Infection

The Pulse

Megatron's POV

Megatron stifled a yawn, tried from a long day. He had to take on extra work to cover what the infected crew members could not and to say he was irritated was a huge understatement. He was about to check on Knockout and Shockwave to see how far they made it with the second test when he saw something coming down the hall. He recognized it as a single pulse from an experimental device in the lab. The pulse knocked down vehicons as it came and he hardly had time to react before it knocked him to the floor and he passed out.

Optimus' POV

     He watched quietly as Arcee and Bulkhead walked towards the ground bridge. After getting the kids message he decided to send them through while he and Smokescreen stayed behind in case they needed backup or got captured. He stood silently next to Ratchet as Arcee stepped through.
     Suddenly a pulse came through the bridge. It met Arcee and threw her into Bulkhead knocking them both to the ground before it hit him. Optimus grunted as he was violently pushed onto the rail before he fell to the ground and everything went black.

Ratchet's POV

     He saw Arcee crash into Bulkhead before Optimus hit the rail hard and he was shoved into the ground bridge controls. Thankfully he didn't mess anything up and his medical instincts took over. His optics went straight to the nearest bot, who was Optimus, and widened in surprise. He looked to Arcee and Bulkhead to confirm what was really happening and found that they too were infected. Smokscreen just stood in shock while Ratchet rushed to Optimus' side and took a scan. The primes vitals were fine, same as the other times bots were infected, although he did have a few minor scratches from hitting the rail but those would repair themselves in a day or two. He looked up to see the kids successfully made it through to the base. Having his paws full, he reached up and closed the ground bridge with his tail before turning to the shocked children.
"The pulse." Jack said as he gaped at them.
"What pulse?" Ratchet asked, typing on a monitor, as he looked up from further 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 as it donned on him what had happened.
"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."

Megatron's POV

That fragging idiot! He though as he stalked down the Nemesis' hallway to the lab, now on four legs instead of two. His newly formed ears were back and he didn't care that his tail lashed violently behind him. The sharp blade at the end of it swinging dangerously close to the infected vehicons waking up all around him. Their amusingly shocked face plates were the only things keeping them alive and out of his way.
As the door to the lab opened he heard two voices instead of a bunch of hissing, and growls. Knockout was explaining to Starscream that he had triggered an experimental device that had probably done some damage he wouldn't walk away from... and he was right.
"Starscream you will be lucky if I can repair you at all!" The medic stated.
"It wasn't my fault it was the autobot's pets!"
"Who activated the machine?" It was more of a statement than a question but it still got a response.
"They put the chemical in it!"
"And?"
"And what!?"
"And you need to stop doing stupid things before he kills-...you." The medic was no longer listening to what he was saying he was just starring at the infected warlord who was more displeased than he would have thought.
"Very accurate Knockout." He said calmly.
Knockout nodded a little as he backed away slowly and jumped onto a lab table as soon as he was at a safe distance. This panicked Starscream even more.
"Megatron, my lord please!" He pleaded backing up as Megatron advanced.
"Starscream convince me you are worthy of living and you shall not die." He said bluntly but calmly.
"Please, the humans did it I was tricked!"
"So you can be tricked by fleshbags? How is that worthy of my second?"
"N-no, that's not what I meant, they poured the chemical into the machine!"
"Something you allowed to happen."
"But I tried to stop them!"
"And in the process you made things worse."
"But I didn't know what it was, Knockout told me to stay back, he didn't tell me what would happen if I didn't!"
"So you don't trust your fellow decepticons? Or are you blaming you mistakes on others? That's not very loyal. So how do I know you will remain loyal to me?"
"I...I...I have no excuse." The seeker hung his helm in defeat. Satisfied, Megatron turned to Knockout.
"How far did the pulse spread?"
"Unfortunately it appears to have crossed into the autobot's ground bridge. Meaning it could have covered the entire globe." Knockout said while he jumped off the lab table and pulled up an image of the pulses path across earth.
"So the rest of the autobots are infected as well?"
"Yes."
"Good."