Chapter 9: The Cheaters
The racers finally ended up racing towards the first bridge in Tarn. Jazz had gotton in control of the dirt racing but was hoping it would end soon. However, Bumblebee and Cliffjumper were catching up and dust was blowing all over them. The dust began to circle the trio making it hard to see. Jazz was able to see the bridge ahead and screeched to a stop.
"Race ends here guys!" Jazz announced. "...Guys?"
Bumblebee and Cliffjumper couldn't hear Jazz over their own engines and Bumblebee accidently sideswiped Jazz making them both spin out. Cliffjumper accidently ended up T-boning Jazz into spinning out again. Jazz lost control and was spinning towards a cliff. He transformed and scraped the ground with his claws desperate to stop. Jazz ended up falling off the cliff but clung to edge. His claws dug deep into the ground.
"AHH! BUMBLEBEE HELP!" Jazz cried not trying to look down.
Bumblebee and Cliffjumper ran over to help. Now the fall down wasn't that much. The least damage Jazz could do was heavily dent himself, but it wouldn't be critical. But Jazz didn't care, he dug deeper into the edge of the cliff while Bumblebee held out a hand.
"Take my hand!" Bumblebee said.
"Are you sure?" Jazz panicked.
"Trust me, I will not let go of you!" Bumblebee said with a serious look.
Cliffjumper watched with worry. He nearly killed Jazz. Jazz then remembered when he first lifted Bumblebee out of the garbage can, they were nearly in the same situation. Jazz reached for Bumblebee's hand and grabbed it tightly. Bumblebee then noticed the edge of the cliff was nearly giving away. A few rocks ripped off and plunged down only to break into pieces. Bumblebee pulled, Jazz was a lot heavier than he looked. Cliffjumper joined in and grabbed Jazz's other hand. In one hard pull, Jazz landed safely on the ground. He stayed on all fours for a few seconds before laying on his back. Then as if on cue, little parts of the cliff gave away and fell down to the next ledge.
"Thank you guys!" Jazz said trying to collect himself.
"No problem, but I'm sorry I nearly got you killed!" Cliffjumper said.
"It was all the dust...no prob!" Jazz said dusting himself off.
"Nice win Bee! You should come to the Tarn Night City Street Race tonight!" Cliffjumper said.
"This place has street races?" Bumblebee's optics beamed with interest.
"Yeah, me and a few others are joining, you two should compete, anyone can!" Cliffjumper said.
"What do you think Jazz? It is city racing, not dirt!" Bumblebee offered.
"Of course I'm in! Anything to get away from this cliff!" Jazz said as they transformed and raced away to the city.
All that day while Cliffjumper was showing them around, Sideways was busy being trained by Barricade. So far they have taught him how to drift, handle speed, and jumping over obstacles. Now Barricade needed to teach him how to use nitrous. Sideways was given 3 cans to start off with. Barricade guided him to an old abandoned street where Sideways used to test out the extra speed. He zoomed down the street with the nitrous making flames shoot out from his exhaust pipes. He got to a turn and turned left hard as the nitrous propelled him fowards. He left long skid marks in the process. After 3 laps around the street, he returned to Barricade very proud of himself.
"Phew, good run!" Sideways said transforming and walking up to Barricade.
"Yeah, you know, I think you're ready!" Barricade smirked.
"Already? It's only been a day!" Sideways said.
"No, I mean I think your ready for the Tarn Night Street Race. It's something going on tonight, in the middle of town. You should compete, I am!" Barricade said.
"Wow, my very first official street race, oh Bumblebee is going to be so jealous!" Sideways smirked. "I'll try it!"
Little did they know, Brawl and Onslaught were listening from nearbye. That night, many citizens in Tarn were all gathered in the middle of town. The streets were big and seemed like it had a nice road. Many available places for fans to stand and watch. The race didn't start for about 10 more minutes which gave the racers time to talk. Sideways was busy talking to Barricade and Warpath when Bumblebee and Jazz walked nearbye. Then it all happened at once, Sideways looked at them...and they look at Sideways.
