Happy Year of the Dragon!

Parts of this chapter were inspired by the latest Transformers movie.

Transformers © to Hasbro!

My OCs © to me!

Chapter 13: Bravery

Silk watched Elita finish a conversation with the United Nations Security Council.

They all seemed concerned and put off by Arkeville's actions.

And a little embarrassed too.

Sitting down near the balcony with the humans, she sighed. "I know I saw bad humans on television, but part of me hoped they weren't real."

"Sad to say, but we've had plenty of humans that are just as bad as Megatron or any Decepticon out there. Every race has good and evil." Titi reached out and patted the youngling's shoulder plating.

"We had a Fate Weaver who went bad." Silk nodded. "Her name was Arachnid. She wasn't content with just seeing the future, she started to dabble in mnemosurgery and Blackarachnia exiled her."

The humans all looked at her. "What's mnemosurgery?"

Velocity poked her head over. "A highly illegal medical procedure. A bot uses needles to enter and view the mind of another bot. It can be used to gather information, but it can also be used to edit the memories of the subject, to the point where their entire personality can be rewritten. And the scars aren't noticeable without close inspection. Before the war, the Senate of Cybertron used it to alter the minds of bots who stood in their way. The most famous mnemosurgeon was Trepan, and there is one Autobot who knows how to do it, but he has been strictly sworn never to use it. However, it is difficult to tell if this deal has been kept(1)."

The humans shuddered slightly. "That sounds terrifying."

"Very." Velocity looked at Silk. "And Arachnid is part of the Decepticons now."

"Really?"

"Oh yes."

"Blackarachnia won't like that."

The computer let out an alarm.

"Speaking of Cons," Ayal groaned, "they're back! Just set off an alarm at an energon mine in Peru."

"Of course."

Elita nodded. "Autobots, roll out!"

Silk watched as the humans suited up and left with the bots. Standing beside Velocity, she watched and listened.

"You again?" Hound sighed as Flamewar stood before him, grinning.

"Miss me?"

"Like a bad rash." Marissa growled even as the Decepticon tilted her head in confusion.

Blackjack leaned forward. "Why don't we have some fun? And some payback."

WHOOSH!

Three jets passed overhead, Kup looking up just in time. "GET BACK!" He grabbed the four humans before bombs hit the middle of their troop.

BOOM.

The jets landed, transforming as a groundbridge opened to let Shadow Striker come through.

"We got them! HAHA!" Sunstorm hopped around.

"Finish them off." Slipstream smirked.

Pain filled Elita's head as she pulled out her giant hammer. Kup's warning gave them all a moment to leap back.

But they'd all be feeling this later.

Standing up just in time to stop Slipstream from digging her claws into the Autobot commander's face, she snarled. "That won't stop us."

"It does make things a bit easier for us though."

"Are they all ok!?" Silk watched, her optics shuddering as the bots staggered up to defend themselves.

Velocity, using satellite access, was able to give them a good visual of the battle and the area around them.

"They are hurt," Velocity looked at a screen, monitoring the vitals of everyone, "but alright. Kup's combat experience kept them safe this time."

Silk watched the battle on the screen. Even with that hit, the Autobots kept going.

But she saw something else.

"What's that?" She pointed to a corner of the screen. Something square seemed to be just barely visible.

Moving the camera, the medic sighed. "A human village. This area is far from any major cities, but there are people who still live in these remote areas. It looks far enough away that the humans should be able to stay out of danger from the battle."

"No… it isn't." Silk's optics spotted something.

Something she'd seen before on Eukaris.

When the bombs fell, they started something more.

A fire.

A fire that now began leaping from tree to tree.

Getting bigger and bigger by the moment.

"Primus!" Activating her comlink, the medic said, "Autobots, the bombs started a forest fire and there is a human village downwind."

"We'll get there as soon as we ca-" A blow from Slipstream cut off Elita's response.

"I'll go help. Stay here." Turning on the groundbridge, Velocity charged through.

As the bridge closed, Silk watched the medic make her way through the battle, only to stop as Hotlink turned his flamethrowers on her and the rest of the forest.

And the fire only grew.

Just like back home.

Silk remembered…

A storm.

Lightning struck the trees.

She remembered that fire.

How it destroyed miles of land as the wind pushed it quickly.

And now she watched another fire, move toward a village.

"GAH!"

Silk's head dropped back as her optics flashed white.

She saw herself slam to the ground, her back legs coming up as Slipstream pounced on her.

One of her legs slashed at Slipstream, sending Energon flying as she created a deep scar across the femme's face.

With a push, she sent the seeker flying before standing up and charging back after her.

Her optics blinked back.

An oracle of her, in battle.

She was no Autobot-

Just a neutral under their care.

Taking up space.

Being protected.

The vision of her fighting flashed in her mind again. She looked at herself-

Confident.

Fearless.

Brave.

Her optics turned back toward the screen once more.

The humans in the village screamed, running as the fire approached.

And the giant robots fighting came closer into view.

