AN: I only own my OCs. Vox belongs to a friend.
Authoress: *pokes at dead bug* I hate bugs.
Knockout: *nods* Me too. They're not all they're cracked up to be.
Lizzie: *shakes head* I think you two are talking about different bugs.
Knockout and Authoress: *Shake head/helm* Nah!
Lizzie: *face palms*
Ch. 8: Surviving a Misadventure of Sorts
Vox's 1st P.O.V.
I focused my optics in concentration as I moved the wiring under my digits. This was pretty precise work and, if I wasn't careful, I could end up pushing back the entire Decepticon operation here on Earth. Currently, I was working with Soundwave in repairing the groundbridge and I knew that, if I wasn't careful, I could mess up the ground bridge so it might send its targets to some unwanted destination. That could be a critical loss in a matter where time was of the essence.
About thirty clicks ago, I had been on the bridge with Soundwave trying to listen in for any activity on the Autobots when Skyquake had come in and said that Breakdown had tripped by the groundbridge and ran into it. Since Breakdown isn't exactly the smallest bot out there, he damaged said bridge. So, Soundwave felt like this was a good opportunity for me to learn about the repair of the bridge just in case he was preoccupied and couldn't get to it.
Of course, I was kinda glad for this chance. I worked in intelligence and learning so first servo how something as complex as the groundbridge worked was a very rare opportunity. Somehow, I would have to thank Breakdown for causing this in the first place. "Watch for twisted wires. Make everything inverted." Soundwave interrupted my thoughts as he motioned to the wires that I was holding in my servos. It was a good thing that he said that. I was sure that, when he said that things would get inverted, that meant that the coordinates would be switched around when we put them in there.
"Thanks for the catch Soundwave. I don't think Lord Megatron would appreciate it if I screwed this up." I thanked the third in command. Of course, Breakdown was currently getting yelled at by Lord Megatron for messing around the groundbridge in the first place. I don't know what he was doing and, honestly, I probably don't want to know.
I fixed the twisted wires and was about to move on when a small voice interrupted me. "Hey Soundwave! Vox! Mind if we watch you all work?" Turning to look up at the vents, I smiled when I saw Rumble, Frenzy, and Lizzie, who had just spoken, up by the vents.
"Don't cause problems." Soundwave said to the three in an affirmative. All three nodded before they sat at the edge of the vent, the human in the middle.
The human was a strange thing for me to see when Skywarp had suddenly warped onto the bridge with her when we arrived. Yes, when Lord Megatron had contacted both of our groups, he had Soundwave send information about Earth so we would be prepared for the new battleground, but I had been planning on taking some time to explore the planet and finding out a good chunk of information from them. When everything had settled down of course. But, when we had been brought to the bridge for roll call, Skywarp had suddenly grew a smirk and vanished.
Back when this happened, I thought that he was going to go set up a prank for the twins, since they were good friends from what I had heard, but that seemed to have been changed. When Skywarp had returned to the bridge with the human, I immediately realized that she was familiar with being on the ship and so that meant that she was known to be on the ship. This theory of mine was proven correct when Lord Megatron said that Lizzie was on a trial run to see if she would be able to make any sort of contribution to the Decepticon cause. I realized, at that point, that Lizzie would be able to answer many of my questions about human.
I soldered a bit of circuitry for the bridge and continued to work as I let my thoughts about the human continue. To my surprise, a couple solars after we had arrived on the ship, the human had found me alone and had asked to talk with me. She told me that she was trying to meet everybot on the ship and she hadn't gotten to me yet. Now that I thought back on the following conversation, I realized that Lizzie probably got more information out of me than I had out of her. She was smart. That much was obvious. But, none of us realized she was smart enough to catch Lord Megatron's attention so he would teach her strategy. While he wasn't the best strategist out there, Lord Megatron's strategies were not sparkling play. There were few bots out there who could say that they had the strategizing capability in their processors to go pede to pede with our leader.
After moving a few more wires around, I finally closed the panel that I was working on and turned to Soundwave. "All done. Now we just have to test this thing out."
Thoughts of exploring Earth suddenly jumped to my processor and I was about to ask Soundwave if I could test it when Rumble beat me to the punch. "Hey we'll test it. There's this island that Lizzie told us about, called Easter Island, and she talked about these big statues of human faces. There aren't many people on the island and we'll make sure to stay out of sight! Can we boss?"
"Yeah can we boss? Lizzie can be our tour guide!" Frenzy added in.
