Arcee pulled into base and I quickly got off the bike, slipping off the helmet as Jack did. He stepped back and watched Arcee transform, smiling lightly before setting his helmet off to the side. Shaking my head to snap myself out of staring at him for no real reason, I turned to see Raf pulling out extra remote racing cars from his bag.
"I snuck these to school today so we could race each other for real today!" He announced happily, "This'll be way cooler than any old racing game, promise!"
"No promise needed." Jack replied, quickly walking over, "Hand me a controller."
"Me too! Get prepared to eat my dust, Raf!"
Raf smirked, and I quickly realized he did this not to have a special bonding moment with everyone, but to relish in another one of his easy wins, naming him the true 'best of all of us' once again. He could outsmart us, and outrace us, anyday.
It simply didn't feel fair, that a kid so small and so young and so... inexperience, technically, could do such things.
"Alyona, you gonna play too?" Raf asked.
I hesitated. I wanted to play, just a little, but I knew in the end the defeat would be too much to bear.
"I think I'll pass for today. Good luck though, Jack, Miko."
"Good luck to me? HA!" Miko wheezed, "Give it to the ladies!"
Jack blinked, "D-did you just call us ladies-"
"Ready!" Bee buzzed, and Raf quickly adjusted his grip on the controller, the other two doing the same. Miko even bent her knees into a fighting position and narrowed her eyes on the road.
"We'll take a lap around the base and finish by that line over there!" Raf instructed, "Just follow my lead!"
"GO!" Bee cheered.
I can't believe Raf really just said 'follow my lead'. He knew he was going to win two days ago when he thought this might be a fun idea. Now he's just living his dreams.
"PRIME!" Fowler screamed through the interface, "Do you read me?"
"I'm sorry agent Fowler, Optimus isn't here at the moment."
"Then I'll take that as a confirmation that he's presently trying to run me off the road!"
My arms uncrossed "What?"
Ratchet kept his cool, "Agent Fowler, that hardly seems likely."
"Tell that to my burning treds!"
"We have to go and assess the situation then." I insisted, "Now!"
Arcee turned to face me, her eyes flickering behind me for a second, probably to Jack, before back to me, "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
I narrowed my eyes, "I'm always thinking about that."
I grabbed my helmet and Jack yelled after me, but everyone ignored it. I jumped onto Arcee as she transformed and Ratchet opened a bridge.
"Come on, bring the speed." I whispered, knowing she heard, "I need to get close!"
If my father got as far into his research as I could easily assume he did, teaming up with the decepticons along the way, then it wouldn't have been very hard for him to find a look-alike model of Optimus' vehicle mode so that he could torment Fowler to finding more auto bots.
He'd seen Fowler's face before, so he was a prime target, and the dark of the stormy day wasn't helping Optimus' criminal record, false allegation or not.
I glared up ahead, finally seeing the two cars come into view, Fowlers run down vehicle had crashed into the side of the bridge and was barely hanging onto the edge, the supposed Optimus Prime in vehicle form was pushing him over slowly.
Looks like something my father would do.
Bumblebee was able to pull forward ahead of all of us, transforming at the last second, he leapt over the walls of the bridge and caught Fowler one handed, the other clinging to a lamp post.
"Help him up, Bulkhead!" Arcee instructed,
skidding to a stop. I managed to see as much as I could of, as it sped off down the road.
"It looks like Optimus." Bulk noted, before quickly turning to Bee.
"Primes don't run." Arcee scowled, pissed at the situation.
"MECH does whatever it can to survive. And if this was Optimus Prime, he surely wouldn't have stuck so safely to vehicle mode."
"You're right." Arcee agreed, "But, I scanned him- no driver."
"MECH prides themselves on their technological advancements. You think my father wouldn't be able to make a life sized remote control robot?"
I couldn't see her eyes, as she was still transformed, but I swear her very soul hardened. She sped off down the road after him and I kept my eyes open, focused. I needed to confirm as a secondary, human witness, that this wasn't the real Optimus Prime.
He turned around a bend and we lost him for a second, seeing nothing past the old abandoned gas station. Arcee slowed down to look slowly around the area. Maybe he'd stopped for a second...
My eyes widened, "Arcee, to your right!"
She transformed at the last second, throwing me off of her and out about twenty feet. I rolled and slammed against the post of the old gas price sign, and stayed down until the truck rolled out.
