Eye of the Storm - Part 2

She didn't have time to sightsee. Bumblebee had found the escape pods and was coming back to tell everyone else. She dashed out of the room and ran to the beginning of the right wing. Everyone had come out by now and were following Bumblebee to the end of the hall. There was a dock for the pods, big enough for two average Cybertronians to stand in side by side. Evidently, each pod held two bots, and there were two pods, one of which, unfortunately, had already been jettisoned. Optimus decided quickly.
    "Arcee, Bumblebee, take Sonia to safety. Bulkhead and I will remain here until you are able to bring help, or until we find a way out," he said.
    "What?" Bulkhead was decidedly uncomfortable with this set up.
    "Maybe there's another set of escape pods," Sonia said, running down the hall to the other wing. The Autobots followed. A door identical to the one at the end of the right wing stood at the end of the left. They opened it to find both pods were still inside, ready for use.
    "Well, problem solved," said Bulkhead.
    "Given the limited amount of space inside each pod, I will travel with Arcee, and-" Optimus was interrupted by the sound of the entrance opening. The sound of footsteps came from around the corner, drawing nearer and nearer. Optimus gestured for them to get inside. Arcee climbed into the first pod, followed by Bumblebee, who took the second.
    Suddenly a shot was fired at them, and they looked up to see Airachnid attacking from the ceiling. Bulkhead grabbed Sonia and half shoved, half tripped his way into the escape pod. Optimus fired several shots before climbing into the pod Arcee was waiting in. They jettisoned each one and flew away from the Decepticons and their crashed ship.
    "Can you fly this thing?" Sonia asked Bulkhead.
    "No," came the reply. "Brace yourselves!" Sonia did the best she could to brace herself and hoped Bulkhead wouldn't crush her in his fist. They crashed into the tundra, Optimus and Arcee landing softly beside them a moment later. They all stepped and stumbled out.
    "You know these things have an autopilot," Arcee said in response to Bulkhead's crashed pod. Bulkhead merely shrugged in response. Optimus spoke into his communicator.
    "Ratchet, bridge us back." A moment later the groundbridge appeared and they reentered the safety of the base.
    "What happened?" Ratchet asked. "Sonia disappeared and we were unable to contact you." Arcee explained what had happened.
    "A scraplet bit her?" Ratchet glanced at Sonia's bandaged arm. She was talking to the other kids.
    "Yeah. But this thing was twice the size of any normal scraplet," Arcee said. "I bet my foot-plates they'd chow down on anything that happened to be in front of them. Stupid Decepticon scientists. "
    "As genius as they are..." said Ratchet.

    "Bye Miko! Bye Jack!" Sonia called to them as they drove home.
    "You coming?" Raf asked, standing next to Bumblebee.
    "I don't really have a home," she responded to Raf. "Would you allow me to remain here for the night?" She asked the lasting Autobots. Ratchet glanced uneasily at Optimus, who, as always, considered the matter before answering.
    "You may remain in one of the empty storage rooms. I apologize, but we will most likely be unable to provide a comfortable sleeping place for you."
    "I will accept what is provided," Sonia said. She turned around, switching mercurially from one mode of speech to another, more casual one. "Bye Raf," she said with a polite smile.
    "Bye," he replied, hopping into Bumblebee and speeding away.

    Lord Megatron was less than pleased. "How many times must the Autobots slip through your rusty fingers?!" He grated. Both of his underlings remained silent. He hissed.
    "Go back to the ship," he ordered.
    "But," Knockout began.
    "Jettison the other pods and wait. If the synthoid really wasn't there, then it will show."

    ...Later...
    "How much longer do we have to wait? I swear I can feel my paint peeling," said an utterly bored Knockout.
    "An impatient spider would never catch her prey," Airachnid replied from the ceiling. Knockout rolled his eyes.
    "Which is why you never seem to catch yours," Airachnid finished with a smirk.

    "How long do humans sleep?" Arcee asked of no one in particular. "I'm going to check on Sonia." She went to the storage room they had given to the girl and found it vacant. "Sonia?" She called, receiving no reply. She sighed, walking back to the control room. The last thing she wanted was for their new arrival to get hurt or lost.
    "Someone help me search the base. Sonia's not in her room."
    "Where is she?" Bulkhead asked.
    "Well if I knew that, big brains, I wouldn't need your help finding her," Arcee replied, a little sarcastically.
    "Oh," said Bulkhead. "I am so dumb!"
    "It's the beginning all over again!" Ratchet complained to himself.

    Arcee and Bulkhead returned a little while later with no news of Sonia.
    "Do you think she left the base?" Bulkhead asked.
    "No," replied Ratchet. "The base has been sealed. The only way out is the groundbridge."
    "Is that possible? I mean, she's only seen it in action once," Arcee wondered.
    "Hardly likely," Ratchet said. "Although..." He began typing busily into the computer console. "There was a spike in energon intake at about one AM, when we were in the deepest phase of autorestition. We wouldn't have heard a thing," he said. "And there's only one place she could've gone."