While Lizzie didn't add anything to their plea, I could see what looked like excitement in her 'eyes', which was what humans called their optics. She probably wanted to get out of the ship for some fresh air and, while I knew she was recently allowed down into one of the mines, actual fresh air would probably do the human some good.
Soundwave seemed to look between the three of them before he nodded and started to walk up to the trio. Since Soundwave had given his okay, I moved to the controls and, after looking up the coordinates for said island, I punched them in. 27.1127° South, 109.3497° West. That would place them at the island. After I got that in, I narrowed the coordinates to a location that would have the least human population that was still close to these statues. As I did, I continued to look up information. The place was a tourist attraction, so the three of them would have to stay on guard so they wouldn't be caught by other humans.
"Be careful you three. I don't think that any of you would like it if Lord Megatron had to deal with one…or all of you getting into trouble there." I warned the three of them lightly.
Lizzie looked up to me and smiled before saying, "Don't worry Vox. We won't be there for that long. Just want to see the statues and then get back. I have lessons with Lord Megatron in thirty clicks so we have to get back quickly." Ah, so this really would be a quick trip. Lizzie knew better than to miss any of her training sessions with Megatron. She was still proving herself to be a use to the Decepticon cause. It would not do her any good to be late to one of these lessons.
Once the groundbridge was activated, I felt relief when everything seemed to look stable. That meant that the system had been repaired correctly and I would have yet another skill in my arsenal. Being able to repair the groundbridge would be a very useful skill to have if the coming battles that Lord Megatron spoke of in his plans eventually came to light. After this test was finished, I was going to start studying the specs of spacebridge technology so I may even be able to help repair any damages that may come to the new spacebridge that Lord Megatron already had in the works.
My attention went to the three beings in front of the now active bridge. The twins seemed excited to see these 'Moai' statues that were the main attraction on Easter Island. I had a feeling that Soundwave would be going through many pictures of these statues. Lizzie, I had a feeling, was mainly excited to just be getting some fresh air. Since humans were a species that spent a good time of their lives with their feet planet-side, Lizzie was probably yearning to get her feet on some solid, stationary ground.
My research also showed that Lizzie had a chance to 'escape' the Nemesis during a recent raid by the Autobots on this ship. According to the twins, Lizzie had been in an almost perfect position to have the Autobots 'save' her and yet she had stayed quiet during that point. For some reason, she seemed attached to our cause and I hoped that, beyond all hopes, that Lizzie was able to prove her abilities to Lord Megatron.
Once the three of them walked into the bridge, though, things went to the Pit.
The groundbridge suddenly flared a dark maroon color and, in that instance, I knew that something was wrong. Soundwave and I flew to the bridge and immediately started to look for the problem with the bridge. But, before I could even reach the damaged area from earlier, the dark maroon bridge suddenly burst forward and sparks flew from the technology powering the bridge before, after one large burst of sparks, the bridge closed and the system was fried.
Immediately, I turned to Soundwave, who was at the controls. "Soundwave, can you trace them?" After a couple of clicks, our third in command shook his helm at me. "Are they still alive?"
This question took Soundwave a little longer to respond…and I didn't like it. "Weak, the force is with twins. Lizzie's status; unknown."
Slag! I had to fix this and quickly. While the twins were still alive, we didn't know where they were! Plus, I wasn't even sure that Lizzie was still alive and, after all this time that Lord Megatron has spent training her in strategy, I had a feeling that Lord Megatron was going to put my helm on a bronze platter and hang it up on the bridge so everybot would remember what it was like to make him angry.
With that mental picture in mind, I raced to the damaged sections and worked on getting this thing put back together again.
Paul's 1st P.O.V.
"Hey 'Bots, Wheeljack's ship is almost to the landing zone." Blaster announced to all of us as we waited. The other solar, we had all been hanging out at base, with the exception of Blurr and Bumblebee who had been out on energon patrol, when a call had come in. Long story short, the call happened to be Wheeljack and he said that he was heading toward Earth to help out in the fight. Of course, that told me that we were around the timeline of Con Job but, as I now realized, events were going to probably be completely out of whack.
And I had both myself and Lizzie to blame for that. I had no idea how she ended up on the Nemesis when I was sure my transport of her here would have landed her somewhere in Jasper. Also, she was on a ship that was probably full to the brim with bots who would not mind if she was killed. I mean, Megatron was the big one I was worried about. From what I knew about his personality, which was a lot, he did not like waste on his ship and, if Lizzie couldn't prove herself to be of use to Megatron, then I knew that he would not hesitate to kill her. I had to get her off of that ship as soon as possible. Normally, if the timeline wasn't so out of place, then I would assume that we would have a chance to save her during Out of His Head. But, with the fact that Megatron did not get put into stasis due to the spacebridge exploding, I had no clue when the next chance to save Lizzie would pop up.
