TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED
Re:Animated
Rewrite of 'Grey Matter, Silver Lining'. At the same time as Megatron reawakens, a woman falls to earth and Sari manages to convince her father to let her become her nanny. Emma doesn't talk much, and certainly isn't saying she knows them from a cartoon! But when the All-Spark shatters, it makes her question everything . . .
~Parental Warning~
This chapter contains the following, which may not be suitable for young people:
. Low-level adult themes
Reader discretion is advised.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Learning Curve
When I was gettin' crazy, reckless, and wild,
Actin' like my mama's little devilish child,
It took a heart like yours to find its place . . .
— Kane Brown And Marshmello
Emma's phone was ringing, but she didn't answer it. She was having a great dream … she was Ember again, and she was hanging out with Blurr, Black Ice, and .C.A.T. … four little delinquents when they were younger, but they stopped just short of causing total mayhem … and, of course, when they'd gotten older, they'd fought in the Great War.
Emma was remembering more and more about them.
Black Ice was usually the voice of reason, although he naturally didn't take too kindly to the Decepticons causing so many casualties during the war. He could use a range of ice-based powers in battle, including one where he would freeze a great section of solid ground and then somehow dive through the ice even though it was solid - how he did that, wasn't exactly clear. He could also start to freeze a foe from the inside out, which was as grisly as it was effective.
.C.A.T. was also an effective fighter, although she was known for using whatever she could to be able to get the job done - whether it be her servo-to-servo combat skills … or, her good looks to get a Decepticon to let his guard down and then … said Decepticon would usually end up with his arms and legs missing, wondering what had just happened. And while she could be sarcastic, she was also highly protective of her friends.
Blurr was the fastest of the group, and everybot knew it. They had learned pretty early on to keep up with him, either in battle or in a simple conversation. He did in fact like to slow down and listen, because he liked to get the facts. He could be overconfident at times, and short-tempered if things didn't go his way, but that didn't happen very often - he was just too strong to fall in battle and too fast to get caught.
Ember was the short one with the short fuse, but she was also the leader. And, not just because she had risen to the rank of Prime. It was … unclear to Emma, as to how she had seemed to be the glue that held them all together. She couldn't imagine the group as anything but whole, however, when she observed the dream through the optics of her former self.
But, somehow . . .
Even if Blurr had stayed online, Ember hadn't, and … what had happened to their other two best friends?
The Transformers theme crescendoed, playing right in Emma's ear, and she sat bolt upright, gasping. Fumbling for her phone, she pressed receive and placed the phone against her ear. "Well, someone had better be dying!" She complained. This was the second time that somebody had interrupted one of her memories!
"Someone already has." Captain Fanzone's voice reminded Emma, who gulped.
She then listened silently to what he had to say, before agreeing to come down to the station.
Emma realised that she had overslept, and that nearly everybody had left the base by the time she'd gotten up. Even Capi was gone.
Only Ratchet and Optimus were there, looking at the monitors.
"What's going on?" Emma asked. "Where is everybody?" She walked up to Optimus, and he picked her up and put her on the bench near to the monitor.
"Prowl and Bulkhead have gone to Dino-Bot Island to investigate some sightings about the Dino-Bots rampaging." Optimus explained.
Emma's eyes widened. "What? The Dino-Bots wouldn't do that. True, they're kinda territorial, but, if you leave them alone, then . . . " She shrugged. She'd been with Prowl many times to see the Dino-Bots, and they were always happy to see her, calling her 'pretty organic lady' and listening to her singing. They were just like big, robot puppies.
That breathed fire.
Maybe that was just another reason why she got along so well with them? After all, as Ember she had been able to generate fire.
Ratchet was just putting a communication through to Prowl at that point. "Prowl, any sign of the Dino-Bots?"
Emma looked up, as Prowl's face appeared on a screen. "Negative, Ratchet - I'm starting to think those reports of rampages were nothing more than exaggerations."
"We're not taking any chances, Prowl." Optimus told him. "That's why I had Ratchet lend you his EMP Generator and those stasis cuffs."
"Still, I hardly think that's necessary." Prowl said. "The Dino-Bots are territorial but, if left alone, they're perfectly happy."
As the communications were cut off, and Emma thought about what was going to happen next, she suddenly remembered her phone-call. "Oh, right, can somebody give me a ride somewhere?"
"I'm afraid we have our servos full here at the moment," Optimus told her. "Why? What's wrong?" He added, seeing the troubled look on her face.
"Umm ... I kind of have to go and help in a police investigation ... because ... umm . . . " She stammered, just as the communications came back on.
"Ratchet," Prowl said. "We have a medical situation. A large spike is wedged into Grimlock's foot."
"Oh, poor baby." Emma muttered. "No wonder he was so upset." Like when one fo the dogs gets a prickle in their foot. Except, they'll just lick their foot like crazy, whereas Grimlock is … probably breathing fire.
"Emma?" Prowl hadn't know that she was there.
She nodded her head briefly, smiling a little bit but not really. Her mind was on other things.
"Alright, listen up," Ratchet said. "Set the EMP Gen. to about sixty percent, and adjust the beam to its most narrow focus. Now, give three pulses around the spike ... then yank that sucker out."
