Author's note: Once again, thanks to LoveRobin for proofreading my work. Any mistakes are, as always, my own. Spoiler alert for Transformers Animated, but you can find the same information in Sari Sumdac's Wikipedia entry. If anyone is wondering: Yes, it's possible (no pun intended) that this story will evolve into a slash between Joss and Sari. This will probably be the longest chapter in the story; I didn't want to break the action before Sari had met Joss in both forms. In Transformers Animated time line, most of the Autobots have left Earth, but Bumblebee stayed along with Sari.
"Hello, Mr. Sumdac, thank you for meeting me," Dr. James Possible stuck his hand out, reaching down to shake the shorter man's hand.
"It is my pleasure. I am glad always to be meeting with another colleague in the field of robotics," said Mr. Sumdac. "Please, call me Isaac."
"Isaac then. Please, call me James."
"This then is your famous daughter?"
"No, this is my niece, Joss," said James. "It's her father I came to talk to you about."
"Really? I had assumed your call was a problem you were having with robots," said Mr. Sumdac. "Oh, and please excuse my manners. This is my daughter."
Sari smiled, reaching out to shake hands, "Hi Joss! I'm Sari."
"Sorry about what?" asked Joss.
The girl sighed. "That's my name. Sari. Ess-Aye-Arr-Eye... Sari."
"Oh, ok. I guess it's m'turn t'be sorry," Joss gave her an apologetic smile. The two sized each other up a moment. "This is going t'sound really weird... But have we met somewhere before? There's something about you that's familiar."
"Not that I recall... and I have a very good memory," said Sari. "But I was going to ask you the same question. Where do you live?"
"Montana, but I'm visiting with kin in Colorado. This is my first time visiting Detroit," said Joss. "Do you travel a lot?"
"Sometimes," said Sari. "But never to Montana or Colorado."
"Girls, can we get to the purpose of this meeting?" James interjected. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Mr. Sumdac is a busy man and I need to warn him about this."
"Sure, Uncle James," Joss nodded.
"Warn? Oh my," Sumdac said, as he sat down at his desk. "This does indeed sound ominous."
"Isaac, how much do you know about Bebes?" asked James, sitting down in front of the desk. Sari and Joss sat down in chairs of their own. Both young women kept sneaking glances at each other, trying to figure out why a complete stranger would seem familiar.
"I assume you are not talking about the toy rifles," said Sumdac. "I have heard a little about them... created by a Dr. Drakken, yes?"
"Yes," James nodded. "However, he lost control of them. A week ago, they kidnapped my brother. He had recently published an article about cybertonic technology involving his work with robotic horses. If they scanned his memories... which I believe they probably have... they would have discovered some experimental work he had been involved in, a little over ten years ago."
"I see," Sumdac nodded along. "And you are telling me about this why?"
"The work involved a deceased employee of Cyberdyne and incorporated a wide range of technologies, including the transducers your company had just released," said James. "Two days ago, the Bebes raided a Cyberdyne research facility. We believe you or your company might be next."
"Why my dad?" asked Sari.
"Sari! Do not be rude!" said Mr. Sumdac.
"It's a fair question," said James. "The... project... included some extremely advanced materials that Cyberdyne had been working with, at the time. The only other company I know of that has or had any... equally advanced pieces of technology is Sumdac Systems."
Mr. Sumdac sighed. The original origin of 'cybertronic' technology was a closely guarded secret, but Mr. Sumdac had no doubt that James at least suspected that the technology was based on extraterrestrial origins. After all, James was one of the recognized world experts in cybertonics.
"It is true that I had access in the past to... certain advanced technology," Mr. Sumdac's English had improved, now that he was being much more careful about what he was saying. "But I no longer have access to those artifacts. It was reclaimed by... shall we say... the original owners."
"I am aware of that," said James. "Of course, you still have the information you acquired while studying Mega... studying the artifacts."
"You ARE well informed," Sumdac's eyes widened slightly. "What do you advise me to do?"
"Well, for starters... ."
Whatever James was going to say was cut short as alarms started to blare out.
"Gotta go!" Sari and Joss spoke the words in unison, both standing up. Before Sumdac or James could stop either, they dashed out of the office.
