When All Lights Go Out I (TFP)

Chapter 3

Throwing his fist into the medic's face, Starscream had a devious grin as he watched the bot fall onto his back from the blow. He had been enjoying the scuffle he was having the medic knowing that he would locate the girl and take her back to the ship with the decepticons. He still had to thank Cliffjumper for revealing the location when he had informed the autobots about her.

"You really should have stayed home today, doctor," Starscream mocked as he walked towards Ratchet, arming his missile and aiming it at the medic's chassis. Ratchet glared at him in irritation. "A little shame you won't see how we might welcome her into the decepticons."

"As if you really know why she has that shard, Starscream!" Ratchet snapped angrily at the con, glaring at him with narrowed optics. "She just so happens to have it, and you had to kill an entire bus load of humans to get to her. You're nothing shy of a coward."

Starscream simply shrugged and chuckled coldly. "Oh, well. The girl's probably going to die now. She did fall into that river over there, and I don't think she managed to come back up. It raging too fast."

Ratchet growled as he moved to stand while Starscream stopped and was about to fire his missile when a red fist sucker punched Starscream's cheek. To his relief, Cliffjumper glared at the con as he flies into a try and shrieked loudly from impact. "He is really grinding my gears!" The bot turned and helped Ratchet to his feet before they both arm themselves. "You'd better make a run for it, Scream. Soundwave and the other cons have abandoned you."

"WHAT!!" Starscream shrieked in disbelief as he stood up with wide optics. He glanced up and saw the silhouettes of the jets flying away and he growled. He narrowed his optics as he saw Optimus speeding towards him. "This isn't over!" He jumped into the air and transformed. "Have fun fishing, ha, ha, ha!"

They watch the con fly away, though Ratchet ran over to the bank, looking into the river. His optics were wide as he saw the water was rushing. "I cannot see her." He transforms and began to speed along the bank. "She has to along here somewhere."

Cliffjumper stepped back as Optimus sped by him to follow Ratchet. He sighed and looked at the bike who was speeding towards him. "Guess I should have tried to speak to the girl before opening my big mouth."

"It's a little late for that, Cliff," Arcee said bluntly as she speeds past. "Transform and get into maximum overdrive. That girl could be drowning and we already got here too late to save those people on the bus."

"Special Agent Fowler is not going to be happy," Cliffjumper comments, glancing at Bulkhead and Bumblebee as they speed by him before he transforms to follow. "I feel really bad for the kid, I really do...I wasn't able to stop the kid from ending up in a terrible situation."

"You managed to hold them enough until we got here at least," Bulkhead said in a calm voice. "Still, I don't really understand why we are looking for the girl. You saw she had a crystal that seemed Cybertronian, right?"

"Yeah, the poor kid was run over by a bunch of other kids on their bikes and I see the crystal fall from her neck into the gutter of the road," Cliffjumper explained. "She scrambled to grab it like it was the most precious thing. And I think she has no parents. I followed her to an orphanage, and I honestly thought we would have needed Fowler to get her before I saw her sneaking out of the place to leave."

"Poor kid...and you unintentionally made her life worse as Soundwave listened to your report," Bumblebee said in a sad voice. "I don't know much about the crystal. Do any of you know?"

"I think Optimus and Ratchet do," Cliffjumper said in an uncertain tone. "Arcee, do you know anything about it?"

"I might. But it's a story that Optimus would have to tell you, I'm afraid. As there was simply an unfortunate incident long ago and a hard decision had to made." The three bots were really curious now. "Though I think once we find the girl and confirm the crystal is Cybertronian, he might tell you the story. Both Ratchet and I were there when it happened."