Chapter 4: The Crime Of The Century
Later that same day, Wrangle and the twins were in Hoist's workshop again. This time, they were rigging together six barrels to a black box-like device with wires.
"Are you really sure this is necessary, Wrangle?" asked Blinker.
"Of course I'm sure." Wrangle replied. "We gotta dispose of them somehow. Who knows what could happen if they find out the truth."
"I guess so." said Ripple. "But I still think it's a little crazy."
"Crazy, schmazy." grumbled Wrangle. "Besides, this is something Starscream would have done."
"I can see why you'd think that, seeing as you're a big fan of him and all." Blinker pointed out.
"Exactly." agreed Wrangle.
Unknown to Wrangle and his buddies, Medix happened to be outside the workshop at the time, and he had overheard everything.
"What is that strange device Wrangle and the twins are constructing?" he asked himself. "Whatever it is, I doubt their intentions with it are good. I should probably keep my distance from them."
And with that, Medix went on his way, and Wrangle and the twins soon finished their work.
"There, that should do it." said Wrangle. "Now, to hide this thing so nobody discovers it."
"Right." nodded Blinker and Ripple in unison.
Wrangle and the twins soon found a large sheet to cover what they were making, and once it was covered up, they began lugging it to their room, but on the way, they were stopped by Quickshadow, who was rather curious about the large package they were carrying.
"What's that you boys have under there?" she asked.
"It's a science project." Wrangle said to the female Rescue Bot. "We've been working on it all afternoon."
"Interesting." said Quickshadow. "Is it alright if I took a look at it?"
"No!" Wrangle quickly replied. "Not yet! It's not finished!"
Quickshadow, needless to say, was surprised and suspicious about Wrangle's reaction, but decided against questioning it.
"I see." said Quickshadow. "And you're sure you're being honest with me?"
"Yes, ma'am, totally honest." Wrangle nodded. "Cross my spark. Right, guys?"
Blinker and Ripple just nodded.
"Alright." Quickshadow said reluctantly. "If that's the case, then I suppose there is no reason I shouldn't keep you any longer. Please, be on your way."
Wrangle nodded, and he, the twins, and Quickshadow parted ways. As Quickshadow left in the direction she was going, she eyed them suspiciously.
"I better keep my optics on those three." she pondered out loud. "I have this feeling in my spark that Wrangle and his friends are not who they say they are."
Meanwhile, Wrangle and the twins arrived at their room, and they hid their so-called "science project" in a corner behind some boxes.
"That was way too close for comfort." said Blinker.
"I'll say." agreed Ripple.
"Yes, I suppose it was." finished Wrangle. "But fortunately, thanks to my superb persuasion skills, our secret remains hidden. Now, we must go into our stasis pods."
"Why?" asked Blinker.
"Because tonight is the night we finally execute the initial phase of my master plan of revenge." Wrangle replied.
"Oh, yeah." said Ripple. "The heist, right?"
"That's right." Wrangle nodded. "It is vital that we preserve our energy as much as we can if we are to successfully carry out this plan."
"Right you are, Wrangle." said Blinker. "Besides, building the you-know-what has actually tuckered me out a little."
"Yeah, me too." yawned Ripple.
"Then we must enter out stasis pods immediately." suggested Wrangle.
Wrangle then climbed into his stasis pod, and the twins followed suit. By the time they emerged from their pods, night had fallen, and all the other bots were in their stasis pods.
"The time has come." said Wrangle. "It is time to finally commence Operation Payback. Quickly! To the Space Bridge!"
With that, Wrangle and the twins made their way to the Space Bridge, but when they tried to activate it, a red "X" flashed on the console.
"What's it doing?" asked Ripple.
"Exactly what I anticipated." Wrangle replied. "The Space Bridge can only be unlocked by staff members. Fortunately, I managed to secure and memorize the security code for it."
Wrangle then punched the code in, and the flashing red "X" was immediately replaced by a non-flashing green check mark, indicating that Wrangle had put in the correct code, therefore successfully unlocking the Space Bridge.
"All too easy." Wrangle grinned wickedly.