"Jazz? Bumblebee?" Sideways said.
"Sideways?" Jazz said.
"You guys actually followed me all the way here?" Sideways asked.
"Yeah, we were worried!" Jazz said lifting up his visor showing tears threatening the come down.
Sideways hugged him while the others watched.
"I'm okay Jazz, everything's fine!" Sideways assured.
"I'm so glad to see you again." Jazz said.
"So you're Bumblebee?" Warpath asked as he and Barricade walked over.
"Yeah, dirt champ of Kaon!" Bumblebee said.
"I've been wanting to meet you!" Barricade said.
"Really? You have?" Bumblebee said in surprise.
"Yeah, I want to challenge to a race!" Barricade smirked and flexed his claws.
"You do? When?" Bumblebee asked.
"Tonight, after this race!" Barricade said.
"Okay sure, I've been needing to stretch my wheels, besides, I just beat Cliffjumper in a Tarn drag race." Bee said.
"YOU DID? THAT MAKES YOU CHAMP OF DIRT RACING IN TARN! KA-POW!" Warpath said in shock.
"I believe I can handle a dirt racer like you!" Barricade smirked.
"Alright then, you're on!" Bee said.
A few minutes later it was time for the race to start. The racers got into place and revved their engines. Sideways couldn't believe he was really doing this! As the light turned green they all raced away. Barricade and Cliffjumper were ahead of the others. Bumblebee was catching up, his experience on the streets was all coming back into his processor. The turns looked easy to go through. Jazz loved it and dramatically drifted around them. Sideways was actually feeling good as he raced at full speed. He caught up with Cliffjumper who sped up a bit. Barricade held the lead and looked through his side mirrors to see Sideways trying to catch up. They all entered a curve that had a few bumps in the road. Barricade nearly lost balance as he hit a bump, Cliff and Bee had no problem since they were used to it. Sideways and Jazz used high jumps and quick-thinking turning to avoid them. A tunnel was up ahead and they zoomed in. Their engines echoed throughout the long tunnel as they desperately tried to get in the lead. Bumblebee used the same trick he used on Prowl and drifted down blocking Jazz and two other racers that were in the race. Sideways loved tunnels and for some reason they gave him more speed, he sped past Cliff to come tied with Barricade. Once the tunnel ended, they ended up going onto a dirt road.
"Oh yes!" Bumblebee said as he purposely threw up a bunch of dust.
Sideways was using every move Bee taught him giving him 1st place. Barricade was shocked and was determined to win. But Sideways had other plans, he blocked Barricade's path and took very tight turns quickly. He paced himself and tried not to waste all of his energy. The fans waited nearly impatiently when they could see the racers coming up fast. Sideways couldn't believe he was going to win his first race. Barricade and Bumblebee were catching up, which is when Sideways activated his nitrous and raced past the finish line receiving wild cheers from the crowd. Sideways screeched to a halt and transformed.
"I WON! I ACTUALLY WON!" Sideways said.
All his training had paid off! The other racers came over to talk to him.
"Sideways, that was an amazing win!" Barricade said.
"We're proud of ya!" Jazz said.
"That was impressive!" Bumblebee said.
"Good going kid!" Cliffjumper said.
Sideways was now too embarrased to say anything else as he looked towards the crowd. He happened to notice Warpath, Bombshell, Shrapnel, Kickback, Swindle, Blast Off and Vortex in the stands also cheering him on. Sideways was surprised but he waved. But now he was worried, where was Brawl and Onslaught? Later that night, Jazz and Bumblebee had decided to stick around and find a hotel, Sideways was busy walking around trying to find Barricade's house. Barricade wanted to talk to him about future training. He walked down one street, a saw it was only a little bit of light. He got scared, he hoped the Insecticons wouldn't try and scare him again. That's when he felt like someone was watching him. He walked nervously down the street while tapping his claws together slowly. He heard strange sounds of metal being tossed around or kicked.
