It's been exactly four months since my last update and I deeply apologize for being a little late. I've been having a rough time with myself (emotionally specifically) and I took a little break to gather my thoughts before finishing a couple of paragraphs of this chapter (which was almost 90% done when I looked at it.) I'm proud of myself for this chapter and for future ones as well. This time I'm going to make it interesting *if my brain allows me to c'': * and I've been working on a couple ideas for future chapters. They'll be slow but absolutely worth it. I'm grateful for your patience (which is crazy considering that I take soo long... Σ(O_O) I'm happy you guys waited this long for this chapter to come out.)
Enjoy! ~ (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ
"Anthocharis cardamines, also known as the orange tip, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae, which contains 1,100 species of butterfly."
A middle-aged male with brown hair was sat down on a recliner seat with a book about butterflies in hand and with his younger daughter sat on his lap.
"I've never seen them before." She traces her index finger on the picture of the butterfly that had its signature orange pigmentation on its wings and the rest was a pale blue.
"The males are commonly seen the edges of the forests, like where we live, and the females are frequently seen in meadows." He pointed this out as the young auburn haired girl exclaimed in surprise.
She leans back and raises her gaze towards her father. "Can we see the butterflies, dad plea-a-a-se?"
The male chuckled and closes the book and then sets it aside on a small table to his left. "Sure, why not?"
She exclaims in excitement and jumps off of his laps and then grabs his hand, pulling him with all her might. He laughs at his daughter's attempts at dragging him out of his study room; it was amusing to watch her pull on his fingers while at the same time guiding him out of the house.
"Hold on there, Lucy! I forgot my camera!"
She pivoted with an eager glint in her violet/blue eyes. "Hurry! I want us to see the butterflies before they disappear!"
-x-
A person's hand suddenly waves in front of her face. She instantly blinks a couple of times and then stares down to see Rikona standing in front of her. "You were staring off into space aren't you?" she asks in between laughs which made Lucy smile sheepishly at her.
Rikona turns around then looks over her shoulder. "I'm glad you took the time to come over here and take some books with you, Lucy. I hate to let these wonderful books to go to waste."
Lucy smiles and lets out a small laugh. "Well, I'm happy you contacted me then. You know how much I love reading anything I can get my hands on."
She watches as Rikona walks away and disappears from her line of sight. Lucy lowers her gaze at the book in her hands; it was a book about butterflies and moths. A faint smile appears on her lips; she's reminded of the memories that were hidden away inside her mind and stares at the book with such fondness.
The sound of her phone ringing snapped her back to reality; she reaches down into her back pocket and answers it. Ratchets voice can be heard from the end of the line and the tone of his voice sounded frantic and he was speaking fast.
"Whoa - - whoa - - slow down Ratchet! What happened?" She listened intently to his brief explanation. "All right, I'll be there in a jiffy."
Lucy grabs the box filled with books and bids Rikona farewell before hurrying to her house. She swiftly hopped in her car and drove straight towards the Autobot base. Upon arrival, she was absolutely mortified to see Optimus, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Arcee were all huddled together in the med bay - - frozen like statues.
"What happened to them?" She shuts the door of her car and approaches the three teens.
Ratchet turns his helm to look at her. "Stasis Lock. They're alive…to simply put it, in human terms, they're in sleep mode but are unaware of their surrounding until something or something wakes them up." Lucy exclaims in surprise with her mouth shaped like an 'O'.
"The 'cons are crossing the Atlantic, making a beeline for North America." Agent Fowler noted approaching behind the monitor Ratchet was currently using.
"Wait. We can track them?" Jack and Lucy said in unison and then exchanged glances at one another.
"Why aren't they cloaked, like usual?" Rafael asks with a raised brow.
"None of this makes a lick of sense. They had us in the crosshairs, but the 'cons just took off." Agent Fowler said and then Miko chimed in.
"They even bailed on that spark extractor thingy."
Jack thinks for a moment and then he gets an idea. "Well, if the ship isn't cloaked, maybe the communication relay's are open, and - -"
"Yep, Yep. Are you suggesting that we should just call Megatron and ask him what's happening up there?!" Ratchet questions Jack's logic, and then receives a shrug from the four of them as if they were saying ''Why not?''
He turns his helm towards Agent Fowler, and he too shrugs in response.
"I mean- -" Ratchet turns his head around and his optics drifted down to Lucy. "It wouldn't hurt to try, you know?"
Ratchet sighs deeply and complied with their request and contacted the warship. There was no response at first and so, he attempted again except this time instead of Megatron answering the call it was a deep and guttural voice that responded.
"Megatron has been relieved of his command."
"Who is this?" Ratchet asked.
The voice repeated his question. "Who is this?!"
"Have you taken control of the decepticon vessel?" Ratchet once again questioned the stranger and the answer he got was a surprising one.
"I am the vessel! Any Cybertronian who interferes with my mission will be neutralized." It said as it began to broadcast a live feed inside the warship on their monitors, showing them various decepticons in stasis lock throughout the corridors of the ship. It looked like a scene from a horror movie but without the blood.