But I saw it as it drove off. No transformation, no words, nothing. And on the side, there was something. Something only MECH added to every one of their projects. Something only I would recognize.
I got you, bastard.
I sat up slowly, grunting. Nothing was broken, but I would definitely bruise. Looking over to Arcee, I swallowed hard. She was still unconscious.
I stumbled to my feet and jogged over, yelling, "Arcee! Arcee! Wake up!"
No reaction what-so-ever. She wasn't bleeding, from what I could see.
I pulled out my phone, the screen cracked. Luckily it still worked, "Bee? You there?"
"Alyona! Where are you?"
"Uh... forty yards north of our prior position. The Optimus look-alike caught Arcee off guard and slammed right into her at about 100mp. She's... she's not waking up."
"I'm on my way!" He buzzed back, "Are you hurt?"
I pursed my lips, "No, I'm fine."
"Don't lie."
I sighed, "I'm... bruised."
"It's okay not to be okay." He mused as tears welled in my eyes.
How much trouble are they going to get in for this? How long will it take for me to prove that this wasn't the real Optimus, and will I be able to do it before the military casts them out, and I won't ever be able to see them again?
"Just hurry. Please."
-
Arcee was being looked over closely by Ratchet for about an hour. I sat off to the side, refusing to take off my jacket so Fowler or anyone else could check on my wounds. I ate the snack Jack gave me, though, so he laid off.
"What happened?" Jack asked after I'd finished eating the granola bar, worried, "Did Optimus-"
"No." I said, eyes hard, "It wasn't Optimus."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure." I replied, "The problem is trying to prove it in a way that everyone can understand."
Ratchet noticed Arcee waking up, and held up a light to help her eyes focus. Once she was fully awake, Bee helped her step down from the recovery station and followed her on her first few steps until they were sure she was okay.
"Arcee," Jack began, stepping forward, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah... aside from being blindsided by... Optimus."
I frowned. I'd lost her - the close up front look must have fooled her, especially considering it completely knocked her out.
"Didn't I tell you?!" Fowler scoffed.
"Impossible." Ratchet argued, but Arcee insisted. She was reporting what she saw, but I saw more.
"It wasn't Optimus." I began, standing straight from my seat.
"Alyona's right. Why would Optimus try to knock off agent Fowler?"
"Maybe Optimus thinks he's a Decepticon all over again!" Raf theorized, which made me frown.
"Even when he did think he was a decepticon, he never hurt anyone."
"Or!" Miko pipped up, "He's been faking being a good guy all this time!"
I glared at her, but she didn't notice.
"If Prime has gone off the rails, for any reason, we have a serious problem." Fowler confirmed.
"He hasn't gone off the rails. I'm telling you, I saw it up close! It's just some remote look-alike!"
Ratchet stepped up, walking through the group of us to shut us up, shaking his head, "A quick check for Optimus' signal will reveal that he's nowhere near the location of tonight's incident. In fact- he's just returning now!"
Everyone turned to greet him, guards high, and Fowler gathered us up near the exit doors just in case. I was fuming, but kept it together. Even if this wasn't all just some genius enemy attack to throw us into a spiral, and Optimus really was turning against us, could his subordinates that have pledged to lay down their lives for him and his cause really be able to fight him?
"Is something wrong?"
"We were just-" Arcee cut herself off, nervous, glancing at Bulk, "Wondering where you've been."
"We haven't been able to reach you." Bulkhead added.
"I have been outside of our communication range."
Optimus paused, turning to reach behind him, everyone reacted and pulled out their firearms, Fowler shot out his arms to haul us back and I smacked his hand away.
Optimus held up his free hand, "In a subterranean Energon deposit." He quickly finished, eyes wide and worried.
"Come on, it's our guy!" Jack called out, throwing his hand towards Optimus, "Can't you tell?"
"We're... sorry." Arcee spoke first.
"Don't blame them, Prime. I was attacked earlier tonight, on an open highway by a big rig- one that bore a striking resemblance to you."
I stepped up past Fowler, "When that thing crashed into Arcee and I went flying, I noticed something as it drove off past me. A mark, something only I would notice and recognize, a mark that my father puts on all MECH creations. My father is the one behind this, and we need to act before he acts first! You think he'll stop with Fowler? Track that thing down, now!"
"Alyona, I need you to relax." Fowler held up a hand, and I moved my glare to him, "I can't let you run yourself into the ground again, so soon after your recovery."
