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Along Came a Spider REVERSE

Part 3: The Elite Guard REVERSE

It was a few days after the battle with Megatron and his Decepticons. Elita and her team were helping with the cleanup and to try and clear their name, reassuring the humans that they weren't a threat. In the meantime Bumblebee was helping Sari try to run her father's company while he was missing. So far, they had been doing pretty good... so to speak.

Of course, something was bound to happen to shatter the fragile beginning of trust they'd been building back with the humans. That something was in the shape of what looked like a flaming meteor rocketing through the atmosphere, but Elita and her crew weren't fooled. This was no meteor. it was a ship, and it was heading directly toward Downtown Detroit.

Elita had a bad feeling in her spark, as if something bad was going to happen as they sped towards the landing site, stopping behind the line of police cars surrounding the area. She transformed with the rest of her crew and walked up to Captain Fanzone.

"Have your men stand down! Let us handle this." She said, looking worried as she looked at the human.

"So you can destroy the other half of the city? I don't think so!" He replied, his attention called back towards the ship when there was a hissing sound, a door opening on the side of the large spaceship. Smoke billowed out and when it cleared, the police Captain let out a long suffering sigh.

Three tall, impressive Cybertronians stood on the ramp of the ship and were looking down at the crowd of humans. One of them in particular, a bulky blue and orange bot, was staring at the little organics with clear disgust and scowled at the sight of them around the ship. At his side was a mostly white and black bot who looked more curious than anything else as he looked at the humans while at the top of the stairs stood the most impressive mech they had ever seen. He was tall, blue red and white and held a huge hammer in one hand.

"Robots... Why does it always have to be robots?" He asked to no one in particular, shaking his head in surrender.

While the humans had been starring in awe, Elita and her crew had walked through them and now stood at the base of the ramp at attention.

"Ultra Magnus Sir! Welcome to Earth Commander! It's an honor-" She started, but before she could say finish, the large mech cut her sharply.

"Jazz, set up a force shield to quarantine us from those organics."

"You sure that's necessary, Commander? I'd like to have a closer look." Jazz replied, looking on at the small organis creatures in curiosity.

"You'll think otherwise when the slime they spew at you melt through your armor and bur your circuits off!" Sentinel said, looking disgusted and sneering down at the small creatures.

"Really?..." Jazz sounded awfully doubtful, but Sentinel went on before he could say anything else.

"Believe me, I've had some very unpleasant experiences with organics. Nothing good come come from contact with them." He then turned his optics towards Elita and had a very superior, smug smile, his tune turning condescending and derisory. "Isn't that right, Elita, my dear?"

he pressed a button on a remote he took out of subspace and a shield started to form around the ship, from the top to the bottom.

"What the-! HEY" Sari shouted and ran as fast as she could, but not fast enough for the shield finished closing around the ship just when she arrived at the limit. "What's the big idea?! Let me in!"

"Sentinel Prime, decontaminate Elita Prime and her crew." Ultra Magnus ordered before making his way back into the ship.

"With pleasure, Sir." The bulky blue bot replied a bit too enthusiastically for Elita's taste. They were then all led into the ship and to the decontamination chamber and forced to stand under the burning hot decontamination fluids for a lot longer than necessary. Sentinel seemed to take pleasure to spray them in the face and optics as often as possible and Elita glared at him while the others complained loudly. Prowl's was particularly vocal about it.

"Those are humans, not space barnacles! This is ridiculous!"

"This is completely unnecessary Sentinel!" Elita complained as she was sprayed right in the face once more, making her sputter in a very undignified manner.

"We wouldn't want a organic contamination to spread now, would we, sweet thing? Take it like a mech, for once in your life!"

He smiled at her with that condescending expression she was starting to hate with all of her spark and glared at him with a clenched jaw. Calm, stay calm. He's just a big, full of himself rusted crankshaft! How Magnus thought it was a good idea to make him his Second -in-Command was beyond her. The hoses were turned off a moment later and the containment chamber was opened.

"Cool it Sentinel. Whatever went down between you and Elita in the past, you shouldn't hassle his crew over it."

A few moments later they were all standing at attention once more in front of the Magnus and Sentinel had to crack another lame insult at them, making Elita's plating bristle and her fists clench at her side. However she kept her calm exterior demeanor as Ultra Magnus spoke up, silencing the egotistical buffoon.

"That would be enough, Sentinel. We have wasted enough time and resources tracking down those stragglers." He turned his optics towards Elita and continued, serious and to the point. "Now, if it's all the same to you, we'll take the Allspark and be on our way."

