Time and Time Again

Carry On

"You notice this?" Mirage asked. "Notice what?" Firaflight asked and looked at him, as Skyfire did. "This," Mirage said and pointed to something on the oldest sparkling's faceplate, just under her right optic. Both fliers took a closer look at the femmeling. It appeared to be a fluffy white star. As they were doing so, the femmeling smiled and reached out for Skyfire. He gladly took her from Mirage. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Skyfire asked and looked at the femme. "Cloudstar," Firaflight said and looked up at Skyfire. A smile crossed Skyfire's faceplate. "Yeah." Smiling, Firaflight leaned against her flier mate and placed a servo on Cloudstar's helm. Innocent blue optics look up at the femme. "Carri," Cloudstar said out of nowhere. Upon hearing that, three sets of optics widen and look at the femmeling. "I'm sorry, what was that?" Firaflight asked.

"Carri," Cloudstar repeated, getting a hold of one of Firaflight's digits in both her tiny servos. "Yeah, that's right," Firaflight chuckled. "I am carri." Cloudstar smiled brightly. She's adorable. Wanna know who else is? The little one that toddled up to Mirage and placed his servos on the mech's stabilizing servo. Golden optics look down to see green ones staring up at him. Seeing as how he wanted to be held, Mirage picked up the mechling that curled around his servos. Mirage couldn't help but smile at the sight of his mechling's action. Aww, talk about adorable! Then there was the fact that the mechling yawned. Seems like he's tired, so Mirage'll just hold him to close and watch as the mechling nestled into his frame and closed his optics. "Sure seems to like sire," Firaflight said. "Both the older sparklings." It's not like either were complaining.
--
Mirage placed the sparkling in his crib, replacing his servos for a blanket instead. A blanket that was immediately wrapped around the sparkling's frame. Skyfire had been placing Cloudstar in her crib when something bumped into the grounder's stabilizing servo. Again, golden optics look down. This time, it was Jetline he saw there. Ace came shortly behind her, stopping next to her. Getting to their level, Mirage smiled. "Hi, you two," he said. "You sleepy as well?" There was a nod from both Ace and Jetline. Ok, up they go into Mirage's arms. They were carried to their shared crib and placed in it. Skyfire joined Mirage to watch the two sparklings. As soon as Ace was laying on his front with his servos near his helm, Jetline laid down on her front with one wing covering Ace. It was a good thing Skyfire had a camera with him, so he could get a picture of this adorable moment between the two siblings. "Where did Flight say she was going again?" Mirage whispered and looked up at Skyfire. "Wanted to spend time with those two new femmes," Skyfire replied quietly. Oh, ok. Femme time. Nothing wrong with that.
--
Laughter erupted from the sextet of femmes. "So, wait, what else have they done?" Lightspeed asked when the laughter was dying down. Currently, the Aerial, Protecto, and Techno femmes were nearing Quadrant Epsilon and talking about some of the stupid things teammates have done when a figure darted into the shadows. A figure that looked oddly familiar. Streetstar stopped in her tracks when she noticed it. "Something up, Streetstar?" Nosecone asked when the others saw her stop. "Did you see something?" Blades asked. There was a nod from the cop car. "In the shadows." Silencing their pedefalls, the femme's followed Streetstar's lead. Her visor turned green as she turned on night vision so she could see clearly. Since this area was unfamiliar territory, it was also being recorded by both Streetstar and Skydive. Who knows, they could use it in the future.
--
Streetstar picked up something not far ahead. It was a bot that had stopped in front of a building. Arms are held out and tha other femmes stopped. Zooming in, Streetstar watched as they typed a code into the keypad by the door, studying the code. The door opened, then closed behind the bot when they were inside. Arms lowered when they were sure the bot had moved away from the door. "Let's go." With that, the six femmes cautiously walked to the door, where Streetstar put in the code she'd memorized. They all flooded in once the door was opened. Firaflight narrowly missed getting her wing caught in the door when it closed on her way in. Luckily all six were inside before being essentially locked in. None spoke, though all were curious as to what this place is. Looking at the other five femmes, Streetstar signaled that they should split into teams of two, each with a flier. The three teams are: Firaflight and Lightspeed, Skydive and Nosecone, and Streetstar and Blades.
--
Ok, they should've been back by now. Scattershot wasn't the only one who was worried. So is Strafe, Air Raid, Slingshot, Mirage, and Skyfire. "Where are they?" Slingshot asked. He wanted to snuggle up to Blades and watch some movie. An orange visor looked up when a servo is placed on his shoulderplating to see Silverbolt looking down at him. "They'll come back." For everyone's sake, they better. Arms wrap around the bigger flier and hold tightly.
--
Firaflight and Lightspeed had their weapons ready in case there was an imminent threat that decided to pop out of nowhere. They'd taken the first of three tunnels while the others took the other two. So, this is Firaflight, the femme that had four sparklings via two different mates. Judging by the appearance of the sparklings, one of those mates has to be a grounder. The other was anybot's guess. It was obvious as to why she would have more than one mate, the flier is pretty cute. But she's not Lightspeed's type. Time to focus on why they're here.
--
