CHAPTER SIX
--The Lost Light--
“Here you go.”
Brainstorm glanced up from his work just as Anode dropped something onto his table. Picking up the object, he quickly realized that it was the recall trigger that Skids had sent her and Lug to retrieve. The fact that it resembled Star Saber’s palm was a dead giveaway.
“How in the world...?” Brainstorm started to say, staring at it in disbelief.
“It was actually pretty simple,” Anode said in a smug tone that made the scientist twitch. “I just went up to Star Saber and told him that I was his biggest fan. He let me shake his hand which is when I used these beauties--” She splayed out a servo and extended a wide array of tools from her servos. “--to get his little switch thingy.”
“And he didn’t notice?”
“I mean, he will once he notices the gap in his hand. Luckily, Lug is still distracting him to buy us enough time to put this together.”
Brainstorm shook his head as he began to integrate the switch into the device he was already putting together. “This is almost offensively easy. But whatever....”
While Brainstorm continued to work, Anode looked around the lab and saw that Perceptor was the only other bot present. “Hey, where did our ringleader run off to?”
“Right here,” Skids said as he stepped back into the room, this time with Nautica trailing behind him. “Had to fetch one last component for our little ‘Brain Trust.’”
“This is insane, Skids,” Nautica murmured, staring at Brainstorm as he worked. “You really think this is going to work?”
“If I didn’t, then we wouldn’t be here,” Skids replied. “Besides, we’ve done crazier things in the past, haven’t we?”
“But, Skids, you’re teleporting yourself, with no backup, onto a Worldsweeper crewed by bots we’ve never encountered before!” Nautica protested. “It’s a suicide mission!”
“Of course I’ve got backup: You guys.”
Nautica frowned at him. “Do I look like a heavily-armed Secret Service agent to you?”
“What I mean is, you guys can pull me out if things get too hectic for me.”
“Can we even do that?” asked Anode.
“I’m wiring the teleporter to the same monitor we used when we chased Brainstorm through time,” Perceptor replied. “Wherever Skids ends up, we will able to track his location and retrieve him if necessary.”
“There’ll be a second trigger on the device,” Brainstorm added. “The recall trigger will take Skids to wherever Tyrest is while the second one will send him back to us after he’s found Rung, or if he runs into trouble.”
Nautica sighed, shaking her head at the sheer absurdity of this plan. “So, why do you need me here for?”
“Every good team needs someone to tell everyone else how stupid they are,” Brainstorm said. “But in all seriousness, it’s for your quantum mechanics know-how. Y’know, just in case we do accidentally send him back into time.”
“Is there really a risk of that happening?”
“Who do you think you’re talking to?”
With a huff, Nautica dropped the matter and instead focused on the teleporter itself. She tilted her head at it as Brainstorm wired the recall trigger into its interface, noticing that it had the distinctive shape of a hand, with five digits and everything. “Why does it look like a servo?” she asked.
“It’s a gauntlet,” Brainstorm explained. “A teleportation gauntlet, to be more specific. All Skids will need to do to get to Tyrest is to clench his fist, just like how all of the Ultra Magnuses used it. To get back, he’ll just snap his fingers and bam! Just like that.”
“You sure I won’t accidentally wipe out half of existence by doing that?” Skids asked.
Brainstorm looked at him with a blank expression. “What?”
“Never mind. Comic book reference. Swerve was showing me this....” Skids stopped, realizing that everyone was staring at him as if he had gone mental. Clearing his vocal processor, he instead said, “So! How much longer?”
“Be patient, will ya’?” Brainstorm muttered. “I don’t work well under pressure.”
“You probably should be quick,” Anode murmured. “Lug’s pinging me; she thinks Star Saber’s starting to catch on.”
“All right, all right! Hold your equinoids.” After tinkering with the device for a few more minutes, Brainstorm set down his tools and held up the finished teleportation gauntlet. “Here you go, Skids.”
Skids stepped over and took the gauntlet, putting it over his right servo. “So, I just close my hand and...?”
