Dysfunctional Team: Season 1

Swindle and Hook were still at the cockpit of the ship with Swindle prepping for lift-off and Hook just waiting at the side, having no idea what Swindle was doing. As far as he knew, Swindle was just pushing random buttons. "Exactly what are you doing?" Hook asked, a little rudely. Swindle didn't miss a beat as he replied:

"Prepping the ship for lift-off. The others are going to need our help," Swindle said, calmly.

"Didn't your lackey said that he had things under control?" Hook asked, condescendly.

"Yeah, he does, but there's the problems of the others," Swindle answered.

"Others?" Hook questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Yep," Swindle said.

"Care to clarify?" Hook asked.

"You've ever dealt with pirates before?" Swindle wondered.

"No."

"Well than, long story short, their always lots of pirates around. From the sound of things, they were fighting a small group, probably no more than 10 or more. There's bound to be at least 20 more of them, wherever they came from," Swindle explained, pressing a button. At the press of the button, the ship lifted off. Once in the air, Swindle head in the direction of the allies.

"Alright, so there's a lot more of them. What are we going to do with ship to even the numbers?" Hook asked.

"Well, that's where you come in. Head to one of the computers back there," Swindle directed.

"What am I doing?" Hook asked, as he made his way to a console.

"We got a turret on the bottom of the ship that pops out. You're going to use that to shoot at the pirates," Swindle said. "You're a good shot, right?"

"I'm not the best, but I think I can manage it," Hook said, as he set down at one of the consoles. "So, how do I get to the turret from here?" Hook asked.

"Head to 'Defenses.'" Hook did so. "Then head to 'Turrets.'" Hook clicked that. "Hit the one for the bottom of the ship." Hook clicked that and a view of the ground came on the screen. Or at least there would be, if the planet wasn't so foggy.

"Alright, Swindle, I'm there. Just one problem, how am I going to see them? The fog is in my way." Hook questioned.

"The ship has different visions for you to look through. Just use the circle on the left side to change it," Swindle instructed. Hook did so, and the screen become almost completely blue.

"Hey, Swindle. Which vision is this? It's completely blue," Hook asked, a little confuse.

"You seriously don't know that? Come on, it's been in a lot of action films. Surely you've seen some of them," Swindle pointed out.

"No, I haven't. I don't watch films or anything that waste my time. I perfect my craft," Hook said, a little insulted that he thought he watch such petty things.

"Wow, really? That's pretty sad," Swindle pointed out, sounding like he pitied him.

"Oh, quit pitying me," Hook said.

"I'm not. You don't deserve it, although it does explain some things," Swindle said before getting back on point. "Anyway, that vision your in is heat vision. Let you see the heat from the body. Should be useful for tracking enemies, organic or Cybertronian, although it'll be a little hard to figure out which is a friendly and which is an enemy," Swindle explained. "Got all that?"

"Got it," Hook said.

"Alright. I'll see how it's going for them down there," Swindle said, as he try to raise the others the radio, trying to contact them. He immediately got an answer.

"Yes, Swindle?" Dead End's calm voice said on the other end.

"Is everything there alright?" Swindle asked.

"Affirmative," Shockwave said on the other line. "All pirates are eliminated."

"You're listening in, too?" Swindle asked.

"This line is open to all of us," Dead End said.

"I know. I just expected one of you to lead the conversation. So, do you know where the pirates came from?"

"Skywarp ran into them while flying around the area. He can explain better than I came, but his comm. link is a bit busted at the moment." Dead End said, calmly.

"Why?" Swindle asked. "I'm getting really tire of complications."

"Remember when he hit his head yesterday?" Dead End asked.

"Yeah, I- ah scrap. Hook, when Skywarp gets back onto the ship, you need to fix his comm. link," Swindle told the medic.

"You're kidding! Already?" Hook asked.

"Yeah, you forgot to fix it when he hit his head the other day," Swindle explain. Hook took this with a little 'humph' before returning to the screen. Swindle ignored him and went back to the radio."Alright Dead End, tell me: how did Skywarp run into the pirates?" Dead End told how Skywarp ran into the pirates, culminating in the shootout between them and the pirates. "Alright, so the big question. Why are they here?"

