - she couldn't reach anyone.

"Damnit," she scowled at the ground in frustration at herself. This was a stupid idea! Elita was right, I should've just gone back to bed.
Another depressed whir featured in the soft hum of her systems as she felt the antenna on her back lower slightly. She gave up trying to reach anything on her third attempt and leaned forward with a small growl as she tried to look down both ways of the intersection. She was at a T in the tunnel's networks and was unable to see much of anything in any direction.

Pushing Elita, Miko, and Sari out of her helm, Crystal instead closed her optics and tried to focus on the bravest Autobot she knew - Optimus Prime. She rarely ever focused on him, outside of assuming that she only ever needed to think of him during times of stress. He was her go-to symbol of hope and bravery when she needed it.

He's going to be so mad at me. Her stature saddened slightly at the thought of that, though the longer she stood there, the more she realised that there was a possibility that no one may ever find her down here. Fear now gripped her spark and she began to panic slightly.

It's not fair! She shouted in her processor.
She genuinely hadn't meant to come down here if she knew what she was getting herself into. She'd just been curious, that was all.

After her little panic attack had gripped her entire frame and made it tremble out of her control, Crystal settled for focusing on Optimus yet again. She had to keep the Prime in the forefront of her processor and focus on the blue of his arms. It was different from the blue of his optics, and as she stared, she tried to recall the different colours' names.
Sky blue.
Navy blue?
No that was too dark... However, picturing Optimus in her helm did seem to work as she felt her body lessen and her spark soften once more. She slowly reopened her optics to stare at nothing. But after a while, Crystal turned her helm to her right and brightened a little with a new burst of confidence.

"Let's go this way," she murmured softly. "If there's no way out, I can turn around and come back."

It seemed like the most logical plan in her young mind. She started forward down the right tunnel and kept walking at a slow yet firm pace as she kept her servo pressed up against the wall to guide her. After what felt like an hour, Crystal finally halted as she felt a draft of fresh, cool, night air breeze just past her cheek.

"Outside!" Excited to see the night sky, she picked up her walk into a full sprint. "I knew there was a way out!"

Her path inevitably led to the outside, a mouth to the tunnel that was situated in the side of Concur Mountain, near the base. The forest was the first sight that greeted her as a minor ledge ran down into the grass, sprouting from the cave's entrance of dirt. Overhead was the night sky, adorned with millions of tiny, glimmering stars.

"I'm outside!" Crystal came to a halt just before the ledge as she took in her surroundings. "Connect me to the mainframe!"
She pressed the comms unit that was installed on the right side of her helm but frowned as nothing but static sounded.

"What?" Crystal was caught off guard by the silence and tried again before she allowed panic to set in. "No! Ugh, what is scrambling my signal!?"
She turned to look back up at the mountain with anger burning in her optics. She couldn't see the entrance shed, or even the road leading to it, from this side of the mountain. She couldn't see the peak either because the mountain dipped out of view a little towards the top. She was at the back of the mountain.
She turned and felt her anger melting away as she stared into the dark woods, somewhat scared as she heard an unknown creature murmur to her.

"Ok," she nodded to herself after a moment of calming down. "This isn't so bad."
She glanced back up at the mountain behind her, half hoping that it was still Concur and not an entirely different one altogether.
"I can circle around, find the road and follow it back up to the lobby." It sounded like a solid plan, except for the slight chance that Elita and the others were probably still in said lobby. She'd have no chance of slipping in if they were still all gathered by the entrance, and Elita would no doubt be furious with her for disobeying an order. Even if Crystal tried to back up her excuse by showing her where the hidden door was, they would never believe her because it was hidden!

Crystal didn't even remember where exactly in the hallway the door was, however, she was thankful at least to be outside and clear of the suffocating darkness that had trapped her not too long ago. She vented as she lifted her helm and scanned the dark tree line ahead.

"Lecture by Elita it is," she huffed to herself, preferring to be yelled at over trying to sneak her way back into the base via the dark tunnel system. Maybe when she got an alt-mode, she could try again and explore it properly later on.

For now, she clenched one small tree to help her down off the ledge and landed in the forest. She stuck close to the mountain's base in hopes of circling her way around towards the road. With any luck, though she sincerely doubted it with whatever it was that was going on, maybe an Aerial patrol would spot her on the ground. She glanced up at the moon but the sound of fighter jets never accompanied the stars.

She was on her own.

