Chapter 5
To Strike at the Heart
Optimus stood in the desert, with Arcee and Bulkhead on either side of him, waiting for Megatron to arrive. Ratchet was sitting in a covered position off to his left, awaiting his chance, and Bumblebee was back at base watching the kids and two adults, while manning the ground bridge.
The Autobot leader ran through the plan in his head one more time, as he watched his surroundings.
When Megatron came, they would wait, let him run his mouth, distract whatever forces he had with him so Ratchet could slip the tracer on one of them, then bridge out. Simple, not too complicated, and hopefully successful without any unforeseen complications. Jack's life depended on it.
A ground bridge opened in front of him and he felt his soldiers tense, and raise their weapons. He prepared himself, as Megatron stepped out, followed by some of his Decepticons, who fanned out beside their lord. There was Breakdown, Knockout, and Airachnid, followed by a handful of soldiers.
The two opposing leaders stared at each other. Megatron had a smug look that told Optimus the silver mech had something up his armored mechanical gyros, which put the Autobot leader on edge. The Decepticon lord seemed a little too compliant with the way things were going, what was he up to?
"So, Prime is this the place you've come to to die?" Megatron wondered looking around, the area was open but not without cover, if he had tried to set up an ambush the Autobots would have seen it coming from where they stood.
Arcee couldn't stand it.
"Where's Jack?" She demanded.
"Jack?" Megatron said in obvious fained confusion mocking her, "Now why does that name sound familiar?"
The femme bot growled.
"Hold your position Arcee." Optimus ordered he stared hard at Megatron feelings of protective anger coursing through him.
"One of your men kidnapped a young human named Jack. Where is he?" He asked as patiently as possible. The silver mech sneered, causing warning signals to sound in Prime's processor.
"Ah, do you mean this Jack?" The Decepticon leader stepped to the side revealing their friend behind him.
"Come forward, boy." He commanded.
Optimus frowned as Jack stepped forward and stopped next to Megatron. Something was wrong, if the boy had been behind them he should have had ample time to escape. Arcee, on his right, took a step towards her partner concern in her optics.
"Jack?" That one word carried several meanings at once. Was he alright? Was he hurt?
Jack glanced down ashamed, knowing it was coming, he couldn't look at her as Megatron spoke to him.
"Go on, Jack." The double meaning in his voice wasn't lost on the human, "Don't you want to return to your friends?"
As Jack walked towards them, Optimus tensed further, there was something eerie about the way he was following orders, something so very wrong. He noted the metal band around Jack's head and his optics widened.
"Stay back!" He commanded his team and stepped cautiously forward, one optic on the Decepticons, the other on the human before him.
"Jack?" He questioned.
The boy raised his head and stared into the Prime's optics. His face was full of anguish and he was shaking as though fighting himself.
It happened then in an instant. Optimus staggered back in pain, crying out, as electricity raced through his frame. The other Autobots could only react in shock, as lightning danced between Jack's hands, and Megatron laughed with glee in the background.
"Decepticons, attack!" He shouted.
"Come, boy!" He ordered the teen.
Optimus saw Jack run back to Megatron, and tried to follow, when Knockout stood in his way. The red mech leered at him as they traded blows. Arcee took on Airachnid, anger coursing through her frame, as the two of them fought viciously. Bulkhead battled Breakdown, the two hammering punches into each other. While Ratchet made his way over to Megatron, who was standing with his men watching the fight, as the soldiers around him took pot shots at the Autobot team.
Ratchet blasted some of the Vehicons, reducing the amount of fire his friends were under, and tried to confront the Decepticon leader directly, but was blasted back by Jack. Megatron turned to him.
"Well, if it isn't the Autobot medic." He sneered, "Do you like what I've accomplished with your little friend?"
The red and white bot looked closely at Jack with intense worry and alarm on his face. He could see tears in the boy's eyes, shame for hurting him, and anger for being forced to do what he was. Ratchet was outraged.
