Yay, a new chapter! I'm planning on working on this and only this fanfiction until I have it done. Hopefully that'll be sometime this week or next week, but I plan on getting it done soon so that I can then pour all of my TFP energy into Transformers Prime: Through Hell & Back Again. Keep your fingers crossed!

AllSpark Princess—Yep. Hunter can control both lightning and fire. Seeing as how some of the firebenders on A:TLAB and can control both, it seemed appropriate.

WolfAssassain369—I would love to get a picture taken with Optimus! That would be one of the most epic things ever!

Transformed—At Hy-school Hunter is in her human form, as are all of the other students. The school itself isn't big enough for them to be in their robotic forms, unless they're on the outside playing fields and stuff.

Now on to the epicness!

Oh, and yes, I never thought I'd ever quote Shakespeare in any of my fanfictions. -_-'

I do not own Transformers or anything in relation. I only own Hunter, the Hybrid race, and any other character that you may not recognize.

Brian Tyler; Relentless Pursuit

7

Ω And the Tables Turn Ω

The Nemesis;

/Five miles ahead to the south you will reach the rendezvous point,/ Soundwave replayed the phrase he had stolen off the Autobots' comm-link frequency.

Standing beside him was the infamous, self-appointed Lord Starscream, who was currently stroking his chin in thought. "So," he commented after a moment, folding both of his hands behind his back now, "the Autobots are outside of their base and sound otherwise engaged." He sneered evilly. "Which means, they will never see us coming." The Seeker turned to face the armada of Eradicons that was standing behind him on the opposite side of the bridge. "Find them," he ordered. "Bring the Fuser to me alive and unspoiled. Scrap the others!"

The 'cons placed their hands over their sparks and bowed to him. "Yes, Lord Starscream."

Starscream's smirk grew darker and he chuckled evilly.

Back with the Convoy;

As the team rounded a corner, a set of train-tracks came within sight of the road, a train riding it. The locomotive blared its horn as they came in sight and the team picked up speed to keep pace with it. Phase two was starting. Up ahead a train tunnel came into view.

"There's our destination point," Fowler announced, pointing towards the tunnel.

"Autobots," Opitmus announced through his comm-link, "keep a tight formation."

Arcee swerved off to the left before speeding back towards the right and ramping over the railing down into the ditch where the train was. A second later a break in the railing came and the rest of the team drove off the road and down into the crevice as well. Much to everyone's dismay, the MECH cars followed suit. There was no time to worry about that however, because they were all driving into the tunnel and it was time to go to work on phase two.

Once inside the train tunnel, Bulkhead whipped around and quickly transformed into his robot mode, firing his cannons at the ceiling of the cavern. Rubble came tumbling down, blocking the entrance just seconds before the MECH cars could drive through. Smirking, Bulk morphed back into an ATV and sped away again.

Mentally preparing herself for what was coming, Hunter watched in the rearview mirror as Bumblebee transformed to 'bot mode and jumped up onto the roof of the train, knocking on the door of the car. The door slid open and an outfitted soldier was there to greet them. 'Bee waved at him and Hunter couldn't help but shake her head and chuckle. Classic 'Bee! The sides of Optimus' trailer folded down into a flatbed and Arcee stood on it, lifting up the DNGS and passing it over to Bulkhead—who had also hitched a ride on the train—who then passed it over to 'Bee. The scout placed it gently inside. That was Hunter's cue.

Opening the door as Optimus slowed down so that his cad was more even with the train car, Hunter stepped out onto the step and prepared to jump across. Something warm and strong suddenly grabbed her wrist. She turned back to see her spark-father's holoform sitting in the passenger seat, an expression that was a mixture of solemnity and disquiet on his face. The Hybrid smiled. "I'll be okay, Dad," she reassured him, already knowing what this was about.

The Prime allowed a small smile to curl his lips. "Of course you will," he replied, trying to sound certain and not anxious. In truth he was nothing but a bundle of nerves inside. Hunter hadn't been on her own for a mission since the final battle with Bombardier! Now she was riding off alone on the train to make sure that the DNGS reached its destination—which was miles away from him—safely. How could he not worry about her? Perhaps if they really were up against Decepticons this time, it might be a different story; he knew that she could handle herself just fine against them. But they knew nothing of this MECH. Humans or not they didn't know what kind of weapons and technology they possessed, who they were working for, or anything! And what about what Silas had said: "We will be helping ourselves to your devices."? Optimus still wasn't sure what he meant by "devices" but there was something about it that just put an unsettling feeling in his tank. Was it father's intuition? Or was it just paranoia? "I am simply reminding you to…"

"Let Ratchet know when we're at the destination point and have him bridge me back to base once the DNGS is unloaded and secure," his daughter finished for him, reciting the plan they'd discussed on the way to pick up Fowler and the DNGS. She put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Dad, I got this."

