AN: I am so sorry it took a week for an underwhelming chapter to be completed but we have 2 people on vacation at work and I am just plain tired.
Mayhem groaned, barely three paragraphs in her 'studies', and slumped over, bored out of her mind. If her Carrier wanted to catch up on her studies it was all fine and dandy but making a throwback to her sparklinghood with boring reading material made her feel like she was being punished. Which, when thinking about it, made a lot of sense after the rubber ducky incident.
Letting out another unnecessarily loud grunt, the heavy-duty seeker attempted at drawing attention to her complaint, be it from her brother, Bulkhead or Ratchet. "Why do we have to read this stuff?"
"This stuff, as you call it, is Cybertronian history, your history, Mayhem." The medbot didn't even bother to take his optics off the console, knowing if he did it would only be adding more fuel to the fire.
"But I already know plenty about us. Solus created Forgers, Forgers created Makers, the Council fragged over the Makers and the rest is more boring history. Besides, why do we have to do this and Rad doesn't?"
Said orange mech in question was sitting on the platform besides the console, finally having been allowed to help with the more technical aspects of their operations, and did his best to disregard the obvious false equivalent.
"Because I've already read the entire thing while you were out goofing off." He pointed out, reminding Mayhem of her constant base escapades with the pretense of patrolling. "You and Silver may be big but when it's so-called boring work none of you can ever be found. It's like you two turn into cyber ninjas, all you need is a smoke bomb.
"Show off." She sneered and set down her datapad, wanting to avoid throwing it at a wall in frustration. "Still, count me out. Hey, Bulk, how about we go out do some patrolling?" And there it was, just as Radical predicted, Mayhem attempted to wiggle her way out of her responsibilities once again.
The wrecker turned his back to the femme and fiddled with his servos, not wanting to see the guilt-inducing pout she was about to throw at him. He wondered how thin was the ice he was on with both the Autobot and Maker leaders for humoring Mayhem so often.
"Your Carrier wants the best for you, I think you should finish your reading and then we could go off-roading later." He gathered up the courage and then turned to Mayhem and the annoyed look, although a little bothersome, was way more bearable then the alternative. "You really show focus on your studies, you know? Before I became a warrior I was a laborer- construction. I can build stuff, I can break stuff. That's it."
"I love breaking stuff. I wanna do that."
With a dejected sigh he palmed his faceplate in exasperation. "You weren't listening, were you?"
"What? If that doesn't work I can always do what mom did before Cybertron went kaput." It was already her number one option if they ever returned to Cybertron, even if some bots didn't exactly agree with her choice.
"Being a medic still requires studies."
"Not that, I meant the other thing."
"As if she'd ever let you." Silverbot put down his datapad and shivered at the mental image he'd just gotten, attempting to purge it from his processor as fast as possible.
Mayhem had never kept it a secret how she idolized the brief glimpses of their Carrier on stage. The bright lights, the cheering crowd, all the beautiful costumes and songs along with lots of friends who never seemed to get sad and helped to keep their district in shape with all the shanix they brought in… It was at best an idealized version of reality though the optics of a young femme but it had stuck in her processor long enough for her to want it all.
With an almost proud puff of her wings the seeker crossed her arms with a smirk. "She doesn't let me do a lot of things and I still do them."
"We're all aware of that, Miss 'let's storm the Nemesis'." Said her brother with an unimpressed expression, attempting at reminding her of the talk-down she'd received from their Carrier.
"Why would you want to even do that?" Bulkhead was also desperately attempting to wipe away the image of a femme he considered a friend as a 'showbot'. Sometimes it was already awkward when her more Maker tendencies showed through, no need to add even more to that or else one of those days he couldn't even look at her and see just regular old Mayhem anymore.
Mayhem shrugged. "Free stuff from love-struck mechs. Airachnid furnished her whole hab-suite that way."
Before anyone else could attempt to question the heavy-duty seeker's life choices the whole conversation was interrupted by a signal popping up in the world map displayed in one of the console's bigger screens. Maybe it was for the best, arguing with the femme tended to be like a labyrinth, lots of choices but only one outcome- she turned you around so much you never found the exit.
"I'm detecting a fresh energon pulse from the nation called Greece." Ratchet nodded towards the map. "An ancient city, quite historic, I believe."
"Ancient Greece, huh?" The green wrecker wondered if the plan hatching in his processor would work. "Well, Mayhem, if you think Cybertronian history is boring let's try for the Earth one."
"Woohoo, field trip!"
"Educational, field trip."
"Keep telling yourself that." Mayhem patted Bulkhead shoulder with sarcastic sympathy and a smile before tuning to Ratchet. "Hey, doc, bridge us, will ya?"
The Autobot medic sighed but complied with the request, in a few seconds the groundbridge was coming to life and with a rushed 'see you later' the femme had dragged the green mech before he could understand what was happening. After the green vortex closed behind the pair, Ratchet let out another resigned sigh.