There was silence for a moment, as Prowl carried out Ratchet's instructions (with some help from Bulkhead).
Then, when the all-clear was given, Ratchet gave a rare compliment to Prowl. "Nice job, kid - just like a born medi-bot."
"Prowl, I'm so glad you were able to help Grimlock." Emma added, leaning forwards. "You've got a gift!" She smiled.
"Thank you," Prowl said, a slight hint of pride in his voice that none of them missed. He then coughed slightly. "Still, we'll need Sari's key to help fix the damage to Grimlock's foot."
"I'm afraid Sari left with Bumblebee, Capi, Honeybee, and Sky Dancer on an important fact-finding mission this morning," Optimus said. "To some place called ... Five-Banners Rollercoaster Kingdom."
Sari couldn't keep the grin off of her face, and neither could Bumblebee (who was in his holoform).
Down on the ground, the holoforms of Honeybee and Sky Dancer watched as the baskets on The Claw Machine ride rose into the air, and the theme music from Star Wars played.
"Okay!" Honeybee said suddenly. "Next time, I'm going on the ride, and they can hold all the stuff!"
"Hey!" Complained Capi, from her arms.
"She didn't mean that you were 'stuff'," Sky Dancer said peaceably. "She was talking about these fifteen show-bags, Sari's bag with her phone and water bottle, and this thing . . . " She indicated to the giant bear plushie that Bumblebee had won for Sari. "Although, do you understand how the humans made a vicious predator look cute as a plush toy?"
"No," Honeybee shook her head. "But, do you know what they're like as candy?! Come on, let's go and get some before my brother gets off of that ride and eats them all!"
"Oh, right … that contest Sari entered to win a day-pass for four . . . " Emma groaned.
"What about you, Em?" Prowl asked suddenly. "There's a similarity between your powers and Sari's key . . . "
Emma looked up quickly. "Mine aren't that great, but either way, this is really bad timing - I just got a call from Captain Fanzone. He wants me down at the station to help with an investigation on — "
Another communication suddenly came in, and Ultra Magnus's face appeared on another screen. It was a little more static-y than Prowl's transmission, due to the distance between earth and where the Elite Guard flagship was currently in space.
Emma stared up at the screen. It was the first time that she had had any contact with Ultra Magnus after Honeybee's revelation that there was a familial connection between the Autobot supreme commander and Ember Prime.
She still wasn't quite sure what to make of it.
Optimus and Ratchet straightened up a little bit, and Emma adjusted her position to be slightly more lady-like, although she got the sense that Ultra Magnus actually didn't care too much. It was just another indicator to her that there was a connection there.
Ultra Magnus had bad news - about a decacycle ago, Starscream had escaped from the Elite Guard flagship, and it was a high possibility that he was headed back to Earth.
"Why are you only telling us now?" Emma asked before she could stop herself. "Uh, sir?" She added hastily.
Ultra Magnus seemed unaffected by the bluntness of Emma's question. "I would have contacted you sooner but our ship's tachyon transmitter was missing."
Emma cringed.
Megatron was, at that very moment in time, listening to Ultra Magnus's side of the conversation, thanks to the stolen tachyon transmitter from the Elite Guard flagship.
"Now I wonder how that could have happened?" Megatron murmured, somewhat sardonically.
He then heard Ultra Magnus say: "Autobots, your mission has not changed - protect Ember, and the All-Spark."
"You will not be able to protect her once she realises." Megatron mused, and he had to smile at the thought. He then added: "Lugnut, send out a transmission offering a reward to any Decepticon that brings the traitor Starscream, and Ember Prime to me - both online, but Ember must be unharmed."
"Starscream may return to Earth." Prowl was saying to Bulkhead. "We should try to track him!"
The thought of Starscream returning to earth to get the All-Spark made Prowl's energon turn to ice - then he remembered the way Starscream had grabbed Emma, and his energon boiled.
Was this that jealousy thing that Capi had indirectly warned him about last week, when Prowl had not been happy to see Emma working a shift at Mamma Fuyano's with a male co-worker?
'She needs to have friends, Prowl, even male ones. In fact, Jazz was her first male friend since she was in primary school. I mean, you don't have to worry about Sam, either - he's going out with Sophie, and she's not glaring daggers from behind a menu.'
"How?" Bulkhead's voice cut through Prowl's thoughts. "We can't track any of the Decepticons." He reminded Prowl.
"True ... they've managed to mask their energy signatures somehow . . . " Prowl mused, as they approached their ship. "But perhaps Teletran-One's more sensitive scanners would be able to pick up his signals. We could send up a probe from the ship?"
They did so.
"Bulkhead, are you reading what I'm reading?" Prowl suddenly asked.
"Well … what are you reading?" Bulkhead said quickly.
What Prowl was reading turned out to be a faint but clearly All-Spark fragment energy signature, coming from … the moon?
Prowl wanted to take the emergency shuttle and investigate immediately.
"Yeah." Bulkhead agreed. Then: "Wait, you want to do what?!"
"We have stasis cuffs," Prowl pointed out, referring to what the Elite Guard had given them in order to be able to subdue any Decepticons that they came across. "And, an EMP generator. What more do we need?"
"I don't know, how about a little common sense?" Bulkhead suggested. "This is Starscream we're talking about!"
