DMK: alright! I GOT SO MANY REVIEWS! YEAH! I FEEL SO DANG SPECIAL! *coughs* …anyway, the fic is almost done! Really! Don't be sad though, there's gonna be a sequel! …Durn Flamestrike and her ideas… :P Yeah. So anyways, the fic is gonna start t' serious up from here on in… or will it…? :D
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Chapter 14
Caitlin walked into the shooting room, where Hotshot, Sideswipe, and Blurr were all busy competing against one another. Remembering that she really had no weapon outside her alt mode, she thought about some kind of gun or weapon of her own.
"Heya sis!" Sideswipe greeted, throwing his arms around her in one of his trademark bear-hugs.
"Hey…" she said, still a bit stunned from this. "Can I join you guys…?"
Sideswipe let her go, and nodded. "But ya need a gun…"
"I was just gonna ask you guys about that…"
"Well there are plenty of weapons in the armory," Blurr answered back, pushing a button on the wall. Almost instantly, part of the wall flipped over, displaying several weapons.
"Woah… Where's my Noisy Cricket?" she asked herself, looking at the guns, swords, rocket launchers, cannons…she then noticed something off to one side. "Oooh, what about that?" she questioned Blurr, picking it up.
"An Energy Crossbow?" Hotshot retorted, watching the femme pick the bow up and look it over. "Why pick that? I just use good old laser pistols, personally."
"That's if you want an easy way to fight," Blurr then answered. "A crossbow takes a bit of skill…"
"Nothing a bit of practice wouldn't help, right?"
"Well, yes. Try and hit a target with it, first."
"Hm… Okay," She agreed, turning around and facing the target range. A disk was sent flying, and she pulled the crossbow up, across her arm. She pulled the string-like wire back back, and an arrow materialized. It shimmered, being made up of bright green-yellow energy. Quickly, she let the arrow go, and it grazed by the target.
A miss.
"Agh…" She grunted, not happy with her performance.
Blurr chuckled. "Try again. Every weapon needs breaking in."
Inhaling, she drew the elastic wire back, and waited for a target to appear. It did, and she fired. Holding her breath, it hit half the target, blowing half the side of. "D'oh…" But, she was determined to hit a target, even if it took her all damn day. With a competitive glint in her optics, she released one more arrow. One that hit its mark completely.
Bang!
"YAY!" She exclaimed suddenly, pleased.
Blurr looked interested. "Beginner's luck. Try that again."
"Fine, Blue-boy," she responded, which got a small but friendly growl from Blurr, having used her nickname for him. Bringing her focus back onto the target range, she began to shoot and blow up targets with increasing ease… though she would also miss as well. After a good ten minutes' of practicing, she turned to the speedy Autobot. "So? Do I get the bow?"
Blurr thought about this for a while, then nodded. "You're not at your full potential, but it's quite a bit better than going into battle unarmed. I say you get to keep it."
"Suh-weet," She responded, looking at the crossbow. "Now to show this to-"
SCREE! SCREE! SCREE!
A loud, piercing alarm rang throughout the whole base. The four Transformers in the shooting range looked to one another, and left hurriedly to the command center. Once there, they figured out that it was a Minicon, again, and all quickly moved out.
Where they warped, no one knew, except it was windy, cold, foggy…
"Reminds me of San Fransisco in the winter," Caitlin muttered to herself, looking around the nearly whited-out landscape. Stepping to the left, she suddenly realized that she wasn't standing on anything. "GAH!" she started to topple over the edge, but caught herself with her wings and brought herself back to solid ground. Looking over, she noticed that below was a rocky cliff overlooking the salty Pacific (they thought) Ocean. "Too. Freaking. Close."
"You alright Shorty?" Jetfire asked, which got a growl from his friend.
"I'm…FINE…now quit calling me that before I- AGH!"
There was a loud crash, and Caitlin found herself starting to fall over again. She hit the ground, and saw a foggy image of something… Cyclonus.
"Heeeey baby! Ya miss me?"
"In your damn dreams, Blenderbutt." She retorted.
"Aww, too bad!" He reached down to grab her, but never got the chance, thanks to a well-placed shot by both Smokescreen and RedAlert. "OW! NOW WHY DID YA GO AND DO THAT?!" the 'Copter whined as he fell over hard.
"Because you're a sleezy 'Con!" Smokey retorted, running forward and pinning him to the ground as the two got into an all-out fist-fight.