Ratchet furrowed his brow-ridges together. "What mission?"
"Priority one - - decrypt iacon database and recover decepticon technology."
"For what purpose?" He asked again but this time it didn't answer…and then it hung up.
"It hung up? Rude." Miko folds her arms in front of her chest and this somehow triggered Agent Fowler.
He stares down at Miko. "Rude?! There's a giant spaceship flying around collecting decepticon weapons of mass destruction!"
Jack blinks a few times before gaining his voice. "Wha - - a giant spaceship filled with neutralized decepticons." Agent Fowler urged him to get straight to the point. "This could be our only chance to slip aboard the ship and download the iacon database."
"So Optimus can decode it," Rafael remarked and then everyone turned their heads to Ratchet.
"Ingenious. I will infiltrate the decepticon warship." This was a terrible idea… on so many levels.
"Not ingenious." Jack expressed his disagreement towards Ratchets idea. "You saw what it did to the decepticons."
Lucy rests her hands on the railing and shares her thoughts about the situation. "And if you were to infiltrate the warship chances are that you would be in the same predicament like them."
"And probably Megatron, too," Rafael added and Miko followed suit.
"And Team Prime."
"But that tub had me dead to rights, and I'm still breathing." Agent Fowler said in relief.
Jack ponders for a bit until realization finally hits him. "The ship may be blind to humans."
Ratchet exchanges a questionable look down at them. He was contemplating whether to allow or not allow them to go through with the plan. His optics landed on Fowler and was slightly hesitant to say it…but he said it anyway.
"Very well, Agent Fowler. But at the first sign of trouble, I am bridging you right back here."
"Now, in order to download the database, you will need a compatible transfer drive." Ratchet hands over a giant pen drive to Agent Fowler.
"A what?" Agent Fowler stares at the large pen drive with a confused look on his face.
"He'll also need tech support." Rafael stepped forward and then Miko joined in on the plan along with Jack and Lucy.
-x-
Fowler, the kids, and Lucy GroundBridge on board the ship and were now walking down the corridors of the Decepticon warship.
The ship was much dimmer than the Autobot base and larger too. So she made sure to stick around with the group, not wanting to get lost along the way. It would be an absolute nightmare if she did get lost…well, she would've had a hard time finding the exit.
They soon find the console right around the corner and Rafael was the one to point out the presence of the console. His voice sounded rather nervous at something and with good reason. Slumped over the control panel was a 21ft - bright red Decepticon, but the mech stood absolutely still; not even acknowledging their presence.
Miko approached the mech and proceeded to pound on his leg before saying. "Doc knock is knocked out."
"Look." Rafael points up at the screen. "The ship's decoded two sets of iacon coordinates."
They all look up at the screen – it beeps – revealing the third set of coordinates.
"Three!" Raf turns to Fowler. "Let's rip and run."
Agent Fowler and Rafael were the first to clamber their way up on Knockout while the other three stayed below. Rafael then points at the port where Fowler plugs in the transfer drive Ratchet gave them.
The screen beeps and this caught Jack and Lucy's attention. They turned their heads to the left where a lone screen/monitor was located and they both noticed the location of the first iacon relic/artifact.
"Um, why is the warship heading for Manhattan?" Jack points this out and then the others were now staring up at the screen.
"Because that's where the first set of coordinates are located," Rafael said as he adjusted his glasses.
Agent Fowler contacts Ratchet, asking him about the cybertronian relic and what was it doing there. Ratchet simply stated that the relics had landed on earth eons ago, long before the city was built atop it.
Then Jack makes a chilling revelation of the situation. "Which means if the ship wants this one…it may have to move some buildings out of the way."
This wasn't good at all.
Agent Fowler furrowed/knitted his brows together with a displeased frown on his lips. "Our mission just got complicated. How do we deter this ship?" he asks through the earpiece, not noticing the other three had clambered up and were now standing behind him.
Ratchet advised him in disabling the navigation module, so he did that and was instantly electrocuted into unconsciousness. They watched him in horror as he stumbled backward before falling. Luckily, Lucy's quick-witted actions, she managed to prevent Agent Fowler from the rough fall (using her psychic/telekinesis), he landed with only a gentle but loud thump on the way down.
She was grateful knowing that Fowler didn't receive serious injuries from the fall but she's exceptionally glad that none of them noticed; now that would've been extremely unfortunate.
To their luck, the ship began to scan for them but was unable to detect them because it was searching for Cybertronian-based life forms. Ratchet insisted to bring them back but Jack was against this, realizing that they have to do something about this now. With Ratchets guidance, they head straight towards the ship's power core, in hopes that it would de-activate the Nemesis.
The four of them arrive at their destination. The now slightly dim room was filled with energon cubes that were stacked up in each corner of the room. They walked with utmost caution as they now made their way through the available space between the energon cubes. However, on the other side, they were shocked to find a frozen Megatron right in front of them.
"Megatron had the same idea," Jack said as Rafael confirmed that they were, in fact, on the right track.
"The energon injection valve can only be operated manually."
