Daniel shivered with exhaustion as Hot Rod carried him to yet another strong point. It had been late afternoon of a busy day when the shuttle came down, and there'd been no stopping, no rest since. Devastator had finally taken out the gun tower with a thrown slab of armored wall, and the Autobots were on the run, retreating and fighting, retreating and fighting. Hot Rod carried the boy everywhere, cradled in his arms, shielding Daniel with his armored body. Though still half-deaf from Blitzwing's shelling of the gun tower, Daniel twitched at every explosive blast, every snap of laser fire, every clash of metal on metal.
During one lull in combat, as Springer took control of yet another gun turret, Daniel spoke hesitantly to Hot Rod. "Hot Rod-- please, is Wheeljack--can he be fixed? And Windcharger, what about him? They looked so--broken. But Dad's told me about him and Grandpa and Ratchet fixing Bumblebee and the others when they were totally ruined and he had no hope but..."
Hot Rod slowly shook his head. "This is different," he said--
"No! Please, it can't be!" Tears of grief and exhaustion ran down Daniel's face. "Wheeljack showed me his newest project yesterday--it was so cool--he can't be dead! He just can't! An' he took me fishing the day school got out, like you did today, and Windcharger, I took him mountain-climbing last week, and..." The boy looked at Arcee. "Please tell him he's wrong! They can't be really dead, someone can fix them, right?"
Arcee looked at young Daniel, cradled in Hot Rod's protecting arms. Her expressive face showed only sadness. "Daniel... there's a lot of things about us that can be fixed, but there's one kind of damage that can't. There's a piece of us--the lasercore--that holds whatever it is that makes us more than just smart drones that can talk." She hesitated for a long moment. "I have basic medical sensors--there was no life force in them. Windcharger's lasercore was definitely destroyed, and I'm pretty sure Wheeljack's was as well."
Daniel turned his face to Hot Rod's hood and sobbed, tears running down his face and onto the Transformer's brightly painted metal skin like drops of rain.
Aw, Daniel! This is the part of dyin' that really hurts! An' the poor kid don't even know about us, yet.
He will. Once the fighting is over, they'll search the shuttle, trying to figure out what happened.
Aw, Prowl! Ya had to go and remind me of that! Going to be enough grief for everyone--
I know, Ironhide. I know.
You're thinking of Jazz, aren't you?
Yes.
Hey guys, what's with the sad thoughts over there? Someone die?
Just us, Windcharger.
A shifting of presences from there to here.
Poor kid! It's me and Wheeljack he's hurtin' over, isn't it? Got to be some way to let him know it's okay, we're okay...
First, we make sure he survives the night. Going to need your help with that. Second... Windcharger, we're not 'okay' from his point of view.
We might be if someone just told him! I know I'm fine, and Daniel would know it too if I told him myself!
Let's just make sure he survives, first.
# # #
"Slag!" Hot Rod stopped short at the collapsed corridor in front of them. "This area's been blasted out. We'll have to go around, and over the top for a short stretch."
Kup looked at him worriedly. "There's at least four Seekers and the triple-changers flyin' around out there, youngster. I don't fancy our chances out in the open."
Springer, bringing up the rear guard, looked back over his shoulder. "Don't take too long to make up your mind. Someone's bombing that long stretch of corridor we just used, so we ain't going back that way."
Arcee looked around. "Over there," she pointed at an overhead hatch. "There's an access hatch. We can get up top from here..."
"...and hope we don't get gunned down like fish in a barrel out in the open, and that Metroplex recognizes us and lets us in at the next tower," said Kup.
"Or we can wait for the bombers to get here and have no chance at all," said Springer. "What's it going to be, Hot Rod?"
Hot Rod handed Daniel to Kup, seized the valve on the maintenance hatch and cranked it open. "Up and out, as soon as it's clear!"
A trio of Seekers--Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp--buzzed by overhead, making another bombing run on the long access corridor. Hot Rod flipped the hatch open as soon as they passed. "Before they come back, we've got to get to that gun tower. Transform and roll out!"
Hot Rod burned rubber across the roof, followed closely by Arcee and Kup. Springer transformed into a helicopter and followed closely behind, keeping an eye out for the returning Seekers.
"Almost there!" Hot Rod yelled in encouragement--then they heard the scream of jet engines and the roar of a car at full throttle. Daniel bit his lower lip hard, trying not to scream.
A familiar black and white police car screeched tires and bounced across the roof, hurtling under Springer, inches below his landing skids--
The Seeker trio zoomed across the roofs at an angle to their own path, in hot pursuit of Prowl, lasers blazing but missing the car as it swerved and dodged across the roof at insane speeds--
Starscream noticed the other vehicles, tried to bank too sharply, lost control and slammed sideways into a disabled gun tower. He collapsed to the ground, stunned. The other Seekers flashed on by, still in pursuit of the black and white Autobot.