Then, there was the addition of all the new Cybertronians on both sides. On the Autobots, we currently had Ratchet, Bulkhead, Arcee, Bumblebee, Optimus, Cliffjumper, Blaster, Eject, Blurr, Sentinel, and Pitch. I still couldn't find much on Pitch and it was really bothering me. But, I hadn't been able to contact Lizzie since after the spacebridge incident so I couldn't ask her about him.
And thinking on that, I also haven't been able to ask her for a full roster list of the Decepticons. I knew that Megatron was still lively as ever, and there was Starscream, Soundwave, and the drones. But, now I had to deal with Skyquake along with Starscream's two brothers; Skywarp and Thundercracker. But, that was all I knew. If there were more on the Nemesis, I hoped to learn about them from Lizzie soon.
But, I needed to get back on track. "You think he's here to visit?" I asked taking Raf's line for this part. I was hoping that, with me saying it, that maybe the story would follow script. But, with my recent luck, I doubted that would happen.
"Maybe he'll stay!" Miko asked while looking she was about to bounce off the walls at any second. Her scenario was exactly the opposite of what I wanted to happen. I just needed Wheeljack to get here, stay for a bit, and go. I didn't even care now if Makeshift made his appearance or not. I just needed something to go right. Please?! Miko then paused. "Hmm, he'll have to find his own human though."
Um…how about not? I was sure that the Autobots were crowded enough with the four of us who were here regularly at base and Fowler when he showed up from time to time. Plus, if we got another human…well, I was worried how Sentinel and Pitch would react to them. While I still didn't see what made Lizzie so afraid of Pitch, I could see that they were on the fringes of the Autobot support and that they really didn't like 'us' humans that much.
"So," Jack started, taking me out of my thoughts, "Wheeljack's gonna land halfway around the world and then you'll bridge him here?" He sounded confused as to why the Autobots would do that. I understood part of his concern since it would be a lot of energon to transport him here.
However, there were greater concerns to think about. "We can't risk revealing the location of our base just in case the Decepticons are tracking the Wrecker's ship." Sentinel answered in a very snappish way. Like I thought earlier, he and Pitch were on the fringes of the Autobot support.
Since that didn't seem to be evolving into a good conversation, I followed Miko to watch Bulkhead pacing back and forth. "Dude! I've never seen you so stoked!" Miko commented on his pacing.
Bulkhead looked toward us and smiled widely. "Oh, you're gonna love Wheeljack! We were like brothers!"
Blaster then jumped in next to Bulkhead and smiled before adding, "And tonight, we're gonna party like theirs no tomorrow!"
"Sweet!" Was Miko's very enthusiastic response. Of course, I couldn't blame her. She was meeting another Wrecker and one of Bulkhead's close friends. I bet they were all going to have a lot of fun together.
The sound of typing drew my attention to Ratchet as he typed some things into the groundbridge controls and, after a click, he opened the ground bridge. "Ground bridge cycling up." Ratchet announced. Not so much to my surprise, the system did not malfunction like it had before. Well, that seemed like the normal run of things now. Do exactly what Paul didn't want you to do. Slagging timeline.
Once the bridge was fully open, Optimus turned to everybot. "Blaster, Bulkhead, Arcee, and Blurr. You are with me to bring Wheeljack back to base. Everyone else, remain here until our return." The five of them then went through the groundbridge.
It wasn't long before Optimus sent in the request for a groundbridge and Ratchet fired one up. That was too quick. I had a feeling that meant that the Decepticons had not been at the landing zone to intercept Wheeljack. That meant that, more than likely, we would be getting the real Wheeljack coming through the bridge.
Once all six bots were through, Ratchet closed the bridge as we all gathered as close to Wheeljack as we could. "Sorry it took so long bots, but that gravitational pull coming down put a real beating on the Jackhammer." Wheeljack stated as everybot was now gathered. Thankfully, I still had enough ability as Primus to tell that this was the real Wheeljack. So the Decepticons hadn't ambushed him. That was strange.
Optimus nodded and held out a servo toward Wheeljack, "I wish to welcome you to our team. I hope you plan on staying for a while?"