"Insecticons is that you? It's not funny!" Sideways said looking around.
But no one answered back! He then felt a tap on his shoudler, he turned around only to meet a metal fist to the face blinding him for a few seconds. He staggered back nearly falling. He rubbed his mouth where energon was leaking from. He saw two mechs in front of him.
"Aw did that hurt?" One of them teased.
The voice belonged to Brawl. Sideways went wide-opticed when Brawl and Onslaught came closer!
"Going somewhere?" Onslaught asked.
"Ugh, can't you guys leave me alone for once?" Sideways said very annoyed.
"Why should we?" Brawl said and landed another punch into Sideways' face again.
Sideways yelped when the fist had crashed into his right optic. Static buzzed through it before clearing up back to normal. Sideways was still standing but not for long. Onslaught grabbed Sideways' head, bent him down, and punched him in the chest bringing the poor mech down.
"What's wrong runt? I thought you were supposed to be a tough winner!" Onslaught teased as he and Brawl got on their knees to torture Sideways.
Sideways spat out some energon and coughed.
"Leave...me...alone!" Sideways pleaded through grunts.
"We will when we decide to!" Brawl said and sunk his claws into Sideways' chest.
Brawl dragged his claws down the chest earning cries from Sideways. Sideways had began to have tears pour from his optics and drip on the road.
"Hey Brawl, pop his tires!" Onslaught said.
"With pleasure!" Brawl said as he took his claws and stabbed all four of Sideways tires and they all flattened.
Onslaught then moved closer to Sideways' face.
"We saw your little win at that race! You think you're so special! That was pathetic!" Onslaught said. "You don't belong on tracks!"
That was all Onslaught said before he raised a fist getting ready to knock him out. Sideways winced as the fist came crashing down on his face and blacking out instantly. But before he lost all of his conscious, he thought he heard Brawl and Onslaught being attacked by what sounded like Barricade and Warpath. He could hear Warpath's habitual sound effect noises. Then everything went black. At a nearbye hotel, Jazz and Bumblebee were sharing a room and weren't expecting the call they recieved. Jazz recieved a comm. link from Barricade.
"Hello...what...WHAT...ARE YOU KIDDING ME...THOSE SLAGGERS, I'LL BE RIGHT OVER!" Jazz growled and jumped off his bed.
"What happened?" Bumblebee asked seeing Jazz in a seething rage.
"BRAWL AND ONSLAUGHT BEAT UP SIDEWAYS...AGAIN!" Jazz growled.
"WHAT?" Bumblebee yelled and jumped off his bed. "LET'S GO!"
The two raced out of the hotel and towards the old building. They decided to take a shortcut that seemed to be dangerous.
"Are you sure this is a good path? It doesn't look safe!" Bumblebee said hitting a few bumps.
"Relax, what can go wrong?" Jazz asked.
Suddenly Jazz ran into a gate that could barely be seen. He skidded out and Bumblebee began to panic.
"Jazz you okay?" Bee asked.
"I can't gain control!" Jazz yelled as he accidently rammed into another gate but was sent downwards.
"JAZZ!" Bumblebee yelled and followed him.
The two ended up falling into a deep dark underground cave! The cave was huge and seemed to have many passageways. Jazz still couldn't get in control as he ended up drifting the entire time. Bumblebee decided to try drifting too. They ended up seperating and they entered two different tunnels.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!" They both screamed as they both continued sliding around the slippery areas.
There were turns, drops and ramps everywhere. They spun, drifted and slid their way through. There were no supports so nothing could stop them. Finally they came to a path where they both could meet, only to end up smashing into each other. This stopped them right at the entrance to a secret area where they were very shocked about...
To be continued...
What did they find? Where is Sideways? Will Jazz and Bumblebee find their way back? Find out in the next chapter! But I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review!