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Description
Even though they had been expecting it, it was still something of a shock to see the large mechs emerging from the undergrowth beneath the trees, their weapons drawn and ready. Both Slingshot and Air Raid shifted uneasily, glancing back at their own mechs that suddenly seemed awfully far away.

"Stay where you are," Silverbolt ordered quietly. "They shouldn't consider us a threat if we're not in our mechs."

"I'm feeling pretty threatened right about now," Air Raid muttered, fidgeting. "I sure as hell would like to do some threatening of my own." Beside him, Slingshot nodded in silent agreement, trying to keep track of every movement.

"If they were going to attack us, they would have done so already," Skydive pointed out with quiet logic. "I don't think they want to hurt us, they're just being cautious."

Silverbolt had to agree. "'Dive's right, I think. Let's just wait and see what they do first."

...

Prowl took in the scene before him and quickly assessed the situation. Five steel grey mechs with obvious flying alternate modes were parked beneath the trees on the opposite side of the clearing, all powered down. Their pilots were gathered under another tree nearby, their body language tense and wary as they watched the Autobot mechs. Prowl noted how far they were from the safety of their own cockpits; an attempt to reassure them that they meant no harm, or a ploy to make them drop their guard?

"... They're just kids." Sideswipe's voice came in suddenly over the comm, tinged with surprise. Prowl's door-wings twitched slightly, and he took a closer look at the pilots themselves. Sideswipe was right; by Prowl's estimate, the oldest of the group looked no more than eighteen or nineteen, while the youngest appeared to be barely sixteen.

"Well, doesn't that put an interesting spin on things," Jazz commented thoughtfully, though there was a touch of amusement in the saboteur's voice.

"Kids or not, those mechs a'theirs still did a helluva lot of damage," Ironhide reminded them. "Let's just arrest 'em already and get this whole fiasco over with."

"Easy, Ironhide," Prowl replied levelly. "Let's not rush things. Everyone, stand down." They all retracted their weapons, albeit with some reluctance on Ironhide's part. The five pilots relaxed slightly, though they still watched everyone warily. "Let's wait and see what they do now."

Once it was obvious that the Autobots weren't going to make the first move, the tallest of the group carefully stepped forwards, looking between Prowl, Jazz and Ironhide. He hesitated for a moment, glanced back at his companions, then steeled himself and looked up at Prowl again. "You're all Autobots, right?"

Prowl's door-wings twitched slightly again, and he glanced over at Jazz. "I think you would be the best one to handle this for now, Jazz."

The saboteur nodded and took a step forward, then carefully crouched down so he wasn't towering over the youth quite so much. "That we are," he replied easily. "Some a' them, anyway. What brings you and your boys to us today?"

He was clearly uneasy, but he held his ground and faced Jazz squarely. "Firstly, my brothers and I," he gestured back to the rest of his group, "want to apologise. For any damage we've done to you and yours, and anything else. We didn't know any better -- we had no idea what we were being ordered to do."

Ironhide let out a dubious snort, shifting forwards a step to see over Jazz's shoulder. "You tryin' to tell us that with all those attacks, you didn't know you were -attacking-?"

The tall blond youth grimaced slightly, but he didn't back down. "I know it's hard to believe, but basically, yes."

"We thought they were just training exercises," the red-headed pilot piped up in the background, looking worried. "That's what they told us -- they were just training runs they'd set up for us to test out what we could do. Kinda like simulator runs, 'cept without the simulators."

Ironhide made another dubious sound, but before he could say anything Prowl shook his head slightly at him. "Not now, Ironhide." The big black mech subsided again grudgingly.

Jazz eyed the five brothers thoughtfully for a moment, then shrugged. "We can get back to that later," he said with a friendly smile. "How 'bout we start from the beginnin', and you tell us who you all are?"

"Only if you tell us who -you- all are first," the shortest pilot shot back, his arms folded as he glared across the clearing at the Autobots.

Their spokesman winced and looked back over his shoulder. "Sling," he said warningly, then looked back to Jazz with an apologetic expression.

Jazz just laughed and waved it off. "It's a fair enough request, I think," he replied easily. "I'm Jazz. That there's Prowl," he gestured to said mech, "and Ironhide. Those two are Sideswipe and Sunstreaker." Sideswipe grinned and waved, while Sunstreaker just looked bored with the whole business. Jazz hesitated for a moment, eyeing the pilots, then added, "And Hound's back a ways, keeping an eye on his scanners for us."

