Chapter 2: Darkness Rising Pt. 2

After Optimus drops Natalie off at the army base, she goes to look for her group. She finds the leader, Danny, in his office, goes inside, and sits in front of his desk. Danny looks up from the paperwork he was doing and looks right at her, "Got anything to report?"

"It would appear the Decepticons are back. Naturally, Fowler confronted Optimus about it already."

"I heard there were reports of civilians seeing two unmarked vehicles speeding along the main streets and the highway. Those Autobots need to do better about keeping their cover. And now the Decepticons have returned. I still think we should have booted them off our planet and made them go somewhere else."

"I highly doubt it would have worked, they're mostly here because there's Energon here and as long as Energon is on this planet both Autobots and Decepticons will be coming here."

"Were they here on Earth in your timeline?"

"From what I can remember there were no reports of these alien beings ever being on Earth. But things are different in this timeline, just the fact that we've made contact with aliens sixty years ahead of time shows that things have changed."

"All because you went back in time," Danny says as he sits back in his chair, "With all these changes, do you think they're still gonna come?"

Natalie looks at him briefly before speaking, "I have no doubts about it. But I think we can use the Cybertronian technology to help us create more advanced weapons that can help the human race survive. They will come and I'm gonna make sure the human race survives this time, even if I'm not gonna be here to witness it, I believe that if we provide future generations with enough knowledge and more advanced weaponry, they will come out victorious this time."

Bumblebee rams into two Vehicons knocking them out and making the one Vehicon drop the two boys he was carrying, but Arcee transformed while jumping over Bumblebee and caught the two boys before they hit the floor. Bumblebee opens his door and Natalie gets out, "Really? You guys just went straight to the Decepticon warship?" Natalie asked as she walked over to the two boys.

"When did you join up with these two?" Jack asked her.

"I had to get a lift to the base and when I got there it was empty until Arcee and Bumblebee came speeding in. They explained to me everything that happened and we Ground Bridged over here," Natalie explained as Bumblebee transformed and walked over to Raf.

"Appreciate you clearing the front door for us," Arcee begins saying, "But storming the Decepticon warship was not on the activities list."

"Tell me about it."

Natalie ran alongside Jack and Raf as they ran behind Bumblebee and Arcee, "How did you guys track Fowler to this destination anyway?" Natalie asked the boys.

"I saw on TV that the government implant chips into their agents to keep track of them, I just tracked his chip," Raf explained.

Damn, he can do that? We could use this kid to help us with a lot of tech stuff. "I sure as hell don't have a chip implanted into me, they can try but they'll most likely end up dead."

Natalie sees Arcee and Bumblebee come to a halt as Arcee leans against a wall while transforming her servo into a gun, she turns the corner with her gun at the ready and sees Bulkhead who also has his gun at the ready, "Friendly!"

"Hello!"

Arcee and Bulkhead transform their guns back to their servos, "Brought the humans, huh?" Arcee asked him.

"You try getting them to stay behind."

"We need to find Fowler and get these kids out of here."

"Uh.." Jack starts, "He's in the brig," Jack and Raf say together.

"How do you know?" Natalie asked.

"One of those Decepticons mentioned it just before you guys showed up," Jack explained.

As they all made their way through the ship to find the brig, they ended up getting attacked by Decepticon Troopers. Natalie did everything she could to keep the kids out of harm's way. She made the three look at her as she spoke to them, "Just stay close to me and you'll be alright, okay?" But the three kids were too concerned with the fighting that was happening all around them that they barely heard her.

Natalie pulled them to the side to keep them from getting squished by a dead Trooper that was falling, Bulkhead fell to the floor but he stopped himself from falling on them as he threw a Trooper to the side. Natalie kept the kids behind her so she could shield them from the gun firing, in case a stray blast ended up going their way she'd be the one to get hit with it instead of the kids.

The fighting ends with Arcee shooting a hole in the last Trooper's helm, then they make their way to the bridge. Once the door to the bridge opens the three 'Bots run in and take out the Troopers that were in there, "Clear," Arcee says and the kids go running in with Natalie right behind them. "Wait in here," Arcee tells them and Bumblebee beeps in question. "They're just slowing us down and they're an easy target. They'll be alright in here as long as they stay put," Arcee says as she heads for the door.

