1Thank you all so much for the lovely reviews! Don't worry- they'll meet up with the autobots soon, but they have an another adventure first. (Yay!)
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Neera woke up slowly, the fuzziness of sleep dissipating like fog before the morning sun. She struggled against the force rapidly propelling her into awareness, wanting to do nothing more than to collapse again into the warm, dark embrace of sleep. After a while she could fight it no longer, and she felt her eyes flutter open against the weight pressing them closed.
"Good morning." A soft timbre called from somewhere beside her. Though momentarily forgotten, all that had happened the night before came flooding back to her. She was still lost. Jonas had vanished and could be hurt. Her family and friends probably assumed the worst and her picture would soon appear on the backs of milk cartons.
At the thought of her family, Neera's heart contracted painfully within her, the headache coming back again.
"If you can call it 'good'." She whispered, rolling to her side. Axel sat cross-legged beside her, watching her intently. While she had been unconscious it seemed that he had set up a sort of makeshift bed for her that wasn't all that uncomfortable.
Axel cocked his head in question, looking absurdly like a dog that had followed her home.
"I don't understand. I thought 'Good morning' was an appropriate human greeting to use when someone came out of recharge?" Neera sputtered for a moment, then gave a brief laugh.
"Nah, you were right. I was just being cynical." She caught herself, thinking of something. "Hey, I thought you were from another planet? So how'd you know what to say at all?"
"The internet."
"Oh..."
He grinned mischievously. "I can do a lot of neat tricks- one of which is logging onto the internet wirelessly from anywhere."
Neera pointed a finger at him. "Stop doing that."
Axel tried to look innocent. "What?"
"THAT. Answering my questions before I actually ask them. You may be able to be inside my mind and all- but God! Give me the simply dignity of being able to ask the stupid question before you give the obvious answer!"Axel snickered.
Suddenly Neera's stomach grumbled loudly in demand for food, and she cursed herself for leaving her backpack - and shoes- back in the clearing. She threw the blankets off of herself, but then squealed and immediately clutched them tightly to her chest.
"DUDE! What'cha do with my clothes!" She yelled angrily.
"They were soaking, so I hung them up to dry-"
"Well, go get them or something! I can't just run around naked!"
Axel sighed and gave a half hearted shrug, unfolding his legs and retrieving her stiff, cold - but completely dry- clothes.
Neera made a shooing motion with her hand.
"Well, turn around or something! You can't just stand there staring at me when I'm naked!"
Axel grudgingly obliged, turning his back to her.
"You know of course that you're being illogical. I already saw you naked when I removed your clothes."
Neera flushed hotly, her face lighting up a cherry red.
"Pervert." She muttered, pulling on her stiff, mud caked clothes. They were itchy, they were uncomfortable, but they were clothes none the less.
"Alright, I'm decent." She called when she had finished buttoning her shirt.
Axel turned back to her. Thankfully, he made no comment about her appearance. Bending down to fold up the dechevled pile of blankets, a plan slowly formed in Neera's mind.
"Ok. First things first- I need to go back and get my back pack and shoes so I can have something to eat. Then... I'm going after Jonas. I can't risk telling my parent where I am, or more importantly, I can't tell them about YOU. Parents tend to wig about that sort of thing." She added in explanation.
As she folded the blankets, she noticed that they were slightly wet, probably from when she had been lying on them in her soaking clothes...
Suddenly, an idea clicked in her mind.
"And how do you plan to find him?" Axel asked, but Neera didn't pay him any attention. In one hand she felt the bone-dry material of her shirt, and in the other, the slightly damp blanket.
"Axel... This is a cave. Things don't dry in caves- they stay stagnant and wet because there's no actively flowing air..."
She spun around to face him.
"Where exactly did you hang up my clothes?" The question took him completely by surprise.
"Uh... just over there." He answered hesitantly. "Why?" Neera jogged over to where he had pointed, examining all around the broad, flat rock that they had been lying on, completely ignoring his question.
"There has to be an opening to outside here somewhere..." she muttered to herself. "That's where the air has to be coming from..."
"I thought that you were intent on finding Jonas?" Axel asked, walking up behind her.
Neera nodded grimly, feeling with her small hands every crag in the rock.
"I am. This will help us with my plan. -ah ha!" She cheered, her hand brushing over a cool stream of air blowing into the cave.
"This-" she said, pushing against the boulder blocking the air vent, "Is our escape hatch."
"Neera..." Axel began warningly, "I HOPE that you're not planning on doing anything exceedingly dangerous..."
Neera rolled her eyes, her muscles straining against the unyielding rock.
"That depends on your definition of 'dangerous' mother..."She gave one final mighty push, then sank against the boulder in defeat, breathing heavily.
"Hello! I could use some help over here." She panted. For a minute Axel remained motionless, and she wondered if he was going to help her at all. Then slowly he unfolded his arms and came up behind her. Neera turned back to the boulder, bracing her hands against it as Axel put his strong arms on either side of her.