"I have an idea why," Shockwave said, his monotone voice cutting into the conversation.

"What is it?" Swindle asked.

"Near the end of the war, the Autobots had a stockpile of items that they had at Iacon. When we invaded it, they blasted all of that to space. My guess that one of the relics ended up here and the pirates found it. Either that or it's a place for them to store their ill-gotten gains." Shockwave said.

"A Iacon relic, here on the sinkhole?" Swindle said, a small cha-ching going off in his head at the sound of that, ignoring the other part. "Do you know how much those are worth?"

"Monetary value is not a reason to attack the pirates," Shockwave said.

"Oh, so you want to explain to Megatron how we miss the perfect opportunity to get a relic," Swindle said, stressing the Megatron part of the sentence. Megatron was perfectly willing to use whatever strategy it take to defeat the Autobots, especially using their own devices against them.

"Swindle raises a good point," Dead End confirmed with Swindle.

"Yes, he does, if the information reaches Megatron," Shockwave said.

"Oh, Shockwave. Is that deceit you recommend? How surprising!" Swindle said sarcatily over the line. "Look, it's not about if Megatron knows. He will know thanks to that loyal follower of his, Soundwave. He always figures out if something went wrong," Swindle said, talking about the main source of paranoia amongst the Decepticons.

"Soundwave is excellent, but he's not perfect. He makes mistakes," Shockwave argued.

"Let's get a third-party opinion on this. Dead End, who do you side with?" Swindle asked the Nihilist. Silence remain on the other line for a few moments before Dead End answered.

"I agree with Swindle. If we don't take advantage of this and take the relic now, it could lead to unwanted consequences with Megatron down the line," Dead End explained. Swindle clapped his hand in joy at that.

"Thank you, Dead End. I'm coming up on your position soon. How are the other two, doing?" Swindle asked.

"Killshot took a jetpack from the fallen enemy and is using it right now to fly around. It should be noted that he's a crash roughly 3 times already with it. Skywarp is watching him, laughing," Dead End answered.

"Alright, tell Skywarp to take you to the entrance and we'll follow along with the ship. Use the jetpacks to follow him," Swindle ordered.

"Understood," Dead End said. Swindle turned the radio off and went back to putting his full attention to flying.

"So, a Iacon relic?" Hook asked from the back.

"Yep. I must say, this day is turning out pretty good. Lets hoped it stays that way," Swindle said.

"You do realize that your tempting fate with that statement," Hook remarked from the back.

"Yeah, well, let's hope she didn't notice," Swindle replied.

XXX

Dead End and Shockwave heard the click on the other end, indicating that the conversation with Swindle was over. The two looked at each other. "You realize Swindle has no intentions of giving the relic to Megatron, correct?" Shockwave asked Dead End.

"I guess that, however I also don't want Soundwave to hear about us giving pirates a relic without anything in return. Soundwave is thorough and if he finds that out, I'm afraid bad things would happen to us," Dead End explained.

"You're worried about your own life," Shockwave pointed out.

"No, I'm worry about Megatron sending the DJD after us. I'm a fatalist, not a masochist," Dead End clarified. "Now come on, let's get Skywarp and head to the pirates' lair," Dead End ordered, moving towards Skywarp, who was watching Killshot failed at flying.

"Come on. You can do it," Skywarp yelled out, chuckling, obviously not believing he can do it. "Grounders really need to stay on the ground," Skywarp said to himself, as Killshot once again ran into the dirt, head first.

"Ow," Killshot said softly to himself, rubbing his head as he pick himself off the ground.

"Yep, you're definitely a master flyer," Skywarp snarked.

"Screw you!"He shouted at Skywarp as Dead End and Shockwave arrived at the scene.

"Skywarp," Dead End said to him. Skywarp turned around to the fatalist and the mad scientist.

"What? Can't you see I'm watching Killshot gloriously fail here," Skywarp said, jutting a servo at the hopeful seeker rubbing his head.

"And I say again, screw you," the aggravated sniper said to Skywarp.

"We need you to take us to the pirates' lair," Shockwave explained.

"Oooooo, we're getting payback? Alright, I'll lead you straight to them. I think I remember where they are," Skywarp said, a little excitement coming into his voice.

