Age of Smoke Part 1: The Autobot Code
Chapter 43: Nightmares
Frantic knocking at Jazz's door dragged him from recharge. He jumped up, ready to fight off assassins, before realizing he was alone in his room.
He sighed and walked over to the door, opening it without bothering to check who it was or turn the lights on. He did check his internal timepiece, though. It was definitely too early.
Nightbeat stood out in the hall, grinning like a maniac.
"Oh," Jazz said. "Let me guess, there's been another murder."
"Yes and no," Nightbeat said.
"Hang on an astrosecond," Jazz said, stretching and stepping out into the hallway. "Let's talk about this over energon. I ain't all the way online yet."
Nightbeat followed him down the hallway, but didn't seem capable of waiting to share his news.
"A decaorn ago in Kalis, a mech was found offline in a hotel room, mutilated just like our three victims here. And just like them, the cause of death was acute spark failure."
"Huh," Jazz said.
"But there were two main differences. First, several other mecha, including off-cycle workers and those patrons recharging in adjacent rooms were also murdered—though not tortured."
Jazz frowned.
"And the other difference is that the mech was not a former Decepticon."
Jazz looked up. "A break in the pattern?"
"Wrong," Nightbeat said. "An indication that we don't yet understand the pattern. I haven't told you who he was yet."
They entered the special operations lounge and Jazz got a cube of energon. They needed to have a party to celebrate the mech who had been offlined in Kaon. Next orn would probably be a good time for that.
Nightbeat got some energon as well and sat down with Jazz at an empty table.
"All right," Jazz said. "Who was the victim?"
"High Councilor Perch of Pescus Hex."
Jazz's optics widened slightly. "He wasn't killed when the 'Cons took over?"
"Apparently he escaped the slaughter there by leaving before Megatron showed up."
"Huh."
"There are still pieces missing," Nightbeat said. "I toured a lot of scrapyards and none of them seemed to have the required equipment, and they're pretty well guarded, and I'm starting to think this killer isn't a local…"
"The scrapyards ain't that well guarded," Jazz said.
"I guess not," Nightbeat said. "But I'm thinking you'd need even more specialized equipment than you can find in a scrapyard anyway. And I still don't know how they induce spark failure…"
"Ya know," Jazz said. "There might be a reason 'Con haters would wanna kill that senator… but I don't know how they'd have found out about it."
"What's the reason?" Nightbeat asked.
Jazz shook his helm. "Classified. Let's just say he was tryin' ta make a deal with Megatron."
"Really?" Nightbeat said.
"Obviously, it didn't work out for him," Jazz said. "But… I don't think many mecha would know about it besides the other senators from Pescus Hex."
"And you, and anyone else with the right clearance."
Jazz looked at him.
"And Megatron," Nightbeat added.
"Well yeah…" Jazz traced the lip of his energon cube absentmindedly. "I guess he could have told mecha."
"For the record, I doubt anyone from the command element is behind this," Nightbeat said. "In fact, I'm starting to doubt whether the killer's someone who hates the Decepticons in the first place."
Jazz drained the rest of his energon and set the cube down quietly on the table. "Okay?"
"After all," Nightbeat continued. "The former Decepticons betrayed the cause, and that senator tried to run when his city was overtaken."
Jazz nodded.
"But it still seems… something's missing. It's too sudden, too organized. Why now? And why that specific senator? I've been looking for other cases like this, but there aren't any, at least not that I could find."
"Well, if this is someone who likes the 'Cons… maybe whoever it is just decided that these mecha ought ta be punished," Jazz said. "Saw that a lot of 'Cons were deserting and mecha were defying Megatron."
"That's it!" Nightbeat said.
"What?"
"The spark failure!" Nightbeat said. "Excuse me, I need to go check something." He got up, leaving his untouched cube of energon on the table.
Jazz watched him go, then reached across the table for the other cube, wondering what exactly he had said that had anything to do with spark failure.
Prowl watched the dots on his screen, the movement of troops, the push and pull and death count and advances and retreats.
They were finally holding on all fronts, and even pushing some of the Decepticons back. But the Decepticons still had a solid foothold and their seekers made things difficult by raining down missiles and plasma blasts from the sky.
And the city, as always, was on fire. Energon in the buildings themselves, and energon flowing through the streets. Many injured were lost in the fires, and many frames were irretrievable afterward, melted into the ground or obliterated in explosions.
He hadn't been out there to see it for himself, but he heard things.
