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AHHH Cliffhangers!!! I know right, it's like a bad Saturday morning cartoon!! :D

Ch 14

More Questions than Answers

Hours ago.

Sam hovered over his computer. It would be nice if Bumblebee would give him a life line every once in a while. You know, to let him know that he was still, you know, alive! Of course what Bumblebee was doing was too big to keep to himself. Though by now, Sam should know better. Since Mikaela was still off across the country and he was without phone he couldn't tell her. This obviously wasn't something he'd announce to his parents especially in the slow almost snail mail speed of email, so Sam told Leo.

Not long after, Sam checked the websites' status to see that Leo thought it would be nice to tell the whole world where a major robot fight was about to take place. Great so his car was going to be in another exciting watchable episode of Robot Wars, again! Not only that, but it could compromise the Autobots' plan of attack. Sam sent a few frantic messages to his guardian and like the aggravating world that he lived in that included giant robots, Bumblebee wasn't responding. His head dropped down into his hands pulling his hair back on end. He was so tempted to just rip it out. He needed some stress relief. He was going to go scream at Leo.

Sam had the room to himself. Locked for a reason. As soon as he opened the door, it was as if every person on campus was loitering out in the hallway. Sam huffed and rolled his eyes and had to play 'don't step on the people' just to go two doors down.

"Leo!" Sam burst into the 'control' room.

"Not now bro, we have some new footage coming in!"

"Leo! You can't be doing shit like this! You could jeopardize the Autobots' attack!" Outside of being crammed full of computers, it seemed like there were more people in here than the four walls even had room for.

"Yeah I know, look some people were already there asking what was going on. I didn't say anything until after the fighting broke out."

"They're fighting now?" Sam somehow was able to slip past seven people without even trying.

He warmed up to the monitor that was playing choppy footage of explosions at a distance closer than safe. So nice to see that their other rule in big red writing went ignored as well. The whole don't put yourselves in danger rule. Bumblebee would be so ticked, though Sam wasn't going to complain. This was currently his only source to know how Bumblebee was doing. Shoving his irritation aside Sam became just as infatuated with the video feed as everyone else in the room. Even if most of the fighting could only be somewhat heard among the static wind interference and not seen. About ten video clips in from five different people were they finally able to see the robots in action. Then there was absolutely nothing. No video uploads and no texting. Eager befuddled anticipation set in. After long grueling moments it was reported that a shock wave rolled over them crushing buildings all around. There was a reason why that rule was there! One by one the other phones returned either recording the event or texting it. Two people reported that they were retreating from the area. The other three were far more bold. One even getting close enough so that Sam could see who was where among the Autobots. He was also able to see the Decepticon getting struck back into a building. It wasn't comforting, all the other Autobots had been dropped to their knees. Then, something strange happened with the video. Something right at the end, right before it was stopped to be uploaded.

"What was that?" Sam mumbled, stretching himself closer to the monitor. Unfortunately the video was too pixilated to get a grasp of what.

"What was what?" Leo looked up at Sam. Sam reeled back, suddenly feeling extremely dizzy. He took a step back.

"Sam!?" His name quavered inside his head. "Hey you okay?"

"What? Yeah." He felt so dizzy. He felt something cold run over his lip. And why was he on the floor? He brought up his hand to his lip to discover a fountain of blood had dribbled onto it. "Oh shit." He braced himself and brought his hands up to collect it.

"Hey get him a towel or something!"

A towel was presented. Sam's eyes looked up at it in question. The towel belonged to Fassbinder or Sharsky, who knows if those things are even clean or not! And if not, he didn't want to think about it. Despite that he took it, he was bleeding like a sieve and something had to catch it. His hands weren't stopping it from flowing all over the floor. He picked his head back and worked to catch the blood into the towel and to let it drain back inside his head. Ugg it tasted like he was chewing on Bee's wiring. Okay, never actually done that, it tasted like pennies. Still gross.

"You okay? That was one hell of a dive into the corner."

"Yeah I'm fine." He curled down his lips pulling his skin around to test if his nose felt broken or not. He picked himself off of the ground and headed towards the bathrooms. It took ten minutes to stop the bleeding and get everything cleaned up. He returned to the room eager to get a report of what was happening. All he got was unsure glances.

"That guy hasn't responded yet. None of them have."

"Guys! Check the news!" Another random body dashed into the room. All bodies rushed out of the situation room and into other dorms with tvs broadcasting how a bunch of cars were currently chasing down an alien jet down the freeway. That was covered for nearly an hour without much video to go on. Then the incident at the bay where a handful of cars waited around for their comrade to return from the ocean waters. There was clear video that time, a bunch of shiny cars and motorcycles. Through the hours they patiently waited for the silver robot to emerge on to the beach. Sam was just relieved to see the yellow striped Camaro sitting there in one piece. Otherwise everything else was too hard to grasp with the splitting headache Sam was experiencing. Probably when he fell. He wasn't even sure why he did. The simple fact that he had been exhausted this past week from the countless interviews he went through seemed to be as good a reason as any. He followed the random bits of news and the massive amount of fluff the tv portrayed for as long as he could stand it. After a while when his headache wasn't dispersing on its own, he went to find some medicine to numb out his pain.

