Chapter 6-Divide and Conquer
“Though little historical records can be found of what human society is like during the Age of Wonders, historians have managed to find evidence of religious ceremonies practiced by the remnants of the Arians during this time of turmoil. Depictions of two sister goddesses were most evident, each goddess representing the sun and moon. Translations of the Arian language suggest that these two deities were the matron figures of two major clans that survived the fall of the Arian Empire, the Lumen and the Umbra clans.” Ms. Masters explained. “Though there are no records of these goddesses names, it is known that they were revered greatly throughout the Age of Wonders, possibly seen as creators and protectors. Some scriptures even stated that they commanded a host of angels made of stone with crystal hearts that enforced order through the world. Such beliefs…”
Annie tried to keep her eyes open. She really did, but sitting still through such long periods was not her forte. Her eyes were beginning to drop once again when she felt Gina nudge her in the side.
“Come on, Annie, focus.” Gina whispered. She was getting tired of trying to keep her friend awake every two minutes. Didn’t this girl get any sleep last night?
“Sorry.” Annie said honestly. She didn’t like annoying Gina, but she was an active girl by nature. Stuff like this bored the crap out of her.
She was already drifting off again when the school bell rang, making her jump in her seat. The other kids snickered, but they quickly shut up when she gave them a death glare.
“All right kids, class dismissed. And don’t forget to read up on Arian culture for tomorrow’s pop quiz. It’s only hard if you don’t study for it.”
Her words were only partially heeded as the kids filed out of the classroom, eager to stretch their legs and give their weary minds a brief respite. Gina and Annie were the first ones out of the room and they were glad the busy day was over, but for different reasons.
“God, that was torture. Why is history so boring to listen to?” Annie yawned, stretching her stiff back and arms.
“It’s only boring if the person explaining it doesn’t make it interesting. History in general is fun if you look at it from a certain viewpoint.” Gina said, shrugging. “Also, you’re just too lazy to pay attention.”
“Good point.” Annie replied.
“And I should also mention that this stuff is important in regards to the Minicons. A lot of them might be hidden in those “dusty old books” as you call them.” Gina said.
The girls conversed all the way to Annie’s locker, where the girl popped it open to dump all her books inside before taking the transformed Grindor out. Gina was waiting patiently for Darren when she was greeted by a less than pleasant acquaintance.
“Hello Gina. Fancy running into you here.”
Gina’s brow twitched at the annoyingly snarky voice and faced the speaker. “Hello, Penny.” She replied in a fake polite tone.
Penelope Pincer, known as Penny to her peers, was Gina’s self-proclaimed “rival” in their shared interests of science and archaeology. She was only a few months older than Gina, with dark skin, amber gold eyes and long black hair with an orange streak running through it. She came from a family born into money, though Penny mainly used her inheritance in her pursuit of science and technology, namely creating new machines she could show off to her peers and rub in Gina’s face. To many people, Penny might be one of the few capable of matching Gina in terms of intelligence, and their fights led to the usually smart girls acting like angry five year olds duking it out in the sandbox.
“What do you want, Penny. It’s been a long day and I am not in the mood for your crap.” Gina growled.
“What? I can’t say hello to my best friend in the whole wide world?” Penny said in fake
sadness, already loving how easy it was to rile the blonde up.
“I’m not your best friend. We’re not even friends in the general definition of the term, Penny. And where’s your boyfriend? I thought you never let him out of your sight?”
“He’s not my boyfriend!” Penny snapped before calming down a little. “And Kevin’s at basketball practice. He’ll be with us shortly. Now, where’s your boy toy?”
“Darren’s not my boy toy, he’s my partner in knowledgeable pursuits.” Gina replied with some sass. “Which is much more than I can say for your friend who happens to be a boy.”
‘Nice save.’ Annie thought. She never thought that watching two nerds go at it like male lions marking their territory could be this entertaining, but she made it a habit to get front row seats to watch Gina and Penny square off.
Penny eyed the fancy looking skateboard in Annie’s hands and remembered the peculiar orange moped she saw Gina riding to school this morning. “I can’t help but notice that you two are sporting some very nice rides. What happened to those rugged junk heaps you carried around?”
Gina frowned at Penny’s insult towards her Tardis (her name for her old moped). Though her annoyance was weathered by the satisfaction that she knew a huge secret Penny had no idea about and boasted making first contact with an alien race and being friends with some of them. Sadly, she had to keep the Autobots a secret no matter what. She finally had the biggest one up on her rival and she couldn’t say a thing!
“Well, due to Annie destroying my moped and Darren’s bike along with her skateboard,” She began, ignoring the indignant look Annie gave her. “I had to rebuild them from some scraps I found in a junkyard. Added some special features.”
“Well you didn’t do a very good job, did you?” Penny smirked. “I mean really, orange was the best color you chose for your moped? I know your eyesight is bad, but that doesn’t mean you’re completely color blind.”
Gina bristled. “Listen you-“
“Penny, stop antagonizing our friends.”
A tall black boy with black dreaded hair and a muscular figure walked up behind Penny and placed a hand on her shoulder. He stood a head taller than the girls but gave off the air of a kid who was social and friendly. He was Kevin Koss, one of Darren’s friends from 8th grade and by extension a friend of Gina and Annie.
