Going Green

Chapter 34: Tada! I'm Stalking Ratchet!

Verdant's optics onlined quickly, shaking away a murky, forgettable dream. She sat up and looked around, noticing she was propped up against the wall in the centre of the base. Ultra Magnus was kneeling next to her, slowly melding a small, slightly painful spot on her side. Wheeljack was standing behind him, watching, a rather solemn expression on his usually cheery face.

"What happened?"

"Soundwave took Ratchet," Wheeljack said darkly. "Left the rest of you electrocuted and offline."

A stone dropped in her gut. "Ratchet is gone?"

"Nowhere to be found," Ultra Magnus told her. "Nobot saw Soundwave take him; he was the last to go down, but we know what happened."

The commander pulled away and offered her his servo.

"Why?" Verdant stood. "Why Ratchet?"

"As Ultra Magnus pointed out, they have made no demands, so it stands to reason that Megatron requires information from Ratchet," Optimus explained as he approached them, and the wreckers parted to make way.

"But..." Verdant looked up, realization dawning. "The synthetic energon formula."

Optimus nodded. "In addition to his new particular collider, Megatron has the power to destroy whole planets."

"Would he do that?" she gasped.

"No," Optimus narrowed his optics. "Not unless he was certain he could not first use that world for his own nefarious purposes."

Verdant frowned. "Then what does he want it for?"

Agent Fowler joined in. "As long as nobody has an ideas, I'll be sending a list of all the stolen goods to my friends in the Pentagon. We'll make it a top priority to conclude what the Decepticons are up to."

"Yo," Wheeljack popped his helm between Optimus and Ultra Magnus, looking at Verdant pointedly as he held up a piece of wired metal. "Does this random thing I found on the floor look an awful lot like Soundwave's plating?"

Verdant took it from him and examined it. "Did anyone get a hit on him?"

"Smokescreen and Bulkhead didn't stand a chance," Ultra Magnus told her. "And Ratchet certainly didn't perform any better."

"This is hollowed... it's piece of Lazerbeak's wing," Verdant decided. "Actually, now that I think of it, Ratchet managed to hit Lazerbeak before Soundwave onlined. This must have broken off."

"Does it matter?" Fowler asked. "The Decepticons will fix Lazerbeak."

Verdant glared. "Lazerbeak restored Soundwave's systems, which means he has the data of at least some integral part of the Decepticon warship. Soundwave is connected to every single system on the ship and he's the only one with complete access... aside from Lazerbeak. If we can access this chip's datacore, we can access the warship's systems, and it's location."

She grinned, closing her fist around the plate. Verdant's optics sparkled maliciously. "I could turn off their engines and send them crashing to the ground. It wouldn't be enough to terminate them, but either they abandon their ship and all their resources or Agent Fowler can bomb them to hell."

The plan was so utterly wonderful that everyone just gaped at her.

Except Optimus. "We would have to find Ratchet first, without sending the Decepticons into a frenzy."

"Well," Verdant nearly laughed at how perfect this was for them. "Should be pretty easy with a groundbridge and access to the Decepticon security network."

"Soundwave won't know you're there?"

"Through his own servers?" Verdant asked. "He would never even think to look."