Like I figured, I could see the urge to reject Optimus' offer, like he should, about to roll off of his glossa. But, just when he was about to speak, I noticed that his optics wandered over to where Pitch and Sentinel where standing. I looked toward them too, discretely, and noticed that both of them were shooting Wheeljack glares. What was going on? Looking back at Wheeljack, I noticed that he was glaring right back at the two bots. I had to get some information about what the tension was all about and, hopefully, Lizzie would be able to get me even more information when I could finally get in contact with her.
But, until then, I had to watch all of this transpire and be clueless. "You know what Optimus? I think it is about time I had a change of pace. It's an honor to be a member of your team. As for how long I plan on staying, well, I think the action is happening here on Earth. I'll just be staying for a long time because of that."
The looks that Sentinel and Pitch were sending Wheeljack got worse and I still found myself regretting asking to live here at the base. Something told me that things were going to be taking a turn for me, and I had a feeling that they would not be turns for the better.
As everybot seemed to disperse, I was about to follow Miko to find out some more information about Wheeljack when I felt like I was being watched. Straightening, I glanced out of the corner of my right eye and saw that Sentinel and Pitch were looking over toward me. Odds were in favor that they were looking at me. Whatever they might be planning, I feared that it would have to do with me. If they enacted this before I got more information on Pitch, then I feared that I would be playing a very dangerous game.
Moving to where Miko was, I got that thought out of my head…for now. While it was worrying to think that Pitch and Sentinel had something planned, I knew that my services were best used in helping the Autobots prepare for whatever the Decepticons were building up to. I didn't like this period of inactivity on their part. It made me worry about Lizzie even more.
Rumble's 1st P.O.V.
I frowned as I watched Lizzie walk ahead of us. It had been about a cycle since we had woke up after the groundbridge explosion and, at first, I thought we had been transported to a different planet since I couldn't reach Soundwave on the comm and even the link we shared was hard to communicate with due to all the moisture in the air. We couldn't even send words through it. All we were able to send to the boss was that the two of us where alive. Lizzie had soon discovered, however, that we were actually in a place called South America. The reason she was able to discover this, however, was part of the reason that I was now frowning at Lizzie. We had found a river, which Lizzie realized was called the Amazon, and had waded slightly in to wash off some of the scratches that she got when we landed.
Frenzy had seen it first. The red bellied fish that had been about ten inches long. Lizzie had been splashing water onto her legs when he saw it swim up to her. He had pointed it out to her, hoping that she would think it was cute to look at.
…However, everything went to scrap after that.
Lizzie had immediately started to run up on shore. We didn't understand why until the fish had jumped out of the water and, as Lizzie's feet had touched the dry shore, the fish had latched onto her leg and had started to tear at her left leg. Thankfully, it hadn't done too much damage before I obliterated it with a shot. The fragging monster! I couldn't believe that something like that existed. Lizzie had been worried about the damage and so I decided to pull out a book that we had gotten off of the human shopping site called Ebay.
And her seeing that book caused part of the now silent treatment that she was giving us, even though we wanted to take care of her leg better. What was that book? Well, it was called 'The Idiot's Guide to Taking Care of Your Human Pet'. Frenzy and I thought that it would be a good book to have just in case something like this happened. But, Lizzie hadn't liked it so she had simply ripped a part of the shirt she was wearing and wrapped the ripped part around her leg before she had the three of us move on.
About thirty clicks after that happened, Lizzie had made a comment about trying to find some high ground so we could get a call to Soundwave so he could locate us. She even said that there were pyramids here in South America near the Amazon River that we could climb to get signal. That was when Frenzy had to open his big mouth and say that, while even with the height of the pyramids we would barely be able to get a message out, that boss would be able to pick up on her signal faster than he would ours since it was solely broadcasting to him.
And that had caused Lizzie to get us to tell her, when she had first been placed in boss' care…right before she met us, that Soundwave had used a gesture that she might have taken as a 'comforting pat on the back' to actually implant a microchip in her so he could track her in case something like this happened. When we had finished telling her this, Lizzie had stared between the two of us for a few clicks before she led the way, having been giving us the silent treatment ever since.
But now, thirty clicks later, I was worried. Lizzie was slightly limping and I could tell that she was avoiding putting pressure on her left leg…where that piranha had attacked her. Something told me that, if we didn't get Lizzie back to the Nemesis by tonight, that she might lose her leg. And, with a leg lost, Lord Megatron would not see a use in keeping her around the ship and terminate her. I didn't want to lose Lizzie. Over these solars since Soundwave first let us meet her, I seemed to think of her as much of a sister as I did Laserbeak and Ravage. With everything that we had been through together…I didn't want her to have to leave us. We needed to get out of this place and quickly.
"Lizzie, are you okay?" I finally asked her as we seemed to near a tree line.
