Fire of Youth

Chapter 44

*Some of you wanted more Brawn. I shall provide. :) Also, this is where his partner Sami *really* gets characterized...and you get to see why Brawn likes her so much.

Also, long one to make up for the semester hiatus.


Flying around with a giant, metal, shape-shifting alien mercenary probably wasn't what Sami Hayek's mother had ever had in mind for her career path as an archaeologist. But it was where Sami was now. She wouldn't trade it for anything. Brawn was a reliable field partner, always looking out for her first and foremost, and his information on these "Predacons" as they were called was endlessly fascinating. She would need another journal soon to hold it all. Her second was already running short of space now that seven new entries had been added in. There were still a few more to add, too.

"How you holdin' up, Sami?" Brawn asked as he crouched near her little living nook. "It's getting close to midnight local time. You should probably hit the hay soon."

He was probably right. They'd had a busy day, and traveling through time zones so quickly was no doubt wrecking havoc on her circadian rhythm.

"I should," she admitted, "but I'm not tired yet."

"I wish you guys had a way to defrag your brains whenever you get your sleep patterns messed up. Like a reset button," he grinned sympathetically.

"There is a reset button. It's called Benedryll," she chuckled.

Brawn chuckled back. "I'll set the ship down soon. Maybe that'll help ya out a little."

In truth, Sami rather envied Brawn not having to sleep regularly. That didn't mean he didn't sleep at all, of course – or whatever the Cybertronian equivalent to sleep was. She was no biologist, but what with his race being mechanical, she assumed their version of sleep was more like putting her laptop computer in sleep mode to conserve power rather than anything strictly neurological. But assumptions, as had already been proven, could be wrong. Maybe there was a neurological reason for it, too.

Brawn set the Bulldog down in a gentle lurch. A quick look at the ship's dashboard map indicated Brawn had decided to set up camp in northern Nebraska.

"Why did we head back east?" she asked curiously. She'd been so absorbed in her drawings and descriptions she hadn't noticed.

"Gotta keep the 'Cons guessin' so they don't jump us," he told her frankly.

Sami nodded, "Right. They think we're still heading west."

"It'll have 'em running around on a wild grease chase for a bit," grinned the big merc. "'Course, Soundwave'll probably figure out the trick eventually. He's smart like that. But it's still some bought time to keep ahead of his friends. Actually, speaking of friends. Any info from your nerd pals here in the States? Any leads we can follow in the morning?"

Sami flipped her laptop open and set up her phone as a local wi-fi hotspot. The private chat open in one window had one new bit of activity. A curator friend of her mother's, a Dr. Timothy Kardova of the Smithsonian Institute, had responded that he would look into the archives for any "unusual specimens" for her. Considering her somewhat vague specifications though, he warned he might come back to her with a literal catalogue of possible hits. But Tim, being an affable middle-aged researcher, was considering his peculiar assignment a professional scavenger hunt rather than some tedious, near-impossibility.

'I'll get back to you tomorrow once I've gathered some possible specimens, Ms. Hayek,' was his most recent message, which had come in about seven hours ago.

'Thank you, Dr. Kardova!' she answered back. Not that she expected an answer. It was around three or four in the morning in D.C right now. Tim was an early bird, but not that early.

"Smithsonian, huh?" the big merc rumbled. "Guess that one will be all you then, Sami."

"Fun," she smiled.

"Yeah, so get some shut eye, missy," he winked. "You can't have fun if you're grouchy from no sleep and buzzed from too much coffee – and I'm not talkin' the 'good' sorta buzzed."

Sami laughed and yielded. So, upon popping a sleep aid, she brought out her journal again. Sketching, she'd found, was a good way to relax, and with five new entries to sketch on their respective pages, she certainly wasn't lacking in relaxation material. The bronze dragon was sketched first, then the hound, then the white dragon – "Infernus" – but it was when she got to Infernus's friends, two bird beasts, that she started to doze off. There was something so weirdly soothing about the sweeps and flows and artsy decor of the Japanese Vermilion Bird, Ribbondance. She hoped she was doing the femme's appearance justice. Could Predacons really be so ornate, or had Infernus embellished a little for effect?

When Brawn looked back towards her little living nook about an hour later, he saw that his partner had finally fallen asleep, pen still in hand.

He laughed quietly at the sight.

Once he was sure Sami was out tight, he lifted the ship back up and steered it eastward. Sami would need her coffee in the morning, and those coffee-shops were easier to find in cities than out in the middle of nowhere. He might as well find a good coffee place in D.C if that city was their next lead; kill two birds with one stone.


Eight hours – and four cappuccinos later – and Brawn was traveling the streets of the nation's capital. Or, he would be traveling them if not for the nightmare traffic and the confusing roads. He was honestly tempted to turn the slag around, go to the Bulldog where he'd hidden it upstate, and get the 'Bots to 'bridge him into a parking garage close to the museum. They were hardly moving! They were wasting time, casually driving around in traffic instead of going right for the museum!

