Chapter 14

Autobot base…

"Ratchet," Optimus's voice rang out through the comm link. "Can you remotely disable project Damocles under Agent Fowler's advisement?"

Ratchet and Bulkhead looked at the screen wide-eyed. "On a human based computer network?" Ratchet stated. "Without my backup? Without Rafael?"

He then turned to Agent Fowler on the upper level. "Agent Fowler," he said. "We require Rafael's assistance."

"Understood. Bridge us to his home." Replied Fowler as he grabbed a file containing the details of the satellite. He turned to Jack and Miko who were sitting on the couch. "You two coming?" he asked.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Miko jumping up. She thought for a moment. "Wait, wouldn't Alex like to come with?"

"He's not here. Said he was going for a walk." Said Jack as he quickly stood up. "There's no time to go and find him."

Their attention was then grabbed by the groundbridge powering up, as well as Ratchet urging them to hurry. "You must act quickly…" he said.

….

Outside the town of Jasper…

It was freezing that night in the Nevada desert, with the clouds overheard threatening to continue their downpour from earlier that evening. There wasn't a soul in sight, and while it was eerily quiet, it remained somewhat comforting. If Alex had been back home, he wouldn't have dared venture into the night at that hour. But he wasn't home. He was in the middle of nowhere, and he was all alone. However, despite having a valid reason to be out walking (Nurse Darby had advised that he begin exercising the muscles in his leg), he had his own agenda.

It was quite a long walk to the place where he had originally materialized, but he wasn't sure how long 'the human factor' would last, so no worries of returning to the base too early. While he was certain that his presence at the Esquivel household would have had no effect on the outcome of the episode, he still couldn't risk taking part. Besides, it's not like anyone would miss him.

About half an hour passed until he finally reached the signpost on the main route in and out of Jasper. A little further on he found the two rock formations in-between which the spacebridge had spat him out. Standing there now Alex could feel nothing special about the place. He wasn't exactly sure what he expected to find here (maybe some residual energy of some kind), but there was nothing to indicate that a vortex into space had opened up here. Alex slumped his shoulders. He had wasted his time coming here. Still, he had done some good walking.

The Autobot base was to his right of the town. Alex set off in that direction, walking just on the border of Jasper near the west canal system. To his surprise and excitement he could just make out Silas/Breakdown and Bulkhead fighting it out. The brawl must have just begun as Smokescreen was nowhere in sight and Bulkhead was still putting up a good fight despite his still healing injuries. Keeping quiet Alex walked towards the edge of the canal, hoping to get a better look without being seen. He eventually found a spot and sat with his legs hanging over the canal wall. "No harm in watching a scene unfold." He thought to himself.

The fight was intense, but with each blow Alex could see Bulkhead buckling under, his muscles struggling to endure the pain. After a while Silas clipped Bulk on the back sending him flying. The autobot lay on the ground unmoving as the human hybrid walked up behind him. From his sitting place Alex could just make out Silas saying the words "You should've stayed in bed Autobot." But then the sound of an engine and of transformation could be heard and before he could swing down with his hammer, Silas was propelled back by Smokescreen's flying kick. The new recruit walked over to give Bulkhead a hand. "Assist." He said. "What the new guy's for." The two Autobots then turned to Silas who had recovered from the blow. "One new guy to another," he said while cricking his neck joints and readying his hammer. "This is your final day on the job." Silas attacked with brute force, slamming his weapon into the ground just where his adversaries had been standing.

What Alex would have given at that point for some popcorn. "HD eat your heart out." He thought absent-mindedly. He continued to watch the fighting for a few more minutes, during which the two Autobots had combined forces to give Silas the aft-whipping of his life. Silas finally hit the ground and instead of immediately reacting, he seemed to hesitate. Probably Megatron in his ear ordering him to return to the Nemesis at once. With that he launched a missile at the Autobots and made for the groundbridge portal that had appeared behind him.

…..

As the smoke from the missile blast cleared, Bulkhead and Smokescreen stood up just in time to see the 'Decepticon' disappear through the green portal. The two Autobots then looked up to the sound of exploding metal, as the Damocles satellite re-entered Earth's atmosphere. The flames were quite bright so it must have been close. Still, no worries on where it would hit the ground (Middle of the desert and so forth).

"Looks like someone's big plan just burned up in re-entry." Said the former wrecker before high-fiving the new recruit.

"And for the record," replied Smokescreen. "I studied every one of the wrecker's battles."

"There's hope for you yet…newbie." Smiled Bulkhead.

They were then interrupted by the sound of clapping and whooping. They turned to see Alex standing at the edge of the canal, obviously excited about what he had just witnessed.

"That was Insane!" Shouted the teenager. "Brilliant work you two! Can I take part next time?!"

"Alex." Greeted Bulkhead as he walked over to the boy. "I think you should leave the fighting bit to us."

"Are you kidding?" cut in Smokescreen with a smile on his face. "After what I saw this kid could do yesterday, I say we unleash him onto Megatron and see what happens!"

"Anyway," Bulkhead said with apparent firmness. "How long have you been here?"

"Long enough to see that you guys are just pure awesome!" Alex replied. "I was out for a walk when I saw you guys fighting it out with Silas."

"Huh, I thought you'd be with the ki- Wait a minute," Bulkhead stopped with a frown on his face. "How did you know it was Silas that we were fighting?"

Alex recoiled, cursing himself silently. In a splitsecond he came up with an excuse and replied "Oh, I thought Silas was inside Breakdown giving the orders, as Breakdown's fighting method seemed a bit different."

