Transformers Prime: Project Predacon

We Have A Kind've Serious Talk

StarStrukk's POV

It took me seconds to hack the encrypted message, and what I found disturbed me on both an emotional and psychological level. Before I could mention anything to Optimus, Smokescreen came running and screaming at the top of his lungs, something about a stunner missing. The sparkling bot barely stopped in time, skidding almost into Optimus and I. He didn't bother brushing himself off but rather spoke quickly, neither of us could understand what he was saying.

"Calm yourself, Smokescreen. Slow down, we can't understand you when you speak fast." Smokescreen's optics sparkled and he forced himself to slow down.

"Summer's gone, Ratchet looked everywhere for her, he's acting a little weird." Optimus caught my optics and he started to follow Smokescreen back inside the Harbinger, hopefully Smokescreen would lead us to Ratchet who would tell us something useful and maybe helpful.

Smokescreen lead us to the laboratory, where Ratchet and Summer both stayed. The three of us walked in with no objection, Optimus and I saw Ratchet sitting on his berth, or what we thought was his, Optimus and I didn't watch him when he recharged. He was staring blankly at a wall until Smokescreen left. Optimus started to say something that I couldn't catch when Ratchet interrupted him. He sounded like he was sick, but we both knew his physical health was at its peak.

"Optimus, you were right. I should've listened to you." He turned to look at Optimus and I could see that his optics were watery, making them sparkle strangely. He continued to talk, on and on about how he was sorry and how he should've known. I glanced at Optimus, who kept his attention on Ratchet and also kept his mouth shut so Ratchet could just rant. It was only a few minutes of Ratchet talking before he ended his short sentence with a frustrated sigh. I took the opportunity to say something myself.

"You suspected, Optimus? About Summer?" Optimus watched Ratchet for a few moments, staring at his friend with pity.

"I suspected something long before we met Summer. Megatron's inactivity has always made me suspicious."

"So you think Megatron has been planning this?" Optimus blinked slowly and nodded solemnly.

"I've suspected he would try something like this since the beginning of the War, that's why I forbade any Autobot to have anything more than a friendship." I had a moment of realization, Ratchet had yet to join the Autobots before he met Summer.

"But does that mean Summer is really a Decepticon? She seemed. . . I dunno, she seemed to be a real bot." Ratchet had a sudden outburst, slamming his fist against his berth violently, letting out a cry of frustration.

"Has this all been lies?!? Does a 'Summer' even exist? How could- Why? Why would Megatron even bother? He was hardly out of his sparkling years when Summer disappeared." Optimus seemed to have thought it all over already, he didn't hesitate to console Ratchet, telling him that we needed a clear mind to get through this and figure everything out.

"That is why I've come to believe that Megatron had nothing to do with her disappearance and Summer does exist, she may have had her databanks washed or something else, something worse." Ratchet immediately demanded to know what it was Optimus was talking about but Optimus didn't say another word. Him and I both knew fully well that Ratchet could figure it out himself.

"What we need to be doing at the moment, is pinpointing the location of the Nemesis. If Summer is gone, surely Megatron took her off to there." Optimus paused to think for a moment, then frowned, something must have not been adding up.

"But how did he get her from here if there was no commotion? You would have seen the Nemesis or a fleet of Decepticons if they took her directly from our point on the map, Starstrukk." I hadn't seen a thing on my way back after the impersonation call and I hadn't sensed anything or anyone around when I had left or during my flight.

"Unless," Ratchet began. You could see that he was thinking now, trying hard to get to the bottom of whatever was going on. "She drove a distance away for him to pick her up. Which I know for a fact she wouldn't do, unless. . . possession. Like when Bumblebee was possessed by Megatron, mind against mind, meaning that whoever has taken over her body is in full agreement to Megatron and is having help controlling Summer's mind. She's a Prime, and being so means she is mentally stronger than most bots. Someone else is behind this as well, whoever it is knows exactly what they're doing, if one mistake were to happen their entire plan could implode on itself." I followed as Optimus began to step out of the room, mentioning that he was going to get the team together to find some kind of tracks, which he doubted there were any, just to see if it would lead them anywhere. Ratchet stayed where he was, not bothering to get up, probably wondering about the different ways Summer could be used to hurt his team. Optimus rounded up the others, pairing them up to search for anything that could be a clue outside of the Harbinger.

"Bulkhead, Arcee, you two will search the north side of the ship. Bumblebee and Smokescreen, you search the outer east side, Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus, you two will search the south side for anything of our interest, something that could lead us to the Nemesis. Starstrukk, you and I will talk about the encrypted message." Optimus lead me to the only computer we had other than the one that was with Ratchet. Despite the higher quality device in Ratchet's room, Optimus refused to disturb the medic, only saying that he needed time to think.

"Now," Optimus started, typing a few keys on the platform. "Did you finish decoding the message?" I nodded and he stared at me expectantly.

"Oh, uh. They're numbers." He made no reaction to this fact, almost like he expected it.

"Coordinates, maybe?"

"There are too many numbers to be coordinates." I responded, realizing now that I was wasting a bit of time keeping the numbers to myself.

"They're 7, 0, 2, 6, 5, 7, 9, 3, 7. They're not in any particular order either. They could be coordinates, but we would have to pair up certain numbers and any which of them could be the correct one." Optimus thought for a moment, if they were coordinates, it would take a lot of time for just one person to be putting them together and dispatching a team to the area.

"Since Ratchet is. . . off duty, we'll need Raphael. I'll call him on his cellular telephone."

"You could just call it a cell phone." I mumbled under my breath in slight annoyance. Optimus either didn't hear me or ignored me, instead calling Raf on the computer he was using, which I didn't know how that was possible. But Decepticon tech, ya know? Optimus and I watched the screen until Raf answered his phone, speaking in a hurried voice.

"Oh, uh, hey. . . dad. What's up?" I could see that Optimus was definitely taken aback from being called dad, and he obviously had no idea as to why. Knowing that the children had school on most Wednesdays Raphael was probably in class, trying to talk in a hushed voice, or he was let out in the hallway to talk.

"Bumblebee will be there to pick you up, tell your instructor it's an emergency." We heard a sigh on the other end of the receiver.

"Optimus, can't you have Ratchet do it? I can't keep walking out of class saying it's an emergency when really you guys got a text from someone that can't spell when they have the wrong number."

"Ratchet is busy and this is a real emergency." I called out, hoping he could hear me. After a few more quick words Optimus sent me out to tell Bumblebee of the news and see if any of them had found anything useful. I wandered outside, heading to the east side of the Harbinger, on the opposite side of where it was cut off by the side of a cliff. Off in the distance I saw Smokescreen running around, kicking up sand and rocks like a mini tornado and Bee was actually looking around, gazing at the dusty ground for anything they could find. When I got close to him, he looked up and addressed me, telling to do something about Smokescreen and his hastiness.

"Hey, guys! I think I found something!" Bee facepalmed himself and yelled back at Smokescreen in annoyance.

"Smokescreen, those are your own footprints." By the sound of Bee's aggressive beeping, this had definitely happened before. I shook my helm a bit, sighing gently before explaining the situation to Bumblebee, letting him know that Raf needed to be picked up from school because Ratchet was busy at the moment. Almost the instant I finished talking with him he looked over at Smokescreen, who was now rolling in the dust, picking it up, watching it slip through his fingers before yelling out which way the wind was going.

"I'll watch him, let Optimus know before you leave that I'll be out here. . . babysitting."