"Primus almighty, how do you people deal with this?!"

Sami coughed back a laugh mid-drink and in the process nearly half-choked on her coffee.

"You mean you didn't have traffic back home?"

"Oh, sure we had traffic. But not this mess! Who the slag designs your road infrastructure, a coked up ferret?!"

"Relax. If the 'Cons send ground troops after us, they'll be just as frustrated. And think of it this way: if we go straight for the museum, they might catch on."

Brawn had to admit she had a point. He still wasn't a fan of Sami deciding to mill around for half the day, but he did get the logic. By driving around randomly, seemingly just doing a normal day routine, Soundwave wouldn't be able to guess what they were really doing.

"Besides," she continued, "if anyone was snooping into the databases or archives, Tim would tell me."

Her laptop alerted her to a new notification. On checking, she found a message from Tim:

I've located some specimens for you. Would you like me to send some images? One in particular fits your search criteria perfectly.

Sami answered: Yes, please.

After letting the images download into the chat, Sami opened each in turn. The one Tim had flagged particularly caught her eye. A huge, robust tusk tip – far too big to belong to a normal animal – sat on a white display table. There was short documentation detailing where and when it had been unearthed. Apparently, it had been found near a very old native settlement in New Mexico back in 1980. The archaeologists who'd found it had assumed it must have been a piece of metalwork by the local people, perhaps from a larger piece. The only problem with that theory was that the local people weren't supposed to have known how to make large-scale metalwork pieces that far back in their history! And so, with no ready answers, the item had been tossed into the Smithsonian's storage vault.

"Could have been a boar-like creature of some kind," she muttered, "or maybe a creature with some boar-like traits?"

"New Mexico, did'ya say?" Brawn mused as he drove. "That might've been one of Wildstab's kills. I think I remember him mentionin' some big scary monster bein' worshiped as a demon out that way. Big, ugly, ravenous thing, with big ol' tusks on is face. They were glad he got rid of it for 'em."

"Then let's make sure it can't come back," Sami concluded grimly.

Could I see this item in person, Tim? she asked.

I don't see why not. Meet me in the café when you get here.

Thank you! See you soon!

"We're sure this chat room's encrypted?" asked Brawn warily.

Sami was about to assure him it was, but Soundwave's mere existence threw a wrench into that confidence. If anyone could hack his way into private, encrypted chat rooms, he could. It was part of the reason she'd been vague about what she'd been looking for at the start of their conversation; if it was just two random archaeologists having a chat about fossils and research, Soundwave (hopefully) wouldn't count that as suspicious enough to keep reading.

Upon reaching the colossal museum, Sami had Brawn park in employee parking around the back. She couldn't help noticing another car in the lot though: an unmarked SUV that looked like the sort of stereotypical vehicle government agents drove in movies. Two people stood near it: a dark-skinned older man and a pale woman in her thirties, both of whom were discussing something. She thought she recognized the voice of the man, so she trotted over.

"Agent Fowler? Did you learn about the Predacon fossil too?"

Fowler, looming over her, growled, "Who are you? Who gave you access to classified government operations?"

"Sorry. I never introduced myself to you, did I? I am Sameera. Archeologist Sameera Hayek. You can call me Sami for short," the woman smiled.

"Oh!" exclaimed Fowler, the suspicion snapping free of his face. "You're Sami! The lady who works with that merc!"

Smiling, Sami nodded back towards the parking lot where a big truck sat as close to the building as possible. In answer, the truck flashed its headlights at her.

"Brawn will watch our backs while we go inside."

"Thank you, Brawn," said the woman, who Fowler introduced as June Darby.

June's phone buzzed. When she checked it, there was a text that read: Don't mention it, sweetie. ;) I'll drive around the block, keep an eye out for trouble.

And Fowler, it turned out, had a plan to reduce risk. His idea was to head in and hang out in the museum for a bit, then grab the needed item and exit with some of the evening employees as they locked up for the night. But Sami disagreed. Soundwave could probably hack security cameras and was no doubt on the lookout for Fowler in unusual places – like, say, the Smithsonian underground archives. It would be much safer, she argued, for her to head in alone and grab the fossil. Soundwave wouldn't think twice about an unaffiliated archaeologist transporting a boxed item outside the building. It happened all the time.

"She has a point, Bill," agreed June.

"Then what do we do in the meantime?" wondered Fowler. "Head home and wait?"

"Take a tour of the museum. Soundwave won't think twice about checking the usual exhibits."

"You'd be surprised..." the man muttered.

"Head in the front doors. That'll be less suspicious than using employee entrances," Sami smiled.

Fowler and June split off to the building's main entrance while Sami ducked into the employee entrance nearby. Upon finding Tim – a round faced, lightly muscled man in his late thirties – at the café, he took her down to one of the examination rooms. The tusk sat under the light, dirt and rust still clinging to it.

