A/N: Yes, I am living (sort of). I don't deserve comments and messages but pls send them.
Chapter Seventeen:
Unknown Number
"They say that the loveliest angels make the cruelest demons and my darling, you were so kind and beautiful before they dragged you to hell." –c.k.
The voice speaking through the phone was light and energized. Each word was a reflection to how happy the speaker was, and that knowledge filled Cade's heart with comfort. The world was still topsy turvy. He was still on the run from both the United States Government and any number of Decepticons or drones, but his daughter was safe and she was having the time of her life with friends in New York.
"I was in Times Square, dad, and he was like right there. Literally right there!"
"Who was? Uncle Bobby?"
The door to the coffee shop he sat in swung open, crashing into the wall behind it, causing all eyes in the shop to dart to the wild-eyed man in the doorway. Simmons was in yet another track suit, Cade was beginning to wonder how the odd man had so many variations of the same ridiculous outfit, and he motioned for Cade to come to him.
"No! Tom Holland! The actor! Oh my God, dad, I've told you about him a hundred times."
Cade stood and pulled a few ones out of his jeans pocket to toss on the table, "That's great, sweetie, listen I have to go."
"You do?" He paused in motion at the worry that had creeped into her once excited voice. Cade's chest tightened and he wished more than anything he could pull Tessa into a hug and give her more than just a few comforting words. Right now, though, that's all he had.
"I promise you, everything is going to be alright. I'm going to see you soon." Cade replied firmly. "Stay safe, Tessa. I love you."
There was a beat of silence before Tessa replied, "I love you too."
Without hesitation, Cade ended the call and snapped the flip burner phone in half. He left the remains on top of the tip he had tossed aside and briskly rushed out of the coffee shop. Simmons didn't wait to see if he truly followed and instead turned on his heel and began speed walking down the street. The two of them climbed into a car parked at the end of the street and moments after they shut their doors a police cruiser blared past them and came to a screeching halt in front of the coffee shop.
Simmons peeled away from the curb, "Have a nice chat with your darling little girl?"
"You said I had ten minutes." Cade readjusted the baseball cap on his head.
"Complain, complain. Never any thanks." Simmons scoffed. Cade rolled his eyes and sank in the passenger seat. From the tone in the strange man's voice, he could tell a rant was about to occur. Simmons wasn't the kind of person Cade would've chosen as a road trip partner, but sometimes life was just cruel like that. His fingers absentmindedly found the artifact on his arms and traced it's seams. The alien thing hadn't activated since Austin when he used it to save Aj. Cade's thoughts drifted to the odd woman. He hadn't known her long, but he actually missed her. Though that could've just been because the only person he's spoken to in person since then was Simmons. Yeah, that was it. He just missed having normal human contact. "Are you even listening to me?"
Cade shook his head, "No. I'm not. Have you heard any news from your contact?"
"I do not like the way you say that. No faith. It's ridiculous. I do have a contact at the Autobot base and he does keep me up to date on information." Simmons snapped then hesitated, "But,no, he hasn't sent me any news."
Cade rolled his eyes and pulled out the old, janky laptop he had hidden under the seat earlier. The laptop was nearly a decade old, but the thick, bulky thing had been built with war conditions in mind. Simmons had stolen it from the secret base he worked on before his ass got canned.
"What are you doing?" Simmons leaned over to try and look at his screen, but Cade shoved him back towards his side and snapped at him to watch the road. The nosy, ex-secret agent was always too easily distracted while at the wheel.
Cade pulled up the program he had installed into the machine and continued to try and find any information he could. Him and Simmons were on the run and avoiding the government yes, but they were also on a mission of their own. Track down the Decepticons and find answers about the thing on his arm.
Nearly half an hour of fruitless effort passed, and Cade was on the verge of shutting off the machine to take a nap when the screen glitched. He narrowed his eyes and slapped the side of the laptop with his hand. The screen glitched again with green code flashing across it before a new program opened.
"I'm being hacked." Cade said in realization.
Simmons swerved on the road in surprise, "Shut it down! Shut it down! They are tracking us right now. This is-"
"Shut up." Cade replied and watched as a message began to download on the laptop from an unknown source. "Fort Huachuca. How far are we from that Army base?"
Simmons tilted his head, his panic forgotten, "We're north of El Paso right now. Hm, maybe 4 hours? 5 hours? Why? What does the hack say?"
"We need to go there."
"Is there activity there? Drones or 'cons?"
