(authors notes)
Hello everyone, so its time for another chapter. I would like to thank those who left comments. Some of you gave me some ideas and one of you pointed out a flaw with the base so I will have to take that into account and work on. So, for that thankyou.
Now with out further a due let's begin.
(Autobots new base)
Everyone had finished exploring the base and had now regrouped in the command center of the base. Raf and Miko were exchanging what they had found in the base while the bots did the same. The only ones not partaking in the conversation were Optimus Ultra Magnus and Fowler, who were merely finishing on a last few questions about the base.
After a few minutes of chatter everyone looked at Optimus as he turned to look at them and step forward slightly.
"I trust everyone is pleased, with the condition of our new home?" he asked as everyone began nodding their heads.
"Very good, because Agent fowler has told me that we can move into our new home, as soon as we are ready. Upon our return, everyone is to gather everything of importance. Because as soon as we are ready we will be transported here and begin settling into our new home." He stated as everyone nodded.
Everyone then turned and began walking towards the exit where they all waited on the helicopter pad for a ground bridge.
"Ratchet, would you please activate the ground bridge." Asked Optimus over the comms.
"Of course Optimus." Replied Ratchet as a ground bridge opened up in front of them moments later.
Everyone then began walking through the ground bridge and found themselves back in hanger E. When everyone had finally walked through, Ratchet deactivated the ground bridge.
"So, how was it?" asked Ratchet as he continued to look at the console.
"Your gonna love it Ratchet. There is so much more room." Stated Bulkhead.
"Oh I'm sure Bulkhead." Responded Ratchet dryly not even bothering to look away from the monitor.
"Ratchet." Said Optimus gaining Ratchet's attention. "I need you to dismantle the ground bridge so that we may transport it to our new home." He then stated, which caused Ratchet looked shocked.
"B-but Optimus. We need the Ground bridge. What if Megatron finds another fossil, Or-or an energon source?" asked Ratchet Shocked.
"Megatron has already gathered fossils recently. Which means, it will take time before he can have his troops locate more, and that means now is the best time to transport it. Once we have the ground bridge at our new base, we will be able to confront Megatron, should he locate anymore predacon remains." Responded Optimus.
Ratchet stuttered for a few moments trying to find a reason as to why they shouldn't dismantle the ground bridge, buts sadly couldn't. He slumped down slightly as he responded, "Yes Optimus." Before turning around and grabbing his tools with his head down.
After grabbing his tools Ratchet began walking towards the ground bridge to begin dismantling it.
(The Nemesis)
It was currently night time where the nemesis was, as it flew through the air. The sky was slightly cloudy as only a few stars shinned in the sky.
Scourge was currently laying on the flight deck on the warship. His head rested on his talons as he was deep in thought. He was currently thinking about the image in his head when he looked at the one bot, and the voices that he had also heard. But the more and more he thought about it the more it didn't make sense.
'Why is this happening to me?' he wondered. 'I know I had never seen or heard those things before. But they felt familiar, but why?'
Scourge continued to think about what they could mean for a few more minutes before getting frustrated. He stood up and began pacing, as he continued to think about what happened. As he continued to pace Predaking opened his eyes and looked at Scourge.
"Must you!?" questioned Predaking angrily.
Scourge gave no response and just continued to pace, still thinking about what happen.
"Scourge!" roared Predaking gaining Scourge's attention. "Cease your mindless pacing at once. Or do I need to make you?" he then stated threateningly as he sized up Scourge.
Scourge not wanting to be beaten to scrap again immediately stop, though somewhat grudgingly.
"That's what I thought?" said Predaking as he laid back down.
Mean while on the command bridge of the nemesis Megatron watched his beasts from a feed provided by Soundwave. Megatron watched as his beasts growled at each other. It had now been days since they were last sent out to try and hunt down the autobots, and he was slightly concerned that his beasts may loss their edge if they didn't get out often enough.