"Would you mind if I, erm, borrow this piece?" she asked him awkwardly.

Dr. Kardova eyed her, "What for?"

Sami looked around, gestured Tim in close, and whispered into his ear for a good five minutes.

"What?!" he exclaimed after she was done.

"Shh!"

Tim stared at the fossil in a new light. "That would explain the discrepancy in radio carbon dating, and its sheer size...But do you really have to destroy it, Sami?"

"Unless you want it coming back to life and destroying anything it can gets its paws on," she told him wryly.

Tim, sighing, yielded. He helped her box it up and put it onto a dolly. He then offered to show her the others he had found. Four of them were not what she was looking for, but the fifth was: a large, entirely metal talon that had definitely come from an Avioid beast. It had been found even earlier, in the 60s. With Tim's help, it was boxed up too.

"Out of curiosity, when do you get off work?" she asked him.

"Around six-thirty. We close early today. Why?"

"Would you mind coming out with me? To help load them?"

Tim nodded, "Sure. I'll let you know when I'm ready."

"Thank you, Tim."

She reconvened with Fowler and June in the Deep Time Hall. They spent the next two hours wandering the museum, with Sami serving as an impromptu guide. When Tim's alert text came, her two companions left to go get Brawn positioned for pickup around the back. Sami thus strolled the the loading bay Tim had indicated he'd be waiting at. Sure enough, he had both carts ready and waiting for loading, and Tim himself was casually leaning on a wall near them both.

"So we just wait for pickup?" he asked her.

Sami nodded.

Ten minutes later and the metal loading shutter began to lift. But it wasn't Brawn waiting for her outside. It was a red Aston Martin.

"How nice of you to package my presents for me! The only thing missing is a bow!" the vehicle purred.

Tim gawked. "...Sami, the car's talking. Why is the car talking?!"

"Decepticon!" she barked. "Run!"

Sami grabbed the talon cart, spun it around, and bolted. Tim did the same – but not before emergency releasing the loading bay shutter door, which crashed down onto Knockout's hood hard enough to dent it and temporarily trap him.

"Hey!" snarled the red medic. "Why you little –!"

"Come on! Move!" she urged.

Once she was into one of the main display halls, Sami whipped her cellphone out. "Brawn!" she hissed. "Brawn!"

Fzzzzzzt

"Scrap!" she swore. "Soundwave must be jamming communications!"

But she knew Cybertronians had hearing that surpassed a human's own, and the acoustics in the hall she was in were great. So she put two fingers to her mouth and unleashed an ear-splintering whistle: wheeeeeeet wheet-wheet-wheet! It was part of a whistle-code they sometimes used in the field. It meant: "I'm trapped! Help!" If Brawn was still nearby (and with Knockout on the loose, she had to assume he was) he'd be able to pick it up.

Heavy thuds warned her Knockout had followed her in. Sami thought fast. She needed to throw him off long enough to reach another exit.

"Go to the mammal exhibit," she told Tim. "I'll go to the dinosaur exhibit. If we loop around behind him, we can make for the front doors."

"Right."

They split off.

The woman found a place to hide in the ocean life exhibit, carefully opened the box, yanked the talon-tip out, and re-boxed it. It was a vain hope, but maybe Knockout would snatch the box without realizing it had been emptied, thinking she had abandoned it to save herself. She thus left the cart behind and darted to another section of the exhibit with lower ceilings and narrower pathways. That would keep Knockout from reaching her so easy.

"Catscratch! Tag-Along! Find them!" she heard Knockout order. "Killzone, keep your eyes on the doors! Don't let them escape!"

Sami's heart nearly stopped. Knockout had brought a whole team to steal these fossils? Why couldn't she have been stuck with one of the inept Decepticons?

After a few minutes of breathless waiting, she heard tap-tap tap-tap of a four-legged creature coming her way. So Sami carefully began weaving and slinking through the ocean life exhibit towards the African voices exhibit. That section she knew connected to the dinosaur exhibit, and the dinosaur exhibit eventually looped into the main rotunda. Would that outside 'Con, Killzone, think she'd be crazy enough to bail out of the front doors, and therefore only keep watch on the more covert employee exits at the back?

A yelp echoed through the halls.

Tim!

"Don't you dare kill him, you –!" she nearly shouted. Instead she lunged out of cover, only to yip herself. Standing there staring at her was a mechanical black cat the size of a polar bear. As if to further her shock at the sight, the feline transformed. Despite the cat femme's surprisingly friendly face, Sami's heart rate nearly went through the roof. The claw tips on her fingers could easily tear her limb from limb if the beast got the urge.

"Shh! Easy!" the femme hissed. "I'm not gonna hurt you! Just gimme that tidbit you've got, and we'll leave, aye?"

"No way!"

Sami bolted further ahead into the exhibit. She just had to reach the door, she just had to reach the door...

VOIP!