“Hey Kevin.” Annie greeted him with a fist bump.
“Annie, Gina.” Kevin smiled at them. He glanced at Penny, who was trying to look innocent. “I hope Penny wasn’t bothering you, was she?”
“Kevin! I am shock and appalled you would think that of me.” The girls rolled their eyes. “I’m not bothering my two good friends.”
“Uh huh. Forgive me, then.” Kevin said, not convinced. He picked up his gym bag and nodded to the girls. “I just got out of basketball practice, so if you’re ready to go, Penny, we can
bounce right now.”
“Okay, just give me a few more minutes.” She said. Kevin waved goodbye to Annie and Gina and left. Once he was out of earshot, Penny glared at them. “If either of you squeal on me, you better hope that I don’t send a little something, something to your house tonight.” She turned her back on them with a huff. “Good day, Harpy.”
“Later, Pincher.”
Gina and Penny walked away from each other, not taking their eyes off one another out of fear of some sort of sneak attack from the other party. Annie stood in the middle with an exasperated look on her face and walked to the front doors.
“Annie, what was that?” Grindor whispered.
“Two nerds marking their territory, Grindor. Nothing too serious.”
XXXXXX
Prowl grove through the narrow cobblestone streets that dominated Athens in Elladas, working his way to an energon signature Teletran-1 detected. It was a chore navigating this narrow maze, the streets were too narrow and traffic was hellish even for him despite blaring his sirens posing as an officer of the law. But he was the only one on standby and it wasn’t much to worry about.
“Proooooowwwwwlll! I’m bored.” Cried the Minicon riding beside him. “Entertain me.”
Prowl sighed. His partner on the job was Razor (Armada Windrazor), the Minicon the children retrieved from Prague. She was a large femme, standing a head taller than the children at least, and had burnt orange armor with orange/yellow optics that looked like aviator goggles. Her chosen alt mode was a motorcycle and she had her generated Holomatter activated, which was a teenage girl with a cockney accent. Fitting considering she acted exactly like a hyperactive adolescent human.
He thought that Bumblebee was the most annoyingly optimistic and cheery bot on the team, but Tracer took it to another level. She couldn’t stay in one place for too long and it drove him and Ironhide crazy back at the Ark. Never mind the fact that Gina had introduced her to social media for some inexplicable reason.
‘How did I get stuck with her?’ He wondered as he turned another corner. ‘I didn’t even say she could come. Ratchet just turned the other way and she ran into the ground bridge.’
“Prowl-“
“Whining isn’t going to make this night go any faster. You should’ve held back to learn what you were getting yourself into.” Prowl told her.
“But I was boooooorrrreeedddd!”
“You’re always bored.” Prowl replied smoothly. “Now be quiet and focus.”
Razor grunted and followed him down the street. They followed the energon signal to the edge of the city, near the older areas that had stone buildings carved from rock and temples dedicated to long dead gods. This was a favorite place for archaeologists to dig up ancient ruins and artifacts that were buried under the city following its modernization. Looking around, Razor noticed the construction vehicles sitting around and made to wondered what it was for.
“It’s an excavation site.” He said, as if reading her mind. “This land is full of them. Humans dig around to uncover whatever’s left of ancient civilizations.”
Making sure that there were no humans around, Prowl transformed and slowly walked into the ditch, making sure to avoid stepping on any of the smaller dig sites. He ran his scanner over the ground and saw the indicator go green.
“What’s the verdict, Prowler?” Razor asked.
“The humans hit an energon vein and they didn’t even realize it.” Prowl said as he went deeper into the site. He frowned at the unsatisfying readings he was getting. “There isn’t even enough to last us half a day.”
Razor hummed and disengaged her avatar before switching to robot mode, flexing her lithe frame as she strolled around, looking at all the new things she set her eyes on. She rarely had the luxury of exploring this world in her natural form. It was always in her alt mode or through the eyes of her holoavatar. So much to see and so little time to see it.
She walked over to the remains of a wall that sported a slightly worn and faded mural depicting a human warrior clad in gold armor holding aloft some blue object in reverence. She hummed at the beautiful art and took a quick picture with her head mounted camera for the kids. They loved it when someone brought back souvenirs from far off lands.
“Another one for the scrapbook.” Razor said, giggling a bit at the word ‘scrapbook’. That was when she noticed something in the mural that looked familiar. “Uh, Prowl?”
“Yes?”
“Does this look familiar to you?”
Prowl sighed and walked over to her. “Razor, I have work to do and if you aren’t going to be…”
He trailed off as he got a good look at the mural. In the warrior’s hand, surrounded by a halo of light, was a Minicon panel.
“What were you going to say? Helpful?” Razor grinned. “I think I was very helpful in this instance, wasn’t I?”
Prowl didn’t say anything as he moved closer to study the painting further, but another voice sent him on alert.
“Look what I found. An Autobot and a Minicon, crawling around in the dirt like the worms they are.” Barricade cackled. He walked out from behind the stone pillars and took out his spinning gyro-blades.
“I didn’t think you of all people would sneak onto human property at the dead of night, but I’m glad I’ve been proven wrong. From one cop to another, that’s going on your permanent record.”
