Transformers
Ground
Zero
Part
1
Footsteps echo through the hallway
as metal meets metal, shadows become smaller as their reach the end of the
road.
“Come on, Swing! You are falling
behind!”
A pink colored Transformer tries to
catch up with the others who run further down the hallway. She knows she is
falling behind. The gap between her and the others becomes bigger and bigger
with every nano-click that passes and she can’t do a thing about it. Even if
she tries to run any faster, it feels like she is slowing down even more.
“Prime, Swing is not going to make
it!” one of the Transformers yells out and looks over her shoulder to Swing,
who stumbles forward, but regains her balance to continue running before she
can even fall on the floor.
The silver, black and golden plated
Transformer who runs in front of the group throws a quick glance towards Swing
and her optics narrow. She nods and says:” Nobody of our group falls behind.
Keep on running, girls. Swing and I will join you shortly.”
The other three who run after her,
nod in agreement and wish her good luck, before returning their attention to
their escape. The one called Prime stops and waits for Swing to catch up with
her. She quickly grabs the smaller Transformer’s arm and pulls her along with
her without saying a word. The look over her metallic face is serious and
strong, like she isn’t concerned about what follows their trail.
Swing tries her best to keep up with
her and says with gasps in between:” Thanks sis. I was afraid I had to do this
alone.”
“Like I said many times before this
happening and like I said to the others, Swing. Nobody stays behind and not
even you. I really don’t want to lose my little sister plus the best
synthesizer player there is on whole Cybertron.”
A small smile appears on her face
and she looks down to Swing who returns the smile. They continue running and
manage to get the others in their visual.
“Hey girls, Prime is gainin’ on us
and she is draggin’ Swing with her.”
“Well, that took long enough,”
smirks the green plated Transformer who runs in the middle of the small group
and slows down a bit. The other two follow her lead and look towards Swing and
Prime.
“Don’t slow down! Keep running! They
are not far behind and who knows where they are now! Go!” Prime yells to the
others and grabs the arm of a red plated Transformer as she runs through the
group who only wanted to let them catch up.
“Why did they had to show up in this
sector? The sources said they don’t come here that often and suddenly --kapow!
-- They are there with a full front assaullt team... I mean... What did we ever
do to get them after our skid plates?”
“Stop talking and keep running,
Rivet. We will think about it when we reach our ship. Let’s get out off this
sector first, before it gets full with more Revolutionary Predacons and Decepticon agents
who want to bust us femmes!”
The small group continues down the
hallway, all hoping they will reach the vehicle of their escape before they get
caught. This has been going on ever since the Revolutionaries started to march
up in the Underground levels of Cybertron and it has never been safe again.
They had to run away in many occasions, but always managed to escape without
loss.
Prime lets go of Swing and the other
as they run into a large hall which obviously became the end of the road.
“Well, that’s just prime…”she curses
and throws a quick glance around to look for a way out. They can only go back
or… The balustrade in front of them is the second option she can pick.
She runs over to it and grabs the
balustrade with both hands to bump into it as she skids to a stop. She looks
down into the darkness of a deep tunnel and shakes her head. It is a long way
down and this balcony platform makes them an easy target for snipers who can be
hiding in those shadows. Swing and Rivet join her at her side and they both
look down over the balustrade. The bottom isn’t even visible. Prime straightens
her back and looks around again, while Swing starts to make nervous sounds and
Rivet sighs deeply in disappointment.
“Prime!” the voice of Flare makes
her snap out off her thoughts and she looks over her shoulder to the red
Transformer, “I can hear them! They are really near and they are followin’ our
tracks. If we stay here, we will be turned into Energon cookies!”
“Jeez, that’s a nice thought,” Rivet
mutters and Prime walks up towards Flare so she stands in the middle of the
group.
“Okay, girls… We have two options,”
she says serious and makes optic-contact with everyone before continuing,”
Option number one; we all jump over that balustrade and hope we won’t snap our
legs, arms, neck and back into three pieces each as we finally reach the
ground.” As she points over to the balustrade, Swing quickly backs away from it
with a terrifying look over her white metallic face, “option number two: We go
back into that hallway and hope we will survive a battle against who knows how
many agents with all the ammo we have… which isn’t much if I may conclude that
fact.”
The mood between every single one of
the fembots becomes gloomier with every nano-click that passes and Rivet is the
first one to break the silence:” I don’t like both options…”
Prime nods and walks over to Rivet
as she says:” that is why we go for option number three.”
“Option three? And what might that
be?”
Prime sticks out her hand towards
Rivet and nods for Rivet to hold out her arm. Rivet pulls a face and does what
Prime asks her. She holds up her right arm and gently gets pushed back against
the balustrade by a little nudge of Prime’s left hand, while the other takes
Rivet’s wrist in her grasp.
