Chapter Twenty-One: Not Alone
Hunter stumbles forward and catches himself on a console. His hand flies up to his mouth. The ground sways beneath him. He has to squeeze his eyes shut as his throat clenches, hard.
He forces himself upright. His arms shake. Sideswipe is right next to him. They're on the command deck of their ship, standing in the exact place they jumped from.
So where is Scorpinok?
The room is only so big and there are no places to hide.
"Whoa, kid, what the hell happened?"
Simmons is there, on his feet, standing on the edge of a console.
"Hunter," Sideswipe says, his voice low and tense. "Get Simmons and get off."
"Where are you—" Hunter says.
"Right now."
"Someone going to tell me what the hell is going on?" Simmons says.
Sideswipe leans over and scoops the agent up with one arm, pinning him to his chest like a doll.
"Hey!" Simmons says. "Shit, watch the shoulder!"
Sideswipe shoves him at Hunter. Hunter fumbles, manages to catch the man in two hands.
"Jesus Christ," Simmons says. "What's the big idea here?"
"You get him out," Sideswipe says. He turns and trots over to the doors.
"Where are you going?" Hunter says.
"Lab."
"But—"
"I've gotta get Sunny. I'll meet you outside. Go. Now."
Sideswipe presses himself into the wall. He pauses for a moment. Hunter expects to see him take a deep breath or something, but he just reaches over and palms the door control and they slide open.
The hallway is empty.
Hunter almost sags in relief. No giant bug monster waiting on the other side. Except that it's a big ship and that thing could be anywhere.
Sideswipe doesn't say anything else. He slides into the hallway and then he's gone.
"Fuck," Hunter says.
Simmons shifts. Hunter realizes he's got the agent dangling from his arms.
"Oh," he says. He sets him down and looks back at the door.
"Kid," Simmons says.
Simmons. Simmons standing in the middle of the control room with him and there's a giant, metal psychopath slinking through the ship and the only way out is through those doors.
"Hunter," Simmons says. "Look at me. That's it. Now tell me, what's going on? What happened out there? You two are totally freaked out and it's making me nervous. A little information, please."
"Your team," Hunter says. "They're gone. It was Scorpinok. He traced us here."
"Who?" Simmons says.
"He… it's a Transformer. He's behind Machination."
They need to leave. They need to run.
Hunter transforms. It takes less than five seconds. Before he's even done, he lifts the passenger side door.
"Get in," he says.
Simmons doesn't argue. He slides in and grabs for the seatbelt.
"He traced us," Hunter says through his internal speakers. "And then he jumped. He's here, somewhere."
"Ah," Simmons says. He sounds calm, like his usual blasé self. But Hunter can literally feel his pulse double.
They've got to get off of the command deck. They've got to get out those doors. They've got to get off the ship.
Move, Hunter.
He can see the hallway. The doors are still open. At this angle, he can see a few hundred feet down the hall until it cuts a sharp corner. Sideswipe went out there. If he ran into Scorpinok, Hunter would have heard something. He doesn't. All he hears is the hum of the ship and the whirring of his own body and the rasp of Simmons breathing.
Move, damnit!
Simmons's fingers dig into the door panel and the seat cushion.
Hunter rolls forward. The only sound is the soft noise of his tires on the metal deck. The hallway is empty, barren. No sign of Sideswipe. No sign of Scorpinok. No sign of anything at all.
Hunter's sensors go dark. It's not that there's nothing to register, it's that he registers nothing. He's being blocked. He's not alone on this ship.
Oh god, oh god.
Inside the frame, he clenches his eyes shut.
Focus, he thinks. You have to do this. You have to get Simmons off. You can't freak out, not right now. You've got to keep your shit together.
He's got weapons. Even in car form, he's got weapons. A thought becomes a command and the panels over his tail end shift apart. Missile launchers—his missile launchers—lift up.
"Ookay," Simmons says. His weight shifts as he moves to face the front again. "Okay, kid. You and me, right?"
"Yeah," Hunter says.
Straight down the corridor. Take a right, then a left, and he's in the cargo bay. Easy. It's not far. He can do this. He has to do this.
He drives.
