CHAPTER SEVEN
The Xantium, in the middle of chaos
Springer released a battle cry from his vocal processor as he lunged at Sixshot, delivering a downward slash with his sword. While the blade did little more than leave a scratch on Sixshot’s green armor plating, it did cause the Decepticon powerhouse to pause in firing his guns, giving the other Wreckers the opening they needed as they proceeded to unload their weapons on him.
As the Wreckers pelted him with firepower, Sixshot swung a large arm at Springer and sent him flying into the ship’s main console. The Xantium shuddered violently as a result and Springer could already feel the ship veering off-course and heading into a straight dive for the ground.
“Whirl!” Springer cried. “Try and keep us afloat!”
“Kind of hard to do that when you’re getting shot at!” Whirl sniped back.
Gritting his dental plates, Springer readied his sword again and prepared to jump back into the fight. Before he could do so, Sixshot pointed his gun in Whirl’s direction and fired. The one-eyed Wrecker barely avoided the blast in time as it struck the ship’s controls, obliterating them in a fiery explosion. As alarms throughout the bridge began to blare, Sixshot stepped away from the Wreckers and stored away his guns.
“There,” he said. “That’s out of the way.”
Before anyone could stop him, he transformed into a large jet and blasted out of the opening he had made for himself. Cursing to himself, Springer sheathed his sword and stood as straight as he could as the Xantium’s nosedive towards the ground started to pick up speed.
“Time to abandon ship! Topspin, fly Twin Twist out of here. Whirl, you take care of Punch. Kup, you’re with me.”
“What about Sandstorm?” Punch asked. “He’s still locked up in the cargo bay!”
Springer grimaced to himself, realizing that the words he was about to say would haunt him for the rest of his life. “We’ll have to come back for him. We don’t have any time to break him free and bring him back online.”
He could already feel the questioning stares from Punch, Kup, and even the Jumpstarters. He could not let that stop him though; not when they didn’t have much time as it was.
He transformed into his helicopter mode and waited for Kup to climb atop him. Whirl and Topspin followed suit, with Punch and Twin Twist latching onto them respectively. One by one, they took off and flew through the same opening that Sixshot had went through, creating as much distance between them and the Xantium as they could as the ship that had served as the Wreckers’ personal vessel for nearly two thousand years plummeted towards the ocean below.
As morbid of a thought as it was, Springer couldn’t help but be impressed by how long it had been able to go without crashing. As Autobot ships went, that had to have been a record.
Detroit
Although it appeared to have fallen into disuse over the past few days, Sari was no less sickened by the sight of the Onyx logo blemishing the facade of Sumdac Tower as it came into view on the cityscape’s horizon. While she had heard that the ones responsible for the Onyx company in the first place — these “Titan Masters” — were no longer in the picture, she still could not help but feel a sense of dread as she and the others approached the tower, as if some other evil was still lurking within.
The Axalon had dropped her, Bumblebee, Arcee, and Bulkhead off near the coast of Lake Eerie in order to remain discreet (or as discreet as an alien ship could be), leaving them to drive the rest of the way to Downtown Detroit. It had been so long since Sari had last visited her home city that she couldn’t help but feel out of place as they drove through streets that should have felt familiar and, well, like home. Perhaps it was the circumstances of her return home that made her feel this way… or perhaps it was because she no longer believed that Earth — let alone Detroit — was truly her home.
Upon reaching the Sumdac-turned-Onyx Tower, the Autobots drove into its back lot, which was empty and devoid of any human life as far as they could see. Once Kicker and Sari had gotten out of Bumblebee’s car form, the three Autobots converted to their robot modes while Kicker stepped towards the back entrance to the building.
“From what I can recall, the only way to get into the facility is through a secret passage inside the Tower,” Kicker explained. “Hopefully it hasn’t been covered up or removed in the last twenty years.”
“So, uh, should we just wait out here then?” Bulkhead asked, nodding to the small human-sized door that led into Sumdac Tower. “’Cos I don’t think any of us are gonna fit through there. Especially not me.”
“Don’t worry, once I pinpoint the facility’s exact location, I’ll signal you guys to its exact location and we can figure out a way to get you in.”
“What about your friend?” Bulkhead held up the cage containing a still-raging Alice. “You gonna bring her along?”
“Unfortunately, she’s going to have to wait out here with you,” Kicker said. “I don’t think Sari and I would be able to restrain her for long. Once we find a way for you guys to come in, then you can bring her with you.”
“How thoughtful of you,” Arcee remarked dryly. “Thanks for thinking of us.”
“No problem.” Kicker then turned to Sari. “Let’s head inside.”
