Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers: just my OC's & the plot.
SMALL MERCIES
Chapter 9: Round Two
Aboard the Black Solstus: Deathshot and Bluestreak watched helplessly as the scene below played out; while desperately trying to keep the ship stable, and at the same time try to keep the field disruptor trained on the giant seeker down below.
"This is getting bad!" Bluestreak panicked, "That seeker's going to kick the slag outta them!"
"Don't worry" the older sniper tried to stay calm as he accessed the ship's forward underside cannons, "That fragger won't-
But just as he pressed the button for the firing controls to lock onto the seeker, the control panels suddenly turned red, and the words 'access denied' scrolled across the terminal monitors "-What?!"
"What happened?!"
"I've been locked out?!" Deathshot gasped in horror: looking up at the monitors, he saw all the feeds from the ships on-board security cameras were filled with static, and the motion detectors were offline too. Suddenly realizing what was going on, Deathshot just barely got out of the way as several shots blasted through the door: missing Bluestreak by the skin of his proverbial teeth, and nicking the sides of Deathshot's intakes as he activated his wrist-guns and returned fire at the door.
In the few seconds he had to move as they reloaded: Deathshot grabbed Bluestreak by the back of his shoulder-plates, and threw him down onto the bridge's lowest level, while the older sniper jumped down onto the second level and readied himself as the door exploded out of its frame, and smoke filled the bridge. Bluestreak just barely activated his own guns as Coldbore and Longrange stormed the bridge, and opened fire on them both.
"WHAT THE FRAG!-" Bluestreak yelled as he fired up at Longrange: "What the hell are you guys doing?!"
"Trying to kill you! What else?!" Longrange grunted,
"D?! What's going on?!" the younger gunner looked over at Deathshot,
"Long story, I'll fill you in later, but right now just shoot!" the older sniper yelled as he shot Coldbore in the leg, and took the opportunity to tackle him, crashing into the terminals at the base of the bridge. As the two larger snipers wrestled each other, Deathshot knew that as an aerial sniper, Coldbore was at a disadvantage on the ground, he couldn't use his larger weapons; but so was he. Regardless, he had to keep him pinned down, keep him from getting airborne again.
Bluestreak however, was not doing so well: as Longrange hovered in the air, trying to shoot him as he jumped, flipped, leapt and dashed around like a squirrel doing the wall of death, trying desperately to stay out of the sniper's line of fire. This was really bad: as a scout, Bluestreak had the upper hand on the ground; if he was in the bolder field around the western mountain, he could dodge and weave the sniper no problem, he'd never get off a clean shot. But in here, for Longrange it was like shooting fish in a barrel... Well, almost, as the fish in question was still running rings around him while trying to return fire.
Then on his tenth lap around the bridge: Bluestreak suddenly spotted the emergency escape hatch on the bottom level of the bridge. And catching the briefest of glimpses through the window on the door, he saw the eastern edge of the canyon, and the edge of the bolder field. Deciding to take the intuitive there and then, he quickly took a flying leap right up at Longrange, catching him off guard with a solid kick to the jaw, downing him, and allowing him to reach the hatch.
"I'll be back! I swear!-" the young gunner called over his shoulder to Deathshot as he threw the release catch, and the door flew open with a sharp powerful gust of wind,
"GO!" the sniper yelled: and with a hard gulp (a habit he'd picked up from the humans), Bluestreak took the biggest leap his legs could muster; dropping nearly a hundred feet, and just barely landing feet-first on the edge of the canyon. He didn't dare stop to look back, as he transformed and took off like a bat out of hell, pushing his engine for all its worth.
Behind him, he heard Longrange's engines angrily firing up as the sniper transformed and gave chase: and as he started firing down at the younger gunner, Bluestreak summoned all his skills and knowledge of evading airborne enemy fire, as he dodged, drifted and weaved his way towards the bolder field, hoping and praying that luck would stay on his side.
Back on the Black Solstus, Deathshot managed to throw Coldbore off, and rush to close the hatch: giving Bluestreak time to get away, in case he failed to stop Coldbore here...
"I don't know what you hope to accomplish here; how many times is it you've tried to kill my charges today?!" Deathshot angrily grunted as he opened fire on Coldbore: pushing the sniper back up to the upper level of the bridge.
"Not enough" Coldbore coolly replied as he aimed his gun for Deathshot's head,
As he sped out into the desert with an angry Longrange on his tail; Bluestreak's long-range scanner's suddenly picked up several familiar bio-signatures: it was Miles and his team, with Josie staying close by their side. 'They managed to talk her down?!' he thought in astonishment as he realized the girl wasn't trying to kill them, or get away. As another hail of bullets missed him by mere centimeters, Bluestreak turned and headed away from them: 'Can't let Longrange go after them, gotta keep him focused on me!' the gunner thought desperately as he approached the bolder field, and disappeared among the towering rocks.
From where they watched the scene unfold some nine hundred feet or so away, Miles's team stood there in horror, as Longrange hovered over the bolder field, trying to fire down on Bluestreak, who was now out of sight.
"What the hell?!" Tom exclaimed
"He's trying to kill our Blue!" the twins panicked,
Looking over at the Black Solstus, Danny suddenly noticed what looked like muzzle flashes coming from the bridge's observation deck: "What's going on in there?" he pointed to the ship. Donning her visor and setting its focus to long-range binocular, Morri focused on the bridge, and gasped when she got a good look at what was going on: "It's Deathshot! He's being attacked by Coldbore!"
"What's a Deathshot?! What's going on?!" Josie panicked as she clung tight to Darren's arm.
"Darren, we can't just stand here and let-
"-I know!" he frowned, "Hailey, you and the twins deal with Longrange: Morri, you, Tom and Danny go back D up; Miles and I'll look after Josie"
Without another word the team split up and took off after the attackers: turning his attention to Josie, Darren looked her in the eye, and stated firmly: "Listen to me, I promised I wouldn't let anything happen to you, and I won't: do you still trust me?"