There was a moment of silence, heavy and awkward, until Bumblebee broke it with a small, nervous voice.

"Yeah... About the Allspark, Sir. Well, it kind of...-"

"Blew up!" Bulkhead finished for him, making the others wince waiting for the innevitable explosion.

"It didn't exactly blew up, Sir. More like its energy was... dispersed. At least I think it was." Elita tried to catch the blunder as best she could, but the expressions on all of the three Elite Guard's faces told loud enough that they weren't exactly soothed by her feeble words.

"You've made some big time blunders in your days, Elita, but this one tops them all!" Sentinel sneered, glaring down at the small yellow fembot with a nasty twisted smirk.

"She's a slagging hero for spark's sake! She kept it from Megatron and the Decepticons!" ratchet interjected, ire rising at the way Elita was being treated by that oafish, arrogant young fool of a Prime. He had always felt a paternal instinct towards the quiet, secretive little fembot that was their leader and would protect her as best he could, even against hurtful words.

"Stand down, rust bucket! Your boss is a lot of things, but a hero is not one of them!" Sentinel replied to the old medibot, then turned his attention back to the small femme who had refrained from saying anything else so far. "We swept the entire planet for Decepticon's energy signature and we found nothing."

"That's because we kicked their sorry solenoïds!" bumblebee, offended on his Boss's behalf, stood up to the big Elite Guard and sneered up at him with all his little might.

"You want me to believe that you bunch of glitched detail flunkies defeated Megatron?! Do you take me, and Ultra Magnus, for fools?" he snarled in Elita's face and she winced a bit, glaring heatedly back, lips thinned into a almost invisible line.

"Those are... most disturbing news, Elita Prime. What do you have to say for your defense?" Ultra Magnus eventually cut the mounting argument and stood up front, standing in front of the group of Autobots.

"It is true, Ultra Magnus, Sir. A few days ago, we fought Megatron and three of his most dangerous soldiers, right here, in the city of Detroit. The battle was long and a lot of damage was done to both the city and ourselves. Unfortunately, to keep the Allspark from falling into Megatron's servos, I had to use Sari's allspark-infused key, which shattered the Allspark and dispersed its energy all over this city and the surrounding area." Elita said, her voice never wavering despite Sentinel's disbelieving snort at almost every one of her words. She kept going when Ultra Magnus gave her a nod to go on. "Once the Allspark was dispersed, the Decepticons vanished and Megatron was severely damaged in the explosion. Also, Professor Sumdac, Sari's father, also went missing during the crisis. This is what happened, I swear on my spark, Ultra Magnus Sir."

After she was done she snapped at rigid attention and waited for the Magnus,s verdict. However, Sentinel couldn't keep his fragging mouth shut and burst out laughing, shaking his head with such disbelieving arrogance that Elita could swear she heard her dental plates grinding together.

"I'll give you points for creativity with your bogus story, Elita, but were's your proof? Show me one spec of evidence that the Allspark wasn't completely destroyed under your watch." He stopped in front of her and leaned closer, smirking smugly. "Come on, sweet thing, admit it. You just don't want to admit that you managed to get the Allspark destroyed out of sheer negligence! You should never let a fembot do a mech's job... Especially when it concerns protection and safeguard."

"You have my word, Sentinel." She manage to keep an even tone saying this but she was seething, literally boiling inside. She lowered her voice to add, so only he could hear her. "Keep your condescending macho mech attitude to yourself, fragger. If I recall, you were responsible for a lot more blunder then I ever was..."

Sentinel scowled at her and then leaned back up, crossing his arms over his chest with a nasty grin.

"And we all know what this is worth, do we, my dear Elita?"

"Come on, Boss-Bot, why won't you stand up for yourself?!" Bumblebee spat, glaring at the big blue oaf and standing closer to the almost shaking femme.

"Because she knows her place... and it's on her back in a berth." Sentinel replied, as insulting and degrading as he could to the small fembot. "Which is every fembot's place. Put a femme in charge of anything and this the result."

"How about I put YOU in your place?!" Snarled Bulkhead, completely fed up and enraged by the arrogant, insulting, degrading way Sentinel was treating their Leader.

He charged with his wrecking ball ready to wipe that expression off the stupid Elite Guard's faceplates, roaring in challenge. The usually shy, easy-going and quiet huge mech could be quite a sight when he was enraged beyond reason like right now. Elita and Ratchet immediately stepped between him and the just as pissed off Sentinel Prime, trying to calm things before the escalated, while jazz tried to restrain the large blue mech. Until Ultra Magnus slammed the butt of his Hammer on the floor and got everyone's attention.

