Chapter Seventy-Two

Puppet Master

Unknown the Starscream, a few miles away and hidden behind some icy caverns, a ground bridge opened in the Glacier and Optimus, Ironhide, Bulkhead and Arcee walked out and began to stroll towards where the Nemesis was given the co-ordinates Ratchet provided them.

In fact as they arrived, they were amazed to see several icicles dripping as well as some rather strong heat coming from a few miles ahead.

"A lot different from out last polar visit!" Arcee commented "Feels like summer!"

"You're darn tootin' lass!" Ironhide said as he looked around to see the ice was dripping on the caverns "Even though one couldn't sunbathe here, you can tell its warmer here than last time!"

Bulkhead lead the way behind one corner of the caverns, and he looked out before ducking back in.

"What is it?" Arcee asked to which Bulkhead pointed and everyone peeked from behind the cavern to see the Nemesis hovering high in the air and Starscream at the rear with the telescope lens burning the sun rays down on the ice and melting it.

"Here, that's a bad thing!" Bulkhead muttered as he remembered what Fowler had said about the ice melting and making the seas rise.

Optimus looked up at the ship and glared behind his battle mask and he thought again about the Hamato Clan and that their home city as well as their friends' home in Chicago as at risk and he needed to think of a plan to stop Starscream's actions.

"Autobots." He said getting their attention and they all looked up at him.

"Remember the End Run on Polyhex?"

Ironhide smirked as he remembered.

"I sure do Prime!" he said.

"Likewise." Bulkhead agreed and Arcee nodded.

"Let's do it." Ironhide said wink a wink and a punch into his palm.

Back at the base, the girls were sitting at the feet of Bumblebee as he was in Power down.

Kemeko was reading an excerpt from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' to Bumblebee, yet Ratchet shook his head as he looked over.

He had explained to them that Bumblebee couldn't hear them in power down mode, but Leonardo had told the medic just to leave them be.

"If we Shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended, that you have been slumbered here, while these visons did appear, and this weak idle theme, no more yielding but a dream, gentles do not reprehend, if you pardon, we shall mend." Kemeko read to Bumblebee who stood there in power down and Pandora sighed.

"There's almost a connection in the speech you just said with what Bee's going through." The hybrid said, "Yet it's not fantasy and farce, but something really bad."

Kemeko agreed.

"I do hope this power down will help him." The Asian girl sighed looking at her book and putting it down.

The grown-ups watched them and felt rather sorry for them.

"I do hope Bumblebee's gonna be okay." Michelangelo said in a worried tone "For the girls sake anyway, given how close they are."

"Me too." Monalisa agreed as she observed "yet if it is something that a power down can't be fixed, what then?"

Donatello opened his mouth but closed it again like a fish as he wasn't sure, and he turned to Ratchet who was looking at the infuser that Bumblebee had broken earlier.

He was about to call over to the medic when Leonardo's shell cell rang.

Almost the whole Hamato Clan jumped when they heard the ring, and they turned to their leader.

"It's Tyroth." Leonardo answered them.

"Has he told the Knights?" Monalisa asked.

"Oh boy, what's Kate gonna say?" Michelangelo cried "I hope she doesn't hate me for keeping secrets!"

"Calm down Mike!" Donatello said, "I'm sure she won't as you've been under strict orders not to say anything!"

Ratchet looked over as he heard the Hamato Clan.

"Is that your Dragon friend?" he asked.

Leonardo nodded and looked to see a text message.

"Can we Skype ASAP please?" it said, "I have spoken to the Knights and Old George."

"He wants a conference." Leonardo reported.

"Then we must get in touch right away." Splinter advised.

Raphael turned to the girls and called to them.

"Pandora? Kemeko?"

The girls who were both sitting wondering what else they could do to pass the time till Bumblebee awoke looked up at Raphael.

"Girls!" Raphael called down "Stay there alright? We're going into the Living quarters to take this Skype Call!"

"Okay dad!" Pandora replied.
"Yes Uncle Raph!" Kemeko agreed.

