If That's What It Takes: Part 2
I had no idea what Prime meant by this strange word, but I had a feeling that it was more than a little connected to the whereabouts of his missing mate. He stood there for a moment longer after uttering the word and then headed over to the nearest console of Teletran 1.
"Does this mean that you have an idea of where Angel might be?" I asked.
He looked up from what he was doing and nodded, "I can't explain what I just felt Alpha. Somehow the connection between Angel and my self had been cut off."
"So I was correct then? You do have a connection to her?"
He nodded again, "I did." He looked off for a second, "When she vanished something or someone managed to shut it off. Just now however, I felt it again for just a second."
"And?" I prompted, "There's more that you're not telling me about this."
"I don't know," he stopped and stared at the screen for a moment, "I don't know why someone would send her back to her own home after doing this to her. I can't deny my instincts though, and that's whey they tell me she is."
I thought about that for a moment, "Sometimes the best hiding place is in plain sight, Prime."
"Exactly," he agreed.
That was when I noticed that he had found what he was looking for. It was the state that I had been told his human mate had been born in. There was the oddest phenomenon taking place as we sat there and looked at the screen. To the casual observer it would appear that the state was merely suffering from an intense rain storm. To someone that was looking however they would notice that the storm wasn't moving. I have noticed that normal weather patterns on this world, flow and move in time with the rotation of the world and the currents that its atmosphere takes. This bit of precipitation though remained firmly fixed over the eastern half of the state.
"That's not natural," Someone one commented as they moved up behind me to take a look at what Prime had found.
"That's the point Ratchet," Optimus told him, "And that's just what we were looking for."
The medic took a closer look at the state and the location of the storm.
"That things literally sitting right on top of her home town," I could almost hear his optics widen, "You don't think they would?"
"I intend to find out," Prime shot back.
I continued to watch as the leader spoke into his communicator and a few moments later Prowl and Jazz appeared.
"Prime?" Prowl asked as he showed up.
"Prowl, I need you to activate the command protocols for the satellite base that we left on the farm."
"What?" the police car blinked at him for a few second, "Why do you need that?"
"I'm playing on a hunch here, if I'm correct here I think I may have just found where the Decepticons hid Angel."
"Come again?" Jazz gasped.
"Take a look," Optimus motioned to the screen.
Both the tactician and the special ops took a look at the screen for a few seconds. Then the two of them seemed to just materialize at their stations. A few seconds later Prowl looked up with the strangest look on his face, then tried his actions again, then looked up one more time.
"Prime," He called.
Optimus walked over and looked at the readings that his second kept getting from the satellite base and I swear that I saw the mech smile under his mask. This of course prompted me to go over and investigate just what he had found that confirmed his belief that this was the place his human wife had been secreted away too.
"What did you find?" I questioned.
"Nothing," Prowl told me, "Absolutely nothing. There's no signal coming from the remote command center, or any of the stations at the base we set up there. It's like the thing has been …" he trailed off.
"Has been completely demolished?" Prime finished.
"Exactly," Prowl nodded, and was quiet for a moment. Then, "You mean to tell me we missed THIS?"
"Missed what?" Jazz asked from where he was.
He looked at what had been found for a while and then nearly smacked him self in the visor. "Now tell me why we didn't look into this sooner?"
"I don't think there are any good reasons or excuses," Prime told them both, "Its just this simple though. They hid her in the one place we wouldn't look, and then took steps so that if something went wrong…"
"She wouldn't be able to contact us," Prowl stated "Now that storm makes sense. It would keep any communicators that they might have missed from working, any but the ones at the mini base. Which is why they had to destroy the base as well."
"So now what?" Jazz asked.
"Now we have to go and get some information about what's going on out there and then once we have enough, we go and get my wife back."
"There is one small problem with that," I felt compelled to point out to Optimus.
"That is?" Jazz looked at me.
"Its very simple Jazz," I motioned in the direction of the brig, "We all know that Megatron isn't going to talk to any of us."
"Who said anything about asking Megatron?" Prime looked at me and once again I could swear that he was smiling under his mask.
One hour later, Prime, Prowl, Jazz, and myself had all either activated their transmats or been subjected to the manual one and all of us were standing out side of the human detention center. This was the place where Prime had asked the human authorities to keep Dr. Archeville until Angel could be found and they could decide what else needed to be done with the vile man. Now as we walked into the place human sized it was clear to me that Prime was going to get what he wanted from this man weather the good Doctor choose to cooperate or not.
"Good to see you again," The Dr. snarked as he looked out from his cell. "So tell me have you found her yet?"
I watched Prime's eyes narrow to a pair of sapphire slits, "How'd you do it?"
"Do what Prime?" The man continued, "Oh there are so many things that went on. Which one are you referring to?"
I have never in the time that I have known the mech seen Optimus Prime loose his temper at anyone. What makes him the person he is can be chalked up to the fact that he tries to remain compassionate and even tempered with the most heinous foes that he has had the luck to encounter. This time however, the human behind the bars managed to hit the right button and the next thing any of us that had accompanied Prime knew, his hand was stuck through the bars and clamped firmly around the neck of the Doctor.
