Chapter 3: Sharpened Teeth
Earth's Northern Hemisphere, a region that would be known amongst its world's inhabitants of being a region of fluctuating temperatures. In one season, the weather's humidity could be scorching: the other, a frigid ecosystem.
However, out of all the places that the latter represented, no place maintained a chilling reputation as the Arctic would, with its sub - zero temperatures being the pinnacle of inhospitality.
Despite being unsavory for most organic life, two metallic humanoid robots dragged their limbs against the fierce winds, as Aurora and Gearshift made their way across the icebergs.
Gearshift, with his arms raised to conceal his faceplate would be the first to complain, cold temperature missions were not his forte.
"Hey mom, are we there yet?" Gearshift said.
Checking her optic's scanners, Aurora responded: "No Gearshift, we still have a few clicks more before we arrive at the signal."
Resigning himself to his fate, Gearshift decided to make small talk.
"Do you think this signal is another relic?" Gearshift asked. "I'm guessing this Arctic find isn't a piece of Energon."
"Athena's scans picked up a spherical object, so it could be anything in there." Aurora agreed. "Besides, even if it is a relic, It's good for it to be in Autobot hands!"
Eventually, the two Adaptors approached a small cliff and they slid down it, hoping that they could find the signal.
"That's weird, the signal says we're right on top of it, but I don't see anything?" Aurora remarked in confusion.
Turning his head to the right, Gearshift remarked "Mom, look over here! I think we just found the signal."
To the right of the two Adaptors, there lay a large metallic sphere that was encased in a thick chunk of ice.
"Aurora to Athena, mission accomplished." Aurora said. "Please open up the groundbridge!"
"Understood, good work 'Rora, Gearshift." Athena responded. "I'll see you two back at base!"
Suddenly, a swirling green vortex appeared in front of the Adaptors, ready to bridge them back home.
LINE BREAK
Deciding to transport it back home in vehicular mode, Aurora and Gearshift decided to combine with one another to assume a larger vehicle form.
Aurora then changed into her Bugatti Cheron and parked in front of Gearshift while the bot assumed his Aston Martin Vulcan form.
Magnetizing his form's front bumper with Aurora's rear bumper, the two Adaptors quickly began their conversion.
Aurora's front section rapidly widened, as her headlights and grill were overlapped by shifting plates, with the metallic frame of her front section moved forward, reshaping itself to be higher off the ground. Next, her car doors shrunk in size as her entire front section became more boxy, with her wheels expanding in size with her gears adjusting accordingly, with her back wheels being moved towards her frontal section. Finally, her rear section split apart, overlapping Gearshift's frontal section and fusing together.
As for Gearshift, his frontal section fused with Aurora, as his spoiler, mirrors and windows were overlapped with more metallic plates. The rest of his entire chassi flattened into a wide rectangular frame, it combined itself with Aurora's front cabin. Finally, with his frontal wheels moving to his back section, the two Adaptors had successfully merged into a HEMTT.
In their new form, they carried the frozen sphere through the ground bridge to where the rest of the team awaited, eager to see what they had found.
"Aurora! Gearshift! What's that thing you got there?" Windburst asked in excitement.
Said Adaptors then separated from their combined form, plates and servos aligning as they shifted back to their robot modes.
"No idea Windburst, your guess is just as good as mine." Aurora said.
Giving his own opinion, Gearshift said: "Maybe it's some sort of escape pod, jetted onto our planet?"
"Well, whatever this thing is, I'm not detecting any energy or Cybertronian life signatures." Athena chimed in, her optics scanning the frozen mass.
"Not surprising, if that sphere is frozen solid, your scans won't be any good." Artemis remarked.
While the Adaptors were contemplating on their discovery, they didn't notice the portion of the ice that had already melted under the base's heat.
LINE BREAK
As the Adaptors covered the ground bridge portal, Athena and Ultimus decided that they would be next to go into the Arctic.
"Ultimus and I will begin our search for the origins to that sphere in the Arctic" Athena stated. "Hopefully we'll be able to find something soon."
