Chapter Fourteen
Jack, Raf, and Miko were racing Raf's toy cars. Naturally, the bots paying attention were rooting for their partners and Raf was beating the other two easily. Dana was taking a break from her studies and doing more work to convert the ground bridge into a space bridge to watch too.
That was when Fowler called in. "Prime! Do you read me?"
"I'm sorry agent Fowler Optimus isn't here at the moment." Ratchet said.
"Then I'll take that as a confirmation that he's presently trying to run me off the road!" Fowler replied.
"Agent Fowler that hardly seems likely." Ratchet said.
"You've gotta be going blind or crazy. Optimus would never do that." Dana agreed.
"Tell that to my burning treads." Fowler said.
"We need to get out there." Arcee said, "Whether Fowler's right or wrong he's clearly in danger."
"I'll check his coordinates." Ratchet said.
Soon Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Arcee were through a ground bridge to go to Fowler's rescue.
"Something fishy's going on." Dana noted, "Because nothing can convince me that it's Optimus."
"I agree Dana, but for now we just have to wait and see what the others say." Ratchet replied.
When they got back Arcee was unconscious and Bumblebee and Bulkhead reported they'd barely saved Fowler when a semi with the Autobot symbol on the front grill tried to run him off the bridge.
"Yes, that's it. Follow the light." Ratchet said as he checked Arcee, shining a flashlight across her eyes.
That only made Arcee panic.
"Wait what?!" Arcee sighed and with help got off the examination table, "Not the best choice of words Ratchet."
"Arcee are you alright?" Jack asked.
"Sure. Except for being blind sided by Optimus." Arcee said.
"Didn't I tell you?!" Fowler exclaimed.
"Impossible." Ratchet refuted.
"I call BS." Dana agreed.
"I'm only reporting what I saw." Arcee said.
"Why would Optimus try to knock off Agent Fowler?" Jack pointed out.
"Not to mention since when would Optimus harm any human period, except maybe someone from M.E.C.H." Dana added.
"Maybe Optimus believes he's a Decepticon all over again." Raf suggested nervously.
"Or he's been faking being a good guy all this time." Miko chimed in.
"If Prime has gone off the rails for any reason we have a serious problem." Fowler said.
Dana wanted to know why she felt like she knew what it was like to be accused of something that was completely out of character.
"This is absurd." Ratchet said as he moved to the computers, "A quick check for Optimus' signal will reveal that he's nowhere near the location of tonight's incident. In fact, he's just returning now."
Optimus drove in from the tunnel and transformed. The bots except for Ratchet and the humans except for Dana and maybe Jack were wary and suspicious.
"Is something wrong?" Optimus asked.
"I'll say, everyone but Ratchet and Jack have gone nuts." Dana muttered.
"We were just… wondering where you've been." Arcee wrote off.
"We… haven't been able to reach you." Bulkhead added.
"I have been outside of our communication range." Optimus explained, moving to grab something, the bots bar Ratchet pointed their weapons at him and Fowler moved to block the younger three humans from supposed harm's way, "In a subterranean energon deposit."
"Come on, it's our guy. Can't you tell?" Jack defended.
"I can't tell if you lot are blind, going crazy or just being stupid." Dana agreed, "Put those way before you hurt him!"
After a moment the three bots finally went off of defense mode.
"We're… sorry." Arcee said, approaching Optimus.
"Don't blame them Prime. I was attacked earlier tonight- on an open highway by a big rig." Fowler explained, "One that bore a striking resemblance to you."
Dana scowled. "You'd think they'd have more faith in you."
That was when Fowler got a call.
"Fowler. What?! That's not possible. I can tell you as sure as there are 50 stars on my star spangled shorts it isn't him!" quickly enough Fowler hung up and addressed the room, "Olev military base is under attack- by Optimus Prime."
"The truck?" Jack guessed.
"The bot." Fowler revealed.
Everyone turned to look at Optimus.
