Ghosts of the Present (Rescue Bots AU)

54. Stakeout and Fakeout

The Burnses and bots dove deep into the planning, and with some help from Slipchain's studies of the base, they formed a series of steps to infiltrate, rescue, and liberate.

Boulder and Graham were in charge of transmission intercept, allowing them to sneak their team in without detection... And it all started with a simple, unfortunate circumstance for Madeline "Meddling" Pynch; a flat tire.

Madeline would call for another car outside of her traditional driver, and Slipchain would be that replacement.

"You sure you can do this without strangling her?" Heatwave teased the femme as she transformed into vehicle mode.

Slipchain scoffed, opening her storage compartment for Servo to climb into. "You underestimate my ability to keep undercover, Heatwave... Something you lot could stand to improve on."

"Hey, that's not-"
Slipchain was already gone before Heatwave could finish his sentence, but she tried not to let it bother her; she'd apologize for the snappy remark later. She rolled down the street towards Madeline's position, trying not to think too hard about what might be happening to Priscilla right now...

Heatwave frowned as the femme drove away, his spark sputtering a bit. He didn't like her being angry at them, blaming them for this mess, but deep down, he knew she was right. They hadn't been careful, they hadn't kept their cover even though they'd been certain nobody was on the rig.

He clenched his fists a little tighter; they had to fix this... And they would.

Blades wrung his hands together as he looked up at the sky, the clouds reflecting the bright lights of Madeline's facility and shining it back out over the treetops. "...I hope she's okay in there..." He whispered, "...Who knows what Madeline's planning to do with her..."

"I'm sure she's fine," Chief Burns remarked, though he sounded like he was trying to convince himself of that just as much. "We just have to wait for our opening..."

Waiting was never one of Heatwave's strong suits, but he knew that the man was right; for Priscilla's sake, they needed to take this road carefully.

It still felt like forever, but finally Cody came through. Big Dog has been let out of his kennel. You're free to start moving in and I'll let you know when the defenses are down.

Blades transformed into vehicle mode, lowering his winch. "Let's go get our sister."

Heatwave nodded, "Yes... Let's go get her..."
______________________________________________________________________

Priscilla groaned as she lifted her head from where it rested on her chest. She was tired, her arms ached from being tied back for so long, she was hungry and thirsty, and nobody that had entered the room had offered her anything. Perhaps knowing she was a machine underneath, they didn't think she'd need food or water, but the hunger and dehydration was getting to her.

She'd managed to wiggle her chair closer to the door, but even if she found a way to get it open, she knew that the alarms would go off and she'd probably get knocked back down and dragged into this room again- or worse, trapped in something even more horrifying than tied to a chair. She needed to think this through...

A soft whirring sound, lowering in intensity, caught her attention. She lifted her head a little bit more, watching the security camera in the corner lower its lens, the light on the top flickering out... It had been disabled, they couldn't see her.

Why the camera was offline, she didn't know, but she had a feeling they'd come looking to fix it shortly, and she needed to be gone before then.

She furrowed her brows, concentrating hard. After a few seconds, her hands clicked as the plating folded back to expose her metal parts... And then suddenly the chair wasn't underneath her.