Hey I'm back! :) France was lovely and the food and wine were delicious! The time away was sell needed to recharge the old batteries, but unfortunatly the plot bunnies stalked me at night & I had a whole bunch of differant idead for the story come to mind. But then I realized whilst all these ideas were awesome, I had so many that I couldn't use them all otherwise I'd compleatly ruin the story! so, contrary to my spoiler alaert in chapter 34, I'll primarily be keeping with the stand alone chapters but there won't be as many as I had originally planned, guess I was kinda on a high back then huh?. Anyway, hope you all didn't miss me too much because It so nice to be getting back to the story! Enjoy! :)
A/N: Oh, & in case you forgot, here's a quick reminder of who's comm's are who's:
Normal speach
Section 9 cybercomm
Cybertronian comm link
Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.
SPARK IN THE SHELL
CHAPTER 37: NEW PORT DRIFT
"Okay, one last wire...and, we're done. That should do you fine buddy!" Darren beamed as he placed the small panel back in its place, screwed it on and put his tools away, a series of rapid clicks and whirrs resounded from underneath the panel, indicating all the new hardware was assembling itself in place.
"Thanks Darren, wow! These software system syncs are far smoother than the other ones!" Trailbreaker replied in a happy tone.
"Only the best for you buddy, now we can hack on the go 24/7..." Darren grinned as he laid back in Trailbreakers driver seat, the seat slowly began to lean backwards and grew soothingly warm under the 15 year olds back, the glove compartment opened up and a black laptop folded out on a compact arm-like stand, four small Perspex panels folded out from the sides of the screen and flashed to life as various windows of data scrolled down them, Darren smirked at his handy work and gently reached across to wipe them clean with a lens cleaning wipe he had stashed in his miniature tool kit.
"Heh, Perspex monitors, they'll be all the rage one day..." he said offhand
"They are compact and lightweight, its only logical they'll catch on in time as soon as conventional human technology catches up, though in the meantime it was nice of Deathshot to spare us some of his optical image graft nanites, you know, the ones you used to make your special sunglasses with?" Trailbreaker replied
"I know, I did design and make them remember?" Darren smiled as he adjusted a few dials on the sides of the laptops arm stand
"I don't know how you find the time to do all this Darren; you've been working hard enough with Ishikawa and Boma decrypting those legers, surly that in itself is enough to keep you stimulated?" Trailbreaker asked, Darren leaned his head back on the head rest and looked up at the parking lot's drab grey concrete ceiling through the Autobot's roof window.
"You know, it's weird; but in an odd way I sometimes feel like I've known how to handle cybertronian technology all my life. I mean, when I first joined NEST I didn't know what the hell to make of all the fancy alien gadgets Perceptor gave to me to practice on, I honestly thought I was going to suffer some kind of awesomeness seizure. But within 6 weeks I was able to put together my first hybrid human/alien tech laptop, no-one at NEST had ever come close to achieving that before...Sometimes I don't know if it's just my techy's zealousness for it all, or something else I can't quite put my finger on..." Darren said with a clouded look in his eyes
"Well, according to your records you've always been good with your people's technology; your creator-I mean mother, once said that you put your first motherboard together when you were only 7, that's highly advanced for a human sparkling...maybe your just so good at what you do that somehow it feels like you've been doing it for longer than you think. I wouldn't worry about it too much; working under pressure is your forte anyway" Trailbreaker replied
"Hmm...My dad once said: if you want to find true happiness in a career, just do what you love and if you make a few cents along the way then it's a bonus. I really can't complain about my position at NEST, it's every techy's dream job, but maybe some time off after all this would be nice, just you and me on one big road trip, what do ya say?" Darren said lazily
"I say why don't you invite us to come along? We could make a real party of it! We could go all the way to Las Vegas! Or LA? Or San Francisco? You know maybe we could-"
"Blue, your rambling again, and I believe he was asking me?" Trailbreaker smirked.
"Uh sorry, I really gotta-oh, hi Togusa!" Bluestreak called out to the detective as he approached the parked Autobots
"Hi guys, so this is where you've been sneaking off to during your lunch breaks" he smiled as he approached Trailbreaker; Darren shot the detective a smirk as he got out of his guardian.
"You make that sound as if I'm playing hooky; I just finished installing Trailbreakers new compact hard-drive and computer systems, now we can hack any computer whilst on the go" Darren replied, Togusa looked in through the windshield at the elaborate system setup and whistled in amazement.
"Wow, glass monitors? Very stylish, you built that yourself?" he smiled
"Perspex actually, but yeah, just a little something I whipped up" Darren replied with a slight smug looking grin as he leaned against Trailbreakers hood
"How the heck did you find the time to do it? Isn't Ishikawa keeping you busy enough with decrypting those ledgers?" Togusa asked
"That's what just I said" said Trailbreaker
"What can I say? I thrive on pressure" Darren grinned
"That's putting it sooo lightly! He gets so wrapped up in his work that you could drop a nuke next to his head and he wouldn't even notice anything's off!" Hailey called over as she walked over to the parked Autobots with her little sisters in tow. "Hey cutie Blue! Look what I found in the Tachikoma's hanger, a bubblegum scented air freshener, your favourite flavour!" she chimed as she stroked Bluestreak's hood, the young gunner reared up on his axel as he savoured the touch of her warm soft hands, in return his metal grew warm to the touch (the cybertronian equivalent of blushing).
