Beyond (TF: Animated)

Chapter 11

"Get in, get in, get in!", the small bot yelled frantically. He was standing on the road in front of the abandoned warehouse, already in vehicle mode, engine running, handbrake loose, lights on, ready for departure. "I'm here." Sari leaped onto his driver's seat and slammed the door shut. While the girl buckled herself in, Bumblebee wrapped the seat belts of his backseats around the two boxes of medical supplies that the two of them had 'borrowed' from Ratchet. Then, Sari concentrated her attention on the tracking device in her hands. They figured, that since the mates had been able to communicate using their commlinks and the Decepticons that had tracked them down had apparently known that the triple-changer would be there, it was likely that Blitzwing's cloaking device was malfunctioning. As bad as that was, Bee was glad that this way, they had the means of finding him. He was just surprised that no one back at base seemed to have noticed it. "We have to arrive there first...", he mumbled. Sari didn't give an answer. She was trying to extend the tracker's sensitivity with her key. Bee revved his engine impatiently. He just couldn't bear the thought of those cons getting to his mate before he could, although, considering their flying alt-modes, that, of course, was more than likely. The minibot's circuits were bristling and firing like the lightning strikes of a delta-class thunderstorm. His spark pushed him to hit the gas already as the waiting turned nanocycles into joors. [Or worse yet], he thought, and shuddered, [what if the signal completely...] "Here!", the girl suddenly shouted. "One cybertronian energy signature. Can't find out who it belongs to though", she added thoughtfully. Bumblebee adjusted his rear-view mirror so that he could see what was displayed on the device. "It's him." The bot floored the pedal. He was sure. Sari wasn't. "Wow! How do you know that's not someone else building a trap or something?" He snapped. "I just do, okay?" Sari remained silent after that for a while. "Alright, you fortune-teller, and how is that?", she then wanted to know. The girl crossed her arms. "The Bond?" "Maybe. I don't know." He really didn't have the processor capacity to worry about that. All that mattered at the moment was that he had a slight idea of where to go. His sensory array was working at its limits, having to process all the information that was flooding his optics and audials while at the same time trying to block out the pain that had established itself as a constant background sensation. 'Idea of where to go' was a little bit misleading though. "How does it feel?", his passenger asked. "What? Pain?", Bee grumbled. "No", Sari immediately allayed him. "But... I don't know... everything else?" The yellow bot sighed. "It's like... a gateway to another... dimension? It feels like it's pulling me somewhere. I feel urgency. Reassurance. Fear. And longing." [Maybe he's trying to tell me something... If only I knew what... ] "We need to get to him, Sari! We just have to! How far off are we?"

The girl stared at the tracker and furrowed her brow. "Not sure... twenty miles, maybe more." She shrugged. "I'm just bad at guessing. This thing isn't my friend, but it says he's in the mountains north-east of the city." Immediately, almost all of the enthusiasm Bumblebee still had left in him escaped like the air out of a flat tire. "That's behind the lakes... That's gonna be a long drive..." Sari sat up in her seat and placed one hand on the small bot's dashboard. "At least, you can go along the seabed and don't have to circle the lakes. You can do it, Bee!" "Of course I can do it! The question is how long it will take!" His processor was already playing images of what horrible things would happen if the cons got to his mate first. Sari huffed slightly. "Bumblebee. You're the fastest ground-based vehicle on this planet! If you can't get to him in time, then who can?" He felt her other hand loosely gripping his steering wheel, her thumb gently rubbing over the middle part. An effort to show him she was with him, no matter how bad his decisions or ideas might be. It calmed him, even if just a little. "You're right!" He accelerated one last time, to a maximum that he had never been at before, wrenching every little bit of horsepower that he could find out of his engine. His cooling system went on full power, the gearshift creaked under the stress, tires were yowling. He didn't even really realize crossing the lake, as soon as he entered it, he came out at the other side. Urgency. Fear. But also belief. [Hang in there, Blitzbrain. I'm on my way. I don't know if that's gonna make a difference, but, I'm on my way. Hold on! Don't give up!]