"… ah, frag. It's M.E.C.H isn't it?" Dana guessed, "They were trying to build a Cybertronian style robot when they had Bee's t-cog and we know Starscream doesn't have his."
The bots went to assist but M.E.C.H's copy fled as soon as they arrived. Then some helicopters arrived, messing up the situation even more. When they got back and reported this, Fowler called General Bryce, the military officer in charge of handling USA-Autobot cooperations. But it was too late- there were orders to attack the bots on sight now. Naturally, the humans were indignant.
"Are you kidding?!" Jack exclaimed.
"But they're innocent." Raf pointed out.
"Optimus was framed!" Miko chimed in.
"Freaking terrorist a-holes. This is so fucked up. Er, sorry Raf." Dana complained.
"Though unfortunate the military order changes nothing." Optimus said, "Our imposter clearly poses a grave threat to humanity."
"A thirty foot tall transforming imposter." Fowler added.
"They actually did it." Ratchet said, "Those butchers managed to crack the code."
"No thanks to Starscream." Dana added.
"M.E.C.H." Optimus noted grimly.
"M.E.C.H abducted Breakdown and by all implications deconstructed him from cranial chamber to heel strut." Ratchet summarized.
"I was there." Bulkhead commented.
"And we know that more recently they obtained Starscream's t-cog." Optimus added.
"Which they evidently installed in a knock off of you." Arcee concluded.
"Which in turn scanned an appropriate vehicle form." Ratchet noted.
"Fill the tank with energon-" Jack said.
"And say hello to Nemesis Prime." Miko finished.
"Chances are them even knowing about energon is Starscream's fault." Dana pointed out.
"So where do we start? M.E.C.H's base could be anywhere." Fowler asked.
"Not necessarily." Optimus assured, "While M.E.C.H may have learned much of our biology-"
"They haven't necessarily absorbed out technology." Ratchet finished.
"Otherwise those jerk wads wouldn't be reliant on electricity and machine guns when faced with a Cybertronian." Dana agreed.
"Without access to a ground bridge Nemesis Prime would rely solely on its vehicle mode for transportation." Ratchet pointed out.
"Chances are the M.E.C.H base is within driving distance of both incidents." Arcee noted.
"What are we waiting for? Let's get out there and mash M.E.C.H's little science project." Fowler said, pounding one of his hands with a fist.
"Agent Fowler, I do not think it advisable to put yourself in harm's way of M.E.C.H's robot again." Optimus said.
"Well I'm not sure it's advisable for bots to be running recon with the military out there gunning for you." Fowler countered.
"We will maintain vehicular cover until absolutely necessary." Optimus assured.
"Ratchet, once they find the base you need to ground bridge me there." Dana requested.
"What for?" Ratchet asked.
"I need to take a picture or a video. Human politicians and generals in the US have a bad tendency of being stubborn, stupid, or foolish. We need photographic evidence that it wasn't Optimus and that there's an imposter at work." Dana answered.
"I admit your idea is a good one but I do not want to put you in harm's way." Ratchet protested.
"I won't get near enough for Nemesis to get a visual on me and I'm well armed enough to be match for most if not all of M.E.C.H's agents. If we don't want more trouble when this is over somebody needs to do this." Dana reasoned.
Ratchet sighed and opened the ground bridge. "Be quick about it, we don't know how long it will take to find M.E.C.H's base."
When Dana got back Ratchet was working on using Nemesis' remote link to track exactly where Silas was.
"Ah hah! Frequency isolated." Ratchet reported.
"Then reopen that bridge." Fowler requested.
"Agent Fowler, did you not hear Optimus advise against your involvement?" Ratchet argued, "It's for your own safety."
Look Doc, I don't plan on dancing with any bots. But there's a human element at play here." Fowler countered, "And in case you haven't noticed I happen to be a highly trained government grade human."
"You need to get me there to take a picture or a video anyway, Ratchet." Dana pointed out, "Besides that's the best way to minimize how injured the others will probably be when this is over."
