Shadow of the Guardian, Part 5

When Andromeda opened her optics, she found herself hovering just a few feet above the waves of an ocean.  She found it rather peaceful, but she focused more on what lurked within the waters--then it started looking more ominous than anything.  She folded her wings in towards her body and dived, letting the weight of her body pull her under.  She cast Mini on herself as a precaution, trying to prevent any Decepticon sensors from picking her up, and suddenly wished that she had Sheba’s Vanish spell--the thought disappeared very quickly.

She soon began to notice something… off… about the surface almost directly below her.  There was clearly something there that was more metallic than stone, although it was hard to tell since she was still a fair distance above it.  As she dived deeper and deeper, she found that it was a HUGE ship--a spaceship or starship, most likely--regardless of her altered perception or not.  They didn’t lie, she thought, impressed.  The likelihood of the Autobots sending her on a Feral-Sweep-chase was low, but still possible--although she had hoped not.

She landed with barely a sound on the outer hull and carefully jumped off to sink to the ground itself.  She looked around, using every sensor and scanner to determine just how well she had avoided detection, and eventually began examining the hull itself to find the right point to make her entrance.  The hull was still very sound, but there was one certain point that was weaker than the rest.  In fact, it was nearly a perfect circle--enough of a patch-job to last, but it was still a weakness.  Andromeda smiled darkly--it was a way in.

Most of the rank-and-file Decepticons had met up in the control room to talk about the recent occurrences.  The only ones absent were Soundwave, the Cassettes, Megatron, and the two objects of the conversation--Starscream and Sheba.  Some of the Decepticons were not too eager to trust Sheba after the last major fight against the Hunter, but others saw that things weren’t nearly as bad as it appeared.

“Look, guys, I’m just saying we should give them the benefit of the doubt,” Blitzwing was in the middle of saying.  “Besides, is it really that far out there to guess that Sheba would make an exception for Starscream?”

“Maybe,” Skywarp relented, shrugging slightly in a typical ‘I-don’t-care’ fashion.  “I still don’t like it.”

Thundercracker lightly gave his fellow Seeker a slap upside the back of his head.  “You ARE dense, aren’t you?  It doesn’t matter WHAT we think, especially when it’s about Sheba and magic.”  

“Yeah, especially since Megatron has told us in no uncertain terms that--,” Thrust began to say, but there was a scratching sound that nobody could really distinguish.  “Wait, what’s that sound?”

Everyone quieted down to listen, but it was so faint that their audios could barely pick it up.  “It sounds like Ravage using a metal bar as a scratching post,” Dirge commented, earning a few smirks from the others at the mental image.  “Still… it’s coming from over here.”

He walked over to a patched-up area of the floor that hadn’t been disturbed in years, ever since just before Megatron had brought Cybertron into Earth’s orbit.  The Autobots had opened it up in order to rescue one of their human friends, and some of the Decepticons wondered if the same thing was happening now.  After all, the capture of those three Autobots and the human boy was hardly a secret.

There was a sharp bulge as a small ‘bubble’ appeared near the center of this section of flooring.  There was the sound of a missile hitting that section and a hole barely large enough for a human opened.  Through this opening emerged a fully robotic creature and its wings flared as it stared at the hole it had created.  It pressed the shards of the broken flooring down in an attempt to cover the hole, but noticed with some satisfaction that the water didn’t seem to come into the base.  Odd, but handy.

It then looked up, right at the startled Decepticons, and its blue optics flashed a greenish-white.  It snarled, wings flaring to full wingspan, and that’s when the Decepticons saw it--a red Autobot insignia on her shoulders.  “Autobot!”  Motormaster shouted as he and his Stunticons opened fire.  

The robotic beast dodged the shots, then quickly glanced over those present.  “A pity I must do this, but you’re in my WAY!”  She barked, and that’s when the Decepticons made the connection between this tiny robot and another beast that looked similar in color.  “STEEL BLADED SWORD!!!”

Multi-colored orbs were absorbed by the mechanical winged beast and the Decepticons found themselves outside, as if in the middle of the woods near the Autobots’ base.  The full moon had just finished rising and, standing on the edge of a cliff in front of it, was a horned yellow-skinned human--Odin--wearing a suit of whitish-silver armor and holding a blade that glowed a light blue, like an Autobot’s optics.  He was riding on the back of a white 6-legged horse with a grayish-black mane and tail.  Interestingly, there was no saddle or reins to control the beast.  

With a shrill scream, the horse leapt off of its perch and galloped towards the Decepticons.  Odin only needed a single sweep of the blade, which seemed to stop time itself, to make his attack--every Decepticon present was ‘sliced in two’, albeit just for the duration of the summon.  Odin galloped by and disappeared, making the robotic winged beast return to their world, which had shifted back to the Decepticons’ control center.  Like dominoes, all of the Decepticons collapsed, instantly defeated from the attack.  

Andromeda did feel a tinge of regret that she had to do that, but she had no choice.  She had to focus on her mission, and these Decepticons would just get in the way.  She sensed that neither Guardian nor Guarded One were present, but she knew that she couldn’t assume anything--least of all about Sheba.  So, she cast Mini on herself to shift herself to her normal size, then bolted down the hallway as she followed the scent.  

The powerful burst of Mako energy used to power the summon did not go unnoticed by Soundwave’s acute sensors.  He was currently ‘supervising’ Megatron’s interrogation of Perceptor, recording everything the scientist said for later analysis--especially to see if he was lying.  Megatron also sensed something… off… and shot Soundwave a quick glance over his shoulder.  Obeying immediately, Soundwave ceased recording and took his leave, drawing his weapon as soon as he was out of Perceptor’s limited sight.  Perceptor, although not any better physically from his injuries, did notice the sudden change and had to wonder what was going on.

