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Will of Fire and Hearts of Steel
Chapter Fourteen
Naruto immediately dropped the jutsu and morphed back to himself. He let out a gasp of immense relief as it no longer felt like his brain was going to bleed out from the amount of mental strain the technique had demanded. Damn. He'd be euphoric if he didn't have to do that horrible thing ever again.
He sat up and looked around in the room he had been taken to. It had a few computers by the walls, and some science and medical stuff that looked slightly disturbing, neatly laid there on several tables and trays. The whole place was like some mad scientist's lab. Which it probably was.
He was at the med bay.
And at any moment that Knock Out guy could walk right in. Big problem.
Conclusion: It really was a high time to take off.
He was just about to jump down from the berth when he heard the first door to the med bay swoosh open.
Kakashi-sensei would have been proud of the speed at which he managed to go through the hand seals of the Transformation jutsu and change back into the battered body of a flyer. He nearly fell down to the floor in the progress as he had to suddenly go limp and unmoving again.
The door to the room opened and a Vehicon stepped in.
This was just marvelous. Absolutely freaking fantastic. Well, guess it could have been worse. At least the mad scientist wasn't here yet to cut him to pieces. Small mercies.
He watched as the Vehicon briefly glanced at him and then went to do something at the computers. Naruto contemplated whether to knock it out or not, but he had no time to make a decision as the 'Con turned back again. Maybe it would just leave and go do…whatever the Vehicons did on their free time. If they really had any free time.
Of course it had already become quite clear that there wasn't going to be any more luck for him today. The Vehicon stepped closer and seemed to be closely inspecting the illusion of its dead comrade. For obvious reasons Naruto really couldn't know what, exactly, the Decepticon was thinking but from the intense visored stare he was getting he guessed the 'Con was beginning to get suspicious.
Scrap. It was probably finally paying attention to all the faulty details and wondering what was wrong.
The door hissed open.
The Vehicon started to turn.
Naruto immediately dropped the jutsu and made another, this time a shadow clone that puffed into existence right beside the berth.
As Arcee shot the Vehicon straight to the chest Naruto already had the Rasengan spinning madly in his palm. The clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke as Naruto slammed the Rasengan to the back of the 'Con's head.
The Vehicon dropped dead to the floor with a clang. Sad sparks sizzled from the decapitated torso, and blue liquid dripped sluggishly from the ragged dent in its chest and fell down to stain the otherwise spotless floor.
Naruto and Arcee looked at each other.
"Do you think anyone heard that?" The teen asked.
"Probably someone did, but I doubt they care. I don't think Knock Out is known for being silent when attending to his patients."
Naruto huffed a laugh and jumped down from the berth. Arcee grabbed the Vehicon and grunted as she pulled it up and onto the berth. Knock Out would get the test subject he wanted and nobody would be any wiser.
They quietly sneaked to the door. Naruto glanced out but there was no one in sight. The ninja then followed Arcee to a small room not far from the medical bay. There were over half a dozen dead Vehicons lying in a disregarded pile on the floor inside, the very same ones the other 'Cons had just hauled in.
"I don't think they'll come back here anytime soon," Arcee said. "You should have enough time to locate Kakashi."
Naruto nodded curtly. This was his moment. The whole operation counted on their ability to be fast to locate their target. There was no way he was going to fail this.
Now, he only had to get it to work.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
"How long do you need?" Arcee asked.
"I don't know," he murmured. It wasn't like he had really done something like this before.
Back home, everyone got chakra. Here, in addition to himself, there was only one. This should be easy. Piece of a strawberry topped cake. Child's play.
He only needed that one chakra signal. He could do that, right?
He could.
He would.
He had to.
There was a familiar flare of faint power coming from somewhere nearby. It really was like a lone beeping noise in an otherwise silent house. Back home, he wouldn't have found it. It would have been drowned under all the other noises, sounds, clanks and beeps and rattles. Here it was a beacon flaring in the dark, calling him, beckoning to him, pleading him to hurry.
He opened his eyes.
Arcee was looking at him closely, blue eyes glowing in the gloomy room.
"I know where he is," Naruto breathed.
Her eyes looked like they shone a bit more brightly. "Where?"
"Down." He waved his hand a bit before pointing somewhere behind Arcee. "And that way, if it helps."
Arcee nodded. "We'll get further down first, then we'll stop again and you can give more directions."