"Yeah! Plus Silas tried to run him off the road. It's personal." Miko chimed in.
Without further pause Ratchet reopened the ground bridge. "As soon as you have your evidence you run away from the fighting and call for a ground bridge back Dana."
"Of course- I don't rush into avoidable fights I can't win if I can help it unless there's someone in trouble and nobody else to step in." Dana assured, "Keep the ground bridge open a minute or two just in case."
With that Dana and Fowler were sent through the ground bridge. Fowler was immediately nauseous.
"I think I'm gonna toss the breakfast I ate back in flight school." Fowler complained.
Immediately Optimus grappling with the knockoff came into view. M.E.C.H hadn't even tried or just did a poor job imitating his paint job- it was chipped black and faded and chipped dark red instead of the vibrant blue and red Optimus was. Dana was quick to start recording, and she noticed- Nemesis had yellow optics, not blue. That was the biggest difference. Evidence collected, she was quick to cut the recording and rush through the still open ground bridge. Behind her Fowler was on his phone getting Silas' location from Ratchet.
"I hope I didn't make a mistake not staying to back Fowler up." Dana said as she texted Fowler the video she took.
"As he pointed out he is trained. While some help can often be better than none at all we must have faith in him." Ratchet replied, "Furthermore Optimus would not approve of putting yourself any more at risk and we could not risk your evidence."
Dana sighed. "You're right, of course. I don't know why, but I just feel like it's weird having reliable adults around during a tense or dangerous situation."
Finally, the bots returned to base. Luckily none of their injuries were severe, though Optimus did need some repairs.
"So how weird was it to see someone who looked exactly like Optimus kicking the scrap out of you?" Miko asked.
Bulkhead groaned.
"It's a sight I won't soon forget." Arcee said.
"You all need Ratchet to check your optics, that paint job and the yellow optics made it glaringly obvious that it wasn't him." Dana replied.
"The question remains whether M.E.C.H will continue to function as we know it without its leader." Optimus pointed out as Ratchet finished fixing up his side.
"Well here's the kicker." Fowler spoke up over a call, "We sifted through the wreckage with a fine toothed comb and couldn't find any trace of Silas."
Dana had a bad feeling about that. Though, there was nothing that could be done. A couple of days later Fowler had to appear before General Bryce to explain the actual situation with M.E.C.H and Nemesis Prime. Plus the trouble handling the Decepticons and the mess with Unicron and Optimus' resulting amnesia. That resulted in giving away Dana, Jack, Miko and Raf's involvement and excusing away why and how they wree part of the team. Apparently Dana's video was the only thing that made Bryce believe Fowler that it had been a copy and not the actual Nemesis. Optimus accompanied him, both to help straighten things out if needed and in case M.E.C.H was around. After all Fowler had figured out that though discharged Silas had been part of special tactics.
One day, a lot of crazy things happened. Bulkhead was investigating an energon reading when he wound up being pulled up into the Decepticons' warship along with freshly mined energon ready for pickup. At the same time Airachnid found a whole lot of insecticons and sent them to attack Megatron. That revealed Airachnid's location to the other Autobots, who went into the field to take her out. Amidst all of that Starscream cloned himself and sent the clones to kill Megatron too. Bulkhead got to kill one of the clones. In the end Airachnid wound up frozen in one of the insecticons' pods, Starscream's clones all wound up dead, the insecticons declared loyalty to Megatron, and Bulkhead managed to damage the warship's power core and escape basically unscathed.
The next day later the bots were comparing notes and plotting a potential next move. Bulkhead explained all about his adventure aboard the Decepticons' warship.
"We should hit the Cons right now while they're vulnerable." Arcee said.
"Megatron's warship may be grounded but let's not forget that we remain vastly outnumbered." Ratchet pointed out, "Especially since he has added the insecticon hive to his ranks."
"Then maybe it's time for me to call in an air strike." Fowler suggested.
"Or for us to consider more extreme measures Agent Fowler." Optimus replied.
