Transformers Prime: Convergence is a plot and character-development driven roleplay forum based upon canon material of TFP and RiD, but incorporates characters, elements, and plotlines from various other continuities to craft a unique story. Our community is welcoming, laid back, and dedicated to making each roleplay experience a good one.
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Swindle's optics were rolling around following that last energy blast from the human. His chin hurt also, prompting the Decepticon to nurse it like he'd just spilled his drink on Brawl following the Riker Operation. In layman's terms, it hurt like hell. It wasn't enough to do Swindle in for good though, he'd see to that shortly. But what he was seeing didn't enthuse him so much. Bumblebee's spear pointed right at his devastatingly handsome face. Swindle's first instinct was to smile condescendingly in the face of certain death, which he did.
"Oh I'm sure you do, miss Sumdac..." he replied, attempting to push himself to his feet, but finding the Autobot's weapon to be an excellent deterrent. His optics now trained on the immediate threat, Swindle addressed it, "Alright Bumblebee, I give up. I'm done fighting." Technically speaking it wasn't a lie at all; Swindle really was done fighting the pair. Immediately after standing back up, a pair of energy projectors shot up from Swindle's shoulders, shrouding him in a bright pink forcefield.
"Because after all," he started, before a small cylindrical device with a red button on top extended from his wrist. "We're at a stalemate." The Decepticon's thumb pressed down on the detonator, and several devices mounted at key structural points around the cavern lit up with a red light, resounding with one unified beep. The bombs were armed, and only the arms trader behind the forcefield had the deactivation switch.
Bumblebee kept his spear pointed at Swindle, keeping his optics on the arms dealer the whole time. Nice and slow, that's all that was necessary. Once Swindle was on his feet once more, Bumblebee reached to his side to grab the stasis cuffs once more, "Now, you..." Once more the lieutenant was cut off abruptly as he saw the energy projectors and moments later his target was surrounded by a force field.
'Rraaaggh! Seriously?!' The yellow and black mech couldn't help screaming internally, Swindle ever the same in pulling out some sort of trick to prevent being harmed or giving him an advantage. "Come out here and give it up Swindle!" Bee ordered, his patience waning as he stabbed the tip of his spear against the force field, only causing him to bounce off harmlessly. Though that was when Bumblebee caught sight of the cylindrical device, blue optics widening when hearing the unified beep. He knew that sound, anyone in their right mind would know it.
"Okay, okay, just take it easy." Bumblebee spoke a bit more calmly, his spear retracting back into the Decepticon Hunter which the mech placed back on his back between his door wings. "You're gambling a little much Swindle. Primus only knows how well that shield will hold up if you detonate this entire place." Bee pointed out as he stepped back to where Sari was, "Look, we'll call this a draw and I'll back off this time. I didn't detect what I was looking for so just deactivate the bombs and we'll be off." Once he had backed off enough, Bumblebee transformed to vehicle form, showing he wasn't attempting anything further...yet.
"Sari, get in my form, now." Bumblebee whispered, his passenger side door opening enough for her to slip inside. Despite him trying to get Swindle to back down on the idea of detonating the entire cave system, the muscle car already figured his words would fall on deaf audios.
Sari audibly groaned as Swindle once again attempted to stop Bumblebee from capturing him. "REALLY?! How many more tricks do you even have, Swindle?!"
Oh.
The teenager stared in surprise as the cave suddenly went red, beeping sounding all around them. Someone had set them up the bomb.. and that someone could only have been the Decepticon that was shielding himself all too well. "Okaaay... Poor choice of words." With a nervous, yet worried chuckle, she began to back away until Bumblebee joined her. There wasn't any winning this fight without risking their lives, and that wasn't something her Autobot friend could afford to do right now.
Swindle was going to have to wait another day.
At the yellow mech's request, Sari wasted absolutely no time following his orders. "Don't have to ask me twice!" She jumped right on into his passenger seat, buckling herself in before settling in. "Floor it, Bee!!"
