Some miles from Aswan, the clear blue Egyptian sky gleamed like an all encompassing sapphire. The sun, which was already blazing at the near heat of the day, reflected so harshly off the sand dunes and rock formations as to become blinding. Optimus had long adjusted his optics to the glare, but between the heat that had steadily started to affect him and the brightness from the Egyptian sun, he was beginning to question the wisdom in investigating strange readings emanating from Aswan and its surrounding area.

And that was before Optimus took into account the Decepticons.

He dodged a blow from Skyquake, turning around and firing a few shots at him as he stepped back in the burning sand. The sound of drills reached his audio receptors, and Optimus narrowly avoided Pandemic's drill as it made for his arm. Following Pandemic's lunge, Optimus grabbed the limb, activated his right sword, and swung down onto the base of the drill so hard, the rotor exploded off the base and went flying into the sand seventy feet away.

Pandemic screamed, and releasing his hold of the venomous Decepticon, Optimus rolled backwards as his purple and gold opponent swung his last good drill at Optimus. Springing to his pedes, he activated both guns and fired at Pandemic before he heard Skyquake's mini-gun activate. Spinning around, Optimus retracted both guns and ran across the dunes, narrowly avoiding the bullets until one sand hill gave way beneath him.

Optimus slipped, his pace interrupted, and it gave Skyquake the chance he needed to pelt him with gunfire. He grunted, falling and tumbling after getting shoved back by the impact of the bullets. Groaning, he rolled over, optics blinking against the glare of the sun as he heard and felt the Decepticons approach, his burning frame tingling painfully against the similarly overheated sand.

His vision dipped red-gold for a moment as a distant, avian shadow seemed to enter the blue of the sky. Soon, Skyquake and Pandemic came into view, and Optimus quickly realized he only had one option left.

"It is almost a pity to snuff your Spark in such a place as this, Prime," Skyquake lamented, his form partially bent over him.

"Who cares about the way he'll die?" Pandemic snapped, hissing in pain as his damaged arm-drill sparked. He activated his still functional drill and demanded, "Let's just get it over with!"

"Not with any of your arsenal," Skyquake intoned dangerously. Pandemic scowled, but nonetheless acquiesced to his superior's orders.

Optimus counted down as Skyquake unsheathed a sword from his wing compartment. "Farewell, Optimus Prime," the Seeker said, swinging the sword and bringing it down.

But just as his arm began its descent, Optimus pulled his legs up and rolled out of range. He braced himself on hands and knees just as Skyquake's blade connected with the sand, and pinning them both with a steely stare, Optimus declared, "Not today, Skyquake."

He felt his optics switch to their natural gold as he turned off the blue filter, and activating his Outlier power, Optimus transformed. Arms folded back as smaller limbs expanded outward, a tail extended, and his smokestacks rearranged themselves as his height and mass shifted so that he was practically eye-to-eye with Skyquake.

Straightening, feeling smoke plume from his nostrils, Optimus distantly registered the Decepticons' wide optics before he unleashed his sonic roar on them. Pandemic, being much shorter and slighter in build than Skyquake, went careening off into the sands almost a hundred yards away. By contrast, the Seeker was thrust backwards, only tumbling when his legs were tripped up by a dune. Primordial rage built up inside his chest as the edges of his vision dipped into a crimson hue, and growling, Optimus darted toward the fallen Skyquake. The Seeker had gotten into a crouch just in time for Optimus to turn in such a way as to slam his body against him. Skyquake grunted, and spinning, Optimus slapped the Seeker with his tail.

Stepping around, Optimus snarled and, instinctively, lunged forward and caught Skyquake's forearm between his teeth. Dragging him around, he bit down on the now weaker feeling mesh and attempted to - to....

Images of Skyquake's arm being ripped off flashed through his processor before a forceful punch to his face brought Optimus back to the present. Blinking once, the red in his vision receding, he saw Skyquake's face contorted in a mix of fury and shock before another hit made Optimus unconsciously release his hold of the Seeker's arm.

