Chapter 30: The Hunt-Part 4
Miko, Cindy, and June jumped from their sleep once hearing the loud alarm going off. The three walked close to their cell wall and see a bunch of agents with huge guns running to the source of the trouble. The three looked amongst each other before looking back to see one of the agents look at them.
"Your family is here, little girl," he told them before joining the others.
"Mom!" Miko said with full excitement as she started pulling out her key from its hiding spot.
"What are you doing?" Cindy asked with an eyebrow raised.
"I'm getting us out of here," Miko said as she unlocked the cell door with her key that morphed into the right fit. "Let's find Jack and Raf and leave!"
She ran out with the quickness without giving June nor Cindy the chance to keep up.
"Miko, wait!" June called out before losing the girl from sight.
Meanwhile, Optimus and the whole crew came in a flame of glory. Destroying everything in sight while searching for June and the kids. Especially for Arcee and Windblade. The two feminine bots were going complete mom mode as they broke through every agent security and plasma guns, and ignoring Ultra Magnus' order to stay put with the group.
"Where is my daughter?!" Arcee demanded while shooting towers down.
"Where is my son?!" Windblade said, when using her blade to block the shots from the guns, and charged straight to technical tanks and slice them in half.
The two feminine bots ran together both searching each hallway they passed and taking down anything that stands in their way. The one thing that feminine bots have that no male bots don't have is the motherly instinct. Wind and Arcee frowned at not finding their kids when pushing things down and blowing up things in sight. Their patience was growing increasingly thin by the second. The agents that they saw ran from their lives and did not want to pick a fight while Arcee and Wind rolled their optics and resumed searching.
"I'm about to blow this place to the ground if I don't have my Miko," said Arcee, kicking a piece of tech to the side.
"Drift told me to never let my anger be my ally." Windblade whacked a few vans and kicking a few cars out of her way, " But he did not teach me how to keep my motherly nature under control."
Arcee looked around and feel herself getting closer to her daughter. "You can not keep that under control, Wind. It's part of our nature as females. Miko is nearby in that direction."
Windblade looked at the fifth tunnel that Arcee is pointing. Then she looked over to another tunnel and felt her spark beating. "My Raf is over in that direction. We should split up and come back here to cover more ground. Cool?"
"Cool," said Arcee, before transforming into her motorcycle form and drove off to her tunnel.
"Awesome." Windblade transform into her plane form and zoomed into her tunnel.
And speaking of Raf, he and Jack were in the break room playing cards with a few agents who they made friends with up until the alarm went off and currently found themselves running to find June, Cindy, and Miko, but so far, they had had no luck. However, that did not stop the two from running to search. They checked each room both upstairs and downstairs, but still no luck at all. They began to worry at this moment.
"I'm starting to think that we're being rescued, Raf," said Jack, stopping himself from running.
The young boy did the same while adjusting his glasses. "Same here. This is the perfect opportunity to download those files that Agent Simmons showed us from the moment we got here."
Jack looked at Raf and said with concern, "Shouldn't we, I don't know, find my mom, my fiancée, and your girlfriend and get out of here?. This is no time to play steal secret information from the government."
"We have to Jack. Otherwise, we just pretend that we did not learn about the bot's dark origins," his friend said, guiding the older boy to the familiar room that Simmons took them.
Back with Miko, she ran hard and did not care what was going on around her when running like mad. That was until something huge jumped out from the dark and pounced on the poor girl. The extreme nerve shock in Miko had reached all the way down to her feet. The pain was aimed in her arches on where the deep scars were located was hurting like mad. She winced at the pain before looking at the huge Cybertron feline that was growling at her in fury. Feeling that this thing is one of Megatron's pets that he sent to get her key, Miko managed to punch the thing before being scratched by the cat.
"Ouch!" She yelled out in pain.
Suddenly both the cat and Miko heard a motorcycle engine coming from behind. The two turned to see Arcee jumped out of her form and tackled the cat, and did hand to hand combat.
"How dare you attack a sparkling. My sparkling!" Arcee roared while blasting the thing in the eyes.
The feline roared while trying to claw at Arcee but the feminine Autobot was too fast for the Cybertron panther. Miko watched her mom fight like a true Autobot warrior and wanted to cheer her own but the pain in her feet was hurting even more. Little did Arcee know, a ground bridge opened up that did not belong to them as an unwanted and familiar face appeared. Miko shook her head in refusal and wanted to get away badly.