Hot Rod made it to the access hatch and transformed. It wouldn't open. His heart sank; if they had to blast their way in, there would be more than enough time for the Seekers to return and cut them down. And where were the triple-changers? They had to be flying around out there somewhere.
# # #
Astrotrain and Blitzwing were indeed flying about somewhere--high, lazy circles above the city where they could observe the battle, and jump in where needed. The big purple shuttle and the smaller purple jet flew nearly wingtip-to-wingtip.
"That Bot sure is calling attention to himself, isn't he?" noted Blitzwing. "For some reason, I just don't feel the need to dive down there and join in the shooting."
"Please tell me that's Bluestreak making an idiot of Starscream and company," Astrotrain said to Blitzwing.
"You mean the guy you yourself shot off a rooftop about five hours ago? I'd like to tell you that, but Bluestreak doesn't have red lights and a siren. But if it makes you feel any better, just about anyone can make an idiot of Starscream."
"You're not helping!"
"You have to admit, only Starscream could not notice that he's chasing a guy that he killed not twelve hours ago."
# # #
Uh-oh.
'Charger?
That hatch they're running for is jammed--looks like the controls took a stray shot a while back. My magnetics aren't budging it, either, Brawn.
Step aside. Ain't nothing like plain old brute force for this!
Huffer took in the situation. Brawn. Brawn! BRAWN! PUSH! Not pull!
# # #
The hatch suddenly gave outwards under Hot Rod's last desperate tug. "Everyone in!"
The Autobots leaped down the hatch as fast as the last one cleared the ladder; Springer came in last, slammed it down and dogged it shut.
Kup, still holding Daniel, looked up at Springer, surprised. "You're closing it manually?"
"Yeah, remote controls are burnt out."
"Then how'd it open in the first place?" Kup looked at Hot Rod. "Was it just stuck?"
Hot Rod shook his head, but hesitantly. "It felt like it was dogged down and locked... but it must have been just stuck, or it wouldn't have opened like that."
"Yep, must have been," said Kup.
Unseen and unheard, Brawn grinned and slapped Windcharger's raised hand with a high five. Windcharger grinned back. Huffer just shook his head at both of them.
"What I want to know is who was that who about took my skids off back there?" Springer asked. "Looked like either Bluestreak or Prowl..."
Arcee looked at him oddly. "Bluestreak was taken to the repair bay a few hours ago, very badly wounded."
Hot Rod also gave Springer a peculiar look. "Prowl... was supposed to come in on that shuttle. Maybe he... made it after all."
"It was Prowl." Daniel spoke up, glad to have some thing to say or do besides hold on and be afraid. "I saw him--got a good look at him."
"Well, I haven't been able to raise him on the command frequency," Hot Rod said. "Maybe his radio is out."
"Yep, that must be it," said Kup.
# # #
"Hey, Screamer, watch out for that tower! It's tricky, it might sneak up on ya!" Thundercracker laughed as they circled back around to where Starscream was just getting to his feet. Starscream wobbled slightly, his balance thrown off by the missing segment of the one foot.
Starscream scowled at Thundercracker and Skywarp as they transformed and landed. "I didn't notice you two idiots doing anything about that bunch of Autobots caught in the open! In case you've forgotten what we're doing here, we're supposed to kill them, not play tag with them!" He ran a few steps, jumped into the air, transformed, and flew off.
Skywarp looked at Thundercracker, who looked back at him in turn. "Was it just me," Thundercracker finally asked, "or was that Bot really hard to hit? I mean, he was dodging at high speed, but still..."
Skywarp laughed. "Nah, you just can't shoot!"
"Yeah? So what's your excuse?"
Skywarp shrugged. "Dumb luck on the Bot's part. Come on, let's go find some more targets!" The purple and black Seeker transformed and launched himself into the sky; Thundercracker followed.
Something still bothered him. "Who were we chasing, anyway?" Thundercracker asked his partner over their private comm channel.
"Well, it sure the slag wasn't Prowl! Probably that sniper Bluestreak, or maybe they've got someone new in from Cybertron," Skywarp sounded annoyed by the question. "Does it matter? He had an Autobot sigil, he's a target."
"No, it's just that..." Thundercracker trailed off. How do you tell your partner that you're seeing people who can't be there?
"Just what?" Skywarp said impatiently.
"Nothing, never mind. You're right, it was probably Bluestreak." It had to have been, Thundercracker told himself. The other possibilities were much too unsettling for a warrior who depended on speed, skill and luck to keep him alive through each battle. If he'd really seen Pr--someone who shouldn't be there, then either his perception subprocessor was glitching--which could kill him right there in a furball--or he was seeing the dead.
An icy chill ran along Thundercracker's circuits. That only happened, he'd heard, when you were soon to join them.
Yeah, it must have been Bluestreak.