A Special Touch
By: Sapphire
Part Three
Chapter Six
- Risk
Sinead released a long, weary sigh she'd been holding for some time. She hadn't wanted to let the others know how weak she'd been feeling, so as not to make them worry. Currently, she was in the shower. The bathroom was large with seven showers installed and one bathtub. It also had six toilets with nothing but metal panels between them (so if you walked in you could see who was bathing, using the toilet etc.) None of the showers had curtains (she figured Transformers didn't care much about human privacy) and they were all in very small cubicles with no racks for soap. Still, at least they were in cubicles. She was alone in the bathroom. Everyone had already washed up and gone to bed, but because she'd fallen asleep almost the instant she'd gotten into the sleeping hall, she awoke at three in the morning and decided to have a wash. It was nice and peaceful and there were no long waits.
There was one dull light that had to light the entire bathroom. It did a poor job so one had to be careful not to slip when crossing the room to get to the piles of towels on the floor.
Sinead enjoyed the warm water running down her aching body. It was soothing and calmed her down. Her hair was a matted mess before she came in here (she had a fright seeing herself in the bathroom's only mirror. All the action was no good for hair.) but now the water was cleaning it and she was straightening it with her fingers.
They'd been informed that there were large geysers so they had plenty of warm water. Therefore, she took the liberty of enjoying a long shower. Once she was finally satisfied, she shut off the taps and opened the cubicle door. She stood still in the dull light and stared at the room. It had been a quick job, setting this place up. The showers leaked a bit and the walls were fast getting moldy with the lack of waterproof paint. She shook her head gently and fetched a towel. The towels were dry and coarse and uncomfortable, but they were at least something to remind her of home. Everything here was so foreign that any homely item was kind on the eyes. She heard the door click open and she quickly wrapped the towel around herself.
Nurannoniel hobbled into the room, rubbing her eyes and yawning.
"Nurann," Sinead said, her voice sounded a little muffled in the steam.
Nurann turned towards her with slight surprise.
"Gosh, Sinead! What are you doing up at this hour?"
"Having a shower," Sinead chuckled.
Nurann nodded: "Yeah, I can see that."
"How's your leg? Should you be walking on it?"
Nurann gazed down at her bandaged leg with a little sigh.
"It's all right. Thankfully the teeth didn't puncture anything important. Pacer said it should heal up quickly. I'll be able to move again properly in a day or two. It's just...the skin hurts when I stretch it. I need to keep it still to let it heal. But I came here because I needed to use the bathroom."
"Oh, sorry. I'll hurry up... Just wish I had some clean clothes to get into," Sinead said, glancing at the pile of dirty clothes in the corner.
"Varyn suggested earlier that we wash our clothes in the bath and then leave them out to dry so they'll be clean in the morning. Pacer did that and she's sleeping in Hacker's robe, since Hacker has normal clothes underneath that."
Sinead shrugged: "I guess I could sleep in a sheet. Are there any left?"
"You can use mine. Skyfire said he felt hot in all his feathers, so he gave me his blanket," she giggled.
"Some of those modes must be awkward to sleep in, I'm sure!"
"I'll go fetch my sheet," Nurann said and popped outside. She came back with a soft white sheet in her arms which she handed to Sinead. She looked away politely as Sinead fashioned the sheet into a kind of dress.
"You can look now. I'm gonna wash these filthy clothes in the tub," Sinead said. She then froze: "Wait, didn't you need to use the bathroom?"
"Only to wash my hands. I haven't been able to have a wash, because of this darn leg. My hands still have some dried blood on them, and it was a real mission trying to get them washed when everyone was in and out of here, yelling at people 'not to look'!"
Sinead giggled knowingly and went to wash her clothes. Nurann hobbled over to a sink and washed her hands carefully.
"You missed all the adventure stories of today. We were all laughing at Starath's story of how Hacker was clinging to her during their first battle, asking her to fly her up if she needed to. It was funny, because Hacker forgot she had wings!"
Sinead grinned, shaking her head. "Silly thing."
"Hacker defended herself by saying that she still hasn't mastered flying with them. They are very big and hard to unfold with all those funny robes around her."
"She'll get the hang of it," Sinead said softly.
Nurann watched the young woman wash her clothes with grace and patience. She could tell by Sinead's body language that she was weary.
