The twins sighed. "You want us to teleportcha"
Jade nodded. "You know where Ratchet's office is, right"
Jazz and TY drove away from the ark. planning on circling back like they were coming back from partol.
"Yep." The two nodded. They took each other's hands. "Alright, we need everyone to, forgive us, hold hands." They said, looking at them.
They did. HT squeezed Beacon's hand so hard he cringed.
He grinned.
"Weakling."
"Am not!"
"BEHAVE!" Jade ordered.
HT shot her a smirk, but complied. Driveby moved so she was between beacon and cable. "Okay. ready"
The twins took deep breaths. Their markings glowed.
"Alpha and Omega.
Beginning and the End.
Light and Dark.
Good and Evil.
One cannot survive without the other.
The other cannont survive without one.
Together, they fight,
But together, they create balance"
The twin's eyes when white. The background flashed and they were in Ratchet's office.
The twins groaned and completely passed out.
Ratchet looked at Daze's scans on the monitor above the berth, then back down at the jet, face darkening.
"Uh-huh. That mediaction I gave her can't just be immediately stopped. It shocked her systems. She's going to be fine."
Bumblebee sighed in relief, and came over to the jet, smiling at her.
"Why did you stop taking it, Daze?" he asked.
There was suddenly a dound from Ratchet's office..
thud!
"GET OFF ME YOU!!" a deep voice growled
"Lay off hammerthunk!" another shot back.
"Cable behave!" Jade warned
"But he started it!"
"You landed on my head!" the ex-tank glared.
Driveby facepalmed.
"Did you hear that?" Ratchet glanced at his office.
He walked in and saw the humans. "Hey, who are you and WHY are you IN MY OFFICE!?"
Jade gulped and came forward. "uh...hi." she waved.
"We're hiding out. mind not telling whoever's out in the repairbay?" she said
"Shut up, Ratchet." The twins groaned.
The CMO pretended not to hear that.
Jade tilted her head to one side. "What, you suddenly don't recognise me now? I'm hurt." she smiled.
Ratchet blinked. "Jade? What are...how...huh?"
"Heh. For once, he's silent." The twins muttered as they tried to stand up, only to fall flat on thier faces.
"Ow."
Jade glanced at the group, then started to explain. "We used the transmognifier to become human. We figured we could hide out here in the Ark. Klutch'll never think to look in the lower levels.
"So dat's yua plan!" Indy sounded from the back.
"crap." Beacon facepalmed. Cap glanced at her. "I forgot we had her with us." he said.
"This is Driveby." Jade motioned to the just-over-her-ear-length platinum-blonde haired femme.
"Beacon." the short-haired man nodded.
"Gunlock." the black-clad man looked up at him.
"Cable" The guy in bluejeans waved. "Hi."
"and Cap." "whassup." the man in fatigues grinned.
Hammertread glared. "forget someone?" he growled.
"That's Hammertread." she poined to the man in hunting camoflauge.
And alpha and Omega." she motioned to the pair beside her.
"Oh, and Indy." she motioned to the scared-looking wavy-haired blonde femme between Gunlock and Beacon.
The twins smiled. "Hiya, Ratchet...remember us"
Ratchet gasped. "Alpha? Omega"
"Hiya"
Ratchet then frowned. "Wait...Prime's been lookin' for ya...and Prowl...and your daughter." He whispered to Alpha.
"Prowl? You're not gonna tell him where we are, are you"
"Prowl is the person who's gonna help us, remember?" Jade reminded.
"We can't run forever. I have a life to go back to. You guys can do what you want, but I'm gonna try to find a way out of this." she turned away and looked down. "I have to"
Driveby nodded. "We follow you whatever you decide on, Jade. But if the worst happens, we will run, whether you have higher rank or not."
Jade nodded.
"Same here." Alpha and Omega nodded once they had stood up agian. They winced. "Don't...don't make us do that again unless we have to..." They groaned, holding their heads
"We won't have to. And I know Prowl doesn't like Hammertread, but he'll have to defend all of us if he wants to defend you two and myself." Jade said.
The CMO glanced out at the repairbay. Ratchet sighed. "Uh"
"What's wrong?" The twins sighed.
"well..." Ratchet explained everything and the twins blinked.
"Great"
Jade facepalmed. "Well, if we're going to traverse the entire length of the Ark..."
she sighed.