Naruto grinned. This was working. His idea, his plan, was actually working! They really would get Kakashi-sensei out of this place.
They took positions by the door. Arcee turned to look at him.
"Can you do that illusion again?"
Naruto grimaced and shook his head. "Sorry, no. The first time was bad enough, and I don't think I could keep it up long enough. And they would have to look really real. And we'd have to move too. No chance it would work. "
Arcee nodded in understanding. "Then we'll just have to be careful."
They watched as a pair of Vehicons slowly strolled past the door and soon disappeared behind a corner. They waited for a moment and when there was no one in sight they sneaked to the corridor.
The big metallic hallways of the Nemesis were silent and empty. Naruto stayed close to Arcee, who was walking quietly beside the wall. A couple of times they had to hide behind corners or to the niches in the walls to stay out of sight of the occasional patrolling and passing guards. Once they even had to hide from Knock Out as the medical officer walked right past them on the silent corridors, optics glued to a datapad, most likely showing statistics and reports of the previously fallen drones, a content chuckle escaping his lips.
Naruto shuddered. The guy was creepy. He felt a bit bad for the Vehicon back in the med bay, even if it currently was quite, well, dead.
They continued skulking forwards. At last they saw the elevators at the end of the corridor. And there were no guards in sight.
As they hurried to the elevator doors Naruto let out a relieved breath. Just maybe they could actually do this.
Knock Out stepped into the Med bay. The Vehicons had informed him that the dead flyers had been brought aboard and a test subject was already waiting for him in the operation room berth. The Doctor hummed to himself, very much looking forward to the chance to slice into a drone killed by the tricky human pests. He would surely discover something new about their powers.
The door to the operation room hissed open and Knock Out stepped in. There was a shell of a flyer lying unmoving on the berth.
"Well hello there," the doctor purred, walking around the berth to inspect his newest "patient". The drone's head was missing and there was a wound on its chest. Pitiful, truly.
Knock out halted at the side of the berth and narrowed his optics. He leaned in to take a closer look.
There was still some Energon leaking from the blackened hole in the torso where the head should have been, as well as from the big dent and cracks in the middle of the chest. It dripped lazily from the wounds to pool on the berth and on the floor.
"New wounds," the Doctor murmured. "And signs of very recent melting…" Yes, he checked, tapping the edge of the ragged hole with one clawed fingertip. The metal was still warm, even though the wound should have been nearly half a day old.
Of course it could have been some weird human powers causing it but Knock Out found it rather unlikely. He was a scientist after all, not one to take things on possibilities and guesswork.
A much better explanation was that the injuries were newer. Much newer.
"Soundwave," the Doctor said, contacting the Communications Chief through the CommLink. "I think we might have a security breach."
Soundwave stood at the Bridge, the blank visor staring at the Iacon Database codes currently running on the displays. There were only a few other Decepticons on the bridge, standing at guard beside the doors and staring blankly ahead.
There was a contact for him through the CommLink.
Soundwave tilted his head.
The Intelligence Officer's claw-like fingers ran over the keyboards, and the current work disappeared from the screens to make room for the security camera feeds.
He chose the camera on the hallway outside the Med bay and rewound the video.
Then he stared at the video footage of the corridor, watched as a Vehicon dragged a dead flyer into the Med bay and exited after a brief moment. Then there was another Vehicon entering, and quickly after it, the small Autobot Arcee.
Then, only after a few clicks Arcee and the blond human came out from the Med bay and sneaked outside the reach of the camera.
As he sped through the other camera footages currently recording the many corners of the Nemesis he stopped only when he caught the glimpse of the two intruders currently standing in the elevator on their way down towards the lowest deck.
Soundwave raised the alarm.
They had just stepped out from the elevator and into a new corridor (looking very much like the previous one) when there were running footsteps rapidly approaching from behind the nearest corner. A siren started to blare deafeningly and ricocheted everywhere.
Arcee turned to look at Naruto, who returned the gaze.
They both ran.
"Which way?" the femme shouted over the screaming alarm, glancing at the ninja who was running beside the Autobot, keeping up a rather admirable speed for a human. They raced through the corridor, trying to get away from their pursuers who were adamantly chasing them through the ship.
"Give me a moment," Naruto grumbled and squinted his eyes. Then the blue eyes widened and the blond ninja gained even more speed and turned left from the next corner.
