Author's Note

Hello all, I'm back. I'm now back home in the UK after spending 2 days without sleep traveling all the way from Singapore. I'm starting to get over the jet lag now, but I'm still not used to the cold. I wish the crew of MV Hyundai Splendor a safe voyage, a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

So enough with that, here is the next chapter

Enjoy


A metropolitan police constable was doing his beat. The weather was slightly chilly and he was slightly miffed at his sergeant for not letting him have one of the panda cars. But whatever he thought he was on foot for today and he would just have to put up with it. He knew there was a small coffee shop a five minute walk away and couldn't decide whether to just grab one and go or stay in. Also whether it should be a tea or coffee? Decisions, decisions.

He was so engrossed in his internal debate he failed to notice the man walking towards him on the pavement and he accidentally bumped into him.

"Sorry, officer" The man said politely

The PC put his hands up "No, my mistake, should have been looking where I was going"

The two carried on their way. The policeman must have made three steps when he realized something. That man was very tall. He turned around and saw the back of the man and sure enough he was tall. Six foot five he guessed, maybe more. Also he noticed that he was wearing a white shirt and black trousers plus he had epilates. It couldn't be? Could it? He had to find out. He turned back following the man. He straightened his black cap being more authoritative and quickly caught up with the man.

"Excuse me, sir" He called out.

The man looked back for a moment, turned back and ran.

"Police! Stop!"

He took his cap off before losing it and made chase down the street. He held his radio and part shouted into it "Sierra Oscar from two four seven. Urgent assistance required. Chasing on foot suspect believed to be Michael Rickers. Heading west on Sussex Gardens towards Marylebone road"

"Received" Came a distorted reply though the radio.

The man was very quick on his feet, but so was the policeman. He spent a number of years now running after all sorts of criminals and all of them he caught. This guy shouldn't be any different. The crowds were being knocked over by the large man but they got out of the way seeing the police uniform barrelling after the assailant. They came to a cross roads and the man ran in front of dense traffic. The policemen did the same but by now the traffic had already stopped making it easier for him. The man took a right.

"Suspect making a right on Edgware Road" He shouted into radio, keeping the duty inspector informed.

Again it played out. The man would run at people causing them to fall and PC would constantly catch up. Already the sound of sirens was heard and the net was closing on the fleeing man. Once again the man crossed the road and the PC followed suit. A Vauxhall Astra police car came from roundabout at Marble Arch and was quickly closing in. The man saw this and ran down a side street.

"Suspect making a left on George Street towards Gloucester Place"

The PC ran down the centre of the road in between the parked cars on either side.

"Stop! Police!" He shouted out. The man wasn't listening or didn't care. The two crossed a number of junctions and by now the PC's lungs were burning up and was struggling to keep up the pace but the man just kept going. Just who the hell was this guy?

The police car turned into the side street and the PC stepped out the way and the car took over. The PC stopped and stared to get his breath back. The yelpers on the siren were deafening but the man wasn't giving in. He ran in between two parked cars and carried on running at his pace along the thin pavement. Then he burst onto a busy road full of traffic and already a group of three police officers were waiting, two PC's and a sergeant. They were spread out forming a rudimentary semi-circle. They pulled out their batons and flicked them to length.

"Sierra Oscar from three six two. Suspect Michael Rickers sighted at the junction of Gloucester Place and George Street. CO nineteen and Trojan Units required immediately" The sergeant spoke calmly into his radio.

"Received. CO nineteen and Trojan Units are heading to your location" The radio operator at the station acknowledged.

"Mr Rickers, please stay where you are. You'll only make it harder on yourself if you choose to run" The sergeant told the man.

Michael just smirked. 'High profile enough for you, Collin?' he thought.

"You have no idea what's going on" Was all Michael said, confusing the policemen. The police car came up from the street and the two in that readied their batons and blocked off the street behind Michael.

Michael looked at the traffic. Now he had to disappear. He saw the traffic had come to stand still again and a number of motorbikes were preparing to overtake the traffic towards Oxford Street. He saw one that took his fancy.

He lunged at the sergeant on his left who in turn made a swing with his baton. Hand to hand fighting was a specialty of Michael's so the whole thing had already played through his head. He had already planned it from start to finish. The baton was swung at him. Michael thrusting his hands out and caught it before it was fast enough to do damage, merely slapping his hands hard. He grabbed it and with strength of his left arm, yanked the baton from the sergeant and jammed it the handle upwards smashing the soft underside of the chin where the neck starts, the sergeant was thrown back slightly and he clutched onto with his neck instinctively. While the sergeant did that, Michael with his right reached for the belt and grabbed the CS gas and sprayed it behind him catching the others off guard. Michael let the sergeant to carry on holding onto his own neck while the others collapsed to their knees as their eyes burned and he ran for the road.

The bike in question that Michael had seen was approaching. A run of the mill Kawasaki Ninja 600 with the usual bright green theme that was so common for that model, so common a bike it was that the police would find it difficult to track it down later without a number registration.

'This is going to hurt' He thought. He stuck his right arm up and swung at the rider. The rider was thrown clean off his bike and onto the road. The bike lost control and fell over with its engine still idling on what must have been a low gear as the rear wheel kept turning. Michael shook his arm sharply as if to shake out the pain in his right forearm as he jogged over to where the bike laid to rest on the road.

Crowds had gathered and many had their mobiles out and were filming the whole incident. Almost certainly would the whole thing be on the internet in minutes. 'That should do it' Michael again thought to himself.

He reached down to the left handle and pulled the clutch in and with his foot he kicked down the gear selector to neutral and pulled the bike up, mounted while still holding the clutch in, he engaged first with another kick down and revved the engine harshly then slowly eased the clutch out and U-turned and headed north while avoiding the people now gathering closer to the incident and when he felt he could he gave it the beans.