"Thanks, my insides were starting to get a little stuffy!" he happily replied
"You like bubblegum scented air freshener? How do you know what bubblegum smells like when you don't even have a nose nedalone a tongue?" Togusa asked
"True I don't have a nose or a tongue, but most Autobots have in-built chemical analyzers that can identify air-born chemicals, kinda like your nose. I like bubblegum cause it smells sweet in a nice organic kinda way, not too strong like anchovy pizza, I hate the smell of anchovies! I look at them and I just want to roll away! But on the other hand I like strawberries; they smell sweet and look like those tiny little-"
"Blue" Hailey interrupted, the blue gunner jolted on his wheels as he stopped himself from his rambling and sank down on his tires.
"To cut a long data stream short; Autobots can detect odours like you can with your nose" Hot Rod interjected.
"Huh, I didn't know you guys could do that" Togusa replied
"You never asked" the Waineright twins chimed
"Speaking of asking, why'd we get dragged along today?" Sideswipe piped in at the end of the row of cars
"Yeah, I planned to beat that old fart of a seeker at poker today and win back my wax polish!" Sunstreaker concurred
"Call it a hunch but the Major sounded like she had a plan when she spoke to us this morning. That, and I want to give Jetfire a break from you two today, he's been more crotchety than usual so won't help if we have to fight again; plus, you two need to practice your 'human socializing' a little more, you've both been cooped up in that hanger too long and that'll inevitably lead to some kinda trouble we could all do without" Jazz smirked
"How so?" Togusa asked
"Uhh, don't even go there! Those two are THE most infamous pranksters in the universe! They take no prisoners and have no mercy on anyone! Trust me, you don't want to know!" Darren cringed as the memory of his 'initiation' into NEST surfaced at the back of his mind. The lambo twins both smirked to themselves in satisfaction as they remembered the event in question. Togusa just looked back and forth between the lambo's and the 15 year old as he recoiled away back into Trailbreakers driver seat and decided to leave the subject well alone.
"Okay, well, I think the Major might have something in mind; she's been at the Prime Minister's residence all day with Batou and the chief as well as those guys from Intelligence going over the records from two weeks ago so I think we might be covering a different angle on the case" Togusa said
"You mean the names in Hidaka's legers? Yeah I figured we'd be continuing something along those lines, fortunately we managed to pin down the encryption code's programme functions with that barrier breaker me, Frenzy and the Tachikoma's put together yesterday, it won't take it long for it get the first names out" Darren sighed
"What I don't understand is; if Hidaka's secret records prove he's been up to no good over the past several years, why don't we just use all that to arrest him?" Hailey asked as she stroked Bluestreak's hood.
"Because we need to prove he was involved with those other guys the night the military attacked us. Don't forget, the Prime Minister and the cabinet went to a lot of trouble to put together that protection order for you guys, and since that was classified above top secret the fact that Hidaka knew about the Autobot's prove that he was in breach of national security, only a handful of people outside the cabinet the military knew about the Autobots but we can only prove that with the necessary physical evidence. While Hidaka is no doubt one the main collaborators of the plot we still don't what his real role in all this really was; whether he actually ordered the attack remains to be proven, but he's also our only link to the other three collaborators, so until we're in a position to hold the upper hand we can't move in on the guy" Togusa explained.
"Without a doubt, but does it really take this long to find that 'necessary physical evidence' we need to nail him?" Becky asked in a slight pout as she leaned against Bluestreak's passenger door, "Hm, I'm afraid so, you gotta remember detective work is like fishing in a lot of ways, it's all about being patient, waiting for the right opportunities and more importantly; when the circumstances call for it, learning how to nab the perp with the right bait" Togusa replied as he folded his arms and leaned next to Trailbreaker's hood
"Guess that makes sense, but really, I never would have guessed working for an outfit like Section 9 could be so...tedious and complex. They always make it look so easy on Law and Order..." Hailey sighed in thought as she twisted one of her bangs back and forth between her finger and thumb. Togusa was about to ask something else when the door at the end of the parking lot floor opened up and Ishikawa walked out followed by Pazu, Boma, Ashley, Miles, Sam, Glen and Tom. "Hey guys, what's up?" Darren called over as they approached and congregated around the parked Autobots.
"We finally got some info from the ledgers, the barrier breakers are still decrypting the remaining files so it'll take a while more until we get all the names but in the meantime we might have a good lead to follow..." Ishikawa said as he activated the optical display setting in his cyberbrain and a data window appeared in Pazu and Boma's range of vision. With their holo-forms activated and their specialized sunglasses acting as their cybernetic vision, the data window appeared in the lens of the kid's sunglasses, allowing them to see what the agents were seeing. A police profile with a photo of a young man with slate blue eyes, black spiky hair highlighted with bright scarlet red streaks, piercings in his ears with one right through his right eyebrow and a somewhat sharp looking face.
"This is Riku Hidaka, son of Masaru Hidaka, our perp's nephew and apparently a young wannabe entrepreneur; his father runs the Blue Sakura club in the Minato District on the corner of Kaku Street, on the outside it's just a run-of-the-mill bar and 'doll house', but the club's been pegged by Section 1 and the narcotic suppression squad for years. On the surface Hidaka's brother Masaru is a stock-broker for several high profile e-traders, but away from his day job he's a well known high ranking yakuza who distributes and sells the cyber drugs 'speed heat' and 'ruby shock' for the Korinkai here in New Port; up until that incident with the Laughing Man case the narc squad had been trying to nail Hidaka's brother for years but he proved to be quite a slippery customer" said Ishikawa
"So how does his nephew fit in?" Darren asked
"It seems Hidaka likes to keep things in the family, and his nephew is actually quite the businessman despite the fact he dropped out of college a year before graduating. We found in the legers some notes Hidaka keeps on all his business dealings and from what we learned it looks like Riku has a good head for figures; his father left him in charge of taking care of some of the money tied up in the club, among other things including running payments and arranging deals with the local drug dealers, guess he thought it would have taught him some discipline because according to police records the kid's apparently quite a punk with priors for assault, vandalism and countless traffic violations" the veteran hacker continued
"Traffic violations?" Hailey asked
"Yeah, it seems he's the DK of the local drift racing scene; he's also the leader of the drift-race gang, the 'Doro-Yurei's', the road ghosts. They've been the bane of the traffic cops for years but no-one's had the nerve to chase after them because their motors are so powerful, it's the perfect way to run his dad's drugs from one location to another" Glen replied, the Autobots rose up on their axels at the mention of the words 'drift racing', intrigued as to where this was going.
