Chapter 10 Fight
Author's Note:
Hey guys,
I'm soooooooooo sorry about the late update, but my school suddenly decided to utterly destroy my spare time with assignments and exams. It might be like this until I finish for the holidays, so I apologize in advance.
Also, I just realized that I can message you back using 'Private Messaging' lol.
A huge thanks to everyone who commented!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
(previous)
Sophie soon reached her limit and moved to pull over when the ground exploded to her right in a vicious whirlwind of dirt, razors, red light and metallic teeth. The monstrosity screamed and the vice slammed shut, her head splitting as it crashed into them, sending both flying off the road.
Sophie was airborne; heart drifting up towards her mouth before she slammed back into the ground with a grunt and rolled uncontrollably down the severe slope, feeling her backpack being wrenched from her shoulders and her limbs getting knocked and jarred by the rocks and solid earth beneath her. All around were the grinding screeches and shrieks and the loud locking of metallic parts that drilled into the depths of her mind. Her vision wobbled ecstatically with long lines of Cybertronian and she caught glimpses of a half-transformed Arcee grappling with the much larger creature as they all plummeted down the hill in a cloud of dust and dirt.
The ground evened out and Sophie skidded painfully to a stop, disorientated and her head pounding with hurt. Dizzily, her hands reached up to touch it, but she was still wearing her helmet and her fingers bumped uselessly against the plastic. There was a whistling noise before Sophie was shocked out of her daze when the tangled mass of flailing robotic limbs landed inches away with a shuddering thunk.
Sophie glimpsed a wicked set of razor mandibles and two pairs of round, bulb-like eyes before Arcee's scarlet arm appeared and slammed it's ugly face into the dirt. Sophie scooted away from the writhing mass and stumbled to her feet, darting away to avoid being squashed into a pulp. It seemed so unreal, so silly yet blindingly clear underneath the midday sun that something so wild and dangerous could exist. As she ran, Sophie twisted her head over her shoulder to see Arcee push away to distanced herself from her opponent, whom quickly tunneled clumsily back into the ground once they were separated, disappearing from view.
Sophie slowed into a backwards walk and frowned at the patch of disturbed earth the monstrosity left behind, puzzled and breathing heavily. She switched to look questionably at Arcee, who was fully transformed and swinging around on her single wheel, aiming her new weapon at the ground. Her red armor was already scratched and severely dented and she also seemed incredible tense; the mechanisms in her body not allowing any give, the plates on either side of her head now covering her face protectively, and her blue eyes shined with anger beneath the shield as she eyed the earth suspiciously. Her paranoia caught on and Sophie found herself suppressing the urge to fidget nervously.
After a impossibly long minute of dead silence and suffocating heat, Arcee relaxed minutely and slightly lowered her gun. Sophie pulled off her helmet and sucked in a breath of hot air.
"What the hell was-"
BAM
Sophie felt the stinging heat from Arcee's weapon as it shot a burning blue flash of electricity right over her shoulder, singing her hair and blistering her right cheek. An instant later there was a terrible shriek, too close behind her. Sophie whipped around just in time to see a stinger-like appendage ricochet back from the projectile before rearing forward and catching her in the face with an audible crunch. Sophie felt her nose break and her back hit the ground.
She watched, disorientated, as the mechanized, grey underside of the machine moved over her as it jumped and launched itself at Arcee, spraying her with dirt. Sophie took note of its six small side legs and strangely curved stinger-like tail before it flew from view. Something warm trickled down her chin and she lifted a hand to touch her wet face. It came away covered with a surprising amount of blood considering how little pain she felt.
A tearing screech tore her attention away and a piece of Arcee's red armor plating hit the ground nearby. Sophie quickly scrambled to her feet, her nose still not hurting as much as she thought it would, while she analyzed the battle. Arcee was small, but swift and flexible as she rolled and dodged the wild, spinning attacks of her opponent. On closer inspection, the Decepticon's structure reminded her oddly of a scorpion, and as she watched, an intense, shimmering haze of energy shot from its serrated pincers. Arcee accelerated out of the way, lowering her body close to the ground as she drifted across the dirt and blasted her opponent in the face.
She was doing well, Sophie had to admit, but even as she watched the giant scorpion's damaged stinger flung itself into Arcee's body, completely tearing through the makeshift armor, and ripped out a grey component with a splatter of glistening blue liquid. Sophie knew that Arcee had been still trying to regenerate enough energon, (or blood), to complete the journey, let alone fight. Also, her improvised armor of flimsy human-made alloy was absolute rubbish against the unknown metal of an alien species. Arcee wouldn't last long.
Sophie bit her lip hard, thinking furiously, when she spotted a dark lump just beyond the battle of the titans. Her backpack!
Scolding herself for not realizing sooner, Sophie's hand flew to her belt and felt for the metal cylinder. Not feeling it, she glanced down and growled in frustration, anger swelling inside her.
WHERE THE F #K IS IT!?
Her eyes scoured the ground frantically, hyper-aware of the mega death battle ahead of her, until she spotted a glint of metal shining in the sand. Behind the mega death battle.