"I suspect my job at this base is slowly losing its respect." He commented to no one in particular.
"No, just from her." Radical patted the mech's servo with an awkward smile.
Mayhem looked around in awe at the clear skies, the desire to take flight and have some fun almost overwhelming her processor. As much as she liked to deny it being a seeker was a part of who she was, her wings meant to be used and cut through the open air even if not reaching the impressive speed her Carrier could due to her heavier frame.
The femme looked below at the ancient ruins (not that ancient when compared to her age) and took in the somewhat familiar architecture style. Hadn't Cybertron had something similar to that? "So, what are we doing in Grecoville?"
Bulkhead took out his energon scouter and followed the signal Ratchet had picked up on to the end of the ledge they were on. "I'm scouting energon, you're going to look around and do some research."
"As if I'd let you hog all the fun stuff. Come on, I'm more than just a cute faceplate. I can also crush Cons." She paused for a moment and let out a low chuckle. "Hehehe, crush Cons, that's kinda catchy."
"Signal's strong." He examined the scouter closer, attempting at pinpointing the exact location that would lead them to their supplies. There were human digging machines down below, paused midway through their work and he realized what must have happened. "An excavation site? Looks like the humans hit energon veins and they don't even know it." It was then that a fresco caught his optic, not because of the images, but because of what was being depicted held in a human's hand. "Whoa, that's Cybertronian."
"It is?" Try as she could, Mayhem could not make heads or tails of what was in front of her.
"Energon Harvester. Why would ancient Greeks paint it?"
"You know what that round thing is?" Mayhem took out her newly-fixed holopad and took a picture to show everyone else. Someone would definitely notice a missing fresco otherwise. "You're smarter than you let on."
"But even dumber than he looks." A mech's voice came from behind them.
The two bots turned around to see another one atop of the many rows of stone stairs, but the insignia on his chassis very clearly identified him as a Decepticon. He was large, probably the same class as Bulkhead, and his scheme of blue with an orange faceplate left no mistake for his identity.
"Breakdown." Bulkhead narrowed his optics. Just what they needed, a big walking disaster.
The Decepticon laughed. So, the old lug still remembered him. Good. "Miss me?"
"Like rust in my undercarriage."
Mayhem looked between the two mechs, wondering what was going on. Sure, they were enemies but from the looks of it there was something personal about their feud. "You know this lunkhead?"
"We have a history."
"And you have a new friend. I've got to say, at least you have good taste." Breakdown then picked up one of the marble columns, raising I above his helm and throwing it straight at the femme. "Catch!"
The marble pillar flew through the air, straight at Mayhem, but she did not let herself get intimidated that easily. With a roar she clenched her first and drove it straight at the incoming projectile, shattering it in a cloud of smaller pieces and dust.
"Mayhem, are you-" Bulkhead didn't have time to finish his question before he was tackled by the Decepticon who used the thick dust cloud as cover.
The mechs tumbled off the ledge and to the ground bellow several yards away, with the Autobot suffering the brunt of the fall. When they bounced off the rocky terrain Breakdown used they momentum and his opponent's confusion to throw him into the fresco, shattering it into a worse state than the column. Bulkhead felt his whole frame scream in pain from the impact but persisted through it, attempting at getting himself up to get in a few hits as well.
"Oops, hope the pretty picture wasn't too important." The blue mech sneered at the green wrecker.
Breakdown prepared to go away, knowing that 'Lord' Starscream was most likely already having a fit over only knock Out having shown up, but got an unexpected (and well deserved) punch right in the faceplate, curtesy of a very pissed off Mayhem. Just like he'd sent the Autobot flying so did he suffer the same fate, crashing and rolling though the rocky terrain, while the femme want to check on her friend for injuries.
"You hurt?" Asked the white and purple seeker, kneeling down to check on any possible injuries, while looking into his optics for any processor damage. Even if she wanted to beat the slag out of the Con her friend came first.
The heavy-hitter mech meanwhile regained his composure and picked himself off the ground before deciding to head the same path as Knock Out. Rivalry or not having Starscream shriek into his audio receptors was not something he wished to experience (again), it wasn't the fact that he was actually impressed at the Maker's strength that could rival some mechs he knew, not at all.
Still, not satisfied with his small victory, he decided to have the last word. "Sweet aft, by the way!" He laughed and turned into his alt-mode, speeding away to find a safe space to bridge onto the Nemesis
"Bootleg!" Mayhem shouted and made a move to give him a piece of her mind, preparing to turn into her jet form, but Bulkhead held her by the arm and shook his helm. She made a face but reluctantly let the Decepticon go in favor of helping Bulkhead sit down. "That was a nasty fall you had there."
