"Ow, careful with that." Someone cried out, as Julie found herself slowly waking up on what felt like a bed.
"Don't be such a big baby, I'm just fixing you up." Someone replied.
"While you're at it, do you think you could customize me? Maybe add some of those rims that spin." The previous voice cried out, making her remember the fight that happened in the lake.
"This key isn't a toy Bumblebee. We're gonna need its power to repair the rest of your ship." Sari replied as she sat up and saw herself in the medical room with the others, finding Sari arguing with Bumblebee and having the sternest look she had ever seen on the girl.
"Yeesh, you sound just like Ratchet." Bumblebee cried out.
"Atta girl." Ratchet cheered as he looked at Sari.
"Hey, don't be in such a hurry to get rid of us." Bulkhead cried out.
"Even with the key, it'll take a while for the ship to become fully operational. We might be around for a long, long time." Ratchet spoke up, making her realize she truly had been missing out on something.
Sitting up, she felt her muscles ache, but she didn't care. "I would truly like an explanation to what the heck has been going on since Optimus left me out in the middle of nowhere, during the middle of the night." Julie cried out as she pulled herself up onto her feet, gaining everyone's attention.
"Julie, you're awake." Bumblebee cried out. Suddenly Sari jumped off the medical bed, trying to run towards her, only for Julie to quickly fly over and catch her before she fell onto the floor of the medical bay. "Sari, are you insane?" Julie cried out as she landed on the medical bed that Bee was in. As a response though, the girl merely just hugged her as she sat there on her knees, the girl's arms wrapped around her neck and squeezing tightly like the girl was afraid to let go.
"Uh, Sari?" Julie asked unsure what to do as the girl hugged her, but she found herself hesitantly wrapping her arms around the girl to return the hug while the bots watched. "Did something happen? Why are you acting like I died?" Julie asked as she looked at the girl.
"We thought you did." Ratchet spoke up as he took a step towards her. "Your readings were so low that I thought you would be passed out for merely a few days, let alone wake up."
"Are you sure you aren't just being dramatic?" She asked as she looked up at him. "I feel fine, honestly, just a little sore like I have been running a lot." She looked up at Ratchet and then at the others, hoping that this was just a joke he was playing on her, but none of them responded. "I...I don't understand. All I did was use the same powers I used so many years back. I agree I used them a little bit more than usual because I was training myself, but that hasn't ever killed me. It just leaves me a little drained is all."
"How come you didn't tell us you can control the nature around us?" Bumblebee asked.
"Uh, I did. You don't remember Sari bursting about the fact that I can understand animals?" Julie replied.
"I think what Bumblebee means to say is, how come you haven't ever used it in front of us before?" Optimus asked.
"Eh...it's not really my favorite aspect about myself. If it wasn't for me noticing Sari's key light up, and me seeing you guys in danger, I probably wouldn't ever have used it in front of you guys."
"Why not?" Sari asked as she let go of me and stepped back. "You're so powerful that you probably easily defeated those cons on your own."
"But she didn't.." Prowl suddenly commented. "..because she was more focused on defending us rather than attacking them."
"Even if I wasn't defending you guys I still don't think I would have been able to defeat them on my own, Prowl." She muttered as she looked down at her feet.
"What do you mean? You don't want to beat any decepticon's butts?" Sari cried out as she stepped towards her, but Julie merely took two steps back and looked away from the girl.
"I swear, you are so much like Miko." She mumbled under her breath. "You wouldn't understand, Sari."
"Why not let us learn to understand then, instead of constantly keeping all of your thoughts to yourself?" Optimus spoke up as he looked at her.
Julie looked at him and thought about the question. Why did she keep it all to herself? Why did she always keep everything about her to herself? As she thought about it, the last team she protected hardly knew anything at all about her, and this team had just started to break down all those walls she had formed over the past centuries. Why did she have to hide and carry so much baggage? Or was she really overestimating all that she had faced?
"I am not ready to reveal everything about my history. When you have lived through all of the things that I have witnessed and seen, you would probably feel the same way." Julie replied, not confessing the fact that she feared what they would see in her if she told her how she truly felt. Sighing, she flew out of the room, leaving them behind, as she went to Prowl's tree and laid down on one of the branches there.
Sitting in the room, she sighed as she watched as Sari was trying to train with Prowl and the other bots, finding herself pretty confused as to why they were wanting her to work on training in the first place. She sat there hovering in silence, while at the same time out of view of the others as she watched.
"Hiyah!" Sari cried as she tried to kick Prowl, only to end up landing hard on the floor in the process. "Ow."
