Chapter 10- Underground
POV: Twinwave
" " Normal talking
": :" Bumblebee talking
"Hi" over the comm talking
(Note: this chapter takes place during season 2 ep 10 "Tunnel Vision" Of TFP)
"If we are to have any hope of recovering the Iacon relics before the Decepticons do, we must divide our resources." Optimus told the group. We were all gathered after finally unfreezing and to our surprise the kids were back from the Decepticon's ship with a half complete Iacon database containing the same four sets of coordinates the Cons had. "But Optimus, when it comes to numbers we are already at a grave disadvantage." Ratchet reminded him, it was true we were currently standing at like ten maybe fifteen to a bot.
"Under the circumstances swiftness of action is paramount. This is one race, that we absolutely can not afford to lose." Optimus replied, really stressing the situation we were in. Ratchet moved from the group to the computers as a response and started to track the con's warship because their cloaking hadn't been repaired yet.
"Here's a twist." Ratchet said as he discovered an anomaly in the ship's behaviour, "It would appear the Decepticons have retreated from Manhattan." Ratchet said. He turned to us to show his concern for the situation, "They just up and left?" I asked which was weirdly unlike the Cons. I wondered what electric shock stasis had done to them, "It is more likely that Megatron has already set course of coordinates, having dispatched a unit to this relics under ground location." Optimus clarified for me.
"Without busting up a city block to get to it?" Arcee questioned, "They used subway tunnels, New York has a whole network of them running beneath the city." Jack interjected. "Since the human population no longer seems to be directly threatened, maintaining our disguise will be necessary. Twinwave, Bumblebee and Arcee, you are the best choices to navigate through such a densely populated area." Optimus said to much of my surprise.
My alt wasn't exactly the best disguise for a human city but then again my holofrom did look old enough to drive, "Optimus, New York has more than eight million people, the odds of being spotted by one of them are pretty high even if they are headed underground." Jack said.
"Where are you going with this?" Arcee asked him, he almost sounded like he was trying to state his case on why he would be better at fighting the Cons than we were. "You're going to need a face man, and not just Twinwave driving Bumblebee." Jack continued, all he got was a bunch of overly confused looks from everyone.
"Someone who can speak on their behalf, a human who can run interference if their cover gets blown." Jack finished trying to make more sense of what he was trying to say to us. It was a little more clear now than before, but I still didn't understand why he wanted to go.
We were just retrieving a relic and fighting some Cons. normal everyday stuff around here, "Well I've actually been in a subway station, I grew up in a major metropolis. Unlike Mr. 'I've never been outside of jasper Nevada." Miko interjected. She would make the better choice out of those two.
"I have been to Cybertron." Jack reminded her, "Cybertron doesn't have subways! Does it?" she asked Optimus, who was currently deciding if he was going to send them with us or not. "Agent Fowler's field experience makes him our best candidate." Optimus said he turned to the human hospital bed Fowler had been put on when the kids and him had gotten back because he was still a little loopy from the amount of energon that had shocked him.
"BananaFish!" Fowler said, raising his arm, yep, more gibberish. "If he weren't still recovering from his encounter with the Decepticon warship." Ratchet said, coming up next to Optimus. "Which we survived without incident." Miko remind the pair of them by pulling Jack in close and recapping what had happened.
"Very well, Miko and Jack will accompany Arcee, Bumblebee and Twinwave." Optimus said, Miko gave a loud "yes!" of victory in response and the three of us just looked at each other wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. "Initiate transport and triangulate coordinates of the other three relics." Optimus said to Ratchet who was already back on the computers. The ground bridge was ford up and Bee and Cee plus myself transformed into our alts.
I cautiously climbed into the back seat of Bee's alt where I powered off and projected my holoform in the driver's seat, Miko got in next to me and Jack got onto Arcee. The four of us drove into the ground bridge and came out the other side into an alleyway in the middle of Manhattan, a place I had never seen nor heard of until now. We pulled into the street and I finally got to see what New York actually looked like, Huge buildings like the ones on Cybertron lined the skies and there were ever so many of them.
Along with lots of noise from people and cars going about their day here, I heard Jack let out a "wow" as he took in this place and Miko stuck her head out her window. "Of course it is no Cybertron." she said to him before coming back in, I could already tell she felt more at home here.
