As Lennox rapidly instructed Galloway on how to properly jump out of a perfectly working airplane, it took everything Ironhide had not to simply transform and kick Galloway out of the plane himself. Though as he watched the panic start to dawn on Galloway's face and Lennox only speak faster, Ironhide grinned inwardly. He knew there was a reason that he and Lennox had gotten along so well.
"Not now! We're on the plane, dumb-ass!" Lennox yelled. But his warning was too late.
Suddenly, Galloway yanked on the primary cord for the chute and the parachute snapped open, the fabric immediately going taut and Galloway was suddenly yanked out of the plane, his panicked yelling fading in the loud droning of the Osprey plane.
"Did he say good-bye?" Epps asked, walking over to Lennox.
"No, he didn't even say good-bye," Lennox replied, shaking his head slightly.
"Damn...I know you're heartbroken over it," Epps stated, struggling not to grin.
"General," one of the soldiers piped up, "we're loaded and ready. You give us the go and we'll be ready to go in five minutes."
With a muffled grunt, Ironhide transformed, shrugging off the heavy netting that had been draped over him in vehicle form. He wasn't quite sure if it had been an attempt to keep him from rolling out of the Osprey, or if it had been Galloway's method of insulting him in thinking that a simple net would have kept him from trying to punt the annoying human out of the plane.
"Feeling better?" Lennox asked, grinning.
"Much," Ironhide answered gruffly, having to crouch to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling of the Osprey. "Though was the net really necessary?"
"It was for our safety," Lennox answered, rolling his eyes. "You know, because there's no way that you could have possibly gotten out from under the netting and transformed and then escaped or anything."
That was another part of human humor that Ironhide was still struggling to understand. For some reason, humans found it hilarious to state the obvious with either a lot of enthusiasm or none at all.
"Have you heard anything on the boy or his companions?" Ironhide inquired.
The Osprey suddenly lurched, the engine roaring as the large plane turned. Lennox staggered and stifled a curse, but Ironhide caught him before the soldier fell to the floor of the Osprey.
"Thanks," Lennox said quickly, glancing up at Ironhide. The Autobot simply nodded in response. "Haven't heard anything on them yet, but-"
"CIA just got a hit on the boy," Epps called out.
Lennox looked over at Epps as he handed over a scrap of paper with coordinates hastily scribbled on it.
"That's almost a hundred miles from where we were headed," Lennox answered.
"They also said they heard a eardrum splitting shriek right at the end of the phone call," Epps added.
"Phone call?"
"Yeah, the CIA picked up a phone call, but they said right at the end they heard some scuffling for the phone and then some woman began shrieking into the phone. They promptly hung up afterwards."
"Hey, bonus, we know that Sophie's still alive," Lennox commented.
Ironhide sighed heavily and shook his head.
"Does she always have to shriek if she's not getting her way?" Ironhide grumbled.
"Well, at least she's making her opinion known, you know," Epps pointed out. "Some guys like outspoken girls."
"Are those males deaf?" Ironhide asked incredulously. "My audio receptors are damaged and she still hits decibels that make me flinch."
"Aw, c'mon big guy," Epps laughed, lightly punching the side of Ironhide's leg. "You know you love her."
Ironhide just snorted derisively in response.
()
"This isn't how it's supposed to end," Sam whispered hoarsely, desperately trying to scoop the now powdered remains of the Matrix into his sock.
Sophie watched him with a depressed look on her face, occasionally trying to push over a small dune of the Matrix remnants.
"Sorry, Sam," Sophie muttered.
"You can't bring him back, Sam," Mikaela said gently.
"We have to at least try," Sophie argued quietly.
As a low hum began to fill the air, the three exchanged glances quickly.
"You hear that?"
"Sounds like a helicopter or something," Sophie muttered.
"The Air Force is here!" Simmons yelled. "It's C-17s!"
"How does he know this?" Sophie cried.
As the humans scrabbled out of the Tomb of the Primes, they began scanning the skies. Leo glanced over at Sam, who was still tightly clinging to the sock.
