Holy crap. We're at 50 chapters, guys! That's freakin' awesome! That's like… 150 pages… and almost 350 reviews! At 500 reviews or 200 pages, (honestly, whichever is more convenient and after finals) I shall post the sidefic: "The Popcorn Incident." Yay.
I meant this chapter and the next one to be together, but I didn't like the way the second part turned out so I'm going to fix it to my liking and post it later this week.
Nope. Still don't own Transformers.
Importance and Expendability
In all the commotion, Sarah Lennox had fled to anxiously comfort her daughter, upset by the angry three-story robots and Will's refusal to go with her. Unfortunately, she had found herself in a rather frightening room with more giant robots, though they looked like they were… asleep? Did robots sleep?
Not wanting to wake the pair of giants, she turned around and backtracked as quietly as she could. The giant 'lobby' was now swarmed with people and robots hurrying in different directions and, unable to see her husband in all of the chaos, she ducked into the first human-sized door she could get to.
Her first thought was Great, another tunnel. But at least there were no yelling robots.
This hallway, however, didn't go anywhere except for one small room. And this room was even worse than yelling robots. She immediately pressed her daughter's face into her sweater and choked back a startled scream as she turned back. There was no way she was staying anywhere that had claw marks and bullet holes in the solid steel walls.
Claw marks.
What could do that?
Sarah didn't want to know.
Finding the huge, central room of the complex relatively empty when she burst back out of the dimly-lit hallway, she decided she'd had enough of surprises and skirted the walls. Finding a quiet nook between two shipping containers, one on a trailer and the other covered in blue tarps, she sank to the floor against the wall and rubbed Anna's back soothingly. The poor girl's frightened sobbing eventually faded into tired hiccups.
She had no trouble sympathizing.
When the familiar impacts of jogging combat boots paused outside their little nook, she didn't even look up. She spoke only when the soldier crouched in front of her and threaded a comforting hand through her hair.
"I want to go home, Will."
Her husband sighed heavily and ran a hand through his own hair. "I know, sweetheart. But as long as Scorponok is still out there, it's not safe to go back."
"So it has a name too now? Why aren't they doing something to get rid of it? Or is that too much to ask?"
"Sarah," his tone was infuriatingly even. How could he not be upset? "I know it's hard, but you've got to try to understand. We don't even know where Scorponok is, much less how to track him underground in all this desert. This is the safest place for us to be until something gets figured out. And the Autobots have problems of their own right now. We've just got to be patient."
The blonde woman glared up at her husband, "Is it now. Well I don't care, Will. This is no place for Anna. What if Optimus had fought that jet thing? We would have been killed even if neither one of them so much as looked at us. Humans don't belong around giant killing machines." Her look was definitely accusatory.
"Those 'giant killing machines' have saved our lives more times than I can attach a number to at this point and they've got two guys injured right now. And while they're here protecting us, the Decepticons are plotting something that, from what I can tell, has everyone left on their home planet in serious trouble. There's an evil police cruiser and two smaller guys out there that have something to do with it; Starscream and Scorponok have their own agendas as far as we know. We just need to stay here until they get everything else sorted out and they'll do what they can to get us home, I promise."
"Glad to know who's side you're on," Sarah muttered unhappily.
Wincing, Will stood up and offered her a hand. "You know that's not true. Come on," he said as he helped her to her feet, "Let's go find Ironhide or Optimus right now and see what's going on. Maybe they can spare someone to help us out so Scorponok doesn't pop up and bite one of them in the aft down the road." His wife looked at him quizzically.
"Aft?"
Wincing yet again, the captain shrugged, "When you spend a lot of time with Ironhide, his vocabulary starts rubbing off on you."
Before she could voice her disapproval, the subject of their conversation could be heard and seen stomping out of the mouth of the tunnel on the other side of enormous room. Sarah thrust their dozing daughter into her husband's arms and started moving to intercept the black and silver behemoth. Will caught her wrist in a tight grip before she went three steps.
"Hold it," his face creased into a deep frown, "something's wrong."
Not sure how he could tell the emotional state of a robot, she looked a bit more closely at their former truck. When it's- his, she corrected herself a bit testily- feet crashed to a halt upon entering the better lighting, his whole frame compressed visibly- and audibly- as he leaned on one hand against the wall and looked around. The air around him rippled with waves of hot air.
Then he spotted them.
Any and all ambitions to give the alien robot a piece of her mind were put on hold when he fixed them with that look. And, if her husband's hand weren't clamped firmly around her wrist, she probably would have started backing away as he slowly moved towards them.
As he got closer she could tell that each step, which he pressed onto the floor with a deliberate creak of strained metal, was punctuated with a blast of hot air from somewhere under his shoulders. At about ten paces she could hear a harsh rumble like an engine revving too high for its gear. At ten feet there was a series of squeals from the metal fists he was clenching too tightly. And then he just stopped.
And stared down at them with bright white eyes.
Hadn't they been blue?
It was her husband who made the first move. "Ironhide? What's going on? What's wrong...?" For once he seemed unsure about this whole alien robot business.
"Captain Lennox." The robot ground out. The sound wasn't overly loud, but it sounded like the moan of bending steel, "Mrs. Lennox." He shifted his weight and stared for a few moments more, "I am going to find Starscream." He paused again.
"Now? Alright, just let me go get my gear. Hey, I was wondering-"
"No."
When the robot didn't elaborate, Will's frown deepened. "What?"
A wordless grumble issued from the giant robot, then, "I will go alone."
"Ironhide, we've been over this." Will gave him a frustrated glare.
"He has information I alone need. Your presence is neither required nor welcome."
"But you agreed that if you're going to do something reckless, it would be better to take me along so I can explain-"
"Reckless?"Sarah could feel the floor tremble under the low rumble that shook the robot's whole body, "Tackling the Seeker to protect your female and offspring was reckless. Finding out if and why Chromia is dead is justice."
Fed up with men, robot-kind, and the situation in general, Sarah retaliated, "And how is that justice for your friend? Going out there alone while you're all worked up is only going to get you killed by that angry jet thing. And who will that help? No one! I just hope you're as expendable to everyone else as you are to yourself with that kind of attitude," she snapped up at the rumbling mech.
Ironhide stretched himself out to his full height and bulk, puffing air out of his vents every few seconds as he bent lower, intent on provoking a yelling match for the ages-
And then he stopped. Straightened. And grimaced down at her, now staring up at him from behind her defensive mate with her offspring back in her arms.
"You are lucky, Sarah Lennox, to be paired with someone who has been able to return to you and protect you from harm. I will go alone," he resolved, and cut off any protests on the matter. "And I will return intact, Captain Lennox. If this is the wrath I receive among the functional, I would hate to find what would await me in the Matrix." He turned and slowly trudged away, muttering loud enough for them to hear, "Primus knows they all agree with each other…"
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You may remember the title of this one from the Chapter of Unholy Vague back in the day. I thought this situation might exemplify what I meant by that if you squint.
My room is really cold. But I know that if I turn the heat on, I will die of an allergy attack. So I'll freeze until finals are over. So I'm kinda jealous of Heatwave, the dish-type space-heater who will roast you alive. He is the seventh to join Soundwave, Shockwave, Airwave, Tidal Wave, Waverider, and Lightwave (mine) in the prestigious wave-related line of mechs. I don't count Wingwaver because a) I don't remember him at all and b) 'waving' is a verb distinct from the noun 'wave.' I'm a nit-picker that way.
As always, please share your thoughts! Alas, for I cannot read them with my mind. Except on Tuesdays.
