The High Road: Part 6
A long journey back to Cybertron to clear the Maximal's names. Many mysterys about the present siuation, the crew and the part are solved.
PART SIX
Rhapsody turned and looked at wraith and leaned to speak in his ear quietly. "Yeah maybe thats what i need, maybe you could help me with that."
Wraith swallowed "Re-really."
"NO!" Rhapsody tossed his arm off and stood up and glared at him as Warith slumped embaressed.
"I-I just thought..."
"I know what you thought." She said again sighing once more. "Thanx for attempting to help, maybe this will..." Rhapsody grabbed up the holoprojector and looked at it... "Might be relaxing." She walked over and kissed Wraith on the forehead and patted him on the head "Nice try." she said before walking out his door and heading for her quarters for a nap in the forest.
Wraith sat on his bed in silence. Damn. I just had to take it that far didn't I? Ah well, she doesn't seem to be too mad. At least I earned a kiss. Returning to his bag, he remembered that Rhapsody had taken his holoprojector. "Damn man. What's the hell am I supposed to beat on now?"
He thought for a moment about hunting down Relic and giving him a good whoopin', but he figured he'd better give Rhapsody some time in case she really was mad at him. He didn't want to blow it completely by making another mistake. Instead, he propped his bed against the bag, making it more solid, began striking the bag again. But his kicks were starting to make some serious dents in the bag.
Spacedust was bored. Very bored. She glanced at the small monitor in front of her and sighed irritably, wishing something would come up that would make the trip at least a little less boring. As much as Dusty loved her starfighter, the Whiplash just wasn't meant for long, tedious trips between systems. It didn't even have a stereo system... a fact Dusty vowed to rectify at the first opportunity.
So, as a result, Dusty was bored. She checked the autopilot again -- yes, it was still working. Damn. No sign of any other vessels she could pick a fight with either. Damn again. The dingo femme started idly flicking through comm channels in the faint hope that she might overhear some interesting gossip.
Static, static, dead air, more static, a static-filled plea for help, yet more sta--whoa, hold up there... Dusty quickly flicked back a channel, and barely made out someone saying "--anybody hear me? Help..."
"Hmm, interesting..." Dusty muttered to herself, and started tracing the comm to its source as best she could. It was fairly close, otherwise the Whiplash wouldn't have been able to pick up the signal, weak as it was.
A short time later, the Whiplash gently cruised up alongside the small repair ship drifing in space. It didn't look to have much power, but Dusty opened a commlink to it anyway.
*****
Phyphen was still underneath the chair when the comm suddenly crackled to life. "Hello the ship, y'need a hand?"
Weede and Penji passed by the room where Skitch was being held in a CR chamber.
"Whoah, like a new new dude, huhuh," Weede said as he passed. Penji stopped short, and stared at the newcomer, salivating. "uhuh huh? Dude, let's go. This dude's like, dead or something. Why are you like, uhhhhuh.. yeah?"
"Munchies."
“Heya, Rita!” Burnout jumped out of his chair and greeted her with a big kiss (With tongue) and a grab to the ass. He didn’t care how she reacted, all this stress made it far too tiring to continue the constant flirting they’d been doing lately.
What he wanted to do, he was damn well doing….
“’Bout time.” Rita said. Or at least that’s what she would have said had her lips not been busy at the moment. They held the kiss for an almost unhealthy length of time, completely ignoring the two observers. Retro grinned widely, but didn’t comment. Mandrake snorted. Catfish looked at them with avid interest and would have interrupted to ask innocent yet awkward questions, but Retro managed to distract her with pretty blinking lights.
Burnout broke off first, “Air.” He explained, “My hand hurts.” He added as an after thought.
Rita glanced down and saw that the fuzor’s wandering hand had been caught by her rope before it had reached its intended destination. The twine was quivering with indignant fury and attempting to squeeze the life out of the offending appendage. Rita slapped her tool and it retreated reluctantly. Still infuriated it contemplated more permanent ways to get rid of this new menace to its mistress…
Trapper:
"man this is a big ship....i'm lost again...."
"Uh, munchies?" Weede repeated.
He glanced at Penji, who was staring fixatedly at the incarcerated Skitch.
"Dude, you make munchies outta dudes?" Weede asked.
"Penji need munchies!"
"From Bots?"
"Bots good munchies!"
Weede probably should have been scared, but as it was, there was only way for him to react:
"Weird. Uh huh huh huh uh huh."
---------
The scene with Rita, Burnout, their friends, and an old guy, was interrupted not by a sound per se, but by the general feeling that they were being watched. Rita and Burnout turned to their left to see Buckshot standing in the doorway, his problems with Relic momentarily forgotten, as he stared in unchecked surprise.
He blinked.
There was some silence for a moment.
Then Buckshot leaned against the doorway with a big banana-sideways grin, and gave Burnout a big "you are the man" thumbs up.