"We meet again, Miko." Arachnid grin evilly, "Megatron wants you and that key. Like it or not. And then he'll let me kill you."
"MOM!" The girl cried out in fear and feeling helpless.
Arcee ripped the panther's head off before looking over to see Arachnid holding Miko and grinned evilly at Arcee. At the very instant, Arcee rushed to fight her personal enemy to get her daughter. But a few of Megatron's panthers jumped Arcee from behind and keep her busy. Arachnid arrived back at the warship with Miko in her hand struggling to get out.
"Let me go!" The teenager demanded with a frown.
"Forget it, brat. As soon as we get the Allspark the better my life is." Arachnid looked at the girl before yelling out in pain and dropped her.
Miko landed on the floor feet first and yelled out in pain since her feet are still hurting. She looked to see the cause of her save and saw none other than Cindy, who had a tazer staff she found in the weapon room. Cindy ran over to help Miko back onto her feet despite her pain.
"You should not come here, Cindy. But thanks anyway," the Japanese girl said, giving a smile.
"No problem. Now let's see if we can get back before we get spotted," the bespectacled girl said, speed walking with her friend.
The two made great progress of not being spotted by any of the Cons and managed to find a room to hide in. This gave Miko the chance to seat on the floor and rest her extremely sore feet. Cindy took this moment to find her bearings.
"We're in a medical lab. Huh, I wonder what's been going on in here?" The younger girl asked, but did not expect an answer.
"You don't want to know, little girl."
Both Miko and Cindy looked up to find a big bot strapped down onto a table and looked terrible. Miko knew exactly who he was and could not believe that she was seeing him once again.
"Silas?!" She managed to stand back up.
Silas, who was now in the body of the dead Decepticon, Breakdown, was in a lot of pain and suffering. Regretting to ever think that he could join the Cons just by offering his old work to Megatron.
"Little girl," Silas groaned out, trying to speak through his pain, "I know that I made wrong choices and hurt everyone you know, but please help me. I'll do anything. Just, please get me out of here."
"Why should I?" Miko frowned, "You almost killed me, Jack, and Raf when we were at his house. Not to mention the other times you did things that were bad."
"I can help you two get out of here. Please, Miko," the man said, pleading for help.
"Oh, the poor guy," said Cindy, feeling bad for the guy/bot.
Miko looked at Cindy as if she was high on drugs. "Cindy, you have no idea what Silas has done in the past. He tried to frame Optimus with an imposter version of himself. Before that, he took Bumblebee's special part that helps him transform and pull out his guns. And personally, he teamed up with Arachnid and kidnapped my future mother-in-law to bait my Jack and my mom into a trap, and almost dissected my mom!"
Silas managed to fight his pain and speak again. "I'm only human. Well, half-human. The point is I'm owning up and paying for my evil mistakes. I'm willing to change. I'm willing to join Team Prime."
The bespectacled girl looked back at the Japanese girl with a sensitive attitude, "Where is your sense of compassion, Miko? He said he was sorry and wanted to join a worthy cause. Come on and let's aid the man."
Miko crossed her arms and turned her back to Cindy. It made the girl think about what Optimus has taught her about giving anyone a chance at redemption. They had that talk on the mountain when watching the stars shine in the sky. Hating to admit that the last Prime is indeed correct. And so she turned back to her friend who looked real concerned before looking back at Silas who had a pleading look on his face. Sighing in defeat she walked over to the hot that used to be Silas and pulled out her key.
"My mom is not going to like this. She is going to be mad," she said to herself and started using the key's powers and unlocked the straps that hold Silas. The former MECH leader got off the lab table and fell on his knees, too weak and too painful to do anything.
"What did Knockout do to you?" The girl asked, looking deeply concern and feeling her sensitive side getting the best of her.
"That lab-loving creep has been constantly injected me with that unsafe green Energon. It gave me incredible pain and unimaginable aggressive behavior. My new body needs regular energon and not that stuff," he informed her.
"Miko, you have to do something! He needs some healing," Cindy spoke while urging Miko to use her key.
"Fine. Hold still, Silas," the teenage girl said as her key adjusted to the bot's main circuits and healed him.
Silas felt his body healing with high speed and got up with brand new energy. Miko stepped back and pulled Cindy behind her in case that he might fool them and turn on them.
"I feel like a million bucks!" He grinned and flexed his arms. "Thank you very much, Miko. I owe you everything!"
