"I knew it," Camille snapped, throwing a hand up toward the bank of monitors showing the chaos that had erupted over the past few minutes. "So much for 'low-risk mission' and the kids 'watching from a distance.'"
"Camille, please, take it easy. They've all been through worse." Roderick winced at the shouting and rapid popping of gunfire coming from the speakers under each screen.
"I'll never understand why you think that would make this okay."
Give it a rest. Clayton glanced at her and turned back to June's monitor. I can understand why she's worried, but most of them can handle it. I just hope they can keep June safe. She's only just started getting in on this.
The view from June's helmet camera bobbed and panned back and forth as she darted down one of the tunnels in MECH's mountain base. She turned, found a half-dozen bodies among the crates and boxes they'd been unpacking, and froze.
"Shit," she whispered, and took several slow breaths to calm herself. She crept slowly past them, pausing to check each one for signs of life, and found none. She shook her head and kept moving - then she stopped suddenly and turned toward one of the open crates as if something inside had caught her attention. She walked over to it and picked up one of a set of coiled ropes. She glanced around at the shelves and scaffolding MECH had set up to hold flood lights and other equipment. "Hmm."
Clay flicked his gaze over the other monitors. Jack's screen held a close-up of the human-sized doppelganger Arcee had been remote-piloting until something interrupted her connection. Jack had tried to move the body and found it stiff as a board.
"Whatever they did, it caused all the mechanisms inside to seize up," he muttered. "If it can do the same thing to your real bodies …"
"Campbell's still down," Chromia said. "I'm not picking up any life signs from him. He's completely offline."
"Oh, no," Khalilah said softly. "I've just scanned him, too. His spark's been extinguished. There's no energy output from him at all."
"Damn." Ashanti sighed. "They killed him just by flipping a switch. How'd they learn enough about Cybertronian technology to do that?"
"They captured me a while back, after Knockout and I ended up on the run from the rest of the Decepticons," Breakdown said. "They must've taken enough scans before I escaped to work out what makes us tick."
"Terrific. Guys, I know we've been trying to take as many of 'em alive as possible, but if they don't surrender soon, we're gonna have to take the gloves off before they kill anyone else."
"Even though Moonracer took out the jammers, or whatever they were, we can't afford to assume they don't have a backup ready to deploy." Strika's monitor showed a first-person view of her holding her left arm out as she moved slowly through the trees. She'd instructed the Cybertronian team members to hold that pose while approaching the base and to fall back immediately if their arms were fried the way Arcee's had been.
"I told you not to underestimate them, Optimus," Elita grumbled.
"True enough," Breakdown said. "Even though we're titans on their world, it's terrifying how easily they can take us down."
"We should shoot to kill based on that alone."
"No," Optimus said. "Not all of these people are as fanatical as Silas and Sokolov. We will not resort to lethal force unless they give us no other option."
Clay glanced at Ashanti's monitor as her helmet cam panned over to the two women she and Miko had captured. The dark-haired one cradled her unconscious girlfriend in her arms as she huddled near the mouth of the tunnel. Miko had knocked her the fuck out after the woman sounded the alarm. The still-conscious one caught Ashanti staring at her and shook her head.
"Don't worry, we're staying right here. The tunnel's a dead end, and if I run out there, you'll just shoot me." She leaned against the wall and held the redhead in her lap. "Besides, I'm not gonna just leave her here."
"Just curious," Miko said, "why'd you join up? You don't seem all that dedicated to the cause."
"MECH offered us a chance to work on reverse-engineering alien technology. We couldn't resist. They … neglected to mention everything we were signing up for."
Clay returned his optics to June's monitor and cocked his head at the image. She'd dragged one of the corpses over to the wall and had cut the rope into long segments.
"Maybe there's still a way to get 'em to back down." June picked up a length of rope and tied it into a noose.
Clay stared at the screen and shook his head slowly. What the hell is she doing?
"Jesus Christ," Sierra blurted. Clay glanced at her and realized she'd just noticed what June was up to. Everyone else in the room looked at her and then turned to the monitors. They froze, some of them gaping in shock, when they saw it.
