Ruby - Transformers: The Last Knight

An Odd Acquaintance

The light was brilliant, blinding, like Ruby was stuck in the middle of a lightning storm. Suddenly it was gone, leaving nothing but darkness. A familiar cold and weightless feeling took over Ruby. It was as if she was floating in space. Whispers surrounded her, caressing her like smoke. She couldn't make out what they said. 

The heat around her right wrist took most of her attention. It burned and burned. She couldn't scream, she couldn't move. There was no scent and nothing to see. There was only the point of the fire, and ice everywhere else.

Ruby tried to relax. She had to relax. The icy feeling had to win, it had to stop the burning.

And eventually, it did. The heat in her arm subsided. Her heart slowed. She could breathe. The whispers intensified.

"It issss coming," they sang, "It issss nearly here, sssooo clossse, you mussst be ready, you mussst sssave-"

Ruby slammed back-first into the broken concrete in the middle of a ruined town.

She groaned and took a quick stock of herself. No broken bones, though she felt like she'd been shaken apart and put back together wrong.

The bracelet hummed quietly to its self, stable for now. Ruby got to her feet and held it up to her face. She narrowed her eyes at it.

"Stupid thing," she muttered.

Behind her, Grimlock snorted, his hot breath curling around Ruby's neck. She turned to him and touched his huge snout.

"Thank you, for containing my power before I hurt anyone," she said.

His eyes glowed like small fiery suns and a deep growl sounded from his throat.

"Hey!" shouted Cade, poking his head out from behind a heavy-duty door, "Can I come out now? Or are you going to explode again?"

"At least it was a real explosion," Ruby yelled back, "And yes, come on out,"

Further down the street, the autobots stepped around two motionless decepticons. Their big alien bodies smoked.

"Are they dead?"

"Nah," said Hound, "Just knocked out. I think Ruby blew their circuits,"

"Then we should get out of here before they come round,"

"Where shall we go? We need to lay low,"

An old cargo plane flew low over the town, loud enough to wake sleeping decepticons. 

"Who's that?"

"Is it alien?"

"No idea,"

"Should we check?"

Ruby strode off in the direction of the plane, leaving the disorientated robots behind. Her power burst may not have harmed them physically, but she worried about their minds. 

Her body simmered with power from the bracelet; it was ramping up, gathering more strength. She could hear the rodents in the sewers below her feet and taste the fumes from distant traffic. And heat all across her skin gave away her rising temper. It wilted the grass as she reached the edge of an overgrown runway.

That plane had better be friendly, or she would obliterate it. No stun gun would stop her now. Hot eddies of glowing red power swirled around Ruby's closed fists. The plane rolled to a stop. She stalked closer.

Black smoke poured from under the left wing, it's dull metal hide was infected with rust and it smelt like something had died in its engines. It didn't look alien, or Air Force. Or like it should fly at all.