A stray shot here and there slammed into trees and into houses. Stray shots? No. The ones with purple insignias would shoot their way on purpose ever so often. It distracted the other ones.

A woman, dragging her children, screamed as one blast hit the house next to her, sending stones flying at them.

But something grabbed them, moving them past the house and dropping them safely on the ground.

A group of people tried to put out some of the smaller fires as the trees around them began to light up further, smoke choaking their lungs.

SWISH!

A white material hit the trees, over and over.

Covering the fire.

Smothering it.

Putting it out.

Something large leapt over their heads, shooting that white material at the flames, creating a barrier before the large figure ran back, long appendages on its back, slashing at trees on their side of the barrier, knocking them down-

Making a fire break.

Allowing the humans to focus on the smaller flames.

Hotlink laughed as he dodged a punch from Kup and leapt into the air. Transforming, he circled around.

Maybe he'd torch that human village the Autobots kept trying to move towards.

That sounded fun.

Something moved in his vision.

He saw the flames stopped by some white material on the trees.

And a small figure running around, cutting down trees to stop the fire further.

"I have a visual on Silk Spinner! She's here!"

"Then grab her!"

Transforming, he plummeted down at the youngling. She spotted his shadow with just enough time to leap out of the way.

"Finally! There you are!"

"Stay back!"

"What are you going to do, youngling? Fight me?"

He almost laughed.

She stood before him, her whole body shaking, optics darting around for some means of escape.

Pointing his flamethrower toward the village, he yawned. "Well, if you won't come I guess I-"

"NO!"

Webbing slammed into his arm, encasing it, and knocking his balance off slightly.

Who did that stupid youngling think she was!?

Something sharp slammed into his side. Without thinking, he grabbed it, turning to see one of her back legs embedded into his side.

"You little glitch!"

The other back legs shot out, panic in her face as they wildly slashed at him.

"Let me go!"

Holding out her hands, webbing slammed into his face, giving her enough time to pull out of his grasp and run.

Leaping off a small ledge, Silk clasped at her spark.

WHY DID SHE THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA!?

This was so stupid!

Stupid!

Stupid!

"Come here!"

With a yelp, she leapt into the trees, transforming into a spider as she fled into the jungle.

But not fast enough.

Hotlink slammed into her, sending them both crashing through trees. Dirt covered her body as he grabbed her spider legs, his knee planted firmly on her abdomen, pinning her to the ground.

"I should rip these off! I'm sure you can live without them!" He pulled.

Silk screamed as she felt her legs stretch, the joints crying out.

CRASH!

Hotlink flew off her, dragging Silk a few feet before she was able to transform.

Her legs seemed to still be on her back as a hand lay on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

Saber.

"Yeah…"

Looking up into his face she saw the look of relief as well as a look that said 'we will talk about this later'. "Get back to base! Now!"

He activated a groundbridge next to them.

Silk didn't need to be told twice.

Scrambling up, she leapt into the portal.

Her body hit the floor of the base as she watched it close.

She lay there… her spark pounding… her back aching.

In her mind flashed faces.

The humans she'd moved to safety.

The humans who saw her put out the fire.

And she felt happy.

Was this how it felt to be brave?

"Slipstream, I lost her!"

"You fool!" Ugh! They'd altered the plan on the fly to recapture the youngling.

Looks like they'd need a new strategy.

Back to plan A.

"Decepticons, fall back."

Elita let out a sigh.

Marissa, Dante, Hound, and Moonracer stayed behind in Peru to clean up the mess left by the battle and have a conversation with the locals.

The Security Council would love this…

Hopefully, these villagers would be quiet about what they'd seen. It did help that they'd been rescued.

Rescued by Silk.

Which brought her to why she stood in the base, watching Velocity look over Silk's back legs.

"They seem strained, but nothing some rest won't fix. You were lucky."

"Reckless is more like it!" Kup snapped. "You could've been caught! What were you thinking!?"

The youngling flinched. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't sit there. You were all busy fighting, and those people needed help. I've fought a forest fire before on Eukaris, so I knew I could do something."

"But-"

"That's enough, Kup." Elita walked toward the youngling, kneeling down. "What you did today could have gotten you caught. Did you understand that before you left?"

"Yes."

"And you did it anyway."

"Yes."

Elita smiled, putting a hand on her shoulder. "That was very brave of you."

"No, I was terrified. I only hit Hotlink because I was scared of going back. I never want to go back."

Saber smiled too. "Being brave doesn't mean you're not afraid. Being brave is doing the right thing, even if you're afraid. You probably saved a lot of lives today. I continue to be surprised by you."

"I'm sorry if I caused a problem."

"You didn't." Elita assured her. "Though, next time you think about jumping into a battle like that, please let us know before, so we can send some backup to your location before you get attacked. Alright?"

"Alright."

She smiled.

So, she did the right thing after all.

And despite how much fear she felt when facing Hotlink, right now, she felt good.

Really good.

Footnotes:

(1) This is referring to Chromedome who did use mnemosurgeon on MANY bots during the war, including himself.