Chapter 8: Wrangle Drops A Bombshell
Meanwhile, Hot Shot was still chasing Wrangle and the twins. They had managed to make it out of the Academy's doors and had reached the shoreline.
"Faster, you fools!" Wrangle barked. "He's gaining on us!"
The twins looked back and saw Hot Shot quickly gaining speed. Hot Shot's intimidatingly fierce expression showed that he was not playing games with them and was hellbent on paying them out for what they did to him and his friends, especially Whirl.
"You can run, but you can't hide!" Hot Shot yelled. "When I get through with you, you're gonna wish you never came out of the Well of All Sparks!"
"Boy, he sure is mad..." said Rippounder.
"You think?!" hissed Blitzkrieg. "He looks ready to kill someone, and that "someone" might just be us!"
Suddenly, Wrangle, who was so focused on escaping from Hot Shot's wrath that he didn't think to watch where he was going, tripped and fell flat on his face. The twins ran right past him.
"Wait up, guys!" Wrangle cried as he tried to get up.
Unfortunately, Hot Shot proved to be faster, and he soon came upon the young Decepticon, who managed to look up at Hot Shot. He could clearly see the anger in Hot Shot's optics that was quickly boiling over.
"Hot Shot, buddy, chill!" Wrangle pleaded. "We can just talk about this!"
"After all the shit you just put me and my friends through, you have the gall to try and get me to just talk it over?!" Hot Shot snarled. "I don't fragging think so! You got my girlfriend expelled, and I'm going to make you pay for it!"
Hot Shot then punched Wrangle right in the mouth, so hard that he actually managed to draw Energon.
"Oh, so that's how you want to play, huh?" Wrangle sneered. "Well! Then I guess I'll just have to play that way too!"
Wrangle then kicked Hot Shot in the leg, causing the latter to fall down.
"Come on, wimp!" Wrangle commanded as he stood up. "Get up and fight like a real Autobot!"
"Gladly..." said Hot Shot as he himself stood up.
Hot Shot then delivered a jab to Wrangle's head, but Wrangle dodged, then put up his arms in a defensive position.
"Surely you can do better than that!" Wrangle taunted.
Hot Shot let out an angry shout as he grabbed Wrangle by the leg and threw him to the ground. Then, he pounced on Wrangle, and soon, the two bots were enganged in a violent scuffle, throwing punches at each other and rolling around on the sand.
"Whirl was right about you all along!" Hot Shot growled. "You're nothing by a slimy, filthy, rust-ridden, no-good lying Decepticon! Why did you do all this?! Tell me right now!"
"That bitch got what was coming to her!" Wrangle replied. "She got me expelled from Police Academy! She made a fool out of me in front of all my friends! I lost all my friends because of her! I wanted revenge!"
"Oh, that's what all this is about, huh?" scoffed Hot Shot. "Revenge for what happened so long ago? Well, maybe if you wouldn't have forced my girlfriend to do all your assignments for you and would have just done it all by your damn self, Whirl wouldn't have had such a problem with you! It's your own damn fault you got expelled! She was only speaking up for herself because of you blackmailing her! Blackmailing is one thing, but framing her for stealing such a precious artifact like the Matrix of Leadership and getting her expelled for it?! That's really crossing the line! I sure hope you're happy, you bastard, because thanks to you, I lost not only one of my best friends here, but I also lost my girlfriend!"
Blitzkrieg and Rippounder had stopped running by this point when they heard this whole thing.
"Wrangle's in trouble!" said Blitzkrieg. "We gotta help him!"
"Agreed!" nodded Rippounder.
The twins then ran over and grabbed Hot Shot by the arms. This proved to be futile, because Hot Shot managed to elbow them in their chests, causing them to fall down.
"Now, where was I?" asked Hot Shot.
Suddenly, Wrangle, who had managed to use the twins' attempt at restraining Hot Shot to his advantage, went up to Hot Shot and slugged him. Energon came out of Hot Shot's mouth as a result.
"You call yourself a fighter?" sneered Wrangle. "You can barely make a dent in me!"
"You wanna bet?" growled Hot Shot.