"Push..." She groaned. Axel grunted with the effort, and Neera could see the thick muscle cables in his arms straining. Slowly, ever so slowly, the boulder was pushed aside. When the small opening behind it was just barely large enough for her to squeeze through, Neera sagged against the rock , sweat rolling down her forehead.
Axel, his arms still braced on either side of her, made a noise curiously like heavy breathing, but Neera dismissed it.
"This hole probably leads to the surface." She said between breaths, trying to wipe the sweat off of her face with her sleeve but only succeeding in streaking it with mud.
"And just how does your plan involve a hole to the surface?"
"Well, I was thinking, and I realized that you were right when you said that we could never track that 'Cyclonus' thing. So, instead, we'll bring him to us."
Axel sighed. "Neera-" He began wearily.
"Look! You said he was after the minicons, right? So pretty soon he's going to track you- and me- down and come looking for us. This way at least, we'll be ready when he gets here."
Axel motioned for her to continue.
"Ok, here's the plan. I'm guessing that this Cyclonus dude is a big guy judging by the size of the Ark. So when he comes back here looking for us, I'll act all scared like and run into this cave. It's a dead end, so if you somehow seal off the exit while I lure him in here, he'll be trapped, and I'll make my miraculous get way through that hole right there."
Neera paused, waiting for a reaction. Axel leaned back against the cave wall, folding his arms.
"There are a few problems with your plan. First, there's no way in the Pit I'm going to let you be the live bait- escape route or no escape route. Second- how do you know he won't just shoot you on sight instead?"
"He won't cause he probably will want me to get to you."
"And third," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand, "What do you plan to do with him when you have him trapped here?"
Neera hesitated, looking sheepish.
"I hadn't thought that far ahead yet."
"And fourth, he has the ability to teleport away instantly, so even if it all does go according to plan, it will just be a waste."
Neera sighed in defeat, putting a hand to her eyes.
"You're right... again." She said. Tears sprang into her eyes.
How am I supposed to rescue Jonas now, or even find him? She whispered mentally, too emotionally drained to say it out loud. Not to mention the fact that her stomach was knotted with hunger.
Axel's presence came into her mind like the gentle brush of the first rays of dawn, warming her from the inside out. But for once, he didn't have an answer either.
I'm sorry...
Neera shook her head.
Please don't be. I-
There was a deep rumbling sound from somewhere within the cave, and she stopped short, listening.
"Did you hear that?" She whispered urgently. Rising almost without violation from the boulder, Neera walked as if entranced towards the source of the noise. Darkness as thick and as tangible an oily curtain enshrouded the rest of the cave, hiding within its boundless folds the source of the noise. Neera strained her eyes around the corner of a tunnel leading into the cave, but she couldn't she her hand in front of her face. She held her breath, not daring to even blink.
After a while, she called out to Axel a few paces behind her, "I guess I was just imagining things..."
"Oh, I don't know about that..." Another louder, deeper voice issued from behind her. A bucket of ice cascaded into her stomach and she gasped painfully, rooted to the spot. Slowly, she turned her eyes to look behind her just in time to see a large-than-life purple hand come out of nowhere and snatch her up off the floor with sufficient force to knock the wind from her.
"NEERA!" Axel cried in alarm.
"Ooo! A minicon too!" her captor cried joyously, reaching out to grab the petrified minicon.
"RUN!" Neera screamed at Axel, thrashing wildly. The minicon hesitated, torn between his duty to protect his partner. Too late, he tried to bolt between her captor's legs, and was snatched up from the floor in the giant robot's other purple hand.
Neera looked up, and up, into grinning robot's enormous face who leering down at her.
"He he! Oh goodie! Megatron's going to have a fit when he finds out what I stumbled on right under his nose!" Neera struggled vainly, a fresh and potent wave of fear surging through her at the mention of the evil dictator's name.
The giant robot frowned at her.
"Now now, squishy. There's no need to squirm. I'm sure Starscream and Hook will take good care of you...Who knows? Megatron might even let me keep you as a pet." He laughed a again with that sickening, oily voice that she faintly remembered hearing the night she had found the minicon panel.
Neera gasped.
No, it couldn't be.
The spoke into the air, probably communicating through some sort of comm system.
"Megatron sir! I found the rogue minicon and a squishy!"
-Very good. Bring them back to base, Cyclonus-
All the color drained from Neera's face. It was.
She had been captured by Cyclonus, just like Jonas had.
"Yes Megatron sir!" Cyclonus cried joyfully.
Suddenly, the strangest most indescribable feeling came over her. It felt as though she were collapsing in on herself and being pulled inside out, beginning with the point just above her navel. Dimly she was aware of watching her body literally fall into many pixel-like pieces that rapidly disappeared, only to be reassembled simultaneously somewhere else. Her perceptions were torn between here and there, defying the most basic laws of physics and being in two separate places at the same exact time.
The enormous strain of going through the warp gate was too much for Neera's body. Almost instantly after becoming aware of being in two places at once, her mind winked off into unconsciousness with the vague impression of being somewhere very cold.
Then, there was nothing at all.