CHAPTER 26
Bumblebee was making very little progress. He'd asked almost everyone in the neighborhood if they'd seen either person he was looking for and all of them had given him the same answer. "No."
But somebody had to have seen something, he thought, sitting down on the sidewalk to rest. I'm still picking up Sari's cellphone signal. He lifted his head and looked around. It has to be here somewhere.
And at that very moment the loud roar of a motorcycle interrupted his thoughts.
"That's sounds familiar," he remarked, getting up and turned toward the sound. "Almost like how Prowl's vehicle mode sounds. Did he turned back into a robot?"
Of course not. That's impossible.
"But it could be his bike," he realized. "The one Professor Sumdac built for him." He took off toward the sound. "If it's here maybe Prowl is too." And if Prowl is here that means so is Sari.
A short time later he came upon a teenager revving up a black and gold motorcycle. Bee's shoulders slumped in disappointment. Oh. It wasn't him after all.
He turned to walk away then realized something. Prowl's bike had been built customized and though Bee had only seen it a few times he knew exactly what had been put on the bike. He looked back, giving it a more scrutinizing look. He saw the Autobot insignia painted on the front.
"Hey!" he shouted at the kid. "Wait a second!"
The teenager jumped then lifted his head to stare wide eyed at the Autobot. "Uh.. yeah?"
"Where did you get that bike?" Bumblebee demanded.
"I uh.. It's mine!"
"Oh really?" Bee asked. "It looks a lot like a friend of mines."
The boy shook his head and denied the claim a little to emphatically. "No it's mine."
Bee pointed at the symbol. "Then explain that."
The kid looked at the red Autobot symbol. "I... I had it painted there." he replied. "I wanted my bike to look a lot like the vehicle mode of that awesome ninja friend of yours."
"Oh really?" Bumblebee said nothing for a second then blurted out. "Roll out!"
Suddenly the bike fired up and took off down the street with the kid hanging on for dear life and screaming his head off. Bumblebee watched it streak away then transformed and went after it.
Megatron with a little help from Cyclonus hacked into the Sumdac files without even having to go into the building.
"Why do you want me to help you with this, sir?" Cyclonus had asked when Megatron had explained what he wanted to him. "Why don't you just go down there and squash the little fleshbag if you hate him so much?"
Megatron had given him a look. "Such a lack of imagination," he said. "If I should do that I would have a feeling of satisfaction that would last for only a short time. I want to prolong this, especially since he is responsible for my humiliation." he shook his head. "I want him to suffer and I want it to last."
Cyclonus had looked somewhat confused but hadn't asked anymore questions. It was best just to do what he wanted without questioning the sanity of it.... or the mental state of his supirior
The Decepticon Commander waded through the files slowly, reading each one carefully and exiting ones that were useless. If he came upon one that looked like it would be usefull he saved it into the Nemesis computer for further use.
After working on it for an hour he came upon something that looked promising. Smiling he downloaded the file. Perfect. Time to pay for humiliating me, Professor.
Prowl studied the metal straps holding him to the table, in hopes of finding some kind of weakness. From what he could see they seemed solid and unbreakable.
Nothing is unbreakable, he thought. Everything has some kind of vulnerability. I just have to figure out what it is...
It's metal. Metal melts. Maybe if I put heat to it it'll get soft enough for me to slip out of.
But how was he going to do that? He had nothing like that and Perceptor's welding torch was too far away to reach. If I could still use processor over matter that wouldn't be a problem.
He knew that was wishful thinking but he couldn't help it. He didn't want to be there when Perceptor came back. He knew exactly what would happen if he was and the thought didn't make him feel any better.
But that won't happen if I can free myself.
He looked back at the metal. Nothing came to him.
Meanwhile Sari was racking her own brain for a plan. She paced back and forth in the confined space of the jar, thinking out loud. "There has got to be a way to break this thing. No glass has ever been strong enough to stay in it's shape forever." she turned to the glass and banged her hand against it. Solid.
"This might require a lot of thinking." she looked down at Prowl who seemed to be attempting his own escape. She'd noticed his glasses were missing earlier and wondered if that was impairing him somehow. We'll have to find them when we get out of this. she thought. We can't have him running around blind as a bat. She turned away. Maybe that spooky scientist has them here somewhere...
She snapped out of her train of thought. "What are you doing? Escaping is more important than worrying about finding bifocals!" she hit the glass. "You can worry about them later!"
She looked back at Prowl then noticed something about the jar. It was near the edge of the shelf, rather close to the edge to be precise. "Hmm. Maybe I can't do something with this."
