Burn It To The Ground, Chapter 2
Title: Burn It To the Ground
Rating: T
Series: IDW
Summary: Five Terrorcons, five short stories. Chapter 2: Sinnertwin is the predator, everything else is the prey.
Warnings: Violence of the Terrorcon variety
A/N: This is set much later in the war, after they've all left Cybertron to fight on other worlds.
“Come on, over here! Hurry!”
Swerve ran as fast as he possibly could, scrambling around the roots of a fallen tree. He pulled Hubcap with him, throwing them both to the ground once they were behind the giant trunk. Air cycled through their vents, struggling to cool their overworked frames. Hubcap lay flat on the dirt, clutching a gouge in his side that was leaking energon. Swerve pushed himself up, peering over the top of the tree.
There was nothing in sight on the hill they'd just run down, except for the black smoke choking the once blue sky. The smell of the fire clung to their frames, and Swerve knew it would stick until they cleaned out their filters. Seeing no Decepticons, Swerve slid back down, pulling out his rifle.
“Where's your gun?” he asked, nudging Hubcap, who finally sat upright. When he took his blaster out of subspace, Swerve nodded. “Keep it ready. We're not staying long.”
“What?” Hubcap gasped, face screwing up with disbelief. “We just ran - we just ran a full mile without stopping! Can't we just activate the distress beacon?”
“No,” he shook his head. “There's a 'Con ship up there, they'll hear it.”
“Then we can stay here,” Hubcap was apparently dead set against moving on. “Lie low and - “
“You're not listening,” Swerve cut him off. “We can't stay here. They'll find us. We've got to keep going.”
“Come on,” Hubcap whined. “The 'Cons trashed the base, killed practically everyone -”
“Everyone but us,” Swerve interjected darkly.
“ - and they'll get all the energon!” Hubcap finished. “That's what they came for, right? Why would they care about us?”
“That's the point, Hubcap,” Swerve said. “If they cared, they'd let us run. These guys'll hunt us for the fun of it.”
Hubcap said nothing for a minute, tightening his grip on the blaster. “Who was it? The Predacons?”
“No. The Terrorcons.”
“Oh,” said Hubcap, frowning. “I've never seen them before.”
“You're lucky, then,” said Swerve. “Pack of crazy damned monsters.”
“I've heard 'Bots talk about them on radio chatter,” said Hubcap. “What do they look like? Are they really that bad?”
“Yeah, they are. You know how we've got practical alt modes? Cars, tanks, jets, everything normal and sane?” Swerve said, and Hubcap nodded. “These guys, they've all got some kind of beast mode. Every single one of them looks like something that would come crawling out of a nightmare. Primus, they're so fragging unnatural it's terrifying.”
“Heh,” Hubcap said. “'Terrorcons'.”
The look Swerve gave Hubcap wiped the grin off his face in a hurry.
“I'm sorry, I'm nervous!” Hubcap yelped. “I - I'm a communications guy, not a soldier! I -”
“Keep your voice down!” Swerve said, practically hissing. They'd spent too much time here already, anyways. “We've got to get going. Do me a favor and take a look over the tree, see if anything's come up over that hill.”
Hubcap nodded, though he looked less than thrilled about it.
“Anyways,” Swerve said, checking his rifle over. “They're like mockeries of organic creatures. One's this jet thing with claws, and another looks like - like -”
“Like that?”
Swerve stood up as quickly as he dared, cautiously peering over the tree with Hubcap. The sight of what stood at the crest of the hill made his spark skip a beat. It was almost like a big lizard, except made out of metal, had two heads, and a cannon mounted on its back. The heads were looking in the same direction, but when one of them started to turn towards them, they both ducked down, pinning their backs to the tree.
“You were right,” Hubcap said weakly. “That is terrifying."
Both of them jumped when the Terrorcon let out a loud snort, as if clearing out its vents. Hubcap attempted to press himself further into the tree trunk, and Swerve wished that was possible. They heard the Terrorcon cycle its vents again, sucking in air and then snorting it back out with a growl that reverberated in their armor. Hubcap looked at Swerve, but he shook his head. He had no idea what that thing was doing. Probably trying to psyche them out, and he had to admit - it was definitely working.
It had probably been hunting them since the moment they stepped foot out of the base. They hadn't exactly had time to cover their tracks. Looking to the side, he could see their prints leading around the roots of the tree. Next to him, Hubcap fidgeted restlessly, and Swerve looked down, seeing that the energon from his wound still dripped down his side. Something dawned on him at the exact moment the Terrorcon stopped mid-cycle.
It could smell them. Even if they'd covered their tracks, it still would have followed the scent of energon or exhaust fumes or -
Hubcap nearly screamed when the monster let out a roar, clamping a hand over his mouth before it escaped. Swerve appreciated the effort, even though he knew they'd been found out from the start. He hefted his rifle, intending to go out fighting, if nothing else.
Swerve stood up quickly, before he lost his nerve, and spun around with his rifle. He never even got off one shot before something heavy and sharp slammed into his middle, ripping through his armor and sending him flying backwards. He heard wood splinter and Hubcap scream. The scream cut off abruptly when the Terrorcon's jaw came down and closed around Hubcap's head, fangs sinking into his neck.