"You are my daughter, sweet-spark," Optimus told her, reaching up and touching her cheek. "I'll always worry about you."

Hunter smiled affectionately and leaned down to plant a quick kiss on his cheek. "Love you, Daddy," she murmured.

Optimus smiled back at her as she pulled away. "I love you too, my shooting star."

The Fuser nodded before turning back around and setting her sights on the inside of the train car. After a second she sprung across and landed safely inside. Turning around to face the outside of the car, she met her father's bright blue holoform eyes and grinned, giving him thumbs up.

The mech smiled back and returned the gesture. But as the door of the car finally slid shut and locked and Bulkhead and Bumblebee jumped off the car and transformed into their alternate modes again, getting back into position, Optimus let his nervousness show through his unwavering mask of strength. His daughter was officially on her own now. There was nothing more he could do for her—no way he could keep an eye on and watch over her.

A father himself, Fowler reached across the cab and patted the Cybertronian's holoform shoulder the way men do. "Don't you worry about her, Prime," he told him. "Hunter's a smart girl and tough as nails with your training under her belt. She'll be just fine."

Not taking his eyes off the train, Optimus nodded his wise head. "Yes, she will," he muttered, though it sounded like he was still trying to convince himself. "Yes, she will." The hard-light, realistic, human copy of himself faded away out of the passenger's seat and the Prime's full consciousness returned to his processor as he drove out of the tunnel and back into the daylight. "Primus, please," he silently prayed from the very depths of his spark, "bring her home safely."

The Helicopter;

"Is this some kind of joke?!" Silas demanded, looking at the device he held in his hands. On the screen of the device was the picture of a girl who looked to be in her teens, tall with long fiery red hair and deep blue eyes. He glared over his shoulder up at the masked woman in his presence. "This is the second weapon you promised me?! A child?!"

The woman stood unwavering, though behind her mask she rolled her scarlet eyes. "For your information," she told him, "there's more to this child than meets the eye."

"How so?"

"For one, she was the one who created that blast of lightning that you saw earlier."

The scar-faced man stared at her in disbelief for a long moment. "Impossible," he finally mumbled with a snarl. "You lie!"

Saying nothing, the woman simply leaned forward, reached around the man, and pressed a button on the device, causing it to change to a new picture.

Silas looked back at the device this time to see a short video-clip playing on it. He watched skeptically. After a moment, however, all of his skepticism faded away and his eyes widened to nearly triple their size as his jaw dropped slightly in amazement. "Incredible…" he barely breathed.

The woman leaned in until her masked lips were nearly touching the man's ear. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio," she whispered, "than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Silas grinned in a very pleased and rather demented way. This girl… she was perfect! The ultimate weapon! With her under his control, nothing would be able to stand in his way; absolutely nothing!

All of a sudden there was the sound of high powered jet engines and Silas turned his head to look out left window of the helicopter. A large, purple jet came into sight. More engine sounds came up on his right and, cocking an eyebrow, Silas looked over to see more jets of the same make and color. They were soon surrounded by the air craft. The jets hovered around them for a moment before finally zooming forward and away from the helicopter towards the convoy on the ground. The lead jet fired off a round of missiles.

Silas' eyebrows shot up and his mouth dropped open in utter shock. "Military fired on one of their own?!"

"Not military," the woman replied, the hint of a smirk in her voice. "Something much more useful to our cause."

They watched on as the missiles zoned in on the convoy. The trailer carrying the DNGS broke away from the semi as the truck bared a hard right and sped on with the rest of the vehicles out of the way of the missiles.

"Sir, the DNGS!" the solider piloting the helicopter exclaimed.

Without warning there was a large explosion as the missiles finally met with the trailer and the surrounding earth. Everyone in the helicopter but the woman waited with baited breath for the meltdown to happen… but it never came. "Sir," the pilot finally announced, "I'm not reading any radiation. The DNGS didn't meltdown."

"No," Silas agreed, the wheels in his head turning. "It did not."

"Of course," the woman stated, drawing the man's attention, "you know what that means, don't you, Silas?" There was the slightest hint of patronization in her tone.

Silas was too busy thinking to catch on and take offense to it. "Yes. I believe I do."