" 'Thena, just make sure that you monitor your temperature levels." Artemis firmly stated. "If your icon goes blue, that means you need to return to base!".
"Understood. Please, don't worry. Ultimus and I will be back as soon as possible." Athena said warmly.
"Alright, but I'll hold you to that!" Artemis responded.
With the ground bridge coming to life, Ultimus shifted into his Audi r8 v10 vehicle form, while Athena collapsed into her McLaren 650S vehicle form.
"You know, you could use all the extra hands while in the Arctic, it's a pretty big place to search!" Windburst wryly suggested to Athena, as she changed back into Miko.
"Nice try Miko." Athena teased from her speakers. "You and Raf need to practice your disguises while in human form, it's just a good work ethic!"
Pouting in disappointment, Miko's human form turned a bright silver, before turning into her featureless liquid metal form. She then moved over to the elevator and pressed the down button.
With Ultimus and Athena speeding off through the ground bridge portal, Miko decided that she could use the downtime to train her abilities, seeing what June's gifts could allow her to do,
Descending down the lift, the elevator finally stopped at a completely blank white training room.
Typically, the existence of such blank rooms served to act as a canvas, using their liquid metal to form the room to their desires. Frequently creating landscapes and objects, the Adaptors could perfectly mimic their texture, appearance and function as they pleased.
However, the Adaptors only had so much liquid metal to work with, being only able to create a maximum of 3 drones and assuming a maximum spread to cover an entire oil tanker.
Fortunately, June's choice to absorb both Airachnid and her starship into her biomass proved beneficial to the team's abilities, as sharing it with the other Adaptors gave them more liquid metal to work with.
With the team's augmented powers, they could easily create dozens of drones, or be able to disguise themselves by enveloping entire buildings with ease.
In addition, each Adapter could also separate themselves into more objects than before, widening the scope of their abilities while undercover or on a mission.
As Miko's featureless liquid metal form stepped into the blank room, she immediately knew how to use her spare time. With her form shimmering, several blobs of liquid metal separated from herself for Miko to use as she pleased.
Ordering them to envelop the entirety of the room, Miko happily watched on as the room was covered in her silver liquid metal, with the color of the walls quickly turned green, resembling grass in a natural forest or park. Soon after, 'flowers' emerged on the 'grass' as liquid metal pillars jutted up from the ground.
Shimmering and rippling, these pillars turned brown as the liquid metal disappeared to resemble thick tree logs as 'vines' grew over the surrounding areas.
Satisfied with the altered environment, the Adaptor decided to create a copy of herself, with a smaller liquid mass emerging from Miko's form.
After all, Miko couldn't pass up the opportunity to play some racing games. Fortunately, being an Adaptor lets her accomplish a multitude of tasks at once, especially while she was improving her disguises.
With the drone rushing back to the elevator, Miko's liquid form suddenly collapsed into a small liquid silver metal fox. Afterwards, she moved over towards a tree stump and curled up, waiting for when she was actually needed for a mission.
However, before Miko could shut her eyes to rest, Raf entered the forest-like space, wanting to see what he believed Mikos 'drones' could have made while he was absent.
"Wow! This place looks spectacular!" Raf said. "Miko's clearly been practicing with her powers."
Internally snickering at this response, Miko telepathically commented: "Oh please, don't stop praising me for my talents!" Miko smugly said, as her fox-like form quickly expanded. After growing in size and assuming humanoid features, the fox was replaced by Miko's liquid metal form.
"So it's not a drone, just a typical Miko." Raf internally sighed
"Yeah, I suppose I should have seen this coming a mile away, you'd actually be here instead of a drone." Raf deadpanned. "You do love using your abilities more than the others."
"What can I say? I'm just a natural at this!" Miko happily responded. "Anyways, here to hang out, since we're not actually on a mission?"
"Are you sure we have that time? Mom and Aurora might need us to help out." Raf stated, eyebrow raised at Miko.