Prowl twitched, his optics flickering briefly. "Why--"

"Because I want them to trust us," Jazz answered over their private channel before Prowl even finished his question. "I've a good feeling they know he's back there already, so it can't hurt to tell them he's there, and it -could- hurt if we didn't." Prowl wanted to argue the point, but the pilot had started making his own introductions, so he turned his attention back to them for now.

"I'm Silverbolt," the lead pilot started, then turned slightly to introduced the rest of his team, gesturing towards each one as he named them. "That's Skydive, Air Raid, Slingshot, and Fireflight." Skydive just nodded politely as he was introduced, while Air Raid grinned and tossed off a lazy salute. Slingshot was still standing with his arms folded across his chest, his eyes narrowed, and Fireflight offered a shy but friendly little smile.

"Pleasure t'meetchya all," Jazz grinned and replied with a casual salute of his own.

"Likewise," Silverbolt said with a wry little smile. "I just wish it had been under better circumstances." He sighed and absently ran a hand back over his hair, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he looked from Jazz to Prowl and back again.

"Speaking of circumstances... you said that you were led to believe these attacks you carried out were just training runs?" Prowl prompted.

Silverbolt nodded. "We had no reason to believe otherwise. We only just recently found out that we were being used -- as soon as we did, we wanted no more part of it."

"Used by who?" Jazz asked curiously.

"A pilot named Attson. He has a mech like ours, or at least, some sort of jet. We never got a clear look at it." Jazz rocked back a little on his heels at the reply and looked up at Prowl, who was frowning. Ironhide also looked displeased, while the twins tensed and shifted slightly. That was definitely a name they all knew.

"So the Decepticons -were- behind all this," Ironhide growled over their comms.

Silverbolt hesitated, a little unnerved by their reactions. He glanced back at his brothers, then took a breath and let it out slowly before continuing. "I accept sole responsibility for everything my brothers and I have done, and I will also accept, in full, whatever consequences there may be for our actions."

His words prompted a bit of commotion in his brothers, and one of them -- Skydive, if Prowl remembered correctly -- stepped forward and gave the Autobots a polite smile. "Excuse us for a minute, please." He didn't bother waiting for a reply and just grabbed a surprised Silverbolt by the upper arm, dragging him back to the rest of his brothers. A quiet but heated and rather animated debate broke out amongst the five, and Prowl watched with bemusement for a moment before looking over at Jazz.

Jazz was grinning broadly, obviously highly entertained. "I take it you can hear them?" Prowl asked him over the comms.

"Oh yeah," Jazz replied, his voice cheerful. "Seems th'rest of 'em ain't takin' too kindly to their big brother claimin' all the responsibility for himself."

Ironhide let out a quiet, dubious snort. "Probably just trying to fool us inta thinkin' they're sincere."

"Ahh, ease up on the suspicion, 'Red'," Jazz drawled, rolling his optics behind his visor.

Ironhide shifted, giving Jazz a mock-glare. "Hey, no need to be insulting." Jazz just snickered, then turned his attention back to the five brothers.

The debate was still going on, though judging by Silverbolt's exasperated gestures he was losing pretty badly. Finally he raised his hands in surrender, shaking his head, then turned to face the Autobots again. "Seems I've been overruled," Silverbolt said ruefully.

"Damn straight," Slingshot said as he stepped up beside Silverbolt. "Like hell we're gonna let him take all the punishment for us."

"Yeah," Air Raid added, planting his hands on his hips. "We all screwed up, so we'll all take some of the blame."

"You're assuming there'll be blame to take," Prowl pointed out blandly, and Jazz chuckled. "If what you claim about being misled is true--"

Hound's voice suddenly rang out over the Autobots' radio, causing Prowl to break off mid-sentence. "We have incoming! Multiple jets!" The Autobots immediately readied their weapons again and looked to the sky, sensors straining to pick up on the approaching jets. The five brothers looked startled at the sudden movement and reappearance of weapons. "Confirmed Decepticons," Hound added after a moment. "The six Seekers!"

Ironhide growled and levelled his weapons at the brothers. "It -was- a trap!"

"What?! No!" Silverbolt protested, shifting to place himself between Ironhide and the rest of his team. "What's going on?!"

"Seekers -- enemy jets incoming," Prowl explained shortly, his attention divided between his scanners and what was happening on the ground. "Attson and his cronies."

The five brothers looked alarmed and started towards their mechs, then were halted by Ironhide as he barked, "Don't move! I ain't lettin' you join your buddies up there."

"They're not our buddies!" Slingshot yelled back, clearly exasperated. "We don't -have- any buddies! And damned if I'm gonna let you keep us down here like lovely little targets!"

