Nature of the Beast One-Shot: Unearthing Similarities
WhatLies wanted this to be a mini-series, so here we go! Frostbite being a very good boi: round two! :D
When he woke, he felt like he was being crushed: a sharp pressure relentlessly biting down on his whole frame. Once the dazed fog began to lift, he realized it wasn't just a sensation. In the dark, he could tell there was something huge crushing him from from all angles, though mostly from above – probably what remained of the tunnel's roof and upper walls. He quickly remembered how it had gotten there: the tunnel shaking and buckling around him as explosions had rocked every angle. Below him, tucked neatly under his belly, was a mini-con miner, curled up into a crescent shape with his hands crossed to shield his face. He'd barely had time to fling himself on top of the miner to protect him. The mini-con was alive though; he could tell that much from the gentle rattling of his armor. He snorted and nudged him; the little mini-con's face came out of hiding.
"Thanks, mutt," the tiny miner gasped.
He nudged him as he held back a pained whine. Anything to keep him calm.
"Frostbite! Say somethin'!" a booming male voice shouted from nearby.
The icy Canipid managed a weak whine.
"In here! We're over here!" the mini-con shouted.
"'Ey! I heard Drillbit! He's in there!"
Pounding trods echoed louder and louder as the miners re-grouped. The metal debris behind him soon began to shift. But if anything, that made the pain worse.
He whined louder. They needed to stop. They were taking the lower support out first which was only making the weight on top of him greater.
"Hold it, you lugs! You're crushing 'im in there!" a stronger female voice bellowed. "Top first!"
"But we can't reach the top!"
Frostbite growled. He could not move his helm up enough to fire liquid nitrogen from his fangs. He could not use his harness to escape either; he could feel its precious cargo leaking in a consistent frozen stream. The falling debris must have punctured the tubing or the tanks.
He opened a line and barked: [Groundhog! Help!]
Earlier...
Frostbite supposed he should be thankful Predaking had not banned him from his patrols. He wasn't sure what he would do with himself if he wasn't able to rove freely; that was half the appeal of the patrols. The other half was the miners. They were a...different sort than the so-called "refined" city-dwellers of Iacon or Kaon. Miners tended to be rough and abrasive in contrast to the "civility" of the cities, but in his experience, they were kind-sparked more often than not. One Kaonian mine in particular had become a mainstay along his routes. Finding them was never a difficult task, either, even if their workplace tended to move around. Though they worked deep below the surface, and thus were out of sight, he found the miners more commonly occupied the realm of sound than sight or smell. Their bawdy, raucous singing always proved to be the most reliable means of pinning down their position. Judging by what he could hear of them now, they were about two klicks to the north of him and about a klick below.
Upon reaching their mine shaft, he peered in and issued a quick bark in greeting. As soon as they heard it, their song ceased and a chorus of shouts and hollers greeted him back.
Taking that as an invitation, he trotted down into the shaft and followed the tunnel. He found them scattered about in an open chamber lit by bright work lanterns. Some of the miners were manning snarling, growling drills while others took a more traditional approach with their claw-like picks. Huge beams lay piled on the ground. It looked like they were shoring up the tunnel they were in. Wise.
"'Ey! There's the mutt!" the littlest member, a mini-con, cried. "Been a while!"
The mini-con tossed him a fresh Energon crystal which was quickly shattered in Frostbite's jaws. He hadn't exactly worked for it, but turning down charity, it seemed, was always poor form.
The biggest of them all, a giant, somewhat surly faced titan of a femme, grinned and patted his head. "How you been, beastie?"
Frostbite's tail swished. *Well. Thank you, Cleat,* he answered.
"Saw you on that news report a deca-cycle ago," the big femme admitted. "Kinda surprised those uppity pencil-pushers let you join a crew, not gonna lie."
*Groundhog's doing,* he clarified.
Another miner, a wiry mech, let out a paradoxically loud and bellowing laugh, "Leave it to ol' Groundhog to back 'em into a corner and force their hand!"
The miners let out a rowdy cheer for Groundhog's nobility.
"Nice backpack ya got there," the mini-con, Drillbit, complimented.
*Thank you. Proven useful.*
Cleat put a hand on her heavy hip and smiled. "You gonna stick around for a bit or are you just poppin' in?"