Dana had a feeling that he was considering a plan that he really didn't like… or perhaps that Optimus was either concerned Ratchet on synthetic energon had been right about him being soft or simply getting increasingly done with the danger Megatron's schemes but the humans and his fellow Autobots in. The quiet, gentle mech could be very wrathful when it came to threats or harm to those he cared for or considered under his protection. And though Dana was sure Optimus still wished Megatron would renege his destructive ways and maybe even return to the bot he'd called a friend the Autobot leader just didn't seem to consider that possible anymore.
It turned out Dana had been right- Optimus very reluctantly retrieved the spark extractor from storage. He didn't like the path he was choosing but he was also concerned about the turn things were taking and desperate to end the war. Dana was reluctant to let things slide, but stayed silent. How could she possibly expect to be able to convince Optimus to stop and look for another way when he was that determined to take decisive action to protect humanity and the other Autobots? But still, Dana really wanted to say or do something- she was certain that only disaster or tragedy could follow and that Optimus would feel guilty whether he regretted his actions or not.
"Optimus, I'm detecting a massive energy spike at the Decepticon crash site." Ratchet reported, "It appears to be dark energon."
Nobody said a word, and Ratchet opened the ground bridge.
"Autobots transform and roll out." Optimus ordered.
Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Arcee did just that. But when Optimus moved to follow Fowler stopped him.
"Hold on Prime." Fowler said, "If you are gonna deploy some kind of super weapon in a final showdown with the Cons it's my job as a representative of planet Earth to bear witness."
Ratchet and Optimus exchanged a look as they considered Fowler's words. After a moment Optimus accepted and Fowler took off with him. Dana ran a hand through her hair and sighed. Why didn't she have a worse feeling about this?
"… Ratchet… this isn't going to have any of the expected outcomes, will it?" Dana asked him quietly.
"Things rarely do when it comes to the Decepticons. All we can do is wait and hope for the best." Ratchet answered just as quietly.
Not even ten minutes later a call came from Fowler over the comlink. "Team's down. Send a medevac."
As quickly as he could, Ratchet got the other Autobots back to base. Dana went with him to retrieve the spark extractor and lock it back in storage. The other Autobots were paralyzed by some kind of beam the warship shot at them. Ratchet and Dana wasted no time in scanning them to figure out what was wrong and what to do about it.
"They're alive, but I've never encountered this form of stasis lock." Ratchet reported.
"Based on what you've taught me there's not much we can do but wait for it to wear off." Dana chimed in.
"The Cons are crossing the Atlantic making a beeline for North America." Fowler noted.
"Wait, we can track them?" Jack asked.
"Why aren't they cloaked like usual?" Raf asked.
"None of this makes a lick of sense. They had us in their crosshairs but the Cons just took off." Fowler added.
"They even bailed on that spark extractor thingy." Miko chimed in.
"Two opportunities Megatron usually wouldn't fail to take advantage of." Dana noted, "Combined with the dark energon reading something is really off."
"If the ship isn't cloaked maybe the communications relay's open. And-" Jack said.
Ratchet cut him off. "Yep yep. Are you suggesting that we just call Megatron and ask him what's happening up there?"
Jack, Miko and Raf all shrugged. When Ratchet looked at Fowler he just gestured to the medic, either indicating it was ultimately up to him or encouraging him to go for it.
"Well they must keep to the 'robots in disguise' rule you do for a reason. That's half of the reason the ship's always cloaked." Dana pointed out, "The fact that it isn't… well, something is off and with the Decepticons that never bodes well."
After a moment's deliberation, Ratchet gave in and decided the idea couldn't hurt. "Autobot outpost Omega 1 to Decepticon warship. Megatron please respond. Megatron?"
But not even a vehicon answered, let alone Megatron or one of his lieutenants. Instead an unfamiliar voice answered.
"Megatron has been relieved of his command." the unknown voice said.
"Who is this?" Ratchet asked.
"Who is this?" the voice retorted.