Andromeda made her way through the halls, pausing only to mark certain rooms for later use.  The command center, meeting room, certain quarters… that’s when she found Sheba’s scent to be much stronger than everywhere else.  “Odd,” she whispered softly as she stopped at the door, nose to the ground.  In fact, the scent was so strong that the Hunter wondered if the Guardian was inside and simply hadn’t noticed the Summon.  

A laser-blast grazed her shoulder, marring the Autobot insignia branded on the surface, and Andromeda spun around and snarled threateningly.  “Permission to enter, denied,” Soundwave stated flatly.  

Andromeda arched an optic-ridge in an expression akin to ‘oh really?’  “Enemy Skill: Death Sentence!”  She snapped.  A large ghostly skull appeared above Soundwave, hovering in place as it glowered down at the Decepticon and its eyeless sockets flashed.  A timer appeared in a small corner of the Decepticon’s vision.  It started at sixty, then counted down at a rate of a second a number.  “You have less than sixty seconds, Decepticon.  I suggest you make it count.”

Soundwave hesitated for just a split second, but it was enough for Andromeda to check her options and use a spell this time.  “STOP!”  The green ripple-effect appeared around her as a clock appeared in front of Soundwave, its hands slowly moving to a halt.  At that point, it shattered and Soundwave was unable to move--yet the timer continued to count down.

The Hunter turned away from the frozen Decepticon, used the Enemy Skill: Flame Thrower attack to burn a hole through the door.  She peered inside, the front half of her body actually entering the room, before she backed out and looked at Soundwave with sarcastic pity.  “She isn’t here, and neither is her Guarded One,” she replied coolly.  “It looks like you sacrificed yourself for nothing.”  The counter hit zero at that point and the Grim Reaper appeared.  He used his scythe to slice right through Soundwave, who collapsed in an unconscious heap.  

*************

Andromeda’s scanners began picking up Autobot energy signatures at that point, although she briefly wondered why she hadn’t sensed them before.  Maybe the Prime was right.  Maybe I can get too easily distracted when it comes to the Guardian, she thought.  Well, not anymore.  Using every bit of speed she had at her disposal, she left Soundwave where he’d fallen and ran as fast as she could down the hallways.  

Megatron knew that something was wrong the instant Soundwave didn’t report in to him.  He wasn’t about to say as such with Perceptor still active, but his optics did narrow in concern.  If it was the Hunter, then Sheba should be able to handle her.  He found it odd that the alarms hadn’t been raised, one way or the other.  “One final question, Perceptor,” he said with the false kindness he’d used on the scientist once before.  “Would the Hunter come here, if she knew where to look?”

“According to my best hypothesis…” Perceptor replied, fighting off another wave of weakness.  He knew that his physical condition was deteriorating, considering the injury he’d obtained, and it was getting harder and harder to stay on his feet.  “…Only if Sheba… is the reason.  If you are also implying… of the possibility of… her possible aid in my current… situation, it… it is highly doubtful.”

Megatron’s expression darkened as a smile crossed his face.  “Just what I wanted to hear!”  He replied as he suddenly lunged forwards, clamped one hand around the scientist’s throat, and lifted the scientist upwards until his feet no longer made contact with the floor.  Perceptor grabbed the Decepticon leader’s wrist in a weak attempt to keep his head connected to the rest of his body, but the grip around his throat tightened.  The fuel-lines in Perceptor’s neck compressed and cut off needed energy and fuel to the cranium, essentially choking him.  The scientist’s struggles weakened until it was clear that he was hovering at the edge of consciousness, then Megatron threw him clear across the room.

Perceptor cried out as he hit the wall, the back his head cracking against the surface, and he slid to the floor in a crumpled heap on his back.  Stunned and barely conscious, he could barely make out Megatron aiming his fusion cannon at him.  “A sharp mind is a dangerous thing to have, Autobot,” Megatron sneered.

An explosion outside of the door made it burst open and a metallic creature with wings stepped inside.  “Perhaps,” she growled, “but it’s also a horrible thing to waste!”  Megatron turned his cannon towards her, but she was faster.  “Demi3!”

An orb of dark energy surrounded Megatron and compressed him within its depths, crushing him from the outside in.  He staggered backwards as 75% of his HP was depleted instantly from the spell, but Andromeda was hardly done.  “Enemy Skill: Laser!”  Red energy began to form in front of the Hunter’s mouth and she fired a beam straight at Megatron, sending him straight into the wall while knocking off half of his remaining Hit Points.  

The Decepticon leader didn’t try to get up that time, but he refused to allow Starfire to sense his predicament.  However, if he took much more punishment, it wouldn‘t matter if Starfire could sense his rage at the Hunter or not--she‘d come automatically.  Not yet, he thought.  Sheba isn’t in any apparent danger.

Andromeda continued to snarl, but she calmed down as she redirected her attention to the scientist, who hadn’t moved from where he’d fallen.  She walked over to Perceptor and gently nosed the uninjured side of his head as if trying to non-verbally tell him to get up.  Perceptor’s optics weakly flickered as he became aware of his current surroundings.  “H…Hunt…ter?”  He whispered.

Andromeda lowered her head once in confirmation.  “Indeed.  You are a lot of trouble for me, you know that?”  She asked with a touch of dark humor, which quickly changed to rarely-seen concern.  “Timeseeker’s Mercy.  Can you get up?”

Perceptor tried to at least sit up, but the room spun around rapidly at the slightest motion and he was forced to lie still again.  “No,” he gasped, grimacing from the blinding pain.

“Well, I can’t carry you.  I’m not quite THAT big.  But I’m certainly not going to leave you here, especially not with him.”  The Hunter snarled in Megatron’s direction.  “Alright, I’m gonna try something, but don’t freak out on me.  Understand?”  Perceptor faintly nodded, the motion all he could muster and shut off his optics.  “Mini!”