Cade shook his head and turned the laptop so he could see the screen. The message was brief and vague. All it read was, 'Fort Huachuca. 48 hours.'
"So have you told Aubrey about your new career choice?"
The words could be heard crystal clear through the headphones I wore. They were designed to keep the noise of gunfire out, yet still allow those around me to talk to me. Lennox took full advantage of that by talking to me, but I just continued shooting at the target. After practicing for a week, I had gotten significantly better. The problem was that even though I had gotten significantly better I still kinda sucked.
Bullets were hitting the targets, but it felt like it was hitting the target in random spots. If I aimed left, it went right. If I aimed up, it went down. Basically, it was a damned blessing that our enemies out in the field were ginormous. It gave me a wide margin of error.
Once I fired my last shot and put my gun down, I turned in time to see Lennox had stopped shooting as well to lean against the table and stare at me expectantly. I pulled my headphones off, leaving them around my neck, "Sorry? Did you say something?"
"I asked if you talked to Aubrey about any of this?" Lennox asked again.
I shrugged, "I think it maybe came up before?"
"I don't think it did." Lennox crossed his arms.
"Well, if you already knew, then why did you ask?" I mumbled under my breath and began to break apart the pistol. He let me do so in peace, but when I finished my task he cleared his throat. Rather than answer, I spun on my heel and started to walk back to base. This shooting range was a tad bit closer and a bit smaller.
"You can't avoid this, Aj." Lennox followed after me.
"I can try." I grinned at him from over my shoulder and kept going.
Somehow, she had managed to fit months of basic training into the span of a week and a half without dying of exhaustion. Granted since she was a special case, she didn't have to do the classes or marching or any of the parts of basic that drove Tyler up the wall, but still it was impressive.
"You think Ratchet has her on some sort of super drug to keep her going?" Hemi Kang asked. She was leaning against the railing beside him watching Aj fight against Sideswipe while Sunstreaker watched.
Tyler chuckled, "Doubt it. I'm pretty sure Ratchet is a day and a half from losing his mind over this. She barely sleeps. I don't know where the energy is honestly coming from."
Aj pined Sideswipe to the mat, but he quickly reversed it on her. She struggled for a moment to no avail. Sunstreaker walked over, calling it, and Sideswipe's holoform began to tickle Aj and she didn't hesitate to punch him in the face. He fell back onto his ass laughing.
"How do you feel about this?"
Tyler turned away from the scene to look at his friend who was staring at him, "What?"
"Aj. She's joining the team. How do you feel about it?"
He wasn't sure.
This was a hot conversation topic between him and his siblings. Taylor thought it was a good idea. In her opinion, not only would Aj be a great help and addition to the team, but this would give Aj the activity she needed in her life. Peter, on the other hand, thought it was a bad idea. As much as he knew Aj needed something in her life, he thought this was too big of an escalation and that she was going to either be in over her head or would lose her cool in a dangerous situation.
Tyler was somewhere in the middle.
He was worried Aj was underestimating the danger of what she was taking on, but he was eager to see how she handled it. His aunt was a little like him, or rather he should say he was like his aunt. They were both adrenaline junkies, they needed action, they needed to move and to do things. Even if said thing was something way out of their leagues. Still, Tyler loved a challenge and he was positive Aj was just like him in that sense. That meant she was going to rise up and meet this challenge head on, and damn if Tyler wasn't glad he had a front row seat to the show.
"I don't know. What about you?"
Hemi shrugged, "I like her. She's badass. I can get behind that."
Tyler looked back over at his aunt to see Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were starting something new. He smirked to himself and leaned back against the railing. The next few months were going to be more than interesting.
I rolled my shoulders a few times then used the cotton band around my forearm to wipe the sweat from my forehead. The twins and I had been sparring for a few hours now, and I was 90% sure I was in heaven. My entire body was sore and tired, but God I hadn't felt this alive in months. Granted, I was only sleeping maybe a few hours each night and Ratchet was one night away from drugging me again, but details, details.
"So it's my turn to kick Sushine's ass now, right?" I turned to motion toward the holoform, but both him and his brother were coming back towards me holding things in their hands. Sideswipe wore a wide grin as he held some sort of weird vest, and Sunstreaker looked calmer as he held two long pipes. "What's happening?"
"Training." Sideswipe dropped the vest over my head so it fell onto my shoulders. I let out a grunt and nearly fell to a knee at the weight of it. "Careful there."
