Kelly couldn't believe it, she had done it. She had actually managed to finish the paper in time. Sure she had finished it in the morning when it was due in the afternoon but it still made her pleased. She had used the bases printer to get all 30 pages out and then realized she needed a ride to get it in to the professor. She asked some of the men to give her a ride but all looked at her with wide eyes and breathed Leadfoot's name like he was a god and then ran for the Xanthuim to pull a double shift. Even Orville refused his daughter telling her quickly and quietly, as if Leadfoot was listening, that there was no way that he would be allowed to leave the base and live to see the next day. Kelly couldn't believe that there would be no one there to help her so she continued asking the men and all shook their heads and walked away.
As she was asking Topspin couldn't help himself from overhearing her pleas and the gears in his head started turning… literally. He knew the poor girl had to get to her teacher and he was feeling like a little drive. So in a swift motion he picked up the girl just as she was rushing to asking another man and ignoring her shriek of surprise. He pulled around a corner and allowed on of his optics to blink on and off, thus winking at her. He held up a hand to the speaker in his mouth and silently told her to be quiet.
"I'm gonna get you out of here." He told her "I'll take you to your teacher."
"Professor" She corrected him just as quietly as he was speaking "And thank you."
"No problem." He was about to set her down and transform when suddenly Leadfoot waddled around the corner.
"Hey!" He shouted, "Kelly! I need you."
"Me." Kelly tried to turn in Topspin's hand so that she could look at him better. "Why do you need me?"
"Because." Leadfoot reached for her and Kelly was snatched from Topspin and being carried away. Kelly saw Topspin reach out for her and then shrug, he waved and went back to the ship to work.
"This isn't going to take long is it?" Kelly asked looking up at the big nasty, mean robot who held her. "…Because I have to be some where in a few hours."
"Shut your gob." Leadfoot told her, "Ship first then your own problems."
Kelly frowned at him, "Shouldn't it be the other way?"
"No, now hush. I've got a job only you can do." Leadfoot told her as he walked into the ship.
"Only me? What is it?" Kelly asked curious.
"Well normally that small body of yours makes you weak and useless." Leadfoot said simply.
"Hey!"
"Shut up, That small body of yours will fit where none of the other men can go."
"Because they are all big and useful?" Kelly asked sarcastically.
"Exactly." Leadfoot said ignoring her sarcasm. "Some shit head dropped his hammer down this pipe." Leadfoot pointed and Kelly looked over his hand and saw a dark small pipe that was in the floor of the ship, she then looked back up at Leadfoot and gaped.
"You want me to go in there?" She looked at him as if he were crazy.
"Yes" He said as he set her down. He plucked a flashlight off a table and handed it to her and then gave her a hard hat. He gave her an end of a rope which he told her to tie around her and then he tied the other end of the rope to a pipe that stuck out of the floor next to the one Kelly had to go in.
"No." Kelly told him. "I can't go down there."
"You have to." Leadfoot told her "That pipe is an important one and I can't have any obstacles in it fucking up the whole system."
"I can't" Kelly looked down into the deep dark hole that was the pipe. "I really can't."
"You have no choice in the matter now get down there." Leadfoot picked her up and after making sure her rope was tight around her he ignored her struggled and managed to shove her into the pipe.
"Leadfoot!" She yelled angrily her voice echoing all around in the pipe, "You get me the hell out of this thing!"
"After you get the hammer. Now get your ass in gear." Leadfoot said covering the hole with his hand so she couldn't get out.
Kelly glared at the hand and turned on the flash light, "I'm gonna kill you." She muttered as she began to slide down the pipe slowly using her hands, feet and back to slow her decent. The pipe was filled with gunk that smelled terrible she could feel her body being drenched in it and groaned. Leadfoot owed her so bad. She swore loudly as her foot slipped into the entrance of another pipe that fed to the one she was in.
"Watch out for other pipes" Leadfoot told her "There are a bunch of entrances." He had removed his hand and was looking down at her with an amused expression.
"No shit Sherlock!" She yelled up at him.
"Quit yelling and find the hammer." He told her. He sat down and was oblivious to the pipe Kelly was tied to slowly bending from her weight.