Skitch was just coming around.
"oohh... What hit me...."
In front of him a giant penguin was licking its chops. It was also drooling. And staring. At him.
"AAAAAUUUGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He yelled.
"AAAAAUUUGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Weede joined in.
This continued for quite a while, during which time Penji was trying to rip the door off the CR chamber Skitch was in.
"Mmmm... Munchies..."
Skitch screamed in horror, as Penji pulled out a fork.. and then.. a knife! He cut into the CR chamber, carefully, using the fork to hold things in place, like he was cutting a steak. Finally, the seal was broken, and a small window opened up. Skitch's screaming got louder, as the sound barrier was removed. Or maybe it just got louder. Penji stuck his beak in, and started breathing cold mist into the chamber. It was just like the water vapor in one's breath condensing on a cold day. This made sense, since it was, after all, a penguin. Except it was also room temperature. Skitch suddenly felt very sleepy.
Phyphen jumped when the lights surged into her vessel. There's been a power boost. Phyphen scrambled out of her hiding place and sat in the chair. The intercom was talking to her.
"I'm here! Yes... Can you help me... please..." Phyphen chocked out as she held the switch down. 'Who was that person?' The young 'bot didn't recognize the voice.
"Who is this? Are you a Maximal? Why are you helping me?" The fox 'bot let go of the switch as she heard a static response.
"I am going to pull you repair vessel into my docking hold, ok? It might be a little rocky. Hold on." then the intercom crackled off and the lights flickered and the power boost was gone.
Phyphen stood near the entrance hatch ... sword in hand, holding her breathe.
Dusty's hands flew over the controls as she manouevred the Whiplash as close to the floating repair ship as possible. A thick cable, normally used to recharge the Whiplash from a larger ship, extended from its side and latched onto a port on the repair ship, providing it with some measure of power.
"Who is this? Are you a Maximal? Why are you helping me?"
Dusty blinked a little at the obviously young and female voice that replied her hail, then shrugged it off and replied cheerfully.
"Yeah, I'm a Maxy. The name's Spacedust, but people call me Dusty. As for the help thing, well, y'look like y'need it, and it wouldn't be too Maximal of me t'leave ya floatin' out here now, would it?"
"I guess not..." Phyphen was somewhat reassured by the friendly voice on the other end of the comm, and started to relax slightly. "Can you help me get back to the ship I came from?"
"I can try, at least," Dusty replied. "If y'tell me its name, I can scout around for it and lead it back here. Will y'be okay t'wait here for a bit longer?"
"Yeah, I should be..." Phyphen didn't like the idea of being left alone again, but there didn't seem to be much choice. "The ship's called the Xavior. I hope you find it soon..."
"Shouldn't take long at all," Dusty replied reassuringly, automatically glancing at her long range scanners. She blinked, then looked again. "In fact... it might take less time than we thought. There's a ship approaching us now... and its IFF beacon says it's the Xavior. How 'bout that?"
"They came back for me?"
"Seems that way, kiddo. Hang on a sec and I'll give 'em a call."
******
On the bridge of the Xavior, the scanners had just picked up the repair ship and a small, unidentified starfighter next to it. Before anyone there could react, the comm crackled to life as they were hailed by the starfighter.
"Hello the Xavior, y'lost a repair ship recently by any chance?"
Burnout disengaged himself from Rita and hit the com button on his console. “Yea, this is Xavior, and we did get one of our repair ships hijacked. Have you seen it?”
“As a matter of fact I have Xavior. I’ve got it in tow. Poor thing ran out of fuel.”
“Sounds about right.” He said, nodding to himself. “Well bring it to these coordinates. And be quick about it, we’ve got a predacon warship on it’s way to say ‘Hi’ in it’s own special way.”
“Do you know who took it” Asked Retro from beside Catfish as she continued, quite pacified, putzing with the main computer.
On his way off the bridge toward the docking bay Burn turned around and sneered. “I duno, but whoever it is, he’s gunna get the ass womping of his life!”
"Pred warship, sounds fun..." Dusty murmured cheerfully to herself after the commlink to the Xavior had been cut. She quickly flicked back to the channel to the repair ship. "Y'there still?"
"Where else would I be?" Phyphen replied, somewhat testily.
"Silly question. Anyway, we're goin' back to the Xavior pretty fast, so hang on tight. This could get bumpy..."
The Whiplash nudged the repair ship in the right direction, to give it a bit of momentum, then started towing it towards the waiting Xavior. Only at the last minute did Dusty remember she had to slow the repair pod down before it reached the ship...
*****
At the Xavior's docking bay, Burnout watched from inside the airlock seperating the bay from the rest of the ship as the bay's outer doors opened. A swathe of stars became visible briefly, then were blocked out by the approaching repair ship and small starfighter. They seemed to be approaching rather fast...
