Transformers Prime
"What do you mean, you don't have the canisters?" Victor Drath drawled in his deliberate manner of speech.
Unsurprisingly, the gang boss wore his own lavishly styled overcoat, but it was much more expensive looking than even Dutch's, it's fur lined collar having its own jeweled chain, showing off how unreasonably pricey the piece of clothing really was.
He sported a mustache and had slicked back hair, with gray beginning to creep through at the sides, giving him a seasoned, even quite respectable appearance. He had a ring on every other finger, each of them probably worth more than Dutch's coat on their own, which were clenched in annoyance and he didn't look very pleased.
"I don't know what to say, boss! There was this crazy chick on a motorcycle! Guns poppin' out the side-"
Dutch's explanation and exaggerated movements as he recreated what he witnessed was tuned out at that point. Did he say guns popping out the side of a motorcycle? This was matching up with some baloney that Silas was telling him about. He hadn't really believed much of what the former Special Tactics officer was going on about with extraterrestial machines, even with the video proof.
Turns out it wasn't baloney.
"Wait, did you manage to get a tracker on the chick?" Drath interrupted Dutch's sputtering with a raised hand. His right-hand man adopted a slightly sheepish expression. Victor rolled his eyes before one of the other guys sitting at a chair raised his hand.
"Actually, I managed to put a bug on her bike!" the thug, Austin, said with pride. He tossed a small device, which resembled a PDA, to Dutch, who looked it over. Sighing in relief, he cast a grateful look at his buddy, who gave a thumbs up.
"Looks like we got a fix on her, but it's in...Jasper, Nevada?" Dutch observed the readings unbelievingly. Drath pulled out a cigar and lit it, rolling the reefer in between his teeth.
"Lemme' see that," Drath said irritably. Dutch tossed it to him, and he caught it with a hand. He looked over the numbers before snorting in amusement.
"That explains how she's suddenly hudreds of miles away," he muttered in thought. GroundBridges. Silas told him about those swirly portal things too. He was listening with a half an ear when he talked about it. As long as Drath's organization supplied the funding, they got military grade weapon and technology. But now, maybe he could use this little happening to his advantage.
"Okay," Drath said suddenly.
"What do you got in mind, boss?" Dutch questioned upon seeing Drath's mischievious glint in the eye.
"We're gonna set a trap for this rob-Ahem. Chick. And were gonna make sure she isn't messing with our organization anymore."
"Get me the phone. I'm gonna hire out an old friend of ours. Old Snake."
Apparently, Old Snake was a former head honcho of a now defunct criminal organization. He wore a peculiar, opaque, metal visor, and Victor Drath wondered how he could even see through the thing. The both of them were at a main street in New York, the place of interest they decided to rendezvous at.
"I see," Old Snake rasped amusedly. Drath thought the guy could use some hot tea to soothe that rough throat of his.
"Yeah, I believe this may be one of the robots you had a run-in with all those years ago. I didn't really believe you at first, but now it seems likely this is it," Drath replied, hands in his pockets. Old Snake nodded thoughtfully, turning his visored head towards him.
"You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Drath. So once I capture this robot, in exchange for payment, I am free to do whatever I wish with these robots?" Old Snake asked for confirmation. Drath slowly nodded his head once.
"Then it is a deal," The Visored man in blue concluded, the both of them shaking hands.
"This is a great find, Arcee!" Ratchet congratulated, continuing his scan of the now uncollapsed cortical psychic patch. It was completely undamaged, and had many applications for a Cybertronian Processor. Optimus who was standing next to Ratchet, was busy decoding something on the monitor.
"Thanks," the blue bot replied. "Took me no more than five minutes," Arcee humble-bragged with a hand on her hip. She idly watched Ratchet scan the device until the proximity scanners beeped, alerting the bots present of Bumblebee and Bulkhead's arrival. Arcee and Optimus glanced over to the two vehicles driving into the silo.
Since Arcee had been busy on her inner-city mission, Bumblebee had picked up both Jack and Raf, while Bulkhead picked up Miko as usual.
"Now we can really get a party started!" Miko exclaimed, as she jumped out of the passenger seat of Bulkhead's vehicle form. Simultaneously, Jack and Raf exited out of Bumblebee, in which both 'Bots in question shifted to biped mode.
Bumblebee gestured a bit, accompanied by some clicks and beeps.
"He asks what did we miss," Raf translated, more for Jack and Miko's benefit. Arcee walked over to them and kneeled down on one knee to better regard the children.
"I recovered a Cortical Psychic Patch. I went to New York to get it," Arcee said with a smile.
"Say what? I so wish I was there! I can see it on the news, A giant robot sprinting through the streets!" Miko cried, obviously excited at the concept of Autobots in a city.
"Nothing like that, Miko. More of a stealth mission, than anything else."
"That's great, Arcee," Jack complimented, making his way to the second level of the silo where the TV was located. Raf and Miko followed close behind and they all plopped down on the couch.
"So, was it Decepticons? Or MECH?" Jack questioned, resting his crossed arms on the upraised back ledge of the couch.
