Chapter 36-Headmasters part 2
Ratchet, Penny, Kevin and Razor sat at a Teletran-1 terminal in the computer hub looking at the results of the Autobot's earlier scans of the faux metal for possible manufacturers in the country. The search didn't take long, but trying to find a possible match that won't lead them astray wasn't easy considering they had no real information to narrow down the search.
"How about this one?" Razor pointed to one of the results.
"Uh0uh. Those are bulk manufacture, for the export market." Penny said. "We need something that deals strictly within the country."
"What about this one?" Kevin asked.
"Ultralite Republica. Yeah, that might be the one." Penny nodded. "Can you sort the orders by size and date? It would have been recent, and chances are they only took what they needed."
"Don't rush me." Ratchet grumbled and typed in another command. Teletran brought up the results and Kevin quickly noticed the top two links.
"There, the first two. A garage in Beaver, Kokomo, and…a custom car outlet in Fort Wayne, Montanna."
"Dibs on the second one!" Razor chirped.
"You know what this means, right?" Penny grinned. She and Razor pumped their fists in the air and yelled, "Road trip!"
"I hope you weren't thinkin' of goin' anywhere without me!"
They looked back to see Ironhide standing there in the darkness, eyes glinting dangerously with his arms crossed.
"Ironhide?" Ratchet said. "What are you…?"
"I'm comin' with you, and you ain't givin' me no arguments about it." Ironhide said. "We're going to find these little glitches and I'm gonna torch 'em…my way."
XXXXXX
He was dreaming, or at least, it felt like he was. Darren couldn't tell what was reality or not, only that his mind felt foggy and he couldn't move his body.
Aside from the lights shining down on his form, which was restrained to some medical cot, he realized there were people standing over him-four men and a woman, all clad in white coats and wearing face masks. There was an IV in his arm…was he in some kind of operation? Were they doing surgery on him?!
Darren tried to access his powers, but nothing happened. Something was blocking his telekinesis-was it the drugs or some special device they planted on him? Honestly, he couldn't think straight enough to actually come up with an answer.
'Wait…Sunstreaker and I were…chased,' Darren thought. 'Then we saw Aries, and…no, these people are with OZ!'
"Prep him for surgery." One of the men said.
The woman took out a sterilized needle and injected something into the IV bag. As soon as the drug went into his blood stream, Darren felt himself feel very drowsy, and his vision started to blur.
'No…Sunstrea…' Darren's thoughts became fuzzy as he was put under, now at the mercy of these terrorists.
XXXXXX
They carried out the "operation" in the middle of the night, which involved Penny and Kevin sneaking out of their homes while their families were asleep. They met up with Ironhide and Ratchet, and they took a ground bridge to their destination-the custom car shop in Fort Wayne. Once they were sure that no one was around, Ironhide did a quick grid scan on the shop and found a multitude of various hidden scanners and infrared beams, things that you definitely wouldn't find in a regular car shop.
"I know the crime rate hereabouts has gone sky-high," Kevin whistled. "But isn't this on the extreme side?"
"Right. That's a lot of security for new wheel trims and some dodgy in-car audio." Penny nodded.
"And it's sophisticated stuff. Maybe a bit too sophisticated." Ironhide grumbled.
"Ironhide?"
"I could be wrong, kid, but there's something in there I think is a Holomatter reader."
"And an energon detector. Definitely not just for human intruders." Penny crossed her arms. "Yup, this has to be the place."
"So…what are we waiting for?" Kevin asked.
"A solid, risk free, strategy, Kevin. If this place is linked to the people who've got Sunstreaker-"
"And Darren!" Penny cut in sharply.
"And Darren, then we move in only with the utmost caution." Ironhide said.
"But-"
"But nothin'. You two don't know all that much about OZ like the others. They're no run of the mill terrorists, they're a cult with all the resources in the world. They're powerful, and they are not afraid to combat any Autobot or Decepticon they come across. Primus knows what they plan to with Darren, but it's nothing good. And they have a habit of covering their tracks…explosively. OZ has always gotten the jump on us time and time again, but this time, we take the initiative."