Kelly fingered him and began cursing even more as she made her way down even further until she really did need the flashlight to see to make sure she wasn't going to put her hands and feet in any more entrances. She looked up and realized that Leadfoot's face looked less ugly from a distance, she grinned to herself and vowed to tell him that when she got back up.
She managed to reach the bottom a few minutes later and her feet sank into the gunk that stank up the entire pipe. She made a disgusted noise and crouched so that she could feel around for the hammer. She stuck her hands into what felt like grease with solid bits and eventually managed to find it. She stuck it into her waistband and cringed at the feeling of the gunk on her skin. She looked up and shined the light upwards.
"Get me the fuck out of here!" She shouted. She didn't wait for Leadfoot to start pulling and started to climb up. The pipe above couldn't handle her weight and at the sudden pull of her weight it snapped and before Leadfoot could react the rope slid past him and down the pipe. Kelly fell back and hit her head against the metal of the pipe. She collapsed in the gunk and heard a small pop. She frowned wondering what had happened when suddenly a sharp pain hit her and she pointed the flashlight down to see her foot at an odd angle. She let out a small scream and felt the tear streaming down her face. The throbbing was too much and she cried out loudly. Leadfoot called out her name and was returned with her cried of pain.
"Shit." Leadfoot got up and looked around for a rope or something to pull her out but saw nothing. He opened a com link between Roadbuster and Topspin and ordered them both to grab rope and get some of the men. He then looked back down the pipe and shouted that help was coming. Leadfoot couldn't stop himself from smiling when a steam of curses flew up at him. "You alright?" He shouted down.
"NO!" Kelly shouted.
"You hurt?" Leadfoot asked her, honestly hoping she was not. He would never wish an injury upon her.
"Yes!" Kelly wiped the flow of tears and felt the gunk stick to her face, she hiccupped and groaned as her foot throbbed even more. Then suddenly she realized that her paper was still due and she was stuck in a pipe with a dud foot.
Roadbuster reached the pipe first and when he saw Leadfoot he let out a small noise and looked down the pipe, "Is Kelly down there?" He shouted.
Leafoot nodded and said "have you got any rope?"
"I couldn't find any." Roadbuster shook his head and looked down the pipe. "Kelly! You alright?"
Kelly looked up at Roadbuster's voice and shouted "Get me the fuck outta here!"
"She's hurt." Leadfoot said at the same time, "She cried."
Roadbuster frowned and shouted down the pipe "You cried! What kind of a whimp are you?"
"Shut up!" Kelly shouted. She hated the fact that she was still crying. "Please get me out." She said softly.
Topspin entered the room next followed by Orville and a few other men. Orville had gone white in the face and he peered down the pipe, "Kelly honey!"
Topspin called down at her, "We found a rope!"
Kelly nodded and yelled, "Well throw it down!"
The men gave Roadbuster the rope and he fed it down towards her. Kelly shined the flashlight up and saw the rope coming towards her and reached for it. She groaned as the motion hurt her foot but she managed to grab it and wrap it a few times around her wrist and then held it with her other hand. "Pull me up!" She shouted and then Roadbuster tired to pull her to safety but the rope was old and frayed and broke under her weight and she fell back down to the bottom. Roadbuster cursed loudly and he kicked out at something.
The big green robot stood and he looked at his fellow Autobot, "We gotta take it apart." He told Leadfoot.
"No. Fucking. Way." Leadfoot shook his head and said "That took us a week!"
"Well what the hell do you propose we do?" Roadbuster growled at him.
"I don't care what you do just get me out of here!" Kelly shouted now more angry than anything. "I finished that freakin paper on time and I am going to damn well hand it in on time!" She yelled up to the men and robots at the top of the pipe "I didn't do all that work for nothing!"
Topspin looked around desperately while Roadbuster gave Leadfoot a giant smack to the head that made a clang echo in the ship, "We can take the damn thing apart for Kelly" He told Leadfoot.
"No, it'll put us behind schedule, we'll have to work double time, No triple time!" Leadfoot protested angrily as he threw his hands into the air.
