A/N- Wooo, what a long time since I last posted! How are you all, my chums? Hope you are good... I am in the process of doing several bits and bobs but I hadn't forgotten about our heroes... Hope you enjoy, please review and let me know how I'm getting on!
Chapter 19
Thundercracker stalked down the halls, overseeing the work, as armour was mended and inspected, weapons cleaned… the base thrummed with energy, anticipation… and gossip. Despite his best efforts, rumours were spreading like oil slicks, about the autobot's escape, Blackout's punishment, and the human girl's disappearance. The disquiet was palpable. He heard it, saw it in their faces, as they muttered to each other…
Presently he came across Rumble, grudgingly polishing Dirge's armour. Thundercracker nodded to Dirge and passed him by, when a sneering voice at his feet made him spin round.
"So… Starscream has lost his pet then? What a shame. Perhaps now he can focus on more important things like… oh… I don't know… displaying the strength of leadership we need?"
Thundercracker growled and walked back to where Rumble was standing. "Know anything about it, Rumble? Because if you do, Starscream would like a word. Oh, and if you're concerned about our leader's capacity for strength, maybe you should speak to Frenzy."
Rumble stopped sniggering, and scowled deeply. "Where is Frenzy?"
"He's in the repair bay, having various parts re-attached," replied Thundercracker, grinning horribly. Rumble dropped the grease pot he was holding and started to walk away from them in the direction of the bay, but a blast on the floor from Thundercracker's laser stopped him dead.
"You'll continue in your duties, puny casseticon, and watch your mouth… it seems Frenzy's got him into trouble. If I have to discipline you again, it will definitely not be, as the humans say, a day at the beach. Now get back to work!"
Starscream had sat, motionless, for the past few cycles. Around him his soldiers worked industriously, not daring to approach or even glance at him. His optics blazed within a mask-like countenance, impenetrable. Were it not for them, he could have been offline.
Thundercracker entered the hall, and marched without fear up to his commander, who didn't react. He turned and motioned to the rest of the room, and they exited swiftly and silently, leaving the two seekers alone.
"Starscream," said his wingmate. "The others are beginning to grow restless, what with the escape of the prisoner, and your current… behaviour."
Starscream didn't reply or look at him, but an ugly sneer appeared on his mouth.
"For Primus' sake!" snapped Thundercracker. "This is not the time for distractions or weaknesses Starscream. Megatron could be here any Earth day now. We need to be ready. You need to lead, Starscream. You need to be an example."
When Starscream still didn't reply, he sighed and started to move off, until the jet spoke, stopping him in his tracks.
"Something that belongs to me has gone," he said, almost on the edge of hearing. "Someone has insulted me grievously."
Thundercracker turned back round, warily. Starscream still hadn't moved, his optics were narrowed but burnt fiercely like twin rubies.
"Is it not weakness to do nothing when you are insulted, Thundercracker?"
Thundercracker made no reply, and Starscream stood up. He moved over to the large screen, brushing the control panel with his fingers. The screen illuminated, showing the United Kingdom. He closed his optics, searching his processor for a few moments. Then he tilted his head, as if waiting for something.
"What are you doing?" asked Thundercracker.
Starscream smiled unpleasantly as a tiny noise could be heard inside his head. He opened his optics, and turned to Thundercracker.
"Making a call."
Sari lay across the back seat, watching the late morning sunlight play in the trees above her, as Bumblebee sped down the leafy road. They had stuck to the country, taking a meandering route up north for safety, although they had come across no one. Normally the journey would take no more than six hours, but they were being cautious, stopping often and changing direction to throw potential pursuit off the scent. It was making the journey a whole lot longer. Sari tried to feel upbeat at the thought of going north to rejoin the others, but she sighed morosely nonetheless, curling her hair around her forefinger.
"I still feel like we failed her, Bee," she said, the light and shadows playing across her face.
"We'll see her soon!" said Bumblebee. "Just you wait. We'll get help, and then all go back and kick Starscream's butt! And I'll be first in line! One plate of butt-kick to table two! I bet Alexis is just fine, if she's half the girl you say she is. You'll see."
She giggled at his unshakeable optimism. "She is. And I'll be second in line!"
"There's a town up ahead," said Bumblebee. "What do you think? Through, or around?"
She opened her mouth to reply, when a buzzing in her pocket stopped her. "My phone's ringing! Bee, it's Ali!" Bumblebee chuckled excitedly. "There you go! What are you waiting for? Answer it then!"
Sari beamed and pulled out the phone eagerly. "Ali! Hon?"
She frowned and pulled it away. "That's weird."
"What is?" Bumblebee said absently as he checked the route.