"So as side from being his father's business partner what's this Riku kid got that's relevant to the case?" Togusa asked
"In his notes Hidaka mentioned something about giving some paper media files to his nephew for safe keeping, telling him to hide them in a place where he himself couldn't find them; he didn't mention specific details but the notes seem to indicate that the files contain certain details on his military connections, possibly even the guys he was talking to on the night our safe house was attacked. It may seem unusual to put vital information down on paper in this day and age, but when you consider it can be an efficient way to avoid any back hacks that could get at it, it makes sense to print it off, delete the online files and then hide it somewhere" Ishikawa replied
"If that's the case then there must be something in those files he doesn't want anyone to know about, so what are we going to do?" Ashley asked
"I've already spoken with the chief and he's given us the go ahead to try and pin Hidaka's nephew down and bring him in for questioning, but the main problem for us is actually trying to catch him; according to recent police records Riku and his gang have been quite active of late, namely racing against a number of competitors from rival gangs and other yakuza families, possibly to settle a few disputes and maintain order among the gangs. After a quick peek into a few of their personal net-hotlines I found that their holding another race tonight down in the Hanto district near the Naval docks" Ishikawa said, he jumped slightly when Bluestreak rolled up behind him and nudged him with his bumper in a rather eager manner.
"You know Ishikawa, if he's got a fast ride then you're going to need an even faster set of wheels...perhaps maybe, we could-" the young gunner said with a smirk in his voice
"I was wondering when you were going ask, you guys mind giving us a little hand tonight?" the veteran hacker smirked
"Finally! A chance to have some real fun at last!" Sideswipe exclaimed happily as he bounced up and down on his front tires in excitement.
Several hours later and the day had slowly ebbed into the evening and the city of New Port slipped had into its nocturnal phase; all around the city buzzed with a party-like vibe as its clubbers, party goers and general night life emerged to walk the streets, looking for good times and good fun. Over on the coastal region of the city, the docks were bathed in the grungy orange glare of the city's illumination and the pale silver light of the moon, aside from a few coastguard patrol ships out in the bay and one of the Navy's gun ships docked in the Naval docks, everywhere was still and calm.
Until the loud roar of car engines broke the silence and made the night air vibrate like thunder and the screeching of tires on tarmac echoed among the various buildings and high-rises.
At the end of a long row of shipping crates situated next to a large warehouse complex, a large congregation of cars, motorcycles and various gangs consisting of both yakuza and basic street thugs had gathered to compete against each other in the fast paced sport that was drift racing. The atmosphere buzzed with a party vibe, the music was blaring loudly, the liquor was flowing in copious amounts and all around the racers and their groupies were enjoying the party. But whilst the betters, hustlers and race spectators were enjoying the festivities an underlining unease between the main racers made the air thick with tension, these were not just races for them, the stakes of each other's reputation was on the line and their prides bristled at the prospect of coming in at second place. In the centre of the hubbub and excitement Riku Hidaka stood to one side, flanked by his two bodyguards whilst two other guys were performing some maintenance on the engine of his motor, there was no way in hell he intended to lose tonight.
As he surveyed the party, the load roar of several engines caught everyone's attention as seven cars sped across the open space of the dock area in formation, spun to their sides and screeched to a halt in a neat long line with the head car right in front of the DK. Riku watched with stunned annoyance as the doors opened to reveal a tall black man with a medium build and tribal tattoos covering his arms; he was dressed up like an A-list rapper, sporting a dark pair of sunglasses, a black and gold throwback jersey with a rich burgundy hoodie on top, black jeans with air Nike sneakers and around his neck were three large thick gold chains and a diamond studded set of dog tags whilst his head sported a black du rag. From out the back of his golden yellow Lamborghini came two blond twin sisters with blue streaks in their hair wearing a matching set of baby blue mini dresses and stilettos, they flanked both his sides as the other occupants of the cars emerged. Everyone's attention was perked when they saw these strangers strut onto the scene, who were they? They weren't Japanese that's for sure, judging from their accents and (with the exception of the African-American) their Caucasian profiles they were Americans, whoever they were, judging by their fashion trends and motors it was clear they had some serious cash to burn. The black guy noticed Riku and with his girls on his hips he confidently strode over to the DK; Riku's bodyguards stepped in front to block his path, but the stranger looked the two obvious cyborgs up and down with distain, he calmly removed his shades and looked the two guards straight in the eyes. Riku watched in a mix of annoyance and curiosity; annoyed that these gaijins had the nerve to show up here unannounced and uninvited, but he was curious as to see just what they were made of.
"Yo bitches! What's your game? Not letting a dude have the pleasure of meeting New Port's favourite DK? You want ma boys to bust a few cap's in 'yo asses for bein' rude?" he asked, his voice betraying his obvious annoyance, behind him two other guys came up, both with their hands in their breast pockets, it didn't take a genius to figure out what they were holding. Before they had a chance to react Riku gestured to them to step down as he came forward until he was right up in the strangers face, with his arms crossed and back straightened he was laying his dominance down with his bravado, the rest of his crew watched from the sides, curious to see how this was going to go down.
"Who the fuck are you? And how the hell did you find this place?" he asked coldly, the stranger smiled and gave a small chuckle as he threw up his arms and gestured for his boys to step back.
