Chapter 24

The ship was too big and too silent when Jinx finally made herself set foot in it. She made the mechs wait outside until she was sure that the ship's security programming still recognized her as an ally and not an enemy to be shot down. Once she was cleared to enter without having her head chopped off, she stepped carefully inside.

Jinx stood for a moment, yellow optics scanning the walls of the ship. The hall was ribbed like the throat of a beast, lights turning on down the walkway as the ship hummed to life. She took a step inside, walking on her toe plates. No lazers. No pit fall traps. No trips or triggers. No swinging blades. Of course, Lockdown's traps weren't as crude or simple, or half as obvious.

Jinx shuddered as she remembered the first time she'd set off one of his traps. The scars she'd taken from it were some of the few she could never completely buff down. They would have to be careful. She motioned for the mechs to follow, and they did. Thankfully, they came in one at a time, each one of them just as cautious as she was.

Jinx started to walk down the hall, her optics constantly scanning their surroundings. The first few minutes were spent in silence, Jinx leading them safely through the first trap she knew of. She started to relax after a few more minutes when they made it halfway down the hall. They were close to turning to the room that held his weapons, when Flashback suddenly slammed into her from behind.

Staggering forward with a yelp, Jinx just barely managed to step over a trigger, her arms windmilling. Narrowing her optics into a nasty glare, she started to shove the mech off. Flashback was already moving back though, a stream of violent curses leaving his mouth. "WAR! You freaking, big as-"

"Solaris did it!" The huge mech rumbled, crossing his arms defensively.

"Would you three stop being total idiots for five minutes?! We could offline in this place!" Jinx hissed angrily. She pointed accusingly at them, "You don't-" Jinx stopped mid-sentence, her optics growing wide when a low grown echoed through the bowels of the ship.

Solaris stepped back, raising a hand to nervously scratch at his neck, "I...didn't see it."

Jinx's spark squeezed, growing cold with fear in her chest. Grabbing Flashback by the shoulder armor, she pushed him aside abruptly so she could see the other two, "What do you mean you 'didn't see it'?"

She looked up when hundreds of ancient gears began to turn. The ribs on the walls shuddered like something alive. Still gripping the mech's armor, she slowly moved back, her heel dropping right on top of the trigger. Jumping slightly at the quiet 'click', Jinx bit out a curse and pulled at him, "MOVE!"

"To where?!" Warhammer shouted, "where in this slaggin' pit is there a safe place!"

Jinx let go of the mech after he found his feet, her optics rapidly scanning their surroundings as the ship changed around them. The black metal paneling on the walls shifted, opening in some places and closing in others. Vents were uncovered, with plumes of ugly green gas already curling through the darkness. Ahead of them, the hallway was closing in, trapping them. "Pits!" Jinx huffed, "you just had to step on something, you just had to set off one of the worst traps in this whole ship!"

"Just shut up and run!" Flashback snapped, catching up to her, "where are we going?"

"The weapons vault!" Jinx nodded toward the closing hall, "The walls there are too thick to be completely corroded down."

"'Corroded'?!" Solaris shouted from the back, "I don't-"

"The gas you idiot!" Warhammer snarled.

"I know she means the gas-"

"Shut up!" Flashback was running beside her now, looking both ways. "Jinx! Wheres the vault?"

Jinx kept her mouth closed. She swung wildly out of the hall and toward one of the doors, punching in the password on the key pad. All three mechs crammed against the wall around her, nearly smashing her into the door. Yelping, Jinx swatted and shoved at them until the door accepted the code and hissed loudly. The locking mechanisms turned and shifted back one by one in an agonizingly slow process.

Jinx kept shoving at the mechs, balancing on her toes as the hall filled with a thick, green, stinking haze. Her wide yellow optics shifted between it and the door. Warhammer roared in their audials, "We're not gonna make it!"

"Guys, I just wanted you to know that even though you're both aft heads, and Solaris is a giant freaking nerd, you guys are the best stupid friends a mech could have, and I-" The gas stretched toward them, blooming in all directions to fill their line of sight. The door at last heaved open, and Jinx ducked in without a word.

"This is highly unnecessary," Solaris bit out, "Flash, the door is open."