"You can't bring him back, man."
"We didn't just go through everything we went through for no reason at all, to just have it end like this," Sam argued fervently. "There is a reason that we are here. The voices and the symbols in my head led us here for a purpose. Everyone's after me because of what I know, and what I know is that this is going to work."
"How do you know it's going to work?" Sophie asked in disbelief. She didn't like siding against Sam, but at this point, after watching the Matrix disintegrate into sand, she wasn't sure what else there was that they could do. Were they going to just sprinkle it on Optimus or what?
"Because I believe it will," Sam replied back quickly.
"This isn't some Disney movie, man!" Leo cried, waving his hands slightly.
"Whoa, whoa!" Sophie cried, spotting one of the C-17s. "There's one of them!"
"We've got to get to where they're dropping off Optimus," Sam yelled.
"Let's go, let's go!" Simmons ordered.
"Yeah, because what's the worst that could go wrong?" Sophie muttered.
()
Within thirty minutes, Sophie was regretting the statement profusely. When Megatron had given the order for the Decepticons to attack, the entire desert seemed to have erupted into a mess of sand, explosions, and mayhem. Leo and Simmons had stayed gone with the twins to try and draw the fire of the Decepticons, and Bumblebee had gone to try and distract the Decepticons as best as possible so that Sam, Mikaela, and Sophie could get to Optimus.
But when the roof of one of the buildings they had been running past had suddenly burst into a spray of rock and debris, Sophie had had to scramble back, towards the oncoming Decepticons. Sam and Mikaela stopped, starting to run back towards the piling debris.
"Go, go!" Sophie screamed, waving her arm. "I'll catch up! Just get to Optimus!"
"Are you sure?" Sam cried, glancing over his shoulder.
"Go!" Sophie shrieked before sprinting back through the maze of buildings that were quickly being decimated.
Her pulse was already pounding in her head, and the sand was sinking up to her ankles as she tried to avoid being seen by one of the Decepticons. She could hear the mechanical, garbled roaring as the Decepticons drew closer. She couldn't understand what they were saying, but Sophie was fairly certain that it wasn't anything pleasant.
As she raced towards one of the buildings, Sophie crashed against the door, and it suddenly gave way, sending her sprawling onto the floor with a grunt. For the first time since she'd encountered Barricade, Sophie felt a sharp jab of panic stab in her chest. A hoarse sob escaped her throat, the bitter taste of dust coating her mouth. Quickly getting to her feet, Sophie huddled back into the corner of the room she'd managed to fall into, feeling the very ground beneath her shake. The deafening roars of the Decepticons were all around her by this point, and it did nothing to slow down the racing rhythm of her heartbeat.
Clapping her hands over her ears, Sophie gritted her teeth, feeling grit crunch between them, and tried to drown out the noises for just long enough to get her nerve back. It was enough to let her get her breath, and Sophie stumbled to her feet and, after glancing around quickly, scrabbled out of a broken window. Wincing as she felt the glass cut into her hands, Sophie lunged off the windowsill and fell onto the sand.
...right to the feet of a Decepticon.
For a few seconds, the giant robot didn't even notice her, but when Sophie gasped involuntarily at the sight of the towering, murderous creature, it whirled around, snarling and rifle the size of a small bus at the ready.
With a panicked shriek, Sophie darted back, trying to get back into the building. The Decepticon answered by swinging the rifle around in a wide arc, decimating the rooftop of the building and causing it to collapse inward. It gave Sophie enough time to start sprinting down the sand covered street with another hoarse scream.
The Decepticon immediately gave pursuit, and, much to Sophie's horror, was laughing diabolically the entire way. He swung the rifle once again, causing a tidal wave of sand to cascade of Sophie, obscuring her vision and causing her to cough uncontrollably. As another strangled yell escaped her in between her coughing, Sophie fell into an alleyway, stumbling as she tried to get her breath back and clear the sand from her eyes.
"Sophie!"