"We don't want to fight you, we want to help," Silverbolt added reasonably, though he kept glancing upwards as the sound of jet engines approaching gradually became audible. "Let us up there -- we'll try to draw them away from you."

Prowl hesitated a moment and glanced over at Jazz, who gave a slight nod in reply. "Let them go," he ordered Ironhide.

They didn't even wait for Ironhide to reluctantly lower his weapons; as soon as Prowl gave the word they were running to their mechs. Air Raid and Skydive were the first ones up, the mechs swiftly activating seemingly before their pilots had even reached them. They bolted out into the clearing and launched themselves skywards, transforming and jetting up through the gap in the trees with a roar of engines and a blast of backwashed air. Slingshot was only a moment behind them, not even bothering to move into the clearing first as he nimbly wove through the branches and burst out of the top of the trees.

Silverbolt hesitated before taking off, glancing back at Prowl. "We're sorry about all this," he said quietly. "We didn't mean for this to happen." He didn't wait for a reply and just launched himself skywards in Fireflight's wake. The two of them had barely cleared the treetops though when they were suddenly raked with laserfire as three of the Seekers pounced on them. Fireflight took most of the damage, one of his wings getting almost completely shredded. He crashed back down into the treetops a little distance away with a choked cry of pain, breaking through trees and branches before hitting the ground hard. Silverbolt also took several hits, but he managed to stay aloft and continue climbing as the three Seekers roared past.

Overhead, Air Raid, Skydive and Slingshot were engaged in a furious, twisting firefight with the other three Seekers. Laserfire flew thick and fast, underscored by the roaring of their engines as they cut through the air. Silverbolt couldn't climb up to help them though -- already the three Seekers that had shot him and Fireflight were banking around to face him again, moving in precise formation. Silverbolt ignored the damage reports his mech was giving him and strove for more altitude, desperate to get enough height for him to maneuver properly. Laserfire suddenly lanced up from beneath the trees, catching one of the Seekers square in the belly and causing it to shudder and bank away wobbily, trailing sparks and thick black smoke. More laserfire from below forced the other two Seekers to break off as well, giving Silverbolt a chance to gain some height. "Flight?!" he radioed, hoping for a response but terrified that he wouldn't get one.

There was a moment's silence that dragged out far too long before his radio crackled and Fireflight spoke up. "I'm okay." His reply was shaky and laced with anxiety. "I can't fly, but I'm okay. Be careful!"

Back on the ground, Fireflight had transformed out of his jet form and was struggling out of the wrecks of the trees he'd crashed into, shedding leaves and branches that he'd brought down with him. His mangled wing hung limply off him, trailing ribbons of metal and wires, and the rest of him was battered and dented. He finally managed to get back to his feet, leaves and twigs still slithering off him as he steadied himself and gingerly stepped clear of the tangle of downed trees. Overhead he could hear the roar of engines and the hiss of laserfire, and as he looked up he could glimpse flashes of fire and metal through the branches as his brothers fought with the Seekers.

The sound of a heavy footstep nearby made him spin around, startled, then wince as his mangled wing slapped against a tree. The source of the footstep, a sturdy-looking green mech, raised his empty hands in a peaceful gesture. "Are you all right?"

"Yes," Fireflight replied automatically, then looked up again and shook his head. "No. I can't fly, and my brothers are up there and I can't help them if I'm stuck down here...!" He shifted his weight from foot to foot and flexed his hands, his expression anxious as he continued to look skywards.

Hound watched him for a moment, a flash of sympathy briefly crossing his face. "Come on," he said soothingly, beckoning with one hand for Fireflight to follow him. "We'll try to help you as best we can." Fireflight looked back at him, optics flickering in a surprised blink before he nodded and gingerly started following Hound through the trees.

Up in the sky, things were not going well for the brothers. Silverbolt had managed to join up with the others, and was now flying off Skydive's wing while Slingshot flew as Air Raid's wingman. The four of them were so far managing to avoid the majority of the laserfire aimed at them, but they were continually on the defensive, unable to effectively fight back. The five seekers had experience and numbers on their side, even after losing one to the weapons-fire from below. After that, the seekers had been careful not to get too low again, so the Autobots on the ground were unable to help much further.

Prowl watched the aerial dogfight with both his optics and his scanners, frowning. He glanced back down at movement nearby as Hound emerged from the trees, followed by the jet mech that had been shot down. He looked battered, laser-scored and dented, one wing a shredded, useless mess, but still alive and functional. He was also obviously distressed at being stuck on the ground as he came to a halt nearby and looked up through the branches overhead.