"I suppose you're right." Prowl conceded straight away.
"You suppose?!"
"So, where are you from?" The random teenager asked Sky Dancer, who tried not to make it look like she was edging away from this stranger and his creepy advances.
She dearly wanted to respond with the fact that she was from the north-western district of Cybertron's capital city, Iacon.
Instead, she just muttered that she was from out of town.
The stranger smiled, although Sky Dancer had a feeling that he wasn't actually listening to her. His gaze travelled over to the giant teddy bear, and he said: "Did your boyfriend win you this?"
"Do you wanna see how well I can hit a moving target?" Sky Dancer raised an eyebrow. "Let's walk over there - you go first." She added, which is when Bumblebee appeared and decided to intervene.
"I'm back!" He declared, pointedly squeezing in between Sky Dancer and the random human male. He put his arm across Sky Dancer's shoulders. "Sorry I took so long!" He added.
The random human male scowled slightly, before he dropped his now empty soft drink can, got up, and left quickly.
Bumblebee withdrew his arm, and Sky Dancer leaned down and picked up the soft drink can. She hurtled the can into the crowd and, a second later, the random human male from before could be heard exclaiming: "Ow! What the fu — !" He was drowned out by a group of kids who ran by, laughing and talking loudly.
Sky Dancer turned to Bumblebee like that hadn't just happened, and said: "Thanks for making him leave, Bee, and what took you so long?"
"I stopped to give Capi a bath in a drinking fountain." Bumblebee explained, as the little tapir made himself visible again on Bumblebee's shoulder. "It's a long story." He looked around. "Where're Sari and Honey?"
Sky Dancer pointed wordlessly to a nearby ride, that was shaped like a flying saucer and had a big sign that read Gravitron.
Bumblebee stared at the spinning ride, and tried to imagine what it would be like in there. He couldn't do it, and so when the ride stopped and Sari and Honeybee disembarked and came towards them, he asked them about it.
"Like being inside of a giant washing machine, minus the water." Sari muttered, looking a little bit pale. "Now I get why Em said she felt sick just watching the ride when she was around my age . . . "
"What else did she say about these rides?" Sky Dancer wanted to know.
"Umm . . . " Sari said, as she took a few sips of water. "She said that while the Anaconda Loop Rollercoaster looks fun, you'd never get her to go on the Freefall, but she's always heard nothing beats the Wild Mouse — "
"Is that that thing?!" Honeybee suddenly pointed to a roller coaster with cute cars shaped like purple mice wearing eye masks. "How cute are those cars?!"
"It says Wild Mouse Roller Coaster!" Sari's eyes lit up, and she threw her water bottle back into her bag. "Come on!"
"That was a quick recovery . . . " Capi remarked.
"I gotta admit," Bulkhead said, on the way back up from the ship. "You had me going there, Prowl. But, then I thought, 'hey, it's not your style to do something crazy like go after Starscream all by your — " The unmistakable sound of the emergency shuttle launching cut him off. "Self . . . ?" He couldn't believe it.
Neither could Optimus and Ratchet, who contacted Prowl after the emergency shuttle had exited hyper space.
They tried to convince him to return to Earth, even after he'd proved that his theory was correct.
"What's gotten into you, Prowl?" Optimus asked him. "This isn't like you."
"I've seen it before," Ratchet suddenly said, as he shook his head. "A bot gets a new modification and some praise from a pretty femme, and suddenly he thinks sludge don't stick to his tailpipe."
Prowl was slightly irritated by this, especially at the mention of 'a pretty femme', and so he employed the same tactic that Bumblebee had used when he had disobeyed Optimus back in January, and used fake static to end his transmission.
"Personally, I've always found Bumblebee's fake static to be a lot more convincing." Ratchet shook his head.
Three-hundred eighty-four thousand four-hundred kilometres away, Prowl made his way towards the Nemesis, the wreckage of the Decepticons' warship. He was on the highest alert, but he was also wondering what would happen if he were to capture Starscream single-handedly.
As he passed by the Mare Serenitatis, Prowl briefly indulged in a fantasy about handing Starscream over to the Elite Guard.
'You won't have to worry about Starscream anymore.' The Prowl of the daydream said calmly, and that was when that daydream ended the way a cheesy romance film might - with the pretty girl giving the hero a kiss.
There was no doubt in his mind as to who that pretty girl was. After all, she and Starscream had both mentioned something about having done battle with each other in the past. Prowl temporarily forgot that there had been mention of Emma and Starscream destroying half of the landscape in their battles. In his mind, the situation was that Starscream needed to never go near Emma again.
'You're my hero.' The Emma of the daydream said quietly.
Prowl couldn't help but grin.
It was the distraction of this thought of Prowl's that allowed Starscream to sneak up on him, and Prowl turned around to see a laser gun pointed right at him.
"Looking for someone, Autobot?"
As Starscream fired up the gun, Prowl quickly threw a shurikan, disrupting the laser fire as Starscream cried out in pain. He tore out the shurikan and threw it, and Prowl caught it.
Starscream lunged at him but, in the next to zero-gravity of space, he seemed to be moving in slow-motion. Prowl ducked, and thought: This is what everybody was getting so worked up over? I may have to over-play my capture when I tell Em . . .
