The High Road: Part 7
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 SEVEN
Dusty had just dropped down to the floor from the Whiplash's cockpit when a foxbot femme dashed from the repair ship and wrapped her arms around Dusty's waist. The dingo femme gave a small yip of surprise as Phyphen babbled, then just looked bemused as the foxbot suddenly dived behind her.
"Umm... 'kay then..." One look at Burnout convinced Dusty there were better places to be than between him and the foxbot, so she quickly leapt up onto her starfighter's wing and started examining the engine mounts, trying to look busy.
Phyphen glanced behind her and realised that she was without a shield. The young bot took a cautious step forward and looked up at Burnout. She gave him a weak smile.
He did not look pleased.
Burnout slowly took in a breath and let it out as he looked down at the fox-bot. His expression slackened a bit, but he was still clearly miffed. Turning to Dusty, he nodded to her.
“Thanks for bringing in the repair ship. This boat’s headed to Cybertron right now, so either leave or hang on for the ride. I don’t care as long as you don’t screw around with anything you shouldn’t.”
That brought him back to Phyphen. Her smile devolved into her simply clenching her teeth, waiting for whatever tongue-lashing she’d be getting. However, without uttering a word, Burnout simply took her tightly around the upper arm and directed her out of the bay and back to the bridge.
Through the corridors leading to the bridge, the cat-bot didn’t let go of her arm, it was beginning to hurt. She glanced up at him a couple times, but his optics were steadily affixed on the path before them and didn’t bother even to look down at her.
Back on the bridge, Burnout let go of her arm and pointed to a chair. “Sit.” He tried to make his words as firm as possible, but not angry or harsh, like he imagined a father would talk to his kid. Sure enough, it worked. The small vixen rubbed her arm as she sat down in the chair, put her hands in her lap, and stared down at the deck plating between her feet.
“We’ll discuss this later.” He said, causing her to look up at him then quickly back down at the floor.
Retro turned his head slightly and addressed his best friend. “Hey Burn, I got a Pred warship ready to blast us out of the sky over here. Just thought you wanted to know.”
“Yea. Ok.” The fuzor’s whole attitude changed as he took his seat at the main console. “Do you have those engines ready?”
A jolt of light flashed across the bridge and the whole ship shook. Rita, who was standing next to him, almost lost her footing, but grabbed onto a support beam above them to steady herself.
The Xavior’s shields rippled from the occasional blasts of energy that managed to hit them. Luckily, the majority of the shots missed their ship completely.
“Ok, ready for Induction jump. Whatever the hell that is.” Retro confirmed.
“Just go!” Burnout shouted, watching the shield gauge drop rabidly.
From the warship’s position, they could see several panels open on the freighter’s hull. Strange emitter things came out of those holes and started shooting what looked like shimmering water out ward. The negative matter swirled around the ship like a cylinder, swirling ever faster as time progressed.
Whatever they could shoot at the small ship was doing absolutely nothing. Before they could get missles ready for fire, the ship before them seemed to slip out of the sheath of negative matter and vanish. The cilinder too swirled and died out.
**On the bridge of Pred ship**
“WHAT THE HELL?!”
**Back on Xavior**
As Retro sat back, relieved, in his chair, Burnout looked at Rita, who stumbled and fell into his lap some time during the firefight. He of course wrapped his hands around her to keep her safe. Now that they were in what seemed to be a subspace wormhole, he smiled at her. “You can get off me now.”
“Mmm?” Rita turned and smiled at him. “And what if I don’t want to?”
Burn shrugged and shook his head. “You wont get any complaints from me.”
Relic was watching his inhibitor intake carefully... normally he avoided cybertronian ale because he felt he needed his senses sharp... but he didn't see himself going anywhere soon... still that tell tale bur was beginning at the back of his head.
"I think that's about enough..." the assassin paused suddenly as he saw a familiar figure traipsing down the hallway towards him... a small familiar figure.
"Um... Querion, Mimi... would you excuse me for a moment... I need to have a... personal... talk."
Querion looked at Relic for a moment then rose to his feet with Mimi. The wolf-bot hoisted his mug in a camaradic salute then wandered down the hall with Mimi in tow.
Meanwhile, Catfish was approaching the force field. Relic smiled softly at her.
"Hello, little one."
"Uh... huh. Think I will stay 'round a bit, things look interesting..." Dusty muttered to herself as she watched Burnout leave with Phyphen in tow, then spotted Vinoc nearby. "He always like that?"
Vinoc turned to the black starfighter with the white and copper bot sitting idly on the wing, swinging her legs and watching him with a raised browplate. "Who, Burnout?"
"Yeah, tall dark'n'cranky." Dusty nodded after the departed Burnout and grinned slightly. "Charming fellow, that one. Captain?"
