the next morning...
Bullet had hidden away the fly-cam before everyone headed to bed. Driveby and Ty had taken up the bedroom, Bullet on the couch and Needle on the inflatable matress in the human-sized balcony living room, with Jade on the other one on the other side of the coffee table. Mic had taken the bed, and various other members of Driveby's group were strewn about the living room, beacon and Gunlock on one of the couches and a chair, and Cable snoozing on the floor by the videogames. (He'd found them quite addictive.) And Cap and Terra were snuggling on the other couch.
Cap rolled over and yawned, snuggling into Terra's fur, and went back to sleep.
Terra giggled and held him close.
Cap started snoring softly.
Terra smiled and wrappped her wings around him.
The Ark was quiet when the officers gathered in the meeting room for their daily meeting.
Prime sat at the head of the table in the meeting room going over the datapad he was holding. Last minute reading before the officers' meeting started. The rest of the group filed in. Prowl, Red Alert, Ironhide, Ratchet, Wheeljack, and a couple others took their places around the table. Prime waited till everyone was seated and had finished saying their hellos before starting to speak. "As you all know, not only have captured the Decepticon Orcas, but also, Hammertread has rejoined the Decepticons. Driveby's team acted without her authorization, with Syus's group, and managed to recapture him. They also believe he is still loyal to their group, and has had his memory erased. Ratchet, I'm asking you to verify that."
the medic nodded. "Will do, Prime."
"I have also considered what is to happen to Orcas." He mentally siged. "I wanted to discuss it with all of you, first."
Prowl and Wheeljackack nodded.
"What are we going to do, Prime?" Prowl asked, looking at him.
"I would like to hear your input before acting any further on this matter. It would not be right for me to make the desicion of his fate alone"
Prowl nodded. "Alright...well...first off, just to make it clear to everyone, which one are we talking about right now? The werewolf of Hammertread?"
"the werewolf." Prime replied.
Prowl nodded. "alright. Now that that's clear..." He cleared his throat, "What do you think so be a proper punishment for his many crimes..."
Wheeljack fiddled with his hands. "Well...we can't keep him here forever." he said softly.
"I agree!" Red Alert started. "just having him here is enough of a risk. What if he gets loose!? You all remember what he did last time he got his hands on our troops..."
"We can't just shoot him. It's cold-sparked murder." Wheeljack protested.
"Then what do you suggest we do with him!?" the white and red security chief demanded.
Prowl sighed. "Please, calm down." He tried softly. "We cannot decide if we're all fighting amongst ourselves."
"Prowl's right." Prime nodded.
Prowl nodded, "Thank you, Prime. Now...I agree. With both. We can't keep him here, but we cannot just shoot him..."
Prime nodded, petending to study the datapad in his hands. It was a habit he'd developed, looking like he was studying a report, or something. But really, he was deep in thought. He looked up. "I wanted to let you all know, I have considered every other option. But in light of the circumstances, and the crimes he has committed... I have taken the liberty of contacting Indy"
"What!?" Ratchet exclaimed. "Do you remember how much trouble she and her boyfriend caused last time they were here!!?"
Wheeljack put in: "I thought they were banned from the U.S."
"Should've been." Ratchet snarked under his vocaliser.
Prime shook his head. "Only Klutch was. Indy is free to travel wherever she pleases."
Prowl cleared his vocalizer, "Excuse me. If you all remember correctly, only Klutch contacted the Decepticons, not Indy. She, herself, actually tried to help us, but that was turned against her and us." He sighed.
Prime nodded. "Also, if we can verify that Hammertread's memory was erased, Indy might be able to recover his memory. alpha has allready tried. She has informed me that she cannot get past the mental barriers that were put in place when his memory was erased."
"And given that we are not trying to break the human laws, but Indy is allowed to come to us, Klutch might allow her to do so. She said she would talk to him about it. I propose that we vote on the desicion, however, regaurding Orcas's fate, and the desicion to let Alpha try to recover Hammertread's memory, provided Ratchet can prove it was erased." He glanced at the CMO, who nodded.
Prowl nodded. "That's fine with me, Prime." He agreed, looking at the leader.
"You've got my vote." Wheeljack put in.
Red Alert grumbled something, then said "The sooner we get those two Decepticons out of this base, the better."
Ratchet only nodded. "She'd better not cause any trouble, though. Or I'll personally see to it she gets reprogrammed into an electric dishwasher."
Ironhide nodded. "Ah'm with ya Prahme. A' may not like it, but it seems tha only thing ta do."
Perceptor looked across the table. "considering the circumstances and evidence in opposition of the Decepticon, the only justified judgement seems evident. Albeit the subject matter is arbitrarily encased."
the bots all blinked.
"What he's trying to say." Wheeljack interpreted
"is that the only logical choice is the one you're proposing, Prime. even though, everyone has their own opinion on the matter."