"This way!"
They continued their mad escape, passing doors and other hallways, but apparently none of them was the right one as Naruto kept racing forwards. Then there were sounds of weapons being fired behind them and red lasers dashed past them, a few of them much too close for comfort. Stray shots hit the walls and ceiling, sending up sparks and leaving behind blackened marks.
"Scrap!" Arcee cursed, turning around to fire a few shots at the Vehicons running after them before catching up with Naruto again.
"How much further?"
"I'm not sure," the ninja replied. "But I think we're getting closer."
A door further in the corridor opened and two Vehicons stepped out.
"Damn!" Naruto shouted at the same time as there were more shots being fired at them by the guards. "I'll take care of these guys, you take the other ones!"
Arcee's first reaction was to immediately refuse to let the teenager go off by himself. He was a human after all, small and fragile, with soft flesh, traitorous blood and easily breakable bones and tendons. Then she remembered the ball of energy the young ninja had slammed to the Vehicon's head and cut back the words about to be uttered. It was clear the boy wasn't, despite his young age, helpless at all but quite competent to keep up in a fight. She would just have to trust Naruto could take care of himself.
And hope Kakashi wouldn't have her head if the kid got injured.
As the ninja darted forwards to meet the two 'Cons, Arcee turned around and pressed herself against the corridor wall, beginning to fire rapidly at the approaching Vehicons. The drones were forced to take cover and started to fire back. The shots echoed loudly on the hallways and sent sparks around while missing and hitting the walls, ceiling and the corridor floor.
Arcee hit one of their pursuers to the head, and after a few more precise shots the Vehicon dropped to the ground, unmoving. There was a crash and a screeching sound of cracking metal from behind her. Arcee glanced over her shoulder just in time to see the other 'Con hit the ground hard, a sparking hole in its chest. The other one was currently attempting to squash a Naruto-clone (or was it the original one? She had no idea) before it too got hit in the head by a whirling ball of pure white energy.
"Arcee!" Naruto hollered, the clones once more disappearing from sight. "Come on!"
Arcee fired a few more shots at the other end of the corridor and then turned to run after Naruto.
"Where are the other guards?" Naruto panted with slight confusion. "If the alarm was raised already, why aren't there more?"
Arcee smiled grimly. "I guess our distraction has been noticed."
"A distraction?"
"Smokescreen and Bumblebee were to stage an attack in a Decepticon Energon mine. "
"Won't they know it's a distraction? They know why we're here, after all."
"Oh, they do know it, but that doesn't mean they don't have to send reinforcements to defend the mine," Arcee replied. Naruto grinned widely. A few times Arcee turned around to fire a few blasts of blue laser at their pursuer, hitting the remaining one and forcing it to stumble.
After a short moment of more running Naruto stopped by a wall.
"He's here!" the boy cried. Arcee looked around in the corridor but couldn't see any doors. The corridor continued to both ways without a sign of a corner anytime soon.
"If we continue that way maybe we'll - "she began, and then Naruto was striking the energy he was holding on his palm through the thick metal wall.
There was a horrible crash and screeching wail of metal being torn open, and then Arcee was staring at a big ragged hole on the previously intact wall. Even though she now knew what the boy was capable of it still was quite disconcerting to actually witness it time after time again.
Then Naruto was rushing in and Arcee had no choice but to follow.
They stepped into a large dark room.
Naruto let out a gasp.
"Kakashi-sensei!"
The ninja raced to the middle of the room that was illuminated by a lone white light. Arcee too advanced and could make out the figure of the older ninja suspended in the air by the nasty-looking chains hanging from the ceiling. Hatake's head was drooped and he seemed to be unconscious as he slowly swayed back and forth in his bonds. As the Autobot hurried closer she could see the human was very pale, even more so than usual. That usually wasn't a good sign.
"Arcee, can you shoot the chains," Naruto asked anxiously, hands speeding through the weird marks and creating two clones to his side. The femme nodded grimly, raising her weapon to fire quick shots at the chains. They broke easily enough and the clones caught the falling ninja and carefully laid him down to the floor.
At the sound of approaching footsteps Arcee turned her head at their makeshift entrance. She retreated back by the hole on the wall and saw a group of Vehicons running towards them through the corridor. She raised her weapon and began to shoot to keep them from getting any closer. The 'Cons took quickly cover and began to return the fire, attempting to in vain to advance through her cover fire.