All three of them burst through the door at once, just barely squeezing through. Warhammer pivoted to slam the door back into place, almost breaking the hinges behind the force of it. Jinx threw herself against it to help, yelping when she found herself smashed between all three young mechs when the other two followed her example.

They shoved as hard as they could against it until the locks snapped back into place. Jinx sagged against the cold metal then, heaving a vent of relief. "Pits."

"So the gas won't melt through the door?"

"The Weapons vault and the trophy case are the safest places on this ship," Jinx said, "no matter how badly Lockdown wants to offline any intruders, he won't risk his collection."

"Makes sen-WHOA!" Flashback fell back into the door when he turned around like he'd just been punched. A hand flew up to his chest plates, "Be still my burning spark!" His voice rose in pitch to a squeal Jinx didn't think he was even capable of. Then like a gushing, pink femme, he pranced further into the room and threw his arms open like he was basking in Primus' glory.

Jinx rolled her optics when Warhammer pivoted on his heel to see, a sharp intake of air whistling noisily through his frame. He leaned back against the door, weak-kneed, and put a hand on his chest plates. Brushing past them, Jinx headed toward the neatly organized weapon racks on the back wall, "You two act like you've never been inside a vault before."

Solaris was the only mech not floating on the verge of blissful hysteria. "Not quite true," He said, "we visit the autobot vault on occasion. War spends a lot of his time there keeping track of ammunition and running maintenance on all weapons, but...this. This is something entirely different."

"I-Is-Is that a Praxian class 9-A fusion pistol? The kind used for law enforcement before the war?" Flashback squeaked. He didn't even flinch when Warhammer nearly trampled him to beat him to the wall.

"This!" He said, reaching with trembling fingers for a heavy-duty seeker gatling that looked like it weighed more than his whole leg did, "I've never even seen one of these up close before!"

"Thats one of mine," Jinx said, glancing at it. She smirked at the wide-opticed look the two gave her. "took it right off Skyquake's shoulder after I smacked him in the face with a flash grenade." Her eyes shifted to the shiny, elegant pistol that Flashback was staring lovingly at, "Thats mine, too. Its a pair. The other one should be in storage. Jacked it off a rude noble my first cycle working under Lockdown."

"Ho-lee slag," Flashback whistled.

"Jinx," Solaris quietly followed his friends, sending her an awed look. "how many of these did you steal?"

"Most of them. These are all of the rare weapons I collected for him. The things he took are in his trophy case, which we'll be visiting next after the walls outside cool off." Jinx pointed accusingly at them, "but don't forget that you said I had first pick of what we find here."

Both of the mechs froze. Warhammer was cradling the lethal gatling like it was his newly-sparked creation. Flashback was standing on his toes and stretching for the pistol. He stumbled slightly when she spoke up. "But...you don't care about these, right?"

Jinx glanced up at them, then shrugged. "I don't like pistols or blasters. Or that thing. It was a pain in the aft to get it off the ship before Skyquake offlined me. Everything else goes through me first, okay?"

They nodded enthusiastically at her. Jinx stepped further into the room, reaching out to touch one of the polished racks bolted to the wall. Her optics narrowed as memory took over her processor. She knew all of these weapons as if they were her own. Each one had a story, and each one had been splattered with her energon at one point or another. She remembered taking time to clean and polish them before presenting her cargo to Lockdown. Usually she'd fix them before she fixed herself.

Then her yellow optics moved to the next wall, and the rows upon rows of blades. Gleaming, deadly, beautiful swords and daggers of all sizes and makes. Jinx found a long, slender black blade and lingered. Her spark twisted in her chest, missing the mech she'd become so attached to since her crash landing on the moon. She reached out to drag a finger tip down the flat of the blade, almost wanting it to be jagged with a blanket of ancient scars, or covered in moondust.

But it was smooth and clean, flawless. Even though it was one of the last of its kind and she had nearly lost her spark attaining it, it held no meaning to her now. It was too plain and too perfect for her. Her spark rejected it.

Jinx dropped her hand from it, and moved to the next one.

