Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (Chapter 7 of 9)
Title: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Chapter: 07 - Revealing Light
Warnings: gen, suspense, action, a bit mystery/horror, possible disturbing images
Continuity: G1 [part of ultharkitty’s Dysfunction AU, post season three]
Characters: Vortex, Blast Off, Brawl
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Sadly, nothing is mine.
Beta: ultharkitty
Summary: Vortex, Blast Off and Brawl are on a mission to get an alien energy source from an abandoned space station.
Note: Nothing here today. Just a big thank you to my beta. ;)
Chapter 01 - Chapter 02 - Chapter 03 - Chapter 04 - Chapter 05 - Chapter 06
“Talking”
‘Comm-link’
---
In the dark blue sky you keep, and often through my curtains peep…
Part 7 - Revealing Light
The blue orb glowed brightly, filling almost the complete rear end of the room. On the floor beneath lay thick tendrils which looked as though they were sleeping snakes.
Devices and cables which formerly had held the orb in place were now destroyed.
Blast Off’s optics flickered, and burnt painfully when he stared at the blue sphere. On its surface there were small whirls and maelstroms, or eruptions similar to stellar winds.
He had never been able too see them from this close…
“Holy slag…!”
Vortex gasping voice dragged Blast Off back to the current situation, and he glanced up, following the other’s gaze.
There were organics on the walls, but they weren’t organic any more. It was though they were made of glass. And in between the weirdly beautiful crystallised bluish beings, there was an ugly, dark green spot which was Brawl.
For an astrosecond Blast Off was almost angry that his team always seemed to destroy anything beautiful. But then he noticed the offline optics and tendrils which dug into the tank's armour, and his anger shifted towards the alien creature that messed with his team.
They had to get Brawl out, Blast Off thought, and Vortex appeared to think the same.
Without a word, only an engine’s growl, Vortex powered up his thrusters and flew to their unconscious team mate.
The giant tentacles beneath the orb twitched, and the tendrils which spread over the whole floor began to move. Blast Off hadn’t noticed that he stood on a carpet which looked like fibreglass before, because there weren’t any electric shocks.
Now, however, the ground lifted itself up, generating waves which resembled water within the blue light of the sphere.
Blast Off also activated his thrusters, hovering and looking up anew, where now Vortex pulled Brawl from the wall. The lines holding the tank broke easily, and fragments scattered down.
“Hey, how about a little help here?” Vortex said as he placed the tank’s arm over his shoulders and descended next to the shuttle.
Blast Off just wanted to answer that the ‘copter indeed did a good job alone when the walls began to vibrate.
Both mechs froze and stared at one another.
“Of course, would have been too easy,” Vortex muttered, resigned, and Blast Off sighed.
Calling up the map of the space station, it revealed that the tunnel they used to get there was the only entry, or exit. It was nothing Blast Off hadn’t known before, but Blast Off wasn’t looking for a hallway out…
The gravitational field deactivated.
It was by reflex that Blast Off cut power to his thrusters, but Vortex didn’t have this kind of instinctive reaction. His thrusters still working against a gravitational field that was no longer there, the copter began to move upwards.
“Woah!” Vortex uttered, surprised, sounding confused.
Fortunately, Blast Off had the presence of processor to grab Vortex by his ankle before he climbed further and hit the ceiling.
“Stop your thrusters! Idiot!”
“What's going on?” Vortex asked, irritated, but did as he was told.
The answer came in the form of more movement from beneath the orb, and a huge tentacle-like streak approaching them.
Blast Off seriously began to hate this mission.
Checking the map anew, he charged his cannons. He grabbed the ‘copter by the wrist, activated his thrusters again on their lowest setting, and used the momentum to turn and dodge the tentacle at the same time.
He now was looking at the floor, his grip still on the ‘copter, who had also turned.
“Slag, I’m getting sick, don’t do that again!”
“Shut up and don’t let go of Brawl!” Blast Off snapped, and fired both his cannons, increasing the power to his thrusters so that the recoil didn’t send him up.
His shots tore the floor apart and burnt through two other layers of metal beneath, leaving a big hole, and making the walls vibrate even more.