On the Train;

Hunter leaned against the wall of the car, arms crossed over her chest, boredom once again taking over her. Primus, what she wouldn't give to be back outside with the team instead of cooped up in this hot and stuffy box car! The girl looked across the car so see the soldier standing on the other side, gun in hand as he helped her guard the DNGS. She got the sense that she should try to make conversation and try to break the awkward silence between them, but she wasn't quite sure what to say. She'd never really been known as a conversationalist.

When he suddenly looked over at her, she quickly looked away, trying to act like she hadn't been staring. Once he had looked away again, she carefully looked back over at him, only to be nearly caught again. When she looked back over one more time and met his eyes as he looked over at her at the same moment. They stared at each for a long, quiet moment, sharing a sort of staring contest. Finally Hunter broke the silence. "So…" she began, "…how's guarding the prototype energy device that can radiate four states if it were to meltdown going?"

With the Team;

Fowler watched on from the high grounded sidelines as Team Prime beat down on the Decepticons.

/Special Agent Fowler,/ Silas' voice came back in over the walkie-talkie, /you lead a charmed life, walking among titans./

Fowler brought out his walkie-talkie, held it up, and pressed the transmit button. Looking up to the sky with a sneer, he replied, "Come on down. I'll introduce you."

/In due time. But at the moment, I'm too busy wondering out the DNGS might have vanished into thin air without a trace./

Fowler became quiet, thinking back to how they'd transferred the DNGS over to the train.

/Now, if you'll excuse me,/ Silas brought him out of his thoughts, /I have a train to catch and I would hate to keep the lovely little lady waiting./ With that the connection was broken and the MECH helicopter soared away in the direction of the train.

Fowler stood there for a moment in disbelief, staring off after the 'copter, wondering what to do now. Silas knew where the DNGS was and he was going after it! Wait a second…. The second part of what Silas had said finally began to sink into the agent's brain and he finally understood. Silas wasn't just going after the DNGS…. "He's going after Hunter too," the man murmured. Lifting his walkie back up to his mouth, the man pressed the transmit button and all but shouted into it, "Prime! Silas got wise to phase two! And it's not just the DNGS he's after either—he wants your girl!"

Down on the flat, pummeling Decepticons, Optimus' felt his tank twist and sink at Fowler's words. So that's what Silas had meant by "devices"! He wanted both the DNGS and Hunter as weapons to use at his will! However, as terrifying as this realization was, it was nothing compared to the horror the next one brought to him. The Prime could understand how MECH might know of the DNGS, but how on earth did they know about Hunter? The Autobot started going over the possibilities of how they could have found out about Hunter before he suddenly decided that, at the moment, it wasn't important. His daughter was in danger and she didn't even know it! He had to warn her—he had to get to that train! "I understand," the mech replied into his comm, forcing himself to keep a level head despite what was going on. It would do Hunter no good if he started panicking. "Contact, Hunt—ugh!" Optimus was suddenly bashed in the head with a log and sent flying over the steep hillside, slamming into the unyielding rock several times as he tumbled down the cliff. Crashing to a ledge he laid there for a moment before trying to get up, but he was too dazed and shaken up at the moment to do so.

/Prime, do you read me?/ Fowler's voice shouted over the comm-link.

Optimus strained to rise and reply, but he didn't have the strength. Despite his most valiant efforts, the Autobot commander lay where he had fallen and slipped quietly into unconsciousness.

/Prime?!/

Autobot Outpost Omega One;

"Optimus is down!" Miko cried.

"MECH's on their way to the train!" Jack exclaimed. "They're gonna grab both the DNGS and Hunter!"

"H-Hunter'll stop them, won't she?" Raf gulped, looking anxiously up at the older boy.

Jack shook his head. "I dunno. Probably—hopefully—but she doesn't have any warning! And these MECH guys, I… I dunno. There's just something about them…. How the heck did they even know about Hunter; what she is, what she can do? It's just a little too suspicious if you ask me."

"What are you saying?" Miko questioned. "They're working with the 'cons?"

"Maybe," Jack answered. "Or maybe another Hybrid that isn't all that fond of the Fuser. Whoever it is, what do you wanna bet that they outfitted mech with toys that can take down an uber-Hybrid? We need to think of something quick!"
"You mean like a phase three?" Raf asked.

"Okay," Jack breathed, turning away from the group as he talked to himself. "Come on, think!" He looked up at Ratchet who was standing over them, watching. "Can you get ahold of Hunter through her comm?"