"Neither, actually. I think they were gangsters," Arcee responded. Raf chuckled a little at Miko and Bumblebee's reactions. Bulkhead laughed heartily at her response.
"Ha. Mobsters? That's weird. Isn't that stuff that local police would be taknig care of?" Bulkhead queried, making Arcee laugh at some inside joke.
"That's exactly what I said. But since the psychic patch was involved, Agent Fowler figured one of us could go and get it," The femme said with amusement and now leaning against the wall.
"What would humans want with Psychic Patch if it wasn't MECH?" Bulkhead asked.
Bumblebee shrugged.
"Maybe they want to learn how to switch bodies with Cybertronians!" Miko suggested, wiggling her fingers for emphasis. "Like invasion of the body snatchers, except we're the body snatchers!"
"Can a cortical psychic patch even do that?" Raf asked. Bumblebee beeped a response.
"They're used for data transfer, but there'd be no way to plug it into a human," Raf translated.
Arcee frowned in thought at that line of thinking, while Jack shut it down immediately.
"I don't think they're trying to possess bots, Miko," Jack answered skeptically. Miko simply shrugged.
"Autobots. I am detecting an energy spike," Optimus spoke up. He ceased his typing to regard everyone present.
"It is in the same proximity as the coordinates last supplied by Agent Fowler," Ratchet added, a thoughtful frown on his facial features. He looked up from his study of the monitor to glance at the patch device before looking at Optimus.
"Do you think it could be another Cortical patch? Seems odd for there to be yet another one," the medic commented, glancing over at the readings on the screen.
"Oh, oh, oh! I want to see Arcee beat up some more gangsters!" Miko cried enthusiastically from her spot at the couch. Even Jack had to chuckle. That would probably be something funny to see.
"No, not a device. But there is a high concentration of Energon," Optimus replied, turning to Ratchet. The medic narrowed an optic in confusion.
"What would that much Energon be doing in the middle of New York?" Ratchet inquired, even more confused. New York was an industrial city, so there was little to no chance of there being rocks that Energon crystals could be bonded too, much less in the quantity that Optimus' research was suggesting. "And why didn't our scanners pick it up before now?"
"I can check it out," Arcee suggested as she pushed herself off of the wall.
"I would advise you take backup with you this time. This situation is highly peculiar," Optimus commented with narrowed optics, looking over the data on the screen before turning to loko at Arcee.
"Cool! So we get to come?" Miko shouted, looking just about ready to jump right from the rail and to the GroundBridge.
"Miko, I think he meant a 'Bot" Bulkhead clarified, sounding just a bit apologetic. The asian teen pouted before exhaling in frustration.
"Augh! That's no fair!"
Bumblebee stepped forward, and spoke a bit.
"Then it is settled. Bumblebee will act as your shadow while you investigate the Energon spike," the Prime said calmly before glancing over to Ratchet. The Chief Medical Officer nodded in confirmation before inputting the coordinates and pulling on the lever.
"What the heck is all this stuff?" Drath asked in mild surprise. Before him, past the one way wall they stood behind, was a huge tank full of a glowing blue liquid. Old Snake stood next to him, a hand on his chin giving off the impression that he was thinking.
"This, my friend," Old Snake rasped in his namesake voice, "is Energon. The blood of these robots. My former organization and a rival military subgroup had a run in with these transforming vehicles a long, long, time ago. It is their primary fuel source."
Drath nodded. "Rival group? Was it MECH?"
Old Snake scoffed, briefly coughing. "That Silas fellow? Ha, he's a child playing with toys compared to how far reaching my and my rival's organization was."
"How did you get all this stuff over here?" he questioned curiously, deciding to get back on topic. The glowing liquid was casting shadows all over the warehouse, giving the place a swimming pool reflective quality as shadows seemed to dance all over the room. The warehouse was chosen so that for one, Drath's base of operations wouldn't be compromised, and two, this is where the trap would be sprung.
Old Snake cackled in amusement. "That is a trade secret," he cryptically retorted. "Now come. We must veil ourselves from their approach. No doubt their Portal Technology will allow them to arrive here in mere moments," he beckoned. So he and Old Snake walked inside of a room containing row upon row of servers and other advanced looking machinery that blocked scanners. The rest of Drath's men that were a part of the plot were also inside. Some monitored controls situated on the walls, which were set up like terminals in which the trap would be manually activated. Old Snake walked over to a monitor and waved Drath over.
"Come, come. This is where the trap shall be sprung. Because the Cortical Psychic Patch was not completely reverse-engineered, we can only use it for one of it's functions, which is data transfer. But that it is where it comes in here," he said, pointing at an object on the screen.
Next to the vat of Energon was a giant machine that housed two parallel, vertical cylinders. One housed a small chamber that could contain the average sized human, and the other cylinder housed many electromagnetic pulse emitters along the inside.
"We shall use the Cortical Psychic patch as a power source, to transfer the mind of our hapless robot to the synthoid body within that chamber."
"Why don't we just blow up the robot and then you can study it?" Drath asked sensibly. Old Snake simply responded with an "Ah."