"Good, but first, can you teach us how to fly with the jetpacks? I imagine a seeker can give us a few tips on how to fly them," Dead End asked. Skywarp looked at the two before looking back at Killshot getting ready to fly again.

"Do I really have to?" Skywarp asked.

XXX

Scavenger knock on Misfire's door. "Misfire, are you alright?" he asked. No answer came through and Scavenger shoulders sank at that. There goes one more person who though he was nothing but a frag-up. Why couldn't Primus spare him a break?

Dejected, Scavenger walked backed to the lab to search for what he was looking for. He entered the room and started looking through Misfire's side again. He had to find something that would make Skywarp's death looked natural or accidental and not murder. Easier said than done with how hard cybertronians were to kill. Only surefire way to kill one was to take out the head, spark, dismemberment for massive bleed out, or certain types of acids. Not a lot of room for accidents.

Scavenger looked under Misfire's table cupboard and looked through it. It was probably smarter to look through Shockwave's side first, but it couldn't hurt to check this first. Scavenger look through the insides of the desk and notice a box. Scavenger, thinking that this was what he need, took it out and set it on top of the messy table. 'He should really clean this up sometime,' Scavenger thought to himself. He opened the silver-colored box and looked inside.

Instead of anything to help him, he found a lot of syk instead.

Hook may want to see this.

XXX

Zyglrox reached the lair, noticing another guard at the door. "Oh, damn. What happen to you?" The Cybertronian asked the lizard.

"I flew face first into a jet's thruster and got scorch," Zyglrox replied, some pain coming into his voice as some blood ran down his face. "The others are chasing down that bastard."

"Well, you should go get yourself patch up and report to Goliath," the guard recommended.

"I'll do that," Zyglrox replied and enter the base, leaving the guard behind. He walked through the hallways that were just bright enough for him to see where he was going, passing up several other pirates on his way there (one group apparently in the middle of a drinking game in a room he past). The dirt dig into his gray grav-boots as he arrived at the doctors' area. He walked in to see the two doctors, one of them a lizard and the other a robot, sitting down along with his commander, Goliath. Goliath was standing up, making the height difference between the two lizards. Zyglrox only reached up to the middle of the commander chest. "Ah, Zyglrox. Good to see you," Goliath deep voice rung out.

"Hey, commander," Zyglrox said a little uncomfortably. The big lizard had a way of scaring the crap out of him. "What are you doing here?"

"I figure some of my men would be injure by our intruder. Unfortunate to see I was right. Sit down and let the doctor take care of you," he said, the lizard doctor coming to make sure he was alright.

"yeah, I had an unfortunate run-in with the seeker's thrusters," Zyglrox said, as the doctor check his skull.

"Seeker? So the intruder was a Cybertronian," goliath said with interest in his voice.

"Yeah, don't know what he was doing here, but he had a weird symbol on his ches- OW! Would be a little more careful," Zyglrox told the medic.

"Your definitely in pain," the doctor said to himself, but did you get a fracture?"

"Well, I flew face first into a thruster," the soldier said.

"Then you probably have a fracture. You should stay out of the fight until it heals," the doctor recommended. "Now, to find something for the burns," the doctor said, heading to his medical storage box.

"You said he had a symbol," the Cybertronian medic said. "Do you know what it looked like?"

"I don't know. It looked a face and it had pointed ears or something like that," Zyglrox answered. A flash of fear covered the medic's face at the information as he muttered to himself:

"Oh slag."

"Is there a problem," Zyglrox asked, as the lizard doctor came back with some cream for his face.

"Yes, it means he's probably not alone. We're up against Decepticons, one of the two warring factions during the Cybertronian civil war. Goliath, we need to prepare for attack," the medic said.

"Are you sure about this, Scarhealer?" he asked him.

"Yes, I'm positive. The others who went with Zyglrox are probably dead, " he confirmed.

"Alright then. I'll get the men ready and informed Corpsegrinder of our current situation. You," he motion to Zyglrox, "stay here and let the medics heal you," he finished as he headed out the room. Zyglrox looked at the pirates departing from before looking at red-and-white Scarhealer.

"So, I'm guessing we're in a little bit of trouble, right?"

"Like no other."