Chapter Five: Hunt

The Twenty-Fifth…

"Soma's still watching. So stay alert, got it?" Logan gave a pointed look more aimed toward Mia than anyone else. She grinned unrepented.

"Don't worry about it, Logan," Aria smiled lovingly at Logan, brushing his fringe from his eyes. "We'll be alright for three days without you."

"Yeah," Eden bobbed his head and chimed: "We'll keep Mia on a leash if necessary."

Mia looked dramatically horrified. "Excuse you. I happen to beveryresponsible, thank you very much."

I snorted, hands shoved in my trouser pockets. "Responsible, right."

Mia pouted in my direction. "Why am I always the punching bag?"

"Because you're easy to make fun of?" Soma smirked. Sniggers followed.

I wandered over to the bots' holoforms. "Try not to scare anyone too bad and if you do, make sure you get it on camera for me?" I grinned.

Jazz snickered. "Wouldn't dream of anythin' else, lil'one."

"We'll make it spectacular if we do," Sideswipe nodded in agreement. Sunstreaker hummed musingly. I didn't doubt he was planning something, especially because Sideswipe glanced at him, grin widening.

Ratchet sighed. "Please don't."

Ironhide smirked. "Where's the harm in giving the humans a playful scare?"

The twins grinned at Ironhide's agreement.

Optimus just watched on silently, face stern, but I had felt a flash of fond amusement. It only increased as Ratchet and Ironhide began bickering back and forth.

"Any plans while we're gone?" Sideswipe piped up playfully. "I know you'll miss us greatly and be sad by our short departure, but it'll be okay, Zel."

I snorted, "Miss you?" I raised a brow. "Whatever gave youthatidea."

Jazz laughed, leaning back on his body.

Sideswipe's eyes widened comically. "Is that your way of saying that you don't like us?"

"Well," I paused dramatically. "It's moreyouthan anus, Sides. There's something about you that I just can't—" I gave a faux grimace. Jazz laughed again. The others all watched on with amusement written clearly on their faces.

Sideswipe gapped. "Me?!" He squawked, fully playing into the bit.

I nodded grimly. "Pity because I like Sunny."

Sunstreaker sniggered as Sideswipe fell to his knees, looking horrified. The nickname got me a few surprised looks from the others, but I didn't really pay it much attention. I turned to Sunstreaker, fluttering my lashes. "When you get back, come find me."

Playing along, Sunstreaker wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me close. "You could come with us, darling."

I sighed heavily, leaning into his side. "But alas, I can't. If only I could."

"Okay, okay, okay," Sideswipe got to his feet, fake sniffling. "I see how it is."

I grinned and reached out with my own hand, pulling him into the hug by his sleeve. He chuckled, placing a kiss on my brow.

I let out a dramatic exhale, preparing myself to read the card. "I gotta prepare for this one, hold on," I stretched and cleared my throat. Then I slammed my palm onto the table, "Damnit, mother. I—it's, this is the fifth time I told you: blank."

"All that prep and you still fucked it up," Eden grinned as Mia and Aria sniggered.

"Shut up, you cunt." I kicked his ankle before clasping my hands together and rubbing them eagerly. "What you kids got for me."

"Ah fuck, it says I've got an error, gotta disconnect," Mia groaned and did so, just as the cards popped up.

"Wait your card's on screen. When you left, it fixed it," I commented.

"Back now, anyway," Mia shrugged.

I wheezed with laughter when Mia's account name failed to appear. "What's happening?"

"I dunno but I've got three cards on my screen," Aria chimed, peering down at her tablet instead of the TV.

"Wait, is Mia back in?" Eden frowned, eyeing the tv in confusion.

Aria shrugged. "Apparently. I don't see her either."

"Well, I don't see her. This is gonna be confusing," I turned to Mia. "Which card is yours? I wanna see what happens."

"My one's the Donald Trump and Mexicans."

"I bloody knew it," Aria snorted, leaning back in her chair.

I then tried to pick Mia's card only to get an error message, which just prompted laughter out of us. We ended up refreshing the page and thankfully it pulled Mia back in.

