*Dark laughter is heard...*

I hit 50K tonight. So I'm posting a chapter in celebration! Maybe I'll post another this week just because too; who knows?

All I know is I'll be writing chapter 34 tomorrow and I've got a huge buffer zone between me and you guys. ;)

Shadescribe - yup! Cybertronians are basically just robots with souls (just...don't say that to their face. 'Robot' is kinda a derogatory term in some contexts). So of course their minds can be messed with. Humans can be messed with that way too - brainwashing and conditioning do exist, after all.

Taeniaea - Thanks! And I hope so, too. We should find out if they get to her or not this chapter, even!

So here we go!

Chapter 21

Maria's POV

Seek filled me in on where exactly we were as we made our way through the crawlspace between the walls of the base.

It turned out that the Reforged base used to be some kind of factory in Kaon – since the entire city was pretty much a mining community, it'd make sense that they'd manufacture things here, too. At least, some of the time – most of the equipment was used for smelting.

Megatron had apparently turned the place into one giant torture chamber. Then Shockwave took it over for experimentation.

Yeah. Not the best thing to hear when you want to rescue your friend.

"So where's Wildfire going to be in this place?" I asked, trying not to think about what Megatron could have done to the Autobots he had captured during the war here.

"Probably where they used to manufacture weapons. We're not far from there." Seek glanced back at me and almost stopped when she saw the look I had on my face: wide eyes, somewhat pale, and my jaw clenched as I gnawed on my lower lip a little. "Hey. Where was that brave face you had a little bit ago when we took on that biggie, huh?"

I shook my head and stopped biting my lip. "S-sorry, it's just – I don't want Wildfire to go through what I did."

Seek looked like she was going to say something, but then she shook her head and focused back on what was ahead of us. "Your friend's going to be fine. Let's just get to the main part of that part of the base so that you can take care of this mess."

I nodded in response. "R-right. How far is it?" I tried to bring back the determination I'd had when we first arrived, but thinking about the situation that Wildfire was in was making it difficult.

"Not much longer. If I'm remembering right, that break in the tunnel wall up ahead should get us to where your friend is." Seek nodded up to a crack of light that was slipping in through the tunnel wall to our left. It seemed to be flickering, almost as though there was something moving back and forth in front of it.

I took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Since getting into the base had been hardly difficult at all, getting out of it was definitely going to be a real doozy. Especially since we were going to be bringing Wildfire with us.

"...shouldn't be taking this long for her processor to accept the program!" a Cybertronian was saying as Seek and I came to a stop in front of the break in the wall. "Something must be wrong with your technology if she's even remotely capable of rejecting it, Mindwarp!"

"Shut it!" another voice hissed. "This one has far more will than the Dinobot Swoop; we haven't found her perfect match to lure her over to our side. Are you certain there is nothing in the database concerning a mech who would be capable of matching Project Wildfire strength for strength?"

"I've checked it multiple times since the first rejection! There's nothing!"

"Well check again! Maybe there's something that we missed."

"Like maybe the fact that Wildfire isn't a project in the first place?" I muttered under my breath, slipping into Cybertronian myself.

Seek looked back at me with an odd expression, then returned her gaze to the crack as the talking continued.

"All right, all right. But she'd better be under the next time I come back – and really under, not in stasis lock. I don't want to get punched in the face again just because the programming didn't stick and she's somehow aware of it."

My eyes widened at that as my eyebrows shot up as the sound of a Cybertronian walking away faded off to the right somewhere. What did they mean by that? Did Wildfire become affected somehow by what happened to me?

Or was the program just so bad at stealth that Wildfire could feel it trying to invade and take over her mind?

I honestly didn't know whether I wanted to ask or just jump in there and find out for myself.

"I was afraid of this," Seek murmured to herself.

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Mindwarp is one of Shockwave's more successful experiments. He's able to bend a Cybertronian's processor so that they'll follow his orders—whether they're aware of it or not." Seek paused. "If he's the one working on Wildfire rather than the others, then…."

"But they said that Wildfire was throwing it off!" I responded.

"That just means he hasn't found a way to really pull her under yet. And he will, if given time." Seek shifted a little, moving away from the crack in the wall. "Have a look for yourself."

I moved toward the break in the wall and looked out, frowning when I saw how close we were to the floor. I could barely make out computers and what looked like the base of a metal table.

