It had been nearly a full half hour after the incident before everyone else had returned back to the Autobot base. Maya and Mei were the last two to enter, the former holding her shoulder and glaring at the Japanese woman. "Did you have to be so rough with me?"
Mei just grinned, shrugging. "Stop being a baby. You're fine."
"My shoulder hurts." Maya challenged, glaring at Mei.
"You're fine." Mei repeated, looking around the room. "I see we have our prisoner."
"More or less." Bryan sighed, glancing over at Sam before continuing. "I think our interrogation would best be done in that back storage room. The one with the drain in the floor. Makes clean up easy."
Mei caught on, nodding. "Bring him along."
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The dimly lit room in itself was a scary thing. Jeffery didn't even want to wonder about Mei in front of him. She had folded her arms, glaring down at him. "You, sir, are in a shit load of trouble." She hissed. "Not only did you attack the Autobots in what I could only think of calling an unprovoked attack and possible declaration of war, but you put one of their own offline. He is currently, laying on a slab in the medical bay fighting for his life."
Maya picked up, pushing off the wall she had been leaning on. "We'll start with the simplest question of all: Why?"
Jeffery held his tongue fast. Not daring to speak to either girl. Maya shook her head. "You won't be quiet for long." She whispered. "You're dealing with a Black Ops unit. You know damn well we can do what we please."
Mei held her hand out to her friend, telling her to be quiet. There was a drawn out silence before she spoke, hand positioned on her chin, just barely covering her lower lip. "Did you know," she began "that I built my team by myself?" She asked. "Hand picked." She admitted proudly. "Which makes them that much worse for the enemy. Which is you." She pointed at Jeffery. "Now here's what you need to know. My weapons officer, Maria, is an ex-KGB officer. You and I both know the torture they are capable of inflicting on a human being. Maya here, spent two years under cover in North Korea. They taught her many, many things in the ways of," She paused for effect as if looking for the right words. "extracting information. And then, there's me." She stated, leaning forward, only a few inches from his face. "I spent five years of my life, before becoming a US citizen, running errands for the Japanese mob. In return, they trained me in how to handle those who didn't want to pay protection." She hissed, taking a step back. "Now we'll ask again: Why did you attack them?"
Again, Jeffery bit his lip.
Maya rolled her eyes, un-holstering her pistol she placed it right above his knee cap. "Do you know the pain I can inflict upon you?" She asked, clicking back the gun's hammer. "I will ask a final time. Why did you attack the Autobots?" She waited five seconds. "Alright." She shrugged, placing her finger on the trigger.
Jeffery crumbled.
"Wait! Don't do it!" The man cried. "I'll tell you!"
Mei nodded. "We're listening."
"The attack was a test of a new weapons system. The higher ups in our government don't realize the power that they are sitting on! Those robots have the ability to end wars! They could end the war in Iraq in just a day! And yet those pompous asses in Washington won't simply gather them up and send them out!" He yelled. "The whole point of the hacks was to show them just what power they have at their control!"
Maya growled at him. "The reason why they don't 'gather them up and send them out' is because they are not just robots! They think! They feel! They are not just tools for your war!"
"You're just as stupid as the rest of them." Jeffery hissed, yelping when Maya's pistol butt met with the side of his head. "Watch your tongue."
Mei shook her head. "Next question: What did you do to Bumblebee?"
"I," Jeffery hissed, wishing he could hold his aching head. "didn't do a damn thing. It's what Simmons did."
"Regardless!" Maya yelled. "What did you do to him?!"
"It's an adaptable virus. We've been studying the Decepticon hacking signal for months since the first attack. The virus will eat away at his data banks, eat away at his memory until your friend," he spat "will cease to function."
Maya looked at Mei who simply nodded. Jeffery found himself looking down the barrel of the girl's gun.
"I will only ask this question once." She growled at him. "How do we fix it?"
"You don't." He replied. "We didn't create a vaccine. And anything you throw at it will just cause it to adapt and move faster through his system. You should take your time and say your goodbyes while you can." He was grinned at them till Mei nodded at Maya. "I'm going to go report to the others. Take care of our problem while I'm gone."
"With pleasure." Maya replied, her eyes narrowed at the man in front of her.
He'd survive her… barely.
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"He said that the signal they used to hack Bumblebee and implant the virus was all based off of the signals used to hack the USAF mainframe during the first original Decepticon attack." Mei stated, looking around the room. "Any ideas?"
"Me and Maggie could revamp the signal into an anti-virus… if we have the time and the equipment." Glen spoke up.
Mei nodded. "Whatever you need tell Tyler." She said, point to her team's tech.
"We'll just need a decent computer with some software and Barricade's help." Maggie said to Tyler, the youngest tech nodded. "I've got a decent system set up already in the medical bay."
"I will help you, human." Barricade sighed, turning to walk towards the med bay.
"Maggie." She corrected. "My name is Maggie, not human and diffidently not flesh bag."
