If Only

Chapter 16

As I arrive at the base, I drop the bike to the ground and dash toward the computer, hoping to track my phone. Sideswipe shouldn't stay at the mercy of the Decepticons any longer, not if I had anything to do with it. Gliding my hands against the keys, turning on the screen, I logged in. I was surprised when I had been given the pass code to their computers, seeing as I had previously hacked into them. Then again, I did help keep a virus from being downloaded earlier.

The virus was implanted by a coder from Colorado; the coder was later found and sent to a penitentiary. My only question is how he found N.E.S.T in the first place; I only knew of them because of my sightings in the battles. Also, why they would want to hack them in the first place. They almost succeeded, which I wanted to applaud them for, but that's beside the point.

Tracking the signal of my mobile phone, I found it to be in the same place as before, only to have moved a few blocks. Arizona was where the Decepticons probably located their base for the time being;  Arizona was a secluded area for the most part. Being deserted was useful when you wanted to be alone, although, since they could fly they did have an advantage of being able to get to places faster than us.

"Find anything?" Lennox began, startling me from my thoughts.

"The signal of my phone has moved just a few blocks away. Arizona, is where it is located." I replied, directed to the screen, showing him the map.

"And you're sure your phone is with Sideswipe?"

"Very."

Optimus rolled up, transformed and aired his way towards the railing. "Phoneix believes her phone can track us to Sideswipe's location. She even traced its signal to Arizona." Lennox explains, bringing a hand to his forehead.

"Phoneix, can you back this up?" Optimus questions, turning towards me.

"I can." Swinging the chair back to the screen, I brought up the signal of my phone to the larger screen so everyone could see. "I dropped my phone back when we left for recon, probably in Sideswipe's alt' form, where it might be now. I tracked its signal back to the Sonoran desert in Arizona." Ending, I turned back around and stood up, crossing my arms.

"Hmm," the leader hummed, taking in what he was seeing.

Ironhide rolled up, along with the rest of the military personnel and their jeeps. It took them longer, they stayed back to make sure every civilian left the area safely. I would have stayed back, but in the back of my mind I still believe the kidnapping of Sideswipe was my fault.

Even though I couldn't exactly stop it at the time, without proper weapons I can't exactly fight off beings 50 times larger than me. Next time, I'm bringing my weapons no matter what.

"Alright," Epps joins in, jumping up the steps. "Explain the gun, that worked better than any rifle I've ever used in battle before."

Gathering everyone's attention, I chuckled slightly. "I built it. After the few times of fighting with the metal surrounding the large beings, I perfected bullets to fight them off."

"Using our website I'm guessing?" Lennox pesters, narrowing his eyes.

"Precisely," I smirked. "No. Only half of it, I built most of it on my own."

"How?"

"Um," I scratched the top of my forehead, thinking back to it. "It began simply when I would use my Dad's old guns and rebuild the bullets. Then, once figuring out most regular bullets didn't work, I began experimented with my own designs of ammo."

"And you somehow figured out how to make your own ammo from scratch?"Ironhide asked, crossing his arms. Clearly not believing I could make my own bullets.