After a moment, Ratchet drove around to the back of the shop towards the loading area. "There's a rear loading bay back here, Ironhide. I figure it's our best bet." He said. "I can also cryo-freeze the external pressure pads and motion sensors, but if there are Holomatter readers, if we so much as stick a virtual toe inside, we're blown."
"So let us go in!" Kevin said, pointing to himself and Penny.
"Yeah! And before you roll out the "This isn't your fight" speech, it totally is!" Penny growled. "When they took Sunstreaker, they took Darren too. Chances are, that was a mistake. We have to find him before whoever has him decides he's surplus requirements."
Ironhide was quiet for a moment before popping his doors open to let the children out. "I'm gonna regret this. I know it."
XXXXXX
William McCullen was a man of action. A descendant of a long line of warriors forged from battle, he prided himself on his family legacy. A legacy that he swore to uphold in the name of making sure the entire world knew of his clan's strength and prestige. As the CEO of Mars Industries, he did just that-making sure everyone knew who sent those missiles, who made those bombs, who built those talos trudging across the battlefield. He was no sadist, but it was almost euphoric to know that he was the cause of so many deaths across the world; a higher body count than all of his ancestors combined.
But when OZ brought him and his wife, Anastasia, into the fold, he found a new calling-becoming one of the most powerful men in the world. Not just in the combat theatre, but in business, politics and religion. To become a god among men, something thousands of people only dreamed about. And to think that his technology would help usher in that new age. The only problem is that he had to step lightly around the Zodiac. They were really temperamental.
"Aquarius! What a surprise," William greeted the beautiful general as she disembarked the Dragon transport aircraft with false enthusiasm. "If I had known that you were coming over-"
"Save it, Destro, I'm here on business." Aquarius said. William frowned at the unofficial title she had bestowed upon him since they first met and followed the woman into his family castle.
Castle Destro was situated on top of a mountain in Airlann, high above the little peasant villages and towns that lived in its shadow. Despite its considerable age, the castle harbored numerous technological advancements and upgrades hidden in plain sight, not marring the castle's aesthetic, but enhancing it. Aquarius knew this place by heart as she and the castle's master traveled down to the lower levels of the estate, where there was an elevator lift that would take them to the man-made basement level inside the mountain the castle was sitting on.
"If you don't mind me, asking, Aquarius, why are you here?" William asked.
"What else? Last I heard, Pisces was slumming it out in the boonies with you and your stupid kilts." Aquarius said rudely. William knew she was in a very bad mood. "We're running behind schedule because he keeps screwing around with you and I've had it."
"Pisces has been helping us finalize the design of our newest invention that should help OZ's operations in the near future." William said. "It's something that can only be seen to be believed."
"I'll be the judge of that." She replied coldly.
As they went lower, the old, Airlann architecture gave way to natural caves lined with artificial lights and magnetic railings. Once they reached the bottom, they walked through an access tunnel they took them to a large cavern where the magic was held. Mars' unofficial weapons testing chamber where they tested out new gadgets and weapons for OZ's use.
They came into the observation deck that overlooked the testing field, which was retrofitted to harbor a massive power generator built into the cave ceiling, positioned over a circular pad with protective glass along its perimeter. Overseeing the project was William's wife, Baroness Anastasia Romanov, his partner in crime and the more level-headed of the two. Clad in a tight, form fitting black bodysuit, she was a beauty even in combat gear with fine features, long silky black hair and narrow eyes sharp as glass glinting behind thin glasses. Anastasia didn't bother greeting Aquarius (more out of insult than necessity) as she explained their little project.
"The multipoint asynchronus sebether station. We call it MASS." Anastasia explained in a heavily accented voice. "I won't bore you with the math, Aquarius, that's Pisces job. Basically, it's quantum physicals. Heisenberg uncertainty principles. A degree of faith."
"You're building…a teleportation machine?" Aquarius blinked. Anastasia smirked.
"Yes, and it works. Pisces was kind enough to volunteer for us."
William handed Aquarius some protective goggles, and allowed his subordinates to show her what they've spent nearly three years working on in secret. The generator lowered itself over the pad and began generating a large, fragmented dome of energy. A loud humming filled the cave as the machine came to life and within just a few seconds, a humanoid figure materialized in the ethereal storm inside the dome. Aquarius couldn't hide her shock as she saw Pisces, clad in a protective bodysuit, appear before her eyes out of thin air.