The ship is silent. Nothing from Sideswipe. No shouting, no explosions, only the awful silence. The lines where the wall and the floor meet look sharper. He feels sick. His eyes sting. Simmons places a hand on his dashboard and only then does he realize that he's shaking, actually shaking, his armor rattling.
They're at the corner. Hunter slows to a crawl, inches forward. The missile launchers twist around as he looks to the right. He edges out.
Nothing.
Hunter wants to scream. He wants to hit something, shoot something, transform and claw at the walls, the floor, something, anything to get him out of here. Instead, he drives, watching for the slightest movement, listening for the faintest sound. Past sealed doors, storage compartments, maintenance hatches, fifty feet, sixty feet. The left-hand turn comes up and no sign of anyone.
He hates the silence.
Left turn, empty hallway. The cargo bay is dead ahead. Sunlight streams through open doors. He can smell the breeze coming off the water. It's right there. He could floor it, be down the ramp and into the lake in seconds.
The doors are open.
Hunter didn't open them.
He can't stop the sound that bubbles out of him; a breathless groan, a low, animal sound. Simmons's fingernails dig into the upholstery.
He'd checked those doors. They were shut. They were locked. Someone else has opened them. Someone else has come through the cargo bay, into this hall.
The lab.
This corridor leads right to it. Leads right to Sideswipe.
"Oh god," he says.
"Kid?"
Sideswipe is alone. He's going in alone. Going toward that thing and he has no back-up, no weapons.
The lake is right there. Hunter can make it. Put pedal to the metal and get the hell out of here. He can do it. He's a teenager, for Christ's sake. He's not even old enough to vote. He's just a kid. What the hell does he know about fighting? What the hell does he know about anything?
"Hunter?" Simmons says.
It's so close. The sun sparkles off the waves. He can run. He can get away from here, go anywhere. He's fucked up every single time he's tried to do the right thing. He'd tried to stop Machination but the only thing he's actually managed to do is to get people killed.
It would be so easy to run… he just has to let two more people die.
Hunter screeches forward. Simmons is thrown back, into the seat. His feet come off the floor. The hallway rushes past in a blur. The doors get bigger and bigger, the sunlight brighter. Hunter flies through. His tires leave the deck and for two seconds, he's airborne.
He slams back down, skids down the ramp, his back end sliding out. He squeals to a stop and throws his door open.
"Go," he says.
Simmons unlatches himself and staggers out. Hunter is already transforming, pushing up with changing arms onto legs that haven't formed feet yet.
"You're going back in?" Simmons says.
"Someone came through here," Hunter says. "If it was Scorpinok, he's headed for the lab and Sideswipe."
Simmons's lips thin.
"If… if we don't…" Hunter says. "I don't know what Scorpinok will do. He might just leave. But if he doesn't…"
"I'll have you know," Simmons says, straightening his suit jacket, "that we're not completely helpless. I meant that about shooting you down. I been dealing with NBE's a long time, kid. Longer than you've been alive. We've got some tricks up our sleeves."
Hunter nods.
"You sure you wanna do this?" Simmons says.
Hunter looks back, into the ship. The light reflected light dances along the interior.
"I have to," he says.
"Alright," Simmons says. "Good luck."
He starts down the ramp. Hunter watches him for a moment and then turns away.
"Hey kid," Simmons says. He's stopped just short of the lake. "Tear that bastard a new asshole for me, will you?"
Inside his shell, Hunter smiles. He opens his mouth to reply.
Deep within the ship, something roars.
Sideswipe is too late. He knows this before the doors to the lab even come into view. The scent of burnt-ozone stirs the air. Hydraulics hiss. Air intakes sigh. Scorpinok is in the lab. That freak is in there with Sunny.
Scorpinok is huge. In mech form, on two legs, he towers over Sideswipe, twice his height. The claw-like horns on the sides of his helm brush the ceiling. His legs are as thick as Sideswipe's torso. His bulk fills the lab, blocking Sideswipe from the regen-tank and his brother's head.
"Ah," Scorpinok says. "There you are."