He devoted most of his processor to directing the battle, but a small part of him couldn't stop thinking about what Optimus had said. He didn't want to keep doing this. And he didn't think he could, most of the time. But his personal preferences did not supersede the lives of those who were out in Slaughter City. Nor did they supersede Optimus's wishes. But if he was to retain his position, he would need to do something differently.
He checked his internal timepiece and realized it was time for the meeting. He sent a message to Flame. Hurricane was off duty.
"I will be leaving in a breem, and then I have several joors off. Hurricane should arrive in about four joors to assist you."
"Got it," Flame replied.
"Try to keep the line in place this time," Prowl said, then started shifting his workload over to Flame.
He saw the other mech lean forward slightly at his station.
"And don't let me catch you playing games again. You don't have any processing power to waste."
Flame didn't respond, but Prowl didn't care. He carefully shut down his battle computer and stood. It hadn't given him any trouble since Ratchet had repaired it, thankfully, but he was still always careful to shut it down slowly.
He got up from his station and walked to the central meeting room, mentally preparing his report on the way because he hadn't had a chance to write it down. He was the third mech to the meeting room, after Mainspring and Optimus.
He sat down by Mainspring, who smiled at him. "Good orn, Prowl."
Prowl nodded.
"How goes the battle?"
"Which one?" Prowl asked.
"Well, you'll be reporting on the Slaughter City one, so I can wait to hear about that. How is your department?"
Prowl sighed. "I don't know. I tried giving them more trust like you said, but… well, they make a lot of mistakes."
"Hmm," Mainspring said.
"Slaughter City is too critical right now—we can't afford any mistakes."
Red Alert and Elita came in and sat down, followed closely by Ratchet and Chromia's stand-in. Jazz came in a couple breems late and sat on the other side of Prowl, looking fidgety and excited. He probably had something interesting to bring up in the meeting. Optimus called everyone to order and said a few words before turning the time over to Prowl, who reported on the conditions in Slaughter City.
Elita talked about how the Festival of Sparks was supposed to happen soon, and highlighted a few of the political issues surrounding that.
Then it was Jazz's turn.
He leaned forward on the table. "So last orn, Red Alert asked me ta look into a couple of murders."
Optimus nodded.
"We've… got some things figured out about what's goin' on, but there are still a lot of questions, and we ain't too close to catching this mech. As far as we know, he's killed four mecha so far—three former Decepticons, and a senator from Pescus Hex who escaped Megatron's attack there."
Prowl narrowed his optics. That was… interesting.
"We're starting ta think this mech is a Decepticon sympathizer, trying ta punish defectors."
"When was the senator killed?" Red Alert asked.
"Before the others," Jazz said. "There haven't been any attacks since last orn, as far as I know."
"A serial killer tends to kill for pleasure," Mainspring said. "I suppose you could have one killing for a cause, but… I'm not sure if that's called the same thing."
"These mecha were all tortured ta death," Jazz said.
"Actually," Red Alert said. "I think the reports said the cause of death wasn't their injuries."
"It's spontaneous acute spark failure," Jazz said.
"What?" Ratchet demanded. "All of them? That's not possible."
"I know, it's real weird," Jazz said. "One of my mechs thinks he's cracked that mystery, though. He sent me a message about it just a couple of breems before the meeting. There's an old form of execution that induces spark failure. It involves exposing mecha ta a certain type of frequency that resonates badly with the spark, and kills ya. In the Functionist era, some say they used ta kill large groups of mecha with it—lock 'em up in a big soundproof chamber and blast that at them until they all dropped dead."
Silence fell.
"Well, thanks for that pleasant thought," Ratchet said.
"I feel like I've heard that before, but I'm not sure…" Mainspring said.
"Well, if I remember correctly, records from the Functionist era are kinda…spotty." Jazz said. "Some mecha think it's just a myth. And it's gotta be more than just some frequency too—maybe some sorta complex sound."
"If our killer has access to something that could kill large numbers of mecha at once…" Mainspring said.
"Yeah, it's pretty serious," Jazz said. "I've got Nightbeat on it, though. He'll figure it out and we'll catch this mech."
"I hope so," Mainspring said. "Make sure you remind him to be careful. I think he forgets about that sometimes."
Jazz nodded.
"Thank you," Optimus said. "Please keep us updated on your progress in looking for this killer. Are you working with enforcement on it?"
"Sort of," Jazz said. "I think Nightbeat is, at least."
