THREE: WITHERED HOPE
Axiom Nexus
Prowl crouched on the rooftop of a building that oversaw the structure that was supposedly Shockwave’s lab. Kneeling next to him was Cliffjumper, who had a pair of binoculars raised to his optical sensors. Positioned elsewhere throughout the city were the other members of Alpha Trion’s team, and Prowl had a rough idea of where each one was positioned. His audio receptors picked up the sound of Thrust’s jet engines as the green and gray Tetrajet flew overhead, keeping surveillance over the area.
The hours ticked by in silence as they waited for Alpha Trion’s signal. Eventually, Cliffjumper decided the silence was worth breaking as he spoke in a low voice to Prowl, keeping his gaze focused on the hidden lab below.
“What’s Shockwave like in your universe?”
Prowl grimaced. “A cold, manipulative, scheming spawn of a glitch.”
“Yup. Sounds about right.”
“Did he give you a lot of trouble in your reality?”
“Oh, yeah. Don’t even get me started.” Cliffjumper scowled. “I bet this Shockwave is no different.”
“I would imagine so.” Prowl made another sweep of the area with his scanners. Arcee was still positioned on top of her assigned building, crossbow at the ready. Overload—the green and yellow military bot—was on the ground in his alternate mode, ready to blast anything that came their way. Alpha Trion was nowhere to be seen, but Prowl trusted that he was doing whatever he needed to.
As Thrust came back around for another sweep, Prowl detected the signal of another Cybertronian—one which he did not recognize. He readjusted his scanners to pinpoint their location and saw a small red and blue mech. He was waving his arms around in a peculiar pattern, as if he was trying to signal something.
“That would be Trion’s assistant, Topspin,” said Cliffjumper. “Looks like he’s trying to tell us something.”
“Topspin, eh?” Prowl noted that the mech looked nothing like the Topspin of his reality. If anything, he matched descriptions of a Decepticon by the name of Spinaway whom his agents in the Secret Service had dealt with on more than one occasion. “I can’t make heads or tails of what he’s trying to communicate.”
“I can.” Cliffjumper lowered his binoculars, a grim expression on his face. “He’s saying to abort the mission. Something must have gone wrong.”
Prowl frowned. “Should we alert Trion? I don’t have his contact—”
“Get down!” Without warning, Cliffjumper grabbed Prowl from behind and shoved him down. The two of them lied flat on their chests as another flier began to fly over their position. The transport was much larger than Thrust, and Prowl glance up to see the green and gray Seeker scramble to get away from the newcomer. However, he was instantly caught by some sort of stasis field which froze him in place before slowly pulling him in.
“That’s Astrotrain,” Cliffjumper hissed into Prowl’s audio receptor. “He must be delivering another group of subjects to Shockwave. I’m afraid Thrust is going to join them.”
“Subjects?” Prowl whispered back.
“A lot of bots have been disappearing from the Offworlder Zone for some time now. No one knows where they went, but I’d bet you all the Shanix in my account that they’re being used by Shockwave for his twisted experiments. Would be just like him to do something like that.”
“Does Trion know?”
“I’ve told him about my suspicions and he thinks I’m on to something. I have spotted Astrotrain delivering stuff here before, but the ‘official’ answer is that he’s just bringing in supplies and tools.” Cliffjumper shook his head. “He only makes deliveries every other cycle, though. It’s too soon for him to show up now. Otherwise, Trion would have prepared us for it.”
“So what do we do?”
“Right now? Just lay low and hope he doesn’t notice us. We might have to abort the mission, especially now that they’ve got Thrust.”
Prowl imagined that were it another Autobot in his servos—especially if it was someone like Rodimus, Bumblebee, or even Optimus—they would have insisted on going in to rescue Thrust, Decepticon or not. But unlike them, Prowl thought more pragmatically, and as he processed all of the potential scenarios that would unfold if he did just that, he realized that Cliffjumper was right. They would have to fall back and regroup, perhaps approach the lab from another angle.
But if their first attempt was already going poorly due to an unforeseen circumstance, he didn’t have much confidence that any future attempts would prove much better. Not only that, but there was also the question of whether or not Shockwave had known they were coming. Perhaps their mission had already been doomed from the start….
Cliffjumper looked up again before patting Prowl on the shoulder. “Arcee’s moving from her position. Let’s get out of here before Astrotrain sees us.”
Prowl did not need to be told twice, and he swiftly moved through the night alongside his red-armored companion.
* * *
“Let me go! I wasn’t doing nothing! You’ve got—”
“Silence.” Shockwave prodded Thrust in the chest with an electrical device, causing the green and gray Seeker to seize up and cry in pain. The purple-armored scientist moved away from his newfound subject and turned his single optic to focus on the large and hulking Astrotrain. “You say that he was circling over my lab?”
“I’m guessing he was.” Astrotrain shrugged. “No one else around so I figured he was up to no good. Are you gonna turn him in?”
Shockwave considered the question for a moment before shaking his head. “No, at least not yet. He may prove useful to my studies. Besides, it’s not like anyone’s going to notice another offworld Seeker missing. His kind are a Shanix cred a dozen.”
“Shove it up your afterburner!” Thrust snapped. “I’ve seen plenty of other Thrusts that are red with a goofy cone on their head! I am way more unique than those—”
Shockwave silenced him with another shock. “Besides,” he continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted, “I am more interested in your other delivery.”
“Oh, yeah.” Astrotrain stepped aside and pulled over a small white and black bot that had been standing behind him. His servos were cuffed and he was glaring daggers at both TransTechs. “He’s someone that Silverbolt processed recently. He had quite a story to tell and I offered to take care of him. Of course, I didn’t tell ‘em that I was bringing him to you.”
“Naturally.” Shockwave looked down at the white bot. “And what would be your name?”