A bright turquoise flash, bright enough to nearly blind her, forced Sami to screech to a stop. When she could see again, a large green wolf-dog Predacon stood in her way. But, funnily enough, she could swear it didn't look too happy about that. She almost made out an apology on its face.

"Ah, there you are, little mouse," purred Knockout. "You make quite a racket, you know, skittering around on tile floors..."

Sami spun to find Knockout strolling towards her. In his hand was an unconscious Tim.

"Now, hand it over."

Sami, frowning, held the claw-tip close. "Fat chance!"

Rather than snarl at her, Knockout gave her a rather unnerving, twisted smile. "Well, then I guess that makes you a package deal!"

Knockout extended what looked like a giant cattle prod. Sami tried to run from it, but it was in vain. The tip touched her, whereupon horrible, painful spasms ripped through her body. With a cry, she fell to the floor, senseless, a mere twenty feet from the door.


Brawn heard that cry. It was easy to hear when fighting a bunch of faceless trooper cronies. Those louts could never come up with decent battle banter.

"Sami!" he cried.

Taking advantage of his brief, distracted pause, one of them transformed and tried to launch at him and knock him off his feet. Brawn dodged and slammed a fist into his hood so hard the 'Con cracked open like a walnut. When an Eradicon flier tried the same tactic, he snatched the flier by his wings, spun him around, and flung him away. That one proved the smarter and, upon hearing his commanding officer call a retreat, he followed. Brawn thus ran for the doors, only to narrowly avoid Knockout colliding into him as he crashed out of the main doors.

"Get back here you yellow-bellied cowards!" he bellowed. "What'd you do to my girl?! If ya'll put so much as a scratch on her I'll feed ya'lls sparks to the Unmaker myself, ya hear?!"

Fowler and June rushed to the doors, or rather through what was left of the doors. But there was no sign of Sami.

"Oh no..." June breathed. "Did they...?"

"They took her," Fowler finished for her, dread settling in his stomach.

Crouched on the steps outside, Brown growled and clenched his fists.

"She's doomed. They're probably already on the warship by now," he realized grimly.

"Eh, don't be so sure," a female voice retorted impishly.

All three jumped. Something shimmered into existence on the front reception desk: a black femme with distinctly cat-like traits, one dainty leg crossed over the other. In tandem with the Scottish voice print and playful smirk, her appearance jogged June's memory.

"You..." gasped June. "You're the one who saved Miko, aren't you? Catscratch?"

The cat femme winked. "They're not on the Nemesis, because they can't call the Nemesis. Not for a while."

"She – you – you're helping us?" stammered the big merc. "But you're a 'Con!"

Catscratch's playful smirk only got bigger. "Eh, you could call it a prank gone too far. Or you could call it direct help. Whichever makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

Giving another wink through her cheerful, bright green optics, the cat femme shimmered and vanished once more.

"Come on, then!" boomed Brawn. "Let's go get 'er!"

June and Fowler hopped in and in a terrible, lion-like roar of his mighty engine, Brawn thundered off in pursuit. Like hell they'd snatch his partner and get away with it! That no good red devil would be a greasy pancake when he caught up with him! He'd be regretting ever coming within ten leagues of Sami! Hell, he'd regret being on the same goddamn planet as her!

"Hang tight, Sami! I'm comin'!"

Brawn's speedometer jumped. 60. 80. 100. 110.

Knockout could run, but he couldn't run and hide. Catscratch had made sure of that. He rather owed that little kitty a favor when he got the chance.


"Sami. Sameera!"

Sami woke with a gasp. She thought for a minute the Decepticon had blinded her with that thing he'd used, because she couldn't see. But after a few minutes of letting her eyes adjust, she realized she wasn't blind: she was lying on her side someplace confined and dark: a vehicle trunk. Knockout had stuffed them both in his trunk. The nerve!

"Are you okay?" Tim whispered.

"Yes. I'm fine. Are you?"

"Dizzy and sore, but I'll live."

That was some relief. Knockout hadn't been wanting to kill them.

What does this...Decepticon want with us though? He could've just left us both and taken the fossils."

"Probably for hostage bargaining when he gets caught," she smirked. "Note I say 'when' not 'if'. Right, 'Con? You know you're going to get caught, so we're leverage."

"You must be the brains of the outfit then," purred Knockout. "Cute. So what does that make your boyfriend here? The loyal halfwit?"

"Excuse me?" scoffed Tim. "Would a 'halfwit' double-major in bio-chemistry and paleontology and attend graduate school to get his doctorate in both?"

"Also he's not my boyfriend," she argued. "He's ten years too old for me in case you hadn't noticed."

"Age is just a number though, isn't it?" Knockout retorted in that same suave purr.

"Maybe for your species. For humans it's considered highly inappropriate to get with someone much younger than you. Besides, I'm a friend of her mother. That doubles the societal yuck factor. So you can stop with the gross insinuations," growled Tim. "Are all Decepticons creeps or are you a special case?"

