Chapter 1 – alien substance

A/N: Orn – about 13 Earth days, klick – a second

Crazy
By Simple Plan

Has everybody gone crazy?
Is anybody gonna save me?
Can anybody tell me,
What's going on?
Tell me,
What's going on?
If you open your eyes,
You'll see that something is wrong.

Echo's POV

When I woke up, I found I was lying in an unfamiliar healing berth. Where was I?

"Ah, you're awake," a medic came into my field of vision, "my name is Seasalt. You're on life support now and later you'll have to go into surgery."

I looked at the medic with questioning optics and he continued.

"We don't know what happened, but we do know that all your internal systems have been replaced with… something we've never seen before." The medic explained.

I was petrified. How did this happen? What were these things inside me? Would I die? So many questions flooded my CPU. I tried to talk, to move, but found it was far too painful to move my mouth.

"I advise that you don't move or speak," Seasalt suggested, too late.

oOo

I was recharging lightly and was awoken when someone shook me roughly by the shoulders. My optics snapped open and I looked up into the silver face and blue face of Nightspot and Firmament.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Nightspot asked in an undertone, releasing my shoulder.

"I'm alright," I answered, "So, do you have any idea what those things inside me are?"

Firmament shook his head, "Sorry man, no idea. Well... no logical idea anyway."

"Explain."

"You know those sparkling stories about that tiny black mechs on the blue and green planet? How they were made of delicate, soft material?"

"Yeah, everyone knows that. 'Little Bear the Organic'. What about it?"

"I think," he paused, looking for the right words, "I looked at the reports and I think... those things inside you are made out of the same stuff."

There was a silence as I tried to absorb it. How was this possible? It was just a story right? How did the things even get inside me in the first place? What did this mean? What would they do to me?

Someone was coming down the hall. Nightspot said, "We gotta go before they find us. See ya, bro." With that, they turned and leapt out the window, just as a medic came in. I powered down my optics and pretended to be recharging.

After a while, he left me, plunging the room into darkness once more. I kept my optics darkened for a few klicks before opening them again. I saw a faint glow on my berthside table. I looked closer and saw it was a simple data pad, with the message, 'get better, Echo. When you get out, we'll party'.

I didn't need a signature to know it was from the guys; it was the only one there.

oOo

No-one's POV

4 orns later...

The bell rang and school ended for that day. Echo said goodbye to his friends, transformed and headed home. Holidays were short.

A shadow watched him, untrusting. This shadow had suspected Echo as being someone or something other then what he appeared to be. The shadow raced after Echo, keeping out of sight. As it ran, it activated a cloaking device so that scanners couldn't pick up its Autobot energy signature.

When Echo arrived home, he crept inside as silently as he could, using the shadows and hoping no-one saw. The other Kaoncons did see him but ignored him, they always thought he was disgusting, even when he was just a sparkling.

He snuck out back, where he recharged. Echo heaved a sigh; the day had been long and getting by his father always drained him.

He slid to the ground in a crumpled heap. He shuttered his optics and before he knew it, he was deep in recharge.

The shadow watched silently, electric blue optics widened as the truth showed itself. It hadn't been detected because the 'Cons were too poor for that technology, especially since most of them were in living in the slums. Then an idea formed in its CPU.

It opened its comm. link and spoke quietly into it, "Hey, I found something you won't believe."

"Why are you talking so quietly?"

"Shh! You gotta be quiet as well, they might hear us."

"Bro, what is it?"

"You know that guy at school everyone likes?"

"Yeah, Echo… what about him?"

"Well… it turns out that he's a Kaoncon."

"What?!"

"SHH! He might hear you."

"Do you think that he might be a 'Con spy?"

"I'm certain of it. We have to… eliminate him tomorrow at school. Spread the word as fast as you can."

"You know me too well. Before school starts tomorrow, everyone will know."

"Excellent, now go and tell everyone to secretly bring weapons as well and come early so we have more time to… teach him a lesson."

"I'm on it. See ya."

"Bye." With that, the shadow closed the comm. link. It glared down at Echo recharging peacefully, totally unaware at what was going on. The shadow then left as quickly as it could.