True Seekers

I hope to finish part 3 at work today, and then there is going to be an epilogue... kekee.

Also, the last line of the first chapter was commenting on the clones not being grown up enough, since Starscream has to stay at home and clean up the base like a good housewife.. er Air Commander. Yes.

-----------------------------------

"TC!" the purple Seeker appeared out of nowhere and hugged the blue Seeker from behind. Thundercracker let out an annoyed sigh but did not move. He was used to Skywarp using his warp in such a manner. Oilslick looked up from the repairs he was doing on Sunstorm. He raised an optic brow to Skywarp's sudden appearance. The area the four bots were at was an abandoned train yard. Seekers that followed Megatron and Starscream called it their neutral ground.

"If Starscream sent you here for some repairs tell him I am done for today. He is behind on paying for the last time I repaired him," Oilslick jestured to Thundercracker. The dark blue Seeker sneered.

"My repairs are always minor since my fighting is superior," Thundercracker announced, "I'm sure my tally hasn't gone that high."

"Your fighting skills are amazing!" Sunstorm complemented as Oilslick was busy soldering wires in his back shoulder blade, "And Skywarp's backup to help you dodge blasts is also a great display of skills."

"Why thank you. I know Warp is great in battle with me at his side," Thundercracker grinned in response.

"Great, you got them started again," Oilslick sighed. He made sure the next wire he soldered gave a sharp pain to the yellow Seeker he operated on. Sunstorm winced in pain but only chuckled.

"Not forgetting to mention Oilslick's wonderful medbot skills, despite his servos not appearing to be made for the job," Sunstorm added. He had a way of using his complementing ability to also be sarcastic. Skywarp released Thundercracker from the behind hug to walk in front of him.

"I'm not here here for repairs. I- i- i- need to tell you something," though Skywarp was nervous about his trine mate's reaction, his faceplate couldn't help but beam a smile. Oilslick raised an optic brow, intrigued at the tone Skywarp had taken. He snapped on Sunstorm's shoulder panel. The twisted medbot then stood from the flatbed car he had been sitting on while repairing the yellow Seeker. Oilslick was no longer in Skywarp's line of sight, but the Seeker still twitched when the green bot stood, "Not here though. Just the two of us."

Thundercracker gave his meek trinemate with a confused look. He looked up over the purple Seeker's wings to see Sunstorm's curious look, followed by Oilslick glaring at him. Oilslick wasn't directly upsetting the blue Seeker, but he could feel his trinemate's ill feelings towards the bike bot, "Alright. It seems important enough that you just want me to know."

He took the purple Seeker's arm and headed down the railway. The pair disappeared between a mess of derailed train cars. Sunstorm stood from where he had been leaned against the flatbed train car. He rolled his newly fixed shoulder a bit, "Mmmmhmmmm, my clone brothers are quite wonderful fighters, but not the best at hiding."

"Oh really? So, tell me, is Skywarp the reason for Thundercracker's little accidents?" Oilslick asked in a monotone voice as he gave a slight crooked smile. He knew following the golden bot would satisfy his own curiosities. When Sunstorm was not complimenting his fellow bots, he was talking his faceplate off. It was a wonder that Megatron even needed Oilslick to spy on Starscream's Seekers. Sunstorm was aligned with Megatron and a plethora of information all on his own. The golden seeker walked passed Oilslick as he subspace his medical tools.

"Oh no, far from it I think. Of course, nothing against Skywarp's abilities, but I think he leans more towards ground pounders. Quite noble, wouldn't you say? Being stuck with a non-flyer?" Sunstorm spoke as he wandered towards the train cars.

"Quite," Oilslick responded with dripping distain. One of the few dislikes he ever had with joining the Decepticon cause was that many a flyer, particularly Seekers, seemed to forget that not all in their ranks were flyers themselves. He followed a silent short distance behind the golden Seeker.

