TransWarped

Chapter 3: Questions and Answers

"So, tell me again what happened?" Bumblebee asked as he, Prowl, and Optimus drove through the back garage of Sumdac Tower. It was a private entrance the Autobots often used to access the top of the tower and housed one of the only lifts strong enough to hold their combined weight.

"Bumblebee," Prowl sighed as they transformed and continued their race to the top of Sumdac Tower in bipedal mode. The trio briskly walked through the garage until they reached the industrial lift doors. "Prime told us what Sumdac said twice already. How many more times do you need to hear it?"

"Until it starts making sense!" The yellow bot threw his servos in the air.

Optimus ignored the two as they continued bickering, a skill he'd developed after stellar cycles of hearing them go back and forth, and focused on entering their security credentials to access the large industrial lift. While it was annoying to hear Bumblebee ask the same question three times in 15 minutes, he couldn't blame the young bot.

Prime had been calibrating his energon axe in his room, enjoying the relative quiet as Bumblebee watched TV and Prowl was on monitor duty, when Sumdac called him. The professor spoke in a hushed tone and told him that Ratchet, Sari, and Bulkhead had disappeared and 2 large unknown Cybertronians and a human were now lying unconscious at the top of Sumdac Tower.

Needless to say, it had been the fastest drive to Sumdac's building since Megatron had been reconstructed.

"You think it's Cons?" Prowl asked as they stepped in the elevator. He stood to Prime's left and Bumblebee was on Prime's right.

"I don't know," Optimus responded honestly. He brought up his battle mask and gripped his axe tightly. "But I'm not about to take any chances."

Prowl and Bumblebee shared a wary look and quickly brought up their battle masks and weapons.

The ride up to the upper levels was silent. It was the calm before the storm, Optimus realized. He took the time to strategize what to do if the bots turned out to be hostile. The terminal at the top of the tower held the schematics to the Autobot space bridge, which was now vulnerable to whoever was on the roof. His team had barely managed to prevent Megatron from transwarping to Cybertron, but there was always the possibility the other Decepticons would try to download the schematics to build another space bridge.

Then there was the safety aspect to deal with. The 3 intruders might have woken up and taken Sumdac hostage by now. And of course, there was the constant danger of being thrown off the tower. Optimus winced at the last scenario. He'd already been killed once by falling out of the sky and he'd rather not repeat it.

A buzzing alarm indicated that the trio had reached the roof of the Tower. Optimus kept his sensors on high alert as he stepped out of the lift first. The roof was split into two levels, the lower one was littered with spare parts and discarded machinery while the upper level held the space bridge and its console.

Optimus tried to listen in for any telltale noises of a fight. Typical signs of a fight ranged from shouts and clanging metal to explosions and loud declarations of love for Megatron. But he didn't hear anything but murmurs, which he identified as the voice of Professor Sumdac.

"Shouldn't we be hearing some Decepticon's maniacal laugh by now?" Bumblebee commented behind him. As usual, he was way too loud, and Prowl hushed him.

Optimus turned to his teammates and spoke quietly. "Bumblebee and I will take the elevator up. Prowl, you move to the other side of the room and use your booster to jump to the second floor." That way, they'd have some element of surprise in case he and Bee got cornered in the lift. As he stepped into the green lift, Prime made a mental note to ask Sumdac if they could install Cybertronian-sized stairs.