If Sari didn’t think she felt uneasy before, then she definitely did as soon as she stepped foot into Sumdac Tower. She had always known the building to be busy with staff members and other employees busying about the halls as they carried out their errands. Now, there was not a single soul. Every office they passed had empty chairs with papers strewn across the desk as if whoever had once occupied it had intended to return shortly, but never did. She could only hope that the Titan Masters who had briefly ruled over the building had not brought any harm to the people that had worked here; some of Sumdac’s longest working employees had been almost like family to her.
As she followed him in silence, Sari could not help but notice how tense Kicker was acting. Not only was he looking into every office window but also making quick checks over his shoulder, as if expecting someone to be right behind them.
“Is everything all right?” she asked.
“Just making sure the coast is clear,” Kicker muttered. “For all we know, there could still be some… unwanted company lurking in the shadows.”
“Like what?”
“Dunno. Anything.”
Sari frowned, not hiding her irritation at Kicker’s vagueness. She couldn’t help but feel that he was trying to hide something from her.
“You said your dad worked for Machination,” she said. “Did he also work for Sumdac Systems?”
“He might have at some point,” Kicker replied. “But for as long as I can remembered, he has always worked for universities and major institutes.”
Despite this answer, Sari still could not help but feel that Kicker knew more than he was letting on. Before she could press him further, she caught motion in the corner of eye and turned in the direction of an adjacent hall. Dark save for the light coming from an exit sign, she could make out the silhouette of a figure moving in the darkness. Covering her face with her battle mask, Sari raised her hands which began glowing with energy.
“Who goes there?” she called out. “Show yourself!”
“Sari?” The figure began to make a slow approach. As they came into the light, Sari saw that they were a young woman with dark hair whose face took her a moment to assign a name to.
“…Verity?” Sari lowered her hands, retracting her mask. “It’s Verity, right? What are you doing here?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing, ‘till I remembered that this was your dad’s business.” Verity shrugged her shoulders as she stepped out of the hall. “After the Autobots left — after you were captured — I took it upon myself to figure out what your deal is. Didn’t find out much though; this is probably my third or fourth time breaking into this building and still nothing.”
Sari smiled awkwardly. “Well, I appreciate what you’ve been doing. But, uh… I’ve already found out what my ‘deal’ is.”
“So I’ve noticed. Cool mask, by the way.”
“Thanks. Oh, by the way, this is Kicker.” Sari gestured to her fellow techno-organic, whose expression had remained blank for the duration of her and Verity’s conversation. “Kicker, this is Verity. I met her when I got wrapped up into this whole Cybertronian thing.”
Verity gave Kicker a curt nod. “Nice to met you, ‘Kicker.’ Interesting name.”
“I get that a lot,” he muttered. “Anyway, it’s been nice meeting you, but we’ve got things to do.”
Sari frowned as she looked back at him. “Why can’t we bring her along? She’s a friend and—”
“Friend or not, where we’re going won’t be safe for a normal human like her. God knows what’s waiting for us there.”
Verity crossed her arms. “Okay, well, now you’ve piqued my interest. And once my interest is piqued, it’s hard to dissuade me from satisfying it.”
“Trust me, you don’t want that,” Kicker said. “It’s best that you leave now and forget that you ever saw us.”
“What the hell is up with you?” Sari snapped at him. “You’ve been acting jumpy and strange ever since we stepped foot in here. Is there something that you’re not telling me?”
Kicker raised his hands defensively. “Sari, it’s… it’s not like that. I just don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”
“What do you mean by ‘anyone else?’ Do you know what’s waiting for us in the Cadmus facility?”
Kicker’s hesitance in response was more telling than anything he could have said. Narrowing her eyes, Sari brought down her mask and stepped closer to him.
“Either speak up or I’m ratting you out to the Autobots.”
Kicker held her gaze for a moment before he blew out his breath, lowering his hands. “There’s no need for that,” he said. “It’s not that I’m trying to hide something from you… it’s just that I simply don’t know what’s waiting for us in the facility. Like I said, it’s been twenty years; who knows what else they’ve made in that lab and are still keeping in there.”
“What have you seen in there that would make you think we’d find something bad?” Sari asked.
Kicker shrugged. “I mean… you’ve already met Alice.”
“…Point taken.” Sari took a step back, retracting her mask once more. She still wasn’t sure if she believed him, or that he was being completely honest… but then again, she could have just been overreacting. Perhaps Kicker was as in the dark as she was and that was why he was acting so strange; because he felt that he should know and was bothered that he didn’t. In any case, she knew she would have to exercise a good degree of caution in regards to both him and their overall mission.
“All right,” she finally said. “I’ll take you for your word. But Verity is coming with us; no ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’ about it.”
