Infection

Mistakes

Jack's POV

"Miko what were you thinking?" He scolded as they hid behind a rock. The trade for Bee had failed as the cons had pulled him back through before they followed. Team prime had attacked a recently discovered energon mine inhe hopes of drawing them back out.
"I wanted to see some dragon smackdown." Miko answered explaining why she ran through the ground bridge. Jack had followed her and Raf had followed him. The bots were so far unaware they had done so.
"Ok, yeah, but that's not safe." He told her as he leaned around the edge of the rock. All he saw was a ground bridge and Arcee driving through it.
"That's ours." He said as he pulled Raf and Miko towards it. They slipped through just as it closed and realized all to late that Arcee had jumped through the cons bridge to try and get Bee.
Their they stood in the dimly lit halls of the Nemesis.

They ran and ducked behind a closed doorway as sounds of a fight reached their ears. They froze as Soundwave walked down the hall. He had something displayed on his visor and hadn't noticed them yet. He stopped just in front of the doorway and now had his back to them. Just then Arcee came speeding down the hall way, transformed, and jumped at Soundwave blades ready. She was about to strike when he opened a bridge and she saw the kids. She caught Jacks eye just as she went through the bridge and disappeared. The kids froze in the dead silence as they realized they were alone and Soundwave continued down the hall.
"We need to hide first then contact base." Jack whispered as he backed up, tripped the motion sensor to the door, and ran through. The other two followed and they found what looked like the lab.
It was mostly monitors, tools, work stations, and medical berths but off in the corner Bumblebee was hanging on the wall he was awake and seemed surprised to see them. Raf went to run to him but Jack stopped him.
"We end to find a way off first. We can rescue Bee on our way out." He barely whispered.
Raf nodded sadly before he found a console and was about to type when they heard the door slide open. They ran to a wall and hide in a corner as the door slid closed. They heard steps approaching and froze as a red paw came into view scarily close to them. Then another, and then Knockout's helm. They watched in intense silence as he arched his back and some of his circuits popped. Miko tried to hold in a laugh at how catlike Knockout was being when his ears perked up and he began to growl as he stepped closer to them and sniffed the air.
To their relief the door slide open and they heard another set of steps as Starscream's shreak-ish growl could be heard. Knockout was clearly annoyed and walked away to talk with the seeker. The kids didn't pay attention to what sounds they were making, they just ran back to the computer, erased what Raf had started, and snuck around a corner to another screen and started again. They sent a message to a frequency Ratchet would pick up without revealing their bases location.
Raf finished and jumped off the Cybertronian keyboard. His shoes hit the ground with two soft thumps and Knockout turned towards them again. Jack was barely able to pull Miko and Raf out of the way before they were spotted and once again they were hiding, this time under a table. He peered around the side of it to see Knockout sniffing the ground and growling while Starscream, who had been hissed at to shut up, was quietly following. Jack watched in fear as Knockout was accurately following their exact steps and would soon find them. Unless we could create a distraction. He thought as he frantically looked around the lab.
Then he spotted a test tube filled with the green liquid that transformed them sitting above a weird looking machine.
"Maybe if we tip that over it will jam the machine and create a good enough distraction for us to get away." He told Miko and Raf who nodded quietly.
"I got this." Miko said as she snuck past the table and began to climb the storage shelves closest to the station were the chemical was. Jack stood in front of Raf as Knockout reached the screen they had used and growled even more. He checked to see Miko almost at the top of the shelves.
"Get ready to run." He whispered. Raf nodded as, for the second time, a red paw came into view. When Knockout came around the corner he looked on top of the table first which gave them an opportunity.
"Now!" Jack yelled, checking Miko one more time to find her on the table and almost there, before pulling Raf out from under the table and running under Knockout. The decepticon stumbled and grunted in surprise before growling and turning around, slamming his sharp talons into the floor as he chased the two of them towards the station Miko was at. They slipped under with Knockout clawing after them. By now Starscream was right behind him. They ran all the way to the back and, as the decepticon followed, he bumped the table. Miko used the movement to her advantage and pushed the test tube over. The green liquid spilled into the strang machine and nothing happened.
But it got a reaction.
Knockout looked up and froze, optics wide. He looked at Jack and Raf before slowly backing out from under the table and sitting down in front of it and glaring at them. Starscream looked at him in disbelief before growling and advancing. But Knockout snapped at him and he stopped.
Jack and Raf walked out from under the table as Starscream grew increasingly angrier. Knockout snapped at him again as Miko joined them on the floor. They were seemingly out of options when a ground bridge opened up on the other side of Knockout. It clearly wasn't the cons and Starscream growled and charged them pushing Knockout aside. They ran out of the way and the seeker slammed into the table activating the machine. Knockout's optics had a knowing look in them as he stared in fear at the machine that was warming up.
The kids ran around him and bolted for the bridge as the machine let out a single pulse that shoved them to the ground. It looked like someone was coming through the bridge to get them but the pulse sent them flying back.
"Go! Now!" Jack shouted as he got up and dragged them after him. It hurt him to hear Raf screaming not to leave Bee but the scout was on the other side of the lab and even though he couldn't do much he wasn't struggling which told Jack it was ok to leave him.
They ran through the bridge and stopped dead in their tracks.
Only Smokescreen and Ratchet were conscious. All the others had been infected and were now metal dragons laying unconscious all over the base. Arcee was closest to the bridge with Bulkhead right behind her while Optimus was next to Ratchet.
     "The pulse." Jack said as he gaped at them.
"What pulse?" Ratchet asked, typing on a monitor, as he looked up from inspecting Optimus.
"We may or may not have caused this." Raf said guilty. Ratchet raised and optic ridge.
"We poured the chemical into a weird machine and Starscream hit it and it made a pulse." Miko explained.
"Oh no." Ratchet said.
"What?" Jack asked.
"If the pulse crossed through the ground bridge vortex and reached us it may have covered the entire globe. Infecting every Cybertronian." He explained.
"But their aren't any more on earth other than us and the Nemesis." Miko stated and Ratchet answered her,
"That we know of."