Dysfunctional Team: Pilot

On the bridge of the ship, Dead End and Shockwave were there, Dead End looking at the supply manifest and Shockwave looking at the files on the people coming on the mission for everybody except Swindle, who manage to have enough money to keep him from getting the file from Onslaught and even Megatron. Killshot's was from Swindle, Skywarp from Megatron and Starscream, and everybody else's from Onslaught.

Killshot, born in the assassin den of Telos, was well-known for the fact that he had the second-highest body of the snipers in the Decepticon ranks, losing to Blast Off. He was also well-known for being a bad loser. First thing he did when he heard that Blast Off beat him was to get involved in a massive brawl with twenty other vehicons. Said vehicons beat his aft due to overwhelming numbers. A good markscon, he is. A good fighter, he is not. He's supposedly gotten better about keeping bruise egos in check.

There's also the fact that he was a member of triple-M (Miltant Monoform Movement), a group known for not using T-cogs. The lack of a vehicle form will seriously hinder his mobility on the field. Shockwave wonder why one's whose best form of defense was speed would sacrifice his fastest form. The file doesn't specified why, just that he doesn't have one. Of course, he was still alive, which meant he knew how to take care of himself, vehicle form or no vehicle form.

Next, he looked at Skywarp. According to the reports, he was from Helex, a city populated mostly by the lower caste. The most remarkable thing about him was the teleporter that he was created with. Although not as book-smart as many others, he knows how to use the teleporter in his advantage in battles and his commanding officers knew how to use him in battle. Of course, the bad thing about the teleporter was that it used more energon than most things, require Skywarp to have more energon than most cons.

What do you know, here comes Killshot and Skywarp right now. "What's up?" Killshot asked Dead End . Dead End merely gave them an aside glance before answering back.

"Nothing important except for Skywarp's room. I want you to take him there. He's right across from you."

"Alright. Come on, Warp." Killshot and Skywarp left the bridge, leaving the two by themselves again. Shockwave looked at the next file.

Hook was created in Vos and serve as the second-in-command of the Constructicons and his vehicle form was a crane. However, he wanted to be the leader of the Constructicons and take control of it from the current leader Scrapper. However, unlike most people (like Starscream), Hook wanted to take it politically, by convincing everybody he would be a better leader. He got Scavenger and Mixmaster to back him up, but not Long Haul and Bonecrusher. What happen next, was pretty messy.

Scavenger was Hook medical's assistant and was also created in Vos. He's the youngest of them, being at least a million years younger than them and transform into a excavator, which explains why he has that weird shovel-tail. He has some serious self-esteem issue and reportedly has no friends among the Decepticons. He sided with Hook on the leader issue, presumably because Hook was his boss.

The two and the rest of the Constructicons were also voted the most fashionably challenge gestalt group. Apparently, purple and green were not well-liked by everybody.

Speaking of which, here comes Scavenger. "Hello, Scavenger," Dead End begin. "Your room is right next to the med-bay. Right side."

"Alright," Scavenger replied and then asked, "where's the med-bay?" Dead End handed him a chart.

"Follow the signs."

"Okay," Scavenger said and walked off towards. As the door open, Scavenger accidently walked into Hook, causing them to fall to the floor together. Hook let loose a mild curse before getting up and walking towards Dead End. Scavenger, for his part, got out of there quickly. Hook walked up to Dead End and asked the question.

"Where's my room?"

"Right next to the Med-bay. Left side. Follow the signs."

"Got it." With that, he head off towards his room, leaving Dead End and Shockwave alone again. Shockwave took a look at his next file: Misfire.

Misfire's personal life before the war was that of an actor and he experience every phase an actor goes through. The crappy, low budget movies to a career defying role, to falling hard due to drugs. He then got off drugs, won the critics and fans back, obtain many a star role, and then fall back to obscurity again when he got addicted to drugs again.

When the war came, his agent recommend joining the war to get some more experience. He joined the Decepticons and went to military camp to learn how to shoot a gun and got clean from drugs. He ended failing numerous times that they gave him the nickname, 'Misfire.' He finally passed on the 4628th time when the place was bombed, letting him (technically) passed.

From there, he went and joined a trine with two seekers name Slugslinger and Triggerhappy. The group reportedly did well, with Slugslinger and Triggerhappy making up for Misfire failings. Although Misfire was a complete failure with a gun, he could reportedly, obliterate anybody in close range. He didn't lose any brawls with other seekers and ground-pounders and most people he fought ended up reporting to the med-bay to be fixed up.

Unfortunately, tragedy would come again when he went on a mission with his trinemates and several other people led by Blackout. Reports are unsure. But Misfire ended up messing up badly and ended up causing the deaths of everybody except a shifter named Makeshift. Makeshift testify that Misfire caused the death of most of the people, with the evidence to exactly what Makeshift said. Megatron, in response, put Misfire through some of the most brutal torture imaginable. It's unsure why he left Misfire live after that, but most people are of the opinion that it was to teach a lesson to all the incompetence would not be tolerated and had Misfire used as walking proof of that.