"We gotta help them," Fireflight said anxiously, glancing down at the Autobots for a brief moment before looking back up at the sky. "They're getting torn apart up there...!"

"Not much we -can- do unless them Seekers get low enough t'be within range," Jazz replied, sounding frustrated. Prowl shared his frustration -- he wasn't accustomed to feeling so useless.

"At least we got some solid hits on Ramjet," Sideswipe pointed out absently, most of his attention focused on what was going on overhead. "He won't be coming back in a hurry."

Prowl's optics flickered, then he shook his head in annoyance. The solution was obvious. "Can you get them to draw the Seekers lower towards us?" he asked, looking over at Fireflight.

It took Fireflight a moment to register that he'd been addressed, then he glanced over at Prowl. "I'll try," he said dubiously. "I dunno if it'll work though -- they'd have to get awfully low, and that'd be bad."

"Worse than staying up there and getting shot to pieces?" Prowl asked flatly. Fireflight grimaced and didn't reply, instead taking on a somewhat distracted look as he radioed his brothers.

A few moments later a pair of the brothers -- Prowl couldn't tell which ones -- started to dive towards where the Autobots were, with two seekers hot on their tails. At first it looked like it was going to work, and Prowl glanced down to see the twins and Ironhide with their weapons ready. But at the last moment the seekers levelled out just out of their range, though not without getting a few more shots off first. Some of those shots found a mark -- one of the jets wobbled and listed to one side, trailing smoke. The jet managed to level out of its dive, then suddenly transformed in mid-air, weapons at the ready. Even as the jet mech fell he let off several impressively accurate blasts of its own at the seekers as they passed overhead, then transformed again and managed somehow to pull out of his fall and skim shakily over the treetops.

The seekers were caught off-guard, and while they didn't take enough damage to put them out of the fight, their distraction allowed the other jet to loop back up into the seekers' path. As the seekers bore down on him, he suddenly transformed as well and dropped onto one of them as it passed beneath him, latching on with grim determination. Prowl lost sight of them then, his view obscured by the trees. He glanced over at Fireflight, who had an expression of intense concentration on his face as he shifted his weight restlessly from foot to foot. A few moments later there was a crash from some distance away that sounded like something large and metallic smashing into the trees at high speed.

Fireflight winced at the noise, tensing, then relaxed slightly. "Raid's okay," he told nobody in particular. "He got airborne again. Sling's mad as hell, but still flying too."

"And the others?" Prowl asked, trying to keep track of who was where and doing what on his scanners.

"Bolt and Dive are--" Fireflight broke off and went silent, his optics wide and his attention obviously elsewhere. Prowl waited with steadily growing exasperation and continued to watch what he could see of the fight overhead, silently wondering what the hell was going on.

...

"'Bolt! Try to draw them closer so the Autobots can help shoot them from down here!"

Silverbolt jinked to one side as a blast of laserfire whipped past his nose. He and Skydive hadn't been able to shake their opponents, though they'd gotten some hits of their own in when one of the seekers had overshot its mark. It hadn't been enough to take it out though, and it had soon re-joined its partner and gotten back in behind them. "We'll try, 'Flight!" he radioed back distractedly as he banked sharply to one side and dove.

Skydive tried to follow, but was forced to break off by some well-timed shots from the pursuing seekers. He pulled his nose up suddenly in an attempt to make them overshoot him, but halfway through the manoeuvre he stalled out, his frame unable to pull off what he was asking of it. Skydive hung in the air for a moment, then gravity caught up with him and he started to fall. Before he could recover himself, the fifth seeker that had been circling overhead for most of the fight pounced and raked Skydive's back with laserfire.

As it flashed away, leaving Skydive desperately trying to regain control, the seeker presented its profile briefly to Silverbolt. He recognised the silhouette immediately -- it had shadowed them from on high on every one of their missions. "Attson!" Silverbolt roared over the radio, using the same channel they'd used during their so-called training runs. "You'll pay for all of this!"

"Hah! Give it up, you fools!" Attson's voice cut over the radio, taunting them. "You should have come back with me when you had the chance! Even if you escape now, you have nowhere to go back to - we made sure of that!"

Silverbolt went cold, then suddenly felt a wave of red-hot fury surge through him at the implications of Attson's words. It was bad enough that Attson had used them for his own purposes, and worse that he was now, along with his cronies, seemingly intent on shooting them all down in flames. But the thought that they might have hurt Jen as well was the last straw. Without even thinking about it, Silverbolt hurled himself towards the rest of his team, bellowing a single command over their shared channel.

"Unite!"

That command was the last thing Silverbolt remembered before everything became a senseless, jumbled blur.

