Ch. 6

Optimus stared down at Starscream and Breakdown, his optics holding a mix of concern and relief, "It is good to see MECH has brought you no harm. How is Breakdown?"

Breakdown growled and struggled to pull his arms free, "Release me and I'll show you exactly how I am!"

Starscream glared down at the trapped blue mech and covered his mouth, "You are going to be very quiet and you are going to be very grateful. I told you I would explain later and I meant that. Now shut up."

Breakdown huffed quietly. Ratchet and Optimus approached cautiously and helped Starscream pull the restraints from the blue mech's arms, Arcee and Bumblebee keeping watch with their blasters at the ready.

As the seeker helped Breakdown to his peds he frowned, looking at each Autobot, "Wait, wait... Where's Bulkhead?"

Ratchet scoffed, "We found him unconscious a few miles from here. We had to get him back to base before we could do anything else. Your handy work, I presume?"

Breakdown sneered and chuckled but winced when Starscream slapped the back of his helm, "What did I say, what did I say?! Now get up and start walking, we only have-" his internal clock read just over ten minutes, "Frag that! Primus, run, run now!"

The seeker didn't bother waiting for Breakdown to get the message but he knew he had when all of them, Autobots included, took his cue to run like mad.

"I'll tell you why in a bit," Starscream yelled back, mostly for Breakdown's benefit, "but we may want to stick around anyway for the fire-" he skidded to a halt as he made it out of the tunnel, MECH vehicles and helicopters swarming the area, "-works."

MECH soldiers opened fire on the seeker, rattling his chassis with bullets that were more annoying than damaging. Starscream covered his helm and faceplates, trying to aim clearly at a car or helicopter but MECH forces were using bright lights to blind him. Behind him, Breakdown emerged with a roar and slammed his hammer into the first car he could lay into, the Autobots behind him firing their weapons carefully. Ratchet held back and used his surgical blades to slice into any cars that got too close while Arcee and Bumblebee took point again and fired rapid shots at the helicopters.

Starscream snarled angrily as he tried to get a clear shot on a helicopter until he saw one that struck him. One that was hanging back. He knew the moment he saw it that that helicopter was the one that had Silas in it, observing each of them, studying their movements and behaviors.

The seeker growled as he fired his blasters at the helicopter. If he could kill Silas now, he was sure he wouldn't have to worry about MECH ever again. They wouldn't harm any other Cybertronians, Breakdown, Bumblebee, himself, any of them.

Starscream was so wrapped up in ensuring this particular helicopter was destroyed that he didn't notice another one zeroing in on him. Optimus saw the helicopter lining up for the shot and the Prime ran hard as the missile fired.

"Starscream," he shouted, "MOVE!"

The seeker turned in surprise to see the projectile coming at him. He felt his frame freeze up as Optimus tackled into him but both could see they had moved too slowly, the missile aimed to hit them. Starscream gasped in pain as a gold electricity rattled through his chest plate. He felt something inside him hiccup violently and his chassis, along with Prime's, suddenly slammed into the dirt a few feet out of the missile's reach. Optimus stared down at the seeker in shock as Starscream coughed in pain and shoved the red mech off him.

The firing from tiny guns with tinier bullets had stopped. MECH was retreating. It was no victory in Starscream's mind as he scrambled to get up, watching the helicopter he had been so intent on destroying easily slipping away.

"No, frag it all!" he yelled, "Silas, you-"

He moved to transform but was grabbed by Breakdown, the larger mech keeping him grounded, "Hey, hey! Even I know when the fight's over! We won!"

Starscream pushed Breakdown off, snarling, "It was a loss! Silas escaped and now he's going to have another chance at one of us, any of us! MECH may be diminutive in size," he growled, poking the other Decepticon in the chest plate, "but that didn't stop them from catching you, did it?! No, they caught you and they were going to frag you up! Imagine missing your optic, your OPTIC for the rest of your function?! Or maybe they were going to crack you open like a fresh ration of energon and mess with your biology?! You don't know!"

Breakdown stared then glared, "But how did you know?"

Starscream's wings flattened, "... What?"

"What? Don't 'what' this, COMMANDER," Breakdown snarled, "You said I could be missing my optic; how did YOU know that was the first thing they wanted to do to me?!"

The seeker's optics widened. They had Breakdown awake long enough to tell him the first procedure, frag maybe to even get the equipment started. The power had gone out just in time, but not fast enough.

"Well I... assumed," Starscream scoffed, waving him off, "They did have a rather large drill pointed at your faceplates. One can conclude that the optics were their main target."

Breakdown growled, not liking the answer, "There's more, and you said you'd explain! Like how you found me! And why the Autobots-"

"Yes," the seeker snarled back, "I WILL tell you, but NOT here, NOT now, NOT in front of Prime, the Autobots and with the bomb- the BOMB!" Starscream yelped, running towards the pile of debris he had used earlier for cover, "Primus, don't just stand there, run!"

Breakdown scowled but did as he was told, following the seeker.

Optimus pointed to where Starscream was running, "Autobots, follow him!"

The group followed after the seeker, diving into his prearranged cover, much to Starscream's displeasure, "Get out of here, all of you! Find your own pile of debris!"

A loud and powerful explosion caught their attention and Arcee smirked, "Whoops, guess we're too late."

Starscream huffed a bit and peeked over to see the tunnel ablaze. At least that settled that.

The seeker moved to go over the pile when Breakdown pulled him back roughly, sitting him in the dirt, "How did you know to plant a bomb?"

Starscream hesitated and the blue mech growled, "WHEN did you plant a bomb?! You were barely with me for more than a few minutes in there! WHAT is going on?!"

Starscream knew he was caught. Maybe he had screwed this up. How was he supposed to explain that he knew things? Things that hadn't even happened yet?

"How did it know our location?" Silas mused, looking over security feeds from their temporary base; these seemed to be the only things that did work when their power went out, "Calculating, cunning, it took us off-guard..."

"Sir," a MECH soldier behind him addressed quickly, "we established a satellite feed from over the area a few hours prior. The transformer had been watching us for some time. It even waited for us to bring our subject in for tests."

"Like it knew," Silas smirked, tapping at the small monitor he was observing, "Perhaps these transformers possess more than just transforming capabilities..." he circled in on a piece of feed that highlighted Starscream's faceplates, "I think this one has a very accurate precognitive power..."