"What is this and why the hell is it so heavy?" I used my hands to lift it slightly, fighting the weight, but Sideswipe just tightened the sides so it squeezed my chest. This didn't feel like a bullet proof vest, and it was definitely way too heavy to be one. Sunstreaker pushed both pipes into my hands and I raised an eyebrow at him in confusion. Both pipes were solid metal and at least five pounds each. "Hello, I am confused."
"Hi confused, I am your new swordsmanship tutor." Sideswipe dropped his arm on top of my shoulders. I heaved a grunt and tried to keep my balance despite the added weight of Sideswipe leaning against me.
"Swords?"
"We're going to teach you to use swords. We think it'll go better than shooting." Sunstreaker replied.
My eyes widened, "Swords. Really?" I paused and narrowed my eyes at them, "Swords? You want my 5'3" ass to use swords against Decepticons and drones? Me hitting them with a sword has to be the equivalent of a bee stinging a human."
"For once, can you just not question us?" Sunstreaker rolled his holoform's eyes at me.
"That's not in my nature." I grinned and chose to let that question rest for now. I motioned to my chest, "What's this gotta do with it?"
"Your suit is going to have added weight to it for a technique we are going to teach you. This will let you train and get used to moving." Sunstreaker explained.
"Neato. So how does this work?" I lifted both pipes.
Sideswipe picked up another two pipes. He tossed one to Sunstreaker then grinned at me, "Block us."
"I'm sorry." I blinked in surprise, "What?"
Sideswipe brought the pipe down hard and I only barely managed to put my own pipe up to stop it from hitting my head. So this was going to be the kind of learning that went down here. At this rate, Ratchet wouldn't have to drug me. I was gonna get knocked out by a lead pipe to the head.
Lennox grinned at the picture of his family that Aubrey had sent them of their adventures in California. He wished more than anything that he could be there with them, but someone had to run this base and unfortunately that someone was him.
He looked up from his phone in time to see Epps heading in a different direction than expected. Lennox called out, "Hey!"
Epps whipped around with a sheepish grin, "Oh, hey there, Lennox. What's up?"
"What's up? What's up is that we have a meeting in five minutes and you're going the wrong way."
"I was going to, uh, skip?"
Lennox shook his head once and then chuckled, "Skip? Like it's 4thperiod and you're trying to avoid a math test?"
"I'm sending a proxy. I'm busy today, and we might not have a math test, but we do have a pissy saboteur I don't wanna deal with today."
"Jazz isn't that", Lennox began, but Epps narrowed his eyes at him and he relented, "Ok, so Jazz is pretty bad right now, but that doesn't mean you can send a proxy just because you don't wanna deal with him."
Epps shrugged, "I think that's exactly what it means. The key to good leadership is delegation, after all."
Lennox laughed to himself. The military leader in him wanted to argue further, but the other side of him wished he had thought of it first.
Ever since they had accepted Aj's application, Jazz had been next to unmanageable. The mech walked around in a bad mood and had no patience for anything. If he wasn't out on a mission working off his angst then he was brooding around base glaring at anyone who tried to bring up the topic of solider Aj.
In fact, Lennox was pretty sure the saboteur hadn't spoken to Aj since all this happened which was odd considering the two were nearly always together for at least some time during the day. It had also put Aj in a bit of a mood. She wasn't pouting like Jazz. She wasn't even a pain to deal with, but she held a vibe of something being off. She had worked non-stop since being accepted and it put an odd look in her eyes.
Epps clapped him on the shoulder, interrupting his thoughts, and shot him a smirk, "You have fun though, boss man."
Lennox flipped him off before continuing on his way. The meeting was in the main hanger and when Lennox arrived he realized he was one of the last ones there. He greeted those around him and stepped up to the computer to log in and pull up the latest mission specs.
"Lennox before we start with the agenda I wanted to update everyone on a potential issue arising in Arizona." Peter cleared his throat. Lennox finished pulling up his info before spinning around and nodding at his stepson to continue. Peter opened the datapad in his hands, "Fort Huachuca in Arizona has sent communications stating that they've spotted drone activity in the area and are concerned about a potential attack. The base is on high alert, but they haven't evacuated the nearby cities yet."
Optimus hummed, "I see. Have the drones made any advances on the base or any other human settlements?"
"Not as of yet." Peter shook his head.
Lennox crossed his arms, "We can't send a squad of soldiers in until we have a more definite cause, unfortunately. If we make a move right now Galloway will just cancel it."