"And how would you what Breakdowns fighting method looks like?" Bulkhead asked with the frown burrowing deeper into his forehead.

Unfortunately Alex hesitated. "Um…Agent Fowler mentioned it to me when we were talking about fighting maneuvers."

Bulkhead was now suspicious and would have pressed on, but Smokescreen then decided that he was bored with the topic.

"Oh leave the kid alone, Bulk," he interrupted. "Do me a favor, Alex. If Optimus asks you to report on this, could you mention how well I fought and how I was just like him when it came to supporting Bulkhead?"

Alex lightened up immediately, eager to get away from Bulkheads suspicious gaze. "Smokescreen," he said with a small snicker. "I may not know Optimus, but I'm sure he's not one for fictional stories."

Despite his current thoughts Bulkhead had to laugh lightly at this.

Smokescreen on the other hand, was not impressed. "Haha very funny." He retorted sarcastically.

Bulkhead lifted his hand to his ear. "Bulkhead to base," he said. "Any chance of a bridge back?"

There was no reply.

Bulkhead tried again. "Ratchet, you copy?"

Nothing but static.

Bulkhead frowned. "That's strange. Something's interfering with the signal."

Smokescreen tried his comm link, with the same results.

Suddenly Alex's phone started ringing. Upon answering it Ratchet's voice came through loud and clear. "Alex, Where are you?"

"At the canal with Smokescreen and Bulkhead." Alex replied. "Why? What's going on?"

"The satellite." Ratchet explained. "There is a section of it that survived re-entry. It's telemetry indicates that it is going to hit the base!"

…..

"What?!" Alex exclaimed. His alarming tone alarmed Bulkhead. "Alex, What is it?" Bulkhead asked.

Alex pointed a finger to quiet him. "Ratchet, explain." He said quickly.

"When Rafael activated full thruster burn," Ratchet explained. "The satellite was sent into re-entry, causing it to start burning up. It seems that a fragment of it has made it through re-entry and is heading straight for the base."

"Can't we try and shoot it down or something?" Alex inquired.

"We do not have sufficient firepower. The fragment is interfering with the comm signal as well as the ability to lock in groundbridge coordinates, so I cannot contact Optimus."

Alex took a deep breath. "So what do we do?"

"I have had no choice but to abandon the base. Stay right where you are. I do not know how big the blast radius will be."

Alex's mind was in overdrive by that point. This was a major development that hadn't been shown and appeared to have no solution. How the hell had this happen?

Then Alex stopped, as with horror he realized something.

They did have sufficient firepower.

Alex spoke back into his phone. "Leave this to us, Ratchet." He said before immediately ending the call, knowing that Ratchet would try and argue. In a minute he had come up with a plan.

Curse him to hell if he got this wrong.

"Alex, What is going on?!" Bulkhead asked with evident concern. The same concern was etched on Smokescreen's face.

"No time to explain." Alex said as he climbed down into the canal. "Smokescreen, we need to get to base right now."

"Why, what's going on?" Smokescreen asked.

"I'll explain on the way. But right now, I have a chance to save the base from being destroyed." Alex replied with firmness in his voice.

"What?!" Bulkhead exclaimed.

Smokescreen looked down at the teenager. He had only known him for a few days, but the look on Alex's face told him that the kid was being deadly serious.

Despite his judgment, he transformed and opened the passenger door.

"Get in." He said, revving his engines.

…

Smokescreen didn't bother to check speed limits as he and Alex sped towards the base. They even didn't waste time as they passed Ratchet going in the opposite direction, who then skidded to a stop and had begun to follow them.

"You really think you can stop that thing?" Smokescreen asked as they entered the main entrance of the base.

Alex was worried, but confident. "I believe I can." He said.

The race car sped into the base and braked right next to the stairs that led up to the elevator. Alex wasted no time rushing up to it and pushing the button to take him up to the top.

A Few moments later the doors pinged open and he was met by the cold night air once again. Rushing over to the edge he looked up to see the raging fireball falling straight towards him.

Alex planted his feet firmly on the ground. Keeping his eyes on the fragment he put his hands together and started to concentrate.

Inside him the void cells were activated and started to generate power. This power then flowed through Alex's arms and begun to build up between his hands. The energy crackled as the orange orb grew in size and intensity. Alex's body was in absolute pain. He had never dared build up the energy this much because of what Ratchet had said, but he needed to be sure that there was enough power to successfully destroy the oncoming 'missile'. Furthermore, judging by the distance of it, he only had enough time to fire one shot.

Better make it count then.

The energy flowed, growing into a ball half the size of Alex. He was on the verge of collapsing from the pain. Then, in one swift movement, a yell of pain and when the power buildup was too intense to bear, Alex threw the orb straight towards the fragment.

…

The explosion could be seen from Raf's window, lighting the room up completely. Agent Fowler looked out the window.

"What was that?" he asked as the blast dissipated.

…

Bulkhead watched from the canal as the fire disappeared into the atmosphere.

"Nice going, Kid." He thought.

But HOW had he known about Silas?

…

The fragment had basically disintegrated with the force of the background radiation hitting it head on. Alex had felt the blast from where he had been standing.

He had done it! He had saved the base from destruction!

But as he stood panting and struggling to stand upright from the torture he had just endured, that was not the thought that was racing though Alex's mind.

He had prevented time lines from being disrupted.

But in doing so, had he just become part of the story?

Was he initially meant to do this?

Was he part of these certified chain of events?

To be continued…