"Get down!" Bumblebee's shoulder slammed hard into Strongarm's side and she went down.
She was stronger than he was, but it made no difference the way he struck against her, knocking her off balance. She fell and instinctively rolled so her shoulders took the brunt of the falling debris, her hands tucked to her body, a thin protection for her face but ideally not to be hit at all. Hands were difficult to repair if they became damaged, and there was almost no way to replace them.
It seemed like the junked out frames of Earth cars would continue falling forever. Strongarm felt their heavy weight against her, pressing her into the ground. Jagged metal bits cut against her armor, and she knew that she'd have a few dents that would need fixing after this. Irrationally, she hoped her paint wouldn't be scratched up too badly. It seemed an idiotic thought to spring to mind when she was at risk of greater damage than that, merely from the sheer volume of cars falling on her. It was too much weight, and she might be crushed under it all. Surely if she'd been standing when the first debris hit, her joints would have taken severe damage from the unwonted weight placed unexpectedly upon them.
It seemed to take forever, but it was really only a few seconds later that the last of the cars fell.
Strongarm groaned as she pushed herself off the ground, sending rubble rolling off her back in a noisy cascade. She pried herself out from under the debris and looked around. Almost at once, she spotted the serpent Grimlock had thrown into the vehicle tower, unwittingly causing the avalanche of broken machinery to fall on Strongarm and Bumblebee.
Bumblebee!
Strongarm picked up the nearest vehicle, expecting to find Bumblebee had been buried right beside her. She didn't see him, but started to dig around, looking frantically for any sign of him. She didn't get far, freezing at the energon chilling hissing sound behind her.
The serpent had only been stunned. With a twist of its body, the snake righted itself and hissed angrily. It spotted Strongarm right away and lifted the front of its body, flaring out its hood. Strongarm felt for her weapon, but she'd lost it, probably under the debris.
In the distance, a savage roar split the night. Grimlock had already run off to another part of the junkyard, doubtless pursuing other serpents and wholly unaware of the destruction he was leaving in his wake. No weapon. No backup. Strongarm felt a cold dread sinking into her as the serpent glared across the junk pile at her, coal colored eyes turned to shimmering emeralds in the moonlight.
Slowly, the snake parted its jaws, and Strongarm got a good look at the firing mechanism at the back of its throat. It didn't even have to get close enough to bite or crush her. It only had to shoot her, and she would be paralyzed almost instantly. It would take hours to recover from that. And the serpent sure wasn't about to give her that much time. There was murder in those unnaturally bright eyes.
Strongarm realized she was still holding the frame for a car that had probably once been a sedan, but was now crushed beyond all recognition. She remembered something Bumblebee had said over and over. Sometimes you have to be creative.
Her fingers tightened on the frame until the metal groaned in complaint. As the snake drew back its head, she lifted the frame and threw it as hard as she could. The night lit with the bright fire of the laser, but it struck against the junker, which came crashing down on the serpent a moment later.
"Didn't see that coming, did you?" Strongarm snarled.
Fury coursed through her. She was tired of being bested by a bunch of snakes. She was furious that they should attack here, and angry that she was having to do most of the thinking when that should have been someone else's job. She was angry that Grimlock was making a bigger mess of things. She even found it in herself to be angry that Bumblebee had disappeared somewhere. And that she didn't have time to look for him.
Grimlock roared again, and another pile of junk came toppling down across the yard. The car she'd thrown at the nearby snake shifted, and the serpent crawled out from under it, squirming and struggling to free itself while looking snappishly about for the Autobot who'd thrown the car.
On the ground, in the newly visible aisle, there came a second snake, slithering over to see what its companion had found. Its eyes glittered, looking flecked with gold.
Strongarm didn't hesitate, didn't think. She just lifted another junker, took aim and swung. The car flew with accuracy, but this snake was farther away and saw it coming. With a snarl that was more lupine than serpentine, the snake turned and heaved its tail into the air. It hit the vehicle with a deafening crack, and Strongarm's shot was deflected. The car hit the ground to the right of the snake, who now rose to its fullest height, peering over the piles of junk. It spotted Strongarm almost immediately.
She swallowed involuntarily, her rage dissolving into uncertainty.
What I wouldn't give to have a weapon implant.
It was a thought which had never struck her before. She'd always felt sort of repulsed by the standard military practice during the Great War of implanting weapons in soldiers. It seemed like a terribly invasive procedure to have a blaster stuck into your arm, and it must have been risky to learn the partial transformation required to bring the weapon to bear before firing. What if you accidentally shot yourself from the inside? A mistake like that could kill you, or at least blow your arm off.
Now, for the first time, she realized why. Why soldiers would submit to it, and why even the Autobot army was on board with such a thing. To lose your weapon was to lose your life. Avoidance of that was worth the risks.
The snake she'd hit earlier suddenly squealed. It threw its head back and thrashed wildly. Strongarm realized it was stuck, either pinned by or caught on some portion of the car she'd hit it with. It went completely ballistic, struggling and whipping its head back and forth, biting futilely at the car.
Its frantic actions distracted the other snake, and Strongarm took her chance. She threw another car, but didn't stop to see if she hit the snake. She just turned and ran. She had to get to Grimlock, get to a weapon, get away from the snakes. She had no chance trying to stand her ground here and now.
What she found, nearly running into him in fact, was Sideswipe.
"Hey, whoa!" Sideswipe grabbed onto her for a moment, until she came to a stop, "What's happening?"
"You just woke up in a bad dream," Strongarm said, pausing to look over her shoulder, "Come on, we need to find weapons and some cover. Can you run?"
"Sure, why?"
"Good, now let's go!"
