Chapter Twenty-Four
Sidewinder
"Optimus? Please... please, wake up..."
Vector Sigma...
Optimus groaned as he came back online, and was faced with total darkness as a tight, agonising pain clutched at his central processor like a vice. He remembered what had happened immediately - the Axalon had been drawn into Unicron's mouth by the Dark Lord's power - and alarm took him at once. How long had the ship been down for? Every moment was valuable in a mission such as this one... every second they wasted was another second of fierce battle for his Autobot soldiers and the humans still on Earth.
His night vision flickered on after a few moments, and he found himself face-to-face with a very frightened-looking Alexis. The green hue that the night sensors cast over his visualisation made her face look even eerier than before, darkening the shadows under her eyes and casting her already pale skin into a gaunt, sickly light beneath the covering of her oxygen helmet.
"Alexis..." he ground out, reaching up to his head and wincing when he felt how tender it was. "What... how long have we been down here for?"
"N-not too long," the girl stammered, visibly shaking. A bluish contusion was darkening on her forehead and her shirt was torn in several places; otherwise, however, she appeared to be unharmed. "About ten minutes, I think... y-you went offline when we crashed..."
Ten minutes... not as long as he had feared, then. But there was still no time to lose.
Optimus hauled himself into a hunched sitting position in the gloom, looking down at his body armour and running a succinct self-diagnostic. Everything was still functioning well; the source of his blackout was impact trauma to the cranium, but the minor damage had already been repaired by his recovery systems in the ten minutes that he had been offline. His red-and-blue paintwork was covered in a thick layer of rock and dirt, but it was nothing that a dab of Jade's paints couldn't have corrected... if they had been returning to the planet.
He looked around the room, appalled by the damage that had been done to the Axalon's control room. The front window, which had been exceedingly large - a good fifty by fifty feet - had been completely shattered during the crash, and the remains were scattered around the crushed room, along with broken fragments of the controls.
All of Skyfire's work... gone.
"Are you injured, Alexis?" he asked the female worriedly, looking down at her again. It was a wonder that her helmet hadn't cracked and let all the oxygen out - now that they were no longer sealed within the Axalon, she would have died almost instantly. "And the All Spark - you still have it?"
She nodded quickly, indicating the necklace. "It's fine... and no, I'm n-not hurt... just my head, a bit..."
Optimus nodded and extended a hand for her, which she climbed into readily and settled herself on his palm as he slowly climbed to his feet, ducking his head to avoid it colliding with the caved-in roof of the control room. Curling his fingers around the trembling girl, he moved forward carefully and manoeuvred himself through the open space where the ship's viewing glass had once been, extending a foot and making contact with what appeared to be a fine dust of some sort on the uneven metallic ground.
Scanning the surroundings, he saw that the Axalon had crashed in what appeared to be a cavern of some sort. He found that he no longer needed his night vision; not only was the crushed wing of the spaceship still smouldering and lighting the place with a soft, orange glow, but purple and green illumination seemed to be emitting from the many tiny Cybertronian symbols etched into the craggy walls.
Just glancing at one of the hieroglyphs was enough to put him off reading the others... the ancient Cybertronian sign for death.
"Where's Unicron's spark chamber?" Alexis whispered from his hand.
"I do not know, young one," he admitted in an undertone, searching the room with his optics and spying a passageway hidden behind the Axalon's ruins. "I suppose we must venture as far as we can, and hope that fate leads us in the right direction."
Even as he spoke, Alexis let out a tiny cry of apparent surprise and her hand flew to her neckline, where her shirt was now missing a button. Looking down curiously, Optimus saw that the emerald-like jewel that hung from the chain was pulling away from the young woman's neck, straining towards the passage that he had spotted and evading her fingers when she tried to hold it back down.
"I think it wants us to go that way," she told him timidly, looking up at the opening he had seen. "Down that passage."
Optimus glanced up at the mouth of the passage again - this time with far more certainty - and made the decision in the ensuing second. If he did not act now, he knew perfectly well that he would be too busy worrying over the pros and cons of the verdict to actually go through with it once he was finished: it had always been his way, and his main weakness when planning out battles against the Decepticons on Cybertron. He knew the grave consequences of taking risks... but the end, for them, had always been inevitable.
All he could hope for was that Primus had mercy upon the brave, yet unbelievably delicate human that was holding the key to salvation in her fragile hands; that He would spare her a painful death, and let him bear the agony in her place.
