CHAPTER TEN
--Caminus--
"Here we are," Ultra Magnus announced as he and Skids drove up to the heavily locked door to the Mistress of Flame's chamber. "You ready?"
"Yeah," Skids muttered, transforming to robot mode along with Magnus. Looking at the door, studying its intricate, almost ornate-looking lock system, he then said, "Are you sure we'll be able to bring this door down? I'm not doubting our firepower or anything but... this looks stronger than any door in the Iacon Vaults."
"Any door can come off its hinges," Magnus said, priming the rocket launchers on his shoulders. "Now then, on the count of three. One...."
Skids deployed his weapons: arm cannons, shoulder cannons, missile launchers....
"Two...."
It crossed Skids' mind that they could have perhaps knocked first. But, knowing Magnus, that had already been attempted.
"...Three!"
As one, the two Autobots unloaded their weaponry, assaulting the door with their firepower. The combine strength of Magnus' rockets and Skids' missiles were only enough to heavily dent the door, but not bring it down. After telling Skids to stop, Magnus reached around his back and brought out a rocket-powered hammer.
Skids stared at the weapon slack-jawed. "Since when did you have that?"
"Since Que made it for me," Magnus replied. "Now stand back."
Once Skids had done so, Ultra Magnus raised his hammer and, turning on its small rockets, swung it at the door. The barrier was instantly reduced to pieces and the two Autobots rushed into the darkened chamber.
Right away, they found the Mistress of Flame. The gold and red-plated leader of Caminus was suspended in midair by several strands of cables, hoisting her up from underneath her arms. Her optics were dimmed, but her muted groans indicated she was still conscious.
As Skids and Magnus rushed over to her, the former suddenly heard a groan coming from nearby. He looked over to see a battered Windblade struggling to her feet, her armor badly covered in scratches and blast marks.
While Magnus handled the Mistress of Flame, Skids moved over to Windblade to help her up, letting her use him as support.
"As you all right?" he asked her. "What happened here?"
"I--" Windblade started to speak until her optics went wide, staring at something over Skids' shoulder. "Behind you...."
Skids turned around to see Ratchet standing there, a grim look on his face. "Doc? What are you doing here?"
Ratchet did not respond. Instead, without taking his optics off Skids, he aimed a small remote at Ultra Magnus and pressed it. Whatever it did, it caused the pieces of his armor to fall off of the inner robot within and the now-bear Minimus Ambus fell to the floor.
Skids and Windblade watched this all in disbelief. As Ratchet put away the remote, Skids said, "What... what's going on, Ratchet? Why are you doing this?"
Ratchet answered by doing something Skids knew he never did: he grinned. "I'm sorry," the Autobot medic said. "Ratchet isn't available right now. Please forward all of your messages for him to Pharma; he shall handle them--"
Skids silenced him with a shot to the face, courtesy of his arm cannon. He felt a pang of guilt for doing it, given it was still Ratchet physically, but the last thing he needed right now was having to deal with a lunatic like Pharma again.
Getting back to his feet, Minimus Ambus brushed himself off before sighing. "Well, that was an unexpected turn of events. Help me get my armor back on so I can--"
The smaller Autobot never finished his sentence, for a blue bolt of energy stuck him straight in the chest, knocking him out. Before either of them could react, Skids and Windblade were also hit and sent falling into stasis lock.
* * *
The timer read zero. By all accounts, Nightbeat should not have been seeing it. He should have been dead.
But he wasn't. Nor was anyone else in the room. Even Airwave, the mech who had the bomb built into him, was still alive, staring bewilderingly at the device. To no one's great surprise, it was Whirl who broke the long silence.
"If this is the Afterspark, it sucks. It looks no different than life. Very unoriginal. Primus should strive to be more creative."
"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure this is still life," Nightbeat said, staring at Airwave. "I will say, I find it incredibly amusing that you can't even detonate a bomb wired up to yourself. That's... amazingly pathetic."
"I... I forgot to prime it," Airwave murmured. "I guess... in all the confusion, I--"
"Yeah, yeah. Why don't you save it for the judge," Nightbeat interjected. "You guys do have a judicial system, don't you? And a prison? Because that's where you'll be going."
"No." Airwave shook his head. "It's not. I'm going to the Pit."
Before Nightbeat could reply, he was suddenly pulled away by Chromedome just as Airwave's body started to spark and burst into flames. Everyone watched in horror as the fire consumed the Camien, melting away his armorplating until all was left was his exostructure.
For the longest time, all in the room simply stared at the burning corpse left behind. Finally, it was Firestar who broke the silence.
"Okay, people, show's over. Let's... let's just try to collect ourselves and... figure out what we're going to do."
"Well, I dunno about you guys, but I'm walking out of here," Swerve said, already moving away from his bar. "I'm sorry, but I can't stand to stay in this room any longer than necessary."
"Don't bother; the door's locked," Riptide said. "I already tried it when... I thought we were all gonna get blown up." The Hydrobot glanced meekly at all of the disapproving looks aimed at him. "Sorry."
"Well, that's just great," Swerve said, throwing up his arms. "We're locked in here with no lights, no music... how about phone? Has anyone tried calling up Rodimus or whatshisface?"
"No such luck," Nautica said. "I can't get Rodimus or Overcast or anyone on my comm."
"And we can't blast our way out because you loser Camiens don't like guns," Whirl said. "If you want, I can bash the door with my head. Or I could do it in helicopter mode. Could take a few days though."
"Um, hello?" Getaway raised his hand. "Master escape artist, standing right here. Anyone want to ask me?"
"Okay then, Mr. Master Escape Artist," Nightbeat said, stepping up to Getaway and propping his elbow on his shoulder. "Any ideas on how to escape?"
"Nope." Getaway shook his head. "I mean, not yet. So far I don't see anything particularly useful. Unless that engex is explosive or something. But otherwise, no, I've got nothing."
Nightbeat frowned. "Then why even...?"
"I just wanted to confirm that we were completely out of options before anyone said we were completely out of options."
Nightbeat revved in frustration as he walked away from Getaway. "Great. Does anyone else have any--"
"Hello?" Everyone turned to face the door, beyond which the voice was coming from. "Is anyone in here?"
"Yes, Afterburner," Firestar called back. "We're here. We're fine... for the most part."
There was a brief pause. "I see. Is Airwave with you?"
"Uh, no, sir. He's... he tried to blow us up with a bomb, but forgot to prime it. Then he... set himself on fire."
Another pause. "I see. So everyone else is okay?"
"As far as I know, yes."
"I see."
Silence again. Everyone exchanged concerned looks. Clearing her vocalizer, Firestar said, "Sir? Are you... are you going to let us out? The door's been locked, so...."
"I know. I'm the one who locked it."
Firestar blinked. Several bots gasped. Others merely frowned.
Afterburner went on. "Look, it's nothing personal. I'm just doing this because... I want what's best for our race."
"Afterburner," Firestar murmured. "What's going on?"
"Look, everything's going to be all right. You just... just stay here. Everything's going to be okay."
"Afterburner, wait!" Firestar cried. "Afterburner!"
No response came. The Camien had already left.
And everyone had been left to die.
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