Mainspring frowned, looking somewhat concerned, but Optimus moved on to the next subject. Prowl's processor drifted for a moment. After this, he would catch a few joors of recharge before heading back to his office to get some work done. Then he would have to take command over from Hurricane, who would be leading the department at that point. Ratchet gave his report, as did Chromia's stand-in, and Red Alert, and then the meeting ended. Jazz tried to strike up a conversation with him, but he didn't let himself get sucked in. He was too tired to talk—he needed to get some rest while he had time.
Air Raid was in trouble.
Dawn started online in the darkness and sat up. The walls of the dimly lit room seemed to close in on her. She was trapped, she was trapped…
No. She shook her helm, trying to clear it. She was all right.
And Air Raid was all right too. He was lying next to her, dreaming about danger. War, most likely—burning and pain and death.
She had dreams like that too.
She lay down next to him again and focused on calming her panicked spark, venting deeply, feeling peace.
After a few breems, Air Raid calmed down as well. She lay next to him for a while after that, studying the light and shadows on his faceplate, illuminated by the glow of her optics.
She tried to slip back into recharge, but she couldn't, so she got up instead.
This room was too small and too close to the ground. She needed to fly.
She knew they weren't technically supposed to leave the base without permission, but that was stupid. The groundpounders seemed to leave periodically to go out into the city—she had heard them talking about it.
There was no reason Dawn shouldn't be able to leave if she wanted to.
She walked past the usual glares in the hallway. She knew Air Raid had made friends with some of them, but she still couldn't understand that. She was grateful that the Wreckers were protective of her sparkmate and his friends, but she couldn't see herself ever really associating with groundpounders.
She missed her friends from before—the ones who she'd left when she'd joined the Autobots—the ones she'd lost when Vos had been destroyed.
She wasn't ready to make new friends yet.
At least she had Air Raid, his trine, and their friends. Silverbolt and Slingshot should be back by now—Mainspring had said that he would call them back, even though they hadn't finished looking at all the locations he'd given them.
Mainspring wasn't so bad, as far as groundpounders went.
Finally, Dawn got outside to the yard, and could see the wide open indigo above. Autobot soldiers stood in rows, practicing their fighting and shooting. Dawn ignored them and just looked up at the open atmosphere. She didn't have enough fuel for a really long flight, but she could go for a few joors.
She transformed and shot directly up into the sky.
A few groundpounders called after her, but she left them behind quickly and flew higher, up until the atmosphere started to thin. Up here you could stretch out. You could vent freely. You could live.
She hated the Autobot base with its low ceilings and confining rooms. At least among the Decepticons, the seekers had a building to live in that was a little taller.
She spiraled down toward the ground until she was skimming over the city. The sun shone off of the very tops of the tallest buildings, filling the scene beneath with a dozen twinkling stars.
She dipped between towers and threaded her way below highways and through the streets, then rose again, dancing in the clear atmosphere.
And in the solitude of the sky, she forgot that there were optics watching from below.
Air Raid started online.
Dawn…
She was gone. Something was wrong. She was in pain.
His comm. beeped and he answered immediately. "Dawn?" he demanded over the internal frequency she was using. "Are you—"
She sent him a set of coordinates before she spoke. "My love, I think I've made a mistake. I'm—"
The comm. cut off and he felt a spike of pain through the bond that faded to the dull silence of unconsciousness.
Pit.
Air Raid leaped from the berth and rushed from the room. He commed Silverbolt who answered groggily.
"Air Raid, we just got back from our mission, and I'm trying to—"
"Something's happened to Dawn," Air Raid cut in. "We need to get to her. She sent me coordinates."
"What?" Silverbolt said.
Air Raid tried to run down the hall, but his bad leg sent him to his knees before he even reached the corner.
Stupid hallways.
"What?" Silverbolt said again, sounding more awake now. "What are you talking about?"
"She needs help!" Air Raid shouted, getting back to his pedes. "Something… she's hurt. She's unconscious. Out in the city."
"What was she doing out in the city?"
"I don't care!" Air Raid transformed and flew down the hallway and around the corner, nearly crashing into the wall.
The intercom crackled to life after half an astrosecond. "NO ALT MODES IN THE HALLWAY!"
Air Raid ignored Red Alert's familiar voice and flew faster. A few mecha shouted at him as he streaked past, barely avoiding them.
He had to stop, land, and throw open the doors leading to the outside.
"Air Raid!" Silverbolt said. "Calm down!"
