Chapter 37
The next day at the base, Ratchet had Raf in his lab checking her over. Her newest ability came as a surprise to everyone.
"Remarkable, you accessed your ability to heal so quickly." Ratchet commented checking her energy levels.
"My what?" Raf asked.
"One of your mother's abilities was the ability to heal others." Ratchet answered. "How did you do it?"
"I don't even know how I did it." Raf answered confused. "All I knew was that I just wanted to help and when I saw that my father had been hurt, I just remember wishing that there was something I could do and I guess it was at that point that it happened."
"It would seem that your powers, though they are still gradually developing, manifest when you have no other desire than to help those close to you. When you put others' well-being before your own, they are then unlocked." Ratchet surmised.
"So, you're saying that Raf's powers can only appear when she put herself in danger to help others?" Jack asked with concern in his voice.
"That's not necessarily the case, but it would seem that the more Rafaella is willing to put others before herself then the faster and stronger her powers become." Ratchet answered.
"So what now?" Arcee asked. "Now it's not only the 'cons who know about Raf, but now MECH does too."
"Yeah, and who knows what either one of them will do to get their hands on her." Bulkhead answered.
"For now, as long as her energy doesn't start to spike, then she should be safe, as long as she stays here." Ratchet answered as if scolding her.
Raf could feel herself blushing again. She knew what Ratchet was talking about and what everyone else must have been thinking. As much as she would have loved to continue to help her powers grow, she knew that it was not safe for her to keep doing what she had already done twice now. Next time she might not be so lucky.
In the days that followed, both Optimus and Ratchet resumed Raf's training to help her learn how to control her powers and how to use them. From time to time she wondered if she really could live up to the image of the kind of daughter everyone would expect her to be if she kept doing what she was doing. She wanted so badly to help, but at the same time, she didn't want to keep disobeying her father or the others when it came to her safety.
When she wasn't training at the base or learning to fly with Bumblebee, she was keeping a journal of all the things she had learned about her powers from her father, Ratchet and Bee. She had to be careful though, if anyone got a hold of journal, they would know her secret and the last thing she would want to have happen is to have someone in her family get hurt because they got caught up in the middle of this war with the 'cons. She was already worried enough about her parents knowing. But she had to study her skills without being caught using them. So for now, her journal was the best she could do. She would study what she wrote every chance she could get at school and at home.
Today, she could take a break from studying, because she was listening to Bulkhead's latest adventure with the others.
"And when the Insecticons backed off, I became inspired by my proximity to the power core and did what I do best." Bulkhead finished.
"You trashed Megatron's ride like a rock star in a hotel room." Miko commented with excitement.
"We should hit the 'cons right now while they're vulnerable." Arcee spoke up.
"Megatron's warship may be grounded," Ratchet interjected. "But let's not forget that we remain vastly outnumbered, especially since he has now added the Insecticon hive to his ranks."
"Then maybe it's time for me to call in an air strike." Fowler stepped in.
"Or for us to consider more extreme measures, Agent Fowler." Optimus said with reluctance in his voice.
Raf wondered what he could have been talking about, but quickly got her answer when she saw her father come back with the spark extractor and handing it to Bumblebee. No sooner had everyone figured out the plan, Ratchet's scanners started to go off.
"Optimus, I am picking up strange energy surge at the Decepticon crash site." Ratchet called getting everyone's attention. "It appears to be Dark Energon."
Now Raf really understood that there was no other option and there was not a lot of time. Raf watched as Bee, carrying the spark extractor raced through the ground bridge and she could feel her father's reluctance. She knew he did not want to do this, but right now was their best chance to end the war. She, Ratchet and everyone else waited anxiously for them to hear from the others to hear that their mission had been successful or if they needed help. The call they got was not what they were expecting or what hoped for.
"Team's down." Agent Fowler's voice came in through the com-link. "Requesting Med-Evac."
Ratchet left and one by one, he brought the team back to the base, but the state they were in made every tense and scared.
"They're alive." Ratchet said calming everyone's nerves. "But I have never encountered this form of stasis lock."
"The 'cons are crossing the Atlantic, making a b-line for North America." Fowler came in.
Raf could tell this came as a surprise to everyone.
"Wait, we can track them?" Jack asked surprised.
"Why aren't they cloaked, like usual?" Raf asked.
"None of this makes a lick of sense." Fowler said apparently not having any answers either. "They had us in the cross airs but the con's just took off."
"They even bailed on that spark extractor thingy." Miko pointed out.
"If the ship isn't cloaked, maybe the communication relay's open and…" Jack began.
"Are you suggesting that we just call Megatron and ask him what's happening up there?" Ratchet asked as if he couldn't believe what Jack was suggesting.