She continued to traverse the rocky terrain but halted when she heard the sound of an automobile just beyond the trees.

"The road?" She asked herself quietly and bravely separated herself from the base of the mountain to go and investigate the noise. The young Transformer carefully snuck through the thick, dark trees but was surprised to see the lack of a road in front of her waiting on the other side. However, she did notice the warm tyre treads of someone or something having been in the area very recently. She crouched to further inspect as her optics scanned and analysed the treads, unaware of what was lurking in the shadows behind her.

Unable to properly identify the owner of the tracks, Crystal stood up with a small, frustrated vent and tried reaching Teletraan-8 once again. When only static came over her comms, she grumbled, turned and began to follow the treads left behind in silence. A few meters ahead was a large boulder blocking her view, so she ducked around it, still surprising herself as to why she was sneaking around.
"Let's face it," she shrugged as she slowly stood up once she made it past the boulder. "You're already deep in shit."

"Are you talking to yourself?"

Crystal gasped and spun around so quickly that her vision went blurry for a moment. That was by far the quickest she'd ever moved in her life, she believed. She had turned because, for the last two hours, she had heard the voice of someone else. Not only that but the voice of someone who she did not recognise, either. She stood tall and alert as she witnessed a tall, massive, dark shadow creep out of the treeline where she'd just come from naught but a few minutes ago. She watched as the figure began to slowly walk towards her, either casual or intimidating, she could not place their intentions yet. Their outline was rigid and sharp, adorned with many spikes. Their primary colours were black and dark grey, however it was the iconic look of his helm that made Crystal's spark cold and dim for a moment. His red optics seized her in his view as the ground trembled just noticeable enough the closer he got with every step.

He was a BIG robot, almost three times her size, and he was a scary-looking one, too.

The mech seemed to chuckle as he took in her shock but once he reached one of his servos out to her, that's when Crystal reacted. She slid back a few meters, brought one of her own servos up, stiffened her struts and frowned as her right servo transformed into her built-in blaster. The massive Transformer halted upon seeing the weapon aimed at him and slowly brought his servos up in the surrender position.
"Whoa! Whoa, there pretty bot." He grinned as he tried his best to remain casual. "You can put those away, I ain't gonna hurt you."

Crystal frowned hard, analysing his face-plates before her optics glided down to the silver insignia on his chassis.
"Decepticon!" At first, she was confused, then fear and hatred gripped her as she kept her blaster trained on him. "What are you doing here!?"

For a moment, neither of them spoke or moved. Then he smiled and extended the same servo out toward her once more.
"My name is Megatroid, and I'd ask you the same..." He trailed off as he gestured towards her, however, Crystal shook her head.

"This is Autobot territory," she grumbled. "You need to leave!"

"Huh," Megatroid stayed where he was as the reality of the situation began to dawn on him. "Well, that explains it."

Crystal's curiosity got the momentary better of her when she cocked her helm to the side and asked: "Explains what?"

She could see Megatroid's grin. "You."
He stated as he gestured to the blaster being aimed at him.
"I'm guessin' that you're new to all of this, or you would've shot me by now."

Crystal refused to give in as she held her position; even straightening up to make a show that she wasn't bluffing.

Another tense moment went by when neither of them spoke until Megatroid vented and tilted his crown-like helm at her.
"I'm on a mission, Autobot, and you're standing in the way of that." He began. "Now step aside and I won't hurt you."

Crystal allowed a thought of doing so to flicker in her processor before she shook her helm, optical-ridges still heavily furrowed at the intruder. "This is Autobot territory-"

"Yeah, I know, you've already told me." The hulking Decepticon waved her off.

Crystal scoffed at him, however, it was short-lived when the bigger bot suddenly swooped down and grabbed her blaster arm. She cried out as she felt the intense pressure enveloping her entire limb. He was going to crush it. She shook her helm, struggled and even kicked out at him when she couldn't rip herself away.

"Now say you're sorry and you get to keep your arm." She heard him taunt her.

She stopped fighting to look up at him, get a really good look at him through her squinted optics. He was staring down expectantly at her, almost as if he were a parent and she were the troublesome child being disciplined. A short burst of anger flared in her spark at that idea. Why does everyone treat me like a child!? But she kept it to herself because she knew that she was.

She tried one last, almost pathetic yank to see if he was bluffing, but when she realised that he had a pretty good grip on her arm she vented and gave in. "I'm sorry."

