Author's Note: WOW! This one came out fast! :) Thank you once again for the reviews! They fuel my muse and keep me writing! Oh, please excuse my spelling/grammatical errors; I try to read through and catch them, but I am only human and seem to miss a few (and I am HORRIBLE at the 'effect'/ 'affect' thing, I get all the others like 'their'/'there'/'they're' but for some ungodly reason e/affect HATES ME…haha). Anyways… ON WITH CHAPTER 3~!

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Chapter 3: Jailbreak

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"Optimus!" Ratchet yelled, struggling to hold down the convulsing bot. "You're bigger – hold Bumblebee down while I force him into stasis lock!"

"Is that safe?" the Autobot leader questioned, kneeling down next to the yellow Camaro. Bumblebee let out an audio-splitting screech of pain, causing the other two occupants to flinch and lower the volume of their audio receptors.

Ratchet looked up from Bumblebee to glare at his Prime, switching to internal communications. [Now is not the time to question me, Prime.]

Optimus frowned. [I'm sorry, old friend.]

Before Ratchet could stop it, one of Bumblebee's arms flailed and smacked him across the faceplates. "Frag it! Just hold the youngling down!"

Without another word, Optimus sat himself on top of the young bot, hold his wrists down and securing this body, lessening the convulsions enough for the CMO to tapped into Bumblebee's security program and shut him down.

Almost immediately Bumblebee's optics dimmed and spasms stopped. After a few moments passed and an awkward glance between the Prime and his CMO, Ratchet growled, "What the frag was that about?"

The Autobot leader watched his CMO carefully. "I was hoping you knew."

"Pit if I know. I've only seen convulsions that strong when a spark goes through spark-break or spark-distress. Since Bumblebee is not spark-bonded, he couldn't have gone through spark-break because he lost his bonded."

"Spark-distress?"

"Usually only happens with spark-twins when they are separated for too long."

Optimus' engines rumbled as he thought. "Guardian-bond?"

"Wouldn't have been that strong," Ratchet muttered, rubbing his sore cheek plates. "I didn't expect the two to have formed a guardian-bond, anyway." Optimus tilted his head in confusion, waiting for Ratchet to continue. "I've never seen a guardian-bond form with another species before."

"That is quite… intriguing," Optimus sighed. "What do we do?"

"I am going to keep Bumblebee in stasis lock for a day or two to recover. Convulsions like that stress the spark and it needs time to stabilize," the CMO stated, gently lifting the youngling to a nearby table. "I hate not having my medical equipment. Everything on Earth is so primitive."

Prime sighed. "Do what you must, Ratchet."

"I'm also going to run preliminary scans of his system," Ratchet murmured, more to himself then his leader.

Optimus nodded and turned. "I will contact Ironhide. I think this processer is very much cleared."

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Sam groggily opened his eyes, the familiar fluorescent lights of his cell above him. He sighed, slowly turning onto his side on his cot, but stopped as a sudden pain radiated from his leg. He groaned, letting out a few select swears, noticing that his leg was wrapped in an ace bandage. The images of his torturers – Dr. Goldden and Dr. Swanton, to be specific – and what he did came rushing back, causing panic and anger to swell up in him.

In the back of his mind, he felt Cardio's conscious rub against his in a comforting gesture, the boy's anger and panic draining instantly. He opened his mind for his creation to enter; his creation couldn't be with him physically, so he opened his entire mind for the heart-bot to find refuge from this God-awful place. Cardio became content knowing that his creator was there for him and drifted into a light recharge.

Cardio's presence was still new to Sam and was still odd to have another being connected to him, but something deep down accepted Cardio without question. Like some kind of instinct – maternal? It sounded so… feminine, but that was the only way to describe it. And for some reason Sam accepted that he had maternal instincts for this bot…

What's happening to me?

With that, Sam prodded the feeling in his heart, only to notice it was numbed.

Sam was pulled out of his thoughts by the footsteps of his feeder, but they sounded different, like someone was stomping their way down the hallway. There was a distinctive clank, from the flap hatch and a tray of food was pushed in, the contents of the small glass spilt everywhere from the force, causing the murky water to soak the stale bread.

Sam glanced up at the peephole and noticed that this wasn't his normal feeder. This man was burly and a permanent scowl on his face; he reminded Sam of an escaped convicted with prison tattoos, but more clean-shaven. A chill ran up Sam spine; this man gave him the creeps. Like not the 'oh, that weirdo is staring at me' creeps, but the 'that guy can kill me with one punch' creeps.

With slow and gentle movements, Sam maneuvered his way off the cot without jarring his leg too bad, but as he moved towards the food (Slop is more like it, he thought.) the new feeder's scowl turned into a nasty smirk. Sam was in reaching distance of the food when the pain struck again. He jerked, his back arching and slamming down on the hospital-like floor, his screeches of pain echoing around the room. Something was different, the pain didn't stop after a few seconds like it normally did; no, it continued, reeking havoc on the teen's body.