"Are all human males so morally pretentious or are you a special case?" Knockout petulantly retaliated.

Sami rolled her eyes. How mature.

"What makes you think I'm going to get caught, hm? That brutish hunk of a mercenary wouldn't be able to catch me if it was a footrace!"

"Because you've been calling your base for the past hour with no answer," smirked Tim. "I take it they're in no mood to rescue you."

"More importantly, that 'brute' mercenary is a Dragon Hunter named Brawn," added Sami proudly. "He's the reason all your pets here died in the first place. He won't stop hunting you until he's found me, you know. He's like a wolf, and you're an antelope. You may have bursts of speed, but he has endurance. Once you exhaust yourself trying to get well ahead of him, he'll catch up. And when he does – well, I'd get get your worldly affairs in order, if I were you. He can take down Predacons for a living. You wouldn't even be a challenge. One hit from his hammer and you'll shatter like a glass pane."

"Is that a threat, human?" their captor snarled.

"A promise."

There was a tense pause. Then: "Knockout to base. Come in, base! Where's that groundbridge? Can anyone read me? Hello?!"

Sami observed that that help request was tinged by what was, without a doubt, fear. Her threat had, indeed, sunk in.

"Are you saying we just wait for Brawn to catch up and rescue us?" wondered Tim.

"Not a chance," she grinned. "There's no rule saying hostages have to sit pretty."

"You'll sit pretty if you know what's good for you, female!" snarled Knockout.

"Give me a break, Decepticon," she deadpanned. "You are not scary, no matter how tough you talk. You are a delicate little snowflake who runs home and cries in the shower if someone so much as keys your doors!"

"Oh, so now we've stooped to petty insults, have we?"

"It's not petty if it's factual!" she chirped.

Knockout's furious growl made her laugh. "Aw, poor baby. Did I hurt your precious ego?"

"What are you doing? Sami, he could kill us! Stop goading him!" Tim fearfully whispered.

Sami winked. The whole time she'd been verbally baiting him, she'd been fishing in her pocket. Knockout may have taken her cellphone, but he hadn't thought to take anything else. Ergo, he'd ignorantly left a special little multi-tool Brawn had made for her, hidden in her back pocket. On sighting the tool, Tim smiled. He understood then she was just distracting him from her main trouble-making.

"It's not my fault he makes it so easy. Honestly, you're made of metal, Knockout. How are you this thin-skinned?"

Tim played along while she passed him the tool and pointed where to use it: "Sami! Do you want him to smash us into paste?!"

"I will take acute pleasure in breaking every bone in your body, female, if you keep this up!"

"Cute."

At the same time she said that, Tim flipped one of the tools out and jabbed it into a seam in Knockout's plating. After a little jiggling with the tool, the seam came apart and allowed access into Knockout's back seat.

"Hey, what are you doing back there?" he snapped.

Before he could realize what had happened, Sami, being smaller and nimbler, scrambled forwards and lunged into his front seat.

"Hey!"

Sami grabbed his wheel. Knockout tried to fight, but he probably wasn't expecting her to be as strong as she was.

"Let go, you little rodent!"

"Suit yourself!"she grinned.

Just as she thought, when she let go of the wheel, Knockout severely overcompensated and sent himself careering off the highway. She hit the brakes for him seconds before he collided with a tree – which was still jarring when he hit, but slowing him down had prevented a worse impact. Not that she'd be walking away unscathed. She'd definitely have some ugly bruises to show for it; her sore arm hinted at maybe a fracture that only the adrenaline kept from being more painful.

"Come on!"

"You are insane!" exclaimed Tim.

"No, just clever!"

Sami grabbed the talon-tip and her phone. Tim grabbed the tusk-tip and his phone. In unison they kicked open the front doors and bailed in opposite directions.

"You can't chase both of us, pretty boy!" she taunted. "You need to pick one!"

In the time Knockout spent debating who to chase, Sami flicked on "Location" on her phone's settings. That wasn't just for the sake of using GPS to find out where she was. The very first day they'd met, Brawn had specifically linked her phone's location feed to his ship's data feed, meaning it would register and send him an alert. Even if it wasn't pinpoint accuracy, and even if Knockout caught her and disabled the setting, she counted on him picking up Knockout's signal nearby, which the Bulldog's scanners would also detect. Either way, Knockout was in trouble.

To her horror, Knockout didn't chase her like she expected. He went after Tim instead, who he had no trouble catching.

"I'd give the talon up if I were you, female!" he taunted. "Unless you want your friend here turned into vulture food on your watch!"

Sami didn't snap back at him for once. Instead, she turned her phone off and slunk away. Maybe she could find somewhere to hide the talon-tip; it wasn't like it had a tracker chip on it...


The little blip on Brawn's dashboard display disappeared almost as suddenly as it had appeared.