"Well… she didn't speak, she just hung up… and there was some sort of… face on the screen…"
"Mmm? What was on the screen?" Bumblebee was busy assessing the town layout, noting the main roads, potential obstacles, and available cover should they need it. Good, there was plenty, and it would really speed things up to cut through…
"I don't know… a face or something, it looked a bit like the one on your chest Bee… but different…"
Sari shrugged and lay back, then almost fell off the seats when Bumblebee stalled and swerved. "Hey! What are you playing at?"
"What… did you say it looked like?"
"A face, it was all pointy… and purple… dark purple…"
Hot Shot lay in the repair bay, his optics offline, drinking in the quiet. Inside his head though, his processor hummed and whirred, picking over the experiences of the last few hours…
He heard the door hiss and brusque metallic footsteps coming nearer, the table he was lying on vibrating ever so slightly with each foot fall. They came to a stop.
"How are you?" barked a voice above him. He smiled faintly.
"On the mend, thanks to you. It's good to be back."
He heard a grunt. "We all thought you were offline. I can only say… I'm sorry again. Sorry for abandoning you. You must have been through… Well. Like I said…"
"Forget it, really."
He heard the sound of tools above him being sorted and re-arranged, and lay in comfortable quiet as the other one bustled. After a while he spoke again.
"What did you think to the organic?"
Another grunt.
"Can't make her out. Funny little thing. Her eyes… I've found on this planet, you can tell a lot from these creatures' eyes. She seemed… Well. I can't make her out."
"She's the reason I'm back here now," said Hot Shot softly.
"Hm. I'll give her that. Other stuff about her is making my processor ache though. One little human all alone amongst hoards of stinking decepticons… Unwilling to leave the base with you…"
"She had been there a long time. And like you said, all alone. I think she had gone a bit screwy in there, that's all…" Hot Shot tried to move, but gave up, wincing at the jolt of pain shooting through his limbs.
"Huh. And all that stuff she spouted on the way up here?"
"Yeah, quite a lot to take in," Hot Shot conceded. "What did she say to you when you spoke with her?"
His companion snorted. "Not half as much as I would have liked. I found it hard not to get very annoyed. Not a peep about the decepticons, the weapon, nothing. It seems she has developed some sort of loyalty to those monsters… She just stood there, stubborn as anything, wouldn't answer my questions…"
"And her health?"
"Dehydrated and exhausted, but nothing worse." The mech above him sighed. "She's with others of her kind now. Perhaps she is just tired and will want to talk more in the morning. Thing is, time is a luxury we just don't have right now… things are heating up on this little island. I feel it in these joints of mine. I wish Prime would get here."
"You and me both…"
Starscream gave a bitter laugh as he spotted the pathetic little yellow car speeding through the small town below…. When did the autobot ever think such a conspicuous disguise would be an advantage? Such insolence… the stupidity…. It made his circuits seethe. Thundercracker's yells for him to stop still echoed in his processor… he had roared into the sky, wasting no time once he'd got the information he needed…. He had surrendered Alexis' phone, this was true, but not the number he had dialed, which was still stored in his processor...
Perhaps there was an easier way to do this… but this way he was better able to exercise his fury, and his hunger for vengeance… How dare she? How dare she….? He would show her. Time to bring the pain, and bring it hard…
It happened far too fast for Sari to register at first: A blinding flash and whining… engines roaring overhead… then a huge explosion rocked the car, the force of the blast pummelling Bumblebee's flank… She was thrown across the back seat, hitting the window, unable to see a thing as brown dust filled the air like fog, she shrieked in fright…
Bumblebee said nothing, Sari heard his accelerator roar and they gathered speed... racing through the dust, rumbling and jolting over unseen objects… She could just make out ghost-like outlines of buildings through the windows…
"Bumblebee! Is it…."
"Yeah. It is."
Bumblebee answered grimly, then he swerved sharply, throwing his passenger across the seats again… She scrambled upright, pulling the seatbelt around her, her heart hammering a frantic beat… but no sooner had she done so, he swerved to a dizzying halt, his passenger door flying open.
She slid out: they were in a narrow alley, heaped with boxes and debris. Bumblebee transformed, weapons drawn, and crouched down beside her.
"Hey! What... we need to…"
"Sari, shhh. We need to separate."
Her brown eyes widened. "What? No way! I'm not leaving y…"
"He's after me, I'm not having you caught up in it. Hide. Head north."
When she opened her mouth he cut across her, worry and urgency pinching his usually cheerful features. "GO!"
He leaped right over her and crashed out into the main street, sprinting back in the direction of the blast. She heard his familiar metallic footsteps recede… but then another sound reached her ears and her mouth set in a grim line. The howl of jet engines…. She began to run down the alley, skimming through the rubbish nimbly…
Starscream wheeled high above the town in a lazy arc, then plummeted back down, transforming deftly his feet slammed down into the road that cut through the town… the concrete buckling beneath him, lampposts falling like stalks of wheat, crashing into gaping deserted shop fronts…. He straightened up with a dangerous sneer, and began to prowl the street, his sensors locked onto his target…
Bumblee skidded round a corner, knocking over a waste bin that clattered as it rolled into the ruined road… his optics took in a high street that had once been attractive… smart, proud buildings that had housed shops, banks, restaurants… all now gutted, looted and deserted. The tarmac was viciously torn up, and his gaze followed the devastation…. Stopping at a huge pair of feet… he tilted his head… up and up….