Jinx had never been the type to play with swords. She had a dagger for situations when a rifle or easy escape wasn't accessible, but that was the extent of her training with blades. She'd never liked swords. Her mech creator had been a swordsmech. Once when she was a sparkling, she'd been fascinated by the simplistic, lethal grace of a sword singing through the air. That had changed when her father tried to take her head off with one. But now...things were different. Everything was different. And the swords were honestly the only things she found interesting at all in Lockdown's weapons vault.

Robotically, she moved down the blades, only partially aware of the three mechs freaking out over weapons they never knew existed. She would touch each flat stretch of cool alloy until she found them. Twin blades, exotically curved and dead-silver in color. There were raised decorative patterns on them, from hilt to tip, black and matte to offset the shine of the gray. The handles were wrapped in black woven cable, formed to fit the fingers of a mech's hand.

Jinx lifted them from the rack, testing their balance. She knew enough about blades to know when they were of highest quality, and these were. Turning them in the light, she examined them with a critical optic. Ceremonial blades from the Knights of Light. If she remembered correctly, before a knight was chosen by a great sword, they were tasked to forge their own short swords as testament to their skill and discipline. These had belonged to a lower ranked knight, she could tell by the colors of the alloys, but a knight all of the same.

Silver and black, moon and shadow. The dark parts were even duller than the silver, and a tiny nick marked the sharp edge of one sword. The closer she looked, the easier it was to see faint marks. These weapons had seen plenty of battle, and wore the scars to prove it.

Jinx shuffled them carefully into the spaces of her armor, remembering how Backlash had lost his weapons in favor of saving both their lives with the shield. She thought of stumbling across him in the wreckage, and the moment she saw his optics for the first time. Jinx smiled to herself, moving through the rest of the swords and picking up only the most valuable or useful ones, knowing she could barter with Ironhide over them.

Jinx moved across all of the walls, shoving past the mechs when they got into her way. She quickly picked everything that she wanted, pushing the heavier items into their arms. Jinx found a couple of antique rifles that guards had used in the early days of Cybertron. They were clean and working smoothly, all of their pieces sliding perfectly into place with ease. She handed them to Solaris, somehow knowing that he would appreciate the historical value of them the most.

His face lit up when he realized what he was holding, "I thought...these were all destroyed when the newer models were released?"

"Almost all," Jinx said, uncovering a long box of ammunition to go with them. "I had to go to Kaon to get these...or whats left of Kaon. An old collector lived there. He had a lot of old things that were supposed to be destroyed." Solaris happily accepted the heavy box, tucking it under one arm.

"Too bad all the 'cons have been stomped out," Warhammer grumbled, lifting his favorite find to his back armor. The thick plates parted to allow the giant gatling to fit, then closed securely around it. "theres no one to test our new toys on."

"Could always test them on your armored aft," Flashback said, still examining the pistols. "I bet these babies fire smooth."

"They do." Jinx said, kneeling to rifle through more ammunition and smaller blunt weapons. "smoother than premium grade energon."

Solaris shouldered both rifles, "Make sure to save room for the trophy vault."

"Oh, don't worry," Jinx grinned at him from over her shoulder, "I haven't forgotten about the best part of our little adventure."

After sweeping the weapons vault and packing the four of them with enough weapons to supply an armory, Jinx went back to the door and tapped in the locking code once again. They waited for it to open, listening as the bolts slid back one by one. Jinx warned, "The corroding gas probably knocked a lot of booby traps out of commission, but we still need to be careful. You three dweebs stay behind me, and do exactly what I do. Or else we'll all offline in the most horrible way possible."

Jinx shut her mouth as soon as the door was fully open, and stepped outside. She stayed on her toe plates, moving as quietly as she possibly could. The mechs followed in single file with Flashback taking up the rear, still caressing his new guns.

Directly behind her, Solaris scanned his optics over the still-smoking interior of the ship, the rib-like walls melted down to an almost smooth surface. He swallowed audibly, and moved a little faster to keep up with her.

This time they made it to the vault without any trouble. Jinx was even able to stop a few doors down to raid one of the supply rooms even though Flashback made it a point to hiss at her and tell her that they had more than enough stuff at the base. Jinx, without even looking at him, replied, "Don't get your exhaust pipe all twisted up, blue-berry." Then she pointedly ignored the seething glare he gave her while she did her business. She grabbed armfuls of paint, gloss, wax and new box of decepticon medical tools.