“Yeah, the pressure panel is in the middle of the palm. Just give it a good squeeze and--”
As Brainstorm spoke, Skids’s thumb brushed against the panel in question. There was a flash of light that nearly blinded everyone present and just like that, Skids was gone.
“Okay,” Brainstorm said quietly. “I might have made it a tad over-sensitive....”
* * *
“So, uh, yeah! I’m really big into the Knights of Cybertron! Like, super big! Like, ten Omega Supremes big!”
“With all due respect, Lug, you’ve done everything possible to convince me that you’re trying to distract me from something,” Star Saber said, trying not to sound as exasperated as he felt. “I should know; I used up every trick in the book whenever I tried to cover up something I did to my brother.”
“Why would you think that?” Lug asked, her faux innocence not all very convincing. “I’m just real excited to finally meet you! See, during the Exodus, I tried to join up with the Circle of Light, but they told me I was too small to--”
Star Saber held up his hand to silence the minibot... and saw there was a gaping hole in his hand, right where his recall trigger should have been. Immediately he thought back to just a few minutes ago when Anode had been shaking his hand; as everything clicked into place, he glared down at the now-nervous Lug.
“What exactly is it you two are up to?”
As Lug opened her mouth to blurt out some kind of excuse, Skyblast spoke up from the ship’s controls. “Captain! We’ve arrived at Earth!”
“In a minute, Skyblast,” Star Saber replied, still focused on Lug. “I intend to get to the bottom of--”
Without warning, the Lost Light lurched to a rough halt, causing the bridge to shake and nearly knock everyone off their feet. At the same time, the lights went out and the entire bridge was plunged into darkness. Everything, including the computers, had gone offline; the Lost Light was now floating lifelessly in space, with the blue-green world of Earth still several hundred thousand miles.
While the rest of the crew worked frantically – and futilely – to regain control, Star Saber slowly turned back to Lug. “This wouldn’t happen to be related to whatever is you and Anode are up to, is it?”
The red-helmed bot looked panicked. “I... I honestly don’t know, sir. Brainstorm and Skids are putting something together and—”
“What kind of something?” Star Saber asked.
“A teleporter or something. Skids is trying to rescue Rung and--”
“Oh no.” Star Saber looked back to the gap in his hand. “No, no, no. Is he really thinking of...? Is he suicidal or something?”
“Want me to head down to Brainstorm’s lab?” Wing Saber asked.
“Yes, but take some backup with you, just in case this isn’t related.” Star Saber then turned to Big Bang, who had a grim expression on his face. “I take it there’s no chance of calling Earthforce to tell them we’ll be running a little late?”
“You know you don’t need me to tell you that,” Big Bang muttered back.
Star Saber sighed. “I know. But a bot can always hope, can’t he?”
* * *
“Please tell me that was supposed to happen,” Nautica murmured as she and the others turned on their head-lights to see in the now-darkened lab.
“Oh yeah, effectively shutting down all of the ship’s systems was definitely a foreseen side-effect of the teleportation device that I had to put together in less than 30 minutes,” Brainstorm said irritably. “Maybe if I had a little more time, I could have done something about that.”
“I don’t think this has anything to do with the device,” Perceptor said. “I don’t detect any traces of energy that could have knocked the entire ship offline.”
“So, what else could it be?” asked Anode. “Did someone pour engex into the hyper-drive or something?”
Carefully navigating his way through the darkness, Brainstorm reached the door to his lab – which was still open – and poked his head outside. He shined his lights down either direction of the corridor, seeing nothing that was out of the ordinary. Of course, his lights didn’t illuminate much more than a few feet, so who knew what could have been lurking in the darkness.
“Maybe we should stay put,” Nautica suggested. “I’m sure Star Saber and the others are handling it.”
“Wait,” Brainstorm said, shining his light back down the east side of the corridor. “I saw something move.”
“Don’t flash your light in front of it!” Lug said. “If it’s something bad, then it’ll know where we are!”