"This time, I'll be fine. As long as you listen to me!"
"Hey." Jack spoke gently, sending some kind of shock wave through me, "We're gonna figure this out, together. Okay?"
I blinked fast, pulling myself together. That was weird. The way he said it was so... compelling. Or am I just going insane?
Optimus met Fowler at the high platform to ask some further questions, and Miko asked me what it was like to fly through the air in the night, pulse racing, not knowing if I was to die or survive... and well, she went on for a while. I just let her speak, watching her swerve and dance and act out some kind of tragedy, because it seemed to be very entertaining for her. Definitely an odd form of stress relief.
Fowler's phone rang, shutting Miko up, "Fowler here- What? That's not possible!"
I turned to face him fully, wishing I could hear what the other end was saying, "I can tell you sure as there are fifty stars on my star-spangled shorts- it isn't him!"
"I knew it." I mumbled, my fists clenched as I thought of it.
My father has already busted this thing into a restricted military base- and only my father would know where those are and exactly how to get there, further confirming that he's the one behind this.
He hung up the phone and turned back to us, "A military base is under attack. By Optimus Prime."
"The truck?" Jack asked.
"The bot."
I exhaled slowly as everyone turned to Optimus, who stood worried and still awfully confused before us. So, this is what he wanted Bee's T-cog for.
-
All military personnel were under strict orders to destroy any and all bots on sight. They were highly classified, alien criminals now, and if Fowler kept affiliating with them too long without finding a way to prove their innocence, he'd be dubbed a criminal too.
"They actually did it." Ratchet began, "Those butchers managed to crack the code."
"MECH." Optimus hissed, and my stomach twisted.
I put my hand on my head, and suddenly an entire squad was surrounding me, "Are you okay?" Raf quickly asked, shocking me.
"M-maybe you should sit down!" Miko added, making it worse.
"What in heaven's name are you on about? I'm fine!" I insisted.
Raf frowned, "Last time, you passed out from a huge fever because of how MECH was hurting Bee. Now, they're hurting all of us."
"But- that was-" I pursed my lips, sighing.
How was I to admit that the reason I got so obsessed and so sick, was because MECH wasn't just hurting the people I wanted to protect, but because even from this distance, MECH was still hurting me?
It was easier to fall asleep with the help of the therapist now, and I was eating better, but it still wasn't the same. Now, I just felt like crying all the time, like a child. I wanted to fight, I wanted to be strong again, just on the better side.
I wanted to destroy my father, for this. I wanted him to look at me and see that he'd made a mistake, and remorse, and get what he deserves. That's what all this made me feel, this overwhelming sludge of emotions, one desperate thought after another...
Yeah, maybe I should sit down.
"I want you to sit this one out, Alyona." Fowler began, which made me slightly annoyed, but I couldn't refute, "For real this time."
"I... I promise I'll be alright." I spoke earnestly.
He rose a brow.
"And... I won't run out with Arcee on dangerous chase missions because of a suspicion that I might be able to identify the problem in a way the bots couldn't - which I did, by the way!"
He cleared his throat, crossing his arms, and I groaned.
"Alright, I get it. I'll go sit down."
I took to the coach and grabbed one of the old throw pillows, shoving it over my head as I laid down. If I had to 'sit out' I didn't want to hear a damn thing. The auto bots took to the road to search for the MECH base that had to be nearby, considering they wouldn't have been able to make a ground bridge. The others stayed close to Ratchet to listen in on their every move, and Ratchet was trying to find the base, and my fathers precise location, from a much safer distance.
And I was here, on the couch. Because I was a sickly, broken child who'd work myself sick if I didn't rest.
I pouted under the pillow, even though I did feel pretty tired.
Just as I felt my body rest into the old cushions, and my hand loosened its grip on the pillow, I heard Fowler speak.
"Open that bridge."
"Fowler, did you not hear Optimus advise against your involvement? It's for your own safety."
"Look Doc, I don't plan on dancing with any bots. But as a human element in play here - and in case you haven't noticed - a highly trained government grade human, I think I can take my safety into my own hands."
"Yeah!" Miko cheered, "Plus, Nemesis Prime tried to run him off the road. It's personal."
"Speaking of personal, that asshole Silas made his own daughter his child soldier, and now she can't even sleep right at night because of his dark, ugly cloud raining over her head with endless threats. Alyona's not strong enough to take him down - but I am. And I'm doing this for her, for me, and for all of you!"