Prowl spoke up, "Perhaps then we just send out a few mechs to survey the area. An extended patrol."
"Galloway has no need to check into patrols." Lennox chuckled.
Optimus nodded and there was a glint of humor in his eyes. The leader turned to Wheeljack who stood beside him, "I believe the twins are down the hall with Aj. Can you tell them to prep for a patrol in Arizona. They'll leave within the hour."
"Sure thing, Prime!" Wheeljack chirped and his eyes dimmed out as he sent out the message. While he did so Optimus turned back to Prowl to speak about another topic. Lennox let his eyes wander over to Jazz who stood stiffly as Epp's replacement updated the mech on what he needed to know. There was no smile on the smaller mech's face and Lennox had seen him more relaxed on missions then he was now.
Lennox hoped him and Aj made up soon. Seeing Jazz in such an upset mood was jarring to say the least.
Desert driving was typically one of his favorite things on this mud ball planet. The wide open space, the winding, empty road, and the lack of other cars made it ideal for speeding without getting busted by human law enforcement. At the moment though, the same things he loved about the desert were currently working against him. He had been off base two Earth days now which wasn't a big deal, but the two days consisted of a small battle against a couple drones. Him and his twin came out unscathed and left the drones in pieces scattered about the Arizona desert. The exertion had only made him crave recharge more.
Sideswipe nudged him over the bond making Sunstreaker shake his frame before increasing his speed to catch up to the red frame in front of him. The open, winding scenery was hypnotic and was starting to put his already exhausted processors into stasis.
Recharge was never restful. It only left him with questions so the simple answer had been to not recharge. Unsurprisingly, this solution had left him with a few other issues to deal with. Sunstreaker had managed to keep awake and alert enough on mission to watch his twin's back and his own, but now with only open road between him and home base he was starting to wilt.
'Sunny, you good?'
'Fine. Just drive.' He snipped and kept his bond closed enough to hide his exhaustion. Sideswipe wasn't stupid, and he knew his twin was worried, but this would end soon enough. When Sunstreaker got back to base he was going to see Ratchet and demand another scan or at least to be put into emergency stasis.
'Are you getting this ping?' Sideswipe questioned suddenly, 'I'm getting a comm from an unknown source.'
Sunstreaker shook his frame again and tried to focus. He sent a wave of curiosity to his brother, but the curiosity faded at the familiar sound hanging in the air around them. Something had just broken the sound barrier above them.
Swords were hard. As I kid, I remembered watching movies or hearing stories where the main character was a sword wielding hero who saved the day. Running around outside with a stick in my hand made me feel just like them. Confident, strong, ready to take on the world as the self-proclaimed hero. Right now, I'm pretty sure child me with a stick could kick my ass.
I let out a frustrated cry and swung both weighted pipes down with all the strength I could muster. Bumblebee's holoform dove back to easily dodge the attack and countered with his own sparring weapon, striking me in the chest.
"I agree with the twins. You're thinking too much." Bumblebee chuckled and I threw a withered glare at the adorable, blond holoform. He was lucky he was too cute for me to maul. "Just go with your gut. That should be easy for you!"
I tossed the pipes aside and began to undo the practice vest I wore, "Yeah, you'd think."
Bumblebee tossed his own sparring tool aside and came over to help me undo the last few straps. The heavy vest fell to the training mat with a dulled 'thud'. He gave me an encouraging grin, "It's only been two days. No one masters a weapon in two days."
"I'm not looking to master it, I'm just aiming for mediocrity. I didn't think that was too much to ask for." I groaned. Athletics always came easy to me. Softball, Volleyball, Soccer, Fighting. I was typically a natural at making my body do what I wanted it to do. It was the one functional skill I had in my life, and for some reason I felt disconnected from it. Guns weren't my cup of tea, swords weren't clicking for me. At this point, I was honestly just gonna go start punching some drones and hoping I didn't immediately get murdered.
"When the twins get back I'm sure they'll be impressed with the progress you've made. Compared to yesterday you're moving a lot faster and you're starting to get a hang of blocking with your back!" Bumblebee's chipper tone did nothing for my mood. He paused, "Well, I think. I don't really know much about this style, but you look good."
The whole point of the vest was to teach me a certain sword fighting style from their planet. It was a fancy way of blocking certain attacks with my back and being quicker to counterattack. I think. Like Bumblebee said neither of us had any idea how to figure out this fighting style on our own and the twins had been gone on mission for the past two days.