"It's gonna take us all day to get halfway there. I wish we could get to my quarters and raid the fridge rightabout now."
Ratchet sighed. "I could travel in vechical mode, but"
"That's attrach to much attention..." The twins sighed. They looked at each other.
"Kit" Alpha thought-sent.
"Mommy!"
Alpha smiled. "Find Aunt Jade's room and go in there. I'll tell you to do once you do."
Alpha smiled."Yes mommy."
"What are you planning?" Omega asked.
"Nothing"
"Yes...you just contacted Kit"
"No I didn't"
"Yes you did!"
"Did not!"
Jade glanced at Alpha. "I don't think Klutch would mess with a little kid. And if he does try anything, it'll work against him." she replied.
"Can we just go allready. I'm getting sick of hiding!" HT grumped.
Driveby glared at him. "Yeah, let the littled tank-bot take on an army." she narrowed her optics. "I'd like to see you try."
HT stepped towards her, but Gunlock and Cap got inbetween them. Everyone started arguing at once.
Indy started shouting at Ratchet that he was a traitor, too for helping these fugitives and he would share their fate if she had anything to do with it.
"Enough!" Ratchet snapped. "Let's just get you to your quarters, and then you can go from there." he frowned.
He transformed, and the group piled in.
"Bee, I'm going to take a break. Keep and eye on Daze for me, okay?"
"Okay." the yellow VW shrugged as the white ambulance rolled out and radioed Prime to make sure he didn't get stopped on his way out.
Kit walked into the room and looked around. She spotted Alpha.
"MOMMY!"
Alpha acked as she was picked up. "Hiyas, Kit. D'ya get everything like I said?"
"Yes mommy"
"Good." Alpha smiled. She looked at the others. "Everyone, this is Kit"
"Hi." Kit smiled.
Ratchet smiled at the ruinion, then turned to go. "I'd better get to the rec room. I told Prime I was going for an energon break."
Kit smiled at the medic. "Okay"
Alpha groaned. "kit, I can't breathe"
"Sorry mommy." Kit put the girl down. She bent down and grinned.
"Hi aunt Jade, hi uncle O."
Jade smiled.
HT puffed himself up and growled, tring to look threatening.
Cable poked him to see if he would deflate.
"do NOT touch me!" the ex-tank yelled.
Kit smiled. "Hiyas, Unlce HT." She said.
Alpha smirked. "She calls everyone that." Alpha smiled. "This is Driveby"
"Hiya! Here, Mommy." Kit handed Alpha a baby bat. "That's Midnight."
"Cute."
Hammertread snarled and stomped over to the small tiger cub, trying to look threatening despite being half her size. "My name is HAMMERTREAD!" He snarled.
Jade shook her head, trying not to smirk."we need to get supplies and get the frag out of here."
"Computer." she spoke to the air. A beep surrounded.
"Security code s1,alarm activation code delta-1, pre-alert arm." the computer beeped twice and dinged in acknowledgement.
"There. The room is soundproofed, and the alarm system is on. If anyone even walks down the hall, the tv in the living room will automatically come on with the outside camera view. If anyone succeeds in breaking in, they'll go deaf because of the alarm system. It is piercing." she said.
Hammertread was still glaring at the white tiger cub.
The cub laughed. She smiled at HT. "Alright, Unlce Hammertread"
Alpha laughed. She put the baby bat on her shoulders and then looked at Omega.
"We need to get some supplies, and plan out our next move." Jade walked up the balcony steps and fetched a knapsack, and started grabbing tapes off the entertainment center.
"I have a lot of sensitive information I don't want that blue twit getting his hands on." she started hurriedly grabbing notebooks and a couple human-sized datapads.
Alpha nodded.
Omega sat back.
Kit picked HT up. She looked him over and sniffed him. "He smells funny." she noted.
Omega chuckled.
"GAAAH! GET OFF ME YOU FLEA-INFESTED FURBALL!" HT snarled, taking a swing at the tiger-bot's face.
Jade turned and stifled a snicker. Driveby blinked. Then started laughing at the expression on his face. "Yeah, laugh now, but just wait till I come over there!" he yelled.
Ratchet entered the rec. room, where a group of soldiers were relaxing in the center of the table, surrounded by Hound, Trailbreaker, and Wheeljack.