He didn’t bother to speak, he simply left the room through the freshly formed exit, his hand still around the other's wrist, the tentacle following them.
Beneath the room was another corridor, but Blast Off didn’t use it, he flew through the hole instead which his cannons burnt in its floor, until he reached a hall. Another storage room like the one where they entered the station. It was dark again, and significantly colder. The vehicles and cargo floated, uncoordinated, due to the lacking gravity.
Changing back to infrared, he stopped his thrusters and used the drive to hide behind some large boxes.
The tentacle fumbled around after him, but didn’t reach into the room and soon withdrew. It caused Blast Off to frown, and wonder, but he reasoned that he could think about it later.
“You know… I hate when you don’t tell me about your plans…”
He turned to Vortex, who looked at him, one hand on the box, apparently for purchase. He’d let go of Brawl, leaving the tank floating next to them.
“Oh sorry,” Blast Off muttered. “I was a bit in a hurry.”
“Urgh… whatever… I feel sick. What happened to the gravity?”
“It is deactivated?” Blast Off’s voice was condescending as he stated the rather obvious fact.
Vortex gave him a look, but didn’t say anything more about that. He just asked, “So, what are we doing now?”
“We need to get Brawl back online.” Blast Off ran a few scans over the tank. There was no damage besides a low energy level. “Can you uplink with him?”
Another look from Vortex, but Blast Off couldn’t interpret it.
“He’s low on energy and I can’t uplink with him,” Blast Off explained the situation, and it was only partly because he truly didn’t want to do that. “At my current energy level, I can’t do that,” he said further, “not if I still have want to take us home.”
Vortex shrugged. “Sure…” Fumbling around with Brawl’s interface panel and his own cable, he plugged into the tank. His rotors shivered.
Blast Off pretended not to notice.
“How is your sensor net?” he asked, scanning the surroundings. There was not a single alien tendril in the room.
The answer was a huff and a mumbled, “I’m fine.”
Blast Off left it at that. He was relieved that the ‘copter’s state of mind didn’t border on panic any longer.
“When he’s back online, what are we gonna do next? I mean are we gonna get that energy thing or just fly away or… yeah. What?”
Blast Off was about to respond that they first had to wait for Brawl to come online before they could make a decision when the tank unexpectedly groaned.
Fingers twitched, and optics flickered online as the tank muttered something unintelligible and then looked at Blast Off.
“Uh…?” Brawl mumbled, and the shuttle suppressed a condescending remark.
When the tank's optics went to Vortex and the one way connection, the visor flickered again. “Uh… Vortex? That’s not a good time to…”
Blast Off interrupted him. “You are low on energy. How are you feeling?”
“…drained? I think…”
That answer was to be expected, but a klik or two longer with the connection, and the tank should feel better.
“Why are we floating? Where are we?” Brawl spoke anew.
“We’re still in the space station. You got kinda kidnapped. But we found you and now we’re… somewhere. Oh, and the gravity isn’t working any more!” Vortex answered, weirdly cheerful; probably because of the half-interface? Blast Off didn’t care.
“Not exactly not working. I think it’s been deactivated,” Blast Off shared his opinion. “Brawl, did it hack into your processor?”
The tank as well as Vortex looked at him, but it was the ‘copter who asked, “How is that important?”
And it was Brawl who answered, “Uhm, if it can deactivate the gravity, it’s maybe intelligent enough to hack my CPU for… you know comm. frequencies or something…?”
Blast Off and Vortex stared at the tank in surprise.
Brawl shifted uncomfortably. “…what?”
“Nothing, you’re just right,” Blast Off said bluntly, and didn’t pay attention to the other’s darkened visor. “So, did it hack you, or not?”
A shake of the head before Brawl looked down at his interface panel. He answered absently. “No. I don't think so… I mean,” he unplugged Vortex and closed the latch, glancing up at the shuttle again. “I got caught and it felt weird and… yeah, I was stuck there, but I don’t think it hacked me. It was more like… dunno being awake but not, like…” Brawl stopped abruptly.