Just before Miko could say a word, the doors of the lab flew open and in came Knockout, who was looking at his pad without noticing that Silas is out and the kids were there.
"Alright, Silas, I was planning on injecting you with a combined mix of synthetic and dark Energon to see if the side effects are unbearable. Let alone see if I can bring my big brother back from the dead without having the mindless effect," he said.
The 'Con looked to see Silas off the lab table and then looked down to see the girls who were looking in shock, "What the?!" He exclaimed.
Miko looked at Silas. "For what you owe me, how about you start by knocking this creep into next Sunday?" She said.
He nodded. "With pleasure," he said.
His helmet slipping on as he pulled out his hammer, he jumped over the girls, whacking Knockout across the head, making him the floor with a loud thud and became unconscious. Silas put his helmet back before looking back at Miko and Cindy with a friendly smile.
"Shall we ladies?" He asked, guiding the teens out of the room before all three began running for their lives as the alarm on the ship was sounding off and every Con was looking for them. Silas had to pull his hammer back out a few times to deal with a few Cons and shooting them hard without hesitation with his guns. The former MECH leader informed the girls about an untraceable escape pod that they could use to get out of the warship as it would only take them twenty minutes to reach.
"My feet are killing me. I can feel my whole shoes when I run. Man, it's like I have duck feet or something," Miko said, stopping herself and the others to take a quick minute break.
Both Silas and Cindy watched the Japanese girl bent down to brace her hands against her legs and suck some air through her teeth to fight the pain she was feeling.
"Do you have pes planus? Because it sounds like you do," Silas said, watching the body language of the girl closely.
"Pes planus? What in the name of Primus is that?" The girl asked before feeling even more fatigue in her arches.
"It means flat feet, Miko. You never showed signs of it until today. It's common in genetics, age, or traumatized injuries," Cindy informed her best friend before helping her walk.
"Come on, were are almost there-," Silas got cut off by a blast that hit him in the back and made him fall to the cold floor.
"Silas!" Cindy called out in worry for the bot/human.
Miko looked up in fear to see the Con who was responsible for it and felt pure fear. There standing in front of them was none other than Megatron who had his dark saber in hand and grinned evilly.
"Even though you're not Cybertronian or have genetic blood as your adopted mother, you still act just like Arcee. You don't know when to stop fighting," Megatron pointed out before pointing his crafted sword at the girls. "Now, be so kind to hand over that key, and I might just let you three live. The choice is yours, Miko."
The Japanese girl looked at Megatron with anger while ignoring her foot pain. She wished that she had her adopted mom and dad's genes so she can blast that mug of his clean off, but unfortunately, that was not the case since she is indeed human. She looked at Cindy who looked completely scared to see the leader of the Decepticons in person before seeing Silas slightly and slowly getting up on one knee. Seeing that he was too weak from that hit of the dark sword's energy that is made of pure dark energon and hating to admit that she lost this fight, she pulled her key out and showed it to Megatron. He grinned evilly at the sight of what he was seeing as he put his hand out.
"Hand it right here, Miko," he said, waiting patiently.
At that moment the spark key began glowing brighter than it ever had and caught everyone's attention. Little did everyone know that the Allspark in the Autobot's base was talking to Miko through her key. The conversation between the two was as if they were close best friends as the cube had instructed her what to do. She was hesitant about what the cube have wanted her to do but then it told her that it will make her mother even more happier than ever before. With that in mind and seeing it was the only way at the moment, Miko looked at her glowing key and looked back at Megatron, who still waited for the key to be in his hand.
What came next was unexpected nor even thought about.
Miko put her key in her mouth and swallowed it in one gulp without having to choke or feel the sharp pain.
"Miko, did you seriously ate an alien artifact?! Are you insane, girl?!" Cindy asked in both panic and concern.
"The Key!" Megatron yelled in anger, raising his sword. "I'm going to cut it out of you for this!"
"Not on my watch, Megatron!" said Silas, using his shoulder gun and launched a missile at the Con.
The missile made contact with Megatron and exploded hard. This gave Silas the chance to grab the girls and jump into the escape pod and launch it out of the warship. Megatron got up off the floor in full rage as he lost his chance in finding the cube and ordered one of his best fighters to go chase the pod, but was informed that the pod is untraceable and he got mad enough to stab a nearby Con in the chest.