“You’re one to talk.” Prowl raised his rifle. He hoped that this didn’t turn into a battle, as any noise they made was sure to attract human attention.
“Who’s this lunk-head? His face looks like it was dunked in a tank full of scraplets.” Razor said.
“You’re regret saying that to your betters, Minicon.” Barricade growled. “Ravage!”
From the darkness, Ravage sprang out of his hiding spot and lunged at Razor, knocking her to the ground. Barricade ran forward and quickly closed the distance between him and Prowl, slamming his blades into Prowl’s chest twice, knocking him into a pillar on the second strike. Prowl fired his rifle and hit Barricade in the shoulder, blasting off a chunk of armor. Barricade flinched, but he continued his assault with his spinning gyro-blades, forcing the Autobot back to avoid a potentially lethal strike from those dangerous blades.
Ravage, a non-humanoid black and grey mech mech, bit and scratched at Razor with a feline hiss. Razor cursed in surprise and weaved around Ravage’s sharp claws and jumped on his back, trying to wrangle him into submission. Ravage tried to dislodge the femme off his back, but she had a good grip on his back panels. It only got worse when she stabbed a combat knife into his shoulder blade to anchor herself.
“Get off me wrench!” Ravage growled.
“Holy slag, you can talk?” Razor exclaimed.
Ravage let out a very nasty curse and threw her off. Razor tumbled to the ground and she leapt back to avoid his sharp fangs. Ravage fired two laser beams from the cannons on his back, trying to gun her down with rapid fire blasts.
Prowl swiftly dodged Barricade’s blades trying to avoid getting his face torn off by the wicked looking blades. Barricade managed to get another blow off his chest, worsening the gouges in his chest plate, but Prowl retaliated with a kick to Barricade’s wounded shoulder that jarred him momentarily. Another kick knocked Barricade back, but Barricade gave a war cry and rushed into him. Lifting Prowl over his head, Barricade threw the Autobot across the length of the yard. Razor and Ravage were forced apart to avoid getting crushed by Prowl’s body after he crashed into the mural, destroying the stone wall.
“Hope that pretty painting wasn’t important, Praxian savage.” Barricade laughed. He went to attack the down Autobot, but got a plasma blast right in his forehead. “Ow! Frag!”
“How’s that for a savage, you cog-sucking slaghead!” Razor shouted. Her arms had changed into two plasma blasters and was shooting at the taller Con rapidly. She would overheat her blasters at this rate, but she didn’t care.
Barricade took them all to his face, and given the pain in his shoulder, he figured it wasn’t worth the agitation. Shaking his head, he ordered Ravage to retreat.
“My work is done here, Autobot. Hope your pretty pictures weren’t important.” Barricade chuckled before transforming into his police car alt mode and driving away. Ravage gave Razor a dirty look before running after Barricade, easily matching his speed and disappearing into the shadows.
“Prowler, are you okay?” Razor asked as she ran over to Prowl.
“Ugh, don’t call me that.” He groaned. He hissed at the deep cuts in his armor and say up. Looking down, he gave a soft curse at the shattered mural under him. “Typical. My job couldn’t be easy for one night, couldn’t it?”
“No worries, Prowler.” Razor chirped. She pressed the camera in the side of her head and
projected the photo she had taken. “Recon, Razor-style.”
XXXXXX
At the Ark, the Autobots and children reviewed the pictures Razor brought back along with
Prowl’s report on his brief encounter with Barricade. Gina had the image downloaded from Razor onto her laptop, which she then transmitted to the monitor in the command center. Prowl wanted confirmation before making assumptions, but one look was all Sparkplug needed before he nodded.
“Yeah, that’s a stasis panel, all right.” Sparkplug said. “You don’t see symbols like that anywhere else on this planet…that we know of.”
“We were lucky that Razor was able to catch this before Barricade’s attack.” Optimus said.
“So, what’s a Spartan warrior doing with a Minicon panel in his hands?” Annie asked.
“He most likely had no idea what it was. Remember, the panels were scattered across the world thousands of years ago. It’s not impossible to think that at some point, people of the ancient world could stumble upon them and see them as relics of the gods.” Sparkplug said.
“The fresco was probably depicting the panel as some blessed relic that could grant them divine protection or total victory. The Spartans were known for being really good at warfare.” Darren said.
“Very eloquently put.” High Wire said.
“The panel was probably dug up at the excavation site, and brought to some museum. We’re lucky the Cons didn’t get there first.” Sparkplug said. “If we don’t know where it is, then they don’t either.”
“See, Prowler? You were lucky you trashed the mural.” Razor grinned. Prowl gave her a look, but Arcee spoke up.
“She’s right, Prowl. At least the Cons won’t know about it.” She said. “Without that fresco,
how else will they find out where the panel is?”
“The internet.” Gina said. She typed in a search in her computer. “Just search the panel’s image online and cross reference it with Elladan artifacts and boom…” She brought up the image on the monitor. “There it is. The panel’s in a museum in Roma.”
“The real deal?” Annie asked. Gina nodded.
“Yup. It’s in an exhibit on the third floor, next to the section of Elladan artifacts.”
“So, we know where it is, so we can cross that off the list.” Sureshock nodded. Then she posed the real question. “Now how do we get it?”