"You have ten seconds to tell me how you made the storm and how to shut it off or I start squeezing," He paused for a second, "ONE…"
The Doctor who up until that time had been arrogant and oh so very sure of himself, managed to completely loose it at that point, "OKAY!" He croaked. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know! Just don't kill me!"
Prime let go of the man and let him drop back into his cell, "Well? Get on with it."
"The storm was created by a device called a Weather Dominator," Archevil coughed, "I got the plans from an old acquaintance of mine in the arms market. It can produce a specific weather pattern indefinitely. I set a small one up in the basement of the girl's house. We wanted to keep the communicators from working and use the weather to demoralize her even further."
"So she is on the farm?" Prowl finally managed.
"She's been there for almost a month," Some of the Doctor's arrogance returning. "I imagine she's had quite a bit to think about during all of that time as well."
"You are the slimiest…" Jazz began.
But the doctor was no longer looking at either of Primes subordinates at this time.
"You know Prime, even if you find her. Even if she hasn't taken her own life to be with you, even IF you manage to some how undo the mind alterations from the implant," He paused and a truly evil smile spread over his face, "There are some things that you will NEVER be able to change."
Optimus froze for a moment and then turned and looked back at him, "I was going to let the human authorities have you, put you into their justice system and let them prosecute you as the laws of her planet deemed fit. But now," Prime's eyes narrowed again, "Now I'm going to let you sit right there until I get Angel back. Then I'll let her decide what's going to become of you."
"If you get her back that is," He shot one more time.
"That's what sets me apart from people like you and Megatron," He told him, "I believe she's strong enough to find her way home no matter what."
All three of them remained perfectly quiet until we got out side of the human detention center. The moment they were out of sight of the humans and out of range of any listening devices that it was possible the Doctor might have had on his person. Prime turned in the direction of the base and activated his comlink.
"Coming in loud and clear chief," I heard Ironhide drawl, "You found out where they are holding the lil lady?"
"She's right where we suspected she'd be Ironhide," Prime told him, "I need you to collect Ratchet and rendezvous with our coordinates."
"Be there in five, Boss," The other mech answered. "We're gonna get her back if we have to rip that whole town a new one."
Prime shut down the comlink and spent a few moments going over what he planned to do with both Prowl and Jazz as we continued to wait for the others to meet us there. I stood watch for the others for a few seconds and then I noticed that Optimus was relatively alone, and so I spoke with him.
"Do you think getting her back will be this easy?"
He shook his head at me, "I don't think anything about it will be easy. If I know Megatron, he's more contingency plans out there than anyone of us would know how to cope with."
"Yet you are still going through with this?" I questioned.
"Yes Alpha," he nodded, "As truly foolish as this might seem, I have every intention of getting Angel back here at my side no matter what."
I nodded at him and then smiled, "Do not take my interest for questioning your authority Prime." I informed him, "I only wanted to make sure that you believed in what you were going to do here."
"If he didn't believe in it," Jazz suddenly chimed in, "Then the rest of us would for him Sir."
"He's right." Prowl added, "Miss Angel means a lot to all of us Sir, not just Prime. Leaving someone as important as her alone when they need someone to help them is just plain illogical, we have to help her."
I would have said more to the young mechs before me at this point had the rest of the search party not chosen to show up at that moment. Optimus spent a few moments going over the details of what he had learned and how we should go about getting into a position to rescue his mate. When all were agreed on what would be done in certain eventualities, my self included, we assumed our various alternate modes and began to make our way across country to find what Prime had lost.
Unfortunately for all of us, this was exactly what Megatron had planned. The moment news got back to him that Prime had left the Ark compound he took his own steps to procure his release from the brig and make his attempt to stop us. The means by which he did this proved to be every single Gestalt that he had in his employee showing up at the ark all at once. When several mechanoids that big show up and begin wreaking general havoc, it is safe to say the last thing on any one's mind is the condition of the brig and how to keep the person that we have contained in said facility from escaping.
This turned out to be a rather costly mistake. This being due to the fact that while several of the gestalts kept the main troops that were still at the ark occupied, two others located where the brig was in relation to the outside of the mountain and literally began ripping the side of the volcano to bits until they had reached what they had been looking for. No one knows exactly how Megatron got his fusion cannon back, but there was a moment when all the fighting ceased as a crimson blast tore the front side of the mountain off and Megatron appeared at the front entry way of the Ark.
"DECEPTICONS!" He called, "Your goal here was to procure my freedom! Which you have done! Now we must go and prepare to take care of the rest of the plan as it has been set up! Before the final cycle of this Day ends, Optimus Prime and his human mate will both be reduced to ashes by our hands!"
He flew into the sky and all of those who had been attacking the Autobots literally stopped in their tracks and followed their leader into the sky in search of Prime and Angel. Everything that had been set up for this plan of Megaton's was beginning to fall into place and all any of us could do at that point was rescue Angel and pray we had the power to fight off the darkness that was quickly swallowing up our world.