"Oh, is that it?" the dark blue Seeker could be overheard saying. Sunstorm started to step more forward to get a better look. Oilslick's long talons quickly grabbed the Seeker's shoulder to pull him back. If it was one of many things he knew about Seekers, is that they were not ninja bots. Sunstorm got he idea by the gesture and stayed put. Both bots listened in on the two trinemate's discussion, "Well, I know how to take care of that."

"H-h-huh?" what do you mean?" Skywarp looked up into Thundercracker's optics. The purple Seeker was leaned against a boxcar. His trinemate was leaned over him, with a servo resting against the same boxcar, "You mean, help raise it?"

"Uh. No," Thundercracker replied in his usual 'I know more than you,' tone, "I mean, getting rid of it."

Oilslick couldn't help but smirk out of Sunstorm's view. Thundercracker's bragging made him quite a pupil. He was always so quick to share what he had learned from the twisted medbot.

"Ge-Ge-getting rid of it?" Skywarp repeated as he winced. He tensed and slide a bit down the boxcar side, away from his trinemate, "Wha-what would give you that idea that-"

"Oh, Slick explained it all one day. See, true Seeker's care a lot about lineage and stuff. They don't want to be creating with clones. But see, clones aren't usually able to carry a sparkling, or else our real Seeker mates would be more careful when bonding with us. So its our little secret that we have this problem so we don't worry them, get it?" explained Thundercracker, "A super strong virus deletion code uploaded within the Earth week takes care of it."

Skywarp gave TC a horrified look. This went all against what his meta was telling him. This was going all against what Starscream told him! Thundercracker looked a bit taken a back by his trinemate's reaction. However, his analysis of why Skywarp's expression was such was way off its mark, "It doesn't hurt at all! I promise! It feels strange on the processors the first few times, but you get over it."

If there were any physical way Skywarp's optics could get wider they would. He could not believe the words his trinemate was saying. It sounded as if Thundercracker and his other Allspark siblings had been killing any little sparks that grew inside them. He did not know what else to do or say, other than stand there with is mouth agape. The blue Seeker's mouth opened to speak more words to try the comfort his trinemate. Skywarp already knew whatever else Thundercracker said would just make the situation worse.

The golden Seeker that was still listening in on the conversation turned to Oilslick. Sunstorm too knew of the little clone secret and found nothing wrong in Thundercracker's words. He spoke nonchalantly about the situation, "It seems my amazing cautious cousin has finally had an accident himself. Should we help him understand too?"

"No. Thundercracker seems to be handling it fine," the bike bot retorted, hiding his smirk. However, the twisted medbot spoke too soon.

"STOP, STOP, STOP! Don't talk like that!" cried Skywarp as he pulled away from Thundercracker even more, "Thats not right at all! S-starscream acted like it was fine! He said Seekers were great at raising sparklings!"

The dark blue Seeker tilted his head at Skywarp's statement. He had a genuinely surprised look on his faceplate, "You told Starscream?! And he wasn't upset?!"

Oilslick walked past Sunstorm and out of their hiding spot. Skywarp's words were going to ruin the little arrangement he had. He found it ironic that the 'scared' Seeker seemed to be the only one that did not fear direct communication with Starscream.

"Of course he wasn't," Oilslick started smoothly. He had a way of speaking that rivaled Swindle, "Skywarp has the unique situation of being bonded to a ground mech, right? Though, I am certain that would look down upon as well. Thundercracker is just looking out for your best interest."

The bike's presence caused Skywarp to tense up again. Thundercracker looked over at the bot. He had a look of annoyance but confusion over his faceplate. Oilslick was trying to keep the attention off him by putting words in TC's mouth. Sunstorm came out of his hiding place right behind the dark medbot.

"No no no, that isn't it! Starscream even said, 'its just my luck the clone with a grounder is bearing a sparkling first,' or something like that. I think he would be fine with us all having sparklings!" explained Skywarp. He found it bizarre that his Seeker brothers had trusted Oilslick's word and not asked their creator.

"But Oilslick has an impressive collection of Seeker information. He knows what he is talking about," explained Sunstorm. The purple Seeker looked at his golden cousin and back at his trinemate. Thundercracker's optics had darkened as one of his servo's formed a shaking fist. Skywarp spoke with an unusually confident voice.