It's the face, Sideswipe decides—or the lack of one, anyway—that is the defining characteristic of a Headmaster. Scorpinok is bigger than Hunter, bigger than the rip-off copies of Sunny. His head is too big to just be a folded up human. It's got more armor, more pieces. But it still has the tell-tale gaps, the cracks in the features where Sideswipe can see inside, see those pieces connecting.
"Is that why you take the bug form?" Sideswipe says, stepping through the doors. "So no one takes one look at your face and knows what you are?"
Scorpinok doesn't answer right away. He turns his head, optics narrowed behind the orange optical visor. He gives Sideswipe a once-over.
"We suppose this is the part where you ask us why we did it," Scorpinok finally says.
"Nah. This is the part where I tell you to get out of my way before I rip that head of yours off."
Sideswipe is sure that if he could, the freak would sneer. He looks back at the regen-tank.
He's standing between the wall and the medical berth. There's room for Sideswipe to slip past. The Headmaster is fast, though. Too fast. And Sideswipe's not healed. His outer armor is welded together but he can feel the shift in his chest when he moves. His spark casing is still open. One hit from those monstrous hands will bust him open.
"We'd heard of twins," Scorpinok says. "Very rare. You're the only pair we know of."
Sideswipe can see the tank. If he times it right…
"We should have known better," Scorpinok says. "So many to choose from. Perhaps we chose wrong."
Now. He's got to do it now. Get the tank open, grab Sunny. Get out now, while the Headmaster is busy monologuing.
But Scorpinok turns again. He gives Sideswipe an appraising stare.
"Ah," he says. "Very clever. We were wondering where you'd hidden him."
It takes every shred of willpower Sideswipe has not to cover the weld line.
"A solution only you," the freak spits the word out, "could possibly hope to pull off."
Sunny's spark flutters. Sideswipe clenches his fist.
"Such lesser creatures," Scorpinok says. "You have no idea what you've done."
"And I don't really care," Sideswipe says.
The bug's chin drops. He manages a sort of blank-faced scowl.
"We suppose you wouldn't," he says. "Too wrapped up in your own petty miseries to understand what we're trying to accomplish."
"Oh, I see what you've 'accomplished' all right. Putting an organic where your processor used to be? And here I thought you were supposed to be smart."
"Baiting us," Scorpinok says. He pauses. His head tilts to the side. "Very well. We will oblige you."
Scorpinok lunges. His bulk rushes forward. Sideswipe dives to the right. The bug's fist blurs past with a whoosh of air. He turns, bearing down.
Sideswipe scrambles, not to the side, but toward the 'con, landing with a painful screech between his legs. Scorpinok lifts his foot. He stomps down. Sideswipe is already rolling over the 'con's other foot, coming up behind the berth.
Something inside him screeches. Sunny's spark gives off a burst of energy. Sideswipe clutches at the weld line and stumbles. His knees hit the deck. He grabs the edge of the berth.
A blur of movement. He looks up. Scorpinok's fist flies straight at him. It's going to hit. Sideswipe isn't going to move in time—
A plasma bolt rips through the side of Scorpinok's face. The bug shrieks. He spins away, both hands coming up to clamp over the wound.
"Oh shit."
Hunter stands in the doorway. His hand is formatted into a pulse rifle. The tip of it glows.
"Hunter?" Sideswipe says.
Scorpinok growls. The sound reverberates through the air.
"Oh shit," Hunter says.
"You," Scorpinok says. The two ion-cannons mounted on his shoulders swivel to fix on the human.
"Sideswipe!" Hunter says. "The tank!"
Scorpinok fires. The human yelps and ducks out, into the hall. Sideswipe has a clear shot. He scrambles across the floor, over Scorpinok's foot. The 'con rears back. His optics lock onto Sideswipe.
Another shot hits him in the shoulder. Scorpinok stumbles. Sideswipe ducks as the other foot flies over him.
"We will obliterate you!" Scorpinok says.
Hunter shouts something but it's lost in the sound of Scorpinok's ion cannons tearing through the wall. Sideswipe sees a flash of silver.
Sunny. He's got to get to Sunny.
Sideswipe crawls. Something inside him has loosened. Energon drips out as he drags himself on three limbs across the floor.