“What are you planning to do, sis?”
Swing asks as she stands besides the two fembots. Rivet feels the balustrade of
the balcony platform press in her back and she glares at Prime who grins up to
her.
“Yes…? Are you going to push me over
to see how long the drop is?”
“Very funny, Rivet,” Prime laughs
and suddenly pulls Rivet’s arm up towards the darkness above them,” I am going
to throw you in a guess… so guess.”
Rivet grits her teeth in shocked
surprise as Prime pushes a small button on her wrist. With a soft click a rope
with a hook shoots out off her arm and disappears into the darkness way above
their heads. Prime let’s go of her arm and sets a few steps back, placing her
hands on her sides as she looks up towards the trembling rope which keeps going
higher and higher.
The other fembots look to what is
developing as Prime explains:” We can always go up if your hook gets a hold on
something, Rivet. Let’s hope it is not a Decepticon jet like last time.”
Rivet remains silent as she looks
away from Prime with a disturbing look over her metallic face. She always has
to be the one who comes up with ideas first, while it is her hook she just shot
off. She is also older then Prime and it is still a riddle to her how this
younger fembot was able to crown herself as the leader of this small group. It
really annoys her if she thinks about it and it doesn’t place Prime a good spot
light for her taste.
A soft clank echoes down towards the
five fembots and Rivet pulls onto the rope as she snaps out off her thoughts to
see if it is secure enough to go up without crashing down again.
“Secure…”
“Good,” Prime nods and looks over to
the blue fembot who has kept herself on the background ever since they tried to
escape,” you go first, Dicey.”
The fembot nods and walks over to
Rivet who looks down at her with a very serious look. Dicey lowers her head a
bit as she stands in front of Rivet and holds her arms up so that Rivet can get
a hold around her waist. The both remain silent as they hold on to each other,
not looking pleased about the situation they are in. Rivet tugs on the rope
which is attached to her arm one more time, before she pushes the earlier
button and slowly she gets lifted off from the ground as the rope rolls itself
up in the arm compartment.
“Brace for impact!!”
Prime and the others look up when
they hear Flare’s yelling and quickly they understand what she is meaning. An
explosion blinds the group and the power of it rips the barred balustrade out
off the metal floor and flings it to the other side of the gab. It hits the
wall with a loud slam and then tumbles down into the darkness below.
As the black smoke clears from the
balcony and dust falls down at the floor, none of the fembots are in sight.
Only a soft groaning hints that these female robots are still functional.
“Prime, I’m afraid… we’ve a nasty
situation here…” the groaning voice of Flare sounds from under the edge of the
balcony.
Above the deep darkness of the gap,
two of the fembots hang onto each other as their lives depend on it. As tight
as she can, Flare holds onto the legs of her younger sister she calls Prime,
who also literally hangs onto the edge of life. In this case the balcony.
“Shush, Flare. We have been in this
type of situation before… Where is Swing?” Prime looks around to find anything
which presents pink, but everything looks grim. She narrows her optics a she
looks up and says:” climb up, Flare. We have to get out off here…”
“Have you lost some gyros in that
blast? Did you see what type of ammo they are shootin’ at us? I sure did! I
rather let go then to face those ugly Decepticons!”
“Flare… I want to go up to face
freedom, not a black hole. Now climb up,” says Prime more serious then ever and
the look she throws down at her sister is enough to make her start moving.
“Alright, alright… Keep your pants
on. I’m goin’, I’m goin’…” the red fembot mutters and carefully starts to climb
up, hoping that Prime won’t lose her grip on the edge. This one looks up,
tilting her head to the side as Flare places a hand on top of her so she is
able to place her foot on Prime’s shoulder. Prime hopes that her other three
sisters are alright and still functional, because the explosion was
tremendously.
“Alright, Prime… Wanna put your
hands up for me?” Flare grins as she sits on the edge of the balcony and grabs
for Prime’s wrists to pull her up.
“That’s not funny, Flare… Really, it
isn’t… We need to find the others…” she mutters and just when she places her
knees on solid ground, shooting starts from the other side of the balcony. They
quickly lay down, hoping the pieces of the ceiling and walls spread across the
platform will bounce the shots off.
“Prime! Flare! Are you two okay?!”
The two fembots stays where they are
and looks towards each other. They heard Swing’s voice, but she is nowhere in
sight. Prime quickly rolls onto her back, holding Flare’s hand, both hoping
they will survive this.