Meanwhile Prowl had come up with a plan of his own. He'd been thinking about what had happened earlier when Lockdown was about to capture him and he'd blasted him with energy. His hands had started glowing.
If they glow then maybe I can make them heat up too, he thought. Light creates heat so maybe if I... he concentrated, putting all his energy into his arms and hands.
Suddenly he felt heat coursing up his arms. Turning his head he stared down at one, seeing that it was beginning to glow a bright blue light. It's working!
He continued to concentrate, focusing all the warmth into his arms then the rest of his body. As he did so the bands holding him down began to weaken as the metal softened. Soon he was able to move. Smiling to himself, he pushed against the table and slowly slid out of the cables.
Just as he did so he heard a strange thunking sound and turned his head just in time to see the jar that Sari was in topple off the shelf. He watched it fall and hit the floor. It did not break.
Sari? He stood and ran to the edge of the table then jumped down. His one leg protested a little but it wasn't as bad as before. He ran toward the jar and reached it just as Sari kicked out the lid. It popped out and slammed right into his chest, knocking him over.
"Ugh!"
Sari climbed out of the jar and spotted him lying on the floor with the lid covering him.
"Prowl!" she exclaimed, running over to him. "Are you all right?"
He groaned and shoved the lid off. "I think so," he said, wrapping his arm around his waist. "No broken ribs but that hurt!"
"I'm sorry," she said, putting out her hand as an offer to help him up. "I didn't see you."
He took it. "It's all right," he said, wincing as he got up. "As long as you're okay." he squinted at her. "At least I think you're okay.."
She smiled. "I'm fine, but you need your glasses."
He frowned. "I doubt he has them," he told her. "If my guess is right my glasses are still back on Earth where Lockdown took us from."
While he was speaking Sari was looking around the room. "Or maybe not," she said, walking away from him.
He turned to watch her. "Sari, where are you going?"
"Just a minute," she said, stopping at the foot of a small table. She looked up, calculating the distance then jumped, throwing up her hands and grabbed onto the edge.
Prowl ran to the spot where she'd jumped from and watched as she climbed onto the table and disappeared. What is she doing up there? he wondered, his head craned upward.
A few minutes later he heard her let out a triumphant "Ah hah!" then she was back at the edge and jumping down. He moved a step back to avoid being sat on.
She landed on all fours then straightened up and looked at him, smiling. "What was that about?" he asked her.
"This," she answered then plunked something on his face.
Right away his vision cleared. "My glasses!" he exclaimed, putting up a hand to push them into a comfortable position. "He had them after all."
"Yeah," she said. "I don't know why though or how both those guys could handle them without making them break."
"Maybe he wanted to study them," he suggested, feeling more whole now that he could see again.
"I don't see why," she answered, folding her arms. "That Bill Nye the science robot guy also wears glasses. I don't see why he would be interested in yours since you've always worn them yourself."
He made a face. "Those glasses as you call them were not glasses," the cyber ninja informed her.
"No?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No," he told her. "That was a visor. I used it to protect my optics."
"Oh," she said, looking like she'd just learned something new. "All this time I thought you wore those things because you had bad eye site. I guess all cyber ninjas wear those things."
"Well," he said, pushing his glasses up his nose again. "Some do." he took her arm and started leading her toward the door. "We can talk about that later. Right now I think we should be focusing our energy on getting out of here before Perceptor comes back."
"Right," she agreed, nodding. "I wouldn't want him dissecting either of us.."
Prowl didn't comment on that. He didn't like thinking about it. Instead he set his mind on just getting out of the laboratory. He looked up at the door. The switch was rather high up and he wasn't sure he'd be able to reach it even if he jumped. Though he knew his new body enabled him to jump higher than normal he wasn't sure it would go that far.
Or maybe it will. If I can go up high enough to hit Lockdown in the face this should be easy. Lockdown was a tall robot and when he'd seen the bounty hunter and the scientist standing together Perceptor had looked a few feet shorter. So maybe, just maybe I'll be able to reach it.
He let go of Sari's arm and walked backward. The girl watched him, curiously. "What are you doing?" she asked.
Prowl stopped a few feet away and looked at her. "Watch." he ordered before rushing forward.
Sari moved out of the way even though she didn't really have to. Prowl shot past her then shoved off with his foot and into the air. He flew toward the power button on the door and slammed into it hard with not just his hand but his entire body. As he fell the door let out a satisfying ding and slid open.
Prowl landed on his back with a thud. Sari ran over to him. "Are you all right?" she asked, leaning over him.