"Very well," he murmured, fixing his optics on their objective and narrowing them determinedly. "We must trust in the All Spark, Alexis."
A sour look darkened her pale, freckled face and a grim smirk appeared on her thin lips as she stared at the passageway, a spark of something icy and strange in her brilliantly green eyes. "Yes," she agreed, but her tone was even colder and deader than this shadowy, twisted place that they were trapped in. "We must always trust in the All Spark."
He was uncertain as to how he could respond to her cool, impassive concurrence. So, as any logical being would do, he chose not to.
Placing her on his shoulder once again, he stepped forward onto the steep incline of the Axalon's less damaged wing, crushing a few tongues of flame into ember as he did so. The metal creaked ominously; the metallic appendage had caught on a rock projection of some sort, but Optimus highly doubted that it would take his weight for much longer. He glanced down and observed, with scarcely concealed trepidation, that if the wing did give way beneath them, he and Alexis would be subject to what appeared to be a bottomless drop through a cavernous crack in the floor.
If Alexis's skyrocketing pulse rate was anything to go by, she, too, had picked up on this unpleasant fact.
"Be careful, Optimus..." she cautioned him nervously, her breathing becoming shallow. "Earth's pretty much screwed if we fall down there..."
She had obviously recognised the reality of the situation, just as Optimus already had. One wrong step here could lead to the senseless deaths of all of his Autobot soldiers, their painfully young and helpless charges, and a horrifying number of completely innocent and unknowing human beings. It was imperative to preserve those lives, and that sentience.
Optimus Prime would not fail them now.
He had failed them in the past... but not this time. Not this time.
The wing held out creakily as he took several careful steps forward across its surface, and he managed to get to the other side of the drop without it giving way. The first step onto solid ground again made him let out a rush of air through his vents in relief, and he heard Alexis let her baited breath out near his audio receptor as her heart rate slowed a little. He peered around the passage's ragged entrance warily, observing the long, metallic projections that looked so similar to the Earth formations that humans called 'stalactites'.
The darkness was deeper down there, certainly, but the necklace was still emitting an ethereal, emerald-green light - not only that, but there were many more Cybertronian symbols glittering across the uneven walls of the tunnel, scintillating gently and lighting their way. His night vision, too, allowed him to see a little further down the passage, but not all the way to the end.
"We have to, Optimus," Alexis reminded him quietly from his shoulder, as if she had read his thoughts. "We have no choice..."
The Autobot commander sighed heavily, nodding in response to her statement. "I know, youngling... we can only hope that our path, with the All Spark, will be one that allows us to enter into Unicron's spark chamber before there are too many fruitless deaths on Earth."
He ducked slightly to avoid his cranium receiving further damage as he half-crawled through the entrance, grunting in mingled annoyance and exertion. Unicron, he was certain, was enjoying every second of seeing Optimus Prime on his knees as if to worship him...grimacing at the displeasing thought, he straightened himself when he had cleared the passageway's mouth and looked around at their surroundings guardedly, his blue optics scanning the glittering walls.
Taking a step forward, he tested the ground with a foot, unsure as to whether Unicron had any kind of movement-triggered defence mechanisms; it was, however, an experiment that led to nothing. Putting his full weight on the ground again, he began to move down the tunnel, with Alexis's shallow breathing and his heavy footfalls the only sounds in the dominating silence.
After several minutes of cautious movement, Alexis suddenly put a hand on his cranium to gain his attention. "Optimus... look..."
He glanced to his left to look at her, and saw that the necklace was tugging on her neck again, towards the far wall of the passage. Following the direction of its indication with his optics, he frowned deeply when he saw a protuberance of some sort distorting the metal - a large, out-of-place bulge that was enveloped by gnarled, knotted tendrils of some sort. Using his binocular vision, he scanned the symbols that were glowing on the vines and saw that they spelt out words of death and imprisonment, as well as warnings to all those who dared to enter Unicron.
Alexis gasped sharply when he stepped towards it, and her pulse began to rise again. "Don't, Optimus - I don't like it," she pleaded, as the All Spark continued to throb around her neck. "Let's just carry on..."
"My apologies, Alexis," he murmured, peering at the engorgement curiously. "But I feel that it would be best to know our enemy."