Josie was about to answer, when suddenly, the sound of a car engine gunning drew their attention: speeding across the arid ground at high speed, an all-black Ford Mustang Saleen was heading straight for them; Darren was about to try and flag it down, when he suddenly saw the two pairs of small machine guns unfurl from the wings of the hood...
"GET DOWN!-" he pushed Josie to the ground as the guns opened fire, and a spray of bullets ricocheted off the shield Miles had thrown up at the last second: the car drifted hard to the right, missing them by mere feet, and transformed into Barricade.
Josie screamed: unable to move for fear. But Darren and Miles were quick to shoot the giant with a pair of energy blasts, knocking him to the ground, after which they quickly grabbed Josie and took off up into the air. Keeping her sandwiched between them to support her weight better, it was hard to try and put some distance between themselves and Barricade as Josie clung to Darren tightly, practically squeezing his chest like a vice...
Looking over his shoulder, Miles nearly jumped out of his skin as he saw Barricade giving chase, and quickly closing the gap as he was now only twenty feet behind them. The guns in his wings unfurled again, and he took aim...
"Dude! We gotta find cover!" Miles called over as he threw up another shield, and deflected another hail of bullets,
"Yeah but where?!" Darren called back as he tried to loosen one arm free of Josie's grip,
"I dunno, anywhere but here!" was all Miles could offer, as they flew over the desert, heading west, out into the wilderness beyond...
Meanwhile, inside the command center:
As he kept track of the action being shouted back and forth over the comms: Lawrence began to realize the one huge seeker that was backing up the reinforcements was not air support, and the battle was now largely confined to the ground. And as the air base radioed in to say they'd dispatched three Apaches to back the bots up, Lawrence got an idea to try and get out of this situation...
"Bishop!" he barked, "Now that the battle is back in our favor, how long until Air-Force One is ready for take-off?"
The Autobots and humans all stared at him, as if he'd taken leave of his senses: "Are you out of your mind?!" Inferno exclaimed, "There's no way in the pit anyone's taking off from here! Not with the fight still in progress outside!"
"That giant out there doesn't have air support, right?"
"Well? No, but-
"Then what's the problem? You have it pinned down, along with the rest of its comrades: if that air base is covered, then the run-way should be clear for us to leave"
"You, the Commander-in-chief: would run and abandon his army at a time like this?" Prowl frowned as he approached the human observation platform, "What President are you that would be such a coward?"
"The same one who'll have this whole operation shut down and scrapped, if you don't do as I command," Lawrence stated venomously: "Now, go find my family, all my family; bring them back here, and get the plane ready for take-off"
No one could believe what he'd just said, let alone what he was asking of them: the human rookie troops were very uneasy, while the more experienced troops tried to wrap their heads around it. This wasn't right, and it didn't make sense, not under these circumstances; with a heavy resigned sigh, Bishop let his head dip: "...I'll see to it" he stated: though he was being professional, the disappointment in his voice wasn't hard to miss. He walked over to the human-sized communications terminal, and threw the online switch for the open comm frequency: "Attention all base personnel: if anyone happens to run into Mr and Mrs Waineright anywhere, please inform them to make their way to the command center post-haste"
Lawrence stared at the Colonel in slight confusion: "You're not going to apprehend them?"
"I wasn't aware your brother and sister-in-law were to be considered criminals sir?" Bishop glared back at him: to which Lawrence stared daggers at him,
Across the room, watching anxiously from the terminal she was trying to fix; Novastar relayed her live comm feed to Wheeljack's auxiliary comm receiver...
In the scientist's lab: Jason and Beverly stared at the receiver with worry: "He's leaving? Now?!" Lizzy gawked,
"What makes him so sure he'll get to the air base without being spotted by the enemy?!" Wheeljack thought aloud: "The fool! He's going to get himself killed!"
"We're not going anywhere!" Jason stated vehemently,
"If that dude is still hung up from what went on the rec-room, you can be sure he ain't gonna be discreet about it" Rosy worried.
Sarah suddenly thought aloud: "You can hide in Ironhide and Chromia's quarters. No one's going to think to look there"
"Good idea!" Wheeljack held up a finger, "If anyone comes asking, I'll cover for you"
"Hey, we still need to get that info about Amy Beller to Prime" Jeanie pointed out,
"Given the circumstances, I think that can wait just a little bit longer" Wheeljack replied as he helped the humans down off the counter-top and onto the floor.
Roxy placed a hand on Jeanie's shoulder: "He's right, let's just concentrate on getting Hailey's folks a new hiding place"
"Stay close" Sarah told her daughter: Annabelle nodded, as she, Violet and Jay-jay flanked her side. "We'll go on ahead and make sure the way's clear" Jeanie told them as they slipped out the door, and ran on ahead. The main group followed their lead as they left the lab, and stayed beneath the suspended walkways and platforms.
"Remind me why we're going with them again?" Max asked her sister as she adjusted the strap on her back-pack,
"Because we got nothing better to do until we can find Hailey?" Chelsea deadpanned: "Besides, the comm receiver only works one way, so we can't reach them".
As he watched the humans disappear around the corner of the corridor, Wheeljack sensed his comm line open, :Where are they? : He heard Bishop ask.
"Uh? Who?" the scientist replied anxiously, trying not to sound so nervy,
: You know perfectly well who I mean Wheeljack: I know Chromia dropped them off in your lab. So would you please tell Mr and Mrs Waineright to report to the command center? :
"I would if I knew where they were"
: ...They're not with you? :
"Not anymore: I had to nip over to the med-bay real quick to grab some tools, and when I came back they were gone. So, sorry: but if I see them I'll tell them you commed" Wheeljack lied, breathing a sigh of relief as he closed the comm line; 'that sounded convincing enough?' he thought to himself, hoping the Colonel bought it.
On the other end of the comm; Colonel Bishop frowned curiously: he knew a lie when he heard one, and though Wheeljack may not have totally told him the truth, he surmised that the Waineright's must be trying to buy some time to stall Lawrence. And frankly, he'd help them where he could: Lawrence's conduct thus far had done little to impress or garner respect, and right now, trying to leave the base would be suicide. If the Waineright's ploy meant the base's defenses remained intact, then it would be to everyone's advantage that they stay MIA.