With his optics closed, Perceptor felt the ground beneath him moving--or something to that effect--but he couldn’t seem to force his optics to open again.  He felt something gently pick him up by the shoulder, something with rows of sharp points, and a moment of weightlessness as something nearby transformed.  He felt himself sitting in something that felt like a chair or seat of some kind.  It was just as well that he couldn‘t see, since Andromeda had cast Mini on him so she could carry him much easier than if he was still at normal size.  She had then carefully picked him up with her mouth, as if carrying a cub, before she transformed to her car form and shifted him to her driver‘s seat.

“Hang on,” she told him, the voice seemingly reverberating all around him instead of from just one direction.  There were screeching tires and a sickening feeling of spinning like a top as Andromeda made a U-Turn and spun her tires before bolting out the broken door and turned down the hallway, deeper into the brig area.

Andromeda wished she could be more gentle with the Autobot, a thought that actually surprised her.  However, she didn’t have the time to go slow--not with the possibility of the Guardian appearing at any time and paying her back, with interest, for everything she’d put the Decepticons through ever since arriving.  She breathed a prayer to the Four to protect her while she completed the last of her mission.  

Megatron activated his comm-channel to check on the status of Soundwave, but there was no reply.  There was also no reply from the command center, where he knew the other Decepticons had gathered to talk amongst themselves while he was busy.  He had to assume that all of his Decepticons were Knocked Out, and considering the state of the Hunter, it had been easily accomplished with little to no resistance.  It also seemed like neither Sheba nor Starscream were in the base, else the Guardian would’ve attacked the Hunter by now or at least followed her to his location.

Grimacing, he activated his comm.-link and connected to Starscream’s.  “Starscream, give me your location and that of Sheba’s as well,” he ordered, strangling a cough.

There was a crackle of static.  >>“Both of us are near Sheba’s cave.  We needed to get out of the base for a while.  Why?”<<  Starscream replied suspiciously.  

Megatron grunted softly--it was just as he’d thought.  They had no idea what was going on.  “Teleport to the command center.  All will become clear then.”  He shut off his comm.-link and leaned back against the wall.  He knew it would only be a matter of time.

Sheba and Starscream looked at each other curiously as they tried to make sense of what they had heard.  “I guess we’d better see what’s going on,” Sheba commented and Starscream nodded.  She cast Teleport on them both and their surroundings faded and marred into the Decepticons’ command center, where a shocking sight greeted them.  Decepticons were strewn all over the area, knocked out without even a scratch on their armor plating, and a small hole in the floor that was hastily covered-up.

“Starscream, here!”  Sheba stated as she transferred Quetzalcoatl and some Life spells to him.  

Starscream Junctioned the GF then cast Life on Thundercracker, who sat up with a groan as he held his head.  “Thundercracker, what happened?”  Starscream asked, giving his fellow Seeker a hand up.  “Megatron told us to get back here, but wouldn’t say why.”

“Something… a beast-like robot of some kind… summoned a weird horned human riding on a six-legged horse.  It slashed all of us with its glowing sword and I blacked out as soon as it was gone.”  Thundercracker scowled.  “I think this robot was the Hunter--it sounded like her.”

“Odin,” Sheba muttered, recognizing the summon easily.  “Here, Thundercracker.  Junction Siren and use these Life spells to get everyone on their feet again.  Make sure everyone stays HERE--if it IS the Hunter, she might want to go to Round 2.”  She transferred the GF and spells before she raced off down the hall, following Andromeda’s scent.

****************

Andromeda sensed the Junctioned magic being used and snarled softly.  “The Guardian…” she whispered softly, a pang of electro-adrenaline striking her systems.  She increased her speed, ignoring Perceptor’s groan at the sudden acceleration, and skidded around a corner and charged at a set of doors.  She rammed them full-force, not even slowing down as she burst through, and ended up running over Frenzy in the process.  

“What the FRAG?!”  Rumble shouted as Ravage snarled threateningly.

Andromeda transformed to her wolf form, holding Perceptor in her mouth briefly before gently setting him down on the ground.  “I don’t have TIME for you scraplets!”  She growled in irritation as all of the Cassetticons, even the slightly-flat Frenzy, assembled in front of her.  “REMOVE ALL!”

The green ripples spread out around her as the Cassetticons were forcibly teleported from the room.  Andromeda didn’t care where they ended up, just as long as they didn’t bother her anymore.  She quickly surveyed the room and saw Spike in a energo-cage as well as two thick doors blocking access to any other possible Autobots.  “Stand back!”  She ordered as she charged at the cage that held Spike.  She swiped at the bars, ignoring the severe shock she received from the action, and the cage immediately deactivated with a small explosion from the detonating energo-bars.

Spike carefully crawled out, glad to finally have his freedom again, but Andromeda moved on towards the cell doors instead.  “Perceptor?!”  The human asked incredulously as he ran to the scientist’s side.  Perceptor didn’t answer vocally, but his optics did flicker slightly in response.  “What’d you do to him!?”

“I cast Mini on him so I could carry him to this point without causing any further injury,” Andromeda explained patiently, her tone a little more curt than she’d intended.  “Are First Aid and Hound behind these doors, human?”

“I--well, yeah,” Spike replied, thinking better than to ask who the mechanical winged wolf was--although it was pretty obvious to him.  “I don’t know how bad off they are, but I bet First Aid is worse off than even Perceptor.”

The Hunter looked at Spike incredulously, but refrained from saying anything beyond a grim “We will see.”  She shifted back to her organic form, sniffing the air to make sure that Sheba wasn‘t nearby.  She relied again on her Enemy Skill: Flame Thrower attack to forge a hole through the doors and gain access to the Autobot within.