"Stand down, all of you!" He ordered, and everyone stopped immediately to snap at attention. The old mech looked at Elita then and continued, his voice very serious and no-nonsense. "This matter deserve to be investigated fully for those are serious accusations, Elita Prime. We will go to the location of the supposed battle and look for any evidence of your claim. Everyone else, stay here with Jazz."

Ultra Magnus, Elita and Sentinel all transformed and rolled off the ship, the shield being temporarily lifted to let them go through. Sari, whom had been waiting outside for just that opportunity, dashed for the opening, but once more, she wasn,t fast enough and slammed into the barrier with a pained yelp.

"Oh COME ON! You got to be kidding me! I need to get in!" Her cellphone then rang ans she answered it. "Sari Sumdac here. Mr. Powell, what is it?"

"There's a situation at one of our assembly lines, Miss Sumdac." he said, looking annoyed as ever.

"Can't you fix it?" The little girl replied, rolling her eyes.

"I thought the company name was Sumdac?" He replied with a arrogant smirk and she scowled at him.

"Fine, I'll do it myself!" She growled and slammed the phone shut. "Whit a little help from my helper." She grinned taking hold of her key around her neck.

Her Key... Of course! Why hadn't she thought of it earlier?! She brought the key close the the force field and made a hole large enough for her to slip through then ran towards the ship. it wasn't long before a loud alarm started to blare and she froze, seeing one of the new bot run towards and stop a few distance away.

"Organic contamination localized." he said staring down at her. He lifted both hands as if to keep her away. "Now you back out and away from the ship nice 'n easy, huh? Don't spew any slime at me m'kay?"

"Slime?" She frowned, then seemed to understands and grinned in amusement. "You're afraid of me, aren't you?" She made a grimacing face and shouted. "BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!"

"Yaah!" He jumped back and lifted his weapon, just when she saw her friends round the corner and come towards her.

"Be careful! You don' wanna be slimed!" Jazz said, still keeping his distance from the little organic, wary of it.

"Relax Jazz, that's just Sari. She's completely harmless." Bulkhead chuckled and patted his little friend on the head.

"But Sentinel-" he started, but was cut by Bumblebee.

"Is a Glitchead! With all due respect, Sir." The small yellow bot said, still angry at the big blue oaf for what he said to the Boss-Bot.

Jazz finally seemed to relax and came closer, bending low to look Sari more closely, touching her red hair and her back softly. "Incredible... They all have their own style, their own personality."

"Hey guys! I need your help! Something's wrong with one of the assembly lines! Come on!" She pulled on Prowl's leg and he bent down to pluck her off the floor.

"No can do. They're ordered to stay here until Ultra Magnus comes back with Sentinel and Elita." Jazz replied with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Ultra Magnus said you had to keep an eye on us, but he didn't say where." Bumblebee grinned.

"Mmmm, true that. I've been wanting to try those new wheels 'o mine a spin." He transformed and in his place stood the most sporty, sleek spart's car you can think of, a very cool-looking Porsche. "'Sides, a species that can come up with such a sweet ride like that can be all that bad!"

"Cool!" Sari giggled seeing her awesome alt-mode.

*
* *

In the meantime, Sentinel had been making a fool of himself throughout the city, almost killing dozens of humans without even caring about it and ignoring all and every tries Elita made to warn him about the human's traffic law. To say that the fembot was at her very last nerves was an understatement. She was fuming at the audios, almost literally. Ultra Magnus also tried to get Sentinel to at least respect the humans custom and HE was doing his best to do so, setting the exemple, but it was a lost cause on the arrogant, full-of-himself mech.

On Dinobot's Island, the confrontation with Grimlock and his brothers was just another near disaster that Elita managed to defuse. Sentinel, it seemed, was Pit-bent on respecting absolutely nothing on this planet. By now, the little green and yellow fembot was almost certain she was going to have a permanent dent on her palms for how often and how hard she clenched her fists in barely contained anger.

Thankfully, Ultra Magnus's lightning show put a end to the conflict before it even began and the Dinobots retreated. Elita was seriously creeped out by Grimlock, he was always sniffing her like she was some kind of prey...

At the assembly line, things weren't going too well either, and the bots were getting their aft kicked by allspark-powered police-bots gone berserk. Elita, Sentinel and Ultra Magnus arrived when things were getting out of control. Even the powerful Magnus hammer seemed to have little impact for there were always more and more robots pouring out of the warehouse.

Ultra Magnus and Sentinel hid behind a force field the minute Sari appeared out of behind some crates leaving the little girl to fend for herself.

