The rush of the human vehicles in to their new home, along with the response of the humans that lived with them, in the late night awoke both Autobots from their recharge state. The two trucks rushed to a halt in the middle of the main chamber, the troops rushing out of the truck as the pair made their way over to investigate the commotion.
The General was yelling as hopped out of the cab of the first truck, "We need Perceptor!"
"I am here, General," the scientist said as he made his way over to the truck. "What seems to be the problem?"
Blurr, who had zipped into the chamber and to the back of the trucks with the human troops, looked urgently at his friend. "TheyfoundFirestar! She'shere! Theyfoundher, butshelookslikeshe'shurtbadly!"
His companion barely got past who was found when Perceptor rushed to his friend's side to look for himself. He was watching as the humans pulled the massive pallet she was strapped to out of the back, the female Autobot groaning in pain as her head moved slowly.
"To my work table with her, but careful of her injuries." Perceptor noted the pleased but worried look in Blurr's optics as they followed the group.
The humans watched as the pair as they carefully lifted their newest companion onto the large table before Perceptor began to examine her. The General, who was standing on the perch where he would normally speak with Perceptor as the Autobot worked, frowned deeply as he observed.
"Where did you find her?" Perceptor asked, thoughtfully frowning over the data his scans were giving him.
"The team contacted me, saying that they tracked down one of the rogue element's bases. They were forced to engage with the troops there, but managed to find her in the middle of whatever they were doing to her. Since it was dealing with one of your own, they had contacted me as soon as they realized what they had found."
Nodding, Perceptor went into focusing on her repairs, once in a while giving Blurr an order about what tool or part he was needing. Out of the corner of his optic the Autobot saw one of the troops rush up to the General, whispering something in his ear that the commanding officer simply nodded to before the other man left.
"Are you going to be able to help her?" the General asked, refocusing on the transformers before him.
"This is going to be several hours worth of work, at least, General. It's best to tend to your men during this time."
"Let us know if there is anything that you need," the human said before he left to check on his own wounded.
Blurr was zipping around him, but as normal it didn't bother Perceptor as he focused Firestar's repairs. At one point, when he could get his companion to hold still, the scientist showed him the results of the scans. Blurr's optics went wide, his head quickly moving from staring down at the data to his friend's face and back several times.
"Howisthatpossible,Perceptor? That'sthesameenergyreadingsfromthatpurpleEnergoncrystalsthattheybroughtyoutolookat. Andwhatweretheytryingtodowithit? Dotheyknowwhatitis, andiftheyknowwhatitis, whydidtheyuseitonher?"
"I have no idea how this other group got a hold of the crystals and Firestar. The main problem is that it is poisoning her. We need to figure out how to get it out of her system, though. Also, we need to keep our findings to ourselves as much as possible."
"Agreed,agreed,agreed. Somethingisfishy, veryfishy, asthehumanswouldsay." Looking back down at their friend, Blurr gently held her hand, patting it softly. "Don'tworry, Firestar, we'rehere. Andifwe'rehere, we' 'regoingtobeok, ok?"
Ratchet and Slash were looking over the Autobot's scans, both frowning at the screen. Behind them Tracks was finishing up the last of the repairs on Jazz, while Silverbolt and Springer watched, Optimus standing beside them as he took in their report of what happened. With warm, soothing words to his troops, the Autobot leader walked over to his oldest friend, looking down at the repair berth that Elita's body lay on. Her larger form would twitch once in a while as she groaned in pain, the compartment where her smaller form resided open for the human medic to inspect her.
Looking back up at the pair, Optimus asked, "What are your thoughts, Ratchet, Slash?"
Turning to face him, the Autobot medic gave a deep, pained sigh. "She absorbed quite a bit of Dark Energon. I don't know what exactly the effects it's going to have on her forms, short or long term."
Slash shook his head slowly when Optimus focused on him. "Her smaller body suffered from bruising and a concussion, my guess is from the initial explosion. She doesn't feel like there is any internal bleeding, but head wounds are very tricky. We won't know the extent until she wakes up." He was going to add "if she wakes up" but the way Ratchet was fretting he understood that would only distress his fellow medic more.
