Author's Note: So I know it's been a long time since I last updated this, but reposting Men Within the Machines managed to kick my block with regards to this story. I'll be honest, the next update may still be a long time in coming, but I will try to not let it be two years in coming. Enjoy!
Chapter 009: Nanomites
Lennox and Optimus were chatting amicably about the differences between human and Cybertronian courtship when both of them received the call. "Boys, this is Agent Simmons. Megatron has left the Dam. SecDef says to keep the plan, but he won't be able to send back up for a while. He had to send us out to find phones that work. The jet guy fried our communications,"
"Damn Starscream," Optimus muttered.
"What's more, we've suffered some casualties. Tom Banachek was killed when the attack on the Dam began. And Optimus Prime, sir?"
"Yes?"
"Megatron did something to Maggie Madsen, the computer tech SecDef brought with him."
Optimus felt his internal fluids freeze. "What?"
"He bit her after biting open his lip. She's still a little shocky, but otherwise she says he didn't assault her. What's more, the bite? It closed up instantly according to her. What the heck did he do?" Simmons sounded subdued.
Optimus swore quite colorfully, and after exhausting his Cybertronian stock he switched to curses in several languages - not all of them Terran in origin. "Gods damned sonofabitch!" he ended.
Lennox blinked in utter surprise at the viciousness of Optimus's reaction, and on the other end of the hijacked cell phone signal, Simmons raised an eyebrow in unwilling admiration. Both men had been party to some colorful cursing streaks, but Prime just took the prize for most eloquent string of profanities ever. "I take it it's something bad," Simmons quipped.
"He marked her as his," Optimus growled. "He mingled his blood with hers. In our Companions' blood are microscopic nanomites that repair our bodies and defend them from infection. Each of us has our own unique nanomites, but we can transfer them to others not unlike a blood transfusion. In the field, that's often what we do. But, when you receive nanomites, unlike blood, the nanos you receive can replicate. Usually, your native nanomites can assimilate the new ones, and the foreign nanos reprogram to match the ones already present in the body.
"In this case, Megatron marked Ms. Madsen. Since there are no nanomites to keep his in check and reprogram them, they take over her body. He has formed a connection with her because he can use the nanomites to track her." Optimus fell into an angry silence. "It's been done to other sentient species. It's akin in our culture to putting a collar on a dog. Or a toy." His tone left no question of what he meant by that.
Simmons cleared his throat. "She also said that he kissed her. Do you think this means he's going to use her as a . . . toy?"
"Yes," Optimus said.
"Is there any way to get rid of the nanomites?" Lennox asked.
"Possibly. I'll tell Ratchet to return to the Dam and see what he can do." Optimus glanced over at the hummer ambulance. "But I'm not sure it won't mean transfusing more nanos in."
"What do you mean by that?!" Simmons snarled in outrage. "That we have to let her be collared by one of you instead?"
Optimus-Companion gritted his teeth. "No. Ratchet should have blank nanomites. I only worry about what they could do to the human body. Very few of the other sentient races were able to live for very long with the nanomites. While they elongate our Companion-bodies' lives they also draw a heavy toll. It's why we have to consume enormous numbers of calories and our body weights in food every two days."
Lennox grimaced. "Dayum," he muttered under his breath.
On the other end Simmons nodded. "I think it's a chance we're just going to have to take."
Optimus sighed. "I'll send out the order."
Sam was exiting the men's restroom of a rest stop when he nearly ran into Bumblebee-Companion. The alien man looked highly agitated. He grabbed Sam's elbow and pulled him back towards the waiting caravan vehicles. "What's wrong?" Sam cried.
Epps jogged up to him. "We've got to go! The Dam's been bombed. We've got to get ourselves into a city and hole up until we've got a new plan."
"Right," Sam said as he began to jog back to the waiting Camero. Bee-Handler revved his engine as Sam slid into the front passenger seat. Mikaela – fetched from the women's room by Ironhide-Companion – slid into the passenger seat of the black truck. Sam felt a moment's twinge of regret that she wasn't going to ride with him and Bee, but he turned his attention to the road. Right now there were more important things to worry about.