"Well?" Lawrence demanded,
"Given the circumstances, I can only spare a few of the troops to go find them" the Colonel replied frankly,
"Then do it: and take a few of my guards with you"
Meanwhile, outside the base:
Longrange took aim: "You think you can beat m-
But he didn't get to finish as Hailey slammed him with another energy blast, right in the left side beneath his arm pit, directly behind the underside of his air intakes. It was bad enough Bluestreak was still running rings around him in the boulder field below, firing up at him from in between the rocks; but getting the slag beaten out of him by three small, very angry humans was starting to make him think, that perhaps continuing this attack was a bad idea...
"-I don't think, I KNOW!" Hailey grunted through her clenched teeth as she fired up her BSHB, and threw her full weight into the sniper, slamming him into the side of a fifteen foot bolder, where the twins took turns rapidly firing blast after blast of energy into his face and chest. Longrange threw up his arms to shield himself, leaving his defenses wide open. Bluestreak didn't waste the opportunity, as he took aim, and fired one large round up at the side of the sniper's head: blasting off part of his right-side audio. Longrange yelled in pain as he clenched the side of his helm, and instinctively fired up his thrusters and jetted up into the sky.
"THIS ISN'T OVER RUNT!" he called down as he beat a hasty retreat,
"SAY'S YOU!" Hailey roared as she fired up at his tail-fin: missing it, but the sniper dodged it never the less.
With the fight over, the girls approached their guardian as he reloaded his main weapon: "You okay?" Hailey asked as she tried the catch her breath.
"I'm good: thanks for the back-up" he smiled,
"Yeah, well we're not done yet..." Hailey looked out across the landscape: and towards the fight still underway at the base's main entrance: "They could use some extra reinforcements"
"Definitely" Bluestreak nodded, "But before then, I got one more thing to tie up..." he gazed up at the Black Solstus, and the fight still blazing up in the bridge.
After blasting the bridge's escape-hatch open, and storming the observation deck: Morri and her cousins quickly got to work trying to push Coldbore off their guardian. But despite being out-numbered four to one, Coldbore was stubborn as hell, and didn't back down, even for a moment.
"COME ON!" Danny charged him from above, "IS THIS THE BEST YOU GOT?!"
"DANNY WATCH YOUR LEFT!" Morri called out as the black sniper back-handed the red-head: slamming him into a near-by console, and bouncing off onto the floor beneath the terminal.
"This bastards got his blind-spots covered" the brunette grunted as she grabbed his hands and heaved him up back onto his feet. "I thought I had him?" Danny huffed as he reactivated his BSHB's flight mode, and hovered up into the air, "Just stay at my three 'o clock and back me up!" Morri ordered as she threw up another shield to cover Deathshot, as he fired another volley at Coldbore.
In this fight, it was Deathshot that was proving to be the main defense, while the humans, for all their ferocity, tenacity and determination, were more of a nuisance to Coldbore more than anything else. As they came at him with their head on and flanking attacks, the black sniper simply deflected them off or away with a combination of hand-to-hand melee moves and well-placed shots. The BSHB's shields were the only thing stopping the four youngsters from being killed, but as they tried to push him out of the bridge, Coldbore merely stood his ground, and refused to yield...
"He's stalling: waiting for us to drop our guard" Deathshot frowned as he deflected another round of gunfire.
"Or waiting until we run out of breath," Morri realized with worry, "You got a better chance of winning this D"
Knowing she was right, Coldbore stood firm, and held his ground as the youngsters came at him again. And again, he deflected them back across the bridge: slamming them into the terminals above Deathshot's head, and knocking the wind out of them.
"This, is getting, ridiculous" Tom panted as he tried to get his breath back. But before he could regain his balance, he and his cousins were abruptly shoved out the way, as Deathshot grappled Coldbore as he lunged for them.
Deathshot quickly pushed him back with a solid punch to the jaw plate, and a right hook to the temple; but Coldbore wasn't going to be beaten back this time, as he grabbed Deathshot by the shoulder, and tried to wrestle him to the floor. Morri and Danny shot the black sniper with a couple of energy blasts, and though he turned his head away from the direction of the blasts, he didn't dare let go. But it did make him loose his balance, and after losing his footing, he and Deathshot both fell over the edge of the observation decks main platform, and onto the reinforced glass shields that made up the underside of the deck's windows.
The windows held fast as the sniper's wrestled and exchanged punches: designed to withstand the immense vacuum of outer space, they didn't even crack as the two of them slugged it out. Morri was about to pummel Coldbore from above with a massive energy concentration, when she suddenly spotted Bluestreak standing near the edge of the canyon down below, aiming his gun directly up at them.
She didn't have time to warn Deathshot, as the young gunner fired several rounds at the window, right where Coldbore was pinned down; weakened from the continual bombardment of bullets, the glass surface began to crack; though the two snipers were still too engrossed in the fight to have noticed.
Suddenly, Hailey, and the twins appeared at the window, though she couldn't hear them through the thick glass, Morri realised from reading their lips and the way they were waving their arms around, they were trying to tell Deathshot to get out of the way. It was at that moment, she realized what was about to happen...
"D! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Morri yelled.
Within the span of mere seconds: Deathshot spotted Bluestreak taking aim, and jumped back as he fired again; the window exploded as it smashed into hundreds of thousands of pieces, and Coldbore nearly fell out of the ship, but not before grabbing part of the window frame and swinging around. He fired up his main thrusters so as to try and tackle Deathshot again, but at the last possible second, a shot ripped though his right thigh plates, followed by two more shots to his intakes. Flinching in pain, Coldbore let go and fell out of the ship, transforming in mid-air and taking off, disappearing as he activated his stealth mode.
As the hot desert wind whipped up into the bridge: Hailey and the twins hovered inside as Deathshot climbed back up onto the observation deck; looking down at the ground, he saw Bluestreak waving up at him, and the sniper waved back in thanks. "You okay?" Morri asked, still half-worried,
"I'm fine" he let out a sigh of relief,
"Think we should go after him?" Tom thought aloud, "Why'd he come after you like that?"