"So then I said trust me, it won't do anything wrong. And the next thing ya know, I'm standing in front of the Eiffel tower!" Wheeljack laughed. The group of soldiers laughed, also. Ratchet grumbled and went over to the dispenser.
"Hiya doc." Hound waved.
Ratchet nodded towards the jeep, then took a seat, and sipped the contents of the cube, trying to think of why the chemicals would have such an effect on Daze's systems, and why she stopped taking it. She hadn't said anything when he asked.
"Red Alert to Wheeljack." the security director's voice came over the comlink.
"Wheeljack here. "Your assistance is needed enacting a search warrant. Please meet us at the command center"
Wheeljack sighed. "Gotta go, guys. "The inventor didn't say anything in front of the soldiers, but he didn't want to be involved in this any more than he absolutely had to...
Kit laughed and then looked at HT. "He's funny, Momma"
Alpha smirked. She then glared at HT. "Insult her one more time and I shall make it where you live the rest of you life under the belief you're a three year old girl."
"You can do that?"
"Oh yeah."
Jade was just coming back downstairs when the computer beeped, and the tv came on. There was Klutch, flanked by two grey-colored drones with black faceplates over their faces, Red Alert, and Wheeljack.
"Hang on for a second." Jade dissapeared into the door under the balcony where the kitchen was. She returned a second later.
Red Alert was allready typing in his security override code.
"Okay. THat's not good." Alpha swallowed.
Kit put HT down and picked her mother up. "Who are they, mommy? I ran into one of them...he scared me"
"Don't worry, Kit. Everythin'll be okay..." Alpha promised. She looked at Jade with a look that said "right?"
Omega looked at Kit and patted the sparkling, who was only half Alpha's size when she was a robot. "It'll be okay, Kitty"
"Don't worry, He isn't looking for us. He's bringing a search party to go through my stuff.." Jade shot the door a dark look. "And It'll take him about five minutes to get through that door, which we'll be long gone by then. The original security lock override system was modified back when this was my team's quarters."
She headed for the stairs. "come on."
"Coming." They said, following. Kit picked everyone up and followed.
They had gotten up to the balcony living room when the door came open.
The group froze.
The raiding party froze.
"Why didn't the alarm go off?" Cable hissed.
"Stop!" Red Alert yowled, running for the balcony.
HT jumped up on the couch and went over the railing with a flash of blue. He stood in his tank form and cracked his knuckles. "Just go. I'll hold them off." He grinned at Klutch, who brought his rifle to bear on the tank.
"Round two aniwone?" the blue mech aimed.
"You'll hit the humans!" Wheeljack knocked the gun off target as he fired, hitting the far end of the balcony.
"Bedroom, now!" Jade shouted. Alpha looked up at HT. "But..."
Kit ran towards the bedroom.
Alpha shot Klutch with a ball of pure energy and then looked up. "Kit, be careful."
"I will, mommy." She nodded, running into the bedroom. The sparkling shut and
locked the door behind them. "Now what?"
Alpha sighed. "I hope he'll be okay"
Driveby glanced at the door as Kit locked it. "Me too."
Gunlock went to the bathroom door, which had a door to the living room, and locked it.
Jade climbed up on top of the chest of drawers and grabbed the bottom of the giant mountain painting on the wall, pulling it outwards.
"Come on." She grabbed Alpha's hand and hauled her up. behind the picture was a ventilation shaft, almost big enough to stand up in.
"YOU IDIOT! I culd 'ave had them!" Klutch snarled.
"You could have killed them, you mean!" Wheeljack shot back.
Hammertread grinned and ran at Klutch.
Alpha jumped up. She pulled Omega and the others up with her powers.
"Alright. There." She said softly then looked down. "Kit."
Kit walked over. "I can't fit"
"Don't worry, he won't hurt you. You're just a child." Alpha smiled.
"Yes ma'am..." Kit said, looking at them.
"Help HT if you can, but DO NOT get hurt"
"Yes ma'am"
Jade looked at Kit. 'You'll be fine. promise." she smiled, then put the painting back, and latched the heavy metal grate behind it from inside.
"You have to be quiet. We're right above them." She whispered. The duct only went about ten feet, before opening up to what looked like a series of catwalks, with cieling panels in-between them. Kind of like looking at a lowered ceiling from above.
