Ruby - Transformers: Age of Extinction fanfic

Turn up the Heat

"NO!"

Out of nowhere, came Bumble Bee. He caught Tessa by the tips of his fingers. Ruby restarted her heart as Crosshairs activated his parachutes and grabbed Cade just as the last of the mooring cables plummeted to the street far below.

"Yeah!" shouted a new robot voice.

Ruby gaped at Hound, commando-green and the fattest autobot in their team. He flew in an alien orbital assault carrier. The sound of it whirring made her grit her teeth.

She hadn't seen one of those god-forsaken ships since Sentinel Prime had summoned a large fleet of them through his space bridge. How the heck did Hound even fit in the cockpit?

She watched him pick up the others, then darted back into the dark, hot, hellhole of a ship.

Ruby jogged on. Sweat poured between her shoulder blades and she knew her face must be as red as her namesake. She trusted her senses and followed her instincts, allowing her to find the prison compartment in no time. Whether it was luck or not, she didn't encounter any more unfriendly robots.

The ship's prison was the darkest compartment yet. Ruby could only just make out the big, spherical cage, containing smaller cages of all different sizes.

Optimus couldn't be the only prisoner; all manner of squawks and growls and cries came from the cages. Not to mention the stink of decay. They must have forgotten to feed some of them.

Ruby hid behind a thick metal cylinder that arced from the floor to form the backbone of the cage. She tilted her head back, trailing it with her eyes until she couldn't see where it went. Beneath her, the floor was made up of thin, copper pipes, running in all directions. A trip hazard at the very least.

It couldn't get any hotter. Steam wafted across the prison, obstructing her view of the gloom, but she knew there would be a guard. Ruby squatted down and held the back of hand to one of the pipes. Yep, they were scalding hot too. The smell of fuel became so strong it burnt her nostrils. The heat made it hard to breathe anyway; she'd have to remember not to swallow the smoke. Who knew if it was poisonous or not?

Keeping low to the floor, Ruby slowly advanced. She went round the edge of the sphere. Whatever was in the first cage sensed her presence and lunged against the bars, clicking and scuttling. Ruby refused to look at it, daring not to put a picture to its sinister sounds.

"Who goes there?" said a deep, curdling voice.

Ruby froze. Lockdown's black guard stood as tall as he did. He had a droopy face and wielded a huge, curved sword, complete with serrated edge.

Oh why hadn't Ruby taken one of those old swords like Cane had? Fists were just not going to cut it in a fight where the enemy had that.

And there was something else. Ruby's strength was failing her. Her power wasn't what it used to be. She was terribly out of shape. Weak. The bracelet lay dull and cold against her wrist. She would lose this fight, even if she did have a reasonable weapon. 

So she wouldn't fight. She would evade.

Ruby scurried in between two cages and dropped to the floor. The guard's light flashed above her head, leaving her safely out of sight and screened by the steam. 

Her hands started to blister against the copper pipes, the skin hissing angrily. She locked her jaw and dealt with it until she heard the guard walk away. She jumped silently back to her feet and allowed herself a moment to mouth curses, shaking her injured hands.

With the guard searching the other side of the prison, Ruby slipped around the next two cages, both of which were too small to house Optimus. From the first came the sound of suckers, popping against the bars. Ruby shuddered as her imagination conjured images of giant squids and slimy alien insects.

Ruby passed more cells, all of which remained silent. It was almost too quiet. She stopped, straining her ears for the guard.

Behind her, a long metal tentacle protruded between the bars of a cell. And wrapped itself around her ankle. Alarm coursed through her veins. She twisted round, eyes wide. Tiny balls of energy concentrated in her palms. It took all her focus to keep the sparks contained behind her fingers. Now would be a great time for a prisoner to make some noise. She needed the cover.

But there wasn't a moment to lose. The thing could yank her off her feet at any moment. Ruby took aim, wrinkled her nose, and shot at the silver tentacle. It broke into pieces, barely making a sound. Ruby swiftly moved away from the cage, balancing on her toes. 

Then the prisoner wailed like a banshee. Dam. Ruby screwed up her face. Talk about a delayed reaction! How long must that tentacle be? For it to take that long for the pain signal to travel up it and register?

Tens of wriggling tentacles burst out from behind the bars, and one found Ruby before she even had time to move. It seized her round the waist and threw her into the air with such speed she left her stomach behind. She gasped, taking in a good lungful of steam. The metal squeezed her tighter around her severely scarred stomach and she screamed. The pain felt as fresh as it had on the day it had happened. Her hair whipped around her face while the creature thrashed back and forth.

"Ruby!"

"Optimus!"

"Rawr!"

The tentacle suddenly stopped moving. The creature went limp, and dropped Ruby a good ten feet. She smacked into the floor, face first.

"AH!" she screamed; her cheek sizzling against the hot pipes. Sulphur burned in her mouth, down her throat and right into her chest. Coughing and spluttering, she struggled to sit up.

"YOU!" the guard roared and raised his terrifying sword to swing.

Ruby rolled clear just in time, her over-sized clothes snagging on the floor.

CLANGGGggg. The sword reverbed off the side of a cell. There was a second clunk as the bars retracted, sliding over one another like straws in kerplunk.

From where she was on her hands and knees, Ruby saw a flash of red and blue.