Bee and I pulled away from Arcee and Jack into the incoming traffic lane, thank Primus ratchet had bridged us into a quieter area of the city and so there weren't that many cars to yell at us when we randomly stopped in traffic.
"Miko, I have no idea what these tunnels look like, you're going to have to point one out for me. And before you ask, no we did not have subways on Cybertron they were ground and space bridges or we walked and flew." I said, I heard her close her mouth because I'd already answered her question. Instead while I kept my eyes on the road, though I didn't really need to, I heard her shift in her seat to look around for one of the tunnels.
"There." she said, Bee stopped and pulled over so we could see, and from the looks of it it was abandoned or under construction. But there were train tracks leading into a gaping hole in the ground under the bridge opposite to us, it seemed to be well lit enough to see while we were under there and so I pressed Bee's car horn on the streaming wheel to signal Jack and Cee over. I even stuck my upper body out the window to wave them over.
They seemed to see it because Arcee started up her engine and her and Jack were soon next to us on the bridge, "Check it out, construction. A fact of life in the big city." Miko said to Jack and Cee from next to me in the passenger's seat. I looked at Jack and shrugged and we were off again to look for an entrance into the tunnel system under the city.
(Five or so Minutes later.)
The tunnel entrance hadn't been that hard to find, we were looking for maybe five or so minutes before we found a set of the tracks under construction close enough to the road that we could drive onto without someone noticing. From there, it was a lot of walking and when I say a lot I mean it. We finally had the opportunity to untransform from our alts now that we were down here but it was still work to find the relic in this mess of tunnels and so we had to walk, with the complaint from Miko when we started.
For the most part we walked along the tracks instead of the space between them, in here we didn;t have to watch for our helms hitting the roof because it was taller than us, and these weird little lights dotted the walls and roof on all sides. Arcee was more or less paying attention to the tracker she had in her servo while Bee and I took in everything and kept up, "Bumblebee, don't move!" Jack warned. ":What why?:" Bee asked though I was pretty sure they couldn't understand him because Raf wasn't around.
But Jack seemed to get the jist of it. "The third rail, it carries electricity to power the subway trains." Jack warned, I'm going to add that Bee's ped was still hovering mid air at the moment because he was getting an explanation. "One touch and ZAP you're fired!" Miko explained to him less complexly, but I think he understood both explanations. Bee stepped cautiously over the rail and did a sort of dance as he tried to avoid the others on the rail line next to us.
"You must've learned about that on T.V or something." Miko said to Jack, I was pretty sure it was about him knowing about the third rain situation but from what I remembered Ratchet telling me, it was on all train rails not just subways. Eventually Bee stopped dancing around liked that and we three picked the right set of tracks to walk on while Arcee kept an optic on the signal for the relic, it's constant beeping was starting to get annoying but it was something I was going to have to deal with until we retrieved the eilc and got out of here.
"We getting any closer?" Jack asked after a few minutes of silence. "Triangulating the coordinates is one thing but figuring out how to reach them through this maze is another." Arcee replied, "Meaning, we're going to be down here for awhile." I simplified for Miko who probably didn't understand most of what was just said.
Then there was this loud sound of drilling coming from somewhere on a distant track, Bee stopped behind me and looked down a hole between the tracks. It was big enough for the three of us to crawl through and for the kids to walk through on their own., Miko and Jack were already in the tunnel while we were crouched down behind them.
"Drilling." Arcee said stating the obvious, "Come on, it's coming from this way!" Miko said, leading the charge with her and Jack. I sighed, "Let's follow them before they get into more trouble." and then I transformed into my primal mode to make more room for Bee and Arcee because I had a feeling they weren't going to do anything. I followed behind the kids and stuck close to the walls, I was going to have to wait in here with the other two until we got the all clear. "Miko what is you-" Jack started before he was cut off by a man with a megaphone, "HOLD IT RIGHT THERE." he said.
Trian light illuminated the scene and I shrunk back into the shadows of the tunnel, I turned to Arcee and Bee who were just crawling through after me and gave a shack of my helm to make them slow down and be quieter. "WHAT ARE YOU KIDS DOING DOWN HERE?" he asked Miko and Jack, knowing Miko she would've cured and was currently coming up with a plan to save their skins.