"Manually?!" They all exclaimed in unison before turning their attention to the frozen Decepticon leader.
Jack was the first to approach and was now standing right in front of the mech's leg. "Give me a boost." Neither of them hesitated to lend him a hand as he now clambered his way up to the fuel injection valve.
The three of them watch as Jack attempts to push the valve only to grunt in frustration when it didn't budge. Just when things were going smoothly, a familiar voice echoed inside the room they were in.
Their heart sank to the bottom of their stomach.
"I am infested with alien life-forms!" Bugger… the ship finally detected them; Lucy, Miko, and Raf.
"Uh-oh. We just got made." Miko said whilst the three of them were now staring up at a metallic claw-like arm with a single glowing red optic (eye).
Lucy turns to face Miko with an alarmed look on her face. "You think?"
Soon the manipulated arm came crashing down at them and they were quick to jump out of the way before they legged it. Miko and Raf ran back to hide among the energon cubes while Lucy went the opposite direction.
Lucy expected the manipulated arm to follow her instead of the others - - it didn't. Hearing Miko and Raf's yelp from afar made her stomach churn. She quickly turned around and headed straight towards them, seeing the arm move a couple of energon cubes to then reveal the two young teens. Lucy threw herself in front of them, using herself as a shield to protect them from the metallic arm.
"All parasites will be eradicated!" Before it could hurl itself at them, its attention was driven away by Jack (who successfully managed to attract its attention).
After Jack tricked the mechanical arm as it crashed into Megatron's frozen body. It began to topple over - - dragging the lever down with his body and successfully reversing the effects of dark energon from the ship. They all made a run for it when Megatron unfroze from his stasis lock. The effects were wearing off which means they had to get the transfer drive as quickly as possible.
They arrive back to the room and were relieved to see Agent Fowler wide awake–ish. He babbled nonsense before tumbling back down, poor Fowler.
The monitor above displayed on screen five sets of coordinates. Was that it?
"That's all that's been downloaded?!" Jack was expecting the list to be longer, yet the ship was only able to decode four.
"T-the iacon file must be huge!" Rafael said.
"I can't imagine how many items there are which could potentially be used against us…" Lucy swallows nervously at the thought of it. "Why can't they tone down the danger for once?"
There was a flash of green that appeared behind them; it was the GroundBridge. Miko and Rafael ran over to Fowler helping him go through the GroundBridge. Lucy turns to Jack.
"You should go. I'll be right behind you." He turns to her with an already worried look on his face.
"Lucy, you can't be serious. What if-" She cuts him off.
"I'll be fine." She places her hands on either side of his shoulders and gives him a reassuring smile. He hesitates for a moment but finally comes to understand her decision and then goes through the vortex. "Ok. Let's get this done quickly."
Lucy looks around and makes sure no one was around to see what she was about to do. She takes a few steps back before making a sudden dash - - making a miraculous, super jump onto the control panel. Lucy makes her way over to the transfer drive, with her back facing to the frozen decepticon (or so she thought). She began to pull at the drive out from the socket. When she was about to make one last pull there was a sound of metal swirling behind her.
Oh…bugger me.
She pivots around and was now face to face by (what the others refer to him) Knockout, fully online from stasis lock. There was a cheeky grin plastered on his face, this wasn't a good sign at all. She stumbles and falls on her bum.
He transforms his right hand into a mounted drill and slowly inches it towards her. "Say ahhh."
Then a familiar voice was heard from behind Knock Out. She caught a glimpse of the 'bot behind him and it was none other than Ratchet and he looked… angry. The look he had on his faceplates was scary…it scared her a little.
"I'm here to offer a second opinion." Ratchet then proceeds to clobber Knock Out and this left Lucy completely speechless. He then scoops her gently on to his servo - - takes the transfer drive with him before running through the vortex.
They arrive safely back to base and Ratchet had placed her near between the crook of his neck and his shoulder which she took as a comforting gesture from him. She simply just sat there in silence and listens intently while Ratchet began to inform the rest of the team of the good news about the data they retrieved.
"Then we must act quickly for Megatron possesses the same four sets. And he will not hesitate to obtain the potential doomsday devices which lie at the site of each." Optimus said then turns to face the rest of the group. "If we are to have any hope of recovering the iacon relics before the decepticons do—we must divide our resources." He suggests this idea to which Ratchet expresses his concern about it.
"But Optimus, when it comes to numbers we are already at a great disadvantage." He said in dismay. Optimus turns his helm towards the field medic.
"Under the circumstances; swiftness of action is paramount. This is one race that we absolutely cannot afford to lose." Optimus affirmed.
They all soon came to realize that the warship has moved away from its course (to Manhattan) and it's most likely headed to the second sets of coordinates. Optimus assigns Arcee and Bumblebee at the site in New York to scout beneath its streets for the relic. Somehow in the midst of this, Jack and Miko volunteered, and convinced Optimus of their usefulness (which successfully worked) and were sent out to New York.
It was a race against the clock to arrive at the locations and successfully retrieve the relics before the decepticons get there; four of them which are displayed on the monitor.
To Be Continued…