She was about to say more but Bryan tapped her on the shoulder. "Baby steps." He said, pressing his fingers together in a sign of 'small'. She rolled her eyes at him, giggling as she headed for the med bay.
Meanwhile, Mei had turned to Kasey. "Maya is in there now getting information from him. We'll pass on what we get to you and Bryan to use on your case with Simmons. Anything you need, just ask."
"You got it." Kasey nodded, turning to Bryan who was making faces at Barricade's back. "Stop that!" She hissed, grabbing him by the back of his shirt. He only just grinned at her.
"Come on, lets get some rest. Sounds like tomorrow is going to be a busy day." Teresa said, separating the two before they could fight. Both nodded, heading for their respective rooms.
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Maggie sat in front of the multi-screen computer, grinning like a five year old at Christmas. "I thought you said you had a 'decent' system." She asked, looking at Tyler. He only shrugged. "It is by my standards."
She rolled her eyes. "I would kill to get this computer in my apartment." She grinned, looking at Barricade as she tapped a few keys. "I need you to hack this computer for a .doc file. It's the only way for me to record your signal."
The robot nodded, grabbing the computer's mainframe just as a hacking signal floated over the computer's speakers. Having retrieved the file, he took a step back.
She had recorded his signal and was currently working on pulling it apart piece by piece. She worked for a few minutes before sighing. "Going to need a little music for this one." She said to herself, pulling a CD from her bag and placing it in the CD-ROM drive.
She cracked her knuckles once before returning to work, fingers hitting all the keys in just the right order to pull the signal apart.
Father of mine,
Tell me where have you been,
You know I just close my eyes,
My whole world disappears,
Father of mine,
Take me back to the day,
Yah, when I was still your golden boy,
Back before you went away,
Tyler looked over her shoulder as she continued to work fast. Computer code appearing on the screen as the signal was dissected over and over until it was down to it's base component.
He had to hold back a grin when she had started to bob her head to the song.
I remember blue skies,
Walking the block,
I loved it when you held me high,
I loved to hear you talk
You would take me to the movies,
You would take me to the beach,
Take me to a place inside that so hard to reach,
She was getting close to finding what made the signal 'tick'. She could feel it in her finger tips as the danced gracefully over the keyboard before her. She was sure she was close, all the math, all the code seemed to add up just perfectly, she was missing a single piece.
Father of mine,
Where did you go?
Yah, you had the world inside you, man
But you did not seem to know,
Father of mine,
Tell me what do you see,
When you look back at your wasted life,
And you don't see me,
Tyler pointed at a piece of broken code on the screen, tapping her shoulder to get her to look up at it. She studied it for a moment before grinning, nodding her head as she worked to repair it as quick as she could, fingers pulling a double shift.
I was ten years old,
doing all that I could,
It wasn't easy for me,
to be a scared white boy in a black neighborhood,
Sometimes you would send me a birthday card,
with a five dollar bill,
Yeah, I never understood you then,
and I guess I never will,
The CD skipped as she slammed her fist down on the table, standing up quickly, the chair toppling over and startling Tyler, Glen, and much to everyone surprise Barricade when she yelled at the top of her lungs. "Yes!"
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She was running down the hall at top speed. "Ratchet!" She yelled, running into the main hanger. "Ratchet!" She called again, running outside. "Ratchet!" She called a final time rounding the corner fast and nearly running headlong into the medic's metal leg.
"There you are!" She gasped out, panting slightly.
"What's the problem?" He ran a scan. "You don't appear to be injured."
"I'm not!" She confirmed. "We did it! We modified the code! We created some sort of anti-virus and now we need you to somehow put it into Bumblebee's system to get that whole coma thing gone!" She yelled, speaking a mile a minute. The medical officer waited patiently for her to finish before sighing. "One more time. Slower."
"Just get in here!" She growled, heading for the med bay.
Ratchet looked to Ironhide who simply shrugged, more confused than the medic was. They both followed behind Maggie.
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"It makes since." Ratchet confirmed, looking over the code in front of him. "It even adapts as it goes. Very nice work, Maggie." He said as he started to connect wires from Bumblebee to the computer. He attached a few more before looking down at Tyler. "He should be showing up as 'Removable Disk B'." The medic said, watching as Tyler nodded, the icon showing up on the computer.
A few clicks and keystrokes later and the words 'file copying' appeared on the screen.
The room breathed a sigh of relief before Tyler spoke up. "Who wants to be the one to tell Sam?"
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Bryan growled as he rolled over, hearing someone pounding on his door. He looked at the door, burning a hole in it with his gaze before he sighed, getting up and taking a few steps towards the door. "If you don't stop pounding on this fu-" He stopped seeing Kasey standing there dressed up like she was heading out for a night on the town.
"What are you doing?" He sighed, rubbing his temples.
"They did it." She simply said, walking off towards the med bay knowing full well he would follow.
Sure enough he didn't disappoint.
He followed her in, his jaw nearly dropping when he saw Ratchet checking out a revived Bumblebee. While the yellow bot's optics were still dim, it was obvious he was awake.