"What about me?" Natalie asks, she's not too keen on being left out of a fight.

"You stay in here and watch them, make sure they don't get hurt," Arcee replies.

"What!? Babysitting's not part of my job description!"

"Hey! I'm not a baby! I grew out of needing a babysitter a long time ago!" Miko stated.

"Same!" Jack added.

"Natalie, we're behind enemy lines, they need to be looked after. You're staying here with them and that's final!" Arcee said firmly before leaving with Bumblebee and Bulkhead.

After the door closed, Natalie sighed frustratedly as she turned away from the door and the kids, "I can't believe I'm stuck with babysitting!"

"That was intense," Miko whispered.

"Was?" Raf questioned.

"It's your fault that we're stuck in this intensity," Jack says as he points at Miko, "What were you thinking, Miko?"

"Did I ask you to follow me?"

Great, the kids are now fighting.

"You wanted us to be a band. Doesn't that usually mean playing together?"

"Well, maybe I decided to go solo."

"Well, maybe I have some regard for your safety."

"I'm sorry, is your name Optimus? You can leave my protection to Bulkhead, thank you very much."

"Stop it, both of you!" Raf shouts when he gets tired of the two arguing. He runs over to sit at the edge of the top step, Jack and Miko walk over and sit next to him as they try to comfort him.

Natalie listens to them comforting Raf and she turns to look at them, the poor boy is scared after what he experienced. Natalie sighed, "I can't neglect these kids, they're so young and experiencing something new and scary," she mumbled. She walks over to them and squats behind Raf before placing a hand on his shoulder, "As long as you stay close to me and the Autobots, you'll be alright. We won't let anything happen to you." Raf looks over his shoulder at her and she smiles at him.

"Hey, Raf. What do you make of that?" Jack asked and they all looked up at the screen that had a bunch of alien diagrams and writing. Raf hopped down the big steps to go get a closer look at it and Jack, Miko, and Natalie followed him.

"It's important. Real important," Raf said as he studied what was on the screen, "We gotta get this to Optimus."

"How do you know this isn't just a recipe for space nachos?"

"Space nachos? Really?" Natalie questioned with a raised eyebrow. Miko just shrugged.

"I know math when I see it, and that is one serious equation."

"Great, now I got a craving for some nachos. Thanks a lot, Miko."

"You're welcome," Miko said prolonging the you're. Natalie rolled her eyes as Jack asked Raf a question.

"Can you download it?" Jack hesitated to ask the question as he wondered if there was even a way to download it.

Raf thinks for a second before responding, "I've got a flash drive." He pulls his backpack off his shoulder and opens it to bring out the flash drive, "But I don't see anywhere to plug it in. This tech is way alien."

A Vehicon Trooper comes walking onto the bridge and they run over to the wall to hide, but Raf goes back for his backpack and the Trooper sees him, he transforms his servo into his gun and points it at the boy as it charges up. Natalie runs over to Raf as she pulls out the sword that was strapped to her back, "Time to see if this sword really works," she says as she runs toward the Trooper. She jumps and thrusts the sword into the 'Con's knee joint and the sword penetrates the armor, "It worked! Casey, you mad genius!"

Natalie looked up to see the Trooper pointing his gun at her as he fired it up, she pulled her sword out of his knee joint and jumped out of the way before she could get blasted. She lands on the floor with ease and looks up at the 'Con, "Now to figure out how to get to the chest where I can pierce his spark chamber." Natalie hears Miko get the 'Con's attention before seeing her take a picture of the 'Con, but then Jack tells her that she was supposed to be taking a picture of the stuff on the screen. She takes the picture and the Trooper tries to blast them.

They go running out the door, "Go, go, go, just run," Natalie says as they run down the corridor to get away from the Trooper. "Apparently, Decepticons don't like having their pictures taken. Who knew?" She shrugs her shoulders as she continues running and the kids chuckle a bit at her joke.

They see Bulkhead driving towards them before he transforms and jumps over them, running toward the Trooper to attack and kill him. Arcee and Bumblebee pull up, "I thought I told you to stay put," Arcee says as Natalie and Jack get on her, and Raf and Miko get into Bumblebee where they find Fowler in the backseat. They leave the warship and head back to base.