I used the GPS to track the Teslamite's movements, trying to spot it visually to no avail.
It's snarls and hisses echoed through the old building, somehow Its movement made no sound. The only way I could track it was with the GPS.
Corra kept on turning, terrified. Scratching sounds rapidly approached from my right, I instinctively drew my blaster and fired a few shots at the sounds.
The Teslamite snarled, briefly visible in the flash of light from the blasterfire, then fell quiet. I glanced down at the GPS, it was on my left, making a dash at me.
I snapped my helm around with barely a second to see the attacking creature and throw up a wing as a shield before Its claws drew energeon from me.
I recovered quickly, lashing my tail at the Mite and managing to land a solid slash across Its side as It leapt up to the rafters and crawled away.
"Rumble! Are you ok?" She asked.
"Just a scratch. This thing moves fast." I answered, watching the rafters.
The signal jumped around the screen, suddenly lunging towards us again. I spun around and lashed out with my tailblade, slashing across Its faceplates.
It didn't even slow down at the hit, tackling me down and clawing wildly at me. I shielded myself with my arms, kicking It off and getting up.
It snarled in anger, lunging at me again. Corra dived at it, tackling it to the ground. I moved to help her, suddenly hit in the side.
I slid to a stop, only to be grabbed and tossed across the room again. The datapad clattered to the ground, two more signals now on screen.
The two other Teslamites had arrived, both stalking towards me.
Phoenix stalked toward both of us, the lights coming on slowly.
I had lead us right into a trap. I jumped up, quickly knocked back down by one of the Mites.
Corra struggled, getting her neck pressed down to the ground.
Phoenix growled at her, motioning at the Mite. The creature dug Its claws into my back, holding me firmly in place.
I made a reach for the blaster that had been knocked from my grasp, just barely scratching at it with my claws.
Phoenix made optic contact with Corra and snarled, her snarl growing in volume quickly.
Managing to hook the blaster, I finally got a hold of it. Phoenix clenched her paw and growled out loud.
I smacked the Mite with the barrel of the blaster, Its recoil giving me enough free space to turn and knock It back with my tail.
"Nice to see you again Phoenix." I called out as I stood up, trying to get her attention off of Corra.
My goal was achieved and she snapped her helm toward me, growling loudly. I holstered my blaster, taking a risk.
"I'm not going to shoot you. I won't have to, will I?" I asked her, keeping a calm act, "You could never hurt me."
She growled louder and flicked her tail at me before lunging and tackling me to the ground, moving so fast I couldn't register it in time.
"Rumble!" Corra yelled, before the mite pushed her face into the ground on Phoenix's orders.
I reached up, gently stroking Phoenix's cheek. "You can't hurt me, I know you. You wouldn't want to." I spoke calmly, secretly praying she didn't bite my arm off.
That dream did not come true. She turned and nipped my arm to get me to let go of her, snarling loudly. My paw jerked away instinctively, but I put it right back on her cheek.
"It's ok Phoenix. It's ok." I whispered, "You could never hurt me. You just caught me by surprise is all." I hoped the last sentence, being the first coherent phrase I ever said to her, would spark a reaction from her.
Phoenix shook her helm, her optics shifting through different colors rapidly. To my side, Corra growled, seemingly at the mite but the sound just made Phoenix go dark again. She picked me up and threw me into the wall.
I stood up again, both the other mites snarling at me, looking ready to strike. I couldn't go defensive, that might look like a challenge to Phoenix and make things worse.
I kept up my calm act, but I was running out of things to say.
She snarled loudly but got cut off by a femme, older than she was coming down from the roof, landing on her and opening fire on the other Mites.
Having absolutely no idea what was happening, I quickly ducked to the ground. One mite down, the other hissed and bolted for the exit, and Phoenix struggled under her.
The third mite snarled and lunged at the mysterious femme, her quickly shooting at it followed by a series of well placed hits took down that mite as well.
Corra rushed to my side. "Are you alright?" She asked, her voice frantic.
"I'm alright, she didn't get me that bad." I answered, "What about you? You ok?"
She nodded. "Helm-ache, but that's it." She answered. "Who is that?"
I looked to the mystery femme, still on guard in case she decided to attack us next.
"Don't worry about me." the mystery femme says, knocking Phoenix out so she would cease her struggling.
"Easy!" I snapped, pushing the femme off of Phoenix and cradling her carefully. There was a slight dent in the femme's helm from where the mystery bot hit her.
The femme rolled her optics. "You coming or what?" She asked. "We have two more teslamites to get to." She says.
"Hold on a sec. Who the hell are you? What do you know about the Teslamites?" I questioned.
"I'm a neutral and that's for me to know and you to find out." She says, walking away and using her tail to take Phoenix away from me and placing the small femme on her back. "Now lets go."
I looked back at Corra, motioning to her and following the femme closely. Corra followed behind me, looking back at the building.
She walked for a while until Phoenix groaned and shifted. She immediately stopped, placed the femme down and splashed water on her faceplates.
Phoenix stumbled back and coughed, shaking her helm before holding it. "Hey! What was that for?" She asked.
"Where are the rest of the mites and where is Cynth?" The mystery femme immediately interrogated Phoenix. Really? She couldn't have waited even a few minutes for her to fully wake on her own?
"Just back up a sec, let her breath." I insisted, naturally defending Phoenix. "Who is Cynth? That name came up in the reports more then once."
The mystery femme glared at me.
"Cynth is Corten's and Netsu's boss." Corra spoke up.
"Answer, femme, or you might be fed to the very beasts you were controlling." She snapped.
Phoenix looked terrified. "I... I don't know the answer to either. I swear. I can only remember little bits of going dark! I only had control of 5!" She says, defensively, backing up. The mystery wasn't buying it and rolled her optics.
Thinking of something, I took out the datapad and quickly found a piece of camera footage from the lab, showing the femme an image of the Dragon.
"Is this Cynth?" I asked.
She glanced over. "Yes." She says. "That is Cynth."
"And she outranks the Commander? She's in control of this whole thing?" I clarified.
This was much bigger then I had thought. This wasn't just a few Decepticons messing around, this could be a faction-wide scheme.
"Ok," I started, moving her away from Phoenix, "You need to start talking."