"We do know our enemy!" Alexis insisted, sounding as if she might be on the edge of hysterics. "He's a massive evil guy that floats around in space and eats planets, okay? We know that - we don't need to know what this thing is - what if it's a trap, Optimus? If we get caught down here, the others are dead - we're they're only chance!"
But Optimus had already seen it.
A hand. A long-fingered, armoured Cybertronian hand, extending from between the strange tentacles... as if reaching out for help.
Starscream was beyond furious. He had already lost almost an entire squadron of Mirage jet fighters from the Spanish side of his air forces in the unexpected comet shower, and now there was an enormous legion of flying drones headed in their direction. In the lead was Thundercracker - using the same alternate form as he did, the impertinent slagger - and flying at his side was Blitzwing, designed as another form of aircraft. He would recognise that loon any day, Earth form or not.
There were hundreds of them, all of which would need to be defeated. Already, the odds were against them.
Alexis...
He shook himself out of his fleeting trance, incensed with his inability to concentrate on the battle at hand. He was Starscream - the obvious Lord of the Sky! The heavens belonged to him, and they were in his territory. He had the advantage here... on the ground, he could, perhaps, be challenged, but in the sky... he was invincible!
/Good luck, Starscream!/ Skyfire called before the first jet-drone shot through the ranks, causing several Harriers from the Royal Air Force to bank wildly to avoid it destroying all of them with its superior speed.
Primus, he didn't need Skyfire's accursed well-wishing! The fool knew just as well as anyone that he was unassailable in air-to-air combat - he had been in enough aerial battles with the Autobot in the past, whether they were in training or Cybertron or against each other on Earth on the night when he stole the necklace, for him to be more than aware of his fighting ability. And he would have said as much to his old comrade... had Thundercracker not found his devious little way onto his radio channel.
/Hello, Starscream/ the other seeker's voice suddenly crackled darkly his auditory receptors, and Starscream hissed softly in anger as he watched him glide past. /Or perhaps I should call you 'traitor'.../
/Traitor?/ Starscream snorted disbelievingly, turning his conical nose towards the navy Raptor as it took down a British Tornado with a well-placed missile within two seconds of speaking. He wasn't as rusty as he had hoped he might be, then... /I may have been a traitor on Cybertron, Thundercracker, but I'm not the one flying for Unicron here./
Thundercracker laughed. /Unicron isn't all that bad, 'Screamer. If you can't beat 'em... join 'em./
/Yes/ he agreed bitterly, rage steaming beneath the surface of his sleek form as he gave chase, dodging past several friendly jets and keeping on Thundercracker's tail almost effortlessly as the other Raptor soared across the sky. /I'm sure that's your sentiment exactly, you wretched slagger. You only flew with me on Cybertron so that you could get your filthy servos on my position as Air Commander... and I suppose Unicron gave you exactly what you wanted, didn't he? Or was he stupid enough to put Blitzwing in charge of the drones?/
/Come on... no one's that stupid./
As if to prove his point, the plane that was Blitzwing suddenly shot past on Starscream's left side, cackling manically as if he had just seen the most comical thing in the universe. From that little display of lunacy, he gathered that the triple changer was in the grip of his more excitable personality.
The aircraft he was disguised as, according to Starscream's rapid scan of the World Wide Web, was out of service in most air forces and far inferior to the Raptor model that he favoured, but it was still a very high-speed and well-armed plane - and, with added Cybertronian technology, nothing to be taken lightly by the human flyers. He could only be thankful that he was more animated than angry at this moment, and vaguely sent an undoubtedly wasted appeal to Primus that it would remain that way.
"Hello, Skyfire!" the psychotic jet shrieked elatedly, his voice carrying a heavy accent. "Vat a long time it has been zince I last saw you!"
/See?/ Thundercracker snorted as Skyfire hastened, understandably, to get the slag out of his way. /You think an evil genius like Unicron doesn't know His soldiers well enough to know that Blitzwing couldn't lead androids to a picnic - let alone His drones to victory?/
For a moment, Starscream could remember what it was like back on Cybertron. Flying without restraint across the star-struck sky of their home world with Skywarp and Thundercracker... the matchless Seekers of Cybertron, feared by every Autobot in Iacon. Apart from Skyfire, they had been the closest things he had ever had to having... friends.
But both of them had failed him.
