Hey all! No, I'd never forget about you guys! I got a little sick after finally getting a power supply for my laptop that doesn't totally work with it... ick... But anyway, Thank you for all of your imput, it's greatly appreciated as always! And here's the next installment! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, however I DO own Project Seven and Project Five.
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Cat hurried down the hallways, watching as door by door would open for her automatically. She was, indeed, grateful for Lillian's help. She rounded the corners quickly, not caring if there would be anyone in her way. She needed to get to her friends and FAST. Arriving at the interrogation rooms, the hallways were dimly lit. Across that hallway intersected another which led to the holding cells. Cat couldn't help but feel curious as to why there were two cells already lit up. She walked to the large metal door of one of the rooms and looked in the small circular window. She saw a woman laying on a bed, similar to the one that they had given her to use in her old cell. The woman was curled up, her back to the wall, eyes on the floor. Her blonde hair was strewn over her face. It was obvious that she had been there a few days. Probably interrogated just as they were planning to do with Sam and Mikaela. Cat, then, walked to the other cell door and saw a rather chubby darker skinned man, asleep sitting up. His mouth agape as his snore was practically vibrating the door.
-These look like... Civilians! What the hell do they want with civilians?!- Cat couldn't understand, but somehow knew that these two were in desperate need of escape, just as her two friends were going to be in need of.
-These people shouldn't be here... Something tells me that they're not involved with Sector Seven...- Cat was about to punch the keypads of the security locked holding cells to hack into opening the doors when she heard a lot of ruckus from another hallway.
"That was fast..." Cat told herself as she looked around for a place to hide. She laid her eyes on something familiar and smirked.
"Hello, air duct! Remember me?" she laughed silently as she jumped up and pulled the vent cover off, as it was close to the ceiling. She quickly slid into the vent and pulled the damaged cover back over it, so no one would suspect anything.
"GET OFF OF ME!" Sam's voice was the first to be heard.
"Let GO!" As well as Mikaela.
"Put them away for now. We have some people who have been waiting for you both! As well as the fact that we should thank you for the exciting donation of two NBE's!" An agent smirked as Sam and Mikaela were tossed into two different holding cells.
-NBE's? What the hell is that?- Cat wondered.
The doors of the holding cells slammed shut, as four armed guards stood by to ensure that nothing would get in, and nothing would get out, as the other agents left. Cat looked over and saw that the other two civilians were both awake and looking out to see what the commotion was all about. Cat decided that this was the best time to take charge.
Punching the air vent cover off and startling the guards, Cat quickly jumped from her hiding spot and landed on the ground, pulling off her "Agent" apparel, revealing herself.
"Who are you?!" one of the guards asked, all of them pointing their weapons at the girl.
"You should know!" Cat smirked as she jumped towards the guards.
The guards couldn't even pull the trigger of their guns fast enough. Cat jumped over the first round of bullets, kicking the first guard in the back so hard that he went flying into the wall which was about 60 feet away from them. She reached to the next guard and turned him, taking control of his own gun while it was in his possession and shooting the other two guards in the legs, causing them to drop their weapons and hit the ground rolling in pain. She then took the gun out of the guard's hand and struck him with the butt of the gun, knocking him unconscious.
Cat looked to make sure that the guards were unarmed as she kicked the guns away from them and took a moment to regain her breath. She looked up to see that Sam and Mikaela were pounding against the doors with their cuffed fists, which were in front of them. Sam was yelling so loud that his face was red from exhaustion.
"Okay, okay, I got you guys, just hang in there a minute for me!" Cat realized that something was very wrong as she walked over to the keypad next to Sam's cell and punched it out, causing a few sparks to shoot out. She took a few of the wires and tore some of them, and twisted some of the others together, causing the door to open. Sam burst out of the door, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"THEY'VE GOT THEM! THEY TOOK THEM! WE HAVE TO FIND THEM!" He pleaded.
"Whoa! Calm down! Took who?!" Cat grabbed the boy's shoulders to steady him while she mangled the handcuffs to release him.
"THEY TOOK BUMBLEBEE AND RATCHET!" Sam replied looking down the hallways for a way to get to his friends.
Cat's eyes widened and she smacked her forehead.
"They should have waited!" She said angrily as she moved onto the next cell, releasing Mikaela, who had already taken her own handcuffs off.
Cat moved on and opened another holding cell, making Sam and Mikaela wonder what she was up to.
"What are you doing?! We don't have time for this, we have to get Bumblebee and Ratchet!" Mikaela reasoned.
"These two don't deserve to be here either..." Cat opened one door and moved onto the next. The male that she had seen from before stepped out cautiously.
""W-Who're you?!" he asked.
Sam and Mikaela were too flustered to answer any questions at the moment, still wondering how they were going to save Bumblebee and Ratchet.