He assured the head miner he could stay. Until he was called into the city for work he was free to do as he pleased. Further, and perhaps more importantly, Predaking had tasked him with building trust among city-dwellers.
"Oh-hoh, orders from the big mech, huh?" the wiry mech, Seam, chortled.
Frostbite held him helm up proudly. *I...influenced that. Forcibly.*
Seam grinned and slapped his leg. "No wonder you signed up with ol' 'Hog! You take after him!"
"Well, if you're sticking around, let's not keep you bored and chatting! I know you hate that," Cleat declared. "Come on! We got something to show you!"
Cleat lead Frostbite deeper into the tunnel. The further they went, the older and less cared for the passageway appeared. They would get to it eventually, he knew, and they were a careful group, but he couldn't help feeling a little wary. That wariness was not misplaced, either, as at the end of their tunnel was a wall with a very faint Decepticon crest etched into the metal. He knew it wasn't an actual wall, even without the crest as a hint; he could hear the sound of the planet's inner workings softly chugging beyond the wall, with an echo to the sound that implied another chamber or passage lay just past it.
"Old War tunnel, I think," mused Cleat, "one the city looks to have missed."
Frostbite looked up to eye her. What did she plan to do about it? It had a Decepticon insignia. It could be dangerous.
"Of course it's dangerous," the femme huffed. "Their tunnels were said to be shakier than a razorsnake's rattle. So what we'll do is pop our helms in and give the place a nice shore-up. Sound good?"
He nodded. That was wise.
*Can help?* he wondered.
Cleat hemmed for a moment as she looked him over. "If I remember my chemistry right, that stuff you squirt out your fangs makes things fragile, yeah?"
He nodded. Exactly why he had coated a wall in the refinery with it: to break the wall more easily, thereby forcing an exit.
"Then how about you do the honors of gettin' us in, eh? Might be safer than using a big, clanky drill. I'll get my boys in here with their picks to break through."
He could see the logic behind the argument. He trotted up to the wall and slathered a healthy dose of liquid nitrogen while Cleat went back to gather her miners. By the time she returned with them, the wall was coated and ready. Drillbit and Seam got to work picking away at the now fragile metal until, with a sound somewhere between cracking ice and snapping metal, the center of the wall gave way. Stale air rushed out to greet them, and with it a faint storm of rust particles. When it cleared, a passageway somewhat larger than theirs stretched into the darkness.
"Talk about spooky," Drillbit noted.
Seam whistled. "That place ain't been opened for a long time. You sure this is smart, Cleat?"
"Preventing a disaster is always smart, Seam. Go get your pals and your things. We got work to do."
"Aye, boss."
The two mechs ran off and returned in due course with help and supplies. They set up to work swiftly, securing the entrance first.
"Y'know, I heard 'Con tunnels tended to be trapped to the Pit and back," noted Seam nervously.
"Good point. Frostbite, could you check around?" requested Cleat.
"I'll go with you," offered Drillbit.
Cleat permitted it.
The Canipid grunted and, with Drillbit at his side, he slunk off with Drillbit in the lead. The brightness of Drillbit's work lantern created sharp, ominous shadows that rose and fell as they traveled. As bright as it was, he could not see anything that blatantly looked like a trap, like mines or trip-wires. Frostbite assumed that if any traps were put down, they would have been near the entrance; that was the practical place to put them.
"Nothin'..." muttered Drillbit. "Think they never trapped this one, maybe?"
*Doubtful,* he growled back.
He slowed and sniffed while Drillbit stalked ahead. Predaking, as a warning, had shown him what some old Decepticon traps looked like through various senses. Mines, for example, usually had a distinct smell due to the volatile mix of chemicals and Energon used to detonate them. He could not detect that smell though. That was unnerving rather than reassuring. Any traps in the passage, then, had been intentionally hidden. Triggering one would become that much more likely.
Drillbit kept slowly walking forward. Then, after one step, there came a muffled explosion.
His audials pinned back. Onyx help them. Had that been...?
"Slag me. Was that what I think it was?" the little mini-con wondered nervously.
The passage began to quake as more explosions went off. Frostbite could even follow them: they seemed to have been laid in an arc over the tunnel and back towards the entrance.