Back in the escape pod, Silas felt relieved to finally escaped his torture and couldn't wait to go straight and walk on the path of good. He looked down to see Cindy checking on Miko who looked unwell. He too had been shocked at what she had done, but it had been a better idea than giving it to Megatron. "Hang in there, kid," he said softly.
Miko felt her body going weak and her insides churning. She felt a very high fever and feel sweat running down her body in buckets and making her entire clothes from shirt to socks soaked. It concerned Cindy real badly and she felt horrible that she could not do anything for her best friend due to not having anything to aid her.
"Miko, you're burning up! Ouch, my hand!" Cindy waved her right hand around to cool it off after placing it on her friend's head and her hand had burned against the Japanese girl's forehead.
Silas looked at the girl, using his scanners to find out what was going on. "She's got something like an infection," he said. "Severe sweating, high fever, extreme tiredness, and it looks like even the chills."
"Including super dehydration," Miko spoke up, shivering before she passed out.
"Oh, scrap, Miko! We don't have any medical care kits in here," the bespectacled girl said, pulling the other girl back up from the floor.
"Don't worry, as soon as we hit solid ground, will take her to a nearby hospital," the bot/human said, feeling worried for one of his rescuers.
At that moment, their pod had hit the ground just in time for Silas to strongly kick the door open. He let Cindy get out first and then picked up an unconscious Miko in his hands and carefully got out of the pod. Worrying that the child won't make it if they didn't headed to the hospital now, he was about to transform and drive her there until he heard a loud, angry roar.
"What have you done to my Miko?!"
Silas looked up and saw Arcee and the whole crew pointing their guns at him. He stood still as he did not know what to do at this point, but he still held Miko to him protectively. He looked at each Autobot, who gave him a serious facial expression especially the mother. Arcee pointed both of her blasters at the man/bot and did not let her optics off of him.
"Put Miko down, Silas. And then put your hands up on where we can see them," Optimus ordered in anger.
"And if you harm my sparkling anyway, Silas, I'll kill you. Even though I'm an Autobot soldier, my daughter comes first," Arcee said.
Silas understood the situation. He was dealing with a mom who would shoot to kill to have her child back. He wanted to do what he was told to do but remembered what happened to the girl. Especially how she had found forgiveness in her heart to help him escape, let alone try to get in the Autobot's good grace.
"The child is sick," he began, still holding her close to himself to protect her. "She needs medical attention. Serious medical attention if I don't mind adding. She..."
"You did something to her! You monster! You dare harm an innocent child and probably tried to experiment on her. You are going to pay, Silas!" Arcee yelled in full mom rage, ignoring Silas' explanation and being too quick to assume he hurt the girl.
"Wait!" Cindy called out, quickly getting in front of Silas. "Silas didn't hurt Miko! He saved us!"
"Cindy, get away from him," Bulkhead said firmly.
"No! Listen to me!" She said. "Megatron had us cornered and he demanded Miko give him her key, but she refused. She swallowed it!"
"She speaks the truth," Silas said. "I don't know what possessed her to swallow the key, but she did."
Ratchet moved a bit closer and scanned Miko, his eyes widening at that. "Prime, they speak the truth," he said. "I can detect the key inside of Miko's stomach. She's becoming ill from it."
"Why would she swallow the key?" Jazz asked.
"Worry about that later. Right now, Miko needs medical attention and the boys and June are still trapped along with Evac!" Cindy said urgently.
"Ratchet, you take care of Miko," Optimus said. "Arcee, Jazz, and Prowl. You three stay here and guard the girls and watch Silas' every move. The rest of you, follow me."
"Yes, sir!" They all said as the team headed out with the four bots that were told to stay behind moving closer to Silas. Ratchet went up to them.
"Let me see her," he requested.
With the upmost gentleness, the bot/human handed the child to him. "Please help her, Ratchet," he pleaded. "The kid saved my life. I owe her a debt."
Arcee growled, but Jazz placed a hand on her shoulder. "Arcee, he's speaking the truth," he said. "Calm down. You getting angry isn't going to help Miko. She needs you right now, so focus on her. Just her, nothing else."
The blue femme took a deep breath and nodded as Prowl checked on Cindy, who insisted she was fine as they watched in worry as Ratchet worked to get the girl they were all fond of stabilized.
Will Ratchet be able to stablize Miko? With the others be able to save the boys and June? Stay tuned to find out! ;)
And please leave a review for John2851 and myself, but no flames!
GoldGuardian2418