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*BRRRRRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZ*
"H-hey Bee!" Jack shouted, covering his ears, "Does that thing have a quiet mode or something?"
Bumblebee stopped his hand-held drill for a moment to look back. "beepboopWHIRRRRRRZZZZoop" with that he powered the drill back on and continued to dig for the relic.
"I guess that's a negative."
Raf and Jack stood covering their ears about fifty feet back from where Bumblebee was hunched over the drill. The noise coming off the thing was maddeningly loud and it was clearly making the whole mission less enjoyable for the two humans. It was lucky the coordinates to the latest relic had led them deep into a large deciduous forest. Considering their tiny drill was somewhat like the sound of a dental drill multiplied by maybe a thousand, it would have attracted some unwanted attention had they been close to civilization.
"Come on Jack, it's only one of Ratchet's medical drills. It's not that bad." Arcee stood just a ways off from Bumblebee keeping watch. Regardless of what she'd said, she still had to yell to overcome the sound.
"It really is, Arcee. Your audio receptors must be on a weird frequency." Jack took Raf by the shoulder and started leading him away, "So, we're just gonna back off a little so we don't break ours."
"Whoa, hey! Don't go running off. I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on you!" Arcee shouted.
"We'll be fine!" Jack called back, "Just come find us when you're done."
"Well at least stay within earshot!"
"Missing the point!?"
The two boys disappeared into the underbrush and Arcee mumbled angrily, "What's up with him? I swear, that kid never listens to me anymore."
"bzzzZZZrrt?"
"I SAID- …oh… never mind."
As Jack and Raf got farther away the sound of the drill started to fade and Jack gave a sigh of relief, "I'm kinda wishing I hadn't come now." he said, finally lowering his palms from where they had been pressed against his ears.
Raf smiled back at him, "Yeah, maybe… but I'm just glad that Bumblebee even asked me to come on another mission."
Jack folded his arms across his chest, recalling how Raf had very nearly been killed by Megatron just a number of weeks ago. It was no surprise the bots were being more protective of them now, especially Bumblebee. He didn't voice this to Raf though, and instead chose to nod and mumble his agreement.
Raf continued to speak as he took off his backpack and pulled out his laptop, "Bee hardly ever takes me out of the base with him anymore, so this is actually kinda nice."
"Whoa, hang on, you brought your laptop?" Jack asked, a bit surprised, "We're in the middle of a forest, you're not exactly gonna get a signal out here."
Raf moved towards a collection of boulders nearby and sat down on a short one. He placed his computer on his lap and reached into his pocket, "No worries, I've got this!" he said, pulling out a short black usb stick with an antenna.
"What's that? Did you create portable internet now?" Jack laughed.
"It's not something I created." Raf continued and plugged the device into his laptop, "It's just a regular wireless card… although I did up the specs on it quite a bit."
"Oh yeah? How so?"
"Well, for a normal computer we're too far out to get a signal at all, but I modified the card to boost its range." Raf demonstrated by pulling up the wireless settings on his computer. "See? Full bars. And I even have it boosted enough to pierce through the dampeners that are around the base. Y'know, for when Miko is hogging the ethernet cables."
Jack leaned in to look at the computer screen, "Wait what?! …Uhh, but… isn't that kinda dangerous? What if the 'Cons pick up on the signal?"
"Don't worry, they can't. I created a software proxy that hides the IP address. There's no way to trace it back to a specific location." Raf continued to pull up lines of code (which meant nothing to Jack) to show how he managed it, "And besides, even if the 'Cons could pick up the signal, as far as they know it's just some human surfing the web."
"Huh… Yeah I guess that's not so suspicious." Jack stood up straight again.
"And pretty useful when you're stuck in the woods on a low-risk mission." Then, as if on cue, a faint rumbling engine became audible.
"Wait, is that a car?" Jack looked around for the source, "Way out here in the woods?"
"Maybe Bee finished and came looking for us?" Raf offered, closing his laptop.
"But it's coming from the opposite direction that we came from…" As the noise became louder, it became apparent it wasn't the rumble of just one engine.
"Oh no… GET DOWN!" Jack grabbed Raf's arm and pulled him behind the rocks just as a red muscle car burst into the clearing and screeched to a halt. Jack slowly peeked out from behind their cover in time to see the car transform into Knockout. The Decepticon, with his back turned to the humans, began to irritably pick leaves and branches out of the tires on his ankles.
"Ugh. I'm not an off-road vehicle. I shouldn't have to put up with this…" he muttered angrily, then he spun around to face the group of miners and Vehicons that were coming through the underbrush, "Hurry it up, slowpokes! The sooner we get that relic the sooner I can get back and clear this repulsive Earth vegetation out of my struts." He paused and looked around for a moment, "And where has that infernal Insecticon gotten off to?"