Everyone paused at that. If the panel was inside a museum on display under guard, then it was
obvious what they’d have to do. They all came to the same conclusion-steal the panel from the museum. The thought of burglary made Annie grin devilishly.
“If we are to liberate the Minicon from the panel, then we must confiscate the panel from the
museum.” Optimus said.
“Please, Optimus, say it like it is. We’re stealing that little mother.” Annie grinned.
“Which is illegal.” Darren pointed out.
“Darren, we’re saving lives here. We may not be able to spill the beans, but people will thank us down the line.” Annie told her brother. Darren didn’t like how easy she was going with this.
“While I do not wish to break human law, I doubt the Decepticons will be as understanding…or as subtle.” Prime said. “We must act covertly to avoid outside interference and casualties.”
“But how are you going to get in? Half of you guys are almost as tall as a small apartment building. Not to mention there are guards and security cameras.” Darren said.
“And infrared laser beams.” Gina added.
“No worries, bro. we can go in with the Minicons and swipe the panel ourselves!” Annie suggested.
“Out of the question.” Arcee said. “The last thing we need is making you three into criminals
before you even turn sixteen.”
But Optimus was of another mind. “Arcee, as much as I don’t want to, her plan might have some merit. If the Minicons run into trouble, the children can act as human interference. They can’t risk being discovered any more than we can.”
“And if they get caught?” Bulkhead asked, not liking this plan.
“Would you rather it be Sparkplug or, heaven forbid, Razor?” Annie frowned.
“Guys, the longer we sit here debating, the more time the Cons have to get the panel. We need to act now.” Sparkplug said.
Optimus looked at his team. “We’ll get things ready for the mission and formulate a plan to get
you inside. Children, you three prepare for getting the panel out undetected and make an escape plan in case things go wrong.”
That marked the end of the discussion and everyone went their own ways, getting to work on hashing out a plan that’d get the panel out of the museum without getting the children arrested.
XXXXXX
It was late night in Roma when the Autobots arrived at the museum. The streets were empty at this time of night, and few people were up and about in the sleepy city, which made the operation a bit easier. Prowl was leading a team with Bumblebee and Arcee, driving through the parking lot and quickly taking their positions at the entrances and exits.
“I got the front entrance covered.” Prowl said.
“West side clear.” Arcee reported.
“East side clear.” Bumblebee said.
“Everyone’s in position, Ratchet. Let’s get this started.” Prowl said to Ratchet over the comm. The medic gave an affirmative and sent a ground bridge to the museum for the kids to take.
Inside the museum, the ground bridge appeared on the third floor in a massive room, and the kids walked out with their guardians. Gina was holding her Sky Spy drone, which was outfitted with some jamming equipment similar to the electronic warfare equipment used by military drones and stealth bombers. High Wire was holding a perfect replica of the stasis panel to replace the original to mask the theft once they snatch the real one.
“Prowl, are we clear?” Darren asked, speaking into the communicator he was given by Roll Bar.
“Yes, you’re clear on the floor, but be careful. The guards regularly patrol that area.” Prowl said.
“Then we better get to work.” High Wire turned to Gina. “It’s go time.”
Gina nodded and let Sky Spy loose. It flew toward one of the security cameras, hovering under it and using the jamming signal from its tiny dish to jam the camera’s feed while connecting a power cord into the camera to create a false image. In the security room, the bored and preoccupied guard was none the wiser to the deception, not even noticing one of the monitors flickering for a split second before returning to normal.
“Cameras are hacked. We’re in the clear.” Gina announced.
The group went deeper into the room and made their way towards the display case. Having already memorized the layout of the floor, High Wire led them to where the panel was being displayed with little interruption from either the guards or the cameras. They found the panel in the corner of the room, sitting inside a glass case, freshly cleaned and encased in safety glass. Sureshock ran over to the window and switched her flashlight on and off to signal they were initiating phase 2 of the plan.
This was Darren’s part, which was crucial. The glass case the panel was in had four pressure sensors under the glass. Should the case be lifted, the sudden shift in pressure would be detected by the sensors and the alarm would sound. Darren’s job was to use his telekinesis to keep as much pressure on the sensors to keep the alarm from going off until they made the switch.
Sureshock walked over to the display and used a small laser cutter to cut away the glass at the base. High Wire got ready to life the case and Darren focused his energy in holding down the pressure sensors near the rim of the display.
Grindor stood next to a large marble statue of Adonis, tapping his knuckles against the stone. Looking it up and down, he grumbled a bit about it being larger than him.
“What is it with humans and them building things larger than themselves?” Grindor muttered. Annie nudged him.
“Stop that, you might set something off.” She whispered. She exhaled and looked back to the others, who were just getting the casing off. “That’s all you’ve done? Hurry it up, I’m getting antsy over here!”
“Shut up!” Darren hissed, trying to maintain his concentration. One slip up and everything will fall apart.
“Come on, Annie. Why don’t we go take a look outside? See how the big guys are doing?” Grindor offered. “That’ll calm you down.”
She just grumbled as he led her over to the window. Looking down into the parking lot, they saw Prowl sitting in a parking space in his vehicle mode, even during a heist he adhered to parking rules. Annie smirked at that thought and looked up a bit, frowning when she saw another police car moving toward the museum from down the street. She glanced at Grindor, who was already on his comm calling Prowl.
