The comm. suddenly went dead. Barricade tried to buzz Blackout again to no avail. Again. Silence. Priority cut-through. Nothing.
"Frag," he swore. Not good enough. He switched to Low Cybertronian, tearing off a string of curses so foul even Ironhide stepped away.
"Impressive," Starscream said. "Is this merely a general commentary on our plight or has something especially noteworthy occurred?"
"Fraggin' Blackout," he spat.
"Ah," the jet said.
Prowl and Ironhide exchanged confused looks. "Have you been speaking with the surface again?" Prowl asked.
"Other way around," he snapped. "Your damn Prime put Blackout on so I could hear them offline him." Starscream hissed, flexing his talons. "Is this how you Autobots do it?"
Ironhide laughed. "Right. You 'cons are crazy-paranoid, you know that? You should listen to yourselves."
"Crazy-paranoid's how I survive," Barricade muttered.
"How we survive," Starscream echoed, his claws, curving dangerously around Prowl in an obvious threat. Prowl knew better than to move, but he gathered himself. If need be, he could extricate himself. But tension was a little too high right now—last thing he wanted to do was add to it. "Barricade," Prowl said, keeping his tone soft, diplomatic, "What did you hear from the surface? Exactly?"
"Comm died. Blackout said something about Soundwave. And maps."
"None of them can contact Soundwave," Starscream mused. "His comm. freq cycles too rapidly."
"He must have contacted them." The two 'cons frowned at the implications of that.
"But where is your evidence that the Autobots have offlined Blackout?" Prowl asked. He didn't believe it for a minute, but right now, he needed the 'con to start talking sense again.
"Let's see—they made him comm. me, and then the comm. went dead as he was trying to tell me something. You need help with math?"
"Barricade." Starscream patted the air toward the smaller 'con. "It is Blackout."
Nadya looked between the pair. "What does that mean?" she asked Stokes.
He shrugged. "Could be anything."
Barricade snarled, but then, "You're right. Slag it." He started walking, pushing ahead of the others.
"What's the matter, Barricade?" Ironhide sneered. "You upset about your boyfriend?"
The smaller bot stopped. "I am upset," he hissed, "because we have lost surface contact. And all that passes for reasonable conversation down here is you."
Starscream released his threatening grip on Prowl with another apologetic pat. "If your Autobots had had any part of it…," he said, as if that explained everything.
"Never mind," Prowl said, tiredly. "Did they say anything else?"
"No," Barricade spat. "Comm died. With Blackout."
They walked on in silence for a time. Starscream subvoc'd the smaller Decepticon. 'Do not be upset. Blackout is well-designed. He will reboot. And then you can kick him into unconsciousness. I shall help.'
'Like to see how that fraggin' Autobot would act if one of his own offlined on comm. with him.'
'I suspect he would not care.'
The smaller bot shrugged eloquently. The humans riding on his shoulders noticed the movement, but didn't know what to make of it.
Prowl called for a halt.
"What is it now," Starscream asked, wearily. "What is our next improbably annoying obstacle that will no doubt end in my humiliation and torment? Another climb? Another wall I shall have to be guided to shoot? Perhaps a tunnel so small I must be disassembled and carried through piece by piece?"
"Does he ever stop whining?" Stokes asked.
"No," Barricade answered. "That's how we verify he's still functioning."
"Just thought we'd take a rest," Prowl said, looking down the tunnel from which they'd come, seeing Ironhide's headlamps slowly approaching.
"A rest? I do not need a rest. You Autobots are weak. How you have managed ever to conduct a war with all of these 'rests' defies logic."
"Stow it, Starscream," Barricade said, lowering himself to the floor. The humans bailed off. He rolled his shoulders to loosen the stiff gyros. Those plates were not meant to be load bearing. "Cannons-for-brains is all gimpy. We're waiting for him to grace us with his presence."
"I imagine it will not be worth the wait." The jet squatted closer to the ground, locking his leg joints out in front of him.
Ironhide limped painfully to the others, too weak to grumble, too close to stasis lock to go any faster. He reached the cavern and paused. Barricade eyed him coldly.
"Glad you could join us."