"Ratchet?" Monalisa said "Keep an eye on them, will you?"

Ratchet grumbled a little that he had to watch over the hybrid and Asian girl, but he agreed to do so whilst they kept their vigil at Bumblebee's side.

"Will do Monalisa." He said with a nod to which Monalisa smiled at him in thanks and she along with the turtles and their Rat sensei went to the living quarters down the hall to make the skype call to Tyroth.

After the Hamato Clan left, Ratchet worked on his screens for a bit then picked up the infuser before turning to Pandora and Kemeko.

"Girls?"

He got their attention and they both looked up at him.
"I'm going to the supply vault to see if I can find parts to repair this." He held up the infuser.

"You know what that means?" he asked looking sideways at them.

"Don't touch anything." Pandora replied and nodded.

"Gotcha!" Kemeko agreed.

Ratchet nodded at the two girls then turned away to walk into another part of the silo.

Watching the medic leave, Pandora sighed.

"Looks like it's just you and me Kem." She said then looked up at Bumblebee.

As she did, a whirring sound was heard, and Bumblebee's eyes lit up.

"Huh?" she cried in shock then quickly pulled Kemeko away as Bumblebee awoke and stepped off the berth.

Kemeko was alarmed as Pandora pulled her up and she looked to see the yellow scout walk away from the berth.

"Bee?" she gasped as she saw him walk over to Ratchet's computers.

"Bee? Wait!" Pandora cried "What are you doing?"

Yet the scout didn't answer but rather logged into the computer system and started to type in some co-ordinates then he activated the Ground-Bridge and silently as it roared to life, he walked through it.

"Bee!" the girls shouted and started to run after him, yet they stopped as they contemplated whether to run after the scout or go and warn their family or Ratchet.

They almost considered the latter when they heard Ratchet's footsteps behind them.

"Girls?" he gasped, and the hybrid and human girl turned around to face the medic.

"What did you do?" he demanded ready to reprimand them for disobeying him about touching something, but Pandora was quick to defend.

"Nothing!" she shouted, "Bumblebee just got up and..."

"He was in Power down!" Ratchet exclaimed in disbelief "Where does he think he's off to?"

"I don't know!" Kemeko cried in stress.

Meanwhile, Bumblebee had commanded the Ground Bridge to take him to the place where Optimus, Ironhide and Ratchet had battled Megatron a few weeks back where the Warlord had used dark energon to raise an army of the dead to attack them.

As the possessed scout arrived, he walked amongst a silent graveyard of broken down cybertronian corpses, showing evidence of a battle that took place not so long ago.

"Where is it? Where?"

Megatron's voice was heard within Bumblebee's head as he looked around using the Autobot Scout to search what he was looking for.

A flash back soon appeared in the scout's head and he saw Megatron hold up a glowing purple shard which he threw down to the earth and it disappeared deep down before splitting the earth in purple glowing craters.

Returning to reality, the scout looked over to see a spot in the ground that was glowing and he walked over to it.

As he approached, he saw it was a glowing purple crystal sticking out of the ground and he grabbed it before wrenching it out of the earth.

"Yes...There it is..."

Back at the base, Ratchet looked at his screens and he saw the last entry of co-ordinates that Bumblebee had typed in.

As he studied it, Pandora and Kemeko watched with worry.

"Where did he go Ratchet?" Kemeko asked in a scared voice.

Ratchet frowned then looked worried.

"These are the previous co-ordinates for the site of our previous battle with Megatron's undead!"

The two girls looked up in worry.

"Maybe we should call Optimus?" Pandora suggested.

"Optimus is busy preventing a polar ice cap from melting." Ratchet replied, "We need to handle this on our own." He added gravely.

"What?" Kemeko asked in shock, yet Ratchet activated the Ground-Bridge to the last co-ordinates and the bridge roared to life.

The Medic turned to walk towards it, yet as he did, Bumblebee soon appeared and walked into the base.

Ratchet stopped in his tracks as he stared at the scout.

"Bumblebee?" he asked in confusion "What have you been doing?"