“Prowl, you’ve got another police car heading your way,” Grindor said. “And it’s moving fast.”
“How fast?” Prowl asked.
“Recklessly fast.”
Prowl didn’t need to ask who it could be. The minute he heard the sound of a car engine roaring behind him, he transformed to his bipedal form and spun around. He was met with Barricade barreling into him in robot mode, slamming into him and sending both mechs into the ground. Prowl kicked him off and jumped to his feet, positioning himself in front of the museum.
“It’s past your curfew, Barricade. I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to return to that cesspool you call a home.” Prowl said. Barricade chuckled and drew his gyro blades.
“I was never one for following the corrupt law of the land.” He said and swung his blades with practiced ease. “Now step aside and let us have the Minicon.”
“No chance in-wait,” Prowl blinked. “Us?”
“Yes,” Barricade smirked. “Us.”
Prowl was stabbed in the back with something and he was suddenly riddled with thousands of volts of electricity surging through his body. Knockout grinned as Prowl dropped to the ground out cold, with his energon prod in hand.
“Nigthie night, Prowler.” Knockout chuckled. He looked up to see Arcee and Bumblebee coming to their friend’s aid. “And here comes the cavalry.”
“Is Scalpel in position?” Barricade asked.
“He’s already in. This shouldn’t take too long anyway.” Knockout said confidently.
XXXXXX
“****, we’ve got Cons people!” Annie said.
“Please tell me you guys are almost done.” Grindor whined.
“We’ve just made the switch. It shouldn’t be too long now.” Sureshock said. She held the real panel tightly in her hands.
As High Wire started placing the glass back on the display, no one noticed the large, angular shape crawling along the balcony near the ceiling. Scalpel, Knockout’s personal assistant, was a large, 10 foot tall mech with a spider-like body composed of six razor thin legs, two tiny forearms and a large head sitting atop a narrow body with a pair of big orange-red eyes. Despite his size, he was silent as he stalked along the ceiling and eyed the panel in Sureshock’s arms.
High Wire finally set the glass down and nodded to Darren. The boy released his psychic hold on
the sensors and gave a relieved sigh.
“We got it.” Darren said. “Let’s get out of here before-“
Scalpel dropped down from above, pushing off the ceiling to descend faster. He handed directly in front of Sureshock and slashed at her with his long legs. She hissed as the sharp blades of his appendages cut deep into her arms and tore the panel from her grasp. Scalpel snatched the panel from her and kicked back at High Wire to knock him into the display.
“No!” The children exclaimed in horror.
High Wire crashed into the case and knocked it over. Darren tried to reach for it, but it shattered on the ground before he could do anything. Immediately the alarms began ringing. Scalpel cursed at them in accented cybertronian before he ran away toward the stairs. Darren and Gina helped Sureshock to her feet as Grindor and Annie chased after the Con.
“High Wire, follow them and don’t get seen! We’ll get Sureshock out of here.” Gina said. High Wire nodded and ran after the others.
Grindor fired his wrist cannons at Scalpel, but he couldn’t hit the spry mech. Scalpel was surprisingly fast and agile, every time it looked like they were going to catch him, the Con would perform some physically impossible maneuver to elude them and gain some distance.
“Just shoot him already!” Annie shouted.
“I’m trying not to hit the exhibits!” Grindor yelled back.
“Lives are in danger! Screw the dinosaur bones and shoot!” She screamed.
The two mechs raced down the stairs and Annie would’ve followed them had she not almost been knocked over by High Wire, who raced past her in his alt mode. She tripped on her feet, and landed face first into the floor, knocking her head against the banister and blacking out.
At the foot of the stairs, Grindor jumped off the steps and onto Scalpel, knocking him to the
floor. He grappled with the misshapen mech, who was a lot stronger than his spindly form hinted. Trying not to get stabbed in the eyes by those bloody legs of his was a hassle as well.
“Unhand me you insolent fool!” Scalpel snarled in native cybertronian, which sounded like a series of light chirps and hisses to human ears. “I vill vear you armor as spoils of var!”
“Would you shut up!” Grindor yelled. High Wire came down to the floor after doing a wheelie on the banister and jumped off, transforming and running to his partner’s aid.
Not wanting to waste any more time than he already had, Scalpel wriggled out of Grindor’s hold and stabbed his front legs into his direction. Grindor screamed as one leg stabbed into his shoulder and another into his solar plexus, both wounds too small to be lethal but still hurt like a glitch.
Standing up, Scalpel lifted Grindor up over his wiry frame and threw him at High Wire. The Street Action Team leader skidded to a stop to catch his friend and Scalpel used the distraction to retrieve his quarry and run for the emergency exit.
“This is Scalpel,” He called in. “I have zee panel!”
Upstairs, Annie groaned as she returned to consciousness. She was only out for two minutes, but her noggin was aching and the damn alarms were making it worse. When the ringing finally stopped, she sighed in relief.
“Thank you,” She sighed, and a dark look flashed over her eyes. “Now I’m gonna find High Wire
and shove my fist up his nonexistent-“
“What are you doing here?” A gruff voice asked.
Annie froze as a flashlight was shined on her and she turned around to see a security guard standing over her with a dark glare on his mustached face. Knowing that she couldn’t run now, she sagged in defeat.
