"That…is a lot of miscellaneous pranking supplies," Kevin commented, marveling at the steadily growing pile in the middle of the cavern.
"Well, considering each of us tends to keep stuff on hand just in case the Darth randomly conscripts us for a prank…" Greg remarked wryly, fiddling with a vial of sticky neon green glitter from his own inventory.
"I still can't believe I think Chief's plan might actually work," Jonah shook his helm in disbelief.
"We have learned how to set up traps effectively from the Darth. Even if we usually ended up on the other end of them."
"Suck it up, Greg," Kevin muttered, rolling his optics at the flier's pout.
"No, I know that. There's little chance of any of us forgetting how to set up an effective trap." They all shuddered in remembrance of Fixit's 'training.' "I'm just wondering if we can set up the traps before the Spider gets to us. The Darth is way faster and efficient than us."
"Y-yes."
They jumped, whirling around to face Fixit. She was still clinging to Steve, but had finally managed to recover at least some of her composure, as evidenced by the way she managed to meet their optics.
"W-what?" Jonah asked in confusion as the rest of his brethren quieted at the sound of their idol's voice.
"Yes, y-you can set up the t-traps before the S-S-Spider gets you. Y-you're my Minions. You can do it," she proclaimed with utter certainty, not a hint of doubt in her optics.
Every single Roomba in the cavern straightened proudly under her fierce gaze, saluting her confidently. "SIR YES SIR!"
No way were they going to fail Darth Fixit now. That Spider was going down!
Silence reigned across the cavern. Nothing moved, the Roombas having long since retreated to the antechamber connected to the killbox.
And then…
.
.
.
Poof.
"Wha-?!" Airachnid wheezed, hacking on the thick fog of rainbow glitter that was suddenly dumped on him from every direction. He stumbled to the side, waving his limbs in an instinctive attempt to clear the air. Then he tripped over a rock, sending him crashing shoulder-first to the floor in a crevice.
...which was likely the only reason he survived the wave of flame that engulfed the flammable gas that had propelled the glitter into the air.
The shockwave from the blast violently pressed the former officer into the crevice, flash-melting his exposed right side, but otherwise leaving him intact.
Airachnid had a violent coughing fit once the blast had passed, practically vomiting up glitter. Only to re-inhale the sparkly menace as it bounced off the rock back at him.
He flailed wildly, trying to get his left arm under him without moving his rapidly-cooling right, and was so focused on trying to get up that he completely missed the shot that blew off his helm.
Kevin let loose another couple of shots, focused mainly on the sparkchamber. Just to be sure.
"...is that it?" Greg peered over Kevin's shoulder. "Seriously?"
"...apparently."
"...no, I don't trust it," the whiny flyer declared, making all his fellow Roombas roll their optics. "That must be a decoy or something. It fell to the first fragging trap! That can't be Airachnid!"
"A severely-weakened, on the brink of starvation Airachnid," Kevin pointed out. "Plus, who knows what the long term effects of all the dark energon he consumed were. Even Megatron didn't have it in his system this long."
"And the Spider was weaker in general than Megatron," one of the other Roombas commented. The rest of them all nodded their helms thoughtfully in agreement.
"Still don't think it's the actual Spider," Greg muttered, carefully keeping his weapon pointed at the corpse.
"W-which is why I'm here to check," Fixit scowled as she came up behind the gaggle of Roombas. "And you lot are going to be checking the perimeter for other threats and structural instability, since that explosion was larger than planned by a magnitude of 0.7! Now move!"
"Sir yes sir!" the Roombas all yelped in unison as they fled in fear.
Steve shook his helm in exasperation as the Darth crouched by the mangled corpse with DV-11D hovering behind her, ready to shoot the corpse again should it prove necessary. One could never be too careful when it came to dark energon.
:Kevin, head back to keep the rest of the Roombas in line. Greg, take the rest of Kevin's squad with you to check the perimeter. Joshua, be ready to move out with the communication equipment just in case.: Steve commanded, glancing over as Fixit stood up. The Darth gave David a Look as he awkwardly sidestepped out of her way, grinning sheepishly. Steve snorted in amusement.
:Attention, Roombas,: Fixit announced over the comm. :Congratulations. You have successfully killed ex-Decepticon Officer A-Airachnid...with explosive glitter. Well done, my Minions.:
Whoops and cheers rang out through the cavern as the Roombas celebrated their first independently-planned success.
:Now clean the rest of it up.:
Que the chorus of miserable groans.
Steve laughed helplessly.
A/N: The Roombas actually succeeded without Fixit sheparding them through it!? The world is ending! Oh, wait…little too on the nose there. Lol.
Thanks to everyone who still reads my stuff! I'm still working on it, just…really slowly. The plot Z-Bunnies are not feeling overly cooperative, and have yet to give me anything long enough to post. Besides this, obviously.