Ch. 44
The next thing Starscream felt was his chains moving. It startled him from recharge and he groaned at the loud noise of the crane that held him as he was hung next to Bumblebee, the pair of mechs looking more like wall ornaments now than battle hardened soldiers. The yellow mech beside him whimpered at the noise and beeped, asking what time it was.
Starscream sighed and saw light peeking in from small spaces between the metal walls, "Morning at least. So it's been at least twelve hours..."
Bumblebee looked over at him and beeped again, asking if he was still in pain.
The seeker did his best to shrug, "My helm's fine. For now. But if they don't put us down, our shoulder sockets are going to tear before the rest of us goes," he growled.
The scout whirred gently in agreement.
Silas walked into the building with his hands folded behind his back, "A tear in your joints? That wouldn't be good. Rest assured, we're looking to rectify the problem."
A large truck with an even larger piece of metal mounted on the back rolled in and MECH troops began to unload it, guiding it into place on long girders.
Starscream glared; that's why he had been moved. They were quickly scrapping together a makeshift berth for him to lie on and be tortured. The seeker tugged hard on his chains, trying to get his peds to touch the floor. Silas almost chuckled, amused.
"It's good to see you're not damaged from last night's mishap," he smirked, "I was worried when the guards saw you fall limp in the early hours of the morning. We thought something had broken your hardware and that you'd become useless to our endeavors."
Starscream hissed lowly, "I'm going to kill you, Silas. I'm going to hold you down and gouge my talons into your body and rip you in half!"
The man laughed loudly, "I hardly think so! You're in no position to escape, let alone cause any of us harm. By tonight, we'll be ready to start a preliminary and exploratory cavity excavation. And I'll even be kind about the situation; you two get to pick who goes first."
Silas turned and walked out, leaving the silver mech to scowl, "Inferior pest! How dare he-"
The seeker stopped in his rant when he heard Bumblebee whimper, chirping softly that he wanted to go first. Starscream's optics widened, more soft chirps coming from the scout's synthesizer. He told the seeker that if they cut open his chassis, then at least the silver mech could tell them what was important and what wasn't as such. It would stop them from accidentally killing him. He couldn't do the same for Starscream.
The seeker growled loudly, nudging the scout the best he could, "Quiet, just wait..." there were maybe two or three MECH guards in the room and Starscream lowered his voice as much as he could, "Look... I'll admit, I do know a few more things. Not the way I told Optimus. But I do. I know you get out of this just fine. Me? Not too sure. But don't you dare sacrifice yourself for me. These humans, these... pests? They're nothing. And as soon as they let their guards down, I will end them. What Silas is planning? What he wants to do? I'm not going to let him. So pick your chin up and try to swing over to me as lightly as you can. My talons can't reach the top of my chains, but they might be able to reach yours..."
Bumblebee looked at the seeker then up at the chains. Starscream wasn't that much taller than the scout, but his arms were longer, which meant the slack he had above him was minimal and the crane was as high as it could go. Bumblebee looked down and saw their peds had an equal amount of distance from the ground. Bumblebee's crane was holding him lower.
The scout chirped softly, swinging enough to make it look like he was testing his bonds again as he asked Starscream if he thought it would work.
The seeker shook his helm, near whispering, "I'm not sure. But if I can get even a link on your chains undone, I think you could easily manage the rest."
Bumblebee whirred that he would do everything he could to make sure the both of them got away. He swung again and winced a little, looking up to see that Starscream's claws were just able to touch his chains. It was up to the seeker now.
Starscream picked quietly at the metal, holding in a scowl when he saw the angle he was at along with how little force he could apply. This was going to take a while.
Bumblebee picked up on the seeker's distress and asked what was wrong. Starscream didn't respond, grunting in pain as he tried to twist his wrist to get more leverage. The scout beeped again, telling him not to hurt himself. The yellow mech looked up to see the problem and whirred, telling the seeker to work slowly.
Starscream frowned, muttering, "Why would I do that?"
