The Beauty and the Predacon {ON HOLD}

Chapter 20

:: Shockwave, assembly of the Omega Lock is entering the final stage. :: Megatron is heard over the comms in the lab.:: Your guidance is required. ::

"Understood, my liege," Shockwave says as he turns away from what he was doing and heads to the door. "Knock Out, supervise our guest in my absence," he tells Knock Out before he exits the lab.

"Wow, thanks for the big vote of confidence." Knock Out mumbles as the door closes behind Shockwave.

Ratchet watches Shockwave leave before whispering to himself, "I can't allow Megatron to possess the stabilized formula." He looks at the screen in front of him as something pops up on it, "Not now, or ever."

He creates an explosion which causes Knock Out to turn around, "For the love of...! What is happening!?"

Ratchet quickly turns to face him, "The formula's instability, it must have triggered a chain reaction," he says as smoke begins to envelop him.

Knock Out gets on the comm, "Guards! Get in here and help me extinguish this inferno before it scorches the project... and my finish!" 

The door opens and the two Vehicons that were standing guard run in, Ratchet transforms and drives out of the lab. He passes some Vehicons who chase after him as they shoot at him but he manages to swerve out of the way of each shot. "Not bad for an old bot," he says to himself when he sees that he lost the Vehicons. He needs to find where they're keeping Arcee but he doesn't have a clue where she could be.

When he turns a corner to go up another corridor he's stopped by Megatron who places a foot on top of him and starts pressing down, "If you terminate me, you'll never get your hands on the formula!" Ratchet chokes out.

Megatron removes his foot to allow the old bot to transform, after he transforms he stays down on his knees as he places a servo on the floor trying to recover. Megatron looks down at him as he speaks, "Oh I wouldn't be so certain, doctor. My experts are working diligently to disentangle your false trail as we speak." Ratchet looks up at him in shock.

~~~~~~~~~~

Knock Out waves the same canister of the formula that Ratchet tried to take, in his face. "Nice try. I'll just put this back where it belongs," he says before walking off to put it up.

"Spectrum analysis conforms, that the Synthetic Energon is stable," Shockwave says as he grabs a canister out of the machine. He turns to look at Megatron, "The formula is now complete."

"And your timetable for production?" Megatron asks him.

Shockwave lifts the canister for Megatron to take it as he responds, "With the aid of hyper-acceleration technology, not long," he says as Megatron takes the canister and examines it.

Megatron turns around to walk towards Ratchet, "Ohh, a pity you won't live long enough to witness the fruits of your labor. But as much as we appreciate your contributions, doctor. I made a promise to someone that I intend to keep." He looks over at the Vehicons, "Make sure the femme watches as the Predacon tears him apart, and make sure she doesn't interfere."

"Yes, my liege," the Vehicons both said before they walked out of the lab with Ratchet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arcee paces back and forth as worry consumes her, she doesn't like that she hasn't heard anything about Ratchet. After she and Predaking finished taking a shower to wash away the fluids from their bodies she wanted to go check on Ratchet and see how he was doing but she was told that she couldn't see him which really unsettled her.

Predaking watched her pace as he dealt with his own turmoil, he wanted to beat up the Autobot, he wanted to tear him to pieces as payback for what they did to his brethren. But how can he kill a mech that Arcee really cares about right in front of her? She would go back to hating him and he's not sure if he can handle that. But he has to do it to prove that his loyalties still lie with Megatron.