"Sari, you need to concentrate." Prowl replied as he groaned, clearly not happy with her performance. Why the heck was Optimus sitting there and watching them do this in the process? And Ratchet, why wasn't he stopping this?
"Give her a break Prowl, humans don't have turbo balance thrusters." Bulkhead cried out as he helped her up onto her feet. "Or padded bumpers." Sari replied as she rubbed herself down from the sore landing.
"I am afraid that Prowl is right. As keeper of the key, Sari is a potential target of the decepticons." Optimus spoke up as he walked forward. "Which means, she must learn to defend herself."
"We won't always be there to protect you, now try again." Prowl cried as he looked down at her. "And thrust with your legs, like this." He spoke as he showed her what he ment. She merely groaned as she watched, gaining Bumblebee's attention as he looked around behind himself, but because she was invisible he didn't see her.
"Got it, I won't let you down this time." Sari cried as she took a running start and went flying across the room, her feet first as she ended up kicking Bulkhead instead of Prowl. She could hear the girl as she hit the bot, and ended up falling towards the floor, just for her to quickly dive down and end up as a softer landing for the poor girl.
"What the heck?" Sari cried out as the girl ended up feeling her arms. "Julie? Is that you?"
"What are you talking about, Sari?" Optimus replied just as Julie quickly got out from under Sari and flew out of her reach.
"I felt something, I swear." She replied as she reached her arms out to try to find her, only to be disappointed by her attempt.
Suddenly, Bulkhead started to hop on his foot, trying to appease Sari for her efforts as he hopped there groaning about the so called pain that he felt. Making Julie smile for him trying to support the girl for her efforts. Bulkhead ended up falling down on top of tons of crates behind him, leaving them falling right on top of him as an end result. He sat up in the pile and looked at the bots, "Too much?"
Sighing at the problem at hand, she flew off and left them, finding their efforts being wrapped up for the night. Bumblebee transformed and let Sari climb into his alt mode to take her back home to the Sundac tower as she went to the tree for the night, shifting back into view so that way if they ended up looking for her that they would be able to see her still in the tree as she slept during the night. As she laid there, she felt some sort of feeling of dread, like someone was in danger, or something was about to happen. She felt like there was something she had to do, so as she was just quickly jerking awake, she heard Optimus crying out the bots names in the process. "Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Prowl!" He cried out. "Professor Sundac just called, Sari is missing."
"I should have saw it coming, I fear that there is a danger on the loose." Julie replied as everyone transformed and entered the main room, as she flew in there to join them. "I wish to come with you to help. I care for the girl just as much as you guys do."
"Julie, you should stay here. You're still recovering from that battle with the decepticons." Ratchet cried as he looked at her.
Julie turned and glared at him as she felt the feeling of dread get worse, but before she could do anything she landed onto the ground a little rough, and her vision started to go dark, but she still could tell she was very much awake of what was going on. She saw something, a shadow picked up Sari from out of her bedroom, and took off flying with her in the process.
"Julie!" Someone cried as she saw the vision fade away, to find Ratchet standing over her with a flashlight to shine in her eyes. She merely pushed his servo away and got back onto her feet. "I have to come with you, Primus is warning me of something, you need me to be involved." She cried as she got onto her feet and took off in flight out of the base and towards the Sundac tower, hearing Optimus order them to transform and follow after her. By the time they reached the tower, it was already sunrise and they found several people from police to other people searching and keeping them from getting through.
"This is why I hate machines!" One of the men cried as she flew in and entered the tower with the bots behind her.
"No need to be such a technophobe, Captain." Prowl commented behind her as she waited for him to get done with what he was doing.
"A technophobe is someone who fears technology. Does this look like fear to you?" He cried as he smashed the device onto the floor, causing a piece of the device to fly toward her and hit her cheek. She already could feel the small burn forming, but she didn't care. This guy wasn't a threat and there were more important things for her to deal with.
"Um, my mistake." Prowl corrected as he watched.
"Any news on Sari?" Optimus asked.
"Uh, Sundac says that she spent the day with you guys yesterday. Anything out of the ordinary? And why the heck is this freak leaking a blue substance in front of me?" He cried as he pointed at her.
"Just the usual stuff, hanging out, teaching her ninja nerf blows, watching cartoons..." Bulkhead started to explain, stopping the others from reacting to the last statement, or they didn't notice his last question.
"What was that?" The Captain asked.
"Watching cartoons?"
"No, before that?"
"Ninja nerf blows?" Julie sighed as she saw what was coming, but there was nothing she could do without causing any drama.
"You're teaching an eight year old how to do nerf blows?" He asked.