“Swing? Where are you?” Prime’s
voice is hard to hear as the shooting continues, but she gets an answer as she
sees three figures come down from the darkness above. Rivet still holds Dicey
with her free arm and Swing hangs around her neck. All look in good shape and
with no damage,” they are okay…”
“Dandy! Now I hope Rivet has a good
plan to get us out off here as well, because I am gettin’ tired of lyin’ around
here! I wish I had my gun…”
“Gun…?” Prime slowly blinks with her
optics as she stares up towards her three sisters who are in safety. As she
thinks, she doesn’t notice that the shooting stopped and that Flare slowly sits
up to check what is going on,” Flare, you are right. We need a gun to get out
off here.”
“Of course I am right! And I am
really right, because the Decepticons decided to come a bit closer so they can
go solo on us… You have a gun with ya?” Flare asks with a surprised look over
her metallic face and sighs when she sees her sister shaking her head.
“Not me… But someone else
does…”Prime whispers as she keeps staring towards Rivet, Swing and… Dicey. She
slowly sits up and starts to yell:” Dicey! Transform!”
Way above their heads, the three
sisters all suddenly look surprised and shocked. Rivet grits her teeth as she
glares down at her younger sister and then looks at Dicey, the blue fembot she
is holding in her grasp.
“Don’t you even think about it,
Dicey,” she almost hisses and Dicey looks back down towards Prime,” its
suicide.”
“Dicey! Transform!”
Flare grabs for Prime’s shoulders
and asks with a high voice:” Have you gone glitch nuts?! That’s too dangerous,
Prime!”
Prime doesn’t give the impression
she is listening and yells again:” Dicey! Please, transform!”
A silence remains… Even the
Decepticons don’t make any sounds and the always cheery Swing doesn’t dare to
say a word. It is all up to the small blue fembot way up there above the
platform.
Dicey slowly looks up to Rivet and
makes a few bleeping sounds, before she releases her grip on her older sister
to fall down towards the balcony.
“Dicey, no!” Rivet screams and tries
to grab her, Swing screaming in her speakers as they dangle there. Rivet isn’t
able to grab her sister and has to watch her fall,” damn you, Durham Prime!”
Prime, on the other hand, doesn’t
look as desperate and angry as Rivet and almost smiles: “well done, Dicey… Now
transform!”
Dicey twirls around as she falls and
the Decepticons open fire as they see something blue come from the darkness above.
Prime leaps up; pulling herself away from Flare’s grasping hands and sees Dicey
transform into a blue blaster gun. She jumps up on her feet and runs towards
Dicey’s direction to catch her.
Flare watches with wide open optics.
How could she forget that one of her younger sister is able to transform into a
weapon? She sees Prime roll over the floor to take cover again and how she
takes aim at the Decepticons with Dicey. As she opens fire, Flare turns her
attention towards Rivet and Swing, but to her biggest surprise yet, they are
both out off sight and gone. Flare shakes her head as she thinks about how
pissed off Rivet will be at Prime. Mostly Rivet doesn’t curse, she only glares
and turns away. But now, she even cursed with Swing hanging around her neck;
damning Prime for the idea she had to safe herself and the rest.
“Prime, how are you holdin’ up?”
Prime keeps shooting, not looking
proud of herself and what she had to do to find a way to get away from the
menace safely. She knew it was dangerous to summon Dicey that way. If she
didn’t catch her, she might have fallen into the gab and would have been lost
forever. Dicey always has been the obeying fembot of the group. Ask her
something to do and she will do it with no doubt. Rivet mostly makes
disadvantage of that and Prime… she only does it when it is really needed like
now.
“Slag it, Flare... Stop staring at
her.”
Flare snaps out off her thinking as
she hears Rivet’s angry voice and turns around to see her hanging there. Her optics
are narrowed, her arms crossed over her chest as she hangs there upside down.
She was able to attach the hook and rope to her belt so she can use both hands
to help the others.
“That was fast, sis.”
“It’s not far… Now come on, before
my mechfluid comes out off my nose.”
Flare nods and takes Rivet’s hands,
asking:” what about Prime and Dicey?”
“I hope
“Thank you very much, Rivet…” Prime
whispers and continues shooting. She heard what the oldest sister said, but she
is used to it and it won’t claim anymore of the attention she needs right now.
Her other sisters nicknamed her Prime, like the great Autobot leader Optimus
Prime. Because they look up to her, they gave her that name and her real name became
forgotten… only not for Rivet who refuses to use the nickname. She still calls
her
“Prime…”
She quickly looks up when she hears
a strange, but still familiar voice and peeks over her hiding place to see a
Decepticon standing very close by her. She quickly re-aims Dicey towards him
and stays low.
“Slag it, Thundercracker… Get out
off my sight and let us go.”