Hot Shot then tackled Wrangle back down to the ground, and it wasn't long before the two bots had resumed their scuffle. During this second round, however, Wrangle managed to delivery a mighty kick to Hot Shot's groin area, causing the young Autobot to topple to the ground while holding the impacted area. Then, Wrangle socked Hot Shot once in the right side of his head and once on the left.
"No...no more!" Hot Shot said weakly. "Please! I'm sorry!"
Wrangle laughed at this.
"How ironic." he said. "First you come at me and try to assault me, and now you're begging for my mercy? Typical cowardly Autobot."
"I...am not...a coward!" Hot Shot managed to say.
Hot Shot tried to swing a punch at Wrangle, but he missed, much to Wrangle's amusement.
"Not so tough now, are you?" he chuckled.
"I may not be so tough on my own right now..." said Hot Shot. "But even when your faith is as small as a mustard seed, you can still move mountains!"
"What the scrap does that mean?" asked Wrangle.
"It means that bringing you to justice is not impossible, even with my strength failing!" Hot Shot affirmed.
But Wrangle had another trick up his sleeve.
"I don't think so." he said.
Wrangle then held up a remote.
"What's that?" asked Hot Shot.
"So glad you asked." grinned Wrangle. "My friends and I have constructed and planted a bomb somewhere in your precious Academy. We had prepared for this in case our true identities as Decepticons were uncovered."
Hot Shot was mortified at this.
"Once I push this button, in one hour, everything and everyone in the Academy goes up in smoke and flames." said Wrangle. "Your mother, your father, your friends, all of them. Provided they don't get out in time."
Hot Shot's feelings had turned into a mixture of fear and anger at this news.
"You're insane, Wrangle!" he growled. "You're only adding more to your growing rap sheet! Besides, since my dad and his team know the truth about you and your two buddies, it's only a matter of time before they tell Optimus Prime about it!"
In response, Wrangle just gave Hot Shot a snide look and pressed the button on the remote. A small screen on the remote that was displaying a timer immediately began counting down.
"I have initiated the countdown." he said. "That gives everyone, including you, one hour to give each other a final goodbye."
Unknown to Wrangle, Hot Shot had acted on a hunch and had his comm switched on the whole time, and everyone in the Academy was able to hear everything, and they were all shocked and afraid at the mentioning of the bomb and what Wrangle and his friends had planned to do with it.
"A bomb?!" gasped Hoist. "A bomb here in the Academy?!"
"So that's what those guys were doing!" Wedge determined.
Quickshadow lowered her head in guilt.
"I should've known better than to believe their fibs..." sighed Quickshadow.
"It doesn't matter now." Heatwave said as he put a hand on his wife's shoulder. "Right now, what does matter is that we need to find and deactivate that bomb as soon as possible!"
Laserbeak produced a sequence of squawks, and once again, Wedge translated.
"Laserbeak knows where the bomb is." he said.
"Where is it, Laserbeak?" asked Heatwave.
Laserbeak showed a holographic image of the Academy's power generator, which had the bomb right in front of it.
"Alright, we know where it is." said Heatwave. "Quickshadow, you and Chase head to the power generator and see if you can deactivate the bomb. Laserbeak, Strongarm, I want you two to go to Cybertron and present the evidence to Optimus and the High Council. The rest of you, get to the Griffin Rock Firehouse. You'll be safe there. I will contact Chief Burns and tell him what's going on."
"Got it." nodded Bumblebee.
But then, Wedge had an idea.
"Permission to go with Laserbeak and Strongarm?" he asked. "I'm not sure if the rest of the High Council know of Laserbeak's redemption, and since I'm a former Decepticon myself, I figured I'd be a good advocate for him."
Heatwave, knowing the stakes were as high as Citadel Secundus' robot mode, decided there was no time to argue with Wedge regarding his request.
"Permission granted, Wedge." he said. "Once you're done, meet me and everyone else at the Firehouse. Now go!"
"Yes, sir!" nodded Wedge.
With that, Wedge raced to the Space Bridge with Strongarm and Laserbeak while Quickshadow and Chase took off for the power generator and everyone else started making their way to the Ground Bridge after Heatwave contacted Chief Burns and notified him of the situation.
"I just hope it's not too late..." Heatwave said to himself.
End Of Chapter 8