"Chill dude, I'm sure Mom and Aurora can handle themselves! Miko exasperatingly explained. "Besides, if they actually need us, they can just instantly call us through the bond."
Considering Miko's possible points, Raf eventually caved.
"Well..I suppose it wouldn't actually hurt, if we're just waiting for Athena and Ultimus to return." Raf said.
"Catch me if you can then!" Miko exclaimed, as she shifted back to her silver fox form before dashing through her own custom made terrain.
Indulging in Miko's request, Raf still was aware that somebody needed to be on standby. As he shifted into his featureless liquid metal form, he created a drone of himself before collapsing into a small bird and soared after Miko.
Aurora frantically shifted the levers at the sparking ground bridge controls, perplexed as to why the ground bridge was suddenly non responsible.
"Artemis! I need your help with this blasted thing!" Aurora shouted, catching Artemis's attention.
"Hey 'Rora, what's up? Let me guess, you're having some 'tech issues' ? " Artemis asked.
"I need your help looking at the inside of this control panel, the ground bridge is down!" Aurora said sternly."
But Athena and Ultimus made it through to the Arctic" Artemis asked. "What's the trouble here, exactly?"
"Athena and Ultimus made it through without issues, yes, but that's not what worries me. Aurora said gravely. "It's bringing them back from the Arctic that's going to be an issue, they won't last forever in those frigid weathers."
"So, what do you need me to do exactly?" Artemis stated in confusion.
"Turn into your liquid metal form, it's time you looked under the hood for me." Aurora stated.
While Aurora and Sofia made their attempts to repair the ground bridge, the autonomous drone of Miko and Raf wandered through expansive halls of the base.
Since their bodies purely consisted of liquid metal, their copied personalities let them stroll the halls, changing shapes for their amusement.
However, after hearing a faint clicking sound down the hallway, both drones quickly became defensive.
Moving their forms to the floor, the two drones de - cloaked themselves, revealing large silver puddles of liquid metal. Eventually, two pillars emerged from the paddle, where they assumed humanoid shapes before instantly forming colors atop the liquid metal and creating clothing.
Being extensions of Miko and Raf had benefits, for their versatility to serve in disguise was rivaled only by their creators. Since imitating humanoid forms often involved copying personality traits, voice, memories, fingerprints and retinas, mimicry was child's play to them.
Eventually, the two drones completed their look of Miko and Raf, telepathically agreeing to watch one another's backs.
With the drone of Raf turning his arms into axes and the drone of Miko turning her arms into blades, they silently traversed the hall to detect the potential intruder.
"Hello, is anyone there?" The drone said, perfectly imitating Miko's voice. "You know I can hear you, right?"
"I don't think anyone would actually respond to that." The drone of Raf telepathically teased."
"Hey! Don't knock it until you try it - wait.. what's that over there?" Miko asked.
Both drones scanning the hallway, they could barely make out a tiny object in the distance. However, despite the seemingly small stature of this object, the drone did not let her guard down. Enhancing her eyesight, she could see that the object had 4 small legs, but a rather enlarged circular head with purple optics.
"What are you anyways?" The drone of Miko silently asked herself, before moving closer to the unknown object down the hallway.
As both drones got closer, the object rapidly scuttled towards Raf at high speeds, with a seemingly hostile intent.
Clearly thinking that they were about to engage in battle, both drones prepared to strike with their blades.
Surprisingly, both drones were taken aback when the object deposited a small bolt at her feet instead of assaulting them.
"Huh, maybe it's friendly?" The drone of Raf telepathically suggested.
"Are you just looking for somebody to play fetch with you?" The drone of Miko asked the object in confusion, turning her blades back into hands.
With a nod of confirmation from the unknown object, the drone grinned, before throwing the bolt down the hallway.
However, upon doing this, the object raced towards it at unknown speeds - and swallowed it whole!
"Hey! Be careful, you can't just swallow that! It's dangerous for you" The drone of Raf stated, as he rushed to try to help it.