"I'll help…" Kelly offered weakly. She leaned her head back against the pipe and didn't even care about the gunk in her hair.
Orville turned to Leadfoot clearly very angry, "My daughter's life is more important than this fucking pipe." He gestured to the deep dark hole Kelly was stuck in. "I'll work overtime and more to fix it once she's out."
Leadfoot stared at all the men and Autobots who were looking at him with wide eyes and bright optics, "Fuck it… I must be goin soft." He muttered dragging a metallic hand down his face. "Just take the damn thing apart… Carefully!" He added on. He turned away unable to bear the sight of the ship being taken apart but he knew it was for the best.
Roadbuster chuckled softly and said "You're gonna be free in a bit Kelly." He promised her as he stretched his arms and then bent down and gripped the end of the pipe and he groaned loudly and the tear of metal could be heard. Roadbuster used all of his strength and more and snapped back as the final bit of the pipe gave and fell right on his big metal ass, a large portion of the pipe in his hands. He had opened up quite a bit of it so someone larger could fit through to get to Kelly. Orville volunteered to be the one to rescue her and he and the men gathered straps and bound them together and lowered Orville into the opened section of the pipe. He went down as far as he could fit and winked at his daughter he was just below him.
"Alright sweetheart." He said softly, "This is gonna take a bit of teamwork." He told her. "Can you move up a bit and grab my hand?" He held down his large calloused hand for her to grab.
Kelly looked up at the hand that was just out of reach and she set her jaw and she forced herself to ignore the pain in her foot and she pushed herself up and reached up and grabbed her fathers hand and held tight. Her father grunted with effort and he forced himself not to let go of his daughter and shouted for the men to pull them up. It was a slow process but slowly both father and daughter were pulled up to safety away from the dark hole. Kelly was covered in dark grease and she felt awful. Her father wasn't as dirty but that didn't stop him from gathering Kelly up in his arms and holding her close.
"I got you." He whispered. "I got you." He kept her there for a while rocking gently while the men cheered and then made for of Orville for being such a softy. Even the goon Leadfoot gave them a rare smile.
Roadbuster crouched next to the two of them and he patted Kelly's back with a finger and said "Time for a nice long shower I think."
Kelly suddenly straightened and she looked at him with wide eyes and then searched around for a clock and gasped, "Oh shit…" She muttered. She broke away from her father and tried to get up but gasped in pain, she had forgotten her foot. "Shit shit shit!" She growled.
"What's up?" Roadbuster frowned, "Kelly?"
"Topspin!" Kelly looked around for him and spotted him in the corner and motioned for the blue bot to come to her. "We gotta go!" she told him. "I need to hand in my paper."
Before anyone had a chance to protest Topspin had Kelly in his hands and was dashing out of the Xanthuim, Kelly could just hear LEadfoots cry of "Where the fuck do you think your going?" When she was set down on the outside concrete, Topspin took a step back quickly and before Kelly had a chance to ask she heard the sound of transformation. Topspin disappeared and he shifted and morphed into a speedy looking thing that looked like it knew how to do all kinds of illegal.
She breathed out a "hot damn." As Topspin revved his engines and she got the message to get in as the driver door opened. She half crawled and limped in after making sure she had her bag and the door shut on her once she was in. Topspin gave her no time to get settled and he gunned it pinning her to the back of the seat. Topspin then remembered seatbelts were important and he snaked them around her gunky greasy body as he took a corner. Kelly let out a scream and she wasn't sure if it was terror or excitement. The only thing she knew was that she would have no problem getting there in time.
They raced into the near by town and after following Kelly's directions Topspin skidded to a halt in front of an old office building. Kelly thanked him and she grabbed her papers and crawled out of Topspin and like a gimp she made her way to the office and crashed into it.
Kelly was panting heavily as she trailed her way in leaving grease on the fine red carpet. Her professor's office was through a glass door and she tried her best not to get the door dirty but it was useless. She pushed open the door and gave her professor a weak smile.