"I'm not." He growled, alarms flashed across his sensor net, the energon leak had become too much. He took a step and wobbled slightly, took another.
Everyone jumped as metal crashed to the ground unceremoniously.
"What has happened?" Starscream shrilled his arms outstretched defensively.
"Ironhide has offlined."
"Really?"
Prowl growled as he made his way over to the collapsed mech. "Try not to sound too cheerful about it." He retorted his voice tense. In fact all of him was tense, he would actually crack up if he had to stay down here much longer with the paranoid 'cons and aggressively irritable Ironhide. Prowl ran his fingers over Ironhide's unconscious form. He felt internal relief that he wasn't in stasis lock, yet. Wouldn't be long though. He re-activated him and attempted to stem the flow of energon from his leg. Noticing a blue puddle beneath the 'bot he frowned. "You're leaking."
"Thanks for stating the obvious, Prowl; it's good to know you're on top of your game." Ironhide's voice was quiet, low, weak. Barricade hid his surprise at just how weak he sounded before shuttering his optics involuntarily. Prowl pushed Ironhide onto his side. "No you have a secondary leak. From the battle. Chain gun." He stated plainly.
"Oh a kindly present from Starscream. Might've guessed."
"If it were kindly, I would have shot you in the head and spared all of us the misery of your company."
"So generous." Ironhide snarled.
"I do what I can." Starscream answered sardonically. Prowl ignored them as he patched the wound on Ironhide's back. He left him on the floor to fix his leg and stood, walking some way into the cavern setting himself slightly apart from the others wearily.
Prowl was the first to notice the tremor in the ground beneath his feet. A slight tremor. Like standing on a launch platform when an intersystem ship launched. Just a tiny vibration, just enough to set his ear finials singing.
He walked back over to the others and looked: Starscream sat quietly—not whining, for a change—doing a manual inspection of his legs and feet. Not heavy enough to make the vibration. His turbines weren't even spinning. Wasn't him. Beside him, Barricade leaned against a rock, his head tilted back; eyes solidly shuttered closed, face illuminated harshly from below by his headlamps. Wasn't him. And it wasn't Ironhide either, sitting at his feet where he'd tied off the energon line in his leg as best he could. Bad news.
Nadya came over to him, gesturing back at the two Decepticons. "They're out of it right now," she grinned. "They were the ones who said they didn't want a rest."
"Could kill them right now," Stokes said. "Wouldn't even see it coming."
"One," Barricade's voice floated over to them coldly, "I'd like to see you try, plasma bag, and two: go ahead. Don't even care anymore."
"Shhh," Prowl said. He didn't need any more of this right now. On the brink of a breakdown himself. And…there it was again. A solid tremor. Building this time.
"Starscream," Barricade said, dully, "Stop cycling your fraggin' turbines."
"I am not doing anything with my turbines," the jet said, offended at the cursing, but confused.
"Shut up. You do it all the time when you're upset. Probably don't even notice it. You're making my aft vibrate."
"It's not him," Prowl said. He circled the chamber warily, trying to find where it was coming from. Not above. So, not anyone trying to drill down and rescue. Sort of below.
The chamber shook, violently. Some stone, dislodged from the ceiling slammed down between them. Nadya and Stokes took cover with Ironhide. Prowl barely managed to throw himself behind a small outcropping before a chunk of rock almost as large as he was landed where he'd just been standing. A sound like thunder—like being under an interplanetary drive on a launch platform—ripped through the room, drowning out anything else.
A moment later, it was still. Frigid blasts of air pushed through new cracks in the tunnel wall, with small hissing sounds. Prowl stood up. "Everyone all right?"
"Fine," Ironhide said. "Two humans, too."
"'Cons? Barricade? Starscream?" He flashed his headlamps to discover a new pile of stone right where the jet had been sitting.
Ironhide caught the spot lit pile. "No great loss there."
The stones moved, thrown violently off the jet's broad back. "There is no loss at all, save of my dignity. Once again." He pulled away, revealing Barricade clutched in one arm. He had thrown himself over the smaller bot when the rocks began falling.
"I am not your slagging teddy bear," the 'con muttered.