"For?" Megatroid grinned down at her, still not letting go of her and clearly finding amusement out of toying with the enemy.

"Standing in the way of your mission." She huffed with venom.

Megatroid rolled his crimson optics but soon let her go and stood back. He straightened up, servos on his hips as he watched her regain her balance, but relaxed once her arm replaced the blaster. "Wrong answer, but I'm in a good mood today, so I'll let you off with a little warning."

"What was I supposed to say?" Crystal frowned as she raised her right arm to inspect its damage. It wasn't too far gone - it hurt, yes, but it only had a few minor sparks coming out of it and dented metal overall. Nothing Ratchet or Inferno couldn't fix in a matter of minutes, she supposed.

"'For blasting you'." Megatroid leaned over her slightly, talking to her as if he needed to remind her how to speak.

"But I didn't!" Crystal's antenna shot up in anger as she glared up at him.

"You almost did."

"Yeah, almost. That's the important part." She huffed, then took a few steps back and frowned in slight discomfort. "Who are you?"

"I told you," the Decepticon scoffed. "I didn't think that Autobots would be this dumb. I'm-"

"No, you told me your name, you didn't tell me who you are." Crystal interrupted him as she checked and rotated her injured arm.

"Well, I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours, sound fair?"

Crystal stared hard at him for a moment before she complied. "My friends call me 'Crys'."

"Oh, that's nice," Megatroid cooed. "You have friends. Does that mean that we're also friends because you haven't told me your real name yet?"

"No," Crystal scoffed. "Maybe I'll tell it to you later when I trust you."

The silent, night sky hung over them with gleeful anticaption as the two frowned hard at each other.

"You know, you remind me of someone and I don't appreciate the thought of having two of you in my life. Maybe I should kill you," Megatroid stated. "Makes one less Autobot to deal with in a future battle."

"Who are you? You don't sound like who you are." Crystal hissed.

"Come again?"

"You're Megatroid right? You're supposed to be the ruthless, cunning and blood-thirsty leader of the Decepticons! You don't show mercy to anyone! So why are you here? And how come if you want to kill me, you haven't done so yet?"

Megatroid stared at her for a moment before he tilted his helm back and laughed.

"What's so funny?" Crystal glared up at him as she held her arm.

"Hahhehene, no," Megatroid shook his helm and waved her off. "That's hilarious, Crys, I should, haha, I should keep you around."

Crystal seethed but he continued.

"No, no you're thinking of Megatron. I'm Megatroid." He hesitated for a moment before adding: "You're thinking of my dad."

Crystal lost all anger in her face-plates as she stared at Megatroid in shock. She may have been activated a few months ago and still new to the History and Biology of Cybertron, yet she couldn't for the life of her, recall anything about Megatron ever having a son. "What?"

"You Autobots sure are a different species," Megatroid proudly strutted past her. "You should see the look on your face."

"Wh-... How!?" Crystal turned and began to follow him, demanding answers to the bomb he just dropped on her. "How does Megatron have a kid!? It doesn't make any sense! How do Cybertronians even have children!?"

Megatroid continued down the makeshift road, not minding that his new 'friend' was following after him. If anything, it was rather entertaining to listen to her grumble, shout her frustration and try to comprehend his overall existence. It also gave him more of an edge over the Autobots - if this one didn't know of his existence, then perhaps there was a chance that the rest of them, Optimus Prime included, weren't aware of him either. He smirked to himself, satisfied in confirming that he'd successfully snuck into Autobot territory completely undetected for the moment. Save for 'Crys'.

He turned as they came to an overgrowth hanging over the cliff ledge that dropped a few stories below and held up a digit as he faced her. "Now be quiet, Autobot, all your questions will be answered in due time. However, as I've stated previously, I'm on a mission and I can't have you or that big intake of yours getting in the way, ok?"

"What's an intake?" Crystal stared in confused horror at him for a moment.

"It's like a mouth," Megatroid flatly informed her. Though he was beginning to suspect that she was, in fact, not like him.
She had sworn in a human language, referred to their kind as 'Cybertronians', meaning that she was unaware of how their kind was reproduced, and even judged her own kind for it. Now with the lack of basic biology, it was clear to him that she was probably just either as young as he was, or completely fragged in the processor.

But after telling her to keep her "big" mouth shut, which earned him a heated glare, the femme did nothing but that.

"Thank you," he grinned with a slight bow and gestured to the forest beside them.

Without another word, she nodded and followed as he led her into the darkness.

