Chapter 11
It was about five hours down the road that SAW finally slowed down from his escape. He was currently in The Middle of Nowhere, USA, and had no Autobots or Decepticons on his scans. He came to a stop next to a range of small mountains and transformed, noticing that his form was slightly more bulky, and he was just a bit taller. His armor had more accents to it, and his internal scans revealed that he now possessed a small firearm located on his left arm and a large concealed blade on his right.
All that aside, he sat down on a large rock and heaved a heavy sigh. He hated just running like that; but he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and he just needed to get out. No Transformers, no humans, no nothing. He just needed to be alone. He leaned back against the mountainside and shut off his optics, keeping his audio receptors on full blast, just in case. But all he could hear was the wind and the random birds that would fly past, chirp, and fly away. He found it very peaceful and relaxing.
He was jerked out of his bliss suddenly when the sound of a pebble plinking down the mountain reached his hearing. He sat up and looked around, his spark pulsing heavily. But he saw nothing. That didnt quell his anxiousness, so he moved away from the mountain and kept looking around, especially above. But still, he saw nothing.
Immediately, he wished he'd just stayed at the base and took whatever punishment Optimus would've given him. His spark was pulsing a mile a minute, and he wanted nothing more than to get out right now. He turned and began to transform when he heard a low Cybertronian growl and felt something behind him fall to the ground. He whipped around and saw a dense outline of something big--bigger than Optimus, even--before a form flickered into view. It was a cloaking device, and it had snuck right up on him.
SAW swore loudly and backed up, knowing that this was definitely not friendly. It stood to it's full height, towering over SAW.
"Breeder," it growled in a low voice, one that made SAW shudder. "You come with me now, or I will take you by force. I will not harm you. I only wish to deliver you peacefully to Lord Starscream."
SAW backed up further from the Decepticon, now knowing that this had to be the Bludgeon that Thundercracker had mentioned. Fuck. He was so screwed. He absently wondered why the Allspark chose him when he was such a fucking idiot...
"...Any chance...any at all...that you can just let me go and not tell Starscream?" he asked lamely, mentally slapping himself when Bludgeon blinked and emitted a soft growling sound. "Shit...just leave me alone!"
"This I cannot do," Bludgeon replied. "I have orders, and I must comply. Last chance; come with me now, or I will take you by force."
SAW knew that there was no way in human or robot Hell that he was coming willingly. He refused to be subjected to Starscream's sick whims again. "No!" he shouted at Bludeon. "Tell Starscream he can shove it up his exhausts because I'm not being raped by that asshole again!"
Bludgeon only stared at him, and SAW had the freakiest sensation of being suffocated from the inside out. He made a sound of discomfort and backed away from Bludgeon...only to find he could move. 'Psychokinesis...!' he thought. Thundercracker said that Bludgeon could use psychokinesis! Shit! "Stop....stop it...!" SAW gasped, feeling as though his internal systems were being slowly crushed. He fell to his knees. "...Please...!"
"Then come with me willingly."
"N...no...!" SAW clutched his chest, his mainframe going a little fuzzy. "...Please...you...you dont know...what he does to me...! Please..." He felt a sharp twitch in his chest. "...Please, let me go...!"
"I cannot," Bludgeon replied monotonously. "I must comply with my orders." He stepped forward and picked SAW up effortlessly and held him in his arms. "I did not want to hurt you, but if you cannot come with me willingly, then I must take you by force." He paused. "Do not struggle. You are only making your systems overload worse."
Was...was Bludgeon actually telling him how to get out of this psycic hold himself? SAW decided that trying it out was better than internally suffocating, so he relaxed his body and was shocked when he felt the crushing sensation reduce very significantly. Bludgeon carried SAW for about a mile before stopping.
"Skywarp will be here to take you to Lord Starscream soon," he said non-threateningly. "Do not struggle. He is not as kind as I am."
...Oh, he hit that fact on the nail, SAW thought. He knew that Skywarp couldnt really give two slags about him; at least Bludgeon was polite about it. He just let out a defeated sigh and laid quietly in Bludgeon's arms for a little while, then he heard a 'fzzzsh' sound and Skywarp seemed to appear out of nowhere. SAW tensed up when he saw him, and felt his insides crush slightly.
"Good work, Bludgeon," Skywarp said, stepping forward. He looked at SAW. "...You've changed a little since I last laid optics on you. More sturdy. Good. You'll need it."
