"LEAVE ME ALONE!!"
She went back to punching Klutch...
"I'm sorry". Prime's optics dimmed as he raised his rifle. He aimed carefully, and fired with a low-level blast, knocking her out.
"Thanks, Prime." Klutch turned smiling.
Prime was not.
He stomped over to the blue mech and loomed.
"When you are in my domain, the United States, I mean," Prime leaned in, looming impressively over the shorter blur sportscar.
"You go by my rules. There are severe punishments for injuring a sparkling. When I find her, I am taking Kit to Ratchet, and if I find so much as One mark one her, I will not hesitate to lock you in a brig cell myself."
he narrowed his sky-blue optics to angry slits. "Do I make myself clear!?"
Klutch gulped.
"Yes,sir." He saluted, and did a crisp about-face, and slithered out of the room like a whipped puppy with a tail between it's legs.
The copy dissapeared slowly.
Alpha gasped. "My copy's back in my body..."
"Move out!" Klutch barked as he stalked out. His soldiers followed.
Prime looked over at the copy as it dissapeared.
"What the-"
He felt like facepalming. But realized he knew exactly where Kit and the real Alpha were
Driveby looked over at Kit. "Who would want to hurt an innocent sparkling?" she said softly.
"Klutch. He'll stop at nothing to get what he wants. He's underhanded, sneaky, and worst of all." Jade went over to the tiger and Alpha. "He's also ruthless."
the doorchime rang. Everyone jumped, and Prowl looked up.
Kit whimpered and clung to her mother's chest.
Alpha looked up and tightened her grip on her baby. She growled.
Omega turned into a tranformer and stood in front of Alpha and Kit sword at the ready.
Prowl sighed. "Come in."
Kit whimpered again.
Prime walked in, looking angry enough to rip apart Megatron, but he tried to compose himself. He looked over at alpha and Kit as the door slid shut behind him. "I thought I might find you here." he said softly.
"I need to take Kit to the repairbay and have Ratchet look over her." he glanced at Alpha.
"Don't worry. Klutch won't lay a finger on her ever again." his expression darkened.
Prowl glanced at the two. "Whatever his findings are, we can use it as evidence against him. He has quite obviously bruised her neck area.." he glanced at Alpha for approval.
Prime caught her look. "I'm sorry, Alpha, but you have to stay here. Once Klutch realizes it was only your copy, he'll come looking for you again. He may already be contacting his superiors to obtain a full search warrant."
"No! I can't! She's my baby." Alpha whimpered, holding her baby close.
Omega swallowed, but pried Kit away from Alpha. "I'm sorry, Al. Kit."
Kit looked at Prime and then, as he took her, then snuggled into his chest.
Alpha looked at the ground as Kit was carried away.
Prowl looked at Alpha. "She's safe with Prime. He'll make sure nothing happens." he nodded.
Prime looked down at the striped ball of fur in his arms, and tried to make it look like he was smiling, because she couldn't see he was for his facemask. "Don't be afraid, I will protect you." he said softly.
Wheeljack waited patiently as Ratchet finalized Red Alerts repairs, hoping it wouldn't take much longer. The red and white's babbling was starting to get on his nerves. And Inferno acting muchy over his best friend didn't help matters much.
Daze watched from a repair berth a few meters away.
Ratchet sighed. "There.
Alpha swallowed. "I still..."
Kit nodded, but snuggled closer to the Autobot leader, still shivering.
He looked up as Prime walked in with Kit in her arms, setting her down on one of the repair berths.
"I need to use your computer for a minute." he said to Ratchet.
the CMO nodded and pointed in the direction of his office. Prime headed in that direction, and turned to Kit. "I'll be right back. Klutch can't get in here."
He turned to Ratchet "Lock the door."
Kit looked at Prime and nodded.
Ratchet locked the door and then looked at Kit. He growled when he saw the cracked optic, dented throat and broken tail.
Prowl turned on his computer, and started to type.
"What are you doing?" Alpha asked, swallowing.
Prowl glanced at her. "Well, it seems you have some good arguments, so I thought I would type them up, keeping records of what we have so far." he said.