"I don't know" Deathshot frowned, as he gazed down at the fight below: "I have a bad feeling Blackshot may send him after us again. But until then, Prime and the others need our help," he activated his sniper rifle: and through the broken window, took aim at one of the former cons, "So, let's try and thin them out"
The youngsters activated their BSHB's once again, and were about to fly down to meet the attackers head on, when suddenly, the sound of thundering engines drew their attention to the sky...
"What the hell?!" the twins gasped as they saw what came barreling down out of the clouds...
As the bots fought the Broadsword cons, everyone barely had time to get out of the way as three additional seekers came thundering down out of the sky. Like the first giant, these three were all alike in size, design, black coloration and weaponry, and as they joined their comrade at his side, the four of them together began to push the bots back towards the entrance. To try and avoid getting trampled and shot, the human troops had to fall back down the tunnel, and try to repel the cons as best they could from the confined space, but with those seekers now providing cover-fire from the con's rear, this battle was now at its crisis point.
But despite the confusing fray and rapid pace of the battle: the fight was not so encompassing, that Optimus hadn't noticed Coldbore and Longrange's attack aboard the Black Solstus, and as he noticed the black sniper beat a hasty retreat, he began to worry all the more; what the slag was going on? And where was Majestrix? Of all the times for her to disappear, this was not it.
: This is getting dicey Prime, we need reinforcements; I already commed Prowl for back-up, but the power's still out: Ironhide commed,
: Isn't there anyone left who can fight?! : Prime demanded,
At that moment, the loud roar of Bluestreak's engine grabbed one of the seeker's attention as the gunner came barreling out of the air, and slammed into the seeker's head with a resounding CRASH!, knocking him into the other seekers hard, and toppling all four like a set of bowling pins. Without missing a beat, the gunner transformed in one back-flip, and skidded to a halt as his wrist guns fired up. Just above his head, Hailey and the twins took up their positions as they landed hard on the ground: their BSHB shield's energy licking off them like flames, as the energy balls in their fists burned and crackled, ready to fire at the first attacker that came for them...
"Sorry for the delay Prime!" Bluestreak called over, "Had a loose end to tie up!"
As the seekers got back up and spotted the one who knocked them over, their weapons were instantly trained on him, as they growled and snarled angrily at the gunner. From where he was fighting one of the cons near the door, Ashley couldn't help but get a little excited, as he spotted the look on the girls faces: "Oh, this is about to get interesting..." he smirked.
And as the seekers charged, Bluestreak and his girls obliged: "BRING IT!" they roared: and charged at the seekers with everything they had...
Meanwhile, inside the base:
As she peered around the corner of the corridor intersection, Sarah spotted a pair of guards asking one of the Autobots if they'd seen Mr and Mrs Waineright anywhere. Slipping back out of sight, she held one hand to the Waineright's and Ainsley girls to stay put. "Just wait a sec..." she whispered: and listened as she heard the guards walk off the other way.
"How much further?" Beverly whispered,
"Not far; just around this corner, the next right, and straight ahead for the bots quarters" Sarah assured them.
But at that moment, the relative quiet was shattered by the approaching stampede of giant metal feet echoing along the walls: as a back-up squad of Autobots ran for the main entrance to join the fight outside. Realizing the corridor they were standing in didn't have any alcoves or bolt-holes to take cover in, they had no choice but to try and run for the opposite side of the intersection to try and get out of the way. "RUN!" Sarah panicked as she tried to run with Annabelle on her hip, while everyone else tried to keep up.
But they weren't quick enough as the bots were suddenly upon them, trying their best not to crush the humans underfoot, the bots all jumped: clearing them easily, but the humans instinctively ducked down to avoid getting hit, and thus, Beverley and Jason lost sight of the group for a moment, and accidently ran the other way. As quickly as the bots came, they were gone in almost an instant as they dashed off,
"Oh my god" Sarah sighed with relief, "Is everyone okay? Anyone hurt?"
Everyone sounded off, and as Jason and Beverley stopped to catch their breath, they froze: they had spotted the two guards, who in turn had spotted them too, and were now walking straight towards them.
"-Crap!" Sarah panicked as she rushed to try and stop the guards, followed by the girls, who all tried to explain to the men why they shouldn't take them to Lawrence. The situation quickly turned into a mild squabble, as the Waineright's stood their ground and refused to leave...
That was, until Lawrence's security detail suddenly appeared, and aimed their guns at the couple. A little unsure what to make of the situation, the guards said nothing, and didn't do anything to stop them as the men in dark suits escorted the couple to the command center.
"What the hell do we do now?" Rosy panicked,
"Guys!-" Tangostar called out as she and her sisters came running up to the group: "-What're you guys doing here?! You should be taking cover on the next level down! The doors are gonna be breached any second now and the-
But Tangostar stopped when she realized no one was listening to her, "...Uh guys? What's wrong?" Bluebird asked worryingly,
"No time to explain, just follow us!" Annabelle panted as she, Violet and Jay-jay ran after Beverly and Jason, followed closely by her mother and the girls; the scouts, who hadn't a clue what was going on, merely followed. Fortunately, the command center wasn't very far from where they had previously been, and it didn't take them long to catch up to Lawrence's security guards, and shadow them from a safe distance.
As they entered the command center, the Ainsley girls and Sarah soon spotted Lawrence, with his shadow Galloway, hanging back out of the way. The president was getting another earful from his brother as the guards kept him where they could see him, while Prowl, Inferno, and Colonel Bishop stood to one side: half-listening in on the family drama, half-concentrating on the battle outside.
As they watched the scene from where they stood on the floor, the group couldn't believe this was happening: "I don't believe this! This guy wants to turn tails and run with his family at gun-point: while the guys are still out there fighting those things!" Chelsea exclaimed, "Somebody has to stop this!"
"I don't get it? What the slag's going on?!" Firefly glanced desperately at her sisters for an explanation, but they were just as perplexed as she was; a brief but detailed data-burst from Novastar quickly explained the situation, and as the four sisters suddenly realized what was going on, they began to panic slightly...