In the distance a police van was pushing through the traffic up from marble arch. The armed units were too late.

High in the sky the Decepticon warship The Nemesis was cruising a couple miles high above the Solomon Islands and night had already descended giving the interior of the warship an even darker appeal than usual. Megatron was stood in front on the control panel on the bridge staring out at the black view when behind him at the far opposite end on the bridge the door opened to reveal Knockout with his captive, Barnaby. The human was held inside a cage that would make him seem to be a pet. Knockout brought the cage over to Megatron.

"Doctor in the house" He announced "And I have found a most interesting human specimen" He joked, much to Megatron's irritation.

The Decepticon warlord turned on his heel struts and looked down upon the cage holding the shivering human. Shivering due to both the cold and the fact he was terrified. "Care to explain yourself?" He simply asked.

"M-Master, I swear I have no idea why he ran. I-I don't get it. Please I had the situation under control" The human stammered.

"Oh really? Well you didn't do a very good job, did you?"

Barnaby remained silent, unknowing what to say.

"So tell me human. What possible reason could make him decided to escape if you had the situation under control as you put it?"

"I-I really don't know. He doesn't have ID on him or any money, he would have nowhere to go. I don't get it. Honest"

"Would this have anything to do with it?"

Megatron indicated to Soundwave you had silently approached and played a silent black and white CCTV recording a one ordinary man being chased by another much bigger and then a car coming in between the two, blocking the second one as the first fled off the edge of the screen. The rear window of the car rolled down and the video stopped and a box around the window appeared and then zoomed into the box and enhanced the image as best as possible. The face of the man in the car was slightly blurry, but good enough to make out some of the facial features. A nose, a smug smile.

"I suppose you might know who he is?" Megatron asked.

Barnaby squinted slightly and clearly was thinking hard then his face muscles released and he sighed in defeated.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know who that is" Barnaby said while looking down not wanting to see the face of Megatron which was a good this as Megatron became furious.

"DON'T LIE TO ME INSECT!" He bellowed. Barnaby shuffled back in the cage as Megatron leaned down closer to the cage "You think I wasn't aware that you have been running your own agenda's instead of fulfilling your duty to me!"

Barnaby's eyes shot open wide in shock.

"We have been tracking all movements from that place and we know it was to do with this incident. Care to explain?"

"B-But master, I have absolutely no idea who that is or what it's about"

Megatron growled under his breath so low it caused a slight vibration to the cage. He stood back up to his full height and turn to face the control panel again.

"So tell me, human. What do you propose we should do now?"

Barnaby moved his eyes around as if hoping he could see an answer appear before him. No luck there.

"There is nothing that can be done right now. He would have to give up soon as the guy has no money, so can't buy food or a place to stay. It's only a matter of time"

"And then what?"

"I-I… I don't know my master"

Megatron stood there for a few moments while he considered his options. Then just like that his evil twisted mind came up with a solution. Why hadn't he thought of it before?

"Do you fully understand why I want him to be 'sent down' as the saying goes?" Megatron asked.

Barnaby was puzzled by the question and shook his head. When realizing Megatron had his back turned he spoke up "N-No I'm afraid I don't"

"I could very easily squash him, but there will very little satisfaction from it. He is clever, even I have to admit that. However I will not be bested by him, how dare he summon me and insult me and to think that he could get away with it. Even an Autobot wouldn't be foolish enough to try that so why should he be any different. So what better revenge I could come up with is for him to be betrayed by his very own allies. That is the best kind of revenge that I can inflict upon him. Plus it will make an example of him to the other Autobot's human allies"

Barnaby still didn't grasp as to what Megatron was getting at. It was all too clear on his face. Megatron cleared it up for him.

"I have had enough waiting for your legal system to dispose of him. It's time we did take extra measure to ensure that the right outcome occurs. So tell me. If someone were to change their story to more in my favour, who would that be?"

Barnaby moved closer to the side of the cage and quickly pondered about it.

"I have someone in mind. Although he would never change his story" Barnaby answered.

"Bring that person to me. I'll make sure he changes his story" The one side of Megatron's pulled up in a half grin.

Back at the Autobot base all the Autobots had reverted back to their true forms and were huddled close to the main computer. All the humans were surrounded around the TV area, watching the main computer as well.

"Ratchet, are you able to track Michael's location?" Optimus asked with urgency.

"For the time being, he still has his name tag locator beacon" Ratchet typed away and pulled up a street map of London and zoomed into the Paddington area. A single blue dot was moving fast in a westerly direction headed for the Westway.

"It would appear that Michael has acquired vehicular transport" Optimus told everybody.

"I'll say" Pitched in Baines "He's got a motorbike"

Everyone looked at him in confusion.

"Well the only way he could travel through central London at that speed is by motorbike, either that or he's nicked a police car"

"Ratchet, search the computer networks of the law enforcement agencies for any stolen motorbikes in that area recently" Optimus ordered.

"And make it quick. Knowing Michael, which I do very well, he will dump that locator beacon soon. We need to track him by other methods" Baines added once more.

Ratchet got busy away searching through the Metropolitan police database while leaving the map with the tracker location on the map which was racing west on the start of the M4 towards Heathrow.

The kids watched as it all unfolded in front of them.

"So do you think he is guilty?" Miko plucked up the courage to ask.

Jack decided his words carefully "I'm… I'm not so sure now. I mean, do we really know him?"

"Is he going to come back?" Raff asked.

"Let's just hope so" Jack replied.

The entire team could only watch and wait for results to arrive.