Jinx took one last detour before they reached the trophy room, leading the mechs into Lockdown's own personal 'library' of historical records. It was Solaris' turn to geek out, setting everything else aside to grab handfuls of the datapads like a starving mech collecting as much energon as he could possibly hold. He stuffed them down into his subspace. Jinx waited for him, knowing that this was the whole reason he had come.

Besides making sure his two stupid friends didn't get decapitated in a bounty hunter's ship.

Solaris looked at them when he was done, specifically Jinx since Flashback and Warhammer were trading nerd jokes. He nodded at her. She took one last look around the room, found it on the verge of being empty, and pulled them back out into the hall.

Lockdown's trophy room was on the other side of the ship, at the end of the most heavily guarded hallway in the entire vessel. Jinx had seen the room only once or twice in all of her years of service, and those few times had only lasted a couple minutes each. Both times had been when he was hanging up his newest prize, always the most unique, dangerous part of the victim's being, whether it was the open, gaping jaws of a space monster or another's most useful tech.

The closer she got, Jinx slowed down until they were just tip-toeing. Of course, all of them, now so loaded down in booty they could hardly move without clanging or huffing to catch their breaths, barely managed a good tip-toe.

Jinx paused when she noticed a subtle change in the ships structure this way. The corrosion gas had stretched this far, but the damage wasn't as bad. Reinforced alloys. Narrowing her optics, she motioned for them to advance more carefully, and back to tip-toeing she went.

Warhammer stumbled with a loud curse behind them. Jinx pivoted in time to see him tilt one way. Her spark jumped to her throat as she watched almost in slow motion when Flashback stuck an elbow out to catch him-and missed.

The heavy mech stumbled, feet scrambling awkwardly for traction but he was already too far off balance. With a grunt, he smacked into the wall, the impact thunderous in the hall. Jinx grimaced, going rigid as the sound echoed, over and over again, for what felt like minutes before it faded. All four of them held completely still, optics wide and round and paling with fear.

Silence heavier than the ship itself fell over them. Ten seconds. Fifteen. Twenty. Thirty. Gradually, part by part, the mechs relaxed until Flashback dropped an arm full of stuff to smack Warhammer in the back of the head, "REALLY, WAR?! WHAT part of BOOBY TRAPS do you glitch heads not-"

"I was about to ask all of you that," Jinx hissed, her optics glowing slits that cut toward them. "You idiots!" Pits, I should have stayed with Backlash. We'll be lucky if we come out of this with all of our limbs attached! If Lockdown's ship didn't do it, Jinx was planning on beating the slag out of them herself when they were out of danger.

Solaris snapped, "We shouldn't even be here! Father specifically said Lockdown's ship was off-limits to exploration until a proper team could be dispatched-"

"Don't you dare drag your daddy into this!" Flashback pointed at him, jerking to the side when Warhammer kicked out at him in retaliation. "you had a chance to stay home but you didn't, so-"

"Because you two threatened to set me up! Do you have any idea how much trouble you get me into?!" Solaris' voice stung like acid, "did you even think about how dangerous this was! We could offline here, Flashback!"

"Both of you are fragging glitches." Warhammer pushed himself up, rubbing at his hip and aft. He cut Jinx a look, "we would already be done if we hadn't stopped in the damn supply closet!"

Jinx seethed, clutching her cargo like it was precious. It was, and every piece served a purpose, though she'd never tell them that. She worked her jaw, about to unload a particularly mean remark. Flashback beat her to it, "Don't blame her for being too small for her armor, War! You're stumblin' around like a drunk sparkling."

Warhammer promptly dumped everything on the floor and reached out. Flashback scattered back but was too slow. A giant paw of a hand closed on his shoulder, lifted him clear off the floor, and shook him so hard his head bounced around.

Jinx had to fight to keep from screaming in anger when Solaris was next to abandon all of his baggage. Now more concerned than angry, he tried to squeeze in between them with a hand on each chest in a feeble attempt to shove them apart. Warhammer was going to town, rattling and smacking Flashback around like he was no more than a toy. "Whos too small now, glitch-head?!"

