For a long while, nothing happened. Sari had to keep herself from dozing off. Watching someone else sleep was like torture. She could hear Reverberate's mechanized snoring. But suddenly the sound dwindled off and she opened her eyes. Something seemed a bit...off. As she watched, the edges around the intercom screen started to turn a faint, glimmering crimson color and Reverberate started to move rather stiffly. She gasped, getting up and going to Ratchet's room. "Ratchet, Ratchet, wake up! Something weird is happening..." she said, banging on his door.
The door immediately flew open and Ratchet came out into the hallway, nearly running over Sari. Without a word, he scooped her up in his hands and headed to the computer. He and Sari stared at the screen. They stared at the same wall they saw earlier, but someone was screaming in the distant and tapping on the wall opposite.
"Reverberate?"
Rim Shot's panicked, muffled voice came, though Ratchet and Sari had
no clue who it was, "Are you alright? Reverberate? Stay right
there, Rev, I'm coming over."
Ratchet turned a puzzled and
confused look to Sari.
Sari looked just as confused as him.
Reverberate suddenly let out a strange sound; it sounded like a gasp that turned into a glottal hiss and his arm suddenly stiffened and shook. It was as though he were being choked by something that wasn't there.
Sari took in a long, horrified breath.
A door hissed open in Reverberate's room at that moment. "Reverberate? Ahhhhgggh!" The green and white mech the screen now showed was down on his knees and grasping his head as if he were in pain.
Reverberate let out another airy cry of what appeared to be pain as his body recoiled and curled into itself at swift intervals. In the flashes of his face that came, Sari could slowly see IMVi's features appearing. His optics turned red and pupil-less and a crimson redness appeared over him. Sometimes he hacked and struggled to respirate as though, even unconsciously, Reverberate was trying to resist the change.
Sari looked terrified and stepped back. "Wha...what do we do Ratchet?" she whimpered.
"Go get Prism and Prime," Ratchet said, not taking his optics off the screen, "Hurry."
Ratchet's fingers flew over the keypad in front of him before he turned to look up again. "Reverberate, can you hear me?"
There was a moment of only the sounds of internal struggle before Reverberate's weak, horrified voice came. "Ratchet...?" he said. He sounded still like something was strangling him. "Ratchet...I can't...I can't...keep...control...." He said. He seemed to notice, however, Rimshot in the doorway. "Rimshot, get out...of...of here!" he shouted.
"I—I can't..." Rim Shot replied, "Wheelie!! Sideswipe! Sunstreaker!" he called before gasping.
Wheelie snorted and woke up. "Huhwha?" he said. He suddenly heard a strange commotion coming from next door and raced over. He got about as far as Rimshot's fallen form. "Wha...what's happening?!"
Reverberate's cries suddenly became quiet, and he stopped moving so erratically.
The Lambos came rushing up behind Wheelie, Sideswipe struggling to keep his balance.
"What's going on?" Sunstreaker asked.
"S-something's wrong with Reverberate, and Rimshot..." Wheelie said weakly, looking ready to pass out himself.
"Who's Reverberate..." the form in the room hissed. IMVi hoisted himself up on the platform that Reverberate slept on.
"Primus..." Ratchet breathed. "Reverberate!" he shouted.
IMVi giggled evilly and raised his arm intercom and smirked at Ratchet and Sari. "Oh, you're looking for the brat? He's um...busy right now. Can I take a message?" the virus hissed coyly, slinging his wiry legs over the side of the bed.
Wheelie looked like he was about to wet himself as he took a step back. "Wha...what is that thing...?"
"I
dunno, but I'm not about to find out." Sunstreaker said, backing
up and away.
"You glitch head! We can't just run off and
leave them here." Sideswipe jerked his arm out of Sunstreaker's
hand. "That's Reverberate, remember?"
"One problem, bro, that's NOT the way I remembered him!"
Rim Shot struggled. Get out of my head. He mentally told the virus. And give us our friend back!
"You have an interesting little head here..." IMVi hissed, though it was a mental ridicule for Rimshot. "You're the one who entered me first though, trying to help your little friend...but this isn't his body. It's mine. And I'm getting very hungry again; it's time to find someone else to snack on..."
Not if I stop you first. Rim Shot got up and ran to lock the door to Reverberate's room, then turned quickly and charged towards the smaller bot, knocking him down to the ground. The twins and Wheelie looking on in wonder.
IMVi seemed entirely unafraid as Rimshot attacked him; he didn't even seem to be fighting back...yet. "Foolish little boy. You might think of me as your little friend, but I have lived for millions of years feasting on the life source of your kind. Do you think you're going to contain me? You've just ensured me another meal..." IMVi said, showing Rimshot his sharp, animal-like teeth. "Looks like it's going to be you tonight." He suddenly drove a foot into his stomach and kicked Rimshot off of him. The move was so quick, if you'd blinked it would have already been over with.
Rim Shot fell backwards but quickly regained his footing. This time he kept his distance, but was still determined not to allow IMVi out of the room.