I cleared my throat as while Mia had been pulled back in, her card had disappeared, "Guess it's just between the other two. Damnit, mother, this is the fifth time I told you: running onto a porn set while an orgy is being filmed, dripping with gasoline and lube, and yelling 'who wants to get fuckay?' is not—" I broke into wheezy laughter, "I almost filled that in with 'is not okay'!"

"I was hoping it—wait, fuck," Eden cursed and it just set off more laughter.

An entire game was played, with Eden coming out as the winner. However, as we went to start up a second game, laughing uncontrollably, the power cut off. We all paused, and all traces of the laughter moments before were completely gone. We sat in the darkness that now encased the room for several long moments.

We waited for the power to come back on, but it didn't.

"Back-up generators aren't coming on," Mia whispered. Her voice almost echoing in the darkness.

We set our tablets down and stood. We all eyed the room. Eden turned to us. "Mia, you and I are going to check the generators. Aria, Zelda, get to Soma's room. Once the power is back on, we'll meet in the docking bay."

I frowned but nodded, gesturing for Aria to move, and we rushed off. My stomach twisted nauseously because our systems were very deliberate. We had a backup generator that comes on if it's just a normal power cut—but we were on a personal powerline, and we generated our own electricity, which is why a power cut in the first place wasn't normal. The secondary comes on only when it's naturally caused.

That would only mean one thing: someone had purposely cut the power.

I moved in front of Aria as we turned down a small hallway and opened the door to Soma's workroom. I moved up to the computer, hit a key, and Soma's computer lit up. I narrowed my eyes, peering over my shoulder as Aria closed the door.

"Soma's power is still on," I confirmed. After logging in, I sat in his chair and worked on pulling up the security footage.

I went for outside first and immediately I knew who it was.

"MECH," I hissed. Aria was at my side in seconds.

"=Eden, do you copy?="

"=I copy=" Eden answered.

"=It's MECH. They managed to cut the main power, not knowing about our secondary situation=" I reported. He swore, hissing under his breath.

"=Okay, okay. Stay there and try and find where they're coming from and going=" Eden ordered.

"=Understood=" I pulled all cameras up and we began to search through them. "=There's some heading our way, Eden.="

"=Stay in that room, Zelda.="

"=But—="

"=Stay, in, that, room and get a damn SOS out to Soma.="

I hissed and stood, pushing Aria into the chair instead. "Do it."

I moved to the cabinet at the back of the room. I pressed my thumb, and the light turned green. I pulled the doors open. Inside was an expandable shield. Unfortunately, there wasn't a gun. Damnit.

I strapped it onto my left arm. Flicking my arm in a certain way, the shield expanded. It was enough to cover shoulder to shoulder, down to the knees, and up to the head. I moved my arm again, and it retracted.

"I've sent it," Aria murmured and returned to the cameras. "We've got three incomings in roughly thirty seconds."

"Get behind the door," I ordered and opened the shield. I readied myself and relaxed my breathing, feeling my heart pounding. Then—

BAM

—the door was kicked open. I rushed the underling that had kicked the door, using the shield to deflect the bullets and sending him to the ground unconscious by smashing his head against the wall because he hadn't been wearing headgear to protect him. Idiot.

I retracted the shield and attacked the second one, hitting his solar plexus. He gasped for breath, and I used that to attack the third. A harsh punch to the nose took her down, but the second, already recovered, chucked something, and it landed on my right arm.

It sparked, and suddenly, the arm was dead weight—EMP.

I quickly kicked the guy below the belt, watching as he went down as I pried the disk from my arm. Power came back, and I wiggled my fingers and rotated my arm. I snarled and launched myself at the man, metal fingers wrapping around his neck.

I held, watching as he fought and scratched at my metal arm in an attempt to free himself, but I just tightened and felt the way his throat gave way beneath it.

He'd be dead in three minutes.

I turned my attention to the third as she climbed to her feet. I booted her in the chest and listened as her ribs collapsed. She hit the ground, gaping like a fish. She'd be dead soon too. I snapped the first's neck while he was still unconscious as mercy.