The white bot looked up at him and seemed to do a double take. “Shockwave? Is that… is that you?”
“You know my name, and yet you have not given me yours.”
“It’s Bug Bite. I was part of the Secret Order. I don’t expect you to recognize me, but….” He paused before slowly smiling, as if coming to a sudden realization. “Ah, I see. I know what’s happened.”
“Please, do enlighten me,” Shockwave said coldly.
“The big guys here and the weird-looking Autobots suggested as much. This is another universe, isn’t it? Not only that but a hub for different universes. It wasn’t exactly what I was planning, but… I think I can work with this.”
Shockwave stepped closer to the smaller mech. “Dispense with your vague wordings and provide information with more clear and concise wording. Otherwise, I will have to subject you to procedures reserved only for the more… expendable of my subjects.”
Rather than flinch from the threat, Bug Bite’s smile only broadened. “Oh, don’t worry, I will explain everything. Besides, I feel that we both have a lot to learn from each other….”
* * *
Prowl had expected Cliffjumper to lead him back to Alpha Trion’s hideout, but instead the small red bot led him through a winding maze of streets and alleyways before arriving at a small energon cafe that was sequestered from the rest of the establishments in the area. Stepping inside, Prowl at first thought the place to be abandoned due to the minimal lighting and lack of customers, only to find a red and blue femme sitting at the counter, her head hung low.
“We’ll have to lay low here for awhile,” Cliffjumper whispered. “Just a precaution in case security is on to us.”
“What is this place?” Prowl asked.
“It’s called the Widow’s Cafe, named for its proprietor.” Cliffjumper nodded in the direction of the femme, whom Prowl noted looked almost techno-organic in appearance. “How ya’ doin’, Crys’?”
“I already told you I’m not interested, Cliff,” the femme replied without lifting her head.
Cliffjumper nudged Prowl with his elbow, aiming a wink at him. “Don’t let her demeanor put you off. She’s still getting over the loss of her Decepticon lover.”
“Uh-huh.” Prowl looked around the near-empty room. “Will the others be joining us here?”
“No. Trion’s procedure for things like this, especially for when one of us gets captured, is to split up. That way, security can’t apprehend us all at once.”
“You better not be bringing the police to my business, Cliff,” Crystal Widow said. She slowly lifted her head up and her helm peeled back to reveal several sets of eyes, equal to that of an arachnid. “Last thing I need is—”
Cliffjumper raised his hands. “Chill out, Crys’. Everything is under control.”
Crystal Widow did not seem to believe him but she nonetheless covered her extra sets of eyes. She then shifted her attention to Prowl. “You’re new. I take it you’ve been wrapped up into Trion’s little gang?”
“That’s one way of putting it, I suppose,” Prowl said, eying her warily. “Are you associated with them as well?”
“No, they just use my cafe for their little meetings. I just let them ‘cos business is slow as it is and I’ll take all the customers I can get.” Crystal Widow sighed as she shook her head. “Lots of folks have been disappearin’ lately.”
“So I’ve heard.” Prowl turned back to Cliffjumper, and was about to ask the other bot something regarding Trion’s plan when he noticed another bot enter the cafe. Another femme, she had red and yellow armor-plating and appeared to have the same body-type as Prowl’s fellow Autobot Gears, with kibble indicating a pickup truck alternate mode. Upon noticing Prowl, she instantly froze, her pistons tensing up.
“I’m sorry,” the femme said, somewhat guardedly. “Is this place open?”
“Come on in, hon,” said Crystal Widow. “Nothing to worry about here. What can I help you with?”
“My friends and I just need a room to stay. We just got out of processing and need to find a way home….”
“Join the club, dear,” Crystal Widow said bitterly. “No one’s ever gotten out of Axiom Nexus as far as I know. Only way out is to throw yourself into the Heap.”
Prowl glanced back at the other femme, who was trying to mask a deflated expression. Something about her was familiar; it wasn’t in the same way that Cliffjumper or Alpha Trion were in that they resembled bots from where he was from… but rather that he had come across someone exactly like her in his universe. Her body-type was identical to Gears, and even her spark signature was registering easily in his sensors, whereas he had difficulty registering such signatures with Cliffjumper and the others.
Tilting his head, Prowl said, “If I may ask, what is your name?”
She looked up at him and seemed to hesitate before answering. “Small Foot. Why, do I know you?”
The name registered in his processor. “Small Foot? As in Small Foot of Helex?”
She blinked her optics at him. “How do you know my full name?”
“I’m Prowl, of Petrex. Head of the Autobot Secret Service. I have a database of every single active Autobot in my registry. I think… I think we are from the same universe.”
“Well, they told me that my reality ID was tentatively labeled as Primax 1213.1 Omega, or something like that. Is that…?”
Prowl shrugged. “I didn’t stick around long enough to learn mine. But I am positive that we are from the same reality. How did you end up here?”
“I have no idea. Last thing I remember, I was on Cybertron—our Cybertron—when something… shunted me over here. I was processed with five others—my fellow Autobots Path Finder and Road Ranger, and three Decepticons.”
“Do you know the ‘Cons names?”
Small Foot seemed to hesitate again before answering. “I believe their names were Treds, Bad Boy, and Bug Bite—”
“Bug Bite?!” Prowl exclaimed.
Cliffjumper looked up at him curiously. “Another friend of yours, I take it?” he said wryly.
Prowl ignored him and stepped closer to Small Foot. “Is Bug Bite still with you?”
Small Foot shook her head. “No, he was taken away by some big gray and purple bot. The others are still with me, including the ‘Cons believe it or not. They’re waiting outside.”
“Bring them in, now,” Prowl ordered. “I feel like we’re starting to get to the crux of this mystery.”
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