"We need to return to the ship, Sir! Every moment we stay out there, we risk organic contamination!" Sentinel said, keeping the shield up and more or less ignoring the situation as a whole just because of one harmless little girl.

"That's no use Elita!" ratchet said as he blasted more robots into pieces. "As much as we destroy, there's always more pouring out of the assembly line!"

"Then we need to shut the thing up!" Elita ordered decisively. "

"I'll do it!" Sari said running towards her, avoiding blasts from robots and diving when one got too close. "With my key! As long as the company's name is Sumdac, it's my responsibility!"

"Alright! Bulkhead, Bumblebee, ratchet, you stay out there and keep the robots at bay! Prowl, Sari, you come with me! We'll shut that thing up for good!" The fembot ordered and transformed, Sari climbing in and they rolled out towards the main hangar.

Jazz followed them and soon they reached the source of the problem. Sari used her key while Prowl, Elita and Jazz kept the robots at bay. The line finally shut down and all the machines stopped moving. Sari sighed in relief and smiled widely.

"And THAT is why and company's name is Sumdac!"

Outside, Ultra magnus finally took care of the remaining robots once they stopped pouring out of the assembly line. Sentinel chose that opportunity to speed up inside and find Elita and her other little reject grunts to put the stupid little fembot in her place once and for all.

"I can't get it out! My key's stuck!" Sari cried, pulling with all her might on her key to get it out of the slot, to no avail.

Elita was about to give a hand when Sentinel showed up and put a hand on her shoulder , pulling her back. She spun around, glaring dagger at the arrogant, egotistical macho. How could she had ever been friend with that glitchhead?! He spoke up before she could say a word, sneering down at her disdainfully, his grip painful on her thinner shoulder plating.

"Not so fast, Elita Prime! I'll make sure you're tried for High treason for destroying the Allspark! No be a good little femme and come with me!"

"NO!" She snarled at him and tore her shoulder from his grip, facing him and shoving him hard in the chest, shying her piece at last and Primus did it felt GOOD!

"That wasn,t a request, that's an order, Elita Prime!" He snrled back at her and shoved her back. She stumbled but did not fall.

"I may be a Elite Guard washout and a glitched detail flunky, but last time I checked, we still held the same rank Sentinel PRIME! So take your macho mech condescending attitude and your arrogance and SHOVE THEM UP YOUR RUSTED TAILPIPES! You're on MY TURF now!"

She could her the little girl was still straining to get the key out so before going to finally help her she downloaded Sentinel's power and used the sword to slid the control panel in two. Sari's key and the entire panel came undone... as well as a glowing blue crystalline shard.

"What IS that thing?!" Sentinel asked, staring at the little piece of blowing blue crystal.

"Your proof." Elita smirked, holding the little shard betwen two digits.

outside, Ultra Magnus examined the shard critically.

"Definitely look to be a piece of the Allspark." He commented, a half smile gracing his dignified features. "It seems that there is at least a spec of truth in your story after all, Elita."

"You can't really believe it, Sir! She's a lying insubordinate whorebot!" Sentinel snarled, beyond angry because Elita was winning this battle and was smugly smirking, discreetly of course, behind the Magnus.

Ultra Magnus gave the blue mech a warning glare telling him not to say one more word and looked at the small fembot when he spoke next.

"That may be so, but in the heat of battle, Elita Prime showed the qualities of a true leader. Strategic thinking, determination, and above all... loyalty." He let his optics fall on every of Elita's group one by one before returning to the small fembot and smiled gently at her. She blushed a bit and lowered her gaze a fraction thankfully.

"Something YOU can learn a thing or two about, Sentinel Prime." he added, glaring with narrowed optics at his SIC whom, through that entire mission, had acted less than stellar. "In addition, if I ever hear you use such foul language to describe one of your fellow Autobots, there WILL BE dire consequences. Do I make myself clear, Sentinel PRIME?"

The emphases he put on the rank was clear enough, and meant that if the blue Elite Guard didn't change his attitude, he could very well lose that rank.

"Cristal, Sir." Sentinel replied tightly, stiff as a rod.

"Good. Let's roll back to the ship."

Jazz smirked and winked at Elita before transforming and following behind his Commander. The Autobots returned to their own base and Elita felt a lot better now that she knew that Ultra Magnus thought she was a good leader despite Sentinel's trying to degrade and dismiss her in his optics. It only prove that, despite her past mistakes, her COmmander had never wrote her off as unnimportant and useless.

It was a nice thought that she held into during the bumpy times that followed.