Raf could see it in everyone's expression as they all made the suggestion, what other way did they have? Ratchet opened a communication feed and called for Megatron but the one who responded was not who they were expecting.
"Megatron has been relieved of his command." A deep voice answered through the communication.
"Who is this?" Ratchet asked.
"Who is this?" it answered back.
"Have you taken control of the Decepticon vessel?"
"I am the vessel." It answered, shocking everyone. "Any Cybertroninan who interferes with my mission will be neutralized." It threatened showing them the images of all aboard the ship frozen.
"What mission?" Ratchet asked.
"Priority one: decrypt Iacon database and recover Decepticon technology." It answered.
"For what purpose?"
At that, the ship hung up. "It hung up, rude." Miko commented.
"Rude? There's a giant spaceship flying collecting Decepticon weapons of mass destruction!" Fowler yelled.
"A ship filled with neutralized Decepticons." Jack pointed out. "This could be the only chance we have to slip aboard and download the Iacon database."
"So Optimus can decode it." Raf finished.
"Ingenious." Ratchet agreed. "I will infiltrate the Decepticon warship."
"Not ingenious, you saw what it did to the Decepticons." Jack disagreed.
"And probably Megatron too." Raf said feeling like this may have been something far worse than that.
"And Team Prime." Miko pointed out.
"But that tub had me dead to rights, and I'm still breathing." Fowler remembered.
"The ship maybe blind to humans." Jack suggested.
"Very well Agent Fowler." Ratchet consented. "But at the first sign of trouble, I am bridging you right back here." He warned. "Now to download the database, you will need a compatible transfer drive."
"A what?" Fowler asked.
"He'll also need tech support." Raf offered.
"Rafaella," Ratchet began.
"If this anything like what happened with the scraplets, a long as I keep my wings folded I should be fine right?" she argued.
Raf could tell that Ratchet could see he wasn't going to talk her out of this.
"And he'll also need back up." Miko chimed in.
Ratchet looked reluctant to allow them all to go, but Raf could tell that there was not a lot of other options. He opened the bridge and they all slipped through aboard the ship.
"They're data core should be accessible through any console." Ratchet instructed.
Raf looked around a corner and felt her heart pound. "Here's one." She gulped. There was console alright, but the one at the console was Knockout, frozen up against the console. "Look, the ships already deciphered two sets of coordinates." She said pointing to the data stream as it finished decoding another. "Three. Let's rip and run." She said realizing they didn't have much time.
Fowler and Raf climbed up to the console and inserted the drive into the download port. It seemed like it was going well, until Jack got another look at where the ship was heading.
"Why is the war ship heading for Manhattan?" he asked with a shake in his voice.
"Because that's where the first set of coordinates are located." Raf answered looking again and feeling the same uneasiness she sensed everyone else must have been feeling by now.
"The Iacon relice landed on Earth eons ago, long before the city was built on top it." Ratchet answered.
"Which means if the ship wants this one, it may need to move some building out of the way." Jack summed up for everyone.
'It's never easy is it?' Raf thought to herself.
Ratchet instructed Fowler how to deter the ship, but it didn't go as planned. With a shock and surge, Fowler was out of commission. To make matters worse, it alerted the ship that someone was on board.
"System access detected. Interference will not be tolerated." The ship called. Raf pointed to scanner that searched through the ship.
"It doesn't see us." Miko pointed out.
"Yet." Ratchet corrected. "The ship mustn't be scanning for carbon based life forms. But once it widens its search parameters,"
"We're toast." Raf finished.
"I'm bridging you back." Ratchet called.
"No." Jack argued. "There are millions of lives at stack in New York and we three are currently the only ones who can do anything about it."
"You're out of your element Jack." Ratchet argued back. "These readings, the ship's rapid recovery, all point to the fact that Megatron employed Dark Energon to repair it."
"Hold on, if you're saying the ship is fueled by Dark Energon, we can dump it right?" Jack suggested.
"You will need to reverse the Energon transducer." Ratchet instructed. "Follow the overhead conduits. They'll lead you to the power core."
Raf ran with her friends for the power core. As they ran, Raf couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that maybe they were in over their head. But she had to remind herself that it wasn't just their lives that were at stake, but the lives of her family and everyone in Manhattan. She was scared, but she had to do this.
When they finally made it to the power core, they finally found what they were looking for and someone they hoped would be elsewhere on the ship, but maybe it was sign.
"Megatron had the same idea." Jack said.
"Then we're on the right track." Raf summed up.
"The Energon injection valve can only be operated manually." Ratchet instructed.
That was going to be a bit of a problem. Jack climbed up and started pushing to move the valve, but it didn't seem to be working. Things got worse.