Sophie sighed and took off in a sprint, veering to the far right so that she wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. She could feel the side of her torn jeans sticking to her leg and figured that the scabs had probably reopened. She pushed past the terrifying screeches and unearthly noises of the alien struggle and headed for the cylinder. Just as her legs began to burn, Sophie scooped the sun-warmed ball from the dirt and cupped a hand around her mouth, yelling "ARCEE!"
"WHAT!?"
"COME OVER TO ME AND GET THAT THING TO FOLLOW YOU!"
"WHAT!?" she screamed incredulously, electronic voice grating on Sophie's ears as she swiftly dodged another stinging blow. Sophie began running straight towards them as fast as she could.
"JUST DO IT!"
Arcee shot her another doubtful look but spun gracefully around her enemy and accelerated over to Sophie, glancing over her shoulder at the mass of swirling razors. "You're crazy..." she muttered as she zoomed past her, and Sophie kept running, hand gripping the cylinder tightly, watching the monstrosity barrel towards her with sickening speed.
As the distance closed to fifteen meters, the Decepticon leapt into the air, pincers whirling and mandibles clicking as it headed for her. At the same moment, Sophie pulled the pin off the metal cylinder and felt it grow brilliantly hot in her hands. Just before impact, Sophie dropped to her knees and lobbed the glowing cylinder up into the monster's mouth. She skidded along the hard earth, knees burning from the friction and back aching as she leaned as far back as she could as the Decepticon's underbelly passed over her once more. She gritted her teeth until the massive shadow disappeared and slumped where she stopped, breathing rapidly.
The earth shook from their opponent's uneven landing and Sophie unwillingly sat up and twisted around to see if her prototype was successful.
The Decepticon was emitting a series of surprised and shocked shrieks as it shuddered violently and writhed wildly, clawing at the dirt. Arcee dodged its lashing tail and hastily sped to a appropriate distance as blue arch's of electricity began to shoot from the monster's mouth. Sophie suddenly thought this was a pretty good idea and forced herself to her feet, staggering away from the tortured alien as a pained haze closed over her mind.
"3...
2...
1..."
BOOM
There was a final desperate scream and the ground shuddered beneath Sophie's feet once more. She felt the sudden heat on her back and saw her own shadow rise in front of her with the flash of blue light. Then it was over.
Sophie didn't need to turn around to know that a scorched, metal corpse lay behind her. The acrid and dry odor of smoke filled the air. She felt strangely empty and little bit sad, and quite suddenly she had to sit down.
"Round two's a bitch," she heard Arcee say as she rolled up beside her, rocks crackling underneath her wheels.
Sophie glanced up at her and watched as she carefully lowered herself to the ground with a long, weary vent of air. She examined Arcee's smashed armor, cracked plates, torn face and busted tire with a sigh of her own. "Sorry about your paint job..." she muttered, and smirked.
Arcee laughed bitterly and jabbed a large finger at Sophie's nose. "Sorry about your face,"
Sophie let her back rest against the ground so that she was then staring at the perfect blue sky instead of all the red on her jacket, her eyelids heavy. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that pointing is rude?" she mumbled, barely aware of the bullshit coming out of her mouth as fatigue weighed down her limbs. Her mind was a mess; hazed and fogged but somehow still managing to race a million miles an hour. She narrowed her eyes and concentrated with all her might on the blue above her, attempting to still her thoughts. She just really wanted to sleep...
In that moment, an odd and completely irrelevant memory resurfaced. She frowned. "Arcee?"
"Hmm?" she hummed and Sophie heard her joints creak as Arcee finally unwind with exhaustion. Sophie doubted that Arcee could move or transform even if she wanted too, which produced a whole new set of problems of how they were going to get to Brisbane but of course she wasn't going to think about that right now because she was so damn tired.
Sophie remembered that she had called Arcee's name and refocused. "Do you have siblings?"
There was a long pause, so long that Sophie had begun to think that she had fallen asleep when there was just a hint of a-
"Yes,"
Another silence.
"Why do you ask?"
Sophie considered this, closing her eyes to block out all the harsh color and replayed the memory. "A few days ago you were strangely insistent on whether I had a brother or sister."
"...and that made you think that I had one?" she asked skeptically, her voice still sharp as knifes despite her weariness.
Sophie gave a weak shrug and started to feel herself drift away. "Do you?"
Another silence as Arcee deliberated and Sophie struggled to stay conscious; her very first fight against sleep. She wanted to let the tempting nothingness overtake her, but Sophie grabbed a pebble beside her and squeezed it until it hurt. For some reason, it seemed very important that she heard Arcee's answer.
"Two," Arcee answered eventually, a ting of sadness evident in her unusually quiet and tired tone. "Two,"
And that was it for Sophie; the blissful void of peacefulness descending over her like a blanket, despite the stifling heat around her. Natural sleep was a rare treat for Sophie so she was pretty sure that underneath the blood, dirt and sweat, a smile curved her lips.
The last thing she registered before fading away was the faint, annoying jingle of an nauseatingly merry and familiar tune, echoing across the highway and growing in volume on approach.