CHAPTER 4

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"Ack! How long can that sonofabitch keep running"!?

"Just shut up and run"!

"Wouldn't digging be a little more accurate"!?

Lennox growled something along the lines of 'this is neither the time nor place' under his breath and leapt up a sand-coloured rock just as the sand below where he had been standing gave away, revealing the clicking, segmented outline of Scorponok.

They'd had little issue running out into the desert. Whatever upgrade Blackout had outfitted his cannons with had blasted Lennox, Epps, Figueroa and two other soldiers out into the desert, and it was by luck of their armour and the softness of the sand that they were still alive and without broken bones. One of the two soldiers had suggested heading to a nearby village to call the Pentagon using a payphone, and everyone else had agreed to the plan.

Though now a quick change had been warranted due to Scorponok's arrival.

The scorpion Mini-Con wasn't hard to evade, but his determination was surprising. Lennox could count off both hands how many sabot rounds he had fired into the Mini-Con's face, but Scorponok just shrugged off the charges the way a dog shook itself dry after getting wet. His tail clacked menacingly with every move, and his four beady eyes eyed the five men hungrily, though it was unlikely that he intended to eat anyone. Thankfully, however, he stopped chasing them partway through the last leg of the journey to the village.

Never would've pegged a Mini-Con to enjoy something like this, Lennox thought, holstering his gun and loading it. Then again, everything was new when it came to them alien robots.

Like the fact that he was now in the middle of the desert, dialling the Pentagon with a payphone while a camel stood beside him, flicking its tail peevishly.

"Yes ma'am, and the Mini-Con is after us", Lennox explained to the person on the other end of the line. "No, he hasn't reappeared, but he's tracking us. Yes, we will disable him as best as we can".

"Really ended up calling her again after the last five hours ago"? Epps asked.

"Hey, she may be temperamental, but she's faster and less likely to incur much collateral damage", Lennox assured him. "Besides, what's the worse she'll do? Strangle us"?

"There's a reason the saying 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned' exists", Figueroa added. "And its not like they change much in character, even if they're a different species".

"Look, even I'm not happy calling Sarissa during her day off, but we don't have much of a choice", Lennox replied. "Plus, Scorponok wouldn't hurt her as bad as Ironhide, Chromia or Cross"-

"Seriously? Just because of that"? Epps gave Lennox an incredulous look.

"INCOMING"! one of the two stragglers with them shouted, and before anyone could react, the familiar silver body of Scorponok literally jumped out of the sand, gears rotating as his mandibles flicked in and out and the segments on his body turned in slow circles.

A few villagers who were nearby scattered and ran to barricade themselves inside their huts, while Lennox fired a sabot round at Scorponok's face and took off running in the opposite direction. He just had to slow him down long enough for Sarissa to hand him his skidplate.

Easier said than done, he thought, as he dodged Scorponok's tail. The Mini-Con let out a bloodcurdling shriek and then tunnelled underground again.

Lennox reloaded a sabot and kept it trained at on the sand, motioning for Epps and Figueroa to do the same. They waited, waited, and waited...

Nothing.

"Did he leave"? Epps asked.

KABOOM!

"Guess not", Figueroa muttered.

Lennox sighed and aimed another sabot round at the Mini-Con. This was going to be a long day.

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