In the meantime, Sheba was following the scent-trail Andromeda had left behind.  It was far fainter than she’d thought, although she could hardly be expected to guess that the Hunter hadn’t been in organic form at the time, but the path was clearly heading towards the barracks area.  A few surprised screeches, both humanoid and animalistic, echoed down the hall and she picked up her pace, hoping that she’d caught up to the intruder.  

It was clear that she hadn’t when she saw Soundwave’s body lying in the hallway right outside her quarters and the Cassetticons picking themselves up off of the ground.  “Sheba!  You’re OK!”  Frenzy shrieked in relief.

“I’m fine, but everyone else doesn’t seem to be,” Sheba replied grimly as she cast Life on Soundwave.  “What happened?”

“We were guarding a human and two Autobots when this Cybertronian-like car bashed down the door and nearly flattened Frenzy,” Rumble replied, watching worriedly as Soundwave was slow in standing back up.  “It transformed to a robotic winged-wolf form and cast that spell the Hunter used against the Autobots--that ‘Remove All’ spell--but this time on us!”

“The robot IS the Hunter,” Soundwave stated quietly, picking up his weapon from the ground.  “Megatron is in danger.”

“I’ll worry about him,” Sheba told him.  “All of you, head to the command center and see if you can figure out more about what happened there.”  Soundwave nodded almost imperceptibly, spun on his heel, and strode at a near-run pace towards the command center with his cassettes in tow.  Sheba examined the damage done to her quarters’ doors and snarled angrily--the Hunter was gonna pay for this.

She immediately Teleported to Megatron’s location, trusting that she wasn’t going to leave the base, and her trust was rewarded when she appeared right in front of the Decepticon leader.  However, his beat-up appearance shocked her.  “Megatron?!  What happened?”  Sheba asked, stunned, before she cast Curaga on him.

Megatron stood up, still looking rather the worse for wear, and shook his head.  “The Hunter.  I could identify her by her voice, but she was in some sort of robotic mode.  She attacked me, then moved further down the hall,” he explained hastily, not quite telling her everything that had happened.  

Sheba had no idea what was going on, but she could smell Autobots nearby.  Still, she knew that something wasn’t quite adding up.  “That’s all I need to hear,” she snarled as she spun around and followed the tire marks Andromeda had left behind.

The Hunter stiffened slightly as she stared at the ceiling, sensing something very familiar on a very fast approach.  “We’re out of time,” she whispered as she carefully picked up Perceptor and carried him towards one of the cells where First Aid was slumped against the wall.  He’d taken major damage when combined with Defensor, damages that hadn’t been repaired.  Hound was better physically, but his audio receptors were severely damaged--fortunately, Spike had avoided injury.

The Hunter put Perceptor on the ground next to the group and cast Mini on him, returning him to his true size, then cast Cure3 All.  The damages the Autobots had taken seemed to heal a bit, but they didn’t heal completely and First Aid was still rather bad off.  When Andromeda didn’t cast more curative spells, Spike looked at her curiously.  “Can’t you heal them completely?”  He asked.

“Not if you want me to teleport all of you out of here,” she replied, her eyes glimmering weakly.  That’s when Spike noticed that her voice seemed strained, almost labored, and her wings were drooping heavily, almost dragging on the ground.  “I can only get them healed enough so they can survive the return trip.  From there… we’ll see.”

Sheba burst into the room at that point and snarled as she spotted the Hunter, but she stopped when she saw the Autobots and Spike behind her.  “What?!  What’s going on here, Hunter?”  She demanded.

Andromeda raised her head and wings as her tail lifted to curl over her back, but she still seemed exhausted.  “You didn’t know?  Megatron didn’t tell you?”  She asked.  “Guardian, the Decepticons captured these Autobots and the human for information about me.  Megatron almost slagged the scientist before I could get there, but the Decepticon was in no danger.  I merely cast Demi3 and the Laser Enemy Skill, neither of which could kill him or even knock him out.”

“How did you find this place?”  Sheba snarled, slowly advancing towards her.  

“Optimus Prime told me, although it took a little… convincing… on my part in order to gain that information,” Andromeda retorted coolly.  “The fact that you live here was something I had not known until I found your quarters.  In fact, I would have never learned of it had Megatron not ordered the capture of these Autobots.”  Sheba stopped dead in her tracks, a shocked expression on her face.  “Fortunately for the both of us, I don’t have time nor strength to deal with you.  Next time, however, I won’t back down nearly so easily.”

She turned her back towards Sheba and slowly walked towards the Autobots, her eyes glowing brightly as she pooled together her energy.  “Hunter!”  Sheba shouted, but it was ignored.  After making sure that the Autobots were piled together, with the human crouched on top, Andromeda placed both paws on the group and concentrated as hard as she could as a greenish-white light began to creep over them.  “Don’t you turn your back on me!  Hunter!!!”

Sheba lunged forwards, but by the time she reached the cell, the light disappeared with a sharp crack and nothing remained.  She frowned, staring at the place Andromeda HAD been, and she growled as she left the room.  There was nothing left for her there, and she had some explanations to get.

The Autobots reappeared within the midst of the woods not even a mile away from the base--it was the closest Andromeda could get them under the circumstances.  She took a few steps away from the group, who began reorienting themselves to their surroundings, as her breathing became more and more labored.  Her wings dragged along the ground and her head and tail hung towards the ground.  She stopped sharply and uneasily swayed on her feet before nearly losing her balance.  She splayed her legs after the visible stagger, hunched her shoulders, and her whole body began to shudder--almost as if her legs could no longer support her body and the effort was making her whole body shake.  

“Hunter?”  Spike asked cautiously.  She looked back at him with a strange look on her face and the human noticed that the unnatural greenish-white glow in her pupils was no longer there.  Her eyes rolled back into her head, which lifted as if preparing to howl, and she collapsed onto her side without even a groan.  “HUNTER!!!”