"Hey…" she said lifting a hand awkwardly. He said nothing and looked over his glasses at her with dark eyes that gave nothing away. His eyes moved over her and his crinkled mouth turned down in obvious disgust. "I uh, have my papers." She said waving them for him to see and she went and set them on his desk and winced at the handprint the grease left. "Oops…" she said softly and then looked at it. "Would you believe its been a crazy morning?" She said trying to get some sort of reaction from the man. She was surprised when he cleared his throat and then paused, she almost expected him to start speaking in Shakespearian.
"I'm afraid…" He began "That you are late." Her smile fell from her face and Kelly looked down.
"Oh…"
"I cannot mark this paper." He adjusted his tie and then said "Best be off I have papers which are not yours to go through."
Kelly looked at the papers she had tried so hard to finish and she nodded and took them and turned around and limped out of the office into the street. She walked up to Topspin and heard his voice come from the interior speakers.
"So… How'd it go?" He asked feeling quite confidant that he had gotten his friend there on time.
"We were too late." Kelly leaned against him to give her throbbing foot a break and she sniffed a little. She didn't want to cry but she could feel her throat burning.
"What do you mean?" There was a frown in his voice.
"I cant hand it in because I wasn't on time." Kelly told him, "It's no big deal." She shrugged and there was silence for a moment.
"WHAT A LOAD OF BULLSHIT!" Topspin shouted making Kelly jump in surprise and she fell back onto the side walk and watched with an open mouth as Topspin gave away his cover by transforming in the middle of a busy street with hundreds of witnesses.
The crowds went wild screaming in terror, as they began to run for their lives from a very angry Wrecker. The sounds of glass breaking could be heard as people jumped through store windows ran for cover as Topspin slammed down his foot making the earth rumble. Kelly let out a small squeak as Topspin bent down and grabbed her papers from her and began to knock on the professors house breaking all the doors and windows. "Get your smart ass out here!" He shouted.
Kelly blinked and felt a bit torn, she was touched that Topspin would get so angry on her behalf but fear for his safety made her frown and begin to yell at him. "What the fuck do you think you're doing!" She yelled at him. "You just blew your cover! You just fucked everything up!"
"Shut up!" Topspin roared at her "I'm handing in your papers!" He looked down at her professor stumbled out of the house and Topspin picked up the man and squeezed him. His blue optics flared with anger and he shoved the papers towards him. "You are going to mark this." He growled softly. "Or I'm coming for you." He threatened. The professor nodded and he held the papers close to him hugging them to his round stomach.
"Yes, Yes! I'll do anything… just please don't kill me!" He cried in terror. Topspin set the man down and the professor fainted. Topspin left him there and he turned back to Kelly who was still yelling at him. He was quite confused as to why she was yelling at him as he though he had done her a favour but he transformed as she asked him to and when she crawled in he drove away leaving the street in chaos.
There was silence for a long while until finally Kelly whispered softly "Thanks Topspin." Topspin revved happily and he returned them to the base where an angry crowd stood waiting for them.
Once Kelly was out and handed a towel to try and get the drying grease off of her did Leadfoot begin to yell at them both. They were called many things and finally after Leadfoot had run out of steam were the two of them given the chance to explain. Their story made many of the men and Roadbuster break out into laughter and Topspin was smacked on the back by his green friend who told him they had down a good job. Leadfoot just stalked off pretending to be angry when he really had enjoyed the story as well.
Kelly smiled a bit happy that no one was too angry about this but she was still worried about the situation down town. She put those thoughts at the back of her head and she rolled her eyes at Topspin and then rushed off to the shower while the men went to celebrate Topspin.
Once she was clean and in new clothes she went over to the group of cheering men as Topspin once more regaled how he had sent the town into chaos over Kelly's report. She sat next to her father. The story was interrupted however by Leadfoot who called them all to order.
He stood in front of them and made a soft noise and then said "Well your little adventure caught some attention." He frowned at Topspin when the blue robot cheered for himself. "And seems that some people don't think we're working hard enough, because we have time to do this. An inspection has been called… Optimus is coming."
The group went deathly silent and Kelly wondered who on earth Optimus was. She looked around and gulped as all the men looked even more afraid of the name Optimus than they did Leadfoot.
"Oh shit." Was all Roadbuster had to say.