Chapter Text
“Alright, come in!”
With his view obscured by a huge crate – filled to the brim with “un-secure” items confiscated from Sunstreaker and Sideswipe – Inferno obediently entered a storage adjacent to Red Alert’s office.
“Oh, wait! There’s no room. Let me think…”
The only logical solution for Inferno was to comply. It was barely enough space for two people there – regular people, not Inferno-sized ones. He could hear Red Alert moving something in front of him and putting this something on the floor.
“Okay! Um… Set your feet apart, gotta leave somehow…”
Inferno obeyed and snorted, feeling the Chief Security Officer pushing himself between his shins and crawling out of the storage room. Well, a mech’s gotta do what a mech’s gotta do…
“Great! Now, go ahead and put it on the shelf. Yeah, that’s it… A little bit higher… Higher!” Thud! “Okay, we’re done. That’s all for today. Thanks a lot.”
“You’re welcome!” Inferno slowly turned around and left the small room, careful not to knock anything down on his way out. He noticed a crate Red had taken out to make room for the illegal paraphernalia from today. It was nearly empty and signed “Lost and Found”. Huh… Before he managed to ask Red Alert about it, the security officer unceremoniously lifted the crate and dumped its contents onto his desk.
“Trash, trash, trash…” He proceeded to pick item after item and throw it into a trash bin. Inferno’s educated guess was that those things had been found long ago and nobody came to claim them. After discarding most of cables, dislocated buttons, dusty tools and two or three datapads, Red Alert’s hand came to a halt hoovering over a little longish item that resembled a stylus case. It was white and vaguely silver. There were no words on it – the actual name, the brand and place of its manufacturing a mystery.
“Huh! I remember finding that,” Red Alert murmured to himself, rising the weird gadget to his optics.
“What’s that?” Inferno slid into place right next to him. Red Alert shrugged.
“No idea.”
“No one ever asked for this?”
“No one.” Red pressed a tiny button on the thing’s tip and the two of them witnessed a tiny antenna extending and hiding right back. “I tested it for explosives, viruses and spyware, and it came back clean. I was gonna ask Huffer or someone what the Pit is that, but kept forgetting… Here!” He handed it to surprised Inferno. “You can keep it if you like. Maybe it’s something useful, after all.”
“Wow… Thanks!” Inferno looked the thing over. Apart from being awfully mysterious, it looked pretty neat.
No longer needed by Red Alert and anyone else, he decided to pay Huffer a visit to gain some insight into his newest possession. Visiting Huffer was never an easy decision, but this time he felt really compelled to try this unpleasant route.
//Hey, Huff!// he commed him on his way. //Busy?//
//Why’re you asking?// Huffer grumbled in response.
//Just because. May I pop in?//
//Why won’t you pop a joint instead?//
//Come on! I need your help.// Inferno was already knocking at his door.
//Then I’m busy.//
//I don’t think you were busy an astrosecond ago.//
//I’m always busy for you, Ladder-Jacket.//
Inferno knocked harder.
//Hey, don’t be an aft! I just need a consultation with you.//
//Is that important?//
//Well, yeah. Security of our entire faction may depend on you!// Inferno lied smoothly.
//Aah, okay.// Inferno could hear through the door Huffer fumbling with something while grumbling “Stupid fragger” and “Get rust, cogsucker,” before the door slid open. //Come in, Inferno.//
//Thanks!// He disconnected his comm., entered and warily came over to Huffer, who was ostensibly busy at his desk with moving two datapads from place to place. Without further ado, Inferno presented him with a mysterious device.
“Red Alert doesn’t know what it is and is asking for your opinion,” he explained, lying again. With Huffer, it wouldn’t do to ask him for a private favour. The grumpy engineer took it with a certain curiosity, looked over, pressed a tiny button at its tip and watched the tiny antenna slide out and back inside. After this elaborate test, he gave it back to Inferno with an amused smirk.
“Sorry, can’t really help you with that,” he said. “Maybe take it to Grapple or Wheeljack, they’re more likely to give you some answers.”
“Oh… Okay.” Inferno took the thing and turned to leave. “Thanks for your help.”
“Don’t mention that, Firecracker!”
A bit taken aback by Huffer’s sudden good humour, Inferno moved several doors further and knocked to Grapple’s quarters.
“Yes?” He could hear a gentle and polite response. “Give me a sec, okay?”
“Sure, Grapple!” Inferno replied. “It’s nothing important, I just need your professional opinion.”
There was no need for lying this time.
“Sure, come in, come in!” The door hissed open. Entering Grapple’s quarters slash workshop, Inferno could see him hastily stashing behind his berth something that suspiciously looked like a model of another solar tower. Deciding to mind his own business, he handed Grapple the device.
“Red was doing some sort of spring cleaning in his lost and found storage and gave it to me. The problem is that we really don’t know what it is and what it does. I showed it to Huffer but he just shrugged, smiled and said that he doesn’t know either… Could you help me with identifying it?”
“I’ll see what I can do…” Grapple looked the thing over, pressed the tiny button at its top and watched a tiny antenna slide out and back in.
Then he quickly turned to Inferno and angrily shoved the device into his hand. His vents were quick and irregular, his hands trembling, his face… Inferno had never seen him so angry. He couldn’t even imagine the peaceful designer capable of looking so irate.
“How dare you!” Grapple spat out. “Never, in all these vorns, would I imagine…” He looked him straight in the optic and pointed at his door. “Out,” he commanded. “I don’t want to see you here, you… You…”
Inferno was watching him, absolutely taken aback.
“What? But why?… What’s wrong, Grapple?”
“I’m not going to repeat myself. Get. Out.”
“But why?…”
“Out!”
Seeing that quarrelling with Grapple in his own quarters would do him more bad than good, Inferno turned around and left the agitated constructor. Whatever happened to him? Was he having one of his ‘episodes’? Well, whatever the case, Inferno’s mood had been soured and he still didn’t know what was the thing he’d gotten from Red Alert.
Okay. He had a cube from the nearest energon dispenser, taking a break from his investigation, and then marched to Wheeljack’s laboratory.
“Hey, ‘Jack! You got a second?”
“Will have in a second!” Wheeljack jokingly called before emerging from behind a big laser cannon from the Ark’s defence systems he’d taken for maintenance. “Yeah? How can I help ya, buddy?”
“Didn’t want to disturb your work, it’s just this little device I got from Red, and we don’t know what the heck it is… First, I took it to Huffer, but he only smiled and said he didn’t know either. But then… I showed it to Grapple and he got angry, so, so angry… He threw me out without any explanation whatsoever!”