"Starscream," he growled, charging his guns…."
Starscream turned around, he had been peering into the gaping remains of what looked like a pub. At the sound of Bumblebee's voice, he turned, a contemptuous snarl on his lips.
"Buzz off little bee. I'm busy, hunting for something. Or perhaps you can help me look…"
With an enraged cry, the small yellow figure charged, weapons blazing. He got within feet of the jet before receiving a vicious blow across his face, the impact sent him stumbling across the street, crashing through glass and masonry into the old post office. As he tried to sit up, a hail of bricks and girders rained onto him, pinning him in the wreck.
"That's a no then, I take it," said the jet coolly, stepping to the next building and peering inside. "Pity. Not that you would have been much help. It has been a while since I've seen her… but I'm sure memory will serve. So… last chance then. Where is it?"
Bumblebee gaped at him, shaking dust and rubble off of his frame, struggling to get up from where he was pinned. "S….SARI?"
"That's the organic's name!" Starscream snapped his fingers, as though the name had escaped him and had been bugging him for days. He repeated it slowly, tasting the syllables and watching the yellow mech's face with malicious glee. "Saaaa….riiiiii….."
"What the SLAG do you want with her?"
"Come on autobot!" Starscream snapped his fingers again, the ray on his arm emitting an ominous whine… "Where is it?"
"No idea where she is," Bumblebee snarled, wriggling one arm as he tried to extricate himself once more from the fallen blocks of steel and cement.
"Filthy autobot liar. Oh well…" Starscream sighed, and then tipped his head, touching one forefinger to his temple. He stood in the wrecked street and waited, as the yellow bot struggled and writhed, and silently prayed his friend was running far and fast…
Sari's throat hurt as she dashed down one street, then another, her feet pounding on the tarmac, her heart ready to burst… behind her she heard crashes and the sound of debris falling…. The noise echoed through the silent town but she didn't stop or look back…. Presently the noises faded and grew quieter…
She slipped behind a wall and slid down it, catching her breath, sweat sliding down her forehead…as the seconds passed she realised she was very hot and pulled off her jacket, tossing it to one side, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes…
"Awwww…. Stripping before I even ask you to, that's a treat and a half…"
Sari jumped, and scrambled to her feet to see a young man, maybe a few years older than herself, leaning against the wall further down. He was dirty, his face and hands smeared with grime, wearing a tatty leather jacket and torn jeans. In his hands he played with a knife idly, turning it over and over in his rough fingers, a very slight smile on his face.
"Alright, darling?" he said, stepping closer. "Not very nice here, is it? Want to come back to my place to hide from the big bad metal monsters?"
Sari narrowed her eyes; she hadn't travelled halfway across the world without encountering a few men like him, and worse. The Sari that had ran happily into the barn and hugged Alexis all those months ago was not the same girl that stood here now… she unconsciously spread her feet further apart, balling her fists. She decided to play his game.
"So kind of you," she said, trying to keep her voice neutral, as she watched his eyes take in her slim legs clad in jeans, and travel up and over her torso and chest, onto her neck, appraising her like a piece of cattle. "But I happen to be on speaking terms with both of those big bad metal monsters. You should be inside. Hiding. And afraid."
"Ah… life has to go on, doesn't it?" said the man, flashing rotten teeth as he smiled, and sidled closer. "We would never get anything done if we went around hiding from these big bastards all the time, would we, Dan?"
"Nah, s'right," grunted a voice behind her, and Sari spun to be met with a huge man, a dirty ancient football shirt stretched across an ample belly, (how had he managed to sneak up on her??' she wondered) he towered over her and gave her a nasty grin. She wheeled round to be met with the first one again, who had come closer, still playing with the knife, the blade glinting as he tilted it back and forth. On closer inspection the sharp blade was dirty, and the man chuckled as he followed her gaze to it.
"No need to fret, darling, it's just for security purposes…"
The meaty hands of the man known as Dan closed around her small waist, and she thrashed and kicked. "Get OFF me! Get off me you filthy, fucking…."
She heard the laughter of the two men around her as they lifted her small frame into the air, she struggled and kicked and scratched, hoping with every atom for the sound of charging metal feet, but none came…. She flipped like a live fish taken out of water, and caught the first man on the chin with her shoe.
He stopped laughing abruptly, and flicked the blade to her throat like lightning. "That wasn't very nice, darling," he growled, sliding the flat of the knife over her neck, menacingly. "Say sorry."