Prowl swiftly caught Starscream after that, using the oldest ninja trick in the book . . .
"What?!" Starscream gasped, as he went right through what he had thought was Prowl. "Riiiight … I forgot that little trick of yours — !" He suddenly looked up, but it was too late.
And, with some help from Ratchet's EMP generator . . .
Prowl descended calmly from the ceiling, and Starscream suddenly found himself in stasis cuffs.
Prowl couldn't help but smile at his handiwork … and then he noticed a piece of familiar-looking silver material tied to Starscream's left wrist ... it was Emma's scarf!
What was Starscream doing with it?
Unsure what to make of it, but not wanting to let Starscream keep the scarf, Prowl knelt down to untie it, just as a deep voice said from behind him: "Nice job, kid. But, I'll take it from here."
Prowl turned around, to see the Decepticon bounty-hunter, Lockdown.
Wearing a poncho, for whatever reason.
"Gotta hand it to you, Prowl," Lockdown commented casually. "You've got a gift." His praise did not affect Prowl nearly as much as hearing those same words from Emma had.
Of course, a battle ensued but, still without any real form of gravity, it was like watching a video at half speed.
"Hey, you call this a fight?!" Starscream said at one point. "I'll rust before someone wins - and I'm in a vacuum!"
"Will you keep quiet?!" Prowl and Lockdown both told him in frustration, as Lockdown struggled to overpower Prowl and Prowl struggled to avoid Lockdown's chainsaw-arm weapon.
The battle heated up after that point, but then Lockdown stopped.
"Uh, Prowl . . . " He said, in a strange-sounding voice. "Notice anything … odd?"
Prowl looked. "Where's Starscream?" He asked flatly.
How had Starscream managed to escape?!
"Sari," Sky Dancer tried to sound both diplomatic and sympathetic. "Don't you think you should take a break . . . ?"
"No!" Sari declared, pumping her fist into the air, even as she looked a tiny little bit green from having just ridden the Wild Mouse three times, followed by another trip on the Gravitron, and now she was leading the way towards something called The Ranger. "Wanna know what Em told me?" She asked Sky Dancer.
Sky Dancer eyed The Ranger - two open-top carriages that could fit about fifteen people each were arcing higher and higher in opposite directions, and Sky Dancer had no doubt in her mind that both carriages were going to do a complete 360. "Do I . . . ?"
"She said that her human mum and dad watched her go on that kind of ride and were both in complete and total shock! And, and, she said that her human sister was either on that ride one time and it stopped with one of the carriages upside down or that her sister saw it happen! Either way, I am so in!"
When his ride home was destroyed by Starscream (because, seriously, who else could it have been?), Prowl had precious few seconds to sneak aboard Lockdown's camouflaged ship.
All the while, he was considering his options, and he drew the only possible solution.
He and Lockdown must ... work together?
It didn't seem ideal, but it was the only way. Starscream was heading back to Earth ... which meant that the planet, as well as Emma, were in danger!
Prowl waited until Lockdown had moved his ship into hyperspeed, before he made his presence known to the Decepticon bounty hunter.
Emma, meanwhile, was sitting in the police station, as Fanzone and Mackenzie explained to her that they had managed to get some footage from a camera-bot that had been left behind at the warehouse, which showed both Emma and Prowl there at the time of Scarlet Garcia's murder.
"Murder?" Emma repeated, hoping that she sounded the right amount of shocked and horrified. How was she supposed to find a way to tell them about the Vampires, when even she herself didn't understand it?!
Fanzone glanced at Mackenzie, who hesitated, and then she slid a photograph across the table to Emma.
Emma looked at it for about three seconds, and then she looked up, tears in her eyes now. "Don't you think I'm affected by this?!" She asked angrily, pushing the picture back across the table. "I wore a black armband for eight days before it … never mind," she said hastily, shaking her head and wiping her eyes; she didn't think that Fanzone would appreciate that the armband had been burned by Grimlock by mistake. "Okay, this is terrible!" She reminded the two police officers.
Fanzone sighed. "You're right, it is - so, why haven't you come in sooner?"
Emma didn't say anything.
"We've got a lady with her blood drained," Fanzone went on. "And, right now, our only leads are you and Prowl, and he's ... well, wherever he is right now."
"Tracking down a Decepticon by using a scanner that detects the unique All-Spark energy signature that is keeping Starscream online." Emma said promptly.
Fanzone face-palmed. "This is why I hate machines!" He groaned. "Look, you got Prowl to stop, and then the two of you were looking at something right before the camera-bot gave up. Anything ...unusualhappen, after that point?"
Emma gulped, and kept silent, knowing that she was giving herself away by not saying anything.
Fanzone glanced at Mackenzie again.
She handed him the folder that she had gotten Scarlet's picture out of, and Fanzone opened the folder.
"Take a look at this." Emma couldn't help but look. The picture was of a woman with brown hair and green eyes. her skin was pale, and there was blood surrounding her.
The blood wasn't why Emma flinched, though, but she had enough sense not to speak at that point.
"This is a picture of local DJ named Melody. She was found this way a few weeks ago." Fanzone explained.
"This isn't the first time that this sort of thing has happened, either." Mackenzie added, sounding slightly hollow.