"No, no! It's gone!" June cried in dismay. "Raf, can you find it again? I remember hearing a news report about how smart phones still track location even if you have location turned off."

"That's true, but that requires the phone to be on. It looks like she shut hers off, Ms. Darby. Or maybe Knockout did? I'm not sure."

"Doesn't matter. I know where she is now. Hold on!"

Brawn shifted into high gear and roared ahead. Knockout's signal, according to Ratchet, had significantly decreased speed, so much so he could only guess he was now on foot for some reason. Which worked fine for Brawn.

"Do we have any idea how much longer downed communications will trap Knockout on the ground?" Fowler wondered. "It's been nearly an hour. Catscratch didn't give us a countdown."

"Hopefully enough," June muttered.

"It'll be enough," Brawn answered. "If I know Sami, she's the reason for Red's slow down."


"Come out, little mouse!" Knockout called. "You're wasting my time with this silly game!"

Sami smirked. So long as he couldn't call his base for support or transport, he very much did have time to waste. His single air support trooper wasn't being much of a help, either, which was a plus for her. He had flown over her position more than once but hadn't spotted her. Which was a little weird, objectively. He wasn't keeping high up – just above the canopy – and she was moving enough that he should have seen her. Cybertronians had night vision; it wasn't like the trooper was diurnally handicapped like humans were. There was no way he was consciously ignoring her, was there?

"I'd give up if I were you," suggested Tim. "You won't find her at this rate."

"I'll find her if I force her out of hiding," growled Knockout. "Do you hear that, female?! Give me the talon or your boyfriend here becomes purée!"

Tim's pained cry indicated Knockout's threat wasn't hollow. But she dared not move any quicker than she was; too much movement would give her away to the metal vulture circling above.

Sami kept going and found what she'd been heading for: a railroad tracks exactly where her map had said there would be one. As luck would have it, there was a train idling on those self same tracks. So she hoped into the nearest car – the caboose – and tossed the talon-tip towards the front of the car. That would keep it out of Knockout's easy reach. There were some downsides, naturally, of being a giant on a world so small.

Then, she slunk back the way she'd come: back up the hill, and back to her previous hiding spot. From that position, she saw that Knockout was aiming a whirring saw at Tim's face, and poor Tim was bleached in the face from terror.

"Stop! Don't hurt him!" she shouted, rushing out of cover.

"There you are!" the red medic spat.

She tried to run. Knockout grabbed her anyway. It was only once he had her in his grip did he realize the act was rather pointless.

"Where is it?!" he demanded.

"As if I would tell you anything after the way you've treated me tonight!" she indignantly huffed.

Knockout's grip tightened. Sami whined.

"Drop 'em!" came a hearty bull-bellow of a voice.

Knockout's fury swapped to fear. He whirled to find a a big mech with a giant hammer slung over his shoulder, and a frown that warned a reckoning was incoming. Fowler and June were missing, so Sami assumed they were safely on the Bulldog. Or maybe back with the Autobots.

"I warned you he would catch up," she smirked.

Brawn thundered forward and made to swing. Knockout held her and Tim out, forcing Brawn to a halt.

"Ah, ah, ah!" their captor chided. "You wouldn't want to splatter them in the process, would you?"

Growling, Brawn backed off. The sheer vitriol in his optics made it feel like a volcano was moments away from erupting. "Coward!"

"No," Knockout purred, eyeing Sami, "just clever. Now, let's try this again. Where did you hide the talon, hm?"

Sami frowned.

In the distance, the train's horn rang as it sped off. She was sure she hadn't given any indication that revealed the train's involvement, but maybe the noise itself had created an epiphany for him. Knockout was apparently one of the cleverer Decepticons, unfortunately.

"If you'll excuse me, Dragon Hunter, I have a train to catch!"

Knockout folded back down into vehicle form (thereby trapping she and Tim in the backseat) and shot off. Roaring like the very beasts he hunted, Brawn transformed and hurtled after them. For all Knockout's speed, he wasn't able to keep Brawn from gleefully tailgating him. Either the 'Con was finally getting exhausted, or Brawn was so furious he was pushing himself well past his usual limits.

"Knockout to base! I need backup, tout suite, if you want a functioning medic after tonight!"

At least he still was afraid, thought Sami. Fear made people more prone to mistakes.

Brawn gasped and swore when a bright flash dragged him a good half-mile away from Knockout. When it happened again, he found a green dog biting down on his arm. Brawn shifted one hand into a hammer and slammed it down onto the dog's head, forcing it to let go and drop. The dog was persistent though. The moment Brawn got close again, he was teleported back to square one.

"Hey!" shouted Sami. "That's cheating!"

Worse, Knockout's plea for help must have finally gone through, because a groundbridge spat out four Insecticons and four Vehicon troopers to help slow Brawn down.


"Prime! It's not just Sami! Red's got two hostages!"

"Two?" gasped Infernus. "Scrap! Where'd he get the other one?!"