: Bluestreak?! Bluestreak where are you?! : Bluebird commed the gunner.
: Make it quick Bluebird I'm kinda busy! :
: You gotta get to the command center right now! Lawrence has got Hailey's creators at gunpoint, and he's ordered the air base to prep Air Force One for take off! :
: WHAT?! : The three Waineright sisters panicked,
As they fought back the giant seekers, and managed to put some distance between them and the Autobots, the girls were suddenly struck with fear and worry, as their thoughts now turned back to their parents. Seeing the fear in their eyes, Optimus heaved a resigned sigh, and called out to them: "You three get back down into the command center: see to your creators"
"But-, Optimus-"
"Go! Don't worry about me, I'll be fine, I promise," Bluestreak assured them as he reloaded his gun, and ran to Prime to cover his left side with Trailbreaker, Ironhide and Bumblebee.
They didn't want to leave him out here: but after what happened in the rec-room, they didn't want something worse to transpire, and so the three sisters flew to the base entrance, and down the tunnel...
Elsewhere, near the western-most perimeter fence:
One of the many guard towers that lined the perimeter fence was now in sight, as Miles and Darren carried a still-terrified Josie between them; flying at break-neck speed across the desert scrub-land, while Barricade still chased after them.
Scanning the topography and spotting a promising sight: Miles suddenly turned to the right, flew over a ridge, and dropped down and through a deep riverbed, which led into a small cluster of boulders. "Quick! Hide! And be quiet!" Miles ordered as they dropped down behind the boulders, deactivated their BSHB's, and lay flat against the ground. They all held their breaths, as Barricade appeared over the ridge, and transformed...
The former-con scanned the surrounding landscape, trying to look for the characteristic human bio-signatures; the kids ducked behind the rock as the scanner beams missed them; as he quietly paced down the ridge and to the river bed, Miles realized he'd soon be within range of them. Seeing how exhausted and scared Josie was, he knew she wouldn't be able to hold up much longer. He needed to do something, and quick...
"Listen," he softly whispered, "I'm gonna try and buy you some time: try and put some distance between you two and 'Cade. I'll head off in the other direction, try and get him to follow me, while you hang back here, and wait 'till he's gone. Okay?"
"Okay, be careful" Darren patted him on the shoulder, and watched as Miles army-crawled further into the bolder cluster, disappearing among the rocks. A few seconds later, he caught a flash of blond hair dash past some other rocks forty or so feet away: two minutes felt like two hours as the desert fell silent, and Barricade's footfalls grew softer, and quieter.
This was bad, Darren couldn't tell where the con was, or how far away he was; Josie stayed flat against the ground, not moving even in inch, in case the slightest noise betrayed their presence.
Suddenly, without warning: Barricade quietly stepped to one side of the bolder they were hiding behind; he had no idea the two youngsters were right on the other side of the rock, and likewise, Darren and Josie didn't know he was there either. Just as the former-con was about to look behind the rock, a blue flash of light caught his attention, as Miles rose up into the air, and shot a couple of energy blasts at him. Barricade transformed, and took off after him: Miles sped off in the opposite direction, and as the sound of Barricade's engine disappeared off into the distance, Darren and Josie nervously peered around the bolder; absolutely gobsmacked at just how close they had come to being found...
The two of them just sat there in the sand for the longest moment: between the sounds of the wind whipping over the nearby ridge, and the desert wildlife, they let their racing hearts slow, and ease to a steadier pace: before sitting upright, and collecting themselves.
"Is he gone?" Josie whispered nervously,
"I think we're okay" Darren sighed, cautiously peering around the rock, and seeing a small blue light that was Miles, grow smaller and smaller the further he flew away, "Question is, are you okay?"
"I-I think-, I don't know?" Josie tried to think straight, "...I-, I'm not good at this"
"...It's okay...Darren gently placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "Some people are not good at handling things-, of this nature...But then, most people don't work with giant transforming alien robots"
Josie paused a moment, before asking, "...Those things backs there, that-, robot, the one that was chasing us. Why does he want to hurt us?"
"Because..." Darren tried to gather his thoughts back together, "He's not a very nice robot"
"...Oh...Okay" Josie quietly shied away.
A moment of silence passed between them, before something occurred to Darren, and he asked her: "...Josie...what do you remember?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, from earlier, when you were fighting the-, other robots; do you remember anything?"
"Remember? ..." Josie stared at him confusion, "...All I remember was: the last time Dr Arkeville gave me something to help me sleep; I remember, I had a bad dream; bad dreams...There was fire, people screaming; and daddy, he told me I had to destroy his enemies, but I didn't listen... I never want to listen to him ever again...So I made daddy go to sleep. Forever..."
Darren sat there staring at her in a mix of confusion and worry: something about that last part made a cold knot tighten around his stomach; he knew from what he read in Josie's diaries that she had issues, serious mental issues. But there had been nothing alluding to her being so unhinged that she'd snapped. What did Arkeville do to her? Something told him it wasn't just the cybernetic enhancements, augmented BSHB and brainwashing that went into making her a one person super-powered army. But was Josie lucid now? (Or as lucid as she was going to get at least) or was he sitting across from someone who'd suffered a psychotic break, and was mentally unhinged in a dangerous way?
He decided not to push his luck and find out the hard way, and so changed the subject; but before he could speak, Josie beat him to it, "... But then-...I heard you say Josie's looking for me...Daddy said she died two years ago, but I knew that wasn't true; she's always been there for me: and daddy always lies. So I knew it couldn't be true...Where is she?"
"...Somewhere...secret; somewhere safe" he cautiously replied, and stood up to stretch his leg.
"...Thank you" Josie smiled, as tears welled up in her eyes,
As he gazed out across the desert, Darren was taken aback to see one of the guard towers so close, not more than half a mile away by the looks of it: "What? ..." he breathed, frowning in confusion, "At that distance they should have seen Barricade: opened fire on him..."
Realizing something was very wrong, Darren turned back to Josie, "Listen, Josie, stay here a sec okay? I just need to check something out real quick"
"It is it one of the robots again?"