"F...fuck you...!" SAW shot back weakly.
"No time soon, I can guarantee it," Skywarp snidely replied. "I'll take it from here, Bludgeon." He held his arms out for SAW, then was suddenly thrown about two hundred feet from a hefty drop-kick to the head by Barricade.
"BARRICADE!" SAW shouted, squirming in Bludgeon's hold. Bludgeon only made SAW's internals clench painfully. Barricade seemed to notice.
"Let my spark mate go, Bludgeon, or I swear to Primus I will kill you."
Bludgeon only stared at Barricade, who only stared back with just as much intensity.
"...You have been training," Bludgeon said matter-of-factly. "...You are no longer at war with yourself. If you were not my enemy, Barricade, I would congratulate you."
"Spare me," Barricade growled back. "You are no longer my master. I dont need your approval. I only need my spark mate. Return him. NOW."
SAW wondered what the hell was going on for just a moment; then he remembered that Thundercracker had told him that Barricade was the best match against Bludgeon. That could only mean that Barricade had trained under Bludgeon. Fan-fucking-tastic.
"I cannot," Bludgeon replied. "I am under orders from Lord Starscream."
"Lord Starscream..." Barricade spat. "He is not Megatron, Bludgeon! He's nothing more than a sniveling sparkling doing a grown mech's job! You dont have to comply with his orders! No one but himself appointed him as the leader of the Decepticons! He's losing more followers than he gains! Dont you get it?"
"Be that as it may, Barricade," Bludgeon replied, "I am a Decepticon. I need a leader, or I have no purpose. Lord Starscream is the only leader we have. So I must follow him."
"That is foolish logic!" Barricade's voice sounded desperate by now. "Bludgeon...SAW is my spark mate. We need each other! Starscream will only hurt him! He will misuse the Allspark within him! All that will happen is that he will horde SAW all to himself and only create his offspring! That's it! I know that you dont want the Allspark used that way! Please, Bludgeon!"
Bludgeon only stared at Barricade. Then, faster than either Barricade or SAW could see, jumped up, whipped around, then slammed his foot into the side of Barricade's head before landing gracefully back on the ground. Barricade wasnt thrown far, but he was knocked effectively out on the ground.
"BARRICADE!!!" He thrashed even harder in Bludgeon's arms, ignoring the pain in his internals. "BARRICADE!!! NO!!! PLEASE, GET UP!!! PLEASE!!!"
"I did not wish to hurt him," Barricade said solemnly, turning to Skywarp, who was just now coming back online. "He will be fine. He is only stunned."
"FUCK YOU!" SAW screamed. "LET ME GO, YOU ASSHOLE!!! LET ME GO!!!" He wasnt really aware that as he was thrashing, the hold on his internals was slipping as his tirade grew more violent. "I WONT GO BACK!!! I WONT!!! GO!!! BACK!!!" Finally, without even realize what he was doing, he activated a small cannon on his arm and shoved it into Bludgeon's face and let it fire.
Bludgeon let SAW go, and the smaller mech dropped to the ground and immediately darted away.
"GET HIM, YOU FOOL!" he heard Skywarp scream at Bludgeon. SAW took a quick backwards look at Barricade, feeling his spark clench. But somewhere in the spark bond, he could hear Barricade yell at him to get away; that he would be fine. So he did. He ran. He didnt even think that he could run this fast. He could hear Bludgeon coming up close behind him, but he just kept running.
"Fuck fuck FUCK!" SAW screamed to himself. He fought to form a comm link with someone from the Autobot base. "Please...PLEASE, SOMEONE PICK UP ON THIS!!!"
"...SAW?"
"SUNNY!" SAW thanked Primus Almighty. "SHIT!!! SUNSTREAKER!!! HELP!!!"
"What's going on!?"
"I'M BEING CHASED BY A FUCKING PSYCHO WHO'S A MASTER OF METALLIKATO!!!"
"...Bludgeon...? What's he doing he--HOLY SHIT!!! WHERE ARE YOU!?"
"THE FUCK IF I KNOW!!!" SAW was on the verge of a mainframe meltdown. "WHERE IS EVERYONE!?"
"They're out looking for YOU, you little shit!"
"SHOVE IT, SUNNY! SKYWARP'S HERE, TOO!!!"
"CAN YOU AT LEAST GIVE ME SOME CLUE TO WHERE YOU ARE!?"
