Chapter 21

                                    

                                          
As Dahlia followed the two bots through the vortex, she found herself on the other side of the vortex looking at a very long, dull, dry desert canyon. She looked around up at the cliffs in surprise as she had thought it might be somewhere a little less constrictive, as these walls would not exactly provide them with a lot of advantage over the decepticons. Especially since none of the autobots have chosen an aircraft as a vehicle mode, which Dahlia did wonder why the autobots had chosen to do that given that they wouldn't be able to face the decepticons in the air. In a way, it seemed that the decepticons did have an advantage in that regard.
As soon as they walked through though, Dahlia turned her head as she heard a loud sound to the right, and the two autobots had noticed it too. "Now that does not sound good or normal," Bumblebee commented as he frowned, looking in the direction of the sound.
"No, Bumblebee, it does not." Optimus held his hand out as a gesture for him to remain. "Hold your poisition and await my command." He glanced back down at Dahlia who looked up at him. "And keep an eye on Dahlia. Make sure she remains hidden."
Bumblebee seemed upset by the order as Optimus walked away to proceed towards the sound and Bumblebee just frowned a little. "Surely you might need an extra hand..."
"It's okay, Bee," Dahlia said with a smile as she breathed in the air and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on her skin. "I am just glad to be out of the base and feeling the light of the sun on my body. Though..." She looked at Optimus as he continued to walk ahead. "I doubt it would hurt to just...creep forward a little to see what exactly is going on. After all, if you are fully not aware of what is happening, then you can't step in and help."
Bumblebee nodded. "True..." Bee hummed and he noticed a large boulder ahead. "We can hide by that, Dahlia. You should stick close to me so that Starscream does not notice you." Dahlia nodded in agreement and stepped forward to follow, flinching only as she noticed Soundwave flying above suddenly and she whimpered and ran closer to Bee. "I saw him too, Dahlia. I think Soundwave is focusing on whatever Starscream is doing, so I think you should be fine. But stay close to me, and it looks like there might be a gap between the boulder and cliff for you to hide between...if you are able to."
Dahlia nodded. "I see it. But I am not going to dart over to it. Given from what I understand about Soundwave, he will definitely see me. Especially since it's hard to see where he is looking since he has a visor for a face." Dahlia glanced up with a frown as the two approach the large boulder and looked at Bumblebee. "I don't if he talks though, since he said nothing when he tried to grab me."
"Soundwave hasn't spoken a word as far as I know. Not sure why. Unlike me, I doubt he has a damage voice box, so he could probably speak if he wanted to." Bumblebee crouched a little as they got closer, and he spotted Starscream standing in front of a large stasis pod that was slowly opening. "Uh oh...Starscream is waking up a decepticon warrior, I think. I didn't know there were any here."
Dahlia found it very odd as well as she spotted the large statis pod slowly opening too. "It...It's big. I don't suppose you might know of a decepticon that large, by any chance?"
Bumblebee shook his head. "Only Megatron. I know of no other decepticon around his size or larger. But it does seem like this con might be larger than Optimus."
"Uhh, I don't suppose that means he would be stronger than Optimus, would he?" Dahlia questioned curiously as she walked to the side of the boulder to check the gap between the boulder at the cliff. She saw it was a bit too narrow for her, but she crouched by the gap so she could watch anyway. "Or he will just be another strong con to deal with who will be an irritation?"
"I'd say the con will just be another annoyance." Bumblebee widened his optics as the doors of the pod open wide enough, and a very large con stepped out. Dahlia observed him as well, noting the green colour of the con and the fact he was much larger than Starscream. "Huh...I think that is Skyquake. I remember when he often fought Optimus for Megatron whenever the leader gave his orders. And Skyquake's loyalty to Megatron is almost as unwavering as Soundwave's."