“Crap.”
XXXXXX
Prowl woke up with a grunt and the first thing he heard was Arcee cursing. He lifted his head to see Arcee and Bumblebee fighting Knockout and Barricade. Neither side was using long range weapons, as they wanted to keep the noise to a minimum and avoid attracting unwanted attention.
Bumblebee was grappling with Barricade, holding his arm tight to keeping the Con from tearing into him with his gyro-blades. Barricade growled and increased power to the servos in his arms and pushed Bumblebee back and lifted the scout over his shoulder and into the ground. Barricade pulled his arm free to cut Bumblebee down, but the yellow mech fired a bolt from his stinger into his eyes.
With Barricade half-blind, Bumblebee took the chance to start pummeling him with punches coated in electrical discharges from his stingers. Arcee had her own little dance with Knockout. While it was clear that Knockout was no martial arts master, with his uncoordinated movements and attacks were slow compared to Arcee’s fast strikes, he managed to keep her at bay with his energon prod, twirling it around him in a flamboyant style that screamed “look at me!” Arcee figured that the only reason he was able to use that thing properly was because of training from Nightshade.
“You have lovely features, my dear. I’d love to set up and appointment with you to see what’s under your hood.” Knockout cackled as he lashed out with the prod. Arcee deflected the staff with her swords and kicked him in the jaw with her heel.
“That’s not how you ask a girl on a date, Knockout. You have to take her out to dinner first!” Arcee lunged at him and hooked her legs around the prod. She used her body weight to pull the prod from his hands and spun around to go in for the kill shot. Knockout changed his left hand into a medical saw and slashed her chest, pushing her back.
“Please sister, you should be doing that for me.” Knockout ran at her, but his charge was cut short by Prowl punching him in the face.
“Thank you for the shock therapy, doc.” Prowl spat and turned to Arcee. “What’s the status on the children and the Minicons?”
“I don’t know, they haven’t called it in yet.” Arcee said. “But they should be done by now.”
Prowl frowned, knowing that they would’ve had confirmation of the panel’s possession by now as per procedure. Knockout groaned and sat up, rubbing his aching jaw. He growled and stood up to rush at Prowl when his comm chirped.
“I have zee Minicon!” The mad doctor announced. “Be ready to get me out of here. The human guards are alerted to your presence!”
“Worry not, Scalpel, I’m on my way.” Knockout grinned. He gave the Autobots a two fingered salute before he collapsed into his car mode and drove to the back of the building.
“Scrap!” Arcee cursed as she and Prowl raced after Knockout to the rear exit. They turned the corner to see Scalpel and the panel already seated in Knockout’s backseat. He shut his door and drove back in reverse, slamming into Prowl and Arcee in his escape.
“Hey bozo! We have what we came for!” Knockout yelled at his partner. “Get your ass in gear and move it!”
Barricade gave Knockout an obscene hand gesture and kicked Bumblebee away from him. He threw a flash grenade at the Autobots, which exploded into a blinding flash of light before them and stopped them short. When the light died down and their optic sensors adjusted to the dark once more, Barricade and Knockout were long gone.
“Slag, we lost them!” Bumblebee growled.
“We can still catch them. I’ve got a fix on their signals.” Arcee said. Prowl nodded.
“Great, let’s go after them before they call for a ground bridge.” Prowl went to chase after them, but got a call from Grindor.
“Prowl, we’ve got a problem!” The Minicon exclaimed.
“Yes, Grindor, we know the Cons have the panel.” Prowl said urgently. “We’re going to pursue them.”
“No, I mean us! Annie got caught by a security guard and she’s going to be arrested if we don’t do something!”
Prowl gave an annoyed grunt and looked at his teammates. “Arcee, Bumblebee, retrieve the panel. I’ll handle damage control with Annie.”
They nodded and went into their vehicle modes before driving out of the parking lot, leaving Prowl alone by the museum. He sighed and transformed back into his police cruiser form. The things he did for his comrades.
XXXXXX
The guard tapped his finger on his desk, trying to figure out what to do with the girl sitting in front of him. As well as figure out how she even got into the museum at this time of night in the first place.
“Look kid, if this is some kind of prank, then you should know that the authorities are on their way. So are you going to tell me what you’re even doing here?” He asked firmly, trying to intimidate her.
Unfortunately for him, Annie was far from scared. Staring into the barrel of Megatron’s fusion cannon mere seconds away from being annihilated increases your fear threshold significantly, so a slightly ticked off security guard was the least of her worries.
“This would be a whole lot easier if you just told me what happened with that panel.”
“I was researching for my history report, lost track of time when I took a nap in the corner and got locked in. I panicked when I was alone in that creepy room and tried to leave, but…you know. **** happened.” Annie said. It was all she could think of, but it wasn’t rare to have someone accidentally get locked inside a museum if they weren’t found out beforehand. Thankfully she thought of this on the fly, though she hoped that the dueling alien robots outside didn’t cause too much of a mess.
“Oh really? And what is your report about?” He asked, hoping to catch her at her bluff and knock the wind from her sails.
Five minutes later, Annie was knee deep into her overly detailed account of the history of the Spartan nation. As she droned on about the mating rituals of the Spartans, the guard was already regretting his decision as he tried to block out her long winded sentences.
