Starlir's View:
I awoke to a strange beeping noise. Before I could even fully online, a red flash came across my HUD of some numbers before quickly disappearing. That was weird. I thought to myself as I got up. I rubbed my optics and heard the door slide open and hurried footsteps coming towards me.
"Starlit, Ratchet has located the coordinates. We must hurry." Prowl said when he got to me.
"Yeah...I think they kind of flashed in my HUD too." It was strange that they seemed to happen simultaneously.
"We'll question that later." I heard the worry in his tone but there wasn't any time for that.
Everyone was gathered in the main living area, all ready to go, determined to do this quickly and ready to put up a fight. I felt a swell of happiness run through me at the thought that everyone really did care and was willing to help me out. Oh joy, the Autotbots are going on yet another attempt at saving you. You can't win, you know. He will stop you. Shut up. I told the voice.
"Alright, looks like Sideways is just outside the city limits." Optimus reported. While he was going over the plans, I looked at the coordinates on the top left of the screen and noticed something wrong from the ones I had just seen.
"Wait..." I stepped forward and took a better look. I pulled up the numbers that had appeared on my HUD and compared the two.
"What is it?" Bumblebee asked.
"The coordinates are different from the ones I have." I said, pulling up a new screen and putting them into the computer. "There."
"But, that looks like an empty field." Bulkhead stepped forward and took a closer look. "Why would he send you there?"
"So which one is the one we need!?" Bumblebee worried out loud.
"I'm not sure...but...this one seems to be where he's going to be." I couldn't tell them why, but the field was where I wanted to go. You know it's a trap, right? The voice scoffed. And if not, Bulkbrain has a point for once. Why would Sire send us there? I had to agree, it felt if-y but I was drawn to it. "He's there." I said just barely above a whisper.
"Then what's the other one?" Prowl asked me.
"Um...his ship?" I shrugged. I had no clue. "Maybe a decoy?"
"Well, whatever it is, we need to investigate. We'll split into two teams. Bumblebee, Prowl, Starlit and I will head outside of town and find that open area. Bulkhead, you and Ratchet will figure out what the other place is." Optimus called out. "Autotbots, roll out!"
The whole time the voice talked and complained that it didn't have a good view of Bee's bumper. One comment was so bad I did not ever want to think of it again. It had to do with her sick fascination of his bumper and tried to take over so she could nudge against it. She liked to taunt the fact that she knew I liked him and would/could use it against me.
Ugh, you are so slow! More your aft Prime! Thought this was some kind of emergency thing... that was one of the better ones I heard. Thankfully Prime came between us when I got too close.
"I know you're new at this driving thing Starlit, but you need to stay back a bit from other bots." He warned. If only he knew I wasn't my inexperience that was causing it.
"Sorry!" I said, too fast.
"Starlit, what's wrong?" Slag it Prowl! I felt my control slip and she took over again.
"What? Ever heard of..."
"Shut up..." I cut her off, not realizing I had said that out loud.
"Starlit, was that you?" Prowl asked, coming up from behind me.
"No..." I felt defeated.
"Great, it's getting worse." He muttered to himself. "Try your best to keep it under control."
As we got closer to our destination, I had to fight harder to keep her at bay. For some reason she was getting stronger. I told Prowl over our bond something was up. He told me to let him know if it got any worst, and not seconds after that, I lost control.
That hazy feeling came over me, and I was helpless in my own body. She took control and speed past everyone, laughing maniacally as she did.
What are you doing?! I cried.
"Oh hush, daddy dearest is waiting." She was openly talking to herself? What a freak. "I can hear your mean thoughts. I'm not crazy, there is two of us in one body...for now." I didn't want to know what that meant.
We got to where the signal was, beating my friends by quite a bit. Both of us knew Bee would be the first one to get here. Honestly, I was surprised he wasn't already. He was pretty fast.
"There you are..." What looked like a metal disk was laying in the tall grass. Once she picked it up, I could see it had a flashing red light on it, but couldn't figure out what it could be. "This my "sister" will make sure you can't take over again." she took out a plug from the device and plugged it into my/her wrist. The flow of data was over whelming. Information about Decepticons and the set of coordinates that Bulkhead and Ratchet were going! I tried to call but found a bunch of error messages around me. I...I was left as a small data code in my own processor! I couldn't control my body...all I could do was watch from a cage with in my own processor as a horror movie played out in front of me.