There were support wires every so often, which were holding the panels and catwalk-frame to the actual ceiling. There was a flat area to the right with a human-sized lawn chair on it.
"My favorite hiding spot." Jade noted.
There was a shout and a clang from below. Then the ceiling shook.
"looks like HT is doing better than we thought." Jade smiled and led the way to one of the rail-less catwalks.
Kit walked over to the bedroom door. She poked her head out and watched the battle.
Alpha and Omega walked over to Jade. They swallowed. "Let's hope he's the one winning..." They muttered.
Klutch leapt and rolled to the right. The mindless drones raised their weapons, but Hammertread took them out with a puch right through each one's head unit.
He turned and Klutch fired. The beam pierced the tank's thick shoulder armor and the door behind him.
"Eu relly think eu can win against me?" he took aim again.
Before he could fire, hammertread charged him, tackling the blue sportscar with a solid thump that rattled the ceiling tiles. He landed two more fists in the blue mech's face as he tried futilley to block them.
Wheeljack raised his cannon at the tank. Hammertread growled and punched him again.
The group got to the back wall, and there was another grate, which overlooked the hall. They followed the catwalk beside that wall, right above where the door was, and Jade paused, carefully glancing downward. There were a couple panels missing at this part of the ceiling she'd forgotten to fix, and anyone could just look up and see them.
They glanced down at Wheeljack, and hear the loud whine of the weapon's power cell charging
"I wish we could help!" Alpha whispered.
"Wait! HT's the one...Omega, we've got to help"
"We can't"
"We have to"
"HT can handle himself!" Omega said, holding his sister.
"Hope so..." Alpha muttered then watched the battle.
Kit whimpered from her spot peeking through the bedroom door, that was open a tiny bit.
"Uncle Hammertread, be careful!" she whispered.
Jade reached into her pocket, and realized she still had the bottle of perfume from the mountains. She pulled it out.
"Head for the grate at the far side of the catwalks." She whispered in Driveby's ear. The leader nodded and signaled her team.
Jade took carefull aim and threw. The bottle hit the knockout ray and busted, sending perfume into the circuitry.
Wheeljack pulled the trigger right as it hit. The thing threw sparks and the perfume caught, making the cannon explode into a big ball of flame.
HT paused and looked up. Then started laughing. "You're really try to kill me with laughter, aren't you?" he chuckled, punching the blue mech hard enought to make him start to black out. But the device was still sparking, and the whine was getting louder.
"Let's get out of here!" Red Alert yelped "It's going to explode!"
he fired off another row of shots at the tank, but they just bounced off.
Kit yelped and hid in the room. She was frightenend, but said nothing, only wrapped her arms around her legs, tightly shutting her optics.
Alpha and Omega watched. They swallowed. "Let's hope this works."
Hammertread grinned and turned human so the stun ray wouldn't effect him.
The gun exploded. Jade shoved Alpha and Omega to one side as the fireball engulfed the catwalk they had just been standing on.
Jade grinned and leaned over to get a good look.
She whistled.
"Oh, right. I almost forgot he doesn't know what that means." She grinned.
The human looked up and brushed his hands off. He turned back into a tank.
'Well, looks like that came in handy. He chuckled at the double meaning. (The device and his ability to become human. )
"you okay kid?" he called up to where Kit was in the bedroom.
no answer.
"Kit?" He walked over to the balcony.
"you can come out now, kid they're knocked out"
still no answer. He ran up the steps, opening the bedroom door..
"Alpha's gonna kill me..." he trailed off.
Alpha ran over to the open space, sensing something was wrong with the sparkling.
"WHAT'S WRONG?!?!" She screeched, "WHERE'S KIT?!?"
Tears came to her eyes.
"TELL ME SHE'S OKAY"
"Alpha..." Omega said softly, "I'm sure she's"
"DON'T YOU TELL ME SHE'S FINE!! I KNOW SOMETHING'S WRONG! HT, WHERE'S KIT?! WHAT'S WRONG"
"Come on." Jade ran down the catwalk to catch up with and pass the others at the platform by the duct. Alpha passed them, and went back to the one they had came through, Omega right behind her.
the tank-now-human looked out the bedroom door, making sure the Autobots were still knocked out.
"..I didn't even know she had a kid." he said softly, almost to himself. he walked over to the unmoving form, and reached out, fearing the worst...