Naruto concentrated on getting the cold heavy chains off of his teacher. They rattled and clanked as he threw them away on off of his Sensei. The Copy Nin's arms would probably be badly bruised, and his black shirt was already ragged and torn at the sleeves.
He heard Arcee's cover fire by the broken wall and knew it was only a matter of time until the 'Cons would be flowing in from the door and the hole and have them surrounded in no time. They'd have to get out of there now.
He finally got the chains off and knelt by his unconscious teacher, lightly tapping one masked cheek.
"Kakashi-sensei? Can you hear me?"
His teacher's hitai-ate was up on his forehead, leaving both eyes uncovered. Naruto thought he saw the jounin's eyelids twitch but the ninja refused to wake up.
"Sensei! Time to go!"
"Naruto!" he heard Arcee call out. "We need to get going!"
Naruto grabbed the Copy Nin's shoulders and shook him. "Sensei!"
Kakashi-sensei let out a muffled groan and sluggishly blinked his eyes, the left one opening only a fraction before closing again. Then the jounin was peering up at him with the familiar one-eyed gaze.
"…Na…ruto?"
Naruto nearly let out a relieved laugh that was a bit more shaky that he would like to admit. "It's me Sensei. Don't worry, we're getting out of here." He reached to tug down the hitai-ate so the older ninja wouldn't accidentally drain his already minimal chakra reserves.
Naruto stepped back so the two shadow clones could lift the barely conscious jounin sensei from the floor.
"Arcee!" Naruto shouted. "Let's go!"
Arcee was still firing at the Vehicons outside. Naruto heard a crash and a thump and then silence. Arcee hurried to stand by him in the middle of the room
"Okay," Arcee said. "Let's –"
There was a hissing sound of a door opening and a blinding moment when the lights in the room flashed on.
Megatron stepped into the cargo hold and was immediately met with the sight of the group of intruders standing in the middle of the room. His optics quickly raked over the scene – the hole on the wall, the Autobot Arcee – before stopping his gaze on the blond boy and his two look-alikes supporting the captured ninja who had been freed from the chains.
Hmm. Interesting.
His entrance had, of course, been immediately noticed, and everyone's attention was quickly trained on him. Arcee had whirled around to aim her gun at him, and the blond human boy had swiftly moved to stand in front of his unconscious-looking comrade.
Megatron mentally scoffed. These pests truly were as bad as the Autobots themselves, sacrificing themselves over every little thing.
"A rescue attempt," he drawled while walking a few steps closer. "I wouldn't have expected anything less foolhardy from the Autobots."
As there currently weren't any more Vehicons trying to swarm in from the break in the cargo hold wall (though more reinforcements were on their way) Arcee was still steadily aiming her weapon at him. The human child had narrowed his eyes slightly, as had the two copies behind him.
"Though I must admit," Megatron continued, further inspecting the two creatures that without a doubt were somehow a result from the human's powers, before bringing his other servo from behind his back to view and gesturing it towards the group "that it appears to be that this time some rather unprecedented means were used to get aboard my ship."
The human straightened his back and sent the Decepticon a rather impressive glare.
"So you are that Mega-something guy, aren't you?"
Megatron narrowed his optics, fist clenching. The insolent little brat was going to pay for that later.
"Close enough, human. Yes, I am Megatron, lord of the Decepticons. Your friend here too worked it out quite quickly," he said in a tone someone might have mistaken to have a hint of amusement in it. Arcee moved uneasily.
Megatron chuckled. "And I must say, you seem to be as foolishly defiant as your comrade. He did withstand the interrogation rather admirably for a human."
The boy's eyes flashed. "What did you do to him?" he yelled, taking half a step forwards.
"Naruto," The Autobot said, her voice slightly strained.
So that was the beast's name, Megatron thought as he watched the human boy closely. He remembered every detail of the video footage Soundwave had collected from the battleground. He knew that by threatening Naruto's comrade the boy was likely to lose himself and succumb to whatever power inside him reined the beast.
It would be risky make the boy too protective of his companion, or Megatron would soon have a raging monster aboard his ship. That could ruin all his plans in a click. But the Deception warlord was not about to let the humans leave easily either, of course not. He didn't like to admit it (and he never would aloud) but reinforcements were needed and he would have to stall the foolish beings until that.
