Optimus part Fourteen.

“Those lowlife, two-timing, rust pit runoff pieces of garbage!” Botanica raged. “They took everything! All my samples, my research, my tools, my… pilfered by their commoner hands! I can’t believe it, not even my hilarious motivational posters featuring different adorable species in non-life threatening situations were spared their greed!” Botanica looked around the bare interior of her damaged ship. Outlines where the paint hadn’t faded or dust hadn’t settled told stories of equipement and other items that once decorated it’s science bay. She crossed all four arms pouted. “Now how am I going to get through Mondays?” “They didn’t take everything.” Optimus pointed out. He and Road Rage stood safely behind Ironhide so as to avoid Botanica’s ire. “They left the cockpit untouched, after all.” “And there’s all those gimmicks on the outside that hurt us are still there!” Road Rage added. Botanica steamed. “I should’ve just blown them all up when I had the chance.” The cannons on her hips sparked and crackled with electricity. The Autobots cowered in fear. “Now now…” Optimus attempted to diffuse the ticking bomb in front of them. “Have you checked all the levels? Maybe they just cleared out this one?” “It’s a scientific shuttle!” Botanica snapped. “It only has one level…!” She stopped. “Unless….” Botanica hurried over to the back of the ship, the Autobots scrambling out of her way. “They didn’t get to the medibay because it has a lock! I‘m such a fool!” “Great!” Optimus peeped. He turned to Road Rage and Ironhide. “What is up with her? She’s been all quiet and personable and now she’s like Road Rage at a car wash!” Road Rage empathetically nodded. “Doesn’t help she’s the only one of us with the ability to kill us when we’re sleeping.” Ironhide added. “I think she’s hiding something.” Road Rage murmured. “She didn’t care about her ship before, but now she’s all mad. I think she thinks they think she has something important, and I think she thinks I know I think she does.” Optimus tried and failed to follow her point. “Okay,” He said. “But I think she’s hiding something important.” Ironhide nodded vigorously. From the back Botanica groaned with frustration. The Autobots quietly observed her frustrations. “You should go find out.” Ironhide said to Optimus. “You two get along, I barely know her.” “And I quite literally got the shaft last time,” Road Rage quipped. “So out you go!” She pushed Optimus out towards Botanica. As he shuffled nervously closer Optimus saw the cause of her frustrations was a mere keypad. Botanica stared at it. “So…” Optimus said. “Need any-” “Hush!” Botanica held her hand up, Optimus flinching at the motion. “I can not for the life of me remember the combination. I had it written of a note pinned to the microwave transmitter but, well… I may need to hack it.” Optimus gave a flippant gesture. “No sweat, I can hack anything.” Optimus said. He snuck his hand over to the pad and typed. “One, one, one, one… one, one.” The pad buzzed an angry denial. Optimus sneered. “Okay, smartaft… one, one, one-SMASH!” Optimus punched the pad. Botanica jumped back as the door, surprisingly, opened. Optimus graciously offered Botanica first entry. She obliged, and Optimus waved his friends over. They crowded the small medibay. It consisted of one small table, a bucket of basic tools, a file cabinet, and a stasis pod. The Autobots’ interest instantly shifted to the pod. Botanica, however, seemed more interested in the cabinet, pulling open a drawer and sifting through it’s contents. “You had a stasis pod on board?” Optimus asked. “Why didn’t you tell us?” Botanica poked her head up, but didn’t make eye contact. “I didn’t think it was important.” She said, then went back to searching the drawer. Road Rage pressed her face and hands up to the pod’s glass. “We had a stasis pod,” She said. “But we put a bear in it and the dumb thing wrecked the insides.” This gave Botanica pause. “Why would you put a bear in-” She began, then shook her head. “Actually, I don’t care. Aha!” She pulled out a certain file. Inside was a small card, which she tossed in her hand, a smile across her face. “What’s that?” Ironhide asked. Botanica’s smile faded. She looked unsure now, and looked out of the corner of her eye to each of them. Then she looked at card and sighed. “We will all go to prison forever,” Botanica said. “If you ever speak of this to anyone.” “Prison?” Optimus said. “Yeah, no. I am not going…” He paused. “…to prison.” He turned away. “What’s the matter with you?” Road Rage said, bouncing with excitement. “Don’t you find this interesting?” She shifted her attention to Botanica. “What kind of secrets we talking about, here? Government conspiracies? Military cover-ups?” Road Rage lowered her voice to a sly tone. “Unflattering pictures of Sentinel Prime?” “Yeah, but you know what’s better than all that useless crap?” Optimus said. “Not spending the rest of my life behind laser-gates.” “Too late,” Botanica said. “You’ve seen this, which is bad enough. If you ever breathe a word of this, we’re all going down.” Optimus sighed dramatically, and as he was about to say something Road Rage grabbed him by the antennae and pulled herself up to his eye level. “I. Must. Know.” She said sternly. Optimus pulled her off and shook his head. “Fine,” He said, placing Road Rage on the ground. He looked at Ironhide, who shrugged indifferently. “What’s