*****************

Sheba strode into the hallways, recognizing the area for what it was--the brig--and slowly began to wonder if the Hunter was right.  Megatron hadn’t mentioned anything about Autobots being held there, but she had smelled Perceptor’s scent within the room she’d found Megatron in.  So he didn’t tell me everything, she thought.  Why am I not surprised?  She hardly cared about that, since Megatron kept things from her on a daily basis.  No, it was what the Hunter had learned BECAUSE of the Autobots’ capture that concerned her.

Megatron was waiting for her just outside of the room he’d been in and Sheba regarded him coolly.  “Why didn’t you tell me that you had captured Autobots and a human for the purpose of finding out information about the Hunter?”

“It wasn’t critical at the time,” Megatron replied evenly.  His own patience was wearing thin, although he wouldn‘t even think about taking it out on her.  “Why does it matter?”

“I don’t care about you catching a few Autobots, but I do care about her finding my quarters,” Sheba told him, her ears flicking back against her skull for a second.  “I’ve got a huge hole in my door now, and with her teleportation ability, she can appear at any time in there and try this stunt again!”  Her voice had been steadily rising as all the frustration and anger she’d been bottling up ever since the last fight was finally released.

Megatron knelt in front of her and tried to pet her in order to calm her down.  At first, Sheba shied away, but eventually she let him pet her yet refused to purr.  “I doubt you were the primary objective this time, Sheba.  Finding your quarters here was just a bonus.  Her mission was to find and free the Autobots we had captured, most likely because her Autobot programming told her that it was the ‘right thing to do‘.  I think she was trying to make sure that you wouldn’t interfere with her attempt to free the Autobots, and found your quarters by accident.”

That made a lot of sense to Sheba, but she wasn’t quite so easy to forgive.  “But if the Hunter comes back…?”  She asked, her voice trailing off.

“She won’t,” Megatron replied firmly.  “She is hardly stupid enough to come to this base, our stronghold, just to try to capture you.  In fact, I doubt she would face you anywhere other than a battlefield between my Decepticons and Prime’s Autobots.  Besides, after this mission, I doubt she’ll be hunting much of anything.”

Sheba finally started purring as she remembered how… drained… Andromeda looked when the two Organic Transformers faced off.  “She looked exhausted when I found her.  She teleported herself and the captured Autobots and human out of there, and using a special ability like that has its limits,” she agreed.  She looked inside the interrogation room, thinking.  “You were interrogating Perceptor?”

“Yes, and he gave me an interesting bit of information,” Megatron confirmed, a smile crossing his face.  “He said that he had analyzed the Hunter’s genetic and molecular make-up and found an anomaly.  Basically, she’s not completely an Autobot.”

Sheba stared at him, confused.  “Not completely an Autobot?  What do you mean?  Her energy signature and scent say she is,” she asked.

“True.  However, there were certain parts of her signature that resembled that of a Decepticon.  In fact, despite not having enough data to confirm it, Perceptor evidently believes that the Hunter has a Decepticon ancestor somewhere in her heritage and such programming gives her the more ‘Decepticon‘-like traits of her behavior.”  He chuckled.  “That helped me drive home my point that she couldn’t be trusted.  After all, if she can hold her own against you, how could the Autobots stand against her if she turns on them?  Not to mention, what is the likelihood of her actually turning on them in the first place?”  

  Sheba grinned.  “Gotcha.” She suddenly remembered about the other Decepticons.  “Oh!  When Starscream and I teleported to the command center, like you told us to, we found everyone scattered all over the place.  I left Starscream behind with some Life spells to get everyone back on their feet, and everyone should‘ve recovered by now.”

“Then let’s go,” Megatron affirmed as he stood up and strode down the halls.  Sheba followed close behind, wondering how she’d be received this time.

It didn’t take them long to reach the command center, where Starscream and Thundercracker were blocking the doorways out despite the complaints of the other Decepticons.  “Quiet!”  Megatron barked sharply as he strode past the impromptu guards and silence fell on the group.  “Now.  What happened here while I was interrogating the Autobot scientist?”

Blitzwing spoke up first.  “We were talking about our reactions to the last fight and trying to figure out if we could make it up somehow,” he admitted.  “That’s when we heard something scratching against the floor from the outside.”  He pointed at what had once been a hole in the floor--Hook had repaired it while they were waiting.  “A mechanical wolf with wings, no bigger than a Terran wolf, crawled through the hole it had blasted then cast a Summon.”

“When Thundercracker described it to me, I recognized it as Odin using his Steel Bladed Sword attack,” Sheba acknowledged as she took back the GFs and Life spells she’d given Starscream and Thundercracker.  “It causes instant death to whoever is attacked by it, but it doesn’t work on ‘bosses’, or enemies not easily dispatched by instant death.  In that case, he uses an attack called Gunge Lance--a non-elemental attack against one enemy.”

“Next thing we know, Starscream and Thundercracker were casting Life spells and waking everyone up,” Ramjet finished.  “They said that Sheba had told them to keep all of us there, and when Soundwave and his cassettes came in a little worse for wear, they said the same thing.  We‘ve been sitting around here ever since.”

Soundwave was finishing up repairs on Frenzy, who had gotten run over when Andromeda had burst into the room the Cassetticons were guarding, but a nod to Megatron confirmed the other Decepticons’ story.  “Constructicons, I want you to repair the damage done to Sheba’s quarters--or the doors, at the very least,” Megatron ordered.  “The rest of you are dismissed until further notice.”  With that, he turned and left with the Constructicons following close behind to get to work.

The other Decepticons crowded around Sheba, all of them wanting to pet her, and Sheba loved the attention.  It was very clear that she’d forgiven them for their doubts, and since Starscream didn’t try to drive them away from her, so had he.  It didn’t mean that they’d forgotten, though, but such thoughts were tossed aside as everyone focused on Sheba.  

