Dysfunctional Team: Pilot

A black and red jet was flying away from the building, really wanting to get out of there. It was going just fine. Strap the helpless seeker with explosive, let his allies come save him, and then take out the stragglers. It worked like a charm too. The only one left standing was a grounder and was suppose easy pickings, but the slagger was quick, dodged the shots, and found cover. Alright, so he was being a little difficult. Didn't change the fact he could have just gone over there and bomb him.

But then the fragging ship showed up and punched a unicron-size hole in his plans.

Now, he was flying back to the ship to regroup with his allies. They should be waiting for him back at their ship. He flew through the night air, dodging the obstacles that hinder his progress.

He was at the ship now. He quickly change into his bipedal form and enter through the open door. He looked to see two bots in the cockpit, one standing and the other sitting in the pilot's seat, idly talking to each other. He closed the ship door and approach the other two.

The two bots looked virtually the same. Both were grounders. Both had the same body type down to the very last detail from their average height and stocky body with long legs and short arms. They even had the same eyes, a purple dot surrounded by red. The only differences were in the colors. One was red while the other was blue. The two were split-spark twins.

The red one standing up address him. "Hey, Bombline. How did you do out there? Ran into a little trouble?"

Bombline provided a answer. "Yes, I did and I advise that we get out of here now, Warmup. They have a ship with enough power to destroy one of these buildings. How do you think our ship will fair?"

"Obviously, not very well," the blue one interjected, in a calm demeanor. He was already getting the ship ready to go. He hit a switch and the ship came to life. He took control and flew the ship up towards the sky, avoiding any thing that could interfere. Flying through the skies in a ship, even a small one like these, was difficult, but the blue grounder controlled the ship like an expert, avoiding all obstacles. Soon, they were out of the city and into the sky, leaving the planet.

"Good job Cooldown," Warmup said to his twin.

"Nothing special," he replied back.

"Alright, Cooldown," Bombline interrupted the two, "set the coordinates to Talos IV. We're to meet out employers there to get the money for what they wanted." Cooldown inputted the coordinates to the map and flew towards the area, leaving the dead planet behind.

"You two should go recharge," Cooldown recommended. "It's going to take a while reach Talos IV."

"Yeah," Warmup admitted. "It's been a long day. I could use it."

"I suppose you have a point," Bombline said. Together, the two walk through a door to the only other room on the ship, the barracks, leaving Cooldown by himself to drive them through space.

He liked the silence.

XXX

Skywarp was in pain. So much pain. He wasn't concentrating on anything else except the pain. His hcest felt like he was stabbed over a hundred times and he didn't felt a arm on his left side. He just felt the pain in the shoulder.

He laid in the med bay, on the table next to Shockwave. Swindle wsa in there too, doing whatever he can to make sure that Skywarp would get to Dabola alive. He had already added a wired into Skywarp to get the flow of energon flowing. He was trying to figure out what else to do. He didn't exactly have much in the way of medical devices that he actually knew how to use. He had a idea and went looking for it.

Killshot came in the med bay, carrying the remains of Thundercracker with him. He went over to the only other table in the room and laid the pieces on there. It was difficult, but he think he found all of Thundercracker's important parts, ie. arms, legs, body, head… You know, important stuff like that.

Swindle was still looking for something. He looked in a compartment and found what he was looking for: a sedative. He went over to Skywarp's form and injected into him, hoping it would keep him calm and put him in recharge. It took a little while before the sedative kicked him and put Skywarp in la-la-land.

With that done, Swindle plug him up to a machine. On the screen of the machine, the activities of his spark show up, showing that it was still pulsating. With that done, he turned to Killshot and talked to him. "Stay here and make sure nothing happens to Skywarp, alright." Swindle ordered.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Killshot muttered, still standing next to the remains of Thundercracker, listening to his music. Swindle took that enthusiastic answer and ran straight to the bridge. It didn't take long to reach it, as nothing hinder his progressed except for a piece of a leg from Thundercracker that Killshot dropped and accidently forgot about. Swindle made a mental note to ask him if he actually cared about anything besides getting a cheap thrill and music.

He reached the bridge and headed straight to the video communicator. He set it up to talk to the Dabola base and waited for Onslaught to answer the request. It didn't take long for the base to answer, although the person wasn't Onslaught. Instead, a grounder with a gold face and a red and black paint job was there. "Hello," he replied in a bored voice, "who is this."

"This is Swindle, universal arms dealer and information broker," he replied in the same greeting he gave to everyone, "I've got a problem. I got injure Decepticon personal and they really need some medical help. I've already talk with Onslaught about this and he said we could land here to help them. I'm just here to warn you that we are coming and that you should expect us."

The grounder on the other end looked at him with that bland face before replying, "Let me talk to Onslaught about this and make sure you're telling the truth." With that, he put his attention off of the screen to something else, not looking at Swindle. Swindle knew this con but, he couldn't put a name to him. It was bothering him. Suddenly, another voice filled the screen.

"Yes, Dead End," Onslaught said. Swindle knew now who the other con was. Dead End was a member of the Stunticons and was the sanest member of the team. He used 'was' because, over time, Breakdown had gotten over his intense paranoia of everything thanks to the help of a medic called Knock Out and the death of their leader, Motermaster, a con who is definitely not miss by most of the Decepticon. Because of that, Dead End is now held in the same regard as the other two living Stunticons, which is not very good company to be associated with.

"I have someone on the other line called Swindle that wants to-"

"Let him land," Onslaught interjected. "Is he there?"

"I think he can hear you right now."

"Swindle, you okay?"

"Yeah," Swindle answered, "can't say the same about everyone else though."

"What?" Onslaught asked in a worried tone.

"The mission went straight to the pit, Onslaught. Thundercracker dead, Skywarp critically injure and will require surgery, and my bodyguard is now walking with a limp. Thundercracker got ambush and others tried to help him and walk right into a trap," Swindle said, giving him the basic rundowns of the events.

"Oh, slag" Onslaught muttered, actually cursing. That was not a good sign. "How long before you reach Dabola?" he asked.

"About 2, maybe 3, megacycles," he replied.

"Alright, I'll alert out medics about this and they will get ready for surgery," Onslaught said.

"Good, see you soon," Swindle said.

"See you soon, too," Onslaught said leaving Swindle to stare at the black and red con. The two look at each other, before Dead end spoke.

"So, Thundercracker is dead and Skywarp needs surgery. How unexpected," he said in a bland voice.

"Yeah, you could say that. You care about them?" Swindle asked.

"Not really. We're just food for rust. We're all going to die someday, it's just a manner of when." Dead End said, ever the cheerful con that he is.

"Right, well, bye," Swindle said, really not wanting to have a conversation like these with him. He hit a button to end the chat and head for the pilot's seat. He started up the ship and the ship started to ascend. It went up quicker and quicker it was they were above the city. Swindle speed up the ship and started to head for Dabola.