Shaking his helm, he growled and, ducking another strike, bellowed out another sonic roar. Skyquake was forced back fifty feet, but before Optimus could decide on a new course of action, blaster fire pelted his flank. He hissed, his helm whipping around to see Pandemic cresting a dune at full speed, a blaster extended from his maimed arm. Optimus roared in fury, the suddenness of it surprising him just as Skyquake unleashed a volley from his mini-gun that sent him skidding back, body shuddering as steam rose into the air.

Confused, Optimus forced the bestial instincts back and did a quick internal survey. His power plant - responsible for maintaining his power levels, among others - had been infected by a virus. His resistance to damage was rapidly dropping, though his Outlier nature struggled with it enough to keep it above fifty percent.

More gunfire belted his hide, this time burning into his frame. Leaping out of the way, Optimus slid down a smaller dune away from the charging Skyquake. He swung his helm around, vision momentarily swimming - heat exhaustion, a part of him realized distantly - and he prepared to defend himself in a last stand.

Then a wailing shriek pierced the air, and in a blink, a large falcon with a reflective brown and cream coloration dived down and latched on to Pandemic. He gave a shout, then began screaming as the falcon's rightmost talon crushed his arm into an unnaturally bent mess. He attempted to get the bird with his still active drill, but the falcon seemed to have anticipated his move. The falcon dropped him, then transformed into a more feminine figure and, twin cyberblades in servo, landed and simultaneously sliced off his drill with one of the swords. Pandemic once more cried out, and with the other cyberblade, the femme delivered a severe wound straight into his midsection.

As she pulled out the cyberblade and stepped back, Pandemic falling onto the sand and desperately attempting to keep the energon from flowing out, Skyquake regained his senses enough from the shock to aim with his mini-gun at her.

Optimus roared and lunged forward, the sound succeeding in getting the Seeker's attention and making him turn. Optimus took this opportunity to clamp his jaws around the mini-gun and, in a burst of strength he sensed would be the last of such power for a while, wrestled it out of Skyquake's servos and flung it aside after a debilitating crunch on the barrel. No sooner had he done so did the sand beneath them both shift noticeably, and then a copper-red serpent with an almost metallic sheen exploded upward and between them.

The serpent was tall, possibly twice as long as the femme's falcon form. Hissing irritably, head just below Skyquake's helm, a hood extended from the sides of the head as, rocking back slightly, a sudden volley of miniature missiles assaulted the Seeker from the cobra's hood. Skyquake grunted, the force driving him back, before a different small missile landed close to his pedes.

The serpent ceased attacking, and glancing aside, Optimus watched as the femme, the edge of one cyberblade inches away from Pandemic's neck, called out, "Whoever you two are, you've overstayed your welcome. We will allow you to take your accomplice back with you for medical attention, but if we cross paths again, there will be no second chances for mercy."

"Bessst do as she sssaysss," the cobra added with dark humor, revealing herself as female. "Before I feel inclined to finissssh my work."

Skyquake's optics darted around briefly, calculating his odds. With a growl, he warned Optimus, "This is far from over, Prime. I will return, and bring your helm to Megatron personally."

He transformed, flying over to hover above Pandemic, whereupon a magnetic cable descended to latch onto the sports car. It retracted until Pandemic was secured shortly below him, and Skyquake retreated into the distance with him. Optimus barely managed to wait until they had disappeared from sight before transforming back. He stumbled, the heat making all his sensors flare into the red zone, and with a groan, Optimus fell to his hands and knees.

The cobra transformed beside him, and coming over, took an arm and draped it across her shoulders. Her armor was both cool to the touch and surprisingly slick as she slid her other arm around him.

"He's burning up, Airazor," the cobra warned, and Optimus blinked through blurry optics to see the other femme close the distance between them quickly. "I'm thinking he won't last long in the open."

