We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 4

I managed to get out of her room with out being attacked by too many more autobots, still this left the boys completely baffled by what was going on. I personally had no intention of telling them what the problem was. Jazz was right, a woman in that position is much more scary than any thing else that could possibly happen to some of them. So this left them to try and guess what was going on. I would like to say that they finally figured it out, but even after Wheeljack spent ten minutes twisting Jazz's arm, literally, they finally gave up.

I had hoped the base would calm back down at that point, I should have known better. I had just made my way into the command center when once again spotted Optimus and his upper officers there looking at the screen. All of them had looks on their faces that told me peace and quiet was coming to an end, and this war was about to go red hot once more. I sighed and headed over to him, craning my neck to look up at telatran's screen.

"So?" I called.

Optimus, Prowl, Ironhide, and Jazz, all turned to look down at me.

"What's going on?" I demanded.

"We think we've found out what the Decepticons are up to Miss Angel," Prowl told me. "They seem to be going the geothermal route once again."

"Yah," Jazz nodded, "Only this time Kitten, they ain't drilling any holes. This time they found them selves a super volcano and are trying to make the thing go boom."

"Super Volcano," I shook my head, "I didn't think there were any more of those things around?"

"Oh there is one," Optimus told me as he snapped the monitor on, "Right smack in the middle of the continental US."

I wracked my brains for a few seconds and then it hit me; it was kinda obvious when you thought about it. Where in the states could you go to a place and see things that were a demonstration of the geothermic process? What place did millions of people ever single year flock to, just to see that very thing?

I looked up at the monitor as the picture snapped into being and groaned, "Yellow stone?"

"Yellowstone," Optimus confirmed.

"You mean to tell me there's a giant volcano under Yellowstone national park, and no one knows about it?"

"No, they know about it," Prowl told me, "It's just been deemed not a danger to the public by your nation's government."
"Well I knew we had morons running the thing, now I have proof." I sighed, "So what are we planning on doing about it?"

Once again all four of them looked down at me. Prowl, Jazz and Ironhide had the most smart ass grins I've ever seen plastered on their faces. Optimus on the other hand glared down at me from behind that mask and made it plain to me what he thought of my getting involved.

"What may I ask, do you mean by "WE?" He shot.

"Exactly what it sounds like, what are WE going to do about them?"
He folded his arms and kept glaring, "I have no intention of letting you go any where near the Decepticons."

"I happen to be a legal adult," I told him back, "And despite the fact that I'm your life mate that doesn't make you my boss!"

"I didn't say it made me your boss, I just don't want you getting hurt."

"I don't plan on getting hurt. Besides you let the Whitwhicky kid fight, what

makes you think he's a better fighter than me?"

He looked up at the sky as if asking Primus for mercy from his deranged femme, "He may not be a better fighter than you Angel, but…"

Prowl raised his hand, "Can I say some thing?"
Both of us turned to glare at him, "We are going to need some one to handle the rangers Optimus. I have a feeling that they wouldn't respond to us very well. So why don't you bring Miss Angel along and let her handle that end. While we look into what Megatron and the 'cons are up too."

I thought about that for a second, "I can live with that if you can."

I could tell that he didn't still think much of me going any where near any of them period, but this was all he was going to get for the moment.

"Very well, I think that's the best I'm going to get you to agree to right?" Optimus looked down at me.

"Basically," I smiled up at him sweetly.

He looked exasperated but he could live with all of this. I could still tell that he would have felt better if I had stayed there but I didn't think it was my place. If the people I loved where going off to try and save this stupid planet, then it was my place to make sure that they had some one there to back them up. Even if the only thing I did was something as simple as keeping ranger Smith under control.

I headed off to get packed and ran into Alyssa along the way. She was more than a bit hyper, be that because she had found out about the mission or had eaten all of the chocolate I couldn't tell.

"Hey!" she called, "Did you hear about what was going on?"

"Yeah I heard, what are you and Jack going with us?"

She grinned, "Well I'm going to help you go play liaison to the local staff while Jack, Optimus and guys try to make sure the place doesn't get blasted to the moon."

I groaned, "A volcano, right in the middle of Yellowstone. Someone must have been out of their mind when they put that park there."

"Who knows?" She shrugged, "I mean if it really is a super volcano, by the time the thing does blow up, chances are the US isn't going to be here any more."

"I know, but that's not the point," I shook my head, "Anyhow, let's go get the gear all packed up. Maybe we can keep them from getting on the locals nerves too bad."

We spent the rest of the day getting our stuff ready to travel again. So far there were just rumors about what the cons were up to but, I thought the faster that we get there. The more of a chance we have of stopping something before it actually happens.

Announcing that we were going with them, did cause one small problem. Alyssa's parents nearly flipped out when they found out. Not that they hadn't been flipping already but they were getting worse by the second. I was to the point of wondering if we could bring them along to use as bait for the Decipticons, when Jack did some thing. It was mean, and nasty, and he's probably going to pay for it at some later date. All things considered though, it was the best route he could have taken.
One moment they were ranting, the next the two of them proceeded to go stiff as the proverbial posts and stop in the middle of what they were saying.

"Uhmmm…"I looked them up and down, "Did I miss something?"

Jack came walking around the corner with a very smug look on his face and a strange device in hand. He had apparently taken all that he could from her parents.

"Well what can I tell you Miss Angel, They were holding up the mission and so I took steps."
Alyssa poked her not catatonic mother and then waved her hand in front of her face. "So what did you do?"

"I hit them with my Imoblizer," He grinned under there some where, "When making inventions, be sure that you always keep a copy of the blue prints some where."

I had to laugh, and wonder why this wasn't done before.

"So how long are they stuck like that?" I asked him.

"Till I turn it off," He answered. "And that's not going to be until we get back from this mission."

Alyssa giggled at this and then turned to face him, "you do realize that when you un-immobilize them that they are going to be incredibly pissed."

"Ask me if I care," He shot back, "They've annoyed half the base; they made you move out of our room. They have tormented every single person they have come in contact with in the last three days. It was this, or having Ratchet sedate them. That was the only two things I could think of to make them less of a problem."

"Well," she admitted, "I wont tell if you don't."

"I won't," I grinned. Let them wonder what happened."

The two of us had a good laugh at all of that and then ran off to finish getting packed. We got an interesting surprise when we finally came out of the rooms carrying our stuff and some camping gear that we thought we might need.

What we found was the two of them still in the middle of the room, but now surrounded by bio-hazard tape and with a lil' sign in front of them. I sat my bag down on the ground and walked over to see just what had been wrote on this thing. Some one had taken bright red paint and a very traditional paint brush, and with it had scrawled, "PLEASE DO NOT FEED!" on the sign. For some reason that struck me as the funniest thing I had seen in days. I put my face in both hands and wound up having to run to the bath room I was laughing so hard. I few seconds later I came out and heard as Prime discovered this little display and began demanding to know who had done this. I had given my word that I wouldn't say any thing and I meant it. Not even to him. I got some strange looks for the noises coming from me but I got out to the convoy before he managed to corner me.

I pretty well knew I was going to spend the whole trip to Yellowstone having him demand to know who did it. I shrugged it off. Besides, the culprits were going with us; I could always send him in their direction if he got too hyper.

Still all joking aside, I was more than a bit worried about this mess. I had a terrible feeling that something was going to happen. What I couldn't tell you, but as we pulled out my levity left and I began to seriously wonder just what we were getting into.