So sorry for the delay. Computers kept breaking and then school got hectic. Here's the next chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers. I just play with them. I only own my OC's.
Units of time:
See Prelude
Seeker genders/family members:
See Prelude
Communication:
:: comm. link ::
- Bondmates/sparkmates -
~: creator/creation bond :~
: sibling bond :
Thoughts/memories/flashbacks/dreams
[symbiot/symbiot carrier]
Seeker Cant
= Cybertronian language = except in memories
Bumblebee talk
I was slow to online. Every muscle cable was a sore like I just had a severe training day. I was confused by this and tried to access my memory files to see why I was sore. It took a klik before them to boot up. Yeah, I got shocked by Soundwave. Plus I crashed at least twice. Last I saw, Bladestream was injured and backup had not arrived yet. I hoped that they were okay.
= Waky, waky! =
I did not recognize that voice. My optics flashed online and the first thing I saw were the red optics of a cherry red Decepticon. Battle protocols flared to life as I extended my talons and shoved him away. He cried out, more out of surprise than pain, as I flipped over the med berth, putting it between me and the 'con. I glanced around the small medbay. The chamber was too small for me to use any weapon safely. I'd have to stick with servo-to-servo combat. There was one door. The only way out was also the only way in.
The 'con looked down at his chestplates where long claw marks ruined his very shiny and well-kept paint job. His optics flashed with anger. = You scratched my finish! = he screeched.
I had very sensitive audios, thus had to resist the urge to cover them. I didn't take my optics off of him. I growled lowly as we had a stare down. I noticed that he was a grounder. He also had this twinge to his EM field that I didn't like. He was also looking at me funny. I hoped that I could get away from him soon. The door slid open and Starscream came through, his wings held high and his servos clenched at his sides. He spoke to the 'con in a dialect I couldn't understand, irritated at the 'con's yelling, I guess. It was probably the native tongue of this planet. He then caught sight of me and smirked. He put a digit to his audio receptor and spoke in that strange tongue once more. He most likely was contacting Megatron. Where there was Starscream, Megatron was not far behind. And vice versa.
= Ah, Wing Saber. Good to see you online and well. Lord Megatron requests your presence. =
= I do not recognize his authority. = I hissed.
= Neither do I, but all the same, we mustn't keep him waiting. It wouldn't do either of us good if he comes looking for us. =
A squad of Vehicons came through the door. Starscream looked at them then back at me.
= It would be best if you come quietly. I'd hate to see you marched off with your servos bound like a common prisoner. = he said as he turned his back and stalked towards the door. The Vehicons parted for him. As much as I wanted to refuse, I'd have a better chance at escaping if I was out of the medbay. I followed Starscream out and four Vehicons took their places around me, forming the corners of an imaginary box. I could feel the fields of the Vehicons. Though they tried to hind it, their fields were laces with fear. Fear of both Starscream and myself. No one was roaming the halls except for us. I waited a little will before thinking about an escape route.
After a few kliks, I began to sense something, something that was beginning to drain my energy. I didn't like it. I needed to get out of this mess. Unfortunately Starscream announced that we had reached the bridge. Once the main doors slid open, and a great deal of my strength left me. It wasn't do to the lack of warmth or light, although those were true, something in this chamber was draining my strength. Many more 'con were on both sides of a long path that led to a throne, hard at work at monitors. At the throne was a large silver mech that made Optimus Prime look short. His bulk and armor basically screamed that he was at one time a gladiator in the not-so-illegal Pits of Kaon. My wings dipped a fraction. I already knew from his backside who he was. This was Megatron, leader of the Decepticon army. And a fallen hero. There was something about his presence that was draining my strength, though I knew not the cause. When he turned around to look at his "visitors", I immediately knew something was wrong with him. His optics were not the traditional Decepticon red, but a sickly purple. That shade specifically belonged to a type of energon called dark energon. It is said to be the fossilized blood of Unicron, brother of Primus. Just how true that is, no one knows, but it becomes addictive to however ingests it. Bladestream told me that Megatron poisoned Crybertron's core by dumping dark energon into it, made poor Primus sick.
I slowed my pace, leery of Megatron at the moment. My sire warned me and my siblings against going up against Megatron. I did not plan on fighting him anytime soon. Megatron smirked. Megatron's smirk I could handle. Though it was menacing, I'd rather have that then the red shiny medic looking at me.
= Young Wing Saber, it's a shame our meeting was delayed. Perhaps now we c- =
= Save it, Megatron. =
The bridge became silent. My guess is that no one, outside of Starscream, has ever cut him of mid-sentence. All optics were on me and I hated being in the spotlight. For someone who's supposed to be the future ruler of her people, I'm skittish about bots looking at me. My optics quickly glanced around before landing on Megatron.
