Shards (Transformers Prime, Shattered Glass)

Chapter 20

Mud. MUd.MUD. No up or down or air, just mud, soaking into her clothes and her lungs, blinding her and dragging her down.

Sierra thrashed, reaching out and hopefully up, but there was no way for her to distinguish anything. The only measure of time was how empty her lungs felt.

Something met her outstretched hand after what seemed like an eternity and guided her up, back to the air thank God.

"Sierra, Sierra come on, we have to get out of here," Someone tugged on her shirt sleeve and she looked up to find Raf, barely recognizable covered in mud. Somehow, miraculously he seemed unhurt, and Carmine was shivering at his side.

"What?" she hacked out, too disoriented to comprehend what was going on.

Raf had the audacity to roll his eyes and reached out for her hand. If Sierra had been even slightly in more present mind she would recall that Raf pulling her around was how this mess started, but as things stood she was more mud than brain.

Raf had no other plan than to drag Sierra and himself through the mud until they'd thoroughly lost sight of the fighting.

They made it about five feet before that plan got cut short, mainly by the ground which gave way abruptly.

Raf imagined them plumetting into some endless pit or possibly a not quite endless pit that ended with angry jagged rocks or maybe even a vast lake of bubbling lava so hot that the heat would sear the skin from from their bodies before they even hit-

O point second later they hit the ground again accompanied by a landslide of soft mud.

"Hey, it's the ship!"

"What ship?" Sierra spat, half out of confused frustration, half to get the mud out of her mouth. What she wouldn't give for some mouthwash.

"The crashed Decepticon ship!"

"I could literally not be more confused right now."

"Aren't you paying attention?"

Sierra stood up and planted her fists on her hips "I was just trying to get my phone back when you drug me into a giant portal. I had no idea! I still don't have any idea!"

"Oh, so this is my fault?" Raf pulled on a puppy dog look that actually worked quite well despite the mud splatter glasses.

Well, it would've worked well if Sierra didn't have her own baby sibling who tried that shtick once too often.

"YES! This is very much your fault!"

Carmine whined, staring down the hall, ears pricked.

Sierra and Raf ignored her, continuing to argue.

"Well excuse me for just trying to have a little fun!"

"Fun? Fun?! Was it fun when Optimus put a gun to your head??"

"Well it was up to that point."

Carmine let out a sharp bark, making the two humans jump and they caught what the dog's sharp ears had already heard. Heavy footsteps clanging down the hallway.

"Uh, maybe we should-" Sierra looked up at the hole they'd fallen through.

"It's a 'con ship. Whoever is coming should be a 'con. Nothing to worry about."

"But," Sierra argued as she started trying to scale the slope of mud "It might not be a 'con or," she started slipping back down and redoubled her efforts, which in turn only mad more mud come sliding down "It might a 'con who isn't as friendly as the ones we've met."

Raf squinted trying to digest that thought, but before he finished chewing it, the heavy footsteps were upon them.

"It's a Vehicon!"

Sierra stopped fighting gravity and slid to a stop to stare at the silver and green 'con.

"Hi!" Raf said after an awkward beat of silence "We're here to save you!"

"What?" Sierra and the Vehicon said in the same breath.

"Well not the two of us, but Megatron! He's here!"

"Megatron's here?"

"Yup!" Raf poked his finger upwards indicating the hole they'd fallen through.

The Vehicon looked up just in time to see a massive foot come crashing through the ceiling.

They all three screeched in terror and scrambled backwards as debris rained down.

The foot retreated with a squeal of metal and the sound of blaster fire became evident.

"Oh yeah. The Autobots are here too."

The Vehicon flinched obviously and Sierra didn't need to see his face to know that he was scared.

"Here?! I can't fight! I'm an assistant!"

Before either of the humans could think up a solution the Vehicon's comm buzzed and he tilted his head abruptly, listening to the voice on the other side.

"No sir, I don't have the specimens....Well you see sir there's these organics....But...But they said...Sir! They say they're with Megatron!..." the Vehicon sighed "Yes sir. Right away sir."

The Vehicon returned his attention to the humans "Shockwave says to bring you to the laboratory."

Sierra, like any sensible human, blanched at the thought of an alien laboratory.

Raf grinned.

"Let's go!"

The Vehicon turned and took two steps, then looked back at the sound of tiny feet scrambling after him.

"Hey! D'you expect us to walk?"

"Well what...? You don't expect me to pick you up, do you?"

"Well you could transform into your alt-mode and carry us that way."

The Vehicon shuddered visibly at the suggestion and extended a hand to the humans.

Raf scooped up Carmine and stepped up on the Vehicon's palm. Sierra tried to scuff some of the mud from her shoes before hopping up and clinging to the Vehicon's thumb.

"Right," he sighed weakly "Let's go."

----

Knockout was beginning to wish that Breakdown had come. Well, not in his current state. Breakdown was barely fit to man the Groundbridge as he was.

Knockout wished he'd had time to complete repairs on his assistant and then brought him. Yeah. That's what he wished as Bulkhead snagged him by his tire struts and flung him into a tree.

He really hated trees.

Like really.

He wrenched a branch out his elbow joint and reactivated his electric staff just in time to lodge it beneath Bulkhead's jaw.

For a second the electricity paralyzed the beige bot but his full weight sagged forwards and Knockout couldn't brace against him.

So he wrenched his staff free and rolled to the side and let Bulkhead fall on his face. As soon as the big bot was down, Knockout was back up, tearing at Bulkhead's back. The Autbot's plating was thick but if Knockout could loosen just one panel, reach just one essential Energon line, then in the madness of battle then maybe, just maybe the brute would just bleed dry.

But apparently that was just too much to ask, Knockout realized as an Insecticon barreled into him blindly, throwing him into another grove of trees. Only instead of that horrible cracking of wood he hit something and it made a solid metal clunk sound.

Confused he turned and blinked at the dull gray wall in front of him.

Oh yeah. The whole reason they where there was to find a crashed ship.

Well. He didn't see a door so....

The sound of Insecticon wings drowned out the sound of saws cutting into metal.