"Holy shit." She muttered, but the McCullen couple heard her perfectly.
"Our sentiments exactly when it worked for us." Anastasia said and leaned into the microphone. "How are you feeling, Pisces? Any side effects? Dizziness, nausea, breaking down of the atoms in your body?"
"I'm…fine. I'm perfectly fine!" Pisces laughed. "It worked! William, Anastasia, you wonderful bastards, it actually-oh," His elated expression turned dull as he noticed Aquarius there. "Hello, Aquarius."
"Go to hell." She said back and looked at the machine in a new light. "So, this is another one of your secret projects. And it actually worked."
"It's all thanks to Pisces," Anastasia said. "Thanks to his fine tuning of the relay system, we've been able to send people to Nippon and back within seconds."
"Relay system?"
"A satellite stationed in high orbit." William explained. "Basically, the MASS device works by disassembling physical objects, teleporting them to the relay at the speed of light."
"Then its particles are fired down to the target and reassembled there in a broadcast energy field." Anastasia finished. "When we first started this project, test subjects would have their structural integrity fail at the molecular level. The first men would evaporate before we could call them back. Couldn't keep the signal constant as he never made it home to castle Destro for full re-integration."
"That's when Pisces gave it his magic touch, I presume?" Aquarius asked. Pisces entered the observation deck and pulled off his mask. "
"Got it in one, dear sister. The problem was that there needed to be an interface between the data stored on the satellite and on our teleported subjects. Data was lost during the uploading of the target subject's atomic record and the downloading on either end of the process. There needed to be a more consistent exchange of data throughout the teleportation event. A simplified nanomite processor designed to pick up the slack."
Pisces threw something at her, and she easily caught it. It was a coin. "A coin? That's your secret?"
"That is a targeting coin. It's laden with a significantly smaller version of the nanomite cluster onboard the relay star. The nanomite coins are used to determine the initial location of all the particles in a target. The regular transmission process is carried out and all particles of a target and their estimated velocities are accounted for MASS creates data points in 3D space." Pisces grinned victoriously. "The relay star uses two lasers, one to digitize each of the particles in the target and another to "paint" a mirror of the data points at the desired location."
"And all of it's powered by the planet's mangosphere. Off the grid and self-sustaining." Anastasia finished off.
A normal person without various degrees in science and technology would've been completely lost halfway through that explanation, but Aquarius understood it all and it amazed her. The world's first human-made teleportation system and it was made long before they even thought about the cybertronians. "You actually made a teleportation machine."
"Exactly. And it's all for OZ's use, Aquarius." William smiled. An eager glint shone in her eyes as she thought of all the things that were suddenly made possible by this historical creation.
"We can go anywhere we want and no one could stop us." She whispered. "We could pop right inside the vault of the Museum of Art and History and steal everything without tripping an alarm!"
"Actually, I've been thinking of a more worthy use of this system." Pisces grinned. "Something I think you'll like very much."
It was a treat seeing the usually talkative Aquarius stunned speechless. Thus, Pisces, William and Anastasia thought it would be smart not to mention their added help from the Destruction Minion team…and the fact that the whole thing was based off the orbital jump technology of the cybertronians. She didn't have to know everything.
XXXXXX
"They're in." Ratchet said. He had a wire frame scan on the shop displayed from his dashboard as he sat parked in front of the loading bay with a hole melted through the gate. "Thankfully, Customs Wheels' conventional security systems are susceptible to our discordancy field."
"Good. Let's just hope that there are no more surprises." Ironhide said.
Inside, Kevin and Penny explored the storage area of the shop, with tall racks full of boxes, nothing out of the ordinary…yet.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Kevin asked.
"Pallets of Ultralite-50. Could be, that consignment of alloy we traced was delivered and shipped onwards. But if not, where did it go?" Penny combed every place she thought would have some kind of sign of a construction factory. Something that hinted at a building factory line.