/True/ he spat back to the blue jet's remark. /But he must be equally idiotic to think that a fool like you can defeat me./
/See, there's your problem/ was the smug response, just as Starscream was forced into a dive to avoid a team of drones that were shooting at him as he pursued their leader./You've always been an egotistical glitchead, Starscream... and today, arrogance could kill you. Remember that I have Unicron's power within me - it might just save your miserable aft./
/You truly think to take on your obvious better in my territory?/ he snarled, riled.
Thundercracker snickered, performing a lazy barrel roll and casually taking down an American jet as he did so. /The sky isn't your real passion now though, is it?/ he sniggered. /Unicron tells me that you've been so disgusting as to join sparks with a human... could you sink any lower, or do you want me to give you a servo and blast you out of the sky?/
/SHUT UP!/
The antagonism that had been boiling within him exploded like an atomic bomb when he bellowed his irate reply at Thundercracker, rage pumping through his fuel lines as he let out a scream of anger into the sky. Sonic waves pulsed through the air, tipping the balance of several drones as they flew past, and his entire form seemed to fill to the brim with a hot, furious agitation as he gunned his engines threateningly, propelling himself towards the rival jet and letting loose with his Vulcan cannon, not caring who or what he hit - as long as Thundercracker got a taste of his wrath.
Thundercracker was obviously surprised by his sudden, frenzied attack - it took him longer than it might have done to move out of his way, and his next sarcastic remark was edged with unease. /Primus, 'Screamer, what's the matter with you?/ he laughed as Starscream spun around in midair for a second attack, bullets clattering from the mouth of his cannon. /It's not like a meatbag could mean anything to -/
Starscream screeched with vitriol, barrelling back towards him with wrath fuelling his movement. /Frag you, you son-of-a-glitch!/ he roared, and he heard Thundercracker snarl when his bullets made contact with the other flyer's armour. /I will KILL you for that slight on my mate!/
/You pathetic slagger!/ Thundercracker taunted disgustedly, ducking the missile he sent easily. /Where's your fleshy bitch now, Starscream? She can't love you that much if she's left you alone - or is she down on the ground with all the other little insects and pieces of insignificant Autoscum that dare to challenge the might of Unicron?/
/No, you piece of scum/ Starscream sneered. /She's in the depths of your master with what remains of the All Spark - and today, she will destroy him!/
There was a pause, and Thundercracker seemed to slow down a little in the chase. /What?/ he snapped.
Smirking internally as his rage began to cool a little, Starscream caught up easily and flew alongside the navy Raptor as if they were wingmates again. /You heard me/ he said softly, his voice low and sinister. /My mate is the carrier of the last pieces of the All Spark, and she has gone with Prime to join it with the Matrix and annihilate your precious Unicron. You ought to show a little more respect for one who wields such an implausible power, Thundercracker... and I don't think 'meat bag' is quite the term./
Thundercracker hissed. /You liar./
/Oh no, Thundercracker... no lies./ He shifted to the left sharply, the tip of his wing making contact with Thundercracker's with a rattling clang and inciting a growl of annoyance from the other jet. /Her name is Alexis. You would do well to remember it./
There was a long pause as the two Raptors shot across the sky, their wings barely touching, and Starscream allowed himself a victorious moment of private triumph as he realised how astonished Thundercracker must be by the revelation that his mate - a mate that all of the Decepticons had claimed would never come to him - was to destroy Unicron. His mate... his Alexis...
Finally, Thundercracker grunted his response. /Not to worry, 'Screamer. I will./ But he could hear the malice in his old comrade's voice when he hissed out his next, barely audible threat. /But I'll send you down in flames before she can come back again./
Starscream faltered.
As Thundercracker's words sunk into his central processing unit, he was reminded, for the thousandth time, of what could have been. What might have been... had things been different. He could have left this life of war and hatred behind him; he could have stolen Alexis and fled to another planet. Away from Unicron... away from the Autobots, the Decepticons, and all that stood between... he could have found a world with breathable air for her, and they could have made it their own.
But being with the Autobots had changed him. He despised admitting it, but it was the candid and inescapable truth. Being part of them... with them... one of them may not have changed his personality to a great extent, but it had certainly changed his spark. He was seeing things the way they saw things - the way he had never seen before. Understanding their morals - morals he had never understood before.
He was... an Autobot.