"T-thank you," he managed, trying to look up as Airazor slowed and came up next to him. She was surprisingly tall, and though her frame's tertiary color was gold, it wasn't so hard on his optics. "My - my team, they will -"

He grunted, squeezing his optics closed as he felt his consciousness buckle under strain of heat and fatigue. Another pair of cool servos helped support him, and Airazor soothed, "Take it easy, big guy. We'll take care of you until you're healed up. Torca, we need a Warp Gate, and we've got a passenger with us."

Optimus would have looked at her at the mention of "Warp Gate", but consciousness only allowed him to hear a distant humming before darkness took him.

----

Smokescreen came over to check the monitor, Ratchet having all but zonked out in a warmed up medbay the second he reentered the base after going on a long trip in the Yukon. Smokescreen himself had had a successful mission in discovering that the new archaeological site in New Mexico proved, through ancient inscriptions that he could translate to a rough estimate, that Earth had had contact with Cybertronians at some point in its past. There was a riddle there which, given its apparent allusions to Vector Prime, could possibly denote an artifact of his on Earth.

Now all he needed to do was talk to Optimus about it, and maybe they could figure it out.

Opening the terminal, he checked the locations of the team. Seeing everyone else's signs going strong, he checked for Optimus' in Egypt...

....And found nothing.

Smokescreen blinked, then bounced the scanners off some satellites in the area to search for Optimus' signal along the Nile. It still showed nothing, and he then put in a question to the terminal of when his lifesign had shown last. After a moment, the computer reported that Optimus' signal had been relatively close to Aswan about three hours ago. Checking transmissions from Optimus, Smokescreen saw that he'd checked in with a report half an hour before that, which appeared to be a distorted message about no development on a particular reading that had brought him to Egypt, but it was broken up by some interference near the end.

Smokescreen considered this, unable to help a worry that Optimus had been captured. Realizing that the Decepticons could have been drawn to Aswan for the same reasons as Optimus, he checked the reading that Optimus had had before doing another scan for the same readings. A few tense seconds later, and the computer showed that the readings were still there, but weaker.

If the signature was still there, then it likely meant that Optimus hadn't been captured. And, by extension, the Decepticons hadn't learned about the readings - somehow.

Weighing his options, Smokescreen decided to check in on Woodrow Burns. He had met Chief Burns' younger brother when on Griffin Rock thanks to Optimus, and from what he'd learned from the adventurer, he had the means to locate Optimus on short notice.

The phone rang for a moment, then Woodrow answered chipperly, "Hel-lo, Snowman. How's things? You need some more supplies, or just a listening ear? I'm up for either one."

Smokescreen managed a tiny smile as he responded, "Hey Woodrow. Uh, Snowman's actually not here right now...but I need your help finding him."

"Ohhh, okay Little Bear," Woodrow replied, tone still upbeat but more guarded. "I'm in Macedon right now, but I've got a few spare Deep Earth Scouts I can use. Where should I send 'em? And is it above or below ground?"

"I've got the coordinates for one area for sure, though another going along the Nile wouldn't hurt. Below ground would be preferable, since I can't find his signal on the surface," Smokescreen said thoughtfully, deciding to err on the side of caution and temporarily avoid the signature that brought Optimus out in case it hindered their search.

Passing the coordinates to Woodrow, as well as making sure where along the Nile would be a good starting point, Woodrow stated, "Alright, I'll set them to go before turning in. Don't worry about Snowman, kiddo. We'll get him back."

"Thanks, Woodrow. I just hope nothing bad's happened since he disappeared," he replied, shifting uncertainly.

Woodrow chuckled and assured, "I've seen him in action, and between that and everything else Snowman's told me, I think he'll be just fine until we find him."

"Alright. I'll hold the fort. I'll check in with you later. Thanks again, Woodrow," Smokescreen responded.

"No problem, Little Bear. I'll hear from you bright and early tomorrow," Woodrow answered, hanging up soon after.