Elita followed Ratchet's advice and set aside the mass mess of paperwork aside for the rest of the night. While the medic worked on the Synth-En formula in his lab Elita sat with him. Usually he did not like having his work interrupted by groups and the loud noise of idle chatter, but at the moment he was allowing it as the others sought his companion out to spend time with her. The children brought food for her smaller form as she helped them with their school work or the flux of any given number of Autobots that had one subject or another that they wished to discuss with either one of them. Looking away from his screens, Ratchet had a slight smile as she watched Elita, Tracks, and Jazz in their discussion.
"I'm telling you, it's the perfect holo-passenger for you," Elita was smiling with a playful twinkle in her optics at Tracks, who was frowning thoughtfully.
"I'm failing to see how an old woman would be an ideal representation."
"It's the little old lady from Pasadena," Elita sang before she started to play a bit of the song. "It's about a kindly little old lady that's an unbeatable drag racer. Everyone underestimates her, which only makes the humiliation worse for them."
"Man, humans are crazy." Jazz had a laugh with them.
"I used to joke to my mom that was going to be me when I'm an old woman."
Ratchet caught the joy in her face dim a bit as her thoughts turned to her mother, but she had hidden it quickly from the others with another smile. He went back to looking at his readings as the others continued their conversation.
"You have a song for just about anything, don't you?" Jazz had asked as he focused back on her.
Elita nodded. "I probably do. I've got a pretty eclectic collection going on, something to fit any project or mood. From Classical, to the many varieties of Christian, to Corpse Husband, I probably have it in one of my many folders."
"I've heard quite a bit on the circuit when I'd go out for a nice drive to get away from the ship." Tracks tsked a couple of times. "Do they never realize the damage they're not only doing to their cars, let a lone to their own bodies, when they play it so loud? The Resonance Blaster was created to do just that. "
Jazz whistled as he shook his head. "Now that was a nasty weapon."
"So I've heard," Elita winked at Tracks for her little joke. "Unfortunately they're too young to really care about that and will pay for it in the future most likely with hearing loss and other things. The military has a long running understanding of such things, ancient information actually. It's why troops are told not to march over bridges and things like it, because it can cause the structure to collapse."
Jazz was nodding as he thought the information over, then he noticed her wince as Elita began to absently rub her left arm. "You ok there, Boss-Lady?"
Of course that got Ratchet's direct attention again, and he could tell by her mannerisms that she would be blushing in her human form. Walking over to the trio, the medic ran a scan over her as she continued to rub her arm.
"Just been getting twinges lately, this one's just a bit stronger than the-" Curling her arm closer to herself, Elita closed her optics tightly as she did her best not to cry out in pain.
Tracks had stepped over to Ratchet to look over the read out that the scan had given him. "That is the appendage that she had absorbed the Dark Energon from Dreadwing's body, correct."
"Indeed." Ratchet frowned as the data scrolled across his screen. "Points that match up with the living form of it that runs through her structure have spiked, causing the pain. As to why, I can only speculate." Looking back at her Ratchet came to a sudden halt at the magenta glow her optics were giving off as she was no longer focusing in the room itself. "Elita?"
It took a moment before she shook her head free of whatever had a hold of her, but focused up at Ratchet first before looking at Jazz. "Someone is using Dark Energon and it's not Megatron."
"Who else would know about it?" Tracks had asked for them all.
"Wild guess as to whom. There's also echoes of..."
Elita hopped up and rushed out of the chamber, the three following her to the command center and up to the system that she stored her maps and data on. They, along with the small handful of newly turns that were there at the time, watched as she accessed her programs. The map zoomed in on one of the two remaining points on the North American Continental map, to which she pointed at saying, "Here. It's coming from here."
Twisting around she looked at Silverbolt, who was running the scanners for the night shift. "Where's Optimus?"
"He and Team Alpha are collecting Energon that had been found in an abandoned mine," the Arealbot replied instantly.
Looking around Elita was counting who was with her on the ship. "We have to go now. Tracks, Silverbolt, Jazz, Springer, with me."
Ratchet watched as the group rushed off to the Ground Bridge, worry over what they were going to find keeping him rooted where he stood. A look around the room moved him into action, taking up the scanners that Silverbolt had been working on.
The Ground Bridge opened to a harrowing scene. The abandoned buildings of the ghost town looked as if someone decided it was time to demolish them, the blazing fire, with large streaks of purple dancing within the orange, from a few of them cast an eerie glow over the wreckage once the light from the Ground Bridge died. The two human forms on the dirt did not ease the mood either. In the distance they could see three large vehicles quickly driving down the road away from the town.
"'Bolt, Springer, follow them," Elita said as she pointed at the retreating vehicles. Both of them nodded and transformed, quickly taking to their task.
Jazz and Tracks stood guard over her as she ejected her smaller form and knelt down beside each body, gently rolling over the M.E.C.H. uniformed men to look them over, but shook her head slowly. Both men were dead. Pulling the masks from their faces she recognized two of the men from her unit.
"Any idea what killed them?" Tracks asked.
"Not completely. They have traces of Dark Energon in them, but I don't know for sure if that's what killed them or not. Didn't help, that's for sure."
"Harsh," Jazz said softly.
She was rubbing the scars over her right eye while she pulled out her phone, dialing Spike. It only took two rings before he answered. "Tell Carly I'm sorry, but we need the unit at site three."
"Understood, and she says she understands."
Shutting off her phone, Elita picked herself up with her larger form and was about ready to rejoin with it when she felt something cold behind her. With Jazz and Tracks flanking her, they watched as something loomed up in the flames of one of the buildings. Bleeding dark purple light admits the flames, it gave a horrific guttural roar to the sky, before it looked right at them.