Autobots had a sense of honour; they were sworn by the Matrix itself to protect life, and to cleanse the universe of all its evil... evil embodied in beings like Thundercracker. Autobots knew justice. Autobots did not give ground.
And Autobots did not surrender.
/Of course she won't be coming back again/ he muttered, ignoring a drone as it missed him by a hair's breadth. /But nor will Unicron./
/Don't bet all your high-grade on that one, Starscream/ Thundercracker sneered, dipping low and snagging the wing of a Harrier as he went - the inferior, Earth-made metal gave way at once before the advanced Cybertronian potency of the other flyer, and it lost its balance immediately when the flimsy material bent and ignited. /Unicron is eternal. The Alpha and the Omega; the beginning and the end./
A cruel, dark snigger rolled from Starscream's vocal processors before he could stop it, and he found himself smirking on the inside as he responded. /Perhaps/ he confessed quietly. /But your end, Thundercracker, is NOW!/
And he did not waste another second before he launched his attack.
"Kill human femme! KILL HUMAN FEMME!"
Mikaela barely managed a gasp of shock before she was forced throw herself to one side, the scissor-like blades of the drone's extraterrestrial weapon singing over her head with a flurry of hot, rushing air. The things just didn't seem to die - the city-scale fight had been raging for ten minutes at least, and she hadn't even managed to bring one drone down. Ironhide and the Autobots didn't seem to be having quite as much trouble, but they had still been overwhelmed when she had last spied them among the viciously battling drones, soldiers, and out-of-place teenagers.
Hitting the ground with a force that was sure to severely bruise the shoulder she had landed on, she rolled to the left without stopping and the multi-bladed appendage crashed into the sidewalk, instead of her skull, with a deafening clatter. It hurt her ears so badly that they rung, but she would rather come out of this completely deaf than stone dead.
She scrambled to her feet, with half a mind to reach for her sword and the other for her borrowed revolver. Neither would do much good; she was crap with the gun, but even crapper with the sword.
Seriously, the brunette managed to despair through her panic. What was Bumblebee thinking?
The gleaming revolver was out before she was even consciously aware of making the decision to arm herself with it; she clutched it tightly in her sweating hands as the drone tore its weird thing from the concrete and spun around to face her with a shriek of rage, its optics tiny slits of hatred as it took a threatening step in her direction.
"Die," it commanded her hoarsely, baring a mouthful of jagged teeth. "Kill human femme..."
She suddenly realised why this whole situation was freaking her out so much. Okay, so she was an average, run-of-the-mill jock concubine stuck in the middle of an alien war - enough to freak any sane person out, for sure - but what was really giving her the creeps was that she had heard those exact words before, back at the 'Battle of the Base', as they had all dubbed their fight with Thrust three years beforehand. The fight that now seemed like a skirmish compared to this nightmare.
Kill human femme... kill human femme...
To hell with that! She had killed one of the drones back then - there was no reason why she couldn't take down a few of these suckers now. Mikaela Banes was Ratchet's fighter to the bitter end - and she wasn't going down without one ugly bitch of a fight.
"Come and get me then, big boy!" she beckoned the six-foot machine boldly, glaring at it. "Show me what'cha got!"
It let out a weird, booming flurry of sounds in response - probably some scandalous Cybertronian insult, she thought darkly - before the mismatched hunk of metal and gears came running towards her with unexpected speed, knives spinning out from its weapon. Standing her ground, Mikaela set her jaw and concentrated, narrowing her eyes as she aimed for the weak armour under its chest.
She ducked when she left the shot too late; the drone charged past her, having built up too much momentum to stop dead when it realised it had missed her. Taking advantage of its physical handicap - the one thing she might be able to use to her advantage against it - she cocked the hammer and raised the gun again, keeping her eyes on her enemy as it came to a skidding halt, knocking one of its fellow drones over and saving a young soldier from being crushed as it did so.
The cylinder on the gun revolved to align the round with the barrel as the leant forward, preparing itself to charge as if it were a bull. Mikaela clenched her jaw determinedly, holding it up with both hands and hooking her index finger over the trigger.
As it launched itself forward again, she realised, with a mild sense of dread, that she was going to have to get really close to the drone for the bullet to penetrate its protective shell. Sure, this revolver was pretty badass for a human weapon, but there was no way it was going to cut it with Cybertronian body armour. She was going to have to put herself within range of its weapons to kill it.
She swallowed, her grimy hands suddenly trembling around the firearm.
