I didn't want to rush this arc, so I cut it in two.
Transformers © to Hasbro!
My OCs © to me!
Chapter 7: Tӕfledon
Remix looked up as the ship jolted, landing at a port. No doubt at Monacus.
Bosch strode into the room, his peach-colored eyes glimmering with excitement. He glanced briefly at Remix before approaching Aalis's pod. His yellow fingers tapped a keypad on the side and the pod hissed open.
A small box attached to the girl's hip glowed for a moment before a holographic film covered the human. For a moment, small rainbows of light reflected off the film, before it disappeared from sight(1).
Aalis blinked. The cold, grogginess fading from her sight.
However, she wasn't ready or thrilled to find herself face to face with a strange alien. For a moment, her brows furrowed as she focused on the strange creature, unsure if she was dreaming or not.
"Wh-where am I!?" She stepped back, hitting the back of the pod. Her mossy green eyes frantically scouring the room until they met the optics of her friend. "Remix!"
Lunging forward, the human attempted to pass her captor, but a skuxxiod grabbed her arm.
Remix ran to her cell door. "Aalis, it's going to be alright! We'll get out of this!"
"Don't give the human false hope." Bosch grabbed Aalis's other arm, jerking her back. The girl slammed into the back of the pod as the alien grabbed her other hand. Grabbing both hands in one of his own, his other hand reached into a pouch. The human struggled as her captor placed a yellow band around her wrists, tightening.
"What's going on!?"
Bosch reached out, taking the girl's chin in his hand. "I wouldn't worry. You will have other things to worry about later on." His skuxxoid servants reached out and grabbed her. One held a metal band which it slapped over Aalis's mouth.
Remix watched in silent horror. She knew her own fate. A captive of the Decepticons.
But Aalis.
Who knows what would happen to her?
The femme trembled. "Aalis! I will find you! Don't worry!"
The girl glanced back at her friend, eyes watering. Her body shaking with fear and confusion as the large aliens dragged her off the ship.
Her eyes widened as the green sky glimmered overhead. Tall buildings, shining with neon lights, towered overhead. Music played and aliens of all kinds seemed to be drinking something equivalent to alcohol.
Her first thought… space Las Vegas.
And she was almost right.
Bosch led them into one of the casinos, the name spelled out in an alien language, and began speaking to the plant alien behind the counter. However, the human couldn't understand a word.
All she knew was that her captor and the receptionist kept glancing back at her.
Before she could ask, or even try and figure out what was going on, a small bot rolled over. It held up an arm and the manacle holding the human's wrists pulled her toward it.
What was that? A magnet?
Whatever it was, it pulled the girl away from her original captors and into a back room. It seemed to be a vault. Boxes, like safety deposit boxes, lined the walls. The back of the hallway opened up into a cage. Aliens of all kinds, limbs bound like hers, hung from rods on the ceiling.
The robot dragged Aalis to an empty rod. The rod seemed to pull her arms up. Magnets again?
Her feet came off the ground.
The robot looked up at her, a projection beaming out from a small light source below its optics. The projection created a set of numbers on her chest.
Now, Aalis understood.
That alien, the one who captured her and Remix, he was using her as some sort of gambling collateral. Or whatever it was called. She didn't know gambling.
Tears began welling up in the corners of her eyes as her mind wandered to every possible outcome of this situation.
Would she be enslaved?
Would she end up as dinner for some race?
Would they probe her, like in all the alien stories on earth?
The other captives all seemed just as afraid, and their eyes held an air of compassion and understanding for their fellow prisoner.
"Ah! There you all are!"
Bosch sat around a large table, grinning as two Decepticons walked over. The black and blue seeker sat down immediately, waving down a waitress. "High grade here!"
"Dirge, we can't stay long." The other seeker, with black and white plating, glanced around at all the other patrons.
"Oh, pull that rod out of your aft, Ramjet."
"Please, Ramjet," Bosch grinned, "sit. You have time. Your Autobot captive isn't going anywhere."
With a long sigh, Ramjet sat down.
"Bosch."
An alien with 6 arms, its body a mess of parts from other creatures, sat beside Ramjet.
"Ah, Braid." The gambler leaned back. "I was hoping you would show up."
"Why? So you could loose more to me?"
Bosch chuckled nervously before grinning. "I was hoping the four of us could have a nice game of triad for… a special prize. Well, that's if any of you win. I would want credits if I won."
"What kind of special prize?"
"A rarity. Even if you couldn't do anything with it, you could make a lot of credits from selling it."
"What!?"
"A human. A young, healthy human."
Braid leaned back, one of his six arms stroking his chin. "We have studied humans before, but they are quite rare. I'll take your game."
"We will too."
"Good!"
As the four began their game, bartering for the life of Aalis, a little green lizard slipped away through the crowd, chattering into a comlink.
On the docks, the blue mech, Devcon listened to his little partner. "Slizardo, go to the ship now. Good job." The mech turned off his comlink and glanced at the security guard who was supposed to be patrolling the docks for any thieves. "Here you go." The mech dropped credits into the guard's hands and set a cube of high grade beside him.
"You have a bit of time before my shift change." The guard sipped down the strong drink, grinning.
The blue mech strode fearlessly down the dock. He knew Bosch's ship immediately.