-To be continued...-

Description
Along Came a Spider REVERSE

Part 3: The Elite Guard REVERSE

It was a few days after the battle with Megatron and his Decepticons. Elita and her team were helping with the cleanup and to try and clear their name, reassuring the humans that they weren't a threat. In the meantime Bumblebee was helping Sari try to run her father's company while he was missing. So far, they had been doing pretty good... so to speak.

Of course, something was bound to happen to shatter the fragile beginning of trust they'd been building back with the humans. That something was in the shape of what looked like a flaming meteor rocketing through the atmosphere, but Elita and her crew weren't fooled. This was no meteor. it was a ship, and it was heading directly toward Downtown Detroit.

Elita had a bad feeling in her spark, as if something bad was going to happen as they sped towards the landing site, stopping behind the line of police cars surrounding the area. She transformed with the rest of her crew and walked up to Captain Fanzone.

"Have your men stand down! Let us handle this." She said, looking worried as she looked at the human.

"So you can destroy the other half of the city? I don't think so!" He replied, his attention called back towards the ship when there was a hissing sound, a door opening on the side of the large spaceship. Smoke billowed out and when it cleared, the police Captain let out a long suffering sigh.

Three tall, impressive Cybertronians stood on the ramp of the ship and were looking down at the crowd of humans. One of them in particular, a bulky blue and orange bot, was staring at the little organics with clear disgust and scowled at the sight of them around the ship. At his side was a mostly white and black bot who looked more curious than anything else as he looked at the humans while at the top of the stairs stood the most impressive mech they had ever seen. He was tall, blue red and white and held a huge hammer in one hand.

"Robots... Why does it always have to be robots?" He asked to no one in particular, shaking his head in surrender.

While the humans had been starring in awe, Elita and her crew had walked through them and now stood at the base of the ramp at attention.

"Ultra Magnus Sir! Welcome to Earth Commander! It's an honor-" She started, but before she could say finish, the large mech cut her sharply.

"Jazz, set up a force shield to quarantine us from those organics."

"You sure that's necessary, Commander? I'd like to have a closer look." Jazz replied, looking on at the small organis creatures in curiosity.

"You'll think otherwise when the slime they spew at you melt through your armor and bur your circuits off!" Sentinel said, looking disgusted and sneering down at the small creatures.

"Really?..." Jazz sounded awfully doubtful, but Sentinel went on before he could say anything else.

"Believe me, I've had some very unpleasant experiences with organics. Nothing good come come from contact with them." He then turned his optics towards Elita and had a very superior, smug smile, his tune turning condescending and derisory. "Isn't that right, Elita, my dear?"

he pressed a button on a remote he took out of subspace and a shield started to form around the ship, from the top to the bottom.

"What the-! HEY" Sari shouted and ran as fast as she could, but not fast enough for the shield finished closing around the ship just when she arrived at the limit. "What's the big idea?! Let me in!"

"Sentinel Prime, decontaminate Elita Prime and her crew." Ultra Magnus ordered before making his way back into the ship.

"With pleasure, Sir." The bulky blue bot replied a bit too enthusiastically for Elita's taste. They were then all led into the ship and to the decontamination chamber and forced to stand under the burning hot decontamination fluids for a lot longer than necessary. Sentinel seemed to take pleasure to spray them in the face and optics as often as possible and Elita glared at him while the others complained loudly. Prowl's was particularly vocal about it.

"Those are humans, not space barnacles! This is ridiculous!"

"This is completely unnecessary Sentinel!" Elita complained as she was sprayed right in the face once more, making her sputter in a very undignified manner.

"We wouldn't want a organic contamination to spread now, would we, sweet thing? Take it like a mech, for once in your life!"

He smiled at her with that condescending expression she was starting to hate with all of her spark and glared at him with a clenched jaw. Calm, stay calm. He's just a big, full of himself rusted crankshaft! How Magnus thought it was a good idea to make him his Second -in-Command was beyond her. The hoses were turned off a moment later and the containment chamber was opened.

"Cool it Sentinel. Whatever went down between you and Elita in the past, you shouldn't hassle his crew over it."

A few moments later they were all standing at attention once more in front of the Magnus and Sentinel had to crack another lame insult at them, making Elita's plating bristle and her fists clench at her side. However she kept her calm exterior demeanor as Ultra Magnus spoke up, silencing the egotistical buffoon.

"That would be enough, Sentinel. We have wasted enough time and resources tracking down those stragglers." He turned his optics towards Elita and continued, serious and to the point. "Now, if it's all the same to you, we'll take the Allspark and be on our way."