The blue and white plated Decepticon
jet looks towards her over his shoulder, his weapon aimed at her forehead, but
not showing any intentions to shoot at her. He shakes his head and says:” I have
let you go too many times, Durham Prime and my brothers start to get air of
what is going on. Even Megatron starts to wonder…”
“It is over, Thundercracker. There
is nothing going on between us or whom so ever,” Prime says and heightens the
gun to also aim for his head,” you might have saved my life a few times, but I
know where I stand. Now go and leave me and my sisters alone…”
Thundercracker looks away from her
towards the other Decepticons and remains silent. Prime lowers herself back
behind her hiding place and takes Dicey in both hands, wondering what
Thundercracker will do. He can not be trusted when among his brothers and
comrades and there is no way of telling that he will let her go. She waits for
a moment and then slowly pushes herself a bit up to take a look at the
Decepticons. Thundercracker is nowhere in sight, still the others came a bit
closer, shouting to each other to take some actions instead of hanging around.
“There is no sign of them. It seems
that they have escaped.”
Prime pulls her shoulders a bit up
when she hears Thundercracker’s voice over the balcony, slightly surprised
about the fact that he is letting her go again.
“They escaped again?”
“I am starting to get a system
breakdown because of those slaggin fembots!”
“Well, what’s the use of doing
nothing here then? Let’s head back to the base.”
Prime watches them go into the
hallway and when they disappear around the corner, she slowly stands up to stare
towards the opening. How many times has it been that she was able to escape
thanks to the enemy? She only thanked him twice and it always ended with an
argument. She is an Autobot and he… Well, he is a Decepticon. She can’t do a
thing about that and she won’t even dare to try it. She snaps out off her staring
as she notices a movement in the hallway and quickly aims Dicey to it, ready to
shoot if it a sign of danger. But as quickly as she aimed Dicey, the quickly
she lowers the gun when she sees it is Thundercracker. She sighs softly,
knowing they won’t say a word to each other and smiles slightly. He nods once
and then turns around to walk back into the hallway to leave her alone, as she
asked him to. Prime shakes her head and rubs over her cheek with her free hand,
wanting to enjoy the freedom she has gotten. But she won’t get a chance for it.
“I see you are in one piece.”
The low voice behind her gives her
the shivers and Prime quickly turns around to see her oldest sister hanging
there. The looks over her metallic face doesn’t give her any hint about Rivet
feels and Prime straightens her back to hide what she is thinking now. How long
has she been hanging there? Long enough to see what happened between her and
Thundercracker? She takes another look at Rivet’s face, but truly nothing
shows.
Rivet looks over to the gun in
Prime’s hand and asks:” Tell me that Dicey is okay or you are in for
something.”
“She is fine…”
“Good. Now come on, the others are
waiting for the both of you, although it surprises me they want to see you too
as well… After what you did with Dicey,” Rivet mutters and takes Prime in her
arms to get her away from the rubble and the balcony. As they move up into the
darkness above the platform, Prime presses Dicey against her chest to hold her
tight. Of course they want to see them both. Why else do people call it
sister-love?
Prime’s face clears up when she can
finally see the stars which roam around Cybertron and smiles even wider when
she hears Swing.
“They are okay! Flare, they are
okay!”
Above them, Flare and Swing looks
down the edge towards their sisters and Swing starts to clap in her hands of
excitement. Rivet is the first one to the touch solid ground as Flare helps her
up. Swing quickly grabs for Prime’s wrists and grabs hold onto her to give her
a tight hug. Prime smiles down at her younger sister and hugs her back,
laughing softly. Rivet shakes her head and attaches the hook compartment back
onto her arm as Flare walks past her to greet Prime in a more mature way.
“That’s what I call nifty shootin’,
sis!”
Prime nods to Flare with a smile
across her lips and she lowers her gaze to the gun she is holder. She slightly
lifts her arm up and unwraps her fingers from the holster.
“You did a good job, Dicey…
Transform.”
The gun leaps out off her hand and
transforms back into Dicey, who lands softly onto her feet. Swing lets go of
Prime with a giggle and rushes over to the blue plated fembot to hug her as
well, followed by Flare. Rivet stays where she is with her arms crossed over
her chest plate. She looks over to Prime and when their optics make contact, it
is Prime who suddenly looks nervous.
“Well then...” Prime says as she
tries to break the ice,” we all made it and I have to admit… it was one heck of
a show we gave down there.”
Only Rivet is not the one who
manages to laugh and she lowers her arms to say something when the five fembots
suddenly get blinded by bright headlights.
“Nobody move! You are all under
arrest for trespassing through the Underground levels without permission.”
“Oh boy…This is a dandy way to end
the show,” Flare mutters as she lifts up a hand to cover her eyes from the
lights. It seems that someone found out about their secret concert.
To
be continued