Description
Even though they had been expecting it, it was still something of a shock to see the large mechs emerging from the undergrowth beneath the trees, their weapons drawn and ready. Both Slingshot and Air Raid shifted uneasily, glancing back at their own mechs that suddenly seemed awfully far away.

"Stay where you are," Silverbolt ordered quietly. "They shouldn't consider us a threat if we're not in our mechs."

"I'm feeling pretty threatened right about now," Air Raid muttered, fidgeting. "I sure as hell would like to do some threatening of my own." Beside him, Slingshot nodded in silent agreement, trying to keep track of every movement.

"If they were going to attack us, they would have done so already," Skydive pointed out with quiet logic. "I don't think they want to hurt us, they're just being cautious."

Silverbolt had to agree. "'Dive's right, I think. Let's just wait and see what they do first."

...

Prowl took in the scene before him and quickly assessed the situation. Five steel grey mechs with obvious flying alternate modes were parked beneath the trees on the opposite side of the clearing, all powered down. Their pilots were gathered under another tree nearby, their body language tense and wary as they watched the Autobot mechs. Prowl noted how far they were from the safety of their own cockpits; an attempt to reassure them that they meant no harm, or a ploy to make them drop their guard?

"... They're just kids." Sideswipe's voice came in suddenly over the comm, tinged with surprise. Prowl's door-wings twitched slightly, and he took a closer look at the pilots themselves. Sideswipe was right; by Prowl's estimate, the oldest of the group looked no more than eighteen or nineteen, while the youngest appeared to be barely sixteen.

"Well, doesn't that put an interesting spin on things," Jazz commented thoughtfully, though there was a touch of amusement in the saboteur's voice.

"Kids or not, those mechs a'theirs still did a helluva lot of damage," Ironhide reminded them. "Let's just arrest 'em already and get this whole fiasco over with."

"Easy, Ironhide," Prowl replied levelly. "Let's not rush things. Everyone, stand down." They all retracted their weapons, albeit with some reluctance on Ironhide's part. The five pilots relaxed slightly, though they still watched everyone warily. "Let's wait and see what they do now."

Once it was obvious that the Autobots weren't going to make the first move, the tallest of the group carefully stepped forwards, looking between Prowl, Jazz and Ironhide. He hesitated for a moment, glanced back at his companions, then steeled himself and looked up at Prowl again. "You're all Autobots, right?"

Prowl's door-wings twitched slightly again, and he glanced over at Jazz. "I think you would be the best one to handle this for now, Jazz."

The saboteur nodded and took a step forward, then carefully crouched down so he wasn't towering over the youth quite so much. "That we are," he replied easily. "Some a' them, anyway. What brings you and your boys to us today?"

He was clearly uneasy, but he held his ground and faced Jazz squarely. "Firstly, my brothers and I," he gestured back to the rest of his group, "want to apologise. For any damage we've done to you and yours, and anything else. We didn't know any better -- we had no idea what we were being ordered to do."

Ironhide let out a dubious snort, shifting forwards a step to see over Jazz's shoulder. "You tryin' to tell us that with all those attacks, you didn't know you were -attacking-?"

The tall blond youth grimaced slightly, but he didn't back down. "I know it's hard to believe, but basically, yes."

"We thought they were just training exercises," the red-headed pilot piped up in the background, looking worried. "That's what they told us -- they were just training runs they'd set up for us to test out what we could do. Kinda like simulator runs, 'cept without the simulators."

Ironhide made another dubious sound, but before he could say anything Prowl shook his head slightly at him. "Not now, Ironhide." The big black mech subsided again grudgingly.

Jazz eyed the five brothers thoughtfully for a moment, then shrugged. "We can get back to that later," he said with a friendly smile. "How 'bout we start from the beginnin', and you tell us who you all are?"

"Only if you tell us who -you- all are first," the shortest pilot shot back, his arms folded as he glared across the clearing at the Autobots.

Their spokesman winced and looked back over his shoulder. "Sling," he said warningly, then looked back to Jazz with an apologetic expression.

Jazz just laughed and waved it off. "It's a fair enough request, I think," he replied easily. "I'm Jazz. That there's Prowl," he gestured to said mech, "and Ironhide. Those two are Sideswipe and Sunstreaker." Sideswipe grinned and waved, while Sunstreaker just looked bored with the whole business. Jazz hesitated for a moment, eyeing the pilots, then added, "And Hound's back a ways, keeping an eye on his scanners for us."

