"GET HER!"

"THIEVES GET CLEAVED!"

"SHE HEADED TO THE LEFT!"

My feet pounded the ground. The three store owners were right on my heels. I rounded the corner and was met with another passageway lined with shops and jammed with Cybertronians. The market. Rush hour. Complete chaos. I sidestepped, jumped and contorted my body to avoid incoming pedestrians and ran like a hunted turbofox running for her life.

From personal experience, Fear is a great motivator.

My legs screaming in agony: No biggie.

That stitch in my side: Suck it up.

My spark, which feels like it's expanding as if it's being pumped with electricity till it explodes: DEAL WITH IT.

I raced through the market, my eyes roving for exits, and I repeated my goals: 1st hightail it out of there. 2nd Find a place to ditch them. 3rd forget this day ever happened 4th never steal in a decepticon refugee sector. AGAIN.

"Hey!" yelled people as my pursuers voices began to be heard. Oh slag. People were beginning to stare at me. One mech tried to stop me, grabbing the bag of stolen energon that I held in my right hand. I shoved him away.

I picked up my pace. People were noticing me and the three mechs were gaining speed.

The smallest pursuer was two feet away from me and the other two followed suit. I scanned the area. Please, please go away. Let me live another day. IS THAT AN ALLEY WAY?

I grabbed a stall with wheels that was in front of me and pushed it to block my pursuers. Pieces of energon flew in the air and I heard screams behind me. Using the momentum from the moving cart, my feet screeched against the pavement and I rounded another corner into the alleyway. I ran faster as chaos erupted behind me. The alley way was dark, shady from the looming buildings. Deserted. I looked behind my shoulder. The mechs were no longer behind me. I ran faster. Maybe the cart stopped them. Maybe I'm luck—Before I skidded to a halt.

Dead End.

A crumbling building, remnants from the war, was blocking my path. I groaned when a shooting pain gripped my spark. Control it. I looked around frantically. I had to get out of here. My spark… I didn't want another accident like that power outage in Iacon.

My spark had been like that for days. I should've not been overexerting it usually hurt and got worse when I was exerting it. But I needed food. For all my luckI was going to have ANOTHER accident! What could go worse? I was soon answered.

"Well, well, well. Lookie here. The thief got trapped like a mouse in a trap." I spun around. The three mechs walked toward me. Blocking the exit.

The only exit.

My spark raced inside my chest. Not good. Don't exert it. But I couldn't. I backed up and raised my hands in the air. "Hey guys, look I was meaning to pay, but…" I froze. But what? That I was too poor to pay for food? I knew that wouldn't make them bat an eyelid. They moved in. I walked back, before I hit concrete. My optics shifted to the big mech cracking his knuckles.

Oh slag. They continued to walk closer. Leering. I summed my options. Fight back. Act dead. Or—

"You know how high ex decepticons are being taxed, punk?" yelled shortie.

I was guessing that was a rhetorical question.

"The war may be over, but these Autobots wouldn't mind if a NAIL, a poor one at that, went missing, eh?" chuckled the smelly one.

"I've been dying for some action, Boss. Mebbe we can sell it for spare parts, eh? I bet we have time to do that, that Lost Light ship doesn't leave in two hours." Spare parts? Lost Light? My optics widened as they talked over me like dead meat. I scanned the area. Buildings with locked up, nailed up doorways and windows surrounded me.

I gripped the bag. "Hey guys, here take your energon. I don't want it!" my voice pitched higher than usual. I threw them the bag. "So we're cool right?" I made to walk. Before the tall mech grabbed my arm. He towered over me. My breath caught in my throat.

"That's not how we deal here, shortie." He pulled my arm down making me bend backward and forcing me to look straight up into his face. He bent closer, his forehead hitting mine. My spark beat faster. I was too scared to even think what was happening to me, focusing instead on the mech's threats. "We're going to rip you to pieces—" he was hissing. Suddenly, a sharp pain gripped me and wouldn't let go. And it wasn't him causing it.

I closed my optics not in fear, but in agony this time.

No, no, no…

I groaned as I felt my armor heat up. "What the frag!" he screamed as sparks flew from my armor. The tall mech jumped back as if I was poisonous.

"Is that contagious?"

I gripped my spark as I felt a tidal wave of energy surge through me.

"ARGGG," I screeched. My face contorted and I fell to my knees, my back arching at the energy flowing through my systems. The three mechs screamed, before suddenly it felt like a tidal wave of energy exploded out of me. I fell forward, hands hitting the pavement.

It took me a full minute to gain my senses. I felt normal. I shakily stood up. I almost fell, but I grasped the side of a building weakly. It was then when first I realized that one by one the lights and anything electronically was shutting off, creating an eerie silence and second the three mechs were lying on the ground, offlined.

My spark clenched. Were they dead…?

No. I remembered last time. They were just… sleeping. Judging from what I did. I think I managed to overload their circuits with all of the energy that came out. Forced to offline. Paralyzed.

Just a theory.

I shakily sighed. For once my condition helped me. I was an outlier. A really bad one at that. I couldn't control my… power. Most of the time I just realeased a lot of electricity when my spark was over exerted. I never went to a doctor so I was just theorizing. But it has been happening ever since I was forged four years ago. Two accidents… so far.

I went to inspect further, before suddenly I heard the dreaded noise: police sirens.

My spark pounded and I was snapped into reality. I had to go. I quickly grabbed the bag of energon. I was about to leave when suddenly a datapad stood in my way. The datapad must've belonged from one of the mechs. I grabbed it and quickly perused it's contents when I saw first page. LOST LIGHT. IN SEARCH OF THE KNIGHTS OF CYBERTRON.

Key words. LEAVING THE PLANET.

I looked at the departure. Two hours. I could still make it.