"I'd get him myself but he's got his damn pet dog teleporting me off his fender every time I get close!"

"Wait, Tag-Along's in the field? Oooh." Miko cringed. "That's...awkward."

Infernus was in no mood to snark. "Ratchet, lock onto Knockout's signal! If he wants to play dirty, we'll do the same!"

The old medic promptly obeyed. Infernus ordered Wheeljack, Bluestreak, and Arcee out as ground support. He himself would handle Knockout's air support. With his support team behind him, Infernus screamed out of the groundbridge.

He wasn't surprised to find Brawn wasn't actually having much trouble with the troopers and Insecticons. Two of the troopers and one of the Insecticons were already smashed to pieces near him. There was no sign of Tag-Along though. Infernus wondered why.

"I got these ones! Go get Sami!" the big mech urged.

Arcee, Bluestreak, and Wheeljack shot after Knockout. Under Arcee's guidance, they quickly formed a semi-circle behind him and began closing in on him. Bluestreak was so close he could actually see Sami in the rear window. She was busy hitting the durable glass-like substance with some kind of tool, trying to crack it. Knockout used the seat-belt she was trapped in to pull her away just as the window got a nice, big crack in it. Sami was persistent though. The next thing she did had Knockout nearly swerve off the road. Arcee thought Sami had maybe hurt him somehow, but the reality was so much weirder.

"Ew! Did you just lick me!?" he screamed.

Bluestreak laughed. "Oh my gosh!"

But that (gross) action let Sami wiggle free and resume her escape efforts. One more hit from the tool shattered Knockout's rear window.

"Oorah, Sami!" cheered Wheeljack.

Brawn definitely hadn't been exaggerating about Sami's capacity to make Knockout's life hell. On the other hand, owing to Knockout's breakneck pace, it wasn't like she, or her fellow hostage, could safely jump.

*Box him in!* ordered Infernus.

They did. When Knockout tried to bail to the right, Wheeljack slammed him back into the box.

Infernus spat flame in front of him. When that didn't work, he tried a much more direct approach: he swooped down, hooked his claws into his side doors, and scooped him right off the road. Knockout actually didn't realize what had happened until he was already twenty feet in the air. Infernus couldn't tell if the other hostage was freaking out and shouting over the dragon holding the car, or the car he was trapped in being now forty feet in the air.

"N-Now, now Smokescreen!" Knockout stammered. "Let's not –!"

Infernus snarled. His claws dug deeper into his sides.

"Hey, hey, hey!" he snapped. "Watch it with those!"

An Eradicon flier streaked past, caught up with the train, and dropped down onto one of the cars.

*Drop them!* he told Knockout.

"...As you wish."

Infernus watched in horror as Knockout dropped his vehicle disguise, leaving Sami and the other hostage to plummet towards the ground. Only they never hit. Bluestreak grabbed them just before they would have hit and transformed around them. In typical Bluestreak fashion, he skidded and spun about to chase after the train once more.

Infernus wasn't about to let Knockout's murder attempt go though. He dropped Knockout himself, only to catch his arm in his jaws and fling him as far as he could in the opposite direction of the train. Though no one caught him (good riddance Infernus thought) the act wasn't designed to kill, just get him out of the way for a minute. The Eradicon already on the train was the bigger concern. He became a still bigger concern when he spotted Tag-Along and Catscratch near the rear of the train, and Tag-Along appeared to be tracking something by smell.

Sami must've hidden her fossil in one of the back cars, he realized.

Tag-Along rightly warped out of the way of his fire-breath. The Eradicon was even less of a fan.

"I told you we should've bailed with the one!" he complained. "Now look at the freaking mess you got us both in!"

"Get the talon, Killzone!" he heard Knockout shout.

The Eradicon proceeded to stab his blade into the caboose's canopy. Infernus landed and struck at him with his tail. While he was stunned, he grabbed him by his leg and slung him off the train car. He was rather surprised that Killzone, rather than retaliate, simply called it quits right then and there. And not in a freaked out, panicked way, either, like how he remembered some other Eradicons doing; more like a casual "Nope" response.

"I'm out!" he declared, flying off. "Killzone to base, I need transport!"

"Sergent, don't you da–!" snapped his superior.

Just like that, he was gone.

Infernus actually kind of respected Killzone in that moment. Not many Eradicons were smart enough to bail when things got dicey.

So he picked up where the Eradicon had left off: he yanked the canopy off the caboose. Lodged in a corner near the car's front, he found it. Unfortunately, so had Tag-Along and Catscratch. The latter currently had the fossil in her little jaws.

All it took was one intense, four-second-long look between the three of them to come up with a plan. Catscratch cloaked at the exact same time Tag-Along teleported, and at the same time he falsely lunged at them. Infernus didn't claim to know what the idea was behind that particular act, but he guessed it had to do with throwing pursuit off. Tachyon particles were weird little things that tended to mess with scanning equipment at close range.

