Ch. 69

Bulkhead peeked slowly out of the lift and sighed softly, walking out. How was he going to tell the rest of the team? How was he going to explain what happened? Starscream was dead. He had come to save him and now he was dead. The green mech frowned. Why couldn't he have just listened that morning?

Bulkhead sighed again far more heavily. He would be talking to Optimus about this for a while yet, he was sure.

"Keep up, would you?! We don't have time to drag our peds!"

"Well, sorry, Mr. Grumpy Heels. It's not my fault you can feel when they die."

"That's three now! Three! You have no idea what it feels like!"

Bulkhead saw an intersection some distance in front of him and coming right at him was Knockout and not one, but TWO Starscreams. He gawked, stumbling as he ran forward.

"Starscream?!" he hollered, "STARSCREAM?!"

Both seekers paused and Starscream grumbled, covering his blue optics, "Oh Primus, is he covered in a clone's energon?"

Blue nodded, "Why yes he is. Look out."

The green mech grabbed the two of them up, squeezing tight, "I don't know how- I thought you were- you're alive!"

Both seekers growled and struggled to pull away, Blue snarling, "Yes! He is! Now put me down and hug HIM! HE'S the original!"

Starscream gasped, glaring, "You traitor!"

Bulkhead complied, letting Blue go to hug Starscream, "I thought you were dead! I thought you died because of me!"

"He could be if we don't get out of here!" came a response from another direction of the intersection; it was Red, running quickly, "Yellow died down a level and Megatron killed Green and Orange; he's on his way now, we have to go!"

Red almost bumped into Soundwave as the mech came from another side of the intersection and the seeker halted, pointing lightly, "Oh, well, it seems I've found Soundwave. Can we go NOW?"

Starscream growled and nodded, pointing back at the lifts Bulkhead had come from as the green mech finally set him down, "We'll use those lifts, they'll put us closest to the exit."

Red was the first down the hall, a blaster out and ready, but as the lift doors opened he was met with Megatron's glowing and charged cannon, a blast hitting him right in the chest plate. Starscream doubled over and turned with a scream, clutching his chest plate in pain, and Bulkhead grabbed him up again.

Knockout saw the warlord's optics lock on them and he yelled out, turning, "Other way! Run the other way!"

Blue and Bulkhead followed closely, Soundwave silently upset that his plan to make this look like a kidnapping had failed, and ran behind them, the group piling into the lift Red had come from, the doors closing uncomfortably.

"We are so dead!" Knockout whined.

"We won't be if you shut up!" Blue warned.

Bulkhead set Starscream down again, "So what, we're just going to fly our way out of here?"

Starscream nodded, panting as he growled, "That's the plan..."

"Soundwave: unable to carry large amounts of weight."

Knockout reached into his leg plating, pulling out his ground bridge remote, "This isn't working right. If we could use it now, that would be great."

"Not in an enclosed space, you don't!" Starscream warned, "We can try mine if Megatron doesn't beat us to the flight deck first."

"Soundwave: in need of carrier."

Bulkhead yelped when he felt the normally silent mech's digits tugging on his chest plating, "Gah! Get him off, what is he doing?!"

Knockout chuckled, "He needs you to be a pack mule. Open up, big boy, it's nothing I haven't seen before."

"Really Knockout?!" Blue snarled, the green mech's chest plating opening at the top, "This is really not the time for innuendos!"

The red mech laughed, even if he was glaring, "There is always time for innuendos! Now PUSH!"

Soundwave and Knockout pushed the blue mech's case into Bulkhead's open chest plate, the green mech yelping, "Wait, why am I doing this?!"

"Soundwave: collected pertinent Decepticon logs and data. Bulkhead: adequate vessel for storing said logs and files."

Bulkhead helped them shove the protective case in, panting when it finally landed inside, "Oh... good... So they are important."

"Everyone, quiet!" Starscream ordered, transforming a servo into a blaster, "Lift opens... now."

The lift stopped and the doors opened, releasing the five mechs just outside the flight deck doors. Each of them scrambled out, running hard, and Knockout dove for the doors first, opening them.

"Now what?!" he asked, looking out into the sky.

Starscream pointed at Soundwave, pulling Bulkhead closer to the edge of the ship, "You get on Soundwave. He'll at least be able to keep you in the air long enough for us to find a suitable landing site."

Knockout grimaced, "You mean 'crash'!"

Blue growled, "We'll be fine! Starscream and I will have to carry Bulkhead together! We don't have any other options!"

A loud cannon shot fired into the air and Starscream turned, shuddering when Megatron's red optics locked with his blue ones.

The warlord roared loudly, "YOU!"

The seeker didn't need to hear anything else. With a hard shove, he pushed Knockout, Bulkhead and Blue over the side, he and Soundwave diving after them.