CHAPTER FOUR
--Garrus-16--
Although he wasn't a mnemosurgeon like Fearstorm had been, Viral figured it wasn't that complicated to get into a Cybertronian's processor. Of course, it was a bit messier having to manually open up the victim's head to access their brain module, but it was hardly a difficult process when one had servos as slender as Viral's.
Once he was in, he began to sift through Fortress Maximus' processor, scouring every corner of his mind for what he sought. Apparently Maximus had taken the precautionary measures to place firewalls in his mind to protect the Aequitas codes. But no firewall was a match for someone with Viral's skills.
What was, however, was the fact that the Aequitas codes were nowhere to be found.
Viral checked and double-checked, peeling away every last mental barrier Fortress Maximus had. Still nothing. In every place where Aequitas was prominent in his memory, the codes were simply not there... making Viral wonder if they ever were in the first place.
Extracting his fingers from Maximus' head, Viral looked up at Overlord, who was standing nearby, waiting with great expectancy.
"I can't find them," he said. "They don't appear to be--"
"Keep searching," Overlord growled. "Surely one as skilled as you can break through even Fortress Maximus' mind."
"I'm not a mnemosurgeon, my liege," Viral retorted. "I can extract codes from people's processors, but that's it. And there aren't any codes for me to extract."
Overlord sneered as he leaned in menacingly. "Oh, really? How do I know, then, that you're not keeping the codes for yourself?"
Viral hesitated, knowing that nothing he could say would convince someone like Overlord. Of course, that one moment of hesitation was exactly what Overlord was looking for.
"Ah, Viral," the former Warrior Elite said with feigned reluctance. "I had such high hopes for you. But if you plan on being difficult--"
It had not been his plan, but Viral decided to be difficult. Dashing past Overlord, he lunged for the controls to the room's lights and jammed his slender hands into them, draining it of power and plunging the chamber into darkness.
Overlord's laughter rang out from the shadows while Viral made his way towards the door. "You think the darkness can help you? You think you can use it to save yourself?"
Viral turned him out as he finally found the door and opened it. Just before he transformed and took off into the hallway, he heard Overlord's voice follow after him.
"Run as fast as you can, Viral. That just makes things more interesting."
* * *
Skids only had a handful of seconds to think of an escape. Luckily, quick thinking was a requirement for someone like him.
As Nightstrike started to approach him, murder in his eyes, Skids spun his transformation cog as fast as he could. The technique was known as instantaneous conversion, allowing one to transform from one mode to the next in the blink of an eye. If he did it here fast enough, he could possibly break from from the cocoon he was in.
Centuries worth of special training did not disappoint.
Nightstrike let out a shriek as Skids burst out of his cage in car mode and made his way for the door. He could hear Gigatron's screams of rage as he sped out of the room, but they were soon well behind him.
It was only at this point that Skids realized that he knew nothing about the facility other than what Viral had showed him and the others. One wrong turn and he could end up in the maw of a Chompazoid.
He soon found himself swearing by all five deities of the Guiding Hand when that exact thing happened.
Slamming on his brakes, Skids' wheels screeched against the floor as he skidded right underneath the quadruped beast before it had even registered his sudden appearance. Once Skids had ended up behind the Chompazoid, he hit on the accelerator again and sped down the corridor, praying the beast would not follow.
It did, of course. Angrily so.
"Get back here, varmint!" it called after him. "Come and get what's comin' to ya! Do you know who I am?!"
Skids decided to ignore the fact that the Chompazoid could talk (and in a very specific Terran accent) and simply drove faster. He went through a wild maze of corridors, taking turns at random in the hopes of losing the Chompazoid. When the beast's thundering footsteps had become distant enough, Skids converted to robot mode and found an empty storage closet to hide in, where he could gather his thoughts.
First thing was first: he had to find Viral. As much as he dislike the Decepticon, he was still the only one who knew the facility's layout. And even though he had turned on the group, Skids had the hunch that it had not been Viral's intention to do so.
Of course, Primus knew where Viral had even gotten to. Or if he was even still alive....
Suddenly, he heard the sound of movement very close to him. Moving in its direction, he brandished his guns again just as a glowtorch lit up the closet, revealing a slender tan and green femme.
"No!" she shrieked, covering her face with the arm not holding a torch. "Don't hurt! Please!"
The femme's meekness gave Skids enough pause to notice the small faded Autobot symbol in her collar area. As he put his weapons away, he held up his hands calmly.
"Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you," he said. "I'm an Autobot, just like you."
"Not like me," she whimpered. "No one like me. Too different. Too strange."
Ho boy, Skids thought to himself. Seems like everyone's got psychological problems these days.
"Look," he said aloud. "Can you tell me what happened? Are you all right? How did you escape?"
"Told me to hide in closet. Said to not come out or talk to anyone unless they have red badge."
"Who told -- you know what? Forget it." Skids let out an exasperated sigh. "It can wait. Tell me, do you know how to get around this place? I'm trying to free my friends and I could really--"
Before he could finish, the femme grabbed him by the arm and pulled him aside just as a giant fist smashed through the door.
"Ha! There you are!" came the Chompazoid's unmistakable voice. "Thought you could hide from ol' Underbite, diddja? Well, my two friends have a few words to say about that!"
"I'm not in any hurry to hear them out," Skids muttered as he flipped out his shoulder cannons. However, the femme continued to pull on his arm, as if trying to get him to follow her.
"Come," she hissed. "Not safe here."
"Of course it's not; we're practically cornered. Where are you trying to take me if he's blocking the door?"
A small hatch opening in the wall answered him.
"Oh," he said as the femme started to crawl into it. "Figures."
* * *
The sound of raged yelling brought Viral to a scene that, had he retained any of his emotions, would have looked humorous to him.
The Chompazoid known as Underbite appeared to have his arm stuck in a storage closet's door, as if he was trying to reach for something. The obscenities he was shouting indicated that he wasn't having much progress.
"Blasted varmint!" he roared. "When I get my hands on you, I'm gonna twist your tailpipes into a knot and shove your servos so far down your mouth that... that, uh... ah, blast it, I'm just gonna slag you so bad that--!"
Sneaking up behind the unsuspecting Chompazoid, Viral lunged at Underbite and plunged his fingers into the beast's thick neck. As the large Decepticon's systems shut down and Underbite went into stasis, Viral slipped into the closet and caught sight of a slightly open hatch.
Whoever this "varmint" was, Viral had an idea or two on who they could be as he opened the hatch and crawled into the small tunnel.
