Hello again! Thanks for your patience and reviews/adds/alerts/ etc...! I'm pleased people like this story. It's not perfect, it's not realistic, but hey, it's a fanfic. No rules for that now, are there? Hehehe...All right, kids. Stay on the lookout for chapter seven! Coming soon to a moniter near you!

-Juana

Six: Puppet

The next morning, at least by human standards, Ratchet left the base carrying a single data chip and his Cybertronian portable computer containing his blueprints. Everyone else in the base, save for Optimus, was in recharge. Prowl had fallen into recharge on Bumblebee's floor, while Bumblebee had fallen into recharge on his berth. Ratchet knew this because he decided to peek in and see if they were okay. Upon finding them asleep, he chuckled slightly and left a note for them, stating he would be home around the earth hour of six o'clock.

Professor Sumdac had left his house an hour earlier than Ratchet had left the base, and so arrived sooner. He typed in the code to his private lab and greeted Megatron, who said,

"Good morning, you pathetic human."

"...What? OH!" Megatron controlled the same wires he'd used with Ratchet and threw the human into the bio scanner.

"Wh-what are you doing?!" he cried, never having witnessed such violence from his supposed 'friend' before. Megatron laughed wickedly and hissed,

"You're a fool. I am Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, Enemy of the Autobots. You pathetic human. But you will not remember any of this in a moment." The scientist screamed as the bio scanner closed and scanned his entire brain for knowledge, personality, memories, everything, storing it into a file only accessible to Megatron. While it scanned, it downloaded a program into Sumdac's brain; a program that molded him for what Megatron wanted him to do. The Decepticon released the scientist, who instantly had no recollection of what had just happened. The program went right to work, telling him that Ratchet was never to see Megatron or know of his presence in the lab.

Sumdac smiled at Megatron and said,

"I'll make sure your friend doesn't see you like this, Megatron. You can count on me."

"Oh, I know I can," said Megatron as nicely as he could muster. If he'd still had a mouth, he would have grinned an evil grin at the success of his plan thus far. Even he was surprised at well smoothly it was going. All he had to do was wait for Ratchet, and in a few days, the first, and possibly only, puppet would be ready for action.

As Sumdac prepared the other side of the lab for Ratchet, Megatron waited in excitement, wishing he had his body again just so he could celebrate. But he would have to wait on that. He played around with the wires for a few minutes before he heard Ratchet arrive on the other side of the lab. He dropped the wires and listened carefully, eager to hear every little word the medic said.

On the other side, Ratchet opened up his portable computer ("you have laptops on your planet?") and placed the data chip in. Instantly, several hundred images popped up in thin air, sending the little human scientist toppling over in amazement. He stared into the beautiful images, hardly believing his eyes. Ratchet, however, seemed unfazed and said,

"Here's the blueprints for the puppet, Professor. Your intern, whom I would like to adopt by the way, said you had all the necessary tools and materials I would need to build this thing."

"I will not be able to let you adopt Joshua," laughed the scientist, "but I do have the materials you need. Come, follow me." Sumdac led Ratchet to his small storage closet, filled with mechanical junk. Ratchet gave the professor a somewhat disgruntled look, then said,

"And how am I s'pposed to navigate through all this slaggin' junk?"

"'Slagging'?" asked Sumdac, cocking his head to the side. Ratchet did a quick internal search on the internet, then said,

"It's our way of saying 'fucking' or 'shit'."

"...Oh. Uh...well, I have some of my robo-drones here to help you pick through everything. The tools are more readily accessible," he added as he clapped his hands and several drones zipped up to them.

"Please start going through this mess and arrange everything in neat piles according to size," he told them before leading Ratchet to the tools.

"Over here I have basic tools, such as hammers and drills, as well as some things I've only recently developed." He pointed to something that looked like a hair-dryer. Ratchet picked the object up and turned it on. A thin, red line emitted from it, making a sound not unlike hovering.

"Er...what is it?"

"It is a laser! A real laser, which can cut through metal!" said the Professor, clearly excited by his feat. Ratchet didn't have the heart to tell him he had his own personal set of lasers, and would be using them for the project. Professor Sumdac continued to show Ratchet the rest of the tools, as well as a small tour of the area he would be using to build the animatronic puppet. When he was done, he let Ratchet get to work.

"I shall be in my office. If you need assistance, the drones can help you, or you may call me," he handed Ratchet a card and said, "This has my extension number on it. Just dial it into any telephone and it will reach me. I may not answer all the time, however; I am very busy."

"I understand. Thanks, Professor. I'm sure I'll get this done soon."

"...Soon? Surely this is—"

"Pretty easy," interrupted ratchet. "Building the shell is how we continue our race. Like you humans need to reproduce, so do we. We build 'em, and then we spark 'em. Easy procedure, really. I've done it thousands of times."

"You...have? So this isn't—"

"Nothin' to worry about, Professor. Might take a little longer with your antiquated stuff, but I can manage."

"Oh...very well, then. Um, good luck, then." Sumdac waved and left the room, leaving Ratchet alone to get started. Ratchet gave the tools one last, hopeless look before activating his own internal tools, knowing full well they would work far better than those obsolete, clunky human tools. Sighing, he got to work.

Eight hours later, Ratchet picked up a phone and dialed Sumdac's extension number.

"Hello? Oh! Yes, hello, my friend." Ratchet couldn't help but smile at the little human's enthusiasm—he liked that it was evident in his voice without seeing it.