Soundwave maintained his slight distance, watching as the other Decepticons, including his own Cassetticons, petted Sheba.  He, on the other hand, was content to listen to the Guardian’s purrs.  Although he’d never admit it, he felt responsible for allowing the Hunter to find Sheba’s quarters and he was determined to not let that be the advantage the Hunter had over them--and especially Sheba.  Defeat is not an option, he thought.  Nor is laxity.  

*********************

Andromeda, having exhausted herself almost to the point beyond any possible recovery, slept for a very long time without waking.  Night became day, then cycled back again, and still she lay on the med-table without any movement beyond her breathing, which was ragged for quite a while at first before settling down to a more natural rate.  There wasn’t anything that anyone could do for her, not even wake her so she could eat or recharge, but the Hunter had been shifted to the back-burner when the other Autobots had been brought in.   

The three captured Autobots had been returned with ‘significant injuries’, as Ratchet put it, and it was a miracle that Spike had avoided being hurt at all.  Hound had been the least damaged out of all of them, his audio-receptors all but shattered from Soundwave’s concentrated burst of audio-disruptor waves.  He was also the only one who could tell their concerned comrades what had happened after Bumblebee escaped from the fight.  First Aid, suffering massive damages from the shot he’d taken while being a part of Defensor, took some time to recover--and his commander, Hot Spot, was by his side the entire time, actually slowing down to make sure that his Protectobot brother would be alright.  

It was Perceptor that worried Optimus Prime the most.  The scientist had suffered severe head trauma from the pistol-whipping Soundwave had given him, which had then led to internal cranial injuries from Megatron’s rough treatment later on.  But there was something else that concerned the Autobot leader even more.  Perceptor refused to answer questions in more than a few words, and no explanations were forthcoming as to his silence.  In fact, as soon as Ratchet cleared him, the scientist disappeared into his lab and locked the door behind him so none could bother him.  Prime knew that this was probably the worst treatment Perceptor had received at Megatron’s hands when captured, but he also knew that hiding away wasn’t going to solve anything.

Andromeda, in the meantime, was within another ‘memory-dream‘, as she called the ability to remember past events while sleeping.  It was common for a Hunter to have such dreams, but her dreams could hardly be categorized as ‘common‘…

A Seeker-type Military Hardware cub was sitting next to her, colored completely black except for the occasional red stripe or highlight on his lower arms, wings, feet, and legs.  Held in his hands was a simple metal staff, useful for defense in close-combat situations but hardly much else.  “You ever think about what else is out there?”  He asked her.

Andromeda tilted her head to the side, her comical puzzled expression the only answer she could give him.  She was still young, too young to speak the common Transformer language, but her body language was enough to get her point across.

He laughed at her expression.  “’Course there’s something else out there, silly.  Other Military Hardware units, Consumer Goods, both wolf and puma Organic Transformers, maybe even Sweeps.  I mean, there has to be.  What would you hunt for if there wasn’t?”

Andromeda nodded, her slightly oversized wings rustling as she shifted from a sitting position to one lying down on her stomach.  She was roughly half the Seeker’s height, her wingspan more than making up for it, and the telltale Mako glow in her eyes was just a dull glint at the time.  The two cubs had just played a series of Hide-And-Seek games, a game that served to teach Hunter cubs how to hunt prey properly outside of a pack, and both had worn themselves out.

The Seeker cub placed his arms behind him and leaned back against them, looking up at the darkening sky as the sun set.  “Why’d you pick me?  There are other cubs like me, and you could play with them too if you wanted.  Why won’t you?”

Andromeda’s ears flicked back defensively, then she leaned over and licked him on the face.  He giggled and nearly fell over.  “You like me more than them?”  She yipped an affirmative.  “Why?”

Andromeda couldn’t answer that with a mere expression, so she got up and tackled him to the ground.  Laughing, the Seeker cub tossed her off and the two tussled for a while.  When the Seeker pinned her down on her stomach, Andromeda turned her head back and stared at him expectantly.  Her tail was wagging and her tongue was lolling out of her mouth in a classic example of a playful canine.  “Because I actually give you a fight?”  Another affirmative bark.  “I guess I’ll have to keep it up.  I want to grow strong too, maybe even stronger than you.”

A low howl made Andromeda’s ears perk expectantly and she gently shook the Seeker cub off of her back.  “Is it time to go already?”  He asked, disappointed, and Andromeda nodded.  “OK.  Lead the way, Andromeda.”  He picked up his staff and followed her as she led the way back to the Master’s ship, where a supervising adult Hunter was waiting for them.

Andromeda twitched as the dream faded away and cracked open one eyelid to take in her surroundings.  She recognized the area immediately as the Autobots’ medical bay and breathed a sigh of relief--so her last teleport was in the right area after all.  She had almost feared that she’d been wrong when trying to pinpoint the correct destination.  She initiated a self-diagnostic and found that her Mako energy levels were at minimal levels, just enough for her to function properly but not nearly enough to use any spells or summons.  That was just fine by her, since it seemed like there was no danger for the time being.

Footsteps approached as Andromeda tried to get her feet under her so her stomach and throat wouldn’t be exposed to a possible enemy.  “Easy there, Hunter,” Ratchet said as he placed a hand against her side, close to the ribcage.  She growled in warning and he hastily removed his hand.  “You’ve been sleeping for almost four days straight.  We couldn’t do anything except wait and see if you would ever come out of it.”

“I… appreciate… your concern,” Andromeda replied slowly, looking at the medic with a slight tilt of her head, “but it’s not necessary.  I’ve survived worse before.”  She carefully jumped to the ground and stretched, testing every limb and joint to make sure she wasn’t truly injured.  “What of the three Autobots and the human?”