"I have an idea. It's so fucked-up that I can't believe I even thought of it, never mind actually going through with it." June slipped the noose around the dead body's neck and pulled it tight. "See if you guys can herd as many of 'em as possible toward my position. I'm gonna see if I can scare 'em enough to surrender."
"I wonder if I even want to know what she's got in mind," Jack muttered as he and Terwilliger slipped up behind a pair of MECH troops firing at Washington and Chang, who'd taken cover behind a shipping container. Jack was already having enough trouble staying focused, with the worries about Arcee getting zapped by whatever MECH had done flitting constantly through his mind. His mom had already said and done enough fucked-up things while pretending to be an unhinged assassin.
"I'm looking forward to it." Terwilliger laughed. "'Crazy' June is hotter than hell."
"That's my mom you're talking about."
"I'm just sayin', if I didn't already have my heart set on Strika …"
"I don't want that image in my head!" Jack grimaced. "You and Strika, okay. You and Mom, no!"
"Well, whatever June's up to, I'm in favor of anything that might make Sokolov shit himself out of sheer terror," Arcee said over the comm. "I already had reason enough to hate him, but then he reappeared just as you were about to fuck me silly this morning."
"Speaking of images I don't want in my head," June muttered before grunting as if she were lifting something heavy. "I'm almost set, here. Chase 'em down this tunnel so they can see my handiwork."
Jack shook his head as he and Terwilliger took cover behind a stack of metal crates. Jack leaned out long enough to zap both MECH guys with his EMP rifle. They twitched as their radios and other electronic gear fried. The one on the right yanked his helmet off and blurted, "Shit!"
Terwilliger leaned out of cover and cleared his throat. Both men spun around and snapped their rifles up. Something from the left knocked the guns out of their hands and Jack glanced over to find Moonracer grinning and aiming her railgun at them. She raised her left hand and waggled a finger as if scolding a child while keeping her aim steady with her other arm. Both guys turned and bolted.
Terwilliger fired a few shots into the mud at their feet and they darted to the left. Moonracer blasted a nearby crate apart and they jerked back to the right. She and Terwilliger kept it up, steering them toward the tunnel, and grinned at each other when the pair vanished inside. Jack glanced around and found more MECH troops retreating in the same direction until only Sokolov remained outside.
Elita-1 leaped over the crater rim, dropped onto a pallet of crates beside him, and smashed it under her feet. Sokolov stumbled away and tried to aim his rifle up at her. Before he could pull the trigger, she raised her fist and drove it into the ground directly in front of him, sending up a spray of mud and water and shaking the ground hard enough to make him stagger. She clamped her thumb and index finger onto his rifle, yanked it from his grip, and flicked it over her shoulder, sending it tumbling out of sight a few hundred yards away.
Sokolov reached for another weapon under his tactical vest, but Elita swatted a small wooden crate and slammed it into him with enough force to smash it open and knock him flat. The gun jolted from his hand and splashed into a mud puddle. He scrambled for it, but she stomped it into the ground, her enormous foot missing him by mere inches. He rolled away, got back on his feet, and took a few steps back. She raised her foot again and he turned and sprinted into the tunnel. She lunged after him and tried to stomp on him again, punching a deep hole into the mud a split-second after he vanished inside. She turned and smirked at the others.
"Just wanted to be sure he followed them."
"Uh-huh." Jack chuckled and walked toward the mouth of the tunnel. "Okay, let's see what kind of unspeakable horrors Mom's about to unleash on 'em."
The rest of the team joined him, the Cybertronians advancing slowly with their arms sticking out, just in case. He let out a little sigh of relief when he stepped into the tunnel and out of the constant, pouring rain. He grimaced at the water dripping off every part of his armor and glanced around. Miko and the rest of Ashanti's team had taken the lead while Arcee and the others moved more slowly to avoid any more nasty surprises.
"So," Miko said, "what do you think June's up to?"
"Who knows? Given the things she's come up with already, it could be anything."