There was a moment of silence, heavy and awkward, until Bumblebee broke it with a small, nervous voice.

"Yeah... About the Allspark, Sir. Well, it kind of...-"

"Blew up!" Bulkhead finished for him, making the others wince waiting for the innevitable explosion.

"It didn't exactly blew up, Sir. More like its energy was... dispersed. At least I think it was." Elita tried to catch the blunder as best she could, but the expressions on all of the three Elite Guard's faces told loud enough that they weren't exactly soothed by her feeble words.

"You've made some big time blunders in your days, Elita, but this one tops them all!" Sentinel sneered, glaring down at the small yellow fembot with a nasty twisted smirk.

"She's a slagging hero for spark's sake! She kept it from Megatron and the Decepticons!" ratchet interjected, ire rising at the way Elita was being treated by that oafish, arrogant young fool of a Prime. He had always felt a paternal instinct towards the quiet, secretive little fembot that was their leader and would protect her as best he could, even against hurtful words.

"Stand down, rust bucket! Your boss is a lot of things, but a hero is not one of them!" Sentinel replied to the old medibot, then turned his attention back to the small femme who had refrained from saying anything else so far. "We swept the entire planet for Decepticon's energy signature and we found nothing."

"That's because we kicked their sorry solenoïds!" bumblebee, offended on his Boss's behalf, stood up to the big Elite Guard and sneered up at him with all his little might.

"You want me to believe that you bunch of glitched detail flunkies defeated Megatron?! Do you take me, and Ultra Magnus, for fools?" he snarled in Elita's face and she winced a bit, glaring heatedly back, lips thinned into a almost invisible line.

"Those are... most disturbing news, Elita Prime. What do you have to say for your defense?" Ultra Magnus eventually cut the mounting argument and stood up front, standing in front of the group of Autobots.

"It is true, Ultra Magnus, Sir. A few days ago, we fought Megatron and three of his most dangerous soldiers, right here, in the city of Detroit. The battle was long and a lot of damage was done to both the city and ourselves. Unfortunately, to keep the Allspark from falling into Megatron's servos, I had to use Sari's allspark-infused key, which shattered the Allspark and dispersed its energy all over this city and the surrounding area." Elita said, her voice never wavering despite Sentinel's disbelieving snort at almost every one of her words. She kept going when Ultra Magnus gave her a nod to go on. "Once the Allspark was dispersed, the Decepticons vanished and Megatron was severely damaged in the explosion. Also, Professor Sumdac, Sari's father, also went missing during the crisis. This is what happened, I swear on my spark, Ultra Magnus Sir."

After she was done she snapped at rigid attention and waited for the Magnus,s verdict. However, Sentinel couldn't keep his fragging mouth shut and burst out laughing, shaking his head with such disbelieving arrogance that Elita could swear she heard her dental plates grinding together.

"I'll give you points for creativity with your bogus story, Elita, but were's your proof? Show me one spec of evidence that the Allspark wasn't completely destroyed under your watch." He stopped in front of her and leaned closer, smirking smugly. "Come on, sweet thing, admit it. You just don't want to admit that you managed to get the Allspark destroyed out of sheer negligence! You should never let a fembot do a mech's job... Especially when it concerns protection and safeguard."

"You have my word, Sentinel." She manage to keep an even tone saying this but she was seething, literally boiling inside. She lowered her voice to add, so only he could hear her. "Keep your condescending macho mech attitude to yourself, fragger. If I recall, you were responsible for a lot more blunder then I ever was..."

Sentinel scowled at her and then leaned back up, crossing his arms over his chest with a nasty grin.

"And we all know what this is worth, do we, my dear Elita?"

"Come on, Boss-Bot, why won't you stand up for yourself?!" Bumblebee spat, glaring at the big blue oaf and standing closer to the almost shaking femme.

"Because she knows her place... and it's on her back in a berth." Sentinel replied, as insulting and degrading as he could to the small fembot. "Which is every fembot's place. Put a femme in charge of anything and this the result."

"How about I put YOU in your place?!" Snarled Bulkhead, completely fed up and enraged by the arrogant, insulting, degrading way Sentinel was treating their Leader.

He charged with his wrecking ball ready to wipe that expression off the stupid Elite Guard's faceplates, roaring in challenge. The usually shy, easy-going and quiet huge mech could be quite a sight when he was enraged beyond reason like right now. Elita and Ratchet immediately stepped between him and the just as pissed off Sentinel Prime, trying to calm things before the escalated, while jazz tried to restrain the large blue mech. Until Ultra Magnus slammed the butt of his Hammer on the floor and got everyone's attention.