Wrangle then keyed in some coordinates into the Space Bridge's systems, he activated the device. The two metal rings soon linked up, and the Space Bridge's blue portal generated from within. Wrangle and his friends then stepped through the portal, and soon found themselves in the streets of Iacon.
"Well, here we are in Iacon." said Blinker.
"Now what?" asked Rippled.
"Now, we need to locate the Iacon Vaults." said Wrangle. "Which shouldn't be too hard, considering how in addition to securing the layout for it, I managed to secure and record its coordinates into my navigation system. Now, let's go!"
And so, Wrangle and the twins transformed into their vehicle modes, with Wrangle's being a VTOL* jet and the twins' being generic dragster-style race cars, and took off for their destination, with Wrangle leading the way. They soon arrived and transformed back into robot mode.
"Okay, here we are." said Wrangle. "The Iacon Vaults. Now to get inside. Did you guys bring the gadgets?"
"Yep." replied Blinker as he and Ripple held up the gadgets they had Hoist build for them earlier.
"Excellent." smiled Wrangle. "Hand me the grappling hook launcher."
Ripple did just that, and Wrangle aimed the launcher upwards.
"Hold on tight, you two." he said.
Blinker and Ripple each grabbed hold of Wrangle, who then fired the launcher. They watched as the cable wrapped itself around a spire on top of the building they were standing on. This was followed by the device reeling them upwards onto the roof.
"Man, what a ride!" Ripple cried out.
"Let's do that again!" grinned Blinker.
"Patience, you two." said Wrangle. "We'll get the chance to do it again soon. For now, we must remain focused on the task at hand. Now, where's that laser cutter?"
"Here it is." said Blinker.
Blinker handed Wrangle the laser cutter, which Wrangle then used to cut a hole in the roof large enough for them to jump through. The severed portion fell to the floor below them with a loud bang. This caused the three thieves to feel uneasy.
"I hope nobody heard that." said Wrangle. "Anyway, here we go. Come on!"
"Yahoo!" cheered Blinker.
"Oh, yeah, baby, it's Crime Time!" grinned Ripple.
With that, Wrangle jumped through the hole, followed by Blinker and Ripple, and while Wrangle and Blinker managed to land on their feet, Ripple landed flat on his face.
"I screwed that up." said Ripple as he got up. "I'm okay."
"Good." said Wrangle, who then took out the layout of the Vaults. "Now, if I'm not mistaken, the room where the target is kept should be...this way."
Using the layout as a second map, Wrangle and the twins began making their way to their destination within the Vault's walls. They managed to reach the door, but just as they were about to open it, they heard the sound of hurried footsteps, followed by a voice.
"Freeze!" the voice shouted.
Wrangle and his buddies turned and saw a generic Autobot soldier aiming a Subsonic Repeater blaster at them. The soldier had been tipped off to their presence following the sound of the falling roof piece. Quickly, Wrangle took out the mind wiper and zapped the soldier with it. The solider's stoic expression immediately became more docile, and he lowered his weapon.
"What am I doing here again?" asked the soldier.
Just then, a voice came over the solider's comm.
"Unit One-Nine-Eight-Four, what's going on?" the voice asked. "Unit One-Nine-Eight-Four, do you copy?"
"Nothing, sir." the solider replied as he answered his comm. "Everything's normal. Nothing out of the ordinary."
"I see." said the voice in a slightly suspicious-sounding tone. "Carry on, and if something happens, alert us."
"Yes, sir." the solider nodded.
The solider then went on his way, as if Wrangle and the twins weren't even there.
"Well, that did the trick." said Wrangle. "Now, to open this door."
Fortunately, while the soldier was distracted, Wrangle had somehow managed to obtain the soldier's keycard right under his (the soldier's) nose, so getting the door open was an easy task. By the time the door opened, they could see the very thing they had come to steal from the Vaults, which ended up being the Matrix Of Leadership, a legendary Autobot artifact, on its rightful resting place on a stand in the center of the room, although it was being shielded by four laser gates, one on each side.
"We'll need to be careful to not make contact with any of those laser beams." Wrangle cautioned. "One wrong step and it's game over."