They followed a curve in the tunnel and found the surviving MECH troops standing a few yards away, staring with their mouths agape at a half-dozen bodies hanging from nooses tied to the scaffolding, swinging gently back and forth.
"Holy shit," Terwilliger mumbled.
"What is it?" Khalilah said from Jack's helmet speakers. "A few of us haven't caught up yet. What's going on?"
Terwilliger burst into laughter as several of the MECH guys dropped their guns and backed away slowly. "Wow, that is fucked-up!"
"What? What did June do?"
"The dead bodies …" He shook his head slowly and laughed again. "She fuckin' strung 'em up!"
"What?" Camille stared at the nearly identical images of the swinging corpses on each monitor.
"Wow." A chill ran up and down Sierra's spine, but at the same time she could barely hold in a burst of laughter. She glanced over at Clay and snickered at his almost enraptured expression.
"Yep," he muttered, "I'm totally in love."
"I'm with Terwilliger on that," one of Raf's older brothers mumbled. "It's kinda fucked-up."
Camille arched an eyebrow at him. "Kinda?"
"I've seen worse." He shrugged.
"Where?" She shook her head. "No, wait, never mind."
Sierra stifled a giggle and turned back to the monitors as June slid down a rope she'd tied to the scaffolding. Her boots hit the ground and she grinned and held her arms out as if trying to embrace someone.
"Ah! Just in time to join my collection!" She pulled her knife from her belt and ran her gloved thumb along its edge.
One of the MECH guys aimed his gun at her, and several others backed away from her. Ashanti's team took aim at the former while stepping aside to keep the latter out of their line of fire. June's Stepford smile grew even larger and she stared directly into the man's eyes.
"I need to add more voices to my chorus," she said, then giggled. "The more voices, the more beautiful they sound when they sing my victims to sleep."
Ashanti closed the distance between her and the guy keeping June covered. All the other MECH troops kept their eyes on June or on the hanging bodies. Ashanti took a few steps to the right, entering the man's field of view, and he finally noticed her. His head twitched toward her, then he grimaced and raised his hands. Ashanti snapped the gun away from him and backed up until she'd rejoined the rest of her team. The motion caught the attention of several others and they dropped their weapons and raised their hands, realizing at the same time what would happen if they even tried to resist.
"There." Roderick smiled and pointed at the screens. "See? They've wrapped it up."
Sokolov glanced around and snarled at his people when he realized they weren't going to fight back. "What are you waiting for? Shoot them!"
"They'll mow us down if we even look at 'em funny." One of the still-armed guys tossed his rifle away and raised his hands. "Prison's better than dying."
"No." Sokolov's expression and sudden cold tone made Sierra's heart skip a beat. "It's the same thing."
"Oh, hell," Roderick mumbled.
Sokolov lunged at the nearest of his men, wrenched the rifle from his hands, and aimed it straight at Jack. June's eyes widened and her mouth opened as if she were about to scream. Arcee took a step toward them and Ashanti's team focused their aim on Sokolov.
"You'd better hope my finger doesn't convulse on the trigger when you shoot me," he growled.
"Shit!" Clay leaned forward, stared at the screens, and covered his mouth with his hand. "They're probably using the same ammo they had at their base in the desert. It'll burn right through his armor."
"Jack!" Arcee reached out to put her hand between him and Sokolov - then she screamed and yanked her arm back. She stared at her hand as it twitched a few times and then froze up. She turned to glare at Sokolov and he smirked back at her.
"Miniature version of the devices we placed around the edge of the crater. I keep it in a pocket and activated it while running into the tunnel. You should never have taken your eyes off me."
"Hold your fire, everyone," Ashanti whispered.
"If any of you get within thirty feet of me, you'll end up like your dead friend outside." Sokolov sneered at Arcee and turned back to Jack. "You. Get over here."
"Go fuck yourself."
"Get over here now, or I'll kill you right in front of your mother, and she'll have to live with that for the rest of her life."
"You even try that," Ashanti shouted, "and we'll light your ass up."