"Stand down, all of you!" He ordered, and everyone stopped immediately to snap at attention. The old mech looked at Elita then and continued, his voice very serious and no-nonsense. "This matter deserve to be investigated fully for those are serious accusations, Elita Prime. We will go to the location of the supposed battle and look for any evidence of your claim. Everyone else, stay here with Jazz."

Ultra Magnus, Elita and Sentinel all transformed and rolled off the ship, the shield being temporarily lifted to let them go through. Sari, whom had been waiting outside for just that opportunity, dashed for the opening, but once more, she wasn,t fast enough and slammed into the barrier with a pained yelp.

"Oh COME ON! You got to be kidding me! I need to get in!" Her cellphone then rang ans she answered it. "Sari Sumdac here. Mr. Powell, what is it?"

"There's a situation at one of our assembly lines, Miss Sumdac." he said, looking annoyed as ever.

"Can't you fix it?" The little girl replied, rolling her eyes.

"I thought the company name was Sumdac?" He replied with a arrogant smirk and she scowled at him.

"Fine, I'll do it myself!" She growled and slammed the phone shut. "Whit a little help from my helper." She grinned taking hold of her key around her neck.

Her Key... Of course! Why hadn't she thought of it earlier?! She brought the key close the the force field and made a hole large enough for her to slip through then ran towards the ship. it wasn't long before a loud alarm started to blare and she froze, seeing one of the new bot run towards and stop a few distance away.

"Organic contamination localized." he said staring down at her. He lifted both hands as if to keep her away. "Now you back out and away from the ship nice 'n easy, huh? Don't spew any slime at me m'kay?"

"Slime?" She frowned, then seemed to understands and grinned in amusement. "You're afraid of me, aren't you?" She made a grimacing face and shouted. "BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!"

"Yaah!" He jumped back and lifted his weapon, just when she saw her friends round the corner and come towards her.

"Be careful! You don' wanna be slimed!" Jazz said, still keeping his distance from the little organic, wary of it.

"Relax Jazz, that's just Sari. She's completely harmless." Bulkhead chuckled and patted his little friend on the head.

"But Sentinel-" he started, but was cut by Bumblebee.

"Is a Glitchead! With all due respect, Sir." The small yellow bot said, still angry at the big blue oaf for what he said to the Boss-Bot.

Jazz finally seemed to relax and came closer, bending low to look Sari more closely, touching her red hair and her back softly. "Incredible... They all have their own style, their own personality."

"Hey guys! I need your help! Something's wrong with one of the assembly lines! Come on!" She pulled on Prowl's leg and he bent down to pluck her off the floor.

"No can do. They're ordered to stay here until Ultra Magnus comes back with Sentinel and Elita." Jazz replied with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Ultra Magnus said you had to keep an eye on us, but he didn't say where." Bumblebee grinned.

"Mmmm, true that. I've been wanting to try those new wheels 'o mine a spin." He transformed and in his place stood the most sporty, sleek spart's car you can think of, a very cool-looking Porsche. "'Sides, a species that can come up with such a sweet ride like that can be all that bad!"

"Cool!" Sari giggled seeing her awesome alt-mode.

*
* *

In the meantime, Sentinel had been making a fool of himself throughout the city, almost killing dozens of humans without even caring about it and ignoring all and every tries Elita made to warn him about the human's traffic law. To say that the fembot was at her very last nerves was an understatement. She was fuming at the audios, almost literally. Ultra Magnus also tried to get Sentinel to at least respect the humans custom and HE was doing his best to do so, setting the exemple, but it was a lost cause on the arrogant, full-of-himself mech.

On Dinobot's Island, the confrontation with Grimlock and his brothers was just another near disaster that Elita managed to defuse. Sentinel, it seemed, was Pit-bent on respecting absolutely nothing on this planet. By now, the little green and yellow fembot was almost certain she was going to have a permanent dent on her palms for how often and how hard she clenched her fists in barely contained anger.

Thankfully, Ultra Magnus's lightning show put a end to the conflict before it even began and the Dinobots retreated. Elita was seriously creeped out by Grimlock, he was always sniffing her like she was some kind of prey...

At the assembly line, things weren't going too well either, and the bots were getting their aft kicked by allspark-powered police-bots gone berserk. Elita, Sentinel and Ultra Magnus arrived when things were getting out of control. Even the powerful Magnus hammer seemed to have little impact for there were always more and more robots pouring out of the warehouse.

Ultra Magnus and Sentinel hid behind a force field the minute Sari appeared out of behind some crates leaving the little girl to fend for herself.

