Firestormers #12

Note: Once again, look at the note for FS #6-10. Plus Cain was created by Hydra, Halfpipe and his team were created by Hooper_X, and team Rho-1 was assembled by Liquid Velcro!. Everyone else is either Hasbro's or mine.

Firestormers #12: Shadows of the Past, pt. 2
By Trixter

She was barely a hundred meters into the tunnels, and already it was too familiar.

The entrance to the old Autobot Resistance tunnels under Iacon in Maleeus' warehouse-lab had been covered with years' worth of accumulated junk, and after they had finally moved it all out of the way they found that the door itself, a kind of trapdoor set into the floor, had become stuck shut from disuse. It took the combined effort of Air Raid, Whirl, Cain and Halfpipe to budge it, and, once that was done, the group proceeded down the ladder built into the side of the vertical entrance tunnel into the darkness below. Once they hit bottom, Trixter had taken point along with Maleeus, Siren, and Whirl, all of whom knew the tunnels well, and Cain, who Trixter was starting to think was under the impression he had been hired more to act as her personal bodyguard than just extra firepower. Getaway, Halfpipe, Furie and Air Raid stayed back from the lead group, prepared for an ambush from behind.

And already the darkness of the tunnels, though lit by the headlights and torches of the small team, was opressively familiar to Trixter, and the familiarity only exacerbated the worries which were already plaguing her, worries which were painfully more pertinent. These were the same tunnels she and Upstart had walked down all those years ago when they fought with the Autobot Resistance, when Optimus Prime, now commander of the Autobots, was only a faded legend and the Decepticons were as much in control of the planet as the Autobots were. When her youth and lack of ambition seemed to ground her as figuratively as it did literally, keeping her from reaching the stars she looked to for hope...

As they walked on, Trixter was yanked from her musings by a familiar voice beside her. "Hey, Trix, can we talk for a minute?"

She sighed as she turned to see Air Raid walking beside her. "Not if you're just gonna gripe at me some more about hiring Cain," she said bitterly.

"No, no, it's not...well, admittedly it does have a little to do with that." He gestured for them to drop back from the lead group and she slowed her pace a little until the other three were slightly ahead of them. "It's just...you're taking this all a little more...personally that I'd have expected, y'know? And I was just wondering if there was something up."

Trixter sighed again. "It's nothing."

"Listen, I'm sorry I got upset about Cain. You were right, we do need all the help we can get. I just have an understandable distrust of mercenaries, but he seems an okay enough guy. But still...if there's something wrong, Trix, you can talk to me."

It was a moment before she spoke again. "Air, you know when I got hurt real bad in that fight on Procyon 5, and you guys were rushing me back here for repairs?" Air Raid nodded. "Upstart stayed by me that whole time, didn't he?"

"Yeah," Air Raid answered, a little surprised. "How'd you know? I thought you were unconscious the whole time."

"Yeah, I was. But earlier, when I was walking through Iacon on my way back to the spaceport after I saw Maleeus, I was thinking about Ups and some stuff he said while I was unconscious just...came to me." Her voice became even more hushed. "I guess he was just really worried about me, scared I was gonna die or something before we got here, and..." Her voice became barely a whisper. "And he said he loved me..." They walked on in silence for a moment, footsteps echoing through the tunnel as their lights flickered over the smooth, bare metal walls. "Oh, Primus, Air, I'm just hoping it's not too late," she finally whispered, her voice desperate. "These 'Cons that kidnapped our guys, there's always a chance that they...they've killed them..."

Air Raid put a consoling arm around her as she trailed off. "C'mon, now, they wouldn't have gone through all that trouble just to kill them," he said reassuringly.

"I hope you're right..." She trailed off as she noticed a strange movement of lights out of the corner of her optic. As she turned to get a better look she realized that she was standing in an intersection and that the lights, tiny moving beams that careened over the walls and floors, were torches being carried by someone coming from the adjoining hall. And they were headed straight for her.

* * *

"There's our little Micromaster friend now," came a grinning, patronizing voice from in front of him. Dial, still being firmly held by Nimrod, halfheartedly lifted his head and found himself looking into the optics of the first Cybertron he had recognized since arriving in this time. He had seen those coldly amused optics apprasing him over the distance of time and space, through a viewscreen linked to the time machine that had brought him here.

"Greetings, Dial," the Decepticon smiled coldly. "I hope you still remember me after your little adventure with that Firestormer team you've fallen in with."

"I remember you, Xevander," he muttered, his voice tinged with bitterness. "You're one of the Decepticons responsible for this whole nightmare."

"Ah, so you do remember me. Then you also realize that it would benefit you to do as I tell you, correct? I do hold your only way home, after all." Xevander gestured to an elaborate machine that took up nearly a third of the large room, which Dial noticed looked like a control room that had been converted to some kind of lab. A pair of technicians were tinkering with the machine, diagnostic panels in hand. They seemed unconcerned with what was going on in the rest of the room. The control room part had become almost demolished in the effort to build it, with viewscreens and control panels removed for use in the time machine. A few of the viewscreens that had been neither removed nor broken showed scenes from various parts of the base, and one caught Dial's attention. It was the prision room he and his fellow captives had been taken to, and he could see Upstart and Strafe still playing the strange word game they had been using to occupy themselves as Afterburner lay unmoving on the floor of his own cell.