"The name's G-Ice. Me an' my homies are kinda new around these parts and am simply lookin' for a good time, word on the street is this here is a good place to drift, and from what I hear, you're the best there is bro!" he replied in a smooth voice, Riku looked him up and down sceptically.
"You from America?" he asked
"Damn straight! Fresh from the empire and looking to 'establish' my rep in this town, ain't lookin' for trouble so I thought I'd be polite an' meet you in person, from what I hear you're the guy to see if you wanna be made in this town" G-Ice replied, Riku smirked as he relax his guard, his crew quirked a few eyebrows in bemusement.
"Hmm, nice to know you ain't no fool, but what do you have to offer?" he grinned, G-Ice smiled broadly and snapped his fingers, suddenly one of the cars, a yellow Camero with black racing stripes, roared to life and was spinning doughnuts at an unbelievable speed for such a confined area, as it spun the smoke began to form into a twister whish stretched up into the sky, a chorus of cheers and wows went up from the crowd, Riku watched in amazement as he noticed there was no driver in vehicle, his crew was equally amazed, Riku simply looked back at G-Ice with a impassive look.
"I see you and your boys have good taste in AI's, but can you drift?" he asked
"Why don't we find out? You and me to far end of the naval base and back again?" G-Ice asked
"You're on"
With that, a collective cheer went up as the crowd overheard the challenge, Riku stepped into his ride and gunned the engine with a deafening roar, G-Ice got back in his ride and fired up the engine with his own crew cheering him on from the sidelines. But as he rolled up to the start-line he activated his comm-link.
"Okay people, I got him to race me, is everyone ready?" Glen asked as he looked across at Riku.
"We're ready, just make sure you keep with him" Ishikawa asked
"Dude, I'm ridin in Sunstreaker! The problem won't be try' in to catch up; I'll be trying not to leave him behind!" Glen retorted
"Just don't lose sight of him, anything can happen in these races so be prepared for anything!" Ishikawa replied
"Geez! You really-hang on, I gotta race!" Glen hastily replied as he switched the comm off andreadied himself as the countdown was about to begin, three girls from one of the other gangs lined up between the two competitors, all around the crowd was cheering loud and hard and another loud burst from Riku's engine grabbed their adoration, Sunstreaker gunned his engine even louder.
"THREE!" one girl called out
"TWO!" another called
"Don't worry, I got this covered" Sunstreaker whispered via his sound system, under him holo-form Glen tried desperately tried to subdue a squeak of panic.
'Aw shit! Why the hell couldn't Mile's do this?' he thought
"ONE, GO!" the final girl called and the two racers took off like a shot.
The next several seconds seemed to slow to a crawl. As the cars took off with a powerful burst of speed Glen felt the hardest adrenaline rush of his life; he felt his pulse thudding his ear, hot flushes rippled down his spine and his hands became cold and clammy as he held onto the steering wheel for dear life. Fortunately his fight or flight reflex took over and his fear quickly turned into sheer thrill as he unexpectedly found himself liking this. But getting lost in the moment would have wait as his mind snapped back to reality and focused his eyes on the road ahead.
"HOLY SHIT THIS IS SOME SPEED MAN!" he yelled in exhilaration
"Yeah well, I don't intend on coming in second place!" Sunstreaker retorted as he came up alongside Riku, Glen and Riku looked sideways at one another for a tenth of a second before Riku pulled sharply in front of the Lamborghini, Sunstreaker didn't take kindly to that move and with an angry burst of speed he served sharply which caused one whole side of his body to tilt onto his left side tires, Riku gasped in surprise as the Lamborghini squeezed through the narrow gap between him and the shipping crates, the Lamborghini then fell back onto all four tires and sped off.
'Pretty good but it's only the first mile!' Riku thought as hit the accelerator and sped off after G-ice.
Speeding along at around 120 mile per hour between them, the two racers soon left the rows of shipping crates behind and quickly approached the warehouse that overlooked the gathering place; as they sped through the complex Sunstreaker pitched hard on every corner, drifting across the tarmac as if he were slipping across ice, Riku was struggling to keep up with the Lamborghini as it slipped past every obstacle like a shark over a reef.
"HAHAHA HA HA! MAN THIS IS DAAAAMN GOOD!" Glen called over the screeching of the tires.
"I'm sure it is but you better start backing off when you pass the half way point, Saito's gonna put out his front tires when you pass under the highway at junction 36, you don't wanna be in his line of fire!" Jazz said over the comm.
"I heard ya! We're about to head for the cranes!" Glen replied, he held on tight to the wheel as Sunstreaker spun round another corner and crashed through a wire mesh gate with Riku close behind on their tail. The scene of the docks soon changed again as they whizzed past another several rows of shipping crates and emerged onto the open waterside, four huge sets of shipping container cranes stool high and idol against the dark night sky. The open space was the opportunity Riku needed to make his move and without fail he hit the gas and overtook the Lamborghini in one swift move. Sunstreaker tried to overtake but Riku kept swigging the back end of his ride to try and knock him away.
"Damn! This guy knows how to pull a move!" Glen muttered through his teeth
"He maybe good but I'm just getting started!" Sunstreaker retorted venomously as his engine growled more angrily than ever, Glen held on tighter than ever as the golden warrior sped up to 160 mph. Within minutes the racers were speeding alongside the New Port Naval dock's perimeter fence, the base was vast and enormous, much bigger than any of the other complexes on the waterfront and the whole fence looked like it could go on forever. Glancing sideways, Glen noticed a highway leading down to the far end of base, far beyond it, nestled among the various waterside office blocks was a particularly large apartment building with terraces on the sides, somewhere up there Saito was waiting to take his shot as soon as Riku's car was in range, he swallowed hard, hoping in the back of his mind to stay well enough back, as soon as the sight of the base's radar and communications tower came into view Glen gently applied his foot to the break, to which Sunstreaker jerked back up making him slam his foot against the foot well.