"I'm going to meet Taylor for lunch. Wanna come?"
I hesitated and the puppy dog look on Bumblebee's face nearly made me cave and promise him anything his spark desired, but I broke eye contact and forced myself to shake my head, "Nah, I'm gonna head to the shooting range I think."
"Alright." Bumblebee pouted, "I'll send Firestar out to keep you company."
That was the nice way of saying, 'I'm going to send Firestar out there to make sure you don't shoot yourself in the foot'. I gave the mech a quick wave as he dismissed his holoform and went about packing away my gear. As much as I appreciated Bumblebee helping me out it'd be better when Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were back since they knew swords. The only other mech on base who used swords often enough to be adept, according to the twins, was Wheeljack. However, they said he used a different style and they didn't want me getting confused. Made sense.
As I shoved my vest into my locker, the sharp, wailing of the base siren filled the room. I froze in place waiting for more information. After a few more ungodly wails the intercom voice spoke, "Code teal 32. Code teal 32."
Teal meant drone. The number wasn't 50 which meant it wasn't an attack on base. If I remembered correctly 32 meant reinforcements were requested, but it wasn't an emergent situation. It was too bad Bumblebee didn't stick around a little longer, then I'd have all the answers.
Quickly, I jogged out of the training room to get to Ratchet's medbay. When I hit the hanger I had to dodge out of the way of soldiers packing things up getting ready to move.
"Hey, what's happening?" I asked one who slowed down enough near me to be questioned.
"Drone activity in Arizona. We're getting deployed to the nearest city for safety, protection, and clean up." He replied.
I gave him a thumbs up and let him go on his way. Getting to the medbay only took another few minutes and unfortunately Ratchet wasn't here. No doubt he was downstairs in his main medbay with Moonracer. She was all patched up now, but they were keeping her in stasis while her processors tried to heal on their own. They were hoping some memories could be salvaged that way.
The sound of an elevator stopped me from leaving and I waited for the whoever took it to step around the corner. First Aid came into view and his eyes brightened at the sight of me, "Oh, Aj, are you ok?"
"Yeah, I was looking for Ratchet." I said, "Do you-"
Pain cut me off. Sharp, hot pain. I gasped and collapsed to my knees at the attack. I was being attacked, somebody had stabbed me in the back that was the only answer to this pain. My hands shot to my stomach, looking for blood or a wound, but all I had was shaky hands.
My ears were ringing as a secondary wave of pain slammed into me. I fell further and the only things keeping me off the ground entirely were my quivering arms. It felt like someone had jammed a hot blade into my back and twisted it.
'Stay awake, stay awake.'
The voice was quiet, it sounded like someone whispering in the back of my skull. I could see stars now and my mouth felt dry. The pain was coming in waves, waxing and waning, and each time it hit me I was sure my heart was going to explode in my chest.
'Almost. So close.'
Another wave of pain and this time the pain was tinged with desperation. I was desperate, but what was I desperate for? I wanted the pain to stop. I wanted to be safe. Safe? Was I not safe?
My body was on fire and I was faintly aware of a metal hand pressed against my back. There was a low murmur that I thought sounded like First Aid trying to speak to me, but it sounded like it was underwater. The only voice that I could understand was the whisper that was starting to grow louder.
'Sunny.'
The pain disappeared, but so did everything else.
Taylor was shaking. Her hands were trembling by her side and she hated it. By now, she should be better at this. She should have more composure like Peter did while facing politicians or Tyler did in the field. Taylor wanted nothing more than to have her brothers' strength in the face of fear. She craved it, but that did nothing. She still shook.
"Ms. Williams."
Taylor clenched her hands into fists by her side and turned to look at Dr. DeGregory. He was a middle aged man with graying hair who was the head doctor in charge of the on base clinic for humans. It was odd for the human doctor to be in Ratchet's downstairs medbay, but this was an odd situation.
"She seems to be stable at the moment." Dr. DeGregory buried his hands into the pockets of his white coat, "I'd like it if she were in my clinic though. So I could monitor her around the clock."
Taylor nodded, "I understand, but the circumstances require her to be in close contact with…"
Her voice had trailed off looking for an easy way to explain what was happening. The good doctor shook his head in response, "No need. Ratchet has kept me somewhat up to speed. I know things tend to be… complicated, when it comes to your family. Just let me know if there is anything I can do. Do you think Ratchet would mind if I sent my resident to check on her status every few hours?"