Again he had to wallow through the people. Sam groaned with irritation and made it through to his room again. Once again the door lock twisted. Sam then went rummaging through his stuff for anything pain reliever.

"Sam!" A female voice from down the hall. She took one look at the hall that was overpopulated with people. All sat idly streaming the news and websites with their electronics in hands completely ignoring her. She waited for them to move. She growled. "What is wrong with you people!?" They barely even acknowledged that she wanted to get through. The people who did look up at her jumped to their feet to allow her passage. In a huff she started stepping around bodies while calling out for her boyfriend's name again.

"Hey! We're walking here! Get out of the way will ya!?" Wheelie jumped to the defensive. As soon as he hit the floor bodies flew up to their feet and cowered to the walls. "Shesh. Are you all dumb or sumthin? This isn't exactly a five star hotel out here!" He continued to mumble, shooing the people aside. All eyes locked onto the real effing deal! A real live robot!

Mikaela rolled her eyes at the people who were suddenly giving her a full salute of attention.

She reached out to Sam's door but before she could rap her knuckles against it, it opened up for her.

"Mikaela!" Sam sounded ever so shocked to see her. She was disappointed, she wanted to hold a stone dead stoic face, but his excited, yet shocked expression made her crack into half a smile.

"Hey Sam." He stood still kind of stunned. "What? You don't have another femmebot giving you tongue service in there do you?" She threw on her bitch face while looking around the corner.

"What?No! I - I was just surprised to see you- here! What are you doing here!?" Before she could respond he presented a cute aww moment by hugging her. That aww moment left Wheelie acting as if he was going to hurl up a iron lung in the background. He went ignored.

"I needed a break. And since I was flying all over the country anyways, I thought I'd come by to see how you were doing."

Sam was wincing away his headache. He should be ecstatic but he still couldn't focus. So much so that he barely even noticed that the little Decepticon had made himself at home. Realizing that he was getting a worried expression from his lack of response he cleared his throat.

"Sorry, I have this, killer headache right now." Without farther explanation Mikaela presented a bottle of pain relievers. "You are a life saver. You know that?"

Cheering was heard out in the hall way. Sam winced back the pain. He downed the pills without water.

"So what's going on? You have like fifty people living in your hall way."

"Yeah, it's, it's insane." A pause. "Have you been able to pay attention to the news lately?" Her expression turned sour meaning she was irritated with such a dumb question. Of course not, she's been either in the air or on the road. Sam jumped to the explanation before she could say anything. "The Autobots had attacked that Decepticon so now," Sam moved to the door and motioned her to follow, "now we're waiting to hear how everything turned out." Sam glanced back at Mikaela. He opened the door and jumped back in surprise when he nearly thought he was going to get jumped by a bunch of people who were hovered outside his door.

"Hey, they got him!"

***

"Will!" Ironhide's voice drifted. Ironhide was knelt down over Lennox observing the damage. Ratchet was busy giving aid to the wounded. Helicopters were landing and running out to help. Now that the imminent threat was gone, it wouldn't be long before the clean up crew would arrive. Optimus's attention was grabbed by a sharp howl that belonged to someone he didn't recognize. A little ways from the battle field Optimus picked up human signatures that did not belong to his party.

"Get it off! Get it off!" The young man toppled to the ground shrieking while a small mechanoid creature was trying to claw into him. All yelling and shrieking stopped when two massive digits, a thumb and a pointer finger respectively reached over and plucked the small non-biological organism off of the man. He shifted back in the dirt while Optimus pulled the small creature to his view. It squirmed frantically under the pin. "That was my cell phone! It just- it turned into that!" Optimus blinked to get specks of dust off his optics. It was unmistakable, the energy that exploded out of that building was the same energy as the All Spark. New life, but unfortunately, not one that was safe for this planet. The slightest of pressure and the plastic and metal creature ceased to be.

"Are you hurt?" Optics blinked and he refocused his attention to the man. He stared up at Optimus.

"Holy! You're freaking huge!" He gaped in dismay. He scuttled to his feet as his eyes were glued to the giant. "Nah, just, cuts and scratches. I'll be fine." The man broke away eye contact to dust off his coat. Optimus twitched in surprise.

"You don't seem to be afraid of me."

The man's eyes jumped back up to him. "Yeah well, intimidated, sure! But afraid, nah. You're one of the good guys right? I don't have anything to fear. Right? Well, except for getting stepped on anyways? Geez you things-guys look freaking huge in person!"