The last cell was opened and a blond woman stepped out cautiously as well, "What's going on?" she asked.
Cat destroyed the handcuffs on the two civilians and leaned her back against the wall for a moment, regaining momentum as she contacted Five.
-Five... Can you hear me?-
-Yeah, I'm almost there, don't worry.- Five scowled.
-No, I wanted to let you know that we've run into another bump in the road.- Cat replied.
-...Like what?- Five asked sarcastically.
-Sector Seven has captured two of the Autobots...- Cat tried not to sound so angry that the plan was falling apart so easily.
-...So what's the problem again?- Five asked.
Cat was about to snap back but her eyes widened with realization.
-What are you doing Five?- Cat asked out of nowhere.
-What's that supposed to mean?- Five asked, as if she didn't already know.
-Never mind... I'll take care of the Autobots, certainly Ironhide has made it into the facility by now...- Cat cut off the conversation and turned to Sam and Mikaela.
"Look, something's up. We can either go to Bumblebee and Ratchet first, or we can get to the Allspark and overturn things a bit. We don't have time for both," Cat said seriously.
"Who's a Bumblebee?" the darker gentlemen asked.
"Bumblebee and Ratchet should come first!" Sam yelled furiously.
"You don't understand, Cat. They tried to stop Sector Seven from taking us and got captured themselves! It's our fault!" Mikaela pleaded.
"I'm sure that they understood the consequences..." Cat looked away for a moment as if she were thinking hard about something.
"You... You sound just like her!" Sam said accusingly.
"Hmm?" Cat glanced up at the two teens.
"You sound as cold-hearted as Five! Should have known, you're from the same blood!" Mikaela shouted.
"Okay, I'm all confused here... Suddenly the conversation goes from insects and tools to random numbers, what the heck is going on here?!" the man asked.
"Calm down Glen!" The woman tried to keep her friend from butting in.
Cat sighed and turned to the other two civilians, "I don't know who you are, or why you're stuck here, but you have two options. Either you can follow us, or you can stay here and wait for someone to put you back in there. Take your pick."
"How do we know that you're not going to lead us into a trap of some kind?" The woman asked.
"Well that would be completely up to you," Cat replied, turning back to Sam and Mikaela.
"If you go after them by yourselves, you're most likely to get captured again. We'll go get the two soon enough. I doubt that they're going to disassemble them," Cat reassured.
"No! No, forget it!" Sam yelled, glaring at Cat, "I'm going to find Bumblebee and Ratchet! I'm not going to just leave them!"
"And I'm going with Sam," Mikaela agreed, looking to Cat as well.
Cat sighed and looked to the two civilians, "You two, go with them... You guys are going to need all of the help that you can get..." Cat them turned back and passed Sam and Mikaela, giving them a short look of disdain.
"So you're just going to leave us then, huh?" Sam asked.
Cat stopped just short of disappearing down yet another corridor.
"I'm just trying to do what's best right now... Something's up, and I have to check it out... Do what you want to do," and she was gone.
There was a shocked silence before the blond woman stepped to the teens and said, "I'm sorry, but... Who are you, and what's going on here?" her thick Australian accent made the two shake out of thought.
"Umm... Well, it's kind of a long story..." Sam replied, "I guess you're with us. We need to find our friends first."
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Lillian had been monitoring the cameras carefully. She watched as Cat and Five separated, keeping tabs on both, so that they could go the ways that they needed to be. She was glad that she had the only headphones that could hear the gunshots of the guards gun as she watched Cat take control over them. They squirmed around on the floor helplessly as she watched Cat punch into the keypads of the first holding cell and allowed a frantic Sam to rush out.
As she was watching all of this, Lillian noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She could have sworn that one of the guards there was looking to her every now and then. Even as this bothered her, Lillian kept a close watch on where Five was going, making sure that all the right doors were opened to her needs. She glanced at the other screen where Cat was and watched as she opened two different cells that had not contained Sam or Mikaela. After which it looked as though the two teens were angry at Cat for something, but she couldn't understand the words being spoken.
Another stare out of the corner of her eye. This time the one who had been looking to her got up and walked over to another man. They were whispering something. Lillian tried to ignore them to the best of her ability.
-Wait a minute- Lillian thought as she looked to another screen.
-I thought only one of the Autobots were going into the hanger? But... That looks like two... What the hell are they doing?!- Lillian tried to hold her frustration in as she saw a very large GMC Topkick and a small Pontiac Solstice drive through the empty, cold and dark abandoned back entrance.
This corridor would have been too small for any of the Autobots to navigate through if they were to try and transform in their bipedal mode. The ceiling was a curved, half-circle shape, drippy, old pipes made the worn out, old, concrete path wet with small puddles. She watched carefully as the two made it to the end of the corridor, and hoped that they would be patient enough to wait for Five to arrive.