The sight of his enemies fleeing from his unassailable position of power was a happy one, indicated by the smug grin stretched over Swindle's face. Things had actually turned out great for once! Still, he'd need to get back at them later somehow; even though he was practically scott-free by now, Swindle had a habit of holding grudges. Nobody scuffed his perfect chin and lived to brag about it, he'd see to that.
Swindle flipped the switch to deactivate the blasting charges, though his feeling of cool relief was quickly shattered. His optic glanced over to the timer set on each of the bombs, more specifically how they all kept counting down from 10 seconds. Oh. Right. These were the 'Swindle has to clear his tracks' bombs, not the 'stand back, I've got a bomb!' bombs. He screamed, making a beeline for the tunnel that Bumblebee was aiming to retreat through.
The Combaticon transformed without a second thought, practically running the Autobot over in his haste to vacate a potential tomb. "THEY'RE REAL BOMBS!" he shouted, hauling aft through the maze of tunnels between him and sweet, sweet daylight. In retrospect, he probably should've at least opened fire on Bee and Sari as he fled, but there was quite literally no time at all for that.
The moment Sari was in the passenger seat, Bumblebee was slamming his passenger side door and his accelerator was slamming down with his tires screeching. He definitely didn't need to be told twice. The muscle car sped around the platform, knowing he would have to worry about Swindle for another time. Right now, he wasn't going to go about gambling his life and Sari's, especially not the teenager's. Her father and the others would never forgive Bumblebee if anything happened to Sari. Hell, he would never forgiven himself if something happened to her.
But Bumblebee had barely gotten out before Swindle came rushing by, leaving a few scratches and small dents on his driver side. "Wait they weren't meant to be real?!" The black and yellow mech had to barely glance at one bomb close to himself and his passenger, seeing their count down. That was all he needed to floor it double time after the retreating Combaticon, "I swear to the Pits for someone claiming to be one of the top of the line arms dealers, he sure knows how to get himself in some sticky situations...among others." Bumblebee mumbled, following the path he had taken before, racing to beat the timers.
But with Swindle's larger form, Bee found himself somewhat slowed down in his pace, seeing the tunnel entrance ahead. "Nearly there!" Bumblebee called, mostly towards Sari but he figured Swindle probably was trying to do the same as they were and avoid facing a rocky tomb.
Sari practically slammed back against the seat as Bumblebee suddenly sped off, gripping onto the edges of the seat as they made their getaway. There wasn't a whole lot she could do, but maybe if worst came to worst she could try to use her newfound powers to help them escape. Either way, she was just going to have to sit back and maybe not enjoy the ride while Bumblebee did his best to get the both of them to safety.
What she hadn't anticipated was Swindle suddenly shrieking and then making a beeline to the exit. She'd been startled at first from the suddenness of it all, but found herself deadpanning once she knew why he had been in such a rush.
"Are you kidding me?! Wouldn't you think to check that before setting up the bomb? Talk about a lame villain." The red head crossed her arms, amused that Bumblebee was just as annoyed as she was. At least the Decepticon wasn't firing at the both of them, but really there wasn't any time to fight if they wanted to escape and not become pancakes.
"Bumblebee, roll down the window! I can try to blast some of the falling rocks if they start blocking our path!"
Hopefully, if Swindle had timed the bombs right, which he hadn't, Bumblebee and Sari would be molten rock just a few miliseconds behind him soon enough. The lack of explosions behind him signified that he'd been dead wrong once again. Hardly mattered to Swindle considering he was still a healthy ways away from his pursuers. The bombs just had to go off any second now...
Any second no-
BOOM!!
There it goes!
A deafening blast shook the cavern walls as the central chamber behind the group detonated, causing a runaway cave in that was rapidly advancing outwards. Sure, it would've been better to detonate the facility before he'd sold it, but hey; what was a Swindle to do? Primus, that rumble's getting closer. His fears were alleviated by the breaking light of day at the end of the tunnel. He didn't so much care about the two brats behind him anymore. Bumblebee was far less deadly than an explosion, anyway.
