Healed [Sequel to Burned](Transformers Prime)

Chapter Five | Rise of Alpha

"Great," Jack muttered.

"MECH created the abomination that was the human inside of Breakdown's shell, am I correct?" Megatron asked.

"Yes." Ratchet paused in his typing. "They also aimed to collect weapons of mass destruction for their own personal use. Luckily, after Silas was destroyed, they stopped for some time, mostly to return to the shadows, I'm sure. But if they ever get wind that there is Cybertronian technology hidden and ripe for the taking, they will try to find it."

"Which makes our new objective all the more paramount." Megatron guessed.

"And ours." Jack added, feeling increasingly frustrated with the lack of answers. "But this information is getting older by the hour; some of it is probably already obsolete. It would help if MECH just reared its ugly head again."

"But they always leave without a trace!" Miko crashed on the couch next to Rafael, crossing her arms. "The only time we found Bulkhead was because of his life signal. And none of the equipment they steal has trackers!"

"As far as we know. But Raf is looking into that." Jack explained.

Dana sighed. "Fowler will want a report, but what can we report if we find nothing?"

"Just that," Jack shrugged. "We found nothing. But there's gotta be something . . ."

"What if we set a trap?" Miko suggested. "Almost like the D.N.G.S? We pretend we're transporting some super-important device and wait for them to come, and then snap! We spring our trap and capture them!"

"That's assuming MECH would be willing to try and steal it." Ratchet huffed. "Exposing ourselves for no reason could result in a different human organisation attempt to expose or eradicate us. There are risks involved, Miko, and I'm not entirely willing to take them. Not when it's just me."

"I could be of assistance -" Megatron began, immediately interrupted.

"You haven't passed your driving test yet!" Ratchet snapped. "And I am not trusting you to not double-cross me and hand me over to those goons. No, we will not go through with the plan, as poorly constructed as it is."

"We will just have to try to work with the information we have," Jack sighed, "though it isn't much."

Megatron looked a little offended, but kept quiet, finding logic in Ratchet's statement and simply accepting that it would be some time before trust was fully established.

"So far I haven't found any history of the government finding something similar to MECH operations using a tracker," Rafael reported. "But some of the devices they have stolen did have tracing chips in them. However, they were removed before extraction, which means that MECH must have known they were there."

"That could mean they have people on the inside," Dana searched through the papers. "The CIA had the same idea, but they pulled profiles from all of the people working there and couldn't find a single pattern. Rafael?"

"Already on it." He typed away while Dana searched, the girl pulling out a massive manila folder from a stack and flipping through it. Her green eyes scanned the names and occupations of each worker, trying to find something, anything.

"MECH is smart, though. Why would they let any sort of clue be in their name that would allow them to be identified?" Jack asked.

"So that other members could find them, and instantly know to trust them," Dana surmised. "So, what kind of clue would a MECH goonie leave behind for his other goonies to know it was him?"