She flashed her flashlight inside each room, frowning as she saw nothing important aside from common automotive goods. "This looks like a pretty standard retail outlet and ultralite's not something you sell over the counter. So one of two things must've happened…it's here in sheet form, or it was used, maybe to build a Sunstreaker clone!"
Psst, Penny!" Kevin waved her over to a section of the wall behind a supply rack. He up his flashlight to show it better. "See that grove? It goes right up and around, then up again here. I think it may be a door."
"Could be." She made to push the rack aside. "Help me push this thi-oh!"
Penny almost fell over as the rack easily slid over with just a little force. Kevin made an impressed sound. "You're either stronger than you look, Penny…or that thing's built to move." He said.
"Probably on a rail. Hmm," Penny felt along the seam in the wall. "No visible latch or handle. Let's see now…ah! Hold the light steady!"
"What'd you find?"
"A very slight vibration." She pulled a switch blade from her pocket and lightly poked the blade into the crease. "Could be some kind of trembler pad. If I can just…aha!"
The wall split apart to reveal a wide staircase that led down to some secret basement level unseen by the public. "I don't recall seeing this on Ironhide's virtual floorplan."
"Nope. Which means that it's shielded somehow." Penny hummed. "Too sophisticated technology for a simple retail store."
They stood there for a moment, now feeling a little nervous now that they were making some progress. They looked at each other, silently asking if they wanted to go first. Kevin smiled and bowed graciously.
"Ladies first."
Penny scoffed, but couldn't keep herself from smiling. "Well…here we go."
They walked down the staircase and entered a long hallway that led to a large room. Kevin and Penny were greeted with what they were looking for-a car manufacturing plant complete with a production line, scattered materials and even some car chassis.
"This is unreal." Kevin whispered. There were half finished cars built in the same likeliness as Sunstreaker's alt mode, both in yellow and red coloration sitting on powered down conveyor belts. "Make's my aunt's garage look like an off-road chop-shop. I don't even recognize half of the stuff here."
Penny elbowed him. "If you're done salivating, we should get on with the search. You know, something that might lead us to Sunstreaker and Darren."
"Uh, sure, yeah."
Penny went into the manager's booth and started looking through files on the computer. She searched for any relevant clues like names or specific locations, but all she found were catalogues of past buyers and suppliers. "Damn, I'm not finding anything."
"Nothing good in the trash either." Kevin muttered as he dug through the trash bin. At Penny's questioning look, he shrugged. "What? It works in detective novels."
"Let's keep looking. After being almost buried alive, I'm starting to get a little antsy below ground, so let's be…hm?"
Penny pushed aside a few papers and saw a business car on the table. It said "Epsilon Holdings", a company Penny vaguely remembered hearing about. She picked up the card and turned it around, frowning when she saw no phone number or address.
"What kind of business card doesn't have a-" She jumped when all the ventilation shafts slammed closed and the door automatically locked itself. There was a loud hiss as a thick, sweet smelling mist was sprayed into the room.
"Penny, what did you do?" Kevin coughed.
"Nothing, I-ugh." Penny fell over the desk, passing out from the quick acting gas.
"No…" Kevin tried to summon a flame, but couldn't concentrate hard enough. It wasn't long before he, too, passed out and fell to the floor.
Neither child stayed awake long enough to see the timer pop up on the computer screen and begin counting down from ten minutes.
XXXXXX
"Excellent," Pisces grinned as he looked over the medical results. "Just excellent."
"Well?" Aries walked up to him. "How'd the surgery go?"
"Our latest test subject is recovering nicely. There is no sign of the implants being rejected this time." Pisces said. "We've finally done it."
"About damn time." Aquarius sighed, lounging on the couch like a cat. "So when can we outfit the other soldiers with these tech?"
"Not so fast. We still need to do some more tests-"
"We've done enough tests, Pisces!" Aquarius shouted. "I have Sagittarius riding my ass on this new army we promised Ophiuchus by summer, and it's almost spring! We need working models now!"
"We're already going as fast as we dare. We've had too many setbacks to rush things at this point." Pisces said calmly. "I'm dealing with new territory when it comes to cybertronian science, and Thornment isn't exactly forthcoming with the details."