However, the object turned back to the drone, seemingly unphased by what had just happened.
"Well, I guess you're fine then?" The drone of Raf shrugged, before walking to pet the object.
Emanating a humming sound in clear content, the object rubbed its head against the drone's leg, giving its affection.
However, such seemingly newfound companionship towards the drone of Raf gave the drone of Miko an idea, as she smirked at the thought of her idea.
"Hey buddy, since we're showing off what we can do, allow me to show you what an Adaptor can do!" The drone stated.
As the object watched on in amazement, the drone currently in Miko's form started to shimmered rapidly, as it reverted into a featureless liquid metal humanoid.
After adjusting its skin tone, height and clothes, it assumed Rosa's human form. Such a form would also include replicating her eyes, fingerprints, voice, personality and memories.
Grinning in excitement, the drone in Rosa's form shimmered again, before returning to her liquid metal state and collapsed into a deer, to which she then ran through the halls with the object fiercely on her heels.
"Oh, so that's what we're going to do?" The drone of Raf asked. "Count me in!"
The drone of Raf soon copied, turning into Miko's form before changing into a doe, shooting off after the silver deer.
As both drones turned the hall, they missed the electrical sparks from a circuit breaker, with frayed wires loosely hanging from the broken box as it continued to sparkle.
Emerging from the control panel as a liquid metallic eel, Sofia telepathically remarked to Aurora: "Honestly, I'm not sure what exactly could have caused this damage, it's more severe than I thought."
Suddenly, the lights in the room rapidly flickered on and off, alarming both adaptors.
"Yeah, I think I noticed." Aurora deadpanned. "Hopefully this isn't a problem with our on - site reactor, otherwise that would be pretty bad."
"Could be a server - wide issue, if the lights are failing here." Sofia said, as she returned to her human form.
"Hey Mom, Aurora, look at what we found!" The drone of Miko said.
"Yes, I'm sure what you have to show me is of great import – Woah!" Aurora and Sofia suddenly moved back, caught off guard by Miko's find.
However, the find in question was currently docile, sleeping in the drone's arms.
"Miko, where did you get that… thing?" Sofia cautiously asked.
"This thing?" The drone of Raf said. "Oh, we found that while walking through the halls."
As the object slowly opened its eyes, it immediately detected Aurora's metallic aura in her Cybertronian form.
"Well, it doesn't seem dangerous so -" Aurora stated, before being interrupted by a loud whirring sound from the unknown object.
When identifying Aurora as a metallic object, the entity opened its mouth, revealing dozens of razor - sharp teeth!
Quickly lunging towards the femme, it jumped onto Aurora's leg, beginning to rapidly cut through the upper layer of the femme's armor, much to the team's horror.
Before the entity could cause any more damage to Aurora, Sofia turned her right arm into a liquid blade, before propelling her weapon through its head.
Falling to the floor lifelessly with an audible clunk, both drones frantically rushed over to check on Aurora' wellbeing.
"I'm so sorry Aurora! I didn't know it would just attack you li-." The drone of Miko frantically tried to apologize, only to be cut off by Aurora.
"Please, don't apologize Miko, we had no idea it would be that dangerous." Aurora said. "Although, if you saw this thing earlier, why didn't you decide to warn us?"
Both drones blushed before the drone of Raf answered
"Well, the both of us are just drones so we don't share a bond together." Raf said.
"So you didn't tell us this earlier because…?" Aurora asked, before changing back into Rosa.
"Oh! Well, we sorta forgot to?" The drone of Miko responded to the two Adaptors.
"How about this, could you please retrieve her and Raf from the training room?" Sofia sternly asked. "We've got a situation here!"
"They're already on the way, since they've been watching through my eyes." The drone of Raf happily stated.
"Of course they have." Sofia grumbled in her head,
Eventually, the doors to the elevator opened up to reveal a concerned Raf and Miko,
"Mom, are you ok?" Raf asked. "Your leg took a bad hit there."