Flashback was dazed but still focused enough to spit and snarl like a predacon, "That all you got, little mech? All you got? Yeah! Bring it you big fragger!"

"Stop!" Solaris huffed, "Flash, shut the pit up! War, put him down!"

"Not until he admits to being a useless waste of armor!" Warhammer shouted.

"A 'useless waste of armor'?! WHO do you think saved your aft in the last battle, War?! Because it wasn't your dad, or Sol's!" Flashback cussed wildly when he was slapped again, then swung an arm up to start hitting back around Solaris' head.

Jinx gave them a flat stare, "I am not believing this!" She watched the autobot slap-fest a moment longer before coming to the conclusion that Solaris wasn't going to be enough to separate them. Venting the most long-suffering sigh she'd ever made, Jinx started to set her things down-

And froze mid-way when something flew over her head, singing. Her optics popped back open into their round state, faceplates twitching when she realized she'd been a breath away from being decapitated. Squeaking, she looked at the mechs, half expecting to see them dead on the floor.

Nope. Still standing around, shouting and slapping each other. Indignant rage rose up in her like an ugly beast. Trembling from her near-death experience, she screamed, "You SLAGGERS!" Her screech echoed in the bowels of the ship, finally making all three autobot heads swivel in her direction with blinking optics.

Just as a second crescent blade was slicing across the hall toward them.

Jinx's optics brightened, focusing on it and calculating the speed at which it was moving. Her processor turned faster and faster, analyzing. "GET DOWN!"

Flashback was the first to react, not even looking behind them to see as he wrenched free from Warhammer, grabbed both of them by their shoulders and kicked his heels at their ankles to make them go down. He fell over them, spread out protectively as the blade sang overhead. His blue optics raised enough to watch her, shining with concern.

Jinx was ready this time, and bent back into a bridge smoothly just in time. She popped back up as soon as she was clear, turning on her heel to land on hands and knees. Her optics followed it as it went several hundred feet further before arcing up fluidly to come back for another round at a different height.

"Theres two!" Solaris alerted.

Jinx looked over her shoulder to see one coming straight up out of the floor, flashing up to the ceiling then coming back down in a lethal zig-zag. She gathered everything she could as she climbed back to her feet, yelping when she was abruptly grabbed and lifted like a sparkling into the air. A moment of sheer panic blinded her and she fought, too many years of being abused rising to the surface.

"Calm down," Flashback said into her audial. Hands tightened on her sides until she was aware of their surroundings again. She nodded at him, and he let her go to run beside them.

"Down!" Solaris ordered, his voice deepening to carry the weight of a Prime's command.

Obediently, they dropped down to scuttle. The horizontal blade swept past, swung at the end of its circuit, and came right back. Again, they ducked. Warhammer was unloading his gatling, cursing when he found it empty and realized he'd dropped the ammunition in the hall. "Flash!"

"Ten steps ahead of you," The mech was already spinning the chamber to the Praxian pistol. Twisting at the waist, he shifted his feet, squinted at one of the blades, and fired. One shot. The bullet ricocheted off the walls, gears squealed. Two. More straining gears before something snapped free and steam hissed loudly. Metal bounced and clanged to the floor.

Jinx, trying to keep her spark from erupting right into her throat, chanced a look back to see if the mech was actually hitting what he was aiming for. Her jaw dropped when she caught Flashback mid-step, somehow moving backwards smoothly with a look of complete concentration on his face. One of the blades, blown free from hinges that were still trying to sweep back and forth, was rolling across the floor. The vertical one, cutting toward them rapidly, gleamed dangerously. Flashback pulled back the hammer and fired in one smooth motion. A bullet raced through the air to snap the blade in half in a shower of sparks.

"Dammit," Flashback hissed, taking aim again. Two more shots, derailing the halved blades. Without looking at them, he said, "They're out!"

The four of them slowed, shoulders heaving with the whooshes of air gusting through their vents.

Jinx stared at him, unable to wrap her processor around what he'd just done. Warhammer clapped a hand down on his shoulder in a brotherly gesture, like he hadn't just been smacking the fire out of him minutes before. Solaris nodded approvingly, "Nice shot, Flash."