Then a bright green Cybertronian foot suddenly came down in front of the crack in the wall, and I drew back in surprise at the suddenness of it.

A strange humming noise followed as the Cybertronian moved away from the wall, and I got a good look at what Mindwarp looked like.

He was short for the average Cybertronian, mostly a bright, tacky neon green with psychedelic swirls of pink and yellow covering his arms and chest like tribal tattoos of some kind – it almost felt like he was inspired by the hippie era, and it made me wonder if Cybertronians ever had a hippie era of their own to be inspired by. There was a strange, crazed grin on his face that almost seemed to be stretched to wide now, but it looked like there were frown lines on his forehead, as well. Not to mention the top of his silver head didn't have a helmet on it at all and gave him the impression of being a bald, crazy old man who could probably change personalities at a snap of his fingers.

"You know, it's a shame that you're so troublesome and so powerful at the same time," Mindwarp commented to whatever happened to be on the metal table. "I would love to be able to pick your mind apart to see how you were shrugging off The Master's programs! But, alas, you are needed for our cause, so I'll have to wait until after we are the only ones left alive to claim Cybertron anew, yes?"

A groan came in response, and Mindwarp simply chuckled before starting to work at one of the nearby computers.

I clenched my fists as I clenched my jaw, fingers scraping against the metal below them. A hiss slipped out past my teeth.

Seek looked at me with an expression of concern and worry. "What are you—"

"If he thinks that they can take over Cybertron after we worked to get it back to normal, then he's got another thing coming," I muttered under my breath, eyes narrowing. I looked over at Seek. "That's Wildfire he's got in there right now; we've got to get him away from her in order to get her loose."

"And how do you suggest that?" Seek responded. "He's not going to leave her alone! Not when he's providing this much of a challenge to him!"

"Well then, we need to get his attention away from her now before things gets even worse." I started to move closer to the crack.

Seek grabbed my arm. "If you're suggesting that you're going to draw him away, then you're planning for suicide. Mindwarp isn't kind to Mini-Cons or anyone that isn't bigger than him."

I frowned at that, but I didn't pull my arm out of Seek's grip. "Well then, what do you suggest that we do? I've got an ability that will allow me to remain invisible and draw Mindwarp away without him actually spotting me; I was planning on making use of it before circling back here to get Wildfire loose."

"You don't know what the Reforged are capable of," Seek responded. "That mech we got past with the infared vision? I wouldn't be surprised if he was a failed experiment and if there were others that have the ability and actually succeeded in not having their processor get completely torn apart. Mindwarp's processor is literally warped by all the work Shockwave did to him. Do you really think that you're going to be able to actually draw him away and come back without getting caught?"

I frowned. "Honestly? I'm expecting them to come after me, but Megatron is out there right now doing who knows what. The base is emptier than normal, right?"

Seek gained an odd look on her face at that. "Megatron? He's out in Kaon right now?"

"Yeah. But we've gotta move; I don't know how long he's going to be out there."

Seek hesitated, but then her grip on my arm loosened. "All right. I'll help, but we're going to do things my way."

"And what's that?"

Seek didn't verbally respond. Instead, she bolted out of the tunnel, transformed, and squealed out of the room, leaving tracks on the ground and the smell of something similar to burned rubber.

Mindwarp turned his head just as Seek was zipping halfway across the door. He gasped. "A Mini-Con! Delightful! It seems we've regained an infestation." He grinned wickedly, then dashed out of the room, brandishing what looked like a prod of some kind and cackling as he went after Seek.

"I hope she's going to be okay." I gained an uneasy expression, then shook my head and ran out of the room before jumping on my hoverboard and zipping up to the table.

There, strapped down and with her head stuck in some kind of metal cage, was Wildfire. She looked like she was barely awake, optics flickering like she was trying to wake up but wasn't quite there yet.

I shifted my right hand into my Buster, aimed at the lock that was over Wildfire's right wrist, and fired.

Brrzzt!

The laser binding that was keeping her arm down flickered and died instantly; I quickly moved to her other limbs and shot out the bindings that were holding down her left wrist, knees, and ankles. Then I turned my focus to the thing that was stuck on her head.