She opened her mouth to hurl more insults at them… but then something happened that made both men drop her like a live wire… she crashed to ground on her behind, wincing… her phone chirped merrily in her pocket, the flashing screen could be seen through the fabric.
The first man gestured at her with the knife to stand up. "What the hell is going on?" he growled. "This some sort of joke? Everyone knows phones don't work anymore! What is this then? Huh? SPEAK!"
Sari took a deep breath, her hands trembling. She pulled the phone out of her pocket, turning it over… but before she could stop him, he had pulled it out of her hands.
"Stop… NO! Whatever you do… DON'T ANSWER IT!"
The man held the phone to his ear, anticipation and eagerness across his rough features. "Hello? Who the hell is this?"
Sari dropped her head and covered her face with her hands as the man pulled the phone away, the screen dark and silent once more. "What the…."
The three of them all tilted their heads simultaneously, as an explosion was heard across town… then the sound of jet engines, roaring, shrieking towards them, too fast for any of them to even move….
Starscream wasted no time when the ringing phone was answered… he hadn't expected the silly girl to pick up…. Either way someone had, and that was all he needed… Ignoring the autobot's cries, he shot upwards, only airborne for mere seconds before honing in on the phone's location.
The impact of the vast creature smashing down into the road in front of them sent the two men flying, they lay dazed and terrified, gaping up at the huge decepticon titan before them, his armour gleaming, two wings soaring up over the short buildings, arms bristling with weapons. He swept the road with two burning optics, taking in the scene. The huge man known as Dan stumbled to his feet with a wail like a child, he backed away, pudgy arms raised in surrender…
Starscream glanced down at the source of the movement, and with a flick of his ray, vapourised the man on the spot- with a terrible sizzling sound Sari watched as his body glowed for an instant, then exploded into hot dust and ash, a black mark on the ground the only evidence he had ever existed. The weapon that had killed him clicked smoothly back into Starscream's hide and he sniffed contemptuously, before turning his attention to the other male, laying closer to him, splayed on the road.
The man rolled onto his back, grazes and cuts all down one side of him where he had been thrown. He sobbed and cringed, rolling from side to side like a toddler throwing a tantrum, struggling to speak, gaping wordlessly…
Starscream bent down, the better to hear the man's gasping and whimpering. "What was that?" he said conversationally. "I didn't catch it…"
"Puh…puh… please… don't shoot me!" the man sobbed, squeezing his eyes shut as the monstrous head with the demonic red eyes filled his vision.
Starscream straightened up. "Of course not," he assured the stricken man at his feet.
"W…wha?" the man opened his eyes a notch, puzzled.
Sari huddled into a ball, covering her ears and shutting her eyes as Starscream brought down his foot, stomping the man into the road, grinding his heel in relish.
She felt the ground shake and opened her eyes to meet his a mere foot from her own, two huge glowing orbs that snatched her stare and held it tight, mesmerised. An evil chuckle escaped his mouth. 'Not friends of yours, I hope, Sari?"
Bumblebee raced down the street, panic coursing through him…he had told her to hide, thinking he was the target when all this time…
He skidded around the corner and saw Starscream straighten up, holding something… he charged towards the decepticon without hesitating, butting him sharply on the legs….
Starscream stumbled ever so slightly, and cupped one metal hand around the other, steadying his struggling prisoner. He looked down, rolled his optics in exasperation, and turned to Sari.
"Sorry about this, please… I get this a lot, people just get obsessed…."
He turned his disdainful stare on the autobot. "I thought I told you to buzz away, little bee…" He turned on his heel and began to stalk away, to find a good place to transform, clutching the thrashing human girl in one fist.
Bumblebee charged again, and again, bouncing off the larger mech uselessly as he screamed at the top of his voice.
"STOP! What do you want with her? Huh? You want hostages? Then take me! TAKE ME!"
Starscream turned around, and delivered an almighty kick to the autobot as he flew at him again, Bumblebee staggered back and fell on his rear with a groan. As he stumbled to his feet, Starscream's gun emitted the familiar deadly whine as it charged… from his fist, Sari paled and screamed "NO!"
"I need you to run a errand for me, Auto-insect, otherwise I would be more than happy to let you join Sari and me in our little gang here," sneered the giant decepticon, aiming his gun straight at the autobot's face. "You need to run north to that pathetic worm hole your kind have been cowering in…" he laughed at the shock on the smaller bot's face. "Yes, I know where it is, I just couldn't be bothered to expend the energon to come up there and wipe you all out…
'As I was saying, you need to run a errand for me. Go to the Autobot base. And when you get there, tell them…" he stomped nearer, causing Bumblebee to flinch back, as the jet leaned right down in front of him…
"Tell them. They have something. That belongs. To me."