"No! Stop this!" I called but my body didn't move or make a sound, not until she laughed.
"I did it...I have control!"
Bumblebee's View:
"Starlit?" I called after her, but she didn't answer. I ignored Prime yelling at me to slow down and wait, I took off after her. She's in trouble, I just know it!
When I got over the ridge, I saw her crouched down on the ground, shaking with her head bowed towards the ground.
"Starlit!" I transformed and ran towards her but stopped about ten feet from her. That's when I heard, not sobs, but laughter. "Star?" I stepped back as she slowly turned and lifted her head.
"Bee...I'm free..." Her voice was wrong, it was like two voices talking at once. One was Star's normal voice while the other was low and sounded like a warped tape being played. Her optics were also both red. Oh slag...
"Gah!" I cried as she suddenly stood and lunged herself at me. I dodged her first attack but wasn't so lucky the second time. The punched my right in the tanks and pinned me on my chassis. "Starlit, stop! This isn't you!"
"But it is me...I'm finally allowed to be the real me. Don't you see, I'm the real Starlit." the smile on her face was the stuff of nightmares. "She was really fond of you, you know. I, on the other hand, am not..." I heard her wrist blades extend and felt the tip of one tickle the back of my neck.
I didn't know what to do. On one hand she was a Con, on the other, she was still my friend. At least...she looked like her anyway. And I knew she was still in there. She couldn't have deleted her entirely just yet. There was no computer around. My spark dropped though when I saw the sun reflect off of something in the grass.
"No...you deleted her?!" I yelled, the other blade was shoved into the ground right in front of my optics. I had made her mad, but not enough to kill me.
"I can't yet...she's currently part of my processor core. Without her I can't intake air or walk...at least until I get decent equipment to work with." Her voice was starting to go back to normal, but a little lower than before. "Besides, I want her to see me shred you to pieces before I let her go."
"Starlit!" Both of us looked too see Prowl and Optimus had arrived. It was hard for me to see them, with the blade and her pushing me into the ground and all, but I could hear them transform and come towards us.
"Wait! It's not her anymore!" I warned, though they could already tell by her optics. I felt more pressure from the blade at my neck. "Ok, easy...why do you want to kill me?"
"Hm...for fun I guess." Star's evil grin was going to be imbedded into my memory for ever. It would be innocent coming from Starlit, but the murderous intent behind it and in her optics right now...
"Let him go." Prime was trying to stay calm but no one really knew what to do.
"Or what? You'll hurt me? You wouldn't do that to a friend." She never took her optics off of me as she spoke. I had to get her off of me, but I needed a distraction.
"You're not our friend!" I shouted. "You're just a...wait what are you?" Was she a bad code, a download or a new data format put into Star's body?
"Let's call it an upgrade and leave it at that..." She raised her blade and was posed to hit me right in between the optics when Prowl grabbed her, looping his arms under hers and locking his hands behind her head.
"Starlit, you have to fight this!" I heard Prowl say as I scrambled to get up.
"She's...not here!" She broke his head lock with a strength I had never seen her use, but she was unable to dodge Prime's grappling hook that wrapped around her, pinning her arms to her body.
"I don't think she's able to get through any more..." I handed the device to Optimus. "She used this on herself."
"It must have held the rest of the data for a complete download." He finished my thought. "Prowl, is there any way to reach her?"
"I can try, but I'm not sure it will work." The ninja bot approached and tried to put his hand on her temple but she lashed out.
"You think you're processor over matter will work?" She scoffed. "This time I have control. She's locked away in here, forced to watch as I destroy you!" She moved her arms as much as she could and got the rope to move just enough to be cut by her blades. Prowl dodged her attack but still wasn't attacking her.
I made up my mind and told myself this wasn't Starlit and attacked her from behind. I used my stingers to try and stun her. It worked but not long enough to do much.
"You..." She grabbed my arm, twisted it behind my back and pointed her blade to my throat. "You die first!" As the blade came close to my energon line, she froze. She seemed stunned by this. "No...I blocked you!" It took me a second to think what she meant but then it clicked.
"Starlit..." I said in shock. "Guess you don't have her under control!" I smirked. "No way was she gonna let a Con take control!"