After what seemed like hours, which in reality was only about two minutes, the pain stopped just as quickly as it started. He was left panting and moaning on the floor, clutching at his rapidly beating heart. He glanced at the peephole to see the creep, smiling like he had won the lottery. Static from the intercom being turned on filled Sam's cell and a gravelly voiced spoke, "Rot in hell." And the creep was gone.

Sam laid on the floor to collect his thoughts, but it was difficult with the pounding in his head. That's when he felt the pressure in his head, as if something was trying to come out of his skull. Cardio, he realized, was trying to break through some sort of block between their connection. Sam lowered the barrier thing and feelings of love and worry overwhelmed him. Sam tried to send good feelings to the little bot, but his mind was so jumbled up that he couldn't think straight. The two weeks of experiments, tests, and malnutrition really started to take a toll on the boy.

He needed to get out of here soon… or risk being killed by the psychotic scientists.

With the slop forgotten, Sam stayed on the floor, starting at the fluorescent lights of his cell.

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Dr. Henry Jameson walked down the metallic hall with a purpose, despite the fact that he was extremely nervous, he tried not to let it show. He rounded a corner and walked up the stairs, two at a time. He turned the corner again and came up to a door, knocking gently. He opened it slowly, peering through the crack of the door to see if anyone was in the room.

"Hello?" he called out and waited for an answer. Upon hearing none, Dr. Jameson quickly made his way in, gently closing the door behind him with a small click. He scanned the dark computer room, locating a terminal in the corner of the room. He sat down at the high-tech computer and began to type away furiously. Within minutes, Dr. Jameson secretly broke through all the firewalls and passcodes and hacked into the secure files.

A smile graced his lips when he pulled a file labeled '00472'. He opened one and the word 'terminate' jumped out. Quickly scanning the document, he realized that they were going to 'terminate' the little heart monitor robot first thing tomorrow morning. This heart ran cold; his plan was going to happen over the course of a couple days, so as to not raise any suspicion, but now he had to put the plan on full speed and do it tonight.

Whoever is up there, please help me, he silently prayed to whatever being was watching over him.

From the pocket in the front of his lab coat, he pulled out a flashdrive that masqueraded as a pen and plugged it into the computer. He downloaded the file and a number of other files that had to deal with Subject 00472. He unplugged the flashdrive and tucked it securely in his pocket once again.

Dr. Jameson's head shot up when he heard the door to the room click open. Without a second thought, Dr. Jameson muted the computer and forced it to shut down, than ducking behind a desk to his left. He heard footsteps coming closer to his location, but slowly and silently, he moved from desk to desk making his way to the exit. He glanced up occasionally, watching the shadowed figure of a security guard. When the figured had his back to him, he sprinted out of the open door.

Dr. Jameson made it down three halls and two flights of stairs before he stopped to take a breather.

That was close, he thought, leaning against the wall of the hallway. But I'm not finished yet…

The scientist walked down the hall and came upon a door labeled 'Security'. Without even knocking, he opened the door and walked in. Two security guards look away from some soap opera playing on one of the security televisions to look at him.

"Doctor, I don't think you are supposed to be here," one said, standing up.

"What are you two still doing here?" Dr. Jameson asked, acting flustered and panicked.

"Wha-what do you mean?" the second security guard asked.

"I saw Dr. Swanton trying force one of the female scientists into the research room! How did you miss that?"

"Oh, Lord, not again! C'mon Patrick, lets go!" growled the second guard, smacking the first guard on the shoulder.

The two guards ran out of the security room, leaving Dr. Jameson unattended, just like he thought. Only having a few minutes before the moronic guards realize that Dr. Swanton was in a personal meeting with Dr. Goldden in the conference room, Dr. Jameson quickly hacked into the security feed. He made the video footage in Subject 00472's and the heart monitor turned robot's rooms continually play on loop of old footage, where it showed Subject 00472 laying in his bed sleeping and the robot in his heart monitor form in his cage, as well as the hallways outside both cells. Before leaving the room, he deleted all the footage of him in the computer room and running down the hallways – how the guards didn't see him was some miracle.

Before Dr. Jameson left the security room, he grabbed a ring of keys. Once outside of the security room, Dr. Jameson walked down another flight of stairs to the floor of prisoner cells. At the very end of the one of the halls was a small door where the heart monitor robot was being held (The entire opposite side of where Subject 00472 is being kept, Dr. Jameson noticed.). He walked into the room, where the guard turned.

"What are yo-"

Before the guard could even finish his sentence, Dr. Jameson ran up to him and injected the guard with a tranquilizer. The guard fell to his knees, his mouth opening and closing like a fish, and fell unconscious with a light thud. Dr. Jameson quickly moved towards the little cage, which caused the little robot to move to the other corner of the cage, curling into itself and shaking violently.

"Hey, hey, none of that, little one," Dr. Jameson whispered, holding his hands up in a nonthreatening stance. "I'm here to help you." He hoped that the little robot would understand. "I want to bust you and your… maker? creator?… out of here." He noticed the little robot uncurled from itself slightly and looked up at the scientist with bright blue eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you."

The little heart monitor robot clicked and whistled at him.