"As long as we get results, I'm willing to listen to our fearless leader bark." Aries said. "We're entering the final stage, brother and sister. Thanks to the information we gleaned from our captured Autobot and Decepticon we can finally make preparations for Operation Divine Comedy."
"Divine Comedy?" Aquarius blinked. "What operation? No one ever told me this!"
"I wanted it to be a surprise. Pisces and I made plans to have our new army assault the headquarters of both the Autobots and Decepticons." Aries said, gold eyes flashing. "We'll wipe out the cybertronians in one fell swoop and end their interference once and for all."
XXXXXX
Outside the custom auto-shop, Ratchet and Ironhide were getting nervous after hearing nothing from Penny and Kevin.
"It's been too long." Ratchet said.
"Yeah. Ten minute intervals, we said. One of them should've signaled us." Ironhide said.
"Of course, they could just be ignoring us." Ratchet replied. "It wouldn't be the first time."
Razor frowned and smacked Ratchet's steering wheel. "Or they could be incapacitated or dead you lunk heads!"
Ratchet and Ironhide were silent and the red Autobot angled himself in front of the store. "I'm going in!"
Ironhide sped forward and smashed through the door and front window. With the force of an angry bull, he plowed through the front display, tore through the shelves and into the wall behind the cash register until he reached the storage room.
"Ratchet, there's some kind of concealed room entrance back here. My sensor probes don't detect a damn thing-a big, black nothing." Ironhide created his Holomatter. "Holomatter-readers be damned, I'm gonna take a look-see!"
"Hurry!" Razor cried out.
"Make haste, Ironhide, local authorities are on their way." Ratchet urged.
Ironhide phased his avatar through the wall and into the basement level. He took a quick look around, noting the Sunstreaker replicas, before scanning for life signals. He found the unconscious Penny and Kevin in the operator's booth, with a timer on the computer screen.
"Frag!"
"Ironhide? What is it?" Ratchet asked.
"It's bad." He said as he saw the timer count down to three minutes.
"It's bad." He said as he saw the timer count down to three minutes.
After a quick rundown of the crisis on their hands, Ratchet parked himself in the rear loading bay with Razor in his cab.
"Ratchet, you ready?"
"Yes. I've finally got a fix on your position."
"Good, now get cutting!"
Razor activated the laser cutters in her arms and slowly carved a hole in the moderately tough concrete. Inside the basement, Ironhide glanced warily at the clock, which was now at 1:59.
"Come on, Razor, hurry." He muttered.
"I probably shouldn't mention this, Ironhide, but we have law enforcement inbound." Ratchet said.
"ETA?"
"You don't want to know, love." Razor grunted.
"Look, Ironhide, you should get yourself to a safe distance."
"Can't. My Holomatter emitter doesn't have the necessary range and I'll need maximum saturation when we break through."
Ratchet hummed his engine nervously. "Okay, but we're cutting it very fine!"
1:49.
Razor channeled as much power to her cutters to increase the laser's power. It took a few more seconds than she would've allowed, but she managed to break through to the basement.
00:35.
"You're through, Razor, cut your power!" Ironhide yelled. When Razor deactivated her lasers, he channeled more power into his avatar, making it grow taller so he could reach the ceiling.
00:25.
One by one, Ironhide handed the children over to Razor through the hole she made and the Minicon carefully placed them into Ratchet's cab.
"Got 'em!"
Ratchet slammed his doors shut and sped away from the building. "We're clear, Ironhide, get yourself out of there!"
00:11.
Ironhide deactivated his avatar and drove back in reverse. The objects left in his wake from his forced entry slowed him down, and an iron hubcap catching in his back wheels stalled him over one of the shelves. Ironhide's curse was very audible this time.
00:04.
Ironhide got himself free and continued driving back. He could hear the police cars outside and knew they were in big trouble.
00:02.
He finally smashed back through the ruined window display and was back outside just as the police cars drove into the parking lot. Ironhide tried to warn them away, but the last two seconds were already up.
00:00.
The entire building exploded in a brilliant burst of flames that engulfed Ironhide, the police cars and the two neighboring shops. The force of the explosion rattled the entire neighborhood and started a panic. As for Ratchet and Razor, all they could do was run with the children in tow.