"...Oh." chorused from around the table.
"You know what I think, Prime." Jazz sounded, without enotion."ya gotta do what ya gotta do." he shrugged.
Prime nodded solemnly. "It's decided, then."
An odd silence gathered in the room, which Prime broke.
"Having decided that, I have some other news for you." he turned to the large vidscreen behind him on the wall.
"Bullet informed me of a new project their group is undertaking, involving a miniature spy camera." he flipped on the viewscreen. Everything was black. The group blinked.
Wheeljack asked "Uh... are you sure it's working right?"
The camera found the ventilation grating, and provided the meetingoers with an upside down view of Megatron's office, complete with Megatron sitting at his computer.
The entire group tilted thir head to try and see the screen straight. It finally uprighted itself, and flew over to a bookshelf, perching on top of it, slightly behind where the silver Decepticon leader was sitting in front of his computer, fingers steepled together in thought.
Prowl looked over to see what he was doing.
"What is that?" Wheeljack asked. On the computer's monitor was the layout of a building, the surrounding areas, laid out like a blueprint, and marked in Cybertronian glyphs.
"It looks like some kind of power plant." Jazz commented.
Megatron stood and walked out of his office. The fly flew in closer. The office comlink dinged, and Bullet's voice came through.
"Prime, Megatron is planning..."
"I know, Bullet." Prime said, urgency in his voice. He stood abruptly. "This meeting is adjourned." he hurried to the door, the others following.
Prowl had interpreted the lettering, and discovered it was the municipal power and electricity company of south Portland they were going to. If the Decepticons did manage to wreck the place, which they usually did whilst getting energy, all of Portland would be blacked out, and even some parts of the nearby Central City.
They arrived before the Decepticons, and managed to get all the humans out before the Decepticons swooped down. Prime caught Megatron completely off gaurd by popping around a corner and decking the Decepticon. Starscream and the other seekers took to the air, but were soon tackled by Sunstreeaker and Sideswipe. Bluestreak took care of Skywarp, while the Lamborgini twins made Thundeercracker and Starscream collide midair.
Thr twins had taken on Soundwave; And Kit, who had tagged along, took on his cassettes.
Ravage snarled and jumped at Kit.
Kit growled and dodged. She yelped as he bit her shoulder.
Jade fired at Starscream, who tried to run behind Megatron. The Decepticons soon took to the air. Prime's comlink came on again. "Prime, this is Bullet. Do you want me to have the flycam return to base with Megatron, or return to base?"
"Send it with them, Bullet." prime responded. "It may be usefull in the future."
Soundwave reminded himself to tell Megatron about the spy camera once they were a safe distance from the Autobots.
The Alpha and Omega twins fired at Soudnwave and kicked at him.
Finally, the Decepticons retreated, and the Autobots made sure no humans were injured in the attack before heading back to their base.
Alpha and Omega followed. They looked around.
the Decepticons reached the Nemesis, and Megatron was about to demand answers about how the autobots knew about their raid before they got there. soundwave informed Megatron about the fly-cam, and that he would try to intercept the transmission frequency, and find the thing.
--------
Later that day, after it was verified Hammertread's memory was erased, Prime was in his office when his comlink beeped. It was Indy. She explained what was going on, and that she would be arriving that evening. But klutch wouldn't let her leave the country alone, so she'd bring just one contingent of troups and two trucks with her.
(Which was less than the usual 20 or 25 vehicles and about 50-75 troups)
Prime just nodded, and went to let the others know.
-------
Indy pretended to listen to Klutch's lecture as the 3 cargo trucks and troups marched onto the C130 cargo jet. she just nodded, but her thoughts were elsewhere.
-------
Alpha bit her lip to keep from pacing. Primus she was so worried about her friend!
the doorbell rang. She hurried over to the door and opened it. "Yes?"
"I thought I would inform you that Indy has agreed to come to us, in order to help recover Hammertread's memories. Although, if he still decides to claim loyalty to the Decepticons after his memories are recovered, I will have to treat him as though her were one. Do you understand?"
Alpha looked at the ground. She nodded slowly. "Yes sir."
Prime only nodded. She will be here this evening, I'll let you know as soon as she arrives. You two may have some things to discuss." He turned to walk out.
Alpha nodded. "Thanks, Prime..." She added under her breath, "I hope he doesn't go back to a Decepticon..."
"So do I." Prime said to her over his shoulder as he left.
----------
Meanwhile, in another part of the Ark, Bullet, Needle, Cable, and Beacon were playing videogames, Mic and Syus had returned to their home dimension, claiming they had things to attend to there, as well as HighRoad, Ty and Driveby were playing chess, and Cap and Terra were watching tv on the balcony.
the doorchime rang, and Jade answered it. It was Prowl.
He looked around and saw that Terra had yanked Cap in so they could hear what he was going to say. Sighing, Prowl looked at them, "Indy's coming here to help Hammertread recover his memories.