In the cab of said truck, Mikaela smiled a bit at Hide. "Thanks for letting me ride with you," she fastened her seatbelt as she felt the truck reverse and then turn to leave the rest area.
"Pretty females are always welcome company," Ironhide said solemnly. "You remind me a bit of my female mate."
Mikaela blinked. "I thought that Bumblebee was your mate."
"He is. I have two mates, one male and one female," he explained.
She nodded deciding to leave that particular confusion be for the time being. "Where are we going?"
"I am not sure," he answered. "We just need a large urban area in order to hide."
"The nearest place I can think of is Las Vegas."
Ironhide-Companion cocked a brow. "This 'Las Vegas' is very large isn't it? With a transient population?"
"Yes," she said shyly.
Night fall had never seemed so welcome to Maggie. She stared at the open sky as Ratchet-Companion poked another needle beneath her skin. She winced and then looked down at the vial of silvery stuff held by his lean, dark hands. Maggie had never really thought about the attractiveness of a man's hands before, but for some really odd reason Ratchet's struck her as being quite nice. "So, what will happen now?" she asked quietly.
Ratchet-Companion looked up into her eyes. "These nanomites will hopefully wipe his from your system. However, I'm afraid we can't be one hundred percent sure. As it is, I'm going to have to stick close to you for a while."
Maggie nodded. "To make sure that I don't die."
Ratchet had been very forthright about what fate could await her. He'd explained about the slow and painful death wrought by the nanomites on biological bodies that were not equipped to deal with them. It wasn't a fate that Maggie particularly looked forwards to, but she also didn't want to be Megatron's personal pet.
His Companion gave her a small smile. "I think your species might be one of the few that can handle the nanomites. That's why I even went along with the idea of injecting more into your system."
"Why?" she asked out of curiosity as he gently withdrew the needle from her arm.
He pressed a bandage to her small wound. "Human physiology is very close to a Cybertronian Companion's. For that reason I believe that the nanomites won't have as much trouble colonizing your body."
"What causes them to kill other biological beings?" she asked.
"Astute," he murmured. "The nanomites use minerals that you ingest as well as the same sugars that your cells utilize. Really, the only difference between your dietary needs and mine is that I need about three times the amount of minerals such as iron and calories that you need."
"So, humans should be okay with your nanomites, right? If I all I need is to eat more spinach and skip the low fat stuff then I should be okay."
Ratchet-Companion's human-like eyes crinkled in humor. "We will see. As I said, it's a possibility that your body will be able to handle the nanos. Megatron should have only introduced a few into that bite, so the amount in this vial should reprogram them."
"How? I thought those were blanks."
"I added a new programing to them. They now have a facsimile of what normal nanos have on them," Ratchet answered. "Your designation, age, lineage, and occupation."
"And what exactly did you put on there?" she asked. "How did you know my lineage whatever that is?"
"The information says Designation Maggie Madsen, Age 23, Lineage Caucasian, Occupation Computer Expert."
"Okay," she murmured. Suddenly, she felt a lancing pain in her elbow above the bite and injection site. "Ow!"
Ratchet-Companion frowned. "Damn, I'd hoped they'd not start the process so quickly. I'm going to put you on a nutrient drip and sedate you. The pain is not something you want to experience."
He was right, her arm felt like it was going to fall off. "What's going on?"
"The nanomites go into the joints like the elbow to replicate. The pain is caused by them drawing nutrients from surrounding tissues," he explained as he put another needle into her flesh.
Maggie nodded, already finding her eyes growing heavy. The pain was also receding. "How long will I be out?"
"I don't know."
That night found the Decepticons meeting in the deserts of Nevada. Frenzy and Barricade roared up the road, trailing Bonecrusher and Brawl behind them. Starscream and Megatron swooped from the sky, landing with grace. The group looked fearsome in the pale light of the moon.