Flashback was reloading, "All that screwing around at the gun range really helped."

"You were that good before," Warhammer dead-panned. "Its your training with borrowers."

Jinx, swallowing, found her voice. "You just...you just shot out a couple of blades moving at sixty-five miles an hour. With five shots."

Flashback frowned at her, "Well, excuse me, princess, but not every shot is perfect."

Jinx wanted to strangle him and thank him at the same time, which was the weirdest feeling she'd ever felt. She settled for throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation, "How did you do that?! They weren't even moving in a straight line!"

"That helps," Flashback said, turning the pistol over in his hand with a proud smirk. "I'm used to killing things that don't move in a straight line." He looked at her, "smooth as premium, alright."

Jinx gave up, shaking her head when she turned away from him to pick up whatever was left on the floor from their fit earlier. She rummaged through the damaged pieces, at least of third of what they'd gathered was cut clean in half. Irritated and tired and missing Backlash more and more with each passing second, Jinx stuffed as much as she could into her subspace and her arms. A lot of what was messed up were weapons, but a few were only scratched and could be fixed. Not as much loot as she wanted, but it was enough to make their trip worth it. They still had Lockdown's trophies to go through, too.

When the mechs came over to help her, she started to shuffle the rest into their arms. "Don't drop it this time or I'll get rude." She warned. Flashback squatted down beside her, taking a few things out from under her arms. "Hey!"

"Calm down." Flashback rolled his optics, "you keep loading yourself down like that and you won't be able to get around quick enough."

"I can handle it." Jinx said flatly. She caught herself staring at him again, marveling at how Flashback was, clearly, just as deadly as his brother. Was everyone in their family so skilled? Were they all such perfect warriors?

She stood up and started to walk back down the hall. "Okay. Just one more stop. Then we can get the heck out of here and go home."

"Home?" Solaris questioned, also taking something from her arms to carry, "I don't mean to step out of line, but do you really consider our base your home already?"

Jinx stopped, realizing what she'd said. She blinked owlishly at him. "Um...no? You guys put me in the brig, remember? And you won't let me walk through base without being escorted?"

"Then why did you say home?" Flashback pressed. Jinx looked to him next, meeting his optics. Her face went hot when she saw that he already knew.

The base wasn't her home. Home wasn't even really a word in her dictionary. The closest thing she'd had to one was her ship, and it'd been blown up and repaired so many times it hardly counted as one. What was home? Her spark ached. Her processor betrayed her, going back, again, to soft red optics. The expressiveness of them when they settled on her, even when the mech appeared completely emotionless.

He was home.

Jinx wasn't prepared for the soft keen of her spark, wanting so badly to be with him again. If she had stayed there, she'd be safe right now. She'd be warm, and comfortable, and probably busy pestering him.

"We should keep moving," Warhammer grumbled, "the sooner we get out of this pit, the better."

Something passed through Flashback's optics. He frowned slightly at her as the other two started to pull ahead. "You gotta promise me something." He said, his voice soft and on the verge of pleading.

Jinx hesitated, "I'm worried."

"You're gonna be worried if you don't listen to me." He snapped, a flare of annoyance rising in his optics. It died down just as quickly, "don't hurt him."

"What?"

"I said don't hurt him." Flashback's optics moved to follow his friends, "my brother...hes damaged. Like, bad-damaged, down in his spark."

"I know." Jinx said, raising her optic ridges at him, "I've known for a while now."

"I bet you don't know that the last person he wanted to trust was the one to break him like that." Flashback fixed her with a level stare, leaving absolutely no room for crap. "a femme. He was letting her in like he let you in. They didn't get that far, though, before she fragged him all up. He can't take any more spark break like that. Hes already...given you all you need to hurt him."

"I never wanted to hurt him." Jinx said, spark becoming indignant. Still, she could sense the concern rattling around in Flashback's body. She knew deep down that he was only trying to protect his family. Jinx was beginning to realize that it was all Flashback was about, protecting the ones he loved, even when they annoyed the hell out of him. "I want him to be happy."