"I'm fine Raf, don't worry." Rosa smiled warmly at her son.
However, this smile quickly vanished, as a grim thought quickly surfaced.
"So.. the bug's been squashed, problem resolved, right?" Miko asked.
"No… I think our problems are about to get a lot worse." Rosa stated. "And, I think I know how this all started."
Arriving at the sphere, the Adaptors now saw that all the ice had melted. More importantly, was a massive tear in the container that seemed to be forcibly cracked open.
"So this is how they got in, and we never even noticed them leaving, how clever." Sofia disdainfully stated.
"This thing was most likely ejected from Cybertron as a trap." Rosa stated "Probably waiting to arrive upon another victim to be consumed."
"So, the Arctic kept them from breaking free?" Miko asked.
"Yes." Sofia said. "However, our base is much warmer than the Arctic, so they probably all woke up and broke out."
"So, how many of these things are there?" Raf worriedly asked.
"Based on the size of this container, probably thousands." Sofia responded.
"Thousands!" Miko said in astonishment. "Oh great, now we've got an even bigger bug problem than before!"
"Indeed." Rosa grimly stated. "With the power shortages and the ground bridge being disabled, I'm not sure how we'll be able to retrieve Athena and Ultimus.
"I'm sure they're tough enough to last until we can get the ground bridge working, Hopefully." Miko said while muttering the last word to herself.
With the Arctic winds continuing to rage onwards, Athena and Ultimus continued to slowly traverse the desolate landscape, keeping their scanners on maximum for more signs of foreign objects.
Having just ground bridged to an abandoned Arctic base, both Adaptors collapsed into identical Sno - Cats, needing the grip of treads to traverse the smooth ice plains.
However, even after covering miles of ice, no further discoveries could be found.
"Hey mom, should we start searching elsewhere, I don't think there's anything else out here but sheets of ice." Ultimus asked from his speakers.
"No, let's continue until we get the temperature warning, then we can head the other way after we've warmed back up at base. Athena responded.
Suddenly, both Adaptors were suddenly caught off guard by an audible beeping sound.
Transforming out of their new vehicle modes, Athena and Ultimus saw that their insignias were rapidly flashing bright blue.
"Looks like our body temperatures have dropped too low, we should be heading back to base if we don't want to freeze." Athena said.
"Yeah, I'm not sure my servos can handle the cold for much longer." Ultimus agreed with his mother's statement.
Nodding back, Athena activated her own comms: "Athena to Aurora, we've just got our low temperature warnings, requesting an immediate groundbridge back to base."
However, all she could hear from her end was static, surprising the Adaptor.
"Mom, my comms aren't working either, you think the Arctic is jamming them?" Ultimus questioned.
"It would take a lot more than cold wind to interfere with our technology." Athena said. "No, something else is going on back at base."
Curious as to the jammed communications, Athena tried using her bond with her closest friends, knowing that weather could not possibly disrupt their connection together.
"Aurora, Artemis, can you two hear me?" Athena telepathically asked.
Fortunately, Athena did not need to worry, for a response quickly came to her processor.
"Yeah, we can always hear you 'Thena." Sofia replied through the bond.
"What's the problem with the comms, or the ground bridge for that matter?" Athena asked her fellow Adaptors.
"Well, do you remember that frozen sphere Raf and I brought back from the Arctic?" Rosa telepathically asked.
"Of course I remember, especially when I looked through your memories, it seems I was right about you being able to combine quite well to assume other vehicles!" Athena praised, mentally giggling.
Ignoring her own rising blush, Rosa continued: "Unfortunately, it seems the sphere was housing Cybertronian termites that eat through metal!"
"What!" Artemis telepathically remarked in surprise. "What damage have they already done to the base?"
"They've chewed through a few bridge systems; we're trying to bring them online right now." Sofia telepathically reported.
"No!" Get rid of those pests first, or they'll just eat everything all over again!" Athena sternly ordered.
"Okay, but if we can't get the ground bridge up soon, how will you and Ultimus get back home?" Rosa asked.
