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❝ CHAPTER 15 ──
RADIOACTIVE ❞
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      ━━━━━ STEPHANIE AND HERO sat in the back seat with Mikaela next to them. Bee was driving, Daisy next to Bee and the Twins behind them. All were prepared in case something went wrong before they got to their next destination.

"This guy, Robo-Warrior, knows everything about anything alien he's supposed to know. One time we revenge- hacked his site and maybe I saw some of your alien drawings or whatever." Leo explained to them.

Bee pulled up to the building where the supposed Robo-Warrior was. Leo climbed out and slid the chair up allowing Hero to exit out first followed by Stephanie. Sam had a cap covering his head, while Mikaela followed behind him.

Stephanie and Hero were dressed in normal clothes so they didn't look out of place but they each carried a gun on them just in case. Their gear was with Daisy who would give it to them if need be.

"This is it. Yep. Deli. Good front!" Leo said, walking around the four. He turned around to face them, looking at each of them. "All right, wait here. I'll give you the go/no go. All right?"

Stephanie and Hero followed behind Sam and Mikaela as they walked into the Deli store. "It's him! It's him! That's the guy right there! That's him!" Leo said, pointing to a familiar face.

"Shit!" Stephanie breathed out as Simmons looked at her, then her brother and then Mikaela.

"No." Simmons spoke.

"You got to be kidding me." Sam said as he removed his hoodie.

"All right, meat store's closed!" Simmons shouted at everyone, as he run the bell. "Everybody out! Out, right now!"

"Wait a minute. You know this guy?" Leo asked the three.

"We're old friends." Sam told them.

"I wouldn't go that far." Stephanie said, looking at her brother.

"Old friends? You're the case that shut down Sector Seven, got the kibosh, disbanded. No more security clearance, no retirement, no nothing. All cause of you and your little criminal girlfriend. Look at her now, so mature. And your damn sister."

Stephanie rolled her eyes, briefly looking at Hero who was slightly confused. "We met the first time the Decepticon's attacked and tried to take over the Earth with the AllSpark." Stephanie explained to her friend.

"You live with your mama?" Mikaela questioned him.

"No, my mama lives with me. It's a big difference. They got your face all over the news, alien boy."

"Yeah, I know." Sam replied.

"And NBE One's still kicking, huh? How did that happen? Don't answer. I don't know what you're hiding, but I don't want anything to do with it. So, good-bye. You never saw me. I got bagels to schmear. Vanish."

"Can you give me five seconds?" Sam asked him as he started to walk away from them. "Look, hold on, I need your help." Sam soon said walking up behind him.

Simmons turned around to look at Sam. "Really? You need my help?"

"I need... Look, I am slowly losing my mind. Okay, I had a little crab-bot, plunged a device deep into the soft tissues of my brain and started projecting little alien symbols like a freaking home movie! And on top of that, I'm a wanted fugitive. So, you think you got it rough?"

"You said it projected images off your brain?"

"Right."

"Meat locker, now!" Simmons ordered, looking at the five.

Stephanie and Hero followed closely behind the others as Simmons led them to the meat locker. She really hoped there was a reason that they were going to the meat locker. Simmons kneeled down to the ground, turning his head to look back at the others.

"What you're about to see is top secret. Don't tell my mother."

"Swine flu. Not good."

"Now you know. Next time you eat a goat or a pig, there's a story behind it. Sad little story."

Stephanie was the last to come down the steps. She jumped off the ladder landing on her feet. She then turned around seeing that Hero and her brother had watched her jump off the ladder.

"Okay, files, files. We're talking about symbols. Hey, it's still radioactive. Hands off. Okay, Cube-brain. Any of these look like the symbols you saw?" Simmons asked Sam after he opened the file.

Sam walked over to him taking the file from his hand looking at the pictures. "Where'd you get these?" Sam proceeded to ask him.

"Before I got fired, I poached S-7's crown jewel, over 75 years of alien research which points to one inescapable fact." Simmons started to explain as he climbed onto file cabinets. "The Transformers they've been here a long, long time."