“Huh? That’s weird,” Wheeljack put his electronic wrench on a workbench and rubbed his hands together. “A’right, show this mysterious doohickey to me. Who knows, maybe it’s somethin’ real interesting.”
Compliant, Inferno gave him the mysterious thing. Wheeljack looked it over, pressed the tiny button on its top, watched a tiny antenna appear and disappear back inside…
He threw it back at Inferno, as if it was something nasty, dirty, or contagious. Surprised, Inferno barely managed to catch it, and then he was facing Wheeljack’s hateful glare.
“You thought that you can bring this… This thing here, just like that? Well, you are sorely mistaken,” he reached further onto the workbench, picked up a sophisticated, probably experimental gun and pointed it at shocked Inferno. “Get out. I don’t want to see ya here again. Ever.”
Unwilling to argue with armed Wheeljack, Inferno briskly left his lab. So briskly that, in fact, he was almost running.
Primusdammit… What was with all of them? Or, possibly, what was with this device that two Autobots reacted to it like that? Seeing no other options, he put the thing into his arm compartment and decided to leave it be until he would find a safe way to dispose of it (Red Alert probably wouldn’t be pleased if Inferno simply dumped the cursed object wherever, for anyone to find). He was on his way to his quarters, intending to catch up with his paperwork, when Red Alert and Ironhide stepped in front of him – with no intention to let him go.
“Um, yeah?” He looked from the Autobot SiC to the Chief Security Officer. They looked so serious that for a moment Inferno feared that someone died. “Has something happened, guys?”
“Ya happened,” Ironhide grumbled and glared at him.
Inferno offlined and onlined his optics, understanding nothing of it.
For a moment, Red Alert’s optics were cast down. He slowly raised them to look at his friend with sadness.
“Inferno, Wheeljack and Grapple reported what you’ve done. I… Don’t even know what to say… I… I’ve never been so disappointed in my entire life, that’s for sure,” he said quietly.
“They reported me?” Inferno’s optics brightened with shock. “But… Why?”
Red Alert gasped and reset his vocalizer, as if choking on words.
“I… Can’t repeat it, it’s so, so vile… I really can’t… You know what transpired, Inferno. You know very well.”
“Why, yes, I know!” Inferno agreed, but also disagreed. “Remember how you gave me this funny mysterious doohickey and none of us knew what it was, so I took it to Huffer to ask him-”
“Inferno, please, stop. I can’t bear listening to this…”
“And he just smiled and said he doesn’t know and to go to Grapple, so I went to Grapple and he looked at the device, and all of a sudden- Argh!”
Not intending to wait around and listen to Inferno defending himself, Ironhide grabbed him by his face (because Inferno didn’t have much in terms of an easy-to-grab throat) and pulled, forcing him into a half-kneeling position. Only then did he release his face and grabbed his arms instead. No one would willingly mess with Ironhide. No one.
“I’m sorry, Inferno, but you leave us no choice,” Red Alert continued, sounding less sad and more formal now. “After hearing about all of this, Optimus Prime has made a decision, and we’re here to execute it.”
“What… What decision?… What did he hear?”
“We’re not repeatin’ it,” Ironhide spat out with great disgust. “Not gonna repeat it evah. Ya can go an’ take it all with ya, punk.”
“P-punk?” Inferno felt dizzy. Whatever had he done to deserve being called that?
Merciless and adept as ever, Ironhide forced him to stand up and turn around before Inferno felt a nuzzle of his gun touching his back.
“Go ahead to the main entrance,” he heard the old soldier ordering him. Having no choice he listened, wisely remaining silent.
They reached the entrance and exited through it. After making their way downhill into the surrounding woods, Inferno finally felt that his two handlers came to a halt. He wasn’t ordered to stop though so he continued for several mechanometres, until Ironhide barked:
“Face us and hear yer sentence, Inferno!”
He stopped and turned to the two very solemn high-ranking Autobot officers. Red Alert was looking downwards, Ironhide was watching him with such hatred and disgust that Inferno felt like the ground opening and swallowing him would be a grand improvement.
“By the decision of Optimus Prime, from now on you’re a fugitive,” Red Alert declared, his voice getting quieter and quieter, while for Inferno his words sounded louder than bombs. “You’re stripped of all your faction rights. Do not attempt to return or even come anywhere near the Ark. Every Autobot you encounter will be entitled to kill you. You are hereby disgraced and forgotten.”
After this little speech, the two turned back to where they’d come from and left, not looking at their former friend or even hesitating as they were abandoning him in the woods. The woods that suddenly appeared darker, taller and denser than they were this morning when Inferno was returning from his patrol.
Seeing no reason to remain in the potentially dangerous area, Inferno sighed and made a beeline to the nearest highway. When on it, he started pondering what his destination should be.
The said destination chose itself for him – when he left the woods, he immediately hit a roadblock comprising of Astrotrain and Brawl, awaiting with their guns drawn and looking at him with a certain interest. A small pack of police cruisers was watching them from the distance, lights blinking warily.
“Transform and roll over, Inferno,” Astrotrain ordered, chuckling sadistically.
“Nooo way…” Brawl shook his head, astonished. “He was tellin’ the truth!”
“Who was telling the truth?” Inferno transformed and immediately put his hands in the air. For a moment he considered resisting but quickly perished the thought. With those two nasty thugs, he was definitely outnumbered. And even if not… The Autobots fought the Decepticons. Red had clearly informed him that he wasn’t one anymore, and losing his faction all of a sudden surely had brought his fighting spirit down a notch, or ten notches. Why should he bother?
Astrotrain snorted at his question and Brawl hesitated.
“Um… ‘S kinda confidential but we got info from Jazz that there’s ex-Autobot Inferno on the road and if we wanna go an’ catch ‘im. An’ we did, so…” He looked left and right as if checking the perimeter or, more likely, bracing himself for asking a question: “Ex-Autobot Inferno? What’s goin’ on, mech?”
Okay, ‘Cons or no ‘Cons, at least they appeared willing to listen to him.
“Well, it’s a bit of a long story that makes completely no sense…”
“Whatever!” Astrotrain moved aside and transformed. “Bring ‘im in, Brawl, he’ll tell you his sob story on our way to the Nemesis.”
“Yeah, what he said!” Brawl grabbed Inferno’s arm and the resigned captive boarded the Decepticon shuttle together with him. “So, what’s your deal?”