Wildfire's optics flickered again, still blue like they were supposed to be. It didn't look like they'd glazed over, either, which was a relief for me. "Maria?"

I nodded. "I'm getting you out of here." I looked over the metal cage that was on Wildfire's head, frowning a little. "Now how to get this thing off…."

"…think there's a release switch on the side or something."

I nodded again. "Okay; gotcha." I moved back and forth a little in order to see where the release switch Wildfire mentioned was, then caught sight of what looked like a locked-down lever of some kind on the right side of her head.

It kind of looked like one of those levers that might be on windows – the ones that lock them shut.

I moved closer to the switch and looked it over, frowning as Wildfire clenched and unclenched her fists slowly, as though she was trying to get feeling back into them. "Okay. Let's see if I can get this thing off."

I grabbed the lower part of the lever and pulled up. The metal creaked and groaned in response, clearly not wanting to let go – especially since I wasn't as big or probably as strong as the average Cybertronian. I probably got it moved what would probably be a centimeter to a large Cybertronian before I had to stop in order to catch my breath.

"Either this thing's stuck or I'm just really weak compared to you guys!"

Wildfire made a strained noise that sounded like a laugh. "You're small; of course you're not gonna have my strength." She reached up – wincing a little at the moment – at pulled at the release lever, getting it to move a lot more than I'd been able to get it to move. The metal bars of the "cage" around her head moved back in response, allowing Wildfire to just grab the bars and slide her head out the opening at the bottom of the headset-thing. "You shouldn't have come on your own."

"I didn't; Megatron's causing a ruckus and a Mini-Con helped me get in. Seek's giving us time, but I don't think we're gonna have much longer before—"

There came the sound of footsteps outside the room, causing Wildfire and me to turn our heads towards the door.

"I am going to look forward to experimenting with you and your power, little Cybertronian," Mindwarp cooed as he came back into the room, holding a struggling Seek in one hand. "As soon as I'm done with—"

I raised my right arm. "Charged Buster Shot!"

Brrrzp!

Mindwarp let out a yelp of shock as the red-orange blast of energy smacked him in the face, disorienting him enough to drop Seek. She must've been used to drops from that height, because she rolled when she hit the ground before dashing over to the crack in the wall and disappearing without breaking her stride.

"Nice shot," Wildfire praised with a grin. "Now we just need to find Sideswipe and Sunstreaker and get out of here."

"Where are they?" I responded as Mindwarp rubbed at his optics, whining something about being unable to see.

"From what I remember…this way!" Wildfire moved out of the room, slamming Mindwarp into the nearby wall as she went. I zoomed after her.

"Are you okay?" I asked worriedly. "You didn't sound as energetic a moment ago. A-and what about your head?"

Wildfire slowed only slightly at my question, glancing over at me as we moved down the hall. Faintly, I could hear the sound of explosions from somewhere, as well as cries of pain and battle cries. "Maria, I'm fine. Those programs didn't stick."

"Yeah, I heard from the hippie Joker wannabe. But why?"

Wildfire shrugged. "A little bit of what's in your head slipped over into mine?"

I stared at her oddly. "…we should probably get Jolt to check that when we get back to Iacon."

"Yeah, maybe. For now, though, let's concentrate on giving these guys the runaround for trying to get into my head in the first place!"

Wildfire summoned her cannons, and I nodded in agreement, a grin spreading across my face in response to Wildfire's eagerness. If she said she was okay, I trusted her – to a point, anyway. There was still a chance that she was being affected by something, at least, but it didn't look like it was turning her over to the dark side.

Yet, anyway.

The hallway gave way to a larger room with a number of corridors shooting off it, causing Wildfire and me to stop short.

"And this is where my memory gets fuzzy," Wildfire muttered frowning.

"She went that way! I believe she and the Mini-Con who is with her are attempting to find the Autobots we captured with the project!"

"Sounds like we're gonna get company!" I yelped, glancing back at the hallway we had just gone through. "Just pick one and hurry!"

"All right, all right!" Wildfire turned her head for a moment, then bolted towards the hallway across the room from us. I flew after her, intent on keeping up and not losing sight of my friend after I'd only just managed to rescue her from who knows what kind of mental torture.

The hallway started to get darker suddenly, giving the entire area a sense of foreboding.

"Okay, now this is a little familiar," Wildfire muttered.