Tracks could only blink, recognizing the use of Dark Energon from first hand experience. "Oh, scrap."
The General held onto the leather strap that attached to the roof of the vehicle he rode shot gun in, doing his best to keep himself steady as the driver took the broken road the best he could. When the radio of their truck crackled to life he frowned as they listened to the voice coming over it.
"Sir, we have company. Two boggies, one air, other land."
Grabbing a hold of the hand-held unit, the General gave his orders. "Get rid of them. They must not get a hold of this truck or it's cargo."
"Yes, sir."
Silverbolt had to dodge the shots being fired at him from the third truck, it slowing down as the first and second ones continued on. Springer, who had no trouble getting over the despite his smaller size, quickly caught up to the stopped truck. Silverbolt transformed, landing next to Springer as the land based Autobot transformed as well, both watching as the three humans exited the craft and began their attacks. Having worked with Elita's human group, the pair could recognize the fighting style that the humans were utilizing and countered accordingly.
"Now I was looking for an actual fight," Springer grumbled as he held a pair of humans in his hands, looking them over as they struggled to get themselves free.
Silverbolt swooped down before he transformed, landing with a thud that shook the third human off of his feet. Before the M.E.C.H. soldier had a chance to scramble off the Arealbot had grabbed a hold of him before the human was able to grab his weapon once more. "The rest of them are getting away."
Springer turned towards the ghost town they had left in their pursuit, finding that they had gone quiet a distance from the rest of their party, frowning at the increasing purple glow that seemed to be overtaking the orange of the fires. "That doesn't look good at all."
With his free hand Silverbolt opened up his communicator. "Ratchet. We have three in custody. Can you relay our coordinates so that Commander Witwicki can have part of his team take them off our hands?"
"I will pass on your message."
It was only a couple of moments later that the glow of a Ground Bridge illuminated the area and the sound of vehicles driving through filled the air. In the very front truck was the human commander, opening his door before the vehicle had come to a complete stop. Other troops rushed out not moments after it had stopped moving to take into custody the three M.E.C.H. agents that the Autobots had a hold of, noticing that two of them were bleeding in their uniforms. With a quick update about where the other trucks in M.E.C.H.'s possession had driven and what they had left behind in their pursuit, the group was able to take in the information and make their next moves.
"We're going to go aid the others. Have Slash look them over," Spike ordered the man in charge of the smaller group that was taking the trio in, turning to get back into his truck as the portal shut.
As swiftly as they could the headed back to the ever increasing purple glow in the distance.
Elita, Jazz, and Tracks quickly dove in different directions as the dark creature crashed through the burning buildings towards them. Elita's human form was holding onto her larger one by the axle on her left hand side, but lost her hold as her larger form crashed into the ground. She felt the Dark Energon flowing through it, but it was not a form that had been described to them. This was not one of Jazz's missing crew. Quickly looking over her shoulder she saw the metallic monstrosity rushing towards her again, leaving a bleeding trail of vaporous light in its wake. Sending her larger form to one side, Elita grabbed a hold of the body she was near by to drag it out of the way right before the creature's fist connected to the old road, sending debris into the air where the M.E.C.H. agent had once been. There was no guarantee that she would be able to keep it that way, especially when it was focusing on her with its purple optics. With another roar it rushed at her smaller form again, making her dash away.
"Another disgusting creation of theirs," Tracks said darkly as he ran over to Jazz's side. "How did they get a hold of the Dark Energon?"
"Figure it out later," Jazz said as they rushed towards the creature, but already feeling the weakness that had been associated with being exposed to the dark energy. "How do we take it down?"
"By making as many little pieces as we can."
Managing to avoid the creature once again, Elita had manage to finally merge together, despite the diving roll she took in the process. As Jazz and Tracks began to strike out at the being, Elita's optics focused in the distance to see that they had vehicles incoming, one of them was a plane. But the building that was between them was drawing her concern. Despite the glow of the flames, the increase of purple was overpowering it all.
"They have more of it here and it's about to... oh no..."
The ground for dozens of miles around shook from the explosion.
In the medbay, Ratchet was busy repairing a pair of Wreckers that had the unfortunate run in with the wounded beast that Elita had said was not as dangerous as they thought it could be. Right now he would have to severely disagree with that assessment,especially as he focused down at the replacement appendage the was attaching where Ultra Magnus' hand used to be.
While the commotion was going around the medic, he could hear the Ground Bridge being activated several times, the human team utilizing its passageways to get between areas quickly. In the back of the medic's mind something didn't seem right. Maybe the extra activations were of the other groups that were coming back after their searches had been completed.
Straightening up, Ratchet simply frowned at his work. "This was the best I could do with the parts that I have."
Ultra Magnus pulled up his new appendage, testing the movement of the three digits. "It will have to do."
The rush of large foot falls accompanied by the shouts of orders from Tracks to get to the med bay made Ratchet sigh again. "It appears my work isn't done yet."
Knowing that he would need the repair berth, Magnus had gained his feet by the time the Autobots had rushed into the chamber, the group carrying one of their own. Using his uninjured hand, Magnus had to keep Ratchet steady as they watched Elita being carried in by the four others that went with her.
"What happened?" the shocked medic asked as he began to scan her over.
"M.E.C.H. had found and used Dark Energon. She absorbed the explosion when it caught on fire," Jazz answered.
Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.
"The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" belongs to Jan and Dean.
I know it's been a while. Sorry.