Chapter Seventeen:
Meanwhile…
"Pyrus? Pyrus!" Ratchet yelled at the screen, "What's going on in there!?"
Sari flew into a panic, "What happened?! Are they okay!?"
Before he could answer, everything turned red. All of the screens. The overhead lights. Even Pyrus' holo tube and monitors filled with the eerie red light. Sari could feel the chills running up and down her spine. She could feel her hair stand up on edge as the air filled with static electricity. Sparks arced across any available wire or metal. They traveled down the wires that were connected to Optimus and Prowl. Their bodies twisted and contorted in pain as the surge of energy filled them. Ratchet tried to run over to them, but a bolt of red electricity shot him back. Sari let out a gasp as tears began to run down her face. The horrors only continued as she realized that the surge was heading for Pyrus. Her mind was telling her to hit the ejection button, but her feet were rooted to the ground. She watched as the red electricity filled Pyrus' holotube. Her body convulsed and twitched and though she was in obvious pain, she refused to scream.
"Cerberus! Activate Lockdown Protocols," Pyrus ordered through clenched teeth, "Do NOT let Hydra gain control! Isolate systems!"
With her final words, Pyrus' body went completely limp.
"PYRUS!" Sari ran over to the holotube, but she ran into a solid wall, "PYRUS!" she started to bang on the tube, "Can you hear me?!"
There was no movement from inside.
'No…," Sari backed away in fear.
Her waking nightmare only continued as a serpent-like head emerged from the holotube. It took notice of Sari and let out loud hiss. It opened its massive jaws and shot towards Sari. All she could do was stare in horror as the data based beast closed it. Just as it was about to reach her, a pair of feral looking dog heads pushed out of the tube. They latched onto the serpent's head and viciously ripped it apart. As they tore it to shreds, the red started to retreat and was replaced with the usual jade green. With one final crunch, the serpent fell into fading bits of data. Every screen began to glow with the green light.
"Cerberus?" Sari cautiously asked the two dog heads, "Thank you," she patted them on the head.
For a moment it seemed to recognize Sari, but couldn't process a reaction.
Sari understood, "You have to help Pyrus and the others! Do whatever you can! I know you can do it!"
The pair of dog heads nodded their heads and merged back into the holotube. Sari tried to reach through the tube, but it was still in a solid state. All she wanted to do was check on Pyrus. Maybe Cerberus could read her mind because a monitor appeared with Pyrus' vitals. They were elevated, but still within normal levels. A similar screen popped up with Optimus and Prowl's vitals. Elevated, but well within acceptable parameters.
"Thank the Allspark Pyrus set up the secondary defense protocols," Ratchet rubbed his head, "But I need to know what's going on in there," he headed for his console.
He tried to enter in a few commands, but nothing was responding to him.
"Slag! I'm locked out!" Ratchet slammed his fist on the console.
"What do you mean you're locked out!?" Sari yelled.
"I mean what I mean! Cerberus has locked everything so Hydra can't spread," Ratchet tried a few other commands, "But that means that I can't see what's happening in there nor can I do anything to help them… I can't even activate the ejection system… They are on their own in there," he said in a grave tone.
"Oh no…," Sari understood that everything was falling apart.
Tears began to fall from her eyes as the feeling of hopelessness filled her heart. Things were uncertain now. Optimus, Prowl and Pyrus were stuck in a virtual setting inside of Bumblebee. And there was no way to get them out. There might not even be a way to save Bumblebee at this point. It was all going so wrong.
"No… please no… no…," Sari began to openly cry.
She didn't notice that the Allspark key had started to glow.