XXXXXX
Knockout and Barricade raced down the street without a care about running through red lights and almost hitting pedestrians. Arcee and Bumblebee were close behind them in pursuit and were catching up to them.
“We’ve got Bots on our tail!” Knockout yelled.
Barricade said nothing, wordlessly spinning around to drive in reverse and slid apart the panels over his headlights to reveal two small missile launchers. Taking aim, he fired two missiles at the Autobots.
“Bee!” Arcee called out.
“Got it!” Bumblebee took point and fired a couple of flares to attract the missiles and explode them without even getting his paint dirty. Knockout grunted while Barricade thought of another plan. He signaled Knockout to follow him as he swerved into an alleyway.
Speeding down the alley in single file, they turned into a large sewer duck that was the
opening to the city’s ancient water system. They made it as far as the grates before Arcee jumped over them in robot mode and jumped on Knockout’s front hood.
The sudden weight on his hood caused Knockout to flip over Arcee, who took out her blasters and opened fire on his unprotected form. Knockout’s fancy sports car mode was riddled with laser blasts and the damage caused him to revert to his robot mode as a result. He crashed into the filthy, dirty water and deposited Scalpel and the panel during his conversion. Scalpel landed on his feet and ran for the panel without a second thought.
“No you don’t!” Arcee fired a shot at him that hit the ground in front of Scalpel, sending him flying back into the waterway. Arcee took a look at Knockout and smirked. “I always thought you needed a bath.”
Knockout growled, looking down at himself in disgust. Sewer water covered his once pristine form and the smell alone was enough to make him grimace. “How dare you mock me! It took me hours to wax my finish and you ruined it!”
“Honestly, your paint job was fading anyway. It’s totally natural, though,” Arcee went on. “A sign that you’re getting up there in years.”
That caused Knockout to finally snap and he rushed at Arcee with his energon prod, swearing loudly.
Bumblebee and Barricade were once again engaged in a brutal fist fight. Barricade wailed on the scout with his sharp, clawed hands, punching and scratching at him without any sign of letting him up. Bumblebee protected his face until he saw an opportunity to move. When Barricade threw a punch at his chest, he grabbed his arm and twisted his own body around to push himself back into Barricade, slamming his elbow into the Con’s face. He smirked when he heard metal cracking from the blow.
“Agh! Why is it always in the face?” Barricade grunted.
Knockout was not having much luck himself. Arcee parried his attacks with ease, and she was doing a good job of reminding him why he didn’t go out on these missions. He transformed his left hand into a spinning drill and tried to gore a hole into her, but she weaved around his arm and slashed her blades into his arm. Knockout hissed in pain and tried to back away, but she wrestled the prod from his grasp and pointed the tip at his face.
“Don’t even-nghgghghgh!” Knockout’s warning devolved into garbled cries as the prod was jammed into his neck. He twitched violently from the strong volts going through him and fell back into the water. He wasn’t going to enjoy the mess he was going to clean up later.
Arcee turned to her partner, who was still fighting Barricade. “Bee! I’m open!”
Bumblebee heard her and leaned back to avoid a punch to his face. Catching Barricade’s arm, he pulled the Con in front of him just as Arcee threw the energon prod like a javelin. Barricade was turned away from the prod, so he couldn’t see it, but he definitely felt its power as it hit him in the middle of his back and shocked him into unconsciousness.
Bumblebee let out a tired breath and leaned on his knees, smiling up at Arcee. “That was fun.”
“You okay?” Arcee asked.
“Yeah. What about you? Did you get the panel?”
Arcee smiled and held up the tiny panel in her palm. “Mission accomplished, Bee. Let’s get the kids and go home.”
“Sure thing.” Bumblebee transformed to his alt mode, but realized something. “Hey, how is Prowl going to get Annie out of custody anyway?”
XXXXXX
Annie didn’t stop talking for almost an hour, and the guard was on the verge of bashing his head on his desk to stop this torture. She was hoping that he would’ve let her go by now, or at least for the Autobots to find a way to get her out, but she had to give this guy some credit for lasting this long. Very few people aside from her siblings could remain sane after listening to her drone endlessly.
The guard looked at the time and saw that it was 1:30AM. Where was the police? They shouldn’t take this long to come. He had no idea that the Sky Spy that was hacked into the cameras was also blocking the phone signals via the building’s electrical system.
“Now I don’t know about you, but I personally think that 300 is the best movie that portrays the Spartans’ fight against the Sunehran warriors. Granted Emperor Vayne looks a bit too “fabulous” for me in that movie, but I’m not exactly one to judge, right?” She smirked. “Anyway-“
“Look little lady, I didn’t bring you here to give me a history lesson. I just want to know what were you doing on the third floor with that panel. That artifact is priceless and if you damaged it in anyway, it’s going on your head.”
Annie tried to make up another excuse, but the door opened up and a rather handsome dark haired police officer walked in with a cool exterior. She actually got a little nervous at seeing him, but then she saw his badge. It was a stylized Autobot symbol.
“Sorry I’m late. You caught me in the middle of a speeding incident.” Prowl said coolly.