Lizzie turned to me and I flinched at the annoyed look in her eyes. Yeah…she was still angry at us. "I don't know Rumble…why don't you ask that book you have?" She then turned around and continued forward.
Yeah…she was still mad about the book. But how were we supposed to know that she would get offended by it? "Lizzie why are you so mad about the book?"
She had just reached the tree line before she turned to us and I could see that she didn't seem quite as angry…though she was still angry. "Out of the hundreds of medical books that you all could have gotten here on Earth, why did you have to pick a book as degrading as that one? Is that how you view me? Am I nothing but a pet that you all get to play with and dress up?"
I took out the book and looked down at the cover again. Yeah…I guess this wasn't the best book we could have gotten. But, it was so weird that humans would have made a book like this that we felt like it was perfect at the time. I guess we really didn't think about what Lizzie would think about the book if she ever found out about it. "It was the only book that we could get that wasn't full of a lot of technical terms. We aren't medics like Knockout you know." Frenzy muttered in a half argument. I guess he realized the same thing that I did.
But, his argument must have struck some sort of chord with Lizzie for she seemed to go into her own thoughts. After a click, she sighed before saying, "I guess I can forgive you both. But, you now know that you can ask me almost anything and I can answer it the best I can. Right?"
Yeah, she was right. I guess we just wanted to try and be helpful ourselves. But, asking for help wasn't bad. We would ask the boss for help at times just like, rarely, he would ask us. If I really was going to think of Lizzie as a sister, then I guess we could just ask her the questions we had. So the both of us nodded before I answered her. "Yeah Lizzie. We'll ask you from now on."
Lizzie, in turn, smiled a wide smile before she limped over to us and pulled us into a hug. Thankfully, through practice with Lizzie, we knew how to hug her back without squishing her. That would not be a good thing to do…especially now that she had just forgiven us. After a click, I was about to pull away when I felt Lizzie tense. Looking at her face, I saw that her op…eyes had gone wide and they were staring behind us. "Lizzie…what's wrong?" Frenzy asked her.
I'm pretty sure that we both heard her gulp before she spoke slowly. "I saw a pyramid on the other side of the tree line. Can one of you two carry me?"
I nodded quickly. "Yeah I can carry you…but why? Is it your leg?"
She shook her head…but answered positively at first. "Yeah, my leg hurts, but I can normally walk on it. But, we are about to run and I don't think I can run."
…Why would we have to run? "Lizzie…why would we have to run?" I asked her back.
In return, she pointed behind her. So, Frenzy and I did what most normal beings would do and looked behind us. Immediately, my optics widened before my systems kicked into action and I picked up Lizzie before running toward the break in the forest and the pyramid.
The sound of movement behind us told me that we had now turned into the hunted and, while we might survive this, the same couldn't be said if that monster caught Lizzie.
Vox's 1st P.O.V. (Thirty clicks prior)
My spark felt like it was going to break out of my chestplate as I worked carefully but quickly to get the groundbridge fixed. I couldn't believe that I had somehow lost the twins and Lizzie. Well…I was half responsible. But, I had a feeling that if we didn't find them before Lord Megatron found out, then I was going to be the one getting in most of the trouble. Soundwave was too valuable to the Decepticon cause…and it was two of his symbiots that were currently missing along with Lizzie. Me…not so much value as the third in command. With how I was moving on the repairs, I figured that it would be maybe another twenty clicks before I completely repaired the damage to the bridge and we were able to try and locate where Lizzie, Rumble, and Frenzy were.
Of course, I didn't want to be the one that had to tell Lord Megatron about this. But, if he came here looking for the twins, or Lizzie, or even to see what either Soundwave or I were up to, then I would have to let him know what happened. At that point, well…I was pretty sure that my life would be hanging on by a wire…a very thin wire.
But, as strange as this situation was, and the fear for my continued online status, I still wasn't regretting my shift from the Autobot side to the Decepticons. All those millions of stellar cycles ago, back when I was a loyal Autobot, if somebot would have told me that this would have been my future…I probably would have shot them. But, I never could have predicted the events that led up to me becoming a part of the Decepticons and serving under Lord Megatron.
Flashback
"Everything's clear on my end. What about you Vox?" I heard a femme voice echo in my audios.
I knew that voice very well. That femme was my partner of about thirty stellar cycles now and, honestly, I trusted her completely. When I first met her, she had seemed a little on the fringe elements of the Autobot side. But, from how she acted around me, I knew that the rumors of her attacking bots for credits were full of scrap. My partner was one of the most trusted bots I knew. If I couldn't trust her, then I would have to trust a Decepticon…and I didn't see that happening.
