Having never met Shockwave before, Nightwire and Spitfire are amazed at how stocky, and short he is. Sure, they'd see him in the films way back when they had been human, but seeing him here was different. He was taller than Nightwire, but they matched in width.
Nightwire was a stocky femme, built for power. Spitfire was a little taller, but far leaner.
Still, the single optic was creepy.
"That femme, I need her."
"He flushed us out."
"We can't fight him, you know that right?"
"A distinct trine speech? Interesting. I confess I have met few bonded trines, you three are quite the rarity."
"This is Nightwire in the comms hub, Shockwave is in here, he's after Star."
"They can't hear you."
He'd hacked the comms system. Was this where he found Red? Did he infect Red then hack in, or force Red to make the hack first. Either way, Nightwire wanted this mech offlined.
"They'll figure out where we are regardless, it wont take long."
"Long enough femmeling. I currently have no orders regarding either of you, hand over your trine leader and you may remain here until I have use of you."
"He's a charmer isn't he?"
Shockwave was studying them as they spoke. It didn't matter, he wouldn't figure out English because it was a language based on sounds, not coding and programming like Cybertronian was. Every language on the planet could be programmed into someone, bilinguals and multi-linguals were such examples, but without a digital basis (ie; the internet) he would never figure it out.
"Can we stall long enough?"
"Maybe Spit, we have to at least try."
"He can't take her."
"Fuck no."
Nightwire held Starblast close to her spark, trying to will her awake. But what would that do? Star may be incapable of moving when she wakes, they just didn't know.
Come on Allspark, we need some divine intervention here.
Shockwave sighed, saddened almost that he would have to fight. Would he be as bad as Soundwave? No, no but what he would do once he had Star would be far worse.
He reached into a subspace, Nightwire had to find a place to lay Starblast but she daren't put her down. Shockwave pulled a screeching creature from his subspace, it looked like a metal squid with razor sharp pointed tentacles.
Within those tentacles was a beak, surrounded by sharp metal teeth. It looked bad, whatever it was. The worse part was it's violet optics.
"Dark energon."
"Is that what he got Red with? By Primus Red must have been terrified."
Night wasn't feeling particularly brave herself. It looked frightening, even if it was only the size of Shockwave's hand.
"I recommend you don't resist, but I feel as though you may have already made up your minds."
He released the creature and shots rained down on it, Spitfire was blasting it with her plasma pistol. It was a small weapon, and it had little effect.
"Take her!"
Nightwire all but tossed Starblast into Spitfire's arms and began firing, her blaster was far more brutish, more powerful. It knocked the squid-thing back, but did no real damage. The dark energon kept the parasite moving ever forwards. Starblast was too heavy for Spitfire to hold for long, but she managed to get her to the floor as gently as she could.
The doors were starting to rattle, they had been found.
Nightwire couldn't fight off the little beast for long, and Shockwave was making his slow, deliberate advance towards Spitfire and Starblast's prone form.
"Hurry up!" Spitfire screamed at the door as they pounded and crashed against it.
Mumbled yells from the other side, static on the comm. lines. Desperate thoughts.
"I need a blade! Shots do nothing! If I can slice it in two!"
"Starblast has blades! I don't!"
And Starblast had not moved since Soundwave's cables had pierced her spark.
Nightwire had a sudden realisation.
Nobody was going to save them this time. Starblast was not going to suddenly wake and unsheathe her blades, and their family was not going to suddenly break in and save them. Shockwave was getting closer to her sisters, and Spitfire had never truly been a fighter.
Nightwire had to make a choice. Herself, or her sisters, and Nightwire would always chose her sisters, as they would always chose her.
She turned her optics from the parasite and prayed to Primus for clarity, for one good shot.
And by Primus did she get it.
Her shot smashed into his chest and he shrieked in a way Nightwire had never heard a mech shriek before. It was the sound of a mech that hadn't felt any kind of physical pain in many, many vorns and cycles. And when the parasite latched onto her arm, she made a similar noise and watched the violet drain from it's optics and into her systems.
But Nightwire had done all she needed, when her processor went blank and Spitfire screamed in shared pain, and when Starblast gasped herself awake, they would be safe. Shockwave was reeling, that shot had grazed his spark.
It wouldn't kill, but it bloody well hurt.
And to the sounds of screams, both his and Spitfire's, Nightwire descended into hell.