The white and amber medic shook his head. "I've already attempted," he stated. "Her phone is either off or else its battery has depleted. If she were in Cybertronian form, I would be able to contact her through her internal comm, but she remains in her organic mode."

Jack cursed under his breath and tried to think again. "All right," he said after a moment, turning back to Miko and Raf, "if MECH wants them, they have to get on that train."

"What if we get onboard first?" Miko suggested enthusiastically. "You know, run some human/Hybrid-on-human interference?" She punched the air in front of her to emphasize her idea.

"Absolutely not!" Ratchet quickly swept the option off the table.

"Yeah," Jack agreed with the Cybertronian, "that'd be suicide."

Miko put her hands on her hips and gave him an indignant glare. "Hello!" she exclaimed. "The United States of Meltdown?! Lives are at stake!"

"Yes—yours!" Ratchet countered firmly. "You want me to not only bridge you into a confined space, but one traveling at 90 miles per hour?! I can't even count the number of ways that could go wrong. Mass-displacement trauma, twisted limbs, metal burn!"

Jack, Miko, and Raf stared at him with blank expressions. Metal-burn? Really? Did he know who he was talking to right now?

"Well…" Ratchet corrected himself, "… maybe not the last one. Regardless, it is nearly impossible to fix ground-bridge coordinates on something moving at that speed."

Raf looked to be deep in thought for a moment and then his face lit up. Spinning around in his chair, he faced his computer and began typing furiously at the keyboard, working his magic. "Would it help if we had access to the train's coordinates?" he inquired. Pushing a button, the thirteen-year-old transmitted the data on his laptop up to the large computer screens for Ratchet to see.

The medic studied the data for a moment. "Well…."

On the Train;

Hunter let out a heavy sigh as she searched her long hair for split-ends. Playing with her hair—yep, she had officially crossed over into the realm of utterly, mind-numbing boredom. Primus, help her! The teen began to let her mind drift, letting if clutch on to anything that might promise entertainment of some kind. What was going on with the team? Were they still being pursued by MECH or had they shaken them off? How much further did this train have to go before they finally reached the DNGS' destination point? What would this soldier do if she started making random pterodactyl noises? The train of thought went on and on and on, sometimes stopping at substantial ideas, more often dredging up purely random and stupid ones.

All at once, the sensation of pain came over the Hybrid's spark, and quickly shot up to her head, inflicting her with a phantom headache that made her feel a bit dazed. The feeling was strong enough to make her cry out and clutch at her head, doubling over. As quickly as the pain had come it left and for another moment there was the coolness of oblivion in her spark. What on earth…? "Dad," Hunter mumbled. This was all coming from him through their spark-bond. Something must have happened… but what?

"Hey."

Hunter looked up to see the soldier standing over her, looking concerned and a bit weirded out.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," Hunter assured him, still feeling a little dizzy from the sudden headache. "I'm okay."

The man nodded.

Without warning both the man and girl were screaming out in pain as they were suddenly electrocuted. "Ahh-ahh!" The soldier passed out and fell to the floor.

"Ahh-ha-argh!" Hunter squeezed her eyes shut, her hands balling into fists as she tried to fight the pain. The next thing she knew, the sensation of being shocked was replaced with that tingling, spicy feeling again. Opening her eyes, the sixteen-year-old saw the energy sparking across her body again as it took the electricity in and began to reconfigure it into lightning that she could use. The Fuser panicked. With the way this energy was running up her body she was likely to give off a 360 degree blast! And if she did that with the DNGS sitting right next to her…. Slag, this wasn't good! She had to take control of the energy; try and channel the lighting so she could direct it to blow up somewhere else! And right now the only safe place would be directly in front of her. Setting her jaw and gritting her teeth, Hunter set her sights on the car wall before her as if to stare it into submission and firmly planted her teeth shoulder width apart. She held her hands up and out in front of her. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could, willing the lightning to go where she told it to go.

The sound of the electricity died down and stopped altogether as her body finished internalizing it, and for a moment nothing happened. Then—Boom!—the whole side of the train car was blown wide open! Hunter opened her eyes again to see blurring landscape pass before her eyes. Her gaze them focused in on her yet outstretched hands to see last of the lightning fizzle out at her fingertips. A small smile claimed her lips. She did it! Everything suddenly grew dark and faded away, and the next thing Hunter knew she was falling and crashing to the floor of the car, reality slipping away.

Question time! Um… hmm… what to ask…. Anybody wanna take a guess at what the video-clip that Silas watched was of?