"I'm gonna go get Jazz and Sentinel," Sunstreaker said, turning. Sideswipe grabbed him by the shoulder.
"You can't! This is exactly what Sentinel wants! Go and get him, and Reverberate will be in big trouble."
"What do you suggest we do?"
"We'll have to deal with this ourselves and keep it our secret."
"And just HOW do you suggest we do that? I mean, look at him," Sunstreaker gestured to IMVi, "that's not exactly one of the training field holograms there."
Sideswipe thought.
"I'm so flattered that you boys are troubling yourself for my sake..." IMVi cackled with a crooked smirk. He was still on top of Rimshot and pinning him to the ground; since Rimshot was not much larger than him, it wasn't entirely too hard. IMVi raised one claw into the air and suddenly drove it down into Rimshot's chest panel, beginning to warp and tear the metal apart.
Wheelie let out a shout and clenched his mouth with his hands. "We have to do something or he's going to kill Rimshot!" the young bot screeched.
Sideswipe ran over to Rim Shot's side and gave IMVi a swift kick that sent him flying into the opposite wall. He then turned to help Rim Shot up and over to where Wheelie and Sunstreaker were waiting.
"We've gotta get out of here." he said, turning to look at IMVi getting back up.
IMVi let out a hack and then gripped his teeth together as they fled. But then he smirked. "Haaa, they think they can get away..." he said, laughing airily as he suddenly vanished into the wall, integrating himself into the machine systems lodged between the walls.
Sari came
back to the main communication room, out of breath. Prism and Prime
were right behind her. Both of them looked startled and out of breath
as well when they arrived.
"Ratchet, what's happening?"
Prime said as he marched towards the main monitor.
"You'll never believe it." Ratchet didn't bother to take his optics off what he was doing. "Fortunately I recorded the whole transmission and am ready to play it back if you care to watch."
Prime sighed, his voice shaking ever so slightly, though other than that he kept his composure. "Fine, go ahead."
Wheelie ran as fast as he could, trailing behind the others. Sideswipe was carrying Rimshot. "What do we do guys?! We have to tell the others or he's going to kill us!"
"Jazz," Sunstreaker said, "We've gotta find Jazz. He's the only one we can trust. Sideswipe is right. If we bring Sentinel into this he'll have his proof for getting rid of Reverberate. And we can all clearly see that it's NOT Reverberate we're dealing with here. It might be his body, but there's something else speaking through it."
Wheelie nodded, though the young bot was horrified. "But what if Jazz says we have to tell Sentinel and Ultra Magnus? Then Reverberate will be executed, or at the very least imprisoned! What do we do if that happens?"
IMVi followed the batch of runaways from overhead, traveling through the security system.
"That's a chance we'll just have to take." Sideswipe said, shifting Rim Shot to his other shoulder. "It's clear we can't handle this on our own."
Sunstreaker nodded in agreement.
Optimus watched in horror at the replay of what happened. "Primus, IMVi really is still alive in there...the reformatting wasn't strong enough to eliminate his influence," he touched his forehead thoughtfully. "We need to do something to help, if we can."
"Is there any way to reach into Reverberate or IMVi's psyche from here?" Prism asked. "Perhaps there may be some way to delete IMVi from his mind, or at the very least suppress him until someone can get him help."
Ratchet shook his head sorrowfully, "I honestly have no idea how we can do somethin' like that from here. I would have to have Reverberate here to do anything that would help. As long as IMVi is controlling him, I doubt we could even send a transmission to him. He'd probably ignore it and disable it."
Optimus looked lost and contemplative. He wasn't sure what to do. "We should at least try, perhaps if we tried speaking to him it would reawaken Reverberate's personality within him."
Ratchet shrugged his shoulders. "We can try, but appears to me IMVi has buried Reverberate deep this time."
Optimus began rerouting the communication signal to try and tap into the intercom on IMVi's arm, even though he'd temporarily disabled it. "Reverberate was always closest to you Ratchet," Optimus said. "I think if any of us get through to him, it'll be you." Optimus looked back at the older bot with a pleading expression as he commenced reworking the computer.
"Fine," he sighed.
Optimus
opened up the communication waves finally. "Reverberate, can you
hear me?"
IMVi paused up in the ventilation system where he
was pursuing the others and looked down at the intercom blandly.
"Optimus Prime..."
"That isn't your body anymore IMVi, Reverberate is our comrade and we're not about to let you take control of him..." Optimus seethed a bit. He felt so helpless in this situation that it was making him angry.
IMVi smirked a bit as he looked down into the screen. "No need to be so tense. I'm not vying for full control of the brat anymore. I just want to get him into enough trouble that the Autobot organization he so highly worships ends up putting him to death..." he hissed.
Sari clenched her fists and teeth sharply. "You're nothing but a terrible little brat!" she shouted at him.
"Ah, it's the little spitfire child. Sorry that Reverberate isn't around right now to make any of his pathetic attempts of flirtation with you, but here," IMVi blew a mocking kiss at her. Sari growled at him and stomped her foot in aggravation.
