Chapter 2
Tori and Shannon sat across from each other in a booth at the nearest fast food chain in town—K.O. Burger. In an attempt to save as much of their money as possible they ordered a super-sized meal to split between the two of them. The less-than-enthusiastic high school student employee seemed slightly confused that they only had one meal for the both of them, but he kept his mouth wisely shut. Eating in relative silence, the two ate their shared meal in record time and their stomachs continued to grumble with hunger afterwards.
"This is just sad. We haven't eaten a full meal since we got to Nevada," Shannon bemoaned, using her last fry to gather as much ketchup as possible.
Tori sighed as she wiped her hands on a napkin, flicking her dirty blonde hair out of the way with a short swing of her head. "We've been doing rather well conserving what cash we have. I say we celebrate once we find Alexis and have a proper full meal."
Rubbing her stomach to try and ease the ache (or was that indigestion?), the brunette forcibly balled up the hamburger wrapper and stuffed it into the empty fry container. "We can afford one decent meal if we go to a diner or something. Anything above three stars is going to be out of our price range."
"Like there's even a three star restaurant in this hell-hole..." Tori quipped.
"We could always drive to Vegas?" Shannon suggested.
Before she could answer, the boy that had taken their order ran out of the fast food joint and went straight to a blue and pink motorcycle sitting in the parking lot. Leaning over the bike, he grabbed his helmet and quickly buckled it in place. In one fluid motion, he mounted the bike and started the engine before taking off.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Shannon yelled a little bit louder than necessary. "How the hell can that kid afford an awesome motorcycle like that working part-time in a roach palace like this?" she demanded to know while gesturing wildly. "And all we have is a shitty 2000 Kia Rio…"
Tori gasped in mock mortification at her friend's last statement before replying, "Not so loud! Evinrude might hear you!"
"Yeah, yeah, the old tranny knows he's on his last wheels. He constantly leaks and sounds like that damn spaceship on The Jetson's!"
Tori was about to refute that statement when she stopped, a contemplative look on her face. "You know what? He totally does. Unless he's idling, then he sounds like a water-logged boat motor." She then steepled her fingers, "Or my grandpa with exploding flatulence."
"Oh, that's just nasty," Shannon muttered in reply before busting up laughing.
A sudden shrill scream pierced through the air, coming from Shannon's phone lying on top of the table. Not a moment later, Tori's phone sounded with the infamous line of, "Do it! Do it now!" Both girls picked up their phones and checked their text notifications, eyes widening when they saw the contact.
"I just got a text from Alexis!" Tori exclaimed.
"Me too!" Shannon replied. "It's about damn time. We left the hospital nearly two hours ago."
"Let's not waste anymore time then!" Tori said, grabbing the tray full of garbage and heading toward the door.
Picking up their shared drink, Shannon followed her to the entrance and walked out, holding the door for Tori after she disposed of everything. "I can't believe this is finally happening! I almost thought she had turned into a ghost or something," the brunette said jokingly, fishing for the keys that were in her pocket.
"Or maybe she just got a boyfriend," Tori added with a smirk. "She's probably been kept too busy to really think about us much."
Both girls slid into the car after it was unlocked and quickly buckled their seatbelts before Shannon started the engine, struggling with it the first two times. "If that's the case she needs to be reminded of the phrase, 'chicks before dicks,'" she grumbled. "Besides, two years is a really long time to forget about life-long friends just for some guy."
Tori's smirk widened before she said, "Maybe he's just really good in bed."
"I don't really want to think about that right now…" Shannon muttered as she pulled out of their parking spot and started driving toward a local clothing store that Alexis recommended they meet.
"Just because it's been awhile since you've had some doesn't mean you should begrudge Alexis having a good time," Tori interjected with a smirk.
"Ugh, like you're one to talk. I didn't realize that using your fingers meant you were getting some."
Tori gasped, feigning hurt "Don't diss Rosey's five sisters!"
They pulled into a vacant side street parking spot in front of the suggested store. It was a local clothing thrift shop, practically adjoined to it was also a small bridal and formalwear boutique.
Tori was the first to comment on the boutique, her hopeless romantic streak resurfacing. "And look, she wants us to help her pick out a gown for the shotgun wedding!"
"Don't even joke about that!" Shannon exclaimed while exiting the vehicle. "She knows she can't get married without our approval!"
The two laughed as they headed toward the thrift store to browse and keep themselves entertained while they waited for their dear and missing friend to arrive.
