Healed [Sequel to Burned](Transformers Prime)

Chapter Sixteen | Safety

"And I'm off to the races, cases of Bicardi chasers,
Chasin' me all over town,
'Cause he knows I'm wasted,
Facin' time again in Ricker's Island and I won't get out,
Because I'm crazy, baby,
I need you to come here and save me,"

»«

Chromia froze, staring at the human weapon that was far too close to Dana's head for comfort. Using slow movements she lowered Megatron to the ground, optics searching for a way to blast that human to bits without hurting Ratchet's charge.

Dana closed her own eyes, trying to take a slow, solid breath. She had thought Gamma would be dangerous, but when they spoke and interacted with one another she doubted her intial assumption. Now she wished she had listened to her intuition.

"Chromia, did it work?" Ratchet asked over intercom. "Is Dana safe?"

The femme pursed her lips. "It worked," she murmured. "But Dana is in the hands of a M.E.C.H human."

"I'm coming over-"

"No, Ratchet," she cut him off. "He has a gun."

Agent Fowler gripped the railing, cursing. "Put me in there," he ordered the medic. "Let me see if I can try to talk him down."

"You want to do the talking?" Ratchet asked, bewildered. "Forgive me, Agent Fowler, but I doubt you can do much better than any one of us Cybertronians in this situation!"

Gamma glared at Chromia. "I have a few demands to be met," he shifted his stance, feeling the resistance of the trigger. The safety was on, because the last thing he wanted was to actually shoot the girl, but he refused capture; Alpha would never forgive him for that. "If you do not attend to any of them, I kill her. Understood?"

"Put me in the field, now!" Fowler snapped at Ratchet. "She is my responsibility as much as yours, and I have been trained for hostage situations. If you want Dana to get out of this, alive, you need for me to negotiate with this guy."

Ratchet took in a deep ventilation. His energon veins were alive with energy, every move he made seeming to be the wrong one. Ratchet had never been one to want to hurt someone, but if that human so much as bruised his charge, he would not be merciful.

"Agent Fowler is coming to discuss the terms," he finally told Chromia, who relayed the message to Gamma. "He is Groundbridging now"

Gamma waited impatiently as the Agent strode through the portal, dark eyes scanning the scene before he settled on the pair of kidnapper and kidnapped.

"Son, put the gun down, and we can talk," Fowler began, though that only earned him a head shake.

"You listen, or I make good on my threat," the M.E.C.H operative hissed. "One: You will not attempt to capture me, or take you to your base. Two: Megatron is mine as well. Lockdown needs him, and if he doesn't get what he wants, we will be the ones paying. And you will not attempt to rescue him either."

The federal agent gazed at Gamma for a long time, eyes occasionally glancing over at his terrified intern. Fowler's hands had curled into fists without him realizing, and he took a deep breath before relaxing them. He had to remain focused, and not let his emotions get to him. It would be more beneficial to Dana if he treated this as any other typical hostage situation; though it was far from it.

His trained eyes noticed the safety on the gun, how it was clicking in the "wrong" direction. The M.E.C.H member had not prepped the gun to fire. This was new and intriguing development.