"Frostbite! Drillbit!" Cleat hollered in alarm.
"Brace yerselves!" warned Seam.
The ceiling began to crumble in huge chunks along the explosion's path. Frostbite leapt and lunged at Drillbit, tucking him under his belly-plates and curling up just as bigger chunks rained down on top of him.
Frostbite woke again, in pain, feeling like a small mountain had been dropped on him in the worst possible way. Everything hurt, and he couldn't move. Drillbit was safely tucked beneath him, still trembling from fright, curled up to protect himself. A little nudge eased his fears; he uncurled and twisted his head to look up at him.
"Thanks, mutt," the little miner gasped.
He grunted and nudged him again. He would not bite back at him for the accident; it was more important to ensure his safety and those of his fellow miners.
"Frostbite! Say somethin'!" hollered Cleat.
Frostbite tried to bark. All that he could manage through the pain was a weak whine.
"Here! We're in here, boss!" Drillbit shouted.
"'Ey! I heard Drillbit! He's in there!"
He heard the panicked shouting of the other miners as they raced to help. That was good; they must have had time to brace the entrance area enough to avoid a total collapse. They rushed to start removing the debris, only for their aid to make his pain worse. Removing the base of the debris was only shifting more weight onto him.
"Hold it, you lugs! You're crushing 'im in there!" boomed Cleat. "Top first!"
"We can't reach there!" one miner argued.
"And if we do, won't the rest of the ceiling fall?" another noted.
"Slag it, use your processors! Set up braces, then!"
Frostbite growled. There was no way he could make this easier. He could not move his helm up enough to fire liquid nitrogen from his fangs. He could not use his harness to escape either. The falling debris must have punctured the tubing or the tanks.
He opened a line and barked: [Groundhog! Help!]
[Frostbite? What's wrong?]
[Stuck! Tunnel collapse! My location!]
Groundhog uttered an oath. [We're on our way!]
*Cleat!* he barked. *Help is coming!*
"Not sure what help they can offer if they can't get in!" Seam protested. "A bulkhead locked us in when the trap triggered!"
Frostbite growled deeper. Whoever had rigged the passageway had been thorough, he would give them that. They were all retro-rabbits caught in a dead-ended burrow.
"I'll take any help I can get!" declared Cleat. "Keep working!"
Braces were put up to hold up the debris around him. Slowly but surely, the miners managed to clear a gap wide enough to slip some rebar through. At that point, tiny Drillbit squirmed out of hiding and began setting it up. The weight around him began to lift.
"Almost gotcha. Almost gotcha," Drillbit assured.
Finally, after one final pillar was set up, he felt the weight lift enough that he could move – and more importantly, push back on the weight. Frostbite rose up.
*Grab!*
Drillbit grabbed hold of his neck, but he felt caught as soon as he moved forward. Drillbit was quick to find the problem and mend it: his harness was caught around some of the debris.
"Oi! Throw a cutter!" the little miner barked.
Someone tossed in a laser cutter. The harness was quickly cut through and fell. Drillbit urged him to "Go, go, go!" and the Canipid half-squirmed, half-slunk our of the debris. And not a moment too soon: the rickety rebar pillars trembled and buckled soon thereafter.
"Hooo that was close," Seam whistled.
Frostbite whined. So much for his harness. Not that he suspected it would have been much use in their current situation.
[Kid! We're here!] came Groundhog's voice.
Frostbite reported their arrival to the other miners. [Above?] he then asked.
[Yeah, we're right above you, I think. Tell me if you can hear this!] said Scuffs.
Frostbite urged the miners to be quiet before pricking his audials up. After a moment, he detected a persistent clang clang clang! It sounded like Scuffs was stamping his trod down.
[Don't stamp, you idiot!] barked Groundhog. [You wanna cause another collapse?!]
Scuffs stopped stamping. [But how else was he gonna hear me?]
Groundhog sighed loudly.
"'Ey, can you patch us in, mutt?" asked Cleat.
Frostbite did so. Cleat was quick to summarize their current predicament: they were in an old Decepticon War tunnel. Part of the tunnel had collapsed on top of them due to a triggered trap (a motion sensitive one it seemed) and a bulkhead was blocking the way out; it had also trapped some of their equipment behind it. They couldn't turn around, and while they could probably keep going forward with a little digging, she feared going further would trigger more traps and more collapses. They were literally stuck between a slab and a hard place. If he or Scalpel had any suggestions she was open to hearing them.
