Coalescence

“Youse all ready for this?” Rodimus whispered. He stood with his back flat against the
wall and cradled his flamethrower. “We’s gonna go on ‘three’.”
The massive black and purple Autobot to Rodimus’ left rolled his eyes. “You know
he’s probably long gone by now, right?”
“Jetfire, a leader’s gotta not put his troops in the line of danger when he can help it
any.” Rodimus’ eyes darted to the door. His cowardice was exposed when he swallowed
hard.
Jetfire shoved Rodimus aside and grunted, “Yeah and a leader goes in first.”
The massive black robot tucked his jet wings protruding from his back out of the way
and forced open the door to Side Burn’s laboratory inside of Autobot headquarters.
He was followed by Prowl, Bluestreak, Inferno, and Brawn. Rodimus’ face twisted in
defeat. Slaggit. There goes my ranking.
The Autobot mission leader hopped, then charged after the other five robots. On the
other side of the door, the laboratory was empty. It was just as Jetfire had said. Slaggit
again!
“Are there any clues where they went?’ Jetfire let the arm holding his rifle fall to his
side.
Prowl and Inferno studied the work benches while Bluestreak searched the storage
shelves. The blue and silver Autobot rubbed his chin as he looked over the spare stock
of energon pumps and servo hydraulics, “Nothing yet, boss.”
“Hey youse mooks! Youse know I’m the bot in charge here!” Rodimus stepped in front
of Jetfire. “Prowl, Inferno, youse keep where youse at and do youse lookin’ for clues.
Bluestreak, go over to the far wall and set youse eyes over there. Brawn, where was
Side Burn standin’ when you last saw him?”
“That won’t tell us anything.”
“Yo Jetfire, Imma get tired of youse mouth pretty quick over here!” Rodimus snapped.
“Brawn, where had you and Side Burn been?”
“Back there. By the door we just came through.” Brawn nonchalantly waved behind
him.
“If that isn’t gettin’ interestin’…” Pretending that Brawn’s words meant something to
the investigation, Rodimus stroked his goatee. “Prowl, see if there’s isn’t nothin’ by the
door.”
“That’s useless,” Jetfire scoffed.
“Hey!” Bluestreak’s voice from the other side of the lab interrupted Rodimus’ objection.
“I found something!”
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