“Too late, it’s heading this way.” Brainstorm leaned back into the lab and drew a gun. “It’s someone big. And tall. With a lot of pointy bits, especially on its head and shoulders. I don’t know what it is, but be ready for--”
“Brainstorm?”
The scientist let out a scream as he fired his gun. The blaster bolt narrowly missed the tall figure that had suddenly appeared in front of him and hit the wall behind them. As Brainstorm’s lights illuminated the figure, it became very apparent what – and who – it was.
“It’s just Riptide, Brainstorm,” Nautica said, running a hand down her face.
“Oh.” Brainstorm stared sheepishly at the tall blue Hydrobot as he slowly lowered his gun. “Sorry.”
Riptide shrugged. “S’alright. I probably shouldn’t have startled you like that.” He then tilted his head as he noticed Nautica and the others behind Brainstorm. “What are you all doing here?”
“Oh, just hanging out,” Nautica said, gently pushing Brainstorm aside. “Why don’t you join us? It would probably be safer than wandering through extremely dark halls and risk getting shot at again.”
Riptide frowned as he looked down the hall. “I don’t know; I thought I had saw something down that way. I was going up to it when Brainstorm shined his light in front of me.”
“Are you sure you saw something?” Perceptor asked. “I just took a scan for nearby spark signatures and I’m not picking up anything, other than the six of us.”
“I didn’t pick up anything on my radar either, and I’ve got echolocation sensors,” Riptide said. “But I swear I saw something moving out there.”
“Could have been a trick on the optical sensors,” Anode suggested. “It happens to me all the time, especially when I’m really set on finding sentio metallico.”
“I don’t know.” The Hydrobot frowned, still looking uneasily down the corridor. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe my nerve circuits are just acting up.”
He started to step into the lab only to stop just as quickly. His optics were wide now, the energon seeming to drain from his faceplate as it twisted into a fearful expression.
“I definitely didn’t imagine that.”
“Imagine what?” Nautica asked, frowning in concern.
“Guys, this isn’t funny!” Riptide snapped. “I definitely heard something!”
Brainstorm exchanged a glance with the others before taking a step out the doorway. He pointed his gun and his light down the corridor, ready for whatever could have been lurking in the shadows. Just as before, however, there was nothing to be seen. Still, he wasn’t exactly confident with concluding there was absolutely nothing out there. Sometimes one just had to be sure....
“Is there anyone out there?” he called out. Silence was his only response.
Riptide was shaking now, glancing rapidly between the shadows and the scientist. “I swear to Primus if this is some kind of prank....”
“I’m going to shoot my gun now,” Brainstorm called out again. “If you don’t want to get shot at, say something now or, uh, forever hold your peace.”
“I have been pranked before, you know,” Riptide muttered. “One time, Aquabat and the other guys thought it would be funny to cover me with magnetizing spray and--”
“All right, here we go!” Brainstorm pulled the trigger of his gun and the blaster bolt zipped down the length of the corridor. After a minute, it struck the wall on at the very end, having hit nothing in its path.
Riptide shook his head. “I can’t take this anymore. You guys are playing tricks on me.”
“Riptide, we’re not--” Nautica started to say.
The Hydrobot ignored her as he broke out into a brisk run, quickly disappearing into the shadows. Without thinking, Brainstorm went after him, calling out his name as he tried to keep Riptide within the range of his lights, not wanting to lose sight of him.
Without warning, Riptide suddenly stopped dead in his tracks... just as a blade impaled him through the chest and came out the other end from his back.
As Brainstorm froze, his lights shone on the Hydrobot’s assailant: a snake-like robot with black and green armor, armed with red-tipped blades on either of her arms. After sparing a moment to take sick pleasure from watching the life leave Riptide’s optics, the serpentine bot twisted her blade and sliced it through Riptide’s body. As the Hydrobot collapsed to the floor, his blue plating fading to gray, Brainstorm snapped out of his trance and turned heel to run back to the others.
“Oh, don’t run away,” Medusa called after him as she wiped her blade clean of energon. “The fun’s just begun.”
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