"Have you taken control of the Decepticon vessel?" Ratchet asked.
"I am the vessel." the warship declared, "Any Cybertronian who interferes with my mission will be neutralized."
The warship sent visuals of its security feed, showing how every single Decepticon shown in the images were frozen the same as the Autobots. Dana smacked her forehead. She had a feeling she knew what had happened now. While it was easy to guess why he'd done it Megatron had really made a stupid move if she was right.
"What mission?" Ratchet asked, hoping to get some answers.
"Priority one- decrypt Iacon database and recover Decepticon technology." the warship recited.
"For what purpose?" Ratchet prompted.
Instead of answering there was a beep and the warship hung up.
"It hung up? Rude." Miko commented, crossing her arms.
"Rude?!" Fowler exclaimed indignantly, "There's a giant spaceship flying around collecting Decepticon weapons of mass destruction."
"A giant spaceship filled with neutralized Decepticons." Jack pointed out.
That succeeded in calming Fowler down.
"Point?" Fowler asked.
"This could be our only chance to slip aboard and download the Iacon database." Jack pointed out.
"So Optimus can decode it." Raf realized.
"Ingenious." Ratchet said, "I will infiltrate the Decepticon warship."
"Not ingenious. You saw what it did to the Decepticons." Jack retorted.
"And probably Megatron too." Raf noted.
"And Team Prime." Miko added.
"But that tub had me dead to rights and I'm still breathing." Fowler pointed out.
"The ship may be blind to humans." Jack realized.
"So as things stand, we're the ones who are mostly safe and you'd be the one pulling a Miko if you went." Dana summed up.
"Very well Agent Fowler." Ratchet agreed, "But at the first sign of trouble I am bridging you right back here. Now in order to download the database you will need a compatible transfer drive."
Ratchet retrieved the Cybertronian version of a flash drive and held it out to Fowler. Dana was familiar with it but the others were probably surprised to see its shape slightly resembled the key to Vector Sigma.
Fowler took the offered drive but didn't understand. "Uh, what?"
"He'll also need tech support." Raf noted.
"And backup." Miko added.
"Guess we should all go, who knows what could happen otherwise." Dana said.
Ratchet sighed. "Very well."
Soon enough a ground bridge had them in one of the warship's hallways.
"Fowler to base. We're in." Fowler reported.
"Good." Ratchet said, "Their data core should be accessible from any console."
They walked carefully between the frozen vehicons, who no doubt had been rushing to try and do something about the lack of control over the warship.
Looking to the side, Raf gulped. "Here's one."
Raf's nerves were understandable. Standing in front of the console doubtlessly also trying to either fix it or get a grip of what was going on was Knockout. Miko rushed over to him and pounded on his leg like she was knocking on a door.
"Doc Knock is knocked out." Miko reported.
"Look. The ship's decoded two sets of Iacon coordinates." Raf pointed out, just then it finished another, "Three. Let's rip and run."
Dana jumped up and grabbed Knockout's arm to get onto the console. Fowler climbed up right behind her and helped Raf up.
"There's the port." Raf said.
Fowler inserted the drive and the download immediately began. As they all checked the information on the monitors Jack realized something.
"Why is the ship headed for Manhattan?" Jack asked.
Cursing, Dana checked the first set of coordinates and pulled up the maps app she had on her phone from a geography class her first year. It was a match. Things were added up to getting even grimmer.
"Because that's where the first set of coordinates are located?" Raf guessed, voicing the conclusion Dana had just come to.
"What would a relic from Cybertron be doing in the Big Apple?" Fowler asked.
"The relics landed on Earth eons ago Agent Fowler. Long before the city was built on top it." Ratchet pointed out.
"Which means if the ship wants this one it may have to move some buildings out of the way." Jack realized.
"Best case scenario dozens maybe hundreds get hurt or killed plus the subway system gets wrecked in the process. All totaling in millions of dollars worth of property damage and medical bills. That's if the damage is confined to the exact spot and a block or two around it." Dana noted.
