Chapter 14: Dead End
"I knew it!" Smokescreen said aloud, as he looked up at me from Arcee's unconscious body. "I knew you were "Phase-Out!" Haha, I knew it!"
"You got me" I sighed, raising my arms weakly. By the sound of it, he bought my entire, made up story of secretly being a Shifter, and still believed I was Mirage.
"So... You're a Shifter" He said again. "Man... Your kind are so rare. It's no wonder you took on whatever form you've been wearing at the base, and never told anyone."
He suddenly gave me a questioning look, just before he started to stand up.
"Uh, if you don't mind me asking, Mirage, who's form have you been wearing this whole time?" He inquired. "After all, Shifters can't make their own forms."
"It was eh... A bot... That I knew before the war started" I lied. "He was a generous friend. Let me copy his form."
"Oh" he replied. "Sounds like a nice guy."
"Have you called the others yet?" I asked, changing the subject.
"I tried while you were fighting Waspinator..." He started, looking toward the Insecticon's remains. "...But I wasn't able to reach them. I think Waspinator short-circuited my intercom when he got that goo on me."
"Well... Scrap" I groaned, squeezing my servos into the ground and digging up a clump of dirt. I looked down to the hole still currently in my stomach. The wound wasn't leaking as much in the last few minutes, but I felt extremely weakened. Too weakened to even stand up. "I lost too much energon to be able to pick up a signal that far away. What do we do now?"
"I could carry her back" he said. "I could easily get her back to base on foot, and come for you with the others in... About ten minutes, tops."
"I can manage that" I said. "After all, this isn't the first time I've been impaled on a sword."
"Um... How did you get impaled the first time?" He asked.
"Oh, that's a long story..." I sighed, thinking back. "It happened a few hundred years before the war. I was still training with my master, Bludgeon at the time, and-"
"On second thought, never mind" he chuckled. "You need to save your strength."
He bent over and ever so carefully lifted Arcee into his arms. He started to walk past me, and I saw that Arcee looked as if she was sleeping, judging by the calm expression on her face, only with what appeared to be stiffened limbs. Upon closer inspection, I could see dark, black, veinlike obtrusions going on around her chest where I'm guessing she had gotten stung, and it made (what was left) of my stomach churn at the sight.
"I'll be back in just a few minutes" Smokescreen said as he turned his head to me one last time. "Please try to stay online when I return. I'd really hate to tell Arcee her secret admirer died before she could find out..."
"Smokescreen, I'm going to get you for this" I grumbled, a hate-filled smile forming on my face.
"We'll see..." He smirked. With those final words, I saw Smokescreen dash away, kicking up a cloud of a dirt in his haste, passing out of view after only a few seconds when he ran past a large mesa, toward the direction of the base.
Soon, I was alone. The ground I sat on, the energon-stained rock I leaned against, my sword, gleaming in the moonlight just a few meters from me, and the still-twitching, headless corpse of Waspinator were the only things around to keep me company. I felt tired and sore. I've had to breath easier, after my air vents were ruptured by my sword, and my vision was still slightly blurred.
I lifted my head up and looked to the sky. The stars had started to grow more faint as the morning sun's light started to barely appear over the horizon. The moon was still shining brightly, letting me feel some comfort.
"It... Really was... Quite a night..." I said to myself, quietly, optics closing slightly. The battle truly had taken a toll on my stamina, and I could feel sleep's caress take ahold of my senses. It was a welcome feeling.
Just before my optics could close all the way, I heard a small, metallic, crackling noise interrupt my
Then I felt something touch my arm.
Grunting, I immediately reopened my optics in groggy suprise and looked down quickly, neck stiffened from the position I had it in. As my view adjusted from the fuzziness it still currently was, I made out a long, thin, green shape.
It was Waspinator's arm!
"What the slag?!" I shouted, now fully awake, lifting my arm, and waving it about. The disembodied limb only held on, defiantly, its three fingers wrapped together tightly.
It finally lost its grip and went spinning away through the air, bouncing off the ground before stopping, landing on its backside. It flailed its fingers around, helplessly, as I looked at it, practically breathless.
"What... What?" I stuttered loudly as the hand continued to try and upright itself. I saw a movement from the corner of my optic, and when I looked, I saw, to my horror, Waspinator's still-headless body starting to get up from the ground.
The servo had flipped itself over by this time, and was crawling toward its body at a fast rate. Waspinator's body bent over, while still on one knee, and picked up the appendage with the arm that was still intact.
Seeing what was about to happen, as crazy as it appeared, I tried to stand up, but my legs felt too weak to support my body, and I slumped forward, onto the ground again. My sword was several meters from me, way out of reach, still lying where I had dropped it.
Curse my lack of insight!
Looking back at the Insecticon's not-so-dead body, I saw it effortlessly reattaching the arm back onto his elbow, exactly where I previously severed it, almost as if the metal was somehow regrowing around it. It then began to walk toward its fallen head, which laid only a few feet from where it currently was, and looked as alive as the rest of it's body, with his mandibles twitching and biting the air around it.
I tried to get up again, but all I managed to do was stumble forward as I was just getting on my knee. My sword was still out reach, and all I could feel was angering helplessness as my situation.
I heard stomping starting to come from behind me, which further fueled my strength. I clutched my wound with one servo, and started to drag my entire body to my weapon with my other, sheer determination was the only thing keeping me from passing out from the pain. I wasn't going to die here! Not now!
