Outside of the civilization, Bulkhead and Smokescreen along with their human charges were driving around and observing the vast forest for any sign or trace of their enemies. Alas, no matter how many times they searched, they couldn't find anything unordinary. Due to the long patrol, everyone eventually decided to take a small break and get some fresh air. When both Autobots parked in a perfectly hidden area where they could be hardly spotted or heard, they opened their doors for the girls to come out.

"Man, what a ride." said Smokescreen, while Pinkie hopped out of his alt-mode and finally was able to gain his robot form to stretch out.

"Kinda strange being so quiet and calm 'round here." Bulkhead added untrustworthily as he waited for Applejack to step out and transformed, "Not that I'm complainin', just suspicious."

"Maybe you scared those 'Cons so good they chickened out and decided to not mess with you guys again!" suggested Pinkie.

"Hardly the case, they usually don't give up so easily." her guardian informed.

"Are we gonna keep patrollin'?" asked Applejack and looked at Bulkhead.

"'Suppose not, we roamed all over the place. Think it's time for us to head back to our base." offered the green giant.

"Yay!!" Pinkie pounced in agreement and excitement.

"I will let them know." the young Autobot suggested and turned on his comm-link, "Smokescreen here, requiring a Groundbridge."

*Static*

Confusion formed on his face-plate by the unexpected silent noise, he made a second attempt, "Um, Smokescreen to base, do you read?"

*Static*

"Huh- This is Smokescreen to base, can anybot hear me? Hello??"

"What's wrong?" asked Bulkhead.

"I don't get it, the comm-link was working perfectly fine just a klik ago!"

"Hold on, I will contact Prime." the bulkier robot put a digit on his audio-receptor, "Bulkhead to Optimus, come in."

*Static*

"Optimus, please respond."

*Static*

"Ah, scrap. No luck either."

Pinkie came up with a solution, "Wait, I can call Sunset!" but as soon as she did so, an automatic response from the phone service answered instead:

:: The number you have called is currently unavailable, please try again later.::

"Huh, that's strange, I can't reach her too..."

"Neither." Applejack responded as she did the same while trying to contact Rainbow Dash but failed, "Somethin' is definitely goin' on here."

"What do we do??" desperately questioned Pinkie.

Bulkhead was silent for a short while, then responded, "The only plan I can come up with for now is to go back and find the others. Come on, I don't think they are that far-" before the wrecker could end his proposal, he got interrupted by loud vrooming sounds and mid-range roars that could be heard coming from above the clear blue sky.

Everyone's eyes and optics widened in alarm.

"It's a trap!" Bulkhead shouted as a warning.

Unfortunately, when the small squad tried to get away and escape, just in a split second, both ground and air-based foot soldiers transformed from their alt-modes to their robot forms, targeting each one of their blasters at them.

They were surrounded.

The element of honesty and laughter instinctively hid behind the pedes of their guardians, while the Autobots formed their arms into blasters as well, glaring at the Vehicons.

"Stay close." the green 'Bot whispered as he gave a quick glance to the girls.

One of the flyers spoke, "You know what we are here for, Autoscums! Give us the organics now and no one shall be harmed."

During his speech, the pink girl thought about something. She quickly took the small bottle out of her hair and started pouring a big amount of sprinkles into her hand.

Applejack noticed her actions and whisper-yelled at her, "Pinkie, what are you doing?!"

"Just gimme a sec!" Pinkie quietly answered back as she continued to pour some more, not even looking at her confused friend.

"Like we are gonna believe that dirty lying intake of yours!" angrily answered Smokescreen to the Vehicon.

"Forget it, we will never give them to ya." Bulkhead sternly assured.

"Fine, it will be the hard way then." the Vehicon soon became irritated and gestured to his comrades to open fire. But just before they could shoot-

"INCOMING!!"

All of them got startled by the high-pitched yell which came from Pinkie, who ran in front of her friends while facing the troops.

Her friends gaped in terror as they saw her hazardous attempt, "PINKIE PIE, NO!" the two giant mechs and cowgirl shouted in fear.

Out of everyone's expectations, Pinkie rapidly spun her arm and threw as high as she could the giant glow of sprinkles and as a result of her actions, it exploded right on the face-plates of the Vehicons, causing each one of them to cry out in enormous pain.

"GAH!"

"MY FACE!!"

"WHAT THE FRAG IS THIS?!"

"I CAN'T SEE!! "

"LET'S GO! NOW!" Bulkhead quickly took this chance to escape.

"Whoa-!" Applejack got scooped by him and Smokescreen grabbed Pinkie, both transforming and speeding away from the now-fully-covered-in-sprinkles soldiers.

"Good thinking, Pinkie!" Smokescreen applauded her charge.

"Thanks!" she happily expressed her gratitude in return.