He groaned and got up. "I'm fine but," he touched his face and blood came off on his fingers. "I think I damaged my factory sensors."
She looked at he blood and winced. "Ouch," she said. She wiped at it with her sleeve. "Here let me-"
The door started to hiss shut. Prowl, remembering why he'd jumped at it in the first place bolted to his feet and grabbed Sari's arm. "Forget it!" he said, rushing toward the door. "Let's just get out of here!"
Bumblebee chased the bike and it's rider down the block until the vehicle stopped by itself and shut down. The kid, now scared out of his wits, jumped off the bike and moved away. His eyes bugged out and looked like he'd just seen a ghost. It was clear he had no been expecting the bike to do that sort of thing on its own.
Bumblebee pulled up behind him and transformed. "Still want to claim it as yours?" he asked.
The kid shook his head.
"Now why don't you tell me how you got your hands on Prowl's bike?" bee asked.
"I didn't steal it," the young man replied, scooting away. "I found it lying on the ground with the keys still in it and I figured..."
"You figured what?"
"It might be an answer to prayer.. or something."
Bumblebee didn't comment. He walked over to the bike and inspected it. There were a few new scratches in it but otherwise it looked like it was in perfect condition. I wonder why Prowl ditched it and where is he anyway?
"Tell me," he said, turning back to the kid. "You didn't by any chance find a cell phone on or near this thing did you?"
The kid shook his head. Bee stared at him. "Look man, I swear, I didn't see nor touch any cell phones," he insisted. "all I did was take the bike, that's it."
Bee hated to admit it but he believed the kid. So that must mean Sari still has her phone on her, he thought. Unless she dropped it somewhere else.
He turned back the way he came and once again attempted to contact Sari. She still did not answer but the signal location had not changed. It was near where he'd found the kid and the bike. But she was not there.
Well it couldn't hurt to check again. Turning back around he grabbed up the bike which he knew Prowl would want when he found him then headed back the way he came. Okay. It looks like I'm going to have to repeat the process.
But that didn't happen. A short time later he found the phone... and something else. He knew right away that he had to contact Professor Sumdac.
Megatron's words had made Professor Sumdac paranoid. He knew something bad was about to happen and wanted to be sure that whatever it was it never got out. Even though the scientist was a nice and honest man he still had some secrets that the public was better off not knowing about.
He went through the files on his computer, finding all the important ones and deleting them after saving each piece onto a hard disk. Little did he know that Megatron had already gone through most of them and had them saved onto his own computers hard drive. I knew I should have removed those files a long time ago, but I never figured he'd be clever enough to use them for such a thing. he slammed his fist onto the desk. Stupid stupid!
Just then the phone rang. Sumdac had been so busy concentrating that he jumped at the sudden sound. Now what? Is that Megatron calling me back to gloat?
He gingerly picked up the phone and put it to his ear. 'Hello?"
"Professor Sumdac."
He sighed with relief. It wasn't Megatron after all. "Bumblebee?"
"Yeah, hi um.. has Sari called you at all since you contacted us?"
"No she hasn't," he replied. "and I'm considering calling the police and reporting her missing."
"May I advise waiting before you do that?"
"Why?"
"Because I think I might know where she is."
That was a relief. "You do? Where?"
Bumblebee held the green and black piece of metal he found up so he could see it better. "I think she might be on Cybertron."
The door nearly closed on Prowl and Sari when they dashed out of the lab. It was by some miracle that it did not crush them. Now that they were free from the lab they headed down the corridor in the opposite direction Perceptor had gone. As they walked Sari cast a worried glance at Prowl. His nose had stopped bleeding but it could start up again any time. He reached up and wiped away the dried blood. It stained the edge of his sleeve.
"Doesn't that hurt?" she asked him.
"Only when I touch it," he replied.
"Want me to take a look?" she offered.
He shook his head. "I'm fine."
She looked away. "You don't look fine," she muttered.
"Does it matter how I look?"
She didn't know how to answer that.
They were silent for a moment then she asked. "So what are we going to do now? I mean we are free from the mad scientist but we're kind of stuck. How are we going to get back home?"
"I don't know," he replied, shaking his head. He looked down at her. "I was thinking of using a space bridge but I don't know where any of them are and we wouldn't be able to use them anyway." When he saw the look on her face he added, putting an arm around her shoulders. "But don't worry. We'll think of something."
"I hope so."
I hope so too.
Oil Slick eventually left him alone, realizing Barricade could not cause anymore trouble at the moment. The police-bot felt better when the cyber ninja stepped away and disappeared.