Looking back at the screen where the holding cells were, Lillian noticed that Cat was no longer with the other four. It looked as though Sam and Mikaela were arguing while the other two looked on with confused expressions.
-Where's Seven?!- Lillian looked to the other monitors frantically, changing some of them from different cameras to see if she could locate her. No such luck.
-Where the hell did she- Lillian was still frantic as something interrupted her search very suddenly.
"Ma'am?" A voice directed to her.
Lillian looked into a dark computer monitor to see three men in uniform standing behind her. This didn't look good. Turning around in her chair but trying to avoid eye contact, Lillian answered, "Yes?"
"Are you Lillian Andrews?" by this time the whole room had stopped what they were doing.
Lillian turned back towards the computer monitors and began typing special codes into the system.
"I don't know why you would think that," she said casually as her hands typed away as fast as they could without making any small error in the coding.
"Ma'am I'm going to have to ask you to step away from the computer console," the man ordered.
Lillian didn't move, but her heart began to pound against her chest. She was caught and she had very little time to ensure the survival of their mission.
A hand went to her shoulder, "Miss Andrews, please come with us..."
Again she ignored them. As they reached forward to take control of her arms, Lillian only pressed one more key.
"Enter"
And all of the cameras and monitoring systems were disabled, as well as all of the security systems. The whole room went dark. The guards took a firm grip to Lillian and laid her flat on the floor on her stomach as they pulled her arms behind her, cuffing them. Lillian closed her eyes and smiled.
-It's up to you now Seven...- she thought as she was pulled to her feet and escorted out of the room.
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Cat was running as fast as she could. She knew that if she could go fast enough, the cameras wouldn't be able to catch her in action. She was running just fine until it seemed that the power had gone out. Cat stopped abruptly and looked around as the emergency lights turned on.
-What the hell is going on here?!... Lila! I bet she got caught! Damn! Why is everything falling apart?! I should have never left Sam and Mikaela! Seven you dumbass!- Cat cursed at herself using her old project name.
The problem was, that Cat now had an important choice to make. Either she went to the room with the Allspark, or she went back to save her two friends.
-Why should I help them? They accused me of being heartless!...- Cat sighed -Because I was in such a rush to get to the Allspark and ensure it's safety, that I forgot about the ones who are involved in this too... But what do I do now?- Cat stood in the middle of the hallway, an emergency light shining directly over her as she looked down both directions of the darkened halls.
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"Slow down Jazz! If we make too much noise we could be discovered!" Ironhide bellowed.
"Nah! They got Bee and Ratch, That wasn't part o' the plan! We gotta get this thing and get them outta here!" Jazz replied in a rush.
They hurried down the dark tunnel until they came to the end.
"This should be the room that the Allspark is in!" Jazz declared as he pressed forward but only bumped into the steel doors.
"They're still locked! I knew that we couldn't trust that Lillian to help us!" Ironhide huffed.
"Jazz to Optimus," the Solstice opened his communications.
"Optimus here, what is it Jazz?" Optimus asked concerned.
"We made it to the doors, but they're locked. Permission to use force?!" Jazz asked intently.
"Catherine told us that they were going to wait until they were in the room before opening the doors. Give it a few moments. Permission denied." Optimus replied.
Jazz and Ironhid growled.
"What about Bumblebee and Ratchet, Prime?! Should we just sit here and wait that out too?!" Ironhide could barely speak without growling in such anger.
"Catherine should be diffusing the situation. As soon as you get in, you can help them from there, but don't draw attention to yourselves. Prime out," and the communications line went blank.
The two sat and grumbled for a few more minutes. Ironhide was about to contact Optimus again but just before he did, the lights in the hallway went out, leaving only the emergency soft lights.
"Was this part of the plan?!" the gruff voice of the Topkick truck echoed through the tunnel.
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Chapter Teaser!
"Where are we going?" Maggie, along with Glen and the two teens stalked through the hallways.
"I don't know I just... I'm trying to find out where my friends are! They've got to be here somewhere!" Sam was still in a frantic panic. Mikaela was just as frustrated but she was being more distant and quiet as she roamed the hallways looking through doors.
"And exactly how do you expect to find anyone in this place? Is there even a bathroom up in here?!" Glenn looked around with the other two as Maggie gave him a blatant glare.
"We're just trying to find the two guys that tried to protect us," Mikaela said sadly.
"And your search ends here!" A familiar annoying male voice yelled, catching the group off of their guards as they jumped.
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I know, I know. I know what you're all thinking "Come on! Enough with the cliffhangers!" My apologies again. I promise to keep giving you your "Project Seven" fixes in the proper doses -smiles-