Thanks.-Rebooting systems…-
-Standby…-
-Standby…-
Primary systems online…
Airazor coughed, a choking cloud of dry dust spouting from her mouth. Her joints scraped together through a thick coat of rust. Blearily, her optics switched on, a faded blue. She couldn’t see anything. Darkness was pressing on her vision, suffocating her senses. She was in nothing. She was nothing!
Two points of light managed to strain through the blackness- burning embers that seemed to blaze a fiery trail into the blackness. They loomed above her, flashing in her direction within a minute of her awakening.
Her attempt to yell was strangled as more dust billowed from between her lips. The optics grew larger, intently searching hers. Her fuel pump spiked in speed, but she kept still. A hunter is provoked when its prey attempted to escape.
Echoes of cracking joints reverberated around her as the optics got closer and closer. Airazor felt a chill course through her spark. Due to her rusted parts, she remained cemented to the spot, helpless to fight or flee.
“A-” a wheezy hacking interrupted the speaker from forming a single word. Vents that were not hers whirred heavily before speech was tried again. “Air- Airazor?”
Surprise blooming across her faceplate, she squinted through the dark gloom. The glow of her companion’s optics spilled onto his face. Sharp, strong features, glinted in the dim light, barely visible to her.
“It’s good… to see you…old comrade” Airazor managed, her voice sluggish. She struggled to arrange her lip components into a small smile. His name eluded her, but she sensed he was friendly.
He did not return the smile.
“Dinobot,” he reminded her gruffly.
He remained stolid, as ever, pulling spider webs from his helm. As more of her systems activated, Airazor’s optical sensors were able to pierce the blackness and catalog her surroundings. Four walls. Four gray, cold walls. Quiet statues lined the walls. Their silhouettes varied from sleek to bulky. Her vision gradually became sharper still. Colors were more apparent. Dinobot’s face was not longer tinted red by his ember optics, but its natural shade of blue. Though the colors were more subdued than she recalled. Her attention turned to the silent figures. Blue, yellow, red, purple, green, they all had their own personal color schemes. The colors they wore seemed to match their sharpening forms. A figure with streamlined fins bore a steady blue. Another, imperious statue boasted a majestic purple.
“…Do you… recognize them?” rasped Dinobot, staring tentatively at Airazor’s slow scan.
Her vents expelled stale air as she shook her head. “No.”
A disappointed grunt.
“Do you?”
“Apparently not,” Dinobot said bitingly, his remark slow with the weight of rust in his systems. “Otherwise… I would not have asked.”
Leaving the mech stew, Airazor tried rotating her joints. Layer upon layer of rust was caked onto her superstructure. It must’ve taken years for this much to grow. Painful screeches stemmed from her frozen seams. Dinobot glowered at the break of silence.
“What happened… to us?” she asked softly, trying to soothe the other.
His sardonic reply came quick, “If I knew, which I do not… do you believe I would have withheld the truth?”
“No,” she agreed. It felt so familiar. She couldn’t place the memory, but she could remember the feel of the verbal exchange. Like an old friend come to visit.
His servos grated together as he pulled back a fist and bashed it into the wall. For all his impressive strength, his iron fist barely left a dent. Frustration grinded in his growl as Dinobot turned from the wall again, teeth bared.
“So I guess… we can’t get out,” Airazor said lightly, failing to maker her own servos move.
Instead of answering, Dinobot fixed her up a malicious glare, before turning his back on her too. Again, déjà vu washed over her, and she had to suppress another smile. Despite the box they were in, despite their apparent memory lapse, despite everything, the feeling managed to wipe away all the uncertainties for one blissful moment. Then reality crashed back down.
Carefully phrasing her question so as not to offend Dinobot, she said, “I can’t guess why… we’re online but these others aren’t. Do you think… a power surge hit?”
He glanced over his shoulder, pensively looking at the wall above her shoulder. She waited patiently for his reply. If she pushed, Dinobot’s famous temper might explode, and she was naturally a patient creature.
“I have… considered… perhaps a current traveled… through these walls…” Dinobot gestured at the only walls visible, “and, assuming we were already depleted of energy, instead of overloading us- as it may have if we were online- it charged us.”
“Then if it was powerful enough to charge us, why didn’t it online the rest of… us?” Airazor said eyes roaming and falling on a snowy white individual.
“I distinctly recall my musings being that- musings, not facts, Bird-brain.”