"He's taking notes." Jade clarified.
Prime came out of Ratchet's office a minute later, looking squite smug. He clicked on his comlink. "Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, please report to the repairbay." he unlocked the door
Alpha nodded. She leaned back against the wall and looked down. "I'm gonna rip his spark out."
Omega patted his sister's shoulders. "It's okay, sis."
Alpha growled and Omega backed away.
Kit looked at Prime. She cocked her head.
The twins came in a minute later and then blinked. "What is it, Prime?"
Prime glanced at Kit, then headed for the doors. "I'll be back for her." he said, looking down at the sparkling and nodded. He left, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe followed.
"you can't do this!" Klutch protested. "I was asking her questions! I didn't harm ah, I sweah!"
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe walked on either side of him, keeping a tight grip on his upper arms, almost dragging the blue mech as they walked.
"Really. Then why does she have bruises on her neck and arms?" Prime demanded.
Brawn walked behind them, in case things got out of hand and they needed the extra help.
"I have rights you know!" Klutch protested loudly.
"Yeah, the right to remain silent." Sideswipe glared at him.
Klutch shut it.
"I'm contacting my superia offica Prime." he threatened.
"Go ahead." Prime clicked off the forcefield of one of the cells and the twins shoved Klutch inside.
Prime clicked it back on. "I already spoke with the secretary of defense in your country. He agreed that you went too far, and require a 24-hour holding time to 'cool off.'
Prime's voice took on an extra smug quality. "Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, stay here and make sure our "guest" behaves himself.
He started to walk away. "Oh, and Klutch." he turned.
"if you do not start behaving in a mature manner, I am authorized to extend that period of time, up to 48 hours." he turned on his heel and left.
"You can't do this! you are hindering my investigation!" Klutch yelled.
"There will be cosequences!" his only reply was the door closing behind Prime
Kit looked at Prime as he entered.
Ratchet stopped fixing the sparkling's optic, "Well?"
Prime raised an optic ridge. "It seems Klutch has gone too far in his endeavors, and since he is in my juristiction, I felt he needed a ... cool-off period."
"Huh?" Wheeljack sounded.
Prime smiled. "He's in the brig until tomorow."
Kit giggled, smiling. She looked at Ratchet and the medic went back to repairing her cracked optic.
"That's good. Yeow! Stay still, Kit!"
"Sorry, Uncle Ratchet." Kit said, her ears drooping.
Hammertread glanced at Alpha, who looked like a bolt of lightning about to strike someone.
"She'll be fine. get over it." he said. Then smiled at her when he thought nobody was looking.
Prime waited patiently for Ratchet to finish his repairs. "I want a full report of your repairs. Every scratch, ever dent." he looked at Kit. "He had no right to do what he did to you, kit."
he came down so he was on eye level with her. "I'm sorry." he said.
Ratchet nodded. "Of course."
Kit smiled a bit at Prime, but then winced as Ratchet finished with her cracked optic. "It's okay, Uncle Prime. It's not your fault. He did this to me...not you...not mommy...not anyone else."
Alpha looked at HT and caught his smiled. She smiled back a bit, but then looked at the ground. She sighed. "I still shouldn't have gotten her hurt like that..."
"You didn't know, sis..." Omega said from across the room. He was reading over prowl's shoulder.
Prowl kept typing. "Besides the fact that Hammertread tried to plot his revenge against me, it only involved myself and Alpha. Which Alpha has obviosly forgiven him for. He has not harmed any humans, or plotted any nefarious schemes, such as the Decepticons might. Simply... misguided opinions. And the fact that Alpha proved she forgave him by defending him numerous times accounts to this conclusion..." he typed as he talked
Alpha folded her arms. "Ya got a problem with what I did?"
Omega facepalmed.
"Not at all." Prowl replied.
Hammetread just glared at him. "Hey, if I didn't think she'd follow me, I'd be back with the cons right now, tin-plated rust-busket."
Prowl ignored the comment.
"Omega followed because she is his sister. As for Jade, well," he glanced at her. "Fear can make people make the wrong desicions sometimes. Emotion is a very powerfull thing."