= Do you honestly believe that after every bot on my family's ship was massacred, me being forcefully brought aboard this ship against my will, and being escorted around by armed guards with threats from your second in command that I'd want to discuss anything with you? You didn't even have the decency to ask to speak with me. =
= It would be wise if you learned quickly that I am in command on this ship. = Megatron snarled. My energon chilled a few degrees. Yep, Megatron was scary.
= I can easily eliminate the ENTIRE royal Cauldron if I so chose. Do not make the same mistake as your late sire. It is in your people's best interest to join the Decepticons. =
= I cannot speak for my people, not if I lack access to the comm. frequencies of the ships. Plus that big of a decision which would affect the entire people would have to be voted on. While my sire was an Autobot on a personal level, he was neutral on a cooperate level. These decisions take time. I could not just one solar cycle say to my people, "from this solar cycle forward, we are now are a part of this faction or that one". That is why we are neutral. If a bot wants to join one faction or the other, they can. I will not tell them who they must follow. That is their decision. =
Megatron's face contorted with rage and his field flared in anger. It took everything I had to keep my wings erect and my field steady.
= Perhaps you will change your processor once you see what can happen to somebot who fails to become a Decepticons. Starscream, take her to the brig. =
= Yes, Lord Megatron. =
We turned around and left the bridge. As we left I could feel megatron's optics burning holes in my backstruts. The dark halls began to make me feel a little claustrophobic. The idea of being stuck in the bowels of this ship until the Autobots finaly find this thing was not helping.
Calm down, what can you do to get out of here? The Decepticons have to have a way to leave the ship. Many of the Vehicons are Seekers. Where would they exit this thing?
There must be a landing bay at the top of the ship! If I can get to the top of the ship, I can leave. As Starscream began to lead us to an elevator, I began to look for a weakness in the guards. The Vehicons were on guard, but not on edge. Starscream was confident that I wouldn't try anything. The only bots I would have to avoid are megatron and Soundwave. I decided to make my move now while I was closer to the bridge than the brig.
What happened next occurred in nanokliks. With lightning speed I stopped walking and slammed my fists into the helms of the two Vehicons that were bringing up the rear, immediately knocking them unconscious. The other two Vehicons and Starscream whirled around and I quickly took the vehicons' helms in my servos and banged them together, sending them offline. Starscream screeched in fear as I attacked him. We crashed to the floor and he brought him arms up to protect his faceplates. He then tried to take his talons to me, but though we were about the same size, I was much stronger pound for pound. I pinched the main energon line in neck cables, cutting off the energon flow to his CPU. He stopped flaying around, disoriented, giving me enough time to take off down the hall, back in the direction we came. I realized after I started running that I made the mistake of leaving too soon. I should have continued to pinch that line until Starscream went offline to prevent him from raising an alarm. When his femme-like screech reached my audios, I mentally groaned. Yep, bad mistake. Now escaping will be much harder.
I was running out of time. I ran nearly soundless through the halls, thanks to my rubber-padded pedes. An upgrade I received vorn ago when my youngest siblings were very small sparklings. I asked to have rubber upgrades added to my pedes and servos so that when I played "Predicon" with my siblings, I could be soundless when I walking on all fours. The downside is that the rubber is very sensitive and can get cut easier than the metal of my frame. But it was proving to be useful now as I ran and when I turn the rubber provides extra traction and better grip on metal floors.
A Vehicon shouted something in that unknown tongue up ahead and his friends fired their blasters. I dodged the bullets and ran down another path. I had a feeling about where I was going, but I was clueless as to which halls to take to get there. I dodged more Vehicons and sprinted down more halls, but with each twist and turn, there were more and more Vehicons and they were getting bigger and stronger.
After outmaneuvering another group and causing them to blow themselves up, I came to a halt. A dead end. I could hear more pede falls. I turned around and saw a large group gather with the cherry red Decepticon in front.
= There's nowhere to run now, sweetspark. Better to surrender now while you still have the chance. =
He had an energon prod. Those were nasty. I would have to avoid that thing. If I get hit once, my whole plan will go down the drain. I looked him in the optic. Time to use upgrades that I had insisted on getting to play "Predicon" with my younger siblings. I growled and dropped to my servos and pedes. Talons extended from my digits and the tips of my pedes. Armor on my neck moved to my helm to form horns. Extra armor on my wings and back transformed onto a large tail off my aft. On tip off my tail was a razor sharp spike curved into a claw.
