Firestorm and Nightshade

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

"Again"

8-year-old Nightshade lunged at his Sire trying to get a hit in, only to be pinned to the ground with an ion cannon to his face.

"Dead, again" Megatronous ordered.

Nightshade panted and slowly stood up, he activated his arm-saber before lunging at his mentor and once again ended up flat on his back.

"You must examine your enemies' tactics before jumping in Nightshade" the mech explained, helping his Creation up, "try again"

Nightshade waited this time and watched as his Sire charged at him, he dodged the attacks and blocked a few times before countering with his moves. He lasted about four klicks (minutes) before getting taken down.

"Much better" Megyntron praised, "now practice your footing"

The mech lunged and Nightshade stumbled back, trying to focus on his footing and dodging the attacks at the same time. He epically failed...

Megatron sighed and spoke as he backed off, "again, this time follow your instincts"

Nightshade stood and got into a battle stance. They fought and Nightshade lasted much longer before getting distracted by Firestorm when he walked in. His Sire punched the Gladiator-in-training in the jaw, sending him to the ground.

"Nightshade! Are you alright?!" Firestorm asked as he raced over to his brother's side and checked on him.

The older twin nodded as he sat up, "I'm fine Fire', where're the twins?"

"Redempt is watching them, taking them to the park and whatnot"

"Ah" Nightshade nodded in understanding, "their second Carrier has them, gotcha"

"Nightshade!" Firestorm complained.

"What? It's true ain't it?" the older asked cassually.

"So, what if it's true!?" the younger glared, "you can't just say stuff like that!"

"Why not?"

"It isn't nice nor is it safe!" Firestorm snapped, fear flickering through their strong bond.

Nightshade frowned and hugged his brother, "they won't get you again Fire' I promise, I'll never let anything bad happen to you again"

~*~

Darkshadow and Ratchet entered the control room of the Autobot vessel. Ratchet scanned one of the bots.

"They're showing signs of a virus"

"Don't touch anything" the medic ordered as he pushed his brother away from a body, "the virus could still be active"

The old ship suddenly rattled and tilted, throwing the two into the wall. Darkshadow looked up when he heard the roof creak, he saw a bot being held up by wires before discolored Energon drippled into his eyes causing him to cry out in shock.

"No" Ratchet whispered in horror.

~*~

After calling an emergency Groundbridge and carrying Nightshade to the base, Ratchet hooked him up to life support and quickly began diagnosing what type of virus it was so he could make a cure for his brother and anyone else who got/gets infected.

The results sent fear through him.

"Cybonic Plague, only contagious if contact is made with the infected Energon" he murmured before looking around, he only saw the humans, Moonlasher and Arcee, "where is everyone?"

"Looking for a relic" Arcee informed.

Ratchet nodded.

"What was a virus doing on an Autobot ship?" Miko asked.

"The passengers were infected, the virus wiped out millions during the Great War" Ratchet explained as he ran simulations to figure out a cure, all of them were a fail; "the plague was engineered in the Decepticons' Biological-Warfare Program, by Megatron himself"

"There is a cure, right?"

"No" Darkshadow muttered, "no known cure"

"Darkshadow, save your strength"

Nightshade and Silverdust were surprised at the softness of his voice.

"Would Megatron really create a disease without a cure? I mean, what if he caught it by accident?" Jack pointed out.

"It's not like we can ask him" Arcee said.

Ratchet stared at the screen before making up his mind, "but we might be able to access the Decepticon database, for the moment we have the location of the warship"

Arcee nodded, "I'll go-"

"I'm coming with, Moonlasher stay here" Ratchet ordered as he opened the Groundbridge.

"Ratchet?" Arcee asked, grabbing the medic's bracer.

"I have to Arcee" Ratchet said, looking at her with desperate optics.

She nodded and let go.

The two left through the Groundbridge and stealthily made their way to the medical center where the main medical computer was.

Ratchet hacked while Arcee kept lookout.

Ratchet looked through everything, he couldn't find anything having to do with the Cybonic Plague.

"I can't find anything" Ratchet hissed.

:Are you sure?:

"Yes"

:Are you positive?:

"Yes Moonlasher, do you think you are the only one who cares for him?"

Silence.

"Ratchet, you really need to see this" Arcee called from his right.

The medic looked over; she was looking at something through the window. He walked over and gasped softly at the sight through the window. Megatron was laying on a medical slab with multiple life support systems.

The two entered and Arcee activated her gun.

"No! Don't!" Ratchet snapped.

"One reason, fast" Arcee hissed.

"Megatron could be the only way to save Darkshadow" Ratchet explained quickly.

She lowered the gun, "explain"

"His brainwaves are spiking hard meaning we can use a Cortical Psychic Patch to go in his mind and find what we need" Ratchet said in determination.

"Enter Megatron's mind? Ratchet are you out of your fraggen processor?!"

The medic began looking around and assembling the Patch.

"Do you even know how to perform the procedure?"

Ratchet remained silent as he finished the creation of the Psychic Patch, he lifted it and attached one end to the back of Megatron's head before going to a dip in the bay and giving the other half to Arcee.

"Attach that to the back of my helm" Ratchet tapped the side of his helm, "Moonlasher I'll need you to type DPW:2304KD into my computer; it'll make it so that you can see what I see in Megatron's mind. If he shows me the formula you can stop the screen and copy it"

"Ratchet, you can't it's outlawed by Autobots!" Arcee hissed.

"Doesn't matter" he looked at her, "I have to do this, to save Darkshadow. He'll die if I don't"

Arcee stared at him before sighing and attaching the Cortical Psychic Patch to the back of his helm.

His optics dimmed.