With that info dump done, Shockwave looked at the door, expecting Misfire to show up. Indeed, the door opened, but to let Swindle in instead of Misfire. "Hey there, I'm guessing the others have already came aboard except Misfire, right?" he asked them, not caring who answered.

"Yes, they did, except Misfire liked you said. Is he coming?" Dead End asked.

"Yeah, he just had to talk a little bit with Mixmaster before we left. While we're waiting for him, I'm going to start up the ship for lift off," Swindle said, heading for the cockpit. With the conversation done, Shockwave looked at the last file: Dead End.

Before the war, he was in a street racing gang in Ibex that was headed by his fellow Stunticon, Drag Strip. When the war began, Drag Strip almost immediately sigh up to fight for the Decepticons and convince Dead End to fight in it as well. Soon after, they join a gestalt program and were called the Stunticons. Shockwave remember them as the second combiner group he worked on, first being the Combaticons. He remember that the group was perhaps the most dysfunctional group of soldiers ever and could barely get along with each other and we're barely kept in place by their abusive leader, Motormaster.

Unfortunately, the group would not last. On a mission, Motormaster fall in battle, to unknown circumstances. Some say he was bombed by the enemy. Some say he was shoot by the enemy. Some say he was shot by friendlies. None of those were too far off, but people didn't bother looking into it due to the fact that Motormaster was one of the most hated people in the army. Eventually, the Stunticons strike off on their own, Dead End ending up here. He was efficient in his work, due to the fact that he always expected the worst to happen. Bad at conversation, but good at his job.

The ship came to life, getiing ready to go. At the same time, the door opened, letting in Misfire, who was carrying a big box with him. "Hey guys. Anybody knows where my room is?" he asked.

"Right next to Science lab, left side. Shockwave here has the right side," Dead End answered. Misfire looked at Shockwave who stared at him with his single optic.

"So, I guess we're roommates, kinda," Misfire said. Shockwave responded by looking back at him with his emotionless (and terrifying, to a lot of people) stare. Misfire took a sharp intake and looked at Dead End. "You're sure you can't put me in a different room?"

"We put you there for convenience sake. You and Shockwave are both going to be using the Science Lab, so we figure we put you there for easy access. Swindle here hasn't made signs for the Science lab due to the fact that the lab was a very recent addition."

"That's putting it lightly," Swindle called back from the cockpit. "Do you know how much moving I had to do. I have a lot of room, so I have a lot of storage on the ship. With the inclusion of everybody on the ship, I had to make room and I'm telling you right now, I'm not moving stuff out of the room so you can get a room away from Shockwave. You understand that?"

"Anyway, wait a few minutes and I'll take you and Shockwave to the labs. Swindle's given me a short tour of this ship and given me a good idea where everything is on this ship."

"Trust me, Dead End. I didn't give you a full tour of this ship. This ship has a lot of neat surprises. Oh, by the way, we're going to depart right about… now," Swindle said. At that moment, the ship went up suddenly, causing a temporarily lost of balance for everybody, but they quickly regain it. The ship went up and head for space at a good pace, vertically. More than a couple of people thought gravity would bring a lot of people down, but they didn't move. "By the way, I got gravity generators, so don't worry about losing much balance aside from the initial take-off, which we've already experience," Swindle said. Soon, the ship broke the atmosphere of the planet and into space.

With them breaking through space, Swindle got on the intercom. Attention everybody aboard the ship, we've have completed our departure of Dabola and are now heading to Primus knows where. My advice is for you to get set up in your rooms. We've officially started our hunt for whoever this guy is that killed Thundercracker. Good luck." With that done he got off the intercom. He looked back at the crewmate on the bridge. "Just to let you guys know, I have no idea where we're going."

XXX

Talos Four, Metalhawk Park, nighttime.

Bombline was walking through the park to the meeting point. Cooldown and Warmup were at a local bar while he took care of the transaction. He was heading to a bench where a figure was sitting. The bench had no light shine on it, leaving only the figure's silhouette show. From what he could see, he difently didn't had wings. Bombline walked up to the figure and gave him a chip. "Here is all the information we got from the place that you want." The figure took it and examined it.

"Good, I trust you wouldn't lie to me."

"It's bad business to rip people off."

"Very true. 50,000 shanix will be added to your account. Tell me, did you ran into any trouble?"

"Yes, we did. Just a little bit. We killed one of them, but the others got away."

"I'm surprise. Nobody goes to Cybertron anymore." The figure contemplated this. "Exactly what was the ship called."

"I didn't get a good looked, due to the fact that it was trying to killed me, but I think it was called 'The Merchant.'" The figure gave a sharp intake at that.

"I know who that ship belongs too." The figure contemplated it for a little bit. "Tell me, how do you feel about earning an extra amount of money?"

"What, exactly and how much."

"I know the captain of that ship. His name is Swindle. What I want you to do is simple: find the ship and bring me Swindle. 250,000 shanix if alive, 100,000 if he's dead." Bombline let out a little laugh.

"You really want to take him down, do you."

"It's personal between me and him. So, you're going to take this job?" Bombline thought this through. 250,000 shanix was a lot of money. It shouldn't too hard, either, if he can find a way around that ship. With this through, he looked at the figure and answered.

"You got a deal."