"Alright, but just watch yourself." Bumblebee was a bit worried about Sari attempting to help. It had been fortunate enough for him she had discovered this unexpected development, but at the same time it would be putting the smaller being at risk. 'Shouldn't be too bad, we're ahead of the timers.' Bumblebee reassured himself, finally rolling down the window of the passenger side.
No sooner had this thought crossed his mind did the bombs go off, making Bumblebee cringe inwardly as the blast shook the cavern, causing the lieutenant to eye the cavern warily. For now it held, but he could hear the cavern behind him and the connecting tunnels beginning to collapse in on themselves, and that could quickly catch up if they didn't hurry.
Revving his engine, Bumblebee pushed himself towards his top speed, right until he was on Swindle's bumper with only inches between them. "Come on Swindle! Kick yourself into high gear or we're all going to have a rocky tomb for your mix up!" Bumblebee urged, urgency clear in his tone. If he had to, he'd push Swindle himself all the way to the entrance if he had to.
Sari wasted no time in sticking herself out of Bumblebee's window as they made their getaway, keeping an eye out for any rubble that would impact their ability to escape. Had this been any other time, the teenager would have stopped to enjoy the rush of not-wind hammering her face and hair. For now though, they just had to remained focused on getting out alive.
And Swindle wasn't exactly making this easy in any sort of way.
Chucking an energy ball at a nearby rock, the redhead glared at the Decepticon before them. It was all too tempting to throw an energy ball at him, but then Sari had to stop and think. Doing that would risk stopping Swindle altogether and risk trapping the three of them, or best case she and Bee make it out. But at the same time there was this whole Autobot thing of saving all the lives possible.
Eh. Who was she to argue?
"Swindle, don't make me press the horn on Bumblebee's steering wheel! Move it!"
In all his years, Swindle had never envisioned that the people he'd just tried to blow up were now hurrying him to the exit. "No backseat-escaping!" he yelled back, still somewhat irked that they weren't out of the caverns yet. Far as he could tell, they were almost out, although the cracks racing along with them up the sides of the cave walls weren't reassuring. He was half tempted to just shoot the two of them for all the lip they were giving him, if he wasn't absolutely sure he'd get distracted and hit the wall.
Off in the distance, a second explosion rocked the caverns. "Huh," he remarked. "I think I left the whole bag back there..." Swindle said, having left the whole bag back there. Yep, they were going to die now. As if on queue, the passage behind them suddenly collapsed before exploding as the fireball violent pushed it forward.
Just as the light of day came into view, the cave finally had enough, ejecting the trio just as they'd made it to safety. The mouth of the cavern collapsed, dust and fire being spewed everywhere. Transforming again, Swindle tumbled to a halt, having had his fill of excitement for today. He lay on his back, exhausted, not really caring that he was probably going to jail now.
"You left a bag?! Are you kidding me right now!" Bumblebee spoke in disbelief, sometimes amazed at how careless someone like Sswindle could be. A whole bag of explosives and mixing them up...some dealer he was.
Mentally shaking his head, Bumblebee kept pace with Swindle the best he could, mirrors shifting slightly. The cracks that were not racing beside them, further threatening to engulf them made Bumblebee mentally plead for Swindle to not do something stupid. He doubted even the arms dealer would be so foolish to risk his own hide when the explosions behind them already threatened to bury them alive. And just like that the three were sent flying from the cavern as the reached the mouth of the cavern, Bumblebee transforming and sending Sari from the passenger seat as his arms wrapped around her. In a split second the yellow and black mech went tumbling a few feet away, the teenage techno-organic in his arms to protect her from harm.
Coming to a stop on his side, Bumblebee glanced up towards what remained of the cavern, sighing at the attention it will no doubt bring, "So much for a simple scouting mission." He muttered, for now ignoring Swindle nearby as he released his hold on Sari, "You alright Sari?"