"Of course, but which of us would lose more?" Sokolov turned his sneer on June. "Certainly not me."
"Okay, okay, just don't hurt anyone." Jack walked slowly toward him.
"Jack, don't!" June shifted her eyes from him to Sokolov and back. "Don't get near him! Just run!"
"Then he'll just shoot me in the back or turn his gun on someone else." Keeping his hands raised, Jack continued his slow march over to Sokolov.
"Good boy. The rest of you, stay right where you are. The two of us are leaving, and if you try to follow, I'll shoot him in the stomach and laugh while he slowly burns up from the inside out."
"Put your guns down, everyone." June's voice was soft, her tone chilling. She took a step toward Sokolov and kept her glare laser-focused on him even as he snapped the rifle over to her and back to Jack. "If you hurt him, I won't just shoot you. I'll lock you away in a dark basement somewhere no one will ever find you, and I'll keep you hooked up to life support while I cut you slowly into tiny pieces." She put that unbalanced gleam in her eye again and continued her approach. "Keeping the patient awake during all those surgeries was a bit of a challenge at first, but I figured it out a long time ago. I can keep you alive and conscious and screaming for at least a week. Two, if I really take my sweet time."
Sokolov stared at her and a muscle in his jaw twitched.
While she kept his attention on her, Ashanti and Terwilliger inched closer to him. He twitched his head to the right as if starting to glance in their direction, but June took a bigger step forward and he focused on her again.
"Hey! Don't take your fucking eyes off me!" She pointed her knife at him. "If you so much as touch Jack, you'll beg for death day after day after day, and it will not come. Do you understand? You obviously aren't afraid to die, but what I'll do to you will be so much worse. You'll be my plaything."
Holy shit. Sierra shivered again and glanced around the room. Everyone's expressions ranged from unsettled to scared half to death. Camille rubbed a hand over her face.
"What the hell's she doing? He's got a machine gun and all she's got is a knife. She's gonna get herself killed."
"No," Clay said, "she's keeping Sokolov distracted while the others sneak up on him. She's protecting her son."
A scuffing sound came from one of the speakers and Sierra turned back. What …? Everyone on the monitors had turned to stare at Terwilliger, and Sierra realized one of his boots must've scraped across the ground.
Sokolov spun to face him and Ashanti, realized what they'd been doing, and whipped his gun up.
On Arcee's monitor, Strika lunged forward suddenly and thrust her right arm out, shoving her hand between them and Sokolov just as he pulled the trigger. Several rounds drilled into her palm and she grimaced. She kept her hand in front of Terwilliger and Ashanti even though her arm from the elbow down shuddered and then seized up. Sierra realized Strika must've stuck her arm into the thirty-foot radius Sokolov had mentioned. She glanced at the feed from Terwilliger's helmet cam and sucked in a quick breath as whatever was in the bullets melted through to the back of Strika's hand.
Oh, shit, if she hadn't blocked those rounds, they would've gone right through his head! Another chill rippled through Sierra and she covered her mouth with both hands.
On several of the other screens, Jack fired his armor's thrusters and launched at Sokolov. June followed a split-second later, and then Miko shot into the frame. All three of them plowed into Sokolov and knocked him to the ground. Jack clamped his hands onto Sokolov's gun, yanked on it several times, and finally wrenched it out of his grasp. Sokolov swiped his arm out and Sierra spotted a knife in his hand.
When the hell did he pull that out?
Jack stumbled away from him, clutching at his throat, and a cold sensation rushed through Sierra's guts.
Jack? Oh, Christ …
Panicking, Jack pressed his hand to his neck and staggered away from the others. Once he was sure there wasn't any blood where it shouldn't be, he took his hand away and glanced at it.
The knife didn't get through my armor. He sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a rush. The piece of his armor covering his neck and joints couldn't be as hard as the rest of his suit for obvious reasons, so if the knife could penetrate armor like the ones Ashanti's team carried …
If he'd leaned just a little closer to me, he would've turned me into a Pez dispenser. Jack shivered and glanced around. He found his mom staring at him with wide eyes and gaping mouth, and he gave her a thumbs-up to let her know he was okay. She sighed and slumped against the nearest crate, then pulled herself together and turned to face Sokolov again.
