…...I have absolutely no excuse as to why this chapter took almost forever to write and type up. None, whatsoever. But thanks to some wonderful inspiration and some thoughtful revision I am back into the swing of things! Let's go!

DISCLAIMER: Do not own Transformers Animated. Nope, sorry, not going to happen.

Transformers Animated

Finding One of Their Own

Ch. 6-A Horrific Turn of Events

Later that evening the six Autobots and Moisar were out in the city scouring the streets for any sign or clue that the Vampiricon was in the area and would lead them to his hideout so that they could return the next day and put an end to him and any plans that he had for the city. Before they began the search Optimus had paired the group off into three teams: Ratchet and himself, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Moisar, and the two ninjabots last. Speaking of our two reacquainted friends. They were going across the rooftops taking in things from above but it seemed like they wer catching up than looking for a 'Con. But they both knew that they were on a mission and the time to reflect on their pasts would just have to wait. They decided to go back to the scene of the crash and hopefully pick up a trail from there. As both bots landed near the sight, the wreckage still there but blocked off to keep any passerbys from possibly getting hurt.

Walking over to it, they noticed that there was something odd about it: it looked like there was bits and pieces missing, as if somebody or somebot went scrounging through the unusable ship for what they needed. This new development concerned the two ninjabots but know for sure Bulkhead and Bumblebee were going to have to be called from their locaton to check things out since they were the only two bots that were at the scene all afternoon the last solar cycle. After Prowl comm linked the green and yellow mechs a few megakliks later had passed when their familiar sounds were heard coming down the long stretch of road. When they arrived, the young man stepped out of the mini-bot's vehicle mode to let the sometimes annoying loudmouth and the sensitive artist transform in their alt modes and get down to business. Once that was done, Lightningray gesturned to the wreck and asked, "Sorry to call you away from your own search but we wanted your opinion on something. If you can remember, is everything that belongs here still here?"

Walking around it to observe it from all sides the two friends looked at the destruction and after several kliks the former energon farmer surmised, "Well by what I can tell most of the interal components are missing, though it's just a few vid screens and a couple of communication antennas."

"And by the looks of it, a whole bunch of wiring and circuit boards too," the sarcastically-classified mech added, looking through the empty patches in the rubble. "With some outer panels that got picked up as well."

"Then that means someone or somebot is using those parts to build some sort of communication center," the black and gold bot calculated. "And since it's Cybertronian technology, it could only mean that the Vampiricon returned here last night after we left and gathered what he needed and returned to his makeshift base before anybody could see him."

"It definitely makes sense," the femmebot agreed. "And maybe he came back the same way he escaped. Moisar, which alley was it that he went down when you went to investigate the crash?"

Skimming over all the openings he recognized it and replied, "Uhh, oh, that one. It's the only one that I remember with that garbage bin near the entrance."

Heading inside the blue and white bot looked around for any signs of anything out of place. As far as she could tell there was nothing out of the ordinary but was then she remembered that the once-lost Autobot had an infrared system function that could help with their investigation. Remotely activating it the specially designed optic lenses that looked like a pair of blue-tinted techno glasses slid out from the metal band that went over her processor and quickly started scanning, easily picking up on the trail which was clearly overlapped. The villainous bot clearly used this sidepath to go back and forth from here. Calling behind her she informed, "I've got an energy signature that's going all over the place. By the readings they look a day old at best."

"Which means this is the definite trail we need to follow," Prowl concluded walking up next to his fellow ninjabot. "For the best way to about this both Lightningray and I will go by rooftop while you three search by ground. If we do come across him, we lay low and call for Prime and Ratchet for back-up. We do not want to get into something we can't get out of."