"No!" Air Raid said. "Have you even been listening to me?"
"I'm coming," Silverbolt said. "But we should tell someone what's happening and make sure they know we're leaving base."
Air Raid transformed and flew up over the training grounds, heading straight for the coordinates she'd sent him. "I'm already off base."
"What? You have to wait for me, I don't know where we're going, and we can't just disappear without telling—"
"Then fragging tell Mainspring where we're going," He transmitted the coordinates to Silverbolt. "And meet me there when you're done filing your fragging paperwork!"
"Wait!" Silverbolt said. "This could be dangerous. It could be some sort of trap. You have to wait for Slingshot and I!"
"She was hurt, 'Bolt. And she's unconscious. I can barely feel her. I need to find her."
"Please wait. What if… I don't know… this just doesn't feel right."
"She's in danger!" Air Raid said. "If you're too afraid, then stay on base!"
"All right, all right, we're on our way, but at least let us catch up with you."
"I gave you the coordinates. You can meet me there." Air Raid cut the comm. and flew even faster, pushing his engine to its limit.
He was coming. He was coming for her—he wished he could reassure her over the bond, but she was still unconscious.
It was going to take him three breems to get there. Not long.
Every moment seemed to last eternity. He still could barely feel her. She was there, though. She was still alive.
Silverbolt commed him and he ignored it, but his brother tried again, and a third time.
So, finally, he opened up the channel.
"Air Raid, you have to let us catch up. There's something we should tell you."
"What?" He did not like the frightened undertones in his brother's voice.
Silverbolt hesitated.
"What!" Air Raid said again.
"There's a serial killer in the sector who's been targeting former Decepticons."
Air Raid's spark froze.
"I don't know if or how he could have caught Dawn, but if he has, we can't just rush headlong… we have to help her, but we've got to do it together."
"If you want to fly with me, then catch up," Air Raid said.
"If you'd stayed on base, we could have gotten a groundbridge," Silverbolt said. "And we would be there already."
Air Raid could see the location—a tall skyscraper rising above most of the buildings around it. He flew faster, pushed harder, and then pulled back and transformed to land hard on the roof.
He misjudged his speed. His injured leg buckled and he tumbled, rolling gracelessly across the rooftop before coming to a screeching stop. He tried to get to his pedes, but his leg hurt too much. It had started to ache while he was flying, but he had ignored it.
He tried again, and managed to get up and look around.
The rooftop was empty. He saw pipes and vent covers and a couple of crates, but no mecha. No Dawn. He limped toward the roof access door, but found that it was locked.
The sound of engines in the distance heralded his brothers' approach.
He hit the open button on the door again, then transformed his hand into a gun and shot it in frustration.
Silverbolt landed just behind him. "Air Raid!"
Air Raid stared at the smoking door panel.
Slingshot landed beside Silverbolt. "Well that was stupid," he said.
"I don't know where they've taken her," Air Raid said.
"What?" Silverbolt said. "Who?"
"Yeah, move," Slingshot shouldered him out of the way and kicked the door. It dented.
"Slingshot!" Silverbolt said, but Slingshot just kicked the door again and then stuck his fingers in the crack he had made and heaved, shoving the door as far as it would go into the wall and leaving a narrow entrance.
He backed up and Air Raid shoved past him again and turned sideways to force himself through the gap.
"Air Raid," Silverbolt said. "Wait!"
"I'm not waiting!" Air Raid snapped and pushed through to the stairs that led down from the roof. He stumbled down the narrow staircase, fighting off the panic as he tripped and nearly fell.
He grabbed the railing and his momentum swung him into the wall, crumpling the edge of his wing.
He ignored the pain and made it to the bottom of the stairs.
Doors lined both sides of the hallway.
Something grabbed him from behind and he panicked, fighting.
"Stop!" Slingshot's voice said in his audio. "Primus, stop it!"
"Let me go," Air Raid said.
"You're not going to save her by rushing around falling down sets of stairs."
"I just got her back," Air Raid said. "I just…"
"Hey," Slingshot said. "Keep it together. Let's go up to the roof. Let the groundpounders search the building."
"I have to get to her."
"Can you tell what direction she's in?"
Air Raid shook his helm. "She's unconscious—maybe even in stasis."
"Then let's…"
Sudden pedesteps cut Slingshot off, and he let go of Air Raid. They both turned to look, but it was just Autobots coming down the stairs.
The groundpounders split up, walking both ways down the hall.