"Cybertronians are asexual creatures," he began quietly. "Unlike humans, we reproduce through various methods. On Cybertron, our home planet, there are two ways - cold construction and the Well of Allsparks. Primus creates sparks and they hang about in certain areas on Cybertron. Cold Constructions are shells of a Cybertronian without a spark. Usually, one of these sparks is harvested and then manufactured into a shell, and boom - you've got a Transformer. That's how most of the Seekers were made... The wingy ones who can fly on my team. From the looks of it, you've got some Seekers on your team too, which is pretty cool. The Well of Allsparks works a little differently yet kind of similar. Usually, they would all have a celebration when someone would walk out of the Well. On rare occasions, more than one Cybertronian walks out of the Well at the same time. These are known as 'split sparks', sorta like twins. They're a whole other ball case that we gotta talk about. However, you're interested in me, so I'll tell you how I came to be. I was Cold Constructed and half of my spark - you know what a spark is right? Ok, well, half of my spark came from this cool Decepticon called Nightress when she died, they could only retrieve half of her spark. Y'know, because the other half was blown to pieces. So my body was created and I was given a spark from a different Transformer. I don't have her memories, but I can feel her here and there, so I call her 'Mom'. Now Mom had a thing for Megatron, you know who that is so when Nightress died, Megatron was very upset and needed some time to recover from her loss. They weren't together-together but they made a pretty cool team. After I came online, Megatron decided that I would be created into one of his clones. I should probably kill you after telling you all this because it is highly classified infor-"

Megatroid had been watching the skies and peering around every tree as he told Crystal of his creation. They'd come to a cliff ledge with a clearing and halted suddenly to hide as they heard voices not too far off. The massive Decepticon glanced down at Crystal as she stared up at him.

"If we ever get the chance, Autobot, we should definitely catch up again. It's been nice to talk to someone new for a change." He muttered quietly before glancing out into the clearing.

Crystal gave him a weird look after he stated that but followed his gaze to watch whatever it was that was happening just ahead of them. Her optics widened as she caught the familiar outline of Inferno receding from the treeline and walking into the clearing. On the other side was a Transformer who she had never seen before.

"What's he doing here?" Megatroid asked, more so to himself than to her.

"That's Inferno," Crystal quietly stated. "He's one of our medics... Is that other guy a Decepticon?"
She glanced up at Megatroid and felt a little small as he silently nodded.

The pair watched Inferno walk forward and greet the Decepticon as if they were old friends. Crystal flinched as Megatroid leaned down and gently brushed his digits along her outer audial. He then leaned away, holding a "shush" pose as he gestured with his helm in the direction of the clearing. Crystal raised an optical-ridge at him before she heard Inferno's voice loud and clear.

"Firefly has been taken care of. The little glitch won't be coming online any time soon, so that covers more ground for us to keep meeting up like this."

"You mean to say that you killed one of your own? Colour me impressed, Autobot." The sly voice of the Decepticon assaulted Crystal's audio receptors and sent a slight shiver throughout her frame.

"I didn't kill her," Inferno was quick to correct the other as he snapped. "I just came to inform you that the Autobots' defences to the South have now been taken offline. If you approach from the South, Silverbolt and Optimus won't have enough time to react or prepare for an ambush. If Megatron wants to lead an assault on Concur, that's your best shot."

Crystal's optics widened with horror as she realised what she was hearing.

"And the GAT needs a way in," the Decepticon hissed. "Most of our forces are built for aerial combat, what good is a siege on the Autobots if we can't get someone in to shake the hen house up?"

Crystal leaned away and looked down as she felt the air crushing her. Another panic attack, but this time it was serious.
Realising the situation she was in, she turned her helm slowly to stare up at Megatroid who was still watching the meeting.

"There's some old tunnels beneath the base. They're difficult to traverse in complete darkness, so you'll either need night vision or your best GAT at the ready. Optimus and the others won't go down without a proper fight and meeting them on the ground is suicide for your kind." Inferno stated with a slight growl to his voice.

Crystal felt sick as she unhooked the device from her audial and tried to slowly crawl away from Megatroid and the scene before them. I have to tell Optimus, I have to tell someone!
She kept her optics trained on Megatroid's body, unable to hear the rest of the conversation but froze as she heard the sound of a jet engine. The roar of its thrusters made the trees surrounding them shake, threatening to reveal the eavesdroppers before there was a boom and the jet shot off into the night sky. Crystal watched as Megatroid straightened up before she heard the sound of someone transforming and driving away.

