The Power Within - Transformers Prime (2)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Episode 18 - New Recruit

[Amanda]

  Thankfully, things smoothed out over the next few days. Bulkhead had woken up and was now in the process of training his legs, since they were close to paralysis. Ratchet said that if he didn't use them now, he'd never be able to use them again. Needless to say, everyone was taking that very seriously, especially Miko, who was currently doing leg exercises with her guardian. Miko's attitude had changed too during this entire time, going from rash and impatient to understanding and, well, patient.

  She wasn't the only one to change. The Autobots were guarding us less and less now, since there was a constant need to be ready to go. Optimus especially. Since he started working on decoding the Iacon database, we had barely talked, let alone had the conversations we used to. I knew it was all for the greater good, and that we needed him to do this, but the truth was I missed my time with the Prime I called a father.

  Right now, Finn, Jack, and Raf were sitting on the couch, all huddled around Raf's laptop as they surfed the web for any Autobot-Decepticon related content, with Bumblebee watching over their shoulders. It was their job to erase all evidence of the Cybertronians, so they did this quite a bit. Miko and Bulkhead were doing leg exercises, while Ratchet was at work in his lab. Optimus was at the main computers, decoding the Iacon content, and Arcee was popping in and out. I was sitting at the table in the living area with my own laptop, updating the firewalls in my own mainframe.

  "Hold on." Raf's sudden confusion caught my attention and I looked up. "What's this?"

  Bumblebee buzzed something, which the younger boy translated to, "A Cybertronian escape  pod?"

  That got everyone's attention. Optimus walked away from his work, Arcee moved towards us, and Ratchet looked up. I got up and moved to sit next to Finn so I could get a look at Raf's screen.

  "Here? In Earth's atmosphere?" Ratchet demanded. Instead of replying, Raf sent the image to the base's main computers so everyone could get a look.

  "Autobot or Decepticon?" Arcee asked.

  The medic shook his head. "Impossible to tell, given the image resolution."

  "In any event," Optimus said. "This merits investigation."

  "Could be a trap." I piped up, not entirely trusting the fact that there was an escape pod from Cybertron. Any number of enemies could be in there.

  "And we're down one bot." Arcee continued. "Should we reach out to Wheeljack?"

  "I can hear you!" Bulkhead called, a little annoyed.

  Ratchet mostly ignored him, shaking his head. "I don't care if Bulkhead isn't combat-ready. After that revenge stunt he pulled with Miko, Wheeljack can stay rogue."

  "An Autobot may be in distress." Optimus said, cutting off all other arguments. "Ratchet, bring your medical kit." Then he turned to me. "Amanda, you're in charge of communication and transport."

  I nodded. "On it." Heading over to the human-sized computers near the ground bridge, I hooked up everyone's comms to sensitive so we could hear everything that was going on, and then opened the ground bridge to the coordinates Raf showed me. The Autobots transformed and drove through the ground bridge, disappearing at the other end. Finn, Jack, and Raf moved to stand or sit next to me, so they could monitor the situation as well and I was grateful for their support. Not to long after, the Bots' voices came up on the comms.

  "It is of Decepticon origin." Optimus said grimly. We all sucked in a breath

  "And the Con inside blew his way out." Arcee added.