Prowl twitched, his optics flickering briefly. "Why--"

"Because I want them to trust us," Jazz answered over their private channel before Prowl even finished his question. "I've a good feeling they know he's back there already, so it can't hurt to tell them he's there, and it -could- hurt if we didn't." Prowl wanted to argue the point, but the pilot had started making his own introductions, so he turned his attention back to them for now.

"I'm Silverbolt," the lead pilot started, then turned slightly to introduced the rest of his team, gesturing towards each one as he named them. "That's Skydive, Air Raid, Slingshot, and Fireflight." Skydive just nodded politely as he was introduced, while Air Raid grinned and tossed off a lazy salute. Slingshot was still standing with his arms folded across his chest, his eyes narrowed, and Fireflight offered a shy but friendly little smile.

"Pleasure t'meetchya all," Jazz grinned and replied with a casual salute of his own.

"Likewise," Silverbolt said with a wry little smile. "I just wish it had been under better circumstances." He sighed and absently ran a hand back over his hair, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he looked from Jazz to Prowl and back again.

"Speaking of circumstances... you said that you were led to believe these attacks you carried out were just training runs?" Prowl prompted.

Silverbolt nodded. "We had no reason to believe otherwise. We only just recently found out that we were being used -- as soon as we did, we wanted no more part of it."

"Used by who?" Jazz asked curiously.

"A pilot named Attson. He has a mech like ours, or at least, some sort of jet. We never got a clear look at it." Jazz rocked back a little on his heels at the reply and looked up at Prowl, who was frowning. Ironhide also looked displeased, while the twins tensed and shifted slightly. That was definitely a name they all knew.

"So the Decepticons -were- behind all this," Ironhide growled over their comms.

Silverbolt hesitated, a little unnerved by their reactions. He glanced back at his brothers, then took a breath and let it out slowly before continuing. "I accept sole responsibility for everything my brothers and I have done, and I will also accept, in full, whatever consequences there may be for our actions."

His words prompted a bit of commotion in his brothers, and one of them -- Skydive, if Prowl remembered correctly -- stepped forward and gave the Autobots a polite smile. "Excuse us for a minute, please." He didn't bother waiting for a reply and just grabbed a surprised Silverbolt by the upper arm, dragging him back to the rest of his brothers. A quiet but heated and rather animated debate broke out amongst the five, and Prowl watched with bemusement for a moment before looking over at Jazz.

Jazz was grinning broadly, obviously highly entertained. "I take it you can hear them?" Prowl asked him over the comms.

"Oh yeah," Jazz replied, his voice cheerful. "Seems th'rest of 'em ain't takin' too kindly to their big brother claimin' all the responsibility for himself."

Ironhide let out a quiet, dubious snort. "Probably just trying to fool us inta thinkin' they're sincere."

"Ahh, ease up on the suspicion, 'Red'," Jazz drawled, rolling his optics behind his visor.

Ironhide shifted, giving Jazz a mock-glare. "Hey, no need to be insulting." Jazz just snickered, then turned his attention back to the five brothers.

The debate was still going on, though judging by Silverbolt's exasperated gestures he was losing pretty badly. Finally he raised his hands in surrender, shaking his head, then turned to face the Autobots again. "Seems I've been overruled," Silverbolt said ruefully.

"Damn straight," Slingshot said as he stepped up beside Silverbolt. "Like hell we're gonna let him take all the punishment for us."

"Yeah," Air Raid added, planting his hands on his hips. "We all screwed up, so we'll all take some of the blame."

"You're assuming there'll be blame to take," Prowl pointed out blandly, and Jazz chuckled. "If what you claim about being misled is true--"

Hound's voice suddenly rang out over the Autobots' radio, causing Prowl to break off mid-sentence. "We have incoming! Multiple jets!" The Autobots immediately readied their weapons again and looked to the sky, sensors straining to pick up on the approaching jets. The five brothers looked startled at the sudden movement and reappearance of weapons. "Confirmed Decepticons," Hound added after a moment. "The six Seekers!"

Ironhide growled and levelled his weapons at the brothers. "It -was- a trap!"

"What?! No!" Silverbolt protested, shifting to place himself between Ironhide and the rest of his team. "What's going on?!"

"Seekers -- enemy jets incoming," Prowl explained shortly, his attention divided between his scanners and what was happening on the ground. "Attson and his cronies."

The five brothers looked alarmed and started towards their mechs, then were halted by Ironhide as he barked, "Don't move! I ain't lettin' you join your buddies up there."

"They're not our buddies!" Slingshot yelled back, clearly exasperated. "We don't -have- any buddies! And damned if I'm gonna let you keep us down here like lovely little targets!"