The decepticons all took a step back, optics wide and making startled sounds. I growled again and pounced on the red 'Con, giving him long gouges in his armor. I began to physically tear through them, using various animal attack forms I had seen on holovids of those animals. I got out with only a few dings and scorch marks on my armor. I continues to tear through the 'Cons as I made my way to the main hanger doors. But when the opened, I had one more obstacle to overcome. Megatron.
I decided to ignore what I had been taught for a klik and I began to run on all fours towards megatron. I used my stabilizers (legs) to propel me towards him. I positioned my frame to jump at him, but when he swung his arm blade out to slice me in midair, I bailed the jump and run right between his stabilizers to the end of the landing platform. He began to fire his canon at me. I ran in zigzags 'til I reached the end of the platform and jumped off.
As I was freefalling, I transformed back into my robot mode and then transformed into my jet form. I engaged my thrusters and proceeded to get away from the ship as quickly as I could. Blaster fire began to fly by me. I turned up my nose end and once I way a good deal higher than the 'Cons, I began to rain blaster fire down on them. I aimed for wings, thruster, and tailfins, anything that would send them to the ground. Every shot hit its mark. I flew away from that war ship as fast as I could.
After flying at top speed for several breem, an insistent blip appeared on my HUD, saying that I was low on energon. I descended below the clouds and found that I was above an ocean. My spark soared. This planet had oceans! I began to look for land that I could rest on. It didn't take me long to find small beach with rocky cliffs. I scanned the area for life forms. I found few animals and a lot of organic plants. The place was very green and very hot. I transformed and landed on the beach. The ground was course like the sand on the beaches on Cybertron, but it felt very different. I would have to be very careful to not get the sand in my gears or else I'll be in the washracks for joors cleaning to out.
I walked along the beach and curiosity took over. I proceeded to examine every plant and animal I came across. I was so busy enjoying myself I didn't notice that I ground bridge had opened close by. I was engrossed with studying a very squishy blob whose helm was bowl shaped and had these long tentacles hanging from it like limbs that when someone came up behind me, tapped my wing, and called my designation, I jumped, dropping the squishy blob back into the water, transforming my arm into a null ray and aiming it at the unknown bot.
"Whoa!" said the bot in … Cybertronian shorthand? … throwing up his servos in a gesture of self-defense. I cocked my helm at him. His primary color was the exact same shade of yellow as Yellow Jacket's was. Only instead of black flames, this bot had black racing stripes. He had doorwings and tires. He was a Praxian. He was about my own height. I looked at his ice blue optics. They were the most expressive optics I had ever seen. A bit of red on his forehelm caught my optic. I glanced at it and my sparkrate dropped a few notches. He was an Autobot.
= Please don't do that. I could've terminated you by accident. = I said, putting my null ray away.
"Sorry. We just detected your signal and I was the only one available."
= We? =
"Well, Ratchet did. Everyone else is either on patrol or searching for energon."
I was about to ask if this Ratchet was a medic when someone began to talk into his comm. link. Still can't understand a word they're saying.
"Yeah, I found her."
More talk.
"Ok."
A groundbridge portal opened up and he turned to me.
"Come on!"
= Wait, what's your designation? =
"Bumblebee. And you might want to connect to the World Wide Web and download the English language. It's the dominate language of the country we are staying in."
As he walked through the ground bridge, I did as he suggested. English was one of the most complex languages on this planet. I followed him through the ground bridge and was greeted by a reddish orange and white bot. "On the berth, I need to make sure you are not damaged."
"But I'm fine …"
"Not until I say so. On the berth."
This medic was familiar. Not that I had ever seen him before, but I had heard stories about a medic in Optimus Prime's inner circle who was not known for his berthside manner. Instead, he was known for throwing wrenches at his patients. I forget his designation, though.
As I sat on the berth, the groundbridge came online. Bladestream came through as well as a large green Wrecker. I think his designation was Bulkhead? I think. Ratchet began running scans over my frame, muttering things I couldn't catch. Bladestream came over to the berth.
"Ratchet told us you escaped the 'Con warship. You ok?"
I opened up my mouth to answer, but Ratchet answered for me.
"Minor circuitry burns, small dents and scorch marks from being shot at. Other than that, she is just low on energon." He said, turning and shoving a purple pink cube of med-grade energon into my servos. "Refuel while I get tools to fix those dents." I looked at for a moment then began to sip the cube. It had a weird flavor to it. Ratchet was probably having to use the metals from this planet to substitute Cybertronian metals.
I looked up to the sound of heave pedefalls. The mech that turned the corner was Optimus Prime. I automatically began to rise, I had been taught to rise when someone of higher rank enters the room. I was barely off the thing before a heavy servo pushed me back down. I glared at Ratchet then sent Optimus an apologetic look.