"I'm... I'm not sure, but we'll figure something out, I promise!" Athena nervously said.
"Good luck, please stay safe, both of you." Rosa and Sofia pleaded, before the bond quickly went quiet.
"Ultimus, you heard that right?" Athena asked, turning her head to her son, seeing his concerned expression on his faceplate.
"Rosa's got a point, how are we going to get back home?" Ultimus asked. "Our aerial forms won't work in this wind, there's too much force."
"I know." Athena grimly stated. "Like I said, we will get back home safely, I promise!"
Sighing in response, Ultimus still remained worried, especially for Miko and Raf who were in the base.
"Let's just hope there aren't too many of those bugs for them to deal with." Ultimus said.
Back at the mountainous headquarters of the Adaptors, a plan was frantically put into action. Fortunately, being an Adaptor could enable them to potentially handle such unusual circumstances.
"Let's break down what we know about these things, they can only eat things made of metal." Rosa explained. Fortunately, they don't seem particularly interested in our human or liquid metal forms."
"So, if we stay out of our Cybertronian forms, we'll be completely safe, right?" Sofia asked.
"Correct." Rosa said. "If we stay in our other 2 forms, they shouldn't be as aggressive, as they didn't start eating the drones."
"But how do we repair the ground bridge? Didn't you and mom already look through the systems?" Miko asked.
"Perhaps, but I'd like to bet that this is a power - based issue, meaning the energon valve must be damaged." Rosa grimly stated.
"That could explain why the ground bridge still isn't working, even if we've fixed all the internal circuitries." Sofia said.
"So, we know the problem, but where is the actual valve located?" Raf asked.
"Hopefully the valve is at least nearby" Miko thought to herself, before Rosa responded to her thought.
"Unfortunately, no." Rosa sadly responded, sensing Miko's question. "It's actually located a few levels down and it's probably going to be guarded by some of those creatures."
"That's fine." Sofia stated while looking at her daughter. "Miko and I will repair the broken valve while you and Raf make sure of the ground bridge activities."
"Are you sure you can handle those things; do you want me to be backup?" Raf asked in concern for his fellow Adaptors.
Smiling warmly, Sofia said: "Thanks, but that's not necessary. You and your mother need to remain on guard to protect the ground bridge in case we fix the damaged valve."
"Understood, good luck, both of you." Rosa stated.
With a plan now put into action, the Adaptors quickly split up into their respective pairings, with Sofia and Miko heading towards the elevator.
Unfortunately, it seems that was broken too, as Sofia frustratingly pounded on the down button.
"Scrap! Is there anything that these creatures haven't already broken?" Sofia exclaimed in anger.
"Mom, you know there's always another way to get down three floors?" Miko asked, while pointing to the elevator roof.
Looking up, Sofia really doubted if Miko was actually serious about her plan.
"That way, really?" Sofia deadpanned to her daughter, who was silently chuckling in amusement. "We could always just take the stairs."
"Sure! Besides, the team is counting on us, so we really got to hurry up!" Miko said.
Reluctantly nodding in agreement, Sofia responded: "If that's what it takes to bring Athena and Ultimus back home, let's do it!"
Contacting Ultimus through the bond, Miko said: "Ultimus, Athena, we're working on a way to bring you back, how are you both holding up?"
"We're fine so far Miko, we're just trying to find some shelter since it's gotten a lot colder." Ultimus telepathically responded.
"Don't worry about us, please just get that ground bridge back online!" Athena joined in.
"Good luck Sofia, Miko." Ultimus said.
As Miko was having her telepathic conversation, Sofia's arm shimmered before turning into liquid metal. Shaping it into a silver metallic saw, she extended it upwards to begin cutting through the roof.
Once a sizable hole was made, both mother and daughter's forms shimmered, before their clothes and humanoid features completely disappeared into their liquid bodies.
Turning into their liquid metal forms, they collapsed into large puddles, before they slithered up through the elevator roof and traveling down the elevator shaft, sticking to the walls in the process.