"We need to return to the ship, Sir! Every moment we stay out there, we risk organic contamination!" Sentinel said, keeping the shield up and more or less ignoring the situation as a whole just because of one harmless little girl.

"That's no use Elita!" ratchet said as he blasted more robots into pieces. "As much as we destroy, there's always more pouring out of the assembly line!"

"Then we need to shut the thing up!" Elita ordered decisively. "

"I'll do it!" Sari said running towards her, avoiding blasts from robots and diving when one got too close. "With my key! As long as the company's name is Sumdac, it's my responsibility!"

"Alright! Bulkhead, Bumblebee, ratchet, you stay out there and keep the robots at bay! Prowl, Sari, you come with me! We'll shut that thing up for good!" The fembot ordered and transformed, Sari climbing in and they rolled out towards the main hangar.

Jazz followed them and soon they reached the source of the problem. Sari used her key while Prowl, Elita and Jazz kept the robots at bay. The line finally shut down and all the machines stopped moving. Sari sighed in relief and smiled widely.

"And THAT is why and company's name is Sumdac!"

Outside, Ultra magnus finally took care of the remaining robots once they stopped pouring out of the assembly line. Sentinel chose that opportunity to speed up inside and find Elita and her other little reject grunts to put the stupid little fembot in her place once and for all.

"I can't get it out! My key's stuck!" Sari cried, pulling with all her might on her key to get it out of the slot, to no avail.

Elita was about to give a hand when Sentinel showed up and put a hand on her shoulder , pulling her back. She spun around, glaring dagger at the arrogant, egotistical macho. How could she had ever been friend with that glitchhead?! He spoke up before she could say a word, sneering down at her disdainfully, his grip painful on her thinner shoulder plating.

"Not so fast, Elita Prime! I'll make sure you're tried for High treason for destroying the Allspark! No be a good little femme and come with me!"

"NO!" She snarled at him and tore her shoulder from his grip, facing him and shoving him hard in the chest, shying her piece at last and Primus did it felt GOOD!

"That wasn,t a request, that's an order, Elita Prime!" He snrled back at her and shoved her back. She stumbled but did not fall.

"I may be a Elite Guard washout and a glitched detail flunky, but last time I checked, we still held the same rank Sentinel PRIME! So take your macho mech condescending attitude and your arrogance and SHOVE THEM UP YOUR RUSTED TAILPIPES! You're on MY TURF now!"

She could her the little girl was still straining to get the key out so before going to finally help her she downloaded Sentinel's power and used the sword to slid the control panel in two. Sari's key and the entire panel came undone... as well as a glowing blue crystalline shard.

"What IS that thing?!" Sentinel asked, staring at the little piece of blowing blue crystal.

"Your proof." Elita smirked, holding the little shard betwen two digits.

outside, Ultra Magnus examined the shard critically.

"Definitely look to be a piece of the Allspark." He commented, a half smile gracing his dignified features. "It seems that there is at least a spec of truth in your story after all, Elita."

"You can't really believe it, Sir! She's a lying insubordinate whorebot!" Sentinel snarled, beyond angry because Elita was winning this battle and was smugly smirking, discreetly of course, behind the Magnus.

Ultra Magnus gave the blue mech a warning glare telling him not to say one more word and looked at the small fembot when he spoke next.

"That may be so, but in the heat of battle, Elita Prime showed the qualities of a true leader. Strategic thinking, determination, and above all... loyalty." He let his optics fall on every of Elita's group one by one before returning to the small fembot and smiled gently at her. She blushed a bit and lowered her gaze a fraction thankfully.

"Something YOU can learn a thing or two about, Sentinel Prime." he added, glaring with narrowed optics at his SIC whom, through that entire mission, had acted less than stellar. "In addition, if I ever hear you use such foul language to describe one of your fellow Autobots, there WILL BE dire consequences. Do I make myself clear, Sentinel PRIME?"

The emphases he put on the rank was clear enough, and meant that if the blue Elite Guard didn't change his attitude, he could very well lose that rank.

"Cristal, Sir." Sentinel replied tightly, stiff as a rod.

"Good. Let's roll back to the ship."

Jazz smirked and winked at Elita before transforming and following behind his Commander. The Autobots returned to their own base and Elita felt a lot better now that she knew that Ultra Magnus thought she was a good leader despite Sentinel's trying to degrade and dismiss her in his optics. It only prove that, despite her past mistakes, her COmmander had never wrote her off as unnimportant and useless.

It was a nice thought that she held into during the bumpy times that followed.

-To be continued...-