~Star Light, Star Bright~

Chapter Four: Computer Mishaps

Authors Note: This chapter was a pain to write, even though I had planned it all out already. I hope that you guys are okay with it. I'm not all that happy with it myself. :c Let me know what you think of it in a review please! c:

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It's been my policy to view the Internet not as an 'information highway,' but as an electronic asylum filled with babbling loonies.

-Mike Royko

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Simmons was having a bad day.

Wait, scratch that, he was having a bad week.

It had all started the other day, when the President been scheduled to give his speech to the people of America. The President's speech had seemed to be going well at first, and then some hotshot had decided to blurt confidential secrets to the whole wide world.

In front of cameras belonging to all the major networks and several different countries.

Naturally, the man had been hauled out of camera view, and promptly shut up with the option of a thick wad of cash or a nice fancy life sentence in a federal prison cell. Personally, Simmons had been in favor of the prison cell.

Anyway, now apparently someone in Mission City had made a web page about the Bots in an attempt to tell the world the unnecessary truth. He had gotten a call from HQ's that morning, telling him to come in and see the page.
He didn't know why they wanted him to see it. Usually, lower agents went in, bagged the loud mouths and erased the truth from existence. Maybe they needed some help hacking? Or dealing with the suspects? Oh well, either way, he had no clue.

So here he was, fifteen minutes after getting the call, stomping down some random hallway towards the PCI Division, to see just what was going on. He ignored the calls of "Good morning!" and "Morning sir." as he passed lower ranked personnel.

He glanced at the pass he had been given, then noticed that it was a hangar room they had directed him to go to, not the PCI Division like he had originally believed. It also happened to be in the opposite direction.

All the way on the other side of the base.

With a loud growl, he turned on one foot and promptly stomped back the way he had come from. The same agents from before looked up in surprise when he blew past them, thunderous expression in place. "Whats his problem?" One asked his partner, looking after the raging agent. The other shrugged, shuffling the papers in his hand.

"Who knows? Could have woken up on the wrong side of the bed for all I care. Can we finish this paper work now?"

It was an exhausted Autobot crew that stood around the platform in Hangar 32-D.

Not only were they still recovering from their wounds, the loss of Jazz continuously weighed down on their sparks. The jubilant mech had kept many of their spirits up after a battle, and the lack of happy and excited comments from the silver saboteur left them down-heartened.

"You requested all of us, Banacheck. Why?" The deep rumble of Optimus Prime's baritone rang in the hangar, and Banacheck coughed nervously as he prepared a massive computer screen before his audience.

"I'll have to decline to tell you yet. I'd rather say it all at once, and unfortunately, Agent Simmons is not yet here."
Ironhide growled wordlessly, and sat down upon the floor with a building-shaking 'thump'. Ignoring the glare he got from Banacheck for that, he began to clean his cannons. Bumblebee sat down as well, albeit much gentler, and held still as Ratchet decided that he might as well get some repairs done as well, and resigned Bumblebee to his fate with a wave of a threatening wrench. Optimus alone stood, optics serious as he took in the computer system and monitor Banacheck had painstakingly set up at their level.

Banacheck just stood upon the platform, feeling incredibly awkward and out of place. He swallowed, and wished Simmons would hurry up and arrive.

Unfortunately for Banacheck, Simmons took a good fifteen minutes to arrive. Taking one look at the glowering Ironhide, he edged nervously toward Banacheck. Ratchet didn't even notice the arrival of the human, so busy he was scolding Bumblebee for using his legs recklessly in the last battle. Desperate to get the medic of his back, Bumblebee chirped and pointed out the sweating agent.

Ratchet glanced up from Bumblebee's legs toward the platform with a huff. "It's about slagging time. I have major repairs to do on Bumblebee, and I most certainly can't do them here, can I?" Ironhide nodded at that, and turned his cannons angrily.

"No kidding. I got ta get out of here, as there's several targets in the range that have mah designation on them. So... hurry up so we can get the frag out of here!" Optimus quickly placed a calming servo on Ironhide's shoulder.

"At ease, you two. I'm sure that Simmons came as fast as he could. Now Banacheck, what is it that you wished for all of us to see?" Banacheck nodded, clicked a button on the side of the monitor, and the screen flickered to life.