And then Sam's timid, yet unwavering voice came to her from the back of her mind, and from four years beforehand. It floated from her memories like a butterfly, bringing her some comfort in the heat of this danger and fear.
No sacrifice... no victory.
He was right.
With a scream of battle fury to rival any Cybertronian's, Mikaela lunged forward unpredictably, throwing herself onto a head-to-head collision course with the incoming threat. Lifting the revolver as they drew closer and closer together, she squeezed the trigger hard - and again, and again, putting round after round into the robot's chest until the gun's chamber let out a resounding click.
It was at that point that she jumped.
Flinging her body into the air with a grace achieved from eight years of daily cheerleading practice, she leapt out of the drone's path like a ballet dancer - but not before a blade sung out of nowhere and slashed her across the hip, cutting through her clothes and into soft, vulnerable skin.
The subsequent pain was bad enough to make her landing go awry, but not enough to make her cry out. She slammed into the sidewalk again with considerable force on her uninjured side, very nearly cracking her chin on the ground, and drew in a sharp hiss of pain through her gritted teeth as the revolver clattered from her hand, emptied of bullets.
There was a deafening crash from behind her and she craned her neck over her shoulder to see what had happened. The drone was sprawled across the ground, its optics dead and colourless.
Yes!
It was a small victory, admittedly, but a victory nonetheless.
Panting as she grinned weakly to herself, she glanced down the length of her slender body to see what damage had been done to her side. Her jacket was torn from the waist to the hem, as was the tank top beneath it; a thin, shallow gash could be seen running diagonally across her hip, but it was nothing that Ratchet couldn't deal with once the fight was over. If anything, all she risked was getting a little grit in it - there was no way that she was going to bleed to death, when it was hardly bleeding anyway.
Reaching somewhat painfully for the fallen revolver, she shifted her weight off of her sword side and dragged herself upright with a groan, blinking sweat out of her eyes. Her wounded side stung slightly, but it was nothing unbearable.
"Oh my God - Mikaela!"
The voice that stood out from the raucous background clamour of screaming, screeching and shouting was one that she recognised immediately from its thick British accent, and she sighed with relief when Rose's face appeared in front of her, looking whiter than a sheet and incredibly worried. The redhead's tone and expression were full of anxiety, and she peered at Mikaela with obvious concern.
"Are you okay?" she demanded, looking quite frantic. "What happened to your hip?"
"It's nothing," Mikaela brushed her off hastily, allowing the taller girl to give her a hand in getting up back to her feet. "I just got in the way of Edward Scissorhands's evil twin - it doesn't hurt that much. Are you okay?"
She could see that Rose chosen to use her double swords more than her pistol - the gun was still neatly in its case, strapped to her thigh, whereas the twin weapons were clutched tightly in her hands as if they were welded to her palms. "Oh, I'm alright," she assured her, offering a quick smile as some form of evidence. "I think the Autobots are struggling, though..."
Whipping around with her heart thumping in dread at Rose's tidings, Mikaela's blue-green eyes searched the warring hordes, wishing she could have a bird's eye view of Mission City. Although they were in the central part of the conurbation, she was aware that the fight was happening all across the city - in the back streets, the side streets, the main streets, the park, and in the sky - and that not all of the Autobots would be within her visual range. Mainly, however, she was searching out Ratchet and Bumblebee.
After a moment, she turned back to Rose and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Rose, where are Ratch' and 'Bee?"
"I - I don't know," Rose fretted, her own eyes roving across the plaza and the surrounding streets, which were strewn with drones and soldiers in the throes of battle. "I saw Bumblebee earlier, with Sunstreaker - they were fighting a big group of drones - and Ironhide was with Lennox near the park, but I haven't seen Ratchet since the beginning -"
Mikaela's eyes widened, dread clutching at her chest. "Then we've got to -"
"TAKE COVER!" a soldier suddenly bellowed from the other side of the street, interrupting her worry for her guardian.
BOOM.
The sidewalk shook beneath Mikaela's feet and she clutched Rose's arm in shock, letting out a cry of surprise as a powerful vibration rocked the ground with all the jarring strength of a major earthquake. Rubble flew from every angle as a fireball streaked into her field of vision, bits of rock catching her across the forehead - she knew that more would have bruised her face had Rose not pulled her into a painful crouch behind an abandoned GMC Envoy, putting them both out of harm's way as the tremors slowly subsided.