Skydive and Nosecone has taken the second tunnel, which was fine with them. No distractions, no mechs trying to flirt with them, no bot asking for help every now and again. Both femmes had their servos on their weapons, for if they needed to use them. Although it didn't seem like they really needed to at the moment. There sure seems to be a lot of twists and turns, but they did eventually reach the end of the tunnel. It wasn't until they saw a light that they realized what it was they were looking at.
--
This left Blades and Streetstar heading down the third and final tunnel. The sense of wanting to snuggle and watch a movie was strong from Slingshot's side of the bond. Blades'd have to check up on that when they're done here. She nearly bumped into Streetstar thanks to not noticing her stop. "Turn on your lights," Streetstar said in a hushed tone. Standing next to the grounder, Blades did just that. What were they met with? A wall. "It's a dead end," Streetstar stated blandly. "Maybe one of the other pairs found the right path?" Blades suggested. "Let's just hope so." The duo then started heading back the way they came.
--
Both Firaflight and Lightspeed were running out of their tunnel by the time the Protecto femmes had reached the junction. They had minor scratches, but their expressions showed that they'd seen something, along with the running. "Don't go that way!" Firaflight warned before her and Lightspeed took off down the middle tunnel. Blades and Streetstar gave each other a look before something emerged from Firaflight and Lightspeed's tunnel. It appeared to be some extreme version of what the humans referred to as a hell hound, only Cybertronian. Before Blades could draw out her swords, Streetstar took her by the arm and ran off in the direction the Aerial and Techno femmes went.
--
Two sets of optics widen as Skydive and Nosecone stood there at the bottom of a set of stairs. They were about to climb up when there was the sound of bots heading in their direction. Turning, the duo found the other four femmes shooting by them. Right when Skydive was going to ask what was wrong was when they spotted the hell hound. Holy mother of horse! Skydive's arms weaved under Nosecone's arms and she took off into the air, blatantly not using the stairs in favor of flying the duo away from whatever that was. It wasn't until the duo passed the others did they take to the air with their designated partner. Once at the end, Nosecone was set down and Skydive landed. Same goes for Fireflight and Lightspeed, then Blades and Streetstar after. Nosecone and Skydive shot the wall above the doorway they came from once Blades landed, causing it to collapse. "We should have some time to figure out what's going on here," Skydive said.
--
All six femmes found themselves in what appeared to be a circular room that has a bunch of computer related stuff. Lightspeed and Nosecone walked to two of the different computers while the other four explored the room. With the press of a key from a red digit, the computers turned on with an alarm sounding almost immediately. "What's going on?" Firaflight asked. "Intruder alert, intruder alert," a monotonous femme voice said from out of nowhere. "Whomever Streetstar saw come in here must've had it set so any Autobot who tries accessing the computer sets off an alarm," Nosecone informed as she and Lightspeed got to work in disarming it. Skydive turned when a shadow fell over her to see a familiar yellow optic staring directly at her. Holy mother of hen!
--
Air Raid jumped when he suddenly felt intense pain from Skydive's side of the bond. Something must've happened for him to feel something like that. Buzzcloud all of a sudden slammed the door open and walked towards the older mech. "Is it about carrier?" Air Raid asked and looked at his mechling. Without a word, Buzzcloud nodded and found himself wrapped in his sire's arms and held close. Flutter soon joined them, managing to worm her way under one of Air Raid's arms.
--
Firaflight held a limp Skydive over her shoulderplating as her, Streetstar, and Blades fought Shockwave. "How are you two doing over there?" Firaflight asked. "Hold him off a while longer," Nosecone said. "We found something interesting." "Don't know how much longer we can hold him off, but we can try," Firaflight said. Nosecone looked over at Lightspeed to see her staring intently at the screen, processing what was on it. Oh, she sure hoped Lightspeed would hurry up. This was the only case where she wanted something like that to happen. What let her know the red femme was done was when she raised her servo and slammed it into the computer desk, digging into it and grabbing wires. With a harsh yank, wires and all that were pulled out. Lightspeed got a grip with her other servo and tore the wires apart. Taking it as her cue, Nosecone took hold of the screen and pulled it off its hinges. She then carried it to where shockwave was. When the other femmes saw her, they backed off. A yellow optic looked at the Techno femme, then at what she's carrying. Without warning, the screen was brought crashing down onto Shockwave's helm. Now that he's trapped, Streetstar could pull out a pair of stasis cuffs and put them on the Decepticon.
--
Multiple sets of optics look at the group when Shockwave was plopped in front of them, servos in stasis cuffs behind him. "Let me get this straight, you six snuck into Shockwave's secret lab without anybot noticing, downloaded his projects, took down his computers, and managed to capture him?" Rodimus asked the smiling femmes. "Yeah," Streetwise and Lightspeed said as Blades and Firaflight nodded. "I'm impressed, and in your first go. Don't know how we missed him," Rodimus said. -- Firaflight took Skydive to medbay and laid her on one of the berths. First Aid had followed her. "Shockwave came out of nowhere and attacked her," Firaflight informed. The medic was at Skydive's side, repairing the flier femme. "At least you guys made it out in one piece," First Aid said. There was a nod from the other femme.