"You want her to be picked up off the street?" Ratchet asked.
"This is every protoform elemental programing." Prowl replied.
"Say what?" The Captain asked.
"Yeah, it's not like we're having her fight decepticons." Bulkhead replied.
"Yet." Prowl agreed. Making Julie want to clobber them on the head with a wrench like Ratchet usually does.
"Has it occurred to you that hanging out with autobots is maybe, I don't know, a little dangerous for a little girl?" The Captain asked.
"Define dangerous?" Bulkhead asked, making her merely roll her eyes. Just as she saw a camera screen show something fly across the screen. Bringing her back to what she saw in her vision. She felt her blood go cold as she thought about the vision she saw. Some sort of bird shaped shadow in the middle of the night.
"Wait a minute, roll that back." Optimus cried as he also had seen the screen apparently.
"Sure thing, doll face." A robot at the counter replied as they rewined the camera screen and had it slowed down. Revealing a dinosaur carrying Sari on the screen. "Is that one of the dinobots?" Optimus asked as she studied the figure on the screen.
"It is just what I saw in my vision, something flying away with Sari in its claws." She cried out as she studied the screen.
"The robot dinosaurs? Impossible." Ratchet cried.
"We never did find out what happened to them after they escaped." Optimus replied.
"Think we oughta tell prime?" Bulkhead whispered, but still was clear enough for her as she turned around and faced Bulkhead whispering to Prowl. "What, that we moved the dino bots to an island and never mentioned it to him?" Prowl asked, not aware that she had been listening.
"But, Sari could be in trouble." Bulkhead replied.
"This is my responsibility, I will go to the dinobots." Prowl commented.
"Oh no, not without me." Bulkhead replied.
"Fine, we will head for the island after dark." Prowl told him as the others were distracted by the screen. As much as she respected secrets, at the same time she wanted to make sure everything went okay, so she decided to follow after them in the night, which will also provide her the opportunity to blend in and allow her to save up her energy all the same.
As she snuck after Prowl and Bulkhead, she couldn't help recognize the island that they all were approaching. It was the very same island that she had run off to when she had gotten upset at, just to find out that they ended up finding her there and chased her back to the park in Detroit where the rest of the autobots had ended up showing up. They sailed across where the lake connected with the river and landed at an old dock made of somewhat rotting wood. The sun had risen up into the sky during the time that they had been traveling across the water. Because the sun had come up, she shifted out of view, along with making sure that her water bottle she carried around with her was full of water in case anything happened while they were on the island.
"I don't understand what the dinobots would have done to Sari. They only wanted to be left alone in peace." Prowl spoke as they walked along the shore of the island with her flying behind them.
"When I am done with them, they are gonna be left in pieces." Bulkhead replied.
"Well, let's not jump to..." Prowl started to say before they stopped at something they noticed on the ground, blocking her view since she was flying from behind them.
"Tracks." Bulkhead commented as she flew over his shoulder to get a better look.
"Yeah, but not the dinobots." Prowl replied. "Someone else has been on this island." They went farther into the island, approaching the mountain where she had found them standing once before.
"I knew we shouldn't have let those dinobots loose." Bulkhead cried as they walked up the mountain. "What if someone finds them here." Prowl reached down and touched something that she just noticed was sitting there on the mountain, finding that the trees that appeared to be in the mountain were not really there after all. Remembering how she had flew out of the crater and turned around to find it full of trees that had not been there before. "That does not appear to be an issue." Prowl replied to Bulkhead as they looked into the crater, obviously disappointed that there was nothing, but a few trees and a river inside.
"They're gone." Bulkhead agreed as they looked. Deciding to climb into the crater, as they went down to get a closer look. As they walked down and into the crater, she could feel the shift of Bumblebee's mood, clearly upset about Sari having gone missing along with what they had called the dinobots in the process. "No Sari and no dinobots? What if they hurt her?" He cried as they stopped in the middle of the crater. "We shoulda let Sundac melt them down like he wanted."
"No, they were more than just mindless machines. They had a spark, a lifeforce, we had to save them." Prowl cried back as he argued with Bulkhead.
"So, who's gonna save Sari?" Bulkhead replied, clearly annoyed with Prowl. She thought about revealing herself to them, but she didn't want to ruin her element of surprise just yet, feeling that something was off about the island as she looked above her at the crater walls that towered above them. She followed after them as they climbed back out of the crater and hoped for some sort of sign of where the heck Sari had disappeared to. They walked around the island, clearly hoping for any sign of the said dinobots that were supposed to be there. As they walked down the side of the mountain, she saw a puddle ahead of them that Prowl clearly had noticed. "Watch it, quick sand." He cried as he turned to Bulkhead as he walked around it.