"Some simple information gathering," he replied, taking half a step forwards and flicking his fingers slightly as if the matter was of no great importance at all. The boy tensed his shoulders. Arcee's optics narrowed further.
"Information?" Naruto asked dubiously. "Of what?"
Megatron leveled him with a piercing red glare.
"It's not every day one comes across humans capable of taking out teams of my Decepticons," he said. "Naturally, I am curious."
Naruto snorted derisively. "I bet he told you nothing. Kakashi-sensei would never do that."
Megatron smirked.
"Maybe," he said. "But I got enough."
That little piece of -!
From the corner of his eye Naruto saw Arcee narrow her optics and steady her weapon. He knew what the Autobot was thinking: it wouldn't be long until more 'Cons would swarm the place and then they'd never get out. The Megatron thing hadn't yet shot them to bits, so Naruto could only think they would try to capture him and recapture Kakashi-sensei. And Arcee? She would probably be shot to pieces.
Like that was going to happen.
But they had to get out now, no matter how much he wanted to tear the 'Con leader to little pieces of junk metal.
"Naruto," Arcee said quietly, "the floor." Then she fired.
For a second or two Naruto stared at utter bafflement as the 'Bot rushed forwards, firing rapidly and forcing Megatron to step back and raise his own weapon.
Then Naruto's hands were moving and new clones appeared to the cargo bay, most of them immediately dashing towards the Decepticon leader. It was only a few seconds after that when he already had one more Rasengan on his palm.
He heard Arcee grunt as Megatron shot her straight to the shoulder, forcing her to stagger back.
As Megatron shot the approaching clones into puffs of smoke, Naruto slammed the Rasengan to the floor.
There was another screeching sound of metal forcibly torn open and broken, and a gaping hole appeared on the cargo hold floor.
Freezing wind rushed inside and nearly made him stagger.
Naruto didn't even have to shout for Arcee as the blue Autobot was already there, yelling "Go!" at him with no small amount of franticness.
And Naruto didn't even think twice as he jumped into the nothingness, the clones holding Kakashi not far behind.
Then there was nothing but the wind rushing in his ears and the still faraway yet uncomfortably rapidly approaching ground below him.
Uh oh, he thought. Maybe I should have thought about this a bit more.
"Ratchet!" he barely heard Arcee scream from somewhere behind/above him. "We'd really like that ground bridge now!"
Megatron waved his hand through the sudden cloud of smoke before him (so those copies weren't much use after they got hit) and growled in annoyance as he saw the empty space around the hole on the floor. Those crafty little critters apparently had even more tricks they were hiding.
He raised his optics up to the ceiling where there was a security camera situated neatly so it would have a clear image of the whole room. There was a red light burning, indicating it had seen and recorded the whole thing.
There was a sound of the door hissing open behind him and a group of Vehicons rushed in. At the same time Knock Out was stepping through the gap in the wall, inspecting it with interest.
"I see someone has decided to redecorate the cargo hold," the doctor said with a chuckle.
Megatron send him a glare that could have withered lesser beings and the doctor fell silent. The Vehicons fidgeted agitatedly behind him, but seemed to be confused by the lack of aggressive punishment from failing to arrive in time.
"Uh, sir," one of the Vehicons started with a hesitant tone (a few others took a careful step back). "Um… what are we going to do about the escaped prisoner?"
"That time will come," Megatron said, almost to himself as he stared at the fresh exit route on the floor. The wind was still howling in through it.
The Decepticon leader turned to face Knock Out.
"Doctor, I take it you got it ready?"
Knock Out crossed his arms and chuckled. "Purring like a well-oiled machine, my liege."
Megatron turned to walk out from the cargo hold and back towards the elevators.
"Excellent."
Thanks for reading! Please leave a review!
AN: So... I know, I'm horribly late and I really apologize for making you guys wait. Big school projects, entrance exams and draining summer jobs have ensured I haven't had the time or energy to write. Also, this chapter gave me some real trouble. It's not that easy to write about people sneaking into places, at least for me. But I do hope you'll like this chapter and that the way they escape is believable enough.
I'll do everything I can to get the next chapter posted much much sooner, but there might be a few weeks before that as I'm not yet sure how busy school will make me during the next weeks.
Anyway, thank you for still following this story!
Mistakes? Just tell me and they'll be fixed!