Eventually, both Adaptors reached the desired floor, where the shimmered their bodies through the walls itself. In front of them was the long valve, where they saw that energon was slowly dripping like a faucet.
However, as Rosa predicted, hundreds of the same creatures were surrounding the valve, teeth widely exposed for all to see.
Deciding to handle these creatures before repairing the valve, Sofia's puddle form rose back to a featureless humanoid shape while Miko copied her actions.
Then, thin, sharp metallic needles grew over both of her arms, similar to that of a porcupine.
Swinging both of her arms, Sofia shot out all of her created projectiles, accurately hitting all of the creatures in their heads and instantly disabling them.
After the area was secured, Miko put both of her hands onto the Pipe, before a portion of herself separated from her body. Fusing with the existent metal, the liquid metal of Miko then changed its color and texture to match the pipe, enabling energon to fully be routed back to the ground bridge.
With the task now complete, both adaptors hoped that this would be enough to bring the ground bridge back online.
"Rosa, we've fixed the valve and taken out the creatures here, what's your status?" Miko telepathically asked through the bond.
"We can't bring the bridge online yet; we still need help dealing with the creatures in the main lobby." Rosa said in response.
"Sofia, mind coming back to help us out, that trick you just used on the creatures seems to be pretty effective?" Raf asked.
"Understood, I'm on my way!" Sofia said. Looking back to her daughter, she asked: "Miko, can you stay here and guard the valve? I need to go help the others with a bug problem."
"Can do!" Miko responded, as she quickly collapsed back into a silver metal puddle and merged with the nearby wall, perfectly mimicking its texture and appearance.
With Miko safely hidden from sight, Sofia rushed back towards the elevator shaft. Using her liquid metal, she easily attached herself to the wall to attach as she glided up the chasm.
Reaching the main lobby of their headquarters, the Adaptor saw that the base was completely littered with the same creatures that she had seen downstairs.
Much to her relief, both Rosa and Raf were unaffected by the creatures, since their human forms were not comprised of metal.
"Rosa! Raf! Follow my lead and we can take these things out if we work together!" Sofia shouted.
Acknowledging Sofia's arrival, both Adaptors shifted from their human forms to their liquid metal forms, preparing to follow Sofia's lead in the assault.
Creating the same thin needles from their arms from Sofia, the three Adaptors flung them towards their enemies, eventually being able to incapacitate the swarm in only a mere few minutes.
As the lifeless husks of the creatures hit the floor with a loud thunk, many more soon followed to create a pile of littered entities.
With their enemies now dispatched and lying on the floor, they quickly made haste towards the ground bridge controls.
"Sofia, you and Miko did repair the valve, right?" Raf asked, reassuming his human form. "Just want to make sure we can still help Athena and Ultimus.
"Don't worry, the leak has been patched up, so energon should now be fully flowing towards the systems!" Sofia confidently claimed.
"Then everything should work, I've triangulated their present location... and... ground bridge... activate." Rosa said, pulling down the lever.
1 hour ago.
Back in the Arctic, Athena and Ultimus continued to walk onwards, slowly feeling the fatigue that was brought about by the colder weather.
They had decided not to revert back to their vehicle forms, deciding that they needed to conserve their energy as best as possible.
Unfortunately, the cold proved to be far more difficult to handle than expected, as Athena suddenly collapsed to one knee, as she gasped in surprise.
"Mom!" Ultimus asked in worry. "Are you ok, what happened?"
Giving her son a weak smile, Athena replied: "It's fine, I'm just feeling a little bit weak from the cold, that's all."
As she said this, the Adaptor notice the ice slowly building on the sides of her armor.
"We've got to find ourselves a shelter, fast, otherwise we won't be able to last much longer in these climates." Ultimus said.
"True, but I'm not sure how much distance we can cover together, especially since we've decided not to transform." Athena grimly responded.
"Mom, are your scanners picking up any nearby caves? Ultimus asked his mother. "Mine aren't having much luck in finding any habitable locations."