[Those tunnels are natural, Cleat, just repurposed for the War effort. Every tunnel down there connects to another somehow; they're like a maze of highways. Faction controlled tunnels were trapped in order to keep the enemy from using their little highway on-ramps.]
The big femme nodded. "Aye. And?"
[You might be able to use those traps to your advantage. If one can bring down the ceiling, another could be used to blow you an exit through the floor or wall,] suggested Scalpel.
"That...sounds risky," hemmed the big femme.
[It's safer than it sounds, I promise. I can tell you how to find the traps and safely detonate them.]
The hound's audials pricked up again. She knew how to do that?
[You'd be surprised how many enterprising archaeologists or historians wound up at my clinic because they bumbled into a mine or two. I assumed it would be better to prevent that sort of stupidity in the first place. So I studied a few old 'Cons traps to see how they work.]
[You're rad, needle-fingers!] cried Scuffs.
[What you need to look for are mines. They'll work best for this, and 'Cons loved using them. If there's not one down there I'll be surprised.]
Cleat nodded. "Aye. We'll have a look-see."
On Cleat's orders, the miners got to work clearing some of the collapsed ceiling. They were careful to move it to create some ballasts for the rest of the roof. Space enough was left for everyone to move past the collapse, albeit one at a time – carefully. Thankfully, they were careful.
Once everyone was safely through, Cleat had the lanky and wiry Seam stalk ahead. Mines, as Scalpel warned, were triggered by pressure. As tiny as Drillbit was, Seam was lighter and thinner and so would not be as likely to trigger one. It was nerve-wracking watching him get farther and farther away, but Scalpel's reasoning proved accurate. Even after he rounded a corner there came no trembling, explosions, or shrieks of pain. After about two joors of anxious waiting, Seam alerted them that he was safe; he had found two big mines that would serve for Scalpel's plan. After Scalpel told him how to disarm them, Groundhog asked if any of the miners had seismic imaging. One, it turned out, did have such a talent, so after Seam assured her the route was safe she was sent to check where another tunnel connected to theirs. She, Earthshaker, eventually reported in that she had found one that ran parallel directly under them. Seam thus laid the mines he had found at her location, and Scalpel told him how to safely detonate them.
Seam and Earthshaker came running around the corner shortly thereafter, just as a loud ka-BANG shook the passage.
[Did that work?] Scalpel demanded.
Seam popped his helm around the corner. "Yup! That's a nice hole in the floor we got."
[Good. Head on in, then.] grunted Groundhog.
"Are we sure it's safe?" the younger femme miner, Earthshaker, wondered nervously.
Willing to possibly take one for the whole team, Cleat lowered herself in and turned her headlights on.
[Not seein' any evidence of it being a War tunnel. Looks safe,] the big femme reported.
The miners went down to join her.
Frostbite leapt in last, and almost immediately he could sense something different about this tunnel. It felt older – much older. A thick layer of rust and dust coated the floor beneath him. There were odd patterns, all geometric, etched into the walls that he had not seen before.
[Well?] wondered Scalpel. [Can you see a way out?]
He was forced to report "No." They'd have to keep looking. This tunnel had to lead somewhere, like Groundhog had said.
[Keep us posted. We'll try to follow your progress from above,] said Groundhog.
Frostbite grunted, allowed Drillbit to hop on for a ride, and trotted ahead. Cleat matched pace with him while the rest of the miners trailed behind. The miners, he noted after a while, started to get a little nervous. That nervousness seemed to be because of the markings on the wall – and they appeared to be getting more numerous the further in they went. He didn't quite understand what about the markings was making them anxious; the markings were actually quite beautiful, even if he had no idea what they were. They seemed familiar in a way too.
He glanced back at Earthshaker. [Nervous,] he noted. It was at once a comment and an inquiry.
"These carvings..." she muttered. "I think we're in a Patterner tunnel..."
[Patterner?] gasped Groundhog. [By the Allspark, I've give my left arm to be in there with you!]
[Patterner?] repeated Frostbite.