"I'd be a real glitch head to get caught in that." Bulkhead replied as they walked past it, just for Julie to notice something behind them. She spun around and saw the same Captain stuck in the middle of the quicksand, about to go in to grab him, to find Bulkhead and Prowl approaching her. Quickly moving out the way as they ran toward her.
"Help!" the Captain cried as they approached.
"What are you doing here?" Bulkhead asked as he fired a wrecking ball between two nearby trees. Making a rope for him to grab hold onto.
"Sinking, get me out." the Captain cried as he grabbed hold of the rope from Bulkhead's servo and pulled himself out of the sand.
"Captain, why are you following us?" Prowl asked as he reached out and lended his own servo to help him out.
"I'll ask the questions, starting with what are you two doing on an abandoned island research facility in the middle of lake Erie?" The Captain cried as he pointed at the two bots. Both bots looked at each other and grew silent as though exchanging thoughts while she watched what was going on.
"What is up with the holographic trees? And what has this island got to do with the Sundac kid anyway? There is something you're not telling me." Captain cried as he walked backwards in front of the two bots.
"Um, can't think of anything." Bulkhead replied as he looked down at the human. "Um, maybe that." He pointed at something in front of them, drawing her attention ahead of the trail to find three cybertronians that reminded her a lot of the predaking from her home world. Three different dinosaurs standing right in front of them as the human backed away from them toward the bots.
"Somebody tell me what those things are doing here." He commanded as he backed away.
"Captain, remain still. Let me deal with the dinobots. They trust me." Prowl spoke up as he held his servo out. He walked forwards towards the bots, but they immediately started getting upset with them.
"Intruders! Me Grimlock destroy." One of the bots cried, just before the flying one went to attack them, hitting her instead of Bulkhead. She landed on the ground and ended up shifting into view in front of them, but she didn't care. The Captain started panicking as she quickly got in the way of the one called Grimlock who was trying to attack him.
"So much for trust." Bulkhead replied.
"I don't understand." Prowl cried as he was crouched on the ground.
"Oh no!" Captain cried out as she deflected some fire coming toward them.
"Seems pretty straight forward to me. The dinobots took Sari and now they are trying to destroy us." Bulkhead cried out as he attacked the bots. Prowl came up behind her and picked up the Captain as he tried to figure out what was going on. "No, Grimlock stop! Why are you doing this?" Prowl cried as he took off with his jet pack. "I would like to understand is where the heck did these guys come from and why did you guys lie to me when I arrived on this island?" Julie cried out as she deflected some more flames.
"Julie? What the heck are you doing here?" Bulkhead cried as he saw her.
"Same reason you are? To find Sari." She cried as the fought the dinobots just as Bulkhead turned over the ground that one of the dinobots were standing on. "Now why are these dinobots the problem?"
"Because they are mean and dumb and we never should have helped them escape."
"You helped them escape?" The Captain cried out.
"Tell us what you did with Sari!" Bulkhead cried out as he threw a tree at the flying dinobot that was carrying both Prowl and the human into the air. Julie looked up in time to see Prowl transform and drive along the side of a nearby tree, just to land on the ground and drive away. She turned to Bulkhead who also shifted and drove after Prowl. She flew after them, shifting back out of view in the process just as the flying robot came charging toward her.
"Destroy intruders!" Grimlock cried out as she disappeared and flew after them from behind. As she flew above them, she saw them getting corralled into the canyon up ahead, realizing the trap that was up ahead. "Prowl, Bulkhead, no!" She yelled, just before they ended up at a dead end.
"We're trapped." Bulkhead cried out.
"Excellent observation." Someone replied from above them.
"Permithias Black?" The Captain asked as he looked at the figure in a weird, metal outfit, along with some sort of liquid that made her skin tingle. She could smell the iron off of him as he stood up on the ledge.
"The name is 'Meltdown.'" The man cried out as he looked at them.
"What do you got to do with all of this?" The Captain asked as everyone was trying to figure out what was going on.
"Everything." Prowl replied. "He's controlling the dinobots. He used them to take Sari. I saw his acid burns on their onnic casing." Prowl explained as she hovered there, feeling danger at every corner.
"Very well observed." Meltdown replied. "It's true the dinobots have learned to respect my touch."
"Me Grimlock sorry and Meltdown hurt dinobots." Grimlock spoke up from behind her.
"They serve as effective if somewhat overqualified watch dogs. It was quite cruel finding an island with its own security system, just when I was in need of a little privacy to conduct some unique experiments." Meltdown explained.