…like the Detention Centre, Blast Off finished the other’s sentence in his mind, and he knew Vortex did the same as his rotors went idle again.
He didn’t leave his team mates time to think further about it when he turned to the tank. “Can you build a bomb?”
Two visors blinked at him in confusion.
“No one’s going to mess with us like this. We're gonna blow this thing up,” Blast Off said. Brawl's optics lit up, and Vortex tilted his head.
“How? One bomb won’t be enough. We’ve seen it. This thing, whatever it is, it’s spread over the whole station, almost like its infected or something.”
Brawl’s shoulder slumped, and Blast Off grinned.
“It will be enough if we blow up the energy source. We just need an explosion hotter than 500,000 K. Do you think you can build something that hot with the material at hand?”
“Well, that’s kinda really hot, but… lemme think.” Brawl tapped his battle mask with his index finger, humming quietly.
And while the tank was in his element, Vortex shook his head. “What is this? I mean, seriously, our mission is to get that energy source, right? Not to blow it up.”
Blast Off blamed Vortex’ military subroutines for the question.
“Did you see it?”
The ‘copter frowned. “What?”
“The energy source. It was in the room, pretty big, blue? Did you see it?”
“Well, sorta,” Vortex snapped. “I was kinda busy with getting Brawl out of that stuff, you know.”
Blast Off huffed, “Good, it’s probably better you didn’t look right into it. Even if this thing hadn’t attacked us, we couldn’t have brought the energy source to Chaar. It’s too big now for me to have transported it. And it’s unstable - it’s dying.”
At that, Brawl gazed at him as did Vortex, quizzically.
“What do you mean dying?”
“I told you it’s not a reactor,” Blast Off said, rubbing his temple while he thought of the right words. Eventually, he settled to the easiest explanation.
“It’s a star.”
---
Chapter 01 - Little Star
Chapter 02 - No Trespassing
Chapter 03 - Getting Lost
Chapter 04 - Being Found
Chapter 05 - Cathedral
Chapter 06 - Shadow Run
Chapter 07 - Revealing Light
Chapter 08 - Procrastination
Chapter 09 - Supernova
Chapter: 07 - Revealing Light
Warnings: gen, suspense, action, a bit mystery/horror, possible disturbing images
Continuity: G1 [part of ultharkitty’s Dysfunction AU, post season three]
Characters: Vortex, Blast Off, Brawl
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Sadly, nothing is mine.
Beta: ultharkitty
Summary: Vortex, Blast Off and Brawl are on a mission to get an alien energy source from an abandoned space station.
Note: Nothing here today. Just a big thank you to my beta. ;)
Chapter 01 - Chapter 02 - Chapter 03 - Chapter 04 - Chapter 05 - Chapter 06
“Talking”
‘Comm-link’
---
In the dark blue sky you keep, and often through my curtains peep…
Part 7 - Revealing Light
The blue orb glowed brightly, filling almost the complete rear end of the room. On the floor beneath lay thick tendrils which looked as though they were sleeping snakes.
Devices and cables which formerly had held the orb in place were now destroyed.
Blast Off’s optics flickered, and burnt painfully when he stared at the blue sphere. On its surface there were small whirls and maelstroms, or eruptions similar to stellar winds.
He had never been able too see them from this close…
“Holy slag…!”
Vortex gasping voice dragged Blast Off back to the current situation, and he glanced up, following the other’s gaze.
There were organics on the walls, but they weren’t organic any more. It was though they were made of glass. And in between the weirdly beautiful crystallised bluish beings, there was an ugly, dark green spot which was Brawl.
For an astrosecond Blast Off was almost angry that his team always seemed to destroy anything beautiful. But then he noticed the offline optics and tendrils which dug into the tank's armour, and his anger shifted towards the alien creature that messed with his team.
They had to get Brawl out, Blast Off thought, and Vortex appeared to think the same.
Without a word, only an engine’s growl, Vortex powered up his thrusters and flew to their unconscious team mate.
The giant tentacles beneath the orb twitched, and the tendrils which spread over the whole floor began to move. Blast Off hadn’t noticed that he stood on a carpet which looked like fibreglass before, because there weren’t any electric shocks.
