CHAPTER 4

Searching for Megatron in the city proved to be much harder than searching for him in the park. For one thing the city was much bigger, for another it was crowded. Not only did the crowd hinder their search but it also made it harder to come up with a good excuse for Cheetor and Dinobot looking the way they did. The costume excuse might have diverted a few eyes but others didn't seem to believe them, especially since Dinobot was taller than the average human and his face didn't exactly have the most friendly expression at the moment. He looked utterly disgusted, as if he thought the humans were parasites.

"Just don't say anything," Yume advised him in a whisper.

He followed her advice only because he didn't want to talk to anyone anyway.

"I hope we can get out of this crowd soon," Cheetor whined when somebody brushed against him rudely. "I feel like I'm in the middle of rush hour at Iacon."

"Well this is New York, one of the busiest cities in the world, next to Tokyo," Maggie explained. "Of course there's going to be crowds."

"Can't we get out of it?" he wanted to know, his optics holding a deep pleading.

"When we reach the end of the block we'll cross the street," Yume said, pointing ahead. "Maybe we'll lose most of these people."

"I hope so," Cheetor said when another person brushed against him rudely. "Any more of this and I'll go crazy!"

"You'll just have to get used to it," Maggie said, looking back at him. "Didn't you say this used to happen in a place called Iacon?"

"Yes," he said, nodding. "Iacon's a city on Cybertron. Come to think of it; traffic there is much worse than it is here."

"Then stop complaining," Dinobot growled at him.

"Let's not fight, okay?" Yume said. "We still have to find Megatron."

"I don't think we're going to find him here," Maggie said, scanning the crowd for an out of place figure. "He might have taken the subway."

"What's a subway?" Cheetor asked.

Dinobot glared at him. "It is an underground train," he told him. "We have them on our own planet. Did you not ever ride on one?"

"Yes," Cheetor said offended."I just wasn't familiar with the word."

"I doubt he could have taken one," Yume said, thoughtfully. "I don't think he's small enough to fit. He probably went somewhere else."

"Like where?"

She thought for a moment then admitted. "I don't know but I don't think he took the subway."

By then they'd reached the end of the block. They waited for the light to turn green then crossed the street. Half the crowd went with them.

Once they were back on the sidewalk a man in a dark blue business suit and black trench coat that was left open in front brushed rudely against Dinobot. Though the blow didn't affect him enough to knock him off balance he did not appreciate being brushed against. Before the man could get away the Maximal lifted his hand and shoved the man roughly forward. The man pitched forward, off balance. He took about five steps before righting himself once more. He turned around to swear at the person who was rude enough to shove him but when he saw Dinobot and the look he was giving him he thought better of it and turned away, saying nothing.

Yume, who'd been watching the whole thing, saw the satisfied look on the raptor's face and put a hand over her mouth so he couldn't hear her giggling.

As it turned out Megatron did go into the subway, but not by choice. While he was walking around aimlessly, trying to read the map the old man had given him, a strong gust of wind blew up and yanked the map out of his hands. He gave chase, following the map down the sidewalk and down the stairs into the subway station.

He was so intent on getting his map he didn't pay attention where he was going and ran right through the turn style. The turn style was sent flying through the air and people ran screaming to avoid being hit by it. It crashed to the floor, right where a group of people had been standing only seconds before. If it had been anyone else the security guard would have said something but he took one look at the cause and said nothing, not wanting to confront that huge thing in black and purple with the mean looking gun on his arm. Instead he quietly called for backup.

Megatron didn't noticed, he was too busy chasing after his map. He reached out his hand, the one with the T-Rex head, and caught it in his teeth. Too bad the teeth bit down and ripped the map into shreds.

He stood there, staring at the pieces in horror. "Slag!" he growled then noticed the people staring with their mouths gaping open. "What are you staring at?" he demanded.

The people turned away, pretending they hadn't been gaping at the huge robot chasing after a piece of paper.

"Wow!" Cheetor exclaimed, craning his head back so he could see all the way up. "That building is huge!"

The two Maximals and the two humans were standing out in front of the Empire State Building. Yume looked at Cheetor and smiled. She had to agree. It was huge. But she'd seen it before on a school field trip and wasn't as impressed by it as he was.

Dinobot wasn't impressed at all. "It is not like you have not seen sky scrapers before," he informed Cheetor.