the big secret?” Botanica inhaled, then began. “I was sent on a mission to recover a sensitive… item that was supposedly lost here eons ago.” She held the car up. “This card contains the item’s last known location on this planet, before it’s transmitter stopped, well, transmitting.” Botanica lowered her voice for emphasis. “This item was created by our enemy long ago during the first global war of Cybertron as the ultimate weapon of destruction. But it… malfunctioned, and fell into our hands. However the Autobots could not contain it, nor could they destroy it, so they sent it away to be hidden here. This item, this super weapon…” Botanica leaned in. The Autobots leaned in as well until all four were huddled together. “…Is a lost Decepticon warrior.” Optimus made a crude noise with his mouth. “Seriously? That’s your big secret? Old news.” He said. “How could you possibly know about it?” Botanica asked. “Because it’s Jetfire.” Ironhide answered. “Yeah,” Road Rage said. “Didn’t we tell you? Jetfire was sleeping in the ground, the Decepticons dug him out and we all became best friends.” “I don’t believe it.” Botanica said. “Hey Jetfire!” Optimus called. Jetfire poked his big head through the door of the shuttle. “What!?” He grumped. “You’re a Decepticon, right?” Optimus asked. “Bah…” Jetfire pulled out and wandered back to what he was doing. “See?” Optimus said, waving his hand towards him. “Well, that’s very unfortunate,” She said, her tone depressed. “Because, well, I came not merely to find this weapon, I came to dispose of it.” The Autobots looked confused, worried, Road Rage spoke first. “What do you mean ‘dispose’?” She asked. “You don’t mean…” “That’s not right,” Ironhide said. “He’s switched sides, you can’t just kill him for what he used to be. “You won’t.” Optimus said, stepping forward. “Not unless you bring an army to go through me, first.” “Don’t worry,” Botanica held up her hands. “I’m not going to.” The Autobots relaxed slightly. “However, this is now a lot more difficult. I have a job to do. I can’t not do it.” She crossed her arms. “I may still have to take him to jail.” “Why don’t you just tell your bosses what happened?” Optimus said. “I mean, he hasn’t done anything wrong.” “That’s the problem,” Botanica said. “He has. Not while you’ve known him, but he was once a Decepticon, and he fought for their cause. He isn’t absolved of that.” Road Rage stepped forward. “But he’s old!” She said. “At his age he hasn’t got many years left! Would you really want to have him live those out in a prison?” “It’s not about what I want,” Botanica said. “It’s about what I’ve been charged to do.” “I think Botanica’s right.” Ironhide said. Optimus and Road Rage shot him astonished looks. “You can’t be serious!” Road Rage said. “Why?” “I think because of his age he should,” Ironhide crossed his arms. “It’s for his own good, and for the good of others.” “How?” Optimus said, mimicking Ironhide’s stance. “I got captured chasing after him,” Ironhide put it plainly. “He ran humans off the road, crashed into buildings, all while rambling like a crazy person. He’s not well, Optimus.” “He’ll get the help he needs.” Botanica added. Optimus spun around, pointing a finger in her face. “Not from there, he won’t!” Optimus shouted. “The only help you get in there is into a coffin.” Botanica put a hand on Optimus’ shoulder. “You’ve been in prison, haven’t you?” She said sympathetically. “No.” Optimus shrugged her off. “But I know what it’s like, and that’s not where you want to spend your last days alive.” Botanica stared up at Optimus, who eased back. She was about to retort, but Ironhide stepped in. “I know how you feel, Optimus.” He said. “But this isn’t about you, it’s about-” Ironhide was cut off by a loud tapping on the hull, followed by Jetfire’s face appearing in the door. “Sorry to butt in, but I have a question.” Jetfire began. “The sky being on fire, is that the good one or bad one?” “What?” Optimus jogged out of the shuttle, the others followed. He looked to the sky from their clearing, there was a tower of smoke illuminated by flames in the distance. The forest was burning. “A forest fire,” Road Rage pointed out. “We have to stop it!” “If it hits our base,” Ironhide said. “We’re quite literally toast.” “It’s a way’s off.” Optimus said. “But not for long. Let’s get going.” Road Rage and Ironhide transformed and took to the path leading south. Optimus turned to Botanica. “We’ll finish this discussion when I get back.” He transformed and drove off. “What discussion?” Jetfire asked. Botanica looked up. “Nothing important.” She said to him. She watched the light from the inferno burn in the distance, and began to wonder. It wasn’t very dry, in fact it rained two nights ago. A fire starting under these conditions would have to be either an absurd chance or deliberately set. Which means the others could be driving straight into a trap. “We have to stop them!” “What?” Jetfire said. “It’s a trap! Somebody’s drawing them to the fire.” Botanica said. “Or rather, away from you.” Botanica heard as incredible heat burned her and a great force sent her straight into the ground. Before Jetfire could react he also was shot down, falling backwards into the stream by the ship. Botanica tried to pull herself out of the hole filled with red hot rocks, but only managed to turn over. Standing behind her was Shockwave, still partially disfigured, but very much alive.