[An old group of 'bots. As old or older than the Cataclysm. Judging by other, much larger markings found covering the planet's surface, those markings must be movements of celestial bodies.]
Frostbite's audials pricked up. So that was why some of the carvings seemed familiar. He'd seen parts of such carvings on the surface but had never actually seen them in full; they were simply too big to be appreciated from the ground.
"Then we desecrated this place by blowing a hole in it," muttered Cleat.
[Oh, come now. I'm sure the Patterners would have seen the logical practicality –] Scalpel began but then her voice became garbled.
[Scalpel?] Frostbite wondered.
[Fr – ca – o – it –]
He tensed. Her signal was cutting out. Why?
"We're lower down," realized Earthshaker. "I think all the metal on top of us is starting to cut comm's."
That made sense. He hadn't realized how far down they had gotten; looking back, the slope was so gentle it was almost unnoticeable. And the more they walked onward, the more he noticed they were going deeper down. Growling, Frostbite ran back in the direction they came until he could hear his team demanding his status.
[Am fine. Interference.]
[That's what I figured,] mused Groundhog. [No other tunnels have connected with yours yet?]
[No.]
[I guess you'll just have to keep going, then. One is bound to eventually.]
Frostbite pinned his audials back and whined.
[What's the matter?] demanded Scuffs.
[Problem.]
[Uh...what?]
He was forced to explain. There were rules among Predacons. One of them was the collective agreement that the Underworld of Cybertron (the deeper strata that they were nearing) was hallowed ground. No one was supposed to be there without permission from a dream-walker.
Scuffs groaned, [Dude. Come on. It's just some tunnels. The quicker you move the quicker you'll find an exit, and the quicker you'll be out of there.]
Frostbite found his argument hard to dismiss. That didn't mean he had to like it. Scuffs was asking him to break a scared ruling. But did he really have a choice not to?
Snorting, he turned and trotted back to the other miners. Their anxiety felt like it mirrored his own discomfort. He didn't quite understand still why they were anxious though. Only when they reached a split in the tunnel much deeper down that he understood why: Seam jumped and yelped.
[What?]
"T-Thought I saw somethin' moving in there," clarified Seam, pointing a trembling hand down the left split.
Frostbite strained his audials. He could hear...something further down the tunnel, but he could not determine what was causing it. It wasn't being caused by wheels or legs.
"I heard of 'Cons going into some tunnels durin' the Way that never came out...Sliders got 'em, they say," Drillbit stated nervously.
He had no idea what a "Slider" was. But their dream-walker and healer, Stormchaser, had mentioned a few times that things lived deep below the surface; they were designed to protect against intruders, so he said, like an immune system, should a Well Guardian ever fail. If his words were true, he told them, they should be safe. They were not intruders in the medical sense. The core would be smart enough to recognize that.
"Let's go right," Seam urged. "We just blew a hole in the floor. If that ain't a way to get tagged as an intruder, I dunno what is."
Frostbite had to give him that point. But Scuffs had been right: the quicker they got out, the less danger they would be in. So, he sniffed. Groundhog had said all tunnels connected in some way. That meant air from the surface would flow in from an exit tunnel, and air from Kaon was always incredibly pungent, rendering it easy to detect even in small amounts. He stood still for a time, "breathing" deeply and holding the captured air in special sacs in his snout for analysis. For a while, he couldn't detect any fresh air. But his patience paid off: a little waft of air came in from the left tunnel. Analysis of it came back positive for the unique blend of particles that came from Kaonian foundry fires. There was a breach to the surface somewhere ahead of them, he was certain. How else could that air have gotten in?
Frostbite trotted into the left tunnel, with a tense Drillbit holding onto him for comfort. The miners warily followed after them.
There was no sight of the strange noise-maker until they hit a wide chamber with a narrow chasm spanning it. A giant, lumbering thing, accented by blue light, was sliding along ahead of them without the help of legs or wheels, but on heavy treads. It looked like a very chubby, shortened razorsnake blown up to gigantic size – except the head definitely wasn't serpentine; it was short and bulbous, with stalks sticking out of it that seemed to be its eyes. What really caught his attention was the mounted gun on its head – it looked like a heavy mortar launcher.
"A Slider..." Drillbit breathed.