Laughing into the comm, I answered the femme back. "Come on little Ember. You don't have to be so formal. But, everything is quiet over in my sector." I glanced around me as the disheveled remains of our once beautiful homeworld. Buildings that once stood tall and proud were now decimated piles of rubble. On some, the fires were still burning from an attack that happened thirty cycles ago. Little Ember and I were now leaving Praxus after two cycles of exploration. While I had told little Ember that our mission was a bust, I was planning to surprise her when we got back to base with the fact that I had downloaded the entire Praxian database onto a drive before the system had imploded.
Back to the present, however, "Vox! My designation is not 'Ember' and you know that! Call me by my designation!" My partner complained to me.
But, I just continued to laugh and stuck to it. "Come on little Ember. You know that I can't call you anything else. And you know it makes bots underestimate you on the battlefield." I heard a pout come from her on the other side so I smirked. "But pouting like that doesn't really sell your case any."
The sound of her sighing was the last sound I heard from her before something slammed against the side of my helm and my world went dark.
I wasn't sure how long I was out, but I knew that it wasn't long. I had been moved to one of the damaged buildings here in Praxus and I could feel that my servos were bound behind me and to something strong and structural…probably a fallen beam. This wasn't good. I thought that the sweep patrols had cleared this area of Decepticons!?
Realizing that there was only one way to find out the situation now, I onlined my optics and found that they were blurry. I must have been hit on the helm pretty hard for my vision to still be blurred. But, from what I could see, there were two heavy duty bots in front of me. I guess I wasn't getting out of this anytime soon. Even if I could find the strength to pick the lock of the cuffs holding me, I wouldn't be able to fight off two heavy duty bots. So, since my processor realized that pretty quickly, it traveled to the next important bit of information…and the information I was most worried about. "Where is she!?" The two bots seemed to turn to me.
"Who?" One asked with a mech-tinted voice.
"Yeah who? I didn't see anybot with you?" A different mech-tinted voice answered.
While this would normally mean that I should shut-up so my partner wouldn't be put in danger, I knew something was sounding off. My partner had been close enough to me that these mechs would have seen her as well as me before they knocked me out. So, they had to know that she was around. Maybe they were keeping her somewhere to torture later! I wouldn't let that happen! I wouldn't! "Where is my partner?! I know you slagging 'Cons did something with her and,"
I flinched as one of the mechs slammed his fist against my faceplate. "We ain't Decepticons you idiot Autobot." The one who spoke to me first answered. "We are what I likes to call a 'neutral' party. Getting money for taking out trouble bots for our sponsors. An' this sponsor paid us good."
So these were neutrals. The Decepticons must have paid them to take me out…though I wasn't sure why. My boss, Remcy, was a better target for them since he did a lot of major damage to the Decepticons lately. Maybe this was a case of mistaken identity?...Though Remcy and I didn't look nearly the same, these two seemed to be just dumb enough to make the mistake.
So, feeling like I should point out their mistake and let them know who would be hunting them down, since Remcy never let an unnecessary offlining go unpunished, I opened my mouth to speak when another voice cut over mine…and froze my spark.
"Riptop, I'd keep my vocals quiet around this one. He's might act the idiot but he's got a processor that can put two and two together real quick." My little Ember's voice came from in front of me and I focused the best I could as I saw a lithe frame approach until it was standing almost directly in front of me.
It took a click for my vocals to react to the situation I was now in. "But…little Ember…how…why?" I…I couldn't understand this. My partner…little Ember…what was she doing?
Her could and unfeeling laughter ripped through my spark like a poisoned dagger. "Vox you are an idiot! I've even heard the stuff they say about me at back at base. You can't possibly tell me that you didn't think that, with such a quantity of stories, that at least one of them had to be true." But, I couldn't find the strength in me to respond to that, for the answer was exactly that. I had heard all the stories about my little Ember and behind-the-scenes deals but I never believed them. I believed my partner! After a click she seemed to get that. "Oh my Primus, you actually didn't believe them... You are a sad excuse of a mech, Vox, that's for sure…especially for an intelligence mech. I mean, those stories had to have some basis."
She let out a cackle like stream of laughter that tore away at my spark as I heard each nano-click. "Why?" I asked her softly. I couldn't find it in me to call her Ember anymore but I also felt like I couldn't address her by her designation. If I did, then that would make the situation that much more real for me…and I didn't want to believe it was happening.