"Oh Phase-bot!" A voice started to shout in a song-like hum. I didn't look back, and I was soon to my weapon. The second I placed my fingers on the handle, I felt a force grasp my shoulder, and flip me through the air before I could even get a grip on my weapon, slamming onto my back against the ground, swordless, and forcing me to heave up another bout of energon. All I felt was absolutely agonizing pain.
Opening my optics again, I saw the accursed Insecticon standing over me, fully repaired by the looks of it.
"H-how... Did you..." I tried to say, gritting my energon-stained teeth together, as Waspinator continued to loom over me.
"Wazzpinator heal fazzt. Not sure how, but Wazzpinator can... And you can't" he hissed, a disturbingly happy look on his face. "Wazzpinator also heard everything..." he then went on, tapping on the side of his head with a claw. "Arcee-bot is alive. Smoke-bot and Arcee-bot are gone. Now, it's juzzt you... And Wazzpinator. And Wazzpinator hazz planzz for you..."
All I could do was try and strain my arms out while Waspinator lifted his gnarled, two-toed foot up, bringing it down in a less-than-subtle manor on my head, pressing it to the ground, getting some dirt in my mouth.
"Wazzpinator can finally destroy you now. Wazzpinator can... Wazzpinator... Can... Why Wazzpinator'zz head feel funny?"
The Insecticon sounded as if he was struggling with his words, and took his foot off of my head, walking back a bit. I was able to lift my head back into a neutral position, barely enough to see Waspinator, obviously in pain, mimicking the the stance he made the previous day.
He grabbed his head, screaming an ungodly cry, and started to make multiple, spasmodic movements, as if some invisible force was pushing and slapping him around. He finally came to a stop a few short seconds later, and keeled his wiry frame over.
"No! Not again!" He yelled. "Not now! Wazzpinator not done yet!"
He then went silent, his purple eyes began to glow, and he took his hands off his head, taking in a deep breath, and standing up straight, unlike his previous hunched disposition. His neck cricked to the left, and he slowly shifted his gaze from the ground, to me.
"Hello" Waspinator/Sharpshot began in his mixed voice. "Pardon my lackey's lack of hospitality, my vulnerable-looking friend. I wonder what on this good world happened to you..."
I curled my lip in anger, unable to do anything else. I tried to move my limbs, but they wouldn't listen to me. I was at this creature's mercy.
"Oh, listen to me go on... Let me cut to the chase, shall I?" he asked again, turning his head away from me for a second, before looking back. "You, my oh-so fortunate friend, are about to be offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I... Am Sharpshot. Professional scientist, master painter, expert scientist, and ruler of my Insecticon hive. I also dabble in science, I'll have you know" he rambled on, oblivious to his apparent insanity.
"What do you mean by "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?"" I asked, barely able to speak.
"What I mean is, I'm going to get you back to my little cave, just a few hundred miles from here, quick as a flash, then you are going to be FORCIBLY INJECTED with a cocktail of CNA and mutagens, most of which is supplied by Waspinator here, and I'm going to turn you into an Insecticon! Like me!" He replied, rubbing his servos together in a greedy fashion. "Isn't that wonderful?"
"What... What the heck is... Wrong with you?" I groaned out, disturbed by what he just said.
"Oh, nothing really..." He began again. "I'll have you know I came to this mudball about... A million years ago, originally to study and experiment its wildlife, then I went into stasis with hundred-strong group of Insecticons for, what I wanted to be just a measly one hundred years, but, guess what? My stasis pod malfunctioned!"
I gave a confused look as he went on.
"...Instead of one hundred years, it became one MILLION years! And to make matters even better, my stasis pod malfunctioned in another way as well! I was fully conscious, awake, and aware of what was happening the entire time, alone with my thoughts, and nothing to do. And it was... And i-it was..."
He went quiet for a few seconds, lowering his head. I moved my optics around, hopeful that Smokescreen had returned with the others, but, alas, no such luck. As he continued to remain silent, I tried to speak.
"And then wha-"
"...AND IT WAS BOR-RING!" He randomly screamed at the top of his lungs, cutting me off. "Boring, boring, boring! And I couldn't do a thing about it. But, as I remained in my state of consciousness, I saw the truth of everything... Of life, death, purpose, that accursed stain I can't seem to rub out on the crevice of my armor, everything, I tell you!"
What the heck is he talking about? I thought, unsure of he was going to either kill me on the spot, or do as he said he was going to do to me.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I almost forgot about you" he suddenly said, returning his attention to me. "I do seem to love rambling off topic..."
Sharpshot/Waspinator walked up to my unmoving body, and looked down to me.
"You're coming with me now. No arguing, no fighting, no nothing, my newest test subject" he whispered, raising his foot.
Growling, I tried to lift my arms again, barely raising them only a few inches off the ground. I lost too much energon to do anything, and the unbearable, throbbing agony I was feeling didn't help.
"Nighty-night" Sharpshot/Waspinator said, and he brought his foot down onto my face. I felt a quick rush of pain, and heard a cracking of metal, and then everything went black.
Author's notes: Sharpshot basically went insane from being trapped in a faulty stasis pod for a whole million years, and was conscious the entire time. Think about that.
And yet, he's not going to be the most insane character I'll write. That honor will be taken by a certain bot named Whirl...
...But we'll get to him in my next story.