She could tell Kicker looked apprehensive about the prospect but he nonetheless shrugged. “If you say so,” he grunted, stepping past her as he resumed their journey. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Both Sari and Verity simply stared at him as he walked away. The latter glanced at the former, her lips twisting a wry smirk. “He doesn’t strike me as the type of guy your dad would want you to bring home.”
“Shut up,” Sari sighed.
The Xantium, in the middle of the ocean
Sandstorm let out a yell as he fell out of the crate that had been holding him. The impact of the Xantium crashing into the ocean had not only knocked him back online but had also loosen the crate’s hinges, freeing him from the impromptu “cage” the Wreckers had apparently put him in.
If he was being perfectly honest with himself, he couldn’t be mad about what they had done to him to sneak him out of Metroplex. It was quite creative, in his opinion, and it seemed to have worked up until this point.
Pulling himself back up, Sandstorm quickly became aware of the large amounts of water that were starting to pour into the cargo hold. Not wasting any time in trying to call for help from the bridge, he rushed over to the controls and pulled the switch that opened the main hold door. As more water started to flood in, he transformed into his aircraft form and took off, barely clearing the exit before the water could rise and fully submerge him.
Outside, he spotted Springer and the others hovering above the sinking Xantium in the sky, with the ground-based bots like Kup, Twin Twist, and Punch clinging onto their aerial-based comrades. The sight was honestly quite comical, he couldn’t lie; as much as he felt that he should be mad at them for leaving him behind in the cargo hold, at the same time it was actually quite nostalgic. Something like this was almost a daily occurrence for the Wreckers during the Great War. He hadn’t realized how much he missed it until now.
“Sandstorm!” Springer’s voice crackled over his personal radio. “Glad to see you made it out okay. We were just about to go back for you.”
“As if I would have needed your help,” Sandstorm quipped back. “You definitely would have to have helped if I were Broadside, though. You know how he is with water.”
“Ah, don’t remind me,” muttered Kup. “I remember one time, during the Battle of Hydrophena, that High Tide and Seaspray both had to—”
“Save it, Kup,” Springer interjected. “Looks like we have unfinished business.”
Sandstorm’s optical sensors were drawn to the sight of a large green and black aircraft flying towards them. As the ship drew closer, he was quick to register it as being the Decepticon Sixshot, who he recalled facing off with early on in the war. Without waiting for Springer to give him an order, Sadnstorm transformed to robot mode — keeping himself aloft in midair with his VTOL wings — and drew his gun, pointing it at the fast approaching Sixshot.
“Sandstorm, no!” Springer barked. “Stand down!”
At that moment, Sixshot transformed from his alternate mode as well, drawing a pair of guns as he propelled himself with thrusters mounted on his back. However, he did not open fire on the Wreckers just yet, eying them carefully with his glowing red optics.
“Listen,” the Six Changer growled, “I’m not looking for a bloodbath or anything like that. I just have a job to do, and you’re in my way.”
“That’s usually how this works, isn’t it?” Sandstorm retorted. “You ‘Cons want to do something and we Autobots want to stop you. It’s what we’ve been doing for a good millennium now.”
“Right. Except this time, you guys don’t look like you’re in any position to fight me. Three of you are clinging onto three others for dear life and if one of them so much as transforms or even advances towards me, it’s a dive into the ocean for their ‘passengers.’ That just leaves you, though between you and me, I think its pretty obvious who has the upper hand here.”
“He’s right, Sandstorm,” Springer said quietly. “We’re at a disadvantage. We have no choice but to—”
“Is that how a Wrecker talks, Springer?” Sandstorm snapped, whirling on the green and yellow helicopter. “Is that what we do? Give up because the enemy has bigger guns than we do?”
“It has nothing to do with that!” Kup shot back. “Like the ‘Con said, we’re stuck in an awkward position. To try anything would be suicide.”
“Maybe for you,” Sandstorm muttered, turning back to face Sixshot. “But for me… this is my one chance to atone for my wrongdoings.”
“This isn’t the way to do it, Sandstorm,” Springer protested. “Throwing your life away like this won’t accomplish anything.”
“It will if you guys get a move on. I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”
He did not wait around to listen to any more of the others’ protests. Powering up the VTOL wings on his back, Sandstorm advanced towards Sixshot, releasing a yell from his voicebox as he unloaded his gun on the Decepticon Six Changer. The blaster bolts from his weapon left little more than scratches and burn marks on Sixshot’s armor as the Decepticon proceeded to raise his own weapons and begin firing. While Sandstorm managed to dodge a few of the initial shots, one of them hit him square in the chest, knocking him off course. A second one took out his right wing and, before he knew it, he was plummeting towards the ocean below.
The sounds of Springer and the others calling his name were quickly drowned out by the rushing waters as he plunged into the sea….
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