PLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE chapter 4: the rescue
"I can't just wait around here; he needs our help!" Arcee insisted, jumping out of the bed.
"Easy there, you need to rest!" Ratchet insisted.
"I can recharge when I'm offlined." Arcee insisted, grabbing her gun and heading for the door.
"At this rate, you might end up like that unless-"
"Just let her go, Ratchet." Optimus said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We need a sharpshooter on this mission anyway."
"Hey, you've got me!" Moonracer said, slinging her rifle over her shoulder. "Best shot in the universe!"
"In addition to you, Moony." Chromia said as she holstered her guns. "Let's save Bumblebee."
"Optimus, your call." Said Elita, transforming into her car altmode.
"Autobots, transform and roll out!" Optimus yelled, transforming into his truck mode as Elita drove next to him, her presence comforting him as he drove onward. "Primus, let Bumblebee be okay."
After driving for about 10 hours, the Decepticon base was within visual range and Optimus knew they needed a distraction.
"Jetfire, strafe the base then get out of there!" Optimus commanded as Jetfire flew overhead, dropping missiles on a collision course with the Decepticon hideout. "The rest of you, split up and surround the base! Find any entrance you can, we're getting Bumblebee out of here today!"
Later…
Bumblebee was in utter shock, laying on the berth naked and bound spreadeagled. A cyber-fly even buzzed onto his optic, and he didn't even blink, his nerves completely shot after the violation he had suffered yesterday. The mech hadn't slept one single wink, his horrific rape and torture keeping him awake at night.
"Why am I still online?" he thought to himself, his limp arms and legs unable to move even if they weren't bound. "Primus, why won't you let me die?"
Suddenly, an alarm blared, making him yelp as his overly-sensitive audio receptors caught the sound of an intruder alert. Bumblebee cried, his optics leaking tears of fear and sadness as he knew it wasn't his comrades. They wouldn't come to save him, nobody would. He hated being trapped in this body, this frame that hurt so horribly, had been so horribly violated…he just wanted to offline. And if the Decepticons wouldn't do it, he would.
Meanwhile…
The Autobots kicked in the wall of the base where Firestar had cut a hole with her axe, swarming into the base in single file. Optimus led the charge as Elita provided fire, shooting down any Decepticons in their way.
"This way!" Arcee yelled as she shot down alarm sirens, jumping over a laser shot from a Decepticon who she then killed with one shot to the head. "I can detect his energy signature, he's close!"
"I'll cover you!" Moonracer yelled as she gunned down a Decepticon who was aiming a pair of guns at Elita-One's back. "This way leads to the prison cells, go find him!"
Arcee ran down the halls, praying silently that Bumblebee was okay. She dodged a sword from a Decepticon who she blasted in the face, turning his faceplate into molten slag. Arcee's fury was unmatched now that Bumblebee was in danger, and she swore to herself she'd cut down anybody in her path if that what it meant.
"Bumblebee!" she yelled as she kicked open the door to the prison, pointing her guns in both directions to clear the corners. "Bumblebee, are you here? Bumblebee!"
Arcee ran down the hallways, looking in the laser-grate cells that were either empty or full of corpses. Not a good sign. She hoped he was okay, because the historical records had told her that even one day in Decepticon custody meant the most horrific of abuses. Arcee turned the corner and looked into one of the cells, then did a double take when she looked in and saw the occupant. Her fuel ran cold when she saw it.
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Bumblebee was there, naked and bound to the bed, covered in fluids and injuries of various types. Arcee swore he looked half-dead, his body contorting in his half-asleep state as he shook. She had never seen anybody in such a horrible state before.
"Bumblebee!" she shouted as she grabbed the control panel and tried to punch in a code. "Wake up! Bumblebee!"
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Bumblebee opened his optics, which were so battered they barely opened. He saw a vision of the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life, the warrior Arcee. It couldn't be true.
"A-Arcee…?" he stammered; his vocalizer clogged with transfluid.
"Bumblebee!" she shouted, bashing at the controls for the energy bars.
"A-Arcee…it c-can't be you…" Bumblebee moaned, shuddering as Arcee bashed the control panel for the last time, deactivating the bars and running into the cell. "…nobody w-would waste time t-trying to save me…"
"Bumblebee, it's me! Wake up!" Arcee shouted, tears falling from her optics as she struggled to unlock his bonds.
"J-Just leave m-me…" Bumblebee sobbed, his body limp as Arcee blasted the cuffs with her gun, her perfect aim busting the locks without hurting his protoform skin. "…I d-deserve to rot in the p-pit…"
"Bumblebee, we're getting you out. I've got you, you're safe." Arcee said as she carefully lifted him into her arms. "Moonracer! I've got him, I need covering fire!"