The Vehicons looked around also, but a moment later the giant-bug transformer came bursting through the forest knocking trees out of the way, showering the other 'Cons with splintered wood and leaves. Knockout glared at the beast, but then turned away as he pulled out a handheld scanner.
"Let's get this over with." He growled as he flicked the device on. "Looks like we're close. Come on." As Knockout led his team off into the underbrush, Jack crouched back down behind the rocks with Raf.
"This is bad." he whispered, "We've gotta warn Arcee and Bumblebee!"
Raf opened his computer again, "Don't worry, I'm on it." he said, "I can call Arcee through my computer's internet."
"Okay, just hurry! Those 'Cons will be on them in a matter of seconds!"
Meanwhile, Arcee and Bumblebee had just finished digging, so the noisy little drill, which would have given them away already, was switched off and put to the side. Bumblebee gave a pleased whirr as he pulled the egg-shaped container out of the ground.
"Nice work, Bee." Arcee said, "Let's open 'er up and see what we've got."
As Bumblebee started to unscrew the lid Arcee's comm link turned on, "Arcee!"
"Jack? Good timing, we just finished-"
"Arcee there's 'Cons!"
Arcee spun around to face the trees where the boys had disappeared earlier, "What?!" she cried, "Where are you? What's-"
As she spoke, Knockout came striding through the trees with his miners. For a few moments he remained focused on the beeping of the scanner in his servo and continued striding towards the two Autobots. When finally turned his optics up, he stopped in his tracks and stood there just looking somewhat dumbfounded for a moment.
"Wh… WHAT?!" he finally screamed, "How could you possibly have gotten here before us?!"
"Bee get out of here! Protect the relic!" Arcee commanded, "I'll go find the kids." She then drew out her arm blades with a metallic shing and rushed at the 'Cons.
"DESTROY THEM!" Knockout shouted back at his Vehicons. They rushed forward to meet her attack, but Arcee was too quick. She dodged the first few that came her way and went straight for Knockout. As she made a flying leap and was about to bring her blades down on the medic's head, the screech of the Insecticon pierced the air. The beast came tearing through the brush and tackled Arcee mid-jump.
On the other side of the comm, Jack and Raf could only listen with dread to the Insecticon's shriek and Arcee's subsequent cry of pain as it pinned her to the ground. A moment later the call was dropped, presumably because Arcee was knocked offline by the hit.
"We've gotta get over there." Jack said as he stood, "Raf, call base for back up!"
"Wait, you want us to go over to where they're battling?" Raf asked, "That's way too dangerous, Jack! Besides, what could we possibly do to help?"
"Well, I'm not saying we should get directly involved, but if the 'Bots do need us or if they find a way to escape we should be nearby… just in case." Jack said as he made for the trees, "Come on! And call base on the way!"
As the boys were making their way towards them, the 'Cons had descended upon Bumblebee who, despite Arcee's order to take the relic and run, had remained steadfast. With the container in one arm and his lasers firing shots from the other, he started fighting his way through the Vehicons and making his way to Arcee who was lying still beneath the massive Insecticon.
Seeing him approach, the beast leapt from the unconscious femme and straight at Bumblebee. The blaster fire did little, if anything, to deter its course as it crashed into Bee with its snarling fangs bared and headed straight for the scout's face plate. Bumblebee managed to get his arm up just in time before it clamped down, crushing the plating around his arm and spraying energon across the 'Con's fangs. As Bumblebee let out a high-pitched whirr of distress, the Insecticon tossed its head and Bee was flung through the air.
As he crashed back to the Earth, the relic container was jolted out of his grasp and went bouncing across the ground towards Arcee, who was just beginning to stir again. She opened her optics just in time to see the container rolling towards her. She scrambled onto her knees and extended her arm to grab it, but was met instead by a swift kick in the face and was sent skidding across the dirt. Looking back she saw Knockout reaching down and picking up the relic container with a smug grin across his face.
"So Arcee, did I hear correctly that you Autobots brought along your human friends?" He said as he began to unscrew the lid, "How fortunate. I've been pondering about how to properly repay them for that little incident in the subway… and I'm sure they'd be more than happy to help me find out what my new toy here-"
*CLANG*
Before Knockout could finish his little monologue, he was cut short by a dirt-covered medical drill flying through the air and smashing into his face, courtesy of a certain disgruntled Bee who had been listening while he battled the Insecticon. The blow caused Knockout to stagger backwards clutching his face. Acree was quick to take advantage of the momentary falter; she sprung to her feet and charged at the 'Con medic. With a quick one-two hit from her arm blades and a kick to the chassis for good measure, Knockout was sent sprawling into the dust, out for the count.