"Got it." said Blinker.
"But how do we do that?" asked Ripple.
"Let me think here." said Wrangle.
Wrangle then eyed his and the twins' surroundings to see what their options were. He then noticed that one of the ceiling beams appeared to be directly above the Matrix.
"Maybe I could grapple up there and see if I can grab it from above." he said. "You two stay down here and keep a lookout."
"Okie-dokie." said Blinker.
With that, Wrangle used the grappling hook to grapple up to the roof beam, and sure enough, there was the Matrix, directly below him.
"Perfect." thought Wrangle. "Now to grab it."
With that said, while the twins kept watch, Wrangle began to slowly winch himself down towards the Matrix.
"Easy does it now..." he told himself.
Before Wrangle knew it, he had managed to get himself close enough to the Matrix for him to simply grab it, but suddenly felt something as he did.
"Wow." he gasped. "It's a bit heavier than I thought."
Nevertheless, Wrangle managed to hoist himself and the Matrix out from behind the laser gates without touching any of the lasers. He was soon reunited with his accomplices.
"Well, boys, it's with great pleasure that I announce that we now have the famous Matrix of Leadership." Wrangle announced.
Blinker and Ripple reacted jubilantly to this. However, while they were cheering, Ripple accidentally backed into one of the lasers, which set off an alarm.
"Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" a computerized voice cried out.
"Dammit!" growled Wrangle.
In an instant, a squad of Autobot soldiers, excluding the one from before, armed with Subsonic Repeaters arrived. The squad's commander immediately began spewing orders.
"Shoot to wound!" he ordered. "Don't kill them!"
The troops began firing their weapons at the thieves, who immediately dashed out, taking the Matrix and their gadgets with them. Immediately, the troops began chasing their quarry while shooting.
"Way to go, Ripple!" snapped Blinker.
"It was an accident!" argued Ripple.
Just then, Wrangle had an idea, and he tossed the Matrix to Blinker.
"Get to the entry point and wait for me there!" he ordered. "I'll handle them!"
Blinker and Ripple immediately caught on and complied. While they raced further to the entry point, Wrangle stopped and turned to face his pursuers, who immediately stopped and pointed their weapons at him.
"Alright, buster, the jig is up." said the commander as he held up a pair of stasis cuffs. "You're coming with us."
"Okay." nodded Wrangle. "But before you arrest me, might I give you a little present first?"
"I suppose so." shrugged the commander. "But make it quick."
"Oh, don't worry, I promise this won't take too long." sneered Wrangle.
Wrangle then took out the mind wiper, which he then zapped the troops with. His new targets immediately began to feel its effects.
"Why are we chasing this kid again, sir?" asked one of the troops.
"I...don't know..." replied the commander.
Wrangle just laughed evilly.
"So long, suckers!" he taunted as he darted off.
The troops just watched with blank faces as they watched Wrangle run off.
"What are we even doing here?" another trooper then asked.
Meanwhile, Wrangle arrived back at the entry point and met up with the twins. Once they were reunited, they grappled back up onto the roof, then used the cable to speed-rappell back down to the ground. Once they were back on the ground, they made their way back to the Space Bridge, which they used to return to the Academy. Once they were back at the Academy, they re-locked the Space Bridge after powering it back down.
"Well, guys, we did it. Phase One is complete." said Wrangle. "Now onto Phase Two."
"If that's okay with you, Wrangle, Ripple and I are gonna hit the stasis pods again." yawned Blinker. "All that running took a lot out of us."
"Fine by me." nodded Wrangle.
And so, while Blinker and Ripple went back to theirs and Wrangle's quarters, Wrangle made his way to Whirl's quarters. After using the door controls, he quietly snuck into Whirl's quarters and placed the Matrix in the closet, then made his way out. As luck would have it, Whirl was still in her stasis pod, and therefore could not and did not hear Wrangle. As Wrangle slunk back to his and the twins' quarters, an evil smile appeared on his face.
"Prepare yourself, Whirl." he snickered wickedly. "You're in for quite a shocking surprise tomorrow."
End Of Chapter 4
VTOL=Vertical Take-Off and Landing
