Chapter 8 - Echoes Beneath Area 19

🌘 That Night – Hidden Trail Toward Area 19

Winds swept across the desert as the convoy moved under the star-speckled night sky. There were no city lights out here. No signals. Just the low rumble of their armored vehicle pushing through loose sand and rock.

Inside the lead transport, Leandro sat in silence at the front. His face was shadowed, eyes weary but focused. A faint trickle of dried blood remained near his nostril, hidden from view. Beside him, Bumblebee drove in semi-automatic mode, occasionally glancing at him with quiet concern.

Behind them, a second, heavier tactical vehicle followed. Inside it, Colonel Lennox rode with two of his men. He leaned forward, elbows on knees, studying the flickering military tablet in front of him.

Lennox murmured to himself,

"This kid… carrying way too much on his shoulders."

Inside the first vehicle, silence was broken.

Tyler, seated in the back cleaning one of his composite knives, commented with a grin,

"Still can't believe we're doing this. Sneaking into a locked-down military graveyard… to steal robot corpses."

Noah, already suited up and connected to the G.I. network, glanced at him.

"It's not stealing. It's recovery. They deserve another chance."

From the back, Ironhide grunted,

"And if that site's infected already… we cleanse it. Spark by Spark."

Wheeljack looked up from his Spark scanner.

"My sensors are already picking up weird fluctuations. Nothing confirmed as Necrotron… yet. But something's off. Very off."

Leandro remained silent. Then, as they neared a rocky wall partially buried in the dunes, he raised a hand.

Leandro

"Stop here. We walk from this point."

The vehicle slowed to a halt. Engines shut down. Nightfall took full hold.

The team disembarked, their boots crunching against sand and rock. Before them, an old, half-collapsed maintenance shaft carved into the wall. Hidden. Forgotten.

Wheeljack activated a small plasma cutter, slicing through a metal plate. A narrow crawlspace opened just wide enough for a human and a crouching bot.

Tyler raised an eyebrow and ducked inside first.

"This better not be some kind of alien rat nest…"

Leandro followed, replying calmly,

"This tunnel was used for discreet transfers. Weapons, tech… things the government didn't want reported."

One by one, they slipped in—Noah, Ironhide (barely squeezing), Wheeljack. Bumblebee entered last. Behind them, Lennox motioned for two soldiers to stay and secure the entrance before crawling in himself.

Inside, the tunnel was dark and damp. Flickering emergency lights barely lit the path.

Leandro's voice broke the silence.

Leandro

"Status?"

Wheeljack

"There's residual Spark traces below the main facility. But… there's interference. Like something moving. It shouldn't be."

Tyler

"Interference in a dead zone? That's either a trap… or a very ugly surprise."

Noah

"Or maybe someone already knows we're coming."

Lennox glanced at Leandro.

Lennox

"If this goes sideways, I take command."

Leandro didn't even look back.

Leandro

"If it goes sideways… we all fight. Together."

Then it happened.

A low mechanical hum echoed ahead—like ancient systems powering up for the first time in years.

A click. A heavy metallic groan.

They stopped, instinctively raising weapons and sensors.

Wheeljack's scanner flared.

"Oh no… that's not residual Spark. That's an artificial ignition. Someone's reviving something."

A massive steel door creaked open ahead, unsealed by something unknown.

Green mist seeped out into the tunnel.

And in the haze…

Something moved.

Ironhide tensed.

Wheeljack whispered.

Wheeljack

"That's not a resurrection… that's a reanimation. Forced Spark activation. We're not alone anymore."

Leandro stepped forward, eyes hard.

This wasn't a graveyard.

This was the beginning…

Of a resurrection gone wrong.

🛰️ U.S. Military Command Center – Satellite Surveillance Division, Langley

A massive wall of screens displayed Area 19's landscape in full night vision and heat signatures. Brigadier General Halvorsen stood with hands behind his back, eyes locked on the lead screen. Around him, analysts tapped away at consoles, tracking movement.

Operator

"Lennox's unit has halted at grid X-129. Heat levels stable… but Spark activity just spiked."

Halvorsen's brow furrowed.

Halvorsen

"If Lennox brought Leandro DelaVega into that zone… we may be on the verge of losing containment."

He turned sharply toward a surveillance officer.

Halvorsen

"Activate shadow protocol. Prep aerial lockdown. If they uncover something uncontrollable... we glass the site."

🛰️ G.I. Division – Black Ops Surveillance Hub, Los Angeles

Far beneath a hidden facility, GI agents were tracking Noah and Tyler. On the main holoscreen, a blinking dot marked Noah's location. At the head of the room, Agent Valen Kross, a sharp-eyed field commander, watched intently.

Tech Analyst

"Noah's comms are stable. But Tyler's cut off part of his signal... again."

Valen raised an eyebrow.

Valen

"That's typical Tyler. But that's not what worries me."

She pointed at a second screen showing a Spark signal—once blue, now darkening to purple.

Valen

"That Spark... it's changing."

Analyst

"Electromagnetic patterns are mutating. It's not natural. Almost like… something is rewriting it."

Valen narrowed her eyes.

Valen

"Keep watching. If Noah gets too deep—we pull him out."

🌌 Back in Area 19 – Underground Tunnels

Green mist swirled from vents in the old corridors. The Spark before them, once soft and blue, now pulsed with erratic purple flickers. Thin black tendrils of data streamed through the air like living veins.

At the center stood a partial Autobot body—dormant, decayed—but its chest cavity began to twitch, as though something inside was stirring.

Wheeljack, whispering tensely,

"Leandro… that Spark is not acting naturally. It's infected."

Ironhide

"Let me end it. Before it becomes a threat."

Leandro, raising a hand,

"Wait. We need to know who it is first."

From inside the fractured chest, a voice rasped out—glitchy, fragmented:

???:

"…Jazz… Dino… buried… but me… rebuilt…"

Noah swallowed hard.

Noah

"This ain't right, man. That's not resurrection. That's forced reprogramming."

Mudstorm, the former Decepticon, growled low,

"That's not our kind of energy… not Decepticon. Something darker."

The purple Spark flared again—and suddenly, tendrils of data began infecting the walls, crawling across cables like veins, hijacking the facility.

Leandro

"Wheeljack—can you cut the power here?!"

Wheeljack

"If I do a hard kill, it'll overload everything in a three-mile radius!"

Tyler, raising his pistol casually,

"So what, I shoot it?"

Leandro, calm and firm,

"Not you. Bee."

Bumblebee stepped forward, shoulders rising. He unsheathed his plasma cannon.

📻 "With pleasure."

A single shot burst from Bumblebee, striking the core of the infected Spark. The room erupted in a pulse of green and black light, blasting debris outward. The team ducked for cover.

When the smoke cleared… the partial bot was gone—blown apart.

But something hovered in the air.

A fragment of Spark. Disembodied. Pulsing. Dark purple. Twisting. Alive.

It hovered, aware.

Tyler, stepping back,

"Okay. Now it's officially creepy."

Leandro, eyes fixed on it,

"We capture it. Not destroy it."

Noah

"Bro, seriously?!"

Leandro

"If we can study it, we can understand how Necrotron spreads. We need containment. Now."

Wheeljack began building a makeshift Spark trap from his backplate, quickly rewiring old tech.

Wheeljack

"Give me ten seconds. And keep it distracted."

Ironhide and Bumblebee moved forward to shield the group.

The Spark fragment floated freely, curving through the air—drawn to Leandro.

Like it knew him.

Like it wanted him.

Leandro didn't flinch. He stepped forward.

And the Spark shifted.

It flickered—not with aggression—but recognition.

And longing.