Taylor glanced over to the raised wall in the middle of the medbay that cut the room in half. It was only used when Ratchet was doing large repairs that needed separation. It was a makeshift operating room of sorts.
"I think he'd be fine with that. I'll send a mech to pick up your resident every six hours?"
Dr. DeGregory shook his head, "I'd prefer every four to begin with."
Taylor nodded and then used her phone to ping the closest mech. A few minutes passed before Hound poked his head into the medbay. He was hesitant and his optics glanced towards the center of the room warily.
"Can you take Dr. DeGregory back upstairs?" Taylor asked.
Hound gave her a quick smile before walking over and offering his hand. The doctor nodded at her one last time before both slipped out of the room. Dr. DeGregory was always pleasant to work with. He was a good ally to the Autobots and every soldier on base.
Taylor heaved a sigh before activating her helmet again and turning to the red mech lying on the berth beside the one she stood on her. Her eyes darted back to the small cot a few yards away from her where her aunt laid unconscious with the typical machines hooked to her. It hadn't taken long for Dr. DeGregory to get some gear down into this medbay and the steady heartbeat monitor comforted her to some degree.
She refocused her attention on where it was needed and activated her jetpack in order to get to the other berth. Sideswipe was lying on his back in stasis. His armor had seen better days. The red paint was dented, chipped, and burnt. The left side of his hip was crushed, and the entire joint would need reconstruction. Taylor landed on his left side to work on the armor covering his arm which was no longer sparking but still obliterated.
As she worked, the darkest of thoughts continued to seep into her mind making her hands shake even worse. None of these repairs would even matter if Ratchet couldn't pull off a miracle. Because really, if Ratchet failed, the chances were two lives would be lost. Nobody knew for sure, of course, but there wasn't a soul on this base that believed Sideswipe could survive waking up to find half his spark extinguished.
The evidence was gone and all he was left with were two broken mechs barely clinging to life. Optimus was in public at the moment. His alt mode parked behind a collection of buildings as his holoform leaned against himself. He was waiting. He was waiting in Sierra Vista, the city outside of the military base in Arizona, for any sort of answer to what had happened to his soldiers.
He felt his alt form's door swing open and Lennox stepped out while still on his satellite phone. The human let out a frustrated sigh, leading Prime to believe Lennox wasn't any closer to answers than he was, "Just keep searching." He pulled the device away from his face and turned to Optimus, "The teams are scavenging through the desert but the drones Sideswipe and Sunstreaker claimed to destroy can't be found. Either someone got there before us or they got up and walked off."
"Both unlikely." Optimus hummed, "We would've heard if humans found the drones and the twins aren't the kind to mistakenly leave their enemy half offlined."
Lennox nodded, "Any news on what attacked them?"
Optimus paused. He slowly shook his head, "No. Prowl and Jazz found nothing."
"They're going to be ok." Lennox said firmly, there was a fire in his voice, "Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, they're fighters. This won't keep them down long."
Prime let a small smile show on his holoform as a thanks to the words of comfort for the human commander he had grown close to. Lennox wasn't wrong. Optimus had seen the twins survive the impossible. It was an odd mixture of the skills they had honed over vorns in battle and the pure luck they were born with running through their energon lines. Plus, add in the brilliancy of Ratchet's medical talent and it equaled a scenario where the twins may just live forever.
Optimus knew this, but still there was an uneasy feeling churning in his tanks.
There was something brewing on the horizon and it left him fearful for the ones he led, the ones he cared for.
"Well, well, well… Optimus Prime. It took you long enough to get here." Both men turned to see Simmons, of all humans, walking up to them with a smug look drawn on his features. The look morphed to outrage when Lennox pulled his weapon out and aimed it directly at him. Simmons threw his hands up, "Hey! What is with you and pointing a gun in my face!"
Lennox glared at him, "I got missing drones and your ass is here? That isn't a coincidence. What did you do?"
"Why do you always blame me?Why am I always blamed? This is an outrage and-"
"What do you know?!" Lennox snapped again.
Simmons sobered and let his eyes bounce between the two of them, "We had a source send us here two days ago, before this whole mess began, and it… enlightened us on a few worrisome issues that we might wanna address before it murders us all."
Lennox and Optimus shared a tense look. Optimus took a step forward while Lennox lowered his weapon slightly. "Simmons, what is going on?"
"The drones are a lot smarter than we were led to believe."
That feeling of unease seemed to blossom even further. Prime stiffened, "Who is your source?"
"Megatron."
