Flesh and Bolts AU

Chapter 12: Madame Gasket's Plan

At the Chop Shop...

It was dark and cramped inside the Sweeper. Fender could hear strange noises from outside.

"Help!" He cried from within the Sweeper that is now entering the furnace area as he angrily banged on the jaws. "Open the door! Open the door!"

As if on command, the jaws opened, revealing the dark dungeon that was the Chop Shop. It was truly an awful sight to behold. "Close the door! Close the door!"

He screamed when the jaws tilted upward and spilled its entire contents and him onto the conveyer belt. He fell onto a new belt that moved throughout the factory before he moved onto another one leading to the furnace.

His fear turned to glee when he saw piles and piles of spare parts. "Ooh, look at these parts. It's a smorgasbord. Look at that. So many things I've wanted all my life, and..." Fender began picking up different parts that had fallen with him and went to pick another one up. "Oh, that's pretty."

A saw blade came down right in front of him. Fender screamed and snatched back his hand in time as he dropped the parts he had gathered. Instantly, he remembered the danger he was in.

The two workers, who stood around a grinder, glared up at him, their weapons whirring.

Fender screamed again and started to run off. Like a child going the wrong way on an escalator, he was fighting a losing battle. But he was determined to get away.  Unfortunately, he got caught in a large spring on the mechanism by the foot. He tried to shake it off of him but it was no use. Suddenly, a new pile of street-swept spare parts fell from the ceiling and in front of Fender. He screamed as he plummeted to the ground below. However, his foot was still stuck in the spring, so he was left hanging above the air by the spring, unable to wrestle himself free.

"Okay, Mother. This way," Ratchet said as he guided his mother somewhere.

Fender gasped terrified and frantically tried to get away some more.

"Let me look. Please. I can't bear it," Madame Gasket pleaded, her hands over her eyes.

"No peeking now. It's a surprise." Ratchet finished in a song-like tone.

"Oh, you are a wicked boy," Madame Gasket mumbled.

By now, even Fender was dying to see what Ratcher had in store. He didn't have to wait long.

"And look!"

When Madame Gasket lowered her hands from her eyes, she gasped in surprise. Her son had given him a wonderful gift—a new model Sweeper, much larger and shinier than the older ones, entering through a door. The license plate read Psyko Mama. "For me?"

"It's got a full tank of gas. If you're ready to mow, she's ready to go," Ratchet smirked darkly.

"Has any mother ever had a better son?" Madame Gasket held him close to her.

"Oh, by the way, I found out who's been fixing those outmodes and who the humans are," Ratchet added and pressed a button on a remote. The larger Sweeper's mouth opened to reveal various weapons. "So starting tomorrow, these babies are gonna chop them up along with all their broken down buddies and every walking pile of junk I'm sick of looking at."

Hanging upside down while caught in a spring is not the best way to hear your friend is about to be eliminated by a horde of evil machines. Fender gasped when he saw he was getting closer to them and grabbed onto a saw.

His nightmare was about to get worse. Unfortunately, the slinky that was attached to his foot stretched enough for them to notice him after they ceased their laughter.