Every person and bot nodding in agreement the two stealth-bots quickly went above and scouted ahead while the yellow and green mechs plus the human were slowly moving down the backstreet trying their best to not draw attention to anyone, anything, or anybot that would be lurking in there. As she was looking from above the femmebot continued to scan the invisible trail, keeping track of how strong it was and how far it went. A little bit further up she was thrown for a curveball that she could only classify as planning very far ahead. At an intersection that laid a few yards out was filled with nothing but the Vampiricon's servosteps, meant to throw anybot off of his trail. Groaning a bit she commed her teammates, "Bad news. He figured that somebot might be searching for him. The crossing up ahead is severely treaded with his stabilizing servoprints. Things are going to get a bit more difficult for us."

"So, how are we supposed to find him now, exactly?," the mini-bot replied, clearly not happy about the development in the situation.

"In order to sucessfully obtain our goal we may have to split up again and take a different path," Prowl suggested. "Let's regroup and pair off to continue our search."

When the five met up with each other they separated each other into two groups of two and a group of one: Bumblebee with Bulkhead, Lightningray and Moisar, and Prowl on his own. Each of them agreeing to alert the others in case they spotted the target in question the teams went their separate ways. Taking the alley going right the human and femmebot were keeping their conversations to a bare minimum, hoping that they would get lucky on their end. However it was starting to look like a dead end when suddenly the sound of rusted metal opening further ahead caught their attention. Both of them took refuge behind a large dumpster, the Autobot peering over the top and the young man watching from the side. In the backstreet of a large abandoned warehouse across the street the oxidized hatch doors to the basement below swung open the two making a loud clang as they bounced on their hinges. A few seconds later the two saw a processor slowly appear above ground, scan the area, then come all the way out and shut the entrance to his underground lair. From where he could stand the organic could dimly make out the facialplate features that he recognized as the shadow he saw yesterday. Looking out of the corner of his eye at his friend he whispered as low as he could, "That's him, Light. That's the thing I saw escape the wreckage when the ship crashed."

"Are you sure, Moi?," the man's old friend clarified. "We need to be absolutely sure before we call the others."

"I am sure," the human affirmed. "That same feeling that I got when I approached the rubble is coming back and it's only getting worse."

"Alright, I believe you," the blue and white bot reassured. "Now that we know that it's him, it's time to get the others and get this done."

As she reached up to call the other five bots on her comm link when unexpectedly a loud bang and a crash came from their area, alerting the Vampiricon to that he wasn't alone. Turning his optics towards the sound's location the creation started making his way into the two's direction. Quickly ducking down the ninja-bot frantically called, "I have a visual on the target. Repeat, I have a visual on the target. And he is closing in fast. The sooner you can get here, the better!"

"Copy that," Prime acknowledged, he and Ratchet on their way with sirens blazing. "We're about five kliks from your location. Do not engage until we arrive."

"Trust me, that's the last thing I want to do," Lightningray agreed, starting to feel a little afraid for both her and her best friend.

"Hang on, we're on our way," Bumblebee replied, hoping to give some support. "Just give us a couple of kliks!"

That giving her some hope the young bot wondered what had caused the distraction and figured it out when her gaze went to the young man who was shaking in absolute fear, a giant scrape going down the side of his head. Looking out of the corner of his eye at his old friend he wheezed, "Slipped on a glass bottle that flew out from under my foot and ht the wall behind us. Fell and hit my head against the dumpster and the ground."

Only nodding in respons the femmebot tensed up as she heard the enemy approach their hiding spot. The electrical cables that protruded from the villain's chassis drug along the gravel pavement, each twitching every so oftern as they felt fresh energon nearby. Just as he was about to discover the two a gold three-pronged shuriken came flying out of nowhere hitting the Vampiricon squarely in its chestplate. Taken by surprise Powerdrain watched as the weapon bounced back and landed in its master's servo, Prowl's look of determination to protect his fellow student of the Cyber Ninja Corps never wavering. The green and yellow mechs bringing up the rear the duo joined them to stand against the mechanized creature. Staring at the four Cybertronians and the one human the vampiric Decepticon made a quick scan to see if one of the four Autobots was his matching code but nothing even came close. Not even caring about the organic he was poised to attack when the last two members of Team Earth came up from behind, transformed into their alt modes, and readied themselves for a fight. Glancing behind him at the new arrivals he sneered to all of them, "So now five Autobots and one meat bag think they can stand against me, eh? I have to congratulate you on your boldness and bravery, but unfortunately I will have to destroy every bit of that when I drain the energy from your darkened hulls."