Inferno sat on the floor of Astrotrain’s cargo bay with a sigh.
“It all started this morning,” he started. “I was helping Red Alert clean his office and he ended up giving me a weird lost and found thing no one ever looked for. We didn’t know what it is, so I first went and asked Huffer. He just smiled and said he didn’t know either. Then, I asked Grapple… Seeing the device, he became absolutely furious, threw me out and told me to never bother him again. So, I went to Wheeljack and showed him the thing… He got mad, grabbed a gun and ordered me out of his lab. I kinda gave up trying to learn what it is when, suddenly, Ironhide and Red Alert grabbed me, told me I’m no longer an Autobot, have no rights, and if I show my mug anywhere near the Ark, anyone would be allowed to shoot me, and then they sold me to you, all because of that thing Red Alert gave me…” Hearing his own take on the horrible events from this day, Inferno felt overcome by despair. He slumped further and hid his face in his hands. “And I have no foggiest idea why it all happened, why everyone reacted like that and what the frag is that thing!”
“Primus, those Autodorks are stupid!” Astrotrain commented through speakers.
“Oh,” Brawl remarked after a moment it took him to process the entire story. “That’s freakin’ weird.”
“Yeah… You can say that,” Inferno felt like laughing and crying at the same time.
“All because they saw a weird little thingy…”
“Precisely. All because of that.”
The Combaticon explosive specialist was stroking the lower part of his facemask, thinking. Inferno didn’t even feel like making fun of his slow processor since his own couldn’t deal with the situation so far.
“Ya still have that thingy?”
“I do,” Inferno reflexively touched his arm compartment with the cursed contents. “Why?” He asked, suspicious.
“I know whatcha gonna say: that am too stupid to say anythin’,” Brawl shrugged. “But I build weapons an’ seen a thing or two. Maybe I could tell what’s that thing that got you banished.”
Inferno considered his words, opened the compartment, got up and slowly passed the device across the cargo bay. Who knew… Worse case scenario, Brawl wouldn’t recognize it and they’d leave it be.
Brawl carefully took the small device between his large fingers, looked it over, pressed the little button on its tip and closely watched the small antenna emerge and disappear again. After this display, he didn’t move for a couple astroseconds.
“So?” Inferno inquired. Could it be? Could all his troubles and his ruined life be explained at last?
As a reply, Brawl hurled the device in his general direction. Sensing trouble, Inferno caught it, concealed and quickly moved closer to Astrotrain’s cockpit.
It was like watching a volcano waking – starting motionless and slowly getting more and more agitated, large frame shaking with the rising fury, Brawl finally erupted – with an unintelligible roar he lunged at poor Inferno. The prisoner barely managed to dodge him and Brawl crashed into Astrotrain’s inner wall. The shuttle shook.
“What the frag?!” To put it mildly, Astrotrain wasn’t pleased.
Ignoring all the commotion he was causing, Brawl continued chasing Inferno with clearly murderous intent. He got him several times – unfortunately, Inferno wasn’t exactly a small target – and Astrotrain was shaking like overcome by the mother of all turbulences. Inferno was sure that he wouldn’t make it. The rabid Combaticon would finally get to him and beat him to a pulp… And then he found himself airborne over the endless plain of the blue ocean beneath him and blue sky above him, or perhaps the other way round.
Before he managed to scream like a little girl and plunge into the blue nothingness, Astrotrain grabbed his right hand – the one ending with the nozzle which promptly started slipping off his grip. Terrified, Inferno grabbed the Decepticon’s hand with his left hand and looked down at the ocean with stunned ocean-blue optics.
“W-where… Where’s Brawl?” He managed to ask the triplechanger who was clearly amused by his panic.
“Fell into the water,” Astrotrain explained smugly. “Looks like he could use some coolin’ down.” He rose clinging Inferno to his optics’ level. “Now, about you, Autob- Oops, sorry!”
His cruel laugh brought Inferno into further despair even before he could hear about his nearest future:
“Soundwave’s awaiting you. Don’t think there’s anyone, anywhere who could envy you. You’re gonna regret your former buddies didn’t simply off you instead of kicking you off, Auto- Heh, slag!”
Inferno could only hang from Astrotrain’s hand helplessly and watch his cruel amusement as the tower was rising for them to enter the Decepticon base.
“What are we gonna call you now?… Ah, doesn’t matter. You won’t be alive for long anyway!”
He wasn’t going to argue with that.
Only a couple breems later he was sitting in an interrogation room – unrestrained for now – with Soundwave’s terrifying presence at the opposing side of the table. That monotonous voice… That all-seeing and all-concealing visor… That processor storing nearly all the data the Decepticon faction has ever possessed, always ready to find something vicious to use against his enemies… That alleged ability to read minds… That very real ability to plug into people’s heads and search for whatever he deemed useful… Now Inferno finally understood why some people preferred being interrogated by Vortex.
The Decepticon TiC pretended to skim through a datapad in front of him. It was obvious that he’s already known its contents. He’d probably composed it himself.
“Former Autobot Inferno: stripped off all his faction rights- -” he stated. “Optimus Prime: permitted us to capture you- - And do with you what we pleased- -” He looked despairing Inferno in the optic. “Question: what have you done- - To earn such a treatment- - From the faction known for their morals- - And other mushy nonsense like that- -”
The prisoner slowly in-vented and exvented.
“This is the problem, sir,” he claimed, carefully picking his words. “Something… Happened today, and this something had such consequences – but I don’t know why they reacted the way they reacted… Like some form of madness overtook them…”
Soundwave was looking from him to the datapad, unreadable as ever.
“Order: explain- -”
Obedient, Inferno nodded and proceeded:
“Everything started this morning. After I helped Red Alert clean his office he gave me a lost and found device no one was looking for and said that I can keep it. Only we didn’t know what it is and what it does. So I took it to Huffer for a professional opinion but he only looked at it, smiled and said he didn’t know either and to go to someone else. So I took it to Grapple. Grapple looked it over and… Absolutely out of nowhere he got so, so angry with me, ordered me out and said he didn’t want to see me. Then, I came to Wheeljack’s lab to ask about his professional opinion, Wheeljack looked at it and told me to get out at gunpoint… And then I came across Ironhide and Red Alert who took me to the woods and told me that from now on I’m no longer an Autobot and everyone seeing me is entitled to kill me… That I have no faction rights and to never show in the Ark again… So, I left. On my way leaving the Ark’s area, I bumped into Astrotrain and Brawl who told me that the Autobot High Command basically sold me to you and they were here to take me to the Nemesis to be interrogated by you, sir. And Brawl asked whatever happened to make them do such things. So, I told him my story and he wanted to see the thingy. He said that he’d seen a thing or two and maybe will be able to finally identify it for me. So, I gave it to him, he looked and it, turned it on and off… And, just like others, he got absolutely furious for no apparent reason and tried to kill me when we were travelling in Astrotrain’s cargo bay. Astrotrain had to transform mid-air and lose him in the ocean to resolve his rampage. And then, I was brought here to have this conversation with you, sir.”
