Old Friends, New Problems
Chapter 10
#Scrap yard#%Bumblebee's POV%
"Hey, has anyone heard from Strongarm?"
Everybody in the scrap yard turned their heads to look at Bumblebee as he walked through the gate.
"We thought she was you, Bee." said Grimlock, frowning.
Bumblebee frowned and shook his head. Then, "No. I thought she was here." He turned to Fixit, and said, "Fixit, can you get a lock on Strongarm's signal?"
Fixit nodded, and began typing rapidly. A minute later, the screen blared and flashed red.
Bumblebee looked at Fixit, "What's wrong?"
The orange minicon rubbed the top of his head, "I-I do not know," he said, and began typing again. The screen blared and red again. Fixit hummed and tapped his chin in thought. "I'm sure I keyed in the correct sequence - it shouldn't be coming up as negative. It's like she just...disappeared."
Bumblebee's optics narrowed. "I don't like this. Bots don't just disappear. Especially ones like Strongarm. When was the last time she checked in?"
Fixit pressed a button to his left, and a data log popped up on the screen.
"Cadet Strongarm checked in four hours ago. But after that, there's nothing."
Suddenly, Bumblebee's comm. began pinging. He quickly checked the I.D., he sighed in relief when Strongarm's name popped up, and answered.
"Strongarm, where are you?! Are you alright?!"
"I'm a little shaken up, but alright. I am currently with Rem and her comrades on their ship." There was a pause. "Lieutenant, were you aware that Megatron was still online?"
Bumblebee sighed again, his cadet was safe...Wait a minute! She was with Rem, that only meant trouble.
"Strongarm, just how did you end up on that ship? And why didn't you check in?!"
There was some nervous laughter. "About that, Lieutenant," she said. "The reason why I didn't check in is because I'm sort of at the bottom of the ocean right now - well, below it."
"WHAT?!"
#Laurentian Abyss - Nemesis II - Guest Quarters#%Strongarm's POV%
"WHAT?!"
Strongarm cringed at her superior's raised voice. Maybe Rem was right - she should've just waited to be bridged home to explain everything to her team.
"Lieutenant, I know it sounds ridiculous, but they've have built their base in what the humans call 'The Laurentian Abyss'. And it's impossible to get a signal down here unless you know how to tune your frequencies just right." She waited for another violent outburst at the mention of being well below the planet's sea level. Instead, not much to her surprise, the black-and-yellow mech just sighed.
"When will you be able to come back?"
"In an hour or so - maybe more."
Another sigh.
"OK. And be careful, Strongarm. Contact me as soon as you're bridged out of there."
Strongarm nodded. "Of course, Lieutenant."
She was about to shut off her comm. when a thought suddenly struck her.
"Lieutenant, before we break contact, I have a question."
"Shoot," he said.
Strongarm took a deep breath. "I now know that Rem doesn't necessarily like me because of my sire."
"Yes?"
"But what did my sire do to get such hate? He's a good bot!"
A pause.
"He killed the mech she loved."
With a click!, the line went dead, and Strongarm was left feeling sick to her tanks.
#Laurentian Abyss - Nemesis II - med bay#%Rem's POV%
Rem looked down at the sparkling sleeping in Ratchet's arms from Knock Out's shoulder, and smiled.
The sparkling was a white-and-violet femmeling with a gun metal-gray face and cyan-blue optics. Her helm resembled Ratchet's, dark purple chevron and all. In fact, Silvercoat was practically a mini femme version of Ratchet. Rem just hoped that the little one didn't develop the bad habit of throwing things at the people who annoyed her like Ratchet did. Speaking of throwing things, Rem looked up where Megatron knelt down beside Ratchet, and chuckled when she saw the slight dent between his optics where Ratchet had thrown his wrench.
Suddenly, a silver-and-black Eradicon dashed into the med bay, looking frantic.
"Megatron! We have trouble!"
Sorry for the late update! Been busy studying!
I'll be sure to update more often. Enjoy!