The upload has been giving me fits, and in doing so it brought up a concept chapter, but I replaced it with the real deal. I'm so sorry, because I don't know what's going on with my laptop. For those who have read the first upload of the previous chapter, it's not very different.
"Are you sure they're here?"
"Yes, Barricade. If you weren't a glitch, you would have checked your own radar by now. Their signals are clear on our radars, but ours are not on theirs." The tattooed Seeker smirked evilly in delight.
"Are you going to back me up?"
"Are you questioning me?"
"No, Lord Starscream." Even though Barricade despised calling him his Lord when clearly Megatron was still alive, having Starscream as a backup bot was a good idea. As long as Starscream didn't bail out on him, everything was going to be fine.
"Good. Now do what you must." Starscream smirked evilly again.
Barricade quietly exited the forest, the tension building up in his spark. He was going to maim the Autobots. And then he and Starscream were going to flee, and by the time the Autobots, somehow, found out where the puny little humans were, the humans would be dead.
Then the time would come to attack the Autobot base and destroy every last standing Autobot. They would kill Prime and take his Matrix, revive Sentinel and bring Cybertron here. The human slaves would rebuild their planet and then they'd kill them all.
All the Decepticons that followed Megatron's orders will be rewarded, with what's left of Cybertron's pleasure bots, they will be used to the soldier's will. Just like the old times. But, enough about that.
As Barricade quietly walked to the four Autobots, none of them could detect him. He looked behind him, where he could see Starscream gracefully, slowly and soundlessly walking behind him. 'Screamer nodded at Barricade as Barricade got out of the forest and behind the Autobots.
"Hello, Autobot scums." He said in a growling voice, startling the Autobots, who didn't even see him there. They spun around, some transforming and all aiming their weapons at him. Barricade aimed his weapons at the Prime. "Now, now. You kill me, and your petty humans insects will die." He smirked.
The Autobots didn't falter, instead their optics were trained on something else. Behind Barricade, the familiar clicks and whirs of gears changing and transforming could be heard.
"Starscream-W-what are you doing?!"
"I'm not going to die because of your foolish task! You're on your own Barricade!" the Seeker replied through the comm. link and leapt into the air, leaving a poor Barricade behind with four ready-to-kill Autobots.
"Uh…" Barricade was at a loss of words. His 'leader' bailed out on him. Not that he didn't expect it, but it still… it hurt him to know that there wasn't anybot there for him. But, he was going to stand his ground with that little pride he had left in himself.
"Fragger, where are the human females?" Ironhide growled at him, his cannons flashing an orange and blue light.
"I will never tell, and even if you find out, it'll be too late. They are already running low when oxygen comes to mind."
"Where the frag are they?!" Ironhide asked one more time, his optics glowing a bright lilac, before his cannons flashed to full power, chilling Barricade to the protoform. Barricade just knew that he called destiny and she was going to take him to the Well or to the Pit.
"I'd rather leave you in the dark with 24 hours of air." He smirked at the words. Ironhide couldn't-no didn't want to take this anymore.
His cannons got that powering up sound, "You will regret the day you were pit-fragging spawned!" and suddenly, a combined light of blue and orange escaped his cannons.
The bullets hit the enemy's head, destroying it completely and offlining him instantly.
Everyone stood silent as Ironhide lowered his cannons, muttering, "Decepticon punk."
"Ironhide!" the little scout actually shoved him, earning a quizzical look from his former mentor, who seemed unfazed by the action. "He was our only way of knowing where Melissa and Nicole are!"
There were no words exchanged after that. The sound of bird chirping in the morning and the wind blowing slightly, along with the sun shining brightly, leaving sunlight on their armor, brought Ironhide to reality, as realization seemed to sink in.
"Frag."
XxXxXxXxX
"Nicole…" I gasped. In this car we were buried in, it was like we were burning on a hundred degrees and no air.
She didn't respond. "Nicole." I shoved her. She came to life.
"Huh?" she weakly said. "I… I'm so thirsty and hungry… I need to pee… I love Bumblebee… I need him and I need air."
I couldn't not smile at her words. "They'll find us. Just think positive."
"It's so moist in here."
