Transformers - Beyond What Meets The Eye - A 1215 FanFiction

18

Communications stayed on while they bridged to the other world, and I listened in close on every word with the others. For the most part, things were quiet. Miko didn't fill the silence, and we were patient, until Jack gasped through the comp,

"We're being attacked! By some- giant bot beetle!"

"An insecticon." Ratchet answered for us all.

"There are still decepticons on Cybertron?" Raf asked.

"Some remained, in stasis. Centuries. Should the enemy return."

I clenched my teeth together. If that vermin was called an insect instead of a regular decepticon, then I had every reason to believe that those people that stayed behind in stasis had somehow completely lost their minds in the isolation of their waiting.

"Jack, go!" Arcee yelled, her voice was distant over gun shots.

"Without Arcee? She's his guide!" June pressed.

"No Nurse Darby. Arcee is Jack's backup. The key card is his guide." Ratchet corrected.

I stepped forward and slammed my finger on the mic. Maybe we should have gone through those panic drills after all, "Listen to her, Jack." I instructed, "You've made it this far, and you'll make it through the rest. Optimus is counting on you."

There were two breaths. Two short breaths that I closed my eyes to listen to, "Roger that."

-

"Hey everyone." Jack called in, about ten minutes later, "I'm in."

"Sweet!" Miko cheered.

I gripped the back of Raf's seat, smiling to myself, "Well done, Darby."

"Commencing download." He replied simply, though he sounded slightly like he was catching his breath. It was either from whatever it took to get there, or it was how shocked he was at whatever he was seeing.

I almost put the same camera on him that I had Bee take with him to the center of the Earth, but when I held it in my hands I remembered that Ratchet said that only a Prime can activate the key and enter Vector Sigma.

I wasn't a Prime, and in accepting that I wasn't a chosen advocate for one, I had to set the camera down and be at peace with the fact, that only Jack deserved to see what was there in the heart of Cybertron.

"This is taking a while."

"Of course it is!" Ratchet replied before any of us could comment, "We are talking about the collective wisdom of the Primes."

I leaned back, crossing my arms. It already took them long enough to get down there... if the download takes even thirty minutes, it could put everyone in jeopardy.

I blinked, yelling started to come through the communications. Jack was frantic all of a sudden, and when Ratchet asked what was wrong, he replied with one, cutely terrifying word.

"Scraplets."

"What's a scraplet?" June and I asked together, glancing at each other as we did.

"If they chew through Vector Sigma before the Matrix fully reloads-"

"So Vector Sigma is more than a legend." I sucked in a breath. That was Megatron's voice.

The communications link cut off after that, and no matter how much Raf tried to call out to Ratchet, he was no longer listening. They had something much more important to worry about, and so did we.

"Rafael." I spoke, the boy's head snapping up to me, "What is a scraplet?"

He swallowed, "They're like leeches. The size of a soft ball, with razor sharp teeth. They're insanely fast, and feed on anything metal. They're deadly to Cybertronian kind... and if Jack doesn't hurry, or find a way to stop them, they'll eat away at Vector Sigma, regardless of its importance."