"Hi there, Professor. It's done."

"...DONE? Are you...you're positive?"

"Yep. All done, all ready to go. Only thing it doesn't have and won't have is a spark."

"Spark?"

"Life force."

"Ah. I see. May I come down to see it?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Wonderful! I shall be there momentarily," and Sumdac hung up. Ratchet hung up his phone and smiled. Humans were easily amused. He looked at the puppet and sighed. The thing was like him in appearance in every way: it was his height, his build, it even featured an animatronic face, capable of pulling several different expressions. Ratchet had even installed a voice box into it, downloading his own vocals into it to make it more realistic. The more he looked at it, the more it bothered him.

A cough behind him startled him. Ratchet turned around, expecting to see Sumdac there, but there was no one there. He called out,

"Hello? Anybody there?"

Almost as if it were a response, a greenish glow waned and grew consistently in the part of the lab Ratchet was not to use. Then, a choked voice moaned,

"H-help...muh-meee...p-puh-please..." Ratchet, being the Autobot he was, stepped cautiously toward the glow and the apparently suffering individual. At one point, he stopped, remembering that he was not to go beyond his workspace. But again the individual moaned,

"P-please...he's keeping me prisoner...h-help me..." Ratchet, suddenly feeling more heroic than usual, continued and walked right into the wires.

"Hello? Can you hear—oh Primus..." he gasped as he set his optics on the head of Megatron a second time, unaware of their previous encounter. The wires he stood on came to life and grabbed him, lifting him upside-down in the air. He dangled before Megatron's optics, who said in Cybertronian,

"Hello again, Doctor."

"Again? When—"

"Only last night, my friend. I wiped your memory of the incident, of course. Couldn't have you blabbing about me to your Autobot friends, now could I. Now then, on to business. I thank you for building that puppet for me. As you may have noticed, I have no body of my own. But I can use your puppet as a surrogate body for now. I won't be able to leave this place myself, not yet, but I can travel through the puppet. All I need to do is download you into it. Only, I shall be in control."

"You slaggin', worthless—"

"Now, now, I thought you'd have learned not to use such insults after last night, what with your outburst at Prime's grandson."

"How do you know about that?!"

"I have a video feed linked from your base to me. I see all." Ratchet recalled the day Sumdac had requested to install cameras into the base.

"He—you...he's...GAH!" he yelled into Megatron's face. Megatron merely chuckled and replied,

"No, Doctor, Sumdac is not in on my plan. This was all me, with some help from the human fool. He does not know what he has done."

"But..."

"Silence, fool, or I'll kill the human. He has a child, does he not? I'll make her an orphan if you utter another word. Now, then..." Megatron controlled a hand-like clamp to carefully retrieve a chip from the bio scanner. He passed the chip from clamp to clamp, all the way over to the puppet, where he installed it in the thing. He waited a moment, and then laughed when it came to life.

"Last night, Doctor," Megatron explained, "I had the human call you over here to discuss the plans with you. Of course, neither of you actually met. I simply downloaded the conversations into your minds. You both think the same thing happened. I made a copy of your entire system and downloaded it, as you just witnessed, into your puppet. The human is on his way here now, thanks to you. If you make a single sound, I will kill him and then go kill your Autobot team."

Ratchet shot Megatron a dirty look, but kept his vocals to himself. Megatron stuffed him inside the bio scanner and closed the lid, hiding Ratchet from anyone who would come into the lab. He could only listen to the next thing that happened.

There was a hissing at the door on the other side of the lab, and Sumdac entered. He looked at the puppet and called out,

"Ratchet? Hello?" Megatron called out,

"I'm afraid he just left, Isaac. One of the Autobots called him, something about a team crisis. He had to go immediately, but I could tell he was upset that he had to go."

"Oh, dear," sighed Sumdac. "That is too unfortunate. But the animatronic puppet is wonderful! It looks just like him! Does it speak, too?" Megatron's optics lit up, surging power into the puppet, which responded,

"I am fully functional," in Ratchet's voice and manner. Sumdac clapped his hands and said,

"Marvelous! Amazing! I've never witnessed such mastery before! I must call Ratchet tomorrow to praise his hard work! My goodness...! Oh dear," he said sullenly as his pager went off, "I have yet another catastrophe to attend to. Another one of my robots has gone haywire. I must go my friend, but I shall return, I promise."

"I know you will," said Megatron. Sumdac left in hurry, leaving Megatron with Ratchet and the puppet. Megatron cast his gaze on the real Ratchet and said,

"Watch this." His optics lit up again, and the puppet responded. It walked around the room, tried out some of its weapons and even did a few back flips. Ratchet was shocked at what Megatron could get the thing to do.

"And this isn't even the half of it," commented Megatron. The puppet suddenly walked toward the door and let itself out.

"I have established an audio-visual link with the puppet," said Megatron. I know where it's going, I hear everything being said."

Ratchet said nothing, too afraid to protest.

"And the best part," grinned Megatron, "is that you get to witness me ruin you! HAHAHAHAHA!" The television screen Megatron had in front of him switched to a video link that showed the world through the puppet's optics.

Ratchet's eyes grew wide as he watched the Decepticon revel in the success of his wicked plan.

Hmmm...I really hope no one has done this kind of story before. I haven't read a lot of TF fanfiction so I don't really know if I'm writing anything over-done. Hope not! anyways, chapter seven is where it gets crazy. -Juana