Flashback studied her the same way he had in the hallway outside the med bay, after he'd ask her to join them on this nightmarish adventure. Searching, testing. "You know, thats all I've wanted for him since he was created, was to be happy. Hes always been in too much pain. Not today though. I can see his spark, and other than being freaking paranoid about you being safe, its the closest to happy I've seen him in ages."

Jinx's intake froze in her chest, instinctively knowing what the mech wasn't saying out loud. Because of you, his optics accused.

"He trusts you, so I'm trusting you. Don't hurt my baby brother."

"I will never hurt him." Jinx swore.

Flashback nodded, shouldering one of the long ammunition boxes. He motioned with his chin toward the other two autobots, "Better get ahead before those giant dweebs find another booby trap."

Jinx nodded quietly, widening her strides to catch up with them. She led them back down the hall, stepping over the broken blades Flashback had effortlessly shot right out of the walls. She cringed when she thought of what it would be like to be on the other end of his bullets, and made a note to never really tick him off.

The trophy room was as impressive as she remembered, the lights turning up bright to show off Lockdown's entire collection. Jinx took a moment to look, amazed by what she saw. Prizes from different galaxies, anywhere his ship could take him. Heads. Claws. Tails. Fire arms. Blades. Tech. Everything organized in neat rows, evenly spaced and as clean and new looking as they day of their make.

"Welcome to Lockdown's trophy case." She said.

Flashback whistled long and low, "This slagger was busy."

"Are they safe to touch?" Solaris asked, looking at her.

"Not yet," Jinx said, turning to the keypad. She shuffled everything under one arm and tapped away at it until the room came alive with a low drone. Protective casings began to slide back. The objects braced high extended from the wall and lowered. She glanced over her shoulders at them, "now they are."

Warhammer tromped into the room to get a better look at a row of exotic looking maces. "Where did these even come from?"

"Everywhere." Jinx went to work, cleaning out the room as she painstakingly removed items one by one. She passed them out to the mechs, collecting whatever she thought would catch more optics. Once she was through with firearms, she went on to blunt objects. She pointed at one of the maces and Warhammer lifted it.

Next was the tech. She rifled through each of them, pulling most of them from their braces to be stashed away. She smiled when she found an advanced piece of camouflage tech, remembering the time she'd stolen Backlash's right from his work room.

Away it went, piled among the others in someone's arms.

"Never thought I'd be jacking all of Lockdown's shit," Flashback muttered, "gotta say. I'm glad that weirdos offline."

Jinx snorted, "You and me both."

The cleared out the room, taking everything but the taxidermy trophies and a few clubs. Jinx turned and nodded at them, "Lets get out of here, huh?"

"Pits," Warhammer hefted his load, "how are we supposed to transform with all of this?"

"We could open a ground bridge," Solaris suggested, "but RedAlert would tell father as soon as we contacted him."

"Anybody feel like getting their afts chewed out by Prime?" Flashback said, "anybody? Going once, going twice. Gone. Okay, didn't think so."

Jinx scrunched her face plates in thought as she started back into the hall. "We could stash it."

The three mechs looked at each other with various expressions. "Where?" Solaris asked, "the safest place to keep it would be in here."

"I am not coming back into this ship." Warhammer grunted.

"What about the cave you and Backlash hid in?"

Flashback grimaced, "I hate that damn cave."

Jinx wasn't fond of it either after going through the scare of thinking Backlash was offline. She clenched her jaw, "Is...Lockdown still in there?"

"No. He was taken for burial." Solaris shook his head at her, "all of the energon was cleaned up too in case humans stumbled into it. We could take what will fit in our subspace, and leave the rest until we have clearance to use the ground bridge."

Warhammer shrugged, "Its the best plan I've heard since we walked into this mess."

Flashback rolled his optics, "Fine. Lets go." He took over, moving ahead of them to climb up the steep bank of the ditch. Jinx stayed behind him, and Solaris behind her. Warhammer grumbled in the back, feet sliding clumsily in the dirt and gravel.

Jinx paused halfway up when the massive shadow passed over them again. She went cold down to her core, optics snapping up and halfway expecting to see a seeker circling above. Just as before they entered the woods, the owner of the colossal shadow was no where in sight. Jinx didn't know whether to be completely confused, because it was impossible for something that big to just disappear, or to start freaking the pit out because something that big was following them.