"I...I heard about your heroics today, Sinead."
Sinead glanced over her shoulder at Nurann.
"Heroics? What heroics?"
"How you cloaked Miss Special and Lady Venom and everything."
"It wasn't heroic. They did all the hard stuff."
Nurann didn't comment. There was no point in pushing Sinead's modesty.
"D'you think it's gonna be tough today? I mean, today we plant the bombs, although that's mainly your team's task...because once again they have your invisibility power."
Sinead pulled out her damp clothes and wrung the water out of them.
"Yes... I think it will be tough, but I also think we'll all make it through. It's a less confrontational mission than our previous ones. This one is meant to be stealthy."
Nurann turned to leave.
"Yeah, I guess. Bye Sinead."
"Bye Nurann."
She paused before she left the bathroom. "And Sinead?"
"Yeah?"
"Get some good rest. We're leaving at 5 am."
"Gotcha."
She left Sinead to her own private thoughts.
Pain. She experienced it a lot.
Sapphire rolled over uncomfortably, holding her sides. She'd always been troubled by pains and aches all over her body. She had a sudden sharp pain in her right side now. At first she used to think they were growing pains, but the doctors diagnosed them all now as being caused by stress. It was no surprise she was getting them now; she was the most stressed she'd been in... Well, this was a different stress. She was fighting to survive.
Not at this exact moment, though. At this exact moment, she was lying on a soft inflated mattress with a blanket over her. The pains usually struck hours after the main stress had passed. Today, it was four in the morning. She'd probably not be able to sleep again, but it didn't really matter. She'd had plenty of rest when they arrived at the tunnel. Everyone had been so exhausted from the morning's activities, they'd spent the whole day eating and sleeping. Their next mission had to happen in the early hours of the morning. In half an hour the team leaders would wake everyone up and dish out instructions.
"Sapph...are you awake?"
She opened her eyes and looked across at Starath, who was blinking in the dim light. A pale light was always shining, so people could see where they were stepping if they needed to go to any of the other rooms. It was brightened when everyone was awake.
"Yes."
Starath adjusted herself in her blankets and put her hands under her head.
"Are you scared?"
"No...just in pain. I have a sore side."
"From the battle?"
"No, just from stress. I have a wimp of a body."
Starath chuckled softly. The two girls stared at each other in the gloom.
"Are you nervous for today?" Starath asked gently.
Sapphire nodded slowly.
Starath reached out a hand and touched Sapphire's blanket.
"It's ok. We'll look out for each other."
"I know."
"Sapph, I--"
Starath's sentence was stopped abruptly as a pillow from her other side came crashing down on her head.
"Be quiet...I'm trying to sleep!" Lady Scale groaned.
Lady Scale retracted the pillow and nuzzled back into it. Starath half-smiled, half-frowned at Sapphire, who giggled quietly.
Sapphire nodded at Starath and closed her eyes, trying to get a few more minutes of rest. It was going to be a long day.
"I'll never let go..."
The whisper trembled through the air and dissipated as Pacerpaw opened her eyes. She yawned and stretched and glanced up at the large red digits of the electronic wall clock, mounted high up on the sleeping hall's roof. Fifteen minutes left before they were to depart for their missions. Time to get up.
It was a surprise to her that no one had worried about them all oversleeping and missing the departure time. She was the first one awake and so assumed the job of waking everyone up.
She walked toward Miss Special, gently shaking everyone in her path to various grunts and soft complaints. Finally she reached her. She leaned over to touch her shoulder. Miss Special lurched up and gripped her wrist sharply, the dull lights catching the fear in her eyes.
"Sara! It's just me...Pacer..."
She stared at her for a moment and then released her grip.
"I'm sorry," she swallowed as she got to her feet unsteadily. "I'm a little on edge."
Pacer nodded slowly. "I can see that. It's time to get everyone up."
Miss Special agreed with a brief nod and decided she'd get someone else to do the wake-up call. Lady Venom was already up and ready to move and agreed she'd be the one to tear everyone out of their slumber.
"RISE AND SHINE!!"
"Bite me!" came a call and Lady Venom laughed. Everyone was stirring in their blankets, grumbling and yawning.