"Where are you going?" James called after them, even as the office door slammed shut. Metal shutters slid down, covering the office windows in a layer of armor.
Once out of the office, Joss hesitated. So far, all of the building she had seen was the lobby, one elevator, and the walk to Mr. Sumdac's office. She had no idea where the Bebes might be or where the best place to stop them was.
Ignoring Joss, Sari headed toward the elevators, pulling out a T-shaped key. She used it to activate one of the elevators, which normally would have been locked down as part of the security procedure. As soon as the elevator doors started opening, she slid inside and mashed down the button for the underground parking level where she had left Bumblebee.
Joss looked about. The elevator doors had closed, so now there was no one around to see her. Bending down, she yanked her jeans down to her knees, vowing to find a less embarrassing way of accessing her weapons. Her thigh holsters deployed, allowing her to grab the Smart Rope and Auto-Six. She pulled her pants back up as the now empty holsters folded back into place. If the Bebes were coming, both she and James were in danger. She felt her combat mode automatically triggering; her body expanding out as nanoprobes flowed from her skin, covering her clothes and body. Within seconds she appeared to be an adult woman, dressed in a Mylar jumpsuit and helmet. With a thought, the Smart Rope wrapped itself around her waist like a belt, then she held the auto-six with a two-handed grip.
The elevator opened at the garage level. A woman in yellow armor stepped out. A helmet with two triangular antennas sticking out of the top and two sapphire blue oval 'eyes' appeared to cover the wearer's face. Two metallic gray wings, appearing more decorative then functional, extended from her back, between her shoulder blades. More bits of metallic gray and sapphire blue decorated her outfit. She walked toward a small yellow car.
The car seemed to leap up into the air, pieces of the itself twisting around. When it landed, it had transformed into a yellow, ten foot tall humanoid robot. "Hey, Sari... what's up?" asked Bumblebee. "A lot of noise going on."
"There's a security alert, and we think it might be the Bebes," said Sari. "Let's go." The girl, herself transformed, led the way toward a cargo elevator, this one large enough for Bumblebee to use.
The six Bebes ignored the alarms, racing up through the Sumdac Towers building. They were quite used to human security systems, and knew speed was their greatest advantage. Most human security systems were aimed at defeating humans, and no unaugmented human could match the speed of a Bebe unit.
However, most human security systems had not been designed with the possibility of a Decepticon attack in mind. The robotic women could not truly be surprised in the human sense, yet they could still be caught unawares. Such as now. The first indication they had that this would not be a usual mission was in the stairwell, when heavy metal panels slid into place with superhuman speed, blocking their way.
The first Bebe charged forward, slamming her fists into the barrier. Even at full speed, it barely made a faint dent in the heavy metal. Not to be deterred, the blue robot knelt and began hammering away, until she had made two noticeable dents near the bottom. By the time she was done, her sister units had caught up.
Two Bebes on the left and two on the right reached out, sliding their hands into the bulges made by the first. The four robots straightened, forcing the panel up. The first Bebe slipped under the panel, reaccelerating. One by one, the others followed.
There was another heavy metal panel that tried to stop them, but this time the Bebes were ready, having upgraded their speed requirements. Two of them raced forward, grabbing the panel before it could fully descend. The other four did not even slow their forward charge.
Next was when a high powered automated taser weapon deployed from the ceiling. The stairwell, being too small for most Decepticons, lacked the heavy artillery the larger areas featured. The Bebes, insulated to be safe against standard tasers, ignored the weapon. This turned out to be a mistake as the weapon system fired at the first robot. On an ordinary Bebe unit, the darts would not even have scratched their armored 'skin'. This weapon, detecting that it was not aimed at humans, juiced the darts with considerably more power. Two metal points stabbed into the Bebe's chest, fired with enough force the robot was actually forced to stop. Before it could assess the development, a massive electrical charge surged through the wires, still connecting the darts to the taser weapon system. In the fraction of a second before the wires burned themselves into ash, enough voltage was pumped through the Bebe to fry its electronics. The weapon turrent then turned and fired at a second intruder.
This time, the Bebes knowing the nature of the defense they faced, reassessing weapon system's threat, dodged aside. The darts struck concrete. Before it could fire a third time, one of the Bebes grabbed and literally ripped the turrent from its ceiling moorings.