Bumblebee beeped again, saying that if MECH wouldn't be ready until late, that they should make their escape at night, in the dark. They'd suspect less of them during the day and it would be easier to hide at night.
The seeker sighed and relaxed, tapping gently at the chains in a nonchalant way as he picked them apart, "Very well... Let's see how this goes."
The scout's optics brightened gently; he almost cooed that it would be fine. If Starscream could tell him that, then Bumblebee could tell the seeker the same.
It had been a long day. The seeker could blearily see through tired optics as the first delivery of supplies came through; three enormous monitors. He scowled. All they needed were the computers, the adaptor, the coding and the cortical patch cord. And from what he could hear outside, something else was being delivered already. They couldn't wait much longer.
Starscream looked up to assess his work. He'd been tapping lightly all day. If there wasn't at least some damage to the chains by now, then this would never work and he and Bumblebee would be tortured. The seeker weakly looked up and saw a give in the heavy chains. This was it.
He nudged the yellow mech lightly, stirring him from recharge, "Hey, enough rest."
The scout focused his optics and beeped, asking if it was time.
"Almost," Starscream nodded, "I'll have to take a risk, but I know you can handle it. They just have to put down-"
"Oh don't worry," Silas interrupted, "we'll be putting one of you down now. Have you chosen which will be our first vivisection volunteer?"
Bumblebee glared and whirled loudly, thrashing. The seeker scowled down at the man, baring his dentals.
Silas hummed, "Since the yellow one has decided to make the most noise, I suppose he'll be our first test subject. I'm sure you don't mind, Starscream."
Starscream roared as he kicked out, "Don't you dare, Silas! Stop this now!"
The man ignored him and pointed to a couple of techs, "You two. Move the yellow one to the slab. Make sure he's prepped."
Bumblebee whimpered. The seeker didn't have anymore time now. With a great heave and hard jerk, he lashed his claws down as hard as he could manage onto Bumblebee's chains. A link snapped, dropping him, and the yellow mech tore his servos free, quickly transforming them into blasters and firing down upon the MECH soldiers. Starscream's crane teetered and he fell forward, landing on his bound peds. The seeker couldn't do much as Bumblebee provided cover fire, lighting the place up in hot plasma, but he wrenched hard and swung the crane, using it to block the entrance into the warehouse.
Silas snarled, "Regroup, regroup!" he ordered, "Get them back under control!"
Bumblebee grabbed Starscream's arms and pulled him free, the two diving, more tripping, behind the metal slab that had finally been assembled. They tore at the chains around their peds and the yellow mech beeped, asking what they should do next.
The seeker pointed behind them, at the metal wall, "I say we use the back way."
The two aimed at the wall, Starscream transforming out his blasters, and fired rapidly, the wall blowing over easily. The pair took off as fast as they could, dodging electrical pulses and jumping over MECH cars and trucks.
Silas ripped a gun from one of his soldiers, aiming carefully out the hole in the wall, "Do I have to do everything myself?!" he checked his aim again then fired, the electrical pulse just missing Starscream's legs and hitting Bumblebee in the upper back.
The yellow mech wailed and fell but was grabbed up by the seeker before he could hit the dirt. This wasn't good. Starscream couldn't drag Bumblebee around and expect to get away. The stasis effect only lasted a couple minutes, but that's all MECH needed. Those precious couple minutes.
The seeker hissed as he threw the yellow mech up the best he could and transformed, the chassis falling on top of him as he flew. The weight kept him low to the ground and caused a drag, but it was better than trying to run. Starscream heard Silas yell angrily to ready the helicopters, but the silver mech knew that wasn't going to work.
"Inferior vehicles!" he cackled, the MECH base becoming a dot behind him, "They could never catch up with me, and I'm carrying dead weight!"
An alarm in his CPU sounded and he grimaced, checking the message: energon at eleven percent; suggest refill.
Starscream scowled. They hadn't been refueled by MECH and they had been captured for almost a day. He flew lower and shuddered when he realized how bad this could get. He and Bumblebee would have to walk and if they couldn't get a message out for help, they would both be captured again.