Inferno! She frowned, quickly got to her peds, turned and ran through the trees.
She had to get back to the Autobot base. She had to inform her superiors of what was going on. But she didn't make it more than two yards when the massive Decepticon intercepted her and knocked her off balance.

"Ugh!" She cried out as she hit the rocky terrain and lied there for a moment to recover from the back-to-back impacts on her small body.

"Leaving so soon, Autobot?" She groaned as she heard that voice, it was beginning to annoy her.

Crystal's body was tired, it was hours past her bedtime and now she was beginning to feel the aftereffects of her exhaustion. She tightly screwed shut her optics as she felt the ground tremor beneath her slightly with every step that Megatroid took towards her.

Teletraan-8! Please! She tried to connect but failed yet again as static played.
She grunted as she was suddenly yanked up by her neck and hung in the air. Her optics shot wide open, seeing directly into Megatroid's smug face-plates.

"Without even saying goodbye?" He chuckled and tilted his helm at her.

"Let me go!" Crystal struggled against his grip as best as she could, unaware that he hadn't yet tightened it to be lethal. If anything, he was just holding her by her neck.

"If you insist," Megatroid shrugged and opened his servo, smirking to himself as she crashed to the ground with a noisy thud that was shortly followed by another groan of pain.

"You know," Megatroid began as he stepped away, servos now placed on his hips. "I was startin' to really like you, Crys."

"D-don't call me that!" She seethed up at him, propping herself up on her legs as her uninjured servo came to tenderly inspect her throat.

"Huh," Megatroid seemed to nearly lose his casual attitude in favour of a more saddened one before he straightened back up again. "Well, it's a shame. I thought, truly thought, that back there, for a moment, we were friends. Y'know? We had this special connection between us!"

Crystal grumbled and rolled her optics as Megatroid gestured between them.

"And now it's just sad," he continued as he looked down at her, "What with Inferno just giving out all your base's information like that? To TWO whole Decepticons? Pfft. I'd almost feel bad for you."

Crystal looked down, trying to find a way out of this situation and contact an Autobot she trusted. Even if Inferno didn't kill Firefly, Crystal couldn't trust him - he would no doubt do something to her if he ever found out that she knew of his betrayal.

Witnessing the Autobot go quiet and stare at the ground, Megatroid vented and extended one of his servos out to her. "Lucky for you, pretty bot, I still want to try and be your friend."

Crystal blinked in shock before lifting her helm to look at him - mostly with disgust and anger.

"And don't say 'what'," Megatroid was quick to interrupt her. "Because I can't stand a dumb Autobot. C'mon, I know you're smart. You're surrounded by enemies, what are you gonna do?"

"I..." Crystal looked down as she tried to come up with a solution.

"You've got an ally who's sold information behind your back for his own motives, you've got a Decepticon scout quickly making his way back to the warship and you've got me."

Crystal stared at Megatroid as he ended with that. "And?"

"And?" Megatroid echoed.

"I don't know you."

"Well, I'm not killing you." Megatroid offered a friendly smile, which was difficult for him to appear as anything even remotely 'friendly'.

"Why?" Crystal frowned and shook her helm.

"Because I find you intriguing and the odds are against you, Autobot. So, if I should take this kind mercy and spare you, tell me what you're going to do about it."

Crystal stared hard into Megatroid's optics before she got her peds beneath her and grunted as she tried to push herself up without his assistance. Only when she was standing, albeit a little injured, did she answer him. "I'm going to tell Optimus."

"And then what?"

"Then I'm going to fight!"

"See?" Megatroid straightened up once he was satisfied that she wasn't going to fall down. "There's that Autobot spirit!"

"So wait?" Crystal scoffed. "You're sparing me because you want to see me fight your comrades?"

"Maybe," Megatroid turned and began to walk towards the cliff edge.

Crystal hugged her injured arm close to her frame as she watched him before he turned and grinned at her.

"So does this make us friends yet, Crys?" He asked.

"If you don't kill me, I'll consider it." She hissed at him.

"Good." Megatroid turned, transformed into a sleek, black jet, and shot off into the night sky.
Crystal stared after him until he was nothing more than an invisible speck in the distance. She grunted in pain as she turned around to face the forest, the mountain now more than a few miles away. She vented and cursed under her breath. Elita was going to be pissed.