A crash behind him. Scorpinok is in the hallway. Hunter comes scrabbling between his legs only this time, the 'con is ready. He twists and drops. His hand catches Hunter as he starts to stumble to his feet. The human is knocked to the floor and pinned, face-down.
"Hunter!" Sideswipe says.
Hunter thrashes. Scorpinok leans back, lifting his other hand. He's going to hit him. He's going to smash his head in.
"No!"
But Hunter manages to wrench one arm free. It's his right one. He lifts his pulse rifle and starts shooting. Most shots miss. The last two hit Scorpinok in the chest and in the throat.
"Ragh!"
Scorpinok jerks away. Hunter wriggles, manages to turn around, push himself up on one arm.
And shoots Scorpinok in the face.
The Headmaster flails. He arches back, hits the wall. Sideswipe can smell burnt plating and the tang of energon.
"Sideswipe, move it!" Hunter says.
No time for the door. His right arm transforms. Plating jumbles down, forms a solid pile-driver. He swings it at the tank. The clear panel cracks. Regen fluid sprays out. A soft alarm chimes.
"Shit!" Hunter says. "He's getting up!"
He keeps shooting.
Sideswipe plunges his hand through the hole. Fingers grasp at Sunny's head. He fumbles; the fluid is slick, he can't get a hold. He brushes one of the ridiculous head fins and latches on. He drags Sunny's head up, through the viscous goo and through the hole. He almost drops it again before he can bring it up and cradle it to his chest.
Scorpinok fills the hall. Hunter is keeping a steady barrage of fire on him, but the 'con is large. His armor is thick. He's twisted away, hunched down, shielding his head. As Sideswipe sprints for the door, the bug lashes out with one foot. It catches Hunter in the side. He's flipped backward into the wall.
Scorpinok kicks again, this time at Sideswipe. Sideswipe jumps. The leg clips his foot. He lands in a stumble and keeps going.
"Up!" Sideswipe says. "We gotta bail!"
Hunter shakes his head. He pulls himself up and sort of falls against the wall again.
Behind them—Sideswipe doesn't look; no time, gotta bail—he can hear Scorpinok climbing to his own feet.
"Here," Sideswipe says, holding up Sunny's head.
"What?" Hunter says. The word is slurred. "But that's—"
"Take him. Hurry!"
The human takes Sunny's head in both hands. Sideswipe grabs one of his arms and pulls him away from the wall. He takes off running, the human staggering behind.
The cargo bay doors are just ahead. Sunlight streams in.
A tug on his arm. Hunter stumbles. His optics aren't focused.
"Move it," Sideswipe says.
Heat on the back of his helm. Sideswipe ducks. The shot streaks overhead. Sideswipe risks a glance over his shoulder. Scorpinok is doubled over, folding in on himself, transforming. His ion cannons, now near the base of his twisting tail, are aimed right at them.
The hallway is too open. There's no cover.
Sideswipe skids to a stop. He whips Hunter around and shoves him into a hallway to the left. Hunter almost falls but then Sideswipe sprints past him, grabbing his arm again and hauling him up.
"What—"
"This way!"
Rapid pounding on the deck. Scorpinok is coming after them.
Another turn. Another left. An ion blast shrieks past. The heat scorches the side of Sideswipe's faces as it misses him and chews into the wall instead. The bug's legs skitter. He can feel it through the floor.
"Run all you like," Scorpinok says. "We're going to catch you. We're going to crush you."
Doors. Sideswipe shoves Hunter through. He cocks his fist and smashes the sensor and ducks through. He reformats his hand and plunges it into the controls on the inside. Scorpinok barrels right at him.
Where, where? Where's the fraggin code—
The doors hiss shut. The frame thunks as it locks.
"Hunter," Sideswipe says, breaking away and scurrying over to the closest command console. "Plug in. Start the engines."
"But I'm not—"
"Now."
"Motherfucker."
Sideswipe is already into the ship's files. Command codes flash on the display.
Bam!
Scorpinok hits the door. A jolt races through the floor. Sideswipe staggers. Hunter starts to swear.
Bam!
A new tremor, this one a deep hum as the engine come online.
"Where am I going?" Hunter says.
"Up," Sideswipe says. "As far as you can, as fast as you can."