It was the only rockeroid(2) around.
With the guard occupied with drink, the mech had the run of the place. Taking out a small box from his subspace, Devcon placed it against the ship. The box beeped, running through numbers, which flashed across the small screen. Beeping a few more times, the box clicked and the ship's cargo bay lowered the door.
Stepping into the ship, Devcon felt his tanks churn. He hated seeing creatures like this, but he was only here for one thing. Thankfully, the first cell held his target.
A young femme, not much more than a youngling, sat in the cell, curled up. Her arms wrapped around her knees with her helm buried between her knees.
"Hey."
The femme looked up.
"Hold on." The bot walked over to the cell. Using the same little box, he unlocked the cell. "Get up. You're getting out of here." He grabbed her servo, pulling her up. "What's your designation?"
"R-Remix…"
"Remix, my designation is Devcon; I'm an Autobot. We'll get to my ship and get you to safety."
He paused as the femme pulled back. "I-I can't leave yet! My friend is still in there."
Of course. Nothing was easy. "What friend?"
"Aalis. She's a human. The guy who capture us took her away."
A human? "He most likely used her for gambling. That means she's in the vault. Follow me." He led her to one of the largest casinos.
The neon sign, written in another tongue read "Triple Threat".
"Oh no…" Devcon groaned. "Not Botanica(3)."
"What's wrong, sir?"
"She… doesn't like me." He watched as the plant femme spoke to another patron. "She can't be bribed and won't look away. Remix, I'll need you to distract her if you want to rescue your friend."
"What can I do?"
"Improvise!" He shoved the little femme out into the open.
Remix stared over at the plant femme, her processor whirling.
That's it!
Hurrying over to the desk, the little femme pointed outside of the casino. "Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon!"
"Um… what?"
Pointing outside, making her optics wide with fake concern, she continued. "Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum!(4)"
Botanica vented, rubbing the bridge of her facial plating. "Of course I would get a youngling who can't speak basic. Show me what's wrong…" Stepping around the desk, the receptionist followed the little femme outside.
Devcon slipped over to the desk, tapping opening the vault with the press of a button. He'd been inside before, but never during Botanica's shift. Ignoring everything else, he moved back to the cage of live creatures.
The creatures hanging from magno-locks all looked at him. He saw a human with red hair hanging near the back.
Unlocking the cage, Devcon walked over to the control panel. With the press of a button, all the captives dropped from the magnets holding them in the air. "Get out of here."
The captives all scattered, running for any sort of transport or hiding place. As did Aalis, but the large blue servo stopped her. "I'm here for you, human. Your friend wouldn't leave without you."
"Remix!?"
"Yeah."
Devcon looked up. Finding himself eye-to-eye with a security camera.
That wasn't here last time.
"We have to go!"
Scooping up the human in his servo, he dashed from the room as alarms began sounding throughout the casino.
"Devcon!?" Botanica screeched as she charged at him.
"Sorry, Tanni, can't talk!" Rushing past, he grabbed the servo of Remix who stood outside the casino door.
"Hey!" Bosch pointed as the three ran. "He has my Autobot prisoner!"
"After them!"
Devcon groaned. Pulling the two into the crowds. As much as he wanted to run to the docks, it was a bad idea. "Slizardo!" He yelled into his comlink. "Take off! Put yourself in orbit until I call you!" the creature chattered into the comlink before it went dead. "Down here!" Pulling Remix down an alley, he opened the back door of a seedy bar.
"Where are we going!?"
"A hiding place."
The red femme, Exocet, looked up as the three came in the back entrance. "What have you done now, Dev!?"
"Not now, Ex!" He glanced around at the empty bar. "We need into the cellar."
The femme glanced at Remix and Aalis before venting. "Fine… but you owe me."
"Put it on my tab."
The mech and the two femmes went behind the counter and down a small hatch.
Aalis felt a chill go down her spine as they stepped into a cold building, not unlike a fallout shelter from earth films. But, cubes of energon and other drinks filled the room.
Finally, Devcon put her down.
"Aalis!" Remix scooped her up again, hugging the human to her chassis.
The girl laughed. The adrenaline in her system making her laughter much worse. "I-I thought I would never see you again!"
"Hush!" Devcon snapped. His optics glanced upward. "They can hear you if you're too loud."
Remix and Aalis nodded; the femme dropped her voice. "Um, Devcon. Sorry about getting you into this mess."
"It's fine."
"Thank you for saving us."
"We're not safe yet."
The three paused as footsteps clunked overhead.
"Get behind me!"
Still holding the human, Remix stepped behind the mech. Devcon transformed his servo into a blaster, pointing it at the cellar door as someone on the outside began to lift up the door.
Weird ending, but I don't have a lot of time and I wanted to post something.
Please review!
Footnotes:
(1) These atmosphere converters are based on the same kind of device used in the 2003 TMNT cartoon, but with some inspiration from the holographic space suits in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.
(2) Rockeroids are space ships that look like asteroids and are built for camouflage.
(3) She is basically the same femme from the Beast Machine cartoon.
(4) These two lines make up the first stanza of Beowulf.
VAs:
Bontanica- Kathleen Barr (Botanica, Trixie Lulamoon, Henri, Wheezie, Gali, Laverna)