"Formalities are not necessary, Wing Saber. I am only a mech."
I smiled. He was as humble as the stories said he was. I then heard a startled shout somewhere down a hall. Everyone turned toward the sound. A small, blue two-wheeler femme came around the corner, looking very ticked off and very wet.
"Aug, Ratchet, you might want to consider reformatting those twins."
Ratchet sighed. "What did they do?"
"They propped a bucket of water over my berthroom door. Moonracer is trying to clean it up."
"At least it wasn't paint." Said Bladestream. "You could be painted pink."
The femme looked at him, offlining her optics a few times. "I'm going to dry off."
Bladestream and the Wrecker chuckled. I cocked my helm slightly. Bladestream looked at me. "She doesn't like pink very much, even though she has pink highlights on her armor."
I nodded in understanding. My wings twitched under Ratchet's work. I had been trying to ignore him, but his work was starting to drive me crazy. Thankfully, he stopped.
"Alright you're done. Your self-repair systems will take care of everything else with some recharge. The scorch marks can be washed off with some of the solvent in the washracks down that hall."
I muttered my thanks and slid off the berth. I had forgotten about my cube. Optimus got my attention.
"When you are finished with the washracks, Bumblebee will show you to your quarters."
"Thanks." I said. Bumblebee came up to me. "I'll show you where the washracks are. I can help you wash the marks off your wings."
I couldn't help but smile a little. "I'd like that. Thanks."
I followed him to the washracks. He showed me how to operate the knobs and which solvent to use for whatever. He helped me with all the hard to reach places, including me back and wings. Cybertronians usually bathe in twos or threes because of hard to reach places on one's frame. I frowned. I missed my younger brothers and sisters. I bathed with my younger brothers after my sisters bonded. My wings subconsciously drooped with my sadness.
"Hey, you ok?" Bumblebee asked. I had forgotten that he was there. "Sorry, just … remembering. I used to bathe with my younger brothers after my sisters bonded. They matured faster than me. Don't know why."
He put a servo on my shoulder strut and his field colored with understanding and sympathy. I looked at him. His optics were cycling with sympathy as well. "Bladestream told us what happened to your family. I'm sorry."
"It's ok. It just hurts. Ya know, you kind of remind me of one of my brothers. His designation was Yellow Jacket. He had black flames instead of racing stripes, though." I sent him a photo of Yellow Jacket. Bumblebee beamed under his mask.
"Awww! He's cute!"
"Yeah, he kept everyone smiling. Anyway, how long are the solar cycles and this planet?"
"About 8 joor."
"Eight?! That's short."
"Yes, but a human hour is a third of our joor. And their days are three and a half times as short. You'll get used to it."
"Bumblebee!"
We jumped. The green Wrecker was at the doorway. "You've got to pick up Raf!"
Bumblebee's servos went straight to the top of his helm. "I forgot!" He ran out of the washracks with the green Wrecker, leaving me in it. Who was Raf? I guess I'll have to ask Optimus. The green Wrecker left with Bee and I heard the sounds of transforming coming from the main hanger. I guess I'll have to ask Ratchet where my quarters are.
I managed to dry off by myself and left the washracks. As I turned a corner to head towards the medbay, I bumped into Optimus. "'Cuse me, I didn't see you there."
"It's alright, Wing Saber. Is there something I can do for you?"
My sparked warmed to his words. Sire had said that Optimus was always willing to do anything for anyone in his care.
"Well, Bee had to go pick up someone, so could you, um, show me where my quarters are?"
"Of course." He said and walked into the main room and down another hall.
"Optimus?"
"Yes?"
"The Wrecker told Bee he had to pick up Raf. Who's Raf?"
"Rafael is one of the human children under our watch, as they witnessed a battle between us and the Decepticons. Bumblebee guards Rafael, Bulkhead guards Miko, and Arcee guards Jack."
"Bulkhead is the Wrecker, right?"
"Yes."
"Do the humans come to the base at all?"
"If they are not otherwise occupied with their families or at their learning center they are here at the base."
When we arrived at me quarters, Optimus gave me the code and I looked inside. It was larger than the quarters I had on Bladestream's ship, with some shelves, a desk and a recharge berth. My belongings were on the berth. No private washrack, though. Oh well.
I heard engines revving in the main hanger and looked at Optimus.
"The others have returned with their charges." He walked out of my quarters with me right behind.
Next time, Wing Saber meets the kids and we get into either the "Shadowzone" or the "Operation: Breakdown". Haven't decided yet. Let me know which is good!