"AAAURGH! Geez! What the hell was that for!" He protested angrily as he recoiled his foot as far back as the space would allow.
"He's getting ahead!" Sunstreaker exclaimed
"That's the point dumbass! We need him to get ahead if we're to catch him!" glen spat back
"Aw no! No way am I gonna be bested by a flesh bag! .ON!" Sunstreaker ranted, Glen shifted uncomfortably as the seat beneath him grew hotter. 'Aw great! This is all I need!' he thought in a panic
"JAZZ WHERE ARE YOU GUYS! Sunny's lost the plot an' aint backing off!" he shouted down the comm link.
"Don't worry Glen; I'll make him stick to the plan..." Deathshot replied calmly, before Glen could say anything else he suddenly began to feel a strange tingling under his hands on the steering wheel, he began to feel all the hair on his body begin to stand on end as the sensation of static electricity began to fill the car interior, he began to panic slightly as he noticed his holo-form began to flicker back and forth between his disguise and his true self. Looking down at the speedometer he saw Sunstreaker's speed dropped substantially and Riku overtook him easily, the golden warrior revved his engine in an attempt to catch up but to no avail.
"What's going on? I'm losing speed!" he loudly protested
"That's the point dumb-aft! You're meant to let him overtake, now hang back and let us do the rest; the others are coming within range, and don't think about trying to reroute your blade's electro charge to give yourself a boost or I'll come down there and remove them myself!" Deathshot replied sternly, Sunstreaker didn't bother to reply as he managed to close the distance between him and Riku; the youngster looked at them through his rear view mirror with a smug grin, which annoyed Sunstreaker to no end.
"What the hell just happened?" Glen asked as his noticed his hair on his arms fell flat against his body once more.
"A low level EMP field, what a dirty trick!" the melee warrior grumbled
"Ha! Any dirtier than the stuff you and Sider's get up to when no-one's around?" Glen retorted
"Hmm, point taken. Well at the least I'll have the satisfaction of kicking his plates to the curb! The sniper may have him but I intend to have the last laugh on this little punk-aft squishy!"
"Aw hell let's just get on with it an' quit yer bitch'in!" Glen retorted in frustration, Sunstreaker didn't complain as he sped up to Riku's rear, for the following several hundred yards they stayed close to the perimeter fence, grabbing the attention of the guards who were on patrol. The main entrance soon came into view and in one move Riku pitched a sharp turn and went flying up an access ramp that opened up onto the highway, Sunstreaker followed suite but pitched at a sharper angle, giving him the opportunity to overtake Riku once more, Glen was about to protest when he suddenly noticed the large apartment building several miles ahead, and remembered who was up there.
"Slow down you fool! We're in Saito's range we have to pull back!" Glan shouted in a panic
"NO WAY! I won't lose this race!"
"Forget the race we'll get shot if we don't back away!"
"I don't care! I'm not letting this meat sack get away!"
Several miles up ahead, on the 60th floor of the apartment building, Saito watched the two cars come into range through the scope of his 50 calibre long range sniper rifle, he clenched his teeth in frustration as he noticed Sunstreaker wasn't backing away far enough to give him a clean shot, the range for the prime shot wasn't far and they only had about another four miles before they were out of range.
"What the hell is he playing at?...Glen what's going down there? You were supposed to fall back at the access ramp!" he sternly asked down the comm.
"Try telling that to mister sunshine here! He still thinks this a race! I can't negotiate with him!" Glen retorted
"Sunstreaker? Sunstreaker come in!"
"Don't bother, he's had the section 9 end of the comms turned off all night" Glen replied in exasperation.
"Then I guess I better give him a little gentle prompting..." Deathshot smoothly replied, Saito watched as a tiny electric blue ball of light shot down from the sky a good 300 yards up in the air and hit Sunstreaker dead on centre of the hood, a whole range of colourful cybertronian curses could be vaguely herd echoing over the comm. link as the melee warrior's speed decreased dramatically.
"Target is clear, you're free to take the shot Saito" Deathshot continued
"Thanks..." the human sniper replied as he looked through his scope and lined up his shot, upon activating his Hawkeye he established the satellite uplink within seconds and his cybernetic left arm adjusted the gun's angle according to the wind direction and trajectory, though it was only a few millimetres, such minuet differences made a big difference over 759 yards. Within less than ten seconds, he fired the shot; the bullet pierced the night air with a thunderous crack and hit the front right tire of Riku's car dead on, the car swerved with the force of the impact and went into a wild tail spin; desperately he spun the wheel in an attempt to regain control but the car just didn't seem to stop. Then suddenly two cars appeared from off a side road; one silver and one blue and orange; they lined up close together and rammed Riku's car at the front and back ends, pinning both the hood and the rear end bumper and together they slammed him into the concrete road divider. Despite the fact that the whole front right wheel and most of the wheel well was blown off Riku refused to be pinned down like this, he revved his engine as he angrily tried to get away, Jazz and Bluestreak pushed him harder into the dividers but the rear tires on Riku's motor had some serious grip, even after all the drifting of the last several miles. Together they steadily crept along the road at a snail's pace and just when Riku gave one good gun of the engine and started to slip out of the Autobot's grip Sunstreaker swerved around to face him head on and rammed into him with one hard crash.