"We don't want to fight you, we want to help," Silverbolt added reasonably, though he kept glancing upwards as the sound of jet engines approaching gradually became audible. "Let us up there -- we'll try to draw them away from you."

Prowl hesitated a moment and glanced over at Jazz, who gave a slight nod in reply. "Let them go," he ordered Ironhide.

They didn't even wait for Ironhide to reluctantly lower his weapons; as soon as Prowl gave the word they were running to their mechs. Air Raid and Skydive were the first ones up, the mechs swiftly activating seemingly before their pilots had even reached them. They bolted out into the clearing and launched themselves skywards, transforming and jetting up through the gap in the trees with a roar of engines and a blast of backwashed air. Slingshot was only a moment behind them, not even bothering to move into the clearing first as he nimbly wove through the branches and burst out of the top of the trees.

Silverbolt hesitated before taking off, glancing back at Prowl. "We're sorry about all this," he said quietly. "We didn't mean for this to happen." He didn't wait for a reply and just launched himself skywards in Fireflight's wake. The two of them had barely cleared the treetops though when they were suddenly raked with laserfire as three of the Seekers pounced on them. Fireflight took most of the damage, one of his wings getting almost completely shredded. He crashed back down into the treetops a little distance away with a choked cry of pain, breaking through trees and branches before hitting the ground hard. Silverbolt also took several hits, but he managed to stay aloft and continue climbing as the three Seekers roared past.

Overhead, Air Raid, Skydive and Slingshot were engaged in a furious, twisting firefight with the other three Seekers. Laserfire flew thick and fast, underscored by the roaring of their engines as they cut through the air. Silverbolt couldn't climb up to help them though -- already the three Seekers that had shot him and Fireflight were banking around to face him again, moving in precise formation. Silverbolt ignored the damage reports his mech was giving him and strove for more altitude, desperate to get enough height for him to maneuver properly. Laserfire suddenly lanced up from beneath the trees, catching one of the Seekers square in the belly and causing it to shudder and bank away wobbily, trailing sparks and thick black smoke. More laserfire from below forced the other two Seekers to break off as well, giving Silverbolt a chance to gain some height. "Flight?!" he radioed, hoping for a response but terrified that he wouldn't get one.

There was a moment's silence that dragged out far too long before his radio crackled and Fireflight spoke up. "I'm okay." His reply was shaky and laced with anxiety. "I can't fly, but I'm okay. Be careful!"

Back on the ground, Fireflight had transformed out of his jet form and was struggling out of the wrecks of the trees he'd crashed into, shedding leaves and branches that he'd brought down with him. His mangled wing hung limply off him, trailing ribbons of metal and wires, and the rest of him was battered and dented. He finally managed to get back to his feet, leaves and twigs still slithering off him as he steadied himself and gingerly stepped clear of the tangle of downed trees. Overhead he could hear the roar of engines and the hiss of laserfire, and as he looked up he could glimpse flashes of fire and metal through the branches as his brothers fought with the Seekers.

The sound of a heavy footstep nearby made him spin around, startled, then wince as his mangled wing slapped against a tree. The source of the footstep, a sturdy-looking green mech, raised his empty hands in a peaceful gesture. "Are you all right?"

"Yes," Fireflight replied automatically, then looked up again and shook his head. "No. I can't fly, and my brothers are up there and I can't help them if I'm stuck down here...!" He shifted his weight from foot to foot and flexed his hands, his expression anxious as he continued to look skywards.

Hound watched him for a moment, a flash of sympathy briefly crossing his face. "Come on," he said soothingly, beckoning with one hand for Fireflight to follow him. "We'll try to help you as best we can." Fireflight looked back at him, optics flickering in a surprised blink before he nodded and gingerly started following Hound through the trees.

Up in the sky, things were not going well for the brothers. Silverbolt had managed to join up with the others, and was now flying off Skydive's wing while Slingshot flew as Air Raid's wingman. The four of them were so far managing to avoid the majority of the laserfire aimed at them, but they were continually on the defensive, unable to effectively fight back. The five seekers had experience and numbers on their side, even after losing one to the weapons-fire from below. After that, the seekers had been careful not to get too low again, so the Autobots on the ground were unable to help much further.

Prowl watched the aerial dogfight with both his optics and his scanners, frowning. He glanced back down at movement nearby as Hound emerged from the trees, followed by the jet mech that had been shot down. He looked battered, laser-scored and dented, one wing a shredded, useless mess, but still alive and functional. He was also obviously distressed at being stuck on the ground as he came to a halt nearby and looked up through the branches overhead.