Yume wondered if Cybertron was full of skyscrapers. I wonder if I'll ever get to go there? Will he take me someday?

Fat chance.

"Ah don't be such a kill joy," Maggie told Dinobot, giving him a slight punch on the arm. He moved away from her, not liking the gesture. "From what Yume told me none of you have seen a sky scraper in awhile."

Dinobot looked over at Yume who looked away. Oops. "Yume should not be blabbing everything I tell her," he growled.

"I'm sorry," the other girl said. "I didn't think it mattered."

"Well you are wrong!" he snapped.

"Chill out!" Maggie cut in. "It's no big deal."

The raptor grumbled something and looked away.

"They say if you drop a penny from the stop of the building it will kill someone," Yume said after a moment of awkward silence.

Cheetor looked at her with wide eyes. "Really?" he asked, awed.

"I doubt it," Maggie said. "But there's no way to prove it since nobody is allowed to drop things from the top."

Cheetor looked disappointed. He'd wanted to test it out, even if it did get him into trouble.

Dinobot didn't looked very happy at the topic. Yume noticed. "Maybe somebody in there saw him?" Yume suggested, reminding everyone why they were there.

"I don't know," Maggie said, looking doubtful. "They might have." she shrugged. "Well there's only one way to find out." she marched up the stairs and into the building.

A few minutes later she came back out, looking disappointed. "Did anyone see him?" Yume asked.

The other girl shook her head. "Nope," she answered. "The man said he didn't see anyone matching that description."

"So where are we going to look now?" Cheetor asked.

"Central Park?"

"What's that?" the young mecha asked.

"It's the the city park," Yume explained. "and if you want to find a crazy person at night all you have to do is go there."

"Why's that?" he wanted to know.

She didn't reply. It would be best if he found out for himself. She noticed Dinobot giving her a look and got the feeling he already knew. But, like her, he said nothing.

Megatron wasn't anywhere near Central Park. He had barely gotten out of the subway when another group of people ran into him and he wound up going back inside and getting stuck in a subway door. When this happened a woman in the train screamed and started beating him over the head with her purse.

"Gah!" he yelled, trying to free himself. "Stop hitting me, you annoying flesh creature!"

He forced himself out of the door, falling forward off balance when his frame came out with a loud Pop! He turned to glare at the woman who'd been hitting him but the door had already closed and the train pulled away. "Slag," he cursed, punching the wall.

Once again he noticed the people staring at him but, before he could say anything, they all turned their attention away from him. He glared at them then turned away, grumbling to himself about how he hated humans.

And just then a whole crowd of humans dressed as security guard came storming into the waiting area. When they spotted him him they all stood still for a moment, staring open mouthed that him. He was definitely not what they'd been expecting to find.

He glared at them, debating whether to shoot at them or not. They were blocking his way to the stairs but he wasn't sure if he should kill them or just put the fear of God into them instead.

Finally one of the guards spoke. "I... um... Uh," he stammered. "Would you... umm... mind leaving the premises? You are scaring the people... um.. sir."

Megatron was all too happy to leave. The guards moved aside as he headed for the entrance. Once he was on the stairs and thinking he'd finally had something go his way the guards opened fire.

Central Park was a dark and dismal place at night as well as creepy. As the group walked through the park Cheetor thought he kept seeing monsters hiding behind the trees. "What's that!?" he exclaimed when he heard a screeching noise.

The others stopped to listen. When they too heard the noise Maggie said calmly. "It's just an owl."

"An owl?" he looked nervous for some reason.

"Yeah."

Dinobot sniffed in annoyance. "You have heard owls before," he said. "I do not see why you are suddenly afraid of them."

"I'm not afraid of them!" the younger bot shot back. "I just wasn't expecting to hear that!"

Dinobot looked away. "You should have."

Cheetor made a face behind his back then looked at the human girls. "I don't think he's here."

"We can't be sure of that yet," Yume told him. "Just keep looking a little longer. We can't afford to let him run around free much longer."

He sighed. "You sounded like Dinobot when you said that," he commented.

She didn't give him a response. She wasn't sure if he was saying that as a compliment or an insult. "I mean it," she told him. "I don't want him causing trouble here. I'm afraid he might do something that will cause some kind of reaction...."