'Thank you, Smokey,' she thought in her head. But suddenly, she heard Hotshot cry out in both shock and pain. The foggy image of the bright yellow mech came into as much a focus as possible, and she noticed something beating on him.
"Agh!" Hotshot exclaimed, falling over, knocking what he felt were trees down as well. "Come out, Wheeljack, ya coward!"
The said Decepticon appeared seconds later, face to face with him. "As you wish," he hissed coldy, that same, evil grin on his face. He pinned Hotshot down, and raised one of his clubs over his head. He tried to swing it down, but found it wouldn't budge. Then he noticed the thick tail that was wrapped around it. "What the?!"
"Pardon me if I'm interrupting…" Caitlin hissed back, just as coldly. Then, swiftly, she released the club, and smacked Wheeljack hard with her tail, knocking him off of Hotshot and sending him into a rocky wall. Dazed, the black, gold, and teal mech watched as the femme brought her arm up, which held a crossbow. "Now, you have two choices. One, you leave. Or two, you get to meet my little friend here," She told him, motioning to her crossbow. "Choose."
Wheeljack glared up at the femme, who had a smirk playing across her lips as she leveled the crossbow at him again. She gently tightened her index finger on the trigger, and at that, the Decepticon caught himself grinning. "Do what you will," he said fearlessly.
"Bad choice, dude," She answered, adding a little more pressure to the trigger.
But a sudden scream interrupted the tense moment, and Caitlin turned. It had sounded like Smokescreen! Then, in a foggy blur, she noticed someone fall over the same cliff she had minutes before. "Smokescreen!" Turning fully, she took off, diving over the cliffside quickly. Ahead of her, she saw the falling Transformer, shrouded in more of that dense fog, and with a thrust from her engines, she caught up with and grabbed him.
She didn't notice the rotor on his back.
"I've gotcha Smokey!"
"Awww, I didn't know ya cared!"
She recognized the voice instantly. "Gah! YOU!?"
Cyclonus cackled in his annoying voice. "I knew you'd come around t' me, Sweetie!" He exclaimed as he brought the femme into a stranglehold, his arms around her neck. He reached over, and punched in a code on his warp controller. With an outcry of shock, Caitlin and Cyclonus were gone.
Hotshot had made it to the edge of the cliff just in time to catch this. Turning back around, he threw his head back. "OPTIMUS! SCAVENGER! REDALERT! ANYONE?!" He called through the fog. The only one there was the stunned and battered Wheeljack, who was still slumped down against that shattered boulder. Sideswipe came speeding up, having finished his little bout with Demolisher.
"Hotshot! What is it?! What's up?!"
"Caitlin! Cyclonus took Caitlin!"
"NO! SIS! HE CAN'T!"
Hotshot growled. "And we can't get to the 'con's base! Primus knows what he's gonna try to do to her!"
Wheeljack just listened, thoughtful. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he started to miss the camaraderie…Gritting his teeth from the pain in his chest from the strike that femme had given him, he reached down to his wrist and activated the warp drive. The Autobots were going to win this mission as usual… Silently, he returned to the moon base.
After the fight ended, and the Decepticons had retreated, Optimus and the others gathered back up quickly. Hotshot and Sideswipe were the last to show, and told them the story: Cyclonus had kidnapped Caitlin.
Scavenger grimaced with contempt. His student, no, his friend, had been abducted… she only knew so much about fighting. This worried him, but made him angry as well. "We HAVE to go after her, Prime," He said quickly. "Who knows what that demented helicopter has in store for her…"
"But the warp gates are closed…" Blurr added in frustration. "There's no way we could reach the moon…."
"But we can't just leave her there! If we lost her again… I don't know what I'd do!" Sideswipe reasoned, his emotions taking control. He just couldn't let his 'sister' go without a fight.
Optimus thought, sighing heavily. "You prove valid points…but I don't think all hope is lost…she may surprise us yet."
"You can't be serious, Optimus!" Scavenger started. "She's improving her skills, yes, but the chances of her making it back…"
"Hm…First we're heading back to base. After that we'll convene on this further…"
"Slaggit… we can't just let the kiddo go…" Smokescreen muttered, Hotshot overhearing and nodding in agreement.
But Optimus heard this as well. "Believe me, we are not going to leave Caitlin behind by any means. If we have to storm their base………so be it."
TBC
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DMK: …ooh, bless my habits of writing cliffhangers… ^^'' I just couldn't resist. And sorry this one's short… next one'll be better, I swear. So for the time being, have fun and REVIEW! I'M ALMOST AT 100!!! YAY ME!