Gasping for air, Mikaela glanced up at her friend and grinned. "Ratchet would be proud of you, hon."
Rose managed a breathy laugh in return, one fist clenched over her heart as well as her sword's hilt. "I'm sure he would..." she panted, looking somewhat shell-shocked in spite of her smile. "I haven't poked myself in the eye with my sword yet, either..."
"What, you thought you would?"
"You don't know me like I do, love."
There was no time to drop any more subtle matchmaking hints, much as Mikaela would usually have revelled in mentioning Ratchet at every possible opportunity. She guessed she could work on her little project - getting Ratchet with Rose - once the battle was over. For the moment, however, she would have to give her full concentration to surviving the day. And finding Ratchet, so that she would have the ability to get him with Rose...
God... I hope he's okay.
Her second-long amusement waned very quickly when she saw Rose's horror-struck expression. The British girl had peered around the side of the SUV, presumably to see what had caused the explosion, and had just drawn back with a sharp gasp, pressing her back against the passenger door. "It's a Decepticon," she fretted in a whisper, as if it could hear her over the general commotion that surrounded them. "I can't see it clearly... but it's bigger than the drones. It must be..."
Grimacing at the thought of a Decepticon as well as all the drones - considering it had taken her such a long time to kill one of Unicron's minions - Mikaela crawled around the vehicle to look around the back end. "Hold on a sec... I'll see..."
Keeping as low as she could, the brunette got down on her stomach and commando-crawled past the rear bumper, narrowing her eyes against the dust that was beginning to drift through the air in the aftermath of the explosion. Soldiers were running past, away from the impact zone - one almost booted her in the head unknowingly as he raced past with his figurative tail between his legs - and it took her a little while before her eyes could make out a huge, dark silhouette against the charcoal smoke that was spewing from the crash site.
She recognised the horns at once.
Sideways.
A stab of alarm hit her harder than she had expected as she remembered, with a shiver, the way that Sideways had looked at her when she had shot out his optic with her sniper rifle at the base battle. All that hatred... as if he had truly wanted nothing but to watch her die... useless organic that she was, she supposed he would still like to watch her die, and a pretty gruesome death at that.
"Mikaela!" Rose's voice hissed insistently from behind her. "Who is it?"
Breathing in through her nose to control her suddenly quivering inhalations, Mikaela shifted backward and crouched behind the Envoy again, pressing her upper back against its comforting bulk and closing her eyes. "Sideways," she murmured, not looking at Rose for fear of seeing her expression. "We figure he's Unicron's right hand 'bot."
She heard Rose's breath catch. "Unicron's... oh, my God..."
A vibration passed through the ground.
"Shh..." Mikaela whispered, her mouth drying in an instant as her eyes snapped open. "I think I heard him moving..."
A tiny, petrified squeak was heard from her left, and she brought herself to glance at Rose out of the corner of her eye. There was no trace whatsoever of the rosy flush that had once filled her cheeks and made her name seem so appropriate; nothing left of the young woman that had squared up to Alexis back at the base, and refused to back down when Starscream had expressed such contempt for her. All Mikaela could see on Rose's face was what she felt like on the inside - a frightened, trembling teenager whose courage had evaporated.
At least someone else felt the same way that she did.
A heavy boom sounded from behind the Envoy they were crouching behind, making Mikaela's legs quake as vibrations passed up through her feet. Another followed it, and she bit her lip to stop herself from whimpering.
They had three major choices here. Firstly, they could run for it - just get up and sprint for the nearest building, and hope that the Decepticon missed when he shot at them, which he would; secondly they could sit here and await rescue, which, from the looks of how the Autobots were doing, was very unlikely to come; and then there was the third choice. To sneak away like the cowering fleshlings they were - crawl towards the pawnbroker's, which she was within a few metres of the sidewalk, and try and get in without attracting his attention.
Screw it, she thought angrily, holstering her revolver and wincing when she heard Sideways take another stride. We might be squishy cowards... but at least we'll be living squishy cowards.
"Rose." Her voice was hushed as Sideways came closer, and Rose glanced at her agitatedly. "C'mon..."
But her plan - as usual - went straight to hell.