"Our mission just got complicated. How do we deter this ship?" Fowler asked.
"I would advice disabling the navigation module." Ratchet answered, "Call up the main navigation menu."
Raf was quick to spot the nearest console that would do the trick. "There."
Fowler put out his hand to keep Raf from going to it. "Step aside son."
He moved onto the other console but as soon as his hand touched the pad a burst of electricity shocked him and he fell clear onto the floor. Worse, that little stunt brought the warship's attention to the fact that someone was there and messing around with its systems. Its nearest security camera moved to try to spot the interloper but didn't process the four conscious humans' presence.
"It doesn't see us." Miko realized.
"Yet. The ship must not be scanning for carbon based life forms." Ratchet noted, "But once it widens its search parameters…"
"We're toast." Raf guessed.
"I'm bridging you back." Ratchet said.
"No. There are millions of lives at stake in New York. And we four are the only ones who can currently do anything about it." Jack argued.
"You're out of your element Jack. These readings, the ship's rapid recovery all point to the fact that Megatron employed dark energon to repair it." Ratchet retorted.
"Well I'm not seeing anybody else human or bot capable of doing something." Dana pointed out.
"Hold on. If you're saying the ship is fueled by dark energon we can dump it right?" Jack asked.
"Hm. You need to reverse the ship's energon infuser." Ratchet replied, "Follow the main overhead conduits. They'll lead you to the power core."
The four hurried to do as instructed and get to the power core. Eventually they made it to a room filled with boxes of energon cubes. Then they came across a sight that made Jack, Miko and Raf all start. Megatron was standing there frozen just like the rest, his hand on a switch. Dana was relieved that Jack's guess seemed to be the right track.
"Megatron had the same idea." Jack realized.
"Then we're on the right track." Raf noted.
"The energon injection valve can only be operated manually." Ratchet said.
"Manually?!" the younger three exclaimed in unison.
Dana wasted no time into jumping up to grab a hand hold on Megatron's leg and make her way up and around his side until she was in range to jump onto the console with the switch Megatron was about to pull when the warship froze him. Behind her Jack hesitated a moment then had Miko and Raf give him a boost so he could climb up Megatron's back to follow her. Even with Jack pushing and Dana pulling the switch didn't budge.
"I'm infested with alien life forms." the ship stated.
"Uh oh. We just got made." Miko said.
Miko and Raf ran as the ship used the same claw-like devise used to insert the boxes of energon to try to grab them and move said boxes out of its way.
"All parasites will be eradicated." the ship declared.
"I've got an idea- I'll distract the ship from Raf and Miko and trick it into pulling the switch for us." Jack said quietly.
"I'll rush ahead then- I've got to check on Fowler and the drive. There will be trouble if Knockout wakes up to find them there." Dana replied.
The moment Jack had the ship's attention she ran back to the console Knockout was at. She climbed onto the console. As she waited the ship had decoded a fourth set of coordinates. Finally the others got back. As Miko and Raf helped a loopy Fowler through the ground bridge, Dana retrieved the drive and jumped down.
"That's all that's been downloaded?!" Jack exclaimed.
"No time to complain, let's book it!" Dana replied, pushing Jack to make him join her in following the others through the ground bridge.
Behind her Knockout came to and turned around to see the source of the noise. Dana snapped a quick picture and hurried through just as the Decepticon medic started up his drill. When they were through they found the other bots already unfrozen.
"The download of the Iacon database may have but we now possess four sets of coordinates decoded by the ship." Ratchet said, informing the other bots of the results of the humans' mission.
"Then we must act quickly, for Megatron possesses the same four sets." Optimus noted, "And he will not hesitate to obtain the potential doomsday devices which lie at the site of each."
Optimus was right, naturally. There was no way the Decepticons would waste time or hesitate. This would be a race to the finish four times over. And Dana had a feeling that this time, the Autobots couldn't afford to keep the humans off the field and away from a potential encounter with the Decepticons.
End of Chapter