Chapter Nineteen
Mirage stealthily walked through the deception base, just because he had his cloaker on didn't mean he shouldn't be careful. He headed towards the holding cells following Bumblebee's directions he was just about to enter the room when the door opened and Shadowstrike walked out chuckling. The white and blue mech pressed himself against the wall as he listened to the mech. "Stupid femme." The BMW said lowly. "She'll learn in time. Begging me for it and screaming my name." he looked round a moment having a strange feeling he was being watched then shaking his head to dismiss the feeling he chuckled once more and headed off.
I have to get Crystal out of here now. Mirage thought I dread to think what that mech did to the poor femme. He inwardly shuddered and made sure that were no more Decepticons about before entering the holding cell room. He decloaked as the doors closed and ran over to the cells in order to locate the human, he had to hurry in case someone came back. He looked in every cell and when he came to the one furthest from the door he gasped for he had not found the human he was sent to find but…
"Moongaze?" he half whispered. The femme first aider was huddled on her side in a corner of her cell, her back to the force field. As he examined what he could see of the femme she had been through a lot, scratches and dents seemed to adorn her body there were even slight traces of energon from cuts that he couldn't see. "Moongaze." He called out a little louder. He heard a small whimper and saw her frame start to tremble, the white and blue mech located the force field controls and lowered them heading over to her. He placed a hand on her shoulder and watched her recoil even more into herself.
"You'll get…nothing out of…me. No matter…what you do." She whispered out.
"Moongaze, its Mirage." He told her when he remembered something "Ratchet's friend."
"Ratch…et?" she asked half surprised to hear the medic's name.
"That's right. I'm not going to hurt you, I'm going to take you back to base."
The Ford stopped trembling and gradually unfurled herself as she began to look at the mech behind her. "Back to…Ratch…et?" she spoke softly.
The white and blue mech gave a nod, "can you stand?"
"Don't know…" she told him "cannot feel…lower…"
Mirage looked down and saw that the lower half of her body was still in its tight ball position. This might be a little more difficult than I thought. He thought.
"Are you sure you're feeling alright, Skybolt?" Chaser asked as the entire HIT team sped towards the Decepticon base.
"Fine, why do you ask?" the airliner asked slightly confused.
"It's just…you're never one to go rushing into things. That's usually more my style." The helicopter said.
"Chaser's got a point there." Tazer said from within Cruiser. "You were fine when the others said about waiting to rescue Crystal but when it came to Moongaze."
"As I told Cruiser, Moongaze is one of our own."
Surefire suddenly chuckled, "I see I wasn't the only to fall for Gaze. Was I, Skybolt?"
"Huh?!" the other three mechs of the team said in shocked surprise.
"You're wrong there, Surefire. I feel nothing but friendship for our first aider."
"Okay, now I know something's wrong." Cruiser commented, "You've spoken about her like that, Skybolt."
The white and black mech sighed and flew higher into the air. "And I thought I had it bad." Surefire commented making both Tazer and Cruiser chuckle. Chaser thought for a moment before flying up to his leader. "Don't mind us." Cruiser called out "we lowly grounders will just continue on our way. Just so that when you decide to come down you can scare the slag out of us by appearing from nowhere." He told them half joking.
"At least the four of you can actually get to where you're going. I have to ask for lifts everywhere." Tazer grumbled.
"Okay Skybolt, spill it." Chaser said once he'd caught up with the airliner.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Chaser." Skybolt replied.
"Don't give me that slag." The helicopter said annoyed.
Skybolt sighed again and thought for a moment before he said, "I fear that Moongaze will leave with Prime's team."
"But why would she do that? We're a team and she's part of it." Chaser questioned "besides, she wouldn't leave Surefire." He added a little amused.
"It is because of Surefire that she will leave."
"Huh? Okay, now you're just not making sense." The helicopter said confused.
Skybolt thought back to when he'd asked Moongaze if she wanted someone to watch over an unconscious Ratchet for her and her adamant plea that it not be Surefire.
"Hello? Cybertron to Skybolt." Chaser said when he got no reply he gave his leader a small bump.
"Chaser!" the airliner snapped.
"Would be good idea if you didn't zone out while flying. Hate to explain that to Prime." The yellow and black mech partly joked. They were silent for a moment when the helicopter suddenly said, "Fire's right, isn't he? You do have feeling for Moongaze."
"No I do not."
Chaser chuckled, "you can deny it all you want, Bolt, but we can all see it now."
Skybolt was so surprised he nearly fell out of the sky. "What did you just call me?" he asked in amazement.
"Bolt, why?"
Had the airliner been in robot mode he would have shook his head. "N-Never mind. Let's concentrate on rescuing Moongaze." Flying down to the rest of his team.
Mirage carefully looked round a corner as he shifted Moongaze's position in his arms. The femme kept slipping in and out of consciousness, he needed Ratchet to look her over fast. The problem was the cons knew he was now in the base thanks to Stampede. He gave a small growl as he remembered how the mech had walked in for his 'interrogation' a smug smile on his face. He'd knocked him down but apparently not out as after picking up the Ford and turning to leave he saw the Nissan with his hand over the alarm button. "You'll never get out of here alive, Autobot. Especially with her." The electric blue mech told him. Mirage had been in tougher positions than this though, the base only held six mechs. This was like a training exercise for him, the only difference being he held Moongaze in his arms.
The deep sky blue femme suddenly onlined her optics and looked around confused. "W-where…" she began "who…" she wanted to know who the mech holding her was but her voice wasn't obeying her, she'd never seen him before. Where was he talking her? She finally decided that he must be a Decepticon and that he was kidnapping her. There was only one way to stop him, she opened her mouth and screamed.
Mirage glared down at the femme in his arms. Great, now everyone knew where he was. He started to move off only to have her begin to hit him. He grabbed a wrist and said sternly, "stop it! If we're to get out of here I need you to be quiet! Or I'll leave you here with the cons!" he threatened only for her to lose consciousness again, he sighed and shook his head as he headed off once more.
The HIT team were about to storm the Decepticon base when to their surprise Mirage suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"Where the frag did you come from?" Tazer asked.
"Where do you think?" the white and blue mech replied rudely. He walked over to Skybolt and shoved the femme into his arms. "This belongs to you." He said before transforming and driving off. He'd had enough of being 'beat up' while trying to save her, the airliner was the leader so he could deal with it.
Skybolt stood there almost dumbfounded at what the spy done as he watched them drive away.
"Uh…perhaps we should be getting back." Surefire said getting everyone's attention. There was a collective nod and they all started to head back.