Now, however, the ground lifted itself up, generating waves which resembled water within the blue light of the sphere.
Blast Off also activated his thrusters, hovering and looking up anew, where now Vortex pulled Brawl from the wall. The lines holding the tank broke easily, and fragments scattered down.
“Hey, how about a little help here?” Vortex said as he placed the tank’s arm over his shoulders and descended next to the shuttle.
Blast Off just wanted to answer that the ‘copter indeed did a good job alone when the walls began to vibrate.
Both mechs froze and stared at one another.
“Of course, would have been too easy,” Vortex muttered, resigned, and Blast Off sighed.
Calling up the map of the space station, it revealed that the tunnel they used to get there was the only entry, or exit. It was nothing Blast Off hadn’t known before, but Blast Off wasn’t looking for a hallway out…
The gravitational field deactivated.
It was by reflex that Blast Off cut power to his thrusters, but Vortex didn’t have this kind of instinctive reaction. His thrusters still working against a gravitational field that was no longer there, the copter began to move upwards.
“Woah!” Vortex uttered, surprised, sounding confused.
Fortunately, Blast Off had the presence of processor to grab Vortex by his ankle before he climbed further and hit the ceiling.
“Stop your thrusters! Idiot!”
“What's going on?” Vortex asked, irritated, but did as he was told.
The answer came in the form of more movement from beneath the orb, and a huge tentacle-like streak approaching them.
Blast Off seriously began to hate this mission.
Checking the map anew, he charged his cannons. He grabbed the ‘copter by the wrist, activated his thrusters again on their lowest setting, and used the momentum to turn and dodge the tentacle at the same time.
He now was looking at the floor, his grip still on the ‘copter, who had also turned.
“Slag, I’m getting sick, don’t do that again!”
“Shut up and don’t let go of Brawl!” Blast Off snapped, and fired both his cannons, increasing the power to his thrusters so that the recoil didn’t send him up.
His shots tore the floor apart and burnt through two other layers of metal beneath, leaving a big hole, and making the walls vibrate even more.
He didn’t bother to speak, he simply left the room through the freshly formed exit, his hand still around the other's wrist, the tentacle following them.
Beneath the room was another corridor, but Blast Off didn’t use it, he flew through the hole instead which his cannons burnt in its floor, until he reached a hall. Another storage room like the one where they entered the station. It was dark again, and significantly colder. The vehicles and cargo floated, uncoordinated, due to the lacking gravity.
Changing back to infrared, he stopped his thrusters and used the drive to hide behind some large boxes.
The tentacle fumbled around after him, but didn’t reach into the room and soon withdrew. It caused Blast Off to frown, and wonder, but he reasoned that he could think about it later.
“You know… I hate when you don’t tell me about your plans…”
He turned to Vortex, who looked at him, one hand on the box, apparently for purchase. He’d let go of Brawl, leaving the tank floating next to them.
“Oh sorry,” Blast Off muttered. “I was a bit in a hurry.”
“Urgh… whatever… I feel sick. What happened to the gravity?”
“It is deactivated?” Blast Off’s voice was condescending as he stated the rather obvious fact.
Vortex gave him a look, but didn’t say anything more about that. He just asked, “So, what are we doing now?”
“We need to get Brawl back online.” Blast Off ran a few scans over the tank. There was no damage besides a low energy level. “Can you uplink with him?”
Another look from Vortex, but Blast Off couldn’t interpret it.
“He’s low on energy and I can’t uplink with him,” Blast Off explained the situation, and it was only partly because he truly didn’t want to do that. “At my current energy level, I can’t do that,” he said further, “not if I still have want to take us home.”
Vortex shrugged. “Sure…” Fumbling around with Brawl’s interface panel and his own cable, he plugged into the tank. His rotors shivered.
Blast Off pretended not to notice.
“How is your sensor net?” he asked, scanning the surroundings. There was not a single alien tendril in the room.
The answer was a huff and a mumbled, “I’m fine.”
Blast Off left it at that. He was relieved that the ‘copter’s state of mind didn’t border on panic any longer.