Emma looked up at her. "I - I know . . . " She said quietly. her voice shook. "I was at the library the day before it burned down," she watched as the two police officers exchanged a glance, and cringed slightly. "And I … I was reading some of the archives and taking photos of them … I - I know what happened to your daughter, Officer Mackenzie."
The police officer's face gave away nothing. Emma could sense her sadness, though.
Which was a part of the reason why she said: "I ... think I know what's happening . . . "
Fanzone and Mackenzie waited, as Emma reached into her pocket and pulled out a thumb drive. "I - I was accidentally recording on my phone … I mean, I tried to turn the light on and started f-filming … I made a copy of the recording, here . . . " She handed it to them.
Mackenzie got up and left the room briefly, before she came back with a laptop computer.
She plugged the thumb drive in, and she and Fanzone watched the video.
Their expressions were both unreadable, right up until the one point where neither one of them could disguise their shock.
"Vampire." The Emma on the video said.
"What — ?!" Fanzone and Mackenzie both cried, as they watched the Vampire Transformer attack on screen.
Mackenzie then looked up quickly at Emma, even as Fanzone slid the computer closer to him and stared at the screen.
"What happened after you stopped recording?" Fanzone asked Emma suddenly.
"We would have been in trouble had … well, we had some help . . . " Emma explained, not exactly wanting to say that the help had come in the form of Soundwave (and his Caseticon, Ravage) - Sari had freaked out when they'd told her, and Bulkhead hadn't believed them until Capi had reminded him that Soundwave had said that Emma should be kept alive.
"This is why I hate machines!" Fanzone muttered. He then looked at Emma, and said: "Have you ... told your Autobot friends about this?"
Emma nodded. "They weren't there, though. Prowl and I are the only Autobots who did."
Mackenzie glanced sharply at her, but said nothing, and Emma knew that the seasoned police officer had picked up on the fact that the term 'Autobot' had been used.
Fanzone closed the lid of the computer, and then yanked out the thumb drive without ejecting it properly. "Great. Just great. So, now we've got Vampire bots running around after dark, and killing innocent women? My daughter's due back home in a few months - what am I supposed to tell her and my Missus?"
"How are Flora and Fuchsia doing, anyway?" Emma asked him.
"Eh, same as usual." Fanzone waved dismissively.
"I - I can understand why you're worried, though." Emma realised. "There wasn't one male mentioned in the archives … th-they've all been females . . . " Why, though . . . ?
"Yeah, I noticed." Fanzone seemed to be getting quite unnerved with the direction that the conversation was headed, and Emma thought that he must be very protective of women, which warmed her to him even more. "Alright, since Prowl was the only other one of your friends who was there, I'd like to get him in here and question him, too. Can you tell him I'll be in touch, soon?"
Emma nodded. "I've got a pretty good idea of where he might be right now?"
"Which is where?"
"The moon."
Fanzone rolled his eyes. "Oh, perfect - let's just get a space shuttle and head up there right now!"
Mackenzie gave him a Look. "You're free to go, by the way." She told Emma. "Be careful, and be in touch soon."
"I will." Emma nodded, standing up and getting out her phone, which she hit Prowl's speed dial number on. "And, Captain Fanzone, there's no need for a space shuttle - Prowl's on his way." She walked towards the door. "Hello? Prowl? Where are you?"
They heard Prowl's voice over the phone, saying that he'd just gotten back to Earth and was nearby.
"See you soon." Emma said, and then hung up.
"How did she know that?" Fanzone asked Mackenzie.
They watched as the police-bot on the other side of the door opened it for Emma, without her having to request it or anything. "Thank you." Emma said.
"How does she do that?" Fanzone wanted to know.
Mackenzie just shrugged.
Emma hurried towards the location Prowl had given her, walking along the footpath on the freeway.
She was hurrying because she knew that she was running out of time to tell Prowl about the fact that Lockdown had been teaching her self-defence - with all that had been happening recently, she had actually forgotten about Lockdown, but she had a feeling that he hadn't forgotten about her.
Emma suddenly stopped, when the small ball of light appeared over her chest.
It disappeared again in an instant, but Emma felt compelled to look to her left.
Starscream?
No ... it wasn't him. Starscream was more of a pink colour than this purple bot, and this one was hiding behind a pylon when he saw her ... it was one of Starscream's clones!
Emma stared at him, surprised by how easily she was able to hold his gaze.
He seemed surprised too, until . . .
"It is you! Oh, thank goodness you're here!" The clone cried, before he flinched suddenly. "P-please don't hurt me, though . . . "
Emma glanced down at herself, a small human body wearing a short black skirt with grey stockings, a grey t-shirt with pink edges, black ankle boots, and two leather bracelets on her right wrist. She glanced back up at the clone.
"I — " She began, and the clone yelped and hid behind the pylon. Emma sighed. "Calm down, calm down." She said, feeling like the live-action movie version of Ratchet. The Starscream clone peered out at her. "There," Emma said, in a soft voice. "We're fine now." Or, are we . . . ?
They both suddenly heard vehicles approaching. The Starscream clone gasped, and Emma turned to see a familiar scary-looking muscle car and a familiar motorcycle with an unfamiliar sidecar. They both transformed, revealing themselves to of course be Lockdown and Prowl.