"Not moist, hon, just less oxygen." I patted her. My stomach growled, meaning I was hungry. And I was dehydrated. So was Nicole. But, we're in this together. We'll get out of this together.
XxXxXxXxX
"Now we're never going to find them. Ironhide, only he knew where they were!" Bumblebee protested as Ratchet went to examine the body.
"Well, the gunshot was certainly fatal." Ratchet noted.
"I wasn't thinking Bumblebee. I apologize."
"Your apology doesn't mean slag!" all of them looked at Bumblebee. The youngling never swore.
"Bumblebee, as much as you dislike Ironhide right now, you two must take care of this later. How much time do Melissa and Nicole have?" The Prime spoke to Ratchet.
"Well, considering all of our time spent driving to this location and-"
"How much time Ratchet?!" Ironhide yelled.
"No more than 10 hours." Ratchet replied when he calculated the distance they drove and the time when they disappeared. The wasn't much time left.
"So we have less than ten hours to find them." Bumblebee said.
"Correct." Ratchet replied.
"How are we going to slagging find them if we don't know where the frag they are?! Or where they've been!" Ironhide complained, his cannons whirring again.
"Ironhide, control yourself." Optimus scolded, earning a growl from Ironhide.
"Well, this is interesting." Ratchet suddenly said. The three remaining Autobots walked to him and the fallen, decapitated body of Barricade.
"What?"
"Barricade seems to be… covered in dirt. And there is a very large amount of… is this gravel? Stuck in his gears."
"What's gravel doing in there? And where would he find gravel?" Bumblebee asked.
"Hold on while I scan the substance."
"Why would you do something like that?" This time, Ironhide asked.
"It may give us the position of Melissa and Nicole." Was everything he needed to say, before a light blue, scanning light escaped his optics and scanned over the body of Barricade. "Hmm… this is interesting. The substance seems to be rare in nature."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning, I will easily triangulate the position."
"Well, hurry up!" Ironhide urged.
After a couple of long minutes, the medic's face brightened. "This particular type of gravel, is rare in nature, as I've said before. It also makes it easier to narrow down and find where Melissa and Nicole were taken."
"And?" Ironhide said, irritated.
"There is a construction site, according to the human's navigation, and this exact type of rock is used there. It's relatively close to where Nicole and Melissa's college is."
"So what are you waiting for? Let's go." Ironhide said, already starting the transformation sequence, folding into the Topkick.
"Follow me, if you please." Ratchet said, before collapsing down into a Hummer, the others following suit. The engine's revved, but suddenly, Optimus stopped. "…Prime?"
"We cannot leave the body of Barricade. Ratchet, you will lead the mission. I will have someone haul my trailer here and we'll load him up. Good luck on your search." He flashed with the slim Peterbilt headlights.
"Thank you." All of them said as they left the forest quickly. Ratchet got in the lead as they exited the forest and got onto a highway. Unfortunately, the highway was filled with morning workers, making a dense traffic jam on the highway.
The GMC, Hummer and Chevrolet were moving very slowly, the Topkick's and Camaro's spark beating increasingly. After a good ten minutes, the Topkick revved his engine in great annoyance, earning strange looks from the drivers in the smaller vehicles.
The trio moved ever so slowly again, causing Ironhide to vent through the smokestacks and his engine roar like a lion. "Ironhide, please calm down."
"Calm down?! You want me to calm down?! Are you fragging insane?! You didn't even give me the coordinates of the pit-spawned construction site!"
"I didn't give you the coordinates, because I know you'd make a beeline for it."
"So how far are we?"
"A good… six hours."
"Six fragging hours?! Ratchet are you malfunctioning?! Need I restart your systems?! We don't know if Melissa is seriously injured! Or Nicole! We have to get to them as soon as possible!"
"I understand, but-"
"But what?!"
"If you'd shut up for a nanosecond and listen to me, maybe you'd learn something. But as you can see, the traffic jam is rather large and it would take us much longer to reach them."
"And you're saying that's helpful?"
"Not really, but-"
"Do something about it! You have a slagging Earth model, mode, whatever! Turn on your fragging siren and get us there NOW!" Ironhide yelled at him, almost hitting the car in front of him because he surged forwards.
Ratchet gave a sigh as he turned on the rotating lights, and turning on his siren. The cars started to move away slowly, going into other lanes to clear his path.