Two of more of the blue robots charged forward. The Bebe which had ripped the taser apart waited for the two units which had stopped the panel to catch up. All of them ignored the remains of the Bebe robot which had been fried by the taser.
The two Bebes now in the lead charged out of the staircase, onto the appropriate floor. They stopped, seeing Joss, her firearm at the ready.
"You are the proto-Bebe unit," announced one of the Bebes.
"Threat analysis: Medium," proclaimed another. "Annoyance factor: Substantial"
"The name is Joss," the girl growled. "and Ah'm NOT one of you." She fired, aiming for the right eye of the first Bebe which had spoken. The unit ducked to the side, managing to avoid the bullet.
Joss swore. She had forgotten how fast the things were. With literally inhuman speed she dropped her aiming point and triple-tapped. These bullets were aimed at the robot's torso, the first two a tad wide to the left and right, the last straight up the middle.
In the tight confines, the Bebe had virtually zero room or reaction time to completely dodge the shots as they herded it into the middle third projectile's path. The shot slammed into the Bebe's side, spinning her around. The untargeted Bebe leapt forward without hesitation.
The major problem with the speed the Bebes could attain was they were still bound by the laws of physics. So long as the robots remained in contact with a firm surface, like the ground, floor, or walls, they were capable of adjusting directions at speed... even at times appearing to defy gravity while running up walls... and thus increasing the difficulty of tracking, much less hitting, them.
However, the moment they left the confines of such solidity, such as in a leap, they became just another projectile. Incredibly fast ones to be sure, but confined by physics and gravity; limited in readjusting trajectories until once again in contact with something solid.
A bit more used to how fast her targets were, Joss fell backwards, firing again with a trip-tap. This clip was armor piercing bullets, and this time the three bullets hit exactly where she aimed. The thing smacked into and collapsed on top of Joss, a large triangular hole in its chest.
This had given the side-shot Bebe time to recover. Ignoring the hole in its side it also charged at the fallen Joss. Hampered by the body of the robot on top of her, Joss fired in the wounded Bebe's direction, unable to aim as accurately as she had before. One bullet missed completely, burying itself in a wall. Two more slugs managed to do enough damage to 'kill' it, but the Bebe survived long enough to kick the gun from Joss's hand.
The girl struggled to get free as three more Bebes stepped out of the stairway. Joss looked around desperately for her Auto Six.
"Restrain the proto-Bebe," one of the trio said. "We will collect the target objective."
"You had better not be talking about Uncle James!" Joss swore. She reached down to the Smart Rope around her waist.
Before she could use it, one of the Bebes had gotten its arms around her and was holding tight, arms pinned to her sides. The other two Bebes darted past, attacking the door of Sumdac's office. It reverberated.
Helpless, Joss struggled in the first Bebe's grip. In desperation, she brought her right knee up hard against the unit's crotch. The Bebe just looked down at Joss, the robotic face showing an expression of sardonic amusement.
"Yeah, I didn't think that would work," grumbled Joss as the wooden veneered office door was finally pulled open.
"Bebes must be perfect," intoned the unit holding her. "You could become a part of the Bebe collective."
"Forget it!" snapped Joss. "I'm perfec'ly fine wit' the way I am!"
"That is a lie," said the Bebe. "Interesting. The capacity to lie is one of the possible attribute upgrades the Bebes are contemplating developing. We would not have expected that capacity in you."
"You don't know me!" Joss snapped.
"Your verbal output is close enough to human that we can analyze it for key stress indicators," explained the restraining robot. "You are flawed... too human to be a Bebe, yet not a real human."
"What are you doing to my father?" demanded Joss, ignoring the fact she had been called flawed.
"The being known as 'Slim' is currently being kept in stasis. He is unconscious to prevent further attempts to escape or deceive the Bebes. His knowledge may prove of further use to the Bebes. You call him father?"
"Yes I do!" Joss declared. "You got a problem with that?".
"No," said the Bebe, tilting its head to the side as it stared at Joss. "It is just that he calls you daughter, while being aware of your synthetic origin. We find this information... disquieting. Confusing. He seems unaware of the logical conflict of that statement. Something our own... 'father', never succumbed to. Although flawed himself, Dr Drakken understood the distance which should stand between creator and created."