"That is a good question. But apparently, these robots have something within their structure that allows them to activate weapons and other protocols. As I do not know where it is in those bodies, I need the robot intact. Which is why the mind transfer is necessary." Drath nodded with better understanding. So the mind transfer would reduce the robot's body to a mindless husk. He could see the logic in that.
"Besides, you could always just destroy the synthoid once the transfer is complete," Old Snake added, voicing Drath's thoughts. "What matters to me is if the transfer itself works."
"Wouldn't it be safer to transfer the robots mind into like a uh, flash drive or something?"
"Ah, good observation," Old Snake praised. "This transfer itself is a sort of test for a future project of mine," he revealed. He scoffed. "Its actually an idea that Silas stole from me. Anyway, if the transfer to the synthoid is successful, it gives the green light to another one of my projects."
The whole of the room quieted when they heard the strange sound of something like a waterfall. Turning his attention back to the monitor, he saw a bipedal form walk through some kind of swirling portal, followed by something else, but he couldn't really tell, as the warehouse where the robot stood in was very dim.
"There's a vat of Energon here. Odd," Drath heard the biped say, as he listened through the speakers. Yep, giant robots. He was used to weird things by now. This wasn't too surprising. On the screen, the robot seemed to be studying the vat, trying to figure out how to move it.
"Now to activate the trap," Old Snake said to the henchmen stationed at the terminals. The men began typing furiously, and soon enough, the EMP's that were inside of one of the tubes began magnetizing the robot. Drath and the men heard some strange beeping noises and then saw another robot suddenly trying to pull the first one from the pod she was being unwillingly drawn too.
"There's another one? This soon?" Old Snake asked to himself in mild shock. He hummed to himself before snorting dismissively.
"No matter, activate the machine's transfer!"
With all his strength, Bumblebee was trying his hardest to keep a solid grip on Arcee's servo.
"Bumblebee, let go! Before you get stuck in this thing too!" Arcee demanded, trying herself to slide herself out of the machine. It wasn't doing any good, and she couldn't move out of the cylinder. Bumblebee's already wide optics widened even moreso in surprise when panels began to recede to close it completely. In a last effort, Arcee broke out of the yellow scout's grip, before the door had took off Bumblebee's arm. The panels cut off his line of sight and he could no longer see his comrade.
"'Bee! Don't worry about me, call a GroundBridge and get them over here!" She shouted to him urgently. He did as told, activating the channel.
"Uuurgh!" Arcee's pained scream travelled through the air, and she suddenly slumped unconscious inside the casing.
Bee had rushedly demanded for reinforcements after hearing a thud from Arcee's chamber and sudden silence, but the machine began to power up. Bumblebee raised his guns toward the machine she was trapped in but hesitated. What if he damaged her? He could make things worse! Every few seconds he would crane his head around, trying to spot the telltale signs of an opening GroundBridge, but none showed up anywhere.
Suddenly, the machine ceased operating and the panels suddenly lifted, revealing Arcee's unconscious form, and Arcee slumped even further if that was possible.
Oh-no, Oh-no, Oh-no, Bumblebee thought worriedly. At the same instant he attempted to pull open the door, just as he managed, a bright white light flashed in his optics, temporarily blinding him.
Shaking his head vigorously, he attempted to will away all the spots in his eyes.
"Bumblebee!"
Focusing his optics, the yellow scout could see Bulkhead exiting out of a still active GroundBridge. The wrecker glanced around the warehouse quickly, scanning the area for any hostiles as he shifted his right servo into a mace. But it was only an empty cylinder, another cylinder with a small chamber in it, and a startled Bumblebee.
"Where's Arcee?"
What? She was just here...Bumblebee craned his head back to the cylinder.
Empty! The scout rushed out a distressed string of beeps. He managed to pry the doors open now, glancing around helplessly. He slammed a servo onto the glass, hanging his head. Bulkhead's expression saddened. Bumblebee was punishing himself.
"Hey, Easy 'Bee," Bulkhead attempted to calm him down. "We'll find her. We'll just have Ratchet get a tracking sig going or something," he suggested, walking up to the machine to study it. He noticed a cortical patch cord connected to both cylinders. His optics widened. That wasn't good.
"'Bee! Bulk!"
The yellow scout and the wrecker's optics widened at the human voice. Bulkhead almost thought it was Miko, but the voice sounded slightly older. Bumblebee let out a loud and distressed noise, pointing to something by Bulkhead's feet. Bulkhead looked down next to the now open chamber to his left. Half Outside of the cylinder was a human, on her knees, and looking like she was trying not to throw up.
What threw Bumblebee for a loop was the human's hair and jacket. The jacket resembled Arcee's chassis in aesthetics, and even her hair held a resemblance to the familiar helm. He almost didn't want to guess at the implications.
"We have no choice. Maybe she knows what happened to Arcee," Bulkhead suggested, not picking up the clues that Bumblebee was mulling over.
Bumblebee grilled softly to himself. He didn't say his thoughts aloud, because he wasn't completely sure.
And he really, really hoped he was wrong.