"We're… on a field trip! With our school, but we got lost." Miko said, attempting to play it off, "OH REALLY?" the man with the megaphone replied. "I told him we should stay with our group. Leonard here insisted we search for fossils." Miko continued, "You'd better hurry Miko, we don't need another human finding out we're here with you." I thought as she continued to try and talk her way out of the situation.
There was something about the kids riding a sweeper train and then I lightly poked my helmout from around the corner, in hindsight I'd just look like a large dog or something so it wouldn't be that much trouble if I was seen. Miko and Jack glanced back and me and I gave a nod of my helm, they would take care of the construction worker and we would go hunting for a relic.
"We need to get going, Miko and Jack distracted the construction worker which means we need to get back on track." I said to the others as I leapt out of the doorway so they could follow me through. Once Arcee was out she took a look at her tracker, "I'm picking up a locator beacon, the Cons have unearthed the relic." she said. "Not so good." I replied before the sound of drilling cut through the tunnel way again. I had to hand it to the Cons, they sure did work fast.
We switched to steal mode now, Arcee and Bee transformed their blasters and I drew my swords. Again not useful in long range but it would be fun to knock some vehicons helms off instead, we ducted behind a nearby wall so Cee could get a lay of what was happening. Bee and I couldn't tell what she was seeing, "Lock and load." she suddenly said, which ment time for the battle.
Before we could creep out of the tunnel we were in and get the jump on the Cons, a snarl came from behind us and my helm shot upwards to see what it was. "Great, uh we have insecticon company." I said a little frantically, insecticons were fine on Cybertron but here they could do worlds of damage to the humans and their buildings.
At least me warning them gave us a head start to run before it dropped from the ceiling to attack us, Arcee and Bee ran to the opposite side of the forkway in the tunnels and I rolled away from it.
They started firing on it and I was close enough for once to land some good strikes on it before it aggressed on Bee who continued to fire at it in response, Arcee continued her fire too while I hopped onto it's back and stabbed both swords into it before dragging them downwards before it bucked me off and took my swords with me.
I hit the wall opposite to where Bee was currently being attacked and got my bearings as quickly as I could before grabbing my swords and charged back at it, except by now it had through Bee and Cee was chasing after it with her blasters firing down the tunnel. She jumped on top of it and fired into its helm as I finally managed to join them, in time for Knockout to send so vehicons our way. "You guys take care of ugly and I'll get the relic." I said leaving them behind.
The difference between me and vehicons was they had blasters and I was much better at dodging swords than them, they fired at me but instead of aiming like I could only assume Cee and Bee did. They fired in a straight line at me and didn't hit a shot, while I on the other servo had managed to gain enough ground on them to kick a few out of the way and slit their throats.
I barreled through two more of them, who still didn't manage to hit me, knocking one unconscious and the other sadly lost his helm to my sword. I landed a few feet from the body and managed to kick up enough dust that it created a cloud to hide Knockout, whos saw I could hear behind me as he attempted a sneak attack.
He caught my shoulder with his dumb saw just as I rolled out of the way, "You have lovely fetures, perfect for a painful little procedure I call the nip and tuck." he said before thrusting his saw forward.
I moved out of the way in enough time and caught him square in the back with my ped, he crashed to the ground with the bodys that had piled on the side of the tracks from a few seconds ago. "Dodge and kick." I said imitating him before I grabbed my swords off the ground, put them in their case and ran to the drilled hole, it was a few feet from where I just had been so it wasn't hard to find.
The relic was just inside it and I knelt down and grasped it with both servos and attempted to pull the container out, just my luck it was completely stuck. "Oh you've got to be kidding me." I muttered, I heaved a little harder on the thing but it wouldn't budge.
Then I felt a shock from behind me as electricity surged through my body and I dropped to the ground, "Shock and drop." I heard Knockout say as I laid stunned on the floor. I could never catch a break with the Cons, or Knockout and his dumb on liners at least Cees were creative.
My optics weren't offline so I was only stunned but I could barely see what was happening to me, the only thing I did know was that I was currently being dragged by I think the insecticon because Knockout wouldn't do anything that would harm his paint job. I was then tossed, very rudely if you ask me. With Arcee and Bee whom had also been shocked by Knockout or knocked out by the insecticon, "Now, shall we see precisely what you are and what you do?" Knockout asked I'm going to assume the relic.
Even if I was propped up on Cee and Bee he was still out of my sight line, which was a bad thing if he was going to open and or test the relic on us. "And what better way to learn your power than to conduct an 'on site' experiment." Knockout continued, he approached us and knelt down to Bee's chassis to test whatever that thing was on him.