His emotionless interrogator was processing the information obtained for a surprisingly lengthy moment before asking the question Inferno had been dreading:
“Inquiry: former Autobot Inferno- - Do you still possess the object in question- -”
Sighing but not daring to disobey, Inferno opened his arm compartment and produced the wretched device.
“Here it is, sir,” he said, putting it on the table in front of Soundwave.
Clearly intrigued, the Decepticon TiC took the device, looked it over carefully, pressed the tiny button on its tip and watched the tiny antenna rise and sink…
The device fell from Soundwave’s blue fingers. Inferno reflexively grabbed it and stashed and only then did he think that by doing this he might have fragged Soundwave off. He looked at him fearfully, wondering how he was going to react. It might as well be the end for him. This might be how he was going to die.
The twitching of Soundwave’s fingers was Inferno’s only warning to run for his life. He almost hadn’t made it.
Soundwave practically obliterated the table between them to get to him. He was so fast that Inferno’s only way to dodge was to dive.
Picking himself up from under tripped and wriggling Soundwave, he ran to the door and started banging like crazy, knowing deep down that nobody was going to help him anyway.
“Let me out! He’s absolutely insane!… Let-me-out!”
Miraculously, the door opened, revealing Astrotrain carrying a crate filled with dissecting forceps.
“Oh, scrap! Sorry, Soundwave, I was supposed to deliver those to Vortex… Soundwave?”
Very much like above the ocean half an hour ago, Inferno clung to him, hiding from Soundwave behind his wing.
Predatory and methodical, Soundwave started slowly approaching. Inferno moved behind Astrotrain’s back.
“He’s gotten crazy like Brawl!” He whispered desperately. “He saw the thingy and now he’s all crazy and murderous!”
“Huh?” Astrotrain rose the crate to better shield his spark. “Everything’s alright, Soundwave? Has this Autobot- Sorry, sorry, ex-Autobot… Done somethin’ to you?”
“I did nothing!” Inferno cried, hiding behind Astrotrain as the triplechanger started rotating to keep Soundwave in front of him at all times. “It’s that device… It drives everyone crazy!”
“Ugh, whatev,” Astrotrain grumbled, slowly running out of patience with all this madness surrounding him. “Soundwave! Are you done with interrogatin’ Inferno and scarin’ beprimus out of me? Huh? Soundwave!”
He stomped his shuttle-grade foot for emphasis. That was the final clue for anyone to quit their bullslag – when scared, Astrotrain would never admit it. If he’s ever mentioned that something was scaring him what he really meant was that something – or someone – was royally fragging him off and a heavy beating was in order, ranks and army protocols be damned. Rumours had it that he’d once left Menasor limping off the confrontation, resulting in Breakdown’s month-long hospitalisation and no apparent retaliation from the remaining gestalt members.
Soundwave stopped, as if awakening from a trance. He stared at both of them blankly (impossible to say whether it was his typical or atypical blank stare) before turning from them and calmly returning to the unrecognizable remains of the table to pick up the datapad.
“Order: take former Autobot Inferno- - To the brig- -” he ordered Astrotrain. “Inferno: is to stay in the brig- - Until further notice- -”
“Alrighty!” The triplechanger put his mistaken crate down and grabbed Inferno’s arm instead. Inferno didn’t protest getting dragged outside and through the corridor. The further from Soundwave the better.
Only, he was on the Nemesis. It was hard to imagine how was he supposed to keep himself safe from Soundwave there. Oh, Primus, he was going to die soon… All because of one stupid little thing!
Sat in a cell and obviously not given any energon ration (Decepticon hospitality was famous like that), he fell into a stupor. All the things that happened to him were simply too much, his overwhelmed processor was on the verge of shutting off. This morning he had woken up as a proud and rightful member of the heroic Autobot faction, and before the evening he was factionless, rightless, a prisoner and – probably – as good as dead.
He overheard familiar voices, laughs, an unmistakable disdainful “It is, indeed, laughable,” and metal wrenching. Trying to take his processor off his troubled present and probably very short future, Inferno stood up and cautiously approached the front of his cell, peering between red laser bars. Oh… The Constructicons were tearing the wall apart and poking at the cabling. Of course.
The only prisoner’s optics probably pricked their green and purple backs because the next thing he knew, their attention was on him.
“Um… Hi?” He tried.
In response, they turned away from him with stifled giggles. Oh, yeah, right. He was a factionless mech, the funniest freaking thing in the entire Universe.
The five of them got back to work while Hook approached Inferno’s cell in a slow, elegant stride. Inferno felt the urge to back off, having the Decepticon CMO standing not even a mechanometre from him, only feeble and easily turned off laser bars separating them. But he didn’t back off because… The promise of agony and pain burning behind Hook’s crimson visor made him freeze in place. A sadistic smirk slowly appeared on the Decepticon medic’s (only he wasn’t a real medic, real medics swear to do no harm!) face.
“So it’s true,” he noted, eyeing Inferno like a particularly nice spare parts depot. “I couldn’t believe it at first… But it’s true. You’re here.”
To this, Inferno couldn’t find any retort.
“Now, I would like to only know one thing,” Hook continued, one hand resting comfortably on his hip, the other gesticulating lazily. “The thing Soundwave deemed ‘classified info’ which, to me, sounds cowardly and to some degree insulting. You know better than taking this route with me, are you, ex-Autobot?”
“Um… And what’s the problem?” Inferno peeped, trying to sound as cooperative as his frozen vocalizer allowed.
“I want to know the truth behind this maelstrom of madness surrounding you.”
“The truth?”
Hook put his other hand on the wall next to the laser bars, his long fingers touching it delicately, while he himself leaned even closer to their hapless captive, his smirk growing wider and more sadistic with every astrosecond.