"Told you I'm good at breaking things." Bulkhead looked around him to see the fresco beyond repair. Figures he'd run into Breakdown not only have his aft handed to him but also causing a blunder that could cost them a useful artifact.
"It wasn't a total loss." Mayhem attempted to comfort the wrecker by taking out her holopad and giving him a wink and a smile. "Got us a picture of the picture."
Optimus examined the image displayed with caution before handing back the holopad to Mayhem. To think that such a powerful device had been on Earth for that long and none of the sides had found it was either extremely lucky or unlucky, depending on the way one looked at their situation.
"It is indeed an energon Harvester." He returned the holopad to Mayhem before continuing. "A powerful tool created by the Ancients to remove raw energon from any source."
"Greek gods knew Autobots?" Radical wondered how meddlesome their species actually was with other worlds. "We could barely leave our district and you guys were out here cavorting with humans? So much for robots in disguise."
"Not at all. The Ancients often used the art of a given era to conceal messages. This fresco was likely a signpost indicating a Harvester's location, hidden somewhere on this planet."
"Optimus, I just have one question." Silverbot prayed what he was about to ask wasn't true but the name of the artifact pretty much spelled it out. "If the Harvester removes energon from anything and we all have energon pumping inside us…"
"In Decepticon hands the Harvester would be a devastating weapon."
"See, you are the genius who wrecked that painting." Mayhem patted Bulkhead on the back with a smile and a thumbs up. "I wish I could have wrecked the lugnut for the 'sweet aft' comment but better late than never, I'll get him later, I guess."
It was near imperceptible but if one was paying close attention they could have seen Silverbot's optic twitch. So, that was how the new Cons wanted to play huh? Maybe it was time he began playing a more active role on the field and if this Breakdown was the first he ran into who was he to complain?
"Mayhem's not wrong. How can the Cons find the Harvester without the fresco?" Arcee chimed in.
"With high-speed internet." Radical took out his wrist cable and connected himself to the console. "If you do an image search for Greek god and golden orb this pops up." He pulled up an image of a statue holding a familiar artifact. "It's in a museum."
"That the real deal?" The two wheeler turned to their leader. If it really was genuine they'd need to get their servos on it before the Decepticons put humans in danger in order to retrieve it.
Optimus could only attempt to settle the dread he was feeling in his spark. "Contact Agent Fowler."
The sparkling nodded and quickly pulled up the contact for their liaison. Humans dealt with other humans, it wasn't as if they could wander into the exhibit and mingle with the crowds of organics.
"You've reached Special Agent William Fowler. I'm currently on an intensive training retreat and I'm unavailable until Tuesday."
…That was not what they had been hoping for.
Ratchet groaned and resisted the urge to punch the console. Bulkhead had done that two days ago and it had just been fixed. "I hate talking to machines."
"Without Agent Fowler's direct aid we will have to confiscate the Harvester on our own." The Autobot leader turned to the other bots, mainly the Autobots because any of the Makers would raise suspicion, even in alt mode.
Airachnid chuckled and crossed her arms, leaning against the platform near the console. "So, Autobots are going to be stealing from humans? That sounds fun."
"It sounds illegal." Solarflare corrected the spider-femme.
"I do not wish to break human law, but once the Decepticons learn of the Harvester's location they will not hesitate to obtain it by any means necessary. We must act covertly." Optimus reassured his team. He did not enjoy meddling in human affairs but there were times when their paths crossed and he could only hope for minimal damage.
"No offense but covertly and giant robots don't really go together." Silverbot pointed out the contradiction while making a motion with his digit around the room. If the Decepticons really were to attempt to get their servos on the device anything could happen… Like the missing mountain incident. That had been fun one to explain, Fowler almost had steam literally coming out of his ears.
"Well, one of us is just about the right size to sneak in." Doomsday smiled and motioned towards Radical.
The sparkling in question could only make a confused face and point at himself before smiling as well. He could finally be in one of the missions and no, the train and Dingus transportation did not count, it was only by chance he had to deliver a tool to his Carrier.
"Yeah, I'm not sure that's wise…" Bulkhead trailed off but did not say anything else on account of the Forger making motions with her servo across her neck, her smile having become strained. Yes, he definitely shouldn't say anything else.
"But it may be our best option, Bulkhead. The longer we debate the longer we give the Decepticons." Optimus knew it may be their only option.
"Yes, but it doesn't change the fact Radical isn't human." Solarflare countered the Prime's arguments. "And you" She turned to the modded femme. "should learn that two wrongs don't make a right."
"I could hack into the museum's guard schedule and open us a time window." Radical stepped in before an argument could develop. He was certain his Carrier would lose. With a few key strokes on his keypad he had access to the museum and much more. "They use an outside company for night security whose website could use some serious security updates. About 45 minutes should be more than enough time to get the Harvester out of there."
"See? Problem solved." Doomsday reassured her friend. Her little mech would finally have his time to shine.