"Wake up people! We've got ten minutes to get ready!" Miss Special shouted, slightly irritable.
Gradually the others arose and started fumbling toward their armour and weapons.
Miss Special walked over to Varyn, who was adjusting her helmet.
"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked tentatively.
"I'm fine," Varyn answered quietly.
"Right people! Listen up!" Varyn suddenly exploded.
"Team B is going to be busy setting the main explosives today. It has been agreed upon between Miss Special and I to use Team A as lookouts and scouts, to set up perimeters where Team B will be working. If necessary, we will provide cover fire for them and send them feedback on enemy movements. We don't want to go into this mission blind to enemy activities."
There was a murmured agreement.
"All right! My team, gather here. The rest of you move to the right and gather up with Miss Special."
She turned and said, softly, to Miss Special: "There you go. Good luck for today."
She moved off swiftly, leaving Miss Special staring after her, a frown growing on her face.
Skyfire's breath misted in the chilled air. The morning was still young and dark, with only a faint glow on the horizon. Beside him was Pacerpaw. The two were stationed atop a building, watching over the streets that lead up to Point Alpha - the main Alien supply route. Currently, it was quiet, but it was the silence before the storm. Very soon streams of trucks and tanks would be rolling down the road, delivering weaponry and energon to various stations in the city.
No radio contact was permitted, as the waves would surely be tracked by the enemy. So flyers were kept at high points, so that they could fly down to warn Team B members on the ground of any danger.
Each flyer had a partner, for added protection.
"It's so quiet up here," Pacerpaw breathed. The city was still and cloaked in shadow, only lampposts broke the darkness with little pools of light along the streets. The spectacular sunrise far to their right was beginning to inject limes and yellows into the velvet sheath of night.
"They'd better hurry," Skyfire mumbled. "It's not going to stay like this for long."
* * * *
Below, a third of Team B was busy concealing bombs along and in the roads. They were amazingly small and could easily be disguised among the small pieces of rubble that still littered the streets.
Dannn patted the last of his stash of bombs into the ground and brushed a little more dust over it. He looked up and saw the others bent at various points along the road, planting their lot.
His mini group consisted of himself, Lady Scale and Amber. Amber had taken the lead in showing everyone how to work the bombs and she was leader of their small division.
Dannn came up alongside her and whispered: "I'm done."
Amber nodded and stood straight, gently rubbing her hands together. "So am I." The both looked at Lady Scale as she rose to her feet, empty-handed and grinning. she gave them a thumbs up.
Amber beckoned that she join them and then turned to Dannn.
"Miss Special said as soon as we were done we were to head back to base. Let's not delay."
"I hope the others are having as successful a time as we are," Lady Scale said as she joined the group.
"I'll alert the watches that they can return with us," Dannn stated and took silently to the air.
"Don't jinx it, Lady Scale. We're not home yet," Amber sighed, her voice failing to mask her apprehension.
Lady Venom, Blackarachnia and Sinead were in a very different part of the city. Their mission was the most perilous, as they were to place bombs at the entrance to the road leading to the city's Military Base, where the leaders of the Aliens in this city were residing. There were plenty of guards and floodlights and detectors and beams all over the show. Getting anywhere near their destination had proved an arduous task.
Sinead had cloaked them only when absolutely necessary, as she needed to save her strength for the main part of the mission: the planting of the bombs.
"My legs are aching," Lady Venom thought grimly. The journey had been long and tedious and she had to do a lot of ducking, darting and diving. Finally, they turned he corner and the Military Base's huge dome lay before them. A wide stretch of road lay between them and the dome, with many, many patrolling guards and searching floodlights. She scrambled backwards behind the corner and into the other two to avoid one.
"Oof! Lady V!" Sinead protested in a sharp whisper. She looked down at her foot. "That's gonna form a bruise."
"What's the matter?" Blackarachnia asked.
"Almost got caught by a searchlight. We're gonna have to cloak now. It's only a matter of time before a patrolling guard turns this corner and finds us."
Sinead nodded and drew a deep breath.
"Right. You got the bombs ready?"
"All set," Blackarachnia replied. Lady Venom nodded.
"Okay."
The two of them fell under invisibility and Sinead focused on them as they moved off.