"Where is Sari?" Bulkhead cried out as he got angry. "What have you done with her?"
"Oh, yes. The little girl. My newest experimental subject." Meltdown replied.
"You miserable..." Bulkhead cried out just as he charged towards him, but Julie saw what was coming. She quickly got in the way, just as the acid came flying towards Bulkhead and ended up taking the hit, but some still ended up hitting Bulkhead in the end. Bulkhead cried out as she landed on top of him in the process. Finding both Prowl and the Captain coming running toward them to help them out, but the iron in the acid was incredibly strong and she could feel it eating at her skin. "Bulkhead!" They both cried, just as she struggled to sit up, finding them falling into a trap door on the ground.
"Sorry, I have other plans for you." Meltdown commented as he watched them fall into the trap. She reached to grab the water bottle on her, waiting on him to leave in the process. She felt her body ache in the process as Meltdown left, but she didn't care. She had to help out Bulkhead who was currently out of it. Using the water on her, she quickly poured it onto her own burns that mainly were all along her wings that were now gonna be out of commission, for who knows how long? As that quickly removed the last of the acid, she swiped a drop of her own blood off of her wing, finding that it was energon just as she suspected from the Captain's evaluation earlier before. She had no idea when her blood turned into energon, but right now she needed it as she used it to start tending to Bulkhead's wound.
As she felt herself starting to pass out, she found herself struggling to tend to the wound. The burns were extremely excruciating as it forced her to shift back to view to perseve whatever energy she had left. "Primus, help me. Please." She mumbled, just to hear someone coming running towards her, but that was just as her vision started to blur, preventing her from seeing clearly. As she tended to his wound by flushing fresh energon into it, she felt Bulkhead starting to shift, but because of the large opening in his armor it wasn't helping to retain the energon she was giving him.
"Bulkhead." Prowl's voice spoke from behind her, startling her, but at the same time making her feel glad that he managed to escape from the trap that he and the human fell into. "He's barely online. Sari, the key." He cried. Just as Sari hopped onto Bulkhead beside her. As soon as she inserted the key, she stopped giving him the energon and started using it to pour it along her burned up wings that were bleeding energon like crazy. She felt herself struggling to stay awake, but she knew she had to.
The hum of Bulkhead coming online made her smile as he shifted from underneath the both of them. "Sari? You're okay. I found you. How'd I do that?" She could hear Sari merely chuckle in the process as she felt her vision start to grow dark. "You're the best." Sari replied.
"How touching, I do love happy endings." Meltdown cried from somewhere, but she had to fight it. She used both the water and the energon on her to force herself to stay functioning, making her vision come back so she could see Meltdown standing with the dinobots behind him. She could feel her wings closing up from the treatment, but they still stung and hurt like crazy in the process, but she didn't care. They needed her help. "It melts the heart along with other body parts." He cried as he aimed his hand at them, but she felt herself get angry in the process as she sent a blast of water at him, hoping it would wash away the acid that he tried to aim at them. Meanwhile she saw Sari throw herself at Meltdown, trying to kick him like Prowl taught her. "Sari, what are you doing?" Julie cried as she stopped her blast and found meltdown turning to look at her. "Oh, what was that supposed to be?" Meltdown asked as he looked at her, just as Prowl went charging towards him
"Duh, it's called a distraction." Sari replied as Meltdown got kicked, and the Captain tied something around the enemy in the process.
"Dinobots attack." Meltdown cried out, but Prowl quickly turned to them to get them to stop. "Wait, you don't have to do what he says. Look at him, he has no power now. He cannot hurt you." Prowl exclaimed, just as the Dinobots started to settle down from nearly charging at them.
"Meltdown not hurt dinobots. Dinobots hurt Meltdown." Grimlock cried as he ended up transforming right in front of them along with the other bots in the process.
"What the.." the Captain cried out.
"Whoa." Sari exclaimed.
"They couldn't do that before, right?" Bulkhead asked.
"No, no no. Stop. Keep them away from me." Meltdown cried out as the dinobots started to approach the group.
"Your choice, Meltdown. Prison, or do we leave you to your pets?" Prowl asked as she sat there watching everything going down.
"Get away, get away, get away." Meltdown cried as Grimlock crouched down over him. Something exploded from behind the dinobots, making her cringe and use her now healing wings to shield the group in the process. The dinobots turned and fought the thing from the entrance of the now destroyed door, making her cry at the fight taking place. She felt her body throb, but she also felt somewhat safe with the bots as she saw them able to help defend where she couldn't. Making her smile in the process.