Carry The One

Grill / Armada

Bulkhead swerved slightly, my body jerking up.

"I'm awake!" I called, sitting up despite the force in my chest advising against it.

Bulkhead chuckled beneath me. "Relax, Cara." he told me. "I'm picking up a signal."

I glanced at his dash, confirming that he was, in fact, locating a signal. "We should tell Optimus," I groaned. "I guess we can go mudding some other time...."

"Definitely," he confirmed, and I could almost see his smirk. "Bulkhead to base. We've picked up a strong reading -- permission to check it out?"

"As long as you watch over Cara carefully," my bot's voice thundered through. He was with Agent Fowler, who had a meeting with 'Uncle Sam,' as he explained. I was forbidden to accompany, which led to Bulkhead's offer to keep my company.

Bulk turned, ramping the edge of the road and onto the open plains of grass. He zagged through trees, dirt clouding my vision and covering the green paint job. I laughed opening, raising my hands up as we traveled. He skidded to a stop, transforming around me.

"That is what mudding is like," I explained, panting heavily. "Only with less control!"

He smiled slightly, walking towards a crater in the ground. Peering over it, we were met with a massive hole in the ground.

"It looks like one of Airachnid's burrows," I pointed out.

"No sign of activity," he answered, throwing himself over the ledge, beginning his descent into the depth's. "You're not scared of the dark, are you?" He cocked his optics to mine.

I laughed. "You kidding? I lived on the streets, buddy. I live in the dark,"

As he neared the bottom, I peered over his frame. I noticed a familiar neon blue glow illuminating the flooring. "Energon?"

Bulkhead paused, looking over himself. "Boxed and ready for pickup?"

The humms of a massive engine shook the walls, Bulkhead and I looking up as a darkness overshadowed us. "Scrap!" I called as he sped up his pace. A rock beneath him gave, his body falling slightly. He reached up, latching ahold of another rock before he could plummet. "Cara," he called, encasing me with his free hand. The ledge gave out, the bot falling into the masses of energon. My body bounced up, my head connecting with the metals of his servo, hard. My vision blurred, before blacking out.

~----~

The space around me filled with the sounds of a deep groan. I forced my heavy eyes open, feeling the metals beneath me shake as the autobot below me awoke. The metals shifted, I braced myself within the folds of Bulkhead's shoulder as he pulled himself up, grabbing at his helm.

"Ohh, my head gasket," he groaned.

"Uh.....Bulk?" I asked hesitantly, taking in our surroundings.

"Hm?" he paused, his optics looking around in the same manner as mine. "What the....?" he lept from the ledge we were on, falling to the solid metal ground on the floor of..."The decepticon warship?"

Air rushed behind me as he backed up. "Bulkhead!"

"Woa!"

There was literally a giant hole in the ground of the ship. It lead to open air, clouds drifting below us. We were in the air. I shot the bot a look, which he shrugged at.

"Ratchet," he called over his comm. "Don't ask how we got here -- long story." The comm was answered with static. "Ratchet, you copy?"

"Oh, scrapnuggets!" I groaned. I shot the bot a look. "Now what do we do?"