Alpha growled. "Jade wasn't scared." She muttered.
Omega smirked. "Hey, I followed because Alpha followed. I trust her desions."
"Thank you! Someone does!"
Omega smiled
Jade glanced at her. "like heck I wasn't". If you guys had stayed put, we wouldn't have gotten into this."
Driveby folded her arms. "And my team would be sitting in a hanger bay waiting to be reduced to spare parts." she growled.
Jade winced.
"point taken."
Prowl glanced at the group, then continued.
"If you want to add that Driveby's group shares the same name as a previously militant group, we could argue that, for starters, Driveby's group has never attacked any humans or human facilites here on Earth, they have not fought with the Autobots, they have basically been peacefull since their arrival.
Aside from the fact that you got into a fight with Klutch in Driveby's defense, there is really no other evidence that any of you are a threat to the Autobots or humanity. And that."
he turned to regaurd the group.
"Is what Klutch is trying to prove."
Alpha looked at Prowl. "How could we...oh never mind.."
"How could you have what?" Prowl replied. "If we are going to make a case, I need to know everything."
Indy sat in the human-sized quarters she'd been given, sulking.
Carly had brought her some clothes to change into, and some food from the local reataurant. she sighed. "I'm neva gonna get the hang of this human thing."
She flopped back down on the bed. Then looked up.
"Unless..." She closed her eyes, trying to find the spark of energy she'd felt coming from the device before.
she closed her eyes and concentrated on the electrical current she had felt before coming from the device...
There was a flash, and the red-colored Femmecar eeped as the human-sized bed gave way under her.
She stood up. "Well, at least I'm me again."
Ratchet stepped back from the repair berth and went to his computer to transfer the scans to a datapad, and type up his report. "Ratchet, will you be willing to appear in the fugitive group's defense?" Prime asked, picking Kit up.
Kit clung to Prime, but not as tightly as before.
Ratchet looked up and made a noise then went back to work.
"was that a yes?" Prime encouraged.
"Yes." Ratchet clarified.
"I was only saying how could we have done what he thinks we did? WHY would we?" Alpha asked, leaning back.
"Because." Prowl said. "he thinks anyone who isn't an Autobot, or had not been one in the past is the enemy. He also hates the Kintari, which is why he has been watching their base."
Jade perked at the mention. "Hmm?"
"He's been sending planes on a monthly fly-over." Prowl looked up.
"You haven't noticed the jet that flies over every months, around 2 in the morning and at 3pm the next day?"
the jet looked thoughtful for a second, then said "...No."
The doorchime rang, and everyone jumped again. This time, Jazz answered the door. "Hey, bossman. We were jus' discussin how these guys aint all bad." he smiled.
"Hiya Kit, how's it going?"
Prime walked in, holding Kit, petting her fur softly, like someone might a pet cat. She was curled up in his arms, and he smiled down at her.
Prowl blinked.
the group blinked.
Prime realized it and quickly set the tiger cub on the desk, clearing static from his vocaliser.
"Here's Ratchet's report." he handed Prowl the datapad.
Kit smiled up at Prime. She then acked as she was nearly killed by her mother. The sparkling groaned. "Mommy...can't breathe!"
Alpha let her go. "What'd he do to her?!"
Prowl skimmed over the report. "It says here she had several bruises around her neck and arms, her tail had been damaged, and a few minor scrapes and bruses. She had a mild head injury, also. But not enough to be classsified as a concussion... She also had a cracked optic lense." he looked up, knowing he shouldn't have said that.
Somebody had been watching Klutch. That same somebody was watching Hammertread too.
For some odd reason, they both seemed to be the same set of optics, although only one set was in one place. Something was odd. But nonetheless, someone was watching Hammertread.
More importantly, somebody was glaring at the tank
HT felt like he was being watched. He glanced around, not seeing anyone.
Compass narrowed his optics as he stepped forward, looking down at HT. He held up a nailgun and watched the tank.
"Waitaminute." Cable stepped forward.
"If he's tryin to get rid of everyone who isn't an Autobot or hasn't been one in the past, that's, like, half of Cybertron." he commented.