"I'm infested with alien life forms." The ship called.
It saw them now and now it was after Raf and Miko. Raf grabbed Miko's hand and they made a dash for the Energon cubes hoping to find a place to hide, but the ship's grabber was not far behind. Raf, feeling like she had no other option, opened her wings and put up a shield. The ship bashed against the shield shaking Raf's energy and she could understand why. The ship's power was coming from Dark Energon and her powers didn't work against Dark Energon. She wasn't sure how much more she could take. Finally, the shield shattered and the claw moved to grab them, but Jack was what saved them.
"Hey, over here!" he called getting its attention.
"Jack! No!" Raf called.
"Run for it!" Miko yelled.
Jack ran and had it follow him across the platform and finally dodged as the arm crashed into Megatron causing him to fall and pull the valve. The Dark Energon began to drain the ship lost power. Everyone felt like they could finally breathe easy, but then they all saw the stasis lock was wearing off.
"Run." Jack said as they raced back toward the console and Fowler.
Jack and Raf looked up and saw that only sets of coordinates had been downloaded. "That's all that's been downloaded?" Jack said in surprise.
"The Iacon file must be huge." Raf answered.
The ground bridge opened and Jack instructed Raf and Miko to get Fowler back. When they got back they saw that everyone was waking up too. Ratchet went back through to get Jack and the drive. Ratchet came back and inserted the drive and downloaded the coordinates that had been brought back.
"The download of the Iacon database may have been incomplete, but we now possess four sets of coordinates decoded by the ship." Ratchet informed.
"Then we must act quickly." Optimus said with an edge in his voice. "For Megatron possesses the same four sets and he will not hesitate to obtain the potential dooms day devices which lie at the sight of each." He said darkly. "If we are to have any hope of retrieving the Iacon relics before the Decepticons do, we must divide our resources."
"But Optimus, when it comes to numbers we are already at a grave disadvantage." Ratchet interjected.
"Under the circumstances, swiftness of action is paramount." Optimus answered. "This is one race that we absolutely cannot afford to lose."
Ratchet looked back at the monitors. "Well here's a twist. It would seem the Decepticons have retreated from Manhattan."
"They just up and left?" Miko asked confused.
"It would seem that the Decepticons have simply set course for the next Iacon relic, having already dispatched a unit for this one's underground location." Optimus surmised.
"Without busting up a city block to get to it?" Arcee asked.
"They used subway tunnels." Jack answered. "New York has a whole network of them running beneath the city."
"Since the human population no longer seems to be directly threatened, maintaining our disguise will be absolutely necessary." Optimus instructed. "Arcee, Bumblebee, you two the best suited for such a populated area."
Raf felt nervous about all this, especially when Jack and Miko volunteered to go with Arcee and Bumblebee. Optimus instructed her to maintain the communication and transportation hub, with Agent Fowler still out of commission. After Arcee and Bumblebee left, Bulkhead bridged out for the equator, and then Optimus bridged out for the Arctic after assigning Ratchet to work with Wheeljack to retrieve last relic.
Raf monitored the communications, waiting for any word from the others. Bulkhead radioed in asking for confirmation about the coordinates of the relic's location. Not much longer, Ratchet radioed in about a situation that he would require her assistance with.
"If you can write a source code, I can upload it into Cybertronian format and then bring up Laserbeak's receptors to receive the virus." Ratchet explained.
"I can do it, but if we want to keep the virus hidden from the 'cons, we'll need a decoy, you know like a second virus." Raf answered.
It was at that point that Ratchet had the plan to instead have Wheeljack use his grenade as the decoy. As Raf got to work coding the virus. It was difficult, but finally she had it ready.
"Ratchet, the virus is coded." She called in. "Commencing upload."
Ratchet and Raf waited intensely as the virus slowly but surely uploaded and downloaded into Laserbeak. It almost seemed like it was going to be too late, but finally the download was complete and Soundwave took the bait. As Raf kept a look out for any other communications, she turned her attention to the monitor and saw the Iacon database downloading. Finally, Ratchet called for a bridge back to base. Raf was so excited.
"Ratchet, come here!" Raf called to him.
"The Iacon database?" Ratchet gapped as he saw the data.
"It's downloading into our mainframe." Raf said feeling as giddy as a school girl.
"Rafaella, you are a genius!" Ratchet laughed.
Fowler called for Raf to open a bridge for Bulkhead's location. "Bulkhead's coming through Agent Fowler."
"I can't wait to share the news." Ratchet said with excitement in his voice.
Suddenly Bulkhead came through, but his arrival was not a good one. He was hurt, and not responding.
"No." Ratchet gasped.
To be continued in Rafaella: When a Guardian becomes a Princess.