He hadn't thought of that. What if Megatron started messing with the flow of time? When he'd looked at the calender he'd seen that the year wasn't too far from the year where they'd defeated Unicron. In fact... it was only two short years...

Suddenly Dinobot froze. Yume noticed. "What is it?"

"Shh!" he ordered, putting up his hand. "Let me listen."

They all fell silent. Now they all heard it. Its sounded like an all out war going on... somewhere. "I hope that's not gang related," Maggie said, suddenly nervous. New York was full of gangs. What if they'd walked into some kind of confrontation with two of them?

Dinobot put out his arm to keep anyone from moving forward. He was still listening. One of those guns had a familiar sound.. Finally he said. "I do not think it is a gang."

"Then what is it?" Yume questioned.

"I think." Dinobot pulled out his sword. 'That is what we've been looking for."

Then, before the others could comment, he took off running.

"Hey, Dinobot!" Cheetor shouted, taking off after him. "Wait for us!"

Megatron felt the bullets ping off his frame and turned back to the subway entrance. The security guards stood at the bottom of the stairs firing their guns at him. He put up an arm to block them. Just what he didn't need. More attention. He noticed people standing around, watching. Great. Just great.

Well to the Pit with them. He looked down into the tunnel and raised his arm. "Oh come on! You can do better than that," he taunted. "Here. Let me show you how it's done!"

One of the security guards shouted. "Gun!" seconds before he fired.

Dinobot and the others found Megatron's location easily thanks to the ruckus he was creating and the fact that more than three dozen people were running screaming from that general direction. They came upon the megalomaniac shooting down into a subway station. "What in the world?" Yume said.

"Megatron!" Dinobot shouted, clenching his teeth together. I knew it.

The Predacon looked up upon hearing his name being called. When he saw Dinobot he turned his arm toward him and fired at him.

"Eek!" Yume exclaimed, moving sideways to avoid getting hit. "Dinobot!" she shouted. "Why did you do that!? Are you crazy? There are too many people around here for this!"

"Too late," he said flatly, sounding like he didn't really care. "My only priority is keeping you save. Now, if you don't want to be hit you had better move."

"But-"

"Dinobot's right," Cheetor said, coming out behind them. He raised his gun and started firing at Megatron. "You'd better move before you get hit."

The human girl had enough experience to follow his advice. She quickly moved out of the way. She noticed Maggie standing a few feet behind them, her brown eyes wide and her mouth hanging open. When the girl reached her she said. "You didn't tell me they were enemies!"

"Well," Yume said, poking her index fingers together. "I meant to but it kind of slipped my mind."

"It slippedyou mind?" Maggie was almost screaming. "More like you purposely didn't say anything."

"What does it matter?"

A blast of pink energy shot toward them. Both girls dived to the pavement. "It matters," the older girl said, giving her a look.

Yume saw another blast coming toward them and yanked on Maggie's arm, pulling her out of the way. "Look out!"

The blast hit the wall of the building behind them.

"Maggie! Yume!" Cheetor shouted to them. "Get out of here! We'll take care of Grape Face!"

Yume was all too willing to leave but, as she started to move, a horrible feeling held her to the spot.

She wasn't even sure why the thought suddenly slammed into her brain. It wasn't like right then was a good time to even dwell on it. But it came anyway. Something she hadn't even considered.

What if somebody had called the government? This little incident had attracted enough attention thanks to Megatron.

Maggie was staring at her uncertainly. She yanked on her arm to get her moving. "Yume?!"

The other girl was too busy thinking to notice. What if they were on the news right now? Yume noticed a boy taping the whole thing on his camera phone. "No!" she screamed, horrified.

She ran over to the boy and knocked the phone out of his hand. It hit the pavement and broke, the battery skittering across the pavement. The boy stared at his broken phone then gaped at the girl. "What did you do that for?" he demanded.

She ignored him and kicked the phone away. "No videos!" she shouted in his face.

The boy cursed at her then ran after his broken mobile device.

"Yume! Look out!"

The girl looked up just as a blast of pink energy slammed into her chest. She screamed and slammed hard against the wall of a building. Everything went black.

A/N

Well I finally updated. I am so sorry for taking so long. My computer wasn't working and I didn't have much time to work on it thanks to my hour limit at the library and also because of a major case of writers block.