— Omake --

"Carrier!" Two voices chorus. Skydive came to a halt as her twins ran towards her. Buzzcloud was the one to latch onto her while Flutter got hold of one of her servos. A smile crossed the femme's faceplate, an arm wrapping around Buzzcloud and holding him close as her servo closed around both of Flutter's. The mechling nuzzled into the black and red femme. Arms wrap around the femme's waist from behind and a helm rested on her shoulderplating. "We missed you, sweetspark," Air Raid said. Smiling more, Skydive looked at her mate. "I missed you guys as well," she said.
--
"Streetstar!" A voice called out. Looking behind her, Streetstar saw a familiar golden mech running in her direction. "What is it, Sunstreaker?" She asked as he slowed down and stopped by her. "I heard about what you and the other femmes did," Sunstreaker said with a slight smile. "Can't believe you noticed him like that." Streetstar smiled at what he said. Was he really trying to compliment her? "Guess we have a lot to catch up on, then," she said. "How about after watching a movie later? I'll bring the snacks." Now for a wider smile from Sunstreaker. "Yeah, I'd like that."
--
Blades stared at Streetstar in disbelief. "So you set up a date with Sunstreaker?" The helico asked. There's a nod from the grounder femme. "Yes, and there's no way you're going to mess this up like you tried to do years ago." Smiling, Blades placed a servo on Streetstar's shoulderplating and said, "I wasn't going to. I know how important he is to you, just like how Slingshot is to me. Don't want an unhappy Streetstar." And there's the smile and hug from Streetstar, happy to know that her chances with the bot she's in love with won't be ruined by anything. Arms wrapped around the grounder femme.
--
Firaflight smiled as she joined Skyfire and Mirage, earning a kiss from both mechs. "Hi, you two," she said after Mirage pulled back. "Miss me?" Two nods at that. Nothing more could be said at the moment because a small voice started crying out, "Carri," and it sounded like they were actually crying. Speeding off, Firaflight found herself in the direction of the sparkling's room. Through the bond, she could tell the sparkling was scared. When she was at her destination, she found Cloudstar sitting in her crib and crying for her. Up goes the sparkling, into Firaflight's arms. "Shh, it's ok," Firaflight soothed, "Carri's here." Cloudstar rested her helm against Firaflight as the crying slowly stopped.

In the dark corner of the room, there stood a figure taller than the flier femme.
--
Slingshot smiled up at his mate. She was holding his servo and guiding him somewhere. If anybot had been paying attention to the visored mech, they'd see the loving look he was giving Blades. Of course, he hadn't been paying attention to where she'd been taking him. It wasn't until they were away from the city that Blades stopped and sat down, pulling him with her. "What are we doing here?" He asked. "We're gonna watch the stars," she replied. Oh, ok. Nothing wrong with that.

Blades rested her helm on Slingshot's shoulderplate as she looked up at the night sky. Orange optics widen under a visor and he looked at her. When she wrapped his arm around her, a smile crossed his faceplate and he looked at the sky, resting his helm on hers.
--
Streetstar had kept to her part of getting the snacks for the movie date. What she managed to get was rust sticks, oil cakes, energon goodies, oil chips, etc. She's definitely ready for this. All she needed was the mech. Speaking of, he was on the other side of the door when she opened it after having heard a knock. A smile crossed both their faceplates. "Hey," she greeted. "Hi," he replied. Sunstreaker was let in and the door shut behind him. "I didn't know what kind of snacks you liked, so I got what I could find," the femme informed. Which is a lot, by the looks of it.
--
"I feel like we should name the last one Coil, since he basically coils himself around a lot of things," Firaflight said.