Chapter Seventeen
Out on the pavement, Sean dragged himself out of the debris. His gut instinct was to find a weapon and start fighting back. But seeing Frankie and Mac, he instead hurried over to help them climb free of the wreckage. Around them the street had turned into a war zone. Water fountained from a broken fire hydrant. Lying off to one side and close by, Bumblebee?s shattered lower torso trailed twisted metal. His legs were nowhere in sight.
?Bumblebee.? Frankie?s eyes widened in horror as the full extent of the damage to her friend became apparent. ?Oh, no. Somebody,
help!?
?Ratchet!? Mac called desperately.
Fighting, digging at the ground with his hands, the yellow-and-black torso struggled to drag himself over to where the Cube lay exposed and unprotected on the bare pavement. Under Sean?s direction, Sector Seven agents who were able to do so spread out to form a defensive cordon around the vital artifact.
Two blocks away, a Decepticon known as Blackout appeared, perching like a hawk on top of an undamaged building. The ground shook as a previously undetected Decepticon came running around a corner. Cloaked in the persona of an Abrams tank, it flattened unoccupied cars beneath its massive treads as it trundled forward. Transfixed and with nowhere to run, Frankie, Mac, Bloo, Wilt, Coco, and Eduardo could only crouch and stare.
A couple of the small-armed Sector Seven vehicles charged at the advancing tank, firing their mounted weapons. Instead of artillery shells, pulse blasts erupted from the armored behemoth. Both charging vehicles were hit, knocked engine-over-exhaust, to explode when they hit the ground.
As everyone looked on, the Abrams tank known as Devastator transformed, rising upward on two massive legs. But the head remained a turret. This pivoted toward them.
Something low and fast appeared behind the transformed tank, morphing even as it skidded forward. Transforming in midslide, Jazz leaped onto the hostile robot?s back and wrenched its torso backward as it fired. The pulse blast shot skyward, missing people and buildings alike. Spinning free, the smaller but more agile Jazz slammed the robot Devastator into a nearby structure just as Ratchet and Ironhide arrived. Transforming together, the three robots began to pound the single powerful Decepticon in their midst.
They were not alone. Seizing the opportunity, Sean led Sector Seven commandoes forward. Launchers were lifted and carefully aimed so as to avoid robotic allies. Miniature sabot rounds sped toward their target.
A massive pulse blast from an unseen source struck Jazz, knocking him to the ground and out of the fight. Looking upward, Sean and his comrades retreated as rapidly as they had just advanced. Something truly massive was coming around the corner: Megatron.
Bending over the injured Jazz, the dark metal monstrosity zeroed in on the damaged robot?s torso, reached down, and with piercing fingers
ripped out a flashing, flaring sphere of energy. His spark brutally extracted, Jazz went instantly immobile.
A moment too late, a second colossal machine arrived. Tearing through the fences that separated several of the surrounding buildings, the big diesel was transforming even as he raced forward.
Megatron saw Optimus Prime coming and transformed in reverse. But as the alien jet that Megatron became started to rise, Optimus stretched out both arms, took a single tremendous leap, and locked onto his ascending counterpart. The weight was too much. Both machines plunged downward, smashed into one building, and plunged to the street. Optimus rose immediately. As he stood, the enraged Megatron transformed again, back to his innate, intimidating, bipedal self.
?Hello, Brother,? the giant hissed.
Holding his ground, Optimus gazed evenly back at his peer. ?Hello, Brother.? Nothing else was said. There followed no further words, no elaboration, no nanosecond burst of sonic communication. There was nothing more. It was as though all the millennia that had vanished into time since their last physical encounter had never passed. They charged simultaneously and collided.
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Using his hands, Bumblebee had managed to drag himself over to the softly pulsing Cube. Recovering the device, he then pulled himself over to where Frankie and her friends crouched. When Frankie turned at the gentle metal touch, the robot placed the Cube in her hand, clearly urging Frankie to flee.
?No.? Moisture began to well up in Frankie?s eyes. ?I?m not gonna leave you.?
As had already been explained to them, they knew that the yellow-and-black robot did not have much to speak with. But by rechanneling an electrical impulse here, recalibrating output elsewhere, he managed to work around his long-destroyed vocal symbology. Managed to utter two words:
?Gggggooooo Fffffrrraaaannnnkkkkiiiieeee??
Above the hiss and roar of sabot rounds being fired and exploding, colliding metal, and crumbling infrastructure, the sudden thumping of multiple rotor blades suddenly made itself heard. Sean looked up. Army Black Hawks, several of them. Better late than never, he told himself. He hurried over to where Frankie was still standing next to the severely damaged Bumblebee.
Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a compact cylinder. ?Here?s a rescue flare.? He indicated the nearest building. ?Get up on that roof and signal one of the choppers?they?ll pick you up. Do not stop, do not look back?just go. You?re a solider now, Frankie. Everybody?s a solider until this is?over. Get that Cube out of the city. As far away as you can. Or a lot of people are gonna die here!?
Mac approached Frankie with a smile. ?I?ll help you out, Frankie. We?re all in this together.?
Frankie smiled back. Holding the Cube like a football for a big game, she and Mac turned and ran. A shadow loomed over them?Ironhide, providing cover for them. They hurried past cars that had been abandoned, past others that had been destroyed or were burning noisily.
A pulse blast struck Frankie and Mac?s bulky escort. The force of it blew Ironhide off his feet and into the side of a building on the far side of the street. Though Sean?s words echoed in Frankie?s brain, his admonition was unnecessary. Neither Frankie nor Mac had any intention of stopping.
But when the F-22 came rocketing down the avenue toward them and transformed on landing back into Starscream, Frankie and Mac had no choice. Their path was blocked, and not by rubble. Changing direction, they turned and raced up a narrower street. Behind them, the huge robot fired in their direction. Brick and rock and asphalt erupting all around them, the two humans could only yell wildly.
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Ignored by soldiers, agents, Decepticons, and Autobots alike, Bloo searched for some way to contribute both himself and Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco into the ongoing battle?he just couldn?t pass on a great opportunity to become a big hero. Parked in a nearby tow-away zone, a tow truck beckoned. Smashing the window with a chunk of concrete, Bloo climbed inside, while Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco just looked on.
?Bloo, what?re you doing?? Wilt asked. ?I?m sorry, but breaking into someone?s private property isn?t a good idea.?
Bloo turned to him with a deep glare. ?This is
war, my friend! There are no rules or boundaries over private property here! We must do what we can to help save this galaxy!? Hoping for keys, he found none in the truck. The same piece of broken roadway that had secured his entrance served to batter loose the ignition assembly. Bloo then stripped wires and brought them together, generating sparks that were followed by a throaty rumble as the engine finally turned over.
?Did Bloo just hotwire a truck?? Wilt asked.
?Si.? Eduardo replied.
?Coco. Coco. Coco. Coco.?
?I don?t know how everybody?s been learning this stuff lately.? Wilt remarked to Coco?s question.
END OF CHAPTER SEVENTEEN