"That's enough, IMVi," Ratchet glared.
IMVi seemed to wince a bit and glared at Ratchet. "You can't tell me what to do, old man," IMVi sneered at him. "You and your comrades locked me away in my own body, and if you think I'm going to let that little brat Reverberate keep hold of it, you're dead wrong. I'd rather not exist anymore than have to live in his subconscious watching him serve your cause which I so direly tried to destroy..."
Ratchet stood unmoved by the words, the same scowl still crossing his face plates. "Oh, I can't tell you what to do, can I?"
"Last time I checked, you were standing in a ramshackle base thousands of light-years away..." IMVi said, sounding unthreatened as he dropped down into the corridor and walked after the young recruits he'd been chasing.
"We might be standin' in a ramshackle base, as you so kindly put it, thousands of light-years away, BUT it just so happens that I'm standin' right here talkin' with you! And if I could I would reach through this monitor screen and wrap my hands around that neck of yours and squeeze it so tight I would have to put your optic visor back on afterwards. And, Primus help me, I would be tempted to put it on upside down!" Ratchet leaned closer to the screen, his teeth starting to tighten.
IMVi seemed a bit unsettled by this and grimaced, but he clenched his teeth. "You can't frighten me old man! I might still be small but I left dozens of Autobots piled in the battlefields for you to tend to once I rendered their innards," he spat, angrily. But he seemed to be having some trouble acting cocky; he dragged his hand down his face as though struggling to maintain his control.
"You don't scare me either," Ratchet crossed his arms, "Believe me, I've seen scarier things in my lifetime. Some of which I don't even want to mention."
"You know, it doesn't matter if you stop me from doing what I came to do tonight," IMVi hissed. "Your 'beloved' Sentinel Prime will soon realize that Reverberate is harboring a Decepticon virus within himself and promptly destroy him."
A smirk crossed Ratchet's lips. "Is that so? Hmmm... So let me get this straight... You come out, get Reverberate in trouble with Sentinel Prime, Sentinel Prime destroys Reverberate and you along with him, and then.... let's see..."
IMVi suddenly paused, then made a face and grimaced. "Slag...didn't think about that... $#$%$#!!! Gargh! ...no matter, I'll simply find myself a new body..."
Ratchet turned an irritated glare to Optimus.
"IMVi, think rationally what you're doing. There isn't any time now for you to construct yourself a new body and there's a dire chance that both you and Reverberate could lose your lives..." Optimus said, his tone entirely serious. "You might believe that you deserve vengeance for what we did, but Reverberate could have never been created if there hadn't already been some goodness somewhere in your spark. If you would just listen to reason we could help you both!"
IMVi sneered, though he looked fearful now, like he was being cornered. "It's too late now. You Autobots crossed the line...I'll never have any respect shown to me as a Decepticon ever again because of all of you! It was bad enough that they used me like an errand boy for millennia and tried to throw me away, but now...now I'm just out to make you pay!" He shouted. Suddenly the comlink line started to die off.
Ratchet shook his head, "The thanks we get for trying to help."
Optimus sighed, but suddenly looked sternly at the screen. "It's a long shot, but...we have to try and get there and stop whatever might happen to Reverberate or IMVi. I don't believe Ultra Magnus would rush a judgment of our friend, but Sentinel indefinitely would...we have to at least try!"
"And just how are we gonna do that?" Ratchet looked at Prime.
"I don't know..." Optimus said. Their ship was still...in total disrepair. But suddenly Prism gasped. "W-wait a minute...I have an emergency ship that the Elite Guard cruiser dropped off just outside the city! Granted it's small, it'll only fit two bots...but it's something, and it should have enough fuel to get back to Cybertron..."
"I guess that settles that." said Ratchet. "An' who gets to go?"
"I need to. Reverberate is my responsibility..." Optimus said. "If nothing else because I owe it to him to try and save him. He's done as much as he could for this team since he became an Autobot, I can't let him down." He looked at Ratchet. "IMVi might have his reservations, but he's still a threat, and you know viruses better than anyone from your time in the war Ratchet. You might be the only one who knows the method to keep him from attacking anyone else..."
Ratchet nodded.
"I want to go too!" Sari suddenly shrieked from down below. "Reverberate is my best friend, and I don't want him to get hurt!"
Optimus, however, didn't look so sure. "I don't think you can, Sari. Cybertron would be a dangerous place for a human, and to be honest I'm not sure the atmosphere could sustain you..."
"Prime's right," Ratchet looked down. "Cybertron is no place for an organic. Besides, I don't know what we're gonna be facing. IMVi is dangerous. If you got hurt... I dunno what we'd do."
Sari grimaced and sighed. Prism looked at them both. "Come on, we have to hurry if there's going to be any hope of you two getting there in time..." she said. Optimus nodded and followed after her with Ratchet.
Sari, however, looked back at the deadened screen. She then took off on her own without a word.