Barricade wanted to talk to Megatron so he headed back to the control room. On the way he met Slipstream who looked like she was on her way to some place important. "Where are you going?" he asked her.
"That really isn't any of your business," she retorted, turning to face him.
"I know that," he responded. "But that doesn't mean I can't ask anyway."
"You can ask but that doesn't mean I am obligated to tell." she turned away and continued walking.
"If you're thinking of letting him out I would advise against it," he called to her.
She froze in mid step and spun around to face him. "What?" she demanded. "Who said I was going to free Starscream?"
"Nobody," he answered, folding his arms. "I was taking a guess and by the way you reacted and the look on your face my guess was right."
"You don't know what you're talking about!"
The police-bot raised an eye ridge. "I don't?" he asked. "Let me tell you something. I was trained as a ninja and a peace officer. I was taught how to pay attention to details, especially when it came to facial expressions. Because of that I can assure you I know exactly what I am talking about."
"But you can't prove it."
"Let me ask you something," he went on. "Why would you want to release Starscream anyway?"
She had no answer. She just folded her arms and glared at him.
"Just let him be," he told her. He honestly did not want the femme to get into trouble, though he didn't know why he cared so much about that. "When he wants to get out he'll do it himself. He's done it before and I know he'll do it again."
"How do you know that?" she wanted to know, looking interested.
"I am not an idiot," he replied. "I have read his files. He is notorious for getting out of situations. He is a lot more clever than you might think."
"Starscream? Clever? Sure!" she laughed at the thought.
"Well he was smart enough to escape from the Elite Guard and he was smart enough to know how to clone himself," he commented, looking her over. "Though I will never understand completely why he did it or how you came out of it.
She folded her arms. "Don't ask."
"I never said I was going to." There was a pause then he asked. "By the way, since you just came out of the control room why don't you tell me what Megatron is doing."
"Why?"
"There is something I wish to discuss with him."
"Don't bother," she said. "He's busy right now."
"With what?"
"How should I know?" she pointed toward the control room. "He's working on the computer with this serious look on his face. If I were you I wouldn't bother him right now. You might get yourself sent to the repair bay." she grinned. "and we both know who the current medic is."
The police-bot chose to ignore that comment. He turned away from her. "Thank you for telling me." then continued on his way.
"Don't do it," she called after him. "I don't want to haul your damaged frame out of there."
"Don't worry about it!" he called to her.
"I wasn't."
Sure.
He reached the control room a short time later and poked his head inside. Nobody else was inside except for Megatron who was busy working on something. What is he doing? the smaller robot wondered. His optics went up to stare at the screen. He saw what looked like an image of a older human in a green lab coat. Whose that? and why does Megatron seem so obsessed with him?
Barricade knew it was best not to ask. Instead he ducked his head back into the hall and turned away thinking. It's none of my business. I should just pretend I didn't even see that.
But deep down he knew it was important and he couldn't shake the feeling it gave him.
"What are you doing, Barricade."
Megatron's voice speaking suddenly jolted him out of his thoughts. He looked back toward the Decepticon Commander. "Uh..." he stammered. "N-nothing."
Megatron was already coming toward him and he didn't look happy. "Do not lie to me," he said. "I knew you were spying on me."
Barricade stepped back. "I..I wasn't spying," he protested. "I came here to ask you something."
It was obvious that Megatron did not believe him but he asked anyway. "and what about?"
The police-bots' mind went blank so he had to improvise. "I was wondering if maybe I could do something for you to redeem myself," he said, thinking quickly.
Megatron's face changed. He looked confused. "Like what?'
"I don't know," he said. "Maybe going down to Earth and spying on the Autobots for you..."
"So that you can get help from them?" Megatron demanded. He shook his head. "No, I am afraid that will be impossible."
"I don't have to go down myself," he said. "Maybe you could send somebody with me.."
Now Megatron smiled. "An excellent suggestion," he said. "and I have just the Decepticon for the task."
Prowl and Sari had to be careful as they made their way out of the building where Lockdown had brought them. Because of a phobia running rampant through machines thanks to Sentinel Prime's scare tactics and lies that organics would give robots diseases they had to avoid contact with Autobots that might have otherwise helped them. There was no sense in getting stepped on for having a dumb moment.
After awhile they finally got outside. Prowl stopped and looked over the scenery. This was in a different part of the planet than where they had been before. he did not know where they were.
Sari looked at him, noticing the look of deep concentration on his face. "Prowl?"
He shook his head, dislodging a nagging thought and took her hand. "Let's go."
A/N
Hmm... this is going to cause some problems...