"You mean this is where the brig is?" I spoke up hopefully.

"No. This leads down to one of the mines; I've worked here before. Which means that we're gonna run into more morons down here, if they're digging up ore or Energon deposits. Turn off your Buster – we don't want that thing going off when we're so close to the mines."

"Right; fire hazard." I deactivated my Buster. "But we're going to have to circle back in order to get Sides and Sunny out of there, right?"

"That's the plan."

"Then why aren't we turning around now?"

Wildfire looked back at me and grinned. "I know these mines like the back of my hand, even if they may have widened the tunnels or dug deeper since I was last here. We can hide out in there and wait in order to give them a proper ambush."

I considered Wildfire's statement for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. But we're going to get a lot more attention that way, probably."

"When has that ever stopped you when you've gotten reckless?" Wildfire responded.

I spluttered at her statement. "H-hey! I'm not that—"

Wildfire shushed me as we broke out of the hallway and entered what looked like a dimly lit docking area for vehicles. The ground here went from smooth metal to much more rough metal that looked a lot like bedrock of some kind.

"Okay," Wildfire muttered. "Come on; let's see if we can get in one of the tunnels that hasn't collapsed yet; should prove for a good ambush." She moved towards the three tunnels that were branching off from the main area, then slipped behind an alcove located in one of them. I followed after her and hovered a little behind her left shoulder so that I could watch for the Reforged.

Bip! Bip! Bip!

I blinked. There was something red blinking at the edge of my vision. I pulled back a little in order to see what it was and stiffened.

There was something on the back of Wildfire's neck.

"Uh…." I summoned my Buster, switching it to Stun before quietly raising it at the back of Wildfire's neck. Whatever it was, it wasn't supposed to be there, and I wasn't about to let it stay there for long.

"What is it?" Wildfire started to turn her head slightly.

"You've got something that's not supposed to be there," I replied. "Stun Shot!"

The electric-yellow blast was shooting out of my Buster as Wildfire's optics widened; she was about to say something when it collided with the beeping red thing on the back of her neck.

BRRRRZZZT!

"Gah!" Wildfire doubled over as the thing that had been on the back of her neck – looked like a shell of some kind – was sent flying and hit a wall, where it exploded.

"Wildfire!" I flew down and around to look at her in concern. "Are you okay?"

"Gah…hah…hah…." Wildfire took in a few deep breaths as she leaned against the wall in order to steady herself. She shook her head, a more determined look appearing on her face. "I'm fine. Just got a bit of a processor ache." She frowned at something behind me, and I turned and looked in the direction of the thing she was looking at. Or, the remains of a thing.

"Cerebro Shell," Wildfire muttered under her breath. "So that's what they do. I'll have to warn Magnus."

"A what now?" I asked, frowning.

"Oh! So you found my little mind inhibitor, eh?"

I whirled around at the sound of the voice, stiffening when I caught sight of Mindwarp standing at the end of the hallway that we had rushed out of moments ago.

"Very useful for keeping unruly Cybertronians in check and making them susceptible to suggestion." Mindwarp's twisted grin widened. "We are fortunate that Shockwave had bred a number of Insecticons to be capable of creating these things! I do not know what I would have done without access to such technology."

Wildfire winced. I looked back and forth between them, eyes widening sharply at the implications of that. Then my eyes narrowed and I glared back at Mindwarp.

"You've just crossed the line," I growled darkly. "You can't just mind control people!"

"Mind control? Little Mini-Con, it is but suggestion that I dabble in, as well as restoration of the processor's proper programming. I do not 'control' those who enter my lab." Mindwarp gave a little chuckle. "That would be most unethical, don't you think?"

"You attached a device to my friend that made her susceptible to that kind of thing," I snapped. "That is mind control! And I'm not going to let you get away with that!" Flames exploded across my arms, and I threw two fireballs forward at the stunted mad scientist.

Red and golden-yellow blurs moved in front of Mindwarp suddenly, and the blasts of flames hit the chests of two mechs and scattered, leaving scorch marks on their paint.

I pulled back in surprise.

Wildfire let out a hiss. "Sideswipe! Sunstreaker!"

Neither one of the mechs responded. Their optics – somehow – looked glassy and blank, their faces slack.

I felt something tighten in my chest. "This isn't good."

