A Spark of Hope

Chapter 8 - The Seed

We drove for about an hour, finding ourselves in the countryside of Illinois. The sun was setting over the horizon creating a tranquil atmosphere after all of the chaos we had just endured. From raiding the KSI labs to being kidnapped by a scary-looking transformer that could turn his face into a sniper rifle and escaping the giant city-sized spaceship, this day was a bit crazy. And exhausting. Tessa had passed out on my shoulder half an hour ago and I was getting drowsy as well, ultimately falling asleep as well.

Eventually, we stopped at an abandoned train stop, the same pod from the spaceship parked off to a side on a grassy field. I awoke to Bumblebee's sudden stop, nudging Tessa awake as well. All of us climbed out, greeted by the other Autobots. And Optimus was there. Once I saw him, I darted after him, clinging to his leg like he was back from the dead.

"Optimus! You're okay." I smiled. He kneeled to my height and offered me his hand to climb on. I giggled and jumped on as he lifted me to his shoulder. I quickly scooted over to his neck, hugging it with all my strength. "I'm so glad you're alright."

"And I'm glad they rescued you, but there are some matters I need to express to you all." He said, his demeanor quickly going serious.

"Yeah. Let's give Bumblebee the good news. We got a ship now. We're leaving." Crosshairs pitched in as he lay on a locomotive engine. I shot my head in his direction, shocked.

"Did I hear that right? You guys are leaving?" I asked Optimus with teary eyes. He glanced at me for a quick moment with soft eyes, yet with a hint of sternness. He was angry.

"You humans." Optimus sighed, walking over to Cade as he stood on a mound of ballast. "After all we have done. You don't know what you've brought upon yourselves."

"What?" I asked, completely confused.

"What? What is it now? What are you talking about?" Cade inquired. "I mean, I'm doing stuff out of my league here!"

"Yeah! Optimus, what's going on? You can't just say this stuff to us after all we've been through together. You can't just up and leave us. Not after how close we've become. We're like family." I told him, my throat starting to swell with sobs.

He looked at me with sorrowful eyes, knowing my heart, but he knew something deeper than just what we've been fighting. He sighed again and turned to face Cade. "You don't see who's controlling who. Within that manmade prototype I fought, I sensed the presence of Megatron."

My ears perked up to that name. "Megatron?"

"What, the Decepticon that started the Chicago war?" Said Cade.

Then the small blue Autobot named Brains spoke. "How do you think KSI built those bots in the first place, hmm? They had a whole mess of dead Decepticon heads and they were downloading their minds! And I was in charge of autopsy duty. No union, no benefits, no nothing. They hooked me up to Megatron, and that mind wasn't as dead as they thought. He died them the science and specs! All so they could build him a brand-new body. Then he infected it with his evil, nasty chromosomes. They had red, beady eyes. They got all in my lovely locks. Oh, I can smell it right now. Total inside custom job!" He then slid down a pole and landed on the ground. "KSI might have named the body the snappy name of Galvatron, but that's just Megatron reincarnated!"

"You knew this and you didn't warn them?" Tessa asked from behind a piece of iron and a mound of coal.

"Little girl, you can go to a pretty dark place when you on death row." Brains responded in a deathly tone. "He's been playing KSI all this time, all so that he could manipulate them into going after the Seed."

"Wait. The Seed?" Shane asked.

"Those nasty soldiers that were chasing us." I pointed out. "Tess and I saw them board the ship, and they took something that they called the Seed." Optimus looked at me and nodded in understanding.