Mysteries of a Prime

Darkness rising part 2

Aerialace's P.O.V

Around half an hour went by of me and Arcee looking at what Cliffjumper left for her. When we came back to the main area Arcee had tear stains on her cheeks. I was broken out of my thought by Ratchet, "Blasted Earth tech! Cliffjumper's signal popped back online!" My stabiliser wings shot up from the news, "who's Cliffjumper?" Miko asked but we just ignored her, "how is that possible?" Optimus asked Ratchet as that should be Impossible, "it isn't, another bug, the system's chock full of them." Ratchet confirmed my theory, just then, Arcee said what I was thinking, "If there's any chance Cliff's alive-" "Ratchet, prepare sickbay, we may need it." Optimus cut her off.

As we were all getting ready to go rescue Cliffjumper we were interrupted by Miko, "Hey! What can we do?" "Remain with Ratchet." Was all Optimus said, "Aww..." Miko whined while Ratchet whined, annoyed. The groundbridge soon opened and all I heard was, "Autobots, roll out!" From Optimus, with that, we all drove through the groundbridge.

We all made it out of the groundbridge where we transformed, with our weapons out, we looked around the cave and saw two things; it's an Energon mine and there are no guards here. Since there were no guards, we retracted our weapons, "Energon mine." Bulkhead stated, "judging by the scale, I have to assume it has been under Decepticon watch for quit some time." I observed. As we went further into the mine, we heard drills, there we came across a lot of miners harvesting the Energon. "Let's find Cliffjumper." Optimus announced. We came out of our hiding place, where soon, a bunch of miners spotted us and took out their blasters, we took ours out, and we were almost immediately rained down on with blaster fire, one of them even took their drill and tried to attack us, I quickly took the Vehicon out.

I was taking out Vehicons left and right, soon, we were finished with the initial wave and continued further into the mine. There was another wave of Vehicons waiting for us, "maximum overdrive!" I heard Optimus shout, with that, we transformed and drove or flew to the Vehicons, we were dodging the blaster shots, we soon got close enough to the Vehicons and took them out too, I took most of them out with my blasters on my jet... and maybe skewered a few, I was doing barrel rolls to dodge all the blasts.

We finally made it to the centre of the mine where was an elevator, I heard a whistle then a, "quite an operation." From Bulkhead. We started attacking from our hiding place, we were being shot back immediately. Me and Arcee saw Cliffjumper on one of the higher platforms, "Cover us!" I shouted over the blaster fire as me and Arcee went after Cliffjumper. I dodged and weaved through the blaster fire and climbing up the elevator, taking out a few guards so that they would not be a problem in the future, while Arcee was on motorcycle I was on foot as transforming would make me less maneuverable.

As I got closer to the platform Cliffjumper,  Arcee was dealing with a few Vehicons I left alive. Soon we were both on the platform where Cliffjumper is but we saw was heartbreaking; Only half of Cliffjumper was in front of us he was leaking a purple liquid that made me feel dizzy. As we getting closer to look at him better, a wall blaster fire rained down on us, causing the plate Cliffjumper was on to start falling, "Cliff!" I heard Arcee yell, I quickly lunged for the unconscious bot who I now held in one servo. As I tried to lift him more shots were being thrown at us.

"Let's get you home, partner." I could hear Arcee tell Cliffjumper as I was trying to lift him up. Suddenly Cliffjumper's head snapped to us and started growling, at that moment I knew that Cliffjumper was dead and this was just a husk. I summon Kai and he quickly came out of my matrix, even though nobody saw him, he went to retrieve Cliffjumper's spark and when he came back I saw a beautiful small red spark in his intake, I tell him to keep it with him until we get somewhere safe through the bond.

I quickly let go of the body of Cliffjumper to fall into a cluster of energon crystals. Heard a grunt from Arcee and cackling from Starscream, who was now on a higher platform. "Prime. I'd stick around but, I'm squeamish..." Starscream said as he dropped a bomb down into the lower levels of the mine, he quickly transformed and went up the elevator. The bomb landed in a cluster of energon crystals, "The joint's gonna blow!" I heard Bulkhead scream.

I quickly picked up Arcee and jumped down onto the level where the rest of the team is. "Autobots, roll out!" I heard Optimus yell as I set Arcee down and transformed, out driving the explosion. ::Ratchet, bridge us back, use the arrival coordinates now:: Optimus told Ratchet through the comm after a small pause to we would be in the correct position. We all drove through the portal.

As I came out of the portal I did transformed and did a flip so that Optimus would have enough space to transform. "Wow..." I heard Miko murmur. "Cutting it a bit close. How about Cliffjumper?" Ratchet asked to which everyone looked to the ground in sadness. "What was that explosion? Was there a fight? Can I come with next time?" Miko started rapidly asks question after question, I was about to explain when Arcee snapped at Miko, "Look-" "Hey, Hey, Miko, let's go see what the Bots hide in their sock drawers." Jack led Miko away to stop Arcee from whatever she was about to say, "Seriously?" Miko asked Jack but let herself get dragged away as she didn't want to get lectured by Arcee.

"Arcee, what did you see?" Optimus questioned Arcee but she just looked at me because I had a better look at before he fell. "It was not Cliffjumper, not anymore at least, he was leaking this purple liquid, he looked like we was in an experiment." I described what I saw, "He was mutated, butchered. Like something from those Con experiments during the war-Urg..." Arcee stumbled before leaving against one of the crates. "Hey are you ok-" "I'm fine, Bee. Just dizzy." Arcee interrupted Bumblebee. I started wondering why Arcee was dizzy until I realised it could be the purple liquid. Then I wondered why I wasn't affected until a wave of nausea hit me like a truck and I quickly crashed into the wall to keep me upright. I soon realise the liquid ate through my suite and was now eating through my frame and into my energon flow.

Optimus led me to where Arcee was sat and being checked my Ratchet. "Hmm, what is this?" He asked as he took Arcee's servo and examined the purple liquid, "Don't know. Cliff was covered in it- leaking it." Ratchet quickly scraped the liquid off of Arcee's servo, "Go take a decontamination bath, now." Ratchet ordered Arcee and he quickly went to check on me. I was so tired I leaned my help against the wall behind me. I showed him my servo, that was covered in the liquid, and he quickly scraped off as much as possible. I was soon being led to decontamination bath by Optimus as I couldn't walk without stumbling over my peddes.

A few minutes after Arcee left I came back to the main room to find it empty. "Aerialace, I suggest you get some rest. Tomorrow will be a long day." Optimus told me. "Yes, sir, but first I need to fill out my report of the energon mine." I told him. He nodded and went to bed. I finally summoned Kai again to take Cliffjumper's spark and put it in my matrix.