"Nice to see you actually trying to stop him at last!" Jazz reprimanded
"So I got a little carried away, big deal!" Sunstreaker shrugged
"I'll talk to you later, but right now, back up and let the kid out" Jazz ordered, As Sustreaker slowly backed up, Boma and Pazu emerged from around the corner of a nearby building with their hand guns aimed at the driver's side, the door opened and Riku collapsed to the floor in a daze, the crash he knocked him for six and he had no idea right now which way was up Boma grabbed him by the shoulder and whipped out of his pocket a small black handgun- like device; a cyber tranquilizer, a standard issue police gadget that applied a specialized device that greatly subdued a suspect's body, he could still walk and move around but the device subdued the suspect's conscious control over their body, rending them harmless and safe to handle without the use of handcuffs, it also cut off their cyber connections to any online networks they might have set up. Boma aimed the device at the ports in the back of Riku's neck and 'fired', a soft click and a red light indicated it went in and Riku slumped forward in a semi-conscious state, Glen stepped out of Sunstreaker and sat on the divider as he sighed in sheer relief that the race was finally over.
"So we got him, I was kinda expecting it to be a little harder than this" Hailey said offhand as she and her sisters stepped out of Bluestreak
"Even so, that was one awesome race dude!" Mile grinned as he patted Glen on the back; the hacker looked up at him and offered a listless smile, "I guess, but that's the last time I race with sunshine here!" he retorted, glaring at the Lamborghini, who merely shifted on his tires in agitation.
"You guys better get outta there fast, when you pinned Riku down we picked up an SOS he sent to his crew, their on their way right now and their packing some serious heat!" Ishikawa said
"Copy that, we're outta here, girls help me get him in Jazz" Pazu asked, the twins took him by the arms and unceremoniously shoved him onto Jazz's back seat, Pazu and Boma both got in and sandwiched him in the middle whist Mile's and the others hastily got back in, just as they fired up the engines once more the sound of revved engines approached at a quick pace.
"Let's go!" Hailey called over and the three Autobot's sped away Riku's crew skidded around the corner and came after them, some totting guns out of the windows, some were on motorcycles and were able to be more nimbly in terms of manoeuvrability. Just when it seemed they were right on their tail, five huge plumes of pale smoke exploded on the road behind the Autobots and sent several cars and motorcycles into tailspins, crashing into one another and into the dividers, looking over the back seat the twins watched in shocked surprise.
"That had to be some of D's smoke bombs!...Deathshot are you covering us? Why not just hit them with an EMP?" Becca asked offhand
"Unlike Sunstreaker I can't use a wide-angle burst to hit them, least I take out several city blocks and I don't want a repeat of Annabelle's retrieval, I'll slow them down as best I can, you guys just gain as much distance as possible!" the Autobot sniper replied.
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Bluestreak yelped in alarm as one of the yakuza thugs in one of the remaining cars fired off some rounds from his semi-automatic, the girls screamed in a panic as the bullets pinged of the gunner's sides, Sunstreaker fell behind and with one sharp swerve he hit the hood of the car with his rear bumper and sent it into the dividers, he quickly sped up again to cover the rear.
"You girls okay?" Bluestreak asked in alarm
"We're fine but we need to lose them right now!" Hailey replied as he stroked her hair bangs out of her face.
"I got an idea! Make a left at the next intersection and stay on my tail!" Jazz ordered
"Yes sir!" Bluestreak replied. Sure enough the two mechs followed the first lieutenant as he sped towards the oncoming intersection, pitching in hard to the turn they drifted across the large square space, the screech of their tires echoed off the nearby buildings and several cars coming from the other directions screeched to halt to avoid going head on into them. As the remainder of Riku's crew chased after them two more cars went to fast to make the turn and ended up crashing into a lamppost and the corner of an office block, only three cars and four motorcycles were left.
The Autobots soon entered the town and from another main road Trailbreaker and Sideswipe appeared and joined them at their sides, "Hey guys! You finally turned up!" Bluestreak happily exclaimed, "We thought you could use a hand with these amateurs, get Riku outta here and we'll hold them off!" Trailbreaker replied. Sideswipe and his brother fell back to try and knock the remaining three cars off the road, but as they sped further into the town they pulled forward again as the risk of them accidently hitting pedestrians became more threatening. "It's getting too risky here! We might hit a bystander by mistake!" Glen yelled, "Agreed, lead' em back to the docks and we'll go on ahead" Jazz replied, Trailbreaker, Bluestreak and the lambo twins broke away and turned off sharply onto another road heading back to the waterfront, but looking back in Trailbreaker's rear view mirror, Darren realised the gangsters weren't following them as planned.
"Dammit their not following us, they know you got Riku Jazz!" He called back
"I know! Their catching up to us faster than I thought! Bumblebee, Hot Rod, where are you?" the first lieutenant asked in slight alarm
"We're coming around from the opposite direction but we're having trouble with the traffic!" Bumblebee replied
"Alright, it looks like we're on our own guys-"
"I wouldn't be so sure Jazz!"
Close behind him the three cars and motor cycles suddenly swerved uncontrollably and crashed into one another as a hail of gunfire ripped their tires to pieces, abruptly stopping them in their tracks. Jazz screeched to a halt and swerved up to park next to the curb some distance away.
"What the hell just happened?" Miles asked offhand as he looked back over his shoulder at the crashed vehicles, scanning the surrounding area for the source of the gunfire Jazz spotted Batou on top of one of the roofs of the street side shops with his favourite Tachikoma at his side, it's claw gun had a whisp of smoke spiralling upwards "Batou happened" Pazu replied coolly as they jumped off the roof and approached the silver Autobot, both looking quite pleased with their handy work.
"When did you get back?" Boma asked as he leaned out the back window.
"Just now, we'd been listening in on this little op on our way back and the chief wanted to make sure we guys weren't having too much fun" he smirked
"Not enough more like! I'm so bummed we didn't get to have a descent chase through the city!" Miles huffed as he slumped in Jazz's driver seat.