"Good work, all of you," Prime said before he departed the room. Outside in the hallway he had to stop as he saw the majority of the troops that were in base waiting. They all knew that they would only stir Ratchet's ire if they were in the medbay, so they waited.
"Time is needed to be able to fully assess what is wrong and what will be needed," he told them all.
Knowing that it was all they were able to have, they departed, leaving Ultra Magnus with Optimus in the hallway. The pair moved to the command center, discussing the latest problems with their Predacon issue and how they could best deal with the newest information and the probability that there were now more of the creatures at Megatron's disposal.
Megatron watched the view from the screens of the bridge of the Nemesis, but his mind was elsewhere. From troop movements, Energon mines, to the many scientific endeavors of Shockwave, the most recent being the decommissioned Project Predacon that had led them to the unintentional discovery of creating Cyber-matter, all of it crowded his processor, but floating around it all was interesting echos of the use of Dark Energon on the planet below him. Soulless groans of those whom he had utilized the materials on for his own use had become almost a soft background noise in his processor since Optimus Prime had used the Matrix to silence Unicron. Now, if he focused past the cacophony of pained groans and wails of despair, there was a cry of agony. It was fresher than all of the others, only a few of this planet's worth of days, and it seemed to be clawing its way through it all as if it were a living thing. If he focused on it a bit longer the thing that was clawing towards him seemed to be bleeding purple fire from its form. No, not its form, its head. Then a bright flash of purple light filled his vision, Megatron growling to himself as he shook his head clear. The silent Decepticon that stepped up beside him helped him focus on his surroundings once more.
"Ah, Soundwave, what information have you found?"
Sending the tendrils out to the nearby station, Soundwave brought forth the pre-recorded feed that Lazerbeak had sent in. Megatron watched with a frown, seeing the sparks of purple light erupting from what looked like long abandoned buildings. Smaller forms, obviously human, were rushing around and attempting to fight the source that carried the Dark Energon that he was feeling.
Megatron gave a dark chuckle at the pathetic attempt they gave before fleeing the area in their trucks. "Apparently the humans decided to play with Dark Energon. Foolish creatures. Ah, and here come the Autobots..." he added as they continued to watch the feed. It was as the scene became that bright flash of purple light again that Megatron's humor faded.
The force of the explosion moved out, but instead of waiting for the energy to dissipate out to see the aftermath, it shrank in on itself in pulses, the very core of which was a now familiar Autobot femme.
"She absorbed it again." Megatron watched her body crash to the ground and the other Autobots rush to her side. "Send this information to Shockwave, so that he may add it to his collection of data."
With a bow, Soundwave did as he had been ordered before leaving Megatron's side once more.
Commander Witwicky and Special Agent Fowler were standing on the Autobot command table, going over ideas as to how to strike the two remaining targets on the map. The majority of the Autobots were surrounding the pair, eager and waiting for the next move to be decided. Unfortunately for them all M.E.C.H. had brought an extremely dangerous element into play.
"I say we divide and conquer." Fowler stated as he pointed to the map. "Two teams striking at the same time. Wouldn't give them the chance to run or receive aid."
Spike nodded quietly, rubbing his chin in thought. "Good idea. Unfortunately, as of this morning, my group's hands are still tied so it still has to be started through the Autobots."
Kup chewed on his detonator, moving it from one side of his mouth to another. "I'll take one site, Jazz another. Considering they took off in trucks, I think that they moved to one of the closer ones."
Jazz frowned. "I think we need to have a medic go with each team, considering what we've found before."
Ultra Magnus nodded quietly, then focused up at Optimus. "Do we wait for Elita -One to wake before we strike?"
"You better," a voice said from the doorway, drawing everyone's attention to the two figures in the doorway. One was a worried Medic, the other was his current patient, her purple optics focusing in on the ones that surrounded the command table.
Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thank you for reading.