"We cannot make a case by assaulting his moral values. True, it is quite a few mechs. But he can do whatever he wishes in his territory. Here, however..." Prowl smirked.
Prime stepped in with "Here, the Autobots have rights, no matter what their past may be. Right now, the only knowledge he has against you is that Hammertread is an ex-Decepticon, and that Driveby's group are Kintari. Alpha and Omega can be held accountable as accomplices."
Prime glanced at the two.
"I have record of your notable actions and accomedations, and your occasions of serving above and beyond the call of duty. I sincerely doubt Klutch will be able to get around that." He looked down at the two.
Compass glared at HT.
Alpha sighed. "He's got a point..."
Driveby paced, stopping half a step behind HT. She rested her hand on his shoulder, and he smiled. "So, you're sure we have a sound argument?" she looked up at Prowl.
Jazz fidgeted. "Hey guys, this is interestin, but I gotta go. They're gonna wonder why I'm gone if I don't make an appearance. Lemme know what chya came up with later, kay?"
Prime nodded.
"Bye J." Jade called.
"So, what about the rest of us?" Driveby said.
"Yeah, I don't wanna sit around some dusty hangar till I'm scrapped!" Cable whined.
"Shut up, Cable. That's not going to happen." Beacon whapped him.
"Calm down you two." Gunlock stepped between them.
"It's another country. They can't haul us away even if they did catch us."
"Oh, and how would you know that?" Cap pointed out.
"I watch tv, too ya know. Who do you think Cable got to watch America's Most Wanted with him?" he gave Cable a look.
Jade glanced at him and quirked a smile. "He's right. If someone is caught in another country, they have to contact that country's high court, or whoever, and get expedition papers. It can take anywhere from a months to six months." she said.
Alpha looked at Compass. "What's your problem, Compass?" She asked, raising an optic ridge.
Driveby looked up and jumped when she saw the bot. "How did you get in here!?" she demanded
"Easy, Driveby." Alpha sighed. She walked over to Compass. "Hiyas, whatcha doin' in here and why are glaring at HT?"
Meanwhile, Klutch was yelling from his side of the energy bars at the lamborgini twins, who were lounging nearby.
"I get one phone call, yaknow. I wanna speak to my superiah!"
Sideswipe folded his arms.
"Go ahead."
Klutch turned on his comm unit. "Sir..I don't know what happened. I didn't though, I sweah."
"I know." a man in a black suit and tie came on. "Don't worry about it. They'll let you out tomorrow."
"But this is making me look bad in front of my own treups!" he protested.
The man shook his head. "I'm sorry, Klutch, but there are rules pertaining to sparklings."
"But sir.."
"Sorry, Klutch. There's nothing I can do for you." and the man cut the line.
"What's wrong?" Sunstreaker taunted. "Daddy won't pay your bail?" he snickered, and Klutch narrowed his optics. "Jus wait till I get outta heah." He grumbled.
Sides snickered. He smirked.
Compass continued to glare at HT, before putting the Nailgun at his side.
"Just a friendly warning." He stated, before he looked at her and his expression softened.
"Sorry I wasn't able to save Kit."
"It's okay. It wasn't your fault." Alpha smiled. She then looked at HT.
"Don't be so mean to him. After all, he saved my butt so many times it ain't funny!"
Compass looked at the nailgun. "Yeah...the twins wanted me to repair something in their bunk but they weren't there when I came by." He raised an optic ridge and pulled the gun's trigger, and with a loud snap a nail flew into the wall.
"Know where they are?"
Prime stepped forward. "I believe they are in the holding area, gaurding one of the cells."
Jade snickered. "Prime gave Klutch the smackdown for attacking Kit. He's locked up till tomorrow."
Prowl looked at her, face serious. "Yes, but even then, he will still be after you."
"You're right..." she looked down at the desk. Maybe.. Maybe..I dunno." She couldn't say it.
Compass raised a ridge at them. "You're locking him up for one night? Just one? After what he did? I'm surprised Ratchet's not blowing a gasket right about now."