I feel like this story's been launched into action too early. Oh well. It is somewhat unscripted.

PS - this story happens in the same universe as Curing the Dead only this starts much earlier and before CtD's events happened.

Chapter 6

"What are we going to do!?" the pale pink seeker almost screeched the words. Stormrust leaned back on the berth, and looked to the ground.

"I can't think of anything we can do to help him, Skyshard."

"We can hope for the best though! I think he'll make it out alive! At least he should, shouldn't he?"

"Let's hope so."

As Ratchet was tending to Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, he overheard the siblings' conversation. He rushed over to them, with Optimus following the medic slowly. A panicked look was all over the docbot's face.

"Did you say Scorchstrike was kidnapped?"

The siblings nodded nervously.

"Then this is worse than we all thought," Ratchet ran over to the cybertronian-styled computer, and immediately began searching for Scorchstrike's life signal.

"He has Jack with him."

"Drat!"

"What is it Scorchstrike?" Jack gripped his seat tightly as Scorchstrike did another aerial maneuver.

"They disabled my comm-link!"

"You mean you can't contact the base?"

"Nope! And I have no idea where the frag we are!" The triple-changer's voice was dripping with sarcasm and hysteria.

Jack looked behind them. "And unfortunately, Megatron is still on our trail."

"Why won't that slagging bucket-head leave us alone!" Scorchstrike dived beneath the clouds, revealing a large dark pine forest below.

"Hopefully, this forest means that we're somewhere somewhat near the base," he swerved tot the side, avoiding Megatron's blast. "At least we better be in the right continent!"

Scorchstrike really hoped he was right. He knew he was definitely fast enough to stay ahead of the mighty decepticon leader, but he did not yet have the endurance to stay at such a speed for a prolonged amount of time. He knew if he didn't get to safety soon, he would crash from overheating and exhaustion, making him easy prey for Megatron. Plus, he had Jack in tow. He didn't want to be responsible for his demise.

Scorchstrike barely dodged Megatron's next shot, as he had been distraced scanning the ground below. He tried his comm-link once again, but only fizzle came thorugh. He felt his engines beginning to overheat.

Reluctantly, Scorchstrike prepared for a landing, not wanting to risk causing any severe internal damage. But as he began lowering himself, Megatron got closer. Jack looked behind them, only too see the cybertronian jet up close and personal, and preparing another blast.

Just as Megatron was about to fire, a violent bolt of lightning struck the decepticon lord. The flash was blinding and the thunder was deafening, forcing Jack to cover his eyes and ears, and Scorchstrike to almost swerve out of control. The energy surge from the bolt caused the dark lord's systems to malfunction, making Megatron start heading for a crash landing.

Scorchstrike took this opportunity, and quickly landed in a nearby clearing. He transformed into his robot mode, then checked to see if Jack was okay. Seeing as the teenage male was fine, he began to vent in an attempt to cool down his systems.

It did not take long for Megatron to recover though. Soon, the dark lord began charging through the evergreen forest, smashing through trees at full-speed towards the young mech.

Scorchstrike would've fully-charged his flamethrowers and scorched the 'con until his circuits were fried, but he didn't want to risk making his already overheated systems worse. Instead, he readied his missiles, and fired them at the approaching and enraged decepticon.

Unfortunately, the missiles seemed to have no effect on the angry warlord, so he turned heel and ran for it. As he dashed through the clearing, he glanced behind him, to see Megatron directly behind him. He let out a screech of terror.

But just as the decepticon warlord was upon him, blast from behind struck the warlord directly in his neck cables. Megatron stumbled, allowing Scorchstrike to escape his reach. Megatron roared in frustation, then faced the direction of the sharp-shooter.

As another well-aimed blast struck Megatron in the chassis, Scorchstrike's savior emerged from the evergreen shadows. Scorchstrike himself, who had hidden behind a large boulder, looked on in curiosity.

A deep-crimson femme stepped into the sunlight, wielding a sniper blaster. Her violet-rimmed blue optics glared at the decepticon lord, as she put away her blaster. A mouthplate covered her glossa, making it somewhat difficult to read her emotions. Spikes ran down her helm and back, as well as on her arms and legs. But the feature that stood out the most was a reptilian-like tail protruding from her rear, which flicked from side-to-side in anticipation.

Overall, she looked quite tough and menacing.

The mysterious stranger raised her arm, and pressed two sharp digits to the side of her helm. She said something into her comm, which was too quiet for the two mechs to hear.

The computer beeped, startling Ratchet, and informed him it had detected a signal. It was a comm-link from an unknown caller. Hoping it had something to do with Scorchstrike, Ratchet accepted it immediately.

"Allos," a female voice with a European accent greeted the autobot medic. "I believe I've found your missing mech."

Ratchet's spark skipped a beat, and the remaining autobots looked at the computer, all full of shock and with wide optics. Ratchet began tracing the signal immediately.

"Let's hope this isn't a trap."

Should I change this fanfic's title? I feel like I should since the plot has changed from when I originally started this fanfic.