"I dunno: that's what I'm going to find out. Stay here, and don't move until I come back"
"Okay" Josie lay flat on the ground again.
Cautiously peering out from the bolder cluster, Darren scanned the landscape all around for any sign of Barricade, or any other con that might have followed them. Once satisfied the coast was clear, he activated his BSHB, and floated up into the air, silently drifting over to the tower.
There were supposed to be two guards stationed in the observation deck at the top of the tower, but no one was there; drifting closer, Darren suddenly noticed the two smashed windows on either side of the tower, one had a small hole through it, but the other, was much larger, wider, and had blood spatter sprayed around it. The knot in Darren's stomach tightened, as he dared to peer in through the window, knowing full well at this point, what had probably happened...
He stopped when he suddenly spotted the two lifeless bodies of the guards, lying on the floor. He quickly turned away, the only thing he could do to stop himself throwing up: as he collected himself, he reached for the comm on his ear-piece, but stopped when he spotted a flash of silver; past the perimeter fence, some eight hundred meters or so away.
Flying over the fence and then dropping down to hover closer to the ground, he kept his eye on the area where the flash came from, and sure enough, another silver flash glistened in the sun for a brief second. It seemed to be something metallic, moving around. As he approached closer, Darren could see that it wasn't silver, but black, and the object reflecting the light, was giant tail-fin...
His stomach practically jumped up into his mouth, as Darren hovered up higher to get a better look: and to his horror, saw, crouched down in a deep river bed; ten forty foot tall black seekers, each with the Broadsword insignia airbrushed in silver on their chest plates...
They all looked up at him: Darren gazed down at them agape; and in that same moment, he shot back the way he'd came, and they fired up their engines and gave chase...
Heading back to where he left Josie, Darren saw Miles with her, and was none too pleased to see him: "Dude! You just left Josie out here alone?!"
"Never mind that now we gotta go!" Darren panicked as he grabbed Josie and tried to fly off with her; before they had a chance to ask what was going on, Miles and Josie both spotted the oncoming seekers, and wasted no time in taking off. As Darren carried Josie, Miles tried to throw the seekers off with some energy blasts, but to no avail. The seekers trained their guns on them and opened fire. Miles shields just barely stayed intact, as the anti-aircraft guns pounded the shield like baseball-sized hailstones.
"-HOLY SHIT!" Miles nearly slammed into the ground, "These guys mean serious business!"
"Just keep them off us!" Darren called back,
As they sped past the western mountain, the base and Black Solstus came back into view, and the seekers suddenly changed course. Giving up the chase, and heading for the fight beyond the canyon.
"Hey! They quit chasing us!" Miles pointed out,
"Yeah but now their heading straight for Prime and the others!" Darren pointed to the base entrance.
At that moment, Josie went limp in Darren's arms: "Josie? Josie what's wrong?!" he tried to shake her. Her head snapped back up, and she looked right at him with a dead thousand mile stare; the circuits on her suit suddenly lit up, and her energy aura began to grow. But before either Darren or Miles could do anything, the static field exploded out from her in a blazing blue and white fireball of energy...
Meanwhile, down in the command center:
The hubbub of noise and panic was abruptly shattered as Hailey and the twins stormed the command center: their BSHB's crackling with energy was they loomed over their uncle on the observation platform. Staring down at him with fury and anger burning in their eyes.
"THIS ENDS NOW!" Hailey roared, "Let my parents go, and get the hell outta here!"
Dumbfounded and astonished to see them like this (never mind the fact they were encased in energy auras and hovering fifteen feet up off the floor): Lawrence almost didn't know what to say at first; but then, given all the strange things he'd already seen today, this wasn't much different: "Your in no position to be making demands on me young lady!" he shot back,
"We weren't asking!" the twins aimed their fists down at him, ready to blast him with fistfuls of energy...
"Hailey! Becca! Becky! The three of you stand down now!" Prowl barked sternly, "This isn't the time or place for this!"
"You tell him that!" Hailey pointed down at Lawrence.
Before anyone had a chance to say or do anything further, the command center shuddered abruptly. As soon as it stopped, Ironhide's voice came in over the open comm, : Everyone brace for incoming attack! Two of those seekers got past us and are heading for your position! :
Every bot and human scrambled to reach their weapons and get to their battle stations, as one of the seekers tried to lunge in through the open door, only to be repelled out with a hail of bullets and BSHB energy. But the seeker and its comrade were determined, and aimed their anti-aircraft guns through the door, ripping up several of the suspended walkways and terminal in a hail of bullets that shredded concrete, and tore metal from metal.
The humans on the platform jumped down out of the way, just barely in the nick of time as the bullets missed them, and hit the wall on the opposite side of the room. Coming up and around from behind the Waineright sisters, Prowl leapt up and punched the seeker up side the jaw, throwing his aim off, but the seeker stood firm: he was hard and solid as a rock, and didn't step back while the SIC fired shot after shot into the gaps between his plates. Hailey came at him with a concentrated burst of BSHB energy, blinding the giant and sending him toppling over backwards onto his comrade behind him. As the seekers struggled to untangle themselves from each other and get back up, the humans and Autobots took the opportunity to fire their weapons on them, pinning them in place: until Skywarp and Jetfire suddenly teleported in, and teleported the seekers out.
Flying down to where their parents were, the sisters were relieved to see they were okay: and as they hugged them tight, Lawrence sat there staring at them in amazement. They just took on those giant robots, without flinching or second thought...
The Ainsley sisters/cousins cautiously crawled out from their hiding places, along with Sarah, Annabelle and Jay-jay, and looked over the bullet holes and torn up walkways and platforms; "This isn't safe for any of you" Sarah thought aloud as her maternal instincts began to take over. "Come on, we're all getting out of here, no arguments" she wagged her finger.
Climbing over the wreckage of the observation platform, the girls tried to persuade the Waineright's to leave and find somewhere safe to hide, until this crisis was over; while their guardians tried to help the other humans and bots: surprisingly, no one had died in that brief attack, but there were serious injuries that needed urgent medical attention.