Fortunately, it didn't have to go far. Giggling like a lunatic, Catfish hopped, spun, and danced across Mandrake's broad armored back in pursuit of what appeared to be a collection of lights trailing behind a hovering loop of fiberoptic material. Every time she seemed to get close to grabbing it Mandrake's tail would twitch slightly, and the glittering little comet would hare off in another direction. Mandrake's own basso chuckles rumbled in counterpoint to Catfish's higher pitch, causing his back to heave about with every breath, thus adding to the difficulty of capture.
Catfish however, was more than game for the challenge.
Timber tapped on the table pensively for a moment.
"Even a wolf knows how to play..." she said. "I tell you what... I've been waiting to get of Gaiana for years, and see some of the universe... especially Cybertron." Timber's eyes go distant and a smile crosses her lips as she thinks of it. "When we get there, we can take a break, you show me around town, give me the tour, get into a little trouble."
Timber smiles, revealing her pointed teeth, giving what otherwise might have been a mischievous smile a certain predatory air. "But since we know that the resistance will just fall apart without the two of us around," the two young women shared a laugh over that. "I'll grab a comm and we'll keep in contact... If Rhapsody needs me, I'll be honest... I'm probably going to go back... and... you can make your decision then."
Timber pauses and cocks her head, looking at the courier.
"What do you think hon?"
Phyphen sighed and dropped her head. 'It could have been alot worse...' she thought to herself... 'I got off easy, I betcha he's not done yet though. I'm probably gonnas get the *How could you be so careless!* speech' Phyphen sighed again.
Being stuck in the ship had given her alot of time to think... especially about how she was going to stay with them... because her home was too far away. And wasn't really her home anymore. As well as ... it appeared the people here cared about her... to a degree.
The young bot made the decision that she was going to listen to Burnout and behave. At least until she got off the ship. A mischevious smile crossed the 'bots face.
Phyphen sat in the chair, kicking her feet back and forth, amusing herself.
For some reason she felt safer here... like she belonged.
'I wonder what happened to Dusty?' the child 'bot thought as she watched the Maximals work in the bridge.
Wraith had been in his room beating on the bag for hours, but he still didn't feel normal. Something had been gnawing at his gut like a hungry pitbull ever since Rhapsody left his quarters. He finally decided to put the bag aside, left his room, and walked briskly to Rhapsody's.
He knocked on the door and it slid open slightly. Peering inside, he saw that she was putting his holoprojector to good use. She had transformed her quarters into a peaceful forest and seemed to be sleeping under a tree. Wraith smiled at the sight and turned to leave, but Rhapsody spoke. "Yes?"
The young wolf stepped into the forest and closed the door behind him. "Listen, um..." Wraith seemed to have some difficulty speaking. "About what happened...in my room..." Rhapsody sat up and looked at him, waiting for him to finish. "Well...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that."
“Well,” Rita said, not moving, “Seeing as you’re not going anywhere this would probably be a good time to have a serious discussion about our relationship.”
Burnout froze like a deer in the headlights, an expression of horror clearly written on his face. He quickly got over the immobile stage of his shock and started squirming to get out.
“NO! I mean…I’ve got to…do…captain stuff.”
“Cool it Burn.” Rita leaned back, cutting off any means of escape, “I just want to know what you have in mind for when we get back to Cybertron.”
One of Retro’s ears perked up at those all too common, terrifying words, but he appeared to still be analyzing sensor readouts.
“Cybertron…” Burnout repeated. “Well. I guess I’ll stay with the group. At first I was in it for a reward, but I doubt I’ll be getting that now. This whole thing’s getting too big for my taste. But I cant do much, I’m wanted now, so I think me and my buddy here are gunna just wait it out and do what we can do to help. I guess when we get to Cybertron I’ll stick around.”
Satisfied with his answer, Burnout smiled at Rita, who didn’t seem as pleased. “I meant about ‘us’. That’s why my question was about our relationship.”
“Oh, um…” The fuzor haphazardly threw together another reply. Relationship-ese, not a language he was well versed in. “I guess when we get to Cybertron I can take more time to get to know you better, and you can get to know me better.” He scrambled for more words. “And…. develop a meaningful and wholesome relationship.” The second sentence came out more like a question as if he was taking a test, unsure whether he was saying the right answer.
A weak smile completed his utterly pathetic attempt at talking ‘relationship’ with Rita. He knew this because of the soft snickering coming from the vicinity of his second officer.
Rita smiled wryly at her captive.
"You're so adorably uncomfortable. It's cute." She scratched him under the chin like a house cat.
“Can I get up now?” Burnout asked in an attempt to avoid any further interrogation.
“I’ll think about it.” Rita informed him. She did so, going silent for a moment. “Okay, but only because I want the chair back.”
Graphics Provided by Riboflavin