Ratchet got in the middle lane, increasing the volume of his siren as Ironhide and Bumblebee followed behind him. Suddenly, Ratchet stopped. Ironhide knew it was the slagging humans not wanting to move. So Ironhide turned on his holoform and lowered the tinted driver's window, yelling through it.
"Move! Get away!" the humans in the other vehicles looked at him strangely. The honked with his horn as Bumblebee revved the incredible supercharged engine, giving some human vehicle enthusiasts chills.
But this wasn't a short process, no. Ron had to yell for a good four hours until noon came and the jam disappeared. The rest of the six hours, took them to travel across the highway. It took them +4 hours to get off the highway, just because of the early morning humans, heading to work.
They managed to get off the highway, finally after ten long hours, as Ratchet kept going on some unknown streets. "Are you sure you got the location right?" Ironhide inquired.
"Yes. It'll take me a good half an hour to find a legal way to the construction site."
"Just hurry." Was all Ironhide needed to say, before sighing as his spark filled with worry and care. He continued to follow Ratchet as they turned numerous times and exited the streets. Ratchet, since having a sort of protective metal on the front of his vehicle mode, bumped into the gate and it opened. (AN: Like Bumblebee in the first movie, when they were watching the transformers land.)
The cars' tired crunched the gravel, as they seemed to enter the construction site. Strange vehicles were parked, some having some sort of hand looking things on them, not the regular Earth transportation vehicle humans drove.
All the three robots in disguise got to a sort of, cliff-looking end. They couldn't transform, since it was daytime so they did the only thing they could do. They turned on their holoforms as they exited their own vehicles.
At the bottom of the so called 'cliff' was nothing, but a construction site, ready to have something, maybe like an underground parking lot, built on it.
Bumblebee gulped. "Are you saying they're here?" he looked around. "I don't scan any humans on my radar."
"That's because, youngling, you two don't have sensitive radars as I do." Ratchet concentrated, before speaking up again. "They are… Primus, they're buried."
"What?!"
"They're buried… in a vehicle." Ratchet crouched to the ground, his holoform's lab coat not staining as it touched the gravel. "This is the exact rock type found on Barricade." He stood up again.
"Do you know where they are? I mean, you sensed them." Bumblebee spoke up, hope filled in his eyes.
"…No."
"What?"
"I can only tell there are heated bodies somewhere down there, but I can't pinpoint the exact location. I can only tell…" Ratchet stood silent again, focusing on his radars. "I can only tell they have very little oxygen left."
"So we can't find them, but you can tell how much oxygen they have? Ratchet, is this a fragging joke?" Ironhide frowned at him.
"On the contrary, Ironhide, this is very real. They are buried alive down there somewhere." Ratchet motioned with his hand.
"Why don't we just blow up the whole place?" Ironhide suggested.
"Because if we do that, we might not only get lectured by Optimus, but we may harm them." Ratchet knowingly said.
"Frag." Ironhide sighed.
This day was just not going well.
XxXxXxXxX
"…Mel…" Nicole gasped. "I… can't breathe!" She said inhaling what air was left in the car.
I couldn't speak. It was too much. Or too little. I shook my head in response, clearly saying 'me neither'.
All of this lack of oxygen is… it's scary, you need it, but you can't have it. All I wanted to do was to give up, but I couldn't. I had the scolding voice of Ron haunting my head.
It was saying a lot of things to me, life lessons, scolds…
'You will struggle. You will want to give up, but you will overcome. And with overcoming, you will survive.'
Heh, wish that were true. Suddenly, a hand pressed on my thigh. I looked at Nicole as she summoned a small blue sphere in her palm. She looked to the sphere, then the roof and then at me.
It was time.
I nodded. She moved to the front of the car, sitting in the passenger seat as I followed her movements and crawled to the driver's seat. It was incredibly hard to breathe, much less move. But we did it.
Nicole brought up both of her hands, making a huge blue light glowing sphere in the middle of her hands. "Take cover." She mustered as I tried to fold into myself getting as closer to the seat and door as much as I possibly could. "I love you, Bee." She said and as I looked at her, she threw her hands up at the roof and on impact, everything went white.
NOT the end! Stay tuned guys! :D