Without warning the monster lept at the group in front of him his appendages coiling around the loudmouth and the femmebot flinging them towards Optimus and Ratchet. Bumblebee landed in the street while Lightningray landed right in front of the medibot, her training instantly kicking back in. Straightening back up she was ready to fight. Brandishing and activating her Knives she dove into the fray, blocking a blow that was about to strike Moisar. Seeing what the ninja-bot did it make Powerdrain wonder what made her care about the scrawny thing so much. Seeing him distracted gave the black and gold mech his chance to deliver a strong kick that sent the abomination into the corner the machine/organic pair were hiding in megakliks ago. Starting to realize that he was losing the fight real quick the lab experiment growled, "It seems that you five are worthy opponents after all. Which means that we will be seeing each other real soon."

Using the cables he pulled himself up onto the roof behind him, at the same time on the sharp barbs forcefully whipped across the blue and white bot's right cheekplate giving her a nasty scratch. The force of it knocking her backwards it turned out to be the perfect distraction as the others rushed to see if she was okay while the Vampiricon escaped using his cloaking feature to make sure he didn't have one of them following him. As the creature was getting away the other bots were checking on their fellow Cybertronian as soon as she went down. Quickly getting annoyed the war veteran ordered, "Alright, everybot get back! How about letting me do my job without an audience hanging over me, thank you!"

Obeying the older bot the four other mechs backed up a few steps and let the red and white bot do his work. Checking the scrape over he surmised, "Well, sorry to say that without the right tools to fix that graze it's going to be permanent for a while."

"Doesn't matter to me," Lightningray brushed off, getting up and staring at the path of escape. "What matters is the abomination got away but we managed to find his lair. All we have to do now is watch it and wait for the right moment to strike."

"She's right," Bulkhead agreed, a bit hesitantly. "We still were able to discover where he's hiding so at least the plan's not totally lost."

"True," Prowl added. "We just have to come back and finish him off for good."

"Well, at least we've done all that we can for tonight," Prime summarized, walking out to the street. "Autobots, transform and roll on home."

Following the order the mechs and the femmebot shifted into their vehicle modes, Moisar quickly climbing aboard his best friend, and drove back to the plant for the night. Wathing the team disappear down the street Powerdrain pondered why they wanted to eliminate him so bad. Which brought his thoughts back to when the she-bot was defending the organic that was with the group. He figured that the two were connected in some sort of relationship, but how deep the affiliation went was going to have to be investigated. Decloaking himself he cast a glance down at his right servo and noticed that it was thinly streaked with lines of red liquid. Raising it closer to his faceplate his dark red optics studied the foreign substance with a slight interest. Deciding to take a risk the Vampiricon scanned the solution, and discovered to his horror, shock, and strangely wonderous surprise it was the matching code that he was desperately searching for to restabilize his spark matrix. Wondering where it came from a scene flashed across his memory core, showing the fleshling with the same red liquid on his person.

Now knowing who had what he needed the vampiric Decepticon returned to his subterranean hideou to start working on his much needed operation to save his very existance. Going to his computer he pulled up several schematics for a few machines to be built for the procedure. There was to be a lot of work done but not very much time to do it in.

And there you go! Yes, that's right, Moisar is Powerdrain's match. Which makes things very interesting for future chapters! This is going be drawn out very long so it's going to be a few chapters before the first climax, which means there will be a couple of those. So keep your eyes peeled for future updates people! Catch you later!