"Ah, well, this morning the PCI Division, which stands for Personal Computer & Internet Division, came across this web page filled with extreme details about the bots, and the Decepticons. Not to mention facts that hold absolutely no meaning to us." Here he turned to give Optimus a grave look. "This is why your here."

"That's nice. Now why am I here?" muttered Simmons. Banacheck ignored him and continued as if he hadn't spoken.

"It goes into great detail about mechs that we've never heard of, and some of the facts have words we do not know the meaning of. Because of that, we need you to identify them and prove whether the facts on these web pages are true." A few clicks of the mouse had a web page up on the massive screen, and the bots leaned forward, stunned.

The home page was rather simple overall, with the standard link banner and site name at the top in clear bold letters, with the mission statement beneath the link banner. Between the banner and the mission statement there were three overlapped pictures, each revolving slowly to give the viewer time to look at each one. While that itself was startling, as one of the pictures was very clearly Cybertron, Optimus found his attention being captured by the mission statement that pulsed beneath it a gentle blue.

'The misplaced Star, protected by the Gaelic Flame, hereby declare that we shall aid the Autobots in their noble mission for the natural rights of all sentient beings throughout the galaxies.

Till all are one, The Star and the Flame.'

Banacheck watched Optimus's face very carefully, looking for any hint that he knew who these two were. However, Ratchet answered his unsaid question.

"Who the slag are the Star and the Flame?"

Bee and Hide exchanged glances and shrugged helplessly. Neither of them had a clue. Optimus coughed slightly, catching everyone's attention.

"While I do not know who, or what they are, they seem to have declared their attentions. They, at the very least, have the same beliefs as us."

"Be that as it may, we have no clue how they got all of this info, and this makes them very dangerous. What would happen if these blabber mouths fell into the hands of the Decepticons?" Optimus turned toward Simmons in surprise, having almost forgotten him the shock of the home page. Simmons sat well behind the monitor, sitting on a stool with both arms crossed. His words had echoed slightly in the big building, and the noble Prime had to resist the urge to shiver at the feeling of foreboding that crawled up his spinal array.

"Unfortunately you speak the truth. We must find these beings, the Star and the Flame, for their own safety at the very least." Ratchet, Bee, and Hide all nodded, and Optimus turned to Banacheck. "Have you located the origin of the site yet? And are you planning to remove it from existence when you do?"

"While we have traced it back to the computer it came from, we can not erase it from the net. So for now we have merely made it where one can not find the URL to the pages with out already knowing it. This way-"

"Wait wait wait. Hold up now." Growled Ironhide, looming over the platform. "What do you mean you couldn't delete it from the net?" Banacheck sighed, and rubbed his face underneath his glasses.

"The Star and the Flame apparently are quite excellent hackers. They have made it where if someone attempts to erase the site, the person who attempted to erase it will find their computer infected with a nasty virus that seems eats and destroys their computers database, info, saved files, programs-anything on the computer gets completely eradicated. And to add insult to injury, the monitor gets stuck with this permanent Gif dancing on its screen."

Banacheck flicked another button on his remote, and the monitor lit up. For a moment, the bots just stared blankly at the image that flashed before their optics. And then a snort here, a mechly giggle there, and Ironhide burst into full-blown laughter. Next to him, Bumblebee chortled merrily, and Ratchet snickered into a servo helplessly. Optimus's optics seemed to tilt at the ends, hinting at a smile. Even Banacheck cracked a grin.

Simmons stared at them all irritably, unable to see the screen from where he stood. "Mind telling me just what's so amusing?" Optimus gestured at the screen and coughed, giving Simmons the sneaky suspicion that he had hidden a laugh.

"I believe that we have found out why you are here." When Optimus didn't deem to continue his sentence, Simmons rolled his eyes, got off the stool he had been sitting on, and began picking his way toward the monitor.

The irritable agent stepped carefully over the wires that surrounded the monitor, and stepped in front of the screen. He glanced up at it with a huff, unbelieving that anything could be so funny. "Now, just what is-?" His sentence broke off with a choked squeak, further encouraging the laughter that rang out from behind him. Simmons just gave another squeak, this time of rage.

For there on the screen, stuck in a perpetual loop, was a video of Bumblebee lubricating upon his head.

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End—Chapter Four: Computer Mishaps

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