As she helped Chelsea climb over a particularly large piece of bent metal, Max hadn't notice the small hole in the wreckage behind her, and as her foot went through, she fell over backwards; fortunately, Chelsea still had a hold of her, and pulled hard to stop her falling over. But as Max stopped falling backwards, her laptop slipped out of her open back-pack, and fell on the floor next to the Waineright's. The monitor popped open, and Lawrence saw what was on the screen...
Grabbing the laptop and reading the data in the windows on the desktop: he stared at the laptop, dumbfounded: "...What is this? ..." he blurted out.
Glancing behind her, Max stood there like a deer caught in the headlights: "...Uh, it's nothing, it's just-
"Is this-, Reggie?" Lawrence stared at her,
'SHIT! BUSTED!' Max screamed internally: but before she could try and explain, Lawrence suddenly put two and two together: "-Your Hailey's informant?!"
"Please, I can explain!-" Max threw up her hands: but Hailey stood between her and Lawrence as he stepped forward to confront her: "You leave her out of this! She was only doing what I asked her to do!"
"Which was?" Lawrence frowned,
"Background checks: when you first came here, I wanted to know exactly what I was going to be dealing with"
"And dude, you got some serious skeletons in your family closet" Max frowned,
"Doesn't everyone?" Lawrence gave her a sideways glance,
"Yeah, but having Reggie bumped off?!-" Max exclaimed offhand, and stopped herself...
Everyone around her fell silent, and stared at her in shock: Max internally facepalmed as she realized she just let the shoe drop: Deciding to hell with it, she decided to drop the other one...
"-Plus!" she quickly added, "How do you explain this!-" she pointed to Reggie's sealed birth certificate on her laptop; "His mom was only twelve years old! What the hell's up with that?!..." she then leaned in close to Hailey and whispered in her ear: "I was gonna tell you I swear, but we couldn't reach you on the comm!"
Snatching the laptop from Lawrence, Hailey read through the information, and stared at the screen in astonishment...
Everyone around them didn't know what to think: but what really stood out at that moment was the look on Lawrence's face. For the first time since arriving here, there was a genuine look of anxiety in his eyes, and he was at a loss for words. For the briefest moment, something akin to fear and dread flashed through his eyes, before the poker face came down again, and he turned stoic once more...
"Lawrence?" Jason approached him, "...What is this?" he pointed to the laptop, "What the hell does she mean?"
Lawrence turned his head away, unable to look his brother in the eye. Some were incline to think the gesture was a deliberate snub; but the look in Lawrence's eyes told Jason otherwise.
He was about to press Lawrence further, when suddenly the whole base shuddered violently, as an explosion above ground reverberated through the thick concrete, metal and reinforced shielding: a giant crack appeared in the ceiling, running from one end of the room to the other, and down the wall towards where the Waineright's were standing...
Outside the base, things were now, officially the worse-case scenario...
"EVERYONE FALL BACK INTO THE TUNNEL!" Optimus ordered as he tried to keep one of the giant seekers at bay.
Fighting four of the giant Broadsword seekers was bad enough: it was taking Optimus and twenty five of his best warriors just to keep them occupied long enough for the humans to try and attack them. But with fourteen now attacking head-on with the former cons, and the Black Solstus's field disruptor not working; this battle had all but been lost, as the NEST troops and bots tried to bottle-neck the tunnel, in an attempt to try and slow the enemy's advance. They only just managed to get those two that attacked the command center back outside, and even then, both Jetfire and Skywarp got taken out of the action thereafter by a couple of blind-siding punches. And despite their ferocity and brute force, even the Dinobots were now having a hard time trying to get one over on their prey.
As the two dazed teleporter's sat some way down the tunnel with Ratchet, Sam and Mikaela tending to their concussions, the NEST troops took it in turns to shoot the enemy, while another few units near the medics reloaded and readied the heavier weaponry that had been brought up from the gun cages. As he dodged and weaved the former-con's, throwing punches and swiping hard where he could, Ashley managed to make it back over the front line for a quick breather...
"This is getting bollocks dad!" the hybrid panted as his father handed him a canteen of water: "With those things out there there's no way we can push them back now!"
"He's right" Lennox agreed, "Their shields are back up and we can't get a handle on them; what're we gonna do?!"
"I don't know" John frowned, "But god help us, we can't let them break us!" he grunted as he reloaded his semi-automatic, and fired several bursts at one con that got too close to Ironhide.
Suddenly remembering the incident with his arm in the training room: Ashley began to wonder if he could somehow get it to transform into a cannon again; if it was strong enough to blast Longrange into a wall, maybe it could knock the wind out of one of those seekers? But how did he do it? What was the trigger? Was it a one-off occurrence? Or a new feature of his recent 'complication'? There was no way of knowing if it was even possible, or if it could even be controlled...
As Ashley fretted over whether or not to try and summon the weapon, he hadn't noticed the giant seeker that had managed to throw Ironhide, Ultra Magnas and Hound to one side, and fire a harpoon-like spear down the tunnel, which was attached to the seeker via a long length of cable; it struck the tarmac and missed the humans by mere feet.
But as the troops ran for cover, the shaft of the weapon suddenly twisted, and several rows of, what looked like sizable fish hooks, popped out and snagged John by the back of his stab vest as he tried to run past it. With one hard yank, the seeker dislodged the spear from the tarmac, and with his father attached to it, Ashley watched in horror as his father went flying through the air: over the heads of the NEST troops, and over the front line, past the bots, who only just caught a glimpse of him careening through the air...
"-DAD!"
As he went barreling towards the seeker: John managed to twist himself round, and fire off several rounds at the seeker's head: striking him in the right optic. Clenching his face in pain, the seeker quickly forgot the human as he slammed into the giants left shoulder, and dropped to the ground; just barely landing on his feet, and preventing a broken ankle. But the Royal Marine didn't have time to get to safety, as the seeker unknowingly kicked John further back, away from the entrance, and any hope of anyone being able to reach him. With the wind knocked out of him hard, and his equilibrium in a tailspin, the human struggled to get back up, as a couple of the giant seeker's spotted him at their feet, and reached down for a closer look...
"NO!..." Ashley roared, as he took a running leap, and cleared the front line; making a bee line for his father...