“For some reason, your own oh-so-righteous, holier-than-thou faction throws you out for us to take,” he remarked. “Soundwave decides to investigate… And the results of his investigation are deemed so shocking that not only he denies me – even me – any knowledge of the subject, but he’s utterly given up on you. His investigation appears closed, and its results burnt and buried…”
Now only one of Hook's fingers was resting on the wall, tracing it slowly like a caress.
“Soundwave’s given up on me?” Inferno repeated, a new hope ignited within the ashes of his disillusioned spark. “Does it mean that you guys are setting me free?”
Then and there, Hook’s smirk got upgraded to a full sardonic smile, quashing all this new-formed hope.
“No.”
“Ah…” Inferno swallowed hard. “What’s going to happen to me then?”
Now, there were two fingers caressing the wall in Inferno’s vicinity.
“It depends,” the evil medic said. “On me.”
“O… On you?”
Without breaking his menacing optic contact even for an astrosecond, Hook gracefully raised his head and slowly brought it down in a nod.
“Soundwave has given up on you,” he repeated, his voice silky and full of promise. “He’s giving you to me instead.”
Inferno felt like drained from all his energon, left motionless and unable to react.
No… No… Nonononono, somebody please tell Soundwave to take him back, he wanted back, back, back!
“He wasn’t very specific with his orders either,” Hook reminisced, turning his gaze to his fingers tracing lines on the wall, something dreamy in his demeanour. “In laymech’s terms: he allowed me to do with you whatever the Pit I like.”
Shivering, Inferno exvented.
“Take you apart. Use for testing. Vivisect. Borrow to Mixmaster. Borrow to Scrapper. Borrow to Mixmaster and Scrapper simultaneously… Everything goes,” Hook explained sweetly casting his murderous optics on Inferno again, his smile radiant with poisonous energy. “Whenever you’re ready, Inferno… Or not.”
“Aargh…” Inferno tried to say something, with the sinking feeling that it would be all for nothing anyway. Then, something occurred to him and he suddenly found words.
“You’re an engineer, Hook!”
Taken aback, Hook straightened up, his smile vanishing. He clearly needed a moment to find his footing in this abruptly changed conversation.
“Yes… I am, indeed, an engineer. Thank you for pointing it out,” he concurred, the corners of his cruel mouth rising slowly. “Your ability to remember key information about your high-profile enemies is truly impressive. It’s hard to fathom why the Autobots would cast out one of the smartest among their ranks,” he mocked which was way better than previous threats.
“I mean… I may need your assistance,” Inferno blurted out without thinking. Maybe he’d finally get his answers!
“Medical assistance?” Hook asked, flashing him a grin and a blade of a laser scalpel.
“N-no…” Inferno tried to ignore the horror and to compose himself. “You see, this… All of this started this morning, when I helped Red Alert clean his office and he was getting rid of lost and found items no one ever claimed… He gave me one such device and said I can keep it. But we had no idea what it is, so I first came to Huffer to ask him for his professional opinion, but Huffer only smiled and said he didn’t know. Then I came to Grapple to ask him, and he saw the device and got absolutely crazy angry with me, never seen him like that before… He told me to get out so I went to Wheeljack to ask him. He looked at the device and… Got mad and ordered me out of his laboratory at gunpoint! After that, I decided to just get rid of the thing and stop asking… But I then got apprehended by Ironhide and Red Alert. They took me outside deep into the woods, proclaimed me fugitive stripped of factional rights and told me to never show my face in the Ark again or every Autobot would be entitled to kill me… So, I left. I didn’t make it far when I came across Astrotrain and Brawl and learned from them that my… Former faction practically told you that I’m here, free to take and defenceless, so they caught me and took me to the Nemesis. On our way to the Nemesis Brawl wanted to know why they would do this to me, so I told him what happened and he wanted to see the device. He said that maybe he could tell what it actually is. So, I gave it to him, he looked at it… And then got absolutely crazy mad at me and started chasing me through Astrotrain’s cargo bay trying to get to me and kill me… If Astrotrain hadn’t transformed mid-air and let him fall into the ocean, I wouldn’t make it. Then I was taken to Soundwave for interrogation, exactly as planned. I told him what happened to me up to this point and he wanted to see the device. I gave it to him, he looked it over… And got absolutely mad at me and destroyed the interrogation table trying to get to me! If it hadn’t been for Astrotrain accidentally popping in, your Third in Command would probably tear me to shreds! But he didn’t and instead ordered Astrotrain to take me here, and that’s how I gotten myself into this cell to have this charming conversation with you.”
Hook’s optical ridges appeared drawn together in thought.
“Do you still have the device?” He asked matter-of-factly, so differently than before. Intrigued by an engineering mystery, he seemed professional and almost, almost non-threatening. “Give it to me, I’d like to have a look.”
Inferno was already reaching into his arm compartment when he remembered a key detail.
“But… So far, everyone who saw it got terribly angry with me,” he reminded the Constructicon. “What if you’ll get angry as well?”
“Because of some pathetic Autobot device?” Hook asked, exasperated. “You think that something so insignificant would be enough for me to lose my temper?”
“Well, it was enough for others…”
“It was enough for idiots, paranoiacs and Autobots, not for the Constructicon Second-in-Command, Decepticon Chief Medical Officer and for Devastator’s Head,” Hook corrected him haughtily. “Don’t take me for some softspark who can’t take whatever my enemies can throw at me… Don’t you dare insult me like that,” he warned, his hand reaching between the bars open and expectant. “I’ve seen, done and been through more than you could possibly dream about, ex-Autobot. The device. Now.”
Slowly, Inferno took the small thing out and put it on the green palm. Then, he watched in suspense.
Hook brought the device to his scrutinizing optics, looked it over pedantically, pressed the button on its top and watched the tiny antenna emerge and hide again…
And he chucked the thing at Inferno, as if it was something incredibly disgusting. Inferno caught it reflexively and instantly stashed. Knowing what was happening but still unsure what to expect, he slowly looked up at Hook from behind the laser bars.
Hook was seething, his crane arm raising and hook swinging on its line in a jolt of emotion.
“You repugnant, loathsome, Primus-forsaken wretch!”
“I told you you’ll get mad…” Inferno sighed quietly.
Suddenly, he noticed that the Constructicons stopped stripping walls and were fast approaching. At the same time, the click of buttons pressed by Hook and the hiss of his laser bars were pretty telling. Terrified, Inferno tried to brace himself for the impact.
His cell opened and the furious Constructicons poured inside.
