CHAPTER FIVE
"This here cybercat is called Steeljaw," said the Autobot mech-animal handler as he let the yellow-colored, feline-like being out of its cage. "His olfactory sensors got a good range of eight hundred miles and has no problem distinguishing Autobot senses from Decepticon ones."
"Can he tell Mini-Cons apart from them as well?" Orion Pax asked.
"Uh, I guess," the handler said, scratching his head. "We've, uh, never really sent him after Mini-Cons or anything."
"No matter," Orion said, bending down to pet the cybercat on the head. "Anything else?"
"He turns into a data disk, so you should probably take someone with a large chest compartment to store him." The handler then smiled. "Oh, and he tends to rust."
Orion looked up at him with raised eyebrows. "Rust?"
"Yeah, the slightest contact with a liquid substance gets him rusting. So I hope you're not visiting the Pious Pools or anything."
Orion chuckled. "Don't worry. I would've gotten a Manatronatee if that were the case."
* * *
In general, if a Prime were to enter one's workspace, he or she would feel a mixed feeling of honor and nervousness towards the fact that the leader of Cybertron had come to them for whatever reason, instead of choosing one of the dozen others with a similar job. However, when it came to Zeta Prime, Wheeljack felt only one emotion: fear.
Fear of getting demoted. Fear of getting branded a traitor (wrongly, of course). Fear of Zeta Prime being an overall pain-in-the-afterburner. Luckily, Wheeljack was able to mask his fear as soon as the Prime stepped into his lab.
"Ah, Zeta Prime!" Wheeljack said, saluting the silver and gold Autobot leader. "What brings you here?"
At first, Zeta Prime said nothing. Instead, he raised his arm and dropped a small chip of metal onto a nearby table. As Wheeljack picked up the data slug, the Prime spoke in an icy voice.
"You remember what I said about the emergency protocols?"
Wheeljack's optics flickered. "Yes, sir, but I must remind you: they haven't been used in... ever. In fact, some doubt they even exist."
"Then why would Nova Prime have created them in the first place?" Zeta asked, his tone harsh.
"They could have been for something else, or for something he thought existed, but-"
Zeta Prime silenced him with the raise of a hand. "Remember," he said coldly, "when I give the word, head for the main chamber and enter in the code."
Wheeljack hesitated before reluctantly nodding. "Got it."
Satisfied with the answer, the Prime turned and strode out of Wheeljack's lab at the Metroplex.
* * *
It wasn't until now that Swerve realized that, no matter how vast or expansive it was, space was incredibly boring.
He and the others were floating around, living in total silence, unable to reach any nearby celestial body or to hear or speak. Of course, they still had their radio transmitters, but Swerve had the strange feeling that the others had filtered his signal out of their receivers.
Swerve sighed, aware that no one would have heard him. Being unable to speak was one of the top three things he hated, the others being Decepticons and Whirl. Lost as he was in his thoughts that he almost didn't notice the shocked expressions on the others' faces until Perceptor's voice spoke in his head.
"Swerve, behind you!"
Swerve flapped his arms to swing around in time to see a small ship approaching him and the others. As it came to a slow stop, a hatch opened up on the side and a white and gold Autobot appeared.
"Well," Wing Saber said. "That just happened."
* * *
"Great, just what we needed," Chromia muttered as Perceptor, Swerve, Glyph, Jolt, and Livewire were brought on board. "Passengers."
"Well, I wasn't just going to leave them floating in space," Wing Saber said as he closed the hatch. "If they were Decepticons, maybe, but, hey: my ship, my rules."
"So, what do we do?" Windblade asked. "Do we double back and drop them back off at Cybertron?"
"Wait, you guys are going somewhere?" Swerve grinned. "Are you on a quest?"
"Why do you care?"
"'Cause you know how much I love quests."
Windblade frowned. "Actually, I don't. Who are you again?"
Before Swerve could answer, Wing Saber said to the five newcomers, "We're headed for Theophany to find Dai Atlas and the Circle of Light."
"Dai Atlas?" Perceptor repeated. "Actually, we're looking for him, too."
"We are?" Jolt said.
"Remember what Azimuth said before she... thew us out? She told us to find Dai Atlas because 'only he knows where it is.'"
"Where what is?" asked Chromia.
"I don't know. But I'm hoping Dai Atlas does."
"Well, if that's the case, I suppose you can tag along," Wing Saber said. "Solve two mysteries at once."
"What's your mystery?" Livewire asked.
"Something to do with a 'Dark Evangelist,'" Windblade said. "For all we know, it could be connected with your 'it' thing."
"Then here's hoping Theophany does indeed have our answers," Wing Saber said as he moved to the ship's controls. "If it doesn't, then someone's sending us on a wild sheepacron chase."
No comments:
Post a Comment