Shaking her head, Athena responded: "Sorry, but neither are mine, but it's not like there are any caves nearby, just giant formations of ice."
Fortunately, Ultimus then came up with a clever idea to help them out of their deadly situation.
"Wait, if our scanners can't help us find a cave, why don't we make our own cave to stay in?" Ultimus asked.
Curious towards her son's idea, Athena pressed: "How are we going to just make a cave, when we don't have the explosives to make one?"
"We don't need explosives!" Ultimus remarked, turning both of his lower arms into A - 4 Pulsar Cannons, before unloading a pulse of charged energy at a nearby cliff of ice.
The resulting explosion dug a considerable hole into the cliffside, making a makeshift shelter for the two Adaptors.
"See?" Ultimus said, with a small smile on his faceplate. "This ice cave should help us last long enough to survive until a ground bridge arrives."
"Alright, Kudos...to you on this clever idea, I just hope they can reach us in time." Athena prayed.
"They WILL get to us in time mom, we can't lose hope at a time like this." Ultimus sternly reminded.
Such bravado made Athena slowly chuckle.
"You know, you're... really starting to pick up on some of the ways I behave when... giving out orders." Athena said. "Even when leading Miko and Raf, you're quite the team leader yourself."
Red slowly appearing on his faceplate, Ultimus reacted to his mother's compliments: "Thanks mom, that means a lot coming from you."
"No problem, no... no problem... at all." Athena said, closing her own optics just a bit to conserve as much power as possible.
1 Hour Later
Eventually, over what seemed to be an eternity, an hour had passed in the cave, when a swirling green vortex appeared in front of the two Adaptors.
Optics opening at the sight, they were elated to see that their rescue party had finally arrived.
Trying to catch her son's attention, Athena softly exclaimed: "Ultimus, look over here!"
With Ultimus turning his head to the entrance of the cave, he too saw the exit portal back home.
Oh... that's good to see! it's time we leave this wasteland, this weather is really grinding my gears," Ultimus whined.
"Agreeing with her son, Athena said: I know how you feel. Trust me, next time we need to go to the Arctic, we'll be better prepared against the cold."
Stepping out of the portal came the Adaptors Windburst and Aurora, who quickly rushed to help out their currently weakened allies.
"Comon' Ultimus, time to get up on your feet" Windburst said in relief, as she helped lift up her teammate. "At least you both are alright, that's all that matters."
" 'Thena! Are you and Ultimus ok, are there any serious damage to your systems?" Aurora asked her fellow Adaptor in concern.
"Everything's fine 'Rora, we're alive aren't we." Athena coyly grinned. "We just need to warm up a little bit back at base."
Crossing through the ground bridge, the team's mood brightened as they embraced the warmth of their home base and to finally get out of the frigid cold.
"Finally! We're back home safely! Ultimus exclaimed. "I don't ever want to feel those Arctic Temperatures again!"
"Don't worry Ultimus, I doubt we'll have to go back for any more Cybertronian relics." Athena said.
Sitting down at a nearby wall, both partially frozen Adaptors took the time to relax, as the rest of their team got out the necessary medical supplies and energon to restore their potentially damaged systems.
Closing their optics, both Adaptors decided to power down, letting their teammates handle their weakened condition, knowing that they were back in safe hands.
NIGHT
Eventually, June woke up from her slumber, seeing that she had been moved to her room in the base in order to relax after such a harrowing adventure.
Deciding that she was in need of a drive to clear her mind, the Adaptor quickly walked to the nearby hangar bay.
Opening the smaller hangar bay doors for a lighter vehicle mode, June quickly shifted into Athena, noticing that her energon levels we back to normal and that all the ice had been removed.
Satisfied with this, the femme collapsed into her Lamborghini Aventador SV form, ready for a short drive. However, she decided to change her form's colors to a jet black, helping better blend into the night's darkness.
Driving out into the night for a routine patrol, Athena could only wonder what missions that her team would face next.