[Location: Autobot Base]
Ratchet frowned as he looked from the diagnostic screen back to the robot laying on his work table and the human body on its own bed beside it. He had rushed through an open ground bridge at Bulkheads call to help at his comrade request. Miko was quick to go back to the base, for some odd reason holding her nose, through the ground bridge which left the bots to deal with the mechanical figure and the human it had with it.
The mechanical being was only a bit more than a base skeleton of metal, wires, and hydraulics with only bare minimum plating around the figure's hips and torso, as if more to protect the wires and systems there than to cover. Personally it was revolting that this figure was only partially covered. If the human with it had something to do with its creation, then it might have been an attempt at a female form in its shape, which would explain why there was only a few bits of covering over certain areas.
The squeal of tires and the rev of an engine proceeded the entrance of Arcee and her two passengers. Jack and his mother had been enjoying the rare day that the mother had off from work and Arcee was enjoying the ride with them. That was until they had gotten the call for June's assistance at the base.
The motorcycle bot waited until her passengers had disembarked before she transformed. "What's the emergency, Ratchet?"
Jack and his mother were pulling their helmets off, the young man taking a deep breath as he did and gagged a bit as he waved his hand in front of his face. "What died?"
"Dude!" Miko shouted down from the observation platform that ran through the majority of the room, "You should have smelt it when we first brought them here."
"Them?" the young man asked.
June Darby was rushing towards Ratchet, recalling the last time she was needed by the Autobots when Rafael's life was in danger because of Megatron. When she rounded the medic bot her jaw dropped. Recalling herself she made her way to the medical bed to look at the woman laying there. She couldn't imagine what had caused the damage to the woman's abdomen, with the burnt skin around the hole.
After snapping a pair of gloves over her hands she reached down to the woman's wrist, not surprised at the lack of a pulse. June even double checked the woman's neck, her findings the same. "She's dead. And by the smell it's been a while."
"Oh… man…" Jack said having stepped up beside his mother to look down at the woman. Then he looked past the body at the larger one beside it. "What is that?"
"That's who was carrying the woman," Ratchet answered, carefully stepping up behind the mother and son.
"Who is it?"
"We don't know." The red and white based being rubbed his chin with thought. "It has no bio-signature that we have on record. There is no telling if it is an Autobot, Decepticon, or of other origin. I have sent Bulkhead back out into the area to see if there is a downed ship in the area. It could have been the cause of the earthquake last night." Moving back to his main console, Ratchet continued, "We'll know more when Bulkhead reports in."
[Location: Unknown crater in the desert]
Bulkhead looked around as the sun set on his left hand side. He had followed the drips of liquid energon from where they encountered the strange robot carrying the human to the hole that it apparently had crawled out of, at the base of a small mountain. Lifting a hand to his ear he activated his communicator.
"Bulkhead to base, I found where that strange bot had crawled out from. If it is a crashed ship, then it wasn't recently. This rock face doesn't have the whole 'crashed ship' look to it."
"The epicenter of the earthquake is only a half a mile north of your current position," the older bot replied over the com. "There might be something more in the area."
"Aside from a giant hole in the ground? Not that I can see."
"Are you able to fit in it?"
"Negative. By the size of the hole, I think that bot was barely able to get out carrying that human with it."
"I'm bridging Arcee to your location." And no sooner had he spoken the words did the ground bridge open up in front of Bulkhead, the blue female Autobot stepping from its glow before it powered down. She walked over to and knelt by the hole as the sun finally descended from the sky, allowing the moon to illuminate their query.
"I can fit into it," the motorcycle said as she stood up and activated her communicator. "Ratchet, I'm going in."
"Understood."
Carefully making her way into the entrance due to the shifting sand, Arcee was able to grab a hold of the rock and slowly climbed her way down. It took nearly an hour of Earth time, but she was able to drop the last few feet onto a bed of sand that had gathered in the dark. Shifting her hands into her weapons and activating her lights, she began a sweep of what was left of the laboratory while Ratchet and those at the base watched on the monitor.
"It looks some sort of base," Jack said.
"A creepy looking one at that." Miko chimed in.
Arcee was careful in her sweep, taking everything in, from the broken support beams to the main computer system, to the table that was surrounded by spent energon crystals that were covered in congealed human blood. There was also a set of doors across the way.
Opening the first one she could see a very modest human bedroom. A pile of old blankets, one rolled up to be used as a pillow, and next to it was a book. Since she couldn't fit through the doorway, Arcee had to transform one blaster back into its hand component and stretch through the doorway to reach the small item and tucked it into an armored pocket in her back plating. The next set of doors not far to the right of the bedroom was blocked by some fallen girders.
Finding the current area void of threat, the motorcycle transformed her remaining weaponry back to her hand and proceeded to lift and toss them out of the way and pried open the doors with her hands.
She was able to fit through the doors, but had to kneel to do so. Glancing first one way and then the other she touched her ear. "Do you see this Ratchet?"
"It looks like a rail transit system. That explains how the human might have gotten down there, but not why."
"I picked up a book from a lodging area. I'll also grab the drives from the computer system here and let you and Rafael have a look at them." Arcee stood back up and looked into the room again as she made her way back over to the sizeable computer station, compared to a human at least. "There's also spent energon down here." She had already opened up the computer top and grabbed the hard drives from inside the machine before she stood up. "If you would be so kind as to open a ground bridge for me, Ratchet. It's getting a bit tight down here."
The light given off from the ground bridge gave the place an even eerier glow before Arcee stepped through and headed home. No sooner did the ground bridge wink shut than a rumbling came from the large doors that Arcee had peeked her head through as a rail car came grinding to a halt at them. A team of M.E.C.H. soldiers came rushing out, their weapons drawn, sweeping the area as they advanced into it. They took in the mess and damage done by the earthquake, but were unable to find the woman that was suppose to be working there. They also found the computer system a mess and the project missing.