"What have you done to him?" He shouted.
"Oh, he's just no longer your human pet and belongs to me now." The Decepticon leader goaded.
Ratchet stood up with his blaster pointed at Megatron.
"The slag he does!" He roared and was about to fire, when Arcee let out a war cry and, from out of no where, attacked the mech savagely. She punched, and clawed, and scratched doing her best to maim the Decepticon lord. She gave him a particularly nasty scratch across his faceplate before getting thrown off.
Megatron stood up with a snarl, his blaster aimed at the Autobot femme, about to waste her. Ratchet was distracted by the rest of Megatron's soldiers and couldn't fire. Then Knockout crashed into his leader, ruining his shot which went wide, and Optimus stepped forward having thrown the red mech like so much garbage.
"You've gone too far, Megatron!" Optimus said strongly, that protective anger for his men and their human friend flowing freely through his wiring.
"On the contrary, Prime, I don't think I've gone far enough!" Megatron rejoined, "You didn't even know, yourself, just how special the boy was, but today you'll see just what my newest soldier can really do."
"Attack the Autobots!" He ordered the young human.
Jack, being forced to comply from whatever compulsion his headgear used, took a stance and cut loose. He formed fire in one hand, and ice in the other, and blasted the two elements at his Transformer friends. The two streams flew past them with a roar, as they dodged, leaving a trail of frost and burning sand in their wakes.
Arcee tried using her speed to get close, dodging and flipping around Jack's electric strikes, but then he grabbed and picked her up, with telekinesis, and tossed her frame into a boulder. She lay there unconscious.
Bulkhead stepped forward with his arms raised.
"Jack, don't make me do this." He pleaded.
His friend's reply was to encase him in ice and electrocute his massive frame. The poor wrecking bot collapsed, too stunned to get back up.
Ratchet backed up, when Jack turned to him next, but Optimus stepped in the way, using a downed Eradicon to take the brunt of the electric shot.
"Optimus, what are you doing?" Ratchet cried as his leader was hit indirectly.
"If we're going to save Jack we have to do what we came for." The Prime grunted lowly.
"Right." Ratchet resolved, "I'm ready."
Optimus threw the dead frame aside and the two of them moved in sync, avoiding Jack's fire blasts and jumping over him, towards Megatron and what soldiers he had left standing. The Decepticons fired at them, but the two mechs weaved in and out of the shots. They were almost close enough to implement their plan, when something invisible snagged both their legs and pulled. The two Autobots crashed to the ground.
"No, the tracer!" Ratchet cried as it slid and skittered across the ground away from him.
Towards Megatron.
"So this is what you had in mind, is it?" The silver mech looked down at the small device and crushed it beneath his foot, to the horror of his enemies. He gazed up at them, the two Autobots in the back were recovering and standing up, while his own men stood in various stages of disrepair.
"Pathetic." He said raising his fusion cannon to fire.
Optimus quickly comm-ed the base for a ground bridge as he and Ratchet took cover. The others soon joined them, while engaging the Decepticons, as they closed in.
"Autobots, retreat." He ordered as it opened.
He kept up suppressive fire as first Bulkhead then Arcee, who looked back once more, went through. Optimus looked back at Jack, as she had done, just as Ratchet left. He could see the tears the boy had tried so hard to hold back fall, as he stepped through the swirling gate.
He vowed with all his spark that he would find a way to rescue him.
Megatron stared after the retreating Autobots in triumph. He may not have destroyed them, but he and his men had dealt them a crushing blow, with his experiment. He turned and called his pet to him and patted him on the head. He took sadistic pleasure in the evidence he could see in the boy's face, of the pain he felt, even as he glared at his master. Served him right for undermining his plans.
The Decepticon leader smiled in satisfaction and called for a bridge to his ship. He stepped through, his men behind him, and his pet at his side.
He didn't see the small figure that followed them.