CHAPTER THREE
Earth, at some point in time
Death’s Head crouched down next to the dead human male, waving a device over the mutilated corpse. After a few minutes, the device’s screen lit up, bathing the bounty hunter’s silver face in red.
NEGATIVE, was what it read.
Death’s Head grunted as he straightened up, storing the device and his blood-stained weapons away. “Hn,” he grunted. “Figures.”
He then brought out another device, a small tablet-shaped pad, and checked off one of the many items that populated the list he had been given. Lord Gyconi had warned him that this task was going to be incredibly tedious and time consuming. Fortunately, Death’s Head wasn’t really missing out on anything since his dimension-hopping device meant that he could return to the present day mere moments after Gyconi had given him the job and pick things up from there. Of course, that didn’t do anything to mend his ever-thinning patience.
Still, a job was a job and he was going to get it done no matter what. Such was life.
After putting away his list, he spared a moment to regard the frightened humans gawking at him in horror. He supposed he couldn’t blame them for being so terrified; he doubted it was everyday that they saw some alien bounty hunter barge in and kill their boss in the most gruesome way imaginable. He also found it hard to care about how they felt. It wasn’t like he was going to see them again, at least not in this reality.
Ignoring their pathetic whimpers, Death’s Head activated the device on his wrist and warped away to find the next item on his list.
Hedonia
“So… what are we going to do?”
Swindle groaned as he slumped over his desk, his face buried in his hands. The rest of his motley crew—Trickdiamond, Gutcruncher, and Headlock—stood across from him, staring at him with expectant looks. He had been hoping to hightail it out of here as soon as Spacewarp had released all of the Mini-Cons, but Trickdiamond and the others had barged into his office before he could even begin packing up. Doing so now would only illicit a… less than friendly response, something which he was in no position to deal with right now.
“For what it’s worth,” Gutcruncher said, “I’ve still got a stockpile of parts stashed away on a planet near the Malus Expanse. We could use those to get us by until we think of a new venture to replace this one. Of course, we’d have to find someplace besides Hedonia to sell them….”
“Why can’t we just stay here?” asked Headlock. “We’ve still got venues besides the Mini-Con races, right? Why don’t we just capitalize on those?”
“The races were our biggest draw,” said Trickdiamond. “Without them, we’re just another casino on Hedonia and there’s plenty of those abound here on this planet.”
Headlock threw up his arms. “Then I guess we’re screwed. It’s been nice knowing you all, I guess.”
Swindle sat up and drew in some air to cool his overheating fans. He took a moment to collect his thoughts before saying, “No. We’re not.”
The others looked at him in surprise. “We’re not?”
Swindle winced to himself. He couldn’t believe he was even going this route. But it was the only thing he could think to do. “I have… a backup plan.”
Trickdiamond brightened at this. “You do? Then let’s hear it!”
“A client of mine recently called me regarding a valuable item hidden somewhere on Sigma Seven. He’s promised me—I mean us a massive reward if we manage to find it and bring it to him.”
“Sigma Seven?” Gutcruncher repeated. “Isn’t that where Shockwave—”
“Yes,” Swindle interjected. “But that’s not relevant to this job. All we need to know is that he’s going to pay us a lot for this item.”
“How much?” asked Headlock.
“A lot.”
“How much is a lot?”
“So much that you would never need to question it.”
Before Headlock or the other two could ask for Swindle to elaborate, a light tap sounded at the door and Swindle let out a frightened yelp. Standing there in the doorway once more was Spacewarp, this time accompanied by three other bots.
“What do you want now?!” Swindle exclaimed. “You’ve already got your Mini-Cons! What else could you possibly want? Energon Stars? Cyber Keys?”
“I need your help,” Spacewarp muttered, sounding absolutely miserable.
Swindle blinked. Out of all the answers he had been expecting, that one had been at the bottom of the list. “You… I’m sorry, you need what?”
“I don’t necessarily want it—in fact, I don’t.” Spacewarp sighed. “But apparently I need it.”
“Apparently?”
A silver bot with goggle adorning his face shouldered past Spacewarp and stepped into the room. “There’s no time to explain. My name is Gigawatt. The Crossover is about to happen and we need the Transwarp Blaster to get there before it does.”
“The Transwarp…?” Swindle slammed his palms onto his desk as he stood up. “How the hell do you know about that?!”
“Again, I can’t explain. All you need to know is that I’m from the future and that I know what’s going to happen if we don’t stop the Crossover from happening!”
“What the blazes is a ‘Crossover?’” asked Gutcruncher. “Are you sure you’re not just overdosed on circuit-boosters?”
“Thank you!” said a black and green Decepticon standing with Spacewarp, whom Swindle recognized as Krok. “I thought I was the only one!”
Gigawatt groaned. “Look, can you guys just humor me? I’ve got the coordinates to Sigma Seven; I can take us there in no time at all.”
“And how do we know you’re not trying to scam us?” Trickdiamond asked, crossing her arms.
“Because you’re Decepticons. If there’s one thing you guys know what to look out for, it’s deception.”