“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your patrol, officer. I was just trying to get this young lady to fess up about her mischief in this museum at this time of night.” The guard
explained.
Prowl nodded and gave Annie an analytical look extremely similar to the one he would give in his real body. “I see. Well, no need to worry. I’ve already notified the girl’s parents and they’re worried sick about her. I’m sure she’ll explain to them what happened.”
“But,” He was about to protest, but Prowl’s hard stare with his ice blue eyes shut him up immediately. “O-Okay. Young lady, I better not catch you in this museum again after tonight. You understand?”
“Oh yes sir! I’ve definitely learned my lesson.” Annie said, trying to keep the grin off her face. “I just hope I wasn’t too much trouble.”
“You should be worried about what your parents will do when they find out about what you were up to.” Prowl said. He gave the guard a nod and escorted Annie out of the office. On the way out, Annie collected the Sky Spy and they went to Prowl’s vehicle mode parked outside. He let Annie into the driver’s seat and disengaged his Holomatter. “You have no idea how lucky you are.”
“Actually, I do.” Annie said softly and smiled at him. “Thanks for saving my ass back there. I was running out of things to say.”
“It’s nothing.” He replied as he drove out of the parking lot and onto the street. “I was just doing my job.”
“No, seriously, thank you. I really owe you one.” She went on. “You totally didn’t have to come back for me, and I lost you a chance to get the panel-“
“We didn’t lose it. Arcee and Bumblebee just called in and they managed to get it from the Cons.” Prowl told her. “Despite some complications, this mission was a success. You kids did well in there.”
“Thanks.” Annie smiled.
XXXXXX
“Why am I constantly disappointed by my own soldiers?”
Megatron’s angry roar shook the halls of the mighty Nemesis ship as he reacted badly to the news of Knockout and Barricade’s failure. Leader-1 stood off to the side watching his master give his subordinates a thorough dressing down as they trembled in fear.
“You had one job. Just one!” Megatron shouted. “And somehow you managed to lose to a no-name scout and a washed up cyber-ninja!”
“Ahem, to be fair, lord Megatron, they had Prowl along too, so…” Knockout trailed off as Megatron’s snarling face got angrier with each word. “Shutting up.”
“How can we hope to gain a foothold in this accursed operation if we cannot even gain the
necessary weapons that can allow us an advantage over them?” Megatron asked. “You promised to retrieve the panel, Knockout, and yet the only thing you’ve achieved is showing your incompetence.”
“My apologies, lord Megatron.” The medic said, bowing his head.
“And you,” Megatron turned his burning gaze onto Barricade. “What’s your excuse?”
“I have none, my lord. I take full responsibility for your failure. We’ll accept whatever punishment you see fit.” Barricade said, glaring at Knockout to keep his mouth shut.
Megatron glared at both of them before turning away from them. “Your humiliating defeat at the hands of Prime’s dogs is punishment enough, but do not expect me to count on your services again.” He said, then added, “Oh, and Knockout, refrain from washing that sewage water from your body. I want you to spend the entire day like that to remind you of what happens to soldiers who don’t take their duty seriously.”
“Y-yes, lord Megatron.” They said, though Knockout sounded like he was going to cry. When they left the bridge, Leader-1 walked up to Megatron. “You shouldn’t have let Knockout go in the first place. He’s a medic, not a warrior. They don’t do much in the field except act as cannon fodder for the enemy.”
“I’m not in the mood for your japes, Leader-1.” Megatron growled. The Mini-Con raised his hands in mock surrender.
“I’m meant no disrespect, my lord. I’m just saying all is not lost. There are still others out there, many of them my secret agents.” He said. When Megatron didn’t seem the least bit interested, he decided to stop dancing around the topic. “And one of them may be closer to our enemies as we speak.”
That got Megatron’s attention. “What do you mean?”
“Lord Megatron, I checked out the panel that Scalpel recovered and recognized it as one belonging to one of my agents, the bot who gathered data on the Minicon Combiner project. As we speak, she’s inside the Ark, and when the time comes, she will grant us the victory we rightfully deserve.”
XXXXXX
The next day, before the kids went to school, they visited the Ark with their guardians to meet the new Minicon Sparkplug released from the panel after they went home last night. Sparkplug and his Minicons were in their quarters when the children came in.
“Kids, good morning!” Sparkplug greeted them. “How was your night?”
“Exhausting. I don’t usually stay up this late, and I’m feel so dead.” Gina yawned. Sleeping in late after all that excitement last night wasn’t her usual quota and it wreaked havoc on her morning schedule. Darren and Annie didn’t look any better either.
“Speak for yourself. My head still hurts from when High Wire knocked me over.” Annie said, glaring at the mech in question.
“I said I was sorry.” High Wire muttered.
Darren was about to break it up when he heard a mature feminine giggle behind him. “My, you humans are a rowdy bunch.”
Darren turned around and found himself face to face with a pink Minicon femme just a little bit taller than him with pink armor of varying shades and deep green eyes. She had two wheels on her back, connected by an axel that was folded upwards and hinted a two wheeled alt mode. She looked Darren over with a coy smile.
“Well, hello there.” Grindor whistled, earning a hard elbow from Sureshock.
“Hello humans,” The femme bowed her head a bit in greeting. “My name is Mugen. Nice to meet you all.”