Lady Venom hurried along the road, a lump in her throat from the fear. Adrenaline surged through her veins and her legs began to tremble beneath her. Never in her life had she felt as alive as she did now. The bombs she carried fell under the same invisibility cloak as she and she planted them carefully, when she was sure no one was watching the spot. It'd look awfully suspicious to see the gravel move away by itself to make room for some invisible object.
On the other side of the road, Blackarachnia came up the gate itself, but dared not go any further. She had to do this quickly. Sinead couldn't keep them safe for long.
She slipped a sticky bomb underneath a cantilevered slab of cement on one of the older Cybertronian buildings lining the road. It was small enough not to be noticed, for now.
She was busying herself with her last bomb, which she was placing in a small, already formed hole in the ground, when something crashed into her.
She'd been so preoccupied, she failed to notice the lumbering patroller heading her way. He tripped and toppled over her, his hard, metal part jutting into her flesh and causing her to yelp in pain.
Lady Venom saw the transformer trip and knew instantly what must have happened.
She rushed across to where she imagined Blackarachnia was. As she arrived, all hell broke loose.
At that precise moment an alien guard had slithered down the side of the building that Sinead was hiding behind and wrapped a tentacle around her neck. She choked and spluttered, her arms waving as she felt herself being drawn towards her attacker. Her concentration was broken, and Blackarachnia and Lady Venom were exposed.
It seemed a thousand sirens sounded, a hundred lights were turned upon them and everything cascaded down around them. Lady Venom was kneeling beside her injured friend when she suddenly could see her. She'd been relying on feel before that.
"Oh, crap!"
Blackarachnia gasped in terror and Lady Venom pulled her close to her body. She noted miserably that BA's legs were cut and gouged and bleeding profusely.
"Sineeeeaaaad!!!" Lady Venom screamed but the noise was lost in the wail of sirens and the sudden thunder of a thousand bullets.
The eruption of noise sent a sickening sense of horror through Hacker and Sapphire.
They were meant to be Sinead's team's watchers, but they were unable to get as close as they would have liked to site they were working at, as it was heavily guarded. They'd spotted nothing suspicious from their viewpoint until it was too late.
The black, spider-like creature and only revealed itself and instant before Sinead was attacked. Hacker caught a glimpse of it before it too sheathed itself in transparency.
"Frigging heck!" Sapphire exclaimed, grasping at Hacker's arm.
"Look!"
Hacker narrowed her eyes to the point where Sapphire was gesturing at. Amid all the light and confusion in the distance, two small figured were huddled along the road. It could only be Lady Venom and Blackarachnia.
"They're caught!" Sapphire shrieked.
"What are we going to do?!" Hacker hissed, still cautious about blowing her own cover.
"The only thing we can do," Sapphire's voice trembled as she removed Hacker's robe to reveal her folded wings.
"Fight."
Only nine hundred meters away, Miss Special froze in mid-stride. She was on her way back to base, after completing her task with Kacheetah and Cheetra, when she heard the distant screams of sirens.
"Oh God, what was that?!" Cheetra said.
Miss Special closed her eyes, her face twisted with impending tears, frustration and fear.
A moment later, they opened with an adamant stare.
"Sinead's group are back that way. We must get to them."
Varyn, Sharpshot and Starath had been their watches and they were only a few meters back. Miss Special turned to face them.
"Starath, I need you to fly myself and Varyn. Then Kacheetah can take Sharpshot and Cheetra can follow on foot."
Starath nodded, understanding Miss Special's intent. She spread out her wings and allowed Miss Special to piggy back while she used her arms to carry Varyn. Despite the weight, Starath strained forward as fast as she could, while the others raced behind.
Lady Venom was built to hold out against attack. Her metal plated body was so strong it could reflect some of the toughest laser fire. But this much fire, in such intensity, was more than she could take.
It was fortunate for Blackarachnia to be near a wall when it all happened. Lady Venom knelt in front of her, protecting her from the barrage of gun and laser fire.
Blackarachnia protected her sides by shooting her finger pin-bullets at any attacker trying to get to her from left or right.