"No!" The clone yelled. "No! Please! Leave me alone!" He trembled, and crouched down, placing himself behind a startled Emma in the spur of the moment.
"Don't hide behind a femme." Prowl and Lockdown said in unison.
Emma sighed. She was also looking at Prowl, a bit breathless all of a sudden from seeing him in his full samurai-gear, even though she knew that he wasn't quite ready to wear it yet.
She then glanced at Lockdown, and flinched, knowing that her time to tell Prowl the truth was almost gone.
Lockdown, however, seemed totally calm about the situation, and he sounded rather casual when he remarked that the mech who was cowering behind Emma sure didn't seem like the Starscream he knew.
The clone in question, meanwhile, decided to seize the opportunity and escape into the skies. Prowl, of course, went after him, using his new jump-jet boosters, which he claimed to be 'nice'.
As this was going on, Lockdown and Emma watched in silence, until Lockdown said: "Did you miss me?"
Emma rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, I've been practicing." She told him.
He chuckled. "Good."He then grabbed Emma and transformed, throwing her inside of his alt mode as he took off after Prowl and the clone.
Emma looked at the extremely scary interior, that she had never been in before, and then calmly took out her phone and turned the music on, because the silence was going to drive her insane.
She and Lockdown followed after Prowl, listening to Fear by Disturbed.
"You got good taste in music." Lockdown told her appreciatively.
"Thanks. You should've seen me and my dad at the band's concert over a hundred years ago." Emma shrugged.
Lockdown didn't get a chance to comment on this, as they had just arrived to where Prowl had taken down the clone, and he transformed.
He held Emma in one hand, although he still managed to put a pair of proper stasis cuffs on the clone, and then he made a call.
"Lockdown to Megatron."
Prowl gasped. "You ... you're working for Megatron?!"
"Who do you think issued that bounty?" Lockdown asked him. "Autobots?"
"Lockdown," Megatron said, from the holographic communication from Lockdown's wrist. "I should have known you'd be going after Starscream … and . . . "
Emma unlocked her jaw. "You placed a bounty on Starscream's head instead of actually going after him yourself?!" She yelled. "This is low even for you — !"
She was cut off suddenly by two things - one was what appeared to be a piece of duct-tape over her mouth, and the other was a pair of human-sized stasis cuffs, much to her horror.
"I hope you're ready to fork over that bounty." Lockdown told Megatron. "Cause' I got both of them right here."
Wait … there's a bounty on my head?! Emma thought, her eyes widening now.
"Where can we meet?" Megatron wanted to know.
"There's a big abandoned warehouse in old Detroit, I like," Lockdown told him. "I'm sending the coordinates now."
The clone came back online, and whimpered: "Don't take us to Megatron, please, anything but Megatron . . . "
"Don't worry," Prowl said firmly, the EMP generator pointed straight at Lockdown from behind him. "You're not going to Megatron ... neither is Em . . . "
Lockdown activated a rope attack from his right wrist, and succeeded in tying Prowl up by surprise. As Prowl was rendered helpless, Lockdown turned to face him. "Yeah, they are ... Megatron pays way better than the Elite Guard." He held up Emma. "And, this little lady's got one of the highest bounties in the universe . . . " He glanced at Emma, who was glaring at him and trying to get her stasis cuffs off. "I'm glad I never taught you how to break free from those - that was probably gonna be our next lesson, though." He added, and then he looked back at Prowl. "Soon as I get back with my reward, you and I are gonna have a little spark-to-spark . . . "
Prowl looked up in shock, as Lockdown tied a chain to the Starscream's back legs and then attached it to his bumper - he then transformed and threw Emma inside his alt. mode, but not before she was able to look at Prowl.
Her eyes were wide with horror, and Prowl thought about everything that had just been said, as Lockdown drove off.
"No …Em!"
Emma was numb with shock by the time that they reached the warehouse, as Lockdown held onto her and handed the clone over to Megatron, who was there with Blitzwing and Lugnut.
"So, Starscream, the traitor ... it has a nice ring to it..." Megatron said.
Emma began struggling then, and Lockdown tightened his grip on her.
Megatron looked at them. "And, Ember ... how nice to see you again . . . "
Emma tried to portray all of what she was feeling into one single look at she met Megatron's gaze, but she wasn't sure if she was successful or not.
She tried to imagine what Prowl and the others were doing … had they caught up with the other clone yet? Had Prowl figured out what Lockdown had been talking about, and did he now hate Emma for not telling him?
For whatever reason, Emma suddenly locked gazes with the Starscream clone, and a strange feeling of calm washed over her … or, was it because of . . . ?
There was a small sound from behind him and, to everybody's shock, Prowl was there - his new gear from Lockdown had made stealth much more difficult for him.
With his cover blown, he jumped down and prepared to attack, despite Lockdown's warnings.
Prowl's gaze was fixed on Emma. Her hazel eyes were wide, and he hated the way she was gagged and cuffed like this.
He watched as she began struggling again.
Just then, there was the sound of sirens, and Optimus and Ratchet crashed through the walls.
Prowl was still holding a shuriken at the ready, but Lockdown was immediately prepared to attack with his right hook-hand if he had to.
Optimus transformed to hold his battle axe in one hand, and Ratchet transformed and had his electro-magnetic pincers at the ready.