As he continued to think of an idea as to keep his beasts at their best, Shockwave walked onto the bridge, with the doors closing behind him. Megatron turned and watched as Shockwave approached and bowed.
"Lord Megatron." Shockwave said as came out of his bow.
"Shockwave. Have you managed to locate anymore predicon bones?" Megatron asked.
"No master." Responded Shockwave as he shook his head no. "I am still trying to isolate the precise frequency that I used for the microchips on the predicons." He then stated.
"I see." Was all Megatron said as he turned around to look out the front of the nemesis.
"Shockwave, I believe my beasts are losing their edge. How can you insure that they still remain at their peak?" asked Megatron. Shockwave was silent for a few moments before answers.
"Perhaps by giving them an object aboard the ship to locate, and have it ground bridged to a random location. By giving them the scent, they could track it to its location." Was his response.
"Hhhhmmm. And what object would you suggest?" Megatron then asked.
"I still have a sample of Scourge's blood from when he was still organic. Because they share a similar scent, it would make it very difficult to track, and truly test their tracking abilities." Shockwave said as he gave his thoughts on what to use. Megatron thought it over for a minute before grinning and turning to face Shockwave once more.
"Very well. Once you have a sample, give it to Soundwave." He stated as he turned to face Soundwave.
"Soundwave I want you to find a location and send the sample to it. Once you have done that, send my beasts to retrieve it, so that we can test their tracking skills." He then said as he looked over to Soundwave, who just nodded.
"Yes Master." Responded Shockwave as he and Soundwave turned and began walking out of the bridge and towards Shockwaves lab.
Once at Shockwaves lab, Shockwave turned to Soundwave and said. "I require a few cycles to duplicate the cells and create another sample."
Soundwave just nodded and Shockwave walked to a shelf that held some of his equipment, he grabbed several items and place them on the table in front of him. He then walked over to a storage shelf and grabbed a sample of Jacks blood that he took a while back. Once he had the sample he walked over to his equipment and began to duplicate it. After using several devices, he poured some into another test tube. He then placed in into a centrifuge and let it run for a few minutes. When the centrifuge he grabbed it, and saw that he now had a greater amount then before. He poured some into a container and poured the rest back into the original container.
Once he was done he turned to Soundwave handed him the extra sample.
"This should suffice in the predicons being able to track. Give them a chance to grab its scent then proceed to send it to its destination." Said Shockwave as he took a step back, and Soundwave nodded.
As Shockwave began to clean up his work space Soundwave turned around and began to walk to the flight deck of the Nemesis.
After making a few turns he found himself at the main doors to the flight deck. As they opened he saw both predicons look at him and began to walk towards him.
"Soundwave I want you to find a location and send the sample to it. Once you have done that, send my beasts to retrieve it, so that we can test their tracking skills." Came Megatron's voice from the recording of the conversation earlier, from Soundwave.
He then held out the sample and both predicons began sniffing it to get its scent. Once they had the scent they stepped back and Soundwave activated the ground bridge. He then tossed the sample through and closed the ground bridge moments later.
With the task done Soundwave turned around and began walking back into the nemesis. Once gone both Predaking and Scourge began sniffing the air trying to locate the scent. As they began sniffing they soon found that the scent was coming from each other.
"Why is it that you have the scent coming from you?" Asked Predaking.
"I was about to ask you the same thing." Stated Scourge.
"We can not locate the scent, being next to each other. We shall split up and see if we can trace the scent by being apart." Said Predaking. He then leapt into the air and began flying in a random direction to put so distance between him and Scourge.
"Don't need to tell me twice." Mumbled Scourge to himself as he took off in the opposite direction.
About a half hour passed and Scourge flew around trying to find the scent. While he flew, he thought about the weird things that had been happening to him. He was brought out of his thoughts though when he smelled something.
He found it, he had found the scent. He immediately turned towards it and began flying in it's direction.
'Well it could have been harder.' He thought.