Knockout never got the chance, some blinding lights came down the track as a train or something can barreling towards the pair of Cons. The insecticon was smart enough to hop out of the way while Knockout got his paint job, very very scratched up. "HEY WATCH THE FINISH!" Knockout said after the vehicle had gone past him, the insecticon jumped onto the tracks and started firing on the poor humans inside the thing.
Never hitting a shot though, there was something iconic about the Cons missing their blaster shots. By the time they were done having their fit over Knockout's paint job I had helped Arcee and Bumblebee to their pedes and we were back in action, they had their blasters transformed again and I had taken my swords out again.
First Priority was the insecticon, the second was getting the relic back from Knockout. Cee, Bee and I went full force on the insecticon who was coming at us while Knockout just stood and watched as weird as that sounds because you all are making it weird. It charged at Bee and Arcee rolled to the other side of the tracks while I managed to land another hit on him amongst the blaster fire.
"I hate to run but I missed my train!" Knockout said before transforming and taking off with the relic, Bee just stood there as he waited for some kind of command from Arcee or I who were little preoccupied by trying to kill this thing. "Go after the relic, we'll grab Jack and Miko." Arcee said to Bee as I gouged another slit into the insecticons armour a little blue energy spilled out as I did. This thing was leaking but just wouldn't die, no wonder the Cons had beaten us.
Bee nodded before transforming and taking off after Knockout, Arcee blasted at the insecticon and I put a sword through its wing to ground it. Now it would be easier to take care of, Arcee slid underneath it and transformed, I followed her lead and now we were off to catch a speeding train. I heard the insecticon fail to transform behind us as we sped away, thank god that stab wound had done its job and now my swords we safely in their case which is less than I could say for the kids.
The track they were on dead ended here, the only reason I knew that was because I'd discovered it while we were tracking the Cons. when we finally caught up to them Arcee and I jumped the tracks behind the car and she untransformed to cling onto the back of it while I just leapt up and stood there.
The kids came running to the back of the car to greet us and to tell us the problem, while the man they were with picked up the axe in the back and came charging at the glass. "Welcome to earth!" he yelled as he came running, thankfully Miko and Jack stepped in the way with their arms outstretched to create a barrier from him.
"Vogle no!" Jack yelled, "They're the good guys!" Miko reasoned. He brought the axe down to his side before dropping it and his mouth was open in some sort of shock that the kids knew us, "ARCEE THE BRAKES ARE SHOT." Jack yelled at her over the rush of the car speeding down the track. "IS THERE ANY KIND OF EMERGENCY OVERRIDE!?" she yelled back, the kids parted and presented the person they'd called Vogel before. "No ma'am, but there is a switch track control up ahead. If you could just adjust the pole rod." he said Arcee gave him a weird look because let's be real here, we had no clue what he was talking about.
"You'll know it when you see it, it'll reroute us to another line." Arcee nodded. "STAY HERE AND WATCH FOR THE INSECTICON." she yelled to me before jumping off and gracefully transforming and speeding off ahead, I untransformed and took her place on the back of the car with both swords drawn. "Did she just run into… a motorcycle!?" I heard Vogel ask behind me.
"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW THE HALF OF IT." I yelled back as the sound of the insecticon running got closer, I could tell Jack was exposed to Vogel about what the frag the insecticon was. "Come on Arcee, you should be done by now." I muttered because uh we weren't slowing down at all, I heard banging on the tracks ahead just before the car went round the bend andCee jumped out from in front of the car.
She'd managed to actually get the track unstuck before we crashed into a wall, I hopped off the back of the train and let the kids have their adventure with Vogel on their own while Cee and I took care of this insecticon.
It was already on the ground so now was just the part where we came up with a plan and avoided it's attacks at all costs, it swatted at Cee and I so I rolled and she jumped over it and we landed helm facing the third rail. I saw Cee's optic's sparkle in a mischievous way and I already got the memo, leure the Con onto the track and let the third rail zap him senseless.
We nodded at one another and she transformed her blasters to start using it over, the insecticon of core came charging and all Cee did was shoot at it to keep it coming. I watched its feet but instead of stepping on the rail it just jumped right over it while it attacked Cee.