She found herself screaming immediately when the enormous vehicle they had been sheltering behind was picked up and hurled away, as if it were nothing more than a child's plaything - it smashed into a building on the other side of the street with a crash that shook the ground, bursting into flames as it did so. Completely thrown by the sudden exposure and so terrified that she could no longer breathe, Mikaela grabbed a handful of Rose's clothes and yanked her aggressively into a full-out sprint, throwing herself and her companion away from the looming shadow of Sideways.
"RUN, ROSE!" she shouted frantically, not daring to look back. Rose kept pace easily with her extensive legs, though she remained a split second in the rear as a deep, threatening snarl rumbled from behind them. "Oh, God -!"
A squeal of brakes suddenly pierced her eardrum like a knife; she grabbed Rose on impulse and stopped in spite of herself, gasping.
However loudly her mind was screaming at her to run for it, she couldn't suppress her body's basic reflexes when it came to the sound of a car coming. From the day she had learnt to toddle, her parents had taught her road safety - whose parents hadn't? - and when she heard a vehicle approaching, her legs would damn well stop moving. It was what they had been taught to do.
When she saw the blur of neon yellow, however, she snapped back to reality with a delighted grin, relaxing her grip on Rose's arm and almost choking on the unspoken words of gratitude when she saw who had come to save them.
Ratchet.
The massive Search and Rescue Hummer skidded to a halt on their left, angling himself in front of them protectively with his sirens wailing and his blinding searchlights burning a pathway through the haze of ash and dust that was thickening in the air. Rose coughed out what sounded like a sob of relief as Mikaela held onto her arm instinctively, clutching so tightly that her knuckles turned white under the pressure. Yet still, she found that she was smiling - she'd known that Ratchet would come and get them! He'd never leave anyone behind - least of all his charge and his spark partner - and today was no exception.
Looking up, her loyalty to her guardian swelled like an ocean wave when saw that Sideways had taken a number of steps back, growling in a low tone and giving the emergency vehicle a very wide berth. Ratchet gunned his engine deafeningly in response, his headlights flashing several times - an obvious warning to the Decepticon to keep away.
"Rose - Mikaela - GO!" his voice commanded them from inside, sounding angrier than Mikaela had ever heard him before. "NOW!"
Reacting at once to his insistent, angry order, Mikaela nodded and turned on her heel, hauling Rose after her like a rag doll and keeping a firm hold on her bony wrist. "You heard him - go!" she yelled at the other girl, even as Ratchet began to transform into his bipedal mode.
She almost stopped in her tracks when she caught sight of the appalled look on Rose's pale, dirt-streaked countenance: her ocean blue eyes were as round as dollar coins, and she looked as if someone had just told her that a nuclear bomb was about to hit the city and obliterate them all. The deafening noises in the air from the battling jets were hardly helping matters, Mikaela had to admit, but they had no time to lose - Ratchet would need to concentrate as he fought Sideways, not worry about crushing them in the process.
"Wait - Mikaela - we can't just leave him!" Rose protested nonetheless, pulling back against Mikaela's insistent grip as if they were playing tug-of-war with her arm. "There must be something we can -"
"We have to!" Mikaela called back, putting all her remaining strength into dragging the headstrong Brit away from the two of them. "Come on!"
Rose shook her head, looking close to tears. "But -"
Sudden frustration welled up before Mikaela could think about keeping it in check - she seized Rose by the shoulders, giving her an angry shake as she glared right into her wide, confused eyes. What wasn't getting through to this girl? "Listen!" she shouted up in the stubborn girl's face, grasping her shoulders tight enough to hurt her and digging her nails in to get the point through Rose's skull. "He can't worry about us, okay? He says run - we damn well run!"
"I don't want to - to leave him -" Rose objected desperately, but she was clearly weakening in the face of Mikaela's rage. "What if he -"
"He WON'T!" the incensed brunette insisted vehemently, her stomach twisting in fear when she saw Sideways lunge at Ratchet, both of them letting out thunderous Cybertronian battle cries as they slammed into each other with enough force to make the ground shake again. "PLEASE, Rose! He'll be fine - but we need to get out of here, NOW!"
For a moment, Rose looked torn.
Mikaela stared at her... willing her to believe that this was the right thing to do.
"Trust me," she implored, tears springing up in her eyes. "Please."
The two of them locked eyes - and finally, mercifully, she saw something change in Rose's distressed expression. The redhead nodded, swallowing her tears, and Mikaela grabbed her arm again, pulling her away.