The girls also looked over and they both saw the purple shard in the scout's hand.

"Hey! What's that?" Pandora cried pointing out the shard.

Ratchet looked down and he too saw the shard and looked up at Bumblebee before grabbing his wrist.

"Dark energon?" he asked in alarm, yet he didn't have a chance to do or say anything else before Bumblebee lifted his fist and punched the medic hard in the face and sending him flying into the raised platform!

Pandora and Kemeko cried out in shock and fell backwards yet Kemeko regained her balance and looked up at the yellow scout.

"Bee!" she demanded "What are you doing?!"

She stared in horror as Bumblebee walked over to the raised platform and reached out to her and Pandora.

The hybrid jumped up, yet she didn't have a chance to scream or reach for her weapons before the scout grabbed her and her cousin and held them in his servos.

"No!" she cried.

Looking at the Autobot, they could see a dead look in his optics, almost like they didn't belong to him, and it terrified them.

"Bee!" they screamed "Bee!"

Yet Bumblebee paid no attention as he walked over to an air vent that was high above the ground as well as far away from any place they could jump to safely.

"Bumblebee please!" Kemeko wailed "I know you're in there!"

"Let go!" Pandora shouted "Let go Bee! Snap out of it, God damn it!"

Both girls gasped as they were dropped on the vent and Bumblebee turned away from them and towards the ground bridge that was still open.

"Bee!" Kemeko screamed "You have to fight whatever's making you do this!"

But again, Bumblebee paid no attention to the human Asian Girl's cries as he ran through the ground bridge and vanished.

"No! Fuck!" Pandora shouted then she heard a grunt and saw Ratchet shaking off stars and getting to his feet.

"Ratchet!" she shouted.

"Are you okay?" Kemeko asked.

"I'm fine." Ratchet groaned as he stumbled over to the vent.

"More importantly, is Bumblebee, I fear the time spent in Megatron's mindscape is causing him to think like a Decepticon!"

Pandora and Kemeko looked back at Ratchet in shock and Pandora felt angered Ratchet would think such a thing about the devoted Autobot Scout.

"Bee is not a Decepticon!" she barked "No fucking way!"

"Pandora!" Kemeko countered towards her cousin.

"Ratchet! Bee's not a con!"

"Agreed." Ratchet said giving Pandora a frown then held out his hands so the girls could climb into them which they did.

Pandora climbed into his left hand and Kemeko into his right hand.

"But we need to find out exactly what Bumblebee intends to do with that shard!"

"But what would he do with it?" Kemeko asked in concern.

"The only one who knew of the dark energon was Megatron..." Ratchet glowered.

"Bumblebee has Megatron's memories?" Pandora asked.

Ratchet shook his head.

"Worse!" he replied "Megatron is occupying Bumblebee's mind!"

"What!?" Both girls cried in horror.

"No!" Pandora exclaimed "No way!"

"How could I have been such a fool?" Ratchet scolded "The cortical psychic patch acted as a two-way conduit!"

He placed Pandora and Kemeko back on the raised platform and both looked up at the medic.

"When Bumblebee returned to his own mind, Megatron followed! And now Bumblebee/Megatron has bridged to nearly the same co-ordinates Optimus used!"

He fiddled with the controls of the Ground-Bridge and activated the co-ordinates, and it once again roared to life.

"Stay here!" he ordered the girls and was about to run through, yet Kemeko's voice stopped him.

"NO!" she barked "Bumblebee needs us!"

Ratchet froze on the spot, he wanted the two girls to stay behind, mainly because of their safety and he knew he risked big trouble from Optimus and the Hamato Clan, but hearing how much the two girls cared for his scout and how much Bumblebee cared for them, something in his spark told him to break parodical and let them join him.

"Of course he does." He replied holding out his hands to the girls and both of them made sure they had their weapons with them and jumped into his hands before he ran through the Ground-Bridge to follow Bumblebee.

Oh dear, looks like things are going from bad to worse here, for those who've seen the show, you know what's coming!