Chapter Eight

Ironhide immediately lunged for Starscream, grabbing the mech by his left arm and spinning him around so his back was to Ironhide's chest. It wasn't exactly the most effective shield, Ironhide thought sourly; after all, how many mechs would actually think twice about killing a little glitch like Starscream?

So he was pretty surprised when the firing suddenly stopped. Ironhide looked out from behind the Decepticon Seeker and chuckled darkly. "So they do care about you, Screamer." he teased. "How sweet."

"Of course." Starscream shot back, his natural sarcasm taking over. "You're looking at the future leader of the Decepticons. Why would they kill me?"

"Holy Primus! Ironhide, he's got a human with him!"

Jazz's shocked exclamation drew Ironhide's attention to Starscream's right arm. Cradled in the crook of said arm, and pressed securely up against his chest plates, was an unconscious human female. It was Ironhide's turn to swear.

"Pit-spawned psychopath, what the slag is wrong with you?!" he snarled, tightening his grip on the mech's arm. "Jazz, take the female. We'll get her to Ratchet and he can check her over." Jazz nodded and took a step forward. Instantly the other two Seekers were standing in front of him.

"Sorry, we can't let you take her." Thundercracker said simply.

"Yeah, Rae's ours." Skywarp pointed out. "You can't take our youngling."

"Let him take her." The Seekers turned to stare at their leader in shock. "Megatron gave her to Soundwave, guys. She's not safe here anymore." The other two scowled, their optics darkening in rage. Calmly, they stepped aside, allowing Jazz to retrieve the human girl from Starscream's arms. Surprisingly, the Decepticon allowed him to take her. Jazz backed away quickly, opening up communications with Ratchet.

"Ratch? We got a problem over here."

"All right, which one of you glitch-heads got your afts handed to you?"

"Neither of us. We've got a human female who's been tortured by Soundwave. We need to know where you are so we can get her to you."

There was a very long pause on the other end of the comm.. "Jazz, is Starscream with you?"

"Yes. He was the one who had the girl."

"We have intelligence that it may not be the best idea in the world to kill him. What do you think?"

Jazz rolled his optics in annoyance. "I think that I don't care so long as we get this female out of here. She's hurt bad, Ratchet!"

"All right. Get her out of the base and radio us your coordinates. I'll be there as soon as I can."

Jazz didn't bother responding. "Let's go, Ironhide. Ratchet gave us the ok to get out of here." Ironhide nodded and threw Starscream down the hallway. At the Decepticon's indignant look, he chuckled.

"Gotta make it look like you put up a fight."

/---/

Ratchet glared at Barricade. "You have three minutes to explain to us just what the pit we've gotten ourselves into." he growled.

Barricade sighed. "You know Megatron is looking for the AllSpark. Why? I don't know. It's not like there's anything wrong with our Creation Matrix." He shook his head, as if trying to clear his thoughts. "Rae is the key to controlling the AllSpark."

Prowl stirred. "Who's Rae?"

Barricade shot him a sardonic look. "The human female Soundwave tortured. Starscream was the one to kill him. Pity. I wanted the honor." He glared at the mangled corpse of the Decepticon on the ground. "You should go now. I need to at least pretend like I'm fighting, and I really don't want to do it against you. That would only slow you down."

"Why do you care?" Sunstreaker snipped.

"He's a medic, right?" Barricade pointed at Ratchet. "He needs to take care of Rae."

"Let's get out of here before he changes his mind." Sideswipe murmured. Prowl and Ratchet nodded agreement and started to back out of the room. Sunstreaker remained for a few minutes. "Sunny, come on!"

Sunstreaker growled and finally backed away. "Do you think we can trust him?"

"Not really." Prowl muttered. "Still, even if he does decide to attack us, it's four against one. He really doesn't stand much of a chance." Sunny nodded understanding and fell back in formation beside his brother. Sides shot him a wicked smirk, and Sunny returned it in full.

No law that said they couldn't have some fun on their way out.

/---/

Optimus met Jazz and Ironhide on their way out. He was already back in his alt mode, engine revving in impatience for them to hurry up. Jazz skid to a halt beside his leader, panting a bit as his systems struggled to cool back down. "Optimus, open your cab."

"What's going on?" Optimus queried, opening the door despite his doubts. "Ratchet said you ran into some problems and we needed to withdraw, but he wouldn't go into detail."

"Probably because none of us have a pit-slagging clue what's going on either." Ironhide said dryly. "Get her in, Jazz. We really need to get out of here." Jazz nodded and gently placed Rae on Optimus's drivers seat. The Autobot leader stiffened in shock.

"Why, exactly, do we have a human female?"

"Because said human female was a Decepticon prisoner." Ironhide bit out. "As far as we can tell."

"More accurately, she was living with them." Ratchet said dryly, leading the others to where Optimus was waiting a fair distance away from the Decepticon base. "We'll learn more when she wakes up, but for now let's get her to the base. I'll check her over and make sure Soundwave didn't do serious damage."

Optimus would have nodded, but he settled for revving his engine in agreement. "Along the way, you will fill me in, right?"

Ratchet smirked as he transformed into his alt mode. "Right."

None of them noticed the experimental aircraft that was making passes overhead. They didn't notice when it flew off after watching the direction the Autobots took.

West, Case noticed with some concern. They were headed west, probably to the opposite side of the city. More importantly, they were taking an unconscious Rae with them. He opened communications with Veris.

"She's with the Autobots now."

"Is she all right?"

"No way to tell. I think Soundwave got a hold of her. Knowing Starscream, he's probably dead by now."

There was a pause, and then some amount of cursing. "Track them, Case. I want to know where their base is. We will get Rae back."