“Everyone’s fine, but Perceptor’s shut himself up in his lab.  He hasn’t come out to even recharge,” Ratchet replied.  “I think Megatron’s done something to him that a medic like me can’t fix.”

Andromeda nodded slowly, thinking of the validity of such a statement.  After such an experience, she could hardly blame him from hiding from everyone else.  “I agree,” she said quietly.  She took a deep breath and looked up at the chief medic.  “Where is Optimus Prime?  I need to speak with him.”

Ratchet was very wary of the Hunter, as was almost every other Autobot, but there were no indications that she was planning anything other than a mere talk.  “I think he’s near the command center.  Either that, or he’s trying to convince Perceptor to leave his lab.  We’ve all tried it, but we’re lucky to get even a fraggin’ grunt in reply.”

There was a long pause as the Hunter struggled to say something without sounding too far from the attitude she‘d shown so far.  “…Thank you,” Andromeda replied simply, actually meaning it, before walking out of the med-bay and heading towards the command center.  She had a feeling that the medic would alert the Prime to her active status, but she didn’t care.  She also made a mental note to finish that challenge Sparkplug had interrupted four days before.

She peered into the command center and saw Prime initiating a general security scan throughout the base, just to be certain.  He glanced up and spotted her--rather, her faintly-glowing eyes--at the entrance.  “Hunter, I’m glad to see you’ve awakened,” he greeted her, still visibly wary of her but not quite as harsh as he had been days earlier.

“I’m glad to be awake,” Andromeda returned with a nod of her head in greeting.  “Dreams are a paltry substitute for reality, which I would prefer to remain in.”  She entered the command center and looked around warily, as if waiting for someone to try to jump out and attack her.  “I hear you have trouble with your over-talkative scientist--the one you call ‘Perceptor’.”

Prime confirmed it.  “He is not acting like himself, and it’s almost like he’s shielding himself from us.  I can enter the room at any time, since not even his access code can shut me out, but I was hoping that he’d snapped out of it by now.  Unfortunately, that’s not the case.”  He crossed his arms over his chestplate and stared down at her.  “What of you, Hunter?  What do you plan to do now?”

The Hunter averted her gaze, trying to avoid getting into the mindset of resuming that interrupted challenge, but she honestly didn’t know what to think.  She had no plan.  “The Guardian freely roams the woods.  If I encounter her in my current condition, I will not survive,” she admitted hesitantly.  “I spent much freeing your soldiers, and it will take time for me to fully recover--although I hardly regret my decision to go after them alone.  I suppose, for now, I should remain here in your base until such a time when I can return to solitude.”

Optimus didn’t like the answer, as far as staying in the base for only a limited amount of time, but he already knew that trying to convince her otherwise was an effort in futility.  “Very well, I don’t see why we can’t offer that as a way to thank you for your assistance,” he agreed.  

Andromeda’s stomach rumbled and the Hunter looked very sheepish.  “Forgive me, but it appears my body has just remembered that I haven’t eaten in four days.  Do you have any Energon cubes here?”

“Of course,” Prime confirmed.  He motioned for the nearby Bluestreak to come over and briefly told him what was going on.  

The warrior nodded an affirmative and walked down the hallways with Andromeda following close behind.  “Can you ingest Energon, Hunter?”

“Not in my current form, no,” the Hunter replied before he could say anything else, “but do remember that I have a robotic form.  I simply do not like being in that form--to a Hunter, it is weaker than the organic form.  I have noticed that the Guardian is of much the same mindset, since I have only seen her once in her robotic form.”

As talkative as Bluestreak normally was, even he could tell that Andromeda was hardly in the mood for talking.  Besides, he didn’t really want to be around her anyways.  He entered the Energon storage bays and removed a few Energon cubes.  When he turned back around, Andromeda had shifted to her robotic form and was waiting just outside the door with a faraway look on her face.  “Is… something wrong, Hunter?”

“Hm?”  Andromeda’s attention snapped back to the present.  “Oh.  No… not really.  It‘s nothing.”  She shook her head, as if trying to remove something from within.    

Bluestreak’s optics narrowed suspiciously, but he let it go and laid the cubes down on the ground.  Andromeda carefully gnawed off a corner of the cubes and drank the Energon within, her black and silver armor colors brightening substantially from the dulled shades they had been earlier.  Bluestreak was hardly alarmed, as it was common for even normal Transformers to lose some of their armor color when going between recharges for too long.  

****************

“I’ve seen you fight,” Bluestreak finally said when it seemed like Andromeda was finishing up on her ‘meal’.  Her ears twitched slightly, although whether in interest or in annoyance he wasn’t sure.  Even so, he continued talking.  “I’ve seen how you talk to everyone.  You know how we think, so can you tell me why Perceptor’s acting the way he is?  I mean, normally you can‘t get him to stop talking or at least stop using big words, but it hasn’t been that way lately.”

Andromeda swallowed the last of the Energon and sat down, her optics dimmed thoughtfully.  “Fear,” she stated quietly.  “Something happened in that base between the Decepticon leader and your scientist before I could get there.  He’s afraid of causing something else to happen to his fellow Autobots, he’s afraid of me…” She shrugged.  “…the list could go on.  I cannot be certain only with what I know second-hand, but I do know that he‘s afraid.”

“Do you think that Prime would let you find out first-hand?”  Bluestreak asked as he cleaned up the remnants of the Energon cube shells.  Andromeda helped as much as she could, but left the bulk of it to him.  “I mean, most of us don’t really trust you that well.”

“Your trust in me, or lack thereof, is not my concern,” she snapped, sounding a little harsher than she’d intended.  She paused for a second to collect her thoughts and to ease her tone.  “I don’t know what your leader thinks, but if he allowed me to go after the captives in the first place, I don’t see why he will not allow me to help your scientist.  Besides, if I am the focus of his fear, perhaps he should face it.”