Inferno was quite sturdy. He could survive fire, traffic and fighting. But this ambush… There was no way. Bent, bleeding, torn and lacking a part here and there, he made up his mind and resurfaced his ladder. Predictably, all his attackers concerned their efforts on the new thing, giving him the opening he needed. Like a lizard leaving its tail behind, Inferno ran away leaving his torn off ladder with the enemy. The Constructicons’ collective wrath seemed so great and blind that they didn’t even notice that Inferno was gone; they were continuing their attack regardless.
Based on his knowledge about the Nemesis layout, Inferno took several turns, boarded several lifts and there he was next to the tower, getting ready to ambush whoever was a guard there at the time. But he tripped on a little step and faceplanted right into lowered tower’s opening doors. Trying to get up, he onlined his sole functioning optic and right in front of himself he could see three sets of long shapely legs with high thruster-heels.
Oh, no. Exactly what he needed right now.
“Well, well, well,” he heard Starscream’s sickeningly pleased drawl. “The searching party haven’t even set their foot in the Nemesis and the lost little ‘Bot is already found – how fortuitous is that?”
“Searching party?” Inferno managed to lift himself on his elbows. Still, from his floor-bound perspective, the Seekers’ protruding cockpits were obscuring their faces. Well, given what kind of faces they would usually make to their prisoners, maybe nothing of value was lost. Their awfully satisfied voices with sadistic undertones were enough to know his situation.
“But of course… Where are our manners? Room for our unexpected not-exactly-Autobot guest!”
Two white, two black and two blue feet moved further into the tower's inferior.
“Now – come in, Inferno! Or crawl in. Whatever suits you better. Rumble, as soon as he’s inside, send us back up!”
“‘K, ‘Screamer!” Came Rumble’s call from the confines of the tower-adjacent control room. “Don’t drop ‘im too soon!”
Drop him too soon?… Why would they be taking him to the surface? Well, whatever it was, staying in the Nemesis would be probably far worse an idea. Inferno managed to raise to all fours and entered the tower’s chamber in a steady pace – not too sluggish, not too eager, not too healthy-looking. He wasn’t feeling healthy anymore – not after taking abuse from the entire gestalt, separated or not. As the tower’s door beeped closed behind him, he got to the wall and tried to sit and then stand.
“Alright, we’re up,” Starscream commented when the chamber opened around them, letting them feel the ocean breeze and splashes of salty waves. “Skywarp, do your magic.”
“Huh?” Inferno flinched when Skywarp grabbed his arm while Starscream and Thundercracker grabbed their trinemate’s shoulder vents. “Where are you-”
Wop!
“-taking me…?”
Looking around, Inferno found himself in a dried riverbed – a structure in front of him impossible to mistake for anything else.
“Are you sending me to Cybertron?” Clueless, he wondered how his initial horrible sentence could be changed like that without some horrible strings attached. Having nothing to return to, having no possibility of returning – what was awaiting him back home?
“Yep,” Skywarp concurred, informative as always, as Starscream went over to a small operating station to set the spacebridge up.
“Megatron’s orders,” Thundercracker added.
“He got involved?” Inferno felt dizzy. How, starting with such a small thing…
“Yeah, eventually,” Skywarp chuckled. “Heard what’s happenin’ and got kinda fed up with you.”
“Apparently, you’re such a big abomination that you can’t stay on Earth anymore,” Thundercracker elaborated, thoughtfully kicking some dirt and checking what stuck to his thruster.
“So we’re sendin’ you to Shocks to deal with, ‘cause nobody likes that one-opticed creep,” Skywarp added cheerfully.
Alright, that was it. There was no escape for him if he ended up with Shockwave on Cybertron. Save for a highly improbable scenario with a UFO of some kind deciding to appear and abduct him.
“And what is Shockwave supposed to do with me?”
The two Seekers shrugged.
“Up to him, I guess.”
“Yep.”
“And… What does he usually do with enemy captives when it’s ‘up to him’?”
“Dunno… All kinda things.”
“Depending on his mood, I guess.”
“Maybe he won’t even kill you,” Skywarp smirked nastily. “At least, not right away…”
“He’s creepy enough to do that,” Thundercracker turned his optics to Starscream’s back, as if… He was feeling sorry for what was about to happen to the former Autobot.
Sighing, Inferno discreetly looked around. There was no way he could escape. Maybe he should just try, or try resisting, in hopes that the fliers would simply gun him down and save him from possibly much worse destiny…
Before he even started formulating a plan, Starscream was back.
“Alright, everything’s set, and Shockwave should be on the receiving end by now,” he announced and turned his villainous optics to their captive. “Say Goodbye‘ to this mudball, Inferno, you won’t be seeing it again.”
“Uh-huh…” Inferno acknowledged, painfully trying to shift his weight from one injured leg to the other. “Whenever you’re ready, mechs.”
“He totally gave up on livin’!” Skywarp whispered dramatically to Thundercracker, who swatted his shoulder vent impatiently and turned to his trine leader:
“The sooner we’re done, the sooner it’s done, Starscream.”
“Sure, sure,” Starscream waved at them to move and placed himself directly in front of Inferno. “But first…”
“You want to know what is all this about?” Came Inferno’s grave voice.
“Um, yes… Seeing how everybody else refuses to give me any details, that would be preferable.” Starscream ostensibly raised his arm, the null ray launcher pointing at him. “If you don’t mind, of course.”
“If I don’t mind?” Inferno asked weakly. “Why, sure I mind! Everybody wants to know it and that’s where my trouble comes from… But sure, I can tell you all about it. ‘S not like I had a choice, right?”
“Huh?” Skywarp raised his optic ridges. “You got yourself into all this just by talkin’?”
“Alright, former Autobot,” pretty much like Soundwave and Hook, Starscream displayed an irritating precision with his terminology – as if Inferno’s non-Autobottism was already a wide-known and well-established fact. “You’ve got my attention. Tell me what you’ve told everyone else and we’ll see what happens.”
“We have to get him to Shockwave in one piece, remember?” Thundercracker reminded him. Starscream shrugged.
“He will be in one piece, all living, kicking, and screaming. Now, Inferno – I’m waiting.”
Having, indeed, no choice in the matter, Inferno in-vented and exvented heavily. Something loose rapped inside his vents.