Lady Venom winced, feeling the metal weaken. Beneath it was soft, human flesh. A few more seconds of this pummeling and her plating would be worn away and she and Blackarachnia would be a goner. There was no point trying to move from this position. They'd never get far and moving would expose BA to attack. She unhooked the RPG launcher off from her back and with a final, defiant scream, let loose a rocket-propelled grenade. It smashed into a group of offending Transformers, but the explosion only knocked them off their feet. A grenade launcher was good against the soft, squishy bodies of some of the aliens here, but against metal it merely charred.
She was forced to drop the launcher as the strength in her arms failed her.
"I'm sorry, BA," she cried, knowing the pretty girl behind her could not hear her voice above the noise.
She gritted her teeth and waited for the end, too exhausted, too physically and emotionally depleted to fight back anymore.
There was a low boom and suddenly the force of attack on her weakened considerably. She turned to see Sapphire standing, hands cupped, sending off another enormous pulse of energy. Several transformers and one alien guard went flying back, crashing into others.
Behind her was Hacker, and they were standing back-to-back, one small force against a tumult of rage.
Lady Venom allowed a small flicker of hope and pride to travel through her, but it was quickly extinguished when the reality of the situation dawned upon her. Sapph could only manage a few blasts before she too was exhausted and Hacker's only defense were her wings.
"Get out of here!!" she screamed. "Sapph, it's a hopeless battle!!"
The next pulse traveled close to the ground and Lady Venom realized it might disable...or set the bombs off.
"SAPPH!! THE BOMBS!" she shrieked but her screams were drowned out.
A stray bullet hit the cantilevered slab as Blackarachnia's face turned towards it. In that split second before the explosion, she pushed Lady Venom to the ground and pulled her arms over her head.
Cheetra felt the ground beneath her shake and she almost lost her balance as she sprinted after Starath and Kacheetah.
"Oh no," she murmured as she continued forward.
Above, Miss Special yelled in anger and barely restrained herself from letting go of Starath in defeat. She felt terrible.
"Hang on, Miss Spesh. We're nearly there," Starath answered calmly, her face solemn, although Miss Special couldn't see it.
"Hurry, Starath!!" Varyn growled above the rush of the wind going past them.
Starath gave it her all and pummeled through the air.
Lady Venom couldn't believe she was alive. The explosion had destroyed a portion of the building and ruined a good chunk of the road, sizzled a few bystanders but it, amazingly, had not started a chain reaction and was far away enough not to affect them.
It didn't do much to calm the attackers and they resumed firing at both Sapphire and Hacker and Lady Venom and Blackarachnia. Lady Venom scrambled up to block BA again and let out a gut scream as a new kind of bullet hit her. It stuck in her, too. A long dart had pierced her worn metal and her skin and a hot fluid stung her arm. She pulled it out swiftly, cringing. Who knew what poison had entered her blood stream?
She glanced up to see Sapphire and Hacker get knocked down as she cried out in dismay. It was over. There was nothing more they could do.
She felt herself slump over Blackarachnia, protecting her to the last, and closed her eyes. A soft sensation settled over her, and the pain ceased. She was dying, there was no other explanation. She felt herself being lifted and suddenly became aware that the noise was growing distant. A cool breeze tickled her cheek and her eyes fluttered open to see the ground beneath her grow farther and farther away. Was she being taken by and angel? She could see the movement of feathers glide in and out of view and with what strength she had left she tilted her head.
A slow spreading smile lit her weary face. A warm, smiling face greeted hers.
"'Blaze. You're here," Lady Venom sighed.
Her old friend nodded and Lady Venom slipped into unconsciousness.
* * * *
Sapphire felt herself being yanked up and she swayed on her feet, feeling sick and hurt.
"Run, get out of here!" came a voice from behind.
As the dark speckled dots cleared from her eyes, Sapphire could see a frozen world ahead of her. All the transformers, all the aliens - they were still. No...they were moving, but very, very slowly. It was surreal to see bullets and flashes of laser gradually inching towards her. She turned to see a strange girl. She was clad in black from head to toe. She had a black, metallic armour around her and long, wispy ebony hair reaching down past her shoulders. Two orange eyes stared out of her pearl white face.
"Who are you?" she murmured.
The girl was holding an unconscious Hacker in her arms.
"You know me," she said with a smile and passed Hacker to her. Sapphire strained under the weight of Hacker's wings that, even though they were folded, made her awkward to hold.
Sapphire cocked her head.