"Eh, tough break buddy; at least we got our perp so it's back to HQ, throw him in the interrogation room and put the thumb screw on the guy, see you back there!" he said as he walked over to the back of his Tachikoma and opened up its pod, "What about them? We can't leave them in the middle of the-" Mile's words were cut short when the sound of police sirens could be heard approaching and Batou shot him a knowing look. "Ah, gotcha, alright we'll see you guys there!" he continued, "Hey you wanna race?" the Tachikoma asked in excitement, "Another time Tach, let's just get back, I seriously need a few drinks" Batou huffed as he got back in and lead the way as Jazz followed close behind him. Several miles away back up on the apartment block, Saito had finished folding away his rifle back into its secure carrier case and had gone up to the roof to await to be picked up by Deathshot, he suddenly heard a loud deep thrum and from out of thin air Deathshot's undercarriage opened up with a shaft of blue light coming down, the strange lotus like doors were just as he remembered them the night the Autobot sniper neutralized him and took out his weapon. When the light swiftly swept forward and enveloped him, he suddenly felt the effects of the Autobot's anti-gravity field take a hold of him and pull him up into the undercarriage, as he emerged into the strange alien subspace he let go of his case as two thick black slender cables snaked out from above and grabbed a hold it, pulling up into a strange compartment that seemed to disappear as quickly as it appeared. Ahead of him a pentagon shaped opening appeared and he rolled up into the foetal position to fit through the small opening which emerged into a small dark space comprised of smooth panels with cybertronian patterns all over them, another five black cables snaked out from the corners of the opening and positioned him onto a bed like structure. He suppressed the urge to shudder as the strange things crept across his body, two of them flattened their 'bodies' to form a soft but secure harness across his chest and shoulders, a series of strange electronic sounds could be heard as the panels began to fold and rearrange, the bed sat up and transformed into a jet pilot's seat which rolled forwards and upwards behind another pilot seat into a large cockpit with a yellow canopy, Ashley peeked his head around and greeted the sniper with his trademark mischievous grin.
"I see you remembered to tuck your legs in this time, good thing we had that little practice run before coming out huh?" he grinned
"For sure, but no matter how cool the rest of this jet is I'll never get used to those damn cables!" Saito scowled
"Aw don't be so sore, they're not that bad once you get used to them" Ashley grinned, Saito noticed a cable sneak up next to him and as the silver arrow like head hovered in front of him, the tip split open and a bunch of blue fibre-optic wires wriggled out and moulded into a smiley face which bobbed up and down at him in an attempt to illicit a laugh, the human sniper simply folded his arms and slouched down into his seat.
"What's wrong?" Morri asked as she glanced back through the gap in the seats from where she sat in the front, Saito didn't replied as he averted his cold gaze out the window, Morri simply sighed and turned back to face forward. "If it's about Sunstreaker getting carried away like that don't worry, Jazz'll talk to him later when we get back to the safe house...I know he's not exactly the most 'agreeable' bot there is; but, suffice to say you can shake him down all you want but at the end of the day he's still entitled to his personal choice to be an arsehole" she replied, Saito looked back at her with a quirked eyebrow, Ashley turned round in his seat and simply offered a shrug.
"In other words you guys have little choice but to keep him around because he's valuable in terms of his fighting skills, I believe that's how Jazz put it?" he said in a deadpan tone.
"I'll admit I'm not keen on the bot myself, but he and his brother are excellent melee fighters and have proven their worth a million times over on the battlefield, if it were anyone else it would be a different situation, but as it is we can't afford to take chances and sideline them whilst we're in hiding, in case your forgot they seriously put those soldiers in their place when the military attacked us and there's no guarantee they may or may not find us again" Deathshot replied via the consol speakers in the back of the seat in front of him.
"I wouldn't worry about it mate, it's just the karma of the universe, no matter what planet your on there's an arse hole in every town" Ashley said offhand
"That's true" Saito replied as his face softened into an impassive gaze. He was about ask something when his head nearly knocked against the canopy as Deathshot swung around sharply and stopped in midair, "D? What's up?" Ashley asked, as he hovered silently a strange electronic sound began to filter through his speakers and an even stranger frequency reading appeared on the monitors in each of the consoles that were set into the back of the seats, bar Morri's who's was set in the main console in the front.
"What is that?" the 22 year old brunette asked offhand as she watched the monitor.
"I don't know, .Jazz do you read me? I just picked up a signal coming from the vicinity of the naval base, it's on the right frequency wavelengths to be cybertronian but it's not running on the usual current consistency to allow multi-coded data streams to be sent in one piece, what should I do?...Hello? Jazz are you there?" the Autobot sniper asked, a garbled stream of electronic buzzes on the main console indicated the comm frequency had switched over to a different wavelength.
"I heard you D-man; switch over to your cybertronian comm link and keep speaking cybertronian, Trailbreaker just picked up the signal too, he and Darren are analysing it right now. Ishikawa just said all the cyber-comm frequencies have gone down and that some kind of jamming frequency is being sent out over the area" the first lieutenant replied
"Why would all the cyber-comm frequencies suddenly be blocked by a jamming frequency?" Ashley asked offhand
"It must be the national emergency legislation local restriction provision; the military's up to something that requires that all comm frequencies outside the military's I.S ID codes to be blocked, whatever it is, they must be up to something" Saito replied as he straightened up in his seat.