"You comin' or not, broad?" Flashback called down.

"Are...are you seriously not seeing that?" Jinx said, glaring at him. "There is something following us!"

"Theres nothing following us," He rolled his optics dramatically, "stop freaking out."

If Jinx hadn't been busy trying to hold a bunch of stuff and keep her balance, she would have reached up and slapped him in the back of the helm. She waited for a moment longer, optics on the sky, then started back up when Warhammer shouted for them to 'move their afts'.

Staying on high alert, Jinx shuffled after Flashback until they reached the cave. Since it was too narrow for all of them to squeeze in at once, Flashback made several trips in and out to carry everything to the back.

Jinx moved back, still looking up with narrowed optics. Her hand tightened on a rifle she'd held on to, already loaded in case whatever giant ugly thing hanging around decided to show its face.

She blinked when she saw the mechs share a look from the corner of her optic. Raising an optic ridge, she said, "You three weirdos aren't telling me something."

"That rifle makes your aft huge." Flashback said with a flat stare.

Jinx flinched, then calmly lifted her rifle and fired a shell right at the ground by his feet. He yelped, jumping back. Her glare cut through him, "What'd you say, ten tons of fun?"

Flashback rubbed at his calves, optics squinted back at her. "You better watch it, broad."

"No, YOU better watch it." Jinx vented, "you oughtta know better than to tell a femme shes got a big aft. Why are you lookin', anyway?"

"I wasn't."

"Then how do you know!"

"Because its blocking the sun, and every-freaking-thing else I'm trying to see."

Jinx counted to ten, hand so tight on the barrel of the gun she thought it might crack. Flashback scoffed at her, "How'd that feel, broad?"

"Like I'm about to unload a round in your skid plates." Jinx snapped.

Solaris cleared his throat, "Alright, we should start heading toward the crash site to collect the energon. You know, doing what we're supposed to be doing?"

Flashback waved him off, "Yeah, yeah. We gotta get out of this stupid forest, first."

Jinx stomped irritably behind the mechs, still squeezing her rifle. Once they breached the treeline, she folded down into her alternate and shot past them to get to the roadway first. Once there, she idled noisily until the three of them rolled up beside her. Flashback bumped past her lightly, like he was elbowing her. Jinx got the feeling that it was his way of apologizing, but it wasn't going to stop her from getting some serious revenge as soon as possible.

Long, ridiculous chapter. Wanted to get back in touch with the characters and have some fun. :P There was a bit more language than usual in this one, and I did cut it down some, but if I'd taken anymore out it would have made the dialogue funny and ooc for everyone. I apologize if that is offensive to anyone. Apparently all of my characters are potty-mouths. :I

Okay! I know I said I'd put the second part of 'Cataclysm' up, but I've been working on it and its just going way too slow, and turning out to be twice as long as the first part. I need a bit more time to focus on it, but it IS getting worked on as you read this! And in between, during breaks, I've been plotting the third and final piece of that arc.

While we're on endings, I'd like to point out, again in case anyones forgotten, that 'The Rarest Kind' is nearing its end.
I estimate maybe..one, two, three-possibly four more chapters before its over. Once its finished, I'll either:

A) Take a break from this series, because I've literally been working on this entire saga for years, or,
B) Push through it and start on the last two installments, which are 'Baby Daddy' which is all GrimDance and sparklings, and 'Fallen Angels' which is the prequel to the whole series and the war.

If I go with option A, I'll probably branch out into a different Transformers verse (looks like either Prime or Animated at this time) and start something entirely new. 'Hell Hounds' will also be finished because its been looming in my closet for a looong time.
If I go with B, we'll be seeing the next story up shortly after this one's completion since I've been busy working out a plot for both of them.

Anyway, time for me to go to bed! I had work early this morning and just barely managed to finish this twelve-page monstrosity this evening. I hope you guys enjoyed it, I love you all very much, and you'll be hearing from me soon since I'm getting back into a regular schedule.

Thanks for sitting through my blabbing!
Jinx, Solaris, Warhammer, Flashback and his family and the story belong to me. Transformers does not!