    Optimus and Arcee moved toward the ship again. Bulkhead and Bumblebee had elected to stay behind, Ratchet recalling that his experience with scraplets was not pleasant either. He came along nonetheless, curious as to what was inside the lab-ship. They found the entrance open again.
    Before they reached the intersection of the corridors, Arcee was pinned to the wall by an enormous web that flew at her from nowhere, followed closely by Ratchet. Optimus, forewarned by his companions, was able to dodge the webs shot at him.
    "Airachnid," Arcee growled.
    "What is it that you want from us, Airachnid?" Optimus demanded, fending off Decepticon attackers.
    "I know you're reasonable, Prime. Only the synthoid, and we'll let you go," she replied. "Knockout." Knockout, who had been about to spear Optimus from behind with his staff, stopped and mumbled something about "chain of command". Ratchet's eyes narrowed at the word "synthoid".
    "We do not know of any 'synthoid'. What is this object?" Optimus asked.
    "Please, you're wasting your time. I know you've seen her," Airachnid said.
    "What do you intend to do with her?" Optimus queried, his suspicions confirmed.
    "So you do know her," Airachnid said, avoiding the question. "Where is she?"
    "We do not know," Optimus replied. It took Airachnid a matter of a few seconds to piece everything together. She smiled.
    "So you came looking where you found her. It's what I would've done, and I'm a master tracker. Continue searching the ship." She addressed the last part to the Decepticon sentinels. Two stayed as guards while the rest disappeared through various doors, an action which was followed by the sound of breaking instruments. Ratchet winced repeatedly at familiar crunching sounds, quietly naming the broken tools.
    "Plasma torch, ion motor, syringe..." Airachnid called the attention of a sentinel who was running past an unopened door.
    "Has this room been searched?" She inquired.
    "No. This one's locked."
    "Then break it down," said Airachnid smoothly. The sentinel turned and fired at the door several times, scorching it, but otherwise not having any effect. Airachnid sighed heavily.
    "If you want something done, do it yourself," she said, proceeding to attack the door. She bounced off the first couple of times, prompting a snigger from Knock Out, but then attacked more viciously. She kicked in the sliced pieces and turned around, not even looking into the room. The sentinel ran back out of the room almost immediately after walking in.
    "Airachnid! It's the synthoid!" He said. Airachnid reacted by gluing Optimus's hands to the wall behind him, then his ankles to prevent him from trying to "rescue" the synthoid. She entered the room to see the small figure floating inside a large cylindrical fluid-filled chamber. Large enough, in fact, to hold a Cybertronian the size of Ratchet, if he curled up. She was no longer projecting the image of a human girl, and looked like a miniature silver Cybertronian.
    "Well, well, well," said Airachnid triumphantly. "Looks like someone tried to weather the storm by putting herself in stasis. Trust me, stasis is no fun." She pressed a button on the machine with one of her extra arms, causing the fluid to drain. A monitor beeped hysterically, and was rewarded for its efforts by being ignored. A bed carried the small synthoid out of the chamber, where she was immediately snatched by Airachnid.
    "I'd love to stay and watch your demise, especially yours, Arcee, but I simply must go," she jeered at them on her way out. Before the door closed she fired at the ceiling, opening a ventilation shaft she had sealed with a web. Then the Decepticons disappeared.
    It took a moment for the first scraplet to poke it's head out, and was followed shortly by dozens more.
    "Now would be a good time for some ideas," Ratchet said, half pleading. The scraplets hadn't noticed them yet, but Arcee noticed they were eating the webs that had covered the vents. She looked at her own bonds.
    "They might be our way out. Looks like they have a taste for gossamer," she said. Ratchet and Optimus looked at the half-eaten webs. The scraplets noticed them for the first time and began swarming.
    "Assuming they don't get our heads first!" Ratchet commented pessimistically.
    "Ow!" Arcee exclaimed. "That was more like a sting, not a bite!" In almost no time the scraplets had chewed through enough for them to break free. Optimus was having the most trouble, as his ties were smallest and the scraplets favored him over the gossamer. Arcee and Ratchet helped free him as they were attacked by the vile creatures.
    "This way!" Arcee ran to the right dock. They ran inside to find the escape pods gone. A pursuing scraplet was crushed in the doors as they closed. They crushed a few remaining scraplets that had clung to them through their flight.
    "Scrap. They must've jettisoned the last pod so we wouldn't escape," Arcee said.
    "Ratchet to base, to you copy?"
    Static.
    "The com-link's still down. It could be that a distress beacon, or an energy field the ship is emitting is interfering with our communications," Ratchet analyzed the problem.
    "Could we deactivate the beacon?" Arcee asked.
    "We don't know what is causing the disruption in the first place, and to deactivate it you would have to go the bridge. It could be on any of the control panels, and by the time you even figured out what it was, you'll have been eaten alive by scraplets." Ratchet told her.
    "Would it be easier to just shut down the entire ship then?" She suggested. "The beacon would go out with it and we could call base."
    "Assuming it is some kind of signal and not the material the walls are made of," Ratchet said.
    "Do you have a better idea, Mr. know-it-all?" Arcee challenged. Ratchet grumbled in reply.
    "I suppose it is our best option," he said finally.
    "I'll go," Arcee said, almost immediately. Optimus forestalled her exit.
    "I admire your courage, Arcee, but in this case I would advise you not to accept this mission. You are small and our attackers are many. I am concerned that the effect would be far too devastating. Ratchet, would it be possible to simply allow the scraplets to deactivate the ship themselves?" Ratchet shook his head slowly.
    "By the time they cut the power, they may have already reached us," he said. "We have to act now." Optimus nodded his understanding.
    "I will go, in that case," Optimus said.
    "Are you sure?" Ratchet asked. "I may have more experience in this field."
    "Thank you, Ratchet, but I am confident that I can disable this ship in time."
    "You should be able to cut the power easily through the main control panel. Most likely, though,  it won't work, since most vessels like this one have emergency power sources that activate in an event such as this. In that case you'll have to divert all emergency power to, say, lighting." Optimus nodded.
    "Thank you, Ratchet."
    "Good luck," Ratchet replied. They opened the door and Optimus charged down the hall and around the corner. They hastily closed the door, crushing another scraplet. They heard Optimus yell, whether from pain or determination they didn't know.