Wild Ride (Cyberverse Mech!reader X Hot Rod)

34: Trail

'Dammit! Where is he?!' I thought angrily to myself as I zipped through the skies in search of Hot Rod. 'That's the 3rd node I've checked!'

That's when I heard the shriek of a Quintesson, the sound causing my energon to run cold. I barrel rolled over to the source and spotted Hot Rod struggling with one of the Quintesson soldiers.

"You let him go! Now!" I barked as I changed forms mid air and slammed my foot into its bulbous head. The force of the impact caused it to drop Hot Rod with a crash. I then poured out all of my anger and hate for the things and thrashed it about by its tentecals until it wouldn't move anymore. "And don't you ever touch him again, you son of a glitch!"

"Y/D?" Hot Rod rasped from where he had fallen. I quickly rushed over to him and pulled him into a tight hug.

"Are you okay? Did it hurt you? Oh, Primus, don't you ever do anything like that again!"

"I'm okay, Y/D, but... how are you...?"

"Long story." I said as I gently released Hot Rod from my embrace, my hand cupping the side of his face as I checked over him. I then realized how affectionate this sort of behavior was and retracted back into my usual stoic self. "Were you able to get Optimus out of the loop?"

"No, they must have increased their hold on them." He said with a downhearted expression. "I can't get anyone out..."

"We will get them out, I promise. But let's get -" I was interrupted by another Quintesson charging down only to be shot to the side. We both looked over to see a very scared Whirl rushing towards us.

"We gotta get outta here! There's monsters everywhere!" He exclaimed.

"Whirl!" Hot Rod said with a huge smile. "You made it out of the loop!"

"Thanks to you." Whirl said with his version of a smile. "But... what now?"

"There's a safe place, come on!" Hot Rod said.

We all made it back to Macadam's, and I relaxed off to the side with half lidded and exhausted optics, Whirl noticing that I wasn't doing too hot.

"Y/D, your condition is worsening." Perceptor said.

"I'll live. I'm just tired and don't want to be bugged." I muttered. "But I sense that you've discovered something while we were away."

"Something massive, actually." Perceptor said as he displayed an entire underground network that took the shape of.

"Iaconus." I whispered as I recognized the titain.

"You know it's name?" Perceptor asked.

"Yes, but I always thought it was a rumor! Something to keep younglings out of the old tunnel networks. If this really is a titain... why wouldn't Macadam tell us?" I then looked about and noticed he was no longer here. "Where'd he go?"

"Dunno, he's been gone for a while." Dead-end said. "Wait, so if this is a titain, can't you control it?"

"Oh, Primus, no, I can barely keep a neural link open with another bot." I said. "Besides, wouldn't it need to be active in order for a City Speaker to communicate with it?"

"Correct." Perceptor said. "Unfortunately, this one is inactive."

"Then it can't help us." Hot Rod said.

"Not entirely true. The titain has a cloaking module that has been keeping us hidden from the Quintessons. If we can reach it..."

"We can replicate it and hide from them!" Hot Rod said as his face lit up with new hope.