"Come on," Slingshot said. "Let's find a window or something."
Air Raid didn't know what else to do, so he let Slingshot guide him down the hall until they found a window big enough to climb out of.
When they reached the roof again, Silverbolt was talking to a small black and white mech.
"Hey," the mech looked up as they landed. "You're Air Raid?"
"Yeah," Air Raid said.
Another mech, this one yellow and blue, came over. "Did you crash onto the roof?" he asked, obviously annoyed.
"Um…" Air Raid said. "I… yes."
The mech sighed. "Well, it's hard to figure out what happened when you left paint and energon all over the crime scene."
Air Raid looked down at himself.
He was leaking, and he had a lot of scrapes and dents. He hadn't even noticed.
"Ah, ya'll figure it out," the black and white mech said. "I'm Jazz. This is Nightbeat, by the way. If your femme's still in the building we'll find her. Enforcement's working their way up from the ground floor and we're coming in from the top. Don't tell them that we bridged up here, that's illegal. So, what happened? Can ya tell us exactly what she said to ya over the comm? Or did ya just get coordinates?"
"Um…" Air Raid said, trying to think back. "She… she did say something. Just that she'd made a mistake."
"Did she say what?" Nightbeat asked.
"No."
"Well…" Nightbeat said. "What was she doing off base?"
"I don't know," Air Raid said. "I was recharging when she left."
He'd been recharging. She'd been in danger and he'd been recharging…
"Did she cut off suddenly?"
"Yes," Air Raid said. "Mid-sentence."
"Hmm… the killer must have lured her here somehow…" Nightbeat walked away, muttering to himself.
"Killer?" Air Raid said.
"We made an announcement," Jazz said. "There's a serial killer in the city targeting former Decepticons. We warned everyone ta stay on base."
Air Raid stared. "What?"
"We were off base on a mission," Silverbolt said. "We… don't know for sure this was the serial killer though. Right?"
"Well, no," Jazz said. "But if it is, this is the first time we've had any warning."
"What… what the frag?" Slingshot asked. "Who is killing former 'Cons?"
Jazz hesitated for a moment. "We don't know," he said. "Look, anything ya can tell us? Anything happening over the bond, or—"
"Hey!" Nightbeat called. "Come here!"
Slingshot ducked under Air Raid's arm to help him limp as they made their way over to where the other mech was kneeling.
"You didn't roll over here, did you?" He pointed to a couple of drops of energon on the ground.
"No," Air Raid said.
"Okay." Nightbeat looked up. "Did you say she was unconscious? Someone said that, right?"
"Yes," Air Raid said.
"You said she cut out suddenly. Did she lose consciousness at the same time?"
"A few astroseconds later," Air Raid said. "Why does that matter?"
"Everything matters," Nightbeat said. "She was injured here, probably, but there are just a couple of drops. If you know how, you can cut someone's helm so it kills their comm. without seriously damaging them. Cut the comm, knock her out… and probably try to leave the building as soon as possible. If our killer's a flyer, we're out of luck. Exactly what time did you get the comm?"
Air Raid told him.
"Yeah, they'd have had time to leave the building. So our only hope for catching the killer now is if he wasn't trying to leave the building. I'm still not sure how he overpowered a seeker on a rooftop, unless he's a seeker too. Couldn't have taken her completely by surprise or she wouldn't have had time to send a comm. And if she said she'd… but how did they incapacitate her?"
Air Raid didn't like how they kept calling her kidnapper the "killer".
"We'll find her and we can ask," Jazz said. "As long as she's still alive, we gotta focus on getting her back, not figuring out how it all worked."
"I'm still not happy you had to bring the whole army," Nightbeat said as if he hadn't heard. "They'll confuse any evidence left in the building."
"If they're in the building, we'll find them," Jazz said. "That's the point."
"Our killer isn't stupid," Nightbeat said. "I'm almost certain he's taken her somewhere else. But maybe we can—"
"Shh," Jazz said and put a finger to his helm.
Had they found her?
The black and white mech frowned. "Well, that don't sound good."
Air Raid looked down, hopes dying.
"So…" Jazz looked up. "Someone who was in this building saw a group of suspicious-looking mecha earlier this orn."
"A group?" Nightbeat said. "A group? That changes things…"
"A group of serial killers working together?" Silverbolt asked.
"I doubt it," Nightbeat said. "I'll have to talk to that witness… there aren't cameras in this building are there?"
"No," Jazz said. "Already checked, the security in this building is pretty much nonexistent."