"And what is all this 'true Seeker' talk? Starscream never talks like that! We are real Seeker's just like him and the Seeker's from Cybetron that we get to hang out with. They haven't treated us less for being clones either! You'd trusted the word of a non-Seeker over our family?!" Skywarp lectured his Allspark siblings. Sunstorm and Thundercracker looked to each other and back Skywarp. The meek Seeker did make a valid point. Before Oilslick could explain himself more, Thundercracker turned and swung a punch. The dome headed Decepticon dodged as the dark blue Seeker snarled.

"YOU FRAGGIN GLITCH!" the Seeker's vents made a growling noise comparable to an Earth lion. Oilslick dodged another punch. Sunstorm's narrowed in an angry expression as he seemed to take in the new information.

"Now now, let us not be hasty," Oilslick said softly as he appeared to backdown from the fight. In a sudden ninja bot style moved he kicked up his leg, a barrel of chemical's attached there hit the blue Seeker. Skywarp let out a cry of surprise as cosmic rust started to spread on his trinemate.

"Hey! Megatron isn't going to be happy with yo-" Sunstorm was suddenly frozen, caused by a data stick struck in his neck. Oilslick was truly a jack of all trades. Not only his medbot and engineering skills, but he also had the speed of a ninja bot. Sunstorm felt to his knees as fear inducing programs were downloaded in his meta. Oilslick seemed to be enjoying himself. With two down he approached Skywarp. The terrified Seeker did not even consider warping away.

"Breeding filth, all of you. Just as bad as your speed bot counterparts," stated Oilslick with malice. The insult was lost on the three Earth born Seekers though. Any Cybertronian Seeker would take offense. While Seekers and speed bots did have some things culturally in common, there were several striking differences that made the comparison an insult. In a quick jerk he pulled the data stick from Sunstorm's neck. The golden Seeker seemed to be fighting the programs and trying to get to stand back up, "Now, we can't let our little secret get out, can we? Megatron may miss Sunstorm, but it can always be blamed on Seeker infighting."

"But we don't infig-" Skywarp started to shakingly reply. He was interrupted by Thundercracker's yelling.

"SKY, YOU IDIOT! WARP OUT OF HERE! GET HELP!" the blue Seeker demanded. He could not call on his own mate through bond, because of his mate's lack of spark. Sunstorm was oddly silent. Oilslick didn't think anything of it, since it was a normal reaction to his fear programs and viruses.

Skywarp closed his optics to warp but instead felt Oilslick's long talons wrap around his neck. In moments the twisted medic had pulled another data stick from his subpace. This one was bright red in color, "Now now, before you offline you'll get to know its not so bad, just like Thundercracker said."

"SKYWARP, WARP!" Thundercracker yelled at his scaredy trinemate. Skywarp suddenly felt a boiling in his combuster. Oilslick started to force the data stick in his closed neck port. Though the purple Seeker's systems were frozen in fear from warping he started to fight back. He kicked up a leg, with his thrusters blasting high. It caused a melted dent in Oilslick's hip plate. The dark ground bot did not even react to the pain. He had not underestimated Skywarp's fighting ability. After all, he was a carrying Seeker.

In a moment Skywarp felt a long chain weapon wrap around his lower leg. With a yank the purple Seeker was now flat on his back. The red data stick tumbled down to the gravel ground. Skywarp tryed to get free. He kicked both his feet while his thrusters flamed wildly. Oilslick started to pull his chain weapon closer, dragging the struggling purple Seeker closer with it. As Skywarp clawed at the ground in front of him to slow down his fate. While the purple Seeker flailed in panic the twisted medbot picked up the discarded data stick. Oilslick did not underestimate the scaredy seeker. However, he did underestimate Sunstorm.

He hadn't a clue the golden Seeker was quite a social bot. Oilslick had found his behavior annoying, but other Seekers, even Cybetronian Seekers, were amused by Sunstorm's flattery. The talkative Seeker was quite a charmer. He had some bond connections Oilslick was not going to expect.