"Now I had you brought here," Xevander said, jolting Dial from his thoughts, "so you could assist my efforts to procure the secrets held in the old Autobot settlement on Procyon 5. Since that seems to have failed so badly, I'm afraid I must now resort to the back-up plan recommended by your contemporary DeRolle and use you to find the location of his ship on present-day Earth. As my little team here and I have no interstellar transport of our own, we are holding your friends for ransom, that ransom namely being a starship. Since both you and they are more useful to me alive than dead, you have my assurance that none of you will be terminated. However," he added with a gleefully malicious grin, "if you or they cause any trouble, I can see that your stay is made rather unpleasant." Dial heard Ramrod chuckle behind him. "So the question is, do you agree to be a good little Autobot and co-operate in return for a free trip back to the home you obviously so desperately miss?"

Dial stood silent, torn. Memories of his own time, his own familiar friends beckoned. But at the same time his conscience revolted against the idea of betraying his friends in this time who had been so kind and trusting without any reason, who had tried so hard to to make him feel at home in a place so far removed from his home. As he thought, a question arose in his mind. "Why do you need a ship from the Autobots? The Decepticons are a space-based army now, can't you just get Megatron to give you one?"

Xevander chuckled. "Do you honestly think I'd bother with any of this if this project was sanctioned by the Decepticon army?"

"You're not working under orders from Megatron?" Dial asked, confused.

"Oh, no, this scheme is all my own design. I was hoping, with the power of the weapon on Procyon 5, to take leave of the Decepticons and strike out on my own, conquoring planets for my own empire. But now that that's no longer an option, I had hoped to use the power of DeRolle's ship for the same purpose. Now quit stalling and answer me. Will you help me willingly?"

"You leave me little choice, Decepticon," Dial spat bitterly.

"I've never been fond of leaving things vulnerable to the whims of choice," Xevander grinned menacingly. "Take him back to his cell."

* * *

"Well, well, if it isn't the remnants of team Beta-5," Prowl said accusingly as he stepped into the light of their torches. "And it seems you've picked up a few friends. I figured you two would try to pull something like this." As the rest of the group stepped into the light, Trixter recognized the security chief's entourage: Mirage, Sunstreaker, Slingshot, Circuit, Vroom, Meanstreak, and Jackpot and his partner Sights. Firestormer team Rho-1, the most skilled - and most obnoxious - team the Autobots had. "Leave it to Beta-5 to try a rescue in Iacon itself without so much as mentioning it to Autobot HQ," Prowl continued, approaching Trixter and Air Raid. The rest of their group stayed back in the shadows, trying to keep from making things worse. The security chief was only about a meter taller than Trixter but his commanding stance made him seem to tower over her, and she found him more than a little imposing as she stood with her arms crossed, trying to look defensive despite a fear that rivaled what she felt on the battlefield. They were caught this time, and there was no way to back out, no way to make excuses. She looked out the corner of her optic at Air Raid and saw him mirroring her own feelings, and worse. She followed his gaze to where Slingshot was leaning against the wall admiring his reflection in the polish of his rifle and understood. She knew his fellow Aerialbot held it over the heads of the rest of the ex-Special Team that he had made it so far, and Air Raid let it get to him probably more than he should.

"Hmph," Mirage added, stepping up beside Prowl. "What a rag-tag little team you've assembled. You're lucky we came along, kid," he said to Trixter patronizingly.

"You'll be 'lucky' if the lot of you don't get your team charter pulled for this," Prowl muttered. "But then again, she's 'lucky' she has such a high-ranking 'boyfriend' as Jazz," he added, turning away.

Trixter winced, almost visibly. "Listen, Prowl, I know we were out of line coming down here without notifying anyone, but this is our team we're dealing with. It's team business, and we just wanted to take care of it ourselves."

"But it's still Autobot business! We found out about all this because the Decepticons that kidnapped your teammates are now asking for a ransom in exchange for them. I'd say that makes it a little more than a team scuffle."

"But..." Trixter attempted, suddenly overwhelmed. She had been right in her guess that Decepticons were involved, then. And she felt a sudden wave of relief hearing that their teammates were being held for ransom, knowing Upstart was at least alive...

"C'mon, stop lecturing them and let's get on with it," Jackpot cut in. "We haven't got all cycle, y'know." A murmur of assent rippled through the team and Prowl sighed.

"Okay, let's go," the security chief said, turning to the tunnel that Trixter's team had been headed down.

"Wait!" Trixter called, running after Prowl. "At least let us come with you. They're our teammates, after all."

"Fine," he sighed, not even looking down. "You and Air Raid can come with us. Any more than that and we risk blowing our cover down here. Go tell the rest of them to go back to the surface and then meet back up with this unit."

"And try not to get in the way," Mirage added as he fell into step beside Prowl.

Trixter stepped back against the wall to let them pass. She stood for a moment, watching them, and became transfixed as the lights playing on the tunnel walls and the feeling of being in over her head reminded her once again of her early days in the Autobots. Then, with a shiver that seemed to cleanse her of the flashbacks, she sighed and turned back to her friends.

To Be Continued...

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