She fell silent again, sending an internal request for a diagnostic through her processor. The report returned blank. Airazor assumed that she was just too out of repair. An alarming idea, but she remained calm.
“Maybe we… cou-”
Dinobot silenced her with a low snarl. Airazor tuned her audios in the direction Dinobot was scanning. One of the statues, one of their kind was stirring. He was the largest, bulkiest. Most likely built for combat. Two gleeful optics burst open, flooding his corner with green light.
“Why hello!” said the optics, smiling down on Airazor. She noted that the speaker had no pauses to allow for rust. “So glad you awakened. I’ve been waiting a long, long time for one of you to awaken. And now there are two of you.” The tone of the voice darkened. “A pity though, both of you are the least amusing of the batch.”
“Who… are the others?” Airazor asked slowly, peering up at him.
The optics quirked, the owner’s voice coming laced with amusement, “You don’t remember?… Huh. Well you’ll remember me soon enough.” Raucous laughter boomed off unseen walls. The glow of his laughing optics poorly lit his faceplate, but she could make out a sideways mouth and curved side-horns.
Airazor wrenched her limbs into motion, rust screeching shrilly. Her one jolt of movement sent her crashing to the ground, where her joints froze again. Sprawled on the floor, she tried to surpress the undeniable fear that curled like acid in her chest.
“Mmhmm, you’re terror is quite overwhelming, femme,” the supersoldier purred, moving with relative ease toward her. Airazor could feel her processor speed up along with her breath, flakes of rust exploding from her mouth. Whatever happened came from this mech, Airazor was sure it would be gruesome to her.
“Do not attempt anything, Rampage,” Dinobot hissed, creaking noisily as he tottered forward. The hulking mech scanned Dinobot, trying to find a hint of fear in Dinobot’s expression. Silence stretched between the two, Dinobot glaring and Rampage merely studying.
“So you remember?” Rampage answered finally. He sounded disappointed, his omininousity could no longer be used as a weapon of fear. Airazor noticed he could stand straight without brushing the unseen ceiling.
“Vaguely,” Dinobot returned tartly, as though he’d rather not recall the monstrous mech at all. He bent down haltingly, then slowly raised Airazor from the floor. Her joints were still frozen in an awkward position. “I cannot hold you up forever, Airazor.”
Willingly, Airazor tried to straighten out her ankle socket. It remained stubbornly frozen.
“Rampage,” Dinobot barked, dust floating from his mouth. Wordlessly, the larger mech bent, showing off mounted legs of a kind of… crustascean. For a bot so huge, Rampage managed to get his thick fingers around her feet. He tugged harder than necessary to get her joints in position. Airazor suspected he wanted her to yelp in pain, but now that she knew his game, she wasn’t going to play easy.
She was also suspicious of Dinobot now. How had he managed to order Rampage around? The latter was larger and in better repair than the former. What was going on?
“What do… you know of… this?” Dinobot was gesturing around the room, optics searing at Rampage’s.
“Not much more than you, I fear,” Rampage replied. His taunting demeanor was replaced by sincerity. This was a serious subject. “My memories have been erased, though I still have a general feel for all of… these.” Rampage indicated the statues. He pointed to the blue finned one. “He is my favorite. My most amusing playmate.” Darkness had again crept into his tone. Dinobot cleared his throat obviously. Rampage glanced at him then continued, “I propose that whatever we were created for… we failed.” His huge shoulders shrugged. “Or we might be the evilest of beings, locked away until a fool releases us.”
“Doubtful,” Dinobot snorted dust out his nose.
Rampage’s eyes danced as he gazed at Dinobot, “Ah yes. You have your… code. I had forgotten that little detail. You do not stand for evil. You stand for honor and justice without mercy.”
Dinobot held a neutral expression before limping his rusted limbs to one of the shorter statues. The shortest actually. Airazor could not explain his the emotions his optics betrayed when the warrior looked at the short statue.
“How’re you… in such a good state… while we’re… rusting our servos off?” Airazor spoke up, diverting Rampage’s attention from Dinobot.
Again the giant shrugged, emerald optics glittering, “I’m stronger than you. Mmm, probably smarter as well.”
Airazor could almost sense Dinobot grinding his teeth. Sighing, Airazor hoped that they’d find an escape soon. Between Rampage’s taunts and Dinobot’s temper, she wasn’t betting on any good coming out of long-term confinement.