Two other civilians peered over at Optimus from amongst some rubble. Sam's endeavor seemed to have some effect at calming down the civilians. A surprising well of relief flooded over him seeing them look at him without fear. He paused and looked down at the smashed sparkling in his fingers. He rolled it down into his palm and studied it carefully. The other two civilians slowly approached from their hiding places. Optics picked up to fix on them.

"If you're not injured then I must kindly ask you to leave. We have some things that must be dealt with and I fear you're presence will only complicate matters." Optimus stood to his highest height. They nodded. In return he bowed his head and walked back to where Ironhide and Ratchet were waiting for him.

"We lost seven." Ratchet reported in a matter of factly tone. One devoid of the rage and anger that deep down everyone knew he felt. Optimus glanced around and vented. Ratchet was still administering medical aid to a soldier while others were being loaded up into the helicopters. Ironhide was observing the damage while the others were out searching for any that could be trapped under rubble. Among the rubble, one building stood untouched.

Optimus walked up to the building. His hand rested down on it to feel the intensity of the force field. He couldn't recollect a time when he came across one so powerful. Optics scoured the structure. There must be an opening somewhere. He followed along the building until he reached the South corner. There a large chunk of building had been removed. It was easily big enough for Optimus to slip through. He carefully let the foreign force field wrap around him as to not breach it, and then slipped inside.

There he instantly felt his own force fields strengthen and crackle against high levels of radiation. Not the All Spark radiation either. In fact there wasn't a trace of the All Spark's energy anywhere. His optics narrowed in confusion. Cords and wires hung sporadically throughout the interior. In some places so disheveled and discombobulated in that he found himself walking into a dead end too thick of cords and machinery to give him passage. The engineering was made from human electronics rehashed into something resembling Cybertronian technology. Optimus back tracked and found another path to walk through. Wires and cords brushed against his armor. It was more akin to walking through a jungle on training exercises rather than a sophisticated device. He walked to a clearing. Hanging among the wires was a set of control panels. He picked one up to examine it. Optics and his brow like structure furrowed. The display was in ancient Cybertronian. He himself scarcely knew what was written. He could make out a few assortment of numbers but the majority of data listed was lost on him.

"Ratchet, when you can, I need your assistance." He muttered outloud through his internal communications with Ratchet. His grip on the control panel slipped away. It bounced to gravity and a few feet away the motion caused pieces of the device to crash onto the floor. A shockwave of explosive energy errupted, nearly negating through Optimus's shield. He stood stunned a moment at the high dangers this room presented. He made his way back to the opening. Not long after Ratchet's form appeared.

Without a word, Ratchet took to his new task. They worked in silence, intently observing the device.

"Whatever this is, it is so crudely put together that it can only be considered dangerous. I believe the words I'm looking for is, a ticking time bomb." Ratchet informed as he pulled himself out of his intensely focused studies. Optimus hmmed to himself. "If the force field sheltering this device is breached, there's enough radiation in here to wipe out the entire city. Not to mention what might happen if this thing explodes." He stopped a few feet from Optimus and followed the wires along the roof.

"When Arcee and the others return we will need to assemble a team to somehow find a way to safely destroy this device." Optimus then packaged orders to his team. He called for Prowl, Bumblebee, Arcee, Chromia, Sideswipe and Jolt to return. The twins to guard the entrance and make sure no humans enter and for the remaining Autobots to help examine the device.

**

Message from Ladiesman:: Oh shit! Bee I'm so sorry for not responding! Are you there?!?

Message from Guardian:: Sorry can't chat now.

Sam's hand came up to cradle his head as he cursed to himself. He was so eager to hear a reply from Bumblebee and when he finally did, Sam wasn't there. He could have kicked himself. He shrugged an exasperated shrug of defeat. And that medicine didn't seem to be working at all! Sam turned back to see that he hadn't locked the door this time, and once again it was populated with people. Everyone wanted to see Wheelie. They also wanted to know what information Sam got from the robots. Which wasn't much except that the giant robot was destroyed. The most current nightmare was over!

***

Sideswipe and the others returned with eager news that the Decepticon had been destroyed.

Optimus sighed in realization. "Unfortunately, I feel this is far from over."

The sweet victory seemed bitter sweet. The cleanup they were left with wasn't the usual tag and bag and get the hell out of there. Instead, there was a dangerous device that needed to be dealt with. What it was, nobody was sure. What made matters worse was that Lennox had been seriously injured. William Lennox was their buoy inside the government to keep them on good terms with the humans. With out him, even their bargaining chip of this direly hazardous device might not be suitable enough. Almost as soon as Optimus expected it, he was given an order for all Autobots to return to the hanger for farther directions.

***

Yeah I know, short chapter :\ and I'm fifteen minutes past my deadline. Opps. Anywho, yeah did you think it was over with XD. I spent a day thoroughly plotting the story out. I am guesstimating it will be between 25 to 40 chapters long. Depending on how creative I get per chapter. Wowzer.