Simmons pulled out a box from the stack causing a few papers to plummet towards the floor. "How do I know?" He asked, throwing the box to Leo who caught it in his hands. "Archaeologists found these unexplained markings in ancient ruins all over the world."

He climbed off the file cabinet and pulled the pictures out of the box, placing them onto the table one by one. Everyone gathered around looking at the symbols that were in the photos.

"China. Egypt. Greece." He then moved around the table turning a film on. Stephanie walked away from the table looking at the film "Shot in 1932. These the symbols you're seeing in your head?" Simmons asked, Sam looking over at him.

"Yeah." Sam replied.

"Sam ones over here, right?" Stephanie walked back over to the table looking at the picture her brother picked up. "So, tell me, how did they end up all drawing the same things? Huh? Aliens. And I think some of them stayed."

Hero briefly exchanged a look with Stephanie, who in return shook her head. Simmons picked up another file, showing it to them.

"Check this out. Project Black Knife." He hit the bottom of the file to the table then turned it around and opened it up, and started picking up more photographs. "Robots in disguise, hiding here all along. We detected radioactive signatures all across the country."

"And?" Stephanie questioned him.

"I pleaded on my knees with S-7 to investigate it, but they said the readings were infinitesimal, that I was obsessed." He slammed his hand on the table. "Me. Can you imagine that?"

"Well..." Stephanie said, tilting her head and earning a smirk from Hero. Simmons on the other hand gave her an eye roll.

"Yeah. Megatron said that there was another Energon source here." Sam told Simmons.

"On Earth?"

"On Earth."

"Another source?"

"Okay? And that these symbols, maps in my head, would lead him there."

"You talk to your Autobot friends about this?"

"No, no, no, the source is before them. Whatever the Energon source is, it predates them. It's before them."

"So, it comes before them."

"Correct."

"Well, then we're porked, unless we can talk to a Decepticon. I mean, I'm not on speaking terms with them."

"Actually, I am." Mikaela said, looking around at everyone that surrounded the table.

Leo, Simmons, Stephanie and Hero waited while Sam and Mikaela went out to get the Decepticon. They climbed back down the ladder and Mikaela placed the metal box onto the table.

"Let me out!" Wheelie shouted, from inside the metal box.

"This is going to be a little bit sad." Mikaela informed them.

"Open it." Sam replied.

Mikaela opened the box after grabbing the chain, the Decepticon jumped out of the box aggressively. Stephanie pulled her hand up to her jacket and lifted it up, placing her hand on her gun just in case.

"I have so many Decepticons on your butt!" Wheelie shouted as he tried to go after Sam.

Mikaela leaned forward, opening a flame on the torch and holding it out towards Wheelie. "Hey, behave!" She said.

"What is it, a Decepticon?" Sam asked her.

"Yeah."

"And you're training him?"

"I'm trying to."

"I spent my whole adult life combing the planet for aliens, and you're carrying around one in your purse like a little Chihuahua." Simmons said, causing Wheelie to stop chewing on the metal.

He turned on his wheels looking at Simmons. "Do you want a throwdown, you pubic 'fro-head?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry about your eye, you know, but, if you're a good boy, then I'm not gonna torch your other eye out. Okay? I'm not gonna torch it. Just tell me what these symbols are, please."

Everyone watched as he kneeled down to get a closer look at the photographs. He moved them around, starting to look at each of them.

"All right. I know that. That's the language of the Primes. I don't read it, but these guys... Where the frick did you find photos of these guys?" Wheelie asked them.

Sam picked up two of the photos holding it for Wheelie to see. "Is this them?" He asked.

"Yeah. Seekers, pal. Oldest of the old. Oh, they've been here thousands of years, looking for something. I don't know what. I don't know what. Nobody tells me nothing, but they'll translate those symbols for you. And I know where to find them."

"Show us." Simmons told the Decepticon.

"Yeah." He threw his metal hands forward, cracking them, then proceeded to turn around placing green lasers onto the map to show them where the Decepticons were located. Sam walked through the lasers looking at the map.

"The closest one's in Washington."