Bluestreak nodded and, without explanation, ran back down the hall.  Andromeda was puzzled at first, then remembered that Prime was probably still at the command center.  Ah, so the talkative one truly wants me to help, she thought.  Let’s see what the higher-ups think.

She stood up and trotted down the hall at an easy jog, reaching the command center easily, and noticed that the area seemed pretty… deserted.  “Hunter,” Prime called, motioning her over to where he and Bluestreak stood.  “Bluestreak tells me you wish to help with Perceptor.”

“If I am the reason why your scientist is avoiding all contact with his comrades, then I don’t see why I shouldn’t be the one to set things right.  I’m certain you agree,” Andromeda replied patiently.  Didn’t these Autobots have any degree of common sense?  “Besides, I cannot enter his lab without your pass-codes, and I have no intention of taking them from you by force, believe it or not.  If I was at full strength, I would simply teleport myself inside, but doing so could make things worse even if I was able to do so.”

Prime didn’t want to put the Hunter in a potentially volatile situation, but she was right.  It would either be taken care of now, or at a much later timeframe when it wasn’t nearly as controlled.  Many of his soldiers were gone on a low-priority mission, so that should cut down on the number of spectators.  “Very well, I’ll let you inside,” he agreed, “but don’t get in over your head.”  Andromeda agreed to the condition and Prime left Bluestreak to monitor Teletran-1.  

They made their way to the laboratory area and Prime entered his access code, overriding the lock and the door opened as a result.  Andromeda slowly walked inside, tail parallel to the ground and head lowered, as she scanned the dimly-lit room.  She barely noticed when the doors hissed closed behind her.  The lab wasn’t in a mess, exactly, but it certainly wasn’t as neat as it had been when Andromeda had first seen it from the ventilation system.  She still couldn’t see Perceptor anywhere.  “Perceptor?”  She asked quietly, trying to figure out where he was.

A flash of blue light activated on the far side of the computer--the flicker of optics reactivating--and Andromeda carefully padded towards the light.  “Why are you here, Hunter?”  Perceptor asked wearily from his place sitting on the floor with his back against the computer.  By the looks of it, he was functioning at minimal power.

“To figure out what has changed about you, Perceptor,” Andromeda replied, sitting in front of him and looking him straight in the face.  “You are certainly not your usual blustery self, by what I know of you, and your comrades are getting quite worried.”

“I’ve been trying to figure out something,” the scientist replied, looking away from her.  Her gaze, however, remained steady, and she waited him out.  “Megatron forced me to tell him all I knew about you, threatening to harm the other Autobots further if I resisted.  He showed me a connection about something odd I discovered and I cannot refute it even though I‘ve tried.”

Andromeda immediately knew what it was, and she was hardly surprised that it was even an issue.  “The traces of odd programming in my systems, perhaps?  The residual Milit--,“ she caught herself and quickly continued, “--Decepticon energy in my energy signature?”  His head snapped back towards her in shock.  “Oh yes, I am quite aware of it.  It was a trait passed to me from my father, also a Hunter.  How he received it, I do not know.  I admit that it has given me a personality more fitting of your enemies, but it is nothing more than that.  If you fear that I will turn against you, that is impossible.  I have no reason to do so now and I doubt I will ever find a reason to do so later.”

“Is that why you came after us?”  Perceptor wondered.  “Because you were relying on your Autobot programming?”

“I am uncertain,” Andromeda sighed.  “I did not mean for this mission to stretch on this long, for one, nor for you or any of your comrades to become involved in my own personal mission.  I had hoped that I could capture the Guardian and leave without causing too much disruption in your war, but now I‘ve come to realize that is not possible.  I knew I had to set things right when I heard that you and your comrades had been captured because of my presence here on this world.”

Perceptor remained hardly convinced, but the Hunter sensed another reason for his continued reluctance.  “Listen to me, Perceptor.  I can hardly blame you for not trusting me, but your comrades truly are worried about you.  You cannot hide in here forever, trying to protect yourself from facing those who imprisoned you and threatened your comrades if you did not comply with their demands.”  

His hands clenched, an involuntary action that proved Andromeda’s other idea as to his reason for withdrawing as he had.  “I’m not protecting myself,” he corrected her.

“By Altair’s Madness… if it’s your comrades you’re trying to protect, Data For Brains, you won’t succeed in that by hiding in here,” Andromeda snorted.  She’d had enough playing ‘Miss-Nice-Hunter’, now it was time to force Perceptor to see the truth.  “The best way to protect your comrades is to go back to your quarters, recharge, and prepare for the next mission.  Any of your comrades will tell you the same thing, if you don‘t believe me.”  She carefully approached him and nudged at the side of his face with her muzzle, much as she had when she first found him in the Decepticon base, as her frustrated expression softened ever-so-slightly.  “Now, come on.  I’m not leaving until you do.”

Perceptor studied her face, trying to find some hint of possible betrayal or real-life confirmation of Megatron‘s warnings, but found none.  Instead, he saw the same firm expression in her optics that he’d seen in Optimus Prime’s many times over.  The stare of a leader of one respect or another.  He pulled in his legs, practically lurching to his feet, and Andromeda stood close by in case he needed something to lean against.  Fortunately, he walked to the door under his own power and unlocked the door from the inside.  

Prime was standing outside, waiting for him, and gladly gave the clearly-exhausted Perceptor a shoulder to lean on.  He turned towards where he’d seen Andromeda just a second earlier, but she was gone.  She’d slipped into the shadows and headed down the hallways to find an undisturbed place to rest and recover a bit more.  She was hardly one to accept a ‘thank you‘ anyways, since she only concerned herself with the situation to try to return the base to some semblance of normalcy.  Shaking his head slightly at the enigma that was the Hunter, Prime led Perceptor towards the living quarters so the scientist could find some rest.