Blitzwing immediately lowered his cannons into their battle-ready position, and Lugnut was … probably just as ready as any of them to battle, in this Mexican stand-off between Autobots and Decepticons.
"Let them go, Megatron!" Optimus said.
Emma struggled again.
Lockdown suddenly sighed and, tightening his grip on Emma, he said: "If you bots don't mind, I'm going to take my bounty and run — "
"Silence, fool!" Megatron retorted. He glanced quickly at Emma, who was still struggling, and realised that Lockdown may have been rethinking handing her over, which Megatron would deal with if he had to. "Now then, I — "
Just then, Bulkhead came in through the hole in the wall, carrying on his back ... another Starscream?!
This one was beige and orange, which Prowl hadn't been able to see back up there on the moon.
Bulkhead transformed, holding up the cream and orange clone in front of him.
"What in the name of the All-Spark?!" Megatron cried.
Emma was still struggling, although now she had decided to work on the duct tape over her mouth instead.
Lockdown was too distracted to notice this, as he backed away with Emma still held tightly in his left hand.
"Okay," he said slowly. "You folks look like maybe you want to discuss this, and, uh, maybe we'd just be in the way . . . "
He froze, suddenly, when a black and purple femme bot suddenly made herself visible to stand close enough to him to be able to strike.
"Uh-uh-uh." Clear Air Turbulance said warningly, her violet optics trained on Emma. To Lockdown, she added: "Hand her over, bounty hunter!"
"No one leaves," Megatron added. "Until I find out … which one is the real Starscream!"
And, that was when Emma finally succeeded in getting the duct tape off, and she cried: "Don't you realise that Starscream has been wanting to take you offline for a lot longer than you have wanted him captured?! Neither of them is the real Starscream! It's a trap!"
Two small balls of light, both containing All-Spark fragments, suddenly shot out of both of the clones, and straight over to Emma where they were not only absorbed into her wrists and broke the stasis cuffs, but they allowed her to transform into Ember.
In a flash of gold she had broken free of Lockdown and leapt across the room, to stand next to Prowl.
A small moment of silence followed this, and then Pira appeared by Clear Air Turbulance's left shoulder and said: "I know the situation's not looking good for us, but you gotta admit that was pretty cool."
"Mmm." Clear Air Turbulance nodded, unable to tear her optics away from the gold, red, and black femme who was standing beside the black cyber-ninja.
Megatron, Blitzwing, Lugnut, and Lockdown were also staring at her, seeing her in this form for the first time in millions of years . . .
Clear Air Turbulance then narrowed her optics. There was something … odd … about the way that Ember was standing with that cyber-ninja … something synchronised … but . . .
Just then, the clones' built-in-time-bombs were activated, and Starscream's voice said, from somewhere: "I've come to expect nothing less than such brilliant deductions from such a bright little fireball! I allowed these fools to capture my clones to fulfill my plans to eliminate them - particularly that Megafool! You, however, Ember, have your built-in shield to protect yourself from such an attack, so afterwards I will come to reclaim you! And, Megatron, there's nothing you can do about any of this, you pompous fool!" Starscream laughed.
"I think not!" Megatron was furious. "Traitor!" He added, as he blasted a hole in the ceiling to escape through. He briefly considered taking Ember with him, but decided against it, considering the Autobots and the fact that, as Ember was in her Cybertronian form, she was very likely to try and burn a hole in his chest plate like the first time they'd met. She would be fine - she had her shield. "Decepticons! Transform and rise up!"
Blitzwing, Lugnut, and Clear Air Turbulence all followed his lead and transformed immediately; Emma caught a glimpse of Pira watching her from the cockpit of Clear Air Turbulance's cockpit, before the Decepticons left.
"What are we gonna do?!" Emma then asked, as she looked back down and then over at the two clones - she sensed no life-force from them anymore, which was really weird.
"Ah, shouldn't we be going, too?" Bulkhead pointed out, as they watched Emma suddenly transform back into her human form; she looked surprised that it had happened.
"These bombs could destroy half the city!" Optimus replied. "We have to stop them!"
Prowl then came up with an idea to remove the explosion, by using his new mods to rocket the clones and their time-bombs high up enough into the sky, where they would detonate (hopefully) harmlessly. He set it up swiftly, knowing that they had few precious seconds, and then yelled: "Take cover!" He grabbed Emma and shielded her from the power of the rocket, even though he probably didn't have to - it was just an instinct.
The rocket carried the clones into the sky where their bombs were detonated.
The explosion caused car alarms to go off, and dogs to start barking, but at least the city was safe.
As the shockwave approached the fleeing Decepticons, the mechs watched as Pira Transwarped herself and Clear Air Turbulance to safety.
"Vhy do femmes alvays stick togezer?!" Hothead-Blitzwing complained.
"It's the first rule of the Femme Code, or so Strika once said!" Lugnut responded, as the shockwave reached them. "Also, there's something relating to it in rule six!"
The Autobots went outside.
"Thanks, you guys." Emma said gratefully, looking up at them all. "Guess I wasn't much help, as usual ... but, what happened to Lockdown?"
As the others were commenting that Lockdown had escaped, Prowl received a call.
"What do you want, Lockdown?" He asked, irritated.