Jack turned to Arcee and found her glaring at Sokolov and shifting from one foot to another as if she wanted to charge in and stomp him flat. The rest of the Autobots and their new allies kept their weapons aimed at the ground, since they couldn't get a clear shot with Miko in the line of fire. The girl dodged some of Sokolov's punches, but others connected. She staggered with each impact, but her armor took the worst of it and she kept punching and kicking right back at him. Most of her blows missed, but it kept his eyes on her and off Jack and his mom - for the moment, at least.
"I am reluctant to give this order," Optimus said softly as Ashanti and the others spread around the chamber and encircled Sokolov, "but we cannot approach him as long as he has that device. We must let our human friends handle this."
Jack nodded, caught Arcee's optics, and held a hand up, telling her silently to stay put. Then he focused his full attention on Sokolov as he got a solid grip on Miko and slammed her to the ground. He raised the knife and plunged it straight down toward her neck. Miko crossed her arms and blocked it, but he bore down and tried to force the blade into her anyway.
"No!" June charged him even though she probably had no idea what to do. Jack certainly didn't, himself, but he ran in anyway, hoping he could at least distract Sokolov long enough for Miko to wriggle out from under him.
In the corner of his eye Jack spotted one of the MECH troops raising his gun slowly. Jack noticed the color and texture of his skin and realized it was the one named Conte - the one whose face had reminded his mom of a thrombosed hemorrhoid. Jack started to raise a hand to warn the others, but Elita lashed out suddenly, clamped a hand around Conte's body, and gripped his head with the tips of her thumb and index finger, as if getting ready to pinch a zit off.
"You want to drop your weapon," she snarled. Trembling, he let it go and Moonracer caught it before it hit the ground. Elita glanced at the other Cybertronians and nodded at the rest of Sokolov's men. "Don't get within range of that device, but restrain these assholes."
The others crouched, reached out, and scooped one of them up in each hand. Since both of Arcee's hands were paralyzed, all she could do was stare menacingly at the MECH guys until they'd been picked up.
Sokolov grunted and Jack turned back to him and Miko. She shoved his hands to the left and the blade hilted in the ground inches from her shoulder. She backhanded him before he could pull the knife out of the packed dirt, and a tooth arched off to the right, followed by a spurt of blood. Sokolov let out an enraged roar, cocked his fist back, and drove it into her helmet again and again, seemingly not noticing his knuckles getting bloodier each time a blow landed.
Gotta do something! Jack glanced around for a blunt instrument or another knife. His mom stood nearby with her blade ready, but couldn't do anything with it out of fear of hurting Miko.
Miko reached up and jammed her thumb into Sokolov's left eye. He screamed and reared back, but she kept her grip on his face and kept digging in. He cried out again and tried to pry her hand away. She finally let go, but only to put both arms around his head and pull him to her as if hugging him.
Then she fired the thruster built into her chest plate - directly into Sokolov's face. He let out a scream that filled Jack's guts with ice, and flailed his arms until Miko released him. He rolled around on the ground and continued thrashing and screaming.
"Whoa," Terwilliger muttered. "That was mean. Fuckin' awesome, but mean as hell."
"Yeah, I think we're done here." Miko picked herself up, dusted herself off, and walked over to Jack and his mom. "You guys okay? Jack, your throat …"
"I'm fine. The blade didn't get through." Jack glanced past her to watch Ashanti's team converge on Sokolov.
June rushed forward and threw her arms around Jack. "You had me scared for a few seconds."
"I'll try not to do it again." He put his arms around her.
"Get that device off him and deactivate it," Ashanti said, keeping Sokolov covered as Terwilliger and Chang pinned him down. Washington began searching his pockets.
He lunged suddenly, letting out another strangled cry of rage, and twisted out of their grasp. He scrambled across the floor, scooped up a gun one of his men had dropped, and whirled toward Jack.
