The
long awaited Chapter Seven!
Chapter VIII
Fireup and Sprokit stood in a dark hallway, the ominous glow from the Hanger's Dark Energon was seeping through the air duct, almost spoiling the air around them. They figured that they were safe, but when they saw the two undead approaching them from both sides of the hallway, they knew they were in trouble.
"Sprokiiiit...?" Fireup said as he backed away from one of the Undead.
"I know! I'm thinking of something!" Sprokit said, now back-to-back with Fireup.
The two undead were hobbling toward them, they glowed brightly through puncture wounds on their chests and sides. They opened their mouths and a groan came out, it was almost as if it was speech...!
"...
ussss..." One sounded like it said, but the mouthpiece did not move to accomidate the words.
"Think faster!" Fireup aimed his rifle and brandished it, unwilling to fire as their armor seemed way too strong to use bullets on.
Sprokit thought he heard something from the walls suddenly. It was a bang. The walls pounded out, as if something was trying to get out from a cage. All the while, the Undead were on their approach, going slowly due to their armor being so heavy.
With a final bang, the wall opened up to reveal...!
"
Nuts and Bolts!?" Fireup yelled out in frusteration as he tryed his best to stay away from the Undead.
"Hang on," Sprokit said as he squinted to get a better look, "What else was in the cargo hold? Any... Animals?"
"Yeah." Fireup said.
"Any from
Cybertron?" Sprokit said as he whacked the butt of his gun on the larger of the two Undead.
The Undead staggered, put off balance due to the blow to it's temple.
"Are you asking me what I think you're asking me?"
"Yup."
Fireup smiled as he ran up to the undead and Bicycle-kicked him as he sped between it's legs. The Undead grunted as it tried it's best to reorient itself with Fireup. Before the Undead could turn around, Fireup kicked it in the back of the head, sending it tumbling toward it's partner and the Nuts and Bolts. The smaller one of the two knocked into it's partner sending them both into the pile of Nuts and Bolts.
What once was mere useless trinkets suddenly whirred into activity and small robots stood where Nuts and Bolts once was. The duo knew what they were; they were stuff of legend back on Cybertron. Scraplets.
"Yum yum!" One cried out as he burrowed into the metal of the Undead and the rest did the same.
Mere seconds later, the Undead collapsed into even more Scraplets, where they fell to the padded flooring, reverting back to their state of slumber.
"Wow! I can't believe that we were harboring something like
that!" Fireup said while staring at the pile of Scraplets.
"Hehe, well, I don't think that we knew about Dark Energon in the Hanger either, so I'm not so apt to be surprised." Sprokit stated as he pulled a pipe off the wall and fed it to the Scraplets on the floor.
The Scraplets took an Astro-Second to devour it completely and nothing more. But they began to gurgle and spasm out of control after they devoured the pipe.
"What was in that pipe?!" Fireup stated as he stepped back from the pile of Scraplets.
"I don't think it was the pipe..." Sprokit said as he, too, backed away.
The Scraplets, now glowing purple looked over to the two and began to run toward them making the same groaning and grunting sounds as the Undead made. The Scraplets became something... More... Something evil. They were no longer just animals driven by the need to feed, they were turned by the Dark Energon inside the Undead.
"
RUN!!" Sprokit yelled as he transformed into a Cybertronian pickup, it maintained the overall coloring of Sprokit, and it was rather reminiscent of Kup's Vehicle mode, except it had a turret on the back.
Fireup was jogging beside Sprokit for a second, before jumping into the bed of the Pickup and starting to shoot the Scraplets who were following them with the turret.
Sprokit couldn't see behind him, in fact he could barely see in front of him due to the lights flickering off and on. He turned his headlights on which, in turn, dimly lit his path in front of him. He switched gears as his wheels flipped down, the motorized whir of the engine was deeper, more thunder-like as he rolled down the hallway.
Fireup looked at the Scraplets, a seeming ocean of blackened, glowing mass that was steadily growing. They had to ditch them, but how?
"Sprokit! We need to get to the Airlock!!" Fireup yelled over the rumble of the engine as he continued with the supressing fire of the turret.
"I'm on it!" Sprokit yelled as he spun the wheel 900 around the corner.
The tires squealed as they lost traction and spun helplessly, only a moment later they gripped hard and lurched the two forward. As there was no lights in this hallway, only the constant flashing of the muzzle of the turret was enough to see what Fireup was looking at. His optics were enough for the Dark Scraplets to see where Fireup and Sprokit were.
Sprokit spun another corner and said, "Airlock, dead ahead!"
"Good! We need to be inside, I have a plan!" Fireup said as he fired another clip of Tachyon Pulses from the turret.
"Aim for the control panel; it will Auto-Open!" Sprokit yelled as he increased the speed of the engine.
Not a moment later Fireup fired a continuous stream of Tachyon Pulses at the panel, and with a shower of sparks the panel exploded and the door opened with a hiss.
They quickly drove in with Dark Scraplets mere seconds away. Fireup lunged from his standing position on the back of Sprokit's Pickup and hammered his finger down on the button to close the door. The Dark Scraplets were almost to the door and was shut directly in their almost insectoid faceplates.
Sprokit transformed and put his hands on his knees as he bent over out of tiredness. Fireup breathed heavily for a short time. Sprokit held up his hand to Fireup's and they high-fived.
"Whoo-Hoo! That was fun, lets do that agai-?" Fireup was interrupted by a grinding noise from the door, it was the Dark Scraplets, they were digging through!
Sprokit stammered for a second before looking to Fireup and yelling out, "Tow cable!! Now!!"
Fireup handed his towcable to Sprokit, and Sprokit tied it around his waist. The grinding was louder still.
"Open the Airlock and transform!" Sprokit commanded as small holes became discernable through the thick Duranium Alloy.
Fireup pressed the open button and jumped back just as Dark Scraplets began to pour through the door.
Fireup quickly transformed as fast as he could, careful not to let go of the tow cable. He engaged his afterburners and pushed out of the chamber with the Dark Scraplets, who were seemingly having a rough time with the cold. Ice was building up on them, their glow was fading, they were reverting back to Nuts and Bolts.
Must be for protection. Sprokit mused as he was jolted away from the cloud of Dark Scraplets.
>>
Where to?<< Fireup asked over the comm link with his counterpart.
>>
Anywhere but here.<< Sprokit blatently said as Fireup turned for the Station.
They simultaniously thought of fleeing for a fleeting second, but their morals of leaving helpless people to die was not a good one. Not to mention Airbrake and Afterburn were in there trapped, and the fact that the Decepticon Warships wouldn't take too kindly to Survivors.
Fireup sped off to the upper section, where the observation lounge was. That was the place where they were going to meet Airbrake and Afterburn, but this was the only place with windows big enough as well that would shut automatically.
>>
Hold on!<< Fireup yelled an instant before smashing clean into the windows and Sprokit shortly afterwards.
The air inside was being sucked into the vaccum for a second, until the Emergency Vaccum Doors shut tightly around the opening to keep any more air from being sucked out into space.
Sprokit untied himself and stood up in a dizzy, half-asleep state. He reached out his hand for Fireup, who had just transformed, to help him up. Fireup took his hand and stumbled himself to his feet, chuckling. The cold of Space was not for those who were unused to it's qualities.
"Its about
slagging time you showed up!"
The voice was not one of theirs.