Where's Bud, you ask? Here's the answer. I hope this chapter turns out well…Enjoy!
Chapter two –
Bud sat with his arms around his legs, which were up to his chest. He sat in a small room, which seemed to be a closet, and he was simply staring into space, deep in thought. This small space, only accessible through unused vents throughout the ship, was his thinking spot. He had found it on the ship's map that he had memorized, and he had gone into it while exploring. On the map, it was shown as a glitch, so he was the only one to really know that it was there.
It was a small room, but one with enough room for Jolt to lie down and roll over a few times. It wasn't dusty, since the dust could never reach this area through the vents. It was completely bare, except for one small flashlight in the center of the room facing up so that Bud could see. He remained in the corner, though, and was biting his lip (A common habit for his family, apparently) and would shake his head once every few minutes, as to dismiss a bad or silly idea.
Finally he sighed, and moved to stretch. He started to express his thought aloud.
"I'm sure that Coby isn't angry at me, but still….He seemed angry enough. Maybe I should…nah….but I wonder when we can find Zalanite. Optimus has been running scans every so often, but they never came up with anything." Bud seemed to be counting the recent events off in his mind.
"They stopped yesterday, so I guess that they don't have it anymore, but…….." Suddenly, Bud bolted upright, frowning with a confused look.
"But….the Decepticons have to have it! I mean, we haven't seen any being dumped, and we've been following their course….I wonder…" Bud then slapped his forehead and smiled, as if he had missed the obvious.
"That makes so much sense!" Bud stood up, and then looked at his watch, his smiling expression turning into one of surprise.
"No! I've missed breakfast!"
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After breakfast, Coby had reluctantly gone back to work, but only because Lori and the Minicons promised that they would look for Bud until they found him. Their first stop was Bud's room, of course, but he wasn't there. The small group decided to split up and go through the hallways. The group agreed, and did just that.
Lori left the room last, however. She was looking at Bud's copy of the map, and tracing routes, wondering where he could've gone. She looked at the map copy beneath it, and shook her head as it showed nothing but a circle over the glitch. With that, she left.
As Reverb was going down hallways in his vehicle form, he spotted an open vent gate. He stopped and transformed, and inspected it. It was almost on the ground, and he shined a light through it. He then turned on the light to show thermal readings, and noted that no one was in wherever the vent led to. What disturbed him though was that despite the emptiness now, someone had been there recently. He got up, transformed, sent a message to Jolt, and continued, hoping for a lead onto Bud.
Unfortunately, he didn't know that he was going the wrong way.
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Oh, how wrong a Minicon could be……..
Bud was really in the kitchen, where he was making a snack. It was now in-between breakfast and lunch, and he hadn't eaten yet. Once finished with the making of the sandwich, Bud looked up and into a camera that guarded the kitchen, and waved to it. He doubted that anyone was watching it at the moment, and even if they were he didn't care that much. He was done thinking of his plan. Now, it was all for the action.
Bud walked, or rather snuck, into a large room. He looked around, and saw only Hot Shot in the room. He smiled, and walked casually into the room, and looked around. It was like a library in here, since it had all of the information of the ship in here, as well as many books on random planets, including earth.
Though Hot Shot wasn't one to normally be found in a place like this one, he was deeply engrossed in one certain book. There were more piled on the table in front of him. Bud walked to the table, and chuckled silently. Every book had a title of either 'Cars' or something similar. They were books that told the reader everything about certain types of cars. Hot Shot was reading about Mustangs.
Bud passed Hot Shot, and continued to look in large shelves for several minutes in silence, before he found what he was looking for. He took a large book from a low shelf, and turned it around.
The Encyclopedia of a mineral's components was the title. (A/N: The title isn't very creative, I know. Have a problem with it? Sue me. :)) Bud sat down next to the shelf, and flipped to the back of the book in the manmade section, where he found Zalanite. He skimmed down the page until he found the following section:
Ingredients: Solinaite, Capiveir, & Tonsolar. (I made those up as well.)
Bud smiled to himself and aloud. That had been exactly what he was looking for. He took a piece of paper out of his pocket, wrote the words down, and put it back into his pocket. He then closed the book, placed it back, and left the room.
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After a few hours of searching, from about 9:30 to 11:30, Lori walked to the workroom and sat down next to Coby, who was lying on the ground instead of working.
"Find him?"
"No. Not yet." Was Lori's answer, and Coby furrowed his brow.
"Where could he have gone?" Lori simply shrugged.
"Reverb almost found him a while ago, but….." She scratched the back of her neck, and Coby sighed, moving to sit up.
"I'd better get back to working then. I'm sure that Bud is fine. If anything, he's playing with you guys." Coby said mostly to himself, and Lori smiled.
"Knowing him, you're probably right. I'll go now." She stood up and left, lingering at the door for an extra moment to watch Coby get to work. Why would Bud just disappear like that?
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This chapter is finished! Finally! I'm working on my next one right now, so don't worry. The only thing getting in my way will be school, so I still have a few hours of peace in which to type in.