Snarls, crashes, roars and howls emanated from the darkened recesses of the junkyard. Denny and Russell were more accustomed to fights being in the open parts of the junkyard, and being able to actually see what was going on. Sometimes even being in the middle of it. Somehow, that was less upsetting than this, because at least then you knew what was going on. Not being able to see led to speculation. What was crashing? Who was winning? What was going on?
Fixit hovered nearby, his gaze flicking nervously from one shadow to another.
"Shouldn't the automated security system be active?" Russell asked eventually.
Fixit twitched, jerked, then looked at him.
"What?"
Russell pointed to the nearest motion sensor. It should have had a red light on it, but was totally dark. Fixit stared for a long, uncomprehending second, then flashed into action, rolling speedily across the ground to the control center. He never made it there, because a serpent abruptly slithered from the control room, down its ramp entrance, and stopped him in his tracks.
The snake hissed, but didn't bother speaking. Fixit seemed to turn to jelly just looking at it. He backpedaled so fast he nearly fell over, but the serpent was upon him in an instant, wrapping its coils around him and lifting him right off the ground, up to the level of its raised head.
{PREY.}
The single word rang in Fixit's head and he shuddered, trying to push away the coils wrapped around his mid-section. The serpent leaned its head toward him and... licked him.
"Stop that!" Fixit yelped, trying to hit the snake in the nose, but it drew back its head and laughed.
Something plinked off the snake's armor, a metal wrench. The snake looked down at it, then across at the humans. Russell had thrown the wrench.
"Leave him alone!"
{PREY?} the inquiry was chilling, and Fixit renewed his struggles.
"Denny, Russell! Run!" Fixit yelled, as the coils tightened and began to warp his plating.
The snake's head lowered, the cruel eyes fixing on Russell.
{PREY.}
The coils loosened, and Fixit fell to the ground with a thud as the black creature rushed past him, more interested now in the humans than him. Fixit shook his head and righted himself, grabbing the serpent's tail. It squealed when it found itself caught, and doubled back along its own length. It opened its mouth to bite, but Fixit let go and spun away, and the deadly fangs missed him.
The serpent started after him, but a blaster shot cut across its path and it stopped, flaring its hood.
"That was a warning," Sideswipe, who had fired the shot, declared, "Leave before I try and hit you for real."
The snake paused, looked at him curiously, then dropped to the ground and slithered out of sight. When it was gone, Sideswipe sighed in relief and slumped against the wall of the diner.
Strongarm came around from the other side, but the snake was gone already.
"I can't believe that actually worked," Sideswipe said.
"What worked?" Fixit asked.
"I was aiming for his head."
"Oh."
They all startled as the laser-like sensor lights came on, followed by bright floods. The automated security system had been reactivated by Denny while the snake was distracted with Fixit. The junkyard was ablaze with light, jagged shadows skittered back as though scalded by it. But nobody was looking at the shadows. They were looking at the snakes.
Draped across leaning towers of junked cars, sliding around the sides of metal and plaster life-size figurines, peering from under protective tarps lashed down with thick cord, winding their silent way around towers of traffic cones and pyramids of old tires, eyes glittering, tongues flicking, slithering over one another as they passed.
A stunned silence gripped the Autobots and humans as they realized the junkyard was full to overflowing with snakes. It wasn't three or five serpents... but dozens, maybe more.
It was Sideswipe who first found his voice and, surprisingly, asked the most relevant question, "Why aren't any of them attacking us?"
The serpents, giant and menacing, were behaving as if neither the Autobots nor the flood lights existed, paying no mind to their sudden exposure and generally acting like they had no greater business than climbing from one perch to another.
Strongarm started to raise her weapon, then lowered it. There wasn't any point. There were so many snakes, if she provoked them they would overwhelm the Autobots with sheer weight of numbers. And she also couldn't bring herself to shoot them because they were not, at present, doing anyone any harm. And, she reasoned, just because some of the snakes viciously attacked them, it didn't necessarily mean all the snakes were evil. After all, Decepticons attacked Earth, but Autobots defended it. However strange these serpents seemed to her, it was as nothing to the awe, shock and fear with which humans regarded Cybertronians such as herself on first meeting.
She couldn't fire without good reason, and these snakes weren't giving her one.
"There's so many of them," Russell remarked quietly.
"What are they all doing here?" Denny wondered.
Neither Strongarm nor any of the other Autobots ventured a guess.
Suddenly a serpent came gliding towards them. Strongarm and Sideswipe both turned their weapons on it, but refrained from shooting it. The serpent slid harmlessly between them, winding its careful way up the ramp and entering the control center. It did not turn off the lights, only the weapons, which had been mostly missing anyway. It chomped the controls with its mouth, crushing the mechanisms in its jaws.
"Hey! Quit that!" Fixit demanded, rushing up to the snake and then stopping short as though uncertain as to what to do with it.
Strongarm went up to support him, taking the snake by the tail and dragging it down the ramp. With a vengeful hiss, it doubled over itself and struck at her. She dropped it and jumped back. The serpent's bite fell short of its mark. She looked around nervously at the other snakes, but they ignored her.
The snake she'd grabbed slithered away from her without a backward glance, sliding under an old billboard and disappearing into the shadows. Strongarm shivered and looked at Sideswipe, who merely shrugged, equally as confused as she was.
In the distance, they heard the screaming roar of Grimlock.
"I guess we should go see what's bugging him?" Sideswipe spoke it like a question, but Strongarm didn't exactly have an answer, so she just shrugged.
"Stay with us," Strongarm said, looking down at the humans and Fixit, "It's not safe here."
"Like we needed you to tell us that," Russell remarked.