These Paths We Tread (Autobot x OC)

LXVI. The Day the World Went Away Part II

“Is that… is that good?” the soldier asked, straining to get a look at the mech. When the redhead didn’t answer he chuckled weakly again, “Well shit.”

Catherine’s fingers tightened around his sleeve after a moment, “Sunstreaker!”

The mech paused briefly to glance over at her before going back to his work. She closed her eyes to breathe in and out deeply, already sure of where this was going. She just wished he wouldn’t be so insufferable—especially not right now of all times! It was bad enough they were injured, but they were in their sorry state in enemy territory without knowing the way out. It was not the time to play asshole of the century!

“Sunstreaker!” she shouted this time, and he paused again to spare her a glare before going back to work. “God dammit Sunstreaker! Please, for just this once listen! We need your help!”

The golden-armored mech paused a third time, but didn’t look at her. Rather, he seemed to slouch and frowned in annoyance. She was fairly certain it wasn’t from her own words--- he had no doubt started ignoring her before her second plea, so it had to be something else. She sincerely hoped it was one of the others—preferably Sideswipe. Perhaps Prime, too; together they could at least get the mech to help them. Thankfully, it seemed whoever had spoken had gotten through, as the mech stopped his pillaging at the rubble and fully turned his optics to her. Grimacing, he leaned over.

"Fine. If only to get him to stop asking about you. What do you need?” he inquired with exasperation.

She let herself relax some, “First, I need you to help get this guy out. He’s caught under debris.”

With a snort Sunstreaker reached over and tossed the rock aside without much effort or care that the man cringed when it briefly pressed on his legs. Still, the soldier was now free and Catherine helped him to his feet slowly and carefully. He couldn’t bear to put any weight on his bad leg—not to mention it was bloodied and looked almost ready to break—so she let him lean on her good arm. When he was settled she looked back to the golden mech.

“Now we need to get out as fast as possible. Do you have a copy of the map Prime made?”

Again he snorted, “Yeah, I got it.”

“Well, let’s see it so we can figure out where to go,” she spoke, frowning at his reluctance. Was he really going to act like an ass right now because he didn’t like her!?

“Fine,” he grumbled and, pressing just above of left helmet “fin”, a light blue holographic projection of the map appeared before them. It was still incomplete, but part of it was growing, she noticed, and knew it had to be from Prime’s end as they, too, tried to find their way out. She didn’t blame them for moving on—there was no way either of them was getting through the rubble, and the others no doubt had Decepticons on their tail. They would be on their own, which was not a promising situation, but they would make do. It was possible the enemy thought they were dead, too, which would help them out a lot.

“Okay. Um,” she started, eyes trailing over the paths until she found them. “Crap, it doesn’t look like this tunnel gets to the surface… We’ll have to keep going. Okay. Um… Sunstreaker, keep the map active while we walk, and let’s see if we can’t get out. You good to move, soldier?”

“Yes, ma’am. Sorry about having to lean on you, by the way,” he replied, but she shook her head.

“It’s fine. You’re my teammate—we’re supposed to help each other out. Now, c’mon. Let’s try this. And, uh, Sunstreaker—hey! Sunstreaker! Wait!” she shouted when the golden-armored mech suddenly took off, leaving them in the dark again. She cursed silently and started to try and race after, but the man stumbled as he tried to limp. She stopped to help him back up, and then went more slowly until he finally got the hang of it and kept up with her at a decent pace. They only managed to catch up with the golden-armored mech because he paused at a cross-junction of tunnels. He was frowning, unsure of where to go. He even began to speak lowly in Cybertronian and made angered gestures with his hands.