She ran, holding the smaller mech in her strong arms as Bumblebee lay there, oblivious to everything around him. He only knew he was being carried, but he couldn't trust his mind not to be playing tricks on him. Bumblebee shuddered in Arcee's arms as she evaluated the scene. She hadn't missed the position he had been bound in, nor the stains on the bed, nor the claw marks on him…marks that would only come from a certain position on his body…
"Leaving so soon?" a voice came from behind her, making her turn and aim her gun while carrying Bee over her shoulder. "I never got to have a second round."
"You!" Arcee growled as Nightbird threw shuriken at her, which she blocked with her back armor to protect Bumblebee, who she gently lay on the ground and stood in front of to protect him. "You sick frag…you did this to him?!"
"And he begged for mercy, too." Nightbird said as she drew her sword. "Well, in-between begging for more…"
"You fragger!" Arcee screamed, blasting at her with her gun as Chromia bashed through the wall, tackling the ninja-con. "Pin her down, ladies. She's mine!"
"Oh no, you don't!" Nightbird yelled, slamming Chromia against the wall as Arcee lunged forward, shooting at her while Nightbird deflected the shots with her sword.
Bumblebee was barely coherent of the whole scene, but he vaguely was aware of Arcee, his Valkyrie, battling his rapist. He slowly stood up on shaking pedes, clenching his fists and growling as he grit his denta. Nightbird held her sword to Arcee's throat, about to cut it with a sadistic smile.
"No…" Bumblebee growled, making Nightbird turn in surprise and look at the scout who was miraculously walking towards her on legs that could barely stand an hour ago. "…no more pain…no more pain…! I won't let…you hurt…her!"
He lunged forward in a berserker rage, tackling Nightbird and pinning her to the ground, naked and enraged like a wild cyber-bull. Bumblebee roared like an animal, grabbing Nightbird's helm and bashing it against the floor again and again, snarling incoherently as he wrapped his legs around her head.
"She's the purest…strongest…most wonderful…femme on Cybertron…" Bumblebee roared in-between squeezing his legs around her neck, making Nightbird gasp for air. "…and I won't…let you…hurt her!"
He let out a primal scream of rage as he crushed her helm with a shower of sparks, smashing her head into a pile of busted machinery and picking up her corpse, lifting it over his helm like a hunter holding up his dead prey. Bumblebee then threw Nightbird's offlined body into a blaze of burning oil that was started by the firefight, making her lifeless corpse ping and crackle as the fire raged on beneath it. Suddenly, his legs gave out and he collapsed, exhausted as Arcee screamed and caught him in mid-fall.
"Bumblebee…!" she cried, her optics leaking tears as she quickly pressed her helm against his chest to listen for a spark pulse.
"Is he…?" Moonracer asked, terrified.
"He's okay, but his spark beat is very weak!" Arcee shouted as she transformed into her car mode. "Get him inside, fast! Hold on, Bumblebee, we've got you!"
Later…
Arcee drove faster than she had ever drove in her life, the beaten and raped corpse of Bumblebee contained within her. she slowly turned the corner, carefully wrapping seatbelts around him to prevent him from being thrown around inside of her. She drove through a big gateway in time to see Elita and Chromia gunning down their would-be rapists as Optimus provided suppressing fire by gunning down two Decepticons that had followed her through the base.
"I've got Bumblebee, but he's hurt horribly!" Arcee shouted, forgetting her comms were still on in her panic. "We're just lucky Megatron wasn't here, he must still be elsewhere!"
"I'll notify Ratchet, tell him to get the medbay ready!" Optimus shouted as he threw a Seeker through a wall, transforming into his truck mode. "Autobots, we've got Bumblebee! Roll out!"
He smashed his way through the hole he had created, widening it for the rest of the Autobots as Arcee drove next to him and Elita-1. Optimus flashed a signal to Quickmix, who had followed in his cement-mixer form, the chemist dropping several huge barrels into a hole previously cut into the base's flooring.
"Fire in the hole!" he shouted, a light flashing in his cab. "Everyone, speed up!"
Arcee drove faster than she had driven in her life, the seatbelt ensuring Bumblebee was safe from the high velocity. The base flashed bright white, then a sphere formed around it and shrank, causing a chemical implosion that sucked everything into it and then exploded in a shower of metal and permacrete fragments. Bumblebee passed out inside of her, making her gasp. He had no pulse.
"Bumblebee, stay awake!" she shouted, turning the seat warmers up to their zenith. "Stay awa-!"
To be continued.