"Whatever their up to their starting to get really tense, I'm picking up a lot of chatter on the military comm frequencies and that signal has levelled out now, it seems to be some kind of short message that's on a loop, it's still too messy for me to decipher clearly" Deathshot replied
"Darren and Trailbreaker are having the same problem, whoever's sending out this signal is obviously trying speak cybertronian but ain't got their CPU around the correct frequencies and wavelengths in right orders, whoever they are its safe to assume their human" Jazz said
"But if all the other frequencies are down and our's is the only one outside the military's, then-"
"Their listening for us! Everyone turn your comms off! D-man, get to that base and see what's goin' on, but keep your distance and report back as soon as you're satisfied there's no threat, I'm sorry but you guys up there are on your own on this one, Jazz out-" and with that the signal went dead with a sharp blip, the humans sat in silence of a brief second as they allowed the odd situation to sink in, Deathshot was already moving towards the waterfront when the three of them snapped their minds back to reality.
"What kind of surprise are we going to get this time?" Morri muttered
"I don't know, but someone crudely knows how our language works and how to duplicate it. That in itself is a surprise" Deathshot replied calmly as he approached the naval base and dropped low until he was approximately 100 yards off the ground. Saito couldn't help but watch in amazement as they slowly and steadily drifted through the air, as if the Autobot himself were a fish in water, and all the while he held the presence of a ghost; silent and unseen. They pasted over several large buildings before reaching the centre of the base right on the seafront next the communications tower. As he circled the area, Deathshot felt like he was standing before a vast electric river as all the various comm signals filled his scanners and many human voices could be heard all at once, filtering through them all he concentrated on the garbled signal that was emanating from somewhere nearby.
"Hey, what's going on down there?" Ashley pointed down to the ground, sure enough, down below on the tarmac was a large set of four antenna like structures about 7 meters tall with a network of cables and wires of varying size connecting them all together, at the centre were three large supercomputers, each about two meters tall and connected to the antenna via the mess of wires, several feet away was a huge generator the size of a Topkick truck sitting on the back of a dark greed army truck. All around the odd structure were a group of men in white coats, from up above it appeared they were trying to keep it working as they dashed around adjusting various dials and typing on specialized consoles as they tried keep it ticking over, guarding them were a group of twelve soldiers in black and dark grey armour and off to one side were three men in suites watching them go about their work and quietly chatting amongst themselves.
"What the hell is that thing?" Saito said offhand
"Whatever it's supposed to be, it's the source of the signal" Deathshot replied
"Anybody else getting a sense of Deja'vu here?" Morri frowned
"Defiantly, but let's see what they have to say..." Deathshot replied as he activated his external microphone and zoomed his hearing range in on the group. As the Autobot sniper scanned the faces of the soldiers, the three humans in the cockpit gasped as they recognized their faces as they appeared on the consoles.
"The Rangers? What the hell are they doing here?" Ashley exclaimed, Saito frowned, as suddenly got a bad feeling about this but stayed silent as one of the suites, a breaded man with glasses in a reddish brown suite and a long tan trench coat, stepped forward and seemed to address the head scientist.
"Well, what do your readings say?" he asked in a clam manner, Morri blinked as something about his voice rang a bell, but she couldn't remember from where.
"The output is good and the power's holding steady, but tell control we need the jamming frequency's wave length to drop down the three point five" the head scientist replied.
"Will that be a liability?" another stranger in a grey suite asked
"Only if the wave length drops to point two, then we'll be at risk from being breached by any external interference" the scientist replied
"Very well, proceed" the bearded man replied
"We're taking a hell of a risk, if Aramaki's reports are accurate one of them could be nearby and we'd not even know about it, are you sure we shouldn't at last have a tank or armed suite on standby just in case?" the third stranger in a dark navy suite cautiously asked, his voice betraying his obvious worry as he approached the other two.
"No, we have to let them know we mean them no harm, we cannot afford to scare them off again" he replied
"But do you seriously think they'll believe us when they believe that the military is the enemy?" another said, Deathshots passengers listened in as their curiosity peeked as to where this conversation was going, and they were referring to.
"Which is why we have to find them and explain the situation that somewhere in our ranks is a traitor and that their the one who's responsible for the attack. I'm well aware it's doubtful they'll be willing to trust us and I don't blame them, but this is only going to get worse if at the very least we don't get a fix on their location and make sure their alive and well. The prime minister has already gone to enough trouble to finalize a new 'Alien Autobot's Protection Order' now she's putting only the most loyal of us together to sort this sordid affair out!" one retorted. That last statement grabbed everyone's full attention.
"But that's just it, how do I know either of you are loyal, or vice versa? I know everyone who been willing to actually help sort this out for the sake of our country rather than our own political gain is the only form of proof of trust we have right now, hell knows I've already gone to a lot of trouble and I'm about to stick my neck out even further. But if it presents the opportunity to catch whoever's responsible for that attack then I'm game" the reddish-brown suite sighed
"Do you think Aramaki should know about this? The prime minister already considers him and his section above reproach and considering how he handled keeping the aliens in custody he'll probably have few bits of advice for us, because heaven know I sure as hell couldn't step up to a challenge like that!" one said offhand as he wiped the sweat from his brow with a white handkerchief.
"That's just what I was thinking; he's already filed the discloser requests with the GSDA and the Navy so he has access to anything 'above classified' anyway, in addition, his team had first hand contact with the aliens and that's the one commodity we really need. I've already spoken to my superiors and I'll inform him tomorrow. In the meantime I'd like your boys to continue working here trying to contact the Autobot's, the second you get anything out of the ordinary notify me immediately...Commander Kagawa, you're in charge" the reddish-brown suite replied as he and the grey suite saluted the Ranger's field commander and left to re-enter one of the nearby buildings, Deathshot slowly rose back up into the air and turned the leave the base.
"Aramaki will want to know about this" Morri said offhand
"For sure, step on it Deathshot" Saito replied and with a burst of speed the Autobot sniper zoomed across the cityscape, making a bee line for Section 9 HQ.
R&R please! :)