Megatron carried the unconscious youngling down the hall. Her plan would've worked except for the fact that he never recharged for long. He figured that she might try to pull something, so had wandered the ship, keeping an optic out for her. I was only by chance that he found her in the com room.
"What am I going to do with you?" he wondered, "I can't leave you alone for a nano click without you doing something. Starscream is clearly incompetent, Blitzwing is too unstable, Blackarachnia doesn't really care, and Lugnut might accidently squish you, maybe purposely. What better way to indoctrinate you than to do it myself?" She woke up.
"Shade?" she sleepily asked, "Is that you?" still thinking that she was dreaming. "Go back to recharging. It's not time to wake up. She blinked a few times. "You're not Shade!" she exclaimed, "You're… let go!" He reached over and grasped a wire in her neck. She flinched. "So that wire is still sensitive," he noted, "As you get older, it will become less sensitive. For now, I have a leash." He released his grasp. "That hurt!" she commented, "And you wonder why I don't like you!" "Sh, not too loud. You don't want to wake the others." "Where are we going?" He didn't answer.
Glitch was busy trying to figure out where they were going. "Do you know what this is?" he asked, indicating his fusion cannon. "It's… a big gun," she concluded, "I'm not that familiar with fire arms. Not many bots use them anymore. Apparently, you never recharge." "Neither do you." "No, I fell asleep. I just woke myself up." "Sure you did." She yawned, still a little sleepy. She didn't mean to, but she drifted off to sleep.
Perceptor gave up trying to go back into recharge, got up, and started pacing. "Not only am I talking to myself, but I'm also turning into an insomniac!" "You were one before," someone else remarked, "Scientists do have that reputation." Perceptor knew who it was, without looking at them. "So you've finally decided to visit little old me?" he asked, "what do you want this time? I'm' not building anything for you, especially weapons. I don't do weapons." "No, I have something for you." A data pad slid under the door. "Don't worry about Glitch. We're taking good care of her." "You know it won't work. She's too much like Shadestalker. She'll never be Decepticon material." The leader left without saying another word.
Glitch woke up yet again. The room was too dark to see anything, so she decided to remain on the berth. She ran through her memory banks, trying to remember if Shadestalker had mentioned any Decepticons before. She found no mentions of Megatron or of any Cons like Sentinel had talked about. They only name she could remember him mentioning was Sixshot. He never told her why, but he had specifically warned her about the Con. She had seen a picture of him, but she didn't understand why Shade stated his name with great apprehension. Tran had no clue who he was either.
She found it impossible to go back into recharge because of what had gotten her out of it in the first place, a nightmare. She couldn't recall what it was about, besides shade. She shivered. She sat up and shifted her legs over the edge of the berth. She was used to jumping off, because her own berth was pretty high off the ground. She launched herself, finding that the ground was farther than she thought. "Ow," she groaned, "Since when was the ground so far?' She got up and wandered around, hoping to find a light switch.
She never found it, but she found the door. She managed to get it open and wandered out. She sensed somebody in the hall, but couldn't see anybody. She scanned over the hall, knowing that she wasn't wrong. She felt the air whoosh behind her. She whipped around, striking out with her foot. The mech easily blocked it. She knew it wasn't Megatron, he wasn't all enough to be him.
"Who are you?" she whispered her voice barely audible, "You're not anybody I recognize." "I wouldn't expect you to," he replied, "Especially if Shadestalker had anything to say about it. What are you doing out here?" "I don't know. I don't' even know where I am." "We'll have to solve that, won't we? Come now; let's go visit the scientist in the brig.
He held out his servo. "I'm not taking it. I don't rust you. You hide in the shadows, not a very honorable thing to do. "You're a ninja, I can tell. I can't trust a shadow." The mech chuckled. "That sounds like Shadestalker. Of course, I never said that you had a choice." He grabbed her and marched down the hall.
Perceptor never touched the data pad. He already knew what it was: statistics from the neutral colony, Solion.
The place his expedition crashed. The place where Shadestalker had died and he resurrected him. The place the Decepticons attacked. The place where Perceptor had gotten his first, and hopefully, last taste of war. The place where he decided to cut himself off from society and figure things out on his own. The place where Shadestalker cut himself from the militia and went into teaching others. The place where Perceptor swore to never mount a weapon on himself.
He knew the stats by spark. There had been a team of 30 scientists on the ship, all survived, but several had permanent damage. Several neutrals were injured, but only one died, form a spark attack. If it hadn't been for him and Shadestalker, it would've been much worse.
Perceptor had trouble imaging it being much worse. They said he was lucky to survive unscratched, and with little physiological damage. He never considered himself lucky. It wasn't very fun to bring a dead mech back to life.
Of course, there were things that happened that weren't in the official report, like the fact that a ninja from Shadestalker's old clan lead the attack, for the Decepticons. Perceptor couldn't recall his name, but he did know one thing about him. He was very dishonorable. He tried shooting him in the back.
Perceptor didn't know much about ninjas then, but he knew that they were honorable and didn't usually use fire arms. So, the attempted shooting in the back left him in quiet a state of shock.
There had been stories exchanged between him and Shadestalker while they waited for the Cons to attack. Shade has told off how he left his clan, unhappy with how it had become about power instead of honor and moral values.
Perceptor told the story of his father, Hound, a scout, who went on a mission, got shot, and went off line before the med bots could save him. He also told the story of his mother, the beautiful Starstreaker, who died a stellar cycle later from complications. He never believed it. He knew the real cause, spark break.
"How are you going to get in?" Glitch asked, "They probably changed the code already." "I've got a pass. I'm a Decepticon too." "Yeah, I figured that out a long time ago. Why do you want to see Perceptor?" "That's between him and me." "Then why are you dragging me along?" "My, you're an inquisitive one, aren't you? I can't leave you alone because you'll get into too much mischief." He swiped the pass, going into the brig.
Perceptor sat up; surprised that Megatron would visit him so soon afterwards. The Con typed in a code and entered the cell. Perceptor popped off the berth and grabbed Glitch from the Con.
"Are you alright? Did he hurt you? Let me look at you!" he exclaimed, "Are you sure you're okay?" "I'm fine. Are you alright? You've been down here all by yourself for a while." "I'm used to it." The mysterious mech cleared his throat. Perceptor put Glitch down and protectively stood in front of her. "Oh, so you do remember me, kid. Well, I did try to off line you. You never learned my name. It's Sixshot."
"Sixshot?" Glitch asked, "you're Sixshot?!" Sixshot stepped into the light, revealing himself. He wore a mask on the bottom half of his face and had red optics. "Yes, I'm the infamous Sixshot Shadestalker probably told you about. I've been summoned here to complete your training." "Training? I don't want to fight you! I don't want to be a Con, or a Bot, no offense Perceptor!"
"None taken. You aren't touching her. She has nothing to do with this. If you want something to do with Solion, then take it up with me," Perceptor stated, "what do you want?" "I was hoping to pay you back for the little incident on Solion. I figured the youngling could learn a thing or two from a real ninjtsu master." "She has a name." "It's not a very ninja like name. Neither is Jazz, but Shadestalker helped teach him anyway. It's also not a Decepticon name. So kid, you ready to fight?" "Not very honorable; attacking an unarmed opponent." "I don't give a slag about that honor stuff, but I don't want this to be entirely boring." Sixshot threw him a sharp wing sword from his back. "There, happy now?" "I'd rather not do this." "Shut up and fight!"
AN/ Oh, cliffy! Only two more chapters to go! Next chap: Perceptor and Sixshot duel it out, and the Nemesis has one angry Autobot ninja master on board. Please review, but no flames!