Oh, fuck! He pushed his mom out of the line of fire just as Sokolov pulled the trigger. Two bullets slammed into his chest before Ashanti's team and Miko piled on top of Sokolov. He glanced down and found his armor turning white-hot and melting away. His heart pounded as he fumbled with the latches.
"Get it off! Oh, shit, get it off!"
"Jack!" June ran back to him, swatted his hands out of the way, and popped the latches. She pulled his chest plate off and ran her hands over the undersuit. "It's okay, it didn't get through." She cupped his face in her hands and he took several gasping breaths.
"Thanks," he mumbled before hugging her again. He stared over her shoulder at Sokolov as Ashanti and Terwilliger grabbed his arms and hauled him up. Jack looked into his remaining eye and shivered again. What little sanity Sokolov had possessed a few minutes ago was completely gone now. He continued snarling and whimpering in pain, but also continued struggling against them and lunging at Jack.
"Kill you," he sort of growled and hissed at the same time. "I'll fucking kill you! You'll never be safe! You hear me?" He lunged again and Ashanti's hands slipped off his arm for a split-second before she clamped onto him again.
June stepped back and her expression changed slightly. Hardened. Just enough for Jack to pick up. That ice-water sensation in his guts returned full-force.
Uh-oh.
She glanced around at the ground, took two steps, and leaned over to pick up a pistol.
"Uh, June," Ashanti muttered, her eyes opening wider. "Wait -"
June faced Sokolov and pulled the trigger, punching a round through his good eye. His head snapped back and his body sagged in Ashanti's and Terwilliger's arms.
"Shit," Ashanti whispered. She and Terwilliger let the body drop.
"Huh." Miko wiped at her visor, and Jack realized she'd been splattered by a bit of Sokolov's brain. She flicked it off, crouched, and wiped her hand on his pants. "Gross."
"June …" Ashanti held a hand out to her and approached slowly.
Jack turned back to his mom. Her hand trembled and her eyes widened and filled with tears. She lowered the gun and let it fall from her hand. She turned slowly, found Jack, and her eyes shifted back and forth as if she was recovering from shock. Jack's heart pounded and his hands shook as he put them on her shoulders.
"Mom?"
"I … I just … I just …" She turned slowly, stared at Sokolov's body, and sucked in several quick breaths. She grunted something that sounded like, "Oh," fumbled with the seals on her helmet, finally popped them and yanked the helmet off. Then she hunched forward and vomited.
"Easy, Mom." Jack put his arm around her shoulders as she wiped her mouth with a trembling hand. "Just breathe. It's gonna be okay."
"He had it coming." In the corner of his eye, Elita shrugged.
"It's not always that simple." Ashanti glanced at her, then around at the others, and nodded back in the direction they'd come. "Let's clear these MECH guys out of here. The last thing June needs now is an audience."
The Cybertronians nodded and carried the prisoners away. She watched them leave, glanced at her team and motioned for them to follow.
"I'll catch up with you guys." She walked over to June and rested a hand on her shoulder as they trickled out. Miko joined them and held June's hand.
Jack took his helmet off and leaned over to put himself directly in front of her. "Mom?"
"I'm … yes, I'm … uh, here." She wiped tears off her cheeks, closed her eyes, and took a few more long breaths.
"Come on." Jack helped her get back on her feet. He kept his hand on her arm to steady her and guided her through the tunnel. They emerged into the dreary daylight and pouring rain. Arcee had been waiting for them, crouching at the mouth of the tunnel.
"Hey, partner," she said softly, and reached out awkwardly to stroke his cheek with a non-functional finger. He smiled up at her. She leaned over, moving cautiously, and lowered her face almost to his eye level. He raised himself onto the tips of his toes and kissed her.
June managed a shaky smile and her eyes cleared a little more. Jack gave Arcee one more peck on the lips and turned back to his mom.
"You back with us?"
"More or less." She sighed. "I'll be okay, I think. Just … give it time."
"Okay." Jack hugged her again. "Let's go home."