He became confused though when he found a second scent! It was much fainter then the first one, but was the same scent all the same.
'What could that be?' he wondered. He knew the large scent was what he had to retrieve but he wondered what the other one was.
With curiosity getting the better of him he changed course and turned towards the second scent. He flew towards the scent it which grew stronger and stronger. After about an hour of flying he found himself in familiar skies as he saw the remains of Darkmount in the distance.
'Why is the scent coming from here?' he wondered. But as he closed the distance he found the scent wasn't from Darkmount, it was coming from the remains of Jasper. This confused Scourge even more as he wondered why the scent was coming from an organic settlement.
He flew over the town to try and find out where in the town the scent was coming from. He looked to his right as the scent was coming from a division of houses that looked the same. He landed on the street and began walking down the destroyed road as he closed in on the scent. As he looked around he saw many of the home were completely destroyed, while others were badly damaged. He turned left as he walked down the road to where the scent seemed to be coming from, and saw the houses on this street were no better. He walked down the road and stopped when he found the scent to be coming from one of the houses.
He looked to his left as he examined the house that the scent was coming from. The hanger on left side was complete caved in and was nothing more then rubble. The front wall was burned badly as an explosion happened on the ground in front of it, leaving a crater, and a large hole was seen in the wall and roof on the right side of the house.
It was also where the scent was coming from, so Scourge walked up to the house and looked into the interior of house from the hole. The room was not very big, with it barely being the size of Scourge's head. There was a berth in the far corner of the room away from the door that was completely messed up and burnt slightly from the blast that left the hole. Along the ground was varies item that Scourge didn't find interesting. A dresser was on the same wall as the door with a monitor on it, but it was cracked and damage as debris must have hit it.
A dim flash of blue light caught his attention as he looked down to a stand next to the bed. The stand was covered in dust but the object on it was still visible. It was an odd shape as it was it looked somewhat like a hexagon that was stretched at the top and compressed at the bottom. It was made of thousands of tiny parts with it being a mixture of silver and blue.
Scourge could tell that this was cybertronian in nature, but why was it here in an organic house? What he didn't realise was that he found the key to Vector Sigma that was on his night stand at his house when he was still Jackson Darby.
The key flashed a dim light blue colour again and Scourge leaned in to get a better look. He sniffed it and found the scent was coming from it.
'Why is it coming from this, and why is this here?' he wondered.
When he leaned in towards the key a second time, something happened. The key glowed a bright blue and light flashed out of it causing Scourge to close his eye. When he opened his eyes however, he was shocked to see he was small and inside the house. He was even more confused to see it was now completely in tacked and the room looked like it was in use.
'What's going on?' he wondered.
He was brought out of his thoughts when the door to the room opened and a boy with black hair walked in. He was wearing lose clothes and was carrying a large piece of cloth in his left hand which he used to rub against his head. He looked to be wet which meant that he had just been wet. What shocked Scourge though was that the object hanging from a chain around his neck.
Scourge roared at him but the boy didn't give him any response, as if he wasn't there. He then walked into the room after shutting the door and towards Scourge. Scourge roared again but the boy just kept walking. Scourge was shock and completely confuse and was even more so when he passed through him as if he were a spirit.
Once at the berth the boy tossed the piece of cloth on the berth and let of a deep breath.
"Aaahhh, much better." He said.
"Jack, can I come in?" came a female voice from the other side of the door which was slightly muffled.
"Ya, Mom." Responded the boy as he took the key off and placed it on the night stand.
The door opened and a woman with black hair that went down to the middle of her back with white clothes on. she looked to be older then the boy, so Scourge assumed that this was who he called 'mom'.
"I have to work a half an extra shift to night to so I will be late getting home to night." She stated to the boy called Jack. She looked over to the night stand and saw the key resting on it.
"Jack should you not have that on you. Optimus said that if you were to keep that you were to keep it on you at all time." She said some what worried.