"No kidding," Wildfire muttered in reply. "Stay back. I'll take care of these guys."

"Are you sure?" I turned sharply to look at her in concern. "You were just—"

"I'm fine, kid. And I don't want you getting hurt over this mess." Wildfire glanced over at me. "Just stay back."

Then she lunged forward, the blades that were hiding in her arms suddenly exploding out of her wrists, just above her clenched fists. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker moved forward as one, as well, bringing back fists and throwing them forward, seemingly intent on hitting Wildfire in the gut.

Wildfire caught their arms with her blades and spun, grunting as she threw their arms back and threw the twins off-balance for a moment. Flames sprouted across her swords before she thrust them forward.

The twins caught the blades, seemingly not noticing the fire as they pushed Wildfire back; I caught sight of heated metal on the palms of their hands as Wildfire stumbled back before catching herself.

Wildfire growled. "Looks like I'm going to have to do something about knocking some sense back into you. Maria! Knock some sense into them like you did for me!"

I blinked in surprise for a moment, then grinned at the fact that Wildfire had just asked me to help her out. "Sure!" I zoomed out of the tunnel, activating my Light Refractor as I went and disappearing from sight of the naked eye. Hopefully; I didn't know if Mindwarp had infared or not.

"What are you planning? What is this language that you're speaking?" Mindwarp demanded.

I snorted as I circled around behind Sideswipe and Sunstreaker as Wildfire charged at them again. Like I was gonna tell him what it was I was speaking in. If he couldn't understand it, that was his problem and our advantage.

Bip! Bip! Bip!

I heard the sound of the "Cerebro Shells" before I saw them. Now that Wildfire and I weren't hiding in a tunnel with even more dim lighting, I was able to see what exactly the Cerebro Shells looked like: some sort of black and purple scarab with a blinking light on the back.

I readied my Buster, then raised it and fired a Stun Shot at Sunstreaker first, causing him to stumble as the Shell was sent flying before I quickly turned my attention to Sideswipe and did the same before shooting back around behind Wildfire.

"Whoa!" Sideswipe pinwheeled his arms for a moment before losing his balance and crashing to the ground. "Ow."

Sunstreaker managed to catch himself before he collapsed, and he looked down at himself in alarm. "Who – where did these come from?!" He motioned to the scorch marks on his chest in a panic.

"Sorry, Sunstreaker, but you weren't yourself a couple minutes ago!" I called from behind Wildfire. "I was aiming for the goon behind you!"

"Behind—" Sunstreaker turned to look back and cut himself off. Then he growled. "Oh. It's you."

Sideswipe got to his feet, glaring at Mindwarp. "All right, you freak. It's time we took you in. This should take those Reforged down a peg!" He promptly lunged at the stunted mech, who went down screaming as Sunstreaker actually joined in moments later.

"Now to find our way out of here," I spoke up worriedly.

"Hey, no worries." Wildfire grinned. "I know these mines, remember? There are a couple escape hatches nearby that lead up to the outskirts of the city. We can head up and meet up with whoever's causing a ruckus out there no problem."

"Okay then." I nodded. "I just hope Megatron's okay."

"Megatron?" Sideswipe and Sunstreaker looked at me with wide eyes.

"He's up there?" Sideswipe pointed up, no doubt meaning the world outside.

I nodded. "Yeah. He's the only one who came with me, actually, although the Mini-Cons got me into the building."

"Huh." Sideswipe blinked.

"Less talking, more moving," Sunstreaker grumbled. He motioned to Mindwarp. "Sideswipe, you carry him."

"Why?!"

"Because I don't want to get my paint chipped even more than it already is!"

"Oh, it's going to get more chipped anyway," Wildfire replied. She started towards one of the tunnels. "Come on; there's an exit this way."

Sunstreaker groaned, but he followed after Wildfire anyway. Sideswipe grabbed Mindwarp and threw him over one shoulder.

"Whelp." Sideswipe winked at me and grinned. "Better not lose them."

"Better not," I agreed as we followed after them.

Well, looks like everything turned out OK. And Seek even got out alive, too! I wonder if we'll see her again. Hm...

Anyway, this arc is nearly coming to a close - We've just got one chapter to go, and then we're onto the next arc!

So I'll see you guys the next time that I post a chapter!