SAW thought for a quick moment, still not bothering to look behind him, but knowing that he was still ahead of Bludgeon by a safe distance. "SUNNY, CAN YOU DETECT HIGH FREQUENCY!?"
"Yeah, I can, why?"
SAW didnt bother answering. Instead, as he was running, he took in a needless breath and let out a mainframe-freezing shriek. Behind him, he heard Bludgeon cease running from him and let out a pained groan from the ultra-high frequency scrambling his systems. SAW didnt slow down in the least as he kept screaming.
"SAW!" Sunstreaker's voice cut in. "Ironhide's picked up on your position! Run due north, and you cant miss him!"
"Thank you, Sunny!"
"DONT CALL ME SUN--!"
SAW cut off the comm link and kept running, feeling the fatigue begin to overcome him. He reached the smaller mountains and took just a quick moment to cool his overloading systems down. "Fuck...ing....Hell....!" he gasped, putting a hand over his pulsating spark. He took just a few moments more before turning to the north--only to be cut off by Skywarp appearing right in front of him, and holding an unconscious Barricade in one hand by the back of the neck.
"Barricade!" SAW cried, seeing how in bad shape his mate was. Skywarp hissed angrily at SAW.
"I'm going...to make this VERY simple, Breeder," he ground out through his metal teeth. He activated his cannon on his other arm and pointed it right at Barricade's spark. "Come with me, or this piece of slag dies. It doesnt matter either way, because if I do kill him, then I'll have you at Lord Starscream's side before you succumb to sparkmate-death meltdown." The cannon revved up. "Choose. Now."
SAW felt his systems freeze over as he looked at Barricade. He clenched his fists tightly, feeling tears come to his optics. "...I'll go," he said softly. "Just....just dont hurt him...please....I've lost too much already..."
Skywarp put his cannon away and let go of Barricade. "Smart boy," he muttered, reaching for SAW. "Perhaps I will consider rearing a sparkling with you..." SAW clenched his optics shut, not wanting to think about anything that was to come, but then he heard a sharp 'thwang' of metal hitting metal, and the sound of cannon-fire, and before he could even open his eyes, he was jerked back into the arms of someone else.
"WHAT THE--!?" He thrashed around, trying to get away.
"Calm down! We're friends!"
SAW froze at the sound of the voice. It...it sounded female...! He turned his head and saw a dark blue mech staring down at him with bright blue optics...or rather...a femme... "...Who...who are you...?" he asked. The femme pulled him further away from the fight that was going on, not answering right away.
"Introductions can wait!" she said, activating a cannon that rivaled Ironhide's own cannon's size and fired at Bludgeon. "Until then, stick next to me! You'll be safe!" SAW didnt need telling twice. Not that he had a choice, really; the femme's free arm was tightly around him, and she was a lot bigger than he was; almost Ironhide's size.
He looked behind them and saw two other mechs...or rather, also femmes...fighting with Skywarp. One of them was very small, around the same size Frenzy once was before he died, and she was a vibrant violet color. The other was around his own size, and a hot pink color that complemented the violet femme's girlish color. The small violet femme had Skywarp in a headlock and was holding him still as the pink femme violently assaulted his person.
Finally, Skywarp managed to throw the violet one off of him, then shot into the sky and vanished. Bludgeon seemed to take the note and he transformed and drove off in a blaze of dust. The large blue femme retracted her cannon and let go of SAW.
"Well, that was fun!" the pink femme chirped, sounding quite girly. The small violet femme groaned.
"Easy for YOU to say," she griped, rubbing her head. "The son of a glitch dented me!"
"The important thing is, you're safe," the large blue femme said to SAW, smiling at him. SAW looked at all three of them.
"...Who are you?" he asked. The blue femme opened her mouth to answer, but she was cut off by the unmistakable whirring of Ironhide's cannons aimed at the back of her head.
"Step away from him!" he growled. SAW was about to tell Ironhide that these three just saved him, but he was cut off when he actually saw the femme smile!
"Still as trigger-happy as ever I see..." she said, then turned around to face Ironhide, whose optics widened and his cannon lowered.
"...It cant be...!" he muttered, stepping closer.
"Long time, no see, Ironhide, love."
"...Chromia...!?"
*grovels pathetically at my readers' feet* Please accept this chapter as an apology for my fucking writer's block!