In the next moment, Wheelie finally got to watch transformers combine, the Constructicons flying together to form a single behemoth, standing as tall as a Quintesson ship. He couldn't fully take in the threat before the monstrous Decepticon flew away—towards Iacon. What he did register was the lack of alarms going off; somebody had disabled the security system, and by process of elimination that had to be Soundwave or one of his cassettes.
Springer was already transforming. "Come on, Arcee! We've got to stop Devastator!"
She never hesitated, leaping up to catch Springer's skids, then swinging herself onto one. "Take out Soundwave!" she screamed down to the others before Springer bore her away in pursuit of Devastator.
"Soundwave?" Rewind spluttered. "We can't do that!"
Yet Steeljaw was already back in the elevator, and Wheelie hauled Rewind inside as well. "They're taking the big guy. Soundwave is small fry!" He was trying to convince himself as much as the cassette.
"Fair point," Rewind conceded, trading worried looks with Steeljaw. "But we've always left Soundwave to Blaster. We've got no experience of fighting him on our own!"
Neither had Wheelie, so he considered that the least of their worries. The biggest worry would always be his head being invaded, and he wasn't going to admit to that.
When they reached the crypt, Soundwave was nowhere in sight. As a group they made for the hallway.
Defence systems: activate. No sooner had Soundwave's voice flooded the room than the blast doors slammed shut.
"We're trapped!" Rewind exclaimed, and even he sounded annoyed that they'd been caught so easily.
"And zapped!" Wheelie cried, ducking as a jet of flame blew past them. He turned rapidly, taking in the room with freshly paranoid eyes: all around them, air filters were retracting and blasters sliding out. The next moment, they were dodging gamma rays as well as flames.
Steeljaw fired his blasters, taking out the nearest guns, and shouldered them into the hallway.
"Hold your fire in here," Rewind warned them. "We don't want to damage the ancient parts of the building."
"Self-preservation not conservation!" Wheelie snapped at him. He might need to change his mind about sticking together if Rewind didn't get his priorities straight.
"It's also too enclosed a space," the cassette added, unruffled.
At the threshold of the next chamber, Wheelie halted them, his frantic processor plastering yesterday's thought onto today's situation. "Running is dying. Living's in hiding." Instinctively, he knew that they shouldn't linger in the traps set for them, but there was too much going on for him to articulate it.
Rewind wasn't paying attention anyway, his mouth dropping open in realisation. "Of course! Soundwave will be in the inner sanctum from the old fortress."
"There? Where?"
"On the next level, but the stairs are the other side of the blast doors!" Rewind thoughtlessly stepped into the main chamber, his optics sweeping up to the vaulted ceiling. A moment later, the defence system targeted him with a jet of fire-retardant foam.
Wheelie had a clean line of sight to the spray gun and used his slingshot to take it out, but Rewind had already started screaming. Some of the foam had found its way through the cracks of his armour and it was expanding, crushing his circuitry.
Thinking fast, Wheelie yelled to Steeljaw. "Jump up, bring down!" And he gestured to the coolant line over their heads.
He doubted the lion cassette could identify it, but he followed the instructions. As he tore the line down, water gushed from the broken end, and Wheelie thanked the little he knew of the Matrix that that much of the ECS plans had been accurate. Catching on, Steeljaw turned the makeshift hose onto Rewind, washing away every scrap of foam, despite the sparks from damaged circuits making contact with the water.
Meanwhile, Wheelie prised open the nearest access panel. He might have missed the Constructicons' upgrades to the ECS, but he had paid very careful attention to the layout of the maintenance conduits.
With Rewind fritzing and barely conscious, Wheelie and Steeljaw picked him up and all three of them fled into the ducts.