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"What the hell were you and Ironhide thinking?" Prowl hissed. "Acting without orders, bringing two humans and a Minicon into danger willingly, have you lost your damn mind?"
Ratchet didn't have the heart to look Optimus or Prowl in the face as they spoke in the med bay. Kevin and Penny were resting nearby, unharmed but still sleeping. Gina and Sara were watching over them.
"I hope it was worth it, Ratchet, because now we've lost Ironhide on top of Sunstreaker." Prowl scolded.
"Ratchet, you have better sense than this." Optimus said, taking the chance to speak before Prowl flared up again. "Dealing with OZ alone, much less with the children present, was a foolish move I never thought you would've taken."
"I know, Optimus," Ratchet said. "But Darren and Sunstreaker's lives were in danger. We had a lead and we investigated before they had a chance to cover their tracks. Unfortunately, we didn't learn as much as we thought we would."
Optimus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "What did you learn at least?"
"Very little, I'm afraid. Penny was holding this car when I looked her over. I don't know what the insignia means, but I'm running it through Teletran now-"
"I know what it means." Gina spoke up. "That's the insignia of Epsilon Holdings, a military contractor, one of the biggest in the country aside from Mars Industries. Annie saw the name of one of OZ's benefactors, Laguna Harvey."
"Do you think that these people might have Darren and Sunstreaker captive?" Prowl asked.
"Maybe. But the company has facilities all over the nation. It's too much ground to cover." Gina said.
"Then we better get started." Optimus said and slammed a fist into his palm. "It's time we strike back in force!"
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Darren sat up in his bed, scowling at his "prison". He woke up in some hospital room with no windows. He had a chain tied to his bed around his wrist, and still couldn't use his powers. Just a few minutes ago, a pretty blond nurse walked in with the coldest gaze a woman of her profession could have, and did a quick check-up on his vitals and motor functions. He let her do her thing, seeing as he was at a serious disadvantage now.
She left without a word, and just a few minutes later, he had another visitor. One he loathed immediately,
"Good morning, Mr. Radcliffe!" Pisces greeted him with that annoyingly coy smirk. "How are you feeling today?"
"Like I want to kill you!" Darren growled. He tried to crush the windpipe of the Zodiac, but all he succeeded in doing was worsening his headache.
"That won't work, you know." Pisces pointed to the high tech collar around Darren's neck. "That collar blocks your esper powers. As of right now, you are no stronger than a child with some martial arts training. A little gift from the island nation of Utopia."
Darren glared bloody murder at him. "Where's Sunstreaker? What did you do to him?"
"Nothing you'd want to hear or see." Pisces said coolly. "Come, we have someone to meet."
The two guards that came in with Pisces pulled Darren out of bed and helped him down the hall after their commander. It wasn't a long walk, and soon Darren found himself inside a large hangar bay that held almost three dozen talos in reserve. But what caught his attention was the Zodiac general Aries and the 17 foot tall femme standing next to him."
"You." Darren hissed at Aries.
"Hello to you too, boy." Aries said coldly.
"Save the alpha male contest for later, boys." Thornment said. "What are the results?"
"It's obvious, Thornment." Pisces smiled. "The boy has accepted the upgrades without a problem."
"No sign of any defects, health issues or deformities. And the operation was done only a day ago." Aries hummed. "The new healing accelerants have exceeded expectations."
"You've outdone yourself, Pisces." Thornment nodded. "Begin mass production."
"As you wish."
What the hell is going on here?" Darren asked. "What do you want with me?"
Aries drew Clarent and held the sword to Darren's neck. He could feel the heat rising from the blade, making him sweat, but Darren struggled to show no fear.
"You? Nothing. You've served our purpose. You're just a tag along." Aries said.
"Though, I suppose with the right conditioning," Pisces pointed to the wall behind Darren. "You could still play a part in OZ's new world order."
Darren looked behind him and gasped. Lined up against the wall were a dozen headless Sunstreaker clones, all built to the image of the Autobot himself with little deviations from the original design, sans head. They were building an army of clones!
'No,' Darren thought, horrified. 'What have they done to him?!'