Chapter Two – A Choice

Two vorns later.


The two-wheeler ducked under a low pipe, pausing underneath. He crouched, listening.

All was quiet.

Too quiet.

Frowning, the mechling stayed where he was. He'd already dealt with any cameras in the area of the building he would be in. So, unless someone had fixed them, there was no way he'd been spotted.

And how could someone have seen him enter in the first place.

Maybe he was overthinking things.

Still, you couldn't afford to be careless. This was a dangerous game to play. If you got caught, in best case scenario, you were offlined on sight.

Opening an internal comm, Nitro stayed put, watching and listening.

"What is it?"

Nitro could imagine that the gladiator was not impressed.

Too bad for Razordrift.

"Something's off. It's too quiet in here," Nitro replied.

"What do you want me to do about it? Fly over there and cause some trouble?"

Grimacing, Nitro rolled his optics. "You know what? Never mind. I'll figure it out myself."

"That's what you were sent to do."

Disconnecting the comm, the two-wheeler stealthily crept back the way he'd come. Keeping his senses alert, he went as fast as possible, helm low as to not hit it against the low ceiling.

Lucky he was still short for his age. Otherwise it would be much harder to move around down there.

Under the floor of the factory, there were all the building's inner workings. It was basically like another floor, except the ceiling was a lot lower and it was filled with pipes and electrical cables. There was room to move about, but it was designed for maintenance by opening sections in the floor or sending minicons down.

A tight squeeze in some spaces for even Nitro.

Pausing under a grate in the floor above, the grey and blue listened.

Still nothing.

"Where are the night guards?" Nitro thought.

They must be elsewhere. Perhaps congregating in the break room or something. It wasn't the shift change yet.

Nitro shrugged, then moved around the grate, looking out. Seeing no one, he cautiously opened it and climbed out onto the main floor.

No mecha to be seen.

Smirking, the thief quickly moved on down the hall.

It simply was too easy some offcycles.

In the vorns he'd been doing this, Nitro had noticed something.

Some mecha were careful, others were not. Some were just plain stupid and basically handed him the stuff he was there for.

Nitro still wasn't sure how he liked stealing, but the pay was good. Better than living on the streets by himself.

Not that that would be a problem anymore.

By now, Nitro was a formidable opponent, having been trained by Razordrift as his apprentice. He still couldn't beat the gladiator, but had won almost every single fight with anyone else he'd fought from their group.

He'd even gotten the best of Roadrage a few times, earning the mech's respect.

What little respect Roadrage had for mecha that is.

Entering the room he wanted, Nitro quickly took stock of what was there. Too bad either Torque, Roadrage, or one of the others wasn't here. They could take a lot more than him.

Nonetheless, Nitro carefully loaded his subspace pockets with what he could and left.

He'd gotten what he'd come for. Now it was time to make his exit.

Which proved to be just as easy as entering. The guards turned out to indeed be neglecting their duties and didn't notice him walk right by the open doorway.

"Pathetic," the two-wheeler thought. Letting himself out into the yard, he scanned the surrounding area.

Two guards, actually doing their job, kept watch by the front gate.

Likely two were at the back as well.

Swiftly moving along the wall of the building, keeping to the shadows, Nitro headed towards the side of it.

Reaching the fence, he took one more look. The guards hadn't spotted him.

As agile as a cybercat, the mechling climbed up the fence. He'd already cut the power to the electric field when he'd come in.

Perching on top of the high fence, Nitro paused again. Gazing upwards, he searched the sky.

No stars. Just like most offcycles.

"I could leave this offcycle. Head to Kaon or somewhere. Anywhere other than here," he thought, keeping a sharp audio out as he considered. "No one would know. Not until I was far away, too far to find."

In the past, Nitro would persuade himself to return because Gadget was still there. The mechling wanted to take the inventor with him when he left.

It was the least he could do for the mech who'd basically taken care of him as long as he'd been with the group.

Razordrift had taught him to fight. Roadrage had taught him to hunt. Gadget had taught him everything else.

Now, Gadget was gone.

There was nothing he could have done about it. There was nothing worth going back for now.

Nitro couldn't care less about anyone else. He knew he could make use of his skills elsewhere. In the Underworld, you could easily get a job if you were good.

And even though he was young, Nitro was good.

"So, what's stopping me?"

Firming his expression, Nitro readied himself to leap off of the fence.

A noise from behind made him pause.

"The guards."

They were good, being fairly quiet in their approach. It was the two from the front by the direction they were coming.

Nitro frowned, staying still and pretending he hadn't heard them. He must have been more visible than he thought.

Chuckling lowly, he tilted his helm slightly to hear better. "I suppose perching on top of a fence in plain view doesn't exactly count as hiding. At least offline mechs don't talk."

When the two guards were in range, Nitro spun to face them, picking two flat sphere-like objects from his waist as he did. In a quick, fluid motion, he leapt from the fence, throwing his weapons. As they flew, the circular objects' deadly spikes emerged.

The guards, surprised by the thief's sudden movement, froze.

Their mistake was fatal.

The spiked throwing stars hit their mark perfectly, imbedding in their victims' chest plates. The mechs fell to the ground with a cry of pain, dropping their weapons.

Nitro landed silently on the ground. He sauntered towards the fallen mechs, looking them over.

The smaller of the two was already offline, his armour was lighter, allowing the weapon to penetrate his spark.

The thief simply pulled his throwing star out of the already greying frame. A grim smile on his faceplate, he turned his full attention to the other guard.

The larger one was still online, attempting to pull the throwing star out. His hand was covered in energon, both from the wound in his chest and new ones on his hands from the protruding spike.

"Need some help getting that out?" asked Nitro, standing over the mech. With a dark, sharp-dentaed smile, the mechling lifted his servo. Pressing a small button on the side of his wrist guard with a digit, he swung his servo outwards.

The guard cried out in pain as the throwing star first imbedded deeper, then ripped out the side of his chassis.

It then, covered in energon, returned to Nitro's waiting hand. Releasing the button, the mechling caught the weapon, now with it's spikes folded in.

"Now," Nitro said, bending to pick up the guards' weapons. "I must leave. Thank you for the pistols."

With that, the mechling attached the handguns to his waist and ran off, leaving the two offline guards where they had fell.

Running away from the factory, Nitro made a decision. He stopped, looking in the direction of headquarters, the place that had been his home for just over two vorns.

He smiled darkly. It had never really been his home.

Time to figure out where home, and freedom, really was.

With a mock salute down the street, Nitro transformed into his motorcycle alt mode. He sped off into the offcycle, quickly leaving the sector behind. Sector after sector he drove through, until he'd left Slaughter City altogether.

In the middle of the broken road, the young mechling rose up on one tire and spun, letting out a wild whoop of joy.

He'd done it. He'd finally left his life behind.

Nitro was free.


Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave any comments you may have, I'd love to hear what you think. :)