Cave of Deception

During the end of Rock Bottom in Transformers Prime, I noticed that the pede structure and strength of sound didn't really match Arcee's. Upon a closer look, it was hers illumined to appear like Megatron's but the sound of the stomping pede didn't work right. Then I noticed Miko's expression of alarm; Arcee would have been immediately recognizable and the cave wasn't extremely dark especially with the lights on the drill so why did she react the way she did? Simple, Megatron may have been close by. It didn't take him long apparently to get out and he seemed to have acknowledged Arcee and Bulkhead escaping as a bit of light suddenly appeared right as Megatron presented himself to Starscream so why didn't he do anything? He was after Starscream, not any of the Autobots because he knew there would be no benefit to risking another cave in had he gotten into a fight with them again so I thought how exactly would that work? Well, I'm about to tell you...

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She remembered tumbling down as the rocks caved from under their feet and only heard a brief cry of surprise from Jack before everything went dark. When she came to, nobody was in sight. Not Jack, nor Starscream, or even Megatron was present; they had been scattered from the collapse. Hopefully, her human was still alive but when she called his name, no response was heard.

"Jack!?" She breathed erratically. Cleaning off some of the dirt, she limped slightly through barely opened tunnels hoping they wouldn't break again.

She didn't mean to cause Megatron's cannon to blast the ceiling unstable. It was just to prevent him from targeting Jack, that's all. Apparently, the outcome did not tip in anybody's favor because of it. Now, there was only hoping Bulkhead and Miko were safe and Jack was close by. He was pretty resilient for a human teen, she knew there was a very good chance he was alright...just a bit misplaced at the moment.

She continued on until a sudden whirring sound echoed. A drill? Jack? Bulkhead? Miko? One of them had to be operating it. As far as she was concerned, Megatron or Starscream couldn't operate one in close quarters without brushing against the ceiling and that would have been audible as well. It had to be one of her friends.

Arcee ran as fast as her strained limb allowed but the closer she thought the original sound emitted from, the farther the drill was leaving her so it was obviously on the move. When she ran into a clearing, two tunnels both drill-made were visible but there was also a red glow to the side of her vision. Turning towards it, her thought process hitched in fear but her blasters were out and loaded in seconds.

A rock was pushed away with such force, it shattered when it hit a bump on the cavern floor. Claws sliced another piece off revealing the purple of his waist before it paused and those blood red optics focused on her. Megatron was lying on his side with one arm supporting his weight while the other worked hard to free himself. To say he didn't look too pleased was the understatement of this wreck of a day. But his anger towards her didn't seem to last as he went back to breaking more rock swiftly. His fusion cannon was free so why wasn't he firing?

"Well?" Arcee urged, "Aren't you going to get a shot off me for what I did?"

He gave a small glance as he threw another rock piece towards the wall unearthing his upper thigh and part of his interface panel. "You are not my concern at the moment, femme. The one who has my undivided attention is Starscream who I will tear the wings off his back the instant I get my servos on that serpent."

Her blasters disengaged before she nodded shortly, preparing to leave his sights, "Have fun with that then."

"You missed your pet, by the way. He helped set me free from this boulder by accident trying to tunnel for you and after a brief chat, he scampered away leaving me to my devices. He had the chance to kill me, didn't take it unfortunately."