Next was my turn to take the heart off my best friend, I put a slash in it's right rear leg and it spun to come after me next. I kept it busy, just dogging its attacks while Arcee got into position to bring it over to the rail again.
Instead of her blasters, she'd now transformed her blades and put a cut up it's chassis and stopped just before it's visor. Which sent it flying and gave her enough time to transform her blasters and bring it over towards her again, I ran up beside her to give the insecticon two targets instead of one and she fired at it with her blaster.
It flung itself at us but stopped short and dropped to the ground only to slide into the third rail, bolts of electricity was sent through it and it did the insecticon version of a scream. Which was more so a higher pitched version of it's battle cry before it quieted down and as it's spark faded, "Shock and drop." I said repeating the same fraze Knockout had used on me earlier when I'd been stunned.
I put my swords away and Arcee and I transformed and headed in the same direction the kids and that Vogle guy had gone down in the train car, we sped off but I knew either Bee had bumped into the and stopped the train or somehow Knockout had stopped it. I was more so hoping they'd found Bee because he'd be less hospitable when in contact with humans, unless it was M.E.C.H.
We came speeding around a turn to see Bee, the kids, Vogel and the train all stopped and safe, Bee had the relic on his forearm so that was safe too. The two of us came to a slow before stopping and untransformed to stand next to Bee. ":Look what I recovered!:" Bee buzzed happily as he showed me the shifter on his arm, "Good job partner." I smiled and punched his arm.
"How did you not get mashed!?" Jack asked from below, Miko seemed to want to know badly too because in the porches of jack asking his question she'd put her hands on her hips and was standing staring at us.
":It's a phaseshifter.:" Bee said to them but blank stares were all he got in return, "Phaseshifter, handy when you need to pass through solid objects, or vise versa." Arcee said and demonstrated by sticking her servo into Bee's chassis. ":We'd better get this back to base and Optimus.:" Bee said, taking the shifter off his arm and letting it retract into the claw I'd seen earlier.
"NOOO!" what sounded like Knockout yelled from behind the train car suddenly, "Great he's here too." I muttered as we all moved our optics and eyes to look at the car. Knockout stood up and pushed the car backwards along the track towards us all dramatically, "You scratch my face, I scratch yours." he said. Bee intern stopped the incoming car and Arcee and him transformed their blasters while I took out my swords, we all had our weapons train on the Con and an angry yell from him said to use that he understood he was greatly outnumbered and gunned.
So instead he played chicken and transformed and drove off down the track away from us, as he sped off one of his glorious tires came loose and rolled onto the tracks just ahead of the kids. Jack looked at Vogel and turned back towards us, "He knows." Jack said to the three of us. Arcee optic's went wide in dismay and I just laughed a little, "that was very apparent, Jack." I said.
"Do we have to take him with us?" he asked and Vogel walked around behind them, "To the mothership!?" he asked surprised and I just looked to Arcee for help because I had no idea what to do with this guy. "I think I have a work around." Miko said, taking out her phone and dialing a number, there was a moment of pause before the person on the other end picked up. We couldn't hear anything they were saying but, "We have a problem, another person knows about the bots and I need you to debrief him." Miko said.
Another pause as I'm assuming Fowler talked, "I don't care this is as equally important!" she said before another pause and she handed the phone to Vogel. "Let me guess, Fowler?" Arcee said as the Agent talked to Vogel, Miko just nodded as the shock crossed Vogel's face. "Thank you sir." he said before handing the phone back to the small girl, she hung up and put it back in her pocket. "So…. You're folks will be in touch?" he asked us, "Abso-freakin-lutely!" Miko said I'm guessing imitating him. "Ah ah." Arcee interjected.
"But until then, we need to maintain complete radio silence." she said to him, he nodded and put his right hand to his head in a salut. "It's been an honor." he said to us and the three of us make-shift saluted back before turning and following the kids to leave. "Good call face." Jack said to Miko, "ha, I understand big city people… who spend way too much time below ground." she replied.
"One relic down, three to go." Arcee said to me and Bee, "Let's hope the others are having our luck." I said before I transformed and Bee plus cee did the same. I climbed into Bee's back seat and projected my holoform in the driver's seat before Miko climbed in next to me and we went speeding off towards above ground and our initial bridging coordinates, little did we know not everyone was having similar results.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, feel free to leave some feedback for me so I can make it a better reading experience for you guys!
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