#deadend | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

duck-ducks · 30 days

Text

Enter the Autobots!

Chapter 3: Toy Soldiers

Gadiolus’s equilibrium was out of whack. Something about the clear cube, the liquid in it that was sloshing as breakdown swayed while he walked down a hall that looked like every other hall they had already walked down, and her nerves from being dropped on her ass after she stabbed the supposed leader of this band of rapscallions had her getting a dizzy spell.

Motormaster was stomping in front of the rest, mumbling to himself. At first, she had tried to hear what he was saying but after catching a few choice words about squishing and shooting her, she elected that it was better for her peace of mind to ignore it for the time being.

Once again they all were silent. She wanted so badly to ask questions. She didn’t know what they were or where they came from. She had so little information she craved more of it. Inside her fish bowl, it wasn’t seeming like the time to chance that they might be happy to explain themselves.

Being sloshed to the side saddled her out of her thoughts.

They had entered a room bigger than any she had ever been in before.

It must have been at least half a football field, a grayish purple in color. One of the walls was covered in screens of varying sizes while another had electronics of unrecognizable origin. However, the most striking thing had to be the structure on the other end of the room. Large and circular, it had stairs leading up to it and a control panel to the right of it at the bottom of the stairs.

“Why can’t we just have a base on land?” This one didn’t have glass eyes, instead, he had a visor, yet somehow still conveyed a “wide-eyed” expression with it. “What if a wall collapsed and the water rushing in killed us all?”

“Shut up Deadend.” Motormaster said this like an automatic reaction, unthinkingly and with no change in his expression.

“But it could happen! I’ve seen Blitzwing accidentally set off his blaster on the battlefield, what’s to say he wouldn’t set it off inside the Nemesis!?” Deadend started to jog to get closer to the front of the group. Unfortunately for him as soon as he got in front of Motormaster he was shoved out of the way.

as they drew closer to the structure she noticed it. It was a bird, sitting on the stair rail. A bird that like everything else she had seen today was also made of metal.

“Hey Buzzsaw, do you always draw the short straw or do you just volunteer to babysit us for fun?” The gray and red one with purple “eyes,” whom she realized she didn’t know the name of, leaned forward to be “eye” level with the bird

“I enjoy watching you struggle.” Buzzsaw didn’t sound the way you might expect a bird to speak, he almost sounded like a girl with a southern lilt. “Now who might this be?” He turned to look directly at Gladiolus, catching her off guard. She had expected to be largely ignored, but then again when had anything been as she expected today.

“I don't know, some human we picked up-near the drive-in.” The last part was hurriedly tacked on the end like it was an important detail.

“Huh, that so.” Buzzsaw drawled, tilting his head in a manner of amusement. “Well Wildrider, we got an awful lot to do in less time than I’d like,” As this was said the large structure started to power up. Color began to swirl in the circular center. The sound it made made the air around Gladiolus tingle with power. “So we should get going.”

it was one of the portals they had been through earlier. Blues, greens, and purples made a jarring collage within the metal frame.

Gladiolus didn’t want to find out where they would be headed this time. What was it that the gray one, Mega-something or other, had said? A power plant? But where? It wasn’t like she knew where every power plant was, they could be headed anywhere.

She closed her eyes. She wished she was back home. She wished she could go make tea and relax in her rocking chairs, or in bed, or anywhere but here.

They drew closer to the portal. The bird flew the short distance to Breakdown’s shoulder of the arm carrying her cube prison and subsequently holding her. Fixing her with an alarmingly reading stare. Those glass eyes held a mischievousness that she feared to see.

for the first time since she had stopped begging for help that wouldn’t come, she felt she had to say something.

“What are you?” Gladiolus wasn’t sure if she had said it loud enough for anyone to hear, but Buzzsaw made what she could only guess was the approximation of a smile.

The light from the portal was blinding for the moment they went through, Gladiolus couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, she felt cold and stiff. Breakdown sped up to exit the light, it seemed he wasn’t fond of the feelings either.

It was dark here, it must have been past 8 pm by now, yet she could still make out the large billows of smoke wafting from the top of the giant structures. She had never been to a power plant before but with the context of what was said by Megaton? And the general movie and TV show knowledge of what a power plant looked like, she could guess that this was in fact, a power plant.

“Where should I put her?” Breakdown broke the silence.

“I don't care.” Motormaster had begun to unspool a cable from his arm and pulled a cube similar to the one she was held captive in from seemingly the middle of his chest. She didn’t have the brain power at the moment to question that. “Just put her on the floor. What is she gonna do? Leave?”

She braced herself from the new barrage of jostling Breakdown bestowed upon her as he placed her cube down on the concrete. While Buzzsaw had not ceased his intense staring, the others paid no attention to her. They all looked nervous, frantically looking around like something was going to jump out at them from the shadows.

Deadend who was the closest to her was mumbling something that she could only marginally make out.

