Footsteps paused right outside of his doorway, as the mech futilely attempted to look inside. All he saw was a small puddle of energon.
Red Alert began his first prayer. Primus, let me live, and I swear I will work to my utmost ability to prevent the future in which I come from to never, ever happen.
There was no answer, but Red Alert didn't expect there to be one. Optimus Prime, in one of the rare moments he hadn't barricaded himself away, had mentioned that many of his own prayers had never been answered.
The footsteps began fading away. A sob of relief nearly broke out of his vocalizer, caught only by the knowledge that he wasn't out of the building yet. It would be horrid to survive the Decepticons, only to be killed by hunger.
The door to his cell swung open, as a harsh voice demanded, "You're just faking it, aren't you?"
He resisted the urge to say 'No'. It would be rather counter-productive after all.
The footsteps moved until they were standing right next to his head. A foot nudged him, and he moved limply with the foot. Maybe he should've studied how dead bodies moved like Hound did. Hound could emulate being dead wonderfully. "Hmph, maybe you really are dead."
"C'mon, let's get out of here." A voice called, "The Autobots heard about the attack."
"Did you get the energon?"
"Yep, now let's go."
The femme walked out, slamming the door behind her. Red Alert mentally wept. He now knew that he was going to die from hunger.
He sat up slowly, before dragging himself up to test the door. It refused to open for him. He bit back tears, he needed to conserve as much energon as he could.
Silently he dragged himself to the far corner, and prepared to die.
-------
The fire truck scowled playfully at the femme beside him as he watched the building from out of the corner of his optics. It was an insane asylum, looking bombed out like the rest of the neighborhood. "Inferno, you are not going in there." The femme's firm voice brought his optics back to her.
"But- Firestar! Think about it! There might still be a fire down there."
She leaned across to ping him lightly in the helm. "You have a one-track CPU Inferno. If there is any chance of fire or rescuing someone, you will be there in a nano-click. It'll get you killed one of these days."
Inferno laughed warmly as his head tilted towards her. "Yeah, that's what everyone says."
Firestar glanced around, "So, split up? And I warn you, if I find out that if you've gone within that building you will not be able to walk straight for a week!"
She shook her gun warningly at the fire truck, before pelting off down another road. Inferno waited for a few moments until she was out of sight before strolling towards the building.
Smoke still arose from the building, but it meant nothing- it could've just been ash rising from the heat.
Inferno pried open a damaged door, optics scanning the darkened hallway. Carefully he eased his weight onto the floor tiles- he had learned that lesson the hard way after falling through a mostly melted floor. "Hello?"
Silence.
Hands pried open a door to a small cell. There, a curled up figure -shot to death- lay on the floor. His optics narrowed as he spotted dents, some rather old for being beaten just before being shot.
The fire truck continued down the hallway, taking the stairs down further and further.
In every room, more and more evidence of abuse appeared. Inferno eventually stopped looking, spark aching for the poor souls trapped within the four walls. As he walked he sent up a silent prayer to Primus to receive the souls…
He stopped before a door, containing a single prisoner, curled up in the corner. A puddle of energon lay nearby the door. Wait- that made no sense. Inferno frowned at the puddle, before looking back towards the prisoner.
"Hey there, are ya still alive?"
Startled, the mech ran over, and Inferno found himself staring into surprised blue optics. "A-Are you…"
Inferno smiled in relief. At least he could rescue someone from this mess. "Hello there, Ah know ya don't know me, but Ah'm gonna get ya out of here and somewhere safer."
The mech recoiled, instant fear coloring his optics into a deeper blue. Inferno glowered at the door, before his gaze transferred to the keycode. "You wouldn't happen to know the code, would you?"
Silence.
Inferno sighed as he ripped the keypad from out of the wall. The door jerked slightly, opening up just a crack. That was all he needed to jam a hand into the small space and begin hauling back.
The mech in the corner curled into an even smaller ball as -grunting and groaning- Inferno slid the door open just enough to allow someone to slip through. "Can ya get outta there?"
The mech glanced from the fire truck to the door, weighing options.
In a surprising burst of speed, the Lamborghini rolled through the door and out into the hallway. Inferno allowed the door to slide shut behind him, and stared at the mech quietly. "So… who are ya?"
The Lamborghini's head tilted towards him before he glanced away uncomfortably. "Red Alert."
Inferno extended a hand. "Really? My name's Inferno. Very nice to meet ya."
---
As Red Alert took the extended hand, he began to think about fate. Fate that hated him. Not only was there an exact clone of Inferno before him, but the very voice was the same. The only thing different was the actions.
Where Inferno had been paranoid and high-strung, this mech was CPU-bogglingly loose and easy-going. It wrenched his spark to see his highly respected friend become like this now.
From the well beloved paranoia to this weak… happiness. Of course, he often experienced his own bouts of insane non-paranoia, but it seemed like this copy of Inferno was completely insane all of the time.
It really did hurt the spark. "Nice to meet you as well." Red Alert muttered, skating over the lie. It was better that 'Inferno' grew to like him. If such a thing was possible…
The copy smiled, something sparkling in his optics, before it faded slightly. "So, um, why are ya…?"
He paused, not able to bluntly ask why Red Alert was within this place. Yet another mark against his favor. "The police officer that found me disliked me for some reason and locked me up in here." Red Alert shivered at past memories.