The reactions were quite varied, if not suprised. Everyone started talking at once.
"Why?" (Driveby)
"What for?" (Cap)
"after all the trouble they caused!" (cable)
"Who's Indy?" (Bullet)
Jade glanced at Bullet. "If she sees Bullet, or any of my old team, it'll be absolute mayhem. You guys gotta get out of here."
"Why?" Bullet asked. "What did we do?"
Terra's ears fell flat against her head. She held onto Cap. "What? Why?" She asked as she looked at them.
Jade looked at Bullet. "It's just that Bullet looks like Megatron, and... well, you remember what happenned. The whole Kintaari thing." she looked over at Prowl to explain.
Bullet stood . "What happened while we were gone?" he asked.
Terra looked at the ground and muttered something about "brits"
Prowl explained, and Bullet looked over at Jade. "Why didn't you tell us about this?" he motioned to Needle.
Jade shrugged. "I didn't think it would be a big deal. I thought it was over."
Prowl nodded. Driveby stepped in with: "We should be fine so long as we stay out of sight. And she's right. There's nothing they can do. And it is only Indy." she looked around at everyone. "She tried to help us before."
Terra nodded. "She's right..." She said softly.
------------
Hammertread glared at the ceiling, eyeing the square grating there. He glanced at his gaurds. It was too small for him to fit through.
But someone else...
He sat up, going over to the bars that seperated his cell from Orcas's.
"Psst." he whispered.
Orcus looked at him. "What?" He asked, leaning back.
"Is there a little square grating on the ceiling in your cell?" the tank whispered.
Orcus looked up. His optics spotted it. "Yeah..."
"It's a ventilation duct. If you can get through it, you can get us out of here."
Hammertread made it look like he was leaning against the bars, and the Autobots were none the wiser.
Orcus nodded. He saw it and managed to climb through it, grinning. "Thanks." He said and then left.
"Hey, you're supposed to get me outta here!" Hammertread yelled.
The Autobots heard. trailbreaker ran over to the cells to see what was amiss.
"He's escaped!" he yelled, pointing at Orcas's cell.
"no-good turboflea-bitten wolf." Hammertread hissed, looking at the ventilation duct over his own cell, trying to make out the glowing eyes in the darkness inside it.
Orcus hissed. "I was until you made a scene." He growled, climbing through the ducts.
"Grrr... Well get me out of here anyway!" Hammertread glared up at the ventilation duct.
The autobots hit the alarm.
Orcus yelped. "I'll come back later, promise!" He said before running.
"COME BACK HERE YOU TRAITOR!!!" Hammetread roared.
The three Autobots chased after him, then Trailbreaker returned to keep an eye on Hammertread.
--------------
Alpha looked at the ground and then shook her head. She shut her door and then leaned against it.
Omega put a hand on her shoulder. "It'll be okay..."
"I hope so, Omega...I really do..." She muttered.
Omega smiled softly at her and laid his forehead against hers. "It will be."
Alpha smiled slightly.
Alpha and Omega jumped at the alarm. Both looked at each other and ran out of the room.
--------------
the alarm sounded, making everyone look up. "what's that?" Ty asked. The entire group ran for the door, Prowl in the lead.
in another part of the Ark,Orcus ran faster, determined to get out of the Ark, and back to his freedom.
Prowl was the first into the control room, the others right after him, and they all came to a schreeching halt, ramming into one another as the clicking of rifles and semi-automatic weapons sounded.
you could hear a cricket for a second, or a pin drop, and Cable whispered. "What's going on?"
Indy's voice rang out of the oppisite doorway. "hold youah fiah." she commanded, and her soldiers slowly lowered their weapons. she walked up. "Allo." she smiled.
About that time Alpha and Omega came barreling in, and the group parted to let them through.
Alpha stopped and then looked at her. "Hi, Indy."
Omega yelped and ran into his sister. Both ended up on the floor. "Ow..." Both muttered.
--------
Meanwhile, Hound had spotted Orcas leaving the Ark and followed.
Orcus growled and ran faster.
Jade's group backed off, and Needle moved in front of Bullet so he wouldn't be seen. They started backing away, and once they were out of the room, made a hasty retreat, leaving Jade, Terra, Cap, and Cable.
Hound hit his comlink. "I found Orcas. He's heading off towards the forest."
Prime heard. "We'll go." prowl said, nodding to Jade's group, and a couple other autobots.
"We can help..." Indy started.
"No." prime replied. "It would not be wise to let the humans see you here."
"Yeah, you don't know what they'll think." Cable sounded.
Omega got off his sister and pulled Alpha up. He smiled at her and then looked at Indy.
"...Hiyas, Indy." Alpha finally said, smiling. "Thanks for comin'."
Orcus growled as he ran faster. They were NOT going to catch him! Nope! Not again!