Hand clutching the hole in his chest, Swerve tried to push himself upright, feeling around for his rifle. Hubcap was clawing at its neck frantically, but the Terrorcon held fast, shaking its head violently until something snapped. When it dropped Hubcap to the ground, he lay limp and motionless. Metal grinded against metal, and Swerve turned in time to see the Terrorcon's other head chewing up his rifle. Vital fluids dripped off of the horn at the end of its blunt snout, and the pain in his chassis finally registered. It had gouged a hole right through his circuitry, slicing open a fuel line in the process.
A heavy claw came down on him, both heads swinging around to stare down at him. Swerve tried to push the foot off of him, but fluid loss and shock had left him weak, and the Terrorcon probably outweighed him by several tons. The head that had skewered him opened its mouth, letting a horrible stench of burnt energon wash over him. A moment later and flames licked up its throat, his armor beginning to buckle as more of the thing's weight came down on him.
Screaming was the last thing he remembered, before pain shut him down completely.
Sinnertwin spat out another shred of metal over his shoulder, clearing his throat with a loud coughing hack. May be Hun-Grrr liked eating metal, but he didn't care for it. Most of it just got stuck in his teeth, itched the whole way down, or couldn't be processed. Changing to his root mode didn't solve the problem - the shrapnel worked its way up and out anyways. Still, he was going to have to deal with if it he was going to use the mouths of his alt mode effectively.
Hauling the dead weight of the Autobot behind him, Sinnertwin trudged up the ramp of the ship. Wingspan was waiting for him near the entrance, looking down at the Autobot with poorly concealed shock.
“Here's your prisoner,” Sinnertwin said, dropping the limp mech to the floor. Wingspan knelt down beside the Autobot, and the shock faded into irritation.
“He's dead,” Wingspan said, standing back up. “Not much of a prisoner if he's dead -”
“He was alive when I caught him!” Sinnertwin snapped. “It's not my fault he up and offlined on the way back!”
“His main fuel line was cut,” Wingspan said, looking down at the trail of energon that had been dragged up the ramp. Some of it still oozed out of the ravaged chassis of the dead Autobot. “He probably bled out before you got halfway here!”
“Eh, they break too easy,” Sinnertwin shrugged, turning as Cutthroat and Hun-Grrr tramped up behind him, both of them filthy and scorched from blaster fire. “Anyone else get any prisoners?”
“Prisoners?” Cutthroat cocked his head to one side. “Were we supposed to be taking prisoners?”
“I told you,” Hun-Grrr said. “They weren't necessary, but Wingspan here did request we try to bring back at least one.”
“You never said that,” Cutthroat frowned. “All you said was a bunch of gibberish, because you were too busy eating the arm off of that Autobot -”
“Don't you try that again,” Hun-Grrr said, pointing an accusing finger at Cutthroat. “It's your fragging responsibility to confirm orders if you don't understand them! Sinnertwin obviously heard me loud and clear, so why didn't you?”
Sinnertwin didn't say anything. It was best if Hun-Grrr didn't know that he hadn't understood him at all, but had overheard Wingspan say something about prisoners earlier. He had decided to try and bring one back, just in case. Wingspan ought to be thankful he even put forth the effort.
“Look, it doesn't matter now!” Wingspan said loudly, wanting to avoid a fight. Sinnertwin gave him credit for trying, but to his surprise, Cutthroat didn't argue with Hun-Grrr. Instead, both of them shot Wingspan a nasty look, who barely had the nerve to keep talking. “We'll find another way into their vault. Once the place stops burning, we'll get someone in there to crack the security -”
“Wait, vault?” Sinnertwin interrupted him. “Is that what those big doors behind the command center were?”
“...'were'?” Wingspan sounded like he almost didn't want to know.
“Blot ripped those off and chucked 'em at the guards,” Sinnertwin said. “Rippersnapper made 'em put them back when we saw the energon inside.”
Wingspan looked relieved, as well as a little unnerved. “So it's undamaged?”
“Uh, most of it,” Sinnertwin said, shifting from one foot to the other. “We used some of it to, you know...”
As if to finish his sentence, part of the Autobot base went up in a thundering explosion, fire spewing out of the structure. The groan and screech of metal signaled another part of it had started to collapse.
“I'll radio Rippersnapper and tell him to cut it out,” Hun-Grrr said, walking back down the ramp and out of the ship.
Cutthroat looked down at the Autobot, then up at Sinnertwin. “You didn't know slag about taking prisoners, and you know it.”
“Prove it,” Sinnertwin snapped. Cutthroat bristled, wings flaring slightly. Wingspan suddenly made himself scarce. Probably going to go cry to High Command about those crazy Terrorcons, always making things difficult, Sinnertwin thought.
“Better idea,” Hun-Grrr said, coming back up inside. He looked between Sinnertwin and Cutthroat, the latter tensing up again. “Forget it and get back to work. Sinnertwin, that energon's gonna blow if the fire gets out of hand. Help Blot haul it out. Cutthroat, get your scrawny aft back up in the air and keep an eye out for any Autobot retaliation. Move it!”
Salutes and 'yessirs' had no place within the Terrorcons. It came down to obeying or fighting, and both of them chose to obey. Dropping down into his alt mode, Sinnertwin loped off down the ramp, ducking his heads when Cutthroat roared over him, far closer than was necessary. His left head snapped at thin air, missing a wing by mere inches.
Cutthroat was out of range in no time at all, leaving Sinnertwin to concentrate on the task at hand. Getting all the energon out of the burning base was going to be a lot more challenging than hunting those two Autobots. May be the next batch of Autobots would make for a better hunt and he could actually have some fun. Sinnertwin could only hope for small favors like that.