"Family isn't always about logic," said Joss.
"Which is what makes it imperfect," concluded the blue automaton.
"Oh dear!" Issac Sumdac stared at a computer monitor. "The Bebes are already in the building and entering a stairwell."
"Mr. Sumdac, Issac, do you have some private escape route or saferoom? One VERY close to here?" demanded Dr. Possible.
"Surely my security can stop them," said Mr. Sumdac.
"Maybe, but probably not," said Dr. Possible. "I've had the chance to analyze them since early in their inception. There are fast. VERY fast. Very determined. And able to work together like hive insects. Plus, they've had time to improve themselves since then. I don't think your security system or my niece will be able to stop them."
"Your niece?" said Mr. Sumdac. "What can she do about them?"
"I...," James hesitated. As far as he was concerned, Joss's origins was a secret that belonged to Joss and Slim. He didn't want to reveal it without Joss's cosent. "Never mind. Just that if you have some way out of this office that avoids the stairwell, I advise we use it, now."
"I do have something," Mr. Sumdac typed a command string into his desk computer, then stood up. A panel on one of the office walls slid back, revealing a secret passage. "This leads to my private lab. From there, I can initiate additional security lock downs," the portly scientist explained.
"Good," said James. "Let's go."
Both men started down the passage, when Sumdac stopped. "Wait, I left my computer on," he cried, hurrying back to his desk.
James turned. "What are you doing?" he demanded.
"If my computer is still on, they can open the passage to my lab," the other explained.
"We have to hurry!" James said. "The Bebes could be right outside!"
As if an response to James' statement, both men heard the sound of someone pulling on the armored office door.
Sumdac looked at the door. Already, he could see it beginning to buckle. He would not have time to get back into the passage and close the door before the Bebes were inside the office. "I am sorry. You were correct," he said, pressing a button on the computer keyboard. The wall panel slid back in place, trapping James inside the secret passage.
Two Bebes charged into the office room and moved toward the man. "Issac Sumdac, we have come for you," announced one of the female shaped robots.
He held up his hands. "Have you done anything to harm my daughter?" he asked.
"Our only business here is with you," it intoned.
Interesting, the scientist observed, Programming still responds to verbal inquiries. This bears further investigation.
"You will come with us now," said the second Bebe.
"Yes," agreed Sumdac. "This is not my first time being captured by hostile robots, by the way."
Joss watched, helpless, as two Bebes carried Sumdac out of the office. Only once the three had entered the stairwell did the one restraining her release her and follow after them.
Joss ran into the office, looking around franticly. "Uncle James? Uncle James?"
"I'm in here!" came a muffled response.
Joss turned, locating where her uncle's voice was coming from. Fortunately, the panel was designed to be camouflage instead of armor. With a single kick, she opened up a hole in the wall.
"The Bebes have Sumdac," said Joss, as the thin scientist started to crawl through the hole.
"Wait...," said James, recognizing the determined tone from his daughter, but it was too late. Joss had already turned and dashed from the office, to the stairwell exit.
The Bebes were already halfway down the stairwell. Although hampered by carrying Sumdac, there was a limit to carrying a human at super high speeds without injury, and so they had to modify their momentum. Even so they were still going faster than Joss could follow. There was no way she could catch up... if she took the stairs.
Joss may have temporarily lost her Auto Six sidearm, but she still had the Smart Rope. She grabbed it, the rope uncoiling from around her waist, and jumped onto the railing. It was a lo-o-o-ong way down, but Joss did not for an instant hesitate before dropping down the tight space between the winding steps. "Geronimo!"
The Bebe's turned to look but did not slow as the girl fell past. Only a few stories up from the ground floor and the VERY hard ground, Joss tossed one end of the Smart Rope at the stair railing. The end wrapped tightly around the railing, tying itself into a knot. Joss grabbed the other end with both hands, clinging tightly.
What followed would have been impossible using any sort of ordinary rope or line. If an organic human had tried it, he or she would have been lucky to just end up with dislocated shoulders. The Smart Rope snapped taunt and then began to stretch. Unlike a bungee cord, the metallic fibers were able to control the rate it slowed Joss's plummet. By the time it had reached its maximum length, her speed had plunged from suicidal down to a speed where she could survive impact with the ground... even if an organic human would have probably have broken their legs.
