Her lungs were burning while she ran for her life.
Mikeala had first noticed she was being followed when she had left the mall after meeting with Sam. Shortly after Mission City, Lennox has taught her how to spot a tail.
Mikeala had taken several streets that she didn't have to take in order to confirm the fact they were following her. The icing on the proverbial cake had been when she had stopped at a stop sign with her right turn signal on, only to take a quick left, causing the tires of her follower to squeal when they tried to catch up.
She had slammed the throttle on her bike, weaving through semi-heavy traffic on the speed bike, throwing it down onto the ground after she had entered a darkened alley way.
Now she was on her feet, running for all it was worth while she was trying to dial a number on her cell phone. She pressed the send key just as one of the men grabbed her.
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Barricade's engine screamed as he flew in and out of traffic. Siren at full blast, lights flashing franticly as he sped on.
It had surprised him when he had received an incoming transmission from Mikeala's cell phone. Hearing the girl's cries for help as he could hear the scuffle on the other end. He was quick to lock onto the phone's GPS locator, alerting the others to the emergency as he started off.
It was hard to admit for him, but out of all of the humans he was currently associated with, his 'favorite' was the girl, Mikeala. She was good natured, spunky, and didn't hesitate to 'put him in his place' when he allowed her to.
He sped through another intersection, hearing screeching tires behind him as he sensors told him Bryan and Kasey had joined up in Sideswipe, the Autobot sporting a portable siren and flashing lights.
The red Corvette kept pace with the former Decepticon, weaving in and out of traffic with him until they came upon the alleyway, finding Mikeala's bike tossed on the ground.
Bryan and Kasey were out of Sideswipe before the car had fully stopped, Barricade's hologram toting a nasty looking pistol as he lead the way into the alley, sweeping it with his sensors before lowering the gun.
"She's gone." He said, red eyes locked onto the slightly damaged cell phone laying on the ground.
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"Damn it!" Sam yelled, slamming his fist down on Bumblebee's hood; holding his hand when it throbbed in pain. Apologizing slightly when Bumblebee's engine rumbled slightly. "Why her?"
Bryan looked to Kasey before he sighed. "We don't know. Tyler is downloading voice samples from Barricade on who he heard in the background. If it's one of Simmons' guys, we'll know soon."
"And if it isn't?" Sam asked, looking up at him.
Mei answered from behind, having just slid a fresh clip into her pistol, cocking back the slide before letting it slide back into place. "If it isn't, then someone just seriously fucked with the wrong person."
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Tyler sighed, resting his head in his arms for a few seconds before turning blurry eyes back to the computer screen. "I've been searching every military, criminal, and INTERPOL database I can find to see if anything matches this voice. I can't find anything."
"Think it's possible Simmons' hired someone to take her? Someone unknown to the police?" Maya asked, sitting on the desk near him.
"Maybe…" He said quietly before looking over at her. "But who?"
"Well…" She began, eyes rolling to the ceiling in thought. "The Columbians are always looking for side jobs and there's too many of them to voice print. Last year they lost sight of that religious fanatic group 'The Spirit Sprites', and their god only knows how many kidnappings they performed. Hmm… God, there are so many street gangs and thugs to really know who he could have hired." She looked to Barricade. "Any ideas?"
The robot shook his head. Maya looked back at Tyler. "What about you?"
Tyler shook his head too, just as Devon walked into the room. "We're missing something." He said, tossing a DVD onto the table. "Play it."
Tyler slid it into the DVD-ROM drive of his laptop, opening the file and playing it back. "CDOT caught this on their traffic cameras." Devon stated, pointing at the lower left of the screen. "Wait… watch."
Sure enough, Mikeala's bike had it's right turn signal on before she took a rather violent left to get away from silver FBI looking Lincoln Town Car.
"Fuck." Maya whispered. "Secret Service?" She asked, looking at Devon. He shook his head, pointing at the screen. "Tyler, roll it back to where you can see the back of the car and zoom on the plates."
He did as he was told, a small window popping up on his screen, the car's license plate clearly visible. "That, my friends, is an 'F' series plate." He said, pointing out the tag number. "That right there is NSA."
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"Nation Security?" Mei asked, blinking. "You're shitting me right?"
"No." Devon replied, rolling his eyes. "I'd know those plates anywhere. She was grabbed by Nation Security. Which would explain why we couldn't voice print them, NSA doesn't log their field agents voices for fear of enemy hackers."
"So what do we do?" Sam asked, standing up from his chair, bandage wrapped around his hand.
"It's hard to see on the tape, but one of the guys in the car was on his cell phone. Tyler is trying to track it down."
"How long?" Sam asked again, taking a step forward.
"Well, depends on-"
"How. Long." Sam repeated, glaring at him.
"Twenty minutes. Hour at the most."
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"Can someone please get this thing off my windshield so I can transform?" Sideswipe growled. He was talking about a red and blue police light that had been suction-cupped to his windshield. His brother chuckled.
"Aw, don't be that way Sides. I thought you liked things sucking on your windshield."
"When I get a hold of you!" Sideswipe growled, rocking on his tires as Kasey reached in, plucking the light from the glass. "There." She sighed. "Stop whining."
"What was that thing plugged into anyway?" Sunstreaker asked as his brother transformed. The other mech leaned in, whispering something and Kasey watched Sunstreaker's eye widen. "What? No way."
Sideswipe nodded. Sunstreaker transformed into his car form, opening a door. "My turn!"