Meanwhile the relic he'd been holding had, once again, gone tumbling to the ground. Arcee made a dash towards it only to come under attack from the remaining Vehicons. She was able to dodge their initial blaster fire, but one shot managed to find her and brought her down. Clutching her side where the laser had hit, she looked up to see the Vehicon standing above her with his blaster pointed at her face. As the charging laser began to buzz, another familiar sound met her audio receptors: a groundbridge portal opening up.
A moment later, the Vehicon was blasted backwards, closely followed by the others standing around him. Arcee looked over and was glad to see Optimus Prime standing just in front of the glowing green portal.
"Optimus! How did you-?"
"Jack and Rafael informed us you would need some backup." Optimus interrupted her as he approached. He offered his servo and helped her back to her feet. The groundbridge closed behind them and they turned to where Bumblebee was still fighting with the Insecticon.
He'd done an impressive job of evading the beast's attacks so far, but despite that, and considering his recent injury, he hadn't managed to land any significant blows. The 'Con's angry, howl-like cries showed it was becoming increasingly frustrated with Bumblebee's speed and its swipes were becoming more erratic and getting dangerously close to striking the scout. Arcee and Optimus exchanged quick glances and then sprung into action.
As they descended on the Insecticon, Jack and Raf finally arrived just in time to see Optimus blasting the beast into submission. They stayed hidden in the trees until the battle concluded, which wasn't long because just a few moments later Arcee leapt onto the 'Con's back and promptly decapitated it with her blades.
Now that the danger had passed, Jack and Raf rushed out to see the 'Bots, "Nice one, Arcee!"
"Thanks, Jack. Oh, and thanks for calling some back up too." She replied, "I guess it was a good thing we brought you along."
"Bumblebee! What happened to your arm?!"
They looked over to see Bumblebee kneeling down to greet Raf who had immediately started fussing over his crushed forearm. Bee explained what had happened with a long stream of beeps and whirrs and a few gestures at the headless Insecticon.
"No worries, Raf. Looks like just a surface wound. It's nothing Ratchet can't fix." Arcee assured.
As she finished her sentence a low groan was heard from behind them. They all looked back to see Knockout sitting up off the ground. The medic paused, seemingly a bit dazed, and placed a servo on his face where the impact from the drill had left an impressive gash across his mouth. As he drew back it back and saw the leaked energon smeared across his digits, his expression went from lethargic to enraged.
"AUGH! What did you slagging Autobots do to my face?! You're gonna pay for-" at this point he looked over and saw Optimus Prime descending upon him and his anger was quickly replaced by terror. Before he could react or defend himself at all, he was forced back into the dirt with Optimus Prime's pede on his chassis pinning him down. He grimaced in pain but the terror returned to his face as Optimus raised his arm, transforming it back into his gun, and took aim at Knockout's head.
"WHOA WHOA, hold on! Don't shoot! You win, okay?! I- I… I surrender!" Knockout managed to stutter out as he lifted his servos in resignation, "Take the relic… just don't shoot!"
"What should we do with him?" Arcee asked taking a few steps closer.
"BEEEPbooozzzrrrrtttzzzzzWHRR RRRRRR!" With that, Bumblebee pounded his fists together threateningly. Though he seemed to forget his injury and the jolt made him let out a high pitched BEEP and grasp at his forearm.
"Precisely my thoughts, Bumblebee." Optimus replied and the tip of his gun began to glow and whirr as he prepared to fire.
"NO!" Knockout threw his arms up in front of his face, "No please! I'm begging you-"
"Optimus, wait!" Both the Autobot leader and the medic pinned below him looked over in surprise at Jack, "You can't kill him just like that… he surrendered."
"Well what do you want us to do, Jack?" Arcee said, "Bring him back to the base and leave him cuffed to a banister?"
"No, it's just… it doesn't seem very Autobot-like to execute someone after they've already given up." Jack continued, as he stepped over to the relic container, "I mean, we have the relic. Couldn't we just go?"
Optimus looked from Jack back down to Knockout, who was quick to meet his gaze; his terrified optics now glimmering with a small shred of hope. A long, tense moment passed as Optimus stared down at the 'Con, but finally he announced, "Arcee, Bumblebee… Take the relic and the humans back to base. I will finish matters here."
"But Optimus-"
"You heard 'im, kiddo." Arcee interrupted, scooping Jack up into one servo and the relic container into the other, "Let's head out."
"Arcee, come on! This isn't right!"
Arcee was surely about to say something chastising about the realities of war or how he was just a kid and wouldn't understand or how Optimus knows best, but before she had the chance, she suddenly dropped both Jack and the relic. Letting out an agonizing scream, she pressed her servos against her helm, staggering backwards slightly.