"Wicked...Woman?"
The girl nodded.
"Explanations later. Now move! My slow-down power won't last long."
Sapphire moved off as fast as her battered body would allow her.
Wicked Woman sprinted across to a frozen Blackarachnia and took her in her arms.
With some relish, Wicked Woman said: "Jets, maximum burn!" and she tore into the sky seconds before the slow-down ended. The attackers below stood bewildered, as their enemy had suddenly disappeared.
Sinead struggled against the tightening grip around her neck, chest and stomach. It felt as if her insides were going to implode under the pressure.
She couldn't see her flailing arms and she couldn't see the tentacle legs wrapped around her body. She knew she was invisible and she knew that her friends weren't going to be able to find her unless she called for them. She couldn't breath, never mind yell for help. She didn't even know that if she were visible her face would be going blue.
The overwhelming desire for air was making her kick and thrash as much as she could. Suddenly, she remembered her sword. It was strapped in a sheath at her side. The tentacle was holding it down and she couldn't release the sheath. Her hands fumbled up as she the ground rushed below her. It was scuttling off somewhere with her, slowly killing her as it went on. It was probably going to show her corpse to its commanders to prove they had infiltrators. They didn't need proof of that, now. She knew when her concentration was cut, Lady Venom and BA were exposed. The regret struck a chord in her and with a sudden thrash, she managed to loosen the one tentacle enough that she could grip the handle of her sword. With an awkward twist of her arm, she drew it out and brought it down in the tentacle around her chest. The blade went right through and touched her own skin. Luckily it did not penetrate further. The creature reared and groaned and flashed into view, as did she. She brought the sword down again on the tentacle around her stomach and it let her go. She fell six feet onto the cold, metal top of a roof. She crawled forward, her eyes building, her chest heaving as she gasped for breath. She rolled onto her back and fended off a blow with her sword. A green spurt of blood sprayed on her face. It burned!!
Wiping her face with her sleeve, she stood to face her enemy.
It drew back. It was like a hairless spider with a flat head. It had a triangular crest and two probing, thin sharp pincers. It was a dirty mustard colour with three small black eyes that sparkled in the morning sun. She raised her sword and it scampered back, through the gap between two buildings and out of sight.
Whatever it was, its form was obviously not equipped for warding off metal blows. The aliens had inhabited Transformer shells, but some had remained in the forms of other alien races they had conquered. This one must have its uses, but fighting was not one of them.
She let loose a quivering sigh of relief and fell weakly to her knees. She lowered her head and closer her eyes a moment, allowing herself to calm down and rationalize. She'd been acting purely out of instinct and the will to survive. She didn't know where she was, what was happening and how she was going to get back to base. This mission was a disaster.
She'd kill Spenzak for putting them through all this!
Eventually, she regained strength enough to stand and walk to the edge of the building. She stared down at the cold street, still hidden away by building from the rising morning sun. A bitter wind wrapped around her and she shivered unhappily. She wished she was home now, having a warm cup of tea with her mother. This place was so terribly far from home, so desolate, so doomed. Alone, she was, in this place, and doomed with it unless someone found her. Soon.
Starath got a surprise when she saw Sapphire staggering below her with Hacker in her arms. Kacheetah had also been surprised, but by another thing. A girl with rockets mounted on her back, much like herself, had flown up to her holding a limp Blackarachnia.
"It's ok! Go home. 'Blaze and I have got it under control."
With that, the mysterious girl in black sped off in the direction of the base.
"Starath! Did you see that?" she called.
Starath swooped down without replying and landed next to Sapphire. Varyn and Miss Special hopped off and rushed to her side. Varyn took Hacker from the South African's arms and Miss Special caught her as she collapsed.
"Sapph! What happened?" Miss Special asked anxiously.
Sapphire looked up at her.
"Wicked Woman...slowed down the enemy almost to a standstill. Like a weird kinda spell. She told me to go back with Hacker and she took Blackarachnia."
"Where's Lady Venom?" she asked, holding back her curiosity over Wicked Woman's sudden appearance.
She shook her head. "I don't know."
Miss Special nodded solemnly. Kacheetah landed softly beside her.
"I just saw a strange girl fly past me with BA! She said that she and 'Blaze had everything under control and we must return to base."