“Well… Oh, Primus, it all started this morning! I helped Red Alert clean his office and in the end, he gave me one of the lost and found objects nobody ever claimed saying I can keep it. But we had no idea what that device was, so I came to Huffer to ask for his professional opinion. But Huffer only smiled and said he didn’t know and to ask Grapple. So I took it to Grapple, he looked at the device, turned it on and off, and went absolutely unhinged with anger. He told me to get out, so I got out and came to Wheeljack’s laboratory to ask him about the device. Wheeljack looked it over, checked it and got furious and forced me out at gunpoint… I decided to stop asking and just get rid of the thing later, but then Ironhide and Red Alert arrested me and escorted outside, into the woods. There, they told me that I’m no longer an Autobot with factional rights and to better go away and never return because from now on every Autobot would be entitled to kill me on sight…. So I left. And it turned out that my… Former High Command notified your High Command about my… Availability for whatever you’d like doing to me and I got apprehended by Astrotrain and Brawl. And when I was on my way to the Nemesis, Brawl wanted to know why my own faction was treating me like that. So, I told him what happened earlier today, and he wanted to see the device because maybe he would be able to tell what it actually is. I showed it to him, he looked it over… And got absolutely wild with fury! He started chasing me inside Astrotrain’s cargo bay, and I’m sure that if Astrotrain hasn’t transformed mid-air and lost him into the ocean, I would get torn to shreds! Then, Astrotrain took me to the Nemesis and Soundwave immediately took me in for interrogation. So, having no choice, I told him everything that happened up to this point… And he requested to see the device. I gave it to him, I simply had to… And after seeing it he got overcome with a horrific, violent fury like nothing I’ve ever seen – he completely destroyed the interrogation table trying to get to me! If it hadn’t been for Astrotrain mistakenly coming in, I would be torn to shreds, I’m sure of it! Seeing Astrotrain, Soundwave calmed down somehow and sent me to the brig. In the brig, I encountered the Constructicons doing some repairs, or maintenance, or I don’t know what. And then, Hook revealed to me that Soundwave gave up on me… That he learnt about me something so horrific that he wanted me just gone, dead and buried… And Hook wanted to know why Soundwave would do something like that. So, I told him about all the things that happened earlier today and, in the end, he wanted to see the device… I couldn’t really refuse a CMO with a laser scalpel, so I gave it to him. He examined it, turned it on and off… And he got absolutely furious and, by extension, so did the remaining Constructicons. They opened my cell and ambushed me, completely crazy and dead set on beating me into a pulp. I managed to escape, leaving my ladder behind, and then met you and ended up in this place.”
The three Seekers were staring at him big-opticed.
“Whoa…” Skywarp was shaking his head. Thundercracker was simply staring.
Starscream was wearing that thoughtful expression Inferno was wary of, before he asked the dreaded question:
“Do you still have this device, or have they confiscated it?”
“I still have it,” he gave a simple answer.
“Show me,” the Decepticon Air Commander demanded. “I want to see what’s that.”
“And how will you know?” Inferno asked dismissively before he stopped himself. “Are you an engineer or something?”
“Yes,” Starscream replied curtly, glaring at him with burning hatred in his treacherous optics. “In case you didn’t know, I don’t just take alien lifeforms home and dissect them for fun. I participate in designing and assembling Decepticon weapons, equipment, bases, spacebridges, I also built Bruticus with nothing but human army junk,” he enumerated. “So, in case you haven’t caught up yet – yes, I’m an engineer. The one who designs. The one who invents. The one who knows his devices.”
“But he dissects alien lifeforms as well,” Skywarp felt compelled to add.
Starscream glared at Thundercracker. Thundercracker backhanded Skywarp for him.
“Oh… I see,” Inferno murmured, not pleased at all.
“The device,’ Starscream demanded. The prisoner slowly produced and handed it to him.
Starscream looked the thing over with interest, pressed the button on its tip and watched the small antenna rise and descend. Then, with a shriek, he chucked the device as if it burnt him.
Inferno was already scrambling backwards on his injured legs to be as far from Starscream when this would happen as possible.
“You slimy, gritty, abhorrent glitch!” Starscream growled, accompanied by the whizzing of null rays getting onlined. “I lived my life, I travelled through Universe and never, ever had I encountered… You shouldn’t live. You shouldn’t’ve been constructed… You shouldn’t exist!” He raised his left hand, the launcher thrumming, his vents labouring, his wings shaking, his optics fiery like two deadliest smelting pools, his raging fury making him absolutely terrifying and oddly beautiful. “I’ll see to it, Autobot – I’ll see to it now!”
Oh, well… Not the worst possible end, all things considered. Goodbye, cruel world. Goodbye, cruel Optimus Prime. Goodbye, you thrice fragged slagger who’d lost that slagging piece of scrap for Red Alert to find, hopefully the rest of your life would be solely comprised of legos and rust.
Wop! There was Skywarp behind Starscream. Wop! There was no Starscream (not to mention no Skywarp.)
“Alright,” Inferno felt Thundercracker’s hand on his back. “I knew it’s going to end up like that, I just knew… Oh, well. We’ve got things to do. On the spacebridge you go!”
“You’re sending me to Shockwave?” Inferno asked weakly. Why, Starscream’s null rays would be preferable!
“Yeah.”
Inferno looked him over to an extent his sole functioning optic allowed. Surely, Thundercracker wasn’t Starscream. Instead of an engineer, he was… He was… For some reason Inferno wasn’t able to come up with any function but a “lofty afthole”.
“And you’re sure you can do it without your Air Commander?” Couldn’t you just kill me here instead?
“Yeah,” Thundercracker gave him a firm push. “I’ll contact Shockwave and he’ll walk me through, don’t you worry about it. The sooner it’s done, the sooner you’re gone.”
Inferno couldn’t argue with this logic. Resigned, he set off, stopped when Thundercracker demanded, resumed walking when he was ordered to… And with a flash of light and a pang of a nauseating feeling he was standing in Shockwave’s control centre on Cybertron surrounded by Shockwave’s armed drones, Shockwave himself pressing the last buttons before getting up from the console and coming to him.
“Former Autobot Inferno,” he addressed the new arrival.
We’re off for a great start, Inferno thought bitterly when bowing his helm in submission.
“Present,” he forced out. “Base commander Shockwave,” he acknowledged in the way of greeting.
“I was told that you turned out to be...” Shockwave hesitated, clearly checking his orders again. “An abomination no one on Earth could stand, bringing dissent, havoc and misery wherever you dared to show and are, therefore, sent here for containment and for whatever I’ll see fit. Hmm...”
He gave Inferno a good long expressionless one-opticed look.
