#blast master

His team had been relaxing in their various ways when the two entered. Barrage had once again convinced Blast Master to a game of reflex with a ball; Missile Master was pretty sure it was called a "basketball". Heave was sitting at one of the computers hooked up to Metroplex's systems. Phaser was going through their projected ship manifest on a data pad. Moonrock was gazing out a window.

"Attention!" Missile Master called out. "Time to meet the new member of the team!"

Blast Master got pelted in the helm with the ball in his rush to turn around, but the others turned without incident. The ball pinged off his helm harmlessly before bouncing around the ground.

"Team, this will be our new medic, Loretta Caruso. Ultra Magnus thought we might benefit from a human medic on our upcoming expedition."

"Oh!" Phaser turned down to the manifest before back to the human. "This would explain why I was forwarded a human supply list! I was about to send a comm to Hoist about a mistake."

The leader nodded. "Correct. Medic Caruso, this would be my second in commander, Phaser. He is completely reliable and, anything you need, he has probably already has it on the list. Before we leave, I suggest the two of you go through the manifest to double-check as we will be away from Earth for quite some time." He gestured to the other standard-sized bot who waved enthusiastically. "That is his partner, Blast Master. While we travel through space, these two will be our ship and, thus, only available through communication." He looked back to their new medic. His optics narrowed behind his visor. "How much has our squad been explained to you?"

The human blinked up at him. "Oh! Some basic stuff. You're a team dedicated to deep space travel, mapping out new areas and general exploration," she said, "First Aid did explain that you guys were a team of two bot combiners? And he tutored me on the special treatments combiners tend to need."

"Good. We don't need as strict maintenance as he and the other Protectobots might, but we do require more care than single bots do. As I said, Phaser and Blast Master are partners."

"We are the only two who are same size and all!" Blast Master interrupted, a big grin on his face.

"Yes. Do not interrupt me," Missile Master corrected. "My own partner is Moonrock." This received a wave from said bot. "Barrage and Heave are the final pair. Barrage is our combat specialist while Heave handles our intergalactic communications." Barrage gave a short nod as Heave sat up to attention.

The little human nodded, her hair bun giving a little bounce. "Got it! So, as he said, my name is Loretta, but you can call me Ettie since we've going to be together for a while! I went through training here in Autobot City. I did classes with Sparkplug Witwicky and Raoul Delgado Herrara and then advanced classes with First Aid, Hoist, and Ratchet! I'll be able to take care of you without a problem!"

"Hello, Ettie," Heave said. Even with the face plate, his smile was audible. He always seemed to be more put-out than the others that the squad didn't get to spend as much time on Earth as other bots. Getting to work alongside a human was likely an excellent runner-up for him. "I'm sure we have lots of questions for each other."

"Speaking of," the human's voice trailed for a moment, "mind if I ask about the combining thing? From what I've been able to tell, some combiners seem like they've always been together while others act like that was something they chose later. What is it with you guys?"

Heave nodded. "Barrage and I have been together for only a short time, at least when it comes to us. You humans would think we've been together for ages! Phaser and Blast Master have been together the longest." He paused just long enough for the two to confirm. "I'm from the Burthov city-state, doing most of my studies there, and went to the Altihex research facilities later on. That's where I met Phaser and Blast Master. I didn't meet Barrage until after we started our first expedition together. I originally transformed into an individual rover vehicle."

"Full shuttle class bots are not as common as we'd like," Phaser explained, "so I volunteered for a combination program. We were partnered by the program director. It was thought that our personalities would balance each other's out."

"If it wasn't for me, Phaser would spend so long double-checking things, he'd never get off the ground!"

The flattening of Phaser's optics were enough to tell how he felt about that description. "And, if it weren't for me, Blast Master would have rushed off into space somewhere and gotten hopelessly lost."

Medic Loretta Caruso laughed. It was a nice sound. She looked back to Heave. "So how did you and Barrage meet?"

"I," Barrage finally spoke up, "got separated from my original crew. There was a planetary evacuation order--there was some sort of civil war and the captain didn't feel authorized to get involved--and I was too busy helping out some innocent civilians and missed the launch."

"Either way," Heave continued, "we picked him up when we came across the planet ourselves. We couldn't leave a comrade behind, after all. As for how we became partners, ah, well-"

Leaning forward, Barrage grinned. "Turns out he's something of a trouble magnet, so I decided to stick with him. Get him out of the trouble he gets into."

Heave mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "now it's worse".

However, Missile Master had no time to get into that when their little medic looked up to him with interesting brown color humans have. "So what about you and Moonrock," she asked, "I've barely met you and I can tell you're pretty different."

Moonrock, in an unusual show of forwardness, gave a low chuckle. "While we were studying in Altihex, I would allow him to lead on all our shared projects and I've been his favorite partner ever since," he said.

Missile Master's face plate warmed up. "Our dynamic is beneficial to both of us," he said to rephrase the unflattering explanation. "As our expeditions tend to take us into deep space where we rarely have access to timely back-up, we agreed to undergo the reformatting process to combine into a larger and more powerful vehicle." He cleared his vocals and turned to look down. "Any further questions or shall we get to our final preparations underway?"

"Seems like we've got plenty more time to know each other on the way, so let's get this show on the road!"

"We'll be in deep space, Medic Caruso, it's unlikely we'll get many shows on the road."