"I can't mom. I have a fitness test tomorrow, and after that we have a physical check up at school. I can't have in on me during then, and I can't leave it in the locker room because someone might steal it. So, I have to leave it here." Responded the boy. The woman relaxed slightly and the boy continued.
"But I plan on having Arcee come here after so I can grab it after school, before we head to base, so its only for a little while." He then said which caused the woman to fully relax.
"Okay. I have to get going, you have a good day at school." She said as she pulled the boy into a hug.
"MOM!" whined the boy. The woman chuckled and realised the boy and went to the door and opened the door.
"Have a good day sweetie." She then said, as the boy huffed.
"You too." He then responded.
The room then started to glow white, and the light grew brighter until it completely engulfed Scourge's vision. He closed his eyes because of the light, but when he opened them he found he back to his original size and the room was destroyed once more.
'What was that?' he wondered as he could not make sense of what just happened.
He looked back down at the object that had just shown him this strange vision.
'I should bring this with me' he thought as he leaned into the house and gentle grabbed the key with his mouth.
Once he was sure the key was secure in his mouth and would not slip he backed away from the house and took off to fly back towards the nemesis. Scourge flew for about two hours before finally saw the ship in the distance. He could also smell the container which meant that Predaking had found it.
'Great' Scourge thought sarcastically as he flew towards the flight deck.
As he came up to the flight deck he saw Predaking along with Shockwave, Soundwave, Starscream, Knockout and even Megatron. As he landed he saw them turned to look at him as he approached. Scourge walked up and stopped slightly away from Predaking as he faced the others.
"Scourge, I am… disappointed that you were not able to locate the container." Stated Megatron who slightly glared at Scourge.
Scourge looked down slightly because of this as Megatron continued.
"I am also disappointed at how long it took you to return. Predaking has been here for quiet some time, so where have you been?" he then stated as he walked forward.
Scourge lowered his head to the flight deck and let the key out of his mouth, which hit the deck floor with a light thud. Megatron looked utterly shocked as he looked at the key, but then grinned evilly as he leaned in to grab it. Once it was in his servo he began chuckling darkly as he turned around and the other saw it.
"It can't be! Is that…" asked Starscream who was completely shocked at seeing the key.
"It's defies logic" stated Shockwave who was also stunned.
"The key to Vector Sigma, yes." Said Megatron who was still grinning.
"But how?" asked Starscream as still couldn't wrap his head around on how the predacon had found it.
Sound wave walked forward which gained everyone's attention. He then brought up the image of Raf, Miko and Jack, as he zoomed in on Jack. Megatron caught on to what Soundwave was implying and began chuckling again.
"Of course. Because Optimus chose the boy to hold the key, he had unknowingly left his scent on it." He said as he chuckled once more before continuing. "And since he didn't have it when we captured him, he must have left it somewhere, and because we sent beasts out to find the scent." He then added.
"The predacon had located the key instead." Finished Starscream who was now angry that predacon was now on Megatron's good side, which meant it would be harder to get rid of them.
"Scourge you have performed most admirably." Said Megatron as he turned to look at Scourge.
Scourge relax at hearing that because it meant that now he was most likely to be spared punishment for his delayed return. But he was puzzled by what Megatron had said, he said that they had captured the boy, and if that was the case. He was on the ship, so why couldn't he smell him then?
Why Scourge thought about it Megatron and the others began walking back towards the entrance to the nemesis. All the while Megatron chuckled at his new trophy.
'Oh Optimus, if you could only see what your precious human has brought me.' Thought Megatron as he walked into the nemesis.
(authors note)
And done. Wow who could see that coming. So, Scourge is starting to smell something fishy, but doesn't know what to do. Megatron now has the Key to vector sigma so that's bad. Let's hope things some luck heads the autobots way because they will definitely need it. What's Megatron going to do with the key, who know?
I will try and have another chapter up soon, but as always I can't promise when, only that it will go up.
Until next time this is the forgotten soldier 343 signing off.