[Location: Autobot base]
Arcee slowly made her way out of the ground bridge transport and over to Ratchet. Bulkhead had already returned prior to, and apparently so had Optimus Prime and Bumblebee with Rafael. "The place was a mess," she said as she passed the hard drives to the young boy. Then she pulled out the book from her back armored pocket and held it up. "I also found this in where the human was apparently staying."
Miko, standing on the raised area with the rest of them, but was the closest to Arcee's hand, yanked the book free and began to flip through it. "Somebody's old diary? Well, not like she'll ever know we were looking through it." June frowned at the teen's lack of respect for the dead, but kept to herself about it.
Ever patient Optimus Prime waited for the prodigy to crack open the files and let the first one start to play, everyone else focusing on the screen as well.
The file fizzled to life, showing a laboratory void of life and large crates stacked up against the wall on the other side of a work table that easily filled over half of the screen. The double doors that exited to the railway had opened, several M.E.C.H. soldiers filing out. One was leading a woman in a orange dress shirt tucked into blue jeans, whose arms were bound behind them and a sack over her head, into the room.
Once in front of the computer system the escorting soldier pulled the bag from over the woman's head. It was the woman whose body was now resting in a separate room to spare everyone from the stench, and on the screen she didn't look happy.
"Greetings, Ms. Greer." It was Silas' voice, crackled as if coming from speakers instead of the room itself. "I have need of your talents."
"I have nothing to offer you, you jerk." She spat the words at the screen.
"Oh, but you do." The head of M.E.C.H. said too smoothly. "We have the schematics for you, as well as all the parts. All we need from you is to create an acceptable A.I. for Project: Adaptation."
"What on Earth for?"
"That is for me to know, and for you to simply obey."
The woman's fiery temper flared as she struggled in her bonds. "Over my dead body."
"Maybe not yours, but what of your mother's?" The woman stopped struggling, the look of horror crossing her face. "That's what I thought. Do this for me, and your mother will live to a ripe, old age."
Still numb from the threat, the woman didn't fight, or even move, when the soldier next to her undid her bonds. They all simply filed back onto the transport and the door shut, sealing in their wake. After a few moments the woman finally fell to her knees and wept into her hands, the video cutting out.
"Fa-reak," Miko muttered as the screen cut off, and then noticed Jack and his mother both staring at her. "Not her!" she objected to their stares, "Silas." She tapped the open book with her free hand. "Apparently she had been there a while, all because of some A.I. program she had written for the military in her spare time."
Rafael had unlocked another video, apparently one more towards the middle of the group. Again the woman's face was on the screen, looking tired as she was chewing on a ration bar. "This is Ellan Greer, head and only worker on Project: Adaptation in reference to Elite Soldier Number One, stating once again that I am doing this against my will." She took another bite, chewing slowly as she half turned her chair around in its place to look back at the structure forming on the table.
"I'm taking liberties in the design of the being on my table, making it look more female than male as the original blue prints they had given me." She snickered a bit at the thought. "Might start calling it Elita-One, just to further spite Silas' overstuffed male ego."
Crumpling up the wrapper in her hand she tossed it lightly to the side. "They have also made an extra delivery today. Some sort of blue crystal. The energy is… otherworldly. I guess it would have to be for what he's asking me to do. There is no real way to create an artificial intelligence like what he's wanting. He wants it to be… almost human. Something like that is beyond a created being's scope. I'm not G'd, and frankly I don't want to be." With a tired sigh, she focused back on the screen. "Do they even think I'm alive anymore?"
Rafael paused the file when the proximity alert began to go off. A few moments later the elevator door opened and out stomped Special Agent Fowler.
"Prime?" He had his hand up, pointing at the large red and blue bot, taking a deep breath when he halted and suddenly grabbed his nose. "What in the name of Uncle Sam's beard died in here?"
"Her." June's face was stern as she used her whole hand and arm to point to the screen, and the woman's face on it. "Ellan Greer."
"Ellan…Gr…" Agent Fowler looked in shock at the screen, his face showing recognition slowly. "She's been missing for months now. Did a few projects for the military."
"Apparently M.E.C.H. has had her in their possession in that time." Optimus informed the human, "until recently."
"You have her here?" Agent Fowler was getting excited. Apparently finding her was highlight of his day.
The Prime closed his optics slowly, frowning a bit. "Not before the worst had happened to her."
This calmed the man down. "Where is she?" After being shown where they were keeping the body, Agent Fowler had told them that he would take care of it all. Then he was shown the mechanical being that was carrying her in the desert.
It was while they were discussing what to do with the bot that it opened its eyes and sat up suddenly. Miko, who happened to be facing it at the time, screamed at its sudden appearance behind Bumblebee and Arcee. It wasn't facing them at the moment, but at her scream it slowly turned its head and focused on her, and then slowly the rest of the group.
"Where am I?" it said in a feminine voice tone.
"You are among friends, Elita-One." Optimus was slowly walking up to her, his hands up in a peaceful gesture.
"Elita-One?" It focused quickly on him, and then the other bots, the humans, and then the image on the screen. Her face. "No… no. No. No. No! NO!" She rushed away from them. "You work for Silas! You have to be! You're what he wanted me to make more of!"
"Wait a minute!" Jack said, rushing around to get a better look at the new bot. "We don't work for M.E.C.H. or Silas. He's the bad guy."
She focused on Jack, her blue optics wavering a bit. "Then… who are you?"
[Author's Note]
I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS PRIME NOR ANY CHARACTER IN THE SHOW. I'm just a fan that wanted to have a bit of fun with adding an OC into the TF Prime world.
Thank you for taking your time to read this and I hope to have more posted soon.