Miss Special blinked twice.
"What - 'Blaze? She's here too?"
"That was Wicked Woman," Sapphire piped up.
Sharpshot had hopped off from Kacheetah's back when she had landed but now was attempting to climb back on.
"Hate to interrupt, girls, but we'd better get a move on. We've got company."
They swiveled around to see transformers turning the corner and running toward them."
Kacheetah grabbed a hold of Sapphire and carried both she and Sharpshot into the air. Varyn and Miss Special exchanged glances.
"Starath can't carry Hacker, you, and me," Varyn said.
"Starath can carry you and Hacker," Cheetra said to Varyn. "Miss Special and I will have to go by foot. I know the fastest way home."
"No! We can't do that!" Starath protested. "We can't leave you!"
"You have no choice," Miss Special said.
"I'll hold them back. You get a move on so you can come back and collect me! Now go!"
Starath grabbed a hold of Hacker and Varyn reluctantly got onto her back. She took to the air and flew away and out of sight.
Miss Special turned to Cheetra. "You can outrun them if you leave now. Don't worry about me; I can hold my own."
Cheetra nodded, knowing she'd never change the Californian's mind, and raced down the street.
Miss Special turned and faced the oncoming surge of enemies. She focused on a section of ground and, when they were almost at that section, she ignited it. It exploded into a raging inferno and the ground troops were forced back by the blast of heat. The flying transformers flew over it in jet forms and Miss Special knew that she had to somehow destroy them.
An idea came to her, but it was dangerous.
"What the heck," she murmured. "In war you have to take risks."
She ran down the road, staying just ahead of the jet's laser fire pelting into the ground at her heels, until she got to a tower with a shaft elevator. It was just a water tower, as water was used in the manufacturing of things and was thus needed even on Cybertron. She got into the elevator and ascended. She could hear the hollow chinks of noise as bullets sprayed into the tower just below her.
"Quickly, quickly!!" she urged the elevator. Finally, it halted. The doors slid open and she found herself where she'd wanted to get. The platform above the water tank. It was out in the open, but it was high up. She stood in the center of the round roof and eyed the jets making a u-turn towards her. They approached with malice and terrible speed.
Wait.
She could make out rockets sliding into place in the blasters mounted atop their wings.
Wait...
She could almost feel their target markers on her defenseless form.
Now!
With both her hands she sent off two huge fireballs into the wings of the jets. They exploded.
The two jets came crashing down towards her as balls of flame and she turned around and ran. When she got to the edge of the roof she leapt, heaving her body off with all the force she could muster. She just gripped the edge of the building beside the tower, but deliberately allowed herself to slip down several meters before she reached out and grabbed an outward window sill and clung on. She was low enough down the side of the building to miss being hit by the debris of the jets and water tower, but she still felt the shower of water drench her body. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the noise and chaos to stop. Eventually, it did.
When she reopened her eyes, she looked over her shoulder to see the jagged remains of the tower. The water tank was gone and below her a small river of water rushed down the road toward the fire that was blocking the ground troops.
"Better get a move on," she whispered to herself. She clambered down the side of the slippery building as quickly as caution would allow. When she reached the bottom, she wasted no time in making her way back to base, hoping she wouldn't face any more hindrances along the way.
Lady Venom sat up groggily. As the sleepy haze from her eyes cleared, she could see she was in the sleeping hall. She was on her inflatable mattress and ahead of her she could see most of Team A and B huddled, discussing something earnestly.
It was Sapphire who noticed she was awake and left the group quietly to come over to the Canadian.
"Hey, LV," she said gently as she sat beside her.
"Sapph...you're okay," Lady Venom sighed. She reached over and embraced the other girl. When she pulled away, she could see the weary look of concern in Sapphire's eyes.
"How long have I been out?" she asked.
"A few hours," Sapphire replied. "'Blaze rescued you."
"Ah, so it wasn't a dream," Lady Venom mused.
She looked up again at Sapphire.
"Where is she?"
Sapphire pointed to the group.
"Talking with the rest. We're arranging another mission."
Lady Venom restrained herself from screaming at the top of her lungs in frustration. Instead, she took a deep breath to control her anger and asked: "What mission?"
Sapphire's face looked grave.
"A rescue mission. Sinead's gone missing."