"Holy-" Bryan started, only to be cut off by Kasey. "I know!"
He looked at her before looking up to Ironhide. "Did anyone tell Sam yet?" The black mech shook his head. "Not yet."
Bryan looked at Kasey. "Lets go get him." She nodded. "He headed off into town a little while ago with Mikeala. They took Sideswipe with them." She said, only to realize he was already heading for their patrol car.
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Sam sighed watching the world go by him as Sideswipe drove himself throw the city. It wasn't that he didn't want to be here with Mikeala, looking for a place to crash and have some fun. He was just more worried about Bumblebee.
Sam caught the red/blue flash and siren chirp of an unmarked police car behind them.
"Aw! I wasn't even speeding, honest!" Sideswipe whined as he pulled to the side of the road. Sam wasn't really paying attention until Kasey tapped his window which rolled itself down. "Hey kid." She said. "Head back to base. There is an update on the current situation that Optimus wants you to know about." She said simply, turning and heading back for their car.
Sam rolled his eyes. "Who cares." He whispered to himself as Mikeala allowed Sideswipe to turn himself around, starting back towards the Autobot base.
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Sam entered the base and looked around. The main hanger was completely empty. So empty that besides his own footsteps and breath, he could actually hear the ventilation system pushing freshly cooled air into the room.
He headed down the hall, trying his hardest to not look at the scorch marks in the hallway from the attack only a small time before. He didn't want to think about it.
Actually, that was a lie.
He did want to think about it. He just wasn't ready to face the facts as he thought them to be.
Sam sighed as he forced himself past the marks. He stuck his head in Optimus' office. Nothing.
The armory, Ironhide's favorite hangout. Empty.
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's room. Nothing.
Finally he took a deep breath, standing outside Ratchet's Medical Bay. He knew what, rather, who was laying behind that large door. He just didn't want to go in.
He heard a few voices float through the door and into the hallway. He took a breath and stepped forward, the door hissing open as he stared into bay.
He was speechless.
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Meanwhile outside, Kasey had her cell phone pressed to her ear. A few routing calls and favors later had ensured Simmons would not be able to trace her call.
"Who's this?"
"Now, now, Mr. Simmons. Is that any way to great your new business partner?" Kasey was grinning to herself at her ability to keep her voice as smooth as it had been.
"Shit… not you again."
"Yes, me again." Kasey growled. "We want to see your base of operations."
"What?! You're kidding right? Abso-fuckin-lutely not"
"It wasn't a request Simmons." Kasey replied, the venom clear in her voice. "I want the location and I want it now. Or the next time you see the light of day, you'll be missing your head."
There was a pause on the other end. Before Simmons laughed at her. "You wouldn't shoot me. You would draw too much attention to yourself."
"Not quite. Do you remember a story in the news a few weeks ago? That twenty-two year old basketball player that just dropped dead during a live, televised game?"
In truth, the poor kid had actually died of a Brain Aneurysm as stated in the papers. But why not twist fact to fit her fiction?
"That… that was you guys?"
Kasey didn't answer his question. "Location. Now."
"Fine." Simmons sighed, rattling off the location of his operations.
"We will be there in two hours. If you think you're going to pull some tricks while we're there, don't think we won't see it coming. See you later, Simmons."
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"Sit still!" Ratchet yelled. "If you keep moving you're going to injure yourself. Sit still!"
Sam couldn't believe his eyes. There was Bumblebee, sitting up on Ratchet work bench while the medic took his sweet time working the bot over. Checking systems, running scans - the works.
Upon seeing Sam, Bumblebee tried to shrug off the medic to get to his friend.
Sam didn't say a word, he was just staring blankly at the yellow Autobot before a huge grin crossed his face and he ran to the table and climbed up, wrapping his arms around the bot's large arm.
It was a scene worthy of it's own music score. At least that's how everyone except Ironhide saw things.
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The metal detector beeped twice.
Once when Bryan walked through. The other time when Kasey followed.
The security guard was about to wand them when Simmons came running up. "They're fine. Leave them be." He told the guard, motioning for them to follow.
It was a long elevator ride to the basement level. Simmons shifted uncomfortably under the gave of Bryan and Kasey. Mostly Kasey.
The doors opened and he walked forward, the other two follow closely behind. He stopped at a set of stainless steel doors.
"What you are about to see, took a year of hard work to accomplish. Do not touch anything or speak to anyone. Are we clear?"
Kasey just glared at him. His so-called stone resolve crumbling.
"Right, well… anyway, here we go." He said, pushing the two doors open into a room full of computers and technicians.
Lucky for both Kasey and Bryan, years of hardship, and in Bryan's case, war, had made it so that even if they were shocked, they didn't appear so.
This came in handy upon seeing a figure laying on a metal table. The body was lifeless, limp. But that wasn't what shocked them. What had shocked them wasn't so much, what it was, but more - who - it was.
Laid out on the table, covered by lights and technicians, laid a lifeless body of a fallen comrade. A fallen friend.
Jazz.