Kasey rolled her eyes, storing the lights in her bag before grumbling something about 'stupid robots'.
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Bryan tapped on the glass of the medbay doors, opening them when Ratchet told him to 'come in'. He looked up as the medic didn't look away from his work on Ironhide's right cannon.
Bryan waited a few minutes before Ratchet sat back, closing the access panel on Ironhide's arm. "There. Good as new. Take care of it this time." The medic sighed when the older mech grumbled about 'wear and tear'.
When Ironhide left, Ratchet turned to Bryan. "You needed something?"
"Yah, come on, Simmons called and wants to set up an emergency meeting. Something about 'product' he needs to move quickly and we're his favorite clients."
"Do you think he's going to do something with Mikeala?"
Bryan sighed. "Knowing that twisted freak? Probably."
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Mikeala groaned when she woke up, feeling her head throb slightly from the sedatives they had force fed her.
She rolled onto her stomach, bracing herself as she got onto shaking legs, hissing in pain as she realized she had injured her ankle. She limped to what looked like a door, pressing her ear to it.
Unable to hear anything, she sat down near it, wrapping her arms around herself, looking around the darkened room, her eyes still not adjusted enough to see anything.
"I hope they got my message." She whispered to herself. Leaning back and hoping for the best. Even though she had sent it to Barricade, she knew that they would do everything in their power to save her… if only…
Her thoughts were interrupted as the door was opened violently.
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"Remember," Kasey said softly as they pulled to a stop outside Simmons' base. "No matter what happens, stay in character unless we say otherwise." She said, patting Ratchet's steering wheel. The Autobot rocked on his suspension a little to tell her he understood.
She stepped out, glaring at Simmons. "What did you want?"
"I wanted to show you something." He said proudly, hand on a sheet covering what looked to be a sports car. He pulled the sheet away, revealing a silver Porsche 911 Turbo. Bryan held back his impressed whistle.
"Alright, congrats, you have a hot car. Total babe magnet." Kasey rolled her eyes. "I don't see how that qualifies as a reason to call us."
Simmons shook his head. "That is why I'm the brains and you're the check book."
Kasey rolled her eyes again when Simmons took a step away from the car. "Transform." He commanded, looking at the car.
At first, nothing happened, but soon after, metal shifted, gears whirled, metal clanked, and standing before them, was a resurrected Jazz. Or at least his body.
"Meet N.B.E. number three." Simmons stated, looking back proudly at Kasey and Bryan.
While their faces looked impressed, silently, they were horrified.
Bryan was the first to speak. "How'd yah do it?"
"When we hacked the Autobots, we also studied how the worked. Found out that their life force, their so called soul, was nothing more than a serious energy charge. All I had to do was use this." He said, holding up a piece of what appeared to be a metallic object.
"And what's that?" Kasey asked, already knowing the answer.
"It's a piece of that cube thing. We found another part of it logged in N.B.E. one's chest before we dropped it into the ocean."
"So you created a Transformer?" She asked, walking around Jazz's standing body.
"Correct. Now what this." He said, motioning to one of the guards who flipped a switch.
Jazz turned back into a car when Simmons commanded him to, revving his engine like an angry drone. The wall in front of him slid back to reveal a long hallway, a quarter of a mile, Kasey estimated.
At the end of it was a very scared and confused Mikeala.
Almost on cue, Bryan's cell phone rang.
"We're not really going to let this happen are we?" Ratchet's voice came over his headset when he pressed the phone to his ear, excusing himself from the meeting.
Bryan sighed a little. "No, I didn't order any food from there." He replied, hoping Ratchet caught on.
"So what are we going to do?"
"Take it back to the store. I'll pay for it later."
Bryan was about to say more, when Jazz took off.
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Mikeala screamed, seeing the car from racing at her. She knew she couldn't run with her ankle in it's current state. She closed her eyes and found herself pray before she could realize it.
Screeching tires were herd and she kept her eyes closed tightly, wishing for a painless end. She braced herself for the feeling of a car slamming into her, but it never came. A simple wind was as she felt and she opened her eyes to see the car a few inches from her face, the passenger door wide open with the engine revving.
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Bryan and Kasey held back their breath hearing the tires squeal at the end of the hallway, unable to see if Mikeala had been hit or not.
To his credit, Ratchet didn't move.
Kasey forced an evil grin onto her face. "Excellent. It's like an advanced killing ma-"
She stopped speaking mid-sentence, hearing the loud engine revving at the end of the hallway. She was about to say more when she heard the tires again, she looked back at the hallway, seeing the sports car go racing up the hallway, pulling a drift turn as it took off heading for the main garage, busting through the large metal door and taking off.
Kasey grinned to herself before turning it to a glare when she looked at Simmons. "What - the - fuck - just happened?"
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Mikeala's heart was racing when she crawled into the car, it's door closing behind her as it took of down the hallway at great speed. She ducked below the dash board when it went through the garage door.
It wasn't until they hit the city limits she spoke.
"Thank you so much for not killing me." She gasped out, sitting up in the seat and looking around. "Who are you?"
The car's engine just revved like it was laughing at her.
"I'm surprised you don't recognize me. I know he gave me a little upgrade, but I still hold my style." The radio replied, the style and tone in which it spoke grabbed her attention.
"No way." She said, jaw nearly hitting the floor.
"Miss me?" The car replied, rocking on it's suspension a little as it weaved in and out of the small amount of traffic just before hitting the desert.
"Jazz!"