A blue and pink sports motorcycle rested in the K.O. customer parking lot. Unbeknownst to any passerby this was no simple, inanimate vehicle. She was, in fact, a transforming robot with full self awareness, above-human intelligence and comprehension.
Currently though, given her "curbside duty," her comprehension was nearly void. Most efforts to continue a thought depleted with each nano-click. That was until her peripheral sensors became aware of an approaching, unwanted liquid. Some sort of vehicular fluid— comparable to human waste in the perspective of a Cybertronian.
Her frame flinched slightly, there were several bystanders lingering in the area. No way she could move herself and not get caught.
'Jack should be finished with his shift any minute now,' she tried to reassure herself watching the disgusting liquid continue to ooze towards her, only an inch or two away now. 'That's so gross,' she thought.
Footsteps suddenly sounded in her audio receptors and a voice soon followed.
"Woah, cleanup on aisle six."
"Whew! Glad your shift ended a little early today," she whispered to Jack.
Leaning forward to don his helmet but also to talk to her without others noticing he replied, "Me too, let's get going."
Quickly mounting the sentient motorcycle, he gripped the bars as she revved her engine and quickly escaped the massively growing puddle of questionable fluids. She sped towards the street, pausing to check the traffic before pulling onto the road and taking off.
"Thanks for rescuing me, Jack," she teased.
"Hey, it's the least I can do after you rescued me twice," he said, leaning toward her gage panel as she sped off.
Not fifteen minutes later, the duo arrived at the Autobot base, making a dramatic entrance by speeding down the ramp and then turning sideways to come to a screeching halt. The only one there to appreciate it was Ratchet, but, as per usual, he had his back turned to the room and was working hard at his computer consoles.
"Hey, Ratchet, any news from one of the teams?"
Ratchet's eyes remained locked on the console. A message from Shockwave open as the primary window, the console next to him alight with images of a sample of corrupted energon and CNA strands.
The CMO was on edge. This message—which he had only received an hour ago—was indirectly specified in Shockwave's report to be a month old incident. A jolt of pain crept behind his optics. This was just one of several issues with their supposed truce with the Decepticons to fight against MECH.
It was enough of a stressor to consider the uprising that somehow managed to happen despite the fall of Silas. Then the no doubt terror he couldn't even begin to imagine Raf felt when the lapse in the truce lead to project Damocles nearly destroying the poor child's home. To find that Cylas is still alive, after being the cause of that terrible incident nearly half an orbital cycle ago…
There was too much information and stress to process in this moment for Ratchet to register Jack's question.
Arcee transformed, worry knitting her brows. "Ratchet, what is it?"
Ratchet turned to them slowly, "I've just been briefed about a month old Decepticon incident… Apparently, Cylas is at large, still using Breakdown's body to―"
Arcee interrupted with a shout, "Woah, Ratchet, hold on! From 'Con reports Cylas had fled after his run in with Bulkhead and Smokescreen and wasn't found."
"I mean that exactly how it sounds: Cylas was apparently captured without 'our inclusion' and held as a POW on their ship. I've just been informed that he has been missing for the last month."
Jack and Arcee looked to each other and then to Ratchet, completely at a loss of words.
The whine of grinding metal became audible, Ratchet's fists were clenched harshly. Continuing, he ground out, "There's more," while looking over at them, his expression grim. "Apparently Knockout managed to reverse engineer my synthetic energon formula and was testing its effects on him―"
Jack interjected, "You mean the formula that gave you all that power?"
Ratchet confirmed Jack's question with a nod before saying, "Yes, the same stuff that nearly got me offlined when I foolishly tried to take on Megatron." He scrolled through the message for what must have been the seventh time. "Shockwave was kind enough to also report that Cylas had become a new type of Terrorcon after Starscream and Knockout decided to infuse him with both Dark Energon and the Synthetic energon. He managed to escape their ship and for the last month they have been trying to locate him."
With his bad news delivered, Ratchet leaned against the console desk, slouching with fatigue. "The only reason we've been debriefed at all about this entire incident is because they've decided he's grown too dangerous to neutralize with just their troops. The last several attempts resulted in only recovering scraps of their vehicon troops. Within the remains of their last scouting mission they were able to recover a… Head. They plan on using a cortical-psychic-patch to access the trooper's memory drives to see what happened."
Arcee stood up straight, a hardened look entering her optics while her mouth-plate set into a somber line. "I'm alerting Optimus and Fowler."
Ratchet nodded, "I believe that to be a wise decision..."