The femme who was my partner knelt down in front of me and put her servo under my chin before smirking. "Come now Voxie, that should be an easy one for you." Her tone was toxic and it made me sick just hearing it. But, I had to know. Thankfully, she didn't pause long. "It's the credits of course. Being a neutral bounty hunter has a lot of perks Vox. But, I knew that one solar, you would eventually discover what I was doing. So, I figured I would get rid of you." To my surprise, she then seemed to pause before she brought her faceplate slightly closer to my own. "You know Vox, I'll give you a choice. Stay here and offline in the Decepticon search party that is about to come through, or join me and my mechs here and see what sort of rewards you can really squeeze out of this war. I bet with your skills…you could make millions."
Anger welled up within me for a nano and, while I couldn't move my chassis thanks to how I was chained, I could show her my answer. So, I built up some leaking energon from the punch that Riptop landed earlier before I spit it in the femme's faceplate. "I'd rather rust in the Pit then help you with anything!"
She let out a small growl of her own and I vaguely heard the sound of a transformation sequence before I felt a burning pain in my left knee-joint. I could feel as the femme in front of me twisted her blade around in the injury. It took all of my willpower not to scream…not to give her the satisfaction of my yells of pain. But Primus did it hurt like the Pit.
Primus must have been watching out for me because, suddenly, the other mech came over and whispered something to the femme that had just betrayed me. While my vision was still somewhat blurry, my hearing was just fine and I could just make out words like Decepticons and clicks. That Decepticon party that she was talking about earlier must be about here.
After a few clicks, the image of the mech stepped away from the femme before she turned to me. "Well, guess I have to go Voxie. Try to offline slowly. It'll be such a dramatic story to tell the others how I stopped you, a traitor, from getting away with attacking me and trying to offline me. Thanks to that little mishap in the archives I even have the scrapes to prove it and I have your energon me now. That should suffice as evidence."
I then heard as she walked away with her two brutes. Was I really going to offline like this? I was betrayed by the Autobots, and now the Decepticons would be coming around and I had a feeling that I wasn't going to be living long after they found me. How did I get into this situation? It didn't make sense! She…she didn't show any…how could she…?
"Hey boss, there's an Autobot still online over here." A mech voice suddenly sounded.
And that was the sound of my offlining. As I heard pedesteps slowly walk to me, I felt like my spark was beating in time with them. They were going to offline me. Hopefully, they would let me have a final word so I could tell them that they were being used in a cover-up. Maybe I could get some form of retribution in my final words.
When the pedesteps stopped, I gazed up and saw the blurry outlines of three bots. They were big and that made me even more sure of my upcoming demise. "What are we going to do with him?"
Here it came. I just hoped that they were, "You two idiots get him back to base for repairs. Primus looks like this bot could use some. Then, we'll see what he has to say."
End of Flashback.
I didn't think that I would live past that solar. Now, I feared the same again. But, this time was different. This time, I was the one to blame…along with Soundwave. But, this was my choice to work on the groundbridge and now I had to make sure that everything was repaired and our three adventurers were safely returned before,
"Where is Lizzie?"
I jumped and turned, and Soundwave just turned, as Lord Megatron walked into the room and I could tell that he looked annoyed. Oh great. There went my helm. And I really did like it attached to my chassis so much. Well, there was no point in trying to doge. I doubt I would be able to get out of the way in these tight of quarters. Well, this wasn't how I planned my solar to be…at all.
Frag my life.
Thankfully Soundwave had me somewhat covered as he showed what happened with the bridge before he motioned to the area where we were working. "Almost have bridge repaired. Then, will look for life signals."
Lord Megatron looked between Soundwave and me before he shook his helm. "Then what are you standing around for? Both of you, get to work. The human may still prove to be a valuable asset to the Decepticons and I will not be pleased if she is lost. Also, Rumble and Frenzy have proved their worth over and over time and their return is necessary. Do not stop again until they are located…unless you wish for your spark to cease beating?"
That was all the motivation I needed to run back to the bridge and finish the last of my repairs before I moved next to Soundwave and tried to locate out missing bots…and human. Honestly, though, I found myself relieved while I was typing. I wasn't offline yet. That was definitely the most positive thing in this situation right now.
Megatron's 1st P.O.V.
As I watched Vox and Soundwave work at the controls, I tapped my arm cannon in contemplation. If I lost three assets due to this little trial, then somebot was going to have to pay. I did not waste time and, if Lizzie was offlined during this mishap, then all the time that I had spent in training her for strategy would be completely wasted. Soundwave would already be at a loss because he was separated from the twins right now.