He backed up. He could well understand the miner's fear now. Stormchaser hadn't mentioned the Underworld's creatures were armed.
The Slider went ahead into another tunnel.
"Wait, if that thing's got a blaster..." hemmed Cleat, "d'you think we could convince it to blast us a door outta here?"
Frostbite growled. He wasn't sure that would work. If the Slider was a giant equivalent to an immune system nano-machine, like the kind they all had, giving it the capacity to blast down barriers inside its host seemed foolhardy. That would only create more damage that energy would need to be expended to mend, not to mention in an actual invasion such a course of action would open up more routes for the invaders to spread.
"Ehh...good point, mutt," admitted Drillbit.
[Come.]
Once the Slider went into another tunnel, he led the miners out of hiding, all the while following the faint trail of smoke-scented air.
But the Slider must have heard them. Behind him, he heard Earthshaker gasp as red light washed over the group.
"Nobody move..." whispered Cleat.
He heard it come rumbling back towards them. The red light got brighter as the Slider came closer for inspection. Worse yet, another came out of a false wall to join it.
Frostbite intentionally trotted up to the one behind them and stood proudly, chest exposed to show the mark of the Well Guardians on it, and the Slider's stalk eyes stretched down for a better look. After a few strange, low beeps, the red light switched to blue. That blue light was flashed at the other Slider, which was alarmingly fixated on Seam, Cleat, and Earthshaker's Decepticon badges, after which they began to converse with more beeps. The Sliders eventually came to an agreement. Both turned away from them to resume their patrols.
Cleat let out a sigh of relief. "Nice save."
"I didn't think they'd still count 'Cons as targets," said Earthshaker worriedly.
It was strange, he thought, but he got the sense that, despite them zeroing in on their crests, it wasn't Decepticons they were hunting for. While suspicious, clearly, the Sliders had not been aggressive. But if not Decepticons, then what?
Frostbite sniffed again. The trail came from across the crevasse. [Cross.]
"Looks jumpable," hemmed Seam, "but I'd say a bridge is safer. Anyone see a support strut or pillar or somethin' we could use?"
He heard another Slider trundling along across the chasm. [Idea.]
"What?"
He let out a quick, short yip.
The Slider came as if on command. It must have gotten the same data from its fellows because its eye lights didn't flash red. Instead, the Slider seemed to gauge the problem. When he approached his side's edge, he stretched his neck out and titled his helm curiously. He yipped again.
"What in the heck are you doing, mutt?" wondered Drillbit.
Cleat seemed to guess his strategy. "Not sure it can underst–"
The Slider let out a fast series of beeps, approached its edge, and then laid down flat before rolling itself forward to dangle its upper half across the gap. Hinges locked to keep its upper body from bending.
Frostbite leapt the much shorter distance safely.
Seam burst out laughing. "Good dog!"
The Slider eyed the other miners as if to say "Your turn." Though the others took the invitation gladly, Cleat, being larger and heavier, was far more careful. Once all were across, the Slider then hefted itself back upright, beeped, and continued on its way.
"How'd you know it would do that?" Drillbit demanded, baffled.
Frostbite was, while proud, equally bewildered. [Didn't. Guessed.]
"One of those others recognized you as an ally," Earthshaker remembered curiously. "Maybe these things are programmed to help allies, instead of just ignore them."
"Could be," agreed Seam.
Frostbite and Cleat took the lead again. The tunnel he led them down was lit only by a few crystal growths and faint lights on the ceiling. He was somewhat unnerved that some of the lights above seemed to occasionally blink like eyes. When another miner noticed and put his light up, he very quickly shut it off (with an expression that plainly said "No thanks") after seeing the source: a swarm of little flying drone-like creatures were hanging from the ceiling. They weren't very intimidating though, not like the massive, mortar-toting Sliders. These were almost cute, really, not much bigger than a mini-con, and their three eyes seemed to follow them out of curiosity rather than suspicion. Perhaps they had also received the Sliders' message not to bother them?
The one miner seemed more than happy to scurry through as quick as possible.
The smell wafted in again. Up ahead, the tunnel widened and split into three. The far right one offered another waft. After a few more tunnel switches, he finally noticed the ground was sloping.
"We're going back up," realized Seam.
[-ite! Frostbite can you hear me now?] came Groundhog's voice.