“When he’s back online, what are we gonna do next? I mean are we gonna get that energy thing or just fly away or… yeah. What?”
Blast Off was about to respond that they first had to wait for Brawl to come online before they could make a decision when the tank unexpectedly groaned.
Fingers twitched, and optics flickered online as the tank muttered something unintelligible and then looked at Blast Off.
“Uh…?” Brawl mumbled, and the shuttle suppressed a condescending remark.
When the tank's optics went to Vortex and the one way connection, the visor flickered again. “Uh… Vortex? That’s not a good time to…”
Blast Off interrupted him. “You are low on energy. How are you feeling?”
“…drained? I think…”
That answer was to be expected, but a klik or two longer with the connection, and the tank should feel better.
“Why are we floating? Where are we?” Brawl spoke anew.
“We’re still in the space station. You got kinda kidnapped. But we found you and now we’re… somewhere. Oh, and the gravity isn’t working any more!” Vortex answered, weirdly cheerful; probably because of the half-interface? Blast Off didn’t care.
“Not exactly not working. I think it’s been deactivated,” Blast Off shared his opinion. “Brawl, did it hack into your processor?”
The tank as well as Vortex looked at him, but it was the ‘copter who asked, “How is that important?”
And it was Brawl who answered, “Uhm, if it can deactivate the gravity, it’s maybe intelligent enough to hack my CPU for… you know comm. frequencies or something…?”
Blast Off and Vortex stared at the tank in surprise.
Brawl shifted uncomfortably. “…what?”
“Nothing, you’re just right,” Blast Off said bluntly, and didn’t pay attention to the other’s darkened visor. “So, did it hack you, or not?”
A shake of the head before Brawl looked down at his interface panel. He answered absently. “No. I don't think so… I mean,” he unplugged Vortex and closed the latch, glancing up at the shuttle again. “I got caught and it felt weird and… yeah, I was stuck there, but I don’t think it hacked me. It was more like… dunno being awake but not, like…” Brawl stopped abruptly.
…like the Detention Centre, Blast Off finished the other’s sentence in his mind, and he knew Vortex did the same as his rotors went idle again.
He didn’t leave his team mates time to think further about it when he turned to the tank. “Can you build a bomb?”
Two visors blinked at him in confusion.
“No one’s going to mess with us like this. We're gonna blow this thing up,” Blast Off said. Brawl's optics lit up, and Vortex tilted his head.
“How? One bomb won’t be enough. We’ve seen it. This thing, whatever it is, it’s spread over the whole station, almost like its infected or something.”
Brawl’s shoulder slumped, and Blast Off grinned.
“It will be enough if we blow up the energy source. We just need an explosion hotter than 500,000 K. Do you think you can build something that hot with the material at hand?”
“Well, that’s kinda really hot, but… lemme think.” Brawl tapped his battle mask with his index finger, humming quietly.
And while the tank was in his element, Vortex shook his head. “What is this? I mean, seriously, our mission is to get that energy source, right? Not to blow it up.”
Blast Off blamed Vortex’ military subroutines for the question.
“Did you see it?”
The ‘copter frowned. “What?”
“The energy source. It was in the room, pretty big, blue? Did you see it?”
“Well, sorta,” Vortex snapped. “I was kinda busy with getting Brawl out of that stuff, you know.”
Blast Off huffed, “Good, it’s probably better you didn’t look right into it. Even if this thing hadn’t attacked us, we couldn’t have brought the energy source to Chaar. It’s too big now for me to have transported it. And it’s unstable - it’s dying.”
At that, Brawl gazed at him as did Vortex, quizzically.
“What do you mean dying?”
“I told you it’s not a reactor,” Blast Off said, rubbing his temple while he thought of the right words. Eventually, he settled to the easiest explanation.
“It’s a star.”
---
Chapter 01 - Little Star
Chapter 02 - No Trespassing
Chapter 03 - Getting Lost
Chapter 04 - Being Found
Chapter 05 - Cathedral
Chapter 06 - Shadow Run
Chapter 07 - Revealing Light
Chapter 08 - Procrastination
Chapter 09 - Supernova