“-Going to die, why do we always have to do this stuff so close to their base? Why can't we just stay inside where it’s safe? This is where we die-” No one else acknowledged him, Gladiolus, despite being disturbed by this, was growing annoyed by the continuous rambling.

It was now she noticed it. No one was looking at her. Not even Buzzsaw who was still perched on Breakdown’s shoulder. They all had the same cables that she saw Motormaster take out of his arm, each with a few cubes as well.

she raised her hands to the top edge of the cube, she could just hook her fingers over it. With a small jump, she was sure she could pull herself up. She looked around, but still, no one even glanced at her.

With a little hop, she managed to get her arms up on the ledge. What was she to do once she was out, would she be able to run, would they notice her before she could escape?

Then a sound echoed through the room, like the beat of a huge bird's wings. She couldn't move in her terror, the cube jostled slightly as Buzzsaw landed on the edge behind her.

“Conducting a jailbreak little mouse?” She turned her head, Buzzsaw still had that approximation of a smile, the light from his eyes was flooding her vision. “Unfortunately we may have a use for you, so why don't you just-” Another voice cut him off.

”aww you didn’t think to invite us to the party! And after our little meet-up earlier I thought we were getting along.” This new one stood by one of the smoking Structures, white with a blue visor and a friendly atmosphere.

Immediately Motormaster shot at him, where he got a gun she didn’t know, maybe the same place he got the cube he had pulled out of nowhere.

And then there was complete chaos.

More robots in an array of colors showed up, shots were fired, punches flew, and Gladiolus slipped off the edge of her cube. Buzzsaw had turned his back to her, wings spread in an aggressive display.

Now was her chance, she jumped back up to the edge and tried to throw her leg over and felt something pull in her back.

She was thrust forward, and an explosion was heard overhead.

She was back.

back three years ago.

back upside down looking out of the broken windshield of her car, still feeling the crashing of other cars around her. Still ignoring all of the sounds and looking towards Oliver in the passenger seat. Watching his little limp hands sway as blood dripped from his fingers.

She was back three years ago the day her son died.

As she blinked she could still hear the crashing of cars but it was different this time. Louder. There was yelling, it also sounded like taunting.

her eyes opened. It had been three years. The sounds around her were no longer cars but things that used to be.

she wasn’t upside down but on her side. The cube had been knocked over, spilling her and the little bit of liquid out of it.

They ran around her, shooting and hitting each other sending shrapnel flying, making the ground shake from their steps.

Despite all that was happening everything seemed slow and her vision was unclear.

her entire body jittered, she pushed herself up onto her hands and knees.

Red and gold blurs crisscrossed past her corralling what must have been Deadend away from the other Stunticons.

details made more clear as time sped up, yelling became actual words of taunts and threats that made little sense without vital context she sorely lacked.

Hands held out in front of her, in little jerky motions she lifted herself onto her feet to not stand tall but to hunch over, knees unable to straighten, and her hands uncontrollably shaking.

An opening. She just needed an opening. Somewhere. Anywhere.

Red stopped, gold turned.

Deadend fell.

The bang is what made her move. The terror portrayed on his face is what made her pause. Looking through her, he was still moving his mouth as though his earlier ramblings were still ongoing but no sound left him.

Gold yanked him to his feet and red left his side, his sights on Gladiolus.

“Retreat!” The yell was behind her thoughts and sight. Red stepped closer as she took smaller steps back. If she ran he would still catch up just by walking.

“Hey there, bet you’ve had a pretty crazy day, assuming you didn’t purposely join up with the cons of course.”

“What?” Everything was quieter now, clangs and bangs, crashes, and the tremors that it all had sent through the ground had stopped for the most part. Metallic steps echoed through the area, a sound like a few car engines buzzed.

She had barely moved since she had been placed in the cube, yet exhaustion was creeping into her limbs. Could she run, would her body allow her to?

“Hi, I’m Sideswipe, in short, we’re the Autobots and we just rescued you from the bad guys.” Red or Sideswipe, did a little awkward jazzhand motion. “Can someone a little more qualified take over this conversation please!” Quickly the white, blue visored one took Sideswipe’s place, lowering himself until he was on his hands and knees leaning over to be almost eye level with Gladiolus.

“Hello, little lady, the name’s Jazz. Can you tell me what yours is?”

“I-” she licked her lips, she just noticed how dry her mouth was. “Gladiolus.”

”Good good. I know this is a lot to take in, and you’re probably scared and confused, but we need you to come with us right now. We won't make you, you can leave if you want to, we won't stop you. But if you come with us everything that just happened will be explained, alright?”

“Alright.” What else was she to do? Go home from who knows where she was and pretend this hadn’t happened?

With all the questions she had, she found the energy to ask only one.

“Where are we going?”

#transformers #maccadam #deadend #motormaster #breakdown #drag strip #wildrider #sideswipe #sunstreaker #jazz

8 notes · View notes