"Then get that witness up here," Nightbeat said.
"Sure," Jazz said. "Oh, and they said one of them was wearing some sort of Decepticon mask over his faceplate. That kinda confirms your theory."
"Hmm," Nightbeat said. "Well, that's memorable. We can have enforcement look for that."
"It might not be related," Jazz said.
"Who walks around Iacon wearing a Decepticon mask?" Nightbeat said. "It has to be related."
Jazz sighed.
"I'm going to look inside," Nightbeat said.
"Okay. I'll have the witness meet ya there."
They watched him enter the building.
"So, what do we do now?" Air Raid asked.
"We wait," Jazz said. "See if ya can remember anything else that might help us figure out what happened or where this femme is."
Air Raid shuttered his optics.
There had to be something he could do. He couldn't just sit here.
"How's your leg?" Silverbolt asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"It's fine," Air Raid said through gritted denta.
"It's going to be okay," Silverbolt said. "They'll find her. There's no way these mecha managed to get away. Someone would have seen them on the way down—"
"What's that?" Jazz said.
The seekers looked at him.
"Huh," he said. "Well, okay. I guess you'll have ta… okay, hang on, I'm coming."
"What?" Silverbolt asked.
"Turns out the nearest elevator to the roof exit ain't working right. It's stuck on the bottom floor. That could mean they got in and hacked it so it wouldn't stop on any of the intermediate floors. That way they could have gotten out without being spotted or interrupted. Nightbeat and I are gonna go down and check it out on the ground level."
"We can give you a lift to the ground," Silverbolt said. "Air Raid, you want to go ahead and meet us there?"
Air Raid nodded and transformed.
He spiraled down around the building, aching all over from his landing on the roof. The panic of realizing Dawn was in danger was slowly being replaced by a sick feeling in his tanks and a sort of desperate anxiety. He wished she would wake up. He might be able to figure out what direction she was in, or communicate with her somehow.
He landed on ground level. One alt mode drove past, then the street was silent.
He wasn't sure what to look for.
Half a breem later, his brothers flew down with the two Autobots clinging to them. Nightbeat and Jazz jumped off and landed on the ground, and Silverbolt and Slingshot transformed and landed by them.
"This way." Nightbeat led them along the wall of the building. Slingshot ducked under Air Raid's arm again and supported him as they went.
They got to a side door and Nightbeat stopped and looked around. "One," he said. "Probably not. Come on."
They went around the corner to another door.
"Two. This one's closer to the elevator. The front door's closest, but this… look." He jogged away from the building and they followed him across the street.
A staircase led down into a lower level of the city.
Air Raid felt Slingshot shudder.
He stared into the blackness.
"That's real dark," Jazz said. "I forget the Core don't light anything up anymore."
"Well if they went down that way… there are a lot of directions they could have gone," Nightbeat said. "I might be able to find them."
"If I can help…" Air Raid said.
"It's critical that we know exactly when the victim wakes up," Nightbeat said.
Victim.
"That will give us a probable radius, unless they have access to a groundbridge. So as soon as she comes online, let me know. Here, I'll give you my codes." He got out a datapad and started typing.
"If you wanna go back ta base…" Jazz said. "It looks like ya could stand ta see a medic."
Air Raid shook his helm.
Nightbeat proffered the datapad and Silverbolt took it and looked at it for a few astroseconds before giving it back. "Thank you."
"Coming?" Nightbeat asked Jazz, who nodded, and they went down the steps into the abyss.
Silverbolt sent Air Raid and Slingshot a comm. with Nightbeat's comm. codes.
Air Raid pulled away from Slingshot and took a step toward the tunnel, but Slingshot grabbed him.
"You're not going down there. We don't even know if she's down there."
Air Raid collapsed and his brother caught him. He couldn't stop shaking.
"Hey," Slingshot said. "Come on, mech."
"I can't…" Air Raid sobbed.
She had just come back. He couldn't lose her.
Silverbolt stepped closer. "Air Raid," he said softly. "It's going to be—"
"Get up," Slingshot said. "Get ahold of yourself mech, she's not offline yet, so don't give up."
Air Raid took in a deep vent.
"You still have a chance," Slingshot said. "Think. How are we going to find her?"
Air Raid pushed away and stood up on his own.
How were they going to find her? How would they find her if she was underground somewhere? How would they find her if her kidnappers had a groundbridge? How would they find her if her comm. wasn't working?
He didn't know.