Megatron-Companion took a deep breath of the night air. It had been far too long. Thankfully, his long entombment had left him unconscious for most of it, but he had faded in and out a few times. The most recent had been when he'd sworn he had felt the presence of his arch-nemesis. "Starscream," he barked.
"Yes, Lord?" Starscream replied with a smarmy little smile on his Companion's face.
"Where are the Autobots?" If Optimus was here, he was most likely not alone. "Where is he?"
Starscream glanced towards Barricade. Both of them had noticed long ago that Megatron had a particular kind of hate for Optimus, but neither had the courage to ask. "We are not entirely sure. They left before we could get to the Dam."
Megatron tensed as if to strike, and Starscream cringed away. However, the leader of the Decepticons didn't follow through. Instead, he growled. In the back of his mind the entire day he'd been monitoring the human femme he'd marked in the Dam, and she'd just gone dark on him. He could still feel her vital stats – heart rate was up, blood pressure was high, and she was in pain, but he couldn't track her any more. "No matter," Megatron stated. "We will simply hunt for the Allspark. Where it is, we'll find them."
Bonecrusher bowed to his lord now that that particular being seemed to be in a better mood. "We are glad to have you back, my lord," he intoned in his deep as Hell voice. Starscream threw him a dirty look for the not-so-hidden insult.
"It is quite good to be back," Megatron returned with a small smile. It wasn't an evil smile, in fact, it was more amused than anything. "Barricade, what have you been up to while I slept?"
Barricade threw another glance at Starscream. "We have been trying to carry out the contingency plans, but we've lost contact with both of your . . . mentors."
"Where are Shockwave and Soundwave?"
"We're not entirely sure," Barricade answered honestly. He didn't fear retribution for his truths. If anyone was punished, it would be the leader that had gotten them into that situation – Starscream. Megatron was actually pretty fair like that. "We lost contact after the Exodus. We've only established contact with approximately forty percent of our projected remaining troops."
"Everyone else is probably hiding out across the galaxy," Brawl added. A bruiser he was, but dumb he was not.
"Starscream," Megatron began mildly, "Would you have told me any of this?"
The jet Decepticon made a moue with his Companion's lips. "Yes, but with more confusing verbiage and less respect."
The other Decepticons watched silently, waiting to see how this would play out. Starscream and Megatron had a confusing relationship that none of their subordinates truly understood. It was something between simply dysfunctional and horrifyingly abusive on both sides. It was almost as if, to Barricade's mind, the two of them believed on some level that they deserved this type of relationship. It was a sick, mad kind of love, if one could even call it that. Oddly enough, Barricade did.
But perhaps that only highlighted Barricade's own sickness.
Megatron reached out, and brushed Starscream's cheek before closing his fingers around the other mech's chin. "One day," he said with terrifying softness, "I'm going to watch this pretty little head roll on the ground, and I will laugh."
Starscream wrenched his head out of Megatron's grasp. "You always say that. Always."
The evil laugh that bellowed into the night was a familiar sound to the Decepticons, and comforted Barricade in a strange way. After the death of his family, he had cleaved to the Cybertron Defense Forces as his new family, and after the First Wave of the Quintessons and the Great Defiance, the Decepticons. Barricade really didn't care one way or the other about Galactic Manifest Destiny or the Sanctity of Freedom, but he did care about his family, messed up, wacked out, and omnicidal as it may be.
"What now, my lord?" Barricade asked.
Megatron moved his gaze over the sky, staring at the unfamiliar stars. "We rest. As it is, we have all the time in the world until either of my teachers arrive. We need them for the next stage."
The night in the desert returned to its tranquility as two jets, a mine clearing vehicle, a tank, and a police car sat in the night in a loose circle. The Decepticon Companions bedded down beside their Handlers, with Frenzy bedding down beside Barricade-Companion. Barricade-Companion glanced up at the sky, and counted the stars until he fell into a deep sleep.