"How about that spark-to-spark now, kid? I'm kinda thinking, you and I are like kindred spirits, you know?" Lockdown's voice said.
"You are NOT!" Emma said angrily.
Prowl had to smile. "Em's right." He told Lockdown. "Playing with your toys may have been fun but, in the end, it just wasn't me."
"Well, that's too bad . . . " Lockdown said. "But, what about you, Em?"
Emma's mouth was dry, and she knew that Optimus, Ratchet, and Bulkhead were going to be wondering what Lockdown was talking about. It was time to come clean. "Yes, well . . . " She said, as Prowl lifted her up so that she wouldn't have to yell. "Thank you for not running me down last year, and for teaching me self-defence that has saved me and my charge on quite a few occasions. But, I believe that I have learned all that I can from you, Lockdown."
"You don't wanna continue your lessons?" Lockdown asked her.
"You were going to hand me over to
Megatron!" Emma snapped. "That's not exactly very teacherly!"
"From where I was standing, you only escaped because of the All-Spark fragments." Lockdown suddenly said. "What would you have done if they hadn't been there for you?"
Emma didn't say anything, and the others noticed when she looked down at her hands.
"There's still a lot more that you need to know." Lockdown reminded her.
But, Prowl spoke up again, just then. "You don't have to worry about that, Lockdown."
"Oh yeah?" Lockdown said. "Tell me why not."
"Because she has a new teacher." Prowl said firmly.
"Who?"
"Me."
Lockdown chuckled, slightly. "Well, isn't that gonna be interesting . . . " He commented casually.
"I'm looking forward to it." Emma and Prowl said in unison.
Emma then ducked her head in embarrassment.
Prowl addressed Lockdown again, but now his tone had changed. "Do not contact us again. Unless you have a strong desire to be captured and turned over to the Elite Guard."
He cut out the communication, and then placed Emma on his shoulder so that he could hand the EMP generator back to Ratchet. "Thank you for lending me this. However ... I don't believe I'll be needing it again."
Ratchet took his EMP generator back, nodding and smiling slightly.
"Prowl?" Emma ventured. "Did you … really mean what you said?"
"Yes," Prowl replied. "Only … I have a feeling that I might learn a thing or two from you, as well . . . "
Emma smiled. "Well, isn't that worth looking forward to, as well?" She paused. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you guys about Lockdown … I only realised after a few weeks, and by then I was happy enough with the arrangement that — " She broke off suddenly.
"What is it?" Bulkhead asked her.
"I found out . . . " Emma said quietly. Her lips felt numb, all of a sudden, and there was a strange knot in her stomach. "When we were approached one evening by … an unfamiliar Transformer … that's when Lockdown moved our lessons to the daytime, and that's because … I am positive that that Transformer was a Vampire … like the one that killed Scarlet Garcia . . . "
The others were shocked.
"Wait . . . " Bulkhead said. "You think Lockdown was protecting you from that?"
Emma shrugged. "I … I don't know … it seems strange that he was ready to hand me over to Megatron, but then again … the Vampires are different to the Decepticons … you should hear Soundwave talk about them … and … recently, I've gotten some memories back where I'll fighting against a Decepticon, and then the next minute we're having to temporarily team up because of a Vampire . . . "
Prowl didn't exactly like the sound of that, for multiple reasons.
"Was Lockdown ever one of those Decepticons?" Optimus asked Emma.
"I haven't seen him in any of the memories thus far . . . " Emma said slowly. "But … I've realised that anybot who had ever met me before seems to recognise me even when I'm like this . . . " She gestured down to herself. "Lockdown did, I'm sure of it, so … him being a bounty hunter, he's no doubt run into the Vampire kind before . . . " She seemed troubled, but then she shook her head quickly. "But, no matter! Prowl was there when Soundwave took out that one Vampire, he saw what to do. And, I've had plenty of dreams and memories about fighting Vampires. So, I'm sure that we can figure out how to instruct you fellas on what to do if you ever come across a Vampire!"
"I sincerely hope that we don't." Ratchet said firmly, crossing his arms.
"I'll second that." Optimus agreed. "Still, we should all learn what to do, in the … hopefully unlikely event of a Vampire encounter."
"Hey . . . " Bulkhead suddenly said. "Is it … like in the old stories?" Emma and Prowl both looked at him. "Where if you get bitten by a Vampire then you become a Vampire?"
Prowl nodded.
"Can't you stop it once it's started?" Bulkhead wondered.
Emma shrugged.
"Like … what if … you cut the venom out before it spreads?" Bulkhead went on.
"Who in their right mind would be able to do that?!" Ratchet told him crossly. "Maybe we should start by separating our fact from our fiction?!"
In the control room of the Nemesis, Starscream sat in a chair, watching Megatron put out a transmission to all Decepticons telling them that he was raising Starscream's bounty (not as high as Ember's, but still an almost astronomical amount) … so long as they got the real Starscream! He didn't mention anything about Ember, however, but it was reasonable to assume that her bounty was still very much active.
Starscream had Emma's scarf in one hand, which kept him calm although he still yelled that he would get his revenge on Megatron, and ... he had plenty of clones to spare … clones that, like him, seemed to be able to pinpoint roughly where Starscream's spark partner was . . .