//------------------------------// // The Search // Story: Cybertron Girls // by SonicSpeedster97 //------------------------------// After her parents and the school had been informed, the team set to work searching for the missing Rainbow Dash, starting with determining exactly how to locate the Nemesis. “Wheeljack and I have examined all available factors to determine the location of the Nemesis to rescue Rainbow Dash and Drift,” Perceptor explained. “Here’s the bad news; the Decepticons are basically the masters of GroundBridge engineering, so for all we know, the Nemesis could be in high orbit on the other side of the planet and that GroundBridge still would’ve hit the mark,” Wheeljack explained simply. “Well, that doesn’t make sense. I mean, it’s a GroundBridge, isn’t it?” asked Pinkie. Ratchet just sighed and facepalmed. “That just defines its transport range, not its actual physical location.” “Besides, what sense would it make for the Decepticons to have their GroundBridge separate from their troops on the Nemesis?” asked Prowl. “Oh yeah. That does make sense.” Pinkie smiled, only prompting a facepalm from Rarity, only exacerbating the pain she experienced when Lockdown nearly broke her bot-mode’s nose. “You mentioned something about good news?” asked Sunset. “We did not, however you are correct.” Perceptor nodded, bringing up a display on Teletraan’s computer screen. “When the Nemesis first launched from Kaon, the chief Decepticon scientist Shockwave equipped the ship with powerful cloaking shields that render it invisible to all known scanner systems. Throughout the War for Cybertron, I have been attempting to devise a way to penetrate the shields to locate the ship, and I believe I am growing close to that goal.” “How much longer will it take?” asked Ironhide. “Accounting for possible shield rotations, approximately two solar cycles.” Perceptor calculated. “Too long, Perceptor,” Cliffjumper assured. “By now, Rainbow and Drift will be in Vortex’s personal care, and we all know how sadistic he can be.” “You don’t have to tell me; I’m the guy who found his ‘interrogation’ den in K’th Kinsere.” Sideswipe brought up, shuddering at the memory. “Not pleasant.” “Perceptor, do all you can to accelerate your efforts,” Optimus ordered. “Prowl, dispatch scouting parties on the ground. Jetfire, search from the air.” “We’ll help too.” Applejack assured as she and the other girls stepped forward. “Dash may be a pain in the neck sometimes, but she’s still our friend.” “We would welcome your assistance,” Optimus assured, as all the available bots – as well as the girls with Armor-access – moved to leave the base. “Autobots, T-” Optimus didn’t have a chance to finish his order when he saw a faint blue glow emanating from Sunset’s vest pocket, caused by Rainbow’s Armor unit hovering out. “Looks like we’re going with Plan A, Optimus; track the Armor,” Jetfire smirked, glancing at Fluttershy. “Try to keep up; I was one of the fastest flyers on Cybertron.” As if to evidence that, he locked a mouthplate and blue visor with small black antennae on the sides of his head. Though clearly, he wasn’t fast enough to keep pace with the Armor as it shot out the open hatch like a bullet. Jetfire smirked under his mask. “Guess we’re gonna have to do this the hard way.” Quickly he transformed to jet-mode but swept his wings back as his tail-fins flapped down and two large red afterburners flipped up onto his back. Once in place, the afterburners fired and sent Jetfire flying out of the ship after the Armor. “W-Wait for me!” Fluttershy said in concern and quickly transformed, buzzing after him as best she could with her limited piloting experience. It took her a while to catch up to Jetfire, and she was certainly nervous when she finally did, as they were a good long way away from the base. “Sh-shouldn’t we wait for help?” “Not sure if you noticed kid, but right now, you and I are the only flyers available to keep pace with this thing.” Jetfire reminded. “I mean, besides Tracks, but he was built more for tactical flight than speed.” Suddenly his sensors toned as they picked something up. “Wait, hang on; I’ve got something. Whatever it is, it’s big and it’s straight ahead of us.” It soon became clear as to exactly what it was when he and Fluttershy looked ahead. “The Nemesis.” “Oh, um… maybe we should, um… come back later? I-It doesn’t look like anyone’s home.” Fluttershy didn’t care if she was lying or not; this ship looked terrifying. “Yeah sure, kid. You wanna swing back to base and pick up some cookies? Help yourself.” Jetfire smirked, admittedly surprised to see Fluttershy actually turn around and fly back toward the Ark. Quickly, he swung around and swooped into her path, switching to VTOL jets on his undercarriage. “So I’m genuinely curious about something; does your entire species not understand sarcasm, or is it just you?” Quickly, he realized exactly what he said and sighed. “Okay sorry, that was mean. Look, relax okay? I used to serve on this ship; I know how to get aboard alive.” This surprised Fluttershy beyond words. “You were a Decepticon?” “Sure; I used to be the commander of the Seekers before I saw just how far from grace Megatron fell,” Jetfire explained as he hovered around to Fluttershy’s side prompting her to turn around again. “And now, I’m gonna lead us onto that ship alive. Stay close!” Quickly he fired his engines at full power and shot to the upper deck of the ship with Fluttershy quickly following him, both transforming in midair and landing right on the deck, at which point Jetfire flipped up his mask, and raised his afterburners – now in the form of twin massive back-mounted cannons – as well as smaller blasters flipping out of his forearms and shins, and raised a massive blaster rifle. Starscream was on the upper deck and recoiled in apparent terror when he saw the massive jet and the copter-girl. Jetfire just smirked at his former lieutenant, more than happy he had a chance to use this one-liner as he raised his rifle. “Permission to come aboard, Commander?”