"Arcee! What-?" Jack sat up from where he'd fallen to the ground, but a moment later he realized it wasn't just her, all four of the Cybertronians there were covering their audio receptors with pained expressions on their faces.
"Wh-what's going on?" Raf looked to Jack fearfully. Jack had no idea how to respond, but he was about to be saved the trouble because just then the roar of an engine met their ears. A moment later there was a ground-shaking THUD as Soundwave transformed and landed behind Knockout. His arm was extended with the Resonance Blaster attached and blasting at full strength.
For a long moment Jack froze, only able to look on helplessly. Finally pulling his eyes away from the 'Bots, doubled over clutching their helms and crying out in agony, he looked over to Raf, who had his eyes fixed fearfully on Soundwave. Strangely enough, the two of them seemed unaffected by the sonic weapon. Rushing over to Raf, Jack grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the relic container.
"Come on! We've gotta at least try to get this relic out of here." he commanded.
"What about the 'Bots?! Bumblebee-"
"We can't do anything about that." Jack admitted, though he hated to say so, "What we can do is try to hide the relic."
Luckily for them, Soundwave didn't even seem to notice the tiny humans scrambling across the ground, seeing as he was much more focused on the Prime who was still stepping on his medical officer. Taking a few steps closer, Soundwave drew back his other arm and swung it forward with tremendous power, sending Optimus crashing to the ground. The purple 'Con then stepped over Knockout, allowing him out of the range of the sonic blasts. He proceeded to grab ahold of the medic with one of his clawed tentacles and roughly yank him up to a standing position.
Knockout stumbled a bit with his servos still pressed against his temples and his optics shut tight. It took him another minute to regain his composure, but when he finally looked up and saw Soundwave, who was now corralling the 'Bots together with the use of his sonic weapon, he was confused at first. He hadn't brought Soundwave on this mission, what was he doing there all of a sudden?
Then he realized there was only one person who could have ordered him away from his work on the database. But did Megatron really have that little confidence in him? Surely he didn't need Soundwave babysitting him on missions… Although if Soundwave hadn't shown up, he'd be getting thrown onto the scrap pile with the rest of his team right about now. Despite owing his life to the mech, Knockout felt his anger at Soundwave returning in full force.
His processor still pounding from the Resonance Blaster, he stomped over to the 'Con and backhanded him across his shoulder angrily, "SLAG IT SOUNDWAVE!" he shouted, "I have audio receptors too, y'know!" Soundwave lowered his arm, giving the cringing Autobots a some respite as they lay in a heap by his feet, and slowly turned to face the medic.
Knockout took a step away timidly and gave a short, nervous laugh. He began to think striking Soundwave may not have been the best idea. "But uhhh- thanks for the assist… Let's just… go collect the relic then…?" he mumbled as he slowly started backing towards the container on the ground.
Soundwave glanced down at the disabled Autobots near his feet, then turned and followed Knockout. As they approached, the red 'Con crouched by the container and rolled it over. However he was surprised to find the lid had been removed and it was empty. He was confused for a moment before he remembered:
"The humans!" he growled, "They must've grabbed it while we weren't looking!"
He was correct. While Soundwave was incapacitating the 'Bots, Jack and Raf had managed to pull the already loosened lid off the container and roll the relic into the trees to hide. Now the two were crouched down behind the foliage. Jack risked looking out to see Soundwave and Knockout and saw they had noticed the relic was gone. Then he looked back at the relic beside them. The red, coin shaped disc was lined with glowing white patterns along the front as well as a metal Autobot badge. Sitting on its side it was just taller than Jack, and it was lucky they had found it that way inside the container, had it been sitting flat the two wouldn't have been able to roll it away.
Jack looked away from the unknown Autobot device and back to Raf, "Call base again. Tell them we need… more back up… I… I guess." He said in hushed tones. Jack was clearly trying to stay calm for Raf's sake but he knew they were in serious trouble and his voice gave it away.
Raf gulped nervously and, glancing over at the relic for a moment, he pulled his laptop out of his bag and started to call Ratchet. "This is really bad isn't it…?" he groaned, "Aww man… I should have put some sort of disabling function on that virus we gave Soundwave…"
"What?!"
Raf cried out as a clawed hand suddenly reached through the brush and snatched him up!
"RAF!" Jack made to go after him, but he heard rustling behind him and spun around to see Soundwave's tentacle grabbing ahold of the relic with its claws. "OH NO!" Desperate to stop the 'Con, he grabbed ahold of the side of the contraption and tried to pull it away. It was futile though, as the tentacle lifted it off the ground and reeled it back in to Soundwave with Jack still hanging on to the side.
Meanwhile, Raf clutched his laptop to his chest as Knockout held him suspended in the air by his backpack. "Now, what's that you were saying about a virus, fleshling?" he crooned with a nasty smirk spread across his face.