…However that did leave Vox. While I knew his past, and he had earned his spot among my Decepticons, this was partially his fault and, if things went for the worse, than he would be the only one who would not be losing anything right away. I wonder if I had any bronze platters that I could hang his helm up in the bridge. Would help serve as a reminder to others who,
Beep!
We all turned to the monitor and I noticed that there were now three signals showing on Soundwave's visor. However, they were in the continent of South America and they seemed to be rising in elevation…and rather quickly. Also, I noticed that the signal that Soundwave had implanted into Lizzie for tracking her was overlapping Rumble's signal. Something had to have happened if Rumble was carrying Lizzie. If she was offline, then Vox had better start counting down the clicks he had left online. I did not like wasting time. Not at all.
Soundwave then typed in some commands on the controls before Rumble's distorted voice came through. "Bridge! We n...brid…ake…gia…! Sen…ow!" Something down where they were must be interfering with the signal. But, his request for a groundbridge was clear.
Vox typed in the coordinates for where they were and soon, the groundbridge opened. At first, nothing came through the bridge. Maybe we missed the coordinates? I was about to have Vox adjust the coordinate point when Rumble and Frenzy came barreling out of the bridge. Rumble was holding Lizzie and I frowned slightly when I saw that her left leg was bandaged by what looked like a scrap of her cloth armor. The look in her optics showed fear and I couldn't guess why. It was almost the same amount of fear she showed when we had first met.
"Soundwave pick us up!" Frenzy yelled in a panic.
I didn't understand it but Soundwave did as he asked. The reason for this panic was soon discovered when, suddenly a snake that was larger than the length of the room suddenly burst in from the still open bridge and looked like it was on the hunt. I did not realize that organics on this planet, that were hunters, were still this large. However, like most organics, they were easy to deal with. So, once the creature lunged in my direction, I sidestepped its attack before taking out my blade and severing the creature's head from its body. Well, looks like I got to behead something after all this solar.
Once the creatures dead body stopped flailing, and Vox had closed the bridge, I walked over to Soundwave and took Lizzie from Rumble. "You are late human."
My scanners were showing that her heart-rate was working overtime. But, she was abl to overcome that and look up at me. "My…my apologies Lord Megatron. I did not realize that helping Vox and Soundwave test the bridge would take so long." She then winced slightly and her hand reached for her leg. It must be injured. "Or that it would cause so much trouble."
I studied her before I gave a nod and turned. "I will overlook this transgression for this solar. Only this one time though. For now, let's have Knockout take a look at this injury you obtained." The human nodded once and I saw that she looked grateful. Good. With how Lizzie had reacted so far, I was positive that she understood that this was a one-time excuse. Next time she was late, I would find her unworthy to be a part of the Decepticon cause and end her existence.
As we moved toward the med-bay, though, I looked down at the human who was poking her leg while wincing, and I realized that the odds of Lizzie being late for training again were low. However, we would see.
Lizzie: *shivering* Sn...sn...sn...
Knockout: *sighs* Just spit it out already.
Lizzie: *screams* Snake!
Skywarp: *warps in* What's wrong?
Lizzie: *screaming* Snake! Snake! Snake!
Skyquake: *walks in confused* What's going,
Skywarp: *places servo over mouth* Don't ask.
Lizzie: *still screaming*
AN: And here is the next chapter of the story! I hope you all liked it! We get a big glimpse into Vox's past! That was so much fun to write! But, who is the femme that he called 'Ember'? I will say that it is not her name, but does make reference to her actual name. I wonder if you all can guess it?
Also poor Lizzie, she not only got attacked by a piranha, but found out that the twins had an ' The Idiot's guide to Taking Care of Your Human Pet', found out that Soundwave pretty much microchipped her back in the prologue, and she had to run from a giant snake. (think Anaconda movies for size reference). Then, worst of all, she was late for her class with Megatron. Thank Primus that Megatron was feeling merciful. But don't thank Paul because he can't do anything much here. *Paul complains in background*
Anyways, I have decided to start doing something new, so if you stuck around this long you get to see the start of it. As a little sneak peek for the upcoming chapters, I have decided to leak out the next to chapter names at the end of each chapter.
So, *gets into announcer voice* Next time on Resolve of One:
Chapter 9: Upstream with All the Paddles
Chapter 10: Only Logical
Chapter 11:...? (Find out next time! XD )
Well, that's all for now I guess. Make of that what you will. Until next time though, please leave a review. I'm sure Lizzie could use some comfort after that snake attack. *dark laughter* Well, until next time, TTYL! *goes to work on German homework*