"ASHLEY! NO!" Prime tried to grab him, but wasn't fast enough as the hybrid charged out; dodging and weaving the legs of the attackers and Dinobots,
The seekers aimed their weapons down at his father; John craned his head up, only to see a glow of red energy, and feel the hot static pulse of the weapon as it's barer began to pull the trigger...
"DAD!" Ashley pushed his legs to run with everything he had, everything else faded away, as he focused on the seekers, ready to kill them...
Seeing what was about to happen, Prime threw off the con he was fighting, and ran hell for leather, straining his engine for maximum bipedal speed: aiming his wrist-gun at the nearest seeker; but he knew there and then that he'd only be able to take out that one seeker, there was no way he'd be able to kill the other one in time to save John.
"JOHN!"
"DAAAAAAAAAD!"
Elsewhere, deep inside the base; Ravage stopped dead in his tracks. Something was terribly wrong, Ashley was in trouble: expanding his mind out to get a better 'look', the panther-drone watched the battle through the optics of the other bots, as they watched the human, about to die...
At the same time: Majestrix stopped too: having heard the panic in her brother's voice, she stood there and listened to the open comm...
Time seemed to slow; as everyone watched in horror, as John was now literally a second from death...
As he ran for the seeker nearest to him, Ashley's whole body suddenly began to glow bright red, getting brighter and bright with every footfall: and in a flash of brilliant scarlet and a loud burst of strange 'warping' sounds, the hybrid was suddenly...transformed...
Instead of the twelve foot tall sphinx-like creature that looked more animal than robot: now, there was a GIANT robotic sphinx. Covered in charcoal black armor with a pale grey, almost white underbelly, and a prominent large red optic in the middle of its face: plus a set of sharp teeth and jaws. It moved so fast that no one could make out any other features, as it slammed into the seeker that stood over John, and ripped the wings off its back with one swipe of its enormous front paw. Optimus screeched to a halt as the creature turned and jumped, and in one move, decapitated the other seeker with a single sweep of its bladed tail...
In that one moment, the whole crazy situation was suddenly turned on its head: as everyone gazed upon the creature, as it stood snarling at the other seekers...
Being stationary for a brief moment allowed everyone to get a better look at it; twenty feet tall at the shoulders with an additional eight feet of neck and head: it wasn't anything anyone had ever seen before. Its broad shoulders sported a strange-looking set of double cannons, set into a large triangular structure that elevated them above its head. Its back had, what looked like a long set of folded wings protruding out of the back of the shoulders, and its hind quarters looked to be 'all muscle': sleek yet robust, built for speed and power with a set of heavy laser cannons mounted onto the hips (uncannily like Ravage's), with a long thickly robust tail that ended in a prominent axe-like set of double blades.
But it was the head that got everyone's attention: its one scarlet optic was actually set upon a large off-white helm-like structure that made it look like the creature was wearing a pointed hood, with a set of large darker grey pointed ears on the sides; it's pale silver-white face looked like a cross between a cybertronian and a human, sleek, seamless face plates that looked more like flesh than metal, with black markings around the optics that made it look all the more menacing...
But its cheeks, eye sockets, and jaw-line were unmistakable: everything else had transformed and changed; except its face...Everyone could still see, exactly who it was...
"...Ashley? ..." John breathed in utter astonishment.
Prime stood there in shock also, what in Primus's name had just happened?
But just as quickly as the moment had come to a stand-still: the pendulum began to swing back again, and the chaos erupted as the seekers now turned their attention to the now 'upgraded' human hybrid...
The creature roared like a lion, deep and booming like thunder, and charged the seekers head on: crashing through them like a tiger on a heard of deer, his sheer weight knocked them to the ground, while his claws quickly dispatched them in very little time.
"Wha-...What just happened?!" Lennox gasped,
"What happened to Ashley?!" Bumblebee panicked,
Though everyone on the ground now watched in silence as Ashley tore through the enemy: up in the Black Solstus, his guardian and cousins watched in a mix of confusion and shock: as they tried to wrap their minds around what they had just witnessed.
"D, what the hell just happened?!" Danny panicked
"I-...I don't know?" was all Deathshot could say, as he watched the giant sphinx tear three of the former cons to pieces...
Suddenly, the air suddenly felt like the heart of an electric storm, as a giant glowing ball of static energy charged Optimus, and slammed him into the nearby ridge. All the other bots bar the hybrid keeled over in pain as their CPU's suddenly felt like they were about to explode. As his glitching optics strained to correct their focus, Optimus could see through the static, the glowing form of Josie, as she slammed him with another energy blast. Howling with pain, Optimus pleaded with her to stop, but as he looked again, he saw the dead expression in her eyes. Whatever it was that had control of her, was now back with a vengeance...
With their shields protecting them from the powerful static field, the seekers and cons were preoccupied with Ashley, as he savagely fought them off like a wild animal. It was at that point, the humans realized there was something wrong...
"Dude, he's completely lost it, he's totally out of it!" Epps fretted
"Never mind that, Optimus is in trouble!" Lennox pointed to the Prime, as he got pounded with wave after wave of static energy. None of the bots could even get up, never mind hold their weapons up to aim and shoot: aboard the Black Solstus, Deathshot riled in pain, as his charges all decided to try and stop Josie themselves, and in one reckless move, flew out of the ship and charged the girl. But none of them realized was that their combined BSHB shields created a counter-field when they came into contact. Like two magnets of the same polarity, the five shields violently repelled one another, as the cousin's shields were set to a different frequency of energy output, compared to Josie's; and the resulting explosion sent all five of them hurtling off in different directions.
But while the Brigg's cousins had the wind knocked out of them, Josie however, was not harmed at all, and simply got back up, and attacked Optimus again.
Optimus howled as Josie blew off part of the armor on his left side, and started to really lay on the static as she threw everything she had at him...
"BROTHER!" Majestrix cried out as she heard her little brother howl in pain...
Uber cliffhanger time! And the tension's not gonna let up anytime soon!
Hope you enjoyed, & don't forget to R&R before clicking off :)