The copy looked at him with an odd look on his face. Although Red Alert couldn't place it, it was commonly known as 'sympathy'. But the look quickly faded as the fire truck continued, "Are ya certain? I mean, if it's for any homicidal tendencies…"
A score in favor of the copy of Inferno was hidden within those words. Smart of the mech to ask whether or not he had been a traitor or killed before. "The only time I killed was in self-preservation."
"Well, that- how long have ya been down here anyways?"
Red Alert shrugged uncomfortably. His CPU wasn't certain what to say, or even what to do. How was one supposed to handle those completely insane? All his life he had been surrounded by those who were much more paranoid than him. He wasn't certain if this was another loony that had managed to escape, and decided to strike up a random conversation. Though how he escaped would be another question entirely.
"Hey…C'mon, let's get outta here."
Red Alert followed the fire truck warily. I will not call him Inferno. I refuse to call him Inferno. Calling him Inferno would be an insult to the real Inferno.
With that firm thought, he followed the fire truck up the winding stairs. It was the only way out as far as he could tell, and judging from the creaking of the building, it was probably going to be the fastest way before the building collapsed on them.
Bright light, poured through a window, and Red Alert's optics flickered in pain as they attempted to adjust sensitivity to the bright light. Inferno- no, the copy- grunted as he shook his head. "C'mon we gotta hurry before this building caves in on us."
Red Alert needed no prodding. Quickly he picked up his feet, nearly outpacing the copy. One of Smokescreen's old lessons came back to him. "Remember Red, always let the other guy go first. If anyone shoots, they'll be shot first."
Inferno glanced behind him to his silent shadow. Red Alert wondered if he was returning to sanity and feeling uncomfortable about his presence. "Ya alright back there?"
He was no such thing. "I'm fine. Let's get out of here. The building is going to fall on us, or the Decepticons left behind a surprise package of bombs and are gonna blow us up."
An optic ridge rose, as Inf-- the copy bit back a laugh. "I don't think the 'Cons would waste bombs doing so. I think they thought they already did a rather thorough job."
Red Alert burned with the wish to tell him where exactly he could shove that thought process before he merely kept his words to a quiet, "You can never be certain, though."
"Yeah, Ah suppose." A look of dawning comprehension was rapidly traveling across the fire truck's face however- as if he now understood the real reason why Red Alert was in this place.
Red Alert very much wished to know why he was in an insane asylum. Maybe he was in for not being paranoid enough? Wouldn't that be the grease on the oil cake? After all those threats, someone had finally carried it out.
"Hey, C'mon Red… let's get outta here."
The last few staircases up were the most torturous as his optics attempted to adjust to the brilliant light after the extended period of darkness, and as his joints squeaked and protested painfully against the sudden exercise. Note to self, see if you can't get lubricant.
Ahead, a head twisted to look at him. "Somethin' the matter? You aren't walking very well."
"Just joints falling back into place. Some of the guards were particularly mean." Anything to dodge around the fact that he had to have been in the dungeons for probably about a vorn. It wouldn't look good.
Infer- the copy's face darkened. "That's right. I saw…" He stopped, face visibly twisting in angry hatred at the guards that had been so clearly abusing their power.
Red Alert skittered away from the fire truck. Inferno glanced at him before offering up a hesitant smile. "Hey, if you ever wanna talk about it, I'm willing to listen."
Red Alert nodded distantly. He wasn't likely to say anything about his stay here to this pathetic version of Inferno. So smiling, and so trusting- it made him slightly sick, even as it intrigued him.
How had Inferno- no, this copy; he really had to remember that – survived in the world? Was everyone like him?
That would be a horror story just waiting to catch him unawares.
Inferno grunted as he walked out into the blessedly bright light. Red Alert flinched, before following close enough behind to be Inferno's shadow. "You sure you're alright? You're rather quiet…"
The words startled him out of self-contemplation and scheming. "Is not talking a bad thing?"
"Well, no, of course not! But, still…" Inferno trailed off uncomfortably. Red Alert desperately searched for some way to pump the 'copy' for information.
"Inferno-" Oh how the name burned in his vocalizer "-you're part of the Autobots, correct? What do you do?"
"Yeah, I'm part of the Autobots." Inferno seemed to immensely cheer up at the question, "I'm part of the search and rescue squad, along with doubling as fire control. Unfortunately we don't get too many fires…"
Inferno chattered on as Red Alert listened, CPU twisting desperately for some reason to get a back history. "But, you know, when Optimus Prime got someone named Prowl to be his second in command, I was a little surprised since I had heard that Prowl had problems crashing when something illogical happened. Met him once, but it wasn't, ya know… anything formal. I saw him at a distance."
It sounded like his Prowl, except for the Prowl he knew never, ever showed himself to the public optic, and it had taken around thirteen vorns for anyone to even register that he was actually an officer and not some silent, wafting shadow.
It had been an ugly wake up call for some, especially for him. He had always known his powers of observation were weaker then the others, but to not notice the officer? That took some doing.
Inferno turned around with that goofy grin stretched across his face. "By the way, I suppose you're joining the Autobots?"
A slow nod. Inferno instantly slung an arm around is shoulders, ignoring the automatic stiffening beneath. "That's great. You'll probably have to be assigned to my squad for awhile…"
Inferno chattered on, as Red Alert followed, frowning slightly.
a/n: Very many thanks to those who took the time to re-review after fanfiction broke down on us. (trust me, I noticed as well) It certainly brightened my day and reassured me this piece isn't as hated as I thought it might be. :)