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand you," Dr. Jameson muttered, pulling out a ring of keys that he had swiped from the security room. Fumbling with the keys for a few seconds, he found the correct key and unlocked the heart monitor robot's cage. After a bit of hesitation, the heart monitor robot stumbled out of the cage and apprehensively watched Dr. Jameson. "I'm not sure how to carry you…"

With the metallic sound of gears against gears, a laptop appeared where the little heart bot had once been.

"A disguise… I like it."

Dr. Jameson picked up the heart monitor robot turned laptop and made his way out of the room, where the unconscious guard lay. He closed the door and locked it behind him. With the laptop under his arm, Dr. Jameson walked quickly to the other side of the floor, where Subject 00472's room was. Coming up to where the high security room was, he noticed two guards sitting outside Subject 00472's cell.

"Damn…" he muttered to himself. He set the laptop down real quickly and whispered, "Stay here. I'll be right back." Dr. Jameson straighten himself out and walked down the hall to where Subject 00472's cell was, both hands in his packet gripping a syringe full of tranquilizers in each. The guards noticed him and looked up from their spot on each side of the door.

"Dr. Jameson?" one questioned, looking curiously at the scientist.

"Hello gentlemen," Dr. Jameson greeted, smiling. "How is Subject 00472 behaving?"

The first guard scoffed. "Been layin' on the floor for a few hours and not moving much."

"Hope its dead," grumbled the second guard.

The first guard chuckled. "Don't we all, Al."

Dr. Jameson let out a humorless chuckle. Within a split second, he shoved both syringes into each of the guards' neck and injected them with the tranquilizer. Just like the guard in the heart monitor/laptop robot's cell, they both fell unconscious within seconds. The scientist quickly set up both the guards to look like they fell asleep on the job and when back to retrieve the laptop. He felt the little robot shaking in his grip.

"It's going to be okay, little guy. I'm going get you out of here."

Dr. Jameson grabbed the security card from one of the guard's belts and slid it into the reader, which beeped and unlocked the cell door. Once Dr. Jameson opened the door, the little robot wiggled out of his arms, changed back into his robot form and ran to the Subject, who was lying motionless on the floor of his white cell. He looked worse for wear; he was extremely skinny and looked almost sickly.

As if a switch was turned on in the Subject, he sat up to catch the little robot has it launched itself at him. The little robot latched onto the Subject's chest and rubbed its tiny head to the Subject's cheek.

"C-Cardio? Wha-what are you doing here?" the Subject asked, in a raspy, raw voice. The little robot – Cardio – whistled, clicked, and hummed in answer.

As if the Subject could understand the little robot, he nodded. His eyes snapped onto Dr. Jameson.

With a growl the Subject asked, "What do you want?"

"I'm here to bust you out," Dr. Jameson replied coolly.

"What angle are you playing at?" the Subject rasped, struggling to stand up.

"No angle," Dr. Jameson reassured. "I just want to help you get out of here, before something bad happens."

"Something bad?" the Subject hissed. "Something bad has already happ-"

"No, something worse," the scientist mumbled. The Subject's eyebrows shot up. "The little rob – I mean Cardio – is scheduled to be 'terminated' tomorrow morning."

"WHAT?"

"Shh, keep your voice down," Dr. Jameson hissed. "I've been planning for a while to get you out. Dr. Goldden has been lying to your Autobot friends and that's why they haven't been by. I expect that they would not like the way you are treated here."

The Subject frowned. "Yeah, but…"

"C'mon… We have to get out of here before they notice you or Cardio missing. I want you to have a good head start."

The Subject glanced at Cardio, who was latched onto his chest, his optics closed and listening to his heartbeat. "How are we going to get out?"

Dr. Jameson helped the Subject stand and limp out of the cell; one of the Subject's arm wrapped around Dr. Jameson's shoulder, the other wrapped tightly around Cardio. "Down the hall is an air duct entrance. You'll climb in with Cardio make two lefts, a right, and you'll hit a dead end, there will be another grate for you to exit into the garbage room. From there you'll escape through the garbage chute. The garbage truck will be here in ten minutes so we need to hurry."

They walked down the corridor, to where the entrance to the air duct was hidden by a grate. Dr. Jameson set the Subject down and quickly unscrewed the screws and pulled off the grate. The Subject crawled into the hole to the air duct, Cardio still clutched to his chest.

"You need to hurry. Left, left, right, dead end, grate, garbage chute."

The Subject turned to look at the scientist as he reattached the grate and began putting the screws back in. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Just hurry!" Dr. Jameson called, remembering something. "Wait! Here take this." Dr. Jameson pulled the flashdrive pen out of his coat pocket and pushed it between the grate. The Subject grabbed it.

"A pen?"

"A flashdrive. I downloaded all your files on there."

"Thank you?"

"You'll need it later, Subject 00472."

"Sam," the Subject whispered. "My name is Sam."

Dr. Jameson smiled. "Good luck, Sam. And may whatever god-figure watch over you."

With that, Sam turned and made his way to freedom.

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Author's Note #2: Ten pages and over 3,000 words! WOOHOO! Longest chapter yet! Also, for those in America… HAPPY EARLY FOURTH OF JULY! :)

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Published: July 1, 2012 – unbeta-ed