Chapter 4

Unbeknownst to Starscream however, his null rays may have just saved Sunstreaker's life rather than ended it, since they rendered him as limp as a dead fish by the time he hit the water of the river at the bottom of the gorge. The icy cold water that entered through his damaged knee shocked him back online as the strong undercurrent swept him further downstream. Regaining some of his senses, he kicked his good leg and managed to get his head and shoulders above the water. The river slammed him back against a boulder. Instinctively he grabbed onto it, ignoring the icy daggers of pain that shot through his chest and mid-section as he fought against the pull of the current.

He looked around frantically at both banks, trying to gauge which one was closer and whether he could get to it without bashing his body up even more than it already was. He also had no intentions of letting the river just carry him along to its end. Though he wouldn't rust, too much water could still do serious damage to his circuitry, and there was always the possibility the river itself ended in a very long drop onto a bed of more rocks. The last thing he wanted was to be mangled by a bunch of boulders. He'd never be able to live down the humiliation, 'live' being the key-word there.

He had to live.

He owed it to Sideswipe.

A sudden surge of current hit him and he lost his grip on the boulder to be swept up by the river again. Knowing that trying to swim against it would only sap what strength he had left, he went with the flow until he saw another sizeable rock and lunged for it, cursing as the current slammed his injured leg against it. This one was considerably closer to the left bank than the previous one had been, so Sunsteaker decided to chance it.

He pushed off the boulder with his right leg and struck out for the bank as hard as he could. His battered body protested vehemently, but he ignored it, working his arms and good leg furiously in an effort to reach land. His circuits could not take much more of the cold river water.

His fingers brushed the soil of the bank and he gripped hard, only to have the loose, wet dirt break away in his hand. His other hand grabbed wildly at the long blades of grass only to tear them out by the roots. Cursing the fragile organic-ness of it all, Sunstreaker continued to scrabble and grab at the edge of the bank till he was able to get a firm hold on more solid ground. A small wave hit him in the face, sending icy cold water down his mouth and into his air-circulators, making him cough violently.

Knowing he couldn't take much more of the river, he drove his fingers hard enough into the ground to make them bleed. Then, clenching his jaws tight, he hauled his upper body onto the bank, groaning as his chest and mid-section shot bullets of pain through him. With a final effort he pulled the rest of himself completely out of the water, unable to stop a cry of pain escaping as his damaged knee bumped the ground.

With his last ounces of strength, he half-crawled, half-dragged himself on his elbows towards a tree further away from the river, feeling energon leak out of several wounds now that he was no longer being numbed by the cold water. He tried to take stock of any other damage only to find that most of his circuits had indeed shorted out, making a diagnosis impossible at the present moment. He activated his comm.link.

"Sunstreaker to base, come in," he hailed.

Dry static. Either the water had damaged his radio as well, or he was too far out of range to be heard. Making full use of several colorful slurs, he tried once more.

"Sunstreaker to base, come in fraggit! Jazz, Blaster, Sideswipe, anyone… can you hear me? Come in."

There was no response except for the crackle of dead air. Shutting off the link with a frustrated sigh, he finally reached the base of the tree and collapsed under it, passing out from pain and exhaustion almost immediately.

………