Hearing her name yelled out caused her to pause. Immediately recognizing the voice, but not believing it, Sophie looked around quickly, still making her way down the alleyway, wanting to put as much distance between her and the oncoming Decepticon as possible.
"Ironhide?" she cried. "Ironhide! Ironhide! Where are you?"
"Sophie! Keep running! I may have a fix on your position, just keep running!"
"Ironhide! Decepticon! Decepticon after me! It's got a really big gun! It's after me!"
"Just keep running!"
She didn't need any more coaxing. Sophie darted down the alleyway, her sides heaving by this point, and jumped back into another sand covered street. She could hear the Decepticon still laughing, but now it sounded a bit more angry than humored.
"Sophie!"
Turning around, Sophie saw Ironhide, his right shoulder already sparking from blast damage and his left leg looked to be charred by fire, but the injuries weren't slowing him down. Sophie staggered towards Ironhide, still struggling to catch her breath.
"I never thuh-thought I'd-I'd be so happy to-to-see your-your ugly face!" Sophie cried, half gasping and half sobbing.
"Are you injured?" Ironhide yelled, spying the blood on Sophie's hands.
"No! I just...I just...I can't...I can't breathe!" Sophie answered, clutching at her side.
The Decepticon that had been chasing Sophie suddenly burst through the alleyway she had darted down, but when it saw Ironhide, it hesitated momentarily. Sophie made a panicked squeak, but Ironhide didn't pause. He fired two blasts at the Decepticon, then scooped Sophie up and set her near his right shoulder. She didn't need any further orders. Sophie scrambled onto his shoulder and huddled against his shoulder plate.
"Hold on!" Ironhide ordered.
"To what?" Sophie cried.
"Just don't fall!"
Looking around quickly, Sophie grabbed the edge of Ironhide's shoulder plate, trying to be mindful of the jagged edges and the damage that had been inflicted. Wincing, Sophie lightly traced the scorched edges from where she could only guess a plasma blast had struck Ironhide.
Ironhide suddenly yelled something at the Decepticon, again in the same mechanical language that Sophie could never hope to understand, and it was enough to infuriate the Decepticon into charging straight at him. Sophie shrieked and braced herself, but Ironhide seemed nonplussed. He took one step towards the Decepticon, and then landed a punch straight on the Decepticon's jaw...followed up by a blast from the cannon on his wrist.
There was a blast of sparks and shrapnel, and Ironhide quickly turned away, shielding Sophie from the flying bits of metal. The Decepticon made a garbled growl before collapsing, bright orange mech fluid spouting from the now exposed insides of its head. Ironhide glanced over, and while he couldn't see her completely, he could still feel Sophie scrambling about and trying to keep her footing on his shoulder.
"Are you all right?" he asked quickly.
"Yeah, I think so," Sophie answered breathlessly. "How about you? You look a little banged up here, old man."
"It's nothing," Ironhide retorted, glancing around. He was already seeing at least two other Decepticons converging on his position, and while two Decepticons normally would not be an issue for Ironhide, he once again found his main priority keeping Sophie safe.
"Ironhide!" Sophie whimpered, shrinking against his shoulder plate. "There's more Decepticons!"
"I can see them!" Ironhide replied. "We have to move!"
With that, he began to down the sand covered streets, feeling Sophie jar slightly before she managed to get her footing back. Activating his comm link, Ironhide glanced around, trying to see if he could see any of his Autobot comrades. Much to his chagrin, he couldn't see any of them.
"Sideswipe!" he yelled into the comm link. "Sideswipe! Come in!"
"Hear you loud and clear, 'Hide!" Sideswiped answered after a screech of static.
"I've found Sophie, but we've got Decepticons converging on all points."
"Tell me something I don't know!"
"We're getting closer to your position, but if I'm going to be able to get Sophie to safety, we're going to need cover fire!"
"Don't know if that's going to be possible!"
"Then make it possi-"
"Ironhide! Look out!"
Sophie's shrieked warning was too late.