Hunt for the Thirteen

Home Base

Have to pull some plot strings here before we can get back to the action...

Oneway watched from where he leaned at one corner of the base. And there was a lot to watch.

Bata and Donnie hard at work tring to track down Override, scientists and doctors trying to figure out how cybertronian ghost possession of a human worked, Clarissa trying to keep it together, Leo trying to help her, Gerome sitting at her feet, Skunks getting ready to go after Maim...

But his eyes were on Chem. Seemed they always were. Right now the sparkeater in-command was the highest ranking bot here, as Optimus, Elita, and Thrust were out searching for the relics.

She was staring down at her journal, as if that could give her all the answers. Well, Trion did give it to her. Maybe it did.

He could go over and ask her, he supposed. Only him and Chem didn't really talk anymore, unless they had to.

Or if he had to hunt her down and catch her, like when she'd first become a sparkeater. Tarantulas had been the one to bring her mind back from the edge, but Oneway had been the one to take her to him.

He...didn't like to think of his friend when she was like that. When she wasn't herself. The way her eyes and mind were filled with nothing but hunger, her intelligence and personality and humor gone, leashed to Quintessa, used as her weapons...

Oneway was so focused on his memories that he didn't notice the energon running down Chem's arm until Breakdown brought it to everyone's attention.

"Chem!"

The ex-con gently took her arm to examine the wound, which Oneway realized was a self-inflicted wound.

"I am not suicidal." Chem said calmly as she dipped a finger in her wound and wrote in the journal with her own energon. "Simply testing a theory."

"A theory of what?" Clarissa asked, full big sister mode, looking at Chem in concern.

"Okay!" She said excitedly as Breakdown welded her arm. "So I am pretty sure this journal is the Covenant of Primus. Paired with the a Quill, one has a limited ability to write what is to happen. So, even though I don't have the quill, I thought maybe I could use my energon in the journal to find it."

Chemico showed everyone her journal, which now had the words Chemico finds the Quill. Chemico is lead to the quill. Written in inky blue energon.

She looked at everyone with a big smile on her face, but everyone looked back at her in concern.

"What?" She said.

Oneway sighed, marching towards her. Honestly, one of the few reasons they ever did talk anymore was because he had to make sure she was okay. Mentally, physically, and emotionally.

But that's what friends were for. Even if he hadn't been the best friend over the past few years. Centuries.

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Skunks silently packed her stuff. Extra energon, a net, a few weapons along with her bo staff.

"A little much, isn't it?" Skunks looked up to find Chem staring down at her.

Her arm was fine now, though nothing had come of her theory as of yet.

"How much trouble to you think Maim has gotten herself into?" Chem shook her head. "Reminds me of when Bee goes after Mia."

Welp. She was onto her.

"Someone has to find her."

"We can wait for informatio--'

"Can Mia wait?"

Chemico didn't respond. None of them knew what this was...going to do to Mia. To her body. To her mind.

For all they knew, they had a limited amount of time before Nexus completely burned through her.

Their eyes suddenly zeroed in on Clarissa.

The teenager was pacing around the base now, dog on her heels, doing her best to help and stave off any panic.

Skunks thought back to that promise she had made, before this all started, before this all really started.

"Um, Skunks." The maximal drew her eyes away from the human to look to the Ninja Turtle.

Donnie was taking a well deserved break from searching for a car that may or may not be on Earth. He looked up at her nervously, fiddling with his own staff.

"Yes, young turtle." Skunks was well aware she sounded like some old master, but she preferred treating the kids like the young adults they were.

"Well, um, I was wondering if I could train with you a bit. Before you go. Or when you come back." Donnie stuttered. "Unless you don't want to, which I totally get, it's just you're the only other one who uses a staff like me and--"

"Okay. But we gotta do it now." Skunks started to walk out to her training area outside the base.

"Really?" Donnie hesitated.

Skunks laughed. "Don't worry, D, if any human should see us, I think they'll be more focused on me then you."

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Bata was still hard at work. Donnie had wanted her to take a break when he had, but she was fine. Just fine.

She was always calmer in the base, and even now, filled with autobots and maximals working on 1000 different things, it calmed her. Honestly, it was the organic unnerving her.

Not her Hyenas, and not her twin, just...everyone else.

She loved the turtles, and Clarissa, and Benny and the other humans and all...

But really, without Mia, it was hard to stand humans or people with Human DNA. Especially when her two worlds interacted. Her New York mutant gang-fighting friends and her robot alien warrior family.

She liked them separate. She loved them all together, but they all started to get on her nerves a little.

"Miss kuwa binadamu pekee?" Rhinox asked in Swahili, smiling down at her.

"Nimekosa kuwa na maneno mawili." Bata responded.

Their organic friends all looked at them in confusion. Except Alex, who like Bata had been taught to understand and speak many languages.

"I know they're speaking Swahili." Clarissa said. "I just don't understand what they are saying."

"Yeah, Rhinox. Not everyone can speak Swahili like you and the prodigy twins." Rattrap laughed.

"Hey, I'm learning to." Clarissa scowled at the rat.

"Hey, I didn't mean anything by it--" the Rat started.

"Clarissa rel--Rattrap is just trying to help." Alex said.

When your sister was possessed by an alien god it was never fair to tell someone to 'relax'.

"Well, what were they saying?" Clarissa asked.

"That's private. I think Bata would have said it in English if she wanted you all to hear." The rat responded.

Bata gave the rat a grateful smile. Some things were just easier talking to giant robot aliens to then humans. Or talking to Mia, but she wasn't here right now.

Skinks came back with Donnie, the latter having the face of one in deep thought.

Suddenly, an alarm went off on Bata's computer. She watched feed from a hacked-into servalliance record at an arcade.

She stared at the odd car that raced into shot and away, a blur of a human shape viable in the passengers seat.

"I found Override."