"Shut it...I can still do this!" She took a hold of my other arm and put her foot on my shoulder struts and pushed hard enough to pop them out of place. The pain was excruciating. My arms felt like they were on fire. She let me fall to the ground and without any way to catch myself, landed pretty hard on my face. "Pathetic..."
She used this to distract the other two and transformed, heading back the way we came.
"Bumblebee!" Optimus called to me as he ran to me. "Prowl, chase after her! I'll get Bee."
I don't think Prime had to tell Prowl what to do. He was already transforming before he called my name.
"This might hurt, but bear with me." He helped me up and popped my right shoulder into place. And I thought it was bad when they were out of place. "Breath Bumblebee. I'm sorry, but this has to be done."
"Does it really though?" I mumbled through the pain. Before I had the chance to talk, he did it to my left side. I fell into his chest, crying out in pain. "Please stop!"
"It's done! It's done..." He tried to console me. "Can you transform?"
"Y-yeah...but I'm not sure I can really fight." My arms were not responding to more than flexing my hands. I even had a warning flashing in my HUD that some of the sensors were completely out of place and couldn't feel the very tips of my fingers.
"That's ok. Hopefully we won't have to fight."
Prowl's view:
I followed her as close as I could without being detected. She seemed to be heading the direction where Ratchet and Prowl were sent. I commed Optimus and relayed this information.
"How close are you?" He asked.
"About twenty minutes away from their location." We seemed to be going into the older parts of the city. "I'll keep you up dated," I hung up and tried to remember what was out here. From what I remembered, it was mostly old factory buildings.
After a while, she stopped in front of one of the old buildings. She transformed and went in through the rusted steal doors. I transformed and tried to find another way in. I found one on the roof. There was a hole where some windows used to be and slipped in. I noticed outside that there was a strange orange glow coming from inside, but now I could see where it was coming from. There were at least six vats of molten iron below me. Sideways must me here.
I leapt down, keeping to the shadows as I did and looked around for any signs of life. Ratchet and Bulkhead should be around here somewhere.
"The slag you want from us any way?" I heard the old medic's voice from down a hall in the far back. I quietly crept up to the opening to listen in.
"It's not me that wants you. It's Megatron. Apparently he wants to make you and your team mates pay for the trouble you caused." My Sire's voice echoes off the walls. Oh no, he caught them. I had to think quickly. I heard footsteps and jumped up to the catwalks above the vats to hid from whoever it was. I would have the advantage from this point.
Ratchet walked out first, hands in the air, followed by Bulkhead and finally my Sire. He had his gun pointed towards them and was marching them up to a boiling vat.
"If I had it my way, you'd be dead by now." He growled.
"Sire, is that any way to treat guests?" My spark sank as Starlit walked out from the hall. Her optics looked blood red in this lighting. She apparently helped capture them.
"Why Starlit? Why are you with him?" Bulkhead sounded angry. Whatever she did had broken the green bots spark.
"I told you, Starlit isn't here." She sighed. "What's it gonna take to get that through you thick head?"
"Now, now my sparkling, they'll be gone soon enough. Now where are the others? I was expecting Prowl to be here by now."
"I ditched those glitches in the forest. Why do you care where Prowl is?" Sire suddenly turned on her, anger written on his face.
"Because you and your brother are mine! No Autobot scum is going to turn my sparklings against me! We're Decepticons through and through! And I'm going to show both of you that it's your true nature." He had her backed up to the edge of one of the vats. She was terrified of him but the reprogramming kept her from trying to get away. For a nano click, I swear I saw her right optic flicker green again. Maybe I could use her fear of him against him.
"Yes Sire..." Starlit said weakly and he backed off.
"I see the program has a bug." He cupped her cheek in a semi affectionate way. "Don't worry, we'll fix that later. For now, what shall we do with them?" The moment he turned his attention away, Starlit had a murderous look aimed toward him. So she didn't like him. What was her motive then?
At that moment, Optimus came in with Bumblebee not far behind.
"You were saying Prime?" I heard Bees snarky comment.
"What good timing." Sideways grinned. Star moved toward them, a smirk on her face.
"Though you were down for the count." She extended her blades. I moved quickly and got there just in time to block her attack. "Prowl..." She growled.
"And here I thought you'd never show." Sire aimed his gun at Bulkhead. "Now then, let's have a chat, shall we?"
Please R&R!