Aria appeared in the doorway, eyeing the corpses momentarily. "You okay?"

"Fine," I answered shortly, peering down the hallway.

"=Eden?=" I got no answer, "=Mia?="

Still no answer. Did my comm go out with the EMP?

I locked eyes with Aria, and she tried to contact Eden or Mia, then Logan or Soma, too but nothing.

"Our comms are busted?" I frowned, that was…

The comms were built to automatically start up again in case of an EMP. A radio disruptor?

Brushing a finger over the start-up, the scar tender even after so many years.

Our commlinks had been built into us. Some might call them unethical, but at the end of the day, they were far more useful in the situations we got into. We certainly can't lose them like the average earpiece…

Aria ducked into Soma's room again. I followed, and the power on his computer was out now, too.

"I understand the small EMP, but one strong enough to shut all power down in the building? One that's shut our comms down?" Aria frowned. "That's not easy tech to get a hold of."

"Stolen technology, you mean." I picked the EMP they used on my arm. It was a small circular disk no bigger than a British two-pound coin.

"We can't stay here," I said, peering into the hallway again.

"Eden said to stay," Aria frowned. It was an order, after all.

"But our comms are down, and we haven't figured out how many there were. We've got to get some weapons, Aria."

She sighed heavily but nodded. "Okay, let's go."

I nodded, and we rushed from the room, ignoring the concern and panic coming from the threads—I needed to focus.

I only hoped they'd turned around already; they had only been gone an hour.

We crossed paths with only a few MECH soldiers, which we took care of quickly.

I frowned because I was expecting more. At this rate, we'd have killed them all off. I only hope Eden and Mia were okay and that they didn't get jumped.

There was something that just frustrated me, however—like I was missing something incredibly important, and I bit back the groan that wanted to escape.

"Zelda," Aria's hushed voice brought me back and I turned toward her. She jerked her head towards the bay doors.

My heart fluttered nervously, hoping both Mia and Eden were there.

We approached, and Aria softly pushed the handle down and opened the door, guns at the ready. Our eyes widened when our sights immediately landed on the two familiar forms sprawled out in the centre of the room.

Caution thrown to the wind, we rushed forward.

"Eden!"

"Mia!"

I dropped next to Eden, searching for a pulse. It was slow but there was a steady beat. I searched for an injury, but thankfully, it seemed he'd only taken a blow to the head.

I turned to Aria; her face had gone pale.

"Aria?" my voice cracked.

She turned to me, eyes watering and shook her head. A strangled noise escaped.

"Mia," I crawled closer. She'd been shot in the stomach, and the location left her bleeding out rapidly. I touched the back of her hand. She was still warm. Too warm. She couldn't have been dead for more than a few minutes.

I snarled and grabbed Aria's shoulder. She grabbed mine in return. I squeezed closed my eyes, forgive us, Mia. I hope you find peace in whatever happens after.

Someone slowly clapped, and I felt breathless as the person laughed. My grip tightened as a burst of familiar anger set ablaze inside. A wildfire that had been burning for years was suddenly uncontrollable and spreading through my veins without restraint.

I gritted my teeth and pushed myself to my feet, turning to face the man.

Silas smiled. "Hello again, Ophiuchus. How have you been these last few years?"

Aria snarled and stood, slipping in front of me. "Don't come any closer, you bastard."

"Oh?" Silas eyed Aria, and I sneered at him. "You must be the sister. You know Ophiuchus would scream for you while we had her strapped down?"

Aria shifted, free hand reaching back to grasp mine in comfort. I squeezed because otherwise, I knew I was going to charge at him.

"What's the fucking purpose of coming here, Silas," I snapped. "Surely you wouldn't just risk an attack on our base for some petty reason."

Silas hummed. "You're right. " He pressed a finger to his lips and then pointed at me. "You see, I'm here for you, Ophiuchus. You've been a very bad test subject: killing the other subjects, then Cooper, then blowing up the lab! Tsk, tsk."

"She's not going anywhere with you, you sick excuse for a human." Aria snapped.

BANG

I screamed.