Frostbite's audials perked up. [Groundhog!]
[Finally! I was getting worried!]
[Is anyone hurt?]
"We're fine, Scalpel," assured Cleat. "Whereabouts are we?"
[You're getting close to a bullet train tunnel. Can you hear it?]
A low scream sounded in the distance. He had never been a fan of that sound; it always made his audials want to bleed.
[We'll look for a place to get you out from our side.] said Groundhog.
[With explosions?] wondered an excited Scuffs.
[Hush.]
[Aw. Please?]
[Scuffs, if we can avoid blowing a gaping hole in city property, we will,] snipped Scalpel coldly.
[Wh–But you were fine doing that earlier!]
[Because that was not official city property. And no, I was not "fine" about blowing a hole in a Patterner tunnel.]
Scuffs grumbled something expletive under his breath.
[Hn. Will meet soon.] grunted Frostbite.
[A'ight! See you in a bit, doggo!] Scuffs chirped.
It took another two klicks of walking before the sound of the bullet train became loud enough to hurt his audials. But at that point, the smell of the outside was just as strong. Eventually, their tunnel dead-ended at a wall. Earthshaker gave it a sideways hit with her trod before declaring the wall too thick to bust through. Judging by the seismic "echo" she'd gotten back, it seemed like a train tunnel was on the other side.
"Maybe try your fangs?" Drillbit wondered.
Frostbite coated his glossa and slathered a healthy dose of liquid nitrogen onto the wall. But not even a heavy blow from Cleat could get the wall to yield.
He growled. He sniffed again. There had to be some kind of ventilation shaft or air duct that was bringing air down. Looking up, he spotted what was most likely the source: it was, indeed, a vent. Was there a way to use those to escape, he wondered?
[Frostbite! We're down! I think we're across from you!] shouted Scuffs.
A loud BANG BANG BANG BANG resounded as someone (probably Scuffs) vigorously slammed the wall in front of them.
"How d'you plan to get us out?" Cleat demanded into her comm. link. "Your friend tried licking it but the slagged wall won't break!"
[Because that's a bulkhead, not a wall. It's too thick for liquid nitrogen to weaken.]
"Well, that's a problem."
Groundhog laughed, [Not for me! Stand back!]
Everyone backed up. He heard Groundhog transform before a terrible screeching whine commenced from the other side. He almost jumped when a spinning drill point broke through the metal. From there, it gladly kept tearing through the wall until a large enough hole was made for them to get through. Then, Groundhog pulled back and transformed.
"Wait, wait, wait. I thought you said we weren't gonna blow a hole in city property?" wondered a confused Scuffs.
"That wasn't blowing a hole, that was drilling a hole. There's a difference," smirked Scalpel.
"Eh, I knew you had a little rebel in you," the younger mech smirked back, pointing at her.
"Drill holes are easier to patch up, at any rate," said Groundhog. He strode up to the hole, grinning. "You guys alright? Must've been quite a trek!"
Groundhog helped the miners over the hole one by one, jovial as ever.
"No thanks to him!" said Earthshake cheerfully. "His sniffer led us all the way here!"
All the miners exited. He and Drillbit went last. Groundhog brought out a big slab of metal and quickly welded the hole shut. He had to assume he had already alerted the maintenance staff to patch it up properly as soon as possible. After that, they walked quickly through a maintenance tunnel. Moments later, a bullet train screamed by just beyond, rattling the walls.
"Apparently he's got a free pass down there, too, doc. Saved us from gettin' blasted apart by Sliders," Drillbit told Scalpel.
"He is a Well Guardian," noted Scalpel. "That doesn't surprise me in hindsight. He is as much a part of the core's defenses as anything deeper down."
"Dude! Dude! You know what that means?" gasped Scuffs. "You're not just a regular doggo! You're a danger doggo!"
[...What?]
"Danger doggo!" chuckled Groundhog. "I like that!"
I promise the Covid-19 thing had nothing to do with the immune system analogous creatures in this. I swear. I started this before this became a thing. I was just working on the fact that if Unicron has an immune system, Primus must have one too. Also, those "Sliders"? They're the giant mecha slugs from the War for Cybertron game. :D They're kind of like hybrid macrophages and T cells in this iteration.