Still looking doubtful, Headlock looked over to Swindle. “Is this Transwarp Blaster the thing your client wants us to get?”
Swindle sighed. “Yes. Yes, it is. And he’s paying us 100 trillion for it.”
Everyone’s optics—including Spacewarp and Krok’s—went wide.
“You’re joking,” Spacewarp murmured.
“I never joke about these things.”
“Are you sure you’re not the one being scammed?” asked Krok.
Swindle shrugged. “Honestly? I very well could be. But between that and what this guy is saying… I don’t know. Maybe it’s all tied together. Maybe it’s destiny or something.”
At this, Gigawatt beamed. “Yes, thank you! Finally, someone gets it!”
Swindle gave him a confused look. “Get what?”
“Come on.” Gigawatt beckoned him and the others to follow as he stepped back through the door. “We’ve wasted enough time already. Let’s go!”
With that, he transformed into a silver car and sped away. The Decepticons all exchanged look before going after him, converting to their alternate modes (with the monoformer Krok having to hang onto Spacewarp) as they followed the mysterious bot. Swindle was the last to go, still wondering what exactly he had gotten himself into.
Elsewhere, on Earth
“Fascinating. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“Sure you have, bub.”
“Well, yes. But not under these circumstances.”
Fulcrum’s audio receptors were the first boot back up, leaving him blind as to who the two speakers were. Neither of them sounded like any of the other Scavengers; in fact, they didn’t even sound mechanical. If anything, they sounded more… squishy, like they were full of liquids. He prayed to whatever deity was listening that he not ended up in the care of some organics; he would rather take the torture wheel on B’lahr 39 than to experience such a horrifying prospect.
His optical sensors finally came back online and Fulcrum was greeted with the sight of a hairy blue thing standing on top of him.
Then he screamed.
“Calm yourself!” the furry creatures tried to say over the K-Con’s screams. “We mean you no harm!”
“Not yet, anyway,” muttered another hairy organic—this one without blue fur and wearing some sort of yellow and black outfit.
“GET OFF OF ME!” Fulcrum screamed as he flicked the blue beast off of him. The organic moved quickly before his metal fingers could actually touch him, flipping back and landing on the grass in front of him. Meanwhile, the other human unsheathed a set of claws from his fists and snarled at Fulcrum.
“Listen, bub, you’re already on thin ice as it is. I’d watch yourself ‘cos we’ve got plenty of ways to get rid of metal lugs like you.”
“Easy, Logan,” said the blue-furred creature. “It’s probably just scared. I mean, it did unexpectedly teleport on our grounds. It probably doesn’t even know where it is.”
That much was true, Fulcrum had to admit. Drawing himself up, he looked around and saw that he was sitting in the yard of some sort of stone building—probably a mansion scaled for tiny organics—with the letter “X” displayed prominently all around the grounds. If he had to wager a guess, he believed he was somewhere on the planet Earth, a backwater world he and the other Scavengers had visited sometime before crossing paths with Spacewarp. Why he was here of all planets though, he was not quite sure.
“We should probably go get the Professor,” the blue thing said to the one called Logan. “He will want to see this.”
“You go on ahead,” Logan grunted. “I’ll keep an eye on this tin can.”
While the blue organic hopped off to the mansion, Logan continued to eye Fulcrum warily, his blue eyes narrowed with suspicion.
“Y’know, you’re not the first giant robot we’ve come across,” he said. “You’re not a Sentinel, are you?”
“I have no idea what that is, so I’d wager not,” Fulcrum replied.
“Yeah, that’s what the last one said. What did he say he was, again? A Cyberbot or something. Maybe we should have him take a look at you when he comes back with Jean and the others.”
At this point, Fulcrum had stopped listening to whatever the organic was saying. He drew his legs closer to his chest and buried his face between his knees.
Why do these things always happen to me?
* * *
“Okay… maybe we shouldn’t have tagged along.”
Spinister only grunted in response, holding his broken rotor blades in his hands. Misfire had suffered some injuries of his own from the… whatever it was that had just happened. Crash? Teleportation? Teleportation crash? Either way, both of his wings were broken, making his alternate mode useless. Wherever they were, there would be no flying away from.
And where they were was a question in and of itself. They were on some sort of beach, surrounded by sand and rocks, with an endless ocean behind them and an eerie jungle in front of them. Luckily they still had their weapons, so if they ran into anything non-friendly, they could easily protect themselves. At least, Misfire could only hope.
He had already tried hailing the others—Crankcase, Fulcrum, Krok, even Spacewarp—but no good had come of it. He wasn’t sure if his communicator was just dead or if there was something blocking his signal. Either way, it was simply another question he would have to file away for later.
“All right, enough standing around,” Misfire said, drawing his gun as he stepped towards the jungle. “Let’s go explore this place.”
He had taken no less than a couple of steps when a thunderous roar broke through the jungle, accompanied by a violent tremble in the ground. Through the foliage of the jungle, Misfire could make out some sort of reptilian creature with brown and red scales storming towards them. Whatever this creature was, he could tell that it was very big… and not at all friendly.
“On second thought,” he murmured, “let’s just die instead.”
No comments:
Post a Comment