The same Vehicon flyer groaned in annoyance and wiped out the tiny pieces of candy which were covering his visor and gave out a command, "They are getting away! After them!" soon everyone managed to get rid of the sweets and transformed into their alt-modes, following the runaways.

Applejack's attention focused on Bulkhead's side mirror and was greeted by the sight of fast-driving automobiles and jets flying above, "Uhh-- Bulk?!"

"I see them AJ." he replied by trying to sound less troubled than he actually was, while he and Smokescreen were also struggling to avoid every upcoming natural obstacle that was in their way and staying covered from the seekers who apparently were having a hard time to target at them thanks to the extensive forest trees. In addition to their current troubles, they were way too close to the city, the possibility of more humans getting hurt was high, so he had to find a way to distract them as far away as they could.

At that exact moment, he saw a pathway, leading to a higher area, probably a mountain. Not one of the wisest plans he ever had, but they didn't have much of a choice now either. He tightened his seat belt around his charge and cautioned, "Hold on, this is gonna be a bumpy ride!" Applejack nodded and prepared herself for anything that was about to happen.

"Smoke! We have to get those scrapheads far away from the city! Think you can keep up?" he shouted to Smokescreen who was right beside him.

"Lead the way, Bulk!" the young soldier replied and drove after his teammate, troops following from behind.

As they began driving up and got out of the crowd of trees, the seekers took this chance to strike at their running targets. While the Autobots successfully dodged their blasts, the flyers aimed their shots at a number of large boulders which were higher up, causing them to fall down at their opponents.

"WATCH OUT!" Smokescreen warned, he and Bulkhead quickly turned in different directions, but most of the ground-based Vehicons didn't have enough time to react and absorbed the hit so hard that caused Applejack and Pinkie Pie to painfully grimace at the scene.

"Yikes, that's gotta hurt." Pinkie added feeling a little sad about the fallen soldiers. Afterwards, one of the seekers took out one of his missiles and fired at both vehicles.

Bulkhead instantly noticed it and sharply turned his wheels to Smokescreen, "KID-!" he bumped right into him, causing them to avoid the blast and to fall out of the path before it could collapse. They transformed and covered the girls as best as they could to keep them safe from getting hurt while rolling down during their harsh fall. Soon, as they excruciatingly landed on the lower level of the mountain, everyone let out heavy and painful groans.

"Ughh... that was close." Bulkhead stood up and held his helm with his servo while holding Applejack in the other, "You okay?" he asked her out of concern.

The cowgirl was still dizzy after the accident but tried her best to murmur out an answer, "Yeah, I think so..."

"Everyone else alright?" he asked the rest, Pinkie gave a thump up in response, while her guardian was trying to stand up back on his pedes.

"I had hard falls before, but Primus... that one sure hurt as Pit." roughly added the young soldier.

Unluckily for them, it still wasn't over. They spotted the Vehicon troops coming closer to them, both mechs brought out their weapons and prepared for a fight, "Go hide!" Bulkhead told the teenagers.

"Wait- what about you?!" Applejack worryingly questioned.

"We will be fine, now go!" responded Smokescreen in a rushing tone.

"But-!" the cowgirl was about to protest if her pink friend didn't push her aside to go and cover themselves.

"Come on!" pleaded Pinkie, Applejack didn't want to leave them but in the end, she obeyed and ran to hide. Subsequently, the foot soldiers finally managed to reach them and transformed before them, pulling out their blasters.

"You ready?" Smokescreen asked his teammate.

His bulkier friend nodded and bumped both of his mace weapons.

"Come at me!" he shouted and ran towards the troops.

Things were about to get ugly.

══════════════════

"I thought you said that nobody was here?! That definitely did NOT sound like an animal!" the fashionista yelled at her friend. Rainbow rolled her eyes in return.

Sideswipe shushed her down to stop talking.

"Don't you shush me!" Rarity turned to look at him with a stern expression.

"Keep it down!" he strictly told her and observed the area, completely focused, as if he was searching for the source which caused the strange noise, "Do you hear that?"

The group stood in silence and listened carefully.

They heard something in the distance.

And it was approaching.

Fast.

Everyone covered their heads/helms when the mysterious thing flew above them, leaving behind a big sound of roars and strong wind. As they turned their attention to the sky, they saw a jet.

And it wasn't alone.

They had company.

"We have to go- QUICKLY!" Knock Out said in a rushing tone and transformed along with Sideswipe, both opening their doors.

"Hop on!" said Sideswipe and the teens hurriedly got inside the alt-modes of their guardians. The moment their engines roared and their tires made a huge screeching sound in the ground, they began driving away as fast as they could, following the wild path. That only made the seekers even more intrigued by the chase.

The red automobiles increased their speed when they saw their enemies were close.

"You have any idea where are we going?!" Sideswipe unsurely asked the medic.