Tag-Along then teleported directly onto Knockout and in a bright flash, they both vanished.

Catscratch then re-appeared, her little green eyes glittering mischievously. She still held the talon in her little jaws.

"Thanks," he told her in Draconian, and took it from her. "But they still got the other one."

"'Ey, one less ugly brute after you is one less ugly brute after you."

Catscratch winked and disappeared again. It was nice, he thought, having someone on the inside helping them out, and someone trustworthy to boot.

He transformed and took off, letting the train continue on its way. Only, Bluestreak kept chasing it.

*Woah, woah, woah! Blue! Come back! We're good!*

*OH! Sorry. Hold on, let me turn around. Do you know how hard it is to turn around on dirt? You slide all over the place! Also, is your friend there okay? He looks kinda pale. Do we need to get him to one of your medics? I don't think you guys are supposed to look that pale."

*Blue, you haven't turned around yet,* he gently reminded him.

*Sorry,* he squeaked back.

Bluestreak decided not to try a showy drift-spin and instead slowed, circled about, and went back the way he'd come. Arcee and Wheeljack met them halfway.

As for Brawn – well, Infernus wasn't surprised to find he'd left a small pile of dead, battered, shattered bodies in his wake. With nothing left to fight, he went thundering towards Infernus's teammates. But even towering over them with his giant hammer, Infernus didn't see anger in him anymore, just a deep, crippling anxiety. Arcee had a feeling she knew where it came from too. Losing people always made you cling to your friends a little tighter than before.

"Where's Sami? Where's my girl?" he demanded.

"Right here!" chirped Bluestreak, and let both Sami and her friend out of the front seats.

Brawn's attitude instantly shifted when he saw Sami's appearance. She was dirty, cut up and bruised, and she was holding her left arm which to him said she'd either fractured or outright broken it at some point. But her hazel eyes were shining bright regardless, brimming with smug pride.

"Gonna hazard a guess and say you made Red regret kidnapping you?" grinned the big merc.

"One hundred percent," smirked the young woman.

"That's my girl," he chortled. "Now let's go get that arm looked at, huh? Smirk all you want, you're not foolin' anybody."

Arcee suggested they take her back to base to let June take a look. Brawn tried to politely decline but she and Infernus insisted it wouldn't be a problem. So Brawn and Sami accepted after agreeing Dr. Kardova should probably get looked at too. Fowler would need to debrief him, as well.


Brawn had decided he took up a little too much space in the already crowded hangar, and so he stayed just past the threshold, leaning against one of the walls while he casually eavesdropped on the goings on inside. Dr. Kardova himself was fine, but Sami would be a sling for a while according to the paramedic lady. Apparently her stunt to escape had pretty badly fractured one of her lower arm bones. Sami was only annoyed that it was her drawing arm, so she wouldn't be able to sketch or write for a while, robbing Brawn of a handy archivist. Brawn told her not to worry. He could survive a couple weeks without one while her arm mended. They could just update their shared database later.

Eventually, Sami rounded the corner to meet him. Her new sling had a bunch of signatures on it. Miko. Jack. Rafael. June. Fowler. Neal. Mark.

"Looks like you found some fans," he winked.

"I guess so," chuckled Sami.

She looked so exhausted even as she said that. Brawn folded down and opened his door for her. She was so exhausted, in fact, that mere minutes later she'd passed out into a deep sleep. She'd well earned it. If he'd had his way, the woman would have nothing short of silk covers, the fluffiest pillows, and a bed to make the Queen of England steam enviously. He didn't have those on hand, but he tilted his seat back to the angle she liked and gave her a soft waft of cool air from his vents.

They'd only got one of the two fossils, sure, but virtually all the legwork had been Sami's doing. They wouldn't have that fossil if not for Sami's quick thinking. And credit to Dr. Kardova as well for his quick thinking and calmness under pressure. But only his Sami, he thought fondly, could keep punching (metaphorically speaking) after breaking an arm. She was a stubborn little rhino like that.

"I hope you're as proud of her as I am, Wildstab..." he muttered.

"He is."

Brawn flicked his rear-views and found the Prime standing there, wearing a proud smile of his own. The Autobot liaison stood at his feet, holding a light throw blanket in his arms. Infernus gestured him towards him, and upon opening his passenger side door for him, the man slung the blanket over her. Nevada nights were a bit chilly, after all.

"Thanks, Fowler."

"I take it you'll be heading off when she's awake?" he asked softly.

"Yeah. Don't wanna bring the 'Cons to your door."

"I'll wish you good luck now, then," he nodded, putting his hands back in his pockets. "Uncle Sam thanks you for helping us out today. Let Ms. Hayek know."

"She knows."


Hooboy. Long one! Hope that makes up for the semester hiatus!

Sami seems like the quiet scholarly type, but she's got some real gusto in her! And Knockout is gonna remember this encounter, resulting in a pretty funny scene later on. ;)

AA is up next.