“I might be a little out of touch, won't deny it, but... Maybe you're looking a bit worse to wear but I wouldn't call you an abomination nobody can stand. And wreaking havoc and sowing dissent... Wasn't your main job putting out fires or something like that?”
“It was, sir,” Inferno admitted timidly.
“And they still got rid of you? Weird,” the planet guardian said more to himself than to Inferno. “Are the things on Earth really that exciting that old-fashioned fires aren't a concern anymore?”
“It's...” Inferno tried to speak and his vents hitched wailfully. Let's get it over with...
“Yes?” Shockwave was looking at him, probably expectantly. Was he angry or impatient? He wasn't sounding like that. Maybe a bit standoffish, maybe a little curious, maybe, generally, a tad resigned. Maybe he wouldn't erupt into fury like the others...
“It's... I have no idea why but it all happened because of one little thing I had, one little mysterious device...”
“A device?” Shockwave’s optic appeared brighter than earlier. But of course… “Tell me more about it. I want to know everything about this alleged reason for your exile to Cybertron.”
“As you wish” Inferno agreed, resigned to whatever would happen next. Sinking to his knees after his injured legs finally had given way beneath him, he got to his tale: “Only I know next to nothing about it... It all started today morning when I helped Red Alert clean his office and he ended up giving me one of the lost and found objects nobody was looking for. Only, we didn't know what it was so I took it to Huffer to ask for his professional opinion but when he saw the thing he simply smiled and said he didn’t know either and to go ask Grapple or Wheeljack instead. So I went to Grapple and showed him the device. He looked it over and, suddenly, got so angry with me that I couldn’t believe my own optics. He ordered me out, so I got out and finally went to ask Wheeljack what he thinks. Wheeljack took the device, looked it over, got mad and ordered me out, keeping me at gunpoint! Then, I decided to stop asking and throw it away later, it seemed nothing but trouble… But I was stopped by Ironhide and Red Alert who grabbed me and escorted out, into the woods, where they abandoned me and told me to leave forever, for I wasn’t an Autobot with Autobot rights anymore and every ‘Bot who’d catch me in the Ark’s vicinity will be allowed to kill me. So, I set off for my banishment, when Astrotrain and Brawl came along and captured me. They revealed to me that the Autobot High Command actually informed the Decepticon Command about my status and invited them to try and catch me! I couldn’t understand it, and neither could they. Brawl particularly wanted to know what the heck was going on, so I told him about things that happened to me so far and he asked to see the device. Because he builds weapons and whatnot and knows a bit about various devices and maybe would be able to help identify what my device is. So, I gave it to him, he looked it over, turned it on and off… And all of a sudden he got so angry that he went into a mad rampage! He started chasing me around Astrotrain’s cargo bay and if Astrotrain hadn’t suddenly transformed and let him fall into the ocean, I’m absolutely positive that I wouldn’t be in one piece now, or even in only one hundred pieces… Astrotrain took me to the Nemesis, just like planned, and Soundwave got down to business with me in the interrogation room. He wanted to know why my… My former Autobot Command would treat me like that, so I told him about everything that happened to me today up to that point. After that, he wanted to see the device, and I had no choice but to give it to him. He promised not to get crazy mad at me, you see, but…”
Inferno shivered.
“But he went so crazy that he totalled the interrogation table when going after me! If it hadn’t been for, again, Astrotrain popping in, your respected Third in Command would tear me to shreds with his bare hands, I’m sure of it! Seeing Astrotrain, he somehow changed his mind and ordered me into the brig. In the brig, sitting in my cell, I could see the Constructicons doing something with cables in the wall, and they in turn could see me. Hook came over to me and informed me that Soundwave wasn’t going to investigate my case any further and simply decided to give me to him, to do with me whatever the Pit he felt like… And Hook wanted to know why Soundwave would do such a thing, so I told him about everything that happened to me today up to this point. This, of course, got him interested and he requested to see my device. Refusing my future tormentor didn’t seem wise, so I gave it to him. He said that he’s too good to fall for its tricks and get mad at me, but guess what, he went absolutely mad at me. And, gestalts being gestalts, the rest of his team immediately got mad at me as well. They opened my cell and ambushed me, clearly hating me so much that they wanted to obliterate me… But, thankfully, they ended up tearing my ladder off and I managed to escape. I ran to the exit tower, even though I didn’t have any clear idea of what I will do once I get to it, but this problem solved itself: I practically bumped into Starscream’s trine. They were ordered by Meg… By Lord Megatron to bring me to the spacebridge and send me here to you, commander… Of course, they were curious why I was suddenly not wanted on Earth anymore, by anyone. So, I told them what happened to me prior to them taking me from the Nemesis to the spacebridge. Only, I freaking forgot that Starscream is an engineer as well and will get interested in seeing the cursed little thing. You don’t refuse someone with null rays and Starscream’s temper so I, of course, complied. He reassured me that he’s too smart to get mad at me, or something, but guess what, commander Shockwave, sir… He totally did! However, Skywarp warped him somewhere else before he got to finish me off, and Thundercracker, with your help or so I was told, managed to successfully send me here to you, commander. So, here I am. And I still have no fragging clue why any, not to mention all of it, had actually happened…”
“Hm!” Shockwave shook his head, not having a lot more in terms of expression. “It sounds absolutely fascinating. Normally reasonable or, well, stupidly nice mechs getting murderous and violent after, or due to the contact with your device... And nobody thought about studying it...”
“Everyone thought about it,” Inferno disagreed in despair. “They studied it and then they ended up crazy!”
“Yes, right...” Shockwave stroke his probably-chin. “Show me this device.”
Inferno decided to try reasoning with him, this one final time.
“But, sir... What if you'll get mad and start chasing me, trashing the entire place in the process? You’ll be left without your base, and Cybertron without its defences…”
“Your reservations are unnecessary,” Shockwave ensured. “Hundreds of thousands of vorns spent alone have taught me self-control. My emotions don't govern me, Inferno. I rarely lose my cool. And an engineer of my standing might be what it takes to finally resolve this mystery. Wouldn't you like seeing it solved at long last, my mech?”
Resistance was futile. He knew he couldn't deny the new master of his destiny. He knew he wanted it – either a final peace after falling victim to Shockwave’s fury or an actual solution to the riddle that, so far, had thoroughly ruined his world.
Slowly, Inferno reached into his arm compartment, ready to produce the device and give it to Shockwave to examine.
“Oh,” he said after a moment. “I think that I've lost it…”