The starfighter hung back, trying to slow the repair craft down and control it. It had built up a lot of momentum by now though, and didn't seem all that inclined to stop any time soon. Inside, Phyphen clung onto the chair's arm rests, optics shut tight as the little vessel arrowed towards the Xavior's docking bay.
The repair ship was suddenly brought up short for a moment as the starfighter suddenly put on the brakes, then the connecting cable between the two vessels gave way and the repair ship hit the docking bay floor with a metallic clang. It skidded along for while, just missing the Cheese Wedge, and finally came to a rest a few meters from the back wall, luckily still right way up. Phyphen didn't let go of the chair for a while though, not till she was sure the ship had really stopped. The black and blue starfighter entered somewhat less dramatically and landed nearby, then the docking bay doors slid shut.
Burnout stood in the now-opened airlock door for a moment and eyed the two vessels. The cockpit canopy of the starfighter popped open and Spacedust perched on the edge of the cockpit, legs dangling as she caught sight of Burnout and grinned somewhat sheepishly.
"Eheh, not the best entrance I've ever made... whoops."
"You seem awfully cheerful for someone who's trapped inside a forcefield," Querion pointed out, as he refilled his sixth mug. Everything he laid eyes on seemed a little fuzzy and blurred, but no twins yet. So that'd mean it was not time to stop, yet.
"Well, I've got my friends, this nice stool, and this mug of warm ale, what more could I want?" Relic answered with a smirk. He wiped the foam off his upper lip, and thrust the tankard into the field. "More please."
Both bots watched as Mimi diligently set whatever she was doing down, then rushed to pick up Relic's tankard. Querion dangled his with a finger, "Since you're at it, hope you don't mind refilling mine too." The wolf-bot seemed to catch a murmur of a curse from the femme, but dismissed it, as the two friends watched Mimi walked out of the room, her knuckles white as she clenched the handles of the mugs tightly.
"How are you going to explain to the rest?" the wolf-bot asked solemnly, all traces of drunken-ness gone.
"I don't-"
Relic was interrupted suddenly when Solarflare barged in, dragging a small ferret along with him. He unhinged a CR Chamber hatch, and tossed the creature in before slamming the door shut. He dusted his hands satisfactorily, and walked out. Minutes later, Penji came waddling in, a knife and a fork in each hand. He licked his chops, and set about trying to open the hatch.
Querion could only watch, surprised by this sudden turn of events.
The young 'bot clung to the chair long after the vessel came to a complete stop.
'What kinda driving was that?' she thought to herself, but shrugged it off because it was better than being stranded all alone in the middle of nowhere.
The hatch to the repair vessel came open with a creak as the young 'bot let the hatch hang there open. She peered over the edge at who was waiting outside.
Standing in the entrance of the Xavior was Burnout, and he didn't look happy. Phyphen side glanced to see a redish-brown bot standing in the doorway. 'It looks like a wild puppy or something' the child mused to herself, 'I wonder why she saved me?'
Phyphen leapt out of the repair vessel and ran over to the new Maximal. She ran straight for her and wound her arms around the 'bots waist.
"Thank you soooo much. I thought I was gonna die out there! How did you find me... I had no power..." Phyphen's voice was cut off by the sound of a large foot hitting metal. Phyphen didn't even turn around to know that it was the sound of Burnout's foot tapping irritably on the deck. The child 'bot dove behind Dusty and peeked out from behind.
Phyphen opened her mouth to speak but Burnout cut her off.
"Don't even try... you can't talk your way outta this one..."
Penji was about to dig in, when suddenly he noticed his peripheral vision. The stuff he had smoked must have been wearing off. He turned, and saw three bots staring right at him. Presumably they had been there the whole time. Penji gave an embarassed grin.
"Tee-hee!"
He jumped down and ran off in tiny penguin steps.
As Trapper continues his lost treck through the ship, he wonders if he should find an interface port and download a map, when he happens to run into Penji still on his high.
Trapper:
"ouch, watch it,"
Vinoc walks into the docking bay, notices the sceen, and gingerly walks up. "Burnout, calm down a bit, this kids a shrimp compared to you, theres no need to vent yourself on her, thats just takein advantage of your bigger size."
Rita reclined in the captain’s chair and flipped over a data pad she’d found. It didn’t contain anything particularly interesting so she let her mind wander.
First of all she was going to have to have long talks with three people. First Burnout of course, she wanted his input on where the pit this was going, second her rope, she didn’t like the attitude it was taking towards this, and third the new guy, Buckshot. She didn’t like his attitude in general.
Unfortunately, none of the three were here right now and she didn’t have the motivation to go out and find them. Glancing up she noted Catfish had disappeared. Not surprising, but still distressing. She whistled and motioned that the hoverboard go after her. It happily obliged.
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