"It's obvious that I don't, this is my first time being here!" replied Knock Out, as he tried to avoid every blast from the striking seekers, "If my paint gets screwed because of those morons, I will personally rip off their helms, one by one!"

"Think we have bigger problems than that!" Rainbow shouted at him.

"We have to escape them somehow!" involved Sideswipe.

And that's when it hit him. The forest road wasn't so well hidden overhead, but if they went under more coverage they would have less chance to get easily spotted and blown up by the Decepticons.

"Get out of the road." he told Knock Out.

"What?!"

"I said get out of the road!"

They sharply turned aside and went into the steep forestland, but that did not stop the flying seekers from following them. One of their HUD's was able to detect them during their persecution. Although they couldn't clearly strike at them, they could at least strike at something to block their way out of escaping. The jets began shooting around their objectives.

Sideswipe snorted at their bad performance, clearly not understanding what they were exactly planning to achieve, "Oh, come on, they are not even trying anymore!"

"They are not trying to aim at us- they are doing this on purpose!" Knock Out warned, both of them instantly hit their breaks when a group of forest trees fell right in front of them, forming a large blocking wall. They tried to turn back and drive in another direction, but it was already obstructed by their enemies.

The Vehicons transformed in the air and heavily landed on the ground. The Autobots gained their robotic forms and everyone aimed their weapons at each other. Sideswipe took out his katana, facing the troops, Knock Out rotated his Energon Prod and got into a fighting stance. Rainbow Dash and Rarity were standing close behind their giant allies, expecting the worst yet to come.

Sideswipe clicked on his audio receptor to contact the rest of the team for a backup. Unluckily for them, there was no answer, "Scrap- The comm-link isn't working." he cursed and glared at their opponents.

Suddenly, a burst of evil laughter could be heard, coming from the back side of the big standing group of foot soldiers.

"Look who has fallen into my little trap."

The troopers moved aside, allowing the mysterious figure to step closer to the trapped foursome. It was a seeker, but this one was completely dissimilar, unlike the others. He had a gray thin body and red optics, extremely long and sharp claws, missiles attached on both of his arms, high heels under his pedes and two big wings on his back.

"Glad to see me again?" he asked with a devious smile expressed on his face-plate.

"Starscream." Sideswipe's grip tightened around his weapon when he saw him.

"Star- who now?!" Rainbow Dash confusingly asked while looking up at her guardian and then back at the thin seeker who was standing intimidatingly in front of them.

The gray mech glanced at their human companions with a satisfied smirk, "Ahh, would you look at that. It seems that we have already caught two of those hideous fleshbags."

Rarity offensively gasped at his insult, "I BEG YOUR PARDON?!"

"The only hideous thing here is you, high heels!" Rainbow answered him back.

"Watch it insect or I will snap you like a twig." he threatened, his face forming into an annoyed one.

What caught him off guard was the unexpected sound of clapping servos followed by a small whistle coming from the cherish red medic, "Wow, such a remarkable comeback. Are you still trying to achieve something with these pointless plans of yours, Screamer? Last time I heard your strategy wasn't very victorious." he sarcastically mocked, forming a sly smug at the seeker.

Starscream became furious, his optics were filled with nothing but rage, "YOU! " he angrily pointed his sharp digit at the ex-Decepticon and got closer, "You dare speak to me this way?! I will make you regret and pay for what you did! Tricking me and betraying the Decepticon cause was one of your biggest mistakes! Did you really think you will get away with impunity?!"

Rarity looked up at her guardian with a perplexed expression, "Darling... what is he talking about?"

Knock Out glanced over his charge, unsure how exactly to answer her question, "We will discuss this later."

"Ohh, I'm afraid there will be no later for all of you." Starscream involved with an evil chuckle, "You fools are outnumbered and there is no one else to save your precious sparks, therefore I suggest you surrender now and hand over your pets, there's no point in trying and wasting my time anyway."

"Just because you have a bunch of 'Cons helping you out again doesn't mean we can't beat your afts by ourselves! You better get ready to be sent back to prison and say hi to your cell where you belong!" teasingly included Sideswipe.

Starscream gritted his teeth and yelled at the soldiers, "CAPTURE THEM!" upon hearing his command they began to shoot.

Both mechs were dodging and blocking every blast with success, at least for now, "Take cover!" Knock Out directed the girls and went along with Sideswipe to fight.

"We can't just leave them, they need help!" Rainbow struggled to get out of Rarity's grip, who was trying to pull her away from the hazard.

"Will you stop being so stubborn and listen to what you've been told for once?!" the fashionista angrily yelped at her irresponsible behavior. What they didn't expect to see was a big shadow, covering them from the daylight.

When they slowly turned around their eyes widened in horror and saw Starscream with a sinister grin, slightly leaning over them with a curious look and a raised optical ridge.

"Going somewhere?"

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[Author's note]

(Update!)

It's all fun and games 'till you start messing with Rainbow's friends, Screamer!