CHAPTER FIVE
One year ago
Wipe-Out knew he was about to die.He was hard pressed to think of an outcome to this scenario where he didn’t. Here he was, caught between the Xantium — ship of the notorious Wreckers — and Outpost Two, which he had just been thrown out of by his own comrades. He supposed he couldn’t really call them “comrades” anymore, though. What kind of comrade threw their teammates out into the vacuum of space when there was a very high chance of those teammates dying?
It didn’t matter, of course. The barrels of the Xantium’s guns were glowing, ready to fire upon his prone form. He was surprised with himself for not being too torn up over it, instead feeling a twinge of acceptance as the Wreckers’ ship unleashed a blast of energy in his direction.
Light engulfed his vision. He expected it wouldn’t be long before he lost all sense of his body as his consciousness drifted into the Afterspark, becoming one with all others who had died before him.
Instead, he found himself falling face-first onto solid ground, drawing a loud “Oof!” from him as he collided with the metal floor. Groaning, Wipe-Out raised himself up on his arms, shielding his optics from the blue light that surrounded him.
“I hope you weren’t in the middle of anything important,” a familiar voice spoke.
“Grand Architect?” With some effort, Wipe-Out managed to get back onto his feet, still shaking from his near-death experience. “You… you saved me?”
“It wasn’t my outright intention,” the Grand Architect replied. “I just so happened to retrieve you at the right time—”
“Oh, bless the Allspark!” Wipe-Out threw his arms up over his head as he dropped to his knees. “There really is a Primus, isn’t there? God wants me to live! I am grateful beyond words!”
“Please stop that,” the Grand Architect said wearily.
“I am forever in your debt, Grand Architect,” Wipe-Out went on, bowing his head. “Whatever it is you require of me, just say the word and I will—”
“Enough,” the Grand Architect boomed, snapping Wipe-Out back to attention. “You will have plenty of opportunities to repay your debt. In fact, I have one for you right now.”
“Name it,” Wipe-Out said eagerly.
“I’ve been meaning to get in touch with former operatives of mine, including some of your fellow blacksmiths. Do you happen to know any that you can arrange a meeting with?”
Wipe-Out thought for a moment. “Well, I still have Fastshot in my contacts. Last I heard, he was living in retirement on Hedonia, but he might be open to some catching up.”
“Oh, yes,” the Grand Architect said, sounding the most pleased Wipe-Out had ever heard him. “We all have much, much catching up to do….”
Cybertron, present day
“Anything?”“Quiet,” was the sharp response Stylor delivered. The small gray and red Titan Master stood on Wipe-Out’s shoulders with his needle-like fingers plunged into the Decepticon’s neck. Star Saber and Checkpoint stood nearby, watching with varying levels of apprehension as the mnemosurgeon did his work. Checkpoint was the most tense, shooting questioning glances in Star Saber’s direction every now and then.
“I still don’t like this,” the security chief muttered.
“Neither do I,” Star Saber admitted. “But it may well be our only chance at getting to the bottom of this.”
After several long minutes had passed, Stylor gently pulled his needles out and retracted them back into his hand. He then looked to the two Autobots with a grim expression.
“I’m afraid he doesn’t know any more than you do,” said the Titan Master. “All of his interactions with the Grand Architect amounted to him doing their dirty work.”
“What about him reprogramming Ten to kidnap Rung?” asked Star Saber. “Did you get anything from that?”
Stylor shook his head. “It was all remote communication, far as I could tell. Didn’t see anything that would be of use to you guys.”
Checkpoint huffed in exasperation. “So we all pretty much just wasted our time. Now I’ve got a possibly illegal mnemosurgery operation on my record.”
“I’ll take the brunt of the blame if needed,” Star Saber told him. To Stylor, he said, “Thank you for your time. I’ll take things from here.”
As Stylor jumped down and headed out of the interrogation room, Star Saber approached the seated Wipe-Out who jolted in response. “Please,” the Decepticon said in a tiny voice, “don’t hurt me.”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Star Saber said gently. “No one is. We just want answers.”
“I can’t give them to you,” Wipe-Out replied. “If I do, he’ll kill me.”
“No, he won’t. Not as long as I have anything to say about.” Undoing Wipe-Out’s restraints, Star Saber knelt down a rested a hand on his shoulder. “I would like to offer you to come along with me and my crew. We are traveling to the Muta-Gaath Nebula to hopefully find answers there.”
Wipe-Out eyed him warily. “Why do you want me to come along?”
“To help us. Even if you can’t do it directly or explicitly, maybe you can help us in ways that the Grand Architect won’t notice. Point us in the right direction and all of that.”
Wipe-Out seemed to consider this offer, tilting his head. “And in return you’ll protect me?”
“Yes, of course. I mean, we would be doing that regardless because—”
“Thank you!” Wipe-Out jumped forward and threw his arms around Star Saber’s neck, surprising the larger bot. “Bless the Allspark, thank you!”
“Uh, you’re welcome.” Star Saber awkwardly patted his back. “You can, uh, you can stop that now.”
Wipe-Out pulled away but still looked giddy with gratitude. “That was me accepting the offer, in case you couldn’t tell.”
“No, uh, I got that. You made it pretty clear.”
While Wipe-Out continued to bounce with excitement, Star Saber looked over to Checkpoint, who had an amused expression on his face. With a smirk, the police bot simply mouthed the words “You’re doomed” to the Crusadercon captain.
Star Saber had nothing to refute that with.
* * *
“Why do we keep coming back to this ship? I thought the quest was over.”“The quest is never over, my friend!” Swerve said as he and Stormshot walked up the ramp to the Lost Light. “When one quest ends, another one begins! The Knight Quest may be over, but the Rung Quest has just begun!”
“I am already starting to regret my decision,” Stormshot muttered to herself.
To her surprise, it seemed as if most of Star Saber’s crew had answered his call to return to the Lost Light for this new mission. Either everyone truly cared that much about Rung and wanted to help rescue him, or they all simply had nothing better to do. The cynical part of her wanted to think the latter, and her cynical part made up at least ninety percent of her whole being.
Still, she supposed for her part this was because she cared enough about Rung to help rescue him. He had helped her in figuring out who and what she was, and for that she was forever in his debt. This was the only way she could think of repaying him for everything that he had done.
As the two of them stepped onto the ship, Stormshot quickly lost herself in the growing crowd of returning Crusadercons in order to get away from Swerve. Fortunately, the minibot did not seem to notice as he immediately latched his attention onto a mildly annoyed Skids. Pushing her way past others, Stormshot headed in the direction of the habitation suites, intent on isolating herself until it was needed of her to interact with others. Even after all the time she had spent with these bots on their adventures, she still was not fully comfortable engaging in social interactions with them. There was always this vague disconnect she felt when doing so, and she knew she was the only one who noticed it. Thus, she preferred to avoid conversations altogether rather than risk any potential embarrassment on her part.
Making her way down the hall, Stormshot was about to head for her old hab suite when she caught movement in the corner of her vision. She turned around to face the end of the hall just as a metal leg disappeared around the corner. This confused her; as far as she knew, no one else had gone ahead of her, and no one else would have already been on the ship. Unable to resist the urge to investigate, Stormshot briskly walked down to the end of the hall and looked in the direction she had seen the mysterious bot go. However, not only did she not see the bot in question… but the corridor it had walked down through was a dead end. There were no doors or other access points for anyone to have gone through.
Stormshot shook her head. Was she just seeing things? After all, it wouldn’t be the first time she thought something was off with her processor….
Sighing, she decided not to think much of it and returned to her hab suite. Perhaps a quick recharge was due.
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