"We gotta help them," Fireflight said anxiously, glancing down at the Autobots for a brief moment before looking back up at the sky. "They're getting torn apart up there...!"

"Not much we -can- do unless them Seekers get low enough t'be within range," Jazz replied, sounding frustrated. Prowl shared his frustration -- he wasn't accustomed to feeling so useless.

"At least we got some solid hits on Ramjet," Sideswipe pointed out absently, most of his attention focused on what was going on overhead. "He won't be coming back in a hurry."

Prowl's optics flickered, then he shook his head in annoyance. The solution was obvious. "Can you get them to draw the Seekers lower towards us?" he asked, looking over at Fireflight.

It took Fireflight a moment to register that he'd been addressed, then he glanced over at Prowl. "I'll try," he said dubiously. "I dunno if it'll work though -- they'd have to get awfully low, and that'd be bad."

"Worse than staying up there and getting shot to pieces?" Prowl asked flatly. Fireflight grimaced and didn't reply, instead taking on a somewhat distracted look as he radioed his brothers.

A few moments later a pair of the brothers -- Prowl couldn't tell which ones -- started to dive towards where the Autobots were, with two seekers hot on their tails. At first it looked like it was going to work, and Prowl glanced down to see the twins and Ironhide with their weapons ready. But at the last moment the seekers levelled out just out of their range, though not without getting a few more shots off first. Some of those shots found a mark -- one of the jets wobbled and listed to one side, trailing smoke. The jet managed to level out of its dive, then suddenly transformed in mid-air, weapons at the ready. Even as the jet mech fell he let off several impressively accurate blasts of its own at the seekers as they passed overhead, then transformed again and managed somehow to pull out of his fall and skim shakily over the treetops.

The seekers were caught off-guard, and while they didn't take enough damage to put them out of the fight, their distraction allowed the other jet to loop back up into the seekers' path. As the seekers bore down on him, he suddenly transformed as well and dropped onto one of them as it passed beneath him, latching on with grim determination. Prowl lost sight of them then, his view obscured by the trees. He glanced over at Fireflight, who had an expression of intense concentration on his face as he shifted his weight restlessly from foot to foot. A few moments later there was a crash from some distance away that sounded like something large and metallic smashing into the trees at high speed.

Fireflight winced at the noise, tensing, then relaxed slightly. "Raid's okay," he told nobody in particular. "He got airborne again. Sling's mad as hell, but still flying too."

"And the others?" Prowl asked, trying to keep track of who was where and doing what on his scanners.

"Bolt and Dive are--" Fireflight broke off and went silent, his optics wide and his attention obviously elsewhere. Prowl waited with steadily growing exasperation and continued to watch what he could see of the fight overhead, silently wondering what the hell was going on.

...

"'Bolt! Try to draw them closer so the Autobots can help shoot them from down here!"

Silverbolt jinked to one side as a blast of laserfire whipped past his nose. He and Skydive hadn't been able to shake their opponents, though they'd gotten some hits of their own in when one of the seekers had overshot its mark. It hadn't been enough to take it out though, and it had soon re-joined its partner and gotten back in behind them. "We'll try, 'Flight!" he radioed back distractedly as he banked sharply to one side and dove.

Skydive tried to follow, but was forced to break off by some well-timed shots from the pursuing seekers. He pulled his nose up suddenly in an attempt to make them overshoot him, but halfway through the manoeuvre he stalled out, his frame unable to pull off what he was asking of it. Skydive hung in the air for a moment, then gravity caught up with him and he started to fall. Before he could recover himself, the fifth seeker that had been circling overhead for most of the fight pounced and raked Skydive's back with laserfire.

As it flashed away, leaving Skydive desperately trying to regain control, the seeker presented its profile briefly to Silverbolt. He recognised the silhouette immediately -- it had shadowed them from on high on every one of their missions. "Attson!" Silverbolt roared over the radio, using the same channel they'd used during their so-called training runs. "You'll pay for all of this!"

"Hah! Give it up, you fools!" Attson's voice cut over the radio, taunting them. "You should have come back with me when you had the chance! Even if you escape now, you have nowhere to go back to - we made sure of that!"

Silverbolt went cold, then suddenly felt a wave of red-hot fury surge through him at the implications of Attson's words. It was bad enough that Attson had used them for his own purposes, and worse that he was now, along with his cronies, seemingly intent on shooting them all down in flames. But the thought that they might have hurt Jen as well was the last straw. Without even thinking about it, Silverbolt hurled himself towards the rest of his team, bellowing a single command over their shared channel.

"Unite!"

That command was the last thing Silverbolt remembered before everything became a senseless, jumbled blur.