The engines take on a deeper sound. The ship rattles. Scorpinok pauses. Sideswipe can picture him tilting that ugly head of his.
"What are you doing in there, little Autobot?" he says.
Something you're not gonna like, Sideswipe thinks.
The deck beneath him sways. He doesn't have to bring up visuals to know they've left the ground. He can feel the rocking motion as Hunter tries to keep the ship level.
The banging on the door starts up again, harder.
"What now?" Hunter says.
"I'm gonna 'jump us."
There! The code he's looking for. It's surrounded in security nets and warnings. Sideswipe brushes past them.
((Warning,)) the ship comms. ((Once activation—))
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Sideswipe says. He plows through the "cautions" and the "do you wish to proceeds" until he gets to the last bit.
The door shudders.
"What are you doing?" Hunter says. He's plugged into the system, too. Sideswipe can sense him on the fringes, watching. He can feel his growing concern.
"Doing?" Sideswipe says.
"What is that?"
"A surprise," he says. He sets it in. He lifts his head to flash a grin. Only Hunter is staring past him—
"Look out!"
A squeal. Scorpinok's tail punches through the door. He rips it out and lets loose with the ion cannons. Sideswipe ducks, starts to pull his hand free. A shot blasts past him and hits the console. He sees it, sees the flash. Has enough time to say, "Fr—"
"Sideswipe!"
Pain rips into him. His hand burns. His arm burns. His mind burns. His processor locks up, glitches out. His thoughts jumble and scramble.
He's lying on the floor. He's twitching. Pain in his right hand. Pain in his chest. Looking up at the ceiling. Movement. Noise. He forces his optics down, forces his mind to work, to sort out what he's seeing.
A tail stabbing through the door. Two, enormous pincers reaching in and tearing at a hole, shredding it. A larger form forcing its way through. Bug legs pushing it, wriggling, into the room. Plasma bolts burst around its frame. It lifts a pincer to shield its head.
Silver next to him. A hand grabs him, drags him away from a smoking control console, away from the door and the bulky thing slithering in toward him.
He can move.
Sideswipe jerks. Hunter drops him. But it's too late. They're too slow. And Scorpinok is fast, impossibly fast, Headmaster fast. Before Hunter can grab him again, the 'con is there.
Sideswipe pushes Hunter away.
A pincer slams into Sideswipe's left arm. Pain explodes. His vocalizer statics out as he screams. He's pinned, his arm crushed into the floor.
Scorpinok lifts his pincer, Sideswipe's arm held in its grasp. He's pulled up, off the floor. His shoulder makes a horrible pop and sparks fly. He actually feels the strut disconnect.
The Headmaster lifts him up. His feet dangle in the air. He can barely think through the sheer agony that is his shoulder. He kicks, legs jerking.
Scorpinok chitters. The pincer moves; his shoulder pulls. The ship tilts and wiring tears and armor snaps. For one, brief nano-klik, his mind blanks.
Sideswipe hits the deck. Whatever has been holding him together inside ruptures. His chest caves in. He can't even scream.
"Sideswipe!"
Scorpinok looms over him. In this form he doesn't have a mouth. He doesn't need one. His laugh is more a snarl. His tail arches overhead.
Sideswipe doesn't see it move.
Something smacks into him. He feels the jolt, feels the impact. Then his optics focus and he's staring at the bladed tip of Scorpinok's tail. It's buried in his chest, right through the weld-line, right through his fragging spark. He's speared to the floor.
Liquid fire spreads though his chest. He makes a peculiar coughing sound.
Scorpinok giggles.
"Two 'bots with one blow," he says.
He can't… he can't… the fire moves down his limbs. He can't move. He hears a rushing, a white noise static. The fire reaches his neck, starts to claw up.
"Sun…" he says.
Scorpinok pulls his tail free. Sideswipe jerks up, off the floor. He sees a flash of brilliant blue and…
Scorpinok wrenches his tail out of Sideswipe. The red Autobot falls to the ground, limp. Something flashes in the hole punched through his chest. Something explodes. Then Sideswipe goes dark.
"No," Hunter says.
Scorpinok tilts his head to look at Hunter. He steps over Sideswipe.
"Come here," he says.
Next chapter: Together