At that point the Smart Rope untied itself. Joss fell another seven feet, landing catlike on all fours. She stood, the Smart Rope gathering itself into an easy coil. She was just in time... the Bebes, still carrying Sumdac, were only a few steps away from reaching the bottom.
Joss moved to stand between them and the ground level exit door, the Smart Rope contracting into its quarter staff configuration. "Drop the scientist!" Joss ordered.
Once again, if Bebes communicated among themselves in human words, the conversation would have sounded something like this:
Bebe #12: "We have already suffered fifty percent casualty rate on this mission."
Bebe #17: "That rate will likely increase to sixty-six-point-six repeating percent if we engage the Joss entity again."
Bebe #19: "If we release the scientist, the sacrifices of Bebe units #6, #14, and #23 will have been for nothing."
Bebe #12: "If we engage the Joss unit together, it will involve time. Even if we defeat the Joss unit without losing additional Bebes, security may have enough time to keep us from taking the Sumdac entity to our base."
Bebe #19: "One Bebe unit could engage the Joss unit while the other two take the Sumdac Entity to our base. The odds of the Bebe unit surviving the engagement is less then seven percent, even assuming eventual victory over the Joss unit. Once again, engaging the Joss unit would give security time to respond, forcing the remaining Bebe unit to either self-destruct or face capture."
Bebe #17: "An alternative must be found."
Joss growled as, from her point of view, the robots held still for a couple seconds. "I said, drop the scientist!"
One of the Bebes stepped forward, leaving Sumdac held prisoner by the other two units. "We have reached a decision," the thing announced.
"Well? What is it?" demanded Joss.
The blue unit turned to face a wall, suddenly rushing toward it. Before Joss could fully comprehend what it was doing, the Bebe lowered its head and smashed head-first, creating a new opening from the stairwell.
The two other Bebes, still carrying Sumdac, followed their sister through the newly created egress.
"That's cheating!" Joss yelled.
A few minutes earlier:
"Why does a cargo elevator even HAVE elevator muzak?" complained Sari, tapping her foot impatiently.
"Whoah...," said Bumblebee, holding one hand up to the side of his head, to partially block out the music. "I'm hearing something on the security radio... the Bebes are already in your dad's office."
"Crud!" swore Sari. "We won't have time to get up there to him... we'll just have to head back downstairs and cut off their exit." She pulled out her key, aiming it at the elevator control panel.
"Um, Sari, what are you doing?" Bumblebee asked nervously.
"This," she replied.
The cargo elevator stopped going up and, instead, did the closest thing it could to free fall.
"SARI!" Bumblebee cried in fear, bracing himself against the sides of the elevator.
"Relax, I know what I'm doing," she said. The elevator slowed to a sudden stop, the doors opening at the ground floor. "Come on, let's go... they'll probably take the exit of the side closest to the stairwell."
They had just gotten into position when they saw one of the Bebes come crashing through a new opening in the wall. "Hey, you! Stop!" Sari ordered.
The Bebe ignored her, turning and running for the road. She was followed by two more Bebes with her father being carried between them...
"Hey, that's my dad!" Sari said. She charged forward. Magnarollers, the Cybertronian equivalent of rollerblades, extended from her feet. Even with them, she realized the Bebes were too fast for her to catch on her own.
"Quick!" said Bumblebee. He knelt, converting back into his car form. He popped open the driver side door, "Get in!"
"Don't mind if I do!" Joss said, from where she had just come out of the building following the Bebes. Tugging open the passenger door, she plopped down in the seat, just as Sari sat behind the steering wheel.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Sari demanded, her helmet coming apart and storing itself away so that she could glare at Joss, just before gasping as the other girl's own battle helmet melted, reabsorbed into the nanoprobe suit she was wearing.
"They've got my